1 For the Student

At Home ...

THIS MONTHS SUGGESTION

T h e Secret of Success
Cf The fundamental law of success is order. Systematic arrange
ment of your thoughts, your plans and your acts, assures you
against lost time. The greatest genius is at a disadvantage if he
is compelled to search for his implements, pen, or brush when
inspired. The student is equally striving against odds, if his
monographs or lessons arc haphazardly filed, requiring a shuffling
of pages, a sorting of manuscripts, each time a point, principle,
law, or fact is sought. There is no greater torment than the
tantalizing thought that you possess the needed information, but
S T U D E N T S
LESSO N
B IN D E R
A ccom m odates a years
m onographs.

lust cannot locate it. There is no wisdom so useless as that just

beyond recall. W h y not begin today to file your monographs

Is durable

and attractive.
H as a
handy reference index.

Price $1. 00 ea.

O n ly # 2 .5 0 for
a lot of three.

methodically?

W e have prepared a specially made, serviceable

and attractive lesson binder for this purpose. This special binder
will accommodate a years monographs.

It is very attractive, and

stamped in gold with the symbol and name of the Order.

It con

tains an index form for indexing the subjects of your monographs

for quick reference, and is made of durable material.

R O SIC R U C IA N SU PPLY B U R E A U
S A N

J O S E ,

C A L I F O R N I A

U . S .

^ ig y si'
ra

........

AN H IS T O R IC R O SIC R U C IA N M E E T IN G

T h e above photograph depicts one of the many im portant scientific sessions of the M anchester, E ngland, R osicrucian lodge, established about 1860 by D r. Joseph Jordan and others, including the editor of one of England s
well known new spapers.
T h e activities of this very old and highly respected R osicru cian body w ere reported in the M a n c h e s te r C o u r ier
and other publications from time to time and especially the scientific sessions of January and Febru ary , 1866, and
of O ctober, 1867. M any of the F ratres w ho appear in the above picture are well known in the E nglish scientific
and educational fields. T h e historic data associated with this picture has been furnished to T h e R o sic ru c ia n D ig est
through the arch ives of an eminent R osicru cian antiquarian.
C o u r te s y o f T h e R o sic ru c ia n D ig est.

t>
-

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

m
P E R P E T U A T IN G TH E O R IG IN A L R O S IC IiU C IA N T E A C H IN G S

THE COSMIC W A Y FOR Y O U !

T he Rosicrucians Invite You

R E you seeking for that knowledge which will open up a new world to your
^ consciousness, and reveal a path that leads to personal power? If so, you
are cordially invited to accept this kind offer of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood.

For hundreds of years the organization has opened wide its portals to all sincere
seekers for the wisdom of ancient and modern times. They have preserved this
wisdom for those who in sincerity desire the benefits that come from harmonious
attunement with the Cosmic creative forces, and from inspirational guidance.
Through their system of personal development and helpfulness the Rosicrucians
have maintained their position as an outstanding companion to thousands of men
and women. They have taught them to C H A N G E the C O U R S E O F T H E I R
L I V E S . and to start their lives over again toward a definite goal of F I A P P I N E S S
and P E R S O N A L A C H I E V E M E N T . T h e dreams of the h uman mind are capable
of fulfillment. ^ our desires, if worthy, C A N B E R E A L I Z E D through the knowl
edge and application of fundamental Cosmic laws.

PRIVATE IN STR U C TIO N S AT H O M E

Interesting F R E E B O O K Explains
Y o u m ay study the h e lp fu l instructions of (lie R o sicrucia n system in the privacy of your ow n home.
W e suggest that you address the L ib ra ria n below, and ask for a free copy of the fascinating book. " T h e
Secret H eritag e. It w ill e xp la in how. after m any years of development, a special system F O R H O M E
S T U D V has been evolved b y the organization, how the many departments of the organization for special
personal help m ay be used by you; it w ill e xp la in how these practical home R osicru cia n studies are sent to
thousands of men and wom en in every w a lk of life in a ll parts of the w orld, and how through them these
students are finding peace, happiness, and the fulfillm ent of their desires. M a k e use of this special,
private help that the R osicrucians N O W O F F E R ^ O U . T h e instructions and teachings you w ill receive
w ill be of unlim ited help and inspiration. Just address a letter, asking for the book, to;

Address: L ib rarian S. P. C.
Rosicrucian Brotherhood

W k

Rosie rucian

Park

San Jose, California, U. S. A.

(Those who ore Rosicrucian Students are now receiving these instructions.)

a & ia

E H n H E 5 ? i$

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
C O VERS THE W O R LD

1030251501

T H E O F F IC IA L , IN T E R N A T IO N A L R O S IC R U C IA N M A G A
Z IN E O F T H E W O R L D -W ID E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R

Vol. X III

J A N U A R Y , 1936

N o, 12

C O N T E N T S

Page

An Historic Rosicrucian M eeting (Frontispiece).... 441

The Thought of the M onth: Talking Through Space 444
Rosicrucian Principles in Business............................. 445
C ath ed ral C ontacts
Divine M ystery

.................................................. 448
................................................... 451

Pages from the Past: John Fiske

Oblivion

......................

457

................................................................... 460

A n cient Symbolism .................................................... 461

Summaries of Science

.......

462

Analyzing Your M ental Tendencies

466

Sanctum Musings: The Sole Reality .

470

M ystery Temple (Illu stra tio n )

477

Subscription to T h e Rosicrucian D igest, T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw enty-five cents each.
E ntered as Second Class M atter at the P ost Office at San
Jose, California, under the A ct o f August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the
month preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official ex
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.
Published M onthly by the Supreme Council of

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R A M O R C
R O S IC R U C IA N P A R K

SAN JOSE, C A L IF O R N IA

S T . M A -R T JN

THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

TALKING THRO UGH SPACE

U C H is being said
t h e s e d a y s in
newspapers a n d
magazines rega rd
ing sciences inva
sion of the fields
of metaphysics and
psychology to the
extent of partially
admitting that tel
epathy and clairaudience are prob
ably natural and
feasible. It is not
so many years ago that the subject of
telepathy was limited to discussion
among research workers in private for
ums devoted to a field of thought just
outside of the scientific circles, and the
subject of clairaudience like that of
clairvoyance was left to the occultist
and mystic as something that was purely
theoretical or imaginary. Science has
been gradually led to a consideration of
the real facts about telepathy through
the development of certain scientific
principles revealed in the study of n a
ture's fundamental laws. E v en the de
velopment of radio or wireless telegraph
has had its influence upon the more ca re
ful consideration of the possibilities of
telepathy.
W h a t is interesting to note in co n
nection with the month of January is
that it was on M o n d ay , January 7, in
the year 1927, that the first human voice
talked from America to London, or
spoke through space over a great dis
The
Rosicrucian tance. Centuries ago it would have
been considered phenomena] if anyone
Digest
could have stood upon a raised platform
January
or on the side of a mountain and a d
dressed an audience of ten or fifteen
193 6

thousand by so amplifying the power

and quality of his voice that it would
have reached hundreds of thousands of
feet.
It is not many years ago when emi
nent speakers boasted of the fact that
their loud and thunderous voices were
able to fill huge auditoriums in which
five or six hundred persons might be
congregated. T h e n came the develop
ment of radio and telephone pointing
the w ay to the possibility of man speak
ing to audiences of five, ten, twenty, or
a hundred million people at one time.
B u t it w as at 8 :44 E astern Standard
T im e on the morning of January 7,
1927, that the human voice speaking in
N ew Y o r k C ity was heard in London
with the words passing through space
by means of radio-telephony. T h e
words, Hello, L o nd o n, were heard
distinctly and surprisingly in the city
far across the sea. Since then almost
every hour of the day and night finds
business communications transmitted by
spoken words of the human voice pass
ing to and fro from points in Europe to
points in America. T o the same degree
that man has gradually and masterfully
conquered space in regard to radio mes
sages and radios use in transmitting the
human voice and pictures, so will man
gradually find and p erfect within him
self the ability to transmit sounds and
pictures from any one point to another
regardless of time or space.
T h e month of January is interest
ing f o r
other important historical
events such as the establishment o f the
O lympic G am es in G reece in about
1458 B. C., and the great world-wide
cataclysm or flood called N o ah 's flood
which is recorded to have occurred in
F ou r H un dred F o rty -fo u r

ize the possibilities of his dual existence

as a spiritual and material being, he will
become not only richer in the possession
of a new-found world, but he will pro
ceed to develop and unfold in a manner
that will make him a new creature.
It may have been in w hat we now call
January when G od first breathed into
m ans physical body made of the dust
of the earth a spiritual body called the
soul, and at that time man was created
dual. From thence onward man has
centered his thoughts upon the glorifica
tion of the dust of the earth as person
ified in his physical being, and has neg
lected wholly the spiritual master with
in. A s man gradually devotes his
thought and attention to the expansion,
development, training, and activity of
this inner self, he will find that he is
master over all of the barriers or limita
tions of physical existence.

4051 B. C., and the conversion o f St.

Paul. But of the greatest significance to
the development of man and his future
unfoldment and mastership is his in
creasing ability to extend his conscious
ness into space and to bring his thoughts
into the consciousness of others in dis
tant places or in isolated localities where
other means of communication could not
or would not reach.
Rapidly are we learning that the co n
sciousness of each individual is but a
part of the consciousness of the whole
universe, and that only in a limited
physical and material sense are the
children of G o d all living creatures
completely separated or isolated.
T h e consciousness of G od and the
consciousness of man are one and the
same, but this consciousness is part of
the inner man, and not of the outer,
worldly self. W h e n man comes to real

Rosicrucian Principles in Business

By

F r a t e r H a rv e y M ile s ,

O M E of the prob
lems that seem to
confront many of
the R o s i c r u c i a n
students and other
students of mys
tical law are: How
can we use these
t e a c h i n g s in a
b u s i n e s s way?
How
can
we
apply Cosmic
principles to gain
m a t e r i a l happi
ness? H ow can we approach the Divine
M ind with financial problems? H o w
can we present to the M a ste rs and to
those illuminated ones who encourage
us to develop our spiritual natures and
eliminate our material desires, wants,
wishes, and the unrealities of the physi
cal world, our business and financial
worries and difficulties and not encroach
on their dignity and not incur the wrath
of G od and the Cosmic laws?
F ou r H un dred F o rty -fiv e

F. R. C.

E v e ry Rosicrucian member who has

carefully studied the fundamental teach
ings has learned that man is a counter
part of G od, and that the only real G od
he can ever know is the G o d within his
breast, or the G o d of his heart. T h e r e
fore, it behooves each student of G od
and nature to get as closely acquainted
with this G o d of his heart as soon as he
possibly can and keep up an intimate re
lationship with this inner, immortal self.
T h e more familiar he becomes with his
inner self, the nearer will he be to the
Cosmic M in d and the more thoroughly
will he understand when we say: C o n
tact the Cosmic for help and guidance.
T h e Divine M ind is alw ays present and
is infusing your very being constantly.
T h e difficulty you have in contacting
the Cosmic lies within yourself, because
you are always looking beyond yourself
beyond the G o d of your heart for
wisdom and enlightenment, for advice
and for knowledge of a Cosmic nature.

W h e n people enter the business

world, they do so for one purpose; that
is, to obtain happiness and achieve some
degree of recognition in the community
in which they live. T h e y desire a home
and all the comforts of home life. T h e y
aspire to a high state of social standing.
T h e ir one o bject is to gain everything
th ey possibly can in business that will
give them the ultimate of success while
they live in this material world, and we
can see no reason why every individual
with such aspirations should not have
their wishes fulfilled; and he will so long
as he cooperates with the Cosmic Laws
and the Divine M ind, of which he is a
part. But when he neglects his duty
and rejects the impulses of the inner
self and harkens not to the voice of his
conscience, his unfortunate Karma be
gins, and gradually the individual who
was fortunate and successful in busi
ness begins to lose power. H e has
financial reverses, his credit standing is
lowered, his prestige in the community
begins to wane, his health begins to fail,
and finally he finds himself on the rock
of destruction among the multitude of
unfortunates, wondering how and w hy
he got there.
T h e question is: H o w can we use
these laws and alw ays be on the safe
side, and always conform to the divine
principle?
T h e r e is an ancient custom found in
all the old Rosicrucian records called
T h e L aw of A M R A . T h is law b e
came a sacred doctrine w i t h the
E gy ptian people, and later with the
Jews in their religious practices. It was
finally adopted by branches of the
Christian church.
It was originally a
mystical law and the Rosicrucians still
hold it to be a mystical law, although
many modern forms o f religion have
turned it into a purely material law. T h e
law of A M R A is this:
If you pray to G o d or petition the
M aste rs for an y special help in sickness,
worry, trial, tribulation, or poverty, and
your prayer or petition is answrered,
you are obligated to make compensation
The
not alone by a prayer of thankfulness,
Rosicrucian
but by passing along to others some
Digest
portion of the blessing you have re
January
ceived. If you have asked for an im
1936
provement in your health, relief from

some pain or suffering, the gift of some

material things, or help in your business
and social position, then, according to
the law of A M R A , you should tithe
yourself either by setting aside a small
amount of money, or of some material
element, which can be used to make
some other person happy or at P eace
with the world. Unless this is done each
time you receive a blessing through the
Cosmic, you cannot rightfully petition
in the future for any other blessing.
Undoubtedly, you want to know how
you can use some of the laws of con
centration and thought direction and the
control of the occult forces in accomp
lishing your desired results, and I must
say that our lessons are replete with
these laws and principles, and little of
the esoteric studies may be given in this
manner. However, we will try to e x
plain to you just how effectively you can
apply some of the mystical teachings
that are being received weekly by our
members.
F irst, one must realize that around
his body is a magnetic, vibratory energy,
subtle but powerfully effective, and can
be directed by his thoughts. T h is energy
is either positive or negative, depending
entirely on the nature of the individual
and the strength of the W I L L of the
person. It also depends on the activities,
the thoughts, the natural inclinations,
the acts, and the general life one is lead
ing.
If one is kind, lovable, tolerant,
friendly, and if his mind is always up
lifting, this energy around the body is
P O S I T I V E and of a C O N S T R U C
T I V E nature. If one expresses intoler
ance, is mean, selfish, lewd, coarse,
wicked, and is dominated by hatred and
unfriendliness, this energy is N E G A
T I V E and D E S T R U C T I V E . It is not
only destructive to the individual, but
also to his family and those who are de
pendent upon him for the jo y and hap
piness that should predominate in every
home.
T h e secret of using this energy in
business lies in his ability to harbor
constructive,
uplifting, inspiring
thoughts. T h e s e thoughts are dynamic
radiations of power, and they envelop
all who come within a few feet of your
presence. Every one who enters your
house, your room, your office, or your
F ou r Hundred. F orty -six

in one day, when you retire in the eve

ning, keep the transaction well fixed in
your mind. V isualize the deal just the
w ay you would have it. C reate the com
plete transaction mentally. S e e that the
entire business proposition is favorable
to all concerned, the buyer as well as
the seller. V isualize happiness for every
person who will be affected by the
transaction, and see smiling faces and
jo y predominating in the lives of every
individual you wish to contact with your
vibrations. T h e n , with this attitude in
mind, turn the entire business deal over
to the subjective mind and go to sleep
full of confidence that if it is right with
God and the Cosmic, of which you are
a part, your wishes will be granted.
But do not forget the L aw of A M R A .
Jam es Allen gave us the complete
law when he said:

workshop, is affected by your thought

vibrations, and the energy leaving your
body and consciousness is either making
a favorable impression upon your client
or is causing him to repel any proposi
tion you wish to make. Y o u r vibrations
are distasteful and repulsive if they are
N E G A T I V E , or they are appealing
and attractive if P O S I T I V E .
B y the power of your W I L L you can
increase the effect of this energy and
inspire your patrons to have confidence
in you and accept what you have to
offer in the w ay of business proposi
tions. T h e thought vibrations leaving
your mind constantly bombard the re
ceptive, auric field around the pur
chaser, and he will yield to your wishes
under the pressure of a power that
seems unfathomable to the uninitiated,
and mysterious and mystical to those
who would seem to understand. E ven
after your patrons have left your place
of business, there remains an indelible
impression on their consciousness, and
if you were not successful in impressing
your client with the particular business
deal at once, you may rest assured that
eventually the purchaser for your w ares
will return, and success will ultimately
be yours.
If yours is a business that involves a
great deal of financing and the trans
actions are large and of such a nature
that the business could not be concluded

M in d is the M a ste r-P o w e r that molds

and makes,
A nd M a n is M ind, and evermore he
takes
T h e T o o l of T h o u g h t, and, shaping
w h at he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thou
sand ills:
H e thinks in secret, and it comes to
pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass."

j~uu-un.rj

vwy
F ou r H undred F o rty -sev en

1
%

T h e "Cathedral of the Soul Is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefit as well
as those who are members. T he book called "Liber 777" describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le se state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

1
I

1
:

CHANGES IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

HROUGHOUT
the world today
there is a very evi
dent, pronounced
tendency on the
part of the mass
of people to revise
and modify their
religious activities
and p a r t i c u l a r l y
their forms of re
The
l i g i o u s devotion.
Rosicrucian
In addition to the
Digest
fact that m a n y
January
new or religious movements are being
formed, particularly in Europe, many of
1936

the oldest of the sectarian religions are

gradually making modifications in their
creeds and doctrines and in their gen
eral attitudes toward the problems of
life.
In the W e s t e r n W o r l d and particu
larly in the United States, these changes
do not attract the attention that they
are attracting in foreign lands or in
other countries where one or two
ancient religions have been dominant
factors and fixed institutions. In those
countries the slightest modification in
creed, doctrine, or worldly activities e x
cites interest. In fact, in the United
State s a n d some parts of Europe,
F o u r H undred F orty -eig h t

changes in religious creeds and doc

trines have been so frequent in the past
fifty years that even the newspapers
sometimes fail to comment on some of
the newer changes recently made. But
the great effect of these changes is be
coming manifest in the increasing in
terest on the part of younger people and
those of intermediate age, who have lost
interest in religious matters in the past
ten years or more and have wandered
from their churches.

in an attempt not only to carry out the

healing work of Jesus the Christ and
exemplify it, but to add some practical
activities to the schedule a n d thus
render a real personal service to many
who could not afford such treatment
through any other source, or principally
to those who have not been healed by
any other method but whose religious
nature enables them to attune them
selves with metaphysical and spiritual
principles.

O n e of the most keen analyzers of the

matter has said that the deplorable ab
sences from churches in the past ten
years or the reduction in the number of
those persons who regularly attend the
fixed meetings of the churches should
not have been taken as an indication
that the public was becoming less inter
ested in religion or less religious in its
interior nature. H e has said, and many
of the religious congresses have agreed
with him, that the absence from church
in most cases has been due to two
things: first, an indifferent attitude to
ward the old orthodox principles which
they believe were too narrow, and sec
ondly, a protest against the churchs in
sistence upon certain principles which
do not fit the consciousness of the
people of today. In either case the neg
lect of the church on the part of a por
tion of the public is more of a protest
against the lack of sympathetic under
standing on the part o f the churches
than anything else.

T h e modern church of today has be

come a more broadened institution than
at any other time since its establishment
particularly in the W e s t e r n W o r ld . T h e
farther east we go the more limited and
orthodox are the preachings and activi
ties of the various churches.

T h e term sympathetic understand

ing should not be taken to mean that
the churches have become less inter
ested in the personal problems of the in
dividual members, or less sympathetic
in the sorrows and griefs that constant
ly come before them. T h e very reverse
of this is probably true.
Clergymen,
ministers, priests, rabbis, and all persons
connected officially with the churches
today in the W e s t e r n W o r l d are doing
more in a sympathetic, kindly, construc
tive manner to help their parishioners
to meet their daily problems and to e x
tend sympathetic understanding to them
than at any other time perhaps in the
history of the church. O n e of the in
dications of this fact is that a great ma
jority of churches, especially of the
Protestant denominations, have added
healing clinics to their regular activities
Four H undred Forty-n in e

If one stops to consider the enormous

change that has taken place in the con
sciousness of the church and the con
sciousness of its people in regard to an
understanding of heaven and hell, one
will see at once what great strides of
development and unfoldment the church
has passed through. It was commonly
said fifty to a hundred years ago that
the churches of the more orthodox na
ture preached more hell fire and brim
ston e sermons than any other kind.
T o d a y it is notable that very few of the
orthodox churches and certainly very
few of those that have broadened in
their scope deal with either heaven or
hell in the materialistic manner with
which these places or conditions were
dealt years ago. A n o ther change has
been in the nature a n d character
ascribed to God. T h e frowning, scold
ing, wrathful, jealous G od of the past
century has been supplanted by a lov
ing, forgiving, sympathetic, understand
ing and happy F a th e r of all children.
T h e idea that G o d may have at times
tempted man to do evil to see if he
would yield and then punish him for
yielding, is rapidly giving w ay to the
idea that man tempts himself or that the
artificial, temporal, transitory things that
he has created as pleasures for the flesh
tempt him into his evil w ays and that he
falls into his own web or into the trap
he has set for himself and others and
that G od extends him every opportunity
to redeem himself. T h e r e was a time
not many years ago and running far
back into the early period of the church

when the phrase in the L o rd s P rayer,

Lead me not into temptation was em
phasized in every repetition of the pray
er with apprehension, fear, and sincere
pleading. T o d a y the phase is puzzling
to all who use the prayer, for they feel
intuitively and inwardly t h a t
the
thought in that phrase is not correct and
is not consistent with the nature of God.
T h e average person religiously inclined
feels that it is a reflection upon the
goodness, mercy, and kindness and
fatherhood of G o d that insinuates that
H e at any time deliberately leads His
children into temptation. T h i s is ce r
tainly indicative of the changing atti
tude in the hearts and consciousness of
millions of people.
P erhaps one o f the other great
changes is that which is expressed in
the idea that G o d is not only omni
potent and omnipresent and that His
spirit reaches everywhere, but that H e
can be worshipped at any time and any
place. T h e old idea that only beneath
the towering spires of a great cathedral
or within the dark and cloistered parts
of a huge structure, or only on the
marble steps of a glorified alter will be
found the real presence of God, has
given w ay to the idea that one can com
mune with G o d on the hillsides, or in
the valley, on the open sea, or in the
privacy of the home, and that where the
consciousness is uplifted to God, there
G o d can be contacted, a n d in this
thought of the upliftment of the co n
sciousness, there is a continually in
creasing comprehension of the fact that
the upliftment is not a matter of ascend
ing to heaven to contact G od but to lift
oneself above the commonplace things,
sordid things, and particularly the ma
terial interests of life. T o many thou
sands o f persons the idea has trans
muted itself into the belief that prayers
offered in the center of a great and cost

ly cathedral are more or less surrounded

by materialistic influences and that the
confining, oppressive effects and atmos
phere of the costly material structure
tend to keep the mind and conscious
ness
from
expanding into the great
Cosmic space where the consciousness
of G od is sure to be found.
In the development of the idea that
God
may be reached in
holy com
munion, in a purely mental and spiritual
atmosphere devoid of materialistic in
closures and grandeur, has come the
beautiful idea that one may build a
stately cathedral for oneself in the
spiritual world created out of the mental
and religious elements of o n es nature.
T h e Cathedral of the Soul, a sublime
and transcendent holy place above the
level of the material things of life, has
become a real cathedral in the lives of
many thousands who find it an ideal
place for the concentration of their
thoughts during their sacred worship.
If you as a member of the organiza
tion or a friend of the Rosicrucian ideals
have not experienced the joy and happi
ness, the real inspiring and invigorating
sense that comes to t h e inner self
through worship in this ethereal cathe
dral, then you most certainly are miss
ing some of the spiritual values of life.
B y sending for a copy o f the free
pamphlet, L iber 777, describing this
non-sectarian and unlimited cathedral,
you will be brought face to face with an
opportunity that may quicken and
awaken the search of your soul. Send
for such a pamphlet today and unite in
the Cathedra] contact periods when
thousands of devoted ones in all parts
of the world are united in combining
their spiritual thoughts in communion
with G od regardless of creed, national
ity, doctrines, or other differences and
limitations.

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
January
1936
F o u r H un dred F ifty

cDivine iMystery
THE INFINITE MIND BEHIND ALL CREATION
By

H.

F r a t e r W illia m
V

H E entire universe
is a creation o f
M ind.
Sin ce we claim
t h a t all life, a l l
existence of a n y
worth, lies in the
Beyond, and that
the hope of man
is to attain u n t o
that other world,
why do we strive,
seemingly in vain,
to drag the exist
ence of that higher plane down to our
earthly level? If, on the other hand, we
start out with the hypothesis that the
earth is the highest plane of being, we
confine our senses within a very minute
groove: as scientists who refuse to b e
lieve in things they cannot see, or prove.
In research, we seek for definite proof
of a cau se," they declare. T o do so,
our mind is quite free from all obstacles
such as religious superstition and dog
m a." And since the m ajority refuse to
permit any D ivine" plan of thought to
have had a hand in the universe, or even
in their own researches, they are, by
placing such limits of definite reasoning
in their own way, forced to seek T ru th
within the very bonds they wish to
avoid.
From where I write I can see the
gilded, globular domes of t h e Griffith
Observatory which crowns the H o lly
Fou r H un dred F ifty -on e

M cK eg g, F.

R. C.

V
wood hills. O n M a y 15, 1935, it w as
opened to the public. Inside it are the
latest instruments to aid m an s further
study of the heavens, with D r. D in smore Alter, a Fellow of t h e R oy al
A stronom ical S o c i e t y , as director.
W it h in its halls are s u c h things as a
huge model of the moon, as we imagine
it to be; a 12-inch telescope; a P la n e
tarium a new instrument which pro
jects a moving picture of the visible uni
verse on the hemispherical dome of the
O bservatory.
All this is for man to s e e k out the
M in d behind creation. F o r Science to
day is proving there is a M ind behind
the outer form of the world. A M ind
thinking thoughts too vast and too ma
jestic for blind humanity to grasp; but a
M in d that manifests for our advance
ment in all created works.
T h i s Infinite M in d is the Divine M y s
tery. Love G oodness B eau ty
T ru th . Called by many, G o d. It is the
Enigm a no o n e knows. T h e E tern al
Pow er of Supreme Love, hidden, unless
sought for, from sight and understand
ing. Y e t by reaching a Sp ark of this
P ow er within us, may we not also reach
its Source, and thus solve the M y ste ry
over which the milleniums have argued
and fought?
G reater is he that is in you, than he
that is in the w orld," said St. John, who
knew what modern scientists are only
now beginning to contemplate. T h e in

ner man is the T r u e M an . T h e outer

man is his shadow, subject to change
and dissolution. T o know the T r u e
M a n is to gain admission to the Inner
C ircle of humanity.
Nothing worth doing is easy. It
means work and study and labor. Doubt
is the chief stumbling block of the be
ginner on the P ath to wisdom in devel
oping his Inner Self. A t that period he
expects too many outer revelations, fre
quent signs and wonders. T h o u g h he
may not sense much exteriorly, the
T r u e M a n within is often profoundly
stirred.
G oing back to mystics, we find they
asserted that by losing all sense of ob
jective things, by giving freedom to our
Inner Self, we are able to contact the
real, inner world of wonder, hidden
from us by our physical senses. T h e
greatest philosophers of the past have
affirmed this. All, they said, can attain
unto great mystical heights, even to
solving the Divine M y stery as did
Blaise Pascal, who, after experiencing
outwardly his overwhelming illumina
tion du coeur, while reading St. John,
wrote in ecstatic style these soul-searing
cries:
From about half past ten in the eveninq until round half after midnight
F I R E ! G od of Abraham, G od of Isaac,
G od of Jacob, n o t the God of philo
sophers or sages. Certainly! Certainly
feeling sight joy peace. . . .
F orgo tten by the world, and at one with
G od. . . . W h a t grandeur of the human
soul Righteous F ather, the world has
never known T h e e , but I know T h e e .
Joy, joy, joy tears of jo y
I am
separated from myself! M a y I not be
thus separated f r o m myself eternally!
. . . . Sw eet, entire renunciation. En tire
submission to Jesus Christ and to my
Guide. Eternally in jo y for a day of
labor on earth. Let us not forget T h y
teachings! A m en .
T h is oddly written rhapsody is but a
portion of the strange parchment mes
sage P ascal kept hidden from all eyes
while he lived. A fte r transition it was
The
Rosicrucian found next his heart. H e regarded it as
too sacred to show others, hinting as it
Digest
did at a mystic event most of us hope
January
for, but very few attain; an event that
is the full birth o f the T r u e M an , when
1936

the Divine M y s te ry is revealed in all

Its Splendor and Glory!
M a n y declared t h i s ecstatic eulogy
proved Pascal to have been mad. A
conclusion he possibly foresaw, t h e
reason why he kept his secret to himself.
Surely insanity could never be attrib
uted to the author of the Lettres P ro
vinciates, and the P ensees. Y e t t h e
charge of madness was laid against him
when his sister eventually made public
his divine secret.
M ad ness has b e e n imputed to all
great men and women. Blake w a s
deemed m ad for his visions. Balzac
was regarded as unbalanced because
his philosophical novels revealed the
Spirit Pow er behind t h e world and
within man. M o ses was thought to be
insane after his mystic communions
with Jehovah. And the multitude had
only one conclusion to hurl at the
M a s te r Jesus T h o u hast a demon!
T h e prophets of old sought to learn
the mystery of the universe through
Cosmic Consciousness. O r what Plato,
and others as great, named the Common
M ind. Records in the Old Testam en t,
and in numerous manuscripts written in
the sublimest words by mystics of all
nations and creeds, clearly reveal to us
that man has ever sought one end to
receive an influx of the Divine Breath,
to return to his original state of divinity.
O n e most practical lesson is given us
by all Illuminated minds that the outer
form hides the inner spirit. T h e written
W o r d is only an instrument wherewith
the Spirit leads, Jacob Boehme wrote.
T h e Spirit must be alive in the literal
form. W it h o u t this there can be no
divine teachers, but only teachers of
letters, only reciters of stories.
Quoting mystic philosophers offers
occasion for materialists to say we can
not adhere to practical men and every
day events. Y o u cannot explain these
things, they maintain. Y o u have no
proofs to show us. R ath er talk of
science, astronomy such works we
understand and c a n substantiate by
concrete proofs.
S o most of us fondly believe..........
But are we able to prove how light
travels at its incredible speed, and how
it takes only eight and one-half minutes
to come to us f r o m the sun, across a
F o u r H undred F ifty -tw o

distance of ninety-two million miles?

A re we able to discuss with sound logic
the giant star Antares, which is said to
be four hundred million miles in dia
meter, and why some stars have a tem
perature of five to ten times the heat of
the sun?
W h y , for instance, are some of the
chief stars hidden from our telescopic
sight by vaporous clouds, like veils hid
ing a holy of holies?
Scientists state that the centre star of
all lies within the clouds of the M ilky
W a y that ring of light extending
around the universe of stars in which
millions of suns are said to whirl and
swim. If we could, f o r one moment,
penetrate the mysterious Sc o r p io -S a g ittarius region we could find out m a n y
n e w T ru th s, perhaps coming across
Pascal's "point qui remplit tou t"
T o w ard the end of his days, after a
lifetimes study of t h e Hidden M y s
teries, G eorges Clemenceau w r o t e
down , in Au Soir de la P en see, the co n
clusions he had come to.
W e hear of stellar s t r e a m s and
galaxies and, as if overwhelmed in
tempests of flaming oceans, we are lost
at the outer edge of our M ilk y W a y ,
which, amid the luminous encounters of
its innumerable suns, perhaps conceals
the enigma of a superior Cosmic C o n
ception. . . . T h e activity of the atom is
not less marvellous t h a n that of the
M ilk y W a y . T h e story o f a grain of
sand is as important as that of A n tares
as is the adventure of a flower, the
adventure of a world, or of a thought.
Before seeking to find a solution to
the M y ste ry in the distant heavens,
each man ought to know himself. A s
yet he knows so little that the world re
ceived a shock when P ro fesso r R obert
A. Millikan started to speak of Cosmic
Rays.
T he G reat Design, edited by F ran cis
M ason, is a book all self-thinking people
should read. It contains various articles
by our foremost men of science on va
rious branches o f research. E a c h piece
is of tremendous interest; not so much
for the erudition contained therein, but
for the one dominating T ru th each
scientist stresses in summing up his

treatise: that there is a Suprem e M ind

behind all U niversal L ife.
F o u r H un dred F ifty -th ree

It is a universe, in my belief, said

R obert G ran t Aitken, former D irector
of the Lick O bservatory, with thought
and more than thought within it; a uni
verse that is the expression o f the

thought o f an immanent infinite Spirit."

W h e n there is creation, there is pur
pose. W h e n there has once been pur
pose, there may be a continuation of
purpose, or a recurrence of purpose. S o
also if there was o n c e creation there
m ay be a continuation or a fresh crea
tion. Eliminate purpose, and there is no

creation and no beginning to the physi

cal universe." ( A . S . Eve, M c G ill U n i
versity, M o n tre a l.)
Again, from the same book: R a d ia
tion can be fully described in the sym
bolic language of mathematics, a n d
though our mind can only form partial
and imperfect pictures of it, we k n o w
that in it and behind it there are reason
and order." (Jam e s Arnold Crow ther,
Professor of Physics, University o f
R ead in g .)
W h a t the world is eagerly accepting
today, it derided as madness less than a
century ago, w h e n B alzac alluded to
similar thoughts, gleaned from his occult
studies.

"T ou t ici-bas n'existe que par le

m ouvement et le nom bre " Everything
on earth exists only by motion a n d
number.

"L e m ouvement est en quelque sorte

le nom bre agissant" M otion is, so to
speak, number in action.

"II est un nom bre que Vimpur ne

franchit pas, le nom bre ou la creation
est fin ie T h e r e is a number beyond
which the impure cannot pass; the num
ber which is the limit of creation.

"L'univers est don e la variete dan

Vunite. L e m ouvem ent est le moyen, le
nom bre est le resultat. L a fin est le retour d e toutes choses a Vunite qui est
D ieu" T h e universe is the U n it in
variety. M otion is the means; number,
the result. T h e end is the return of all
things to the Unit, which is God.
W e might do well to regard P la t o s
statement in his P haedru s on the F irst
M ovem ent. A lso his doctrine of the
F a ll of M a n from a divine state, and his
insistence that all kn ow ledge lies within
man, that the fosterings of memory and

imagination unlock the doors leading to

the inner world of light.
A ncient bibles r e f e r to Light as
E n erg y . E n e rg y creates. Light gives
life. O u r creations, our thoughts, are
the results of transmissions of Cosmic
Light.
A n expansion o f consciousness be
stows on the seeker a Universal knowl
edge, in which reside the Past, Present
and Future of all things.
O u r ideas spring from distorted use
of this grander consciousness. Electrons
are directed by M ind and form matter.
T h e G reek for form also means idea.
O u r own mode o f thinking brings about
results. T h u s M in d is all-powerful. T o
M in d and to Radiation space does not
exist.
W e are able to gaze at one star then,
in the fraction of a second, at another
billions of miles distance. Y e t our M ind
receives both impressions instantly.
T h e microcosmic being of man holds
the solution of the Hidden M ysteries!
M in d can be expanded to an y e x
tent. It is as wide and as boundless as
cosmical space. But it is with a feeling
of humiliation, chagrin, discomfiture
and dismay that I have to confess that
I have no trace of an idea what it is.
I cannot begin to think about it. M a tte r
could not have been formed even into
atoms without preceding thought-forms.
T h is because atoms possess forms and
as many as there are chemical elements
phases of matter. Circles, squares,
triangles, expressed in matter could not
be without antecedent symbols or pat
terns in M in d .
( W ithin T he M ind
M aze, Larkin)
T h is has been the knowledge of every
mystic. It cannot be sidetracked, or
avoided. It overwhelms t h e human
brain w i t h its inevitable presence and
truth.
W e cannot work at something un
known. W e evolve, but we follow a
Pattern, a Design. W e could not evolve
into chaos, or out of it, since the world
of spirit a l o n e actuates our everyday
existence, and our existence f o r all
The
eternity.
Rosicrucian
W e are entering the G re a t A g e of
Digest
the world, when man will reach heights
January
in Art, Religion and Scien ce never be
fore attained. It will be a period for the
1936

Superman to appear, in which we shall

learn the secrets of our individual exist
ence on earth.
I want to teach man t h e sense of
their existence, which is the superman,
the lightning out of the dark cloud
m an. T h u s spake Nietzsche. Beyond
the fact that the G erman philosopher
claimed to be the first to know the
proper w ay out of blind life, we might
one and all agree that, were he alive to
day, he would see humanity in general
stepping out o f its dark cloud.
H e who surrenders himself to the
T r u e M a n becomes master of Life and
Nature. T h e world and nature do not
overcome him, he rules them. T h e r e is
a voice which sets at naught the law of
Nature, wrote Pascal. W h ic h probably
led K an t to say: It sounds at first sing
ular, but is none the less certain, that
the understanding does not derive its
laws from nature, but prescribes them to
N a tu re .
M a n belongs to three worlds: his
spirit comes from God, his soul from the
constellation of astral elements, h i s
body from the earth.
In order therefore to discover the in
finite world within, m ans job, presum
ably, is to overcome the earth, his outerself. B y overcoming such evil traits as
G reed, E n v y and Selfishness, and work
ing for the entire brotherhood of man
kind, we find it easier to conquer the in
fluence of the planets and the stars.
In entering the world of the spirit we
are again reaching our Original State.
It does not mean flittering aw ay from
earthly life. It helps us to use earthly
life. If we choose to ignore form, we
harm the spirit. Submitting to form as a
medium for spirit, we attain Cosmic
contact and are used by Cosmic P ow
ers as a fit channel for the W is d o m and
E n e rg y needed in t h e continual up
lifting of the human race.
T h is is the essence of T r u e A stro
logy. T h e misguided all but worship the
planetary system and the elements, be
cause they have control over external
nature. A strology is a v e r y ancient
science, employed reverently by t h e
highly spirited Druids. T r u e initiates
studied only the inner planetary world
of man; to them, A strology w a s a
F ou r H un dred F ifty -fo u r

sight. W i t h it we can see into all

spiritual, not a material, science, such
as is made of it today by the un things from the centre outwardly.
T h e refo re, may not t h e source of
initiated.
Fou rth Dimensional pow er rest within
T h e re is in man," Albertus M ag n u s
the Spiritual S p ark of the T r u e M a n ?
states in one of his numerous manu
scripts on man and the macrocosm, a
Consequently, if the Fou rth D im en
double spring of action, namely, nature
sion refers to microcosmic magnitude, to
and the will; and nature for its part is
the infinite infinitesmal in us, are we
ruled by the stars, while the will is free;
starting off at the right end by studying
but unless it result it is swept along by
the planets and the stars as things
nature a n d b e c o m e s mechanical. actually outside ourselves?
(M agic and E xperim ental Science, by
U ndoubtedly our eye does not see a
Lynn Thorndike, Ph. D .)
great m a n y things w h i c h exist,
Abel is the spiritual man, Cain the
O uspensky tells us, in A N ew M odel o f
material self. O r, M ind behind the uni the U niverse. But if in the fourth
verse. T h e killing o f Abel symbolizes dimension we see without t h e aid of
the ultimate decision of man in regard
such an imperfect instrument, we should
to his Fall, when he foresook the spirit be bound to see much more, that is, to
for the form . T h e church of Abel was see what is invisible for us now and to
similarly destroyed by t h e church of
see everything without that net of il
Cain, when it was forced on mankind
lusions which veils the whole world
as being the s o l e idea of religious
from us and makes its outward aspect
heights. T h e outer church, like the out very unlike w hat it really is.
er man, was accepted for the true inner
In the ancient continents of Lemuria
realm.
and Atlantis mankind still possessed a
W e need our churches for w hat they
third eye what we allude to now as
are earthly temples in which to com
the minds ey e. T h is third eye
mune, the symbol of the Inner Tem ple,
enabled them to put to use their fourth
wherein the Divine F ire may enter in
dimensional faculty.
all its supernal glory. A place where
T h o u g h the number of people was
man may come to T r u e life in mortality.
formerly much less, they nevertheless
Herein we h a v e the allegory of the
filled the world more than is the case
Blood and B o d y of Christ.
today. F o r a man, then, was not only
E a t of the word of the Lord and you
confined to the space which was given
will issue from the earthly man and rest
to him as the field of his body and his
in the kingdom of heaven; live in the
activity, he reached beyond: his career
new man and then the old one will be
led beyond the field of his corporeal
dead for the sake of the new .
position and into new space, and this
T h e Christ-man consumes his ma other space, in which his career unfold
terial body in the Divine F ire of his re ed itself, also belonged to the man, so
generated self. T h e Everlasting water
that the man grew as it w ere out of
of life is the continual influx of Cosmic
space and into time. Such a man did not
Consciousness. T h e church symbolical need to hurry in order to possess distant
ly offers this mystical truth in H o ly
space, he filled out that space from
Communion.
where he was, and even though he rest
W h y has it been usual to close our ed in comfort, he filled out that space
eyes during prayer? M y stic teachers
and at the proper moment would cer
taught all neophytes that the inner sight
tainly be brought there. H e could re
of the T ru e M a n is the only real sight.
main waiting in time, concealed until
M oses could not behold the face of G od
the proper moment.
In the proper
because his knowledge and enlighten moment he would certainly be th ere."
ment were but reflections of Divine
(T h e Human F ace, by M a x Picard .)
W isd o m .
His spiritual self could not
W o r ld l y knowledge is of things we
see itself, save with the inner sight.
see. T r u e knowledge can never be
T o d a y we talk much of the Fourth
learnt by mere physical sight and mun
Dimension, though it remains still a dane understanding. T o seek the other
mystery. It is the vision of our inner life, the Inner W o r ld , man has but to
Fou r H undred F ifty -fiv e

are too blind to see m ore than one

star in five million!
T h e y are so remote, s t a t e s Sir
James Jeans, t h a t light travelling at
1 86 ,0 0 0 miles every second, takes 140
million years to travel from them to us.
W e see them not as they are, but as
they w e r e inconceivable ages before
man appeared on e arth .
T h e new star, N ova Pictoris, which
flared up into existence in the southern
hemisphere in 1925, seems to have split
in two. T h o u g h t h i s catastrophe occured 5 0 0 years ago, the light rays sent
across space reached earth only re
cently!
I can see t h e gilded domes of t h e
Griffith O bservatory. It is in t h i s
T h e a tre of the U niverse that scien
tists of the present day will expand
m ans mind with results achieved from
experiments of the heavenly bodies. Y e t
despite all latest devised instruments
are we a b l e to tell whether worlds
beyond us really exist, or are only
ghostly pictures of planets long passed
out o f existence, imprinted on the im
measurable abyss of Space?
W e do not know we do not k n o w . . .
B u t the D aw n of t h e N e w A g e is
once again to flame on the horizon of
our intellect. T h e world is to become
young again. It has gone through ages
o f torment and conflict. Its period o f
rejuvenation, of rebirth, is nearly com
plete. O n c e more the stars must rest
between our eyes. T h e constellation in
man will illuminate the darkness within
him; the Light of a grander conscious
ness will give forth the mighty music of
the spheres in the vast, unexplored halls
o f his own being, so that supreme hap
piness will spring from each mortal on
earth.
In all our seeking , let us seek for the
M in d that is behind the universe the
Divine M y s t e r y within us that longs for
our seeking. In that search alone lies
our regeneration, our further advance
ment in Cosmic evolution.

study himself. W e can follow an out

line of steps for our advancement, to
set our feet firmly on the Path, but none
may g a i n inner wisdom except it be
born within, since Cosmic Conscious
ness comes only from the Divine M y s
tery. (Jo h n 6 : 6 3 - 6 6 )
W h y is it, O uspensky further asks
us, that people do not understand that
they are only shadows, only silhouettes,
of themselves, and t h a t the whole of
life is only a shadow, only a silhouette,
of some other life?"
O n November 4, 1930, at Cambridge
University, Sir James Jeans delivered
what is known as the R ede Lecture. In
it he discussed the destiny of the human
race, o u r present standing of science
and the meaning of the universe. H e
maintained that it does not work on
anthropomorphic, or on mechanical
lines, but on lines that are purely ma
thematical. H e gave his conception of
the U niverse as a world o f pure

thought
M an kind is fascinated by the mystery
of the universe. In 1920, t h e M o u n t
W il s o n observatory h a d a 100-inch
telescope. T h e world heard of it and
gasped. Five years ago, a new telescope
was being prepared for the California
Institute of T e ch n o lo g y , at Pasadena,
with a 200-in ch aperture. Another gasp
shook the world.
Som e stars are so v a s t in size that
hundreds of thousands of earths could
be packed inside each one; while the
larger stars contain room for millions o f
millions of earths. T r y in g to visualize
the distance between t h e m in space
stuns the poor little human thinker!
A wireless signal will girdle the earth
in the seventh o f a second. If t h e r e
w e r e means of communications, we
could send and get a message from
M a r s in a few minutes. But it would
take 2 8 0 million years to g e t a reply
from those distant nebulae!
T h o u g h there are some 3 0 ,0 0 0 mil
lion stars surrounding t h e sun, our
blindness lets us see only 6,00 0. W e

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
January
1936

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

F o u r H un dred F ifty-six

p[iniinm m in

E
E
E

E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
E

........

m in n iiiin iiin in m im iiiinn innniinnnin nnniin inim p ]

JOHN FISKE

Each month we w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through the
presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally such w ritin gs w ill
be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors o f the
past.
John Fiske, the Am erican historian and philosopher, was born in H artford, Connecticut,
on March 30. 1842. H e did not begin college very early in life and before entering he was
w id ely read in E nglish literature, history, and ancient and modern languages. A fte r graduating at H arvard he continued to study languages and philosophy. H e had a great love
fo r the latter subject.
H e prepared him self fo r law went tw o years to H arvard L a w School, and upon his
graduation opened an office in Boston. But most o f his time was devoted to w ritin g fo r
various periodicals. In 1869 he gave a course o f lectures at H arvard on the positive philosophy and delivered some th irty-five lectures on the doctrine o f evolution, which he afterward expanded and which became the "O utlines o f Cosmic P h ilo so p h y." Because o f the
lucidity o f his style, he contributed much to Am erica's know ledge o f Darwin and Spencer.
Perhaps his greatest contribution in the field o f literature was his demonstration that
religion and the doctrine o f evolution were not, as believed, incompatible. H e died in
Gloucester. Massachusetts, on July 4, 1901. H e spent the m a jority o f his life in Cambridge.
W e find that his philosophy follow s m ainly along m ystical and metaphysical lines
that is, although his subject or topic may be o f physical nature, the trend 13 tow ard the
mystical.
Below w e b rin g you some excerpts from his w orks which we feel certain w ill prove
most interesting to you.

:
1
E
=
E
E
E
E
E
jj
E
E
E
E
E
E
j

E
E
E
r
E
E

........m u . I . ...............

ii iiH mu lli im iiM iii iiH ii iii iii iia ii iiM am iii it iii iii iim in im iM M iii iai aii ii iM ii iii iim im iim ti iii nm iii f^

R E G A R D S the
sig n ifica n ce o f
M a n s position in
the universe, this
g r a d u a l elimina
tion of strife is a
fact of utterly un
p a r a l l e l e d g ran
deur. W o r d s ca n
not do justice to
s u c h a f a c t . It
m e a n s that the
________________ wholesale destruc
tion of life, which
has heretofore characterized evolution
ever since life began, and through which
the higher forms of organic existence
have been produced, must presently
come to an end in the case of the chief
of G o d s creatures. It means that the
universal struggle for existence, having
F o u r H un dred F i[ty -sev en

succeeded in bringing forth that con

summate product of creative energy, the
Human Soul, has done its work and will
presently cease. In the lower regions of
organic life it must go on, but as a de
termining factor in the highest work of
evolution it will disappear.
T h e action o f natura] selection upon
M a n has long since been essentially
diminished through the operation of
social conditions. F o r in all grades of
civilization above the lowest, there are
so many kinds of superiorities which
severally enable men to survive, not
withstanding accompanying
inferior
ities, that natural selection cannot by it
self rectify any particular unfitness. In
a race of inferior animals any m aladjust
ment is quickly removed by natural
selection, because, owing to the uni
versal slaughter, the highest complete

ness of life possible to a given grade of

organization is required for the mere
maintenance of life. But under the con
ditions surrounding human develop
ment it is otherwise. T h e r e is a wide
interval between the highest and lowest
degrees of completeness of living that
are compatible with maintenance of life.
H ence the wicked flourish. V ic e is but
slowly eliminated, because mankind has
so many other qualities, beside the bad
ones, which enable it to subsist and
achieve progress in spite o f them, that
natural selection which always works
through death cannot come into play.
T h e improvement o f civilized man goes
on mainly through processes of direct
adaptation. T h e principle in accordance
with which the gloved hand of the
dandy becomes white and soft while the
hand of the labouring man grows brown
and tough is the main principle at work
in the improvement of Humanity. O u r
intellectual faculties, our passions and
prejudices, our tastes and habits, b e
come strengthened by use and w eak
ened by disuse, just as the blacksmiths
arm grows strong and the horse turned
out to pasture becomes unfit for work.
T h is law of use and disuse has been of
immense importance throughout the
whole evolution of organic life. W i t h
M a n it has come to be paramount.
If now we contrast the civilized man
intellectually and morally with the sav
age, we find that, along with his vast
increase of cerebral surface, he has an
immensely greater power of represent
ing in imagination objects and relations
not present to the senses. T h is is the
fundamental intellectual difference b e
tween civilized men and savages. T h e
power of imagination, or ideal repre
sentation, underlies the wrhole of science
and art, and it is closely connected with
the ability to work hard and submit to
present discomfort for the sake of a
distant reward. It is also closely con
nected with the development of the
sympathetic feelings. T h e better we can
imagine objects and relations not pres
ent to sense, the more readily w e can
sympathize with other people. H a lf the
cruelty in the world is the direct result
The
Rosicrucian of stupid incapacity to put o n es self in
the other m ans place. S o closely inter
Digest
related are our intellectual and moral
January
natures that the development of sym
pathy is very considerably determined
1936

by increasing width and variety of e x

perience.
F rom the simplest form of
sympathy, such as the painful thrill felt
on seeing some one in a dangerous posi
tion, up to the elaborate complication of
altruistic feelings involved in the notion
o f abstract justice, the development is
very largely a development of the repre
sentative
faculty.
T h e very same
causes, therefore, deeply grounded in
the nature of industrial civilization,
which have developed science and art,
have also had a distinct tendency to
encourage the growth of the sym
pathetic emotions.
But, as already observed, these emo
tions are still too feebly developed, even
in the highest races of men. W e have
made more progress in intelligence than
in kindness. F o r thousands of genera
tions, and until very recent times, one of
the chief occupations of men has been to
plunder, bruise, and kill one another.
T h e selfish and ugly passions which are
primordial which have the incalculable
strength of inheritance from the time
when animal consciousness began
have had but little opportunity to grow
weak from disuse. T h e tender and un
selfish feelings, which are a later pro
duct of evolution, have too seldom been
allowed to grow strong from exercise.
A n d the whims and prejudices of the
primeval militant barbarism are slow in
dying out from the midst of peaceful
industrial civilization. T h e coarser forms
of cruelty are disappearing, and the
butchery of men has greatly diminished.
B u t most people apply to industrial pur
suits a notion of antagonism derived
from ages of w arfare, and seek in all
manner of w ays to cheat or overreach
one another. And as in more barbarous
times the hero was he who had slain his
tens of thousands, so now the man who
has made wealth b y overreaching his
neighbours is not uncommonly spoken
o f in terms which imply approval.
T h o u g h gentlemen, moreover, no longer
assail one another with knives and
clubs, they still inflict wounds with cruel
words and sneers. T h o u g h the free
thinker is no longer chained to a stake
and burned, people still tell lies about
him, and do their best to starve him by
hurting his reputation. T h e virtues of
forbearance and self-control are still in
a very rudimentary state, and of mutual
F o u r H undred F ifty -eig h t

helpfulness there is far too little among

men.
Nevertheless in all these respects
some improvement has been made,
along with the diminution of w arfare,
and by the time w arfa re has not merely
ceased from the earth but has come to
be the dimly remembered phantom of a
remote past, the development of the
sympathetic side of human nature will
doubtless become prodigious. T h e mani
festation of selfish and hateful feelings
will be more and more sternly repressed
by public opinion, and such feelings will
become weakened by disuse, while the
sympathetic feelings will increase in
strength as the sphere for their exercise
is enlarged. A s thus at length we see
what human progress means. It means
throwing off the brute-inheritance,
gradually throwing it off through ages
of struggle that are by and by to make
struggle needless. M a n is slowly pass
ing from a primitive social state in which
he was little better than a brute, toward
an ultimate social state in which his
character shall have become so trans
formed that nothing of the brute can be
detected in it. T h e ape and the tiger in
human nature will become extinct.
T heolo gy has had much to say about
original sin. T h is original sin is neither
more nor less than the brute-inheritance
which every man carries with him, and
the process of evolution is an advance
toward true salvation. F resh value is
thus added to human life. T h e modern
prophet, employing the methods of
science, may again proclaim that the
kingdom of heaven is a t hand. W o r k
ye, therefore, early and late, to prepare
its coming.

T he M essage o f Christianity
N o w what is this message of the
modern prophet but pure Christianity?
not the mass of theological doctrine
ingeniously piled up by Justin M a r ty r
and Tertullian and Clement and A t h
anasius and Augustine, but the real and
essential Christianity w h i c h
came,
fraught with good tidings to men, from
the very lips of Jesus and Paul! W h e n
did St. P a u ls conception of the two
men within him that warred against
each other, the appetites of our brute
nature and the God-given yearning for
Fou r H un dred F ifty-n in e

a higher life, when did this grand con

ception ever have so much significance
as now? W h e n have we ever before
held such a clew to the meaning of
C hrist in the Sermon on the M ount?
Blessed are the meek, for they shall in
herit the earth." In the cruel strife of
centuries has it not often seemed as if
the earth were to be rather the prize of
the hardest heart and the strongest fist?
T o many men these words of C hrist
have been as foolishness and as a stum
bling-block, and the ethics of the S e r
mon on the M o u n t have been openly
derided as too good for this world. In
that wonderful picture of modern life
which is the greatest work of one of the
great seers of our time, V ic to r H ugo
gives a concrete illustration of the work
ing of C h rists methods. In the saint
like career of Bishop M yriel, and in the
transformation which his example works
in the character of the hardened outlaw
Jean V a lje a n , we have a most powerful
commentary on the Sermon on the
M ount. B y some critics who could ex
press their views freely about Les
M ise ra b le s while hesitating to impugn
directly the authority of the N e w T e s t a
ment, M onseigneur Bienvenu was un
sparingly ridiculed as a man of impos
sible goodness, and as a milksop and
fool withal. B u t I think V ic to r H u go
understood the capabilities of human
nature, and its real dignity, much better
than these scoffers. In a low stage of
c i v i l i z a t i o n M onseigneur Bienvenu
would have had small chance of reach
ing middle life. C hrist himself, we re
member, was crucified between two
thieves. It is none the less true that
when once the degree of civilization is
such as to allow this highest type of
character, distinguished b y its meekness
and kindness, to take root and thrive,
its methods are incomparable in their
potency. T h e M a s te r knew full well
that the time was not yet ripe, that he
brought not peace, but sword. But he
preached nevertheless that gospel of
great jo y which is by and by to be real
ized by toiling Humanity, and he an
nounced ethical principles fit for the
time that is coming. T h e great original
ity of his teaching, and the feature that
has chiefly given it power in the world,
lay in the distinctness with which he
(C on tin u ed on P a g e 476)

Oblivion
CAN LIFES REALITIES BE DROWNED IN ALCOHOL?
By M a d e l e i n e L e w is
L C O H O L I S M is
an escape for the
man who requires
a co m p en sato ry
m e c h a n i s m to
cover up his in
ability to become
adjusted to real
ity. A drinker, it
is said, is w eak
but does his w eakn e s s lie in his
fon d n ess for
drink? I do not
think the typical boozer drinks be
cause he wants to, but rather, because
he c a n t meet an emotional problem; he
is seeking compensation for some lack
in his own personality.
N o man can long feel that he is in
adequate to life and that his existence is
unworthy without rebelling. O n e real
value drink has to the man who has re
belled is that of stimulating him bring
ing an elevation of spirits drowning
sorrow s (m erely problem s he is un
able to [a ce like a m an), and freeing his
mind from an xiety that anxiety which
encouraged the drink!
E xcluding the
man who is made intoxicated by his
friends as the carrying out of a jest,
other forms o f drinking all can be con
tributed to that desire to escape ad just
ment to reality. A man goes into the
The
Rosicrucian business world and finds he is not a
good business man and that he cannot
Digest
attain self-worthwhileness; he substi
January
tutes that attainment with a steady a t
tack on the whiskey bottle! T h e drunk
1936

ard comes to use as his explanation of

his alcoholism a chain of circumstances
BLA M ED ON SO M E O N E ELSE,
rather than frankly admit he is unable
to face his problems and must escape
reality by the drink route. T o fight
the conflict within himself does not oc
cur to the drunkard. T H I S is where
the real weakness lies, no doubt, for it
is so very much easier for the weak man
to form the habit of drink than to turn
to the intricate alternative. W illiam
James wrote with unerring discernment:
T h e reason for craving alcohol
is that it is an anaesthetic. It ob
literates a part of the field of con
sciousness and abolishes collateral
trains of thought.
A n d isnt James right? Even though
alcohol might afford T E M P O R A R Y
relief or escape from reality, it slackens
the higher, more complicated mental
functions and takes aw ay man's cool
power of reasoning. It S U B M E R G E S

the better self.

If man drinks as a substitute, w hy
does he not find some legitimate means
of giving the rebellious desires an op
portunity to expend themselves and
their stimulated energies in the quest of
an improving outlet? M a n C A N do
without drink; man can C O N Q U E R
drink. F irst of all, he should have the
right belief. B y that I mean renuncia
tion of all that he knows at his sober
times to be wrong, together with an
understanding of the fundamental prin
ciples guiding us in life and in society.
Resolution comes second, and resolution
F o u r H un dred S ixty

would come as a natural result of right

B E L I E F . Following B E L I E F and R E
S O L U T IO N
would come conduct.
This, too, would follow the above in
natural sequence forbidding him to
conduct himself other than in a manner
which would uplift him and in the end
gain for him the things he sought to
compensate for in his drink. T h is would
mean what Benjam in interprets or de
fines as the right means of subsistence"
(th e giving up of the wrong and the
finding of a right method.) And, lastly,
there is the right effort the right effort
by which man works energetically to
overcome his faults (meaning those
which have pulled him down to drink
and not the habit of drinking itself) and
develop his good qualities. If he will do
this he will not find it necessary to seek
a compensatory or substitutive method
of activity.

In devising a solution to the problem

it is important to guard against selfdeception as to the C A U S E of drink
ing making no weak mental apologies
to oneself and then seek to analyze the
forces involved. T h e drinker should
keep the solution or situation free from
self-pity and emotion throughout. H e
should look at the problem O B J E C
T IV E L Y .
A fte r analyzing himself and finding
the E X A C T reason or reasons for his
drinking of alcohol, the b oozer should
find a N E W outlet and persistently
undertake to make something B E T T E R
o f himself rise to the point where he
has sufficient S E L F - R E S P E C T
for
himself not to find it necessary to drink
as a substitute for the things he
T H I N K S he can not be, but which I
think he truly just R E F U S E S T O B E .
S
1#

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
v

Man, when conscious of an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized It so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f it. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illum inate mankind
with their m ystic light. F o r those who are seeking light, each month we w ill
reproduce a symbol or symbols, w ith their ancient meaning.

THE W R EA T H A N D T O R C H

The wreath and torch generally repre

sent death and victory. Usually, how
ever, the inverted flameless torch is
em blem atic of death and the laurel of
victory. Very many of the early converts
to C hristianity were from among the socalled pagans. Their early training in
fluenced their ideas afte r conversion.
They were fam iliar with many of the
emblems of the G reeks and used them
with new ideas in their religion.
These emblems are from the early
G reeks. W e do not know of any two
emblems which are more expressive of
their significance than these two. The
early Christians used the symbol to d e
pict life and peace, death and victory
through Jesus, the C h rist. Since that time the torch
and wreath have been used separately to convey
many other meanings.

Fou r H undred S ix ty -o n e

SUMMARIES
/ OF SCIENCE

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g nature's m ysteries and extending the boundaries of
knowledge. T h e w orld at large, although profiting by th eir labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular im agination.
I t is w ith pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and b rie fly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherwise specified,
we give fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

Is the Earths Center Cooling?

T W A S considered,
up to about two
c e n t u r i e s ago,
neither w i s e nor
tactful to publicly
voice the opinion
that our earth, in
fact the universe,
had existence be
yond 20 0 0 B. C.
T h is arbitrary age
was e s t a b l i s h e d
upon an interpre
tation of Scripture,
and any questioning of the soundness
of that conventional idea w as to put
oneself in the position of challenging
the word of God. O n ly in scientific
circles were the facts of nature looked
upon in their true light, and the incon
The
Rosicrucian sistencies between evident realities and
traditional ideas discussed freely; but
Digest
then scientists were all thought to be
January
either atheists or agents of the evil
forces, and from whom most any start
1936

ling opposition to the accepted doctrines

was to be expected but never to be be
lieved. T h e intelligent thinker could
never reconcile vestiges of civilizations
and culture which gave every appear
ance of having had existence for several
thousands of years, with the conven
tional age of the earth. Ruins of cities
visible on the su rface which were identi
fied with incidents in the Bible were
found by archeologists to have beneath
them foundations of two or three other
cities one below the other, antedating
the visible one by thousands of years.
Furthermore, scientific expeditions e x
cavated well-preserved skeletal remains
of man in strata formations which indis
putably were formed thousands of years
prior to 2 0 0 0 B. C.
O n ce, however, religion was forced
to admit by the weight of authority that
the earths age far exceeded the con
jectures of Biblical interpreters, imagi
nation ran rampant and the opposite ex
treme in unscientific circles was reached.
F o u r H un dred S ix ty -tw o

Popular magazines and even new s

papers ventured the opinion that the
earth in all probability was the parent
of our immediate universe, that it hurled
from its mass all of our m ajor planets,
even the sun itself. T h e o ries and hy
potheses were offered in explanation of
how this was accomplished, and though
all of it made most highly interesting
reading, it was also highly unscientific.
However, even science speculated, tak
ing the known upon which to base her
suppositions of the unknown. In the
19th century gravity was considered by
science the greatest terrestrial force.
Everything concerning the earth its
position, speed, composition and con
stancy was attributed to it. T h e e x
planations were satisfying until within
the last fifty years when new develop
ments and discoveries revealed that
other forces were responsible for much
formerly associated with gravity. T h is,
of course, was disconcerting, requiring
further investigation along new lines,
and resulted in a new theory for the
origin of the earth and its nature. T h is
new theory was elucidated by the emi
nent Professor Bailey W illis before the
Pacific Division of the American A s s o
ciation for the Advancement of Scien ce
recently.
T h e following is an excerpt from this
most interesting address which w e b e
lieve Rosicrucian students and their
friends will find instructive:
In the meantime our knowledge of
conditions in the interior of the earth
has grown apace. T h o s e swift and
penetrating scouts, the elastic waves
from earthquake shocks, bring word of
the conditions they have encountered
in coursing through the depths or in
traversing an outer shell. From them
we learn that the going is good a n y
where between the surface and a depth
of 1,770 miles ( 2 ,8 5 0 k m ).
Rocks to
that depth are highly elastic. B ut be
yond is something different. T h e y can
not get through the central sphere, the
substance of which is inelastic.
W e have no word to describe a
state of matter which is characterized
by inelasticity except we say fluid. B ut
the core of the earth for that is what
the sphere in question is is so dense
and so stiff that fluid conveys a false
notion of mobility. T h e material is
Four H undred S ix ty -th rec

nearly as heavy as lead, probably flows

much less easily and is supposed to co n
sist chiefly of nickel, iron and other
heavy elements.
T h e inelastic condi
tion of such substances is attributable,
so far as our experience goes, only to
melting, and a molten condition under
the enormous pressure of the interior
requires very high temperature. Hence
we may conclude that the core is very
hot.
H o w did the core become so hot?
H ere we begin to speculate less surely,
and the paths of thought diverge b ack
wards as well as forwards. If we in
cline to follow the astronomers and
mathematical physicists, who argue that
the globe once passed through a com
pletely molten condition, w e may recog
nize in the molten core of the earth a
residual body which has never cooled.
O r, if we think, as Chamberlin did, that
the globe was solid from the beginning
of its growth as a planet, we may reason
that the interior has become heated by
compression by gravity or that it has
grown hotter through the disintegration
of radioactive elements.
T h e assumption that the globe was
once wholly molten is still generally a c
cepted, though it is no longer so im
perative as it seemed to be before radio
active heating was recognized. It ap
peared to get a setback when L. H.
Adam s suggested that an y crust which
had formed by cooling of the surface
must sink into the lighter melt and a c
cumulate in the depths, so that the globe
would solidify from within outward.
B ut even so, the depth to which blocks
of crust might sink would be limited by
still heavier, though molten layers, and
the core might become enclosed in a
solid shell, as it now is. I see no cogent
objection to that view, although I do
think C ham berlins analysis o f the con
ditions attending the separation of the
earth from the sun was more complete
and accurate than that which leads
astronomers to infer a molten globe in
lieu of the solid one that he conceived.
But that is another question. T h e molten
core may be a residual molten body, en
closed in an outer shell that is thick
enough to have prevented the escape of
heat, or it may have been so supplied
with heat by compression and feeble
radioactivity that any escaping energy

was replaced and the body has not been

cooled.
O n the other hand, if the globe a s
sembled by the gathering of sun~dust
according to C ham berlins planetesimal
hypothesis, the core presumably co n
sisted of heavy elements, among which
radium and other radioactive substances
would be expected to occur. W h a t e v e r
its initial size might have been and how
ever small the proportion o f heat gen
erators, the temperature of the central
body would be raised after it had be
come sufficiently mantled to prevent
escape of heat as fast as it accumulated,
and a molten condition would eventual
ly ensue. It appears from the estimates
of Holmes, Joly and Jeffries that the two
thousand million years which the solid
earth surely counts would have afforded
quite sufficient time to melt the core.
A n y such calculation is, of course, a
guess, for we can assume such a pro
portion of radioactive elements as will
nicely have done the work, or we can
assume less favorable conditions. T h e
essential fact is that the melting can be
attributed entirely to radioactivity with
out postulating improbabilities.
W h a t e v e r the past may have been,
I regard it as probable that the melting
process has not ceased in the interior.
T h e reason for thinking that it continues
is the sharpness of the boundary that
separates the core from the elastic shell
which surrounds it. E arth q u ak e waves
of the elastic type locate the limit to
which they can penetrate and beyond
which they fade aw ay into the inelastic
core within 12 to 20 miles ( 2 0 to 30
k m ). T h a t is to say, they fix the radius
of the core within 1 per cent. Inside of
that very thin transition shell is a molten
sphere. O utside of it is the mantle of
highly elastic, solid rock. T h e latter is
no doubt hot, but not melted. T h e con
dition can not be a stable one. T h e dy
namic core is either losing or gaining
heat, is either shrinking or increasing
in diameter.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
January
1936

T o explain this actual condition there

are the two distinct lines of inference
already suggested. Startin g with a
molten earth we may imagine the blocks
of crust sinking to a certain depth, re
melting there and thus absorbing heat.
Continued formation of the crust and

continued remelting of sunken blocks

would in time solidify an outer shell,
while the interior would cool very slow
ly. W e may be observing a stage of
that process.
O n the other hand, if the globe had
a smaller molten core originally or had
initially been entirely solid but co n
tained a small proportion of radioactive
elements, the continued generation of
heat would melt it from within outward.
It is not necessary to suppose the heat
ing elements uniformly distributed. F o ci
o f energy would develop local bodies
which would eventually coalesce. A
molten interior, such as we observe,
would result.

Migrating Continents
T h o u g h at times we are confronted
with experiences such as earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions a n d tidal waves,
which prove the unstability of mother
earth, our faith in the earth s security
is not shaken, for these catastrophies
are of minor consequence in comparison
with the passivity of the majority of our
glo bes surface in our lifetime. It is dif
ficult for us to conceive our earth as
having been at one time a molten mass,
rhythmically rolling without spray or
lash, fogged in gasses, a substance de
void of life or solids. It even stretches
the imagination to visualize walls of
glistening blue white ice hundreds of
feet high and several thousand miles
wide ceaselessly moving southward,
crushing into an impalpable form all
that resisted it, and plow-like gouging
new courses for rivers, routing out
basins for stupendous lakes; yet about
us are evidences of these occurrences.
In the heart o f the city o f Los
Angeles, California, in the center of a
square block of park surrounded by
modern buildings and thoroughfares
upon which travel thousands of motor
cars daily, is located the famous La B rea
asphalt pits. It is declared from these
pits have been removed within the last
few years more fossilized remains of
prehistoric animals than from any other
place in the world. From these natural
pools of asphalt have been taken skele
tal remains o f saber-tooth tigers, dire
wolves, elephants, extinct species of
F o u r H un dred S ixty-fou r

antelope, camel, bison and horses. All

of which became bogged in this glue
like mass. D rawn by the helplessness
of the larger beasts which were fran
tically trying to free themselves, others
in their greed plunged in to devour the
victims, and in the ensuing struggle
themselves were drawn downward to be
preserved from the Pleistocene A g e
until today. A s we peer down into these
pits and examine the preserved frag
ments of flora and fauna taken from
them, and which today in their natural
state are either extinct or only exist in
a section of the world that is extremely
different in climate, topography and
vegetation, we reflect upon what this
region, now a great city, must have been
like fifty thousand years ago when these
things flourished, when this site was
their natural habitat. It seems incon
ceivable that such great changes could
have taken place, that the very clods of
oily black, nearly pure asphalt, which
we weigh in our hand, were there for
five hundred centuries and witnessed a
transformation which we can only sur
mise. Ancient civilizations, as we know
of them, seem by comparison only
yesterday.
W i t h all of these proofs, yet there are
those who today vehemently deny that
at some past time there existed conti
nents now not visible to the eye, as
great if not greater than some of ours
today, or that those now existing could
ever cease to be. T h e y base their con
tentions upon the fact that in the written
records of man or in his memory no
such thing has ever occurred. W h a t a
pitiful argument! T h e written records
of man and even the memory o f man is
but a tick of the clock that measures the
time of the earths existence. W h a t has
happened before, we can only surmise;
and what may happen in a future fur
ther off than the past, challenges our
most exaggerated speculations.
T h a t such great catastrophies did o c
cur and are not beyond recurrence,
only the mentally blind cannot see.
Science today has found unmistakable
evidence of migration of continents and
is proving that our present land surface
is due to such movements eons ago.
W e bring to you below an excerpt
from a discussion of this subject written
Fou r H undred S ix ty F iv e

by G eorge W . M u n ro of Purdue U n i
versity and which concurs with the
Rosicrucian opinion of this matter.
Continental migration is an episode
to be compared with a volcanic eruption
or m ajor lava flow. Its occasion is an
unusual combination of accumulated
thermal potential energy and w orld
wide catastrophe. T h a t it has occurred
not more than twice in two thousand
million years entitles it to be classified
as rare; we may not look for another
continental scattering soon.
T h o u g h much time has elapsed since
the Atlantic O cean was formed, we still
should be able to discern some evidence
of such a world-shaking event. T h r e e
items of such corroborative support are
offered: ( 1 ) T h e mid-Atlantic swell;
( 2 ) the Pacific foredeeps; ( 3 ) the G ulf
of M ex ico .
T h e crystalline rock material of the
earth crust is brittle; very brittle, as
any stone mason's hammer will show.
M oreover, earth movements have sh at
tered the most of it to bits at one time
or another, as can be directly observed
in the marble and granite of our great
buildings. T h i s clearly indicates that
the fracture of a continent would be a t
tended by vast crumbling. O f course,
this crumbled material, being specifical
ly lighter than the magma into which it
tumbled, would form a swell or ridge in
the A tlantic O c e a n bottom following
the general line of fracture. T h a t there
is such a swell in mid-Atlantic through
out its extent is corroborative evidence
of the migration and of its episodal na
ture.
If the continental masses moved
over the Pacific area, riding down
blocks of ocean bottom, it might reason
ably be expected that as the continental
motion ceased, the down-going blocks
would be caught and jammed in places
forming deep holes in the ocean bed.
T h e foredeeps of the Pacific constitute
precisely such a system, as might be
expected.
T h e central position o f the midA tlantic swell indicates approximately
equal masses of land in each of the
traveling continents or an earlier stop
page of the American side. T h e general
absence of foredeeps off the American
(C on tin u ed on P a g e 476)

oAnalyzing T our SMental Tendencies

DO YOU THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND THE
NATURE OF YOUR COMPLEXES?
By T

he

Im perator
V

S I read the m any

letters that come
to me from per
sons seeking help
in analyzing their
personal affairs in
life, and as I care
fully s t u d y the
l e t t e r s that are
sent to us to be
used as a basis of
discussion in our
Forum, and later
p r i n t e d in our
Forum magazine, I am aw are of the
fact that a great many persons are suf
fering from one complex or another,
and do not realize this, and therefore
make no attempt to overcome the diffi
culty.
Individuals seem to have the ability
to recognize in another person any outer
manifestations of inferiority complex, or
superiority complex; but these same per
sons seem to be unable to diagnose this
condition in themselves. It is indeed un
fortunate when an individual is suffer
The
ing from a mental state that is colored
Rosicrucian
by a sense of inferiority or superiority.
Digest
I use the word suffering very properly,
January
for such persons do suffer through the
view-point they have of life, and of
1936

V
their surroundings, through the ob
stacles which their view-point creates
and through the effect this has upon the
use and application of their inner
abilities.
It may seem surprising to a great
many to know that in a large majority
of cases where we suspect that an in
dividual is suffering from a sense of
superiority, or a belief in his or her
superiority, actually there is an inner
sense on the part of the individual of
his or her presumed inferiority, and the
opposite is true also.
In other words, the general idea re
garding inferiority and superiority is
quite erroneous, and because of this
very few persons are able to properly
assist others in overcoming these ten
dencies.
T h e r e are two causes which are gen
erally responsible for most of the mental
states we observe in other persons, and
which we call inferiority and superior
ity; one of these causes is suppressed
desires, and the other is a broken or en
larged spirit.
L et us take the example of a young
woman born in humble circumstances,
or with parents who were poor, or who
abandoned her or left her at an early
age, and who thereafter was raised in
F o u r H undred S ixty-six

an asylum or by fond relatives who

were also poor or in intermediate cir
cumstances.
T h ro u gh o u t
her early
childhood she is constantly reminded of
the fact that she cannot have and can
not enjoy all of the things which other
children of her age enjoy. If she is
raised in an asylum for girls, she is
taught by every impression registered
upon her mind that she is inferior to the
average child throughout the world in
asmuch as, first of all, she does not have
residence in the home of her parents,
does not have the love and assistance of
both parents, does not have the freedom
of going and coming that the average
child has, and does not have the cloth
ing and playthings, the recreations, the
indulgences and the contacts with cul
ture and refinement which other children
enjoy. T h ro u gh o u t her youth she learns
to be subservient to the will of others.
She learns to hold her own ideas, de
sires, and wishes in abeyance and to
submit to the routine life outlined for all
the children around her.
If she is not raised in an asylum, but
in the home of a very poor family, she
is impressed day by day in many w ays
of the fact that she cannot have the
same clothing, the same privileges, the
same pleasures and indulgences that the
neighbor's children have. B y the time
this girl is a young woman she has
learned in many bitter w ays that she is
different from others inasmuch as she
lacks the opportunities that others have,
and lacks the background, the inherited
qualities and attainments which other
children enjoy.
All of this will impress the young
woman with a growing conviction of
her inferiority. A t first she may feel
that her inferiority is solely of exterior
things, and that the inner self is the
equal of any other person. S h e may
feel that only in worldly possessions, or
in special mental attributes or attain
ments, education or refinements is she
lacking or inferior, but gradually it
dawns upon her that her outer worldly
inferiority is due to some important de
gree of personal inferiority. Sh e begins
to believe in those secret, private mo
ments of personal meditation that the
poverty of her parents and the inferior
life they led was due to their inferior
mental abilities. T h e n she concludes
Four H un dred S ix ty -sev en

that since she inherited the blood and

mental tendencies of her parents she,
too, has probably inherited the basic in
feriority of her parents, and that this
added to the inferiority of her present
environment, social position, incomplete
education, and constant suppression of
desires has made her an inferior being
inwardly as well as outwardly.
V e r y few of us can fully appreciate
the ag on y and mental suffering of a per
son young or old who reaches these
conclusions and becomes convinced of
his personal inferiority. It is so basic,
so fundamental, so deep-rooted, that
taking such a young woman and placing
her in a better environment and giving
her better clothes, money to spend, a t
tractive companions, and the many un
usual opportunities, will not quickly or
completely change the inner habits of
thinking and the established sense of
inferiority. In many cases the very fact
that others are trying to help her by
giving her better clothing, or money, or
opportunities to advance herself, b e
comes an additional indication of her
true inferiority. V e r y often such per
sons resent the helpful interest on the
part of others for that very reason.
T h e y resent having anyone show such
an interest as might be interpreted as
pity, for this would become a positive
proclamation of her inferiority.
All that I have said regarding a young
woman applies equally to the life of a
young man. Somewhere in the early
years of the life of both such a young
man and such a young woman, there
comes the opportunity of running aw ay
from all who know them and a desire to
change the unhappy conditions. It may
strike the normal person as peculiar, but
it is a fact that when these young people
decide to run aw ay from their present
environment because of this inferiority
com plex, they just as often choose a
road or pathw ay in life that goes down
ward as one that goes upward. I have
talked with young women who have
made such a change, and they have
frankly said, I was born a nobody, I
have been a nobody all my life, I have
no background, no basis or foundation
for anything but an inferior life, and
there is no use pretending and battling
with it any longer; I am going to go
aw ay to another city and live among

some outstanding public character who

is known for his or her overdressing.
T h e y will attempt to use large words in
their conversation, will dabble into v a
rious fields of thought in order to b e
come superficially familiar with certain
terminology or historical facts, and then
speak of these things in a very impres
sive manner at every opportunity. V e r y
often they will attend the highest grade
musicals, concerts, or visit places where
they believe they will associate with
persons of great culture and refinement.

those of my own class. T h e y often

enter into crime, or various forms of
sordidness, become indifferent regard
ing their personal appearance, and their
personal habits, choose lower types of
persons for companionship, and begin a
course that is destined to wreck their
entire lives. Su ch young people become
despondent, cynical, irreligious, untrust
worthy, and criminally inclined. Even
the young women will scoff at the idea
of attempting to be respectable, for they
will frankly state that nobody thinks
they are respectable, and there is no use
in continuing the battle against general
opinion. M a n y young men frankly state
that throughout their whole youthful
lives they have had to battle with the
lowest things in life, and they have
learned that unless they take advantage
of other people, these other people will
take advantage of them.
T h u s we find one portion of these
people suffering from inferiority w ho
are on the downward road, and when
we meet them in a crisis where they are
anxious to have some relief, some help,
or be saved from their critical situation,
we have a difficult problem to face, and
must begin inwardly to change the longestablished opinion of themselves.
W h e n the other portion of these suf
ferers decide to take a higher road in
life and lift themselves up, we have an
other complexity to deal with that is
just as difficult. T h e s e persons begin to
pretend that they are better than they
believe themselves to be. T h e y hope to
hide their inferiority, and to create in
the minds o f others an im pression o f
equality at least, or some degree of
superiority. It is among these persons
that we often witness the greatest mani
festations of the so-called superiority
complex.

In order to create the impression of

equality, at least, these persons will re
fuse to indulge in many things that the
ordinary average normal person a c
cepts. In going to the theater they will
go less often, but when they do go they
will insist upon the best seats or the
highest price seats in order that others
may observe them doing this and think
of them as being wealthy. T h e y will re
fuse to eat in an ordinary restaurant,
but will go to a very high-class one even
if they have to have just tea and toast,
for they hope to be seen going in and
out of a better place. T h e y will refuse to
go to parties and dances of an ordinary
kind, insisting that their tastes are
better or higher, and that only in cer
tain places will they en joy themselves.
T h e y speak freely of their contempt for
persons who are poor or who are in
humble or lowly positions. T h e y even
refuse invitations to dinners because
they want to create the impression that
they have so many engagements and
prefer to select only the best places or
the best homes. T h e s e persons, there
fore, create in the minds of the average
human being the idea that they are suf
fering from a superiority complex, w here
as they are suffering intensely and
acutely from a sense of inferiority.

Y o u n g women or young men in this

position, will go to great extremes to be
well-dressed, and in the attempt to be
well-dressed, they will be overdressed.
T h e young men will often resort to
wearing patent-leather shoes through
out the day in the belief that an e x
cellent appearing foot or an expensive
The
Rosicrucian pair of shoes will cause others to think
that they are particularly neat and su
Digest
perior in their tastes for dress. T h e y
January
will often wear loud clothing or the e x
tremes in styles. M a n y times they copy
1936

T h o s e who misunderstand the prob

lem and analyze these persons wrongly
attempt to remove the superiority from
their nature. T h e y like to sa y to such
persons, Y o u think you are better than
other people, but the truth of the matter
is that you are no better than anyone
else. T h is only convinces the other
that his inferiority is something true,
and that his pretense at equality is not
strong enough to overcome it, and he,
Four H un dred S ixty-eight

therefore, adds to his outer emphasis of

superiority.
T h e reverse of all of this is also true.
Many persons are born with a superior
ity complex that they have inherited or
acquired in their youth, and they realize
that it is a detriment to their happiness,
and that it breaks friendships, and puts
them in a position of criticism with all
who notice it. T h e ir superior reactions
are just as natural as those who are su f
fering from inferiority. T h e y cannot
help admiring that which is a little
better than the ordinary, they cannot
help wanting in clothing, food, pastimes,
recreations, and study, the things that
are just a little bit better than the aver
age. T h e y cannot help feeling that in
their recreation they should take a posi
tion among the very best, the very high
est, and the most exclusive. In all their
tastes and desires, their first choice is
always that which is superior. It is as
natural for them to choose this w ay as
it is for the long-experienced criminal
to seek the dark, shadowy places of life
for his idle hours. W h e n there is a de
sire to overcome these superior ten
dencies in order to avoid embarrassing
other persons, or make others feel un
comfortable, they will assume an a tti
tude or nature that is of the very op
posite. T h e y will try to be very com
monplace in their clothing; they will go
out of their w ay to eat at nominal
restaurants, or even the most economical
ones. T h e y will choose friends and com
panions among the commonplace or
even less, if they can possibly do so.
T h e y will adopt some slang in their

language. T h e y will adopt certain habits

which will cover the real desires within.
O th ers observing them will say that
these persons are inferior, and are e x
pressing an inferiority complex. T h e
truth is that these persons are suffering
from a sense of superiority and are try
ing to reverse it in the opinion of others.
N o w all of this unconscious and co n
scious thinking on the part of these in
dividuals suffering from inferiority or
superiority, constitute continuous ob
stacles in the w ay of achievement and
attainment. T h e only real help for such
persons is metaphysical help at the hands
o f one who can discern behind the mask
being worn what the real nature is. It is
difficult to tell by merely looking at or
watching a person whether that person
is really suffering from real superiority,
or a pretended superiority to hide the
inferiority within. T h e mystic, the true
student of psychic natures, the analyst
o f all human individuals, should do
everything within his power to assist a
person of this type, but the first step
consists of becoming truly acquainted
with the real nature of the individual,
then winning the confidence to such an
extent that the sufferer will really talk
of his desires and his suppressions, his
ambitions, and his tastes, needs, and re
quirements, and enable the mystic to
help him get started on the true path.
T h e whole subject is one that is
worthy of the special interest of our
Rosicrucian metaphysicians so that they
can go out in the world and help per
sons of this very class.

H A V E Y O U A M EM BERSH IP EMBLEM ?
W h y not wear one of the attractive, small but dignified. Rosicrucian membership
emblems and signify your association with this world-wide fraternity? It is quite true
that more is required of an individual than an emblem to establish his membership; yet,
an emblem is a constant reminder of ones allegiance, ones obligation, and ones ideals.
It also indicates one's pride in his affiliation.
T h e emblems are made of gold, beautifully inlaid with enamel, and consist of the tri
angle surmounted by the Egyptian cross. There are two styles the mens style consists
of the emblem with screw back, $1.85; the womens style consists of a patent safety catch
pin, $2.00. You will be proud to wear them. T h ey may be had from the Rosicrucian
Supply Bureau.

Four H undred Sixty-nine

SANCTUM MUSINGS
THE SOLE REALITY
-0
A T T E N T IO N R E A D E R : The theory propounded in the fo llo w in g article is that the uni
verse is w ithout m ultiplicity. A ll things are o f one thing. V ariety, form , substance, and ex
tension are all declared the effects o f the human consciousness. M ore startlin g is the assertion
that even the human consciousness is not embodied, that humans, as such, have no existence.
The article is offered here because the questions it raises and purports to answer deal w ith
absolute metaphysics, and w ill afford the serious reader much opportunity fo r the play o f his
reasoning powers.

0-

B O L T O F light
ning crashes from
the heavens, bu ry
ing i t s e l f in the
receptive e a r t h .
W i l d life in the
immediate vicinity
s c a t t e r s in sheer
terror of the start
ling s o u n d , but
men, p r i m i t i v e
specimens of the
genus homo, who
flee or throw them
selves prone upon the ground, fear more
than the sound; they tremble in awe of
the mysterious phenomenon. T o these
primitive minds, natural phenomenon is
not adventitious or mechanical, but teleological.
E a ch phenomenon is con
ceived as having its conscious and wilful
cause. T h is conception must have been
born early in the minds of men. It un
doubtedly is a development of the idea
that since all change within the scope
The
of man's control is due to his will, all
Rosicrucian
manifestations, for which he is not re
Digest
sponsible, must, therefore, be attributed
January
to conscious causes as well, to thinking,
willing, supernatural beings.
1936

From such reasoning sprang P o ly

theism. E a c h unlike phenomenon was
associated with a distinctly different
omnipotent intelligence. Although cen
turies ago in ancient E g y p t a pharaoh
conceived a sole god, and attempted the
first unity of all phenomena, under one
divine cause and direction, such an
ideal was a temporary saltation. M o n o
theism did not acquire any firm grip on
the human mind until centuries after the
pharaoh and his religion had been for
gotten.
Monotheism could have been
the prevailing religious influence long
before it did, if it were not due to m ans
attempt to compare effects instead of
causes. It could have been easily dis
covered that many causes vary so slight
ly, that they must have a common rela
tionship, even though their effects are
quite different in nature.
Science, as
elementary as it was during the days of
ancient G reece and Rome, was suffi
ciently developed to have traced and
established such a common factor be
tween much natural phenomena, which
was instead attributed to the will of the
gods. In the realm of religion, one of
the greatest contributions toward the
eventual conclusion that a sole god
F ou r H un dred S ev en ty

directs all the forces and beings of the

world and the universe, w as the spec
ulation as to the reason of causes and
their effects. It appears that no matter
how strikingly dissimilar all observed
phenomena, creatures, or things, man
considered the purpose of them as
serving his immediate welfare. T h u s
everything was to either provide him
with the necessities and pleasures of
life, or to impose punishment upon him,
for his failure to pay respect for the
bounties of life. T h e s e purposes o b
viously had the same end, and would
bring into conflict rival intelligences; if
these intelligences had the same char
acteristics as man, and they were
thought to have, man would not have
conceived the gods as like himself.
Since, however, the different forces of
nature endured, and none were appar
ently abolished, or suppressed, it was
finally reasoned that there were not
rival intelligences but a single one which
was responsible for all.
T o d a y , our idea of the world of real
ity parallels the ancient ideas of divine
causes. W e are burdened with the
theory of multiplicity. W e live in a
world, it is asserted, of an infinite num
ber of physical causes, which rain upon
us all of the realities we perceive.
Present day achievements in science
mean but the revelation of new causes,
and an increasing complexity. T h e
causes are becoming as far removed
from each other as the realities they
create. O u r universe appears to be be
coming decentralized and chaotic, be
cause the causes are presented as hav
ing an order related only to their partic
ular nature, and estranged from others.
M ust this continue until we become
hopelessly lost in a maze of causation,
or is it possible that we may arrive at a
mono-reality as we did with theism,
and find satisfaction and peace of mind
in the simplicity it affords? C an we not
profit by the experience of yesterday
and apply the same method that brought
to us monotheism? L et us speculate in
the hope that such speculations may
disclose a w ay to a possible solution.
T h e common conception of realities
is all that which can be universally per
ceived. If one could establish the fact
that he alone perceived an object and
that it was beyond perception by others,
Fou r H un dred S e v en ty -o n e

there would arise within his mind a

doubt of its reality. W e deduce that a
thing is universally perceived and there
fore a reality because it has externality.
It is apart, separate from our minds
and, therefore, capable of being real
ized by another. T h is idea of externality
is caused by the interruption of a sense
faculty resulting in the discontinuance
of the perception. If we see, for e x
ample, before us a chair and then close
our eyes and the direct vision of the
chair disappears, we do not doubt the
existence of a chair perhaps, but we do
conclude that it has no reality within us
but exists instead apart from us. Since
the disappearance of the reality was due
to the interruption of the sense of sight,
its existence to us, it is reasoned, de
pends upon sight or we would not be
visually conscious of it without that
faculty. If it is external, we presume
that other beings possessed of the same
faculty, normally functioning, can per
ceive it as well. Som e contend that such
reasoning is insufficient to prove the
externality of realities. If we visually
perceive, they state, a chair and sudden
ly our vision is obscured, there con
tinues to exist in our consciousness a
mental image of the chair. It may be
less distinct, yet it exists after the in
terruption of the sense o f sight. W e
can, of course, they continue, discern
between the actual perception of the
object and the recollection of it, but
even though they continue further, there
is a distinction. If a mental picture is
retained after the interruption of the
sense impressions, it is evident that the
suspension of the sense of sight is not
sufficient reason for us to consider real
ity as having externality. T h e crux of
their argument being that experiences
recollected or imagined may have the
appearance of reality equal to sense
perceptions, and if so, by w hat right,
then, do we declare that reality is solely
external? It is to be admitted that recol
lected and imagined experiences estab
lish a conscious realism equal to, in
many respects, the experiences of the
senses. T h e y can produce the same
emotional state and compel similar phy
sical acts, but there is the important fact
that when we know we are imagining or
recollecting, it is only by being partially
conscious of stimuli which we absolute

ly associate with the sense faculty. W e

sit at our fireside recalling vividly an
incident of our early life. W e see ch ar
acters, note their actions, study their
dress, all mentally, yet we are partially
aware visually of the glow of the embers
before us. W e are thus afforded the
opportunity of comparison between the
two states objective and subjective. If
someone passes between us and the
hearth, our perception of the glowing
embers is interrupted and there remains
either the new perception of the in
tervening o bject or the recollected one.
T h e refo re, we know that there is reality
which has its existence, to us, through
the medium of the senses even though
we have at the time subjective experi
ences as well.

collect were not objective for another in

our presence did not perceive them, and
that we were observed to be asleep.
T h is is not conclusive evidence, for the
same circumstances can exist in the
dream state. In a dream we can cite our
experiences to another person of the
dream state and the dream character
can confirm them. Again in a dream we
may recount an experience of our aw ak
ened state and the character of the
dream could inform us that such were
dreams for at the time we were not
awake. In other words, in the dream we
may be told that the experiences of our
awakened state were in fact dreams.
W o u l d not such conditions in all prob
ability have a realism equal to the
awakened state?

W h a t , it may be asked, of the e x

periences of complete subjectivity as,
for example, the complete absorption of
cogitation when there is no realization
of outer surroundings? Such experi
ences have all the elements of the reali
ties of sense perception. H o w may they
be related to externality? O u r interro
gators may even go further. T h e y may
cite the realism of dreams. Dream ex
periences, as are commonly known, may
be the antithesis of those of the aw ak
ened state. B y what means can we prove
the experiences of the awakened state,
the true ones; in fact, how can be ascer
tain which is the awakened state? In
the awakened state things have sub
stance, color, taste, dimension, scent,
form, and we react to them; and the
state which is the opposite of our co n
scious one is said to be the sleeping one.
However, what of dreams? D o not the
realities of dreams have substance, e x
tension, and do we not experience the
same sensations from them? D oes not
our consciousness respond in the state
of dream as it does in the awakened
state? In other words, does not the e x
perience of the dream state appear the
natural one at the time? W h e n we
dream, we do not know that we are
dreaming; in fact, the opposite of it
would appear as a dream state. T h e n
when either in a dream or awakened
The
state, the experiences of the particular
Rosicrucian state at the time appear the true ones.
Digest
It may be said that in our awakened
January
state we can be told that we have just
awakened, that the experiences we re
1936

I dream; I see three volumes upon my

reading table. I examine them; I note
their separate titles and dissimiliar bind
ings. I observe their edge and feel the
asperity of their covers, the unevenness
of their texture. I particularly discern
that the table is quite bare of all else
and that the furnishings of the room are
otherwise quite usual. I am said to
awaken; I am conscious of the same sur
roundings. B e fo re me is the identica 1
library table, but upon it are but two
of three volumes seen in the dream. I
say I know of these two volumes but
have never known of the third. I pick
up each of the two and carefully inspect
each one. T h e y have all the character
istics of the two of the dream; but was
it a dream? Is the state of which I am
now conscious of two books the true
one, or was it the preceding one of three
books? T h e realism of each is equally
impressive. But, it might be said, you
are now aware of your present state and
the state preceding this one also. T h e
former, therefore, was a dream. T h a t ,
again, is not sufficient argument or a
substantiation of one state as the aw ak
ened one. I could now be dreaming and
recollect experiencing at some time three
books on my library table, and muse in
the dream that in view of the two I now
perceive, I must have dreamt that there
were only two upon the table. D o not
the experiences of the awakened state
then seem as a dream to even the one in
a dream state?
T h e r e is a standard for judging b e
tween the two states, and the same
F o u r H un dred S ev en ty -tw o

measure proves the externality of the

realities of the awakened state.
It is
this: In the awakened state we can re
press perceptions, negate our realiza
tion of realities and continue a realiza
tion of self. F o r example: I am again
in my library. I see the two books upon
the table. I hear the murmer of voices
in an adjoining room; I smell the deli
cate odor of incense burning in a con
tainer within reach of my hand. R e a ch
ing out and placing the palm of my
hand close to the top of the container,
I am conscious of a slight sensation of
warmth as the wisp of curling smoke
touches the flesh. G radually I eliminate
the realities that go to make up the e x
perience. I close my eyes; immediately
all visual perception is gone.
I place
heavy pads o f felt upon my ears and I
am plunged into silence. N e x t I pinch
my nostrils closer together permitting
no air to enter, and close my mouth
tightly as well. T h e delicate odor and
the sense of smell are absent. I with
draw my hand so that the particular
sensation of warmth does not exist.
W h a t has become of the experience?
Quite obviously it no longer has exist
ence to me. Tru e, I may retain a general
impression of the experience, but I ca n
not analyze it in detail. I cannot, for
example, at random turn to a page of
the mental image book and perceive a
word or a single letter there in relation
to other characteristics of the entire
page. T h e experience I have realized in
its completeness is gone because of the
interruption of the contributing sense
which made it possible. However, self
consciousness continues to exist. I know
I am thinking, that I am reasoning, that
I am aware, that I will myself to co n
tinue a repression of my senses. O b
jectivity is practically dormant, yet I am
conscious of subjectivity, of my own
being. T h e r e is an awareness of the
dual states of my own existence. I can
separate myself in consciousness, at
least, from external reality.
Suppose I now consider the same
existence as being of the dream state.
W h a t difference exists? If we eliminate
the idea of externality in a dream state
there would be a hiatus of conscious
ness, an interval when we would be de
void of consciousness of self or of other
realities. In the dream state conscious
Fou r H u n dred S ev en ty -th ree

ness of self is alw ays identified with

external surroundings. C an you recall
dreaming when the dream was not com
posed of things related or associated
with ideas which you acquired in what
is said to be the awakened state? Have
you ever experienced a dream of self
which was not in an environment co n
sisting of realities? T h e refo re, dreams
persist only when the experiences of
the dream are associated with sense im
pressions. A true duality of conscious
ness cannot exist in the dream state.
W e can be aw are of self in a dream and
also external reality B U T we cannot
expel the concept of reality and still
have a continuation of the dream. A
dream is entirely subjective though it
may have originally been aroused by
objective stimuli. T h e refo re, the sensa
tions of the dream which appear to
have external existence are not truly re
lated to the sense impressions and any
repression of them is but to discontinue
entirely the subjective experience. Since
the dream state is subjective, a suppres
sion of it causes a complete gap in co n
sciousness and there is neither aw are
ness of self nor the idea of externality.
T h is establishes the fact that actual per
ception of reality exists only in a state
which permits consciousness of self after
the interruption o f the objective sense
impressions. Such a state then is the
true awakened one. It further sub
stantiates the declaration that reality is
external to the idea we have of it.
Assuming for the moment from the
foregoing that reality has external exist
ence, it is next necessary to determine
whether our sense impressions are
homogeneous. W e must examine the
senses to ascertain not only the extent
of the reality they bring to our co n
sciousness, but whether each of the
sense experiences has a relationship to
all others. In other words, what has
sight in common with feeling, or hear
ing with taste? G ranted that the forms
of visual things may differ from those
heard, what characteristics o f the two
contributing senses, of their functioning,
or of the end which they serve, are
similar? W e begin not by an individual
analysis of the realities of a sense facul
ty themselves, but by grouping them
and seeking a common factor. In a co n
sideration o f the things visually per-

ceived, we find that the contributing

cause of the perception is light. All
physical realities have their existence in
light. T h e lessening of light lessens the
determination of their existence. T o us
the substance and existence of matter
visually perceived is affected by light.
A diminishing of light may distort the
extension of a visual reality and also
appear to alter the nature of its sub
stance.
A s for touch, the world of particulars
perceived through the channel of that
faculty is always identified with such
properties as hard, soft, hot, and cold,
and in addition, each of these proper
ties is accompanied by certain contraries
such as smooth and rough, even and un
even, etc. T h u s every reality of touch
is either hard or soft, that is, predomin
antly so, and is also sensed as being
either smooth or rough. T h e conception
o f hard or soft immediately arises in the
consciousness when the sense of touch
is brought into contact with w hat is
said to be a reality. T h e conception of
such contraries as smooth and rough, is
secondary; it follows the former. A t
times their sequence is so immediate
that they appear to be of the funda
mental character of the sense of touch.
W e touch the surface of a table and
simultaneously we realize the sensations
of hard and smooth. If we were, how
ever, to place our hand upon a table top
and feel two different planes simul
taneously even though both were hard,
we would say the surface was rough.
Roughness or smoothness are variations
of the characteristics of hardness and
softness. Th u s, for example, let us say
a table surface consists of a series of
ridges 1/64 of an inch apart. T h e table
is said to be rough to the touch. T h e
ridges and the depressions between
them are both hard to the touch. H o w
ever, if we could run our finger contin
ually along the surface of just one of
the ridges, or in just one of the depres
sions, we would conceive the surface as
hard also, but smooth, not rough. T h e
idea of roughness occurred from the
Tfag
perception of a change o f plane of the
* .
.
characteristics of touch. In other words,
Kostcructan ^ w hen we place our hand upon the
Digest
table surface we are conscious simulJamiary
taneously of a certain plane that is a
1936
certain level and its limit its limit be

ing the drop off to a lower plane or de

pression, or on the other hand an eleva
tion to another plane the combination
of the two sensations establishes the
idea of roughness or unevenness. W e
reiterate, however, that the character
istics of both planes as in our example
of the ridges and the depressions, would
be the same, hard to the touch. C o n
sequently, the ideas of roughness and
smoothness, or even the unevenness,
are caused by a realization of a varia
tion of the order of an essential ch a r
acteristic of touch, but they are not a
variation of the nature of the character
istic itself. W h e n we feel the dropping
from one plane or rising from it to an
other, we actually have the sensation of
the absence of touch between the two
planes and this sensation causes the
idea of irregularity or roughness. S u p
pose we had fifty 1/8 inch cubes of
smooth marble arranged in a row, each
separated from the other by 1/16 of an
inch. Suppose further that we were
blindfolded and the tip of the first finger
of the left hand or right hand was firm
ly pressed upon the surface of one of
the marble cubes, and at the same time
the second finger of the same hand was
pressed upon the surface of another
cube. T h e experience would be one
first of hardness, then of smoothness.
T h e r e would not be a realization of the
space between the cubes and therefore,
no interruption of the order of the ch ar
acteristic of touch. If, however, we
begin to move our fingers along the row
of cubes in either direction, we would
become aware of the alternating spaces
between and this alternation would
cause us to conceive the continuous sur
face not as smooth but as rough or un
even because of the intervals when there
would be no sensation of touch w hat
ever. If instead of marble blocks or
cubes we had before us a long narrow
slab of marble with grooves spaced an
inch apart, each grove 1/16 of an inch
in width and 1/8 of an inch deep, this
would produce the same experience and
the idea of roughness. If we moved our
finger along the surface, we would be
come conscious of the change, not of the
characteristic that is the hardness of the
reality of touch, but its order.
However, a different c o n c e p t i o n
arises if we sense a complete limit of
F ou r H un dred S ev en ty -fo u r

the characteristic of the reality. Th u s,

for example, if we felt the smooth
marble cube and immediately around it
nothing else. W e stated above that the
idea of roughness or unevenness arose
from a perception of the hard surfaced
cubes and the spaces between them.
But there must be a regularity of this
irregularity, as incongruous as this term
may appear. Let us presume that these
cubes of marble were mounted on stakes
driven into the ground twenty-five feet
apart in a row of considerable length.
W e are blindfolded and we place two
fingers of either hand upon one of the
cubes. It is smooth to the touch. W e
move aw ay from the stake and as we do
so our fingers are withdrawn from the
cube and we are conscious of an absence
of the sensation of touch. Finally, after
walking twenty feet we again contact
another cube and perceive its smooth
ness. O u r experience under such cir
cumstances would not cause the idea of
unevenness of a surface but rather of
detached forms, each cube as being
separate and apart from the other and
the whole not a part of any single real
ity. Consequently from this we can
understand the changes must be rather
regular; that is, each experience of
change must be about of equal dura
tion, if we are to have the idea of a con
tinuous surface to which can be a s
signed the terms of rough or uneven.
T a s t e has its triple sensations of
sweet, bitter, and salty. N othing per
ceived through the medium of this fac
ulty is devoid of either one of these
three characteristics. T h e characteristic
of hearing, that which is to be found in
all sounds
whatever
their nature,
whether organized or disorganized,
whether of the category of music or
noise, is pitch. T h e olefactory sense has
its characteristics of fragrance or fetor.
All of its realities are identified with
them. W e must deduce, and it natural
ly follows, that the realities of each
sense have their group quality. In qual
ity of sight is light, of hearing it is pitch,
and of feeling or touch it is the sensa
tion of hard and soft, cold and hot. T h e
quality of the sense of smell is fragrance
and fetor, and of taste it is, as we have
said, the triple characteristics of sweet,
bitter, and salty. T o some of these qual
ities we have assigned just one attribute
Four H undred S e v en ty ^ iv e

and to others but four. Y e t even feeling

with its characteristic of hard, soft, cold,
and hot gives rise to the realization of
innumerable forms. T h e question arises,
which is the reality, the form, or the
quality, and if but one, what causes the
idea of the other?
Realities are, however, never per
ceived in their absolute state; that is, a
reality is never known only by the qual
ity of the sense by which it is perceived.
W e never, for example, experience the
sensation of hardness or heat without
rightly or wrongly identifying it with
some form of a similar sensation. W e
never perceive light without either color
or extension; that is, the area which it
seems to occupy. T h e variation of the
quality of sight which is light, produces
forms of two general classifications. T h e
first classification is colors, and the
second is mass. W h a t appears as white
light may be detracted into many colors
which become to the eye distinctive
realities. From this we know that light
has been varied in its passage to our
eyes. It has in some physical manner
been detracted. V isu al mass is pro
duced in a similar manner. T h e varia
tion of light produces the multitude of
forms we know as objects of sight. A
simply and homely analogy makes this
understandable.
A s we gaze upon the highly illum
inated white motion picture screen no
form is perceived and there is no inter
ruption of the projected light beam
focused upon it. B u t when the moving
film with its gradations of opaqueness
passes before the light aperture of the
projector, the light waves are inter
rupted and the variations take on form
on the screen. Light then has mass to
the eye. W a s form perceived or was
the variation of the light interpreted as
form?
T h e absence of this variation a c
counts for the conception of space. W e
may visually perceive two objects and
say there exists between them space.
Light may exist between the two ob
jects but without such variations as
would cause us to have either the no
tion of color or mass existing between
them.
A certain mysterious inference is
drawn from the perception of these
visual forms. W e think of them as

having dimension, as comprising a cer

tain area either in comparison to an
other form or to space. T h u s we say
an object has length, breadth, and
depth. W e find, therefore, that the
variation of the quality of sight which
we have said is light, not only causes
the notion of form when it is perceived
and interpreted but the extent of the
variation itself is the cause of still an
other notion and that is dimension.

T h e s e dimensions are the limits of real

ization of the particular o bject per
ceived. Dimension begins or ends with
a perception of form. It begins with the
realization of form and ends with a
realization of another form or the state
which seems devoid of reality. In other
words, where a variation has its end or
where another begins marks the limit of
the form perceived.
( T o b e continued in the F ebru a ry issue)

PAGES FROM T H E PAST

(C on tin u ed from P a g e 459)

so far from degrading Humanity, or

putting it on a level with the animal
world in general, the doctrine of evolu
tion shows us distinctly for the first
time how the creation and the perfect
ing of M a n is the goal toward which
N atu re s work has been tending from
the first. W e can now see clearly that
our new knowledge enlarges tenfold the
significance of human life, and makes it
seem more than ever the chief object of
Divine care, the consummate fruition of
that creative energy which is manifested
throughout the knowable universe.

conceived a state o f society from which

every vestige of strife, and the modes of
behaviour adapted to ages of strife,
shall be utterly and forever swept away.
T h ro u g h misery that has seemed un
endurable and turmoil that has seemed
endless, men have thought on that
gracious life and its sublime ideal, and
have taken comfort in the sweetly
solemn message o f peace on earth and
good will to men.
I believe that the promise with which
I started has now been amply redeemed.
I believe it has been fully shown that

SUM M ARIES O F SCIENCE

(C on tin u ed from P a g e 465)

shore indicates the former, while the

G u lf of M ex ic o and the E a ste r Divide
points to a collision stoppage of the
American fragment.
A n y one who accepts as reasonable
the hypothesis of rapid continental mi
gration here presented will recognize
that the frail isthmus structure connect
ing the two Americas could never have
withstood the hazards of so turbulent a
T he
Rosicrucian voyage. C learly the notch formed by
the G ulf of M ex ic o and the Caribbean
Digest
Sea was made after the crossing. T h e
January
most plausible view of such a happening
is that the central part of the American
1936

continent encountered an ocean bottom

(th e E a ste r Divide) which did not yield
and that the inertia of the end was suf
ficient to break its b a c k .
T h e fragments produced by such an
impact would move about with much
randomness in the boiling magma but
would have a general tendency east
ward with the current. M eanw hile the
original angles of the two Americas
would be changed and probably their
north-south relation as well. In short,
in a breakup of such magnitude and
complexity anything could happen.
F ou r H undred S ev en ty -six

M YSTERY TEM PLE

T he above is a view of a large temple partially buried in the steaming jungles of the South Pacific lands. It was of comparatively recent years that
it was unearthed and its beauty and splendor revealed. W h at great minds designed it? W h o were its builders? W h at civilization did it serve? W hat
culture did it house?
_

Scenes of this temple are included in the new motion picture produced by A M O R C entitled, Lemuria, the Lost Continent.
This motion picture
will be exhibited in dozens of cities throughout the United States to the public and Rosicrucians, by members of the National Lecture Board who
travel via the Rosicrucian Courier Car. T he Courier Car will begin its third transcontinental tour early in 1936.
C ou rtesy o f T h e R osicrucian D igest.

L E M U R IA The Lost Continent of the Pacific

J=0 0=:

T he Submerged Land of Mystics

Beneath the rolling, restless seas lie the mysteries of forgotten
civilizations. Swept by the tides, half buried in the sands, worn
away by terrific pressure are the remnants of a culture little
known to our age today. W h e r e the mighty Pacific now rolls in
a majestic sweep of thousands of miles, there was once a vast
continent. I his land was known as Lemuria, and its people as
Lemurians.
Science has gradually pieced together the
lost race, and in this book you will find the
enthralling chapters you have ever read. How
to be swept from the face of the earth, except
have living descendants today, is explained.

evidences of this
most astounding,
these people came
for survivors who

THE MAGIC D W E L L E R S O F MT. SH ASTA

o
> t e>

Fanned by the cool breezes of the Pacific and crowned by a

cap of snow is Californias mystery mountain, M t. Shasta. It is
not unlike other towering peaks of splendor on the famed Pacific
coast except that it is shrouded with tales of weird happenings.
It is said that a strange people live in seclusion somewhere on
the mountain; that they practice unusual rites. It is said that
they seem possessed of great wealth, for they have much gold;
and, too, it is said that they exclude themselves from others.
I hese people are the living descendants of the Lemurians.
Do you know how they came there, when their forbears
perished centuries ago with the submersion of the continent of
Lemuria? W o u l d you like to know the truths which they con
cealed from a merely curious world?

T H E M YSTICAL B O O K SEN SATIO N

1 Iiis
C an You
Interpret

These
Strange

Carvings?

book has lived u p to its anticipated reputation of being the

mystical Look sensation ot the year. T h is booh contains truths w hich

are m uch stranger than fiction. It is profusely illustrated w ith maps,

charts, and sym bols. It is a booh you can never forget because ol its
intriguing m ystery, its instruction, and its u n u su a l subject matter,
the booh is w ell-printed, w ell-bound and is now priced at $2.20 postp aid. S end your order a nd remittance direct to tbe address below
or ash your focal booh d ealer to get it for you.

ROSICRUCIAN
San Jose, California

SUPPLY BUREAU
( A M O R C' )
U. S. A.

W h at
Ancient
Story
Do These
Reveal ?

qa
=K5ltS!$S

TH E PU RPO SES OF

THE

M em ber o f
F U D O S I
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societes
Initiatiques)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

The Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. T he purpose o f the organi
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive,
Cosmic forces fo r the attainm ent o f health, happiness, and Peace.
T h e Order is internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in Am erica, and all other lands, constitutes the on ly form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation. T he AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
free ly to all affilia ted members, togeth er w ith many other benefits.
Inqu irers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are invited to send for
the free book, "T h e Secret H e rita g e ." Address, F ria r S. P. C., care of
AM O R C T E M P L E
Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California, U. S. A.
(Cable Address: "A M O R C O "
Radio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the N orth and South Am erican Jurisdictions

(Including the United States, Dominion of Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, E l Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f America.
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS , F. R. C., Ph. D .................................................................................................Im perator
R A L P H M. L E W IS , F. R. C...................................................................................................Supreme Secretary
C LE M E N T B. L E B R U N , F. R. C................................................................................................. Grand Master
H A R V E Y M IL E S , F. R. C................................................. Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D , F. R. C
Secretary to Grand Master
H A R R Y L . S H IB L E Y , F. R. C
.......................
Director o f Publications
Junior Order o f Torch Bearers (sponsored bv AM O R C ). F o r complete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

T h e follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

Atlanta, Georgia:
Atlanta Chapter No. 650. Dr. James C. O akshette, Master: Nassau Hotel. Meetings 7:30
every Thursday night.

San Francisco, California:

Francis Bacon Lodge, 1655 Polk
Mr. David Mackenzie, Master.

Street:

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. First Lodge, Dr. Charles D. Green,
New York City, New York:
M aster; 3787 E ast St. N. S., Pittsburgh, Pa.
New Y ork Chapter, Rooms 35-36, 711 8th
Reading, Pennsylvania:
Ave cor. 8th Ave. and 45th Street. Louis
Reading Chapter, Mr. Harrison N. Mucher,
Riccardi, Master: M argaret Sharpe, Secre
Master, 144 Clymer St.; Mr. George R. O s
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
man, Secretary. Meeting every Friday, 8:00
days and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.
p. m., W ashington Hall, 904 W ashington St.
Los Angeles, California:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Hermes Lodge, A M O R C Temple. Mr. Ollin
Delta Lodge No. 1, A M O R C , S. E . Corner
W . Marden, Master. Reading Room and In
40th and Brown Sts., 2nd Floor. M r. Albert
quiry office open daily, 10 a.m . to 5 p.m .,
Courtney, Master.
and 7:30 p.m . to 9 p.m . except Sundays.
Granada Court, 672 South Lafayette Park
Benjamin Franklin C h a p ter o f A M O R C ;
Place.
W arren C. Aitken, Master: Martha Aitken,
Birmingham, Alabama:
Secretary, 2203 N. 15th Street. Meetings for
Birmingham Chapter of A M O R C . For in
all members every Sunday, 7:30 p.m ., 1706
formation address M r. Cuyler C. Berry,
Rittenhouse Square.
Master, 721 So. 85th St.
Boston, Massachusetts:
Chicago, Illinois:
T he M arie Clemens Lodge, Fortunatus J.
Chicago Chapter No. 9, Mabel L. Schmidt,
Bagocius, Master. Temple and Reading
Secretary. Telephone Superior 6881. Read
Rooms, 739 Boylston St., Telephone Kening Room open afternoons and evenings.
more 9398.
Sundays 2 to 5 only. 100 E . Ohio St., Room
403-404. Lecture sessions for A LL members
Detroit, Michigan:
every Tuesday night, 8:00 p. m.
Thebes C h ap ter No. 336. Mr. W illiam H.
C h ica g o A fra-A m erican C h a p ter No. 10.
Hitchman, M aster; Mrs. Pearl Anna T ifft,
Robert S. Breckenridge, Master; Aurelia
Secretary. Meetings at the Florence Room,
Carter, Secretary. Meeting every W ednes
Fuller Hotel, every Tuesday. 8 p. m. In
day night at 8 o clock, Y . M. C. A., 3763 So.
quirers call dial phone No. 1870.
W abash Avenue.
(D irecto ry Continued on N e x t P a g e )

Portland, Oregon:
Portland Chapter. Paul E . Hartson, Master;
Telephone E ast 1245. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.
Washington, D . C.:
Thom as Jefferson Chapter. W illiam V .
W hittington, Master. Confederate Memorial
Hall, 1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings
every Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Seattle, W ashington:
A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter, Master;
Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry St. Reading room open week
days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S

Vancouver, British Columbia:

Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mr. H. B.
Kidd, Master, A M O R C Temple, 878 Horn
by Street.
V ictoria, British Columbia:
Victoria Lodge, Mr. A. A. Calderwood,
M aster. Inquiry O ffice and Reading Room,
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.
W innipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
Mr. E ly Law, Master, 120 Spence St. (Ph.
33341.) Session for all members every Sun
day, 2:45 p. m., 304 " B " Enderton Bldg.,
Portage Ave. and Hargrave St.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada:

Montreal Chapter. Alexandre Chevalier,
F. R. C., Master, 210 W est St. James Street.
Inquiry office open 10:00 a. m. to 5 p. m.
daily; Saturdays 10:00 to 1:00 p.m .
Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
Mr. Benjamin W . W akelin, Master. Sessions
1st and 3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00
p. m., No. 10 Lansdowne Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta:
Mr. Alfred H. Holmes, Master, 9533 Jasper
Avenue E .

SP A N ISH A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
T h is jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative O ffice are located at San Juan, Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
T he name and address of the Officers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce sh ou ld b e a d d ressed a s fo llo w s :
Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O . Box 36, San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A FEW

O F T H E F O R E IG N

Scandinavian Countries:
T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.
Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand M aster; Carli
Anderson, S. R. C., Grand Secretary. M anogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sweden:
Grand Lodge "Rosenkorset. Anton Svanlund, F . R. C., Grand Master. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, Malmo.
H olland:
De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der
Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
Dr. H. Gruter, F. R. C., Grand Master, Nice.
Mile Jeanne Guesdon, S.R .C ., Corresponding
Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Switzerland:
A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel,
F. R. C., G r. Sect., Riant-Port V evey-Plan.
Austria:
M r. M any Cihlar, K. R. C., Grossekretar der
A M O R C , Laxenburgerstr, 75/9, Vienna, X .
China and Russia:
T he United Grand Lodge of China and Rus
sia, 8/18 Kavkazskaya St., Harbin, M an
churia.
R O S IC R U C IA N P R E S S . L T D .

JU R ISD IC T IO N S

New Zealand:
Auckland Chapter A M O R C . Mr. G. A.
Franklin. Master, 317 Victoria Arcade Bids.
Queen St., City Auckland.
England:
The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.
Mr. Raymund Andrea, K. R. C., Grand
Master, 34 Baywater Ave., W estbury Park,
Bristol 6.
Dutch and East Indies:
Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum, Grand Master,
W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang, Java.
Egypt:
T he Grand Orient of A M O R C , House of the
Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia, Heliopolis.
Africa:
T he Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast,
A M O R C . Mr. W illiam Okai, Grand Master,
P. O . Box 424 A ccra, Gold Coast, W est
Africa. *
India:
T h e Supreme Council, A M O R C , Calcutta,
India.
T h e add resses o f o f her foreig n G ran d L o d g es
and secretaries will b e fu rn ished on application.
PRINTED

IN U . S . A .

HERALDING

< 0

A Message
from a
Master
wailing of a lost soul from some cavernous
LIKEdepth,the resounds
the booming of the Tibetan Temple
drums. In the cold dawn of the mountain fastness of
the mysterious Himalayas each day for centuries, the
heralds have called the mystics to hear the words of
wisdom of a great master. In a setting of God's greatest
majesty, foreboding peaks and towering cliffs, men have
stood with heads hared to listen to golden gems of
truth from an unknown source. The precepts of these
Temple messages have carried men to great heights.
By a combination of strange circumstances, a white
man in the sixteenth century brought to light and
civilization, these ancient Tibetan writings, appropri
ately entitled, Unto Thee I Grant." To you, from
these age-old monasteries of the mystical East, comes
this message of a master now in
modern book form. Without cost, this
rare book of illumination is yours for
but a five-months subscription to this,
The Rosicrucian Digest."
But $1.50 w ill bring you this mag
azine for 5 months, and in addition
without price, this book, acknowledged
to be one of the finest, oldest and
authentic sacred writings. This is an
offer very seldom made. Avail your
self of it now today. Send sub
scription and request for gift book to:

The Rosicrucian Digest

SAN

JO S E ,

C A L IFO R N IA ,

U . S. A .

A G IF T T O Y O U
T h is a u th en tic T ib e ta n w riting
is a b s o lu te ly F R E E to y o u . It is
n ot a p a m p h le t but a b o u n d
b o o k o f 150 p a g e s . R e a d a b o v e
f o r fu ll d eta ils.

<r

RgsicrucianLibrary

The follow ing books are a few of several recommended because o f the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II.

R O S IC R tjC IA N P R IN C IP L E S FO R T H E H O M E A N D B U SIN E SS.

A very practical book dealing w ith the solution of health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped w ith gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume III.

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V.

U NTO TH EE I G R AN T . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f Tibet.
It is filled w ith the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
w ith attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V I.

A TH O U SAND Y E A R S OF YESTERD AYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and mystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound w ith attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V II.

S E L F M A S T E R Y A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E .

A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. B etter than any system o f numerology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price. $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V III.

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

Most complete outline of the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and com plete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped w ith gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X I.

M A N S IO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E CO SM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines o f reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X II.

W ell

L E M U R IA T H E L O S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K n o w o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W eil printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price. $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X U I.

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete guide fo r attaining the state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $1.85 per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, >vith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY' B U R E A U ,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , C alifornia.

Our Suggestion To You

PORTRAIT OF GREAT MASTER
(IJ Hven llie most renowned portraits of Jesus Christ and those murals in which He
is a central ligure, were executed several centuries after tfie crucifixion. There
apparently was never left to posterity Irorn His period any actual representation in
art of the physical appearance of the Master. I he various works portraying Him
are but the result of llie personal conceptions and idealisms of the artists. 1 hough
many artists have claimed their portraits or sculptures o f Ch rist were the result of
Divine revelation, tlie works of each in many cases are extremely
un like. It is not generally known that some of the early portraits
of the Christ were without heard and nimbus.
Nearly all artists, in an endeavor to portray llie spiritual nature
<>l the Master, have made Him extremely effeminate in facial fines.
I hey are further inconsistent by having tfle hands of a delicate,
even cameo-like, appearance. Not only the Scriptures, but otber
sacred literature sources revea I that 1iy occupation He was a car
penter and a fisherman, and His hands, therefore, could not have
been as they are depicted.
O n e of the most startling new pictorial representations of the
Master is the one executed by Dr. I I. Spencer Lewis. His painting
is tlie result ol much research into the unknown life o f C hrist.
It reveals Him as having a positive, masculine, masterly coun
tenance, with kind mystic and spiritual characteristics instead of
the usual semi-effeminate ones, ft also reveals the Aryan features,
ONE TENTH ACTl 'AL SIZE
for it is declared He was not a Jew but an Aryan.
E a c h portrait is 8 .x 10 inches in
size. T h e y are reproduced on a
tine grade of heavy paper. The
colored photographs, done in oil,
are an excellent color likeness ol
the original. W e pay postage
on each order.

P R IC E :

Painted. . . .

S t . 50

Plain

$ l.oo

heR O S I

R O S I

C R U C 1 A N

I bis portrait has won considerable acclaim because of its inspir

ing nature and unique conception. I he hand-colored portraits done
in oil are exceptionally beautiful, and yet. economical. I lie black
and white reproductions are exactly the same, and less in price.
I his portrait is an exact photographic reproduction of the orig
inal done by the Imperator. which is in the Initiation Chamber of
tfie Supreme Temple of the Order in Sa n Jose. Tor size and price
read column beneath picture. Send your order and remittance to:

C
P A R K

R U C I A N

P L Y
SAN

B U R E A U

JOSE.

CALIFORNIA

D R . E D . B E R T H O L E T , K. R. C.

G ran d M aster o f the jRosicrucian O rder o f Sw itzerland

W e are pleased to present to our members and readers this excellent likeness of our beloved
G rand M aster in Sw itzerland. D r B ertholet is an eminent m ystic and instructor in psychology
and philosophy. He has been well known in Sw itzerland for m any y ears and m aintains a very
large lib rary and clinic in L ausanne on the borders of L ake G en ev a. He is president of the
"S o ciete V au d oise d' E tudes P sy ch iq u es." He is also a high officer in the M artinist O rd er and
has given m any cordial receptions to members of A M O R C w henever they have visited
Lausanne. H e w as elected to his high office in the R osicru cian O rd er several y ears ag o by the
members in his jurisdiction and has won the deep love and profound adm iration of all w ho
know him.
( C o u r t e s y o f R o sic ru c ia n D ig e s t.)

Was the Secret Knowledge

of the Ancient Sages Lost?
A P o p u l a r legend leads many to believe that the secret
know ledge o f the ancient sages was lost forever de
stroyed, or buried neath crumbling walls. T h e Rosicrucians are refuting that fallacy today, just as they have
done all through the centuries. In early times there was
personal danger in exhibiting to o much know ledge;
and danger to the masses when knowledge o f N atures
laws was revealed ro unscrupulous rulers.
Secret fraternities were formed for self-protection and to
safeguard the amazing truths that wise men learned
truths about underlying causes, the reasons for much
that was not understoodthe way to really live serenely,
abundantly, successfully.
A m ong these early fraternities were the Rosicrucians,
known in every land today as A M O R C . Their activi
ties are devoted to scientific, philosophic and psycho
logic research and teachings. They are N O T a religious
organization.
M em bers throughout the world have improved their
circumstances by learning how to understand and mas
ter their own lives how to discover and use their own
innate personal faculties. They find the revealing truths
both fascinating and profitable. They are men and
women in all walks o f life, o f every nationality and
every creed. Many o f the w orlds greatest thinkers o f
past and present have been R osicrucians.

S E A L E D B O O K F R E E
Would you like to know about the organization, how it
functions, h o w to qualify to receive its teachings? Jfyou
are willing to spend one hour a week in earnest quest
o f astonishing facts; if you are not idly curious, write a
letter (not a post card) to the scribe given below. You
will receive a free copy o f the privately sealed book
"T h e Secret H eritage. Address inquiry to Scribe S. P C

THE RO SICRUCIANS
Sa

osh

a m o r c

a l i f o r n i a

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
COVERS THE WORLD

5 OCRATi

T H K O F F IC IA L , IN T E R N A T IO N A L R O S IC R U C IA N M A G A
Z IN E O F T II E W O R L D -W ID E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R

Vol. XIV

ARISTOTLE

FEBRUARY, 1936

No.l

I
Dr. Ed. Ber+holet, K. R. C . (Frontispiece)..................
The Thought of the M onth: Honoring Eminent Men 4
The Eternal Q uest ....
6
Love Thy N eighb or
8
C athed ral C ontacts
............................................. 10
Selflessness ................................................ ................ 12
Experience C re a tes Knowledge
13
Rosicrucian N ew Y e a r Proclamation
15
Pages from the Past: Nicolas M alebranche ............
16
......
18
M ental Efficiency
A Theory of Earthquakes
....
____
21
Summaries of Science
.. ........ . . 2 4
An cient Symbolism ..........................................
27
The A n tiqu ity of O u r Teachings
______
28
Sanctum Musings: The Sole Reality (continued).
32
Strange M t. Shasta (Illustration)
..... . ....... 37

Subscription to T he Rosicrucian D igest. T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw en ty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose, California, under the A ct of August 24th. 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the
month preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official ex
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.
Published M onthly by the Supreme Council of

THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER AMORC

R O S IC R U C IA N P A R K

SAN JOSE. C A L IF O R N IA

S T : M A R T IN

THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

H O N O RIN G EMINENT MEN

H E M O N T H of
February, although
the shortest month
of the year, and
one which should
be long in order to
help business men
recover from the
many h o l i d a y s
w h i c h c a m e so
close together at
the end of the pre
ceding y e a r , is
filled with official
and unofficial holidays for the celebra
tion of the birth and life of eminent
men.
It is unquestionably true that the
average reader of serious matter, or
books and pamphlets of an instructive
nature, sooner or later find great joy in
the reading of biographies, or the
analysis of the lives of great men and
women of the past. W h e r e v e r you find
a home library that is not composed
merely of sets of books that have been
sold on the subscription plan, or given
away with subscriptions to magazines,
you will find some biographies. T h e
more prolific and enthusiastic is the
reader in the home, the more sure you
will be to find these books dealing with
the lives of men and women.
A fte r all, there is no more fascinating
pastime and instructive pleasure than
that of reading of the experiences of
those persons who have contacted life
and made something of life in the years
T he
Rosicrucian of their past. W e do not have to delve
into the histories of the lives of the
Digest
ancient philosophers, nor of ancient
February
statesmen, rulers, and potentates; we do
not even have to delve into the lives of
1936

outstanding characters to find many in

teresting facts that will create word
pictures and images in our mind of an
interesting form. T h e more varied or
important the life of the individual, the
more benefit the biography will be to us
as we study it. It is from the lives of
great men that we learn how human
existence is fraught with possibilities
along with temptations, sufferings, and
rewards. B y analyzing how others
have thought and acted in times of
stress or strain, and how they have re
acted to certain fundamental emotions
of life, we will be guided in our thinking
and acting. W e discover through the
reading of biographies that the human
equation is the same in all lands among
all races and in all periods of time. By
noting the failures of the lives of great
men and the greatest of them have
made mistakes that brought about seri
ous failures at times we learn what to
avoid, and what points in our own a f
fairs to strengthen and accentuate.
Devoting ourselves to the study of
one great character at a time is not hero
worship, as some have claimed. T o
read but one book on the life of an in
dividual even when it is an auto
biography written by the individual
himself is not sufficient to secure a
complete or nearly perfect picture of
that person. E v ery author's view-point.
including the individual himself, is dif
ferent. F o r this reason, the proper way
to really become acquainted with the
life of any interesting character of the
past or present is to read several books,
a number of them, by different authors,
dealing with the same person.
F o r instance, we celebrate on the 22nd
of F ebru ary the anniversary of W a s h
Four

ingtons birthday. Like all other n a

tional or international heroes, the aver
age or the popular story of his life is
filled with fiction and figments of im
agination. T h e story told of him in the
average school book is far from being
true, for it merely idealizes some of the
good things he did and presents an
imaginary picture of the greater things
he should have done. It wholly ignores
the errors he made, his weaknesses, and
follies. A true analysis of the life of
W ashington shows that as a warrior, a
strategean in w arfare, and as a great
general, he was a failure, for he was
greatly lacking in the necessary ele
ments to become a great general and
warrior, and lost far more battles than
he won. He should have remained, so
far as profession and life's work is con
cerned, a surveyor. If, however, he
wanted to serve his people best, he
could have done this as a part-time
statesman, but never should have a t
tempted to glorify himself or protect his
nation as a warrior. It so happens, how
ever, that several of the battles in which
he was engaged, and in which he was
victorious, were pivotal ones, or crucial
ones, and while in and of themselves
were hardly worthy of nation-wide a c
claim, did have a very great effect upon
the ultimate results which were being
sought by his nation. In his personal,
private life, the real facts are consider
ably different from those that are so
popular. Even a visit to his old home in
Mount V ern o n immediately takes aw ay
fifty per cent of the glory and colorful
traditions that have been wrongly as
sociated with him. Portraits of him by
various painters, sculptors, and photo
graphers show that he was very greatly
different in appearance from that shown
in the most popular of the idealized por
traits. But W a s h in g to n was a symbol.
He still is a symbol in the minds and
hearts of the American people of a
great ideal, and it is that symbolized
idea that we honor and respect on
W a s h in g to n s birthday.
On the other hand, on the 12th of
February we celebrate the anniversary
of the birth of Lincoln. Here, too, was
a man whose thoughts and deeds have
been presented in ideal form for our a d
miration, but if we analyze his life we
find that long before his transition there
F iv e

were stories about him, charges made

against him, and opinions recorded that
were far from complimentary. W h i l e
we now believe that many of the unkind
and critical things said against Lincoln
in his lifetime were untrue, and deliber
ately manufactured by his political
enemies, we cannot help but admit that
many of the beautiful stories told of him
were also manufactured by his friends.
But he, too, represented an idea and be
came a symbol in our American history,
and it is Lincolns symbol, Lincoln the
ideal, that we honor and respect. H is
life was filled with lessons for all of us
to learn, and out of his struggles and
the realization of his ambitions we can
find much to emulate.
O n the 11 th of F ebru a ry we can also
celebrate the birth of T h o m a s Edison.
Here we have our national hero in the
form of a scientist. T h e records show
that much has been credited to him un
justly, both good and bad. But in the
scheme of things he was a symbol
representing the ideals of scientific re
search and invention, and while un
doubtedly a very great majority of his
dreams and invented schemes became
failures, a sufficient number of them be
came successful to revolutionize a large
portion of our modern w ay of living.
So we honor him and what he accomp
lished that was good, and for the ideals
he held and expressed, and not for his
actual life in every intimate manner. It
is much like reading a fairytale to read
the life of Edison even when it is re
duced to actual facts, and all of the
fiction eliminated. T h e r e is a lesson in
persistency, endurance, determination,
and glowing faith that each one of us
should learn.
Among other birthdays that can be
celebrated in F eb ru ary is that of H enry
W a d s w o r th Longfellow on the 27th,
1807; James Russell Lowell on the 22nd,
1819; and Charles Dickens on the 7th,
1812. And, of course, there are many
others whose birthdays are celebrated in
this month such as that of Kit M arlo w e
on the 6th, G e o rg e D orsey on the same
day, and G eo rg e Jean N athan on the
14th.
T h e n there is the symbolical holiday
on the 14th known as St. V a le n tin e s

day, and which, incidentally, is the a n

niversary o f the birth of our Supreme
Secretary , A ltogether the month is one
of celebration and interest because of
the diversified memorials it brings to our
list.
M a n y o f us can make this month of
F eb ru ary an outstanding month in our
own lives through our accomplishments
in the twenty-nine days which this leap
y ear allots to it. Beginning on a S a tu r
day, the month ends on a Saturday. In
its four weeks there is ample opportun
ity to change the entire course of life
of an individual and start it upon a

career that is upward and onward, and

glorious. T h e whole month can become
a memorial holiday in your own life, by
the attitude you take toward it and the
things you do and accomplish. L ater
historians perhaps only relatives and
friends who may write of your life
may refer to F eb ru ary of 1936 as the
month in which your life changed from
w hat it now is to what you have hoped
and prayed for. In this regard you are
the sole arbiter and the only captain of
the ship. I hope for each one of you
that it will truly become a birth month
of a new cycle of life.

T h e Eternal Quest
By

F ra te r

W. O.

H I S questing spirit,
this dash for ad
ven tu re the per
ennial springs of
human pilgrimage
is latent in the
p sy ch o p la sm of
man. E a c h gener
ation, and in truth
each individual as
well, t r a n s m u t e s
this i n s a t i a b l e
quest into c h an
nels c o m p a t i b l e
with environmental circumstances. And
whether we commune with knights
questing after the H oly G rail and
avenging wrongs of suffering humanity;
whether we perish in ravenous seas
with children questing Jerusalem-ward
to avenge Saracenic outrages against
Christian ideals; whether we sail with
Columbus amidst an Atlantic of ignor
ance to discover new worlds; whether
we look at the majestic kaleidoscope of
Empires rising and falling with the
crimson tides of T im e; whether we are
transported into eulogies over the crea
The
Rosicrucian tiveness of the human mind, as portrayed
in the wonderful galleries of A rt and
Digest
Invention; whether we read up the
February
magic story of the Conquerors as they
stalk in awful grandeur in the pagean
1936

E ssu m an

try of history; or scale the heights of

Helicon with the M uses we are sure
to raise the question mark of the ages,
W h e r e does it all end?
It is too true that very few men live
to see their dreams come true. But that
has not stemmed the tide of the E ternal
Q uest. It is also too true that most of
the world's greatest personalities were
mocked out of existence on no conse
crated grounds other than Golgotha.
B u t that has not marred the vibrant
strains of the music of the Etern al
Q uest. T h e eternal quest starts n o
where and ends nowhere. It is an in
tangible heliotropism of the mind of
man which will always urge him to
grope, however blindly, after the T ru e,
the Beautiful and the Sublime.
In the wide panorama of life, there is
not only the passive struggle of exist
ence but also the sterner struggle for
existence. A nd the history of succeed
ing ages corroborates to prove the relay
of existence. C a rry o n is the slogan
of the eternal quest. From the individual
right up to the national homogeny,
there is a handing over of the T o rc h to
succeeding crusaders of the quest. T h is
Darwinism of existence is a fact to
which all schools of contemporary
thought pay homage.
S ix

And now it is our turn, in the twen

tieth century of the Christian era, to
follow up the trail of the Q u e st from
where the illustrious past had left over.
W hat a strange gospel to preach in
these stirring times. T h e r e is no room
for these hallucinations of the mind,
many might be tempted to say. But just
a little bit of introspection would make
you exclaim with one o f the greatest
visionaries of our time: O h , the bound
less possibilities of this brave new
world! T h e re is alw ays something to
do for the man who knows what to do.
There are infinite avenues to the
Eldorado which has been the target of
human endeavor down the restless
stream of the ages. T h e r e is no dearth
of opportunity in the inexhaustible ap
plications of this questing faculty. In
short, any pursuit which satisfies the
highest aspirations of the individual is
that which leads him to the consumma
tion of the E ternal Q uest.
You may be a clerk wading daily
through a wilderness of figures, the
exact manipulation of which involves
the security of tremendous capital: you
may be a teacher knocking into shape,
on the anvil of example and precept,
the men and women of tomorrow. Y o u
may be a farmer upon whose persistent
industry and application thousands de
pend daily for their existence. Y o u
might be a salesman, upon whose busi
ness honesty and integrity impoverished
customers might make little savings that
might go a long w ay to stay, however
temporarily, a domestic collapse and a
V

thousand other ways in which humans

choose to live out this quest of exist
ence.
C all it by whatever name you will
the economy of nature, conservation of
energy, indestructibility of matter or
compensation we have all to be con
vinced that nothing is ever done in vain;
that every ounce of honest effort is a
step forward in the right direction to
w ards the realization of the eternal
quest. T h e mighty strokes of the editors
pen, hafting left and right, the lame
policies of administrators; the harangue
of the orator hissing balm to those who
are downcast along the highroad of
political repression;
the missionary,
blowing the bugles of his Christian mes
sage and bolstering up the fallen
columns of the regiment of the cross;
the reformer denouncing the evils of our
social order; the severe moralist sitting
in judgment upon the coarse ethics of
private and public lives; the agitator
calling a halt to the ruthless march of
capitalism, exploitation, suppression, and
diplomatic ostracism; and the rest of the
invisible array of forces that are slowly
but surely pulling down the empire of
V i c e and Falsehood these cannot all
be in vain. T h e best is yet to be. Right
will ultimately conquer wrong and har
mony take the place of all discords.
D eep down in the subterranean gal
leries of human consciousness, as I have
always believed, the katabolic processes
for the gradual unfoldment of the human
race are daily encroaching upon the
frontiers of the Ultimate!
V

.0
C H A IN LET T ER S
A M O R C has from time to time strenuously objected to chain letters for any purpose.
W e seriously object to any member using chain letters for the purpose of promoting or
attempting to promote the activities of A M O R C , because we consider it beneath the
dignity of the Order. Furthermore, the post office department of all countries objects to
chain letters because of the fact that they unnecessarily clutter up and congest the mail
service and interfere with legitimate mailings.
If you are solicited by any member to participate in a chain letter campaign, pur
porting to be for the benefit of A M O R C , please refuse to participate, and destroy the
letter you receive, and have no fear of the purported calamity that will befall you if you
destroy the chain letter. Such systems of superstition should be stamped out by every
intelligent individual and Rosicrucian.
i iimi i m i iii m u m i i ii

Seven

1111

pXLnj~LT|

"13

Love Thy Neighbor

A T IM E L Y M E S SA G E TO ALL M A N K IN D
By F r a t e r W il l ia m V. W h i t t i n g t o n , K. R. C.
Master of the Thomas Jefferson Chapter,
'Washington, D. C.
N T H E S E days,
no less than in the
days of the F o u n
der of C hristian
ity, there is no
thing more essen
tial than a true ap
preciation of the
B r o t h e r h o o d of
M a n . Such an ap
p re c ia tio n m ay
evolve more during
the n ext hundred
years than during
the nineteen centuries which have just
passed.
Frequ en tly it requires a great crisis
in human affairs to impress a great truth
upon the comprehension of mankind. In
this regard the crisis of the past few
years has been one of the finest things
that could have occurred, bringing
forces which are cleansing humanity
spiritually and ridding it of many of its
false teachers and leaders, false systems
and doctrines. T h e r e has been much
wailing and gnashing of teeth, especial
ly on the part of those who have been
most lacking in fortitude and moral
vision. It has been a trying time for all
of us, of course; a period of testing. In
some cases, troubles have been magni
T he
fied by the inability or refusal of certain
Rosicrucian
persons or groups to recognize the
Digest
needs of the entire people and to modi
February
fy their own demands or actions in a c
cordance with such needs.
1936

W h e t h e r we will it or not, the con

sciousness of man is passing through a
purging process, one of the greatest in
all history. T h is purging and cleansing
must continue until humanity has truly
mastered its lessons of humility, love,
and sacrifice. T h e s e lessons are being
learned, slowly but surely, through
necessity if nothing else.
Humanitarianism, in its highest sense
(having its foundation in co-operative
effort and in a realization of the inter
dependence in Spirit of all peoples and
all things) is the basis of the new dis
pensation. W e may as well accustom
ourselves to the idea that we are enter
ing an age where many of the old,
established and treasured doctrines or
rules of conduct will be obsolete.
Humanity has been burdened with a
number o f destructive doctrines and
traditions which it could very well do
without. T h e Supreme Pow er has seen
to it that there has alw ays been a pro
gressive G o o d working in the world.
W e must not overlook this fact. Y e t
many of the outstanding characteristics
of the stage of civilization from which
we are now emerging have not been
progressive, except in so far as they may
have been necessary to teach a lesson.
W h a t have been these characteristics?
W a r and destruction. Repression and
oppression. F e a r and hypocrisy. M a
terialism, selfishness, and greed. M e n
have had a complex that has prompted
E ig h t

them, under the guise of civilization, to

jump at each other's throats with un
restrained passion, usually for nothing
more noble than the desire for acquiring
a piece of this little planet called Earth .
Is this the most advanced condition of
human Society? N o t at all. It is mere
ly a strange interlude, a nightmare.
Let us have faith enough in the es
sential goodness of humanity to believe
that the ultimate stage of human evolu
tion must be one of true universal dem
ocracy, founded upon that much mis
understood factor called Love. A Society
in which all peoples are combined in a
unity of thought, purpose, and action.
W h e n we refer to that factor called
Love" there should be no doubt in our
minds that we understand what is
meant. T h e term is used in its loftiest
spiritual meaning, as in the Biblical ad
monition, Love thy neighbor as thy
Self." T h e idea is made still more clear
if we refer to certain other expressions
in the Bible.
Often we have heard it said that this
or that man or woman is or was a G o d
fearing man or woman. C an it be pos
sible to be a G o d-fearin g and a G o d loving person at the same time?
In the fourth chapter of the first gen
eral book of John we find these declara
tions:
If we love one another, G od dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in
us.
God is love; and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and G od in him.
Th e re is no fear in love; but perfect
love casteth out fear; because fear hath
torment. H e that feareth is not made
perfect in love.
If a man say, I loved G o d, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love G od whom he
hath not seen? And this commandment
have we from Him, T h a t he who loveth
God love his brother also.
In an earlier portion of the same book
of John (in the third chapter) we find:
" W h o s o hath this world's good, and
seeth his brother have need, and shuteth up his bowels of compassion from
him, how dwelleth the love of G o d in
him? Let us not love in word, neither
in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Nine

A better understanding of the part

which the human mechanism plays in
the universe is becoming apparent. T h e
sympathetic kinship of mankind is gain
ing wider recognition. T h e broader per
spective will not be achieved, however,
so long as we pin our eyes and hearts
alone to this E arth . M a n must continue
to reach out into the universe and dis
cover its truths. T h ro u g h the revelation
of the omnipotent laws of G od as mani
fested in nature we gain knowledge.
T h ro u g h knowledge we acquire wis
dom. T h ro u g h wisdom we use our pow
ers, not in violation of natural laws, but
in a wise co-operation.
Perhaps it is impossible for us to con
ceive just how far we may progress
within the next few hundred years to
ward the goal of universal brotherhood
or rather, toward a full realization of
the existence of that brotherhood.
T h e evolution of the spiritual and
creative faculties of man has depended
to a very large extent upon the unveil
ing of the forces of nature. T h e s e
forces, even to the smallest fraction of
energy reaching the E arth from every
part of the universe, some day may be
subject to the control of human genius.
Trem end ous changes, both in material
condition and in spiritual outlook, will
occur when the potential genius in every
person is given an opportunity to reach
a high state of usefulness.
It is exalting to consider the possi
bilities for creative advancement that
will be open to subsequent generations.
A part of our contemplating may be
little but empty dreaming. But in any
event a little meditation and quiet re
flection now and then are good for the
soul of any man. In such a moment of
meditation we may have the good for
tune of feeling an attunement with that
Spirit which the poet, W o rd s w o r th , de
fines as impelling all thinking things,
all objects of all thought, and
W h o s e dwelling is the light of setting
suns,
And the round ocean and the living air.
And the blue sky, and in the mind of
m an.
In that moment we may comprehend
more clearly the nature of things about
us, and (w ho know s?) we may have a
fleeting glimpse of the G re a t Plan be
hind it all.

T h e "Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefit as well
as those who are members. T h e book called "Liber 777 describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)
IMlMlltllllllllllMI III IMMIIIII Mill

CATHEDRALS OF THE PAST

ECEN TLY some
of our friends have
s t a t e d that this
special department
of our work known
as T h e C athedral
of the S o u l is not
a wholly new idea,
nor e x c lu siv e ly
original with us.
T h e y claim that in
ancient times the
T he
same idea was used
Rosicrucian
somewhere in the
Digest
Rosicrucian organization, or at least
February
among some of the mystical philo
sophers of the M iddle Ages.
1936

W e have never thought of the C ath e

dral of the Soul as an idea that was so
wholly new and original that its coun
terpart, or even an ex act and perfect
form of it could not be found somewhere
in the mystical writings and especially
in the Rosicrucian teachings and prin
ciples of the past. W e have always
known, for instance, that among the
mystical philosophers and Rosicrucian
adepts of the higher grades in the past
centuries, there were occasions when a
large number of them would unite and
create mentally and psychically for the
time being a great cathedral into which
all of them would project their thoughts
T en

and meet in silent communion as in a

mental world or spiritual world far
above the mundane things of life. W e
knew also that many of the Rosicrucian
mystics of the past have referred rather
indefinitely or vaguely to their Cosmic
contacts with other G re a t M a ste rs in a
holy place that resembled a cathedral.
But at no time in the past history of
the Rosicrucians or of mystical philo
sophers did any organization or group
of officers plan a symbolical and alle
gorical Cathedral of the Soul into which
thousands of persons w ere invited to
place their minds and hearts in simul
taneous communion at various fixed
periods of the day and night. T h i s was
the part of the plan that w as original
with us in this country.
It is as though in the past centuries
various small groups of mystics or oc
casional triangles of members did agree
to meet mentally, despite their distant
locations, in a temporary, sacred place
in the Cosmic, which we might liken
unto a small chapel or a holy grotto
where in mental seclusion and spiritual
privacy they might contact the minds
and souls of one another for temporary
understanding and exch ange of ideas;
and it is as though we here in America
took that little Cosmic chapel and re
built it into a magnificent cathedral
ample to enclose the minds and inner
selves of thousands, and opened its
doors daily and hourly to the reception
of those who were sick or despondent,
or perplexed, or in sorrow, and who
would be sure to contact at almost any
hour of the day or night others who
came there in rejoicing, in thankfulness,
and in appreciation for Cosmic bless
ings, and were ready to administer in
spiration, cheer, and good fellowship to
the others.
There is hardly any phase of our
Rosicrucian activities, the counterpart
of which to some degree cannot be
found in the teachings and practices of
the Rosicrucian mystics of the past, and
even of some eminent mystics who were
not affiliated with the organization.
Truth is eternal, and has never be
longed to any one sect or classification
of individual, and the great truths con
tained in our teachings and practices
may be found in shadowy form or in
Eleven

part, or perhaps just in symbol or in

expressed thought in the lives and prac
tices of illuminated characters through
all the ages.
If you have not set aside a few
moments of your daily life to lift your
thoughts upwardly and outwardly to a
point where you can feel that Cosmic
Blessing, that Divine energetic infusion,
and that magnificent music of the
spheres which we appreciate with the
Cathedral of the Soul, then you have
missed one of the benedictions of the
day, and one of the greatest opportun
ities of your daily life for relaxation that
is tonic, inspiration that is beyond mun
dane limitations, and joy that is beyond
earthly imitation.
W h e t h e r or not you are a member of
our organization, you are privileged to
enjoy the great blessings of the C a th e
dral of the Soul. Irrespective o f your
religious faith, or t h e creeds and
doctrines of the church and religion to
which you a r e
devoted, you can
strengthen and encourage the spiritual
side of your nature by allowing it to
soar on divine wings to great heights of
the transcendental Cosmic Conscious
ness and there dwell in ecstasy for a
few moments. It will cause you to for
get for a while your earthly trials and
tribulations, your material problems,
your human ailments, and your personal
limitations, weaknesses, and tendencies.
Y o u become but a living soul in all of
its pureness and undefiled expression.
Y o u become what G o d made you and
intended you alw ays to be, a living
soul in His Divine Image.
In the C athedral o f the Soul you will
find no creeds or dogmas except those
that you take to it as your R o sa r y and
guide in life, and you will find that your
R osary is symbolical o f all of the spirit
ual truths. Y o u will find no intolerance,
no misunderstandings, no quibblings
over non-essential things, but simply the
magnificence and subliminal purity of
soul. It is like a journey to the un
known, with the unknown becoming
known while the known of the earth is
completely forgotten. Y o u will return to
your worldly affairs and worldly con
sciousness encouraged and inspired,
happy and at peace with the world. Y o u
will have had a taste o f what the

spiritual life must be in the great period

that is yet to come. Y o u may sense but
dimly, but nevertheless comprehending1y, a bit o f that afterlife when you shall
be freed entirely for a time from the
physical form and physical obligations.
T h e few moments spent in this w ay will
bring greater strength and health to the
body and mind than hours of sleep and
relaxation.

If you have not secured from our or

ganization the mystical book entitled
Liber 7 7 7 ," be sure to send for it to
day as suggested in the introductory
paragraph at the beginning of this de
partment. Sh are with us one of the
great joys which the ruler of the earth
and the decrees of man cannot take
from us, and which the trials and tribu
lations and suffering of the earth can
not destroy.

Selflessness
By F ra ter C h ester L a ffer ty
O O N after his en
trance u p o n the
P a t h , the N e o
phyte is introduced
to the Divine Idea
of S e l f l e s s n e s s .
During his prog
ress upward along
the w ay of T r u e
Light, he will e x
perience o n e of
three possible re
actions. First, in
the course of his
evolution he may become more acutely
aw are of the tremendous import of the
virtue, and submit his selfhood to the
beloved service of God, the Cosmic, and
Humanity. Second, he may miss entirely
the true meaning of the path, and there
fore be indifferent to the ideal. T hird ,
he may recognize the necessity of the
virtue, but being still too strongly a t
tracted to the actualities of the material
world forsake the climb to rest on w h at
ever level he finds himself.
T h e N eoph yte who is deeply im
pressed with the beauty of the Ideal,
will immediately express an enthusiastic
determination to realize the virtue. H ere
he meets with a difficult problem, and
that is, a systematic manner of accomp
The
Rosicrucian lishing the task at hand. T h e attain
ment of Selflessness is a bitter struggle,
Digest
and is never completely achieved until
February
we reach a state o f perfect A t-one-m ent
with God.
1936

In outlining a campaign for the acqui

sition of Selflessness, we should first
have a definite understanding of what
Selflessness is. And in order to under
stand a thing thoroughly, we must e x
amine it in its duality. Since we are at
present on the Negative Plane of C o n
sciousness and can more readily grasp
the negative duality, we will start from
this point and gradually develop a
knowledge of the positive. Selfishness,
the negative quality of Selflessness, may
manifest in many ways, but let us ob
serve one of its most common forms
which seems to have a greater and more
direct bearing on our mental attitude,
disposition, and general outlook on life.
T h e most common and vicious mani
festation of Selfishness is Self-pity, or
the habit of feeling sorry for oneself.
It warps the mind, which is our most
powerful tool, thereby crippling our
ability to help ourselves or others. It
narrows our vision so we can not see
the whole picture, and we miss so much
of the joy and beauty that surrounds us.
It distorts our sense of values and our
reasoning is not sane, our judgment un
fair. T h e n come all the ills to which
mortal man is heir. T h e personality be
comes morbid, driving from us those
who would help us. T h e more we in
dulge in Self-pity, the lower the depths
of despondency to which we sink. A
greater part of the suffering we experi
ence in this life is brought upon us by
living selfishly for self. Compassion for
T w elve

pain and give him inspiration. A t the

end of this day you will come to know
the reality of happiness and peace, and
the meaning of the positive duality*
Selflessness.

self is a curse, while compassion for

others who are less fortunate than our
selves, becomes a baptism in ecstasy.
T o impress the truth of this statement
upon the consciousness, try this experi
ment. Start a day by feeling sorry for
yourself because someone has a better
home than you have, a better position,
better health, more appetizing food,
nicer clothes, a newer car, more friends,
more opportunities, more money, and
because they are treated more respect
fully than you are. A t the end of the
day you will have a beautiful case of
the miseries that will stay with you for
a long time, unless you start the next
day by trying to have a sympathetic
understanding of another's sorrows and
tribulations, and by doing every little
bit that you can to relieve ano th ers

L et the N eoph yte approach the tech

nique of Selflessness by systematically
eliminating his minor self-pities and sub
stituting ano thers need for compassion,
and continue working in this manner
until he has finally eliminated his major
manifestations of Selfishness. A s he
progresses in this line of endeavor he
will suddenly become aw are of an in
crease in knowledge of the Law s and a
greater ability to make the Laws work.

4 H e who loses his life fo r my sak e shall

find it, and h e w ho would save his life
shall lose it.
V

Experience Creates Knowledge

By
S

F ra te r

W . C.

W E peer back
through the ages,
to the beginning of
the h u m a n race,
we perceive pre
historic man co n
templating w i t h
amazement the en
vironment in which
he had been placed
for the acquisition
of earthly experi
ence.
T h e r e he stood,
or more probably crouched, a strange
admixture of awe, hope, and terror,
confronted by the problems of life,
which must be faced, whether or not he
wished it. T h e r e was no alternative.
His was to do or die.
U nder such circumstances, it is inter
esting to surmise w hat could have been
the first thought that emanated from his
embryonic consciousness.
H e was devoid of knowledge and
there were no schools or colleges to
which he might turn for instruction as
T hirteen

P ark er,

F. R. C.

to his proper procedure. T ru e, he pos

sessed a soul, a brain and five senses,
but they had yet to be co-ordinated.
If we concede the axiom that S e lf
preservation is the first law of n ature,
we may reasonably assume that his
initial act was to seek shelter from the
distressing atmospheric conditions and
the devastating storms that swept the
dismal terrain; or perhaps his fear of
the ferocious beasts that challenged him
at every turn, forced him to take refuge
in a rocky crevice or natural cave, where
he might pause in comparative safety.
T h is opportune haven contained no
downy bed to rest his weary limbs and,
upon awakening, he did not find a ready
supply of hot and cold water; no tub or
shower for the matutinal bath; no
fleecy towels or toilet articles; no re
frigerator, replete with tempting viands;
no gas range or cooking utensils; no
morning newspaper; no books to en
lighten him; no clothes to drape his
shivering figure; not even a Bible to
render him comfort.

The

B y no stretch of the imagination

could he visualize what are considered
the ordinary requirements of modern life
and, from sheer indigence, he was com
pelled to arouse and depend upon his
individual initiative for the mere per
petuation of his existence.
G radually, he learned to walk upon
his feet; to touch and feel things with
his hands; to smell the fragance of the
flowers: to taste the scanty food that
came within his reach and to hear w h a t
ever sounds were evoked as the forces
of nature pursued their relentless course.
T h e vague comprehension of these
occurrences served to develop a mental
reaction, and slowly his brain began to
function and enable him to recognize
and repeat the sensations which a ffo rd
ed him the maximum of gratification.
From time to time, he devised crude
implements to assist him in fishing,
hunting, and other projects which came
to his attention, including the acquire
ment of much-needed materials to cover
his bruised and naked body.
Q uite naturally, his primeval instincts
developed into a desire to improve his
mode of living. Grim necessity became
the mother of invention and converted
him into an eternal question mark.
and, as a result of his patient search for
w ays and means to yield him greater
pleasure, he eventually stumbled upon
the great discovery fire!
H e became interested in the gutteral
tones emitted from his throat and con
trived to express his approval or disgust
with an expressive grunt.
Little by little, he associated certain
sounds with specific objects or events
and thus established the foundation of
a language, an alphabet, and the meth
ods o f oral communication now in
vogue.
In his spare moments, he amused
himself by fashioning rough drawings
of the animals he encountered, and his
various adventures, supplementing these
hieroglyphics with marks to represent
the various vowel sounds, and in this
manner evolved the written word and
made possible the preservation of ex -

R osicru cian P f ien aj; d .kln owle,d 9 e th a' haf been

of such material assistance in the formaD ig est
tjon 0 f our present-day civilization.
F eb ru a ry
Finally, this was climaxed by the in1936

vention of the printing press and

the

world-wide dissemination of learning,

which has so enhanced our supply of in
formation as to provide the indolent
with an illusory short-cut to knowledge.
S tra n g e as it may seem to the un
thinking novitiate, the wisdom of the
ages was not borne to us on the wings
of chance. It was not dropped in our
laps, like so much manna from heaven,
but was garnered through the painstak
ing efforts and actual experiences of our
ancestry, who, by persistent experi
mentation discovered and proved what
we today accept as truths, exemplifying
a perfect manifestation o f the Divine
purpose to make man the master of his
own destiny.
It is obvious that this vast fund of
knowledge was not particularly accumu
lated for the elucidation of debating
societies nor merely to furnish theses for
erudite scientific discussion, but is a
sacred heritage that we should accept
with reverence and gratitude, with the
anticipation that it will inspire us to
further experimentation and new ex
periences, from which we may derive
additional knowledge that we can pass
on to future generations and thus sus
tain the significance o f the eternal circle.
It is also well to remember that we
are the stewards, to whom this dili
gently-acquired wisdom has been en
trusted, and for its use or abuse we
shall be held to a strict accounting.
Furthermore, our responsibility in
creases in proportion to the abundance
accorded us, and the more we receive
the greater will be the returns expected
from our stewardship.
T o idly and selfishly enjoy the mani
fold blessings with which we are en
dowed, is contrary to the law of ap
portionment. If the ancients had been
content to accept prevailing conditions,
there never would have been any prog
ress. W e would still be living in caves
and eating raw food. It is in conse
quence of their work that we are pro
vided the luxuries of today and the
Cosmic code of equity exacts a justifi
able recompense.
W e get out of life what we put into
it. W e must give freely, if we expect
to receive. Giving does not necessarily
imply a monetary transaction. It is just
as much to our credit to continue the
labors of our predecessors and conF ou rteen

the higher intelligence we are seeking.

It requires the experiments to unfold
the cryptic message to our inner con
sciousness.
"K n o w led ge is pow er," but positive
knowledge can only be obtained through
personal experience.
If we make judicious use of knowl
edge, study the lessons understandingly, faithfully practice the experiments
and apply them to our daily lives, and
conscientiously perform our duty to our
fellowman, we will assuredly pave the
w ay to peace, love, harmony, and the
attainment of Divine Illumination.

tribute increased benefits to those that

follow us. W o r k and experiment will
bring experience, and experience will
create the knowledge that will help us
to reveal unto others the path to true
happiness.
It is our especial privilege to receive
each week a masterful monograph, de
finitely indicating the w ay to real
knowledge, through enlightenment, e x
periment, and experience.
A careful study of these lessons will
undeniably prove of lasting benefit, but
it needs more than the most compre
hensive reading to fully convey to us

0
RO SICRUCIAN N E W Y E A R PRO CLAM A TIO N
T h e Imperator of A M O R C for North and South America has issued his annual
New Y ear proclamation decreeing that Friday, March 20, 1936, shall be recognized by
all members of the North and South American jurisdiction of the A M O R C as the Rosi
crucian New Y ear D ay. He calls upon all lodges and chapters within his jurisdiction
to hold the usual New Y ear ceremony within twenty-four hours of the date, and since
the night preceding M arch 20 is Thursday night upon which so many lodges and chapters
hold their regular weekly meetings, it is recommended that the New Y e a r ceremony be
held upon Thursday evening, March 19, wherever possible. W h en this is not possible,
it should be held on Friday evening, March 20.
The approximate moment of the beginning of the New Y ear is 2:00 P. M. Eastern
Standard Time on Friday the 20th. This is equivalent to 1:00 Central Standard Time,
noon Mountain Standard Tim e, and 11:00 A .M . Pacific Standard Tim e.
All members who can visit their local chapter and all members affiliated with lodges
are expected to attend this annual sacred feast and symbolic ceremony. Members who
are not associated with any local chapter or lodge should spend a few minutes either
Thursday or Friday evening, March 19 or 20th, in meditation and contemplation in their
sanctums for the purpose of attuning themselves with Fratrcs and Sorores of the Order
throughout the world and receive the pleasant vibrations of fraternal greetings, universal
love, and Cosmic peace.
In all lodges and chapters the new officers, who have been duly elected in accordance
with the constitution of the Order, should be installed or officially take their offices, and
the fiscal year of the lodge or chapter activities is closed and all annual reports of lodges
and chapters should be made as of March 20, 1936.
The Supreme Lodge for North and South America, as in other countries, will hold
its high ceremony and send forth its good wishes and esoteric benediction on Thursday
evening, M arch 20, in the large auditorium at Rosicrucian Park. Members living near
Rosicrucian Park at San Jose, or members visiting in the State, are cordially invited to
attend the services at Rosicrucian Park on that evening. All national lodge members
unaffiliated with any lodge or chapter and who are living within visiting distance of a
lodge or chapter, are invited to be the guests of such lodges and chapters and to attend
the ceremonies held therein on either Thursday or Friday evening. W rite to the lodge
or chapter nearest to you, by referring to the directory in the back of this publication,
and learn several weeks in advance on which evening the lodge will hold its New Y ear
ceremony and ask for instructions regarding your visit and attendance on that occasion.
Members visiting such lodges or chapters must show their membership cards.
On this New Y ear D ay the Rosicrucian year 3289 will be born and begin its very
important cycle. T h e digits of this number equal 22 which equals 4, representing the
square. T his in itself is very significant.
R. M. L E W I S , Su prem e S ecretary .

0 ..........
F ifteen

PA G ES
from the

| > l m iiin iim n iin iiiiiiin n in iin n iiiiiiim m iim iiiiin m n iin iin n n iiin n iin iin in n n iiiiiin im iu n in m in iiin m n im in iiin ii n n in n iin in m n n j> )

NICOLAS MALEBRANCHE

S
E
E
E
=

E
E
E
E
E
S
E

E
E

Each month w e w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through the
presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify th e ir thoughts. Occasionally such w ritin gs w ill
be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors o f the
past.
Our subject this month is N icolas Malebranche. T h e early life o f this m ystic and
philosopher, is an exam ple o f how we may be pursuing a w ron g course in life and y e t by
a fortunate combination o f circumstances, arouse a dormant desire which eventually lead3
us to success and attainment. It is indeed regrettable when such circumstances do not
occur in the life o f one who is fo llo w in g a channel foreign to his interests. Nicolas Malebranche, a French philosopher, was born in Paris, August 6, 1638, and he died October 13,
1715. H e came from a prominent fam ily, was the youngest child o f Nicolas Malebranche.
Secretary to Louis X I I I . H e had the advantage o f an excellent education and began his
studies at the C ollege o f L a March, later studied th eology at the Sorbonne U niversity. I t
was his early intention o f entering the church, but his love o f retirem ent led him to decline
a Canonicate in N o tre Dame. W hen still a young man, in fact, 22 years o f age, he entered
the congregation o f the o ratory and devoted himself to the study o f ecclesiastical history.
H e found it extrem ely difficult, however, to harmonize the various incidents, and was
losing interest in his studies, when he came across Descartes T ra ite de l'H om m e, which
aroused a dormant enthusiasm fo r philosophy. H e h eartily agreed w ith Descartes distinction between mind and matter, and considered the only true qualities o f matter, extension and motion,
Malebranche is particularly renowned fo r his w ork entitled
Recherche de la V e rite . W e b rin g to you below, excerpts from this w ritin g which he
entitled W h at Is Meant B y Ideas. I t is grea tly condensed, yet sufficient to show you
the depth o f his thoughts and from a philosophical point o f view is today equally as instructive and interesting as when w ritten.

Q m i i m i i i i i ...................

I ............................................................................

E
E
E
=

E
E
E
E
E
i
:
=

E
E

in.

W HAT IS MEANT BY IDEAS

S U P P O S E that
everyone will grant
that we p e r c e i v e
not the objects that
are without us im
mediately and of
th em selv es. W e
see the sun, the
stars, and infinite
other objects with
out us; and it is
not probable that
The
the soul goes out
Rosicrucian
of the body, and
Digest
fetches a walk, as I may say, about the
February
heavens, to contemplate all the objects
therein.

1936

It sees them not therefore by them

selves, and the immediate o bject of the
mind, when it beholds the sun, for
example, is not the sun, but something
intimately united to the soul; and that
same thing is w hat I call our idea. So
that by the term idea I mean nothing
but that object which is immediate, or
next, to the soul in its perception of
anything.
It ought to be well observed that in
order to the minds perceiving any ob
je c t it is absolutely necessary the idea
of that o bject be actually present to it:
which is so certain as not possibly to be
doubted of. B ut it is not necessary there
should be anything without like to that
Sixteen

ft]

idea; for it often happens that we per

ceive things which do not exist, and
which never were in nature. A n d so a
man has frequently in his mind real
ideas of things that never were. W h e n a
man, for instance, imagines a golden
mountain, it is indispensably necessary
that the idea of that mountain should be
really present in his mind. W h e n a
frantic, or a man in a fever or sleep, sees
some terrible animal before his eyes, it
is certain that the idea of that animal
really exists. And yet that mountain of
gold and this animal never were in
being.
"Notwithstanding, men being, as it
were, naturally inclined to believe that
corporeal objects exist, jud ge of the
reality and existence of things quite
otherwise than they ought. F o r when
they perceive an o bject by w ay o f sense,
they will have it most infallibly to exist,
though it often happens that there is
nothing of it without; they will have,
moreover, this object to be ju st the same
as they perceive it; which yet never hap
pens. But as for the idea which neces
sarily exists, and cannot be otherwise
than we see it, they commonly judge,
without reflection, that it is nothing at
all: as if ideas had not a vast number of
properties (as that the idea of a square,
for instance, were not very different
from that of any n um ber), and did not
represent quite different things! W h ic h
is not consistent with nothing, since
nothing has no property. It is therefore
undoubtedly certain that ideas have a
most real existence. B u t let us inquire
into their nature and their essence, and
see what there is in our soul capable of
making to her the representations of all
things.
"W h a te v e r things the soul perceives
are only of two sorts, and are either
within or without the soul. T h o s e that
are within the soul are its own proper
thoughts; that is, all its different modi

fications. F o r b y the words 'thought,'

manner o f thinking,' or modifications
of the soul,' I mean all those things in
general which cannot be in the soul
without her perceiving them; such are
her own sensations, her imaginations,
her pure intellections, or simply her con
ceptions, as also her passions and na
tural inclinations. N o w our soul has no
need of ideas to perceive all these
things, because they are within the soul,
or, rather, because they are the very
soul itself, in such or such a manner:
just as the real rotundity of any body
and its motion are nothing but the body
figured and translated, a fte r such or
such a sort.
" B u t as to the things without the soul,
we can have no perception of them but
by the means of ideas, upon supposition
that these things cannot be intimately
united to it; and they are of two sorts,
Spiritual and M aterial: as to the Spirit
ual, there is some probability they may
be discovered to the soul without ideas,
immediately by themselves. F o r though
experience certifies us that we cannot
by an immediate communication, de
clare our thoughts to one another, but
only by words and other sensible signs
whereunto we have annexed our ideas;
yet we may say that G od has ordained
this kind of economy only for the time
of this life, to prevent the disorders that
might at present happen if men should
understand one another as they pleased.
B u t when justice and order shall reign,
and we shall be delivered from the
captivity of our body, we shall possibly
communicate our thoughts by the inti
mate union o f ourselves, as it is prob
able the angels may do in heaven. S o
that there seems to be no absolute n e c
essity of admitting ideas for the repre
senting things of a spiritual nature,
since it is possible for them to be seen
by themselves, though in a very dark
and imperfect manner."

W E TH A N K Y O U
The officers of the Supreme and Grand Lodge, and the various department heads,
take this opportunity of expressing their thanks for the hundreds of Christmas and New
Year greetings they have received. It is practically impossible for them to acknowledge
these various greetings separately, so they hope each of you who has remembered them,
will accept this formal acknowledgment as their appreciation of your thoughtfulness.
E d itor "R osicru cian D igest.

s
Seventeen

SMental Efficiency
By

F ra te r R o b ert

O S T of us, once
our s c h o o l days
a r e co m p le te d ,
consider that our
mental powers are
developed as far
as they need be.
Doubtless they are
sufficient for the
everyday r u n of
affairs. T h e truth,
n e v e r t h e l e s s , is
that w e hardly tap
the enormous re
sources of energy that G o d has b e
stowed upon us. Efficiency is the k ey
note of our modern civilization, but our
mental rating would be very low if
judged as accurately as many other less
essential matters.
Scientists have long experimented in
an endeavor to discover the source o f
our mental energy. Som e still believe
it to be of a dynamic origin, but the
concensus of opinion has it that, in the
words of Dr. F ran cis G . Benedict,
M en tal effort is without significant in
fluence upon the energy metabolism.
T o put it differently, intense mental
effort produces little effect upon the
processes by which food is transformed
into physical heat and energy. T h e y
have also found that an additional
T he
Rosicrucian supply of food does not produce an in
crease of mental power. In fact, no
Digest
special dietary preparation has been
February
found to have effect upon the ability of
the mental worker. .
1936

A.

Sw eeny

O u r body receives life and susten

ance in two w ays: through food and by
means of the breath. I f food does not
give us this mind energy, and this can
be the only logical conclusion of the
above mentioned experiments, we are
forced to believe that our breath must
be its source. T h is does not surprise us,
for as Rosicrucians we are fully aw are
of the importance of the breath in our
daily lives, aside from any dependence
upon the oxygen supply. T h e energies
necessary for our material body have
their counterpart in high vibrating
energies which are the driving force of
the immaterial processes of the inner
self.
R egardless of how we receive this
energy and of what systems there are
to increase it, we are concerned here
mainly with the efficient use of that
which we already have.
It is safe to assume that we start each
new day with a certain amount of this
energy; each d ay s supply depending on
how soundly we rested and slept in
between. T h ro u g h o u t the day as long
as we are conscious our supply of
energy is being depleted, w hether we sit
idling away the time or spending it in
deep thinking. W e can live without
food longer than sleep, for the latter is
essential in recharging the divine ener
gies of our body.
W e may conserve this energy by
proper relaxation. A few moments of
deep relaxation several times a day will
enable us to work longer hours and
E ighteen

with less fatigue. T h e trouble with most

of us is that we relax too much. T h a t
is, as far as productive work is con
cerned, we might just as well have not
existed. E x cep t for a few trivial things
our mind has not been forced to exert
itself. W e are tired, yes, but a nervous
tiredness from worry over what we
should have done, but persuaded our
selves we could do just as well tomor
row. T h e path of least resistance is
very enticing.
A splendid method of frittering aw ay
good energy is lack of proper attention.
How many of us try to read or study
with one ear cocked toward the radio?
It cannot be done with proper justice to
either. Concentration on one thing at a
time is the prime requisite for good
mental efficiency.
Our Rosicrucian studies teach us the
proper methods of relaxation and con
centration and doing them correctly is
a great step upon the right path. But
another matter has yet to be enlarged
upon. T h a t is our spare time. R igh t
here is the source of most of our trouble,
for spare time is one of our most valu
able possessions.
Let us see how w e can make better
use of this lost opportunity and what
benefits may accrue therefrom. T h e first
thought in everyones mind is the sub
ject of hobbies. M a n y members of our
Order have Rosicrucianism for a hobby
and no better one can be suggested.
There are many things that one may do,
however, in connection with his R o si
crucian studies that will not only add
interest to the lectures, but at the same
time make a great change in o nes en
tire outlook on life.
F o r those scientifically inclined a
small laboratory may be equipped very
reasonably. M icroscopy and astronomy
are very popular at the present time,
and as various subjects are pursued in
the weekly monographs one will be able
to experiment for himself. E v en deep
study and concentration will not always
enable our consciousness to retain
knowledge that may be easily absorbed
by a few moments of actual experience.
T h e courses given at the R o se -C ro ix
University are exceptionally beneficial
for this reason.
A n y one of the arts and sciences may
be chosen with equal success, depending
N ineteen

on our own inclinations.

B ut do not
start with a subject too difficult for your
present mental development. A failure
at the very beginning will constantly
harass your memory, just when success
on a new project is about to be consum
mated. T h e secret of the whole matter
lies in one thing. C hoose a subject that
is entirely different from your daily
vocation or profession.
C reate an ideal or goal toward which
to work. It will change many times as
you progress, but the will is strength
ened and will help you over the first
few rough spots. A llow your imagina
tion to work and develop. It will lead
you into many interesting paths, for
broad reading and study are necessary
for an efficient mind.
T h i s is not for the purpose of learn
ing a mass of facts and figures that will
never be used. P ause often to meditate
upon your new information. U se your
Rosicrucian knowledge as a background
and a focal point, for it will alw ays be
a secure footing when you may be in
clined to soar too high in the clouds of
speculation.
Suppose we do use our wasted min
utes in constructive thinking, ju st w hat
benefits may we expect?
First, of course, will come additional
knowledge of various kinds. T h is will
broaden our views and cast out ignor
an ce and bigotry. It will contact those
centres of our brain that have been little
used, aw akening them to new life. T h e s e
areas are so related that strengthening
one will stimulate others until one grad
ually finds that those subjects that at
first w ere hard to grasp and understand
are becoming easier. T h e s e new fields
of research and study will unlock doors
of the storehouse of memory until a fter
a few months of earnest effort one will
find his mind full of ideas that will lead
him into new fields of endeavor.
It is just a matter of a little will at
the beginning. Thin kin g is like running
a race. A f te r the initial effort has been
prolonged to a certain extent one gets
his second wind and is then able to pro
ceed at full speed. S o many of us quit
before we reach the second w ind
stage.
It is not at all unusual for one to dis
cover some field of endeavor for which
he is particularly adapted; generally a

topic that he has been ignorant of thus

far. T h is point has been brought out
in an address by Dr. W illia m A . W h i t e
of W a s h in g to n , D . C .
B efo re the
American Association for the A d van ce
ment of Science, he said, in relation to
heredity and environment, that a per
son may inherit a quality without ever
showing any signs of it at all, simply b e
cause he has never been exposed to the
proper stimulus. Assuming that such
a characteristic as ability to play the
violin were transmitted by heredity, it is
understandable that an individual might
inherit such an ability but never realize
it because he never had a violin to play
upon. H e goes on further to say,
T h i s all means that w hereas our here
ditary pattern is fixed to a certain e x
tent, it is only fixed under condition of
life such as we ordinarily meet up with
and that entirely different conditions
might result in the realization of pos
sibilities undreamt o f . W h a t a pity if
we should pass through transition with
out having realized our true mission in
life.
It may be hard at first to see how
good hard honest thinking would aid in
lengthening our span of mental life, but
some of our scientific authorities are in

READ

THE

clined to that view. P ro f. W a l t e r R.

M iles of Y a l e University answers y e s
to the question:
. . can man through
the mental gymnastics and by the con
tinuance of psychological wakefulness
associated with professional or avocational activities insure himself with na
ture for something in late life better
than mere disposing memory or testa
mentary cap acity
? H e further
states: T h e study of man in maturity
shows that his psychological progress is
not bound utterly to the lowest level of
his physiological decline. T h ro u g h ap
propriate training and practice, co n
tinued mental elasticity and organized
effective control, may extend mental
longevity.
T h u s we see that perfect, complete,
and balanced reasoning and will a d e
quately employ all the abilities of mind.
W e can conclude with no better
thought than that expressed by Prof.
John R. M urlin in an address given at
Ursinus College: T o be cultured one
must be critical of life. T o be justly
critical one must have confidence in
one's own reason, must find pleasure in
working out o n es own w a y of life and
must prize the truth above anything
else.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

ID

0-

SPECIAL IN FO R M A TIO N W A N T ED
During the past ten years many of our members have travelled through Europe,
parts of Asia, and even to Egypt and other parts of Africa on private, personal tours
for pleasure or business. During those tours they have contacted some of the Rosicrucian
archives, temples, private meeting places, or groups of Rosicrucians or officials of the
Rosicrucian Order in Europe, or have seen such evidence as has proved to them the long
existence and operation in foreign countries of various branches of the Rosicrucian Order.
T h ey have written us at times of these contacts and their pleasant and happy experiences.
T h e Imperator would now like to have a letter from each and every one of these
The
members who has ever made such contacts, stating briefly where the contact was made
Rosicrucian
and the incidents surrounding it. Please address such letters to the Imperator personally.
Digest
Th is is a very vital and important matter at the present time. Editor.
February
iiiiimtiiitiiiiiiiiiiiii
mu 0
1936
fl"1
illinium

iiiiiiiiiinii

i iiMiini n mi mi ii ii iiiinmiii n illinium

T w enty

A Theory of Earthquakes
IS THE CAUSE TO BE FOUND IN COSMIC DISTURBANCES
OR SOLELY IN THE EARTH?
By

F rater

N T H E spring of
1931, B ailey W i l
lis had an article
in the N ew Y o r k
H e r a l d T rib u n e
e n t i t l e d , A n
E a r t h q u a k e An
H o u r, in w h i c h
he c l a i m e d that
quakes m a n i f e s t
s o m e w h e r e or
other upon the face
of the earth at the
rate of one an hour.
This, it would seem, makes the quakes
almost as common an occurrence as the
ordinary storm; and we might naturally
conclude from their commonness that
seismology would have these mani
festations fairly well-tabulated after all
these years in which M o th er E a rth has
been having an hourly ague, and that
the science should be able to run up a
warning flag with all the conviction of
the meteorologist. But if you happen to
be a student of seismology you know
better. A nd if you have been at it suf
ficiently long enough you know that
seismology is a science all at sea ," and
that you might just as well work with
your own theory as with another.
Since my first experiences with a
quake in Southern California in 1919, I
have had a theory of these disturbances
T wenty'One

J.

C. Cook

that is at considerable variance with any

the geologists or seismologists hold and,
so far as I can find, with that o f any
ever held. Regardless, it is a theory that
seems tenable and one that seems in line
with true science. Also, it is certainly
one that gets down to what we might
here term the basis of everything
electricity.
In brief, it is that quakes originate in
the air, dissipate within the earth and
are, therefore, but variations of an
electrical storm. O r. to put it another
way: instead of lightning, we have an
electrical mist which condenses upon
any conductor on or near the surface
of the magnet the earth. And, in toto,
it is against all ideas of crust move
ments, slippage, and oscillations, or any
kind of an impulse that might arise
within the earth's crust.
It seems amazing how many plain
and salient facts in support of an elec
trical theory have been overlooked by
the science in the study of quakes. T h e
tomes thereof are truly a mass of evi
dence therefor. W e pick up any volume.
T h e words cry the message and the
pictures impress it on our eye that is,
they do so if w e are not awed by the
science. A nd we lay aside the book and
talk to the man in the street, walk
about in the ruins, and the evidence is
the same. It seems as though we have

been blind for ages when it comes to

quakes. A nd through a little trick that
has come to me, I truly believe that one
is alw ays somewhat blinded in a quake.
B ut before I give you the trick, I had
better get on with the theory. It orig
inates in the air and to get the evidence
therefor, we have but to listen to the n a
tives of a quake area. M a n y o f the older
and more sensitive ones can feel an omi
nous something in the air prior to a
quake; they will tell you they can feel it
brewing, just as you can feel a cyclone
coming; and here we seem to have a
fact, for if it can be felt in the air prior
to complete manifestation, it must come
through the air or be thereof. A nd upon
this point I can add my personal testi
mony, for I have experienced this
ominous feeling.
And, furthermore,
origination in the air is nothing new.
W e have had it since Aristotle. H e
held that quakes came from air pockets
in the interior, or below the surface of
the earth.
B u t let us lay aside the origination
and look at the pictures and walk about
in the evidence. W i t h half an effort we
almost invariably see the electrical co n
ductor where the damage occurs. T h e
street, with its underground pipes, etc.,
is humped and broken open lengthwise,
according to the pattern o f what is
underground, while the vacant lots ad
joining are undisturbed. Railroad tracks
in open country are found twisted out
of shape and the surrounding terrain is
unbroken. B arb wire fences m ay be
seen toppled and snaked about while
the sod and pasturage is the same as
ever. W i t h one-story, flat-roof brick
buildings the parapet is often found
lying in the street with the four walls
o f the building intact; and such p ara
pets, or fire walls, are found to have had
iron brace rods. In a frame dwelling
the stove and pots and pans and other
conductors dance and rattle and exam
ination reveals the woodwork as all un
disturbed. T h o s e riding in a train are
jolted and one going along in an auto
is unaware o f the disturbance. A n d in
the case of a sign painter laying gold
The
R osicru cian leaf on a window (which operation is
done with a w ater size) the pane o f
D ig est
glass was suddenly yanked into the
F eb ru a ry
street, with no other disturbance of the
building. A t Inglewood, California, a
1936

frame hotel with a brick front had this

front yanked into the street clean, leav
ing the exposed rooms intact. It is al
ways a yank or a jerk, as we examine
the evidence, and with but very few
exceptions always according to manmade layout and visible electrical con
ductors.
In open country we come across the
few deviations from man-made lines.
T h e long fault (ground fracture) goes
snaking across the land for many miles
and our geologists point to it as con
clusive proof of the tilting block theory.
T h e y display little models o f earth
blocks that have tilted and slipped, etc.,
and we are duly impressed. B u t upon
an examination of fault maps the block
theory is not tenable.
T h e plane of a block must have three
lines and the faults are not after this
manner. T h e y just snake across the
country and end a t another point; they
terminate after the manner of a single
line. A nd with this our imagination
balks at a block theory.
B u t working with an electrical theory
our imaginations can easily take hold of
the idea of a vein of ore, or some sort
of a conductor, beneath the surface and
according to the visible fault line.
A n d working with this idea, we have
m ore food for thought in a considera
tion of our cyclone areas. T h e twister
country is flat and underlaid with oil.
T h o se who have been in quakes
sw ear the ground rolls like the ocean
waves and I, also, held this illusion
until I found it out of line with facts.
It is true we have the sensation while
in the quake, but upon its subsidence it
is another story. W e find a queer state
of affairs for a terrain that has been
rolling.
O th er than cleavage breaks, we find
the ground intact. G ard ens, orchards,
and fields have undisturbed surfaces;
not a crack in the soil to be seen. And
in California, w here the tilled area is
mostly orchard and grove, the ripe fruit
remains upon the trees. Just try imagin
ing Southern California, if you can,
thriving as it is if the quakes were
really rolling the ground as they mani
fest.
O f course, the soil must move at a
break, but rolling is no more than imag
ination or illusion. B ut we have an e x
T w enty-tw o

Q u ak es always manifest in their own

territories, the same as cyclones, etc. It
is mountainous terrain and science
claims M o th er E a rth has growing pains
at such points, which brings on a case
of ague for her occasionally.
M aybe
she has! I don't know, for I am not up
on science. B ut I can imagine that as
the mountains are projections they
could well be the means of a bankage
or condensation that would bring about
the mysterious manifestation of a quake.
F o r a decade or so I was stumped
with this theory of electrical vibrations,
because there was no means of getting
up an artificial quake and no account
ing for the illusions. But in con centra
tion the matter o f illusions became
clarified. L ate one night something told
me to stand up and hold my torso rigid
and vibrate my head. Upon doing so I
had all the illusions of the vibrating and
dancing scenery in a quake. T h is is the
trick mentioned, but do it easily for
otherwise it brings on a headache.
In hammering at seismology, as I
have done with this theory, it may ap
pear to be very audacious for a layman.
A nd it is, if we are awed by the science.
B ut the history of material science, in
the main and especially this one, may
be summed into five words to d a y s
bunk is tomorrow s junk.
Seismology has been a study for
many centuries and has taught prob
ably as many theories. O n e has been
discarded for another and the quakes
remain as mysterious as ever. T h e
reason may be that as the study is unremunerative, too few have been a t
tracted to it to solve the problems there
of. B ut the fact we cannot get away
from is that the science h a sn t a thing
to offer the world other than its records
and theories; and, after all these years,
why, then, should laymen stand in awe
of it, or hesitate to tackle the mystery
of the quake? A n y o ne well up on elec
tricity and unfettered by the text books
of the science might soon give us a
w orkable theory of these devastating
manifestations.

planation for it with an electrical theory.

W e know our bodies are conductors
and the hair thereon more so than the
flesh. S o assuming an electrical mist, w e
can imagine it condensing upon our
bodies and rushing thereon into the n a
tural magnet the earth. A nd we know
that the strongest may scurry like a
rabbit in a quake.
As we walk or run the foot makes
and breaks contact with the earth and
the electricity upon our bodies acts a c
cordingly. W i t h each make and break
there is a pull or a jerk, which acceler
ates or holds the foot movement. A nd
thus we may have the sensation of the
ground rising and falling aw ay like
unto the sensation of stepping down a n
other step when we are on a landing in
the dark.
T h a t our bodies attract w e may also
conclude from the illusion of all the
scenery vibrating. T h i s would seem to
come from the greater amount of hair
being upon the head, or because of the
lashes and brows bringing about a dis
turbance of sight.
In seismology, they have a recording
machine known as a seismograph. T h e
practice is to imbed them in the solid
rock, and they are operated electrically.
T h e y record quivers from thousands of
miles away. But the nearby ones went
out of commission in the great Sa n
Francisco quake. A n d at the American
Museum of N atural H istory in N e w
York City, we find blasting operations
in rock for an addition to the main
building were unrecorded b y the instru
ment therein. So, altogether, the seis
mograph is not to be relied upon and,
though the crust of the earth is m ag
netic, it would seem as though these
machines are picking up something
other than earth vibrations.
Electrical clocks go out o f commis
sion in quakes and all in all there is but
little to support the theory o f an earth
quake. O n the contrary, the evidence is
mostly for an airquake.

T w enty-three

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g nature's m ysteries and exten din g the boundaries of
knowledge. T he w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
It is with pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and b riefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherwise specified,
we giv e fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

Improvement of Memory By Sleep

V
T

I S gratifying to
find that general
science is now co n
firming a scientific
principle, k n o w n
to the Rosicrucians
for a considerable
time. E v ery R o si
crucian who has
been a member for
even so short an
i nt e r va l as one
year, is f a mi l i a r
with this principle,
which science now confirms, for it is
contained in the early monographs.
T h e principle is the development of
memory through direct suggestion to
the subjective mind.
T he
F o r example, it is stated in the R osi
Rosicrucian
crucian monographs that if a parent
Digest
finds it difficult to impress on the mind
February
of a child, a definite thought for the
betterment of his character, the follow
1936

V
ing method should be used: W h e n the
child has retired and is sound asleep,
the parent should seat himself or her
self by the side of the child and in a low
tone of voice, not loud enough to awaken
the child, repeat over and over again,
simply the sentence containing the
thought he or she wishes the child to
remember. T h e psychological principle
is this T h e subjective mind, ever alert,
receives these impressions and retains
them. W h e n the child awakens and is
objectively conscious, the thought arises
in his own outer mind as a self-g ener
ated suggestion, and coming from with
in himself, effects a greater impression
than if he were to attempt to concen
trate on what was being said to him.
M o st persons find it difficult to concen
trate. T h e ir objective consciousness
vacillates from one sense impression and
idea to another and most of them are
not retained long enough, or do not
register with sufficient intensity to perT w enty-fou r

meate the memory. Suggestion, as a

means of improving memory, can also be
employed when the subject is in the
borderline state, partially awake in other
words. A t such a time the objective
faculties are nearly dormant and all
positive suggestions reach the subjective
plane or consciousness without co n
flicting with objective sense experiences.
For example, years ago, the United
States Naval A cadem y tried the experi
ment of placing radio ear phones on the
new men when they retired at night,
those who had found it difficult to
memorize the M o rse code by sound.
W h en they were asleep, instructions
and code were transmitted to them, but
at an insufficient amplitude to awaken
them. A t class session the following
morning, these men seemed to readily
memorize and grasp the lessons which
had been transmitted to them the previ
ous evening. W e therefore feel that
the following experiments of science
along these lines will be of particular in
terest to Rosicrucian students and in
fact to anyone who knows of the R o si
crucian experiments in this field.
If a person memorizes certain kinds
of material perfectly, and goes to sleep
immediately afterwards, he will recall
more of it, and also re-learn the whole
task more economically after a lapse of
24 hours, than if he waits even a few
hours before he goes to sleep, according
to Dr. H. M . Johnson, professor of psy
chology of American University, W a s h
ington, D . C., who spoke at Cornell
University recently.
Experiments based on
different
methods, made by Dr. R osa H eine Katz,
at the University of Gottingen, and by
Joseph F . O Brien, graduate student at
American University, showed that all
the subjects who were studied were
better able to recall and also to relearn
material that they had learned b y rote
and partially forgotten, if they first slept
for eight hours and then worked for
sixteen hours, than if they distributed
their rest and activity in any other w ay
during the 24-hour period.
Dr. Johnson said that the differences
in favor of sleeping immediately varied
between 2 0 per cent and 30 per cent,
according to the subject and the task.
One would be justified in offering a bet
of 100,000 to one that M r . O B rie n s
T w en ty-five

results were not due to chance.

T w o explanations have been offered.
O n e, which D r. Johnson called the
hardening hypothesis, pictures the
brain as inert during sleep, giving
recently received impressions a chance
to become set. T h e other, called the
reverberation hypothesis, regards the
brain as an active organ even during
sleep, and supposes that it goes on re
peating or reverberating recently re
ceived impressions during the uncon
scious period.
D r. Johnson does not regard either
hypothesis as satisfactory. T h e hard
ening hypothesis is cast into doubt by
the poor recall of memorized material
made by persons who had hard en ed
their brains with the equivalent of only
one highball. Furthermore, very recent
studies on brain waves show that these
fluctuations in the electric potential of
the brain go on continuously during
sleep, though not in their ordinary
w akin g patterns. Finally, studies on
sleep, conducted by D r. Johnson him
self several years ago at the M ellon in
stitute, show that sleepers assume mus
cular positions which they can maintain
only by dint of strenuous brain exertion.
D r. Johnson offered a third hypo
thesis, which, however, he did not urge
as necessarily correct.
H e suggested
that the memorized material might re
verberate in the brain, but during the
drowsy periods before sleep and during
the slow awakening process, and also
during the frequent half-wakeful periods
during the night which most persons e x
perience without realizing or remember
ing them.

Is the Universe Expanding?

Comments upon the theory of an e x
panding universe alw ays grip the human
imagination, because of the magnitude
and mystery of the topic. T h is theory,
however, is related directly to another,
known as the balanced universe. B r ie f
ly, the latter hypothesis is, that the only
state of being which exists, is the uni
verse. It is the whole; there is naught
external to, or beyond it. I T IS , and
there is nothing else. T h i s state of be
ing includes all substances, gasses,
liquids and solids. It also includes the

so-called energies and conditions of

the universe is, therefore, the human
space. In fact, all of these combined,
consciousness. O u r limits of perception
constitute a C O S M I C A C T I O N . T h i s
create a temporary boundary, but that
Cosmic action is conserved, it is never
boundary exists to us alone. Science
dissipated or lost, but constantly changes
and an expanding human consciousness
its rapidity. If there is no loss of action,
are extending our realization of the e x
there can be no contraction of the uni
tent of the universe.
verse, but also there can be no ex p an
In conjunction with the above, read
sion for there is no addition to its na
the following interesting comments upon
ture. F rom whence did the addition
an opinion recently given by Dr.
come, as Parmenides so ably put it ce n
Z w ick y, who has devoted much thought
turies ago? T h is theory recognizes a and time to this subject.
compensation or balance, as existing in
T h a t the earth is near the center of
the universe. T h e Cosmic action, the
primary nature o f the universe, is said an exploding or expanding universe may
be just a false concept built up in the
to have a dual polarity, to be both posi
tive and negative. It functions as a flow mind o f m an, suggests Professor Fritz
Z w ick y . of the California Institute of
from a minimum to a maximum, and
then reverses itself, establishing a co n T e ch n o lo g y .
stant balanced alternation. T h is alter
W h e n scientists interpret the muchnation accounts for the changes which
observed red shift of the light from
w e perceive as the forms of our earth
distant nebulae as proof that the separ
and of the universe. T h i s change is ate parts of the universe are rushing
quite deceiving, it is contended, and
aw ay from one another with velocities
may give rise to the illusion of an e x as high as 1 5,000 miles a second, they
panding universe. A change in a solid
are making only one of several possible
in the stellar spaces consequently affects
interpretations. D r. Z w ick y , reporting
the light radiations of that Cosmic body
in T h e P hysical R eview , points out that
and may cause it to appear as rapidly
while the theory of relativity partially
receding from us. It is further contend
explains the red shift in terms of an e x
ed, as a philosophical speculation, that
panding universe, the relativity predic
a thing which in itself is everything,
tions are not in accordance with obser
cannot expand into or assimilate some vation in several important respects.
thing else. F o r the universe to expand
T h e red shift o f light from distant
there would need be a state or condi
nebulae
is analogous to the lowering of
tion into which it could expand. If such
the pitch of a sound like that from the
a state existed, independent of the uni
verse, the universe would neither be whistle o f a locomotive speeding from
the observer at the crossing. In both
unified nor complete. A ccording to this
cases
the shift is one toward lower fre
same reasoning, the universe must be
without limit, for what would mark its quencies; for the whistle it is sound fre
quencies: for the expanding universe
boundaries? Obviously, any boundaries
concept light frequencies are concerned.
o f the universe would need be its end,
Lower light frequencies make the ob
that is, where a state or condition of
served rays from the distant nebulae
nothing existed. However, nothing is
more reddened than they really are.
the absence of something. It has a pure
T h e colors are not necessarily red in the
ly negative existence. T h e r e is, in fact,
observed spectral lines, but merely shift
no such state as a void. It is merely the
ed in the red direction hence the sorelative opposite of our perception of
called red shift.
reality. A void neither exists in nor out
In his complex mathematical scien
side of the universe. If a void has a
tific paper, P ro fesso r Z w ick y sets up all
definite existence outside of the uni
the requirements which any explanation
verse. our universe as w e know it, is in
The
of the observed red shaft must satisfy
complete; for it to be considered unified,
Rosicrucian we would need to add to it this void. in order to be acceptable. F o r one thing,
Digest
the shift ought to come out to be the
T h e universe is all, everything, not
February
property of an y point in space instead
merely one state or condition apart
from some other. T h e only boundary of of just that particular corner o f the uni
1936
T w enty-six

verse around the earth.

W e do not
want to assume that our earth is just
the center of things. T h e relativity e x
planation of the red shift satisfies this
requirement but so do other theories.
In other requirements the relativity
explanation does not meet observed
conditions, but Professor Z w ick y, in his
report, shows how to examine broadly
all possible theories and has found sur
prisingly, that some theories meet all

READ

THE

demands and may be as good as, or

better, than, the relativity explanation
of the red shift.
T h e selection among the possible
alternative theories must be left to
checking by observations.
Some of
these require new developments in
astronomical technique such as the in
stallation o f the new 200-inch telescope
at M o u n t Palom ar for the California
Institute of T e c h n o lo g y .

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
V
Man, when conscious o f an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized it so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f It. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illum inate mankind
with their m ystic light. F o r those who are seeking ligh t, each month we w ill
reproduce a symbol or symbols, w ith their ancient meaning.

CELTIC CROSS
Perhaps one of the oldest symbols o f man,
and which still is prom inent today, is the cross,
but there are various forms of the cross, many
of which had no religious significance, but
were purely geom etric or mystical. The most
commonly known crosses are the C rux Ansata,
fhe looped Egyptian cross, the Tao cross, the
Swastica, and the various ecclesiastical forms.
O ne of the oddest forms of the cross is that
which is illustrated here, known as the A b e rlemno, or C e ltic . The original is form ed of a
single slab, seven fe e t in height. If our readers
will refer in their local public library, to the
subject of cross," in any of the leading en
cyclopedias or H asting's Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics" they will find, therein,
some intensely interesting and instructive reading
s
about the origin and significance of the different
forms of the cross.

T w enty-seven

(|~L6ru~u~u-|)

T h e Antiquity of Our Teachings

SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS REGARDING THE
ORIGIN OF ROSICRUCIANISM
By

he

I R S T of all, I want
to say that I am
not going to touch
upon at this time
the origin of the
Rosicrucian O rd er
as a physical or
ganization. T h a t
subject is one with
w h i c h the most
eminent historians
and writers have
d e a l t at g r e a t
l engt h w i t h o u t
complete agreement. W e have stated in
our literature and elsewhere that our
organization, like many others, has both
a traditional history and a factual his
tory. T h e traditional history traces the
origin of the spirit of Rosicrucianism as
a school or system of thought to the
mystery schools of E gy pt. It traces the
Rosicrucian doctrines, not as man-made
dogmas but as fundamental principles
of human experience, to the secret
teachings of the various mystery schools
of the N ear and F a r E a s t in ancient
times, and which gradually blended
their teachings into one established sy s
tem of study. W h e n the traditions and
T he
Rosicrucian fundamental principles were definitely
or gradually brought into conformation
D ig est
with certain ideals and certain doctrinal
February
principles, it is difficult to state, because
of the absence of any printed records of
1936

Im perator
the earliest days, and because in the
passage of time the traditional history
which had passed on from generation to
generation by word of mouth had be
come colored with symbolism and al
legory. B u t there was a time when the
factual history was carefully noted and
preserved, and which we find recorded
in various books, manuscripts, and rec
ords cut in stone and wood, or engraved
in metals, or inscribed in symbols upon
various forms o f matter. Certain it is
that there are books and manuscripts
available today which plainly reveal the
spiritual foundation of the organization
existing prior to the 12th century, and
the material form of it definitely in exist
ence and recorded in the 13th and 14th
centuries.
O th er organizations of a fraternal,
secret, or mystical nature, have tradi
tional histories also, such as that which
traces its origin to the minute details of
the building of King S o lom o n s Temple.
Such traditional histories are not sus
ceptible of precise proof and concrete
recording except in allegories and sym
bolism. Nor is it necessary for such
traditional history to be proved in order
to benefit from the spirit of the work as
associated with such traditions. M a n y
of the modern fraternal organizations
of a secret nature who trace their tra
ditional history far into antiquity ca n
not prove any details of their factual
T w enty-eight

history beyond the 15th or 16th cen

turies, and some of them frankly admit
that so far as recorded facts are con
cerned that are definitely related to the
traditions, they cannot trace them fur
ther than the 17th or 18th centuries.
The statements on the part of some
writers and encyclopedias, and especial
ly the statements of some present day
critics who are not familiar with even a
fraction of the facts, attempt to say that
the antiquity of Rosicrucianism is
wholly mythical and that even its exist
ence as a concrete organization at an y
period of time prior to the past century
is unproved and questionable. Even a
few of those persons who look upon
themselves as Rosicrucian writers have
fallen into the error o f accepting the
encyclopedic mistakes and have stated
in their literature that the Rosicrucian
Order had its first world-wide inception
and birth with an individual who called
himself Christian Rosenkreuz, and who
created the Rosicrucian organization
some time between the years 1604 and
1616, in Germany.
Such persons, of
course, have never seen or read scores
of books that tell a different story, nor
have they ever had in their hands for
careful study or even casual examina
tion genuine Rosicrucian publications
printed prior to the year 1604, and
which show that even at that time the
organization of Rosicrucians had a very
wide existence with established prin
ciples and doctrines, and rules and regu
lations. T h e y are even ignorant of the
fact that the name Christian R o se n
kreuz was not the true name of the in
dividual nor the symbolical name of
any one person, but simply the sym
bolical name of various persons at va
rious times in the past to whose lot had
fallen the right and the authority to
issue official manifestoes or decrees in
the name of the Order. F o r this reason,
we find references to a Christian R o se n
kreuz in G erm any in the years 1604 to
1616, and again some time in the 15th
century, and again in the 14th century,
and earlier, and there are persons living
today in foreign lands who have had in
the past, and one who now has the right
to issue formal manifestoes in the sym
bolical name of Christian Rosenkreuz.
And it does not always mean that the
one who uses the name in this manner
T went y-nine

is necessarily a reincarnation of the

person who formerly used that name.
T h is peculiar fact is not unique to the
Rosicrucian organization. In the M a r tinist O rd er, which has existed for some
centuries, the highest secret chief in
each period of time has the right to use
the symbolical name which has been
used by his predecessors. In other fra
ternal organizations there are certain
characters representing the symbolical
leader, founder, or idealized character,
who bear his symbolical name, and each
successful high potentate of the organi
zation in each part of the world uses
that same symbolical name. In a study
of the ancient mysteries, we find very
often that over a period of many cen
turies parts of the rituals were perform
ed and the candidates initiated in the
name of--------------- wherein the name of
a great character was used as though he
were living at that very time.
During all of the periods of activity
of the organization, certain rare books
w ere prepared and issued, as well as
certain manuscripts were prepared on
parchment or other durable material in
cipher or code or mystical language, and
these were hidden in the archives of the
order to be revealed at certain times,
and to pass on to various new branches
or new revivals of the O rd er in order
that the fundamental teachings and
principles of the organization might be
preserved to all posterity, and a uni
formity of teaching and practice main
tained. T h o s e critics of the organiza
tion who contend that this is not so, are
absolutely ignorant of the facts, and by
their ignorance reveal that they have
never had the qualifications which
would have enabled them to know the
real facts. Prior to the time that F ran cis
B a co n invented several special ciphers
and secret codes, most of the early
manuscripts of Rosicrucianism were
prepared in mystical language and in
symbols or hieroglyphic marks that had
to be interpreted in various ways. R e a l
izing the danger of mistranslation,
B a c o n deliberately invented several
secret ciphers and had these published
in book form in several books, any one
of which did not give the complete
cipher or complete instructions for its
use. O n e of these appeared to be only a
treatise on the value of ciphers and

The
R osicru cian

Digest
F eb ru a ry
1936

their importance, while other books co n

tained samples of such ciphers, and still
others contained certain codes separated
from any text or explanation. Some of
these publications printed in London and
other parts of E urope in Latin and E n g
lish and bearing early 17th century
dates, are here in our possession and in
the secret archives of our Headquarters.
T h e ir validity, authenticity, and true
nature are authenticated by some of
E urope's principal librarians, or chiefs
of secret libraries, and antiquarians who
have made a special study of ciphers
and codes and know what these special
books of B aco n 's were intended to be.
Sometimes parts of the B aconian code
system were incorporated in the final
chapters of a book dealing with an en
tirely different matter so that if the book
were found in a library or indexed a n y
where, it would not be considered or
recognized as a part of the Baconian
code system. W e have also one of these
books in our archives. A s for the
teachings of the Order, themselves,
these, too, were often preserved in book
form on parchment paper or other
w ater-m arked paper in very limited
editions called Libers 1, 2, 3, etc., or
Libers M , F , G , etc., or Libers 7 -7 -7 ,
3 - 3 -3 , 81, etc. ( T h e term Liber 7 7 7 was
one of the most ancient of terms used
for books that contained a complete or
perfect representation o f some of the
principles of the O rder. Sin ce the tri
angle or the number 3 represented per
fect creation and the number 7 repre
sented the triangle on the square, or in
other words, the completion of a struc
ture, the use of 7 three times or as
7, 7, 7, or 7 -7 -7 , represented a p erfect
and com plete presentation of a subject,
and for this reason certain books that
outlined a complete thought on any one
of the Rosicrucian principles or a com
plete doctrine, or a complete manifesto,
or a complete system of practice of any
one of its special principles, was called
Liber 7 -7 -7 , or B ook 7 -7 -7 . T h a t is the
reason why we use this symbolical num
ber for the title of the book that gives a
complete presentation of our department
called " T h e Cathedral of the S o u l." )
T a k e , for instance, the work of our
Sixth D egree, dealing with a study of
the psychic and mystical nature of our
human existence, and our body, and all

the vital forces that animate it, the

cause of disease and the possible cor
rection of these causes through mystical
and Cosmic help. T h is Sixth D egree of
our study contains matter that has never
been published in any metaphysical or
occult book or set of books, and con
tains matter that is wholly unique with
the Rosicrucian system of instruction.
It deals principally, as most of our
members know, with the psychic side of
our human bodies, and of the psychic
centers and psychic nervous system
along with the mystical anatomy of the
body.
N o w as I prepare this article for T h e
Rosicrucian D igest. I have before me
for reference one of the oldest Rosicru
cian books, issued in the very early part
of the 17th century and printed upon a
marvelous quality of handmade paper
that is w ater-m arked with the Rosicru
cian marks. It contains the symbols of
the Rosicrucians, and especially the
authority of the Militia of the organiza
tion. and the name and portrait of one
of the best known and universally
acknowledged Rosicrucian leaders. It
deals with the principles of the work of
our Sixth Degree, and is beautifully il
lustrated, especially to reveal the psy
chic and metaphysical side of our bodies
and explains its relationship to Cosmic
principles, the influence of music with
the musical notes and nerve notes such
as our lectures now contain, and all the
other fundamentals upon which our
Sixth D eg ree work is based. It is doubt
ful if there is another copy of this book
anywhere in America, and it is certain
that these so-called critics of R osicru
cian literature and history have never
seen this book and know nothing about
it. Y e t its authenticity is certified to by
archivists and librarians abroad, and it
is further listed in the bibliographies of
some of the oldest archives and libraries
of Europe, and is the foundation for
many of the exercises and principles
contained in our present work, especial
ly in connection with Nous and the use
of the breath in breathing exercises, and
the radiations of the human aura in
other experiments.
All of our teachings in the A M O R C
today are based upon authentic writings
contained in the true Rosicrucian pub
lications and manuscripts of the past.
T hirty

These fundamental principles have

never been changed in our lessons and
lectures since they were first given to me
in the years between 1909 and 1916, or
in special manuscripts since then. It is
true that from time to time we have aug
mented our lessons in the form in which
we present them by the addition of new
matter that has come to us in R osicru
cian books and manuscripts, and in any
matter sent to us by foreign branches of
our organization where experiments,
tests, and demonstrations have been
made for the purpose of keeping our
teachings abreast of the times, and by
new matter contributed by our own
American national board of research
and editorial work, composed of men
and women engaged in special research
in all of the sciences, arts, and practices
of the modern times.
There are certain landmarks, as they
are called, connected with genuine R osi
crucianism by which the true O rd e r and
the true teachings can be instantly
recognized by those who are familiar
with them, or by those who have made
any special study of the history and
work of the Rosicrucian organization.
These landmarks are not only the few
true symbols of the organization, but
certain Latin or symbolical terms that
are used in connection with the names
of certain officers with certain grades of
the work and certain phases of the
practices, and by certain emblems, cer
tain formulas, certain notations, phrases,
proverbs, and doctrinal statements that
are in a definite manner of speech or
wording, and which are different from
those used in any other organization.
And there are certain words and phrases
that contain codes or veiled ideas that
are not recognized by the casual read
ers, or understood by the uninitiated.
B y these things antiquarians who have
studied the history of the O rder, or
those who have ever been initiated into
the Order, or reached certain high
grades of the O rder, easily recognize
the genuine organization from an y pre
tentions.
Furthermore, there is a certain circle
of Rosicrucian students throughout the
world which has reached the highest
grades and which constitutes the H ier

V
T hirty-one

archy of the O rder, the spiritual council,

and which acts as advisers and co n
servators.
T h e s e persons are never
known to the public, but are known to
a wide number of advanced students
and members, and their manner of
working and participating in the activi
ties of the organization is well-known
in various lands. Above and beyond
this hierarchy are the Supreme Officers
throughout the world who are united in
a secret circle with a chosen and elected
secret chief whose real name is never
revealed outside of that secret circle,
and whose decrees and manifestoes are
acknowledged and acted upon. In this
wise the pureness of Rosicrucian teach
ings is maintained, the genuine manu
scripts and books are released from
time to time through the proper secret
channels, and the authenticity of the
O rd er and its integrity are preserved.
T h e r e are members in America who are
part of this hierarchy and who are con
vinced beyond any question o f doubt
and from actual experience and know l
edge regarding the genuineness and
authenticity of the teachings and work
of our organization, and the branches of
the Rosicrucian O rd er in other lands
w herever they have contacted them.
T h e y know the genuine from the false,
and they, like the members of the Militia,
are pledged to preserve the integrity of
the O rder, not the person of its chief
officers, and in all ages have seen to it
that the work of the O rd er goes on and
on regardless of the trials and tribula
tions of the physical part of the or
ganization.
In the past centuries there has never
been a lapse o f years when the hier
arch y of the O rd e r has not been active,
when the Supreme Officers in various
jurisdictions have not maintained a con
stant contact with the hierarchy and
have kept alive the spirit of the work
and protected its archives and secret
possessions, even when the O rd e r in
certain countries was in periods of
public inactivity.
All of these facts can be proved by
books, manuscripts, and rare records not
generally known to the public, but avail
able to those who would have the
proper authority and proper purpose in
examining them.

(pjUT-nxj
)

SANCTUM MUSINGS
THE SOLE REALITY
(T h is article is continued from last m onth
and will be continued in the M arch issue.)

U R analysis so far
has been mainly
of the faculty of
sight. W e found
visual experiences
composed of three
definite character
istics. First, qual
ity; second, form;
and third, the area
of the form or di
mension. T h e lat
ter two result from
the variation of
the former which gives the quality of
the sense a primary importance. W e
have already determined that each of
the other four objective senses has
its distinctive qualities as well. T h e y
also have their forms. But do they like
wise all have area or dimension? A nd
are their forms and dimensions also the
result of the variation of their quality?
E xperien ces of touch not only have
either the quality of hot or cold, soft
ness or hardness, with their order of
smooth and rough, etc., and their com
plements of square, round, sharp, and
dull, but they have their innumerable
The
Rosicrucian distinctive forms as well. A transition
from one aspect of the quality of touch
D ig est
to another establishes the notion of a
February
new form and we can group the changes
1936
to compose one idea. F o r example: T h e

soft petals, sharp thorns, and smooth

leaves of a rose are not regarded as in
dividual forms but group sensations
comprising the idea of a single form.
Electro-m agnetic impulses may be used
as an example of how a variation of the
quality of touch produces different ideas
of form. Rapidly periodic but mild
electrical impulses discharged through
an electrode held in the hand titillate
and create the idea of softness, whereas
an increase in voltage of the current so
varies the quality of touch that the
prickling causes us to associate with the
sensation the notion of hardness and
the further inference of sharpness.
Realities of the sense of touch also
have their limitations. T h e y seem con
fined to a particular area as do those of
sight. Numerous objects to the sense of
touch may have the quality of hardness,
yet they can cause the idea of difference
in dimension. T h i s is not necessarily so
much due to a variation in the quality
itself, but rather in its order of regu
larity.
F o r example: Suppose a change in
the regularity of the quality suddenly
conveys to us the idea of roundness
where previously the notion had been
that of squareness. W e then imagine
the end of the previous form and the
beginning of another. Both objects, the
one that now seems round, and the one
T hirty-tw o

that seemed square, may be hard; the

quality has not varied, merely its order.
On the other hand, if the experience of
roundness and squareness in co n ju n c
tion with hardness persists, the idea is
established from the inferences that
there is a unity, the two ideas combine
to establish the concept of but one form.
For instance: T h e uprights of a ladder
may be flat with sharp edges and the
rungs round. T o the blind person for the
first time feeling the rungs of such a
ladder and then the uprights, it seems
as though he has perceived individual
forms, but if he repeats the process two
or three times with the same ladder, the
separate impressions are united into the
combined idea of a single form. If it is
a tall ladder and leans against a house
so that he may walk freely behind it and
on each side of it. and if he extends his
hand and is aware of no sensation of
touch, this change from the previous
distinct feeling gives rise to the notion
of the ladder having definite dimension.
In other words, there is a limitation of
its perceivable form. S o variation of the
quality of touch or its order also estab
lishes the idea of dimension.
All things of taste possess one or
more of its qualities of sweet, bitter, and
salty. Y e t the realities of taste are far
more numerous than three. An analysis
of taste forms reveals them to be found
ed upon a variation of any one of the
fundamental three taste qualities or
even the combination of all three. T a s t e
forms do not have dimension in the
sense that they occupy an area. B ut the
forms do have w hat we may term m ag
nitude. which though conceived by us
as different from dimension, produces
the same effect in our minds. In other
words, the forms o f taste have a quanti
tative nature as well as a qualitative
one. T h e y have their magnitude not in
the extent of the variation of their form
but in an intensity of their quality. F o r
example: Let us imagine we were riding
in a sound proof compartment of a train,
close beside a high stone wall, a wall
we shall say about five miles in length.
If the train were traveling at a nominal
speed, about eight minutes would be re
quired before the end of the wall would
be reached. T h e only means we would
have of realizing during that eight
minutes that we were not focusing our
Thirty-three

consciousness upon a single portion of

the wall, that we were not stationary,
would be by observing a succession of
slight irregularities in the wall itself.
T h e s e minor variations of its quality, its
characteristics, would give rise to the
idea of the w alls length. But on the
other hand, if we had a wall absolutely
the same in surface and we were not
able to see the sky or feel the motion of
the train, we would have no knowledge
of our movement and our conception of
the length of the wall would be entirely
different. It would appear that we were
stationary, looking at one part of the
wall, and that suddenly the wall dis
appeared. T h e length of the wall would
be to us about the length of the window
of our compartment. A n y difference
would merely consist in the length of
time we would continue to be conscious
o f the wall. T h e difference would not
be a variation of the quality but its per
sistence, or what we shall call magni
tude.
N o w to apply this to taste. Some
things are sweet, others nominally so,
and still others intensely sweet. T h is is
not ascertained by a variation of the
form itself in comparison to another
form perceived simultaneously, but pure
ly by comparison of the sensation of the
quality with a memory of the past
taste forms experienced. F o r instance,
we can only ascertain the dimension of
a cube when we actually see its limita
tions; that is, perceive a change in form,
the beginning of some other reality.
Until this is perceived the form appears
as continuous and without end. W i t h a
taste form like the analogy of the per
fect stone wall, no other form need be
perceived at the time nor need we real
ize any limit to the one sensed to have
an idea of its magnitude. T h e degree
of intensity o f the sense is sufficient.
W i t h taste, only the single form need
be perceived for us to realize its limit
and to establish the idea of its magni
tude. T h e degree of intensity of the
sense impression is sufficient.
T h o u g h we say some things visually
perceived are large, and others small,
such ideas of magnitude arise only after
the notion of dimension has first been
perceived and the actual limitations of
the form are realized. In touch, like
wise, the intensity of the quality is

realized, as some things are harder, and

some softer, than others, but such varia
tions contribute to the idea of form
rather than to the dimension o f touchs
realities.
It may seem that we have made no
distinction between discerning taste's
forms and its magnitude; that variation
of quality gives rise to form: and that
variation also establishes its magnitude.
However, two substances m ay have an
equal intensity of sweetness, yet have
that variation of quality as to be con
sidered different. H on ey and maple
syrup are approximately the same in
tensity in sweetness, but no doubt exists
as to their being different taste realities.
Hearing, as said, has its sole quality
of pitch, which is the lowness and high
ness of tone. Betw een the two extremes
exist the realities of sound, which we
apprehend by ear. T h e variation of
pitch produces sound forms. T h e forms
of the sense of hearing, like those of
taste, have their magnitude in their in
tensity. O n e sound appears greater
than the other, not in its persistence,
but rather in its amplitude.
Everything of smell has fundament
ally either the quality of fragrance or
fetor, or the coalition of the two. Like
all the preceding senses which we have
analyzed, the forms o f smell are de
pendent upon the variation of the sense
quality. Furthermore, the magnitude of
the forms of smell, like those of taste
and hearing, depends upon their in
tensity rather than an apprehending of
the beginning or end of the form itself
the same time as any other olfactory
form perceived at the same time. W e
find the scent of a lilac quite intense in
its fragrance, whether we perceive it at
the same time as any other olfactory
form or not. T h e comparison may be
but by memory.
In sight and touch,
however, we have seen that it is n eces
sary to perceive the beginning o f what
appears to be another form, or the end
ing of one which we realize, before the
notion of area or dimension can be had.
W e have established the hypothesis
that out of the quality of the respective
The
R osicru cian senses are engendered their forms and
their magnitude. T h e quality, or quali
D igest
ties, of each sense would then appear to
F eb ru a r y
be its true reality, yet has the quality,
apart from the sense itself, an external
1936

existence? D o the senses substantiate

each other? If it can be conclusively
proved, for example, that what we see
has the same reality to touch, then the
quality of sight is a dependable reality.
W e see before us a bronze disc eight
inches in circumference, and one-quarter
inch in thickness. It is highly polished
and so smooth it is glass-like. It is a
definite reality to our sense of sight. W e
touch the disc. T o further identify it by
touch alone, we close our eyes. It feels
smooth as smooth and as hard as we
saw it. W e find the edge and draw our
fingers around it. It is as round as we
saw it. In every respect the touch form
is identical with the visual form.
But we have unconsciously permitted
ourselves to draw inferences which have
no existence to the sense of sight. A c tu
ally, it is impossible for you to visually
discern smoothness.
Smoothness, as
previously shown, is an order of the
quality of touch. T h ro u g h touch alone
may we actually know smoothness not
through sight. T h e same applies to
roughness. A superbly capable artist,
a genius, may paint upon a canvas a
bristling cactus plant, which in appear
ance has all of the asperity indigenous
to that plant, but touch alone proves
whether it actually is rough or not. T h e
fact that what to the eyes may appear
rough, and to the touch be proved not
to be rough, is proof that smoothness
and roughness are not natural to the
qualities o f sight.
O f course, we may feel an object that
is smooth, then remove our hands and
it will continue to appear smooth to our
sight, but sight did not confirm touch,
we merely experienced the habitual
visual inference of smoothness. W e at
tempt to confirm the smoothness of cer
tain visual things by touch, which we
would not do if it were natural to the
quality of sight. W e do not attempt to
prove light by touch. W e infer from
the touch of a highly polished surface,
which though we may never have seen
it, that it shines in the light, yet it re
quires sight to prove that the shine or
reflection of light can be perceived by
sight alone; in other words, is of sights
quality.
T h e refo re, all that touch can prove
about the reality of the disc is its own
qualities, such as hardness, and the
T hirty-fou r

phases of its order, such as smoothness,

roundness, and, of course, dimension.
The visual identifications, for example,
of a form such as bronze its shade of
color and brilliance are solely due to
sight, and in no w ay could these ch a r
acteristics be substantiated by touch.
Both sight and touch have those pecu
liar geometrical arrangements of their
forms which we designate as either
round, square, triangular, etc., but this
arrangement, or order, does not sub
stantiate each others qualities. T h e fact
that to touch, the disc has the order of
roundness as well as to sight, does not
relate the form perceived by both
senses. An o bject may be round to
touch and to sight, and yet appear dif
ferent to both senses. F o r we may feel
a round, soft, warm, and non-metallic
substance, and to the eye it may appear
round also, but hard, cold, and metallic.
Suppose we see before us a coin. It
appears hard, round, and metallic. W e
feel it, and to the touch it is also round,
hard, and metallic. W e drop it upon a
marble surface and to the ear it has a
metallic ring. All this seems to confirm
the impressions of sight, to substantiate
the visual reality. Actually, however,
touch cannot prove the quality of sight,
which is light, and therefore the hard
ness we imagine we see is not actually
seen, but inferred. It has no more exist
ence to sight than white has to touch,
which we might infer from feeling the
form of a lily.
True, we may have heard the metal
lic ring, but that is no proof that the
metallic ring was from the coin we saw
or felt. All that our hearing conveys is
a particular pitch with which we asso
ciate a form. W e only infer that it is
the same form we perceived by touch or
sight. T h e quality of each sense has
reality only unto that particular sense,
and not to any other.
Ideas arising from group sensations
are purely inferences. W e may cite the
age-old example of the unreliability of
the senses given by the ancient philo
sopher, Pyrrho, principal advocate of
the doctrines of skepticism. H e asked,
W h a t is the reality of an apple? Its
scent, color, and shape, or its taste?
The color and shape alone do not co n
stitute an apple, for they may be had in
a wax model, and scent alone is not su f
Thirty-five

ficient, nor is the taste, for synthetic

flavors and odors are common. T h e
combination of all of these sensations,
when frequently experienced, estab
lishes the idea of the form we know as
an apple. Y e t the apple, as such, has no
existence which can be perceived solely
by any one of the senses. In fact, each
of the contributing sensations is more
real in its own right than is the idea of
the apple. All we can say, then, is that
the particular sensations of scent, color,
and taste are real, but the inference aris
ing from their combination is not. N ot
one of the sense qualities is less real
than the other, but also not one is suf
ficient proof of the existence of the
apple.
T h o u g h each sense cannot verify the
quality of the other, each seems to be a
reality in its own right. In other words,
in relation to its particular sense faculty
the quality seems to have an external
existence, and therefore be a reality.
W e have explained the difference
between a mental image and one actu
ally being perceived by sight. W i t h ob
jective realities we are capable of real
izing our dual state of consciousness,
that we are, and that apparently the
o bject perceived is, as well, but with
subjective realities and recollected e x
periences w e cannot have an immediate
awareness of self apart from the sub
jective experience. W e can gaze at the
clock and apprehend the time and be
conscious of self, but if we close our
eyes and visualize the clock so that the
mental picture as nearly as possible ap
proaches the visual one, we are forced
to sacrifice a consciousness of self as
we are at the moment. B y rapid alterna
tion we can be first conscious of self and
then the mental image of the clock, but
not both simultaneously. W e can hold
in memory a mental picture of self but
that is not a consciousness of the pres
ent self. T h is is because the memory
impressions and the sensation of self
are both subjective, whereas, when we
have a sense experience the objective
experience predominates, but there is al
w ays attendant the posterior impulses of
self-aw areness. T h u s we have the de
termining standard between memory
experiences and a sentient one, but even
a fter the distinction is made, can we be
certain that the sense quality is a real

ity that is, an actual external experi

ence?
Form s have their existence only in
the quality. T h e refo re, for example, are
hard, soft, hot, and cold the qualities
of touch realities actually apart from
the body? W e repress the sense o f
touch and its qualities have no existence
either externally or internally; thus
superficially this would give support to
the theory that the qualities as realities
are introduced through the medium of
the senses.
However, let us consider
this further before accepting it.
W e shall take, for example, the per
son who is completely deaf. It is com
monly known that such persons have
been made to hear by introducing sound
impulses to their brains artificially. T h in
but rigid materials, elastic enough to
vibrate with sounds of normal amplitude,
were brought lightly into contact with
the teeth of a deaf person so that their
vibrations would not be dam pened, and
they conveyed sound vibrations in the
immediate v i c i n i t y sympathetically
through the sensory nerves of the teeth
to the auditory nerves, and thence di
rectly to the brain, where they were in
terpreted as sound in the ordinary sense.
T h e fact that this is possible is ir
refutable proof that the qualities of the
senses, as we know them, D O N O T
exist apart from them, and are not in
troduced through the respective sense
organs, but instead the qualities A R E
A R O U S E D within us. If one sense
faculty can be used, not to substantiate
the quality of another, but to convey its
V

i IIIMIIIIIIIMMIMII

READ

THE

agencies for it, it is evident that there

exists some faculty common to all the
senses and apart from them, which a c
cording to the manner it is registered
and interpreted, causes the different
qualities, the senses of which we are
conscious. A t least, with the qualities
we seemed to be possessed of something
tangible, but it now appears the quali
ties have no reality except when en
gendered internally, and yet all the
things we perceive as realities have the
characteristics o f them. W e are again
faced with the problem of considering
just what is reality since it is not the
qualities.
T o summarize our findings to the
present; First, the world is teeming
with realities; such as, for instance, the
reading lamp before us, and all the other
commonplace things which we know.
T h e n we reduced these realities to the
qualities of our different senses. In
other words, to the sen se o f touch the
lamp before us finally came to consist
of a certain variation of the qualities of
hard and soft, hot and cold, and their
geometrical order and dimensions. But
we advanced further in our reasoning
and investigation, and we found that
these qualities themselves had no real
ity, no existence, in the world except
the idea of them, which was aroused
within us.
W e now have arrived at the point of
considering what the true reality is
which arouses these notions in our
minds.
( T o b e continued in the M arch issue)

ROSICRUCIAN
.......

FORUM

IIIIIIIIIIIM lld lllia illlllllllia illllllllllM llQ

T H E S Y M B O L IC P R O P H E C Y O F T H E G R E A T P Y R A M ID

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
February
1936

E
E
E

\
=

T h e above is the title of a new book, which will be issued by A M O R C within the
n ext sixty days. It will supplant the form er one entitled, T h e M ystery and Prophecy
of the Great Pyramid. It will contain new information, the result of further investigation and archeological research. W e ask all who have recently ordered the old book,
of which there are no more available, to be patient until the new one is out. You will be
very pleased with it. T his new book will retail for the same price as the old one, and
yet will contain, as said, many added facts and interesting points of information.
............

E
E
E

iit ifin iiiiiiiu m n > n n im m iu iiii n n n n iin iim u i> n in m n n n n n in n n n t iin m in iu t > n in in m n im iiu n n lj!l

T hirty-six

STR A N G E M T. SH A STA
More tales and legends abound about this mystery mountain of Northern California than any other mountain on the Pacific Coast of the United
States. Towering to a height of some 14,000 feet, its majestic peak is perpetually covered with a blanket of snow and its base is nestled in a stand
of magnificent timber. Many sagas relate that in its bosom it shelters the descendants of the ancient Lemurians, and that it was at one time part of
the ancient continent of Lemuria. Controversy has raged as to the truth of these tales. Science is divided against itself in the issue. The above scene
is from the recently produced A M O R C sound and talking motion picture entitled, "Lemuria, the Lost Continent." which treats this subject in an in
teresting manner, and which will be exhibited throughout the United States this year by members of the National Lecture Board of A M O RC. travel
ling via the Courier Car. Members and their friends should not fail to see this motion picture when it is announced in their local newspapers. There
are no admission charges.
( C ou rtesy o f Rosicrucian D igest.)

HAVE YOU

Time on Your Hands

THESE LONG WINTER EVENINGS

?
" W i n t e r Evenings were made For reading. Snow, howling winds, rain beating
against window panes all these add zest to good reading. Good reading is the lit
erature which you Feel is worthy of remembering and which does not give you that
gui 11y Feeli ng of having wasted your lime.
Spend an hour or two each week in broadening your knowledge ol life, of its mys
teries, and of the accomplishments of great people. Read the titles of the unusual
discourses below, and select the one which appeals to you. Eacli discourse is just
about the right length for a pleasant evening s reading. They are written in simple,
forceful language, and are released as interesting, supplementary reading by the Readers
Research Academy. Begin with what you want and discontinue when you please.
ARCANE COSM O LOG Y

S O M E M Y ST IC A L A D V E N T U R E S
P u ll aside the re/I of the commonplace,
explore the unknown. Ga discourses)

Is the earth a cell, and do we dwell in

it, instead of outside of it? (21 d is
courses) No. t.

No. tg6.

E V O L U T IO N
W h y are there different races?

NUMEROLOGY

T H E M Y S T E R Y O F M IR A C L E S

SU PERN A TU RA L

Is numerology a D iv in e science? Is it
possible to foretell the future by num
bers ? (t 6 di scourses) No. 328.

Has
man descended from other beings? (12
discourses ) No. 12.

W h a t strange powers did the ancients

possess? A re their feats possible today?
(32 discourses) No. 23/.

H a re you strange psychic or mental ex

periences? W hat causes them, and what
do they mean? (16 discourses) No. 2Q4.

^ 011 may remit the small sum ol 30 cents each month and receive two discourses, or you may
secure the entire course at one time, whichever you prefer, furthermore, you may discontinue a
course at any point and transfer to another, by merely continuing the same payments. Subscribe
to a course today. Bring a world of interesting subjects into
the heart of your home. Order the course bv number.
^
,
rvr-T-

T h e R E A D E R 'S R E S E A R C H A C A D E M Y
R O S I C R U C I A N

S A N

J O S L ,

P A R K

C A L I F O R N I A

50
_

PER
MONTH

E N T IT L E S Y O U T O T W O
I .A R G E D I S C O U R S E S

U . S . A .

EACH M O NTI I

TH E PURPO SES OF

T HE

Member o f
FU D O SI
(Federation Universelle des

ROSICRUCIAN

OR DE R

The Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. T h e purpose o f the organ i
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive.
Cosmic forces for the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
The O rder is internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in Am erica, and all other lands, constitutes the on ly form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation. T he AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
freely to all affilia ted members, togeth er with many other benefits.
Inqu irers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are invited to send for
the free book, "T h e Secret H erita ge. Address, F ria r S. P. C., care of

Ordres et

Societes
Initiatiques)

AM ORC T E M P L E
Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California, U. S. A.
(Cable Address: "A M O R C O
Radio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the l\[orth and South Ameyican Jurisdictions

(Including the United States, Dominion o f Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.
Costa Rica, E l Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f America.
H. SPENCER L E W IS . F. R. C., Ph. D .................................................................................................Im perator
R A L P H M. LEW TS, F. R. C..........................................................................................
Supreme Secretary
CLEMENT B. L E B R U N . F. R. C................................................................................................. Grand Master
H AR VE Y M ILE S , F. R. C
Grand Treasurer
E TH E L B. W A R D , F. R. C
Secretary to Grand Master
H AR R Y L. S H IB L E Y , F. R. C.................................................................................... D irector o f Publications
Junior Order o f Torch Bearers (sponsored by AM O R C ). F o r complete Information as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary. Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

The follow ing principal branches are D istrict H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

Atlanta, Georgia:
Atlanta Chapter No. 650. Dr. James C. O akshette. Master: Nassau Hotel. Meetings 7:30
every Thursday night.
New York City, New York:
New York Chapter, Rooms 35-36, 711 8th
Ave., cor. 8th Ave. and 45th Street. Louis
Riccardi, M aster; M argaret Sharpe, Secre
tary. Inquiry and reading room s op en week
days and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Delta Lodge No. 1, A M O R C , S. E . Corner
40th and Brown Sts., 2nd Floor. Mr. Albert
Courtney, Master.
Benjamin Franklin Chapter of A M O R C ;
W arren C. Aitken, Master; Martha Aitken,
Secretary, 2203 N. 15th Street. Meetings for
all members every Sunday, 7:30 p.m ., 1706
Rittenhouse Square.
Boston, Massachusetts:
The M arie Clemens Lodge, Fortunatus J.
Bagocius, Master. Temple and Reading
Rooms, 739 Boylston St., Telephone Kenmore 9398.
Detroit, Michigan:
Thebes Chapter No. 336. Mr. W illiam H.
Hitchman, M aster; Mrs. Pearl Anna T ifft,
Secretary. Meetings at the Florence Room,
Fuller Hotel, every Tuesday, 8 p.m . In
quirers call dial phone No. 1870.

San Francisco, California:

Francis Bacon Lodge, 1655 Polk
Mr. David Mackenzie, Master.

Street;

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. First Lodge, Dr. Charles D . Green,
M aster; 3787 E ast St. N. S., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Reading, Pennsylvania:
Reading Chapter, Mr. Harrison N. Mucher,
Master, 144 Clymer St.; Mr. George R. O s
man, Secretary. Meeting every Friday, 8:00
p. m., W ashington Hall, 904 W ashington St.
Los Angeles, California:
Hermes Lodge, A M O R C Temple. Mr. OUln
W . Marden, M aster. Reading Room and In
quiry office open daily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.,
and 7:30 p.m . to 9 p.m . except Sundays.
Granada Court, 672 South Lafayette Park
Place.
Birmingham, Alabama:
Birmingham Chapter of A M O R C . For in
formation address Mr. Cuyler C. Berry,
Master, 721 So. 85th St.
Chicago, Illinois:
Chicago Chapter No. 9, Mabel L. Schmidt,
Secretary. Telephone Superior 6881. Read
ing Room open afternoons and evenings.
Sundays 2 to 5 only. 100 E . O hio St., Room
403-404. Lecture sessions for A LL members
every Tuesday night, 8:00 p. m.
Chicago Afra-American Chapter No. 10.
Robert S. Breckenridge, Master; Aurelia
Carter, Secretary. Meeting every W ednes
day night at 8 o'clock, Y . M . C. A., 3763 So.
W abash Avenue.

(D irectory Continued on N ex t P a g e )

Portland, Oregon:
Portland Chapter. Paul E . Hartson, Master;
Telephone East 1245. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.
Washington, D, C.:
Thom as Jefferson Chapter.
W illiam V .
W hittington, Master. Confederate Memorial
Hall, 1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings
every Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Seattle, W ashington:
A M O R C Chapter 586. W alter G. Simpson.
Master: Mrs. Carolina Henderson. Secretary.
311-14 Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd
Aves. on Cherry St. Reading room open
week days 11 a.m . to 4:30 p.m . Visitors
welcome.
Chapter meetings each Friday.
8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
Vancouver, British Columbia:
Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mr. H. B.
Kidd. M aster, A M O R C Temple. 878 Horn
by Street.
Victoria, British Columbia:
Victoria Lodge, Mr. A. A. Calderwood,
Master. Inquiry O ffice and Reading Room.
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
Mr. E ly Law, Master, 120 Spence St. (Ph.
33341.) Session for all members every Sun
day, 2:45 p. m., 304 " B " F.nderton Bldg..
Portage Ave. and Hargrave St.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada:

Montreal Chapter. Alexandre Chevalier.
F. R. C., Master. 210 W e st St. James Street.
Inquiry office open 10:00 a.m . to 5 p.m.
daily; Saturdays 10:00 to 1:00 p.m .
Toronto. Ontario, Canada:
Mr. Benjamin W . W akelin, Master. Sessions
1st and 3rd Sundays of the month. 7:00
p. m.. No. 10 Lansdowne Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta:
Mr. Alfred H. Holmes. Master, 9533 Jasper
Avenue E .

SP A N ISH A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
This jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative O ffice are located at San Juan. Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
The name and address of the O fficers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce shou ld b e ad d ressed a s fo llo w s:
Secretary General of the Spanlsh-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C . P. O . Box 36, San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A FEW

O F T H E F O R E IG N

Scandinavian Countries:
The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.
Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand Master; Carli
Anderson, S. R. C., Grand Secretary. M anogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sweden:
Grand Lodge "Rosenkorset."' Anton Svanlund, F. R. C., Grand Master. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, Malmo.
H olland:
De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodae der
Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
Dr. H. Gruter. F. R. C., Grand Master, Nice.
Mile Jeanne Guesdon, S.R .C ., Corresponding
Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Switzerland:
A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel,
F. R. C., Gr. Sect., Riant-Port V evey-Plan.
Austria:
Mr. M any Cihlar, K. R. C., Grossekretar der
A M O R C , Laxenburgerstr, 75/9, Vienna, X .
China and Russia:
T h e United Grand Lodge of China and Rus
sia. 8/18 Kavkazskaya St., Harbin, Man
churia.
RO S IC R U C IA N PRESS. LTD.

JU R ISD IC T IO N S

New Zealand:
Auckland Chapter A M O R C . Mr. G. A.
Franklin. Master. 317 Victoria Arcade Bids.
Queen St., City Auckland.
England:
The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.
Mr. Raymund Andrea. K .R . C., Grand
Master. 34 Baywater Ave., W estbury Park.
Bristol 6.
Dutch and East Indies:
Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum. Grand Master.
W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang. Java.
Egypt:
T h e Grand Orient of A M O R C . House of the
Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R .C ., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia, Heliopolis.
A frica:
The Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast,
A M O R C . Mr. W illiam Okai, Grand Master,
P. O. Box 424 A ccra. Gold Coast, W est
Africa.
India:
The Supreme Council. A M O R C , Calcutta,
India.
T h e add resses o f o th er foreign G ran d L o d g es
and secretaries will b e fu rn ished on application.
PRINTED

IN U . S . A .

M EL IDE BE BORIl
a q a iu m p a ir
AI1D SllFFERinq ?
I V I l U S T we relive the misfortunes, discour
agements, and failures of this life? Does death
deliver us permanently from tlie vicissitudes of
the earth, or is if a temporary respite, returning us
once more to the world of man? Is death a glorious
opportunity to begin again, at some other time and
place, to undo what we have done, and to profit by our
experiences o f the past * Shall we instead look upon
death as the end, the close of a chapter, with its story
incomplete and imperfect/ Does our span here of a few
years constitute our sole existence as humans, and if so,
is that Divi ne justice? I here are no questions which the
human mind can entertain that are more intimate or
more vital than these. I hey are interestingly answered
and discussed in a marvelous discourse entitled. T h e
Soul s Ret urn, prepared by Dr. I I. Spencer Lewis.
I his discourse represents years of study on this subject
and his fascinating conclusions. 1 o the point, under
standable and instructive, this manuscript should be in
your possession as a valuable document on the subject
ol reincarnation. You may obtain it A B S O L U T E L Y
W I T H O U T C O S T by merely subscribing to this
magazine,
I he Rosicrucian Digest, for just six
months. A six-months subscription costs only $1.50
and in addition to receiving six copies of this magazine,
you will receive at once, with postage paid, this most
unusual discourse, which alone is worth more than the
magazine subscription price. There
are but a limited number of these
discourses available, so we advise
that vou subscribe at once, and
A SK FO R Y O U R G IF T CO PY.
V

G I F T F O R YOU

I lie discourse, I lie S oul s R eturn, w as

once published serially, in answ er to h un
dreds of questions about reincarnation re
ceived from throughout the w orld by D r.
ewis. 1 bis is the lirst time it has ever
been released in m anuscript form in its en
tirety. F o r interesting particulars, read above.

The

ROSICRUCIAN D1QEST

SA N

J O S E .

C A L I I'O R N I A .

U. S. A.

<rRgsicrucian Library
The following: books are a few o f several recommended because o f the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume H.

R O S IC R U C IA N P R IN C IP L E S F O R T H E H O M E A N D B U SIN E SS.

A very practical book dealing w ith the solution o f health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped w ith gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume m .

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life of the
Great Master, from the records o f the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation of Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
botind in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V.

I N T O T H E E I G R A N T . . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f T ibet,
it is filled w ith the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
with attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V I.

A TH O U SAN D Y E A R S OF Y E STE R D A YS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and m ystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price. 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V U .

S E L F M A S T E R Y A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E .

A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. N o mathematics required. Better than any system o f numerology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume

Vni.

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work of the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X L

M A N S IO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E CO SM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines of reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X II.

W ell

L E M U R IA T H E L O S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K n ow o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X III.

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete guide for attaining the state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a m asterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $1.85 per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY BU REA U ,

Ro sicru cian Park, San Jo s e , C alifornia.

PORTRAIT OF GREAT MASTER

Cj Even ifie most renowned portraits of Jesus Cfirist and those murals in which lie
is a central figure, were executed several centuries after the crucifixion. I here
apparently was never left to posterity from His period any actual representation in
art ol the physical appearance of the Master. I he various works portraying Him
are but the result of the personal conceptions and idealisms of the artists. Though
many artists have claimed their portraits or sculptures of Christ were the result of
Divine revelation, the works of each in many cases are extremely
unlike. It is not generally known that some of the early portraits
0 f the C Iirist were without beard and nimbus.
Nearly all artists, in an endeavor to portray the spiritual nature
01 the Master, have made Him extremely effeminate in facial lines.
I hey are further inconsistent by having the hands of a delicate,
even cameo-like, appearance. Not only the Scriptures, but other
sacred literature sources revea I that by occupation He was a car
penter and a Jisherman, and 1 lis bands, therefore, coulcl not have
been as they are depicted.
O n e ol the most startling new pictorial representations o f the
Master is the one executed by Dr. H. Spencer Lewis. I lis painting
is the result ol much research into the unknown life of Christ.
It reveals I lim as having a positive, masculine, masterly coun
tenance. with kind mystic and spiritual characteristics instead of
the usual semi-effeminate ones. It also reveals the Aryan feat ures,
Oi\ E T E N T H A C T U A L SIZ E
lor it is declared He was not a Jew but an Aryan.
E a ch portrait is 8.v 10 inches in
size. T hey are reproduced on a
I his portrait has won considerable acclaim because of its inspir
fine grade of heavy paper. I he
ing nature and unique conception. I he hand-colored portraits done
colored photographs, done in oil,
in oil are exceptionally beautiful, and yet. economical. The black
are an excellent color likeness of
the original. W e pay postage
and white reproductions are exactly the same, and less in price.
on each order.

PR IC E:

Painted. . . .
Plain . . . .

$<.50

$ 1.00

1 his portrait is an exact photographic reproduction of the orig

inal done by the Imperator, which is in the Initiation Chamber of
the Supreme I emple of the Order in San Jose. Lor size and price
read column beneath picture. Send your order and remittance to:

FAM OUS M ARGA TE G RO TTO

P h oto C ou rtesy o f C. E . M itchell, D irector o f the G rotto.
The above is a chamber of the beautiful 2000-ft. serpentine grotto of Margate, England. It was first discovered
in 1834 A. D. by a school boy. Its designs are composed of a magnificent mosaic of shells. M ystery surrounds its
origin. It is thought to have been a Druid Temple; a Rosicrucian Temple: a V ikings Tom b; a place of Roman burial;
or possibly the Shrine of Mithras, the Persian sun-god.

Awaken the Self Within

...

and Conquer the W orld!

QJ Look beyond the horizon! I be visla before you now may be only a mirage of tlie sensesa
delusion. Your place in life may be higher, richer, and more commanding, if you raise your view
point and widen your understanding.

L ife is N ot a Mystery But a C h a lle n g e

Of You can rise above the slavery of labor and the grudges of toil. You can meet the obstacles
in your life and challenge them to submit to your personal power. You have the same mental
forces to use which have helped thousands of others to become real masters of their destiny.
There is no power to hold you back, but yourself.

D iscover the P o w er W ith in Y o u a n d Use It!

Of Money, influence, friends, education will not do for you what you can do wi th the simple
releasing ol activities in your mind and psychic faculties, which may now be dormant and awaiting
the magic touch ol your own determination.

1 W ill H elp Y O U with This F ree B o o k

GJ Let me introduce you to the kindly offerings of the Rosicrucians < that old, dependable, non
sectarian Brotherhood of sympathetic cooperation. 1will send you, without obligation, a remark
able book that has helped thousands in all parts of the world. Ju st write a letter (not a post
card of curiosity) and ask for a free copy of J lie Secret Heritage, which tells how a great
work which started in Egypt has spread throughout the civilized world and has become the Great
Light in the lives of thousands of persons who are masters of their own destiny and in command
of their greater careers. Others are using these Principles in their daily alfairs W H Y N O I
Y O U ? Add ress your letter carefully to:
Scribe S. P. C .

The ROSICRUCIANS
(A M O R C )
SA N JO S E . C A L IFO R N IA

W a t c h for the word A M O R C It is a Sym bol of R osicrucian Authenticity

(R o sicru cia n M em bers need nol w rite as they ha ve had this interesting hook.)

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
C O VERS THE W O R LD

TH E O FFIC IA L, IN TER N A TIO N A L ROSICRUCIAN MAGA

ZINE O F T II E W O R LD -W ID E RO SICRUCIAN ORDER
Vol. X IV

M A R C H , 1936

N oT2

C O N T E N T S

Page

Famous M a rg a te G ro tto (Frontispiece) ..................... 41

The Thought of the M onth:

Com prehending the Incom prehensible .....................44

Rosicrucian M essage from the Netherlands

...... 48

C ath ed ral C ontacts ..................................................... 50

A Fundamental Law of the H ealing A r t
A Personal Invitation
A n cient Symbolism

..........

..................

52
56

.................................

Summaries of Science .....

58

59

Som e Facts for Mem bers' Notebooks

62

Pages from the Past: Jan e W elsh C a rly le

64

The M ystery of Personality ___

57

___.............

Sanctum Musings: The Sole Reality (Continued)...

72

Christopher Columbus (Illustration)...

68

Subscription to T h e Rosicrucian Digest, T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw enty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose, California, under the A ct o f August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the
month preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official exressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
e official communications.

P ublish ed M onthly by the Supreme Council of

THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDERAMORC

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SAN JO SE, CALIFORNIA

m SSW

THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

C o m p r e h e n d i n g th e In c o m p re h e n s ib le

U R m e m b e r s and
friends may feel at
times that in a t
tempting to solve
the m ysteries of
life we are seeking
to com prehend the
incom prehensib 1e ,
and that f o r all
p ractical purposes
we are w asting our
time in trying to
lift the veil of ob
scurity a n d peer
behind it or through it.
But man is given to attem pting to
solve m ysteries. H e delights in being
m entally checked in his invasion of the
unknown, and with rem arkable p er
sistency and with the aid of divine
revelation, he has throughout the ages
penetrated the darkness o f wisdom and
has ascended mountain heights of il
lumination.
A nd. strange as it may seem, man has
accepted many of the incom prehensible
things o f life as com m onplace and b e
lieves that he understands them. H e
deals with some of these m ysteries in
such a practical, accep table m anner that
he often deceives him self into believing
that he understands w hat is not u nder
standable and discerns that w hich can
never be discerned.
O n e o f the several incom prehensible
m ysteries of life is th at of time. Y e t
ordinary time is standardized in our
The
daily affairs, or at least we think it is,
n

and we accep t the existence of time as

K ostcru ctan ^ ^ g ^
w ere som ething proved and
D igest
fundam entally established b y nature.
M a rch
T h e truth of the m atter is that time does
1936
not actually exist and it is one of m ans

own artificial creations. Both time and

space are things that cannot possibly
exist in the com prehension of man and
therefore are not proved as existing in
the universe as fundam entals at all. No
one has ever been able to prove that
there is such an elem ent in our lives as
time and yet we have allow ed a fictitious
standard, and. in fact, a group of ficti
tious stand ard s of time, to be used as
laws to regulate our affairs. W e labor,
live, operate, think, and carry on our
affairs in accord an ce with these fictitious
stand ard s and often allow them to en
slave us or draw us into critical situ a
tions and dire predicam ents.
If anyone w ere to ask you right now
as you are reading this m atter what
time of day it is, and you w ere to
answ er in accord an ce with your watch
or clock, or a W e s te r n Union or Postal
telegraph tim e-keeper, or a governm ent
signal, neither you nor an y official of
the com panies nor any expert of the
governm ent could prove that the time
indicated w as correct or that there was
any definite w ay by which the time of
d a y " could be established.
W e may argue th at time is a m atter
of establishm ent through recognition
and universal or general consensus of
opinion. W e may argue that since the
multitude or at least the m ajority of
persons in any part of the w orld, or in
any country or section o f the country,
agree that a certain moment of the clock
is the correct time of day for that par
ticular place, it is th erefore established
and is fundam entally a law. T h e fallacy
in such argum ents is the fact that the
m ajority of persons in any part of the
w orld have different opinions in regard
to time and that our governm ents and
F orty -fo u r

courts of law have different ideas of

time, and there is not the universal
recognition and establishm ent of time
that we think there is.
From the point of view of our con
sciousness of time, time itself is m erely
a conscious realization of duration. B u t
the moment we analyze this we realize
that time is constantly passing and that
a moment of duration is in the past as
rapidly as we are conscious of it or
realize it. There can be no such thing
as the future of time inasm uch as we
cannot comprehend that which has not
yet caused duration in our consciousness
and since we only appreciate duration
as it passes, time is co n stan tly moving
from nowhere into the past.
In the measurement of time, man has
arbitrarily throughout the periods of
civilization adopted methods for a t
tempting to measure his consciousness
of duration or his com prehension of the
duration of consciousness. M an cannot
think concentratedly, and with full real
ization, of two separate, distinct things
coincidentally. T h e consciousness o f
man and his m ental equipm ent for
realizing his thoughts will not permit
him to center his com prehension upon
the words of this m agazine and coinci
dent with it be conscious and have a full
realization of a piece of music that is be
ing played, or of some w ords that are
being spoken, or of som e thought that
is in the mind that is separated from the
thought contained in the w ords being
read. W ith extraord inary rapidity the
consciousness and realization o f the
mind can flit alternately or vacillate and
swing from one conscious thought and
realization to another until, like the
jumping of the moving pictures on the
screen from one still picture to another,
the blending appears to give a continu
ous action and all of the sep arate pic
tures appear to be coincidental. B u t in
the ultimate analysis it will be found
that man can be conscious of only one
thing at a time, despite the fact th at his
mind may jump from one to an oth er so
rapidly that he believes he is thinking
of several things at the sam e instant.
In order to m easure the difference b e
tween the beginning and end o f the
comprehension of som ething and the
movement to another thought or im
pression, man has established m ethods
Forty-five

of m easuring the duration of con sciou s

ness, and the lapse o f consciousness b e
tween im pressions and this m easurem ent
he calls a m easurem ent of time. P h ilo
sophically, the foundation o f time is in a
certain sense m erely a fourth dimension
th at man has added to space. B u t this
is not easily com prehensible either.
In order to find some im mutable law
of nature by w hich to m easure time,
man has taken some o f the movements
th at are observed in the universe, b e
lieving that any m ovement th at is con
tinuous and stea d fa st, regular and im
m utable in its principle, requires dura
tion and, therefore, occupies time. A n y
one o f these fundam ental m ovements
can becom e a yard stick for m easuring
time.
P erh ap s throughout the w orld today
the most generally used yard stick for
the m easurem ent o f time is the m ove
m ent o f the earth on its axis, or in other
w ords, the revolution o f the earth. T h is
revolution gives days, periods of months,
and a cycle of movement w hich w e call
a year. B y dividing the days into m athe
m atically equal divisions, we arrive at
hours, minutes, and seconds. B y divid
ing the periods o f the seasons we arrive
at units called months, and by dividing
the y ea r w e attem pt to ad ju st the months
into equal divisions of the year, and
run into m any snags.
W h y should man have taken the
revolution o f the earth as a fundam ental
law of the universe? T h e earth is only
one o f a num ber o f planets visible to us
and each one of these planets has a d if
ferent cycle of time for its motion. If the
argum ents o f scien ce are correct th at the
universe is unlimited in space (a n o th er
incom prehensible th in g) and our sun
and our earth are only small parts of
the w hole universe, and if G od and H is
om nipotent pow ers rule and control the
w hole universe, w hy is it th at man has
not found in some other truly universal
motion a b etter y ard stick for his m eas
urem ent o f time? C ertain ly there must
be one cycle, one fundam ental law of
motion som ew here in the universe that
would apply to all the planets and all
the beings that live on these planets. If
other planets are inhabited and if
there are m any suns throughout the
universe with their own planets re
volving around them then the revolu-

tion o f our earth could mean nothing to

the people on other planets, and their
days, hours, and minutes would be d if
ferent from ours, and ours would mean
nothing to them. In other w ords, we
would not be able to know the time of
m otions throughout the universe and
jud ge the time o f things in all parts of
G o d s creation by the use of the earthly
y ard stick because this y ard stick is a
unique one differing from all others. It
would be equivalent to a few men on
this earth having w atches th at travelled
the entire tw en ty -fo u r divisions in four
teen hours instead of tw en ty-fou r, and
these persons attem pting to com pre
hend, regulate, and control the affairs
of other people w ho had w atches which
required tw en ty -fo u r hours to cover
the tw enty -fou r divisions.
T h e only excu se that science offers
for our arb itrary adoption o f the ea rth s
motion as a m easurem ent of time is the
fact th at the e a rth s revolution causes
our periods of day and night and that
d aylight and night-tim e as two periods
of the cycle constitute a day. T h is b e
ing true, it would be con sisten t to say
th at a day began at sunrise and con
tinued until the n ext sunrise, giving us
a daylight period and a night-tim e
period as one com plete cy cle called a
day. B u t here again m an's arb itrary
m ethods of doing things and creating
fictitious stand ard s reveal them selves
because throughout the civilized w orld,
although the revolution of the earth has
been generally adopted as the m easure
m ent o f time, the beginning o f th at
m easurem ent or the beginning of the
day is considered differently in different
parts o f the w orld by different groups
of persons and by different ap p lica
tions of the realization o f time. F u rth er
more, in the scientific field we find there
are three kinds of days, the so lar day,
the sidereal day, and the lunar day. O u r
calend ar month is not the sam e as the
lunar m onth, for the lunar month centers
itself around approxim ately tw en ty-eigh t
days, w hile the calen d ar month can be
from tw en ty -eig h t to th irty -on e days
long a beautiful exam ple o f m ans
The
ridiculous w ays o f creatin g standards
RnO rrurinn
m easurem ent. O n the other hand,
p..
the solar day is not the sam e length as
Ut&*st
the sidereal day.
March
H ow ever, the solar day has becom e a
1936
fundam ental unit in astronom ical p rac

tice and in m ost of the affairs of daily

life. W e m easure this day by observing
when the sun is directly at the zenith
overhead in the locality w here we hap
pen to be, which makes the noonday
different in different localities on the
earth and, of course, there are places
w here if a person w alks but a qu arter of
a mile in one direction or the other, o c
cupying w atch-tim e of fifteen minutes,
he finds th at noontim e is either one hour
earlier or later on either side of the line.
It is possible for one house to be so
situated that it can be eleven o clock
m idday in one room and tw elve o clock
in the other, or tw elve in one and one
o clock in the aftern oon in another
room.
W h e n w e come to law courts and the
legal question of time, we find there are
tw o kinds of days, the natural day and
the artificial day. T h e artificial day is
often called the civil day. T h e natural
day includes the tw en ty -fo u r hours b e
ginning at m idnight and ending at mid
night, and not beginning at sunrise and
ending at the n ex t sunrise. O n the other
hand, in certain legal m atters w here a
statu te requires certain acts to b e done
within so m any days, the law refers to
w hat is called clear days, or in other
w ords, a num ber o f intervening perfect
days not counting the term inal days. If
statutes of this kind make no reference
to Su n d ays, then the Su nd ays are in
cluded among the number of days
stated : w hile in some other statutes S u n
days and holidays would be excluded
and four days might becom e five or six
in actual time. In certain forms of
human activities there are so-called lay
days w hich are divisions of the week
and not n ecessarily periods of tw entyfour hours.
Civil days, on the other hand, follow
the old R om an law and begin at twelve
o clock noon and end a t the following
noon. Still there are civil laws which
describe a period o f a day as meaning
from sunrise to sunset. Su ch d ays
th erefore m ay be tw elve or fourteen
hours long or only nine or ten hours. In
other civil and legal rulings w here the
obligation is made to pay m oney on a
certain day, the law allow s the period
to be stretched up to m idnight of that
day, even if it had been otherw ise figured
as beginning at sunset of the preceding
Forty-six

m ethods of m easurem ent and then find

that this yard stick o f m easurem ent or
stand ard o f m easurem ent does not suit
all of his problem s and therefore change
the standards of m easurem ent to suit
the conditions and necessities. It is like
having a yard stick o f th irty -six inches
made of rubber that can be stretched
from th irty -six inches to forty or fifty
inches to accom m odate certain condi
tions, or squeezed and reduced to tw elve
or fourteen inches to meet other circum
stances.
A fte r all, we see, therefore, th at the
so-called real m ysteries of life such as
the law s of G od established at the time
of creation and w hich operate in and
through us, are not as difficult to com
prehend as the artificial, fictitious things
of m ans own m ental creation . M a n 's
consciousness a n d com prehension of
things including all the errors of com
prehension and m isunderstanding, all
the particular theories and erroneous
ideas constitute the really g reat m ys
teries of life which must first be solved,
and the errors and erroneous ideas eli
m inated befo re man can begin to com
prehend the so-called m ysteries of the
universe.

day. In such a condition a day would be

from thirty to forty hours long.
W ith certain religions and religious
sects, such as with the Jew ish religion,
the day begins at sunset and ends at the
following sunset. In connection with
certain lines of business a d ay is of a
very short period. F o r instance, if an
obligation demands a paym ent to be
made at a bank the follow ing day, it is
implied that that day shall be the period
when it is the most convenient for the
bank or place to be operating in a
normal business m anner. T h a t would
make the bank day from approxim ately
ten in the morning to three in the a fte r
noon, or only five hours long instead of
tw enty-four.
T hu s we see that m ans attem pt to
comprehend an incom prehensible thing,
such as a fictitious condition called time,
has led him into all sorts o f predica
ments and contradictions. T h e re is no
true standard in the universal law s for
such a thing as time since it exists
wholly in the consciousness of man and
not in nature itself. It is little w onder
therefore that man in attem pting to
comprehend a fictitious thing th at re
sides only in his objective or outer con
sciousness should resort to many strange

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

i
T H E PR A YERS O F T H E M YSTICS
T he book, "M ystics at Prayer," explains in simple language the reason of prayer, how
to pray, and the Cosmic laws involved. You come to learn the real efficacy of prayer,
and its full beauty dawns upon you. W hatever your religious belief, this book makes
your prayers the application not of words, but of helpful, divine principles. You will
learn the infinite power of prayer. Prayer is man's rightful heritage. It is the direct
means of mans communion with the infinite force of divinity. T his book contains the
words used by the mystics for self-unfoldment. It is a careful selection of the chosen
prayers of the mystics, the particular ones that reveal their divine understanding of meta
physical principles. There are over a hundred of them. T h e name and a brief biographical
sketch of each mystic is given with a cross index.
T h e book, attractively printed and bound, stamped in gold, on art paper, in two colors,
is only $1.00 postpaid. Send your remittance and order to Rosicrucian Supply Bureau,
San Jose, California.

1
Forty-seven

Rosicrucian Message from the Netherlands

GREETINGS FROM ACROSS TH E OCEAN TO OUR
MEM BERS IN AM ERICA
By

F ra ter

R O M O U R H ead q u a r t e r s in T h e
H a g u e , H olland,
at this C hristm as
time, w e wish to
send greetings to
all of the F ra tre s
and So ro res of the
N o r t h A m erican
G ran d Lodge of
our R o s i c r u c i a n
O rd er.
Sin ce e a r l y in
the spring o f 1935,
I have w anted to w rite an article to ap
pear in your m agazine T h e Rosicrucian
D igest to tell all o f you about the w ork
we are doing here in the Kingdom o f the
N etherland s in behalf of our org aniza
tion, w hich in the language of our n a
tion is known as the A loude M y stiek e
O rd e R o sa e C ru cis, which as you see
gives us the initials A M O R C as in your
country.
It w as decreed th a t the dorm ant a cti
vities of R osicrucianism in H olland
should be revived publicly in the y ear
1934. F o r many y ears R osicrucianism
has been active in our possessions in the
Pacific known as the D utch E a st Indies,
The
Rosicrucian w hile here in H olland w here R osicru
cianism w as very strong and very active
Digest
in its last cy cle o f public w ork, scores
M a rch
of devoted students o f its principles,
and descend ants o f the form er high
1936

A. A. A.
officers, have kept alive the spirit o f the
w ork w aiting for the time to come when
the great revival should occur. Sev eral
y ears ago, anticipating the year 1934,
three or four o f our most active members
made con tacts with the A M O R C in
various lands in order to make ourselves
fam iliar w ith w hat w as being done in
the new world as well as here in the old
world in the d istricts w here the R o si
crucian O rd er has been active for m any
years. W e have especially enjoyed the
literature we have received from the
N orth A m erican jurisdiction, and from
our personal co n tacts on various o cca
sions with the officers representing the
N orth A m erican jurisdiction.
W h e n the y ear 1934 and the revival
drew nearer, the above-m entioned mem
bers began their individual activities in
various localities, often working inde
pendently and in som e cases unaw are o f
w hat the others w ere doing. B y a w ork
ing o f the Cosm ic law s w e w ere all
brought together and brought into con
tact with one another, and im m ediately
there follow ed various organization
m eetings both in T h e H agu e and in
A m sterdam .
D uring the summer of
1934 one o f our official w orkers travelled
to B ru ssels. Belgium , and during a m eet
ing of the In tern ation al R osicrucian
C ouncil there, received at the hands of
the highest European and A m erican
officers the appointm ent to becom e the
F orty -eig h t

first Grand Secretary pro tem of the

revival of Rosicrucianism in the new
cycle in Holland.
Since then the w ork has rapidly
grown with enthusiasm. O u r members
have talked to friends and acquaintances
in an attempt to make further con tacts
with those silent w orkers w ho w ere
descendants of or follow ers in the foot
steps of the earlier leaders of the w ork
in this country. M uch correspondence
followed and in M a y o f 1935 the first
official meeting o f the Suprem e C ouncil
for this country w as held at T h e H agu e
and some forty men and women pledged
themselves to the reorganization work
and revival of the R osicru cian B ro th er
hood in the Kingdom o f the N e th e r
lands. This meeting w as held secret as
far as the general public was concerned,
and not until we are ready to release
certain m anifestoes in the old and au
thentic form shall w e attem pt to reach
the masses. W e shall follow very clo se
ly the spirit of the w ork as it has been
carried on in the D utch E a st Indies so
that this section o f our kingdom shall
work in harmony with the other section.
W e feel that it will take about three
years for us to accom plish here in H o l
land the work of laying the proper
foundation. W e have alread y attracted
other persons who have carried over
with them from the past an intim acy
with the B rotherhood, and those who
have felt an inner urge to be associated
with the organization for some specific
reason. T h e day is draw ing closer w hen
we shall realize the power of the w ork
in this country, and by the time this
message has reached our F ra tre s and
Sorores in N orth A m erica w e shall have
made much progress in establishing the
foundation by having held the first
secret initiation of members in the new
cycle. T h e m onths of M arch and April,
1936, will mark the first foundation
stone in this new structure.
All of us realize th at the w ork we
have undertaken is a glorious one, but
one which calls for real labor and real
services, and although we have met
many obstacles and have many problem s
to solve, we are firmly determ ined to go
on and to make the R osicru cian path a
permanent roadw ay leading to w ell
being, happiness, and C osm ic glory.
Forty-nine

F o rtu n a tely for us, very much in the

teachings o f our R osicru cian o rganiza
tion sound logical and m orally right in
the h earts of the D utch people, and the
ideas and ideals of R osicru cian s are a l
most identical with the ideas and ideals
of D utch citizenry. In the seven or more
y ears in w hich many of us here have
been carefu lly studying and analyzing
the teachings and preparing for the re
vival, w e have never found one word in
the literatu re of your N orth A m erican
system of instruction, nor in any o f the
other literatu re th at has com e to us
from other districts, w hich contains in
thought or p ractice anything that would
shock the public opinion in our hom e
land even am ong the most orthodox
C hristian s or Jew s. W e feel, therefore,
that it is not only our high duty, but also
our great pleasure to go on w ith this
great work for w hich a large portion of
the D u tch people have been seeking and
are qualified and prepared.
It shall be our am bition, as with every
other jurisd iction, to hold high the ideals
o f the B rotherhood , and to uphold its
good nam e and in tegrity. A n y w ho may
attem pt to defraud us or attem pt to a t
tack us from below or out o f the dark
and gloom y corners of the land, shall
meet with the spirit of our true D utch
R osicru cian forebears w ho m aintained
Rosicrucianism in this cou n try for so
long a period ag ain st any and every a t
tack. N ev er in the h istory o f the O rd er
in any land has the organization been
defeated when she adhered to her high
ideals and won the support c r. her
loyal m embers. U n d er the protection of
our national flag and with the support
of the U nseen M a ste rs w e shall a c
com plish w hat w e have set out to do.
T h e re fo re , w e transm it through this
m essage to our F ra tre s and S o ro res in
A m erica, as w e have to other lands, our
h eartiest w ishes for a very happy and
su ccessful N ew Y e a r in carryin g out the
g reat work of the organization, and the
am bitions of the individual m embers.
M a y this m essage serve as a letter o f
introduction to all o f the A m erican o f
ficers and members w ho are in sym pathy
with our efforts in H olland and in the
Kingdom of the N eth erlan d s.

ffiM in m iim in m iiiim in iim iiiiin in n n in iiM in iim in n iin in in iiiin iim M n iiiiM iin u iiiim in in n iiH M iu n n iiim iin in iM iiii

The Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefit as well
as those who are members. T h e book called "Liber 777 describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

O M E great thinker
once said th at if
there had been no
G od of the uni
verse, man would
have created one.
T h is w as said with
no feeling of ir
r e v e r e n c e for it
clearly conveys the
fact that man is es
sentially w orship
ful and ever seeks
in his norm al, n a
The
tural thinking state to find th at power,
Rosicrucian that intelligence, that something that is
Digest
g reater than him self and which he can
March
adore, adm ire, respect, honor, and
em ulate.
1936

It has often been noticed th at the

little child who has not been taught any
creed or dogm a n atu rally leans toward
the w orship o f the invisible and the
om nipotent. A s the little child grow s to
the stage w here he is able to express his
w onderm ent, to m anifest his m editative
thinking, and to ask an alytical questions
in their sim plest form, he reveals that he
is seeking to learn about som ething ex
ternal to him self, som ething extern al to
his parents, that is g reater or more m ag
nificent or more m ajestic in some sense.
Su ch children are easily led into the
path o f religion and w orship. A nd they
seldom doubt the existence o f an omni
potent. om nipresent G od as do older
ones w ho allow their objectiv e minds to
F ifty

deceive them with erroneous prem ises

in their reasoning.
It has been said b y m any th at this
tendency on the p art of the child to
want to worship som ething beyond and
greater than himself and extern al to his
own consciousness is either an inherited
tendency derived from his parents or
ancestors, or an acquired tendency cre
ated out of the practices in his environ
ment. But this is not true, for there are
sufficient instances on record of this
tendency on the part o f children born to
parents and in a direct an cestral line
where there have been no such tend en
cies. If it is an acquirem ent, it is not
from external conditions or influences,
but rather from internal ones, for the
love of worship is in every sense an
emotion of the soul and not an urge or
emotion of the extern al self or objective
consciousness. T h e g reatest tendency
on the part of the extern al, objective
consciousness is to aggrandize oneself
and to lean tow ard the adm iration o f
the ego. T h is is the basis of the human
emotion known as vanity. T h e re is
therefore in all average normal human
beings a conflict of em otions betw een
the outer self and the inner self, the one
seeking to find w hat must be a greater
and more m ajestic self extern al to the
individual, and the other seeking to
establish the idea th at there is nothing
greater nor more m ajestic, om nipotent,
and wise than the outer self of the in
dividual. E ven in those cases w here the
outer self has been fictitious to the e x
tent that an exag gerated opinion o f the
ego and an extrem e case o f vanity is
made m anifest, there are in the silent,
meditative periods o f th at individuals
life many occasions w hen a form or
sense of w orship to an extern al pow er
is secretly indulged.
T h e tendency for man to believe in
the existence of a Suprem e B eing, a
Father above all fathers, a M ind and
Intelligence above all minds and intelli
gence, is so fundam entally a part of the
evolving beings on earth that even prim i
tive man in the earliest stages of evolu
tion gradually created sym bols o f w hat
that m ajestic, external, om nipotent B e
ing resembled and to w hich sym bols or
resemblance he m ight express his ad o ra
tion and obeisance.
T h e building of a g reat cath ed ral on
the earth is but a form o f m ans co n
Fifty-on e

tinued desire to express in the greatest

grandeur possible his realization of the
inspiration of divinity. B u t each and
every such attem pt is limited b y the
earth ly elem ents and earth ly conditions.
T h e most lo fty spire that w as ever con
ceived for the greatest o f cath ed rals
finally found its apex far below the
heavens tow ard w hich its creato rs
hoped to extend it. T h e m ost m arvelous
and beau tiful forms of art expressing
the beau ty o f divine consciousness w ere
limited b y m an 's ability in the h and i
cra fts and arts. M a n has never been
able to build out of the con crete, m a
teria] things of this earth anything that
sufficiently represented the h eights of
his divine conception and the glory and
beau ty o f his spiritual com prehension.
In the C ath ed ral of the Sou l, how
ever, w e find time and space and the
elem ents o f earth ly existen ce no bars to
the lo ftin ess and beau ty of m ans co n
ception. T h e C ath ed ral of the Sou l rests
upon no earth ly footstool and is formed
o f no m aterial elem ents or limited in
form, size, w eight, and nature, and its
beauty is not o f the geom etrical patterns
determ ined by the crystals o f ea rth s
m atter. T h e C ath ed ral of the Sou l is
built o f spiritual things in a spiritual
kingdom w hich has neither foundation
nor limit to its h eight; th at h as neither
breadth nor w idth, nor an y o f the
dimensions w hich determ ine and pro
scribe m ans earthly creation s.
T h e C ath ed ral o f the Sou l is a place
for the w orshipping of the soul and not
for the o b jectiv e consciousness of man.
It is a place w here the spiritual part o f
man may abide and rest and find peace,
and not a place for his physical body to
enter and com ply w ith physical laws.
It is a place for th at part o f human
existen ce th at is not classified in experi
ence, or sex, race, color, education, social
standing or w orldly w ealth. It is not
regulated by time and it is alw ays avail
able and never closed to the seeker. Its
inspiring m essages and thoughts are not
limited by the vocabu lary of m ans brain
or b y the oratorical delivery o f m ans
trite m ethods in speaking. Its m essages
com e d irect from the consciousness of
G o d and are spoken into the p erfect
understanding of the soul o f man. Its
music, its vibrations of happiness and
contentm ent are o f the pristine em ana
tions of the mind o f G o d and, th erefore,

are free to all. and im mediate in e f

fectiveness.
W e invite all w orshippers o f all
creeds and denom inations of all lands
and all races to join with us in our w or
ship in the C ath ed ral o f the Sou l. If
you have not read the booklet called,

Liber 777, w hich tells the story o f the

C ath ed ral of the Soul, send for a copy
today. Y o u may have it w ithout any
obligation and with the benediction of
the C osm ic and the best w ishes o f our
organization.

oA Fundam ental Law of the H ealing Art

By

F ra te r

F. W .

F R IE N D
and
form er s t u d e n t
dropped in to see
me the other day.
H e w anted to find
out if I could help
h im t o s e c u r e
better results in his
profession, to tell
him how to build
his business. H e
told me that he felt
th at he w as doing
everything possible
to get his patients well, th at his office
was fully equipped with all the latest
instrum ents; still he w as unable to se
cure the results that fellow practitioners
did, and he w ished to find out the
reason.
In sh ort, he asked, W h a t s
w rong with m e?" S o we sat down and
proceeded to delve into this business of
getting and keeping folks well and
happy.
V e ry quickly we brought out the fact
that there w as a lack of know ledge, or
a m isunderstanding upon his part, as to
one of the fundam ental law s of the h eal
ing arts. T h e absence o f this most
necessary and vital element w as one of
the reasons w hy success did not attend
The
Rosicrucian his efforts. W h a t is this law or prin
ciple he had failed to recognize and ob
Digest
serve? It is simply this: A com plete
M a rch
understanding o f the spiritual element
or the m ental aspect of healing. In
1936

A ck erm an

o ther w ords, the failure to understand

the principle o f the duality o f M an .
P erh ap s he w as doing everything for
the physical body, but there w as a
failure to take into consideration the
spiritual man. T h e em otional side of
M a n is very cap ab le of influencing his
digestion and the functioning of other
organs and glands of his body. U nless
both aspects o f man are treated and
cared for there can be no real cure or
lasting benefit, regard less of how effi
cient the physical therapy.
L et us proceed to analyze this spiritual
or m ental aspect; or in other w ords, how
M in d influences physical conditions. W e
will grant, for the sake o f the argum ent,
that the individual has been instructed,
and is obeying all the law s o f N atu re in
regard to exercise, diet, and so forth,
but he is still a sick man. N ow the first
thing for this individual to do is to think
of him self as well, young, full of life
and energy. T h e true physician and
healer will first o f all instil in the mind
o f his patient this thought.
N eith er will he indulge in any n eg a
tive thoughts nor make them to the
patient. It does not take very much of
an im agination on the part o f my reader
to picture the disastrous results that
come from this form o f thinking and
talking. W e have all seen numerous
exam ples. W h e r e there is no vision the
people perish, is indeed a true sta te
ment. T h e more light that can be thrown
F ifty -tw o

upon the subject of right thinking and

living, and upon the su bject of m eta
physics, the more unnecessary suffering
we can eliminate. If you know the Law s
of Nature and will obey them not lie
or cheat your own inner-self, or allow
the outer man to dictate and rule you
can greatly improve your health. In
many cases it is possible to com pletely
banish what would otherw ise have been
a severe case of illness by this process
of R IG H T T H I N K I N G . T h e very
wonderful thing about the teachings of
the Rosicrucians is that these teachings
give the student the truth, the w hole
truth, and nothing but the truth regard
ing Natural Law . T h is is given in such
a manner that the facts can be amply
proven by all those w ho are privileged
to receive them. It is hoped th at all
members appreciate and actually try to
prove these Law s by applying them in
their own lives, and especially in m atters
pertaining to health.
In order to understand how it is pos
sible for the M ind to create certain
states of being, it is n ecessary to have a
good understanding of the different
phases of mental activity. In the higher
degrees of the R osicru cian O rd er a
complete explanation of the w orkings
and various activities of the M ind and
brain, the W ill-P o w e r, the M em ory,
etc., is given to the student-m em her.
However, for the purpose of exp lan a
tion, in connection with the su b ject as
touched upon here, popular definitions
will be used. T h e member can substitute
the true names for the ones I shall give
here.
Psychologists divide the activities o f
the M ind into three phases as follow s:
The Conscious, the U nconsciou s, and
the Subconscious. N ow w e are un
conscious of a great portion o f m ental
activity. H ow ever, every m ental im
pression, such as the sensation of sight,
hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling,
and every idea we have ever had in this
and past incarnations, has left its im
pression upon our M ind . M an y o f these
are so far below the level of conscious
ness that they cannot be realized or re
called at will. Som e o f them m ay force
themselves into our consciousness even
against our w ills, disturbing normal
conscious mental processes.
Fifty-three

T h e In telligen ce w ithin our bodies

w hich controls, through the nervous
system , the involuntary, functional a c
tivities of the different parts, and of the
body as a w hole, has been called the
U nconscious M in d . T h e activities
of the Su bconscious M in d are norm al
ly controlled by the im pressions received
from the different parts of the body and,
although it is closely related to the
U n con sciou s and C onscious M in d s
there is norm ally no conscious m ental
control over the involuntary activities of
the body. Sen sation s and feelings make
little or no im pression upon the C on
scious M in d unless they are unusual or
unexpected, stron ger than or different
from others accom panying or preceding
them, or the mind is especially su scept
ible to their influence or in a sta te of
expectan t attention to them. H ow ever,
all im pressions from the outside and
A L L ID E A S O R IG IN A T IN G W I T H
IN T H E M IN D A R E R E G I S T E R E D
A N D R E T A I N E D IN T H E S U B
C O N S C I O U S M IN D , and by their
accum ulative effects, create a sense of
superiority, or in feriority, a gratification
of its w ishes, or the reverse, or arouse
other sensations, m emories, em otions
and impulses dorm ant in the U n co n
scious M in d , and these may produce
or influence conscious m ental activities
or states o f mind.
T h e C onscious M in d represses and
subm erges all thoughts and memories
th at carry a feeling of inferiority, failure,
tim idity, hum iliation, or o f pain and dis
pleasure. T h e U n con sciou s M in d re
tains these ideas and they have a pow er
ful influence upon its conduct and great
ly in terfere with the norm al outlet of
the em otional energy stored in the U n
conscious M in d . Stro n g com binations
o f thoughts and feelings known as com
plexes may produce ideas, em otions,
and actions in acco rd an ce with the
urges, instincts and desires behind them,
but co n trary to the code of ethics and
rules o f conduct of the individual, or
bring about conflicts betw een the C o n
scious and U nconscious M in d s and
greatly disturb the norm al functioning
of both.
U n con sciou s likes and dislikes, w ish
es and fears, and in ten se em otions,
esp ecially when the norm al outlets or
com pensations are denied them, con

stantly influence our thoughts, speech,

and actions. T h e evolution o f the sen
sations reaching the brain, the form and
content of the conscious thoughts, and
the nature and strength of the feelings
and em otions present in the "C on scio u s
M in d , are determ ined alm ost entirely
by w hat is stored aw ay in the " U n
conscious M in d , the inherited instincts
and the accum ulated experiences o f the
present and past incarnations. U n n a
tural em otions, intense em otions, and
long-su stained em otions seriously dis
turb the norm al m ental processes and
produce states of mind w hich make it
im possible for the individual to think
and act as a norm al person. T h e in
dividual may not be aw are o f the pres
ence and of the harm ful effect o f these
because of their being repressed into the
"U n co n scio u s M in d , as e x p l a i n e d
above, but in a great many instances,
the individual is conscious o f the em o
tional disturbance but does not fully
realize their disturbing effects.
E a ch individual should do his or her
utm ost to control anger, fear, w orry, ex
citem ent, hate, envy, jealou sy , grief,
and all depressions or morbid m ental
states. T h e re are germs of hate, envy,
greed, jealousy, anger, fear, and w orry,
ju st as surely as there are pathogenic
germs, and the first named are the
H eralds of the last group. H ow to over
com e these morbid m ental states is
largely an individual problem requiring
a critical and honest inventory, and the
use of W ill-P o w e r, persistence and p a
tience. D islike for o n es w ork or a sso
ciates, disappointm ents over the failure
o f one's plans, and a general d issatis
faction of o nes lot in life, are common
and im portant causes o f m ental discord
and nervous disturbances. U n til there
is absolute peace and harm ony in the
m ental aspect there can not be per
fection in the physical aspect. O n e
should overcom e this condition by real
izing that his lot in life and his place in
the schem e o f things has been d eter
mined by a W is e Intelligence, and
should m ake him self more w orthy of ad
vancem ent into an environm ent that is
The
more pleasant. W e cannot progress
Rosicrucian until we prove ourselves w orthy of ad
vancem ent.
Digest

March
1936

T h e normal functional activities of

the body, the circulation, respiration,

digestion, etc., are controlled by a sy s

tem o f nerves called the "A u tonom ic
N ervous S y ste m ." T h is nervous system
is under control o f the "Su b con sciou s
M in d ." T h e three phases o f M ind
described above a r e closely related
physiologically and psychologically, and
the im pressions received b y and the
activities of one o f them may disturb the
activities o f the other two. H ere we
have another w onderful exam ple of the
Law o f the T ria n g le . T h is being true, it
is only logical to assum e that anything
which disturbs the normal activity of
the "Su b co n scio u s M in d " may disturb
som e of the norm al functional activities
o f the body, w hich are controlled by the
"S u b co n scio u s M in d , and the truth of
this assum ption has been am ply proven.
T h e influence of fear, anger, pain,
and dejection in retarding and inhibiting
bodily functions, and of hope, joy,
pleasure, and high spirits in stimulating
and acceleratin g the physiological pro
cesses, are w ell-know n exam ples o f the
effects o f conscious mental activities and
states of mind upon the physical func
tions o f the body.
T h e "U n co n scio u s M in d " is the re
pository of the long-continued and more
intense em otions, especially those based
upon the instinctive w ishes and fears,
and the more firmly fixed or established
mental states and attitudes, which are
initiated and m aintained by th eir close
association, past and present, with un
pleasant experiences. T h e se em otions,
states, and attitudes profoundly influ
ence both the conscious m ental activities
and physiological processes o f the body,
w hich are, to a large exten t, controlled
by the Subconscious M in d . A mental
shock, a loss o f em otional control, or a
long-continued morbid state of mind
like w orry, fear, grief, despondency, or
an ger m ay produce, through its influ
ence on th e "S u b co n scio u s M in d , dis
turbances in im portant body functions,
which if long continued, term inate in
functional or even organic diseases. It
is in the above described m anner that
M ind rules the body.
W h ile it is true that there are many
diseases o f purely m ental origin and
these can be cured through the use of
mental or m etaphysical m eans alone,
the g reater portion of the diseases with
w hich m ankind is afflicted have a physi
F ifty -fou r

th at im provement has begun, rath er

than the idea that the morbid condition
is n on -existen t. W h e n the physician or
h ealer attem pts to replace the valid be
lief th at there is a physical disorder with
the erroneous statem ent that no such
disorder is present, he only serves to fix
attention upon, and to ex ag g erate the
im portance of, the harm ful idea or
know ledge o f the presence o f the
physical disorder.
H e should never
mention or direct attention to the ab
norm al physical condition or m ental
state, but should endeavor to divert a t
tention from it. T h e suggestion o f the
goal desired must be p ractical and h a r
monize with a basic w ish of the S u b
conscious M in d . A ll things are in a
process of con stan t change, or in a state
of becom ing som ething else. S o it is
with m ental and physical conditions.
W e must realize the truth o f this in
handling human ills. D isease and other
abnorm al conditions w h e n handled
under this plan are in a process of b e
coming a state of health.

cal as well as a mental origin. T h is is

true because mankind does not violate
one Law of N ature but many. Sim ply
violating the Law o f R ig h t Thin kin g
would be productive of disease of pure
ly mental origin. B u t m ankind also
violates the Law of R ig h t E atin g .
Drinking, Breathing, and others, and
consequently we m u s t also have a
physical origin of disease. In my humble
opinion I believe the L aw o f R ig h t
Thinking to be of param ount im port
ance. If man did not violate this Law in
the first place, he could not violate the
others and thence there would be no o c
casion for him to be sick.
The Unconscious and Subconscious
Minds" cannot be fooled by a false a s
sertion from the C onscious M in d , or
from others. Little benefit can be ex
pected from the denial of the existence
of a condition know n to the S u b
conscious or U nconscious M in d s.
In order that healers, regard less o f
school of thought, secure the g reatest
success in their chosen field, they should
take into consideration this m ental
aspect. Curative and corrective su gg es
tions that will arouse the feeling or idea
that the desired result is in the process
of accomplishment must be used, but not
as a fact when it is not. A n attem pt
should be made to instil the belief th at
the desired changes are in progress.

R E A D

T H E

T h ro u g h the Su b co n scio u s you can

influence the activities of the body for
good b y con stan tly assum ing the m ental
attitude of health. T u rn aside from the
path of unharm ony and w rong think
ing, enter the S ta te o f B eco m in g
w hich eventually leads on to that broad
highw ay o f health and happiness.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

i
IM PO R TA N T N O T IC E T O A LL MEM BERS

A statement is being circulated in some advertising matter throughout the country to

the effect that A M O R C has "purchased" or "bought out" the school and system of Yogi
breathing and mystical teachings formerly conducted as a school by a Mr. Gardner of
Los Angeles. Such statements are absolutely untrue.

|
f

Mr. Gardner advertised in some very bombastic circular matter for a year or more his
personal, private course in telepathy and mind reading and similar subjects, claiming
that he was selling the lessons at a very economical price "before the Rosicrucians ta k e
over my entire system. Our organization never considered taking over the teachings
of Mr. Gardner nor anyone else and especially such nondescript matter as being offered
by the gentleman. A M O R C has never purchased the courses of study, writings, books,
or lectures of any individual or private school. D o not be misled by any such propaganda.

Fifty-five

4
i
j
4
^
j
4

oA Personal Invitation
EVERY MEMBER OF AMORC IS INCLUDED IN THIS MESSAGE
By

T h e Im p e ra to r

T I S once more my
pleasure to invite
every member of
our O rd er in the
N o r t h A m erican
jurisdiction,
w h e t h e r a new
member or one of
lo n g -s t a n d i n g ,
w h e t h e r in t h e
low er d egrees or
higher degrees, to
come to C alifo rn ia
and en jo y with us
the w eek or ten days of celebration,
entertainm ent, instruction, and guidance
at the time of our annual C onvention.
T h is summer the C onvention will have
its opening session on Su n d ay evening,
July 12. T h e C onvention will continue
th ereafter with sessions each morning,
afternoon, and evening throughout the
w eek, ending on Satu rd a y evening, July
18. M em bers and their friends will un
doubtedly follow the procedure of other
y ears and arrive here three or four days
b efo re the opening of the C onvention
and remain some days a fter its con
clusion. Su ch persons make a two
w eeks' stay in the cen tral part of C a li
fornia, spending one w eek w ith us and
another w eek in visiting the northern
and southern p arts of C alifo rn ia, in
The
cluding S a n F ran cisco , L os A ngeles,
Rosicrucian
H ollyw ood, and the great in ternational
Digest
fair at S an D iego.
March
T h e re is no more beautiful spot in the
whole o f the U nited S ta te s for its
1936

clim ate, diversity o f scenery, and de

lightful surroundings than the central
portion of C alifo rn ia. So far as scenery
goes, there is the variation o f the moun
tain tops easily reached in a few hours
to the valleys filled w ith fruit trees,
m agnificent parks, and cities, to the
ocean shore with its beaches and many
form s o f am usem ent. O n e can lie in the
sunshine on the sands o f the beach and
enjoy the refreshing breezes from the
ocean in the morning and at noon, and
late in the afternoon tramp through the
w ooded sections of the mountains and
en jo y all the pleasures o f the mountain
peaks.
F o r food there is an endless variety
of fresh fruits, preserved here and ship
ped throughout the w orld under the
brand o f D el M o n te, and tem pting a r
ray s o f fresh vegetables, all sold at
nom inal prices, making living costs ex
trem ely reasonable.
T h e re are beautiful hotels at nominal
rates, attractiv e auto cam ps with very
econom ical arrangem ents, f u r n i s h e d
rooms, small bungalow cottages, and
m any other places w here individuals
and couples can live for a w eek or two,
more econom ically than in alm ost any
other part of the country. T h e pleasures
are endless and are not dependent upon
the expenditure o f money. W h e th e r
you com e by autom obile or by train,
w hether you w ant to drive your own
ca r or be driven by others, you will find
members here ready to take you on
sightseeing trips and help to entertain
F ifty -six

you. Between the sessions o f the C on

vention in our large auditorium there
are periods for recreation and pleasure
that make each hour of the day from
sunrise to long a fter midnight filled with

happiness,

instruction,

and

direct

benefit.
You will meet a t the C onvention the
leading R osicrucian minds of A m erica,
persons in every w alk of life, in every
religion, every profession, and in every
occupation. Y o u will find those from
your own State, o ften from your own
city, and perhaps from your own neigh
borhood, who will be glad to m eet you
and talk with you regarding your ex
periences and their own and help you
to understand the law s and principles
better. Y ou will find con geniality and
a real spirit o f brotherhood and frank
ness that will please you.
You will have an opportunity to visit
all of the offices and departm ents o f the
organization and see them in operation,
and stand and w atch the hundreds of
methods of efficient routine and preci
sion that are used in carrying on the
great work. Y o u will meet and talk with
those who help to prepare your mono
graphs, who help to mail them to you,
who answer your letters of inquiry and
who help to solve your problem s. Y o u
will meet those with whom you are
dealing day a fter day and w eek a fter
week in your activities as a member.
You will see the beautiful museum with
its relics from all over the w orld, and
especially from those m ystic places and
mystic lands that are associated with
the mystical evolution of man. Y o u will
see the new laboratories and scientific
work rooms o f our own university build
ing. You will see the A m enhotep S h rin e
and other E gy p tian arch itectural fea
tures. Y o u will m eet the officers and
have interview s with them. Y o u will
spend many en jo yab le hours on the
lawns o f R osicru cian P ark and around
its fountain, Shrine, and shady nooks.
You will find interesting stores in the
heart of the city and within an hours
ride of the city itself some o f the largest
universities and historical places o f the
W est.
Y ou will hear em inent R osicru cian s
lecture and dem onstrate the principles o f
our teachings; you will participate in
mystical cerem onies, ritualistic m eetings,
F ifty-seven

and other incidents on a crow ded pro

gram th at will make im pressions in your
mind never to be forgotten.
If you have ever been to R osicru cian
P ark before, you will find new surprises
aw aiting you this summer. Y o u will see
scientific dem onstrations you may never
have w itnessed before and perhaps will
never see again. A nd at the end of the
great week there will be the w onderful
banquet, free to all attending the C on
vention, held in the g reat civic au ditor
ium o f the city with music, speeches,
and hum orous incidents to make the o c
casion a m em orable one.
E v ery lodge and chapter should a r
range now to have an official delegate
present at the C onvention as usual.
E v ery D istrict Com m issioner who can
possibly do so should attend so that he
m ay meet others and togeth er w ork out
plans for the follow ing y ear. E v ery
G ran d C ouncilor should also try to be
present to read his official y early report
and m eet with others in outlining sug
gestions to the new staff o f G ran d
C ouncilors w ho are elected.
E v ery
member w hether officer, d elegate, or
Com m issioner, is invited to be present
and offer his or her su ggestions in the
m any forums and on the m any o cca
sions w hen the various com m ittees of
the C onvention ask for com m ents, criti
cism s, resolutions, a n d suggestions.
E v ery member who desires to speak is
given an opportunity to present his sug
gestions and com m ents. T h is is the op
portunity for those with constructive
ideas, or those who have critical com
m ents to make to bring them b efo re the
C onvention in the proper m anner and
have them voted on or acted upon in
acco rd an ce with the constitution of the
organization or in a spirit o f dem ocracy.
T h e Suprem e C ouncil and B oard of
D irectors of A M O R C each y ea r have
made the C onvention the occasion for
such im provem ents, m odifications, or
changes in the activities of the org aniza
tion as will meet the desires and the best
in terests of the m ajority of the members.
It is the one great occasion when the
membership o f the organization ex
presses its w ishes and has an oppor
tunity w ithout restriction to participate
in the direction of the activities of the
organization.
M em bers m ay bring their relatives
and assu re them o f a delightful and

the m ost econom ical m anner o f reaching

this part o f the cou ntry, w rite to the
C onvention C hairm an for inform ation.
If you w ant to reserve rooms in ad
vance, or places at auto cam ps, be sure
to state your desires, but it is not n eces
sary to make such reservations in ad
vance since the hotels and auto cam ps
can supply adequate room for all who
come.

profitable stay in this valley, even

though they cannot take part in the ses
sions of the C onvention, for the sessions
w ithin the closed auditorium are limited
strictly to those w ho hold membership
cards show ing they are active members
in good standing. T h e re are so many
things to en jo y here in this valley that
there is no need for anyone to rem ain
at home because he is not a member and
cannot attend the C onvention.

T h is is my personal invitation to each

and every member and I hope to see
m ore this y ear as I have seen m ore at
each of the C onventions of the past.

If you w ant to know w hat is the best

w ay to com e to C aliforn ia b y train,
steam boat, or autom obile, and w hat is
V

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
Man, when conscious o f an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized it so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f it. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illuminate mankind
w ith their m ystic light.
F o r those who are seeking light, each month we w ill
reproduce a symbol o r symbols, with their ancient meaning.

OLDEST
ROSICRUCIAN
ALLEGORY

The
R osicru cian
D igest
M a rch

T his sym bolic il

l u s t r a t i o n is the
most revered o f all
Rosicrucian o n e s ,
fo r it depicts the
fundamental tenets
o f the O rders philo
sophy. T he l a r g e
circle is emblematic
o f the macrocosm,
the universe as a
whole, bein g com
plete without begin
n in g o r end. W ith
in the circle is the
triangle, the symbol
o f perfection repre
senting the law of
duality, the binary
forces o f n a t u r e
com bining to pro
duce all creation.
The smaller circle
w ith the human f ig
ures w ithin it al
ludes to the m icro
cosm, t h e s m a l l
w orld o f which man
kind is a part, and which is governed by the same laws as the macrocosm, o f
which it is a part.
The square sym bolizes stability and indicates that all human conduct, in accord
w ith the principles o f the macrocosm and microcosm worlds, is proper and w ill
lead to a life of security.
In the allegorical scene are also shown numerous geom etrical symbols, which
is to teach us that the laws of the universe are ord erly
truths and as dependable as the axioms o f mathematics,
one o f the sciences based upon these universal laws.
This illustration is taken from a very rare Rosicrucian
book o f the 16th century, now in the archives o f the Order.

1936
F ifty-eight

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g natures m ysteries and extending the boundaries o f
knowledge. T he w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
It is w ith pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a m onthly summary
of some o f these scientific researches, and b riefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherw ise specified,
we give full credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

Human Wants

H E R E is no deny
ing that the human,
as are all anim als,
is selfish. M an in
terprets the entire
w orld of sensation
in terms o f value
to him self. In the
purely philosophi
cal a n d spiritual
sense this self is,
as D escartes e x
p r e s s e d it, the
thing th at thinks,
but in the practical sen se as it is accep t
ed by the average man, self is dual. It
is the body with its organs, limbs, d e
sires and passions on the one hand, and
on the other it is the im m aterial, in tan g
ible consciousness and the deep-seated
emotions and urges of w hat are said to
be soul.
M an considers it natural that anim als
beneath him in the scale of development
give themselves over entirely to biologi
cal demands, th at they will not repress
Fifty-nine

any appetites for the nobler purposes of

duty to their kind or the w elfare o f their
species. In other w ords, it is expected
that anim als will m anifest and express
self only in a gratification of the bodily
urges. B u t man, with the facu lty of
reason and the influence o f soul, though
su b ject to the same bodily desires, is ex
pected to heed the im m anent voice of
conscience, and to deny the physical
self pleasure a t times, so as to further
the higher ends o f the inner urges. T h u s
when we endure pain, suffering, and the
torm ent of the body for an a ct of justice,
we are said to be selfless. It resolves
down to this: If we stifle the cries of the
body, sacrifice physical gratification to
attain a m oral ideal, we are lauded as
being unselfish and as living in conform
ity with m an's higher purpose in the
universe.
W e may look at it another w ay. It is
thought proper if w e acquiesce to the
demands of the appetites as long as by
so doing we do not violate the codes of
ethics and m orals prescribed by men

them selves. W h e n , how ever, upon o c

casion w e are confronted w ith dual
tem ptations, the satisfyin g of a bodily
urge and also the urge to remove the ir
ritating pangs o f conscience, the situa
tion is most annoying. If we abandon
ourselves to the sensuous pleasure, pub
lic condem nation, the cry o f selfish ,
stim ulates the pangs of conscience and
m akes the irritations o f the m ental self
even m ore intense. On the other hand,
if we heed our m oral dictates and sub
due the tem ptations of the physical self,
we are said to be an adm irable ch a r
acter, and we find an exalted pleasure
in our self-con tro l and strength of will.
In either case we have done ju st as w e
w ished to do. W e succumbed to w hat
to us w as the g reatest and the highest
pleasure.
In follow ing the d ictates o f w hat we
please to call virtue, we find therein a
g reater personal satisfactio n than in
yielding to bodily pleasures. In either
case we are selfish, beyond doubt. E v en
though we may sacrifice an im mediate
personal benefit to bring happiness to
an other, it is still in the psychological
sense a selfish act. W e do it because w e
w ant to, because we find it more plea
surable to do for the other fellow than
for ourselves. T h e philanthropist finds
a far greater exhilaration in bestow ing
a g ift than in receiving it. If he did not,
he would not do it. T h e re fo re , we do
nothing w hich cannot be traced to the
interests of self. E ven when w e destroy
ourselves we are still thinking in terms
o f self. M an y believe, perhaps erron
eously, th at in death they will find the
happiness they failed to m aterialize in
life, and it brings them far g reater
pleasure th erefore to seek death than to
continue to live.
T h e g reatest quest o f hum anity has
ever been summum bonum in life. S o
crates, P lato, A ristotle, and the N eo platonists thought they found it in an
intellectual life. T h e pleasures of the
mind to them w ere the highest, because
they w ere n ot transient and they w ere
not lessened by being pursued. T h e
C y ren aics, H ed onists, and certain later
follow ers of E picurus declared th at the

The
R osicru cian en<^ anc* b ject
i c

D ig est
M a rch
1936

w as t^le harm on
izing o f the senses, a prolonging of
sensuous pleasures.
T h e y o f course
postulated a necessary caution so as to
avoid perversion and d egradation, b e

cau se disease and pain their result

w ere the very opposites o f the pleasure
and physical happiness w hich they
sought.
P lato, in defense o f m ental happiness,
said it w as the highest pleasure because
those w ho experienced it had chosen it
in p erference to physical pleasures.
T h o s e who have never experienced the
ecstasy o f the m ental life should not
presum e to know th at the sensuous life
w hich they chose w as best and the high
est good.
T h o u g h man by nature cannot avoid
being selfish, it is reasonable that the
selfish inclinations o f his higher nature
be follow ed instead o f those o f his lower
being. T h e pleasures o f the lower self
are more direct and any benefits we de
rive from them are quite obvious. T h e
pleasures and benefits we derive from
ad herence to the dictation o f the higher
self are indirect, but others most alw ays
share them in addition to ourselves, and
because of this they should be preferred
b y society. T h e patron o f a rt who
founds a great studio for public instruc
tion in art, or sponsors an institution to

assist indigent art students, is gratifying

a wish th at art shall be dissem inated be
cau se it brings him additional pleasure
to see others en joy it. T h is is a selfish
pleasure, p sychologically speaking, yet
others derive benefits from it. C o n se
quently, a human w ant which, though
selfish, if it will benefit others is a pre
ferred desire. Su ch w ants should and
must be encouraged among hum ans.
It is interesting in conjunction with
the topic of human w ants to read the
follow ing excerp t from the excellen t
article by P ro fesso r E d w ard L. T h o rn
dike, D irector of P sych olo gy , T e a ch ers
C ollege, Colum bia U niversity. D irector
T h o rn d ik e has gathered with the aid of
his collaborators much interesting stati
stical information to show ju st w hat the
average human being w ants. It is to be
expected that m ost men and most women
will seek physical pleasures because, as
w e have said, they are the most obvious
and the m ost fundam ental because they
are most closely related to the animal
nature of man. T h e higher pleasures
that inure to the intellectual are few and
difficult to obtain, and consequently
there are few w ho devote them selves to
the intellectual life. A nd y et it is these
S ix ty

few who do devote them selves to the in

tellectual and the m oral pleasures w ho
closely knit society together by the fact
that they produce those lasting things
which we call the finer and better things
of life.
Professor T h o rn d ik e says:
T h e work o f a science o f values, a
realistic ethics, is to learn w hat men do
want and how to improve their w ants,
and to trace the consequences o f acts,
events, ideas, attitudes, etc.
"W h a t are the fundam ental and de
pendable satisfaction s of life for man?
A leading p sychiatrist answ ers, Love
and secu rity. B u t a student of b o y s
gangs may think th at C onflict and ad
venture is as good an answ er. T h e
philanthropists of the early and mid
nineteenth centu ry thought th at men
would be satisfied if they and their
children w ere w ithout hunger and pain,
able to read, with regular w ork ten
hours a day and freedom to think and
vote as they liked. C ynics of the tw en
tieth century doubt w hether people in
general really w ant liberty and culture
as much as beer and excitem ent.
" I have no sa tisfacto ry answ er, and
no time to state the provisional answ er
which anthropology, p sychology, soci
ology and the other sciences o f man
suggest. I shall instead report one small
bit of evidence concerning w hat the in
habitants of this country w ant.
" W e do know fairly w ell how the
population o f this country spent their
incomes in 1929. U sing the figures
given by Lynd and supplem ented by
Dr. E lla W o o d y a rd , we have 17 billions
/ 2 bil
for food, 8 billions for clothing, 6 x
lions for autom obiles, and so on through
thirty items like a billion and a h alf for
laundry, cleaning and dyeing, over a
billion and a half for tobacco, to threequarters of a billion for death and burial.
" T h e paym ent for food satisfies ch ief
ly hunger, appetite and the w ant for
sweet and savory tastes, but also in part
the craving for social enjoym ents, for
the approval and esteem of others, for
protection against disease. P aym en t for
physicians is chiefly for protection
against disease and pain, but also helps
to satisfy the more general cravings for
security, com fort, self-resp ect and the
approval of others. Laundry bills repre
sent the satisfactions o f self-resp ect and
Sixty-one

social approval, protection ag ain st di

sease, pleasures o f sigh t and smell, and
others also.
B y the aid o f a consensus of psy
chologists, I have divided each item of
our people's expenses among the w ants
to w hich it probably m inisters, and then
com bined the results into a list o f w ants
and the am ounts paid for the sa tisfa c
tion th ereof. T h e outcom e will suffer
from w hatever con stan t errors afflict
psychologists today, but this inventory
of w ants satisfied from income is at least
a step in the right direction. I shall not
present it in detail, but only by samples.
A ccord ing to it:
O u r bill for food is spent as follow s:
5 6 per cent to sa tisfy hunger; 15 per
cent to g ra tify the pleasures of taste and
smell; 10 per cen t for the pleasures of
com panionship and social intercourse,
including courtship; 3J/2 per cent for the
approval of others, and sm aller p ercen t
ages for protection again st disease, pro
tection ag ain st cold, enjoym ent of the
com fort of others and the pleasures of
vision.
O u r bill for clothes is spent ( a c
cording to the p sych ologist's distribu
tio n ): 41 per cent for protection again st
cold, heat and w et; 6 % per cent for pro
tection again st anim als and disease;
12*/2 per cent for the approval o f others;
7 per cent for self-ap p rov al; 10 per cen t
to gain pleasure in courtship and sex
activities; 8 per cen t for other social
intercourse; 6 per cent for pleasures of
vision; 3*/? per cent to win m astery or
dom ination over others, and 2 per cent
to win their affection.
T h e 7 0 0 million dollars for cos
m etics and beauty parlors is spent about
one-seventh for the pleasures o f sight
and smell, on e-fou rth for the pleasures
o f sex and courtship, one-third to gain
general approval from others, oneeighth to have inner self-app rov al, and
about on e-ten th to secure m astery or
dom ination.
W h e n the entire annual budget is
thus transform ed item by item into a
budget for the satisfactio n of human
w ants, paym ents for sensory pleasures,
security, approval of others and the
pleasures of com panionship and so ci
ability ( including rom ance and cou rt
ship) are in each case close in m agni
tude to the am ount paid for freedom

to keep the human species alive and selfperpetuating. T h e rest w ent ch iefly to
keep us amused and com fortable physi
cally, intellectually, m orally, and especi
ally socially.
R elatively little is paid for the satis
factions of the intellectual life. T h e
psychologists do, how ever, pay us the
com plim ent of crediting us with spend
ing tw ice as much from g ood will to
man as from fear of crim inals and other
bad men, and o f spending at least as
much to win the affection o f our fellow
men as to have the pleasure o f bossing
them .

from hunger. In fact, we pay m ore to

m aintain self-resp ect and the good
opinion o f others and avoid scorn, deri
sion and shame than to keep our bodies
fed and free from the distress of
hunger.
W e pay more for entertainm ent (in
cluding the intellectual pleasures and
the sensory pleasures of sight, sound,
taste and sm ell) than for protection
against cold, heat, wet, animals, disease,
crim inals, and other bad people, and
pain.
Less than one-third o f w hat we spent
w ent for w ants which must be satisfied

Some Facts for M embers Notebooks

By

T h e S u p rem e S e c r e ta r y

E A D E R S of our
book, T he M ysti

cal L ife o f Jesus,

som etim es state to
our members that
they cannot believe
th at the book is
based upon newly
discovered f a c t s
regarding the life
o f Jesu s and the
tex ts of the H oly
Bible. T h e y con
tend that new facts
pertaining to the life and times o f Jesus
have not been discovered in old m anu
scripts found hidden in secret or sacred
places of the N ea r E a st. A s an aid to
our members in answ ering such arg u
m ents, we call attention to the fact that
a few m onths ago a learned antiquarian
w ho had aided in bringing to the W e s t
ern W o rld
th e
new ly discovered

M
ount
Sinai
M
an
u
scrip
t of the B ib le ,
The
now fam ous throughout the w orld as
R osicru cian
the K od ex Sinaiticus, called upon us,
D igest
and among other things which he dona
M arch
ted to our research library he gave us
photographic reproductions of the pages
1936

of this famous m anuscript, including

sections o f the true G ospel o f S t. Luke,
w hich varies from th at published in the
authorized version o f the H oly Bible.
T h e im portance of this m anuscript was
described in the Jan u ary 1, 1934, and
follow ing issues of Time, the news
m agazine.
W e learn now from new s reports
that once more, as at various times in
the past cen tu ry, the sands o f E g y p t or
obscure places in the N e a r E a s t reveal
an oth er B iblical tex t.
In December,
1934, there w as discovered in a rare li
brary of m anuscripts a papyrus manu
script containing a section o f the Gospel
of S t. John, w ritten betw een the years
80 and 170 A . D . D uring the first week
of F eb ru a ry another highly important
discovery consisting o f 86 pages of the
E p istle of S t. Paul, w ritten in the third
century and evidently the oldest New
T estam en t tex t o f any length w as made
in E g y p t. P a rts of this new ly discovered
m anuscript w ere secured b y the Uni
versity of M ich ig an . D iscoveries of this
kind are con stan tly revising many im
portant and significant passages and
phrases in the C hristian Bible, throwing
Sixty-two

light upon points that have been in dis

pute or which contain a key to facts not
hitherto revealed.

W arning T o Our M em bers

O u r members are hereby w arned re
garding a confusion of terms in some
literature now being distributed through
the mails and addressed to Sin cere
Seek ers A fte r T r u th . A pam phlet is
sued by M r. C lym er of Pennsylvania
now sets forth that in Jan uary of 1935,
a little over a year ago, he registered
and established in the S ta te of P en n sy l
vania a so-called R osicru cian movement
under the nam e o f T h e R osicrucian
F o u n d a tio n ," and th at he had this title
patented recently in order to protect it
again st all infringem ent of an y kin d ."

1936 and C onflict

Since it is so easy to forget at the
end of a year the im portant occurrences
of the early part of the year, we call a t
tention now to the fact th at the first
months of 1936 are alread y fulfilling
some of the predictions made in our
pamphlet, 1936 and Conflict. R eports
from Europe, the A tlan tic C o ast line o f
both sides of the ocean, and from various
parts of the U nited S ta te s, reveal that
the storms of wind, rain, and snow are
of an unusual nature and in many cases
more severe and more destructive than
at any time in the past century. O u r
members should carefu lly observe the
weather reports, as well as the cosm o
logical, atm ospheric, and other m ani
festations of nature, and find therein
verification o f the predictions made in
our annual pamphlet.

F o r many y ears the A M O R C has

used the term, T h e R osicrucian F o u n
d atio n , in its application blank for
membership w herein all new members
understand th at their first registration
fee is paid to the R osicru cian F o u n d a
tio n and that the purpose o f this F o u n
dation is to perpetuate and m aintain for
y ears and cycles into the future the
R osicru cian organization in this country
as it has been m aintained in other lands.

T he N ew D igest C o ter

M r. C lym er h as used m any nam es in

past y ears for his publishing society,
and in fact, has changed the registered
nam es of his society quite frequently.
T h e o b ject o f now using the term,
T h e R osicru cian F o u n d a tio n , a fter
A M O R C had been using it for so m any
years, is quite evidently an attem pt to
confuse the minds of those who have
had our literature and w ho in good
faith have contributed to our R o sicru
cian F o u n d a tio n ," w hich w as the o rig
inal one in this country. O u r members
and friends are th erefo re w arned n ot to
be deceived into thinking that the R o si
crucian F o u n d a tio n established by us
and for which we m aintain reserve
funds and tow ard which we are con
stantly contributing in buildings, equip
ment. and other w ays, is in an y w ay a s
sociated with this new registered and
confusingly named body in P en n sy l
vania.

In answer to questions regarding the

symbolism of the new cover, we wish to
say that the fountain called W a te r s of
Life represents the con tents of this
magazine with its refreshing know ledge
to quench the thirst o f those who are
seeking truth. A t this fountain one
person is enjoying a drink o f the lifegiving w aters. A n o th er w ho has a l
ready enjoyed such a drink has filled a
vessel to carry home to others th at they
too may enjoy some of it. T h e blue in
the background represents the Cosm ic
and it colors the w aters of the fountain
with its mystic tone. T h e architectu re
represents the structures o f life built
upon truth and serving to p rotect the
fountain. T h e two columns may be
given the nam es o f love and happiness,
health and strength, or lo y alty and per
severance. A s we drink from the foun
tain we can make the symbolism come
true.

V
READ
Sixty-three

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

P A G ES
from the

JANE WELSH CARLYLE

:
=
I
|

Each month w e w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through the
presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally such w ritin gs w ill
be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors of the past.

:
S

=
=
|
E
E

Jane W elsh Carlyle, though the w ife o f the famous eccentric and dominant Thomas
Carlyle, never submerged her personality in his genius. She profited by her life w ith him,
fo r his idiosyncrasies stimulated her talents.
She was b om at H addington, Scotland,
July 14, 1801. She was the daughter o f a w ell-to-do physician who died when she was but
eighteen years o f age. H e le ft his entire estate to her, but she w isely assigned it to her
mother who gave her an allowance equivalent to what she had received from her father,

f
i
E
=

r
:
=
i
I
=
E

She became infatuated w ith h er tu tor, one Irv in g , who was betrothed to another.
Irv in g , a fte r his m arriage, arranged fo r Carlyle, six years her senior, to continue instructing her. She m arried Carlyle in 1826 when she was tw enty-five years o f age. T h e ir
m arried life was exceedin gly difficult because o f the clash o f temperaments. She once w rote
to a friend, D ont m arry a genius; I have married one, and I am m iserable. H e r
thoughts w ere quite profound, and she had a conscious philosophy o f life which she endeavored to live.

=
E
E
\
E
=

H e r personal philosophy is b eautifully expressed in the simple dialogue below, which

it is said she never intended to have published. E very reader, I am certain, w ill e n jo y
its forcefulness and w ill observe in it the expressions and view s o f life o f many persons
whom they meet in the d aily course o f their lives.

=
E

6............... .......................................................................................................... -.......

DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE BIRD AND THE WATCH

ATCH :

C h i r p ,

chirp, chirp!

W h a t a w eariness
thou a rt with thy
chirping! D o es it
never o c c u r to
thee, f r i v o l o u s
thing, th at life is
too s h o r t to be
chirped aw ay at
this rate?
Bird: N ever. I
am no P h iloso
pher, but ju st a

The
Rosicrucian plain C an ary bird.
Digest
W atch : A t all events, thou a rt a
M a rch
1936

C reatu re of T im e, that has been hatched,

and that will surely die. A nd , such b e

ing the case, methinks thou art im pera

tively called upon to think more, and to
chirp less.
Bird: I called upon to th in k! How
do you make that out? W ill you be kind
enough to sp ecify how my condition
would be improved by thought? Could
thought procure me one grain of seed
or one drop of w ater beyond w hat my
m istress is pleased to give? Could it pro
cure me on e-eighth o f an inch, one
h a irs-b read th more room, to move about
in? O r could it procure me to be hatched
over again, with better auspices, in fair,
green wood, beneath the blue, free sky?
I im agine not. C ertain ly I never yet
betook m yself to thinking, instead of
singing, th at I did not end in dashing

wildly against the w ires o f my cage,

with the sure loss o f feathers, and at the
peril of limb and life. N o, no, in this
very conditional w orld, depend upon it,
he that thinks least will live the longest;
and song is better than sense for ca rry
ing one handsom ely along.
W atch: Y o u con fess, then, w ithout a
blush, that you have no other aim in
existence than to kill time.
Bird: Just so. If I w ere not alw ays
killing o f time, T im e, I can tell you,
would speedily kill me. H eigh-ho! I
wish you had not interrupted me in my
singing.
W atch: T h o u sighest, C hico: there is
a drop of bitterness at the bottom of this
froth of levity. C on fess the truth; thou
art not w ithout com punction as to thy
course of life.
Bird: Indeed, but I am though. It is
for the P ow er that made me, and placed
me here, to feel com punction, if any is
to be felt. F o r me, I do not fulfill my
destiny. In the appointing of it I had no
hand. It w as with no consent of mine
that I ever was hatched. . . N o r yet w as
it with consent of mine that I w as made
to depend for subsistence not upon my
own faculties and exertions, but on the
bounty of a fickle m istress, who starves
me at one time and surfeits me at an
other.
D eeply, from my inm ost soul,
have I protested, and do protest, against
all this. If, then, the chirping with which
I stave off sorrow and ennui be an o f
fence to the w ould-be wise, it is not I,
but Providence, should bear the blam e,
having placed me in a condition w here
there is no alternative but to chirp or
die; and at the same time made selfpreservation the first instinct of all liv
ing things.
W atch: U nhappy C hico! N o t in thy
circum stances, but in thyself, lies the im
pediments over w hich thou can st not
gain the m astery. T h e lot thou cornplainest of so petulantly is, with slight
variations, the lot o f all. T h o u art not
free. T e ll me who is. A las, my bird,
here sit prisoners; there also do prison
ers sit. T h is world is all a prison, the
only difference for those w ho inhabit it
being in the size and aspect o f their
c e lls.. . .
B ird: W ith all due reverence for thy
universal insight picked up, H eaven
knows how, in spending thy days a t the
Sixty-five

bottom of a dark fob I must continue

to think th at the birds of the air, for
exam ple, are tolerably free; at least,
they lead a stirring, pleasurable sort of
life, w hich well may be called freedom
in com parison with this o f m ine.............
W o u ld that the egg I w as hatched from
had been addled, or that I had perished
w hile yet unfledged! I am w eary of life,
esp ecially since thou hast constituted
th y self my spiritual adviser. A y de mi!
B u t enough o f this! It shall never be
told that I died the death o f Jen k in s
hen. "C h ico , point de faiblesse!"

W atch: It w ere more like a C hristian

to say, "H ea v en by my stren g th !
Bird: A nd pray, w hat is a C hristian?
I have seen P o ets, Philosophers, P o li
ticians, B lu e-sto ckin gs, Philanthropists
all sorts o f notable persons about
my m istress; but no C hristian s, so far as
I am aw are. . .
W atch: B ird! thy spiritual darkness
exceed s belief. W h a t can I say to thee?
I wish I could make thee w iser
better.
Bird: If w ishes w ere saw s, I should
request you to saw me a passage through
these w ires; but wishes being sim ply
wishes. I desire to be let alone of them.
W atch : G ood counsel at least is not
to be neglected and I give thee the best,
w ouldst thou but lay it to h e a rt.............
A h , C hico, in pining for the pleasures
and excitem ents w hich lie beyond these
w ires, take also into account the perils
and hardships. T h in k w hat the bird of
the air has to suffer from the w eather,
from boys and beasts, and even from
other birds. Storm s and snares and un
know n w oes beset it at every turn, from
all w hich you have been m ercifully de
livered by being once for all cooped up
here.
Bird: T h e re is one known woe, how
ever, from w hich I have not been de
livered in being cooped up here; and
that is your absolute wisdom and im
pertinent in terferen ce from w hich
sam e I pray H eaven to take me with all
convenient speed. If ever I attain to
freedom , trust me, the very first use I
shall make of it will be to fly w here
your solemn prosy tick shall not reach
me any more forever E v il befall the
hour w hen my m istress and your m aster
took it into their heads to sw ear
"e tern a l friendship," and so occasion a

juxtap osition betw een us tw o w hich

N atu re could never have m eant.
W atch: M y M a ste r? T h o u im
becile! I own no m aster: rath er am I his
m istress, of whom thou speakest. N o th
ing can he do w ithout appealing to me
as to a second better conscience: and it
is I who decide for him w hen he is in
cap able of deciding for him self I say to
him, It is time to g o , and he goeth;
or, T h e re is time to s ta y , and he stay eth. H ard ly is he aw ake in the morning
w hen I tick au thoritatively into his ear

"Levez-vous, M onsieur! Vous avez des

grandes choses a faire! and forthw ith
he gathers him self together to en jo y the
light o f a new day if no better there
m ay b e
A y , and when the night is
come, and he lays him self down to sleep,
I take my place at his bedhead, and,
like the tend erest nurse, tick him to
repose.
Bird: A nd suppose that he neglected
to wind thee up, or that thy mainspring
chanced to snap! W h a t would follow
then? W o u ld the w orld stand still in
consequence? W o u ld thy M a ste r for
such he is to all intents and purposes

lie forever in bed, expecting this Levezvous? W o u ld there be nothing in the

wide universe besides thee to tell him
w hat o clock it w as? Im pudent piece of
mechanism ! depend upon it, for all so
much as thou thinkest of th yself, thou
couldst be done w ithout. II n ij a point
de montre necessaire! T h e artisan who
made thee with files and pincers could
make a thousand of thee to order.
C ease, then, to deem th y self a fit critic
for any living soul. T ic k on, with in
fallible accu racy , sixty ticks to the
minute through all eternity, if thou
wilst, and canst, but do not expect such
as have h earts in their breasts to keep
time w ith thee. A h eart is a spon
taneous, impulsive thing, w hich cannot,
I would have thee know , be made to
beat alw ays at one measurem ent rate for
the good pleasure o f any tim epiece that
was ever put togeth er. A nd so goodday to thee; for here comes one who
thank H eaven will put thee into his
fob, and so end our te te -a -te te .

W atch (w ith a sig h ): T h e living on

earth have much to bear.

RO SICRUCIAN N EW Y E A R C ELEBR A TIO N

E V E R Y M EM BER W E LC O M E
In every Lodge and Chapter of the North American jurisdiction, on or about Friday,
March 20, there will be conducted the annual mystical Rosicrucian New Y ear ceremony,
a beautiful, impressive symbolical affair. Each and e v e ry Rosicrucian National member
of the Grand Lodge, whether a member of a Lodge or Chapter or not, is entitled to at
tend these sessions. T h e y are co rd ia lly invited to be present by the o fficers of the
Lodges and Chapters. In the back of this magazine, in the directory, you will find listed
the names and addresses of many of the Lodges and Chapters. If they are in your
vicinity, write at once, or call upon them to learn the exact date of the session. Below
are the names and addresses of the Chapters which, because of lack of space, do not
appear in the directory.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
March

San Diego, Calif. Chapter Secretary: Mrs. E v a W eary , 3621 40th St.
Oakland, Calif. Chapter Master: Dr. W alter S. Baker, Wakefield Bldg., Rm. 406.
Atascadero, Calif. Chapter Master: Mrs. Minnie Tuggy, Route 1, Box 41.
Denver, Colo. Chapter Master: Mrs. Nora Beck, 2576 Albion St.
First Lodge of Connecticut Master: Mrs. M ary Andross, So. W indsor, Conn.
South Bend, Indiana Chapter Master: Mrs. E tta Rice, 728 E . Indiana St.
St. Louis Chapter Master: Mr. Oliver W . Dunbar, 4355-a Laclede Ave.
Omaha, Nebraska Chapter Master: Dr. Frederick Gonder, 5716 N. 24th St.
Newark, N. J. H. Spencer Lewis Chapter Master: Frank A. Hammond, 80 E lla St.
Cincinnati, Ohio Chapter Master: Albert M. Barnes, 9 Euclid Ave., Ludlow, Ky.
Cleveland, Ohio Chapter Master: Mr. W . J. Slemmons, 867 Lecona Drive.
Dallas, T e x as Chapter M aster: Mr. J. M. Blaydes, 2910 Pine St.
W ich ita Falls Chapter Master: Mrs. Mona M yers, P. O . Box 8 .
Salt Lake City, U tah Chapter Master: Herman R. Bangerter, 2nd W est St.
Milwaukee, W is. Chapter Master: Mr. Alois F. Eckmann, 2923 W . Highland Blvd.

1936
Sixty-six

T he

Mystery of Personality

ARE W E W H A T W E THINK W E ARE,

OR A RE W E LIVING IMAGES?

By

T h e Im p e ra to r

N S O M E o f the
m onographs o f our
d egrees o f study
the su b ject of in
di vi dual i t y and
personality is dis
cussed at consider
able length, but we
find in the problem
of p e r s o n a l i t y
m a n y interesting
facts that are com
monly overlooked
or g r e a t l y mis
understood.
W e have a common practice at the
present time throughout the civilized
and uncivilized w orld to give nam es to
children at birth, and these nam es they
bear throughout their lives excep t when
changed by m arriage, or changed volun
tarily with the permission of a court of
law. T h e history of this p ractice is very
interesting and show s th at at the very
dawn of civilization man attem pted to
distinguish him self and his associates
by certain vow el sounds used for the
purpose o f identification. A t first these
names w ere o f one or two syllables, and
for many hundreds of y ears each in
dividual usually bore but one name, a
given name. F in ally because of the
multiplicity of these given nam es and
the many sim ilarities, certain ad jectives
were added to distinguish one from the
other. A t first these ad jectives w ere
Sixty-seven

descriptive of the appearance of the

person, or descriptive o f his home, his
castle, his occupation, and finally the
fam ily nam e or group name w as
adopted. A t first m any o f the fam ily
nam es w ere the nam es of the castles,
estates, provinces, or occupations of the
fath er or ch ief of the fam ily.
B u t a fte r all is said, the nam es which
each o f us carry to distinguish us from
others do not distinguish the personal
ity but rath er the individuality. T h a t
w hich distinguishes us most clearly,
most definitely, and certain ly most s a t
isfacto rily , is the picture o f presentm ent
o f our own personality.
T o illustrate w hat I mean, I will cite
an incident th at occurred ju st a few
days ago. A large social organization
in this city found that it w as n ecessary
to select from its membership, com posed
w holly of women, a com m ittee o f fifteen
to attend a very im portant civic affair
as representatives of the women o f the
cen tral portion of C alifo rn ia. I w as
present with the two officers who had
the responsibility o f selecting this com
m ittee. A s they began to pick out the
women for the com m ittee o f fifteen, I
noticed that em phasis w as given in each
and every case to certain outstanding
ch aracteristics o f the personality of the
individual. M rs. Sm ith w as not selected
because her nam e w as M rs. Sm ith, and
because th at name distinguished her
from others, but because of some charm ,

or some pleasant, im pressive trait of

personality, or because of some m ental,
intellectual, or other talen t w hich she
had developed and m anifested in an e f
ficient and useful m anner. In other
w ords, the com m ittee w as selecting
fifteen personalities and not fifteen in
dividuals or fifteen nam es. T h is becam e
evident when a num ber of persons
selected w ere unknown b y name to the
com m ittee. I heard one o f the tw o per
sons say, T h e re is th at lady, the one
w ho alw ays smiles so pleasantly when
she meets everyone, who dresses so
conservatively and yet co rrectly , w ho
never seems to have an ear for any
critical comments, but is alw ays ready
to offer constructive suggestions, and
the one who alw ays arrives a little early
at all the m eetings and w ants to know
if there is som ething that she can do to
help in the w ork o f the org an izatio n .
T h e y did not describe h er physical ap
pearance very definitely, but certainly
they did not describe her husband or
the position he occupied, or the house
she lived in, or her age, or any of the
other points of distinction excep t those
that pertained in a limited m anner to her
personality. It w as very evident th at it
w as the personality of this individual
th at had impressed the tw o officers, and
not the fact that she w as the w ife of one
o f the leading bankers of the city, or
th at she had a m agnificent home, or did
a g reat deal of social entertaining, or
had considerable w ealth, or had been to
E u rop e a num ber of times, or that she
had three sons w ho w ere w ell-know n in
business in the city, or any other factor
except th at w hich related to her per
sonality.
I have noticed in my con tact w ith
su ccessful business executives in large
corporations and institutions that in
selecting em ployees or associates for
certain im portant positions, con sid era
tion w as given first of all to the person
ality o f those who w ere under con sid
eration. E v ery large executive will tell
you that he is more fam iliar with per
sonalities in his institution than with
nam es. H e will adm it to you th at there
T he
are a num ber of persons whom he con
Rosicrucian tacts throughout the day in a casual
Digest
m anner, and w hose nam es he has never
March
learned, but w ho he has marked alm ost
unconsciously in his mind because of
1936

som e outstanding ch aracteristic of per

sonality. Som etim es these ch aracter
istics are unfavorable, and for that
reason the person is marked in a de
ro g ato ry w ay, and perhaps would be
one of the first to be discharged, sus
pended, or laid off tem porarily if any
reduction in the num ber o f em ployees
w ere necessary. O n the other hand,
others will be prom oted, advanced, and
given more authority and opportunity
for the use of their abilities because of
outstanding points of personality that
are favorable.
O u r personalities are things which w e
create and make, more than we realize.
It is true that we inherit a few traits of
personality from our ancestors, but even
th ese can be modified, and often are
modified, by the traits which we volun
tarily adopt, I do not w ant to overlook
the point th at our health has some b ear
ing upon our personalities. Y e a rs ago
w hen the functioning of the spleen was
not thoroughly understood, it w as a s
sumed that it had som ething to do with
the ch aracter and personality, and we
find evidence o f th at old belief in modern
phrases such as his spleen must be out
of order to d a y , w hen we find someone
w ho is grouchy and unruly or tem pera
m ental. A person w hose health is below
par and who is suffering to some degree,
or annoyed in his harm onious balance
by an ailm ent, will sooner or later have
his personality reflect the physical and
m ental mood within. It certainly is not
too much to say that a person in poor
health cannot alw ays m anifest in a n a
tural m anner a pleasing personality, or
even the true p ersonality that would
m anifest if the health w ere norm al.
It is alw ays possible under certain cir
cum stances to place upon ourselves a
tem porary cloak of fictitious personality.
B u t this h yp ocritical presentm ent of
ourselves never deceives for any length
of time. A cloak m ay serve on occasion
am ong stran gers for a few hours or for
a few seconds, but there is one reason
w hy such a cloak, if worn very long,
d efeats its own purpose. T h e person
who is w earing it must constantly keep
it fresh and active in order that it serve
its purpose, and in doing this the mind
is so continuously centered upon the
fictitious ch aracteristics of personality
being assum ed, and so constantly con
Sixty-eight

cerned lest an error o f personality be

expressed or a slip made th at w ould re
veal the true personality, th at the in
dividual is constantly ill at ease and not
natural and soon creates the im pression
in the minds of others that he or she is
acting. T h e re is nothing so destructive
to a good im pression of ones personality
than the im pression given to others of
acting.
W h a te v e r charm , w hatever
power, w hatever good there may be in
our personalities must be revealed as
natural, and not as artificial if the per
sonality is to win its w ay.
But there are traits o f personality
acquired through inheritance or through
momentary ill health, or perhaps through
temporary w orries and problem s that
disconcert which can be deliberately
modified and gradually rejected and
cast out. O u r personalities are th ere
fore something w hich we can create,
and which we do create from day to day
and year to year.
If we think that our physical ap pear
ance and our individuality as human
beings is something th at chan g es from
year to year through age and through
experience and through the trials and
tribulations of life, w e should realize
that personality too is co n stan tly ch an g
ing and th at each experience o f lire,
each trial, each suffering, each test of
our capabilities and pow ers contribu te
more definitely to the molding of our
personality than they do to the physical
appearance of the body. W e have often
heard it said that a person who has lived
a long time has grown more aged look
ing or more gray, more w rinkled or
more stooped, but has also grown more
"mellow in personality.
Fortunately for the human race and
the advancem ent of civilization, as well
as for the unfoldm ent o f our evolution,
the trials and tribulations of life have
from century to centu ry modified co n
structively and for the b etter o f all co n
cerned, the personality of the average
individual. In other w ords, the greatest
good that time and evolution have con
tributed to the advancem ent o f civiliza
tion has been in the im provem ent o f the
personality of human beings more than
in the im provement of his physical ap
pearance.
Scientists remind us th at in the evo
lution of the human form throughout the
Sixty-nine

ages, man has becom e m ore upright in

his stature and h as soften ed in his
physical appearance, has becom e more
gracefu l in his m ovem ents, and has lost
a num ber of physical attributes w hich
are unnecessary and which made him
crude and primitive in appearance. But
these great im provem ents in our physi
cal makeup are o f far less im portance to
the advancem ent o f civilization than the
im provem ents that have taken place in
the p erson ality of man.
I have said above th at man is the
creato r o f his personality and can make
it alm ost w hat he w ishes to make it.
H ow ever, I do not w ant to slight the
fact that some traits of personality have
been added to the average individual
unconsciously and involuntarily through
the experiences of life. B u t these in
voluntary im provem ents do not begin to
equal in num ber or in im portance the
voluntary qualities and attributes that
man has d eliberately developed, not a s
sumed. A g ain the distinction is being
made betw een assum ed or artificial or
tem porary traits of personality, and
those which have been deliberately or
involuntarily developed gradually and
over a length o f tim e and w hich have
becom e natural and perm anent.
P erh ap s one of the outstanding traits
o f human personality is the tendency to
smile pleasantly when in com pany with
those persons who can appreciate and
do appreciate a pleasant expression of
personality. It is said that man is the
only living member o f the anim al king
dom that can smile, and express a smile,
and through a smile reveal jo y and h ap
piness. M a n h as m ade the m ost of this
natu ral ability d eliberately and uncon
sciously. W e do find human beings
whom we would suspect as having no
ability to smile, and no facility for ex
pressing any jo y or happiness that m ay
be in their h earts. C ertain ly they are in
the m inority. T h is one ch aracteristic o f
personality when d eliberately developed
becom es an outstanding and im pressive
one. W e soon find ourselves liking and
enjoying the com pany o f those who
smile easily and sincerely. It is not only
because they help to contribu te to our
happiness and the p leasan tness o f the
day, but they cause us to feel th at the
person is happy w ithin, and has found
the real k ey to some happiness. It is a

human tendency for individuals to seek

happiness or to seek the jo y o u s side of
life. T h is has been one of the fund a
mental elem ents controlling the p ro g res
sive developm ent o f man in the process
of evolution. Su ch persons are dis
tinguished very definitely from those
w ho w ilfully or unconsciously seek the
sordid and unhappy side o f life. Su ch
persons are either m entally unbalanced,
m entally deficient, or psychically un
developed. E v en among the crim inal
classes w here the tend ency is to a sso
ciate with th at w hich is deplorable,
destructive, unhappy, contentious, or
abnorm al, there is a d egree o f in con
sistency m entally and p sych ically, and
such persons are not norm al hum an b e
ings. E ven when p sych oan alysts state
that some of these persons deliberately
asso ciate them selves with the sordid and
unhappy side of life and try to tell us
that it is not because o f an y uncon
trollable urge from w ithin, w e must ad
mit th at such persons are m entally de
ficient or abnorm al, and that th erefore
their d eliberateness in this regard is not
a sign of strong m entality, but rather a
sign of a condition which should arouse
our com passion and our pity. F o r this
reason most crim inals and those w ho
love to be a part of the underw orld
should be treated by us as needing p sy
chopathic consideration and treatment
rath er than dire punishm ent.

for they have noticed at odd moments

that underneath his outer cloak there is
a personality of fairness, kindness,
ju stice, and happiness. B u t in the same
m anner an artificial cloak of kindness
and m ercy, of sincerity and fairness is
detected in all of its falseness ju st as
readily.

W h e n we presen t our personalities to

our friends and acquaintances, w e are
presenting a picture o f the real self
within. D uring the daytim e w hile we
are occupying an im portant executive
position and feel th at we must w ear a
cloak o f extrem e dignity and au thority
in order to demand or command respect
from em ployees and so-called inferiors,
we may put upon ourselves an artificial
cloak, and assum e an outer expression
of personality th at is not our true selves.
B u t in m oments of relaxation and in
social co n tacts and in m oments that we
are unaw are of, the real personality
underneath the cloak will reveal itself
and will m ake a more lasting and more
understandable im pression than those
The
which w e m ay have assum ed. E m
Rosicrucian ployees under any executive will frankly
Digest
state th at they take w ith a so-called
March
grain o f salt the exacting attitude and
critical m annerism s o f their em ployer.
1936

T h e absence o f an y form of religious

w orship in our beings is a d erogatory
elem ent in our personalities that is sure
to reflect itself unfavorably. T h e person
w ho does not love G od a suprem e be
ing of som e kind representing the omni
potence of the universe is lacking in
one o f the first elem ents o f a pleasing
personality. T h e person who cannot
love all men and all women as human
beings as his kindred, free from dis
tinctions that will belittle any of them,
is lacking an oth er im portant element
th at m akes a pleasing personality. T h e
person w ho cannot find actual jo y and
happiness in life itself, and in living,
lacks a very essential elem ent in a pleas
ing personality. T h e one w ho cannot
see that there is far more good in the
w orld, far more jo y , far more happiness,
far more of the ideal and beautiful, is
doomed to have a most disagreeable
personality. T h e one w ho can find him

T h e re is nothing th at will tend to

develop a pleasing personality, and one
w hich in a very subtle and m ysterious
m anner im presses itself in its truth fu l
ness upon all whom we con tact, more
than the adoption o f an attitude of to l
eran ce in all m atters of distinction. In
other w ords, if we adopt a universal and
human point o f view in regard to dis
tinctions of individuals and their ex
periences in life, w e becom e kind and
gentle in personality. S o long as we can
feel that one race or nation of people is
better than another, or th at one race or
nation o f people w orse than another; or
so long as we can feel th at persons of
one religion are w rong, or represent the
b lack people of the w orld, w hile those
o f another or several other religions are
b etter; or so long as we feel convinced
th at persons of one color or class are
low er in the scale o f life or less desir
able than others, we are bound to have
certain ch aracteristics m aintained in our
personality that are unfavorable and
w ill sooner or later m anifest themselves
in detrim ental w ays.

S even ty

life, and to ignore as unessential the

sordid and unfortunate things of life,
will develop a tendency tow ard attu n em ent w ith the happy, sunlit side o f the
w orld. T h e re are new spapers w hich de
light in overem phasizing the sordid
things as constituting the m ost im portant
new s of the world. T h e re are other pub
lications w hich love to em phasize the
kind and good things w hich life pre
sents from day to day.
O n e cannot, for instance, take up a
book o f astronom y and read it carefu lly
w ithout becom ing convinced th at there
are m arvelous law s in the universe co n
sta n tly operating for the good of man,
and as one w alks out in the evening and
lifts his eyes tow ard heaven, he is bound
to find new jo y in noticing the groups of
stars, their arrangem ents, and observing
things about them th at he had never
seen before. H aving read the book, and
having becom e acquainted with another
part o f the universe, he finds a new field
for pleasant and happy contem plation.
B u t those w ho read only such books
that deal with crime and w ith w ar, or
with the econom ic struggles of our
earth ly system s, is bound to look upon
every business transaction, every social
co n tact, and every incident o f life with
a som ew hat cyn ical and critical attitude.
T h e se things affect our personality, as
do our private thoughts and our person
al convictions w hich are subtly created
and molded by the things we read and
hear, observe and com prehend.
T h e creating o f p ersonality is som e
thing th at is continuous and eternal
from birth to transition, and beyond;
personality is im m ortal. A s we build and
create it tod ay and tom orrow , it will act
and re a ct and exp ress itself in the
eternal future. It will be the real part of
us th at will survive our earthly existen ce
and becom e our spiritual h eritage in the
kingdom of G od.

self ready to listen to the tales of gossip

and the critical remarks of other persons,
and find interest in such stories, is sure
to have his personality darkened and
clouded, and to have this cloudiness re
veal itself to others.
So we find that our personality is
something that we can regulate and
control. It should be som ething th at is
composed of a code of life which we can
adopt at the beginning and develop and
make a true and inherent part o f our
selves. W e should give as much thought
to the development of this personality
as we give to the development o f the
brain and the mind and their faculties.
It should begin w ith the training o f a
child, and step by step as the child is
taught to walk and to talk, to read and
to understand, he should be taught the
essentials of a pleasant, happy person
ality. As he is taught to have his face
and hands cleansed th at the dirt and
dross that have disguised the real fea
tures should be removed, he should be
taught to remove from his consciousness
those things that will conceal the p er
sonalitys real charm s. A n exam ple
should be set by the developm ent o f the
personalities o f the parents, and the
things that we read and the things that
we permit ourselves to see and w itness
are contributory factors o f w hich we are
often unaware.
The man or woman who reads daily
or weekly only those new spapers or
periodicals that deal with the contentions
between labor and capital, betw een the
various opposing factors o f social and
economic conditions, and the attack s
between rival political parties, is sure to
develop a personality th at is contentious
and generally su p er-critical. O n the
other hand, those w ho m ake it their
business to read such literature, and
especially such new spapers as attem pt
to present the higher and b etter side of

PLAN NOW TO ATTEND THE ROSICRUCIAN CONVENTION JULY 12-18

Seventy-one

SANCTUM MUSINGS
T h e Sole Reality
TH E SOLE REA LITY
(T h is a rticle is continu ed from th e last issue an d w ill b e co n clu d ed in th e A pril issu e.)

N O U R discovery
th at the m agnitude
or d i m e n s i o n of
form s and form s
t h e m s e l v e s are
subordinate to the
sense quality, we
have learned that
one condition a c
counted for them,
and th at is v aria
tion a variation
o f the quality. W e
can produce v ari
ations o f a sense quality ourselves, and
observe the different sense form s it pro
duces. F o r an exam ple, certain medi
cinal in jectio n s into the eye will cause
distortion of visual o b jects, changing
their appearance. A lso partial subduing
o f the sensitiveness o f our facu lty of
touch will change the nature of its forms
to us. T h e norm al variations, for which
we are not responsible, and which a c
count for our notions of reality, are ob
viously the result o f a mysterious e x

ternal agency.
W e shall seek this extern al agen cy.
If there w ere not variation, all we have
The
found th at depended upon it would
Rosicrucian
cease to be; consequently, we must con
Digest
clude th at this extern al ag en cy has the
March
attribute o f variation or brings about
change.
1936

A re these changes brought to us, or

do w e extend our senses to them? In
other w ords, do we p ro ject our sight to
the cau se o f its quality, the cause of
w h at we know is light, or does the cause
extend itself to the sense organ and in
duce light?
W e reach out our hand and feel the
thin, cool, smooth vessel w hich we know
is a drinking glass. B y this act, how
ever, w e have not extended our sense of
touch. It is still limited to its qualities.
W e have m erely brought the sense of
touch w ithin range of the ag en cy which
gives rise to the sense quality and the
idea w e obtain from it. W e place our
fingertips upon a vibrating su rface. T h e
impulses are easily perceived by the
sense of touch. G rad u ally the electrical
excitation is diminished, and w e no
longer feel the pulsations. T h e re is now
no possible w ay by w hich we can ex
tend our sense of touch to realize the
sensations again, for the actuating force
has w ithdraw n.
In considering the extension o f an
extern al ag en cy w hich actuates our
senses, w e must not think of extension
alone in terms o f moving to or from us
in space, as a vehicle. T h e extension
may consist of such a variation in the
nature of the agen cy th at it is no longer
capable o f exciting the sense faculty,
S ev en ty -tw o

and that is the equivalent, therefore, of

having moved from us as could a
vehicle.
W e commonly and erroneously refer
to modern instruments as extending the
senses. No instrument yet invented has
accomplished that feat. W e peer through
the giant reflecting telescope of some
modern astronomical observatory and
see a distant nebula, previously not
visible to the naked eye, floating befo re
us in the heavens like a filmy veil. Y e t
we have not extended our sense of
sight. W e have added no quality it a l
ready had not possessed. N o r has the
nebula, millions of light y ears from us,
any more visual form or reality than any
object we discern w ith our unaided
sight. W e have intensified, or m agni
fied, if you will, the extern al ag en cy
sufficiently to excite the facu lty of sight
which it was not capable o f before. W e
have not projected into stellar space our
vision, but rather made the extended
agency capable of being perceived.
W e listen to voices w hich originate
thousands of miles from us. Betw een
the one who speaks and ourselves lies a
continent, perhaps seas, y et we have not
by the instruments which- make this pos
sible, extended our auditory sense to
them. W e have amplified the sound so
that it can enter the range of our h ear
ing. W e have conveyed it to our sense
by a mechanical means.
Our external energy has now, from
the foregoing, acquired in addition to
change the function of E X T E N S I O N .
These two ch aracteristics partially iden
tify the mysterious external ag ency of
which we are in search. F o r there is,
as we know, only one state capable of
producing such conditions as C H A N G E
and E X T E N S I O N , and th at is A C
T IO N . In fact, action is identified only
by its characteristics o f change, and
such functioning as would also com e in
the classification o f extension. T h e re is
no state but that which is declared to
be in action that has the ch aracteristics
of change and extension. T h is assigns
A C T IO N for the moment the im port
ance of being the extern al ag en cy .
However, we are accustom ed to con
sidering action as a result of a cau se
rather than a prim ary cause itself, but
more of this latter, for we are com pelled
to consider also at this time the opposite
Sevcnty-thcee

of action the state of Q U I E S C E N C E .

W e cannot deny the prom inence that
qu iescence plays in our conscious life.
Q uiescen ce, the state or condition which
seem s, in so far as our sense faculties are
concerned, devoid of everything all
quality, form, dim ension, or m agnitude.
Y e t by the very fact that we realize it,
it takes on the sem blance of reality in
its own right. A better understanding
o f qu iescence is had b y judging it by the
same stand ard s by w hich w e ju d g e the
sense qualities.
If we repress a sense faculty, we im
m ediately becom e conscious of quies
cence, the absence o f that action to
w hich we credit all o f our sense reali
ties. T h e re exists a void. O n the other
hand, we m ay keep the sense alert, and
still quiescence can persist. F o r e x
ample, in a dark room devoid of light,
regard less o f w hat we are doing, we are
aw are o f a state o f quiescence. W h e n
we blindfold our eyes we are also aw are
of it, no m atter how alert we attem pt to
keep the sense of sight. T h e com pari
son betw een the two experiences reveals
no difference as far as the nature o f the
state of quiesence, or absence of any
visual action is concerned. Q u iescen ce
has every evidence of existen ce with or
without the sense faculty. A t least, if it
exists as well w ithout it, we are not de
pendent upon it for a realization of
quiescence. A nd it is further apparent
that this state of quiescence is not sole
ly engendered from w ithout, as are the
sense qualities.
C h an g e and extension, we have de
clared, are the ch aracteristics o f action,
but they are never perceived in them
selves. T h e y are to be found only in
w hat w e apprehend as realities. W e
never see change w ithout that w hich is
said to be changed, or have we ever ex
perienced extension w ithout the percep
tion o f som ething extending itself. In
fact, to our senses, chan ge and ex ten
sion seem to be the process or mode of
action o f a state, thing, or condition.
W e can say that the thing, state, or
condition is but the result of the change,
extension, or action , yet action alw ays
has, so far as our minds conceive it,
form.
T h e state o f qu iescence, on the other
hand and we are using the term quies
cen ce here to mean absence of th at a c

tion w hich excites the sense qualities

is absolutely devoid of form . H ow do
w e apprehend the state o f quiescence?
Is it not by realizing the absence of a c
tion? T h e state of quiescence is not
realized by w hat it is, but instead by
w hat it is not. A ction is know n by the
forms it assum es, w hereas quiescence is
know n by the absence of such forms.
It is patent, therefore, w here action
never w as, qu iescence could not be.
Q u iescen ce has a negative existence in
the absence o f the positive action. It is
reason able to presum e th at there ca n
not be the absence of som ething that
w as not, and for this reason quiescence
has no definite reality of its own, and
w e are brought back to the consid era
tion of action as reality, as the extern al
cause of all sense forms.
A ction is found only in form, those
things we perceive through the medium
of the sense faculties or the effects they
produce, w hich we designate as condi
tions.
W e arbitrarily regard some
form s as w ithout action, as being inert,
and y et upon deliberation w e will find
it im manent in them, also.
T h e rocks, with time and the ele
m ents, becom e inpalpable. T h e m ighty
ocean is ceaseless in its surge. T h e
earth continues its rhythm ic rotation.
T h e planets pursue their courses. N o th
ing rem ains untouched b y change, and
chan ge is the expression o f action.
E v ery th in g w hich is, is o f action; there
fore, everything is action. T h e law s by
which things m anifest or chan ge appear
to be an exception, to have perm anency
and be immutable, but the law s are not
things; they are their causes, and the
cau se o f a thing is action. Y e t action it
self does not change, it m erely expresses
the ch aracteristic of chan ge by assum
ing to us m ultitudinous forms. A ction,
then, is that which is. L et us substitute
the w ord Iso s" for action the G reek
derivative for the word is " or equal."
It is truly appropriate. A ll things being
action, and action that which is, all
things are then fundam entally equal.
Isos is reality. It is dependent upon
no cause. Its existen ce is not imparted
T he
Rosicrucian to it. It is ubiquitous. If Isos is all that
is, it has alw ays been. It could not have
Digest
been created from nothing, for nothing
March
is the absence of som ething. W e can
realize a sta te o f apparent nothingness
1936

only b y first having know ledge of som e

thing, w hich by con trast is absent, or
th at we im agine should exist. T h e only
positive existence, as w e have con ten d
ed, is th at w hich is not th at which is
not. A w aren ess of existen ce precedes
the idea of n on -existen ce.
S in ce Isos is all that is, it could not
have had any beginning. From w hence
did it com e? A nd if it cam e from som e
thing, then th at would not be the be
ginning, for w hence did that come? If
Isos had no beginning, neither can it
have an end. W h a t would constitute
the end o f Isos? P aten tly , it would
mean the ceasing o f all that is existent.
B u t since nothing as a state is depend
ent upon som ething having existence,
som ething, th erefo re, can n ot return to
nothing.
If Isos w ere to acquire a state of
nothingness which could be measured in
term s of its relation to Isos, then it
would have a definiteness, the equiva
lent of Isos itself. In other w ords, this
nothingness would have existence, or be
Isos. If the condition of nothing or the
void, as the opposite o f Isos, exists in
its own right, then it is not really n oth
ing but som ething. It, in fact, IS . It is
but a different state o f Isos.
T h is m ay appear inconsistent with a
previous conclusion th at w hat we as
human beings perceive as a state o f
quiescence the absence of a sense
quality is not itself a reality, but m ere
ly our realization of the absence of
reality. In so far as our human percep
tions are concerned, how ever, w e can
conceive as realities only those varia
tions of our own sense qualities which
have form. A nd the sta te o f quiescence
lacks form. B u t when w e consider Isos
o r that w hich m erely has existence,
form is not concerned. A n y state or
condition, anything which would per
sist, would b y that fact, be. A nd if it
was, it would then b e Isos.
F o r further exam ple, light is never
detected w ithout form, w hereas com
plete darkness is w ithout form. Light
and its form s are positive to our sense
perception, and consequently are reali
ties to us. D arkn ess, on the other hand,
is negative by con trast, and being form
less, is not a reality to us, but a mere
realization of the absence of reality.
L e t us suppose, how ever, that light was
S even ty-fou r

as formless as is darkness, then as

simple states of existence, they would be
equal. Both to us would be reality, for
neither would be considered the posi
tive state. N either would be assigned
preference. D arkness then would have
being equal to light. N eith er would be
a state consisting of m erely the absence
of the other, for neither would be the
predominating, or even the preferable
one. So it is with Isos. A n y condition
maintaining a state as fixed as Isos
would in fact be it, no m atter how d if
ferent. In fact, Isos is a state o f being.
Therefore, anything, w e reiterate, th at
is, even if different then w hat it w as,
is nevertheless, Isos. A cco rd in g ly , we
conclude, Isos cannot cease to be.
W ith the accep tance, how ever, of the
theory that Isos is continuous, w e are
confronted with the n ecessity o f e x
plaining why we periodically are aw are
of a state of quiescence a period when
to us at least Isos is absent. Is it that
Isos cyclically passes befo re us causing
a realization of it, and at other times
when we fail to perceive it, or are aw are
only of quiescence, it has not ap
proached us? T o entertain such a theory
would mean th at w e would be sep ara
ting the human and his consciousness
from the universe, from Isos itself. A s
man is part of Isos, it cannot parade
before him as a detached thing or state,
causing him to be periodically aw are of
it. Being embodied in it, the periods
when we are not aw are o f it through
one or all of our senses, are obviously
due to another reason. Furtherm ore, if
Isos were sep arate and ap art from the
human consciousness, w e would need to
give a reason for a progression o f it
before m ans consciousness.
Isos pervades all, as it is all. T h e r e
fore, it does not advance or retreat from
one state or another. It is bounded by
no state to which it could be draw n or
from which it could be repelled. A s
previously stated, Isos is not cap able of
becoming n on-existen t. A ccord ing ly , it
could not lapse into a void from which
it would periodically arise. Su ch voids,
if they existed by the fact o f their e x ist
ence would be the equivalent of Isos.
Thus the gaps of quiescence, o f which
we are aw are, are not indications o f a
period o f dorm ancy out o f w hich will
again arise Isos in form s of the sense
qualities.
Seven ty-five

T h e re is still an oth er question which

also dem ands attention. It is this. Isos
is the cause o f the sense qualities, and
their varied form s, yet Isos is uniform
in its nature. H ow , then, does it cause
the sense qualities to so vary as to m ani
fest all o f the realities we perceive?
F irs t w e repeat: Isos is an absolute
state of existen ce. It has no fixed ch ar
acteristics such as are apprehended by
the senses. It is pure being, and not as
we perceive it to be. If, then, Isos acts
upon our sense qualities to produce vari
ations, it implies th at in some m anner it
fluctuates.
W e have previously considered Isos
as action. W e will, th erefo re, approach
the problem from this point again . L et
us conceive this prim ary action, this Isos
of w hich all things are com posed, as
being quantitative. W e shall consider
it as having qu antity m erely for the pur
pose of an alysis. E ven action s with
w hich w e are fam iliar, though alw ays
associated with some o b je ct or o b jects,
seem to have a definite cap acity, as
though they w ere quantitative. F o r e x
am ple, a m agnetic field betw een two
m agnetized poles. O n ce this field has
been detected, to us it has a potential
state of accom plishm ent. It is capable
o f producing certain results. T h e exten t
of its accom plishm ent is its qu antity to
us. T h e re fo re , we will assum e th at this
universal basic action is of a certain
qu antity, but its qu antity rem ains con
stan t.
B y assigning this action con stan cy,
we are not implying th at it is limited by
any boundary or state w hich would
prevent it from increasing, for there is
nothing to restrict it. N o r is there an y
thing w hich it could assim ilate to in
crease itself. W e must think of this
action as a great ball, but a ball w ithout
su bstan ce a ball o f potentiality, as a
globular m agnetic field, if you can co n
ceive th at. F u rth er, w e must conceive
it not as floating in anything, or having
an y relationship to anything else, for it
alone is everything. T h is action is
ceaseless. A state o f inaction would be
im possible. F o r if this action w ere not,
neither could inaction be, for there IS
only this action, no other state; not
even a negative one could persist.
In ertia, in com parison to action, is a
sta te o f n othingness, and as w e have

concluded, such a state has no existen ce

in its own right, for there is only that
which is. If inertia, as a state or co n
dition, could persist so as to id entify it.
it would have an existen ce o f its own,
and consequently would not be n othing
ness, or inertia.
O n the other hand,
this action must be definable in term s of
accom plishm ent. If the action w ere ju st
a state of being, we would not perceive
it in the form s w e do. It would not, in
other w ords, vary the qualities o f our
senses as it evidently does.
W e cannot, how ever, describe it as a
motion w hich has d irection, since it, it
self, is all direction and it is not rem ote
from an y place tow ard w hich it can
progress, or w ithin an y place from
w hich it can egress. T h is ball of action
has the attribute o f expansion. It is not,
as we hereto fo re explained, drawn as a
unit toward anything, but expand s from
its center in the m anner of pulsations.
T h e positiveness o f its nature asserts
itself. T h e nucleus distends. It follow s
its law of being by the action of dis
tending itself, and furthers its nature.
T h is distention does not add to it for it
assim ilates nothing. It is, instead, a
fullness o f its function. L ike a rope
w hich is uncoiled and then stretched to
its fullest extent, it has added nothing
to its nature, but it is more cap able o f
fulfilling the purpose o f its length by
being uncoiled, than coiled.
T h e surge of this pole o f action, we
can d escribe as being outw ard from the
cen ter w ithout being directional. T h e
center, as this distention continues, b e
com es less positive, less active in con
trast to its outer area, if we continue to

im agine this basic action as being in the

form of a ball.
W h e n the intensity o f action betw een
the cen ter and the rem ote region b e
com es quite disproportionate, there is a
rebound tow ard the less active center,
and then a repulsion outw ard in a
rhythm ic manner again. C ontinuing our
an alogy, we may realize that the action
would be graduated in intensity betw een
its points or poles o f alternation . T h e
g reatest intensity would occur, we can
im agine, im m ediately subsequent to its
alternation. In other w ords, ju st at the
point of rebound tow ard the center or
outw ard.
N ow we have reasoned that the state
of quiescence, w hich m anifests to us as
the absence o f the sense qualities, is due
to a lack of excitation of the sense
organs. T h is being so, it establishes the
sound premise th at only some phases of
Isos, this universal action, are received
b y the senses and arouse their qualities.
T h is con traction and expansion of
Isos, with its gradation of intensity, is
th erefo re not entirely w ithin the range
o f perception of the human conscious
ness. A degree o f this distention is a p
parent w hat portion to the w hole may
never be know n but w ithin this decjree
lies all o f the reality we perceive. Even
th at range is not entirely apprehended
by any one of the senses. It is also not
equally divided am ong the faculties, for
some of them detect a greater exten t of
the in ten sity of Iso s action than others.
B eyond and below the range of a sense
facu lty a state of qu iescence exists to
man.

(T o be concluded next month)

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
March
1936

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

SALT LAKE C IT Y C H A PTER O PEN S READING ROOM

i.

W e are pleased to announce that the Salt Lake City Chapter is opening a reading
room and library at 303 Ness Building, 28 W e st Second South Street, Salt Lake City.
It is open both to members and the general public.

S ev en ty -six

:t a utuctfj

:v3vrvwy

RARE W O O D C U T O F C H R ISTO PH ER CO LUM BUS

The above splendid woodcut was executed by D eBry. famous artist, who illustrated
many Rosicrucian manuscripts and books. All of the charts, diagrams, and symbols con
tained in the voluminous work of Rosicrucian teachings by the eminent Robert Fludd, of
the seventeenth century, are also the result of the workmanship and ability of D eBry.
T h e above illustration is of Christopher Columbus, and is from a rare Rosicrucian book
in the archives of A M O R C . This book also contains dozens of portraits of eminent Rosicrucians and personages of the past. M any of these portraits are priceless, because there
are no others in existence. From time to time we will reproduce them, so that our readers
may eventually collect a library of excellent portraits of renowned Resicrucians of the past.
(C o u rtesy o f R osicru cian D igest.)

3 6 *D I=

YOUR

D A ILY

<53

W ORLD

B usi ness
//o m e '

H ave Y o u a Solution for the

Problems That A rise?
|N A material sense your daily world is dual. O n e portion of your daily life
is devoted to your home, family, and friends; the other to your business, to
the field of endeavor, to the part you personally play in the great scheme
of life. Daily, even hourly, there are problems that arise of paramount
importance. Upon the proper solution ol them depends perhaps not only
your own happiness, but the happiness and welfare of those dependent
upon you. You have oft times felt lire need of such advice as could be immediately
applied to the problems at hand, advice which would give you practical, working
tools to correct conditions ol your environment whether it be home or office.
T h e book. Rosicrucian Principles for the Home and Business, deals wi th the
prevention of ill health, the curing of many of the common ailments, and the
attainment of peace and happiness, as well as the building up of the affairs ol
life that deal with financial conditions. 1 he book is filled with hundreds of prac
tical points, dealing especially with the problems of the average business man and
the person employed in business. It points out the wrong and right way for the
use of metaphysical and mystical principles in attracting business, increasing one s
income, promoting business propositions, starting and bringing into realization new
plans and ideas, and the attainment ol the highest ambitions in life.
Look at some of these chapter headings. You will note that they take into
consideration those things which we all face daily in our lives.
THE TRUTH ABOUT AFFIRMATIONS.
THE COSM IC AND YOU.
MENTAL ALCHEMY'.
COMMANDING COSM IC HELP.
SECURING MONEY.
THE ATTAINMENT O F W EALTH.

SEEKING EMPLOYMENT.
IMPRESSING OTHERS.
AN UNUSUAL HELP IN NEED.
THE L A W O F COMPENSATION.
ATTRACTING PATRONAGE.
THE ROUND TABLE.

"Rosicrucian Principles lor the Home and Business is not theoretical, but
strictly practical, and is in its fifth edition, having had a wide circulation and a uni
versal endorsement not only among members of the Organization who have volun
tarily stated that they have greatly improved their lives, by the application of its
suggestions, but among thousands of persons outside of the Organization. It has
also been endorsed by business organizations and business authorities. T h e book
is of standard size, well printed, bound in silk cloth, and stamped in gold. Price,
postage prepaid, Sa.oo.

*2)

THE

R O SIC R U C IA N

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SUPPLY

BUREAU

SAN JO SE. CALIFORNIA. U. S. A.

H U H

TH E PU RPO SES O F

THE

M ember of
F U D O S I
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societes
Initiatiques)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

T he Rosicrucian Order, existin g In all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fratern al body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. T h e purpose o f the organi
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive.
Cosmic forces fo r the attainm ent o f health, happiness, and Peace.
T h e O rder is internationally known as A M O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in Am erica, and all other lands, constitutes the only form o f R os i
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation. T h e AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
freely to all a ffilia te d members, togeth er w ith many other benefits.
In qu irers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that th ey m ay receive from Rosicrucian association, are invited to send for
the free book, 'Th e Secret H e rita g e ." Address, F ria r S. P. C., care of

AMORC TEM PLE

R osicrucian Park, San .Jose, C alifornia,
(Cable Address:

"A M O R C O "

U. S. A.
R adio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the North and South American Jurisdictions

(Including the United States, Dominion o f Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras. Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the U nited States o f America.
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS . F. R. C., Ph. D .................................................................................................Im perator
R A L P H M. L E W IS , F. R. C......................................
Supreme Secretary
CLE M E NT B. L E B R U N , F. R . C
...................................................
Grand M aster
H A R V E Y M IL E S . F. R. C
Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D , F. R . C
Secretary to Grand M aster
H A R R Y L . S H IB L E Y . F. R. C......................................................................
D irector o f Publications
Junior Order of Torch Bearers (sponsored by A M O R C ). F o r com plete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

T h e follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

Atlanta, Georgia:
Atlanta Chapter No. 650. Dr. James C. O akshette, Master: Nassau Hotel. Meetings 7:30
every Thursday night.
New York City, New York:
New Y ork Chapter, Rooms 35-36, 711 8th
Ave., cor. 8th Ave. and 45th Street. Louis
Riccardi, Master; M argaret Sharpe, Secre
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
days and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Delta Lodge No. 1, A M O R C , S. E . C orn er
40th and Brown Sts., 2nd Floor. M r. Albert
Courtney, Master.
Benjamin Franklin Chapter of A M O R C :
W arren C. Aitken, Master; M artha Aitken,
Secretary, 2203 N . 15th Street. Meetings for
all members every second and fourth Sun
days, 7:30 p. m.. at 1521 W e st Girard Ave.
(Second Floor, Room B ).
Boston, Massachusetts:
The M arie Clemens Lodge, Fortunatus J.
Bagocius, Master. Temple and Reading
Rooms, 739 Boylston St., Telephone Kenmore 9398.
Detroit, M ichigan:
Thebes Chapter No. 336. Mr. W illiam H.
Hitchman, M aster; Mrs. Pearl Anna T ifft,
Secretary. Meetings at the Florence Room,
Fuller Hotel, every Tuesday, 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone No. 1870.

San Francisco, California:

Francis Bacon Lodge, 1655 Polk
M r. David Mackenzie, Master.

Street;

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. First Lodge, Dr. Charles D. Green,
M aster; 3787 E ast St. N. S., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Reading, Pennsylvania:
Reading Chapter, Mr. Harrison N. Mucher,
Master, 144 Clymer St.; Mr. George R. Os
man, Secretary. Meeting every Friday, 8:00
p. m., W ashington Hall, 904 W ashington St.
Los Angeles, California:
Hermes Lodge, A M O R C Temple. Mr. Ollin
W . Marden, M aster. Reading Room and In
quiry office open daily, 10 a.m . to 5 p.m .,
and 7:30 p.m . to 9 p.m . except Sundays.
Granada Court, 672 South Lafayette Park
Place.
Birmingham, Alabama:
Birmingham Chapter of A M O R C . For in
formation address Mr. Cuyler C. Berry,
M aster, 721 So. 85th St.
Chicago, Illinois:
Chicago Chapter No. 9, Mabel L. Schmidt,
Secretary. Telephone Superior 6881. Read
ing Room open afternoons and evenings.
Sundays 2 to 5 only. 100 E . O hio St., Room
403-404. Lecture sessions for A LL members
every Tuesday night, 8:00 p. m.
Chicago Afra-American Chapter No. 10.
Robert S. Breckenridge, M aster; Aurelia
Carter, Secretary. Meeting every W ednes
day night at 8 o clock, Y . M. C. A., 3763 So.
W abash Avenue.

(D irecto ry Continued on N e x t P a g e )

Portland, Oregon;
Portland Chapter. Paul E . Hartson, M aster;
Telephone E ast 1245. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8.00 p .m . a t 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.
Washington, D . C.:
Thom as Jefferson Chapter. W illiam V .
W hittington, M aster. Confederate Memorial
Hall, 1322 Verm ont Ave. N. W . Meetings
every Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Seattle, W ashington:
A M O R C Chapter 586. W alter G. Simpson.
M aster; Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary.
311-14 Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd
Aves. on Cherry St. Reading room open
week days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors
welcome.
Chapter meetings each Friday,
8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
Vancouver, British Columbia:
Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mr. H. B.
Kidd, Master, A M O R C Temple, 878 Horn
by Street.
Victoria, British Columbia;
V ictoria Lodge, Mr. A. A. Calderwood,
M aster. Inquiry O ffice and Reading Room,
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
Mr. E ly Law, Master, 120 Spence St. (Ph.
33341.) Session for all members every Sun
day, 2:45 p. m 304 B " Enderton Bldg.,
Portage Ave. and Hargrave St.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada:

Montreal Chapter. Alexandre Chevalier,
F. R. C., Master, 210 W e st St. Ja m es Street.
Inquiry office open 10:00 a. m. to 5 p. m.
daily; Saturdays 10:00 to 1:00 p.m .
Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
M r. Benjamin W . W akelin, Master. Sessions
1st and 3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00
p. m.. No. 10 Lansdowne Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta:
Mr. Alfred H. Holmes, Master, 9533 Jasper
Avenue E .

SP A N ISH A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
T h is jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative O ffice are located at San Juan, Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
T he name and address of the Officers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce shou ld b e ad d ressed a s fo llo w s:
Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O. Box 36, San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A FEW

O F T H E F O R E IG N

JU R ISD IC T IO N S

Scandinavian Countries:
T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.
Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand M aster; Carli
Anderson, S. R. C., Grand Secretary. Manogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark.

New Zealand:

Sweden:
Grand Lodge Rosenkorset. Anton Svanlund, F . R. C., G ran d M aster. Jeru salem sgatan, 6, Malmo.

England:

Holland:
De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der
Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
Dr, H. Gruter, F . R. C., Grand Master, Nice.
Mile Jeanne Guesdon, S.R .C ., Corresponding
S ecreta ry fo r the G ran d L o d g e ( A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Switzerland:
A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichcl,
F. R. C., Gr. Sect., Riant-Port Vevey-PIan.
Austria:
Mr. M any Cihlar, K. R. C., Grossekretar der
A M O R C , Laxenburgerstr, 75/9, Vienna, X .
China and Russia:
T he United Grand Lodge of China and Rus
sia, 8/18 Kavkazskaya St., Harbin, M an
churia.
R O SIC R U C IA N PRESS, LTD.

Auckland Chapter A M O R C . Mr. G. A.

Franklin, Master, 317 V ictoria Arcade Bids.
Queen St., City Auckland.

T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.

M r. Raymund Andrea, K. R. C., Grand
Master, 34 Baywater Ave., W estbury Park,
Bristol 6.
Dutch and East Indies:
Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum, Grand Master,
W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang, Java.
Egypt:
T h e Grand Orient of A M O R C . House of the
Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia, Heliopolis.
Africa:
T h e Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast,
A M O R C . Mr. W illiam Okai, Grand Master,
P. O . Box 424 Accra, Gold Coast, W est
A frica.
T h e add resses o f other foreign G ran d L o d g es
and secretaries will b e fu rn ished on application.

1DIEL IDE BE BORIt

AQAin m PAm
AHD SUFFERITIG ?
U S T we relive the misfortunes, discour
agements, and failures of this life? Does death
deliver us permanently from the vicissitudes of
the earth, or is it a temporary respite, returning us
once more to the world of man? Is death a glorious
opportunity to begin again, at some other time and
place, to undo what we have done, and to profit by our
experiences of the past? Shall we instead look upon
death as the end, the close of a chapter, with its story
incomplete and imperfect? Does our span here o f a few
years constitute our sole existence as humans, and if so,
is that Divine justice? There are no questions which the
human mi nd can entertain that are more intimate or
more vital than these. 1 hey are interestingly answered
and discussed in a marvelous discourse entitled, 1 he
Soul s Return,
prepared by Dr. H. Spencer Lewis.
I his discourse represents years ol study on this subject
and his fascinating conclusions. To the point, under
standable and instructive, this manuscript should be in
your possession as a valuable document on the subject
ol reincarnation. You may obtain it A B S O L U T E L Y
W I T ! l O U T C O S T by merely subscribing to this
magazine,
I he Rosicrucian Digest, for just six
months. A six-months subscription costs only $1.50
and in addition to receiving six copies of this magazine,
you will receive at once, with postage paid, this most
unusual discourse, wh ich alone is worth more than the
magazine subscription price. There
are but a limited number of these
discourses available, so we advise
that you subscribe at once, and
A SK FO R Y O U R G IF T COPY.

GIFT

FOR

YOU

. .

T h e discourse. T h e Soul s Return, w as

once published serially, in answ er to h un
dreds of questions about reincarnation re
ceived from throughout the w orld by D r.
Lew is. I his is the first time it has ever
been released in m anuscript form in its en
tirety. L o r i n t e r e s t i n g particulars, read above.

The

ROSICRUCIAN D1QEST

SA N

J O S E ,

C A L I F O R N I A ,

U. S. A.

^Rosicrucianlibrary
The following: books are a few ol several recommended because o f fhe special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue o f all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II.

R O S IC R U C IA N P R IN C IP L E S F O R T H E H O M E A N D B U S IN E S S .

A very practical book dealing with the solution o f health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped w ith gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

\ olume III

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. O ver 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume \.

UNTO TH EE I G RAN T . .

It is filled with the

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found_ in the monastery of Tibet,
most sublime teachings of the ancient Masters of the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
with attractive cover Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VI.

\ l H o rs A N D Y E A R S OF YESTERD AYS.

A beautiful story of reincarnation and m ystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price. 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V II.

S E L F M A S T E R Y A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E .

A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. Better than any system o f numerology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price. $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V III

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work o f the O rder with
many
interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary of Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in si Ik, stamped with gold. Price. $2.00 p er copy, postpaid.

Volume XI

M V N SIO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E C O SM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines o f reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X II.

W ell

L E M I R IA T H E L O S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing.
Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K n o w o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell p rin ted and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price. $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volum e X m .

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete guide fo r attainin g the state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price. $1.85 per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders lo r books, w ith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY

BU REA U ,

R osicrucian Park, San Jo se , C alifornia.

THE INSTITUTION BEHIND THIS ANNOUNCEM ENT

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

(JJ Pythagoras, the ancient G re e t philosopher, was the first to declare that all things
are in accord with number, and the secret harmony which exists between them is
the key to the universe.

I he ancients also proclaimed that the perfect mathematical

arrangement of the planets produced magnificently enrapturing vibrations which

became known as I he M u s ic of the Spheres.
I his Cosmic music was beyond the auditory sense of human
beings and was perceivable by man only through attunement with
the lorees ol nature when his inner being would rhythmically
oscillate in majestic time with the universe. I he great composers
ol the centuries have sought to capture emotionally this music of the
spheres and reduce it to notes. In fact, the beautiful compositions of
many ol the masters are evidence of ll ie I )ivine influx.

lany of

the Rosicrucian compositions also have a touch of this afflat us.

I he composition,

Sweet Rosae C rue is.

is particularly inspiring

I his selection w as dedicated at the first Rosie rucian N evv ^ ear cere
CRU C1S

mony to be held in this jurisdiction during the present cycle ol the

1 11is official, h ra u liln lly written

Order. All lovers of music who have heard it at Rosicrucian lodges

R osicru cia n

or chapters, or elsewhere, have requested copies. Because of an in

SW EET

piano

RO SAE
song

arranged

accom panim ent

is

lor
now

availab le . Its size is q '/ j x 12V2

creasing demand for it, we have reproduced this selection in sheet

in dies,

music form at a nominal price so it may be had by all music lovers.

ll is artistically arranged

and w ell printed. Price ini ludes

postage to you.

PR IC E:

25 cents per copy.

T /. e

Members will find by playing or singing it in their homes that it

produces a very soothing, peaceful effect. A limited number of copies
is available, so procure yours now. Send order and remittance to:

R O S I C R U C I A N

R O S I C R U C I A N

P A R K

S U P

P L Y
S A

B U R E A U

N J O S E .

C. A L I F O R N I A

D R . C H A R L E S G R E E N . F. R. C.
Dr. Green, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the first Deputy Grand M aster of the Rosicrucian Order
for the Pennsylvania jurisdiction, and later became the State Grand Master. He was initiated in the Order
in 1916 and was unanimously elected Chairman of the first Rosicrucian Convention, of the present cycle
of the Order, in the summer of 1917 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was also a member of the committee
that drafted the original constitution of the A M O R C of this jurisdiction. A t present he presides as Master
of The First Lodge of Pennsylvania. He is held in high esteem by all Rosicrucians whose privilege it has
been to know him.
(C ou rtesy o f R osicru cian D igest.)

How didthe Ancients

learn Lifes great secrets?
A m azing W as T h eir K now ledge of Life and of N ature's Laws
"V ^ T H E N C E came the knowledge and power that
gave the ancients such complete mastery? In
countless ways they were forty centuries ahead of their
time. Their understanding of basic truths, so long ago,
still baffles modern men of science. W ere their secret
teachings lost? Destroyed? Suppressed?
Advanced thinkers know that truth cannot change, that
true knowledge is never really lost. Long before the dawn
of our so-called civilization, the wisest of the wise found
w ays to m eet and study their priceless knowledge.
Secret brotherhoods were formed to perpetuate their
marvelous work. . . . And out of such early origin there
grew what is now the Rosicrucians, known throughout
the world as A M O R C .
Slowly down the corridors of time the Rosicrucians have
added students in every county, in every state and in
every land. W herever there are men and women who are
not content to merely exist from day to day wherever
there are humans imbued with the sound belief that man
was gifted with a mind for use, for understanding, for
thinking there you will find Rosicucians. They belong
to every race and every creed, rich and poor alike.

PRIVATELY SEALED
BOOK . . . FREE

Earnest men and women are in

vited to send for a free copy of the
privately sealed book,The Secret Heri
tage. It tells the interesting particulars
about the Rosicrucians and how any one
willing to study as little as one hour a
week, at home, may qualify to apply for
the means of acquiring the fascinating
and enlightening Rosicrucian teachings.
Use the coupon and obtain your compli
mentary copy.

R o s ic r u c ia n s
San Jose

(A M O R C )

California

' T h e R o s i c r u c i a n s A r e N o t A R e l i g i o u s Organizatiu
-------------------------------USE T H IS G IF T C O U P O N -----------------------

Scribe E. O. D.
T h e Rosicrucians (AM O R C)
San Jose, California
Please send m e free copy o f p rivately sealed book, The Seat
H e rita g e," w hich I shall read as directed.
Nam e
A d d re s s

C ity

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
C O V ER S THE W O R LD

TH E OFFICIAL, IN TERNA TIO NAL ROSICRUCIAN MAGA

ZINE O F T II E W O R LD -W ID E ROSICRUCIAN O RDER
A P R IL ,

wimm i

1936

Dr. Charles G reen , F. R. C . (Frontispiece)

The Thought of the Month: W o rld Aspects. .
The Kabala
C ath ed ral C ontacts
Entering N oah's Rainbow
Summaries of Science
Pages from the Past
Does Fear Enslave Y o u ?
Ancient Symbolism

ARISTOTLE

Sanctum Musings: The Sole Reality (Concluded)

Balinese Sacrificial A lta r ( Illustration)

Subscription to T he Rosicrucian Digest. Three Dollars per

year. S in gle copies tw enty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose. California, under the Act o f August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the
month preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official ex
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.

Published Monthly by the Supreme Council of

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R A M O R C

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

ST; i * A m i

THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

W O RLD ASPECTS
By THE IMPERATOR
utt

F O N E w e r e to
judge world co n
ditions, and espe
cially world psy
chology, by t h e
present-day new s
paper reports, one
would be tempted
to say t h a t the
year 1936 is des
tined to be an out
standing y ear in
_______________ the human methods
o f destruction.
But 1 am of the firm opinion that the
year 1936 will prove to be a y ear of
construction, and o f constructive think
ing, and particularly of constructive
action and reaction. Despite the fact
that during the month o f F eb ru ary and
the early part of M a rch the principal in
ternational moves centered around the
prospects of w ar and the arbitrary a c
tions of leaders and dictators who seem
ed to be bent upon war, there is a trend
of wholesome constructiveness back of
the complex situations which cannot
fail to impress the careful thinker and
student of international affairs.
W e have already expressed in our
little booklet dealing with future world
events, the thought that the involved
and entangled activities of the y ear will
prove 1936 to be one of conflicts, but all
conflicts are not destructive, and most
certainly not all of them end in ultimate
destruction of fundamental principles.
Evolution in all of its phases is a co n
The
flict.
It ever has been so, and must ever
Rosicrucian
be so. T h e contest between right and
Digest
wrong is an eternal conflict and yet it is
A pril
not a destructive process, but leads ulti
mately to constructive thinking and
1936

action. T h e great, good things which

we now enjoy in our lives are the result
of conflict, of contest, and of processes
that appeared at one time or another to
be wholly destructive. It is not a matter
of o n es view-point, but of time. If we
take any important feature of civiliza
tion and diagram it as a circle in the
process of moving through the stages
of evolution, we may find that the circle
covers a period of ten years, a hundred
years, or a thousand years. A n y in
dividual examining that circle during his
lifetime covering a period of thirty or
forty years is examining merely one
segment of the circle, and that segment
may be in the part o f the process of
tearing down, the act of preparing and
clearing aw ay the dross and the unde
sirable to make room for the refinement
that is to follow. V iew in g the matter
from this close and limited aspect gives
a wrong impression of w hat is taking
place.
View ing the Italio-Ethiopia situation
from a distant point o f view with a lack
of all of the actual facts, and during just
one section of the circle of time to which
the matter is related, we see only the
destructive processes of this conflict at
work, and are tempted to look upon the
contest as an unwarranted w arfare and
a destructive process wherein the strong
er attempts to dominate the weaker.
T h e newspapers and the unthinking
critics of the situation call it a war of
civilization against the uncivilized, a war
of religious differences, a w ar of greed,
a war of economic advancements, a bit
of political maneuvering, a manifesta
tion of ego and self-aggrandizement,
and a contest between the white and
black races. It may be all of these
E ighty-fou r

things, or any one of them, and yet not

just that alone. W h a t is taking place in
this particular war between the Italians
and the Ethiopians is typical of what
has occurred in many different cen
turies between many different countries,
and for the same identical purposes, and
leading to the same inevitable results,
and if we examine those results closely
from this distance and later point of
view, and as the historian of the future
will view this present situation, we shall
see that some good was in the making,
and that eventually much good will re
sult from this unpleasant conflict.

dividual and each nation in being able

to master the mental and psychological
conditions involved. A nd the time is
coming when a greater contest, a greater
conflict, a greater struggle requiring all
of the genius, all of the wit, all of the
powers of individuals to settle interna
tional arguments, but this fight, this
contest, will be settled within a room
while all are sitting at a table, and where
the emblem of peace instead of the
emblem of w ar will reveal its spirit. T h e
victors in such a case will be victorious
indeed, and those who lose will have
lost nothing, but gained.

The time is undoubtedly coming

and we all pray that it will be soon
when human w arfare and the actual
destruction of living bodies and the
destruction of man's magnificent crea
tions in art, literature, architecture, and
other material things will not be neces
sary as a part of world evolution or the
advancement of civilization. In the past
it has seemed to be necessary for man
to make war upon man, and by the test
of physical strength and dire suffering
force into action and mold into existence
certain fundamental principles that a d
vance the scheme of civilization and
promote the activities of evolution.

It is a notable fact that so far as

physical and material things are con
cerned, the victors of most of the wars
of civilization have been the losers, and
the losers have been heavy losers, in
deed. T h e loss of life and property, of
prestige and morality, of ethics and
principles has represented a greater fa c
tor than anything that was gained by
the conquest. But still the conquest must
go on until man himself, individually
and collectively, realizes that the funda
mental principle is change, and that old
ideas, old methods, old standards, and
old principles must give way to the new,
and that progress will brook no delay,
and will kneel before no adversary.
Like the motion of the heavenly planets
that plough their w ay through space,
never affected by the anticipation of
what may be in their path and overcom
ing what seems to our finite minds many
great obstacles in theoretical principles,
so is the progressive thinking of man
and the onward march of civilization
ploughing its way through the quagmire
of human interference and the inane,
bemuddled thinking and reasoning of
the human brain.

W hile we are forced in fairness and

unbiased consideration of everything in
volved to look forward to the ultimate
good that will result from such a co n
flict, we can n ct help condemning the
human idea and practice of war that
centers its force in the destruction of
human life and property. It is not only
natural, but absolutely right for man
and mankind collectively in nations and
groups to fight for that which he be
lieves is right, and which will advance
civilization and the best interests of
those concerned. And in such a fight it
is not only natural but proper in the
universal scheme of things that man
should put into the fight every element
of effort, every degree of sincerity, and
every amount of personal sacrifice. But
it should not be a fight to death, and it
should not be a fight that includes the
use of weapons of destructiveness, the
shedding of blood, the loss of life, and
the things that have already been
evolved in the arts and sciences. T h e
fight should be a contest of minds, and
should exhibit the prowess of each in
E ighty-five

O f the many wars that appear to be

part of the horizon at this very moment
in the early part of M a rch , no doubt
many of them will fail to manifest in
even a skirmish between a few in
dividuals. Som e of them may be forced
into action of a short duration, and some
of them will be frustrated by the very
spirit that emanates them. Already the
situation has become so complex in
Europe, and the demand for coopera
tion between nations has become so
open, and the expression of ideas has
become so public that many of the

matters which were secretly in dispute

have lost their power, and have become
impotent and unessential. O n e thing is
certain: T h e r e has been a greater tend
ency in the past two years for the
statesmen of various nations openly to
discuss formerly secret alliances, a g ree
ments, and compacts between them, and
to air to the public the matters which
they thought were in conflict and of
serious consequence. T h e exposure of
these things to the light of publicity,
and to the understanding of the world
has caused many of them to melt into
insignificance and to dissolve into in
consequential considerations.
T h e fear of the unknown, as I have
stated elsewhere, is one of the great
dreads that ensnares and enslaves not
only the individual, but groups and n a
tions of individuals. T h e secret com
pacts, agreements, alliances, maneuvers,
and ambitions of rival nations have al
ways been an incentive for secret prep
arations for war, and secret anticipa
tions of conflicts, and when these things
could no longer be held in secrecy be
cause of their explosive nature, they
burst forth in bombshell and the destruc
tion of life and property. T h e days of
secret diplomacy and of agreements
and compacts are rapidly passing. T h e
days when rulers, dictators, and diplo
mats could negotiate and barter the
lives and property of their subjects
without consulting them, and without
giving them an opportunity to express
their disapproval, are rapidly becoming
a thing o f the past. H eretofore the
greatest ambition of each nation of
peoples has been that of peace nation
ally and internationally, while in secret
the ambition of the rulers and statesmen
has been that of aggrandizement, greed,
political power, and personal egoism
even to the extent of annihilating the
subjects under them and destroying the
nation itself in an attempt to fulfill that
which is born of the lowest instincts.
Into the scheme of things has always
come the influence of the progressive

tendencies o f the universe and o f the

The
R osicru cian
D igest
A p r il
1936

mind of G od. W h i l e men have proposed

in secret and in selfishness, G od has disposed in universal advancement.
God has deliberately put into the
consciousness of man the spirit of rest

lessness and the ambition for advance

ment and improvement, but G o d has
given man a brain, a mind, a heart with
which to understand, to comprehend, to
analyze, and to carefully plan and
create. Throu gh the constant restless
ness of man and the ambitions to move
forward and onward in the scheme of
civilization, man has always found it
necessary to criticize the past and to
remedy the present. B u t he has at his
command two methods for accomplish
ing these results the one by means of
animalistic instincts of the lowest na
ture, and the other through the idealism
o f his mind and the creative power that
moves through his being.
B efo re the year of 1936 is over we
may faintly discern w hat the future
historians will unquestionably proclaim;
namely, that some of those who now in
their ignorance and personal ambition
are apparently seeking war and carrying
on campaigns that seem to be destruc
tive and objectionable, were moved by
idealistic restlessness in their beings,
but motivated in their physical actions
by a wrong interpretation of the urge
within them in resorting to physical
means of contest instead of mental and
spiritual. Y e t they will have accomp
lished some good, and future historians
will name some of the present leaders
o f conflict as unconscious, unknowing
contributors toward a greater universal
peace than we have seen for many cen
turies.
A lread y in many parts of the world,
and among many civilized nations the
opinion regarding the justice, the neces
sity, or the temporary reason for the
conflict between Italy and Ethiopia is
changing, and the condemnation that
once centered on Italy and its leaders is
modifying to a form of acceptance and
understanding. T h e conflict will always
be condemned for its physical destruc
tiveness and for the nature in which the
contest was carried on, but there will be
an increasing realization of the justifi
cation of the claims made, and the cor
rection of principles underlying the dis
putes and arguments. In other words,
the time is rapidly approaching when we
shall see that good-will comes out of the
contest for both Ethiopia and Italy, but
we shall regret that the leaders of both
nations were not able to solve the
Eighty~six

cate and to bring into universal accep t

ance the spirit and principle of arbitra
tion to supplant the spirit of war. W h e n
the future contests, therefore, are solved,
and all the future difficulties are met and
overcome through arbitration, both the
victors and the vanquished will gain,
and the world will take its next great
step forward in bringing about the
Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
( T h e foregoing is purely the personal
opinion of the Imperator expressing
w hat he believes to be an appropriate
thought for the month.)

problem and work out the solution w ith

out resorting to bloodshed.
It is impossible for us in any part of
the world, and in any circumstances to
rightly judge the problems involved and
to see the hand of progress and the
spirit of evolution working in its true
form, but the fault lies with us, and not
with the conditions or the principles .
Our great duty, however, lies in not a t
tempting to understand what problems
now face and may face the nations of
the world in the future stages of evolu
tion, but in proceeding at once to advo

V
READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

'E

EH

O U R N E X T EG Y PT IA N T O U R
All of our members will be glad to know that the proposed tour to mystic lands, in
cluding Egypt and a score of other ancient countries and cities, is definitely set to start
next January, and that hundreds of members have made registration, many of them having
paid for their tickets or made large deposits. T h e registration list for the tour is still open,
for the more we have in the touring party, the better will be all of the facilities that we
can reserve in advance and the more enjoyable will be every feature of the trip. Any
member in any branch of our organization is entitled to take the trip with us and to be
accompanied by any member of his family whether a member of the Order or not. For
further information, see the special article about the Egyptian tour in the April issue of
T he R osicru cian Foru m and then write to the Egyptian T o u r S ecretary , C / o A M O R C ,
Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.
If the steamship people and others had the same knowledge and faith last year which
we had, a large number of our members would be with us at this very date in the
Mediterranean enjoying the tour that was to leave New Y ork last February. W e stated
positively in 1934 and throughout 1935 that no war would interfere with our tour. But
people of little faith doubted our predictions and the steamship company cancelled the
boat and a few of our members withdrew their registrations. T h e y felt sure that a ter
rific war would center itself around the Mediterranean and European countries. Y et up
to the p resen t time the middle of M arch not a sh o t h a s b een fired in the Mediterranean
and not a single incident has occurred that would have interfered with a peaceful, happy,
and instructive tour. W e stood alone in our attitude of faith in our prediction, for nearly
all the world's statesmen and practically all the newspapers of the world proclaimed war
as imminent every month throughout 1935. W ith the same faith we are planning our
tour for next winter. D o not miss it if you can possibly go along.
E G Y P T IA N T O U R S E C R E T A R Y .
E
E ighty-seven

T h e Kabala
By

F ra te r

S.

V
N D E A L I N G with
this subject, it is
e s s e n t i a l , at the
outset, to have an
understanding of
its terminology, its
chronology, and of
the r e l a t i o n s h i p
between practical
Kabala and theo
retical Kabala.
K a b a l a is der i v e d f r o m the
Hebrew
root
K A B B A I L , to receive and is, liter
ally, the received or traditional lore.
It is the specific term for the esoteric or
mystical doctrine concerning G od and
the universe, asserted to have come down
as a revelation to elect saints from a re
mote past, and preserved only by a
privileged few. T h e r e is the theosophical or theoretical system, K A B A L A
I Y Y U N I T , and the theurgic or practi
cal, K A B A L A M A A S I T .
In the chronology, we encounter some
difficulties. T h e name K A B A L A does
not occur in literature before the eleventh
century. I refer, of course, to the gen
eral literature on the subject. T h e mysThe
tic lore o f the geonic and Talmudic
R osicru cian Pfridf
the m odem concepts
of K abala and is traced, according to
D ig est
tradition, back to Creation, through a
A p ril
series of teachers and saints. F rom the
1936
geonic period (9 th to 11th centuries),

M . M a ch te i

V
when the oral traditions first appear to
have been recorded in treatises, each
system was developed independently of
the other. In the 14th century, the gulf
between theoretical Kabala and practical
Kabala was bridged by the appearance
of the Z O H A R (S p le n d o r ). I n this
volume both systems converged.
If the anthropologist is correct in his
statement that there is no pure ethnic
group, and it is conceded that he is
right how much more so must it be
true, in the field of ideas, that the inter
course between peoples greatly influ
enced their thoughts, and that, in the
metaphysical studies, the Gnostics, the
Neoplatonists, the Aristotelians, the
G rec o -A ra b ic philosophers, and others,
contributed to the present form of the
Kabala?
T h e speculative school of Kabala
took for its problem metaphysics in the
strict sense of the word; namely, the na
ture of God and His relation to the
world. T h e other movement was religioethical in nature. Practical Kabala or
mysticism endeavored to apply meta
physics to the every-day problems, and,
after a while, it degenerated into a cult
where amulets, angelology, demonology,
and superstitions played the leading
role, and where the principles of Cosmic
laws were relegated to a minor and sup
porting part. A ny o ne knowing the
names and functions of the angels could
control all nature and its powers. Only
Eighty-eight

the initiated knew the names and w hat

they actually represented. T h e follow
ers of the cult conceived of the angels
as beings. as physical messengers,
intermediaries close to the T h ro n e.
T h e term Kabala rightly ch aracter
izes the theosophic teachings as an
ancient sacred tradition instead o f
being a product o f human wisdom. T h e
Kabala, by which speculative Kabala
( K A B A L A I Y Y U N I T ) is essentially
meant, was, in its origin, merely a sy s
tem of metaphysics; but, in the course
of its development, it included many
tenets of dogmatics, divine worship, and
ethics. God, the world, creation, man,
revelation, the M essiah, law, sin, atone
ment, etc. such are the varied subjects
it discusses and describes.
T o depart for a few moments from
the technical terminology of the sub
ject, we may profit greatly if we view
the subject objectively, examining the
problem in the light of motives as dis
tinguished from effects. W h a t prompted
the saints, who possessed the knowl
edge, to reveal it to others? W h y does
man speculate as to the reasons and
causes for his being here? W a s it the
intention of the early Kabalists and
mystics to train m iracle-w orkers, men
who should perform the unusual to in
spire fear and awe in the minds of the
populace?
From early Kabalistic writings, we
learn that man had become enslaved to
the environment; that he gave little heed
to his rightful place as the created
image of the D ivine. It was the pur
pose of the instruction in the K abala to
restore to man his G od-consciousness,
his realization of the use to which he
might put the powers with which he had
been endowed by the C reator. T h e
Kabala sought to impress man that he
was a microcosm, a miniature of the
macrocosm, and that, within him, were
locked up all the Cosmic forces in evi
dence in the universe. M a n has ever
been eager and ready to take the
bows, to acknowledge the applause
deserved or undeserved; but, how to
liberate these imprisoned forces, how to
make them manifest, were things which
had to be taught to man. M a n s egotism
responds to the title of the great
I A M , and the bubble bursts when
E ighty-n in e

m ans weakness, his inability to be the

M aste r, becomes obvious.
S o it is that we come to understand
the task which confronted the Kabalists,
the mystics of all times. F o r their start
ing point they took the doctrine of the
E N - S O F (In fin ite). It is the doctrine
of all Kabalistic speculation. G od is the
infinite, unlimited being, to whom one
neither can nor may ascribe any attri
butes whatever; who can, therefore, be
designated merely as E N - S O F ( with
out en d ," the In finite"). H ence the
idea of G od can be postulated merely
negatively: it is known what G od is not,
but not what H e is. T h e question pre
sents itself: how did such an O n e create
the universe? T o which we have the
answer in the S E F I R O T or emana
tions, the progressive stages by which
this E N - S O F , the Infinite, projected it
self, and, through combinations of the
Se firo t in trinities or triads, accomp
lished creation.
T h e doctrine of the Sefiro t is perhaps
the most important doctrine of the
K abala. T h e Sefirot are the tools of the
Divine power, superior creatures, that
are, however, totally different from the
Primal Being. G od is immanent in the
Sefirot, but H e is Himself more than
may be perceived in these forms of idea
and being. T h e Sefirot themselves, in
and through which all changes take
place in the universe, are composite in
so far as two natures may be dis
tinguished in them; namely, ( 1 ) that in
and through which all change takes
place, and ( 2 ) that which is unchange
able, the light or the Divine power. T h e
Kabalists call these two different na
tures of the Se firo t O R (L ig h t ) and
K A I L I M ( V e s s e l s ) . F o r, as vessels

o f different color reflect the light o f the

sun differently without producing any
change in it, so the divine light mani
fested in the S efirot is not chan ged by
their seem ing differences.
A detailed description of the progres
sive stages by which the Sefirot unite,
in triads, to accomplish creation, would
be too technical and too lengthy for one
article. T h e s e conclusions, however, are
interesting: T h e first three Sefirot,
K E T E R (C ro w n , or Primal W i l l of
G od), H O K M A H
( W i s d o m ) , and
B I N A H (In tellect) form a unity among
themselves; that is, know ledge, the

know er, and the known are in G od

identical, and thus the world is only the

expression o f the ideas or the absolute
form s o f intelligence. W e further note
that the first three Se firo t form the in
telligible world; the second triad is
moral in character; while the third triad
of Sefirot constitutes the natural world.
T h e tenth Sefirah, M A L K U T (D o m in
ion) is that in which the will, the plan,
and the active forces become manifest,
the sum of the permanent and immanent
activity of all Sefirot.
In the Kabala, the soul is threefold,
being composed of N E F E S H , R U A H ,
and N E S H A M A H . N efesh is the a ni
mal, sensitive principle in man. and is in
immediate touch with the body. Ruah
represents the moral nature; being the
seat of good and evil desires, according
as it turns toward N esham ah or N efesh .
N esham ah is pure intelligence, pure
spirit, incapable of good or evil; it is
pure divine light, the climax of soul-life.
T h e Kabalists explain the connection
between soul and body as follows; All
souls exist before the formation of the
body in the suprasensible world, being
united, in the course of time, with their
respective bodies. T h e descent of the
soul in the body is necessitated by the
finite nature of the former: it is bound
to unite with the body in order to take
its part in the universe, to contemplate
the spectacle of creation, to become
conscious of itself and its origin, and,
finally, to return, after having completed
its tasks in life, to the inexhaustible
fountain of light and life G od.

W h i l e N esham ah, the pure spirit,

divine light, intelligence, ascends to
G od, Ruah, the moral nature, enters
E d en, to en jo y the pleasures of P a r a
dise, and N efesh , the animal, remains in
peace on earth. T h is applies only to the
just.
A t the death of the godless,
N esham ah, being stained with sins, en
counters obstacles that make it difficult
for it to return to its source: and, until
it has returned, Ruah may not enter
E d en, and N efesh finds no peace on
earth. Closely connected with this view
is the doctrine of the transmigration of
the soul (reincarnation?) on which the
K abala lays great stress. In order that
the soul may return to its source, it must
previously have reached full develop
ment of all its perfections in terrestrial
life. If it has not fulfilled this condition
in the course of O N E life, it must begin
all over again in another body, con
tinuing until it has completed its task.
N atural magic depends largely on
man himself; for, according to the
K abala, all men are en dow ed with in

sight and m agical pow ers which they

may develop. T h e means especially
m entioned are: K A W W A N A H in
tense meditation, in order to attract the
higher spiritual influences; a strong will
exclusively directed toward its object;
and a vivid imagination, in order that
the impressions from the spiritual world
m ay enter profoundly into the soul and
be retained there.

V
0

E
E
E
|
E
5

The
Rosicrucian ^
D igest
A pril

AN A PO LO G Y T O O U R M EMBERS
T h e officers of the Grand Lodge at San Jose wish to apologize to all of the members
for the delay that has been caused in the last several months in the prompt answering
of correspondence directed to the officers personally or to the various departments. Because of many improvements that are being made in the monographs, preparations for
the Convention, and other matters that have come in an accumulated form for immediate
attention, much of our correspondence has been delayed. T h e increasing of membership
and the resulting increase in correspondence each day of the week and each week of the
year>constantly present a problem requiring adjustments in many departments. W e hope
that by the first of M ay we shall have all letters answered promptly in accordance with
a new routine. T h e cooperation of our members is heartily solicited in this regard.

1936
N in ety

M 0"
T h e "Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefit as well
as those who are members. T h e book called "Liber 777" describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

.............................................................................................................S

Time.
in the
States
on the

N recent mont hs
one of the power
ful radio stations
o f E n g l a n d , lo
cated just outside
of L o n d o n and
with studios within
the city of London,
has b e e n broad
casting at a special
period that begins
each morning at
3 :0 0 a. m. London
or G r e e n w i c h
T h is is equivalent to 10:00 p. m.
eastern sections of the United
and C anad a, and to 7 :00 p. m.
western coast of N orth America.

N in ety-one

It is likewise a convenient hour for many

countries and nations affiliated with the
great British Empire.
T h i s special
broadcast period therefore enables the
British radio station to speak to a larger
number of its subjects and people, as
well as friends, than at any other time
of the day. T h e programs are clearly
heard on short-w ave radio equipment in
almost any part of the world. E a ch of
the broadcast periods begins with the
ringing of the great bells of the clock
tower known as Big Ben. B ut on M o n
day mornings which is Su n d ay eve
ning or afternoon in a large part of the
world, the periods are followed by the
chimes of W estm in ster, and then a m ag
nificent religious service of a n on-sec

tarian nature is conducted while millions

of people pray in unity and listen to
words of inspiration and Divine revela
tion. T h is becomes almost a universal
church service and it is an ideal thing
in spirit and purpose.
W h e n we stop to realize that with
most religions a special day o f the week
has been set aside for a sacred and holy
day and for special worship, and when
we realize that this one and only day
out of the seven is a definite day with
many of them, we see the sad situation
of an attempt on the part of man to
standardize his religion and religious
worship, and to confine his hours of
spiritual thought to a small period of his
weekly life. W h i l e many argue that
Saturday is the true Sunday, and others
argue that F rid ay is the most sacred of
all, and a large portion of the world
holds fast to Su n d ay as being the only

V
READ

THE

true holy day of the week, the person

who is truly spiritual in nature will
realize that every hour of every day of
every week and month o f the year is an
equally fortunate and propitious time
for spiritual communion, and it is in this
sense and for this purpose that the
C athedral of the Soul offers to such
persons an opportunity for spiritual con
templation in united hearts and minds.
W h e t h e r you are a member or not, if
you have not had the marvelous experi
ence of such spiritual communion and
contemplation with the accompanying
thoughts of millions in agreem ent and
attunement with you, send for the book
mentioned in the heading of this depart
ment, Liber 777, and join with the multi
tudes in this undenominational, non
sectarian, and wholly spiritual system
and method of Divine inspiration and
guidance.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

IM PO R T A N T N O TIC E
W e regret to state that our Sovereign G ran d M aste r, Dr. Clement
LeBrun, is seriously indisposed and confined to his home where he is
receiving competent attention and treatment from physicians, meta
physicians, and nurses. His indisposition manifested itself very keen
ly at our recent N ew Y e a r ceremony on T h u rsd a y evening, M a rc h 19,
and it was found necessary for him to discontinue his regular routine
activities at his office and sanctum and to remain at home.
His secretary and assistants will look after his correspondence
during his absence from the office, for it may be many weeks before
he can take up these activities in person. In the meantime, all of our
members are asked to remember him in their prayers and to send him
the kindest thoughts that he may soon recover. W e feel sure that the
waves of love directed toward him from all parts of the world will
give him vigor and an understanding of the high esteem in which he
is held by every member whom he has contacted personally or through
correspondence.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
April
1936

IM P E R A T O R .

0.

6
N in ety-tw o

Entering

o a tis R a in b o w
By

F r a t e r W illia m

H.

M cK egg,

F. R. C.

"If the sp ectato r cou ld en ter into th ese Im ag es o f his Im agination , a p p ro ach in g them on the
fiery chariot o f his con tem p lativ e thou ght; if h e cou ld en ter into N oah 's R ain bow , o r into his
bosom, or cou ld m a k e a frien d an d com pan ion o f th ese im ages o f w onder, w hich a lw a y s en treats
him to lea v e m ortal things (a s h e must k n o w ), then w ould he arise from his g ra v e, then w ould
he m eet the L o rd in the air, an d then h e w ould b e h a p p y ." W illiam B la ke.

E V E R before have
Light and Color,
essentially one, oc
cupied the human
mind to so great
an extent as now
with t h e i r w on
ders. T h ro u g h the
medium of Light
we are penetrating
beyond the veil of
matter to have re
vealed to us, b e
sides the secrets
of existence on earth, the existence of
that inner world we cannot see with
finite sight.
T h e re is O n e Universal Soul, dif
fused through all things, eternal, in
visible, unchangeable; in essence like
Truth, in substance resembling Lig h t.
Pythagoras came to this wisdom as far
back as the 6th century B. C. O n ly to
day are we turning our whole attention
to this irrefutable T ru th .
T h e greatest advancement, aw aken
ing, and stimulation o f the human race
occur when C olor abounds in daily life.
T h e Gothic A g e used colors to arouse
mans mind. T h e E lizabethan era w as
an era of color and pageantry. In both
ages mankind progressed.
N in ety-three

T h e Shakespearean plays and sonnets

abound in color-wording. T h e y are the
works of the greatest color-poet the
world has yet seen.
In order to learn and understand
Cosmic Laws, to become a medium of
the Supreme M ind, the Invisible Light
abounding through all things, Sir F r a n
cis B aco n guided his contemporaries to
ward the study of N ature and her se
crets. However, he stressed that N ature
was only the medium, and not the se
cret, of G o d s mysteries. Light and
C olor demanded investigation before
mere Form.
B aco n had made a deep study of
Light and Color, and knew their m ys
tical effects. Likewise, he studied stag e
craft, staging many plays, elevating the
theatre which, at that time, had fallen
to a low and degraded position. H e re
newed it to its real worth as H u m an ity s
magic mirror. In M asq u es and T r i
umphs he says: Since princes will
have such things it is better they should
be graced with elegance than daubed
with co s t. H e directed many plays
enacted by the two companies owned by
E d w ard V e r e , E a rl of O x fo rd . Until
this century the stage was and should
be still the place where mystical,
scientific, and poetical creations may be

demonstrated to the people for their

understanding, study, and enlighten
ment.
In Sense and P erception, in an e f
fort to interest others to seek into their
origin, Bacon dwells on light vibrations.
B efo re we can enter the remote and
hidden parts of Nature, it is requisite
that a better and more perfect applica
tion of the human mind should be in
troduced. . . . A s navigation was imper
fect before the use of the compass, so
will many secrets of nature and art re
main undiscovered, without a more per
fect knowledge of the understanding,
its uses, and ways of working.
" T h a t the form of Light should not
have been duly inquired into appears a
strange oversight, especially as men
have bestowed so much pains upon per
spective: for neither has this art, nor
others, afforded any valuable discovery
in the subject of Light. Its radiations,
indeed, are treated, but not its origin:
and the ranking of perspective with
mathematics has produced this defect,
with others of the like nature, because
philosophy is thus deserted too soon.
Just as there is a world of matter, so
there is a world of spirit. A s there are
colors seen by Finite Sight, so there are
colors seen by Infinite Sight. T h e s e
latter are psychic, or what Edwin D .
Babbitt, in his now rare and valuable
book, Principles O f Light A nd C o lo r,
called "third grade colors."
W h e n en rapport with finer grades of
light, all bodies become as transparent
as clear crystal. Tra n sp a re n cy comes
from the fact that certain substances
have such a chemical affinity for all the
ignited color-ethers, as to draw them on
with great power and transmit them
beyond. T h e s e substances whose atoms
cannot be polarized by light are not
transparent.
D abbling in a search for hidden light
and color might appear as futile to the
worldly-minded. Y e t which is more
futile: to follow Intuition, or to accept
T h e o r y ? Babbitt points out that scien
tists in his day boasted of a single ether
The
as they do today and have no facts
Rosicrucian
to prove it. H e wanted to know how
Digest
thousands of grades of forces, luminous,
April
electrical, and magnetic, could be trans
mitted over and through it?
1936

T h e psychic lights and colors are

inexpressibly beautiful and manifest the
infinite activities of nature unseen by
ordinary eyes. . . . T h i s higher vision
exalts the conception and shows that
there is a grander universe within which
is the real cosmos. . . . T h e s e finer in
terior views of nature and her forces
show us that there are universes within
universes, and that the condition of
things which we inhabit is not the real
universe, but the mere shadowy outer
shell of being, while the real cosmos is
so much more intense and swift and
powerful than the grosser grade of ma
teriality around us that the latter com
pares with the former somewhat as a
mist compares with a solid substance.
In 1672, Isaac Newton published the
theory that the white light of the sun
contains seven degrees of refrangibility.
N e arer our own times, Helmholtz stated
that each color is founded by its own
law of vibrations, and incapable of sub
division.
B e that as it may, B abbitt started
seeking for the psychic colors and found
them.
In the y ear 1 8 7 0 . he relates, I
commenced cultivating, in a dark room
and with closed eyes, my interior vision,
and in a few weeks or months was able
to see those glories of light and color
which no tongue can describe or intel
lect conceive of, unless they have been
seen. . . . W h e n I opened my eyes upon
the sky and earth around me after see
ing these, they seemed almost colorless
and dim and feeble. . . Sometimes foun
tains of light would flow out from me
and become lost to view in the distance.
M o re generally, flashing streams of
light would move to and fro in straight
lines, though sometimes fluidic emana
tions would sweep around in curves of a
parabola as in a fountain. W h a t was
more marvelous than anything else was
the infinite millions of radiations, emana
tions, and luminous currents which at
times would seem streaming from and
into and through all things, and filling
all the surrounding space with corusca
tions and lighting activities. I believe
that if the amazing streams of forces
which sweep in all directions could be
suddenly revealed to people, many
would go wild with fright for fear they
should be dashed to pieces.
Ninety-(our

Babbitt was one of the first in modern

times to apply the law of colors to cure
human ills. Like the great mystic, P a r a
celsus, he could see the auric colors
emanating from each human being. A c
cording to the intensity or dullness o f
the colors, he could deduct the ailment,
and where the chief mischief lay in the
invalid's body.
Within each human being dwells the
source of all Light and Color; it may be
reached by the true seeker. T h e W o r d ,
or the Voice, of G od shall be given to
those worthy of it. It is the interior
world from which we have fallen.
There, all things are spiritualized. O uter
forms are but gross shadows of the
Real. Outer colors are but feeble re
flections of the T r u e colors within.
On our way to the inner world we
see, at first, fleeting clouds of color;
forms as of flaming opal come and go;
streams of colors appear in designs and
geometric patterns, like symbols flashed
through the dark clouds for our guid
ance.
W ord s of speech cannot arouse the
soul. Lessons and lectures are useless,
except as signs on the path, leading us
to the Closed D oor. T h a t is why the
fine arts Poetry, M usic and Painting
have always aided man to aspire and
achieve lofty things. T h e y speak to the
inner self; they arouse the soul; they
help us to open our psychic sight and
to behold the iridescent glories in color
and sound behind the form of the world.
William Blake awed people with the
radiance of the colors he put into pic
tures. It was said he mixed gold and
silver with his paints to get such phen
omenal hues, and accounted for his be
ing always a poor man. It was also de
clared that the Comte de Saint Germain
ground up sapphires, rubies, and emer
alds, to attain his brilliant blues, reds,
and greens. O f course, today we know
that both these Rosicrucians knew the
secrets of vibrations!
W h e n Saint Germain depicted jewels
in some of his paintings they had a fire
and a radiance in them that hinted of
magic. A physician and a chemist, he
knew the hidden secrets of Nature, for
he had mastered Nature. H e could fuse
diamonds and show no jointure in them.
He could purify jewels.
Saint Germain was one of the leaders
in pointing out the w ay to the inner
Ninety-five

world. H e did not pose, but was plain

ly matter of fact. B ut he told his dis
ciples that they belonged to the order of
M elchisedek which the Bible tells us
the M a ste r Jesus belonged to.
Be the torch o f the w orld, he said.
If your light is that only of a planet,
you will be nothing in the sight of G od.
I reserve for you a splendor, of which
the solar glory is a shadow. Y o u shall
guide the course of stars and those who
rule empires shall be governed by y ou .
T h e r e is a means of entering the fire
o f colors not seen with mortal sight.
W h e n the darkness disperses, the Bow
in the Clouds will be seen, the colors of
which outshine any in the finite world.
It is thus, as B la k e says, "w e meet the
Lord in the air.
T h i s was the chief truth he expressed
all through his life. T h e Persons who
ascend to M e e t the Lord, coming in the
Clouds with power and great Glory, are
representations of those States described
in the Bible under the Nam es of the
F ath ers before and after the Flood.
N o a h is seen in the midst of these,
canopied by a Rainbow, on his Right
hand Shem and on his left Japhet; these
three Persons represent Poetry. P aint
ing, and M usic, the T h r e e Powers in
M a n of conversing with Paradise, which
the flood did not sweep a w a y . ( H is
comment on his picture Vision o f L ast

Judgm ent. )
A t the Library of C ongress is to be
seen C arl G u th e rz s pictorial spectrum
of light, expressing the idealizations of
the seven principal colors. V iolet State.
Indigo Science. Blue T ru th . G reen
Research. Y ellow Creation. O range
Progress. R ed Poetry. I n d e e d ,
man's inner development might be said
to go through this order of colors.
In the Persian S u fis four Schools of
C o lo rs, W h ite is ecstasy, inspiration.
Shelley, another of our great colorpoets, tells us that all poetry, all crea
tion, is derived from Love, a going out
of our own nature (ek stasis) and an
identification of ourselves with the
beautiful which exists in thought, action,
or person not our ow n.
E x ta s is , Eliphas Levi writes, is a
voluntary and immediate application of
the soul to the universal fire, or rather
to that light abounding in images
which radiates, which speaks and cir-

culates about all objects and every

sphere of the universe.
Ancient
manuscripts
from occult
sources state
frequently about the
" V o i c e o f the F i r e . T o become masters
of the A stral Light we must, as the
original teachers tell us, learn to hear
the Light speak.
A complete correspondence to the
cosmos resides within man. H ad we no
such correspondence, no inner response
would manifest at outward forms. T h e
color vibrations in things we see strike
a response on the color organ of our
body. A sunset, a painting, a flower
garden, might hold us momentarily
enraptured.
O n such immortal moments Lavater
has some pertinent comments to say, for
these moments make us as one with the
universe, the universe one with us.
" H e who has frequent moments of
complete existence is a hero, though not
laurelled: is crowned, and without
crowns, a king: he only who has en
joyed immortal moments can reproduce
them.
W h a t e v e r is visible is the vessel or
veil of the invisible past, present, future
as man penetrates to this more, or
perceives it less, he raises or depresses
his dignity of bein g. In his copy of
L avater's Aphorisms O n M a n , Blake
wrote in the margin of this maxim:

A vision o f the Eternal N ow .

The
n ' '

osicru ctan
Digest
A pril
1936

L et none turn over books, or roam

the stars in quest of G o d, who sees him
not in m an."
M a n , however, prefers to study the
stars than himself. Even though our
greatest astronomers tell us that what
we gaze at are not things as they are,
but as they were.
W h a t has been for a long time the
past for the earth is only the present for
a distant observer in sp ace, writes
Camille Flammarion. It is not the
P resent state of the sky which is visible,
but its past history. . . . T h e progressive
motion of light carries with it through
Infinitude the ancient history of all the
suns and all the worlds in an eternal

present

only ^

stars>

never the present. Light transports us

into the Infinite Life. B y the advance
ment we have made in Light and Sound

it is possible soon to see and hear events

that occurred centuries ago.
Kepler gave a Color and a tone to
each planet. M o dern astronomers tell
us the color of each planet as seen
through the telescope. M ystically, they
are as follows: M erc u ry Purple, the
color of M a je s ty , Dominion, S e lfE steem. V e n u s G reen, color of Y ou th ,
Kindness, Fertility. M a r s R ed, denot
ing C ourage, Nobility, Strength. Jupiter
Blue,
color of
Hope, Spirituality.
S atu rn B lack, representing E arth , Jus
tice, M ourning.
M a r s stands for
F ire. Jupiter for
W ater.
Saturn
for E arth . T h e M oon
for Air. T h u s the four primary elements
of the universe. T h e national colors of
E ngland
and the United S tates are
R ed, W hite and Blue Fire, A ir and
W ate r.
In occult mysteries the C hariot o l
Hermes is drawn by four living cheru
bim with four faces. T h e correspond
ences are thus:
E a rth
Body
Ox

F ire
M in d
Lion

W ater
Soul
M an

A ir
Spirit
E a g le

M a n is the shadow of the Shadow of

G o d. H e formed man from the earth
and breathed into him the Spirit of Life,
and man became a Living Soul. Since
Creation took place after the F a ll, it
too must be in the likeness of the Divine
Shadow .
T h e Chariot o f Hermes stood to the
early mystics as the four elementary
manifestations of the one substance.
Herein lies the secret of the Sphinx,
guarding the triangular pyramids on
their square base! Around the Chariot
is a rainbow. It is the H oly Mountain
wherein dwell the seven Spirits of
Lights, the Elohim of the G odhead.
It is also the divine vision of Ezekiel.
( R e a d the entire first chapter, and par
ticularly note verse 2 8 .) But if we keep
constantly in mind that the microcosm
of man is alluded to all the time, it will
be easier to understand the mystery
in fact, to test the truth of it!
T h e colors of the prophets vision
emanate in centrifugal radiations. T e l e
vision transmits pictures of events actu
ally happening. Developing our psychic
organs permits us to expand our mind.
Ninety-six

An expansion of consciousness turns

our head into a radio-television appara
tus. Things that are hidden are thus
brought forth in Light. ( Jo b 3 8 )
The Fall succeeded the Paradisical
state of M an and the W o r ld , and was
necessary as a formation of external
Nature and physical sense. T h e D a rk
ness became a veil on which the colors
of the Inner W o r l d could be reflected,
though in a much lesser degree.
In unity, the suns ray is pure white.
Broken up, it separates into seven colors,
seven tones of music, from which all
other colors and tones evolve. T h e F all
of man from the inner world divided his
powers. Unity became disunity. In the
inner world man had the stars within
him in all their brightness, all the planets
and constellations. T h e n came the day
of darkness. T h e stars went out, the
planets were destroyed. A new crea
tion had to evolve out of the old one.
The correspondences to the stars and
planets, and to all else in the universe,
withdrew to the centre of man's being,
as he fell from the inner world to the
shadow. T h e F lo o d followed the
Fall." N oah is the symbol of the
aspiring soul eager for development,
unfoldment, and illumination. H e breaks
away from the material, seeking spirit
ual wisdom.
After many days on the waters o f re
generation, N oah sees the Cloud, and
in the Cloud the colored Rainbow .
Through this sign N oah reaches the
Holy of Holies where he hears the voice
of God and learns the means of salva
tion of mankind. ( G e n . 9 : 1 2 - 1 5 )
The Bow signifies the w ay of co n
tacting Astral Light, seeing visions
therein and becoming prophetic. T h e
fixation of this Light by the Divine
Grace bestowed on our will is repre
sented by the serpent pierced by the
arrow, the Aleph of Kabalistic lore.
Heinrich Khunrath, one of the great
est of Rosicrucian mystics and teachers,
tells us in one of his works, T h e A m
phitheatre of E ternal W i s d o m , that
the seeker goes through various phases
of development, or periods of progress.
In one part he says that the G a te of the
Sanctuary is enlightened by the T h r e e
Lights, or the Seven M y stic R ays.

Eliphas Levi says that this book as a

whole contains all mysteries of the high
est initiation. It is, he adds, a true
manual of T ranscen d en tal M a g ic and
H ermetic P hilosophy.
T h e meaning of Entering N o a h 's
R a in b o w is reaching the Sanctuary,
the real church of the M asters. W h e n
we ourselves are set within the Cloud
we are prepared to see and be in the
many - colored rainbow.
T h e Inner
W o r l d is reached. It is but the sign. If
we be not w orthy the clouds will not
disperse. If, however, we allow the
Immortal R ose to blossom, nurturing it
with the w ater of regeneration, the
Cloud disappears and the Light and
C olors alone are left. T h u s do we be
come prophets! W e see visions and
dream dreams!
T h e present time is the era of spiritual
enlightenment. T h e E a rth C onscious
ness and the Human Consciousness are
rising higher, nearer to Cosmic C o n
sciousness. W e are about to propound
the T ru th that T h e soul as M icrotheos,
G o d in miniature, is the solution of all
the riddles of mysticism." ( W i n d e l b an d .)
W e know the rainbow is caused by a
refraction of light in a prism of water.
T h e world, if not divided against itself,
is a Divine Unit. Separated into por
tions, it becomes multiple. It is like the
B ow. Pure Light is its real essence;
divided into seven colors when refracted
by the prism. T o see the world and
humanity in the T r u e Light is to see All
as O n e a mighty Unit, transfigured by
Love.
A s above, so below. A s in the uni
verse, so in man. W e become trans
figured by "entering N o a h s rainbow .
F o r as we serve as a prism for Light and
Color, so may we enter into the Pure
Light, to which all belong. T h e Closed
D o o r is opened. T h e H o ly of Holies is
reached, and by Divine G race alone we
are permitted to enter therein. T h e
Divine F ire in which we become bathed
renews us. W e hear the F ire speak!
W e learn th at M u sic is the V o ic e of
G od! C olo r His Speech!

v v v
Ninety-seven

f^ l
jW nxu~j

SUMMARIES
w O F SCIENCE

Each hour of the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g nature s m ysteries and extending the boundaries of
knowledge. T he w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
It is with pleasure, therefore, that w e afford our readers a m onthly summary
of some of these scientific researches, and briefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherwise specified,
we give full credit for all m atter which appears in quotations.

Celestial Collision
T shuttled back and
forth a c r o s s its
filmy bridge, la y
ing down strand
after strand of the
t h r e a d - l i k e sub
stance it e x u d e d
f r o m its b o d y .
W e a v i n g in and
out, it produced a
pattern of mathe
matical exactitude.
E v e n t u a l l y t he
tiny creatu res lacy
web screened the entire aperture of the
lower end of the rain spout. H ere was
not an extravagant display of energy,
but a methodical and purposeful act.
N e a r at hand were the prey vulturous
flies buzzing about the remains of an
unfortunate fledgling who had tried
his wings too soon. W it h in this small
world were crowded all the elements of
T he
Rosicrucian a possible success. Attainment was near
at hand. Aroused by necessity, the in
Digest
stinctive intelligence sought a favorable
April
environment for its purpose. W h a t an
1936
excellent combination of circumstances,

a blessing of fate! T h e r e was the greedy

prey, a rigid foundation to support the
snare and high enough to be free from
the lurking danger of the sticky tongues
o f those tailless amphibians, toads and
frogs. W h a t security! W h a t master
fulness in choosing this locale! W h a t
confidence these circumstances must
have instilled!
T im e certainly would reward, it
would seem, such a sequence of causes
with the happy, profitable results of
the loud buzzing o f a hapless victim.
T h e end must be inevitable an end
free from failure, for all that need be
known to assure that was apparently
realized.
O utside o f that tiny world the world
of a few square feet was a great un
known one unseen, unheard and undisturbing. Just beyond the border of
it were eyes that saw this tiny creature
and the things of its world. T h e y were
the eyes of man looking down upon it.
T h e r e was a mind also that not only
comprehended the chain of events upon
which the creature depended, but ap
prehended causes which could shake its
N in ety-eight

very world things the insect could not

even imagine, yet it reigned supreme in
its ignorance. If speak it could, it would
cry a challenge to the unknown. It had
coped before with tangible elements.
W h y could it not conquer again and
again? In contrast to its triumphs, what
could exist out there in the apparent
nothingness which could cause it terror?
It knew friend and it knew foe within
its own world. W h a t else was there?
It had lived long in its small way, in its
small realm, proving that it had been
alert. Nothing which could ever great
ly affect its w elfare had gone unper
ceived.
W it h reflection the human looked
down upon the swiftly moving and
busily occupied creature. Its world was
complete. Its limits were the feeble pow
ers of its faculties of perception. Little
did it realize that another world existed,
of which its own was an infinitesimal
part a world which it was at the mercy
of at all times; a realm of forces and
beings so great that it could not per
ceive them, even though they were om
nipresent. Its little environment at the
height of its greatest certainty was al
ways on the verge of becoming chaos
by elements which concerned themselves
not the least with its world, or its in
terests. In fact, its world as it knew it
had no existence. It was a microscopic
part of a still greater one, and its efforts
were part of the collective activities of
millions of beings, forces and causes.
As man continued to contemplate
upon these things, a gust of wind lashed
the bows of the trees, lightning rent the
heavens, and the clouds poured forth
rain. T h e human fled to shelter, and
with a spurt and loud gurgle w ater
rushed from the rain spout, washing at
his heels the creature, its web, and the
prey, and inundating its little world
a world in which it was about to add
another triumph to its feeble supremacy.
In contrast to the universe, even as
we conceive it, m ans globe is as incon
sequential in the scheme of things as
were the few feet of earth the world in
which the spider dwelt. F o r all of man's
accomplishments in the world of which
he is a part, for all of his mastery of its
laws, forces and conditions, he is help
less in the path of Cosmic causes, which
are manifesting a higher end than he
N inety-nine

can conceive. His world can be sh at

tered, dashed into impalpable bits,
crushing his hopes and his dreams; yes,
even his cherished beliefs, and yet, such
a cataclysm may be the orderly progres
sion of law fulfilling a magnificent
intent.
M a n should neither curse the forces
which destroy his microcosmic world,
nor become arrogant, defiant, and b o ast
ful, when the ultimate has not yet ar
rived, because the former is not in
tended as an affliction of punishment,
and the latter is not the result of his
powers. T h e spider's brief fortunate
circumstances were not because it had
momentarily suspended the laws of na
ture, but that in the course of things
change had not yet reached its sphere.
So it is with man in his element.
M a n s existence, since the earth first
knew him until it will long since have
forgotten him, will be but a tick of
Cosmic time. M a k e the most of the in
tervening interval, he should; but a l
ways with a consciousness that it is
with the gracious decree of an intelli
gence and an order that he is permitted
to do so. and not because of any influ
ence that he has exerted. E a ch hour of
the day is a respite from eternity out
of which he came and into which he will
return. Fortunate is he that has been
given consciousness of the moment.
Foolish is he who thinks that being co n
scious of it, he has secured it. A part,
man may play; robes and costumes he
may wear; scenic effects, fame and for
tune he may create, but the curtain must
and will come down when the story has
been told, regardless of its forceful por
trayal. In life man has done naught but
dramatize his thoughts and emotions.
T h e realities remain as constant and as
unswerved from their purpose as ever.
F o r g e t the particular and think of the
whole. Contemplate the magnitude of
a plan having a consistency of purpose
that treats all things alike, subjecting
everything to its end. F eel secure only
in the knowledge that change is in
evitable a change out of which will
come stupendous results, a transform a
tion out of which a new order will co n
tinuously appear. D o not make the mis
take which insults the human reason of
believing that the world must continue

of California, and U niversity of M ic h

igan show that the tiny planetoid is
moving swiftly aw ay from the earth.
Drs. Fred L. W h ip p le and L. E . C u n
ningham located and photographed the
Delporte o bject with the new and pow
erful instruments at H a r v a rd s O a k
Rid ge station in the town of Harvard,
M assachu setts.

in accord with the highest good as man

conceives it.
Consider the following recent news
article, and excoriate from your thoughts
the vain idea that the earth continues its
rhythmic oscillation and its stability b e
cause it shelters you. Realize the por
tending momentary change, and lift
your thoughts to the thrill of the mys
tery of its cause.

"P ro fe s s o r Delporte has been an a c

tive discoverer of small planets and
com ets. O n e such o bject that he dis
covered in 1932, also called the D el
porte object, came very close to the
earth, but the present o b ject is not the
same.

A great rock hurtling through space

is having its photograph taken by
astronomers eager to chart its heavenly
path before it disappears from view.
" T h i s new minor planet is the small
est o bject in astronom ys annals, except
the meteorites which smash into the
earth. It came closer to the earth than
an y other thing in the heavens, except
possibly one or two comets.

" T h r o u g h a study of the tiny object

astronomers believe they may be able
to discover many hitherto unknown
characteristics of similar small particles.
T h e y also hope to determine its orbit so
as to make possible a prediction as to
if, and when, it may return.

" I t is known as the Delporte object,

after the Belgian astronomer P ro fesso r
E . Delp orte who discovered it on F e b
ruary 12. N ot until several more ob
servations were made could its path in
the heavens be computed and its un
usual diminutiveness and proxim ity
discovered.

"B e c a u s e the o bject is so small, it is

expected to be greatly affected by the
gravitational forces of the planets V e n u s
and M ercury , which it passes very
closely, thus permitting the most accur
ate measurements ever made of the
masses of these planets.

"H e r e are the H arvard O bservato ry

figures showing the new plan ets claims
to fame: Size O n e third mile or only
one twenty-five thousandth of the
earth s size. W e i g h t F iv e hundred
million tons, about the same as a small
mountain. D istance aw ay W h e n first
observed was within two or three mil
lion miles of the earth.

"Prelim inary calculations at Harvard

indicate that the orbit is on approxi
mately the same plane as that of the
earth. Its closest approach to the sun
is about half the distance from the earth
to the sun, while its greatest distance
from the sun is equal to about one and
one-half the earth-to~sun distance.

" C a b le advices to Scien ce Service

from the International Astronom ical
Bureau at C openhagen described it
definitely as 'planet,' that is, a minor
planet or asteroid, with an elliptical
path around the sun.

" T h e estimated length of time re

quired for the completion of the orbit
is roughly sixteen months, the shortest
period for any heavenly body, with the
exception of the earth, V e n u s and
M e rc u ry .

" O r b it computations made at H a r

vard C ollege O bservatory, University

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
April

PLAN TO ATTEND THE ROSICRUCIAN CONVENTION JULY 12-18

1936
O n e H undred

P A G ES
from the

0 iiiiiiin iu

...............u m m i u u m m u u M l m ..........M i n i ............m i ................

i i i i i h i i i i i i m i Q

ELBERT HUBBARD
Each month we w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
of the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through
the presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally such w ritin gs
will be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors o f
the past. This month we present E lbert Hubbard.
Hubbard, eminent Am erican philosopher and essayist, was born in Bloom ington, Illinois,
in 1850. His education in his youth was meager. H e had a common school education and
supported himself by w orkin g on a farm and in a p rin tin g office. Later, he devoted him
self to private study and extensive travel. H e concluded his travels by settlin g at E a 3 t
Aurora. N ew York, where he established the renowned R oy cro ft Press.
The magnificent typograph y o f the periodicals and publications disseminated from that
establishment made them recognized examples o f the highest in the printing art. H is first
publication was a little magazine known as the P h illis tin e " which almost im m ediately at
tracted attention. An essay appearing in one o f its issues entitled, A Message to G arcia,
was so w ell received that it was later published in pamphlet form and eventually had a
total circulation throughout the w orld o f fifteen m illion copies.
When about fo rty years o f age, he entered H arvard College and for a period o f three
years studied literature and language. Mr. Hubbard was not on ly a forceful thinker and
writer, but brought additional laurels to himself by his eloquent manner o f speaking and
his splendid platform appearance. He was especially inclined toward mysticism and occult
and metaphysical studies and researches. H e sponsored numerous small societies in their
investigations o f the m ysteries o f nature. H e was intim ately known to the Im perator o f
the Rosicrucian O rder o f the N orth and South Am erican jurisdiction.
Below are a few o f his numerous essays. E very reader w ill be impressed w ith the sim
plicity o f his style, its beauty, and the fact that each thought expressed is exceedin gly
cogent.
0 IIIM IIIU IIIIIH M IIIIH IIIIIIIM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Ill

m m ii m n m i n i m u m

111

1m i n i m i f S l

The Teacher
T I S a great thing
to teach. T o give
yourself in a w ay
to i n s p i r e others
to think, to do, to
become what
nobler a m b i t i o n !
T o be a g ood
teacher demands a
high degree of al
t r ui s m, f or o ne
must be willing to
sink self, to die, as
it were, that others
may live. T h e re is something in it that
is akin to motherhood a brooding qual
One Hundred O ne

ity. E v e ry true mother realizes that her

children are only loaned to her sent
from G od and the attributes of her
mind and body are being used by some
P ow er for a Purpose. T h e teacher is
training her children to do without her.

Desire
W h a t is it wins? W o r k you say, but
you are wrong. It is desire that brings
every good thing. Did you ever watch
a cat about to spring for a bird? T h e
cat does not think about working to se
cure that bird: about how to place its
body for the most graceful spring not

that. It is just Riled with the d esire, and

it does exactly the proper thing the
single-hearted thing. R abbits can run
faster and farther than cats, but rabbits
never catch birds they do not desire
to.

Eternity
W e are living in eternity now, just
as much as we ever shall. G od is right
here now, and we are as near Him now
as we shall ever be. H e never started
this world a-going and went aw ay and
left it H e is with us yet. T h e r e is no
devil but fear, and nobody and nothing
can harm you but yourself. W e should
remember the weekday to keep it holy,
live one day at a time, doing our work
the best we can. T h e r e is no more sacred
place than that where a man is doing
good and useful work, and there is no
higher wisdom than to lose yourself in
useful industry, and b e kind and be
kind.

My Creed
I wish to be simple, honest, natural,
frank, d e a n in mind and d e a n in body,
unaffected ready to say, I do not
know , if so it be, to meet all men on an
absolute equality to face an y obstacle
and meet every difficulty unafraid and
unabashed. I wish to live without hate,
whim, jealousy, envy or fear. I wish
others to live their lives, too up to their
highest, fullest and best. T o that end I
pray that I may never meddle, dictate,
interfere, give advice that is not wanted,
nor assist when my services are not
needed. If I can help people, I will do
it by giving them a chance to help them
selves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let
it be by example, inference and sugges
tion, rather than by injunction and dic
tation. I desire to R adiate L if e !

Fear and Doubt

T h e world accepts a man at the esti
mate he places upon himself. M a n y men
are strong at times, but strong men
make enemies they have detractors
The
calumny calls and hate hisses. T h e n
R osicru cian doubt comes creeping in, possibly the
enemies are right ah, who knows! And
D igest
instantly the doubt is communicated to
A p ril
the public the m ans face tells his fears
1936
to all he meets. And their estimate of

the man is the low est standard h e sets

upon himself.
T h a t is why we need Som e O n e to
believe in us if we do well, we want
our work commended, our faith corro
borated.
S o note this, when you find the
strong man he is one who is well sus
tained.
T o associate closely with those who
doubt or distrust you is eventually go
ing to make you distrust yourself. And
then we get dead conformity, hopeless
mediocrity, nothing more. T h e indivi
dual who thinks well of you, who keeps
his mind on your good qualities, and
does not look for flaws, is your friend.
W h o is my brother? I'll tell you, he is
one who recognizes the good in me.

On W alt Whitman
M o st writers bear no message they
carry no torch. Sometimes they excite
wonder, or they amuse and divert
divert us from our work. T o be diverted
to a certain degree may be well, but
there is a point where earth ends and
cloudland begins, and even great poets
occasionally befog the things which they
would reveal.
Homer was seemingly blind to much
simple truth; V irg il carries you away
from earth; H o race was undone with
out his M a cae n as; D ante makes you an
exile; Shakespeare was singularly silent
concerning the doubts, difficulties, and
common lives of common people; B y
rons Corsair life does not help you in
your toil, and in his fight with English
B ards and Scotch Reviewers we crave
neutrality: to be caught in the meshes of
Pope's Dunciad is not pleasant; and
Low ells F a b le [or Critics is only an
other Dunciad. But above all poets who
have ever lived, the author of Leaves of
G rass was the poet of humanity.
M ilton knew all about Heaven, and
D an te conducts us through Hell, but it
w as left for W h it m a n to show us Earth.
His voice never goes so high that it
breaks an impotent falsetto, neither does
it growl and snarl at things it does not
understand, and, not understanding,
does not like. H e was so great that he
had no envy, and his insight was so
sure that he had no prejudice. He never
boasted that he was higher, nor claimed
O n e H undred T w o

to be less than any of the other sons of

men. He met all on terms of absolute
equality, mixing with the poor, the low
ly, the fallen, the oppressed, the cul
tured, the rich simply as brother with
brother. And when he said to the out
cast, Not till the sun excludes you will
I exclude you, he voiced a sentiment
worthy of a god.
"He was brother to the elements, the
mountains, the seas, the clouds, the sky.
He loved them all and partook of them
all in his large, free, unselfish, untram
meled nature. His heart knew no limits,
and feeling his feet mortis'd in granite
and his footsteps tenond in infinity, he
knew the amplitude of time.
"Only the great are generous: only
the strong are forgiving. Like L o t s
wife, most poets look back over their
shoulders: and those who are not look
ing backward insist that we shall look
into the future, and the vast majority of
the whole scribbling rabble accept the
precept, M an never is, but always to be
blest.
" W e grieve for childhoods happy
days, and long for sweet rest in Heaven,
and sigh for mansions in the skies. And
the people about us seem so indifferent,
and our friends so lukewarm: and really
no one understands us, and our environ
ment queers our budding spirituality
and the frost of jealousy nips our aspira
tions: Oh Paradise, oh Paradise, the
world is growing old: who would not be
at rest and free where love is never
cold. So sing the fearsome dyspeptics
of the stylus. O h enemic he, you blood
less she, nipping at crackers, sipping at
tea, why not consider that although the
evolutionists tell us where we came
from, and the theologians inform us
where we are going to, yet the only
thing we are really sure of is that we
are here!

T h e present is the perpetually mov

ing spot where history ends and pro
phecy begins. It is our only possession
the past we reach through lapsing
memory, halting recollection, hearsay,
and belief: we pierce the future by wist
ful faith or anxious hope, but the present
is beneath our feet.
W h it m a n sings the beauty and the
glory of the present. He rebukes our
groans and sighs bids us look about
on every side at the wonders of crea
tion, and at the miracles within our
grasp. H e lifts us up, restores us to our
own. introduces us to man and N ature
and thus infuses into us courage, man
ly pride, self-reliance, and the strong
faith that comes when we feel our kin
ship with God.
He was so mixed with the universe
that his voice took in the sw ay of ele
mental integrity and candor. Absolute
ly honest, this man was unafraid and
unashamed, for Nature has neither ap
prehension, shame nor vain-glory. In
L eaves o f G rass W h it m a n speaks as all
men have ever spoken who believe in
G od and in themselves oracular, with
out apology, without abasement fear
lessly. H e tells of the powers and mys
teries that pervade and guide all life, all
death, all purpose. His work is mascu
line, as the sun is masculine: for the
Prophetic voice is as surely masculine
as the lullaby and lyric cry is feminine.
W h it m a n brings the warmth of the
sun to the buds of the heart so that they
open and bring forth form, color, per
fume. H e becomes for them aliment
and dew; so these buds become blos
soms, fruits, tall branches, and stately
trees that cast refreshing shadows.
T h e r e are men who are to other men
as the shadow of a mighty rock in a
w eary land such is W a l t W h it m a n .

a
TA K E T H IS SPECIAL BUS T O T H E CO N V EN TIO N
Would you like to travel in a privately chartered comfortable bus from your state to
the National Convention in San Jose, with all of your fellow passengers Rosicrucians?
Would you also like your round trip fare to be considerably cheaper than the usual rail
or bus rates? O f course you would, and we will try to make this possible for you. D o
you live within one hundred and fifty miles of either New Y ork City; Pittsburgh, Penn.;
Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Kansas City, Missouri, or Denver, Colorado? If
you do, write to the Secretary of Bus Arrangements, Rosicrucian Order, A M O R C , Rosi
crucian Park, San Jose, for full particulars.

Qm,
One H undred T h ree

cDoes F ea r Enslave Y o u ?
OFTEN IT IS TH E M A STER OF OUR LIVES AND
W E A RE UNCONSCIOUS OF IT
By T

he

I m perato r

A N Y persons to
day are a c t u a l l y
c o n t r o l l e d or di
rected in all of their
thinking and a ct
ing by the emotion
of fear without be
ing d i r e c t l y con
scious of the de
gree or extent of
the influence, while
on the other hand
t h e r e are multi
tudes w h o thor
oughly realize that the greatest and
most enslaving problem which they have
to face is that of the Frankenstein of
fear.
M a n y of our members, and hosts of
our friends and acquaintances and
thousands of individuals not connected
with our organization, have written to
us from time to time asking whether we
could help them to escape from this
subtle and ever-present influence of
fear. D o not be too sure that fear is not
affecting your life. Y o u may be like
millions of persons who glibly state that
they are not affected by any supersti
tious beliefs, and yet a casual inquiry of
The
Rosicrucian their thoughts and practices in life will
show that they are more or less guided
Digest
by superstitious creeds or dogmas, ideas,
April
or practices that they have almost un
consciously adopted.
1936

P erhaps the greatest element of fear

that is almost universal in human beings
everywhere is fear o f the unknown .
A m o ng psychologists and psychi
atrists fear of the unknown is classified
as a fundamental emotion and as a
logical and reason able emotion. B ut the
strange part about this fear of the un
known is that it increases with a cer
tain degree of intelligence or with a cer
tain degree of acquired knowledge. T h e
very ignorant, unthinking, unintelligent
person has less fear o f the unknown
than the one who has a smattering of
knowledge and a small degree of wis
dom. T h e little child who has not
learned much of life has less fear of un
known things and is affected less by his
lack o f knowledge than the adult who
has acquired some knowledge and has
dabbled inconsistently and improperly
into a lot of subjects which have given
him a false or incomplete idea of many
important principles. T h e child who
knows nothing of fire does not fear it.
T h e person who has had only a little
experience with fire becomes enslaved
by the fear of it, while the one who has
learned much about it and has had much
experience with it has little fear of it,
and the same is true of many of the
elements and principles of life.
It has been found that as we become
better acquainted with the fundamental
principles of all natural laws, we become
O n e H un dred Four

Jess fearful of the unknown the un

known principles, the unknown actions
of these principles, and the unknown
conditions and situations. T h e greatest
expression of the fear of the unknown
is made manifest by the average person
when he realizes that he is on his socalled death bed or face to face with the
possibility of eminent transition. T h e
realization of the fact that the future
state and future conditions across the
borderline are unknown, creates the
most horrifying fears and makes the
prospect of transition the most dreadful
picture, the most terrifying realization,
in the human mind on the part of those
who look upon the future state as an
unknown condition.
Despite the fact that every branch,
every denomination, and every division
of the Christian religion teaches that
life beyond death, or the life that fol
lows this existence on earth is a magni
ficent and beautiful experience filled
with all of the possibilities of jo y and
happiness, and despite the fact that all
of these Christian denominations sing
songs of joy in anticipation of their
spiritual contact in the future, the av er
age Christian on his death bed is like
unto the average person of no religion
at all in fearing the unknown beyond
the grave. T h is is not meant as a criti
cism of the Christian religion, but a
criticism of the weakness of human
faith. Faith seems to sustain the aver
age human being in matters that are of
passing or temporary value, but when it
comes to matters that have duration and
continuous influence, faith seems to be
of little value in the face of a lack of
positive knowledge. O n ly those who
feel that they have convincing knowl
edge of what the future holds in store
for them or whose faith is sublime and
transcendental, are unfearful of the
change that takes place at transition
and of what lies just beyond the border
line.
W e see this trait of fear of the un
known made manifest when normal per
sons enter a building or structure with
which they are unacquainted and find
themselves in the dark and about to
cross the threshold into a room that is
unknown to them. T h e fear of what
lies just beyond the threshold in such a
case is identical with the fear o f the
One H undred F iu e

future. A n d there are those who fear

taking a journey on a steamship cross
ing the Pacific or Atlantic because,
never having traversed the ocean and
having no conviction or positive know l
edge of what lies beyond the horizon,
they are fearful of it. I have talked with
scores of persons who began to express
this fear the moment the great steam
ship had been freed from its dock and
had pointed its bow toward the eastern
or western horizon of the sea. Im
mediately they began to question what
the evening would bring and the mor
row, and what would happen in the
dark of the night or in case of a storm,
or what would happen when o n es foot
was placed upon foreign soil. But we
have noticed that little children will rush
into a dark room or into empty places
unconscious of any fear or a n y hesi
tancy that might take hold of their a c
tions. Y e t after a child has been told
something of the dark and given some
little knowledge of its dangers or pos
sible dangers, or fictitious dangers, this
little knowledge makes him conscious of
the fact that there is more knowledge
which he does not possess and it is this
lack of knowledge that constitutes the
elements of the unknown.
T e a ch in g a little child that he must
not go here or there because of the
bogey man a habit that was quite
common thirty to fifty years ago made
more children fearful of the unknown
than any one other thing, and it had an
influence upon them throughout their
lives. T h e fictitious, mythical, fairy-like
bogey man of their childhood grew as
they grew until he was a F rankenstein
of monster size in their adulthood, al
w ays just across the threshold, or just
behind a door, or hidden just beyond a
veil or curtain and ready to seize hold
o f them if they ventured too far.
A nd this leads us to the second analy
sis of the complex of fear. It is a hesi
tan cy which unconsciously affects us
and seizes hold of us in our thinking and
acting when we are venturing into new
lines, new acts, new fields of thought.
It affects the business man in both his
business and social affairs, and it affects
the woman at home in her social and
home affairs. It affects young and old
alike. E xperien ces in life which beget
wisdom and knowledge are the only

things that eventually free such men and

women from the influence of fear.
T h e emotion of fear is not always on
the surface and it is not easily recog
nized as such. M a n y persons, if not
most of the educated and intelligent
men and women, have different names
for this bogey man of fear. T h e most
common name for it is Caution. O th er
names are Reasoning, Consideration,
Analysis, Preparation, and Forethought.
T h o s e who claim that they have no
superstitious beliefs will tell you that
the hesitancy they manifest is due to a
hunch, whereas in fact it is a supersti
tious belief that fear is warning them.
T h e r e is a vast difference between the
hesitancy that results from real cautious
ness and the hesitancy that comes from
subconscious or conscious fear. O n e
may be thoroughly adventuresome and
free from any fear at all even in enter
ing into an unknown field or taking
part in an exploration of the unknown
conditions of the wilds and explored
portions of any continent, or even of
entering the mouth of a sleeping vol
cano, and yet one can be cautious. B e
ing cautious does not inhibit our actions
and delay our procedure as much as it
causes us to be on guard in considera
tion of the known things or anticipated
possibilities.
Caution, preparation, analysis, and
study are excellent matters of procedure
in all the affairs of life. T h e y beget
progress and are the handmaids of ad
venture.
F ear, on the other hand,
frustrates our plans and turns our foot
steps backward or enslaves us to our
present position and makes us unable to
proceed, to advance, to grow, expand,
or develop.
It is claimed by some that fear is an
inherited quality of nature, particularly
when the fear complex is strongly
developed and not of a subtle, subcon
scious nature. I will not argue the point,
for it may be true that some degree of
fear has been inherited through frights
and fearsome situations experienced by
the mother during the prenatal period,
or through the inheritance of cowardice
The
from either one of the parents; but
R osicru cian "whether inherited or acquired, fear is
an emotion that can be overcome and
Digest
for which we have no excuse, least of
A pril
all the alibi that it is the result of some
experience on the part of our forebears.
1936

F e a r is the very antithesis of bravery.

It causes us to default in making of
ourselves what we should be. It robs
us of a divine inheritance far greater
than any inheritance from our earthly
parents.
Life is a conquest continually from
the hour of birth to the hour of transi
tion. Life is not merely a period of
acquirement. W e do not come into life
empty-handed and empty-minded like
a blank book with its unprinted pages
ready to be filled with human experi
ences and with lessons and wisdom
which we must learn bitterly or with
joy. W e come into existence fortified
with an inner, divine, omnipotent wis
dom that is ready as well as qualified to
enable us to master every situation and
to lift ourselves beyond those experi
ences in life which must come to those
who are not brave but are fearful.
T h e refo re, our lives are conquests re
sulting from the challenge of the wisdom
and self within to the ignorant and
superstitious earthly conditions around
us. O n ly to him who is fearless is the
conquest a success and only to the
brave is given the palm of reward.
T h e divine and Cosmic laws sustain
us in our bravery while G o d s con
sciousness and mind in us provide us
with every means to overcome the
germs of disease, the frailties of life, and
the weakness we have acquired. W i t h
out fear in our consciousness and with
an open mind and a willing attitude to
let the laws of G o d and nature prevail,
our battle against the odds of life is
easy. But when fear is given its op
portunity to influence us or when we
allow its subtle influence to affect us
unconsciously by our refusal to cast it
out of our being, the conquest of life
becomes a long and tedious battle in
which the odds are against us to such
a great degree th at the average human
being cannot possibly win the rewards
that he should win.
In the first place, the average in
dividual in his lack of understanding
and in his wilful refusal to investigate
and study the more fundamental prin
ciples of our existence does not realize
that the fear of a thing animates it,
strengthens it, and enthrones it until it
becomes a master which whips us and
holds us in humble position and in
activity. T h e moment we allow our
O n e H un dred S ix

consciousness to form a realization of

a thing through our fear of it, w e create
that thing into a reality where before it
was non-existent. B y giving credence
or consideration to our fear of anything
we immediately tie upon our ankles and
our wrists the shackles and the chains
which the fearful thing has created out
of fiction or out of imagination, or out
of the superstitious beliefs of the day.
I have seen persons in perfectly
healthy and normal condition go aboard
a steamship and immediately rush to
their cabins to undress and go to bed,
out of fear of the possibility of seasick
ness. I have seen them a few hours
later in the night suffering all of the
unpleasantness of m al-de-m er, and I
have heard them speak of the disagree
able effects of the rocking and tossing
of the ship when, in fact, the ship was
still at anchor attached safely and
steadily to the pier and had not moved
one inch from where it had been for
days. T h e belief that the ship was to
leave at midnight whereas in fact it was
scheduled to leave after midnight has
caused many to become seasick within
an hour after midnight while the boat
was still waiting for the rising tide to
take it out of the dock in the morning.
I have seen persons enter an airplane
fully anticipating that the moment they
stepped into it they would become air
sick, and the influence of this fear made
itself manifest before there was any
real physical cause for their condition.
M en and women have approached
business propositions with a timidity,
hesitancy, and an attitude of mind based
upon the emotion of fear within them
and from the very start the success of
their plans was doomed and each and
every failure, each and every incident
that delayed them in their progress, and
each and every unfortunate incident was
easily traceable to the fear that domi
nated their thinking and their acting.
M ore fortunes in money and in the ma
terial things of life have been lost by
those who hesitated out of fear than by
those who ventured too quickly and
without caution. Bravery and fearless
ness beget power and a venturesome,
optimistic, constructive attitude of mind,
and this in turn attracts favorable co n
ditions even when there are some un
favorable ones to be overcome. F e a r
One H undred S ev en

creates a pessimistic attitude inwardly

if not outwardly. And this attitude of
mind attracts failure and it inhibits con
structive thinking and it makes the mind
cynical, doubtful, and creative of un
favorable anticipation w'hich in turn be
come realities that enslave the in
dividual.
T h e r e is only one w ay in which each
individual can eliminate from his con
sciousness the influence of fear. It is
first of all by becoming familiar with the
fundamental principles of life and es
tablishing a firm conviction in the mind
and heart that all of the activities of
the universe are essentially constructive
and good, and that it is only our angle
or view-point of some of these forces
and operations in the universe that
make them have the false appearance
of being destructive. T h e second point
is to establish in our minds and con
sciousness the absolute and eternal fact
that all of these good and constructive
processes of nature are the result of the
constructive, beneficent, merciful, lov
ing consciousness of God, and that G od
is love and goodness and that all seem
ing unkindnesses and injustices are due
to our misunderstanding, misinterpreta
tion, or miscomprehension of things as
they are. T h e third is to become con
vinced of the fact that man is possessed
of the creative power of God and that
he is master of his own career and can
create, both mentally and physically,
the things that he requires, the things
that he can image, and the things which
will make him w hat he should be or
w hat G od intended him to be. T h e
fourth is to practice the principles of
this faith or belief in the omnipotence
and goodness of G o d and the creative
power within man by refusing to visual
ize that which is unfortunate, destruc
tive, unhappy, sinful, or inharmonious
to our best interests. T h e fifth point is
to be venturesome and brave in the
realization that we can overcome the
evil more easily than we can escape the
conclusions and creations of our own
thinking; that poverty, ill health, un
happiness, misery, and failure in the
conquest of life are things that we
create if we give life to them, power to
them, through our fear our belief of
them.
T h e manifestation of fear even in
the guise of hesitancy and caution be

cause of analysis and study is a sign

of weakness and never of strength. T h e
strong are brave and the brave are ven
turesome. T h e weak are hesitant and
the hesitant are fearful and the failures
are of this class inevitably. E a c h new
venture into the unknown, whether it
be the unknown o f finances, the un
known of business, the unknown of
study and investigation, the unknown
things of life, the unknown principles of
religion, the unknown labyrinth of
mental power, each venture into these
unknown things is a victorious con
quest and each brings strength to the

READ

THE

character, fortitude to the emotions,

and encouragement and progress to the
mind and heart. B e brave, therefore,
and make sure that your hesitancy, your
extreme carefulness, your doubts and
your delays for investigation, are not
the alibis of fear and therefore the balls
and chains that hold you in a false
place in life and let only the dazzling
picture of success and happiness pass
before you as a parade upon the horizon
while you are entombed in your false
position and must watch the parade
go by.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
V
M an, w hen co n scio u s o f an e te rn a l tr u th , h a s ev er sym b olized it so th a t th e
hum an co n scio u sn ess could fo rev er have re alization o f it. N ation s, lan g u ag e s and
cu sto m s have ch an ged , but th ese a n cie n t d e sig n s co n tin u e to illu m in a te m ankind
w ith th e ir m y stic lig h t.
F o r th ose who a re see k in g lig h t, each m onth we w ill
rep ro d u ce a sy m b o l o r sy m b o ls, w ith th e ir a n cie n t m ean in g .

THE MYSTIC

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
April

This is another reproduction

of an old woodcut illustration
taken from one of the rare
Rosicrucian books in the ar
chives of the Order. It may
be rightly termed the mystic,
for it depicts the ancient al
chemist employing in a mys
tical manner, the laws of nature to manifest its phenomena. Note the
lion representing the power of justice, devouring the serpent which
g)
depicts the satanic influence of evil. On the wall
beneath the window is shown the symbolic key to
life, the Egyptian Crux Ansata.

1936
One H un dred E ight

SANCTUM MUSINGS
THE SOLE REA LITY
( C ontinu ed from tast m on th)

T I S interesting to
note that the state
of quiescence is
absolutely devoid
of the ch aracter
istic of dimension,
as that term is ap
plied to the reali
ties of touch and
s i g h t , or as its
equivalent inten
sity is applied to
h e a r i n g , tasting,
and smelling. Upon
a first consideration, we are apt to b e
lieve that we have experienced quies
cence as having dimension, but such
conclusions are the result of confusing
the cause of the idea of dimension with
quiescence. F o r example, in a dark
chamber where nothing is visible to us,
and visual quiescence exists, we can,
nevertheless, ascertain the dimension of
the chamber and are apt to believe,
therefore, that we have determined the
area of the visual void or quiescence.
W e place our back against the wall and
extend our arms before us, and slowly
walk forward, until we feel another wall
or object. B y counting our footsteps, we
determine the dimension between the
wall and the first other o bject felt. B ut
this method would not give the state of
visual quiescence any dimension, for we
O ne H un dred N in e

saw nothing. T h e r e was no visual qual

ity, thus we could not measure its e x
tent. W h a t we did do, is to measure
the changes of the sensations of touch.
Beginning with the sensation of the
wall against our back, we counted each
additional change of sensation, each
different position, when a step was
taken, until we eventually reached the
opposite wall or another object in the
chamber. If, however, quiescence had
existed to touch, as it did to sight, this
would not have been possible. Suppose
we were suspended in the chamber, so
we could not, through the sense of
touch, perceive any part of it, or any ob
jects in it, then a notion of dimension
would not be possible, just as it was not
possible with visual quiescence.
A definite distinction must now be
made between quiescence and space. A
state of quiescence begins to our senses,
with the end of a form and ends with
the beginning of a form. F o r example,
we see a lighted candle, and then it is
extinguished and the chamber is plunged
into darkness and we see nothing. Q u i
escence begins with the darkness and
continues until we visually perceive
something again. T o this interval of
quiescence, no dimension can be given.
We cannot say that so many yards,
feet or inches existed between the end
of our perception of one object and the

beginning of our experience o f another.

However, when we look at a form and
observe its end and the beginning of
another or the apparent absence of any
other, or space, we say the form has
dimension. T h i s is arrived at by measur
ing the extent of the form, the particular
variation of that quality of sight which
makes it visible to us. T o do this, we
must at all times be conscious of form.
W e must perceive the old form and the
beginning of the new, or merely perceive
the form and its limits that is, an ap
parent absence of anything else around
it, which we call space. T o illustrate
I can determine the dimension of a book
either by noting where another immedi
ately beside it begins its form, or by ob
serving where space appears to sur
round it, constituting the end of its
form. T h u s I measure the visual form
that is constant and which I identify as
a book and where a variation or a sud
den demarcation of the constancy be
gins, I conceive it as a new form. Q ui
escence cannot have dimension, because
it lacks a sense quality and lacking a
quality, there can be no variation o f it,
the extent of which can be measured.
T h i s conclusion offhand may seem
im possible to reconcile with space, for
space appears as formless as does the
state of quiescence, and yet, we can a s
sign it dimension. First, it must be
realized that space is never perceived
without relation to matter or form. H ow
are we visually conscious o f space? It
is only by perceiving its limits, which
limits are the beginning of form. Being
conscious o f form, we conceive that that
state or condition which appears to be
without it, is space, because it has the
capacity to occupy form.
Never, at
any time, has man apprehended space
in the sense of a void, without it being
related to form. Although space may
appear formless, it has the same quality
as form, but without variation. Space
visually perceived is sigh ts quality o f
light without variation. T h e lack of
variation causes us to conceive a form
less state. T h e r e is no expanse o f this
state of the absolute quality of sight or
The
light so great that we cannot perceive
R osicru cian its boundaries o f visual forms. If there
were, we would experience a condition
U igest
similar to quiescence. Even when lookA p ril
ing heavenward on a clear day, space is
1936
limited by an illusionary ceiling of blue

which constitutes form, gives the area

probable dimension.
T w o cubes are placed before us and
we say they are twelve inches apart. In
the area between is space; it is a state
to sight without form; yet it has dimen
sion because we can measure its extent
between the forms, where it begins and
where it ends. T h i s dimension of space
is comparable with the dimension of
form. W e repeat, form must always be
perceivable as a boundary for us to
give space dimension. W e may desire
to measure the area between a certain
mountain and a lake hundreds of miles
distant. Obviously, both forms, the
mountain and the lake, could not be
perceived at one time, nor in fact, could
either one be, afte r we had travelled
about half w ay between them, yet this
does not alter our assertion that space
must be perceived simultaneously with
form to have dimension. In such a case
as the one given, the distance is arrived
at by measuring from the mountain to a
form which is seen, thence from that
point to another and so on, or by sub
stituting such arbitrary forms as foot
and yard rules, or mathematical calcula
tions which are continually in our con
sciousness as for ms during the period o f
measurement.
W h a t is the limit of the quiescence of
the senses? Actually, it is when form is
again perceived. Since it is possible
during a period of time equal to our in
terval of quiescence to perceive an ob
ject of any size, we cannot therefore
know what capacity to assign quies
cence. Quiescence is not a mere absence
of form, but the absence of the quality
of the sense of which forms are com
prised. Since the quality is possible of
manifesting nearly any dimension of
which the human mind is capable of
grasping, we cannot give it a fixed
dimension. Sp ace, being bounded by
forms, its area or dimension is its poten
tial capacity of the forms seen, or its
capacity is certain arbitrary units of
measurement between the forms.
A form capable of being measured,
that is, having its dimension or exten
sion determined, is for that period at
least, apparently at rest. If it were
changing rapidly to another form or dis
appearing entirely, it would not be con
stant enough for us to determine its
extent. Th e refo re, if it is fixed enough
O n e H un dred T en

to be measured, it is fixed in our co n

sciousness for the moment at least. It
matters not that the form itself may in
relation to others be in motion; as long
as its particular expression or identity
remains unchanged, it is fixed.
Its
length, breadth, or height is ascertained
by substituting arbitrary changes along
the extent of the fixed form. T o illu
strate Th e re lies before us, let us sup
pose, a board. It appears to maintain its
form, and it also appears at rest. W e
proceed to measure the extent of that
form by taking a rule, scaled, we will
say, to three feet. W e turn this fixed
rule of three feet end over end, along
the surface of the board, counting each
change of position of the rule until we
perceive a change of form; that is, the
end of the board. T h e total count of
the arbitrary changes along the extent
of the fixed form is its dimension. Th u s,
to ascertain the dimension of a form we
break up its seeming rest into units of
action, brought about by changing the
position of our rule. E a c h unit of the
rule is fixed and its form at rest also,
but the change of its position and the
mathematical progression gives it an
artificial action.
Our deliberation upon space brings
us to a consideration of that illusion
of human consciousness designated as
T I M E . It is so closely related to space
that many psychologists and metaphysi
cians refer to it and space as the space
time factor. Although as we have seen,
the state of quiescence cannot be sub
ject to the same standards as space
that is, it does not have extension or
dimension, it does exist in time. A b
sence of perception of action gives rise
to a realization of a state of quiescence.
This interval between states of percep
tion is possible of measurement. T h e
interval of quiescence is divided into
mathematical units. T h e extension of
these units is the determining factor in
knowing the duration of the period of
quiescence. O n the other hand, we may
take the opposite of this quiescence or
perception and find it exists in time
also. Perception is the realization of
form. Form, as we know it, is action,
even though it may appear at rest.
Single or several forms, or forms which
change as we perceive them, if consti
tuting a single period of perception, are
measured by time. A n entire experience,
One H un dred E lev en

whether we perceive it as action or not,

if we consider the experience as fixed,
at rest, may be measured by dividing it
as we did with quiescence, into mathe
matical units. T h e sum total of these
units is the duration of the sense experi
ence, or the period of our consciousness
of the form or forms perceived.
T h i s explanation may appear incon
sistent, for it has been said that quies
cence cannot be measured as is space,
yet we have, it seems, applied the same
method to it and perception in determin
ing their time. But, there is actually a
vast difference, extremely significant yet
simple enough to be overlooked by
many. W e begin an explanation of this
difference by approaching it from the
point of consciousness. B y conscious
ness, we mean that state by which we
realize the variation of the sense quali
ties. have knowledge of the realities and
of self. T h e period of consciousness
does not alter to us the nature of an
idea or a form. W e perceive a splash
of color and a geometrical form, and
say that we see a red cube; neither the
color nor form of the object is intensified
by increasing the length of time we are
conscious of them. O n c e an idea is
definitely formed in our minds as to the
nature of an object, it has that moment,
to that sense or combination of senses,
acquired as much reality as it will ever
have to them. T h e period required to
register the idea may be three seconds
or five minutes, but an additional period
of consciousness will not alter the na
ture of the fundamental sense impres
sions. T h e re fo re , it is cogent that the
elements which contribute to our notion
of dimension, are not affected by the
period of consciousness. According to
our previous hypothesis then, when
there is established the notion of dimen
sion, there must be apprehended at the
same time either the limits of the form
in comparison with others, space, or the
mechanical changes of measurement.
T h e salient point is that measurement
for determining the extension of reality
and space is dependent on perceived
change a change in reality from one
form to another, or from reality to
space. T h e only im portance of the
period of consciousness is that it be long
enough to measure the changes. T h is,
as said, may be accomplished in either
a long or short interval. If I have before

The
R osicru cian
Digest
A pril
1936

me a map with a scale of miles, I can

at a glance, determine a distance of five
thousand miles between cities, a distance
which without the map might require
several weeks to measure. W h e n e v e r
the elements, as in the example of the
map, are all combined in such a manner
that the idea is formed at once in my
consciousness, space and extension also
have their illusionary existence to me
instantaneously.
T h e length of the
period of continued consciousness mat
ters not.
T im e is likewise measured in terms
of change, but a change of conscious
ness, not reality. W h e n we are co n
scious of a thing, the consciousness is
of the N O W . E verything we have ever
experienced, if not forgotten, would be
of the now, if the experiences were not
interrupted by periods a fraction of a
second in duration, when we are not
conscious at all. T h e s e intervals, when
we are devoid of consciousness, cause
the experiences of consciousness to have
an orderly progression. It makes it pos
sible for us to distinguish between the
immediate and what preceded it. If it
were not for this, we would have no
im aginary conception of a past or a
future, but just a continuous merge of
sense impressions.
T o measure the period of conscious
ness, we must have points of beginning
and end that are recognized by all alike.
W e cannot very well count backward to
a certain experience and state that an
event occurred so many experiences ago.
T h i s would mean nothing to another,
for the duration of his experiences may
have been longer than ours and he
would not realize the same lapse of time.
T h e re fo re , we have taken the motions
of certain stars and the sun as standards
of movement, recognized by all, and we
aver that a day consists of so many
periods of this movement. T h e s e periods
are mathematical units of progression
from one fixed point to another. A c tu a l
ly, what has been done is to divide
man's consciousness of the change of
position of the earth, sun, and planets
into the arbitrary units of time. M a n s
consciousness of the changing of the
f ? rth su"- and Planets is a fixf d state:
H e can describe the various phases of
motion of the Cosmic bodies, but with
out the artificial division of time, how
could he measure the period of his fixed

consciousness of them? W it h o u t hours,

minutes, seconds and their equivalent,
how could he measure that period of
change, of which he is conscious, from
whence the sun is seen in the E a s t until
it is seen in the W e s t ?
A sustained conscious experience is a
period of fixation. B y this is meant that
consciousness is arrested by the sense
impressions which engender it. A l
though there may be a number of these
different intervals of arrested conscious
ness or experiences, each may be of
different duration, some twice as long
as others, some half or quarter as long.
F o r others to comprehend by compari
son, the duration of our consciousness,
we must describe it in units which have
the same significance to them. Could
you conceive the elapsed time if one
said, F o r exercise yesterday, I rode a
bicycle and paddled a can o e? Y ou
would need measure the duration of the
period of consciousness of those experi
ences before you could conceive the
time they are said to have consumed.
Y o u would need apply to that fixed ex
perience of riding a bicycle and pad
dling the canoe, the arbitrary units of
measurement, hours, minutes, and sec
onds. E a c h unit of time is a change,
and we count the mathematical changes
until there is a change in consciousness
that is, until there is had a new idea
or group of ideas, constituting a new
experience.
T I M E , if we are to concisely define
it, is the duration of the period of con
sciousness. It is the duration of the per
sistence of an idea or group of ideas.
E a c h experience is consciousness ar
rested. S P A C E is perception without
form. E X T E N S I O N is the extent of
the character of a form or space.
C hang e in the character of reality gives
rise to the idea of D I M E N S I O N .
C hange in the character of space gives
rise to the idea of reality and to the
idea of the dimension of space. T h e
changes of time are changes in con
sciousness. T h e changes of space and
extension are changes in the source of
all reality. T o put it more pointedly, in
time the changes seem to take place
within us, and in space and extension
the changes appear to take place e x
ternally. W i t h time we measure the
duration of the idea itself, but with
space and extension we measure the
O ne H undred T w elv e

cause of the idea. All three are obvious

ly the properties of consciousness, states
of mind apprehended, to which we have
assigned identity, just as we did our
sense qualities, which in their own
rights have no existence.
These three states which have an
imaginary realism, time, space and e x
tension, are provoked by the external
causes we have set forth. T im e has its
illusionary existence to us in the e x
periences of all the special senses. T h e re
is no difference in measuring the dura
tion of consciousness of a sound, than
in measuring the duration of the co n
sciousness of a taste. T h e period of
consciousness may be alike, regardless
of the contributing sense quality. T h e
conceptions of space and extension,
however, as we conceive them, arise
only from the qualities of the senses of
sight and touch. It is only with the
senses of sight and touch that we can
be aware of more than one form, or a
form and void simultaneously. T h u s we
can see two or more objects at a time,
and measure the extent of each. F u r
thermore, we can always visually per
ceive the limit of any o bject or what may
seem to be its limit; even the horizon is
the beginning of an illusionary void.
This perception of two or more forms
or of form and void simultaneously
makes it possible for us to conceive
their extent. If a form were seen with
out its limits, we would not imagine
space or extension.
Sometimes the example of a person
in a dark chamber with eyes open is
cited as an exception to this. It is said
that he sees no form, yet is conscious of
space. W e repeat, he is not conscious
of space, but of quiescence, the absence
of any excitation of the organs of sight
whatsoever. Space, as heretofore de
lineated, may be conceived as having
dimension, but quiescence can not be.
Could the subject in the dark chamber
visually ascertain the dimension of the
chamber? Patently not. Y e t, if that
chamber were well-lighted, although
empty, he could measure the extent of
its space by perceiving the surrounding
forms, the walls and ceiling. W i t h touch
likewise, space and extension are co n
ceived by apprehending one or more
forms, or form and void simultaneously.
W e feel an object, and around it exists
a void. W e determine the extent of the
One Hundred T hirteen

form by ascertaining its limits, where

the void begins. T o touch, the extent of
void is known by substituting for its
units of measurement in form, rules,
yardsticks, steel measures, tapes, etc.
T h e y are all forms, because they can be
felt. T h e y bridge the void between ob
jects. Sp ace would not be known to us
through touch, if we were not simultan
eously aware of a touch form, something
which we at the time could also feel. An
absolute state of quiescence of touch is
known by the fact that even the limbs
of our own body do not register sensa
tions of feeling. In other words, in
terms of objective feeling, our body
would have no existence. But when we
are aware of space through the sense of
touch, we also have the sensation and
feeling of our own physical form.
L et us contrast this reasoning with
the experiences of the sense of hearing.
W e have found that the extent of the
forms of sound are known to us by their
amplitude, their intensity. T h is intensity
is not realized, however, by comparison
with another sound of less intensity
heard at the time or by comparing it
with silence, but rather by comparing it
with recollected experiences of sounds.
In fact, if two sounds are apparently
heard simultaneously, it is because they
are of nearly the same intensity or the
lesser one would not be heard at all.
T h e ideas of space and extension arising
within the senses of sight and touch, are
ascertained by comparing concomitant
variations of the quality of the senses,
or by comparing the concomitant sensa
tions of space and reality. T h e limits of
a form, as we so often repeat, are
known to us only by ascertaining at the
time we perceive them the beginning of
another form or that state which to us
appears as space. In sound there is no
limit to the form perceived, until we are
only conscious of another, then the
former does not exist to us at all. W e
may hear several sounds at one time, as
for instance, a singer accompanying an
orchestra. T h e music may have greater
amplitude than the human voice, yet the
limits of either are not perceived by us
until one or the other is no longer appre
hended by us at all. V isu a l objects and
objects of touch may have their limits
perceived, even while they continue to
exist to us, and consequently, the extent
of the character of the o bject is de-

terminable. T h is same principle under

lies the experiences of the senses of
smell and taste. A variation o f the qual
ities of smell may give a scent a distinct
fragrance, but the extent of the ol
factory form can be known only by its
intensity. A s long as it continues, its
limits in relationship to any other scent
are not discernible. T h e extent which
we perceive is qualitative rather than
quantitative. It is difficult to compare
these experiences with visual ones. T h e
best analogy is that it is like seeing one
object more clearly than another, and in
such an instance the important factor is
not the extent of the object, but the
definiteness of the impression, a register
ing of the quality variation sufficiently
for a clear comprehension of the sensa
tion. W e may, for example, never know
where the sweetness of an apple begins
or ends, in relation to the sweetness of
a persimmon, but we can know that the
degree or intensity of one is greater
than the other.
B y a process of reasoning, we have
reduced all conscious reality, all things
of the universe to I S O S , the universal
Cosmic action. B u t what of man, he
who interprets at least a portion o f this
action, this flow of Isos, and who as
signs it form, and all of the other pro
perties which constitute our conscious
world? Is he a part of it? T h e r e can be
no question but that his substance, the
material elements of his nature, have
their existence to him in the same illusionary manner as do the particulars of
the world about him. T h e r e are, how
ever, those intangible elements, that
strange faculty which interprets, and in
which the qualities are aroused and
which is known as consciousness. F u r
ther, there is that subtle force, life,
which matter envelops and upon which
consciousness depends. A re they too
independent of Isos?
M a n is the measure of all things: in
him alone do they have the distinction
of separateness and individuality, as we
have seen. A p a rt from the thought of
his mind, the particulars of the universe
fall into that magnificent unity, that
The
ceaseless flow of the one Isos. T h e ir
R osicru cian natur^s do not become any less real
without the mind of man, but they are
Digest
free from confinement in words, terms,
A pril
colors and forms. If the mind of man
1936
can conceive the indivisible universe as

a fantasmagorical world of things, then

man too is a product of his own fancy.
W e cannot admit o f a dualism of man
and reality, but just the sole reality,
Isos. If the idea of the multiplicity of
the universe is a product of mind, then
man likewise, as one of the things con
ceived, is a product of his own mental
processes. His individualism is as un
real, as unseparated from the rhythmic
oscillation of Isos as the cloak on his
back. T h e fact that self-consciousness
exists as apart from the objective con
sciousness of man does not alter this
conclusion. T o contend that because
man may exclude the world of parti
culars, shut out the imaginary forms of
the outer world and be aware of self
only, and that he has therefore an
existence apart from the external world,
is false reasoning.
Consciousness is a state of awareness,
a field of sensitivity to stimuli. It iso
lates its impressions and gives them a
substance and separateness that they do
not possess. W i t h a continuation of
consciousness and the agitating forces
which engender it, a mental world exists
to man, whether it be a realization of
self or externality. Presuming that all
things we perceive have existence, just
as we realize them, if we concentrate
our powers of observation on one object
to the exclusion of all else, could we
rightfully say that that thing alone had
existence and all else upon which we did
not concentrate was non-existent? If
the alternating surges of Isos can a c
count for the realities man perceives
through his senses, then this sam e surge
in his own being, which is of the same
source, can be the cause of the idea of
self. If the external world can react on
consciousness to cause the conception
man has of it, then man's own nature
can react in like manner to cause a selfconsciousness. T h is reasoning, then, in
terposes consciousness between the illu
sion of a world of particulars and the
realization o f self. T h e belief conse
quently that consciousness is a separate
reality in the universe, is a pure figment
of the human imagination.
Consciousness is never found without
life. A t least in a lifeless body there are
none of the characteristics of conscious
ness found. Furthermore, consciousness
has never been found embodied in a
substance unlike animate matter. T h a t
One H un dred Fourteen

is, matter having the general properties

of life. Thus, we are obliged to con
clude that life and consciousness are
related and that both have existence
only in matter and not apart from it.
Deep anesthesia submerges nearly all
manifestations of consciousness and yet
life persists without a serious retarding
of its functions. T h e refo re, conscious
ness is evidently subordinate to life
force. Although the world to man teems
with things he has classified as reali
ties, he has made general divisions of
them, such as energies, matter, gasses,
solids and liquids, and it is his first step
in the recognition of the unity of reali
ties. Also, although Isos is a single
reality, insofar as its primary nature is
concerned, its graduated intensity as
explained earlier, causes a varying e x
citation of the sense organs and the
human mind is capable of grasping the
relationship of the phenomena they pro
duce, resulting in the classifications we
have of them. T h e affinity of life is
matter. T h e refo re, it has never been
classified by man separately as an ener
gy of the universe and, in fact, it is not.
Life is the harmonious relationship of
two intensities of Isos. T h is relation
ship arrests both of them and unites
them as one, without either losing its in
dividual nature. B y this we have not
divided Isos into separate realities, but
combined its variations. Let us use the
following hypothetical illustration:
Suppose we had a long, narrow, and
very thin sheet of a certain quality of
rubber, thin enough to be translucent.
Let us further suppose that we focused
a bright light on this tautly stretched
rubber sheet and it emanated a definite
color after passing through it, and as we
lessened or increased the tautness of the
sheet, the color of the light passing
through it would change. A t certain
degrees of tautness definite colors would
be produced. Let us presume that at a
certain point when passing from one
color into another, a blend of the two
would be had, engendering a third color
unlike either of the others, in which at
all times the two component colors
would exist. T h is condition would be
like the state of life caused by an in
duction or attraction between one in
tensity of Isos, which ordinarily mani
fests to us as matter, and another un
named intensity or energy. Life, then,
O ne H undred F ifteen

is that peculiar condition or stress and

strain between two variations of in
tensity of Isos. T h e r e is a constant pull
and push or tendency for both of the
contributing intensities to expand into
their graduated orders. T h is stress and
strain causes minor fluctuations of the
intermediary condition or state of life.
V ariatio n s of matter, one of the phases
of this triune condition which we know
as life, produce sensations within us,
which we attribute solely to external
compulsion and which we comprehend
as being of a physical nature only. E x
cessive variations or disturbances tend
to disrupt the equilibrium of the triune
state of life and produce sensations
varying from minor irritations to intense
pain, depending on their severity. T h o s e
variations which stabilize and maintain
this relationship of matter and the un
known phase of intensity of Isos, and
which consequently strengthen the co n
dition which exists between them, and
which is known as life, produce sensa
tions of a pleasurable nature. V aria tio n s
of that unknown phase of Isos likewise
produce sensations, but they seem to
have an immanent origin. T h e y are
known to us as the instincts and cause
a realization of self, as they appear dis
tinct from the sensations which are a s
sociated with external causes.
If man could avoid every physical
disturbance, every disease, every injury,
every state and condition which would
affect his physical being, whether it be
pleasurable to him or not, and also sup
press his objective senses, he would not
have any sensations of pain or pleasure,
nor would he even be possessed of any
ideas. O u r thoughts arise only from an
interpretation of our sensations and
sense impressions. Further, if man could
anticipate every need of his particular
nature and permit neither an excess nor
deficiency of indulgence and thus meet
the requirements of the state of balance
of which his life consists, he would not
be aw are of the inherent urges of his
being, or the instincts. H e would not,
patently, be aware of self, for who can
define self as apart from the instinctive
and emotional urges which we feel.
Consequently, sensation is more than
the parent of ideas and the stuff with
which reason builds thought; it is con
sciousness itself. W i t h the disappear-

an ce of consciousness, man has vanished. His body, like the stars over his
head and the grass beneath his feet, has
its form exclusively in the evanescent
hypersensitive oscillation of the flow of
the life force. His ego, self, and personality vanish when the medium for perceiving and defining the shades of difference which existed to him as ex -

ternal and internal form has gone. M an,

when consciousness dissolves, merges
into the whole from whence he had
never departed, and he loses an identity
which he never had. Isos claims her
own; there is but one reality, Isos,
Cosmic action. All else is glorious illusion, even man, in whom the illusion
occurs.

T H E END

.0

|
|
=
1
E
5
E

H A V E Y O U N O TIC ED ?
The Prince of W ales seriously considered marriage in M arch.
Real estate sales and building activity have had their greatest increase since the beginning of the depression.
T h e concerted attacks on the Townsend Old Age Plan.
T h e recent new developments in colored motion picture photography.
All of these constitute the latest news of the hour. Y et they are referred to in the predictions contained in the little brochure entitled, "1936 andConflicts, which was printed
late in 1935. Each prediction is being faithfully fulfilled. T he startling accuracy of this
bookletwill interest all readers. Obtain a liberal supply for distribution to your friends
Yc
and acquaintances. T hey will be sent without cost and with postage paid. Just address
a letter asking for the number you wish to the Rosicrucian Supply Bureau, San Jose,
California.

I
E
E

i
1

0 ........................................................................................................................................................................... EJ

TEM PLE TO PICS

E
E
E
E
=

Rosicrucian Park at this time is resounding with the sound of hammers. Gradually there
is rising to a greater height than any of the surrounding structures, a new building to be
used for scientific purposes, a structure which will prove of the greatest interest to the
membership and all who are privileged to enter it and witness the demonstrations that
will take place therein. W h at the building is, is a secret for the time being, but it will be
announced as a surprise later.

E
1
|
E
E
E
E
Z

Even though the winter of 1936 has been the most severe
in several years, with dust
storms, blizzards and floods, the Courier Car is right on schedule, and up to the present
not one city included in its itinerary has been omitted, nor even one lecture in any city.
At this time, the Courier car is right in the flood area, and daily we have been in touch
with the members of the National Lecture Board who accompany it. T h ey have advised
us that they will make every effort to complete their plans, so as not to disappoint all
those who are expecting to hear the lectures and see the special motion pictures and
demonstrations of Rosicrucian scientific principles.
it
*
*
*
*

I
E

The coming Rosicrucian Grand Lodge Convention gives evidence of being the largest
ever held by the Order during its present cycle of activity. Representatives of A M O R C
state that more members have indicated their intention of coming to the Convention than
in any other year. Those who do come will be well pleased with the special arrangements being made to make this Convention the best ever,

E
E
E
E
E
E
I
=
Z

T h e Rosicrucian New Y ear ceremony held in the Francis Bacon Auditorium in Rosicrucian Park on Thursday, March 19th, was highly enjoyed by all. In addition to the
ceremony itself and the addresses made by the various officers, there was a demonstration of the revolutionary new type organ known as the Hammond Electrical Organ,
which produces marvelous tones, and which functions in accordance with the principles
of vibrations as taught in the Rosicrucian physics. In addition to the vocal numbers of
the Rosicrucian choir, there was an oriental dance entitled "T he Dance to Buddha" which
was very impressive and symbolical.

*
*

n
.
K o s ic r u c ta n
D ig e s t
*
.I

April

E
E
^
E
|

Rosicrucian Park is being increased in size by one third. M any new lawns are being
added, walks, flower beds, shrubs and trees. A date palm over thirty feet in height was
one
trees added. W eighing twenty tons it required special equipment for its moving. T he grounds of Rosicrucian Park are always admired and enjoyed by the thousands
who visit the Supreme Grand Lodge throughout the year.

1936

EJ............. .......................

rj* ^

.Q
One H undred S ixteen

B A L IN E S E SA C R IFIC IA L A L T A R
T h e above is a heretofore never published photograph of an ancient altar used
for sacrificial purposes, located in an isolated village in the south part of the
isle of Bali in the Dutch E ast Indies. T o the right of the altar is the portal of a
temple partially in ruins. Observe over the doorway the raised open hands, as
if bestowing a benediction on all who enter. T h e photograph clearly reveals the
magnificent Hindu art, sculpture and architecture. T his forgotten shrine was
personally photographed by Fratcr Jansen of Holland.
(C o u rtesy o[ R osicru cian D igest.)

Pyramid Prophecies (ytartle the World!

"'T P I I I . depression " ill (om e lo .1 delinite end on September i().
10361hese arc nol the w ords of a m odern economist.
Kill 11it- proplictic w ords ol w isdom of a mystic people carved on
llio ( treat Pyram id nearly filtv centuries ago. So amnz ingly
accurate arc tin- predictions of tin* ( renl Pyram id that modern
science lias sent its greatest savants to study 11if veiled syne
Imlism it contains, with. flic fiope of being aide to look across
un lxirn centuries into an unknow n lulure. I lie eminent D r.
A . I . Strati li-G o rd o n . Scotch siientist. w ho recently returned
from Egypt. in a surp rising new spaper interview declared that
nearly all ol the Pyram id prophecies were lu llille d .
Science is intrigued, not w ith a seersliip. not by tales of
supernatural vision, hut by legends that the sages possessed a
strange mathem atical form ula b y w hich hum an, economic, and
political tendencies w ere m ysteriously reduced to a methodical
system ol cyclical forecast, just as modern science forecasts the
weather. W it h these strange cycles the ancient Pyram id B uilders
presaged the fa ll of the R om an E m pire, the com ing ol C hrist,
the discovery ol A m erica, the W o r ld
nr. and tin* depression.
O th e r predictions, the lu ll import of w hich are nol yet realized,
are being seriously studied.

W h e re d id these people acq uire their w isdom ! W hat sources

ol know ledge w ere open to them ? f hese fascinating questions

A G R IP P IN G N E W B O O K
In line w ith these latest archaeological discoveries in Lgvpt.
I )r. I I . Spencer L e w is has just completed a new w ork entitled.
I he Sym holii Prophecy ol the G re a t P yra m id . I his hook
fra nkly discusses the origin of the Pyram id b uilders and the
purpose ol the G re a t Pyram id itself. H e e xplains how its
build ers formed the lirst mystery schools ol wisdom and held
w ithin them secret initiations. Look at some of the intriguing
chapters this hook contains:
M Y S T I.R IO U S T R A D IT IO N 'S .
T ill

WHENCE
THE

R O S I C R U C I A N

P A R K

O P EVENTS.

CAME

MYSTERY

T H IS

KNOW LEDGE?

IN IT IA T IO N S .

N o lover of history and mystery can alford to he without this

hook. W it h in it are pub lished lor the first time the diagrams
and charts of the n ew ly discovered subterranean temples and
places of conclave never thought to exist, from w hich are heing
taken tablets containing the truths these mystery people taught.
T h e book is also a thing ol beauty, being hound in silk cloth,
scarab green in color, a nd h ig h ly ornamented w ith Egyptian
sym bolism ; illustrated and w ell-printed.
ll is economically
priced. N o matter w h at hook you have read on the Pyramid,
this one w ill reveal new facts and new knowfe dge.

O n ly

are occupying the attention of the w o rld s greatest thinkers today.

ROSICRUCIAN

PROPHECY

TH E SECRET PASSAGEW AYS.

$2.00 in c lu d in g postage

SUPPLY
S A N

I O S L .

BUREAU
C A L 1 F O R N I A ,

U .S. A .

TH E PURPO SES OF

THE

Member o f
FU D O S I
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societes
Initiatiquea)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

T he Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. T h e purpose o f the organi
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive.
Cosmic forces fo r the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
T h e O rder is internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in Am erica, and all other lands, constitutes the on ly form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation. T he AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
freely to all affilia ted members, togeth er w ith many other benefits.
In qu irers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are Invited to send for
the free book, "T h e Secret H e rita g e ." Address, F ria r S. P . C., care o f

AMORC TEMPI,K
Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California, U. S. A.
(Cable Address:

"A M O R C O

R adio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the J\[orth and South Am erican Jurisdictions

(Including the United States, Dominion o f Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala. Honduras, Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f America.
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS . F. R. C.. Ph. D ...................
Im perator
R A L P H M. L E W IS . F. R . C..............................
Supreme Secretary
C LE M E N T B. L E B R U N , F. R. C............... .................................................................................. Grand Master
H A R V E Y M IL E S , F. R. C
Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D , F. R. C
Secretary to Grand Master
H A R R Y L . S H IB L E Y , F. R. C.................................................................................... D irector of Publications
Junior O rder o f Torch Bearers (sponsored b y A M O R C ). F o r complete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

T h e follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

Atlanta, Georgia:
Atlanta Chapter No. 650. Dr. James C. O akshette, Master: Nassau Hotel. Meetings 7:30
every Thursday night.
New Y o rk City, New York:
New Y ork Chapter, Rooms 35-36, 711 8th
Ave., cor. 8th Ave. and 45th Street. Louis
Riccardi, Master: M argaret Sharpe, Secre
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
days and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Delta Lodge No. 1, A M O R C , S. E . Corner
40th and Brown Sts., 2nd Floor. Mr. Albert
Courtney, Master.
Benjamin Franklin Chapter of A M O R C :
W arren C. Aitken, M aster: M artha Aitken,
Secretary, 2203 N. 15th Street. Meetings for
all members every second and fourth Sun
days, 7:30 p.m ., at 1521 W est Girard Ave.
(Second Floor, Room B ).
Boston, Massachusetts:
T h e M arie Clemens Lodge, Fortunatus J.
Bagocius, Master. Temple and Reading
Rooms, 739 Boylston St., Telephone Kenmore 9398.
Detroit, Michigan:
Thebes Chapter No. 336. Mr. W illiam H.
Hitchman, M aster; Mrs. Pearl Anna T ifft,
Secretary. Meetings at the Florence Room,
Tuller Hotel, every Tuesday, 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone No. 1870.

San Francisco, California:

Francis Bacon Lodge, 1655 Polk
Mr. David Mackenzie, Master.

Street:

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. First Lodge, Dr. Charles D. Green,
M aster; 3787 E ast St. N. S., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Reading, Pennsylvania:
Reading Chapter, Mr. Harrison N. Mucher,
Master, 144 Clymer St.: M r. George R. O s
man, Secretary. Meeting every Friday, 8:00
p. m., W ashington Hall, 904 W ashington St.
Los Angeles, California:
Hermes Lodge, A M O R C Temple. Mr. Ollin
W . Marden, Master. Reading Room and In
quiry o ffice open doily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.,
and 7:30 p.m . to 9 p.m . except Sundays.
Granada Court, 672 South Lafayette Park
Place.
Birmingham, Alabama:
Birmingham Chapter of A M O R C . For in
formation address M r. Cuyler C. Berry,
M aster. 721 So. 85th St.
Chicago, Illinois:
Chicago Chapter No. 9, Mabel L. Schmidt,
Secretary. Telephone Superior 6881. Read
ing Room open afternoons and evenings.
Sundays 2 to 5 only. 100 E . Ohio St., Room
403-404. Lecture sessions for A LL members
every Tuesday night, 8:00 p. m.
Chicago Afra-American Chapter No. 10.
Robert S . Breckenridge, Master; Aurelia
Carter, Secretary. Meeting every W ednes
day night at 8 o'clock, Y . M. C. A., 3763 So.
W abash Avenue.

(D irecto ry Continued on N e x t P a g e )

Portland, Oregon:
Portland Chapter. Paul E . Hartson, M aster;
Telephone E ast 1245. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.
Washington, D. C.:
Thom as Jefferson Chapter. W illiam V .
W hittington, Master. Confederate Memorial
Hall, 1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings
every Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Seattle, Washington:
A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter, Master;
Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry St. Reading room open week
days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Monday, 8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
Vancouver, British Columbia:
Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mr. H. B.
Kidd, M aster, A M O R C Temple, 878 Horn
by Street.
V ictoria, British Columbia:
V ictoria Lodge, Mr. A. A. Calderwood,
Master. Inquiry O ffice and Reading Room,
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
Mr. E ly Law, Master, 120 Spence St. (Ph.
33341.) Session for all members every Sun
day, 2:45 p. m., 304 B Enderton Bldg.,
Portage Ave. and Hargrave St.

M ontreal, Quebec, Canada:

Montreal Chapter. Alexandre Chevalier,
F. R. C., Master, 210 W est St. Jam es Street.
Inquiry office open 10:00 a.m . to 5 p.m .
daily; Saturdays 10:00 to 1:00 p.m .
Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
Mr. Benjamin W . W akelin, M aster. Sessions
1st and 3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00
p. m., No. 10 Lansdowne Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta:
Mr. Alfred H. Holmes, M aster, 9533 Jasper
Avenue E .

SP A N ISH A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
T his jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative O ffice are located at San Juan, Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
The name and address of the O fficers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce shou ld b e a d d ressed a s fo llo w s:
Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O. Box 36, San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A FEW

O F T H E F O R E IG N

JU R ISD IC T IO N S

Scandinavian Countries:
T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.
Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand Master; Carli
Anderson, S. R. C Grand Secretary. Manogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark.

New Zealand:

Sweden:
Grand Lodge "Rosenkorset. Anton Svanlund, F. R. C., Grand M aster. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, Malmo.

England:

H olland:
De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der
Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
Mile Jeanne Guesdon, S.R .C ., Corresponding
Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Switzerland:
A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel,
F. R. C., Gr. Sect., Riant-Port V evey-Plan.
Austria:
Mr. M any Cihlar, K. R. C., Grossekretar der
A M O R C , Laxenburgerstr, 75/9, Vienna, X .
China and Russia:
T h e United Grand Lodge of China and Rus
sia, 8/18 Kavkazskaya St., Harbin, M an
churia.
R O S IC R U C IA N PRESS. LTD.

Auckland Chapter A M O R C . Mr. G. A.

Franklin. Master, 317 Victoria Arcade Bids.
Queen St., C ity Auckland.

T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.

M r. Raymund Andrea, K. R . C., Grand
Master, 34 Bay water Ave., W estbury Park,
Bristol 6.
Dutch and East Indies:
Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum, Grand Master,
W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang, Java.

Egypt:
T h e Grand Orient of A M O RC. House of the
Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalla, Heliopolis.
Africa:
T h e Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast,
A M O R C . Mr, W illiam Okai, Grand Master,
P. O . Box 424 Accra, Gold Coast, W est
Africa.
T h e ad d resses o f other foreign G ran d L o d g es
and secretaries will b e fu rn ished on application.
P R IN T E D

IN U . S . A .

w ri

1DILL IDE BE BORT1

AQAin m p a ir
ATID SUFFERinq ?
M u s t we relive the misfortunes, discour
agements, and failures of this life? Does death
deliver us permanently from the vicissitudes of
the earth, or is it a temporary respite, returning us
once more to the world of man ? Is death a glorious
opportunity to begin again, at some other time and
place, to undo what we have done, and to prolit by our
experiences of the past '' Shall we instead look upon
death as the end, the close of a chapter, with its story
incomplete and imperfect? Does our span here of a few
years constitute our sole existence as humans, and if so,
is that Divine justice? There are no questions which the
human mind can entertain that are more intimate or
more vi tal than tl lese. They are interestingly answered
and discussed in a marvelous discourse entitled,
I he
So u ls Return, prepared by Dr. H. Spencer Lewis.
I his discourse represents years ol study on this subject
and his fascinating conclusions. I o the point, under
standable and instructive, this manuscript should be in
your possession as a valuable document on the subject
ol reincarnation. You may obtain it A B S O L U T E L Y
W I T H O U T C O S T by merely subscribing to this
magazine.
T he Rosicrucian Digest,
for just six
months. A six-months subscription costs only $1.50
and in addition to receiving six copies of this magazine,
you will receive at once, with postage paid, this most
unusual discourse, which alone is worth more than the
magazine subscription price. There
are but a limited number of these
discourses available, so we advise
that you subscribe at once, and
ASK FO R YO U R G IF T CO PY.
A G IF T F O R

YOU

. . . .

T lie discourse. T lio Soul s Return, w as

once p ub lished serially, in answ er in h u n
dreds of questions about reincarnation re
ceived from throughout the w orld by D r.
I.e w is. T h is is the lirst time it has eve,
been released in m anuscript form in its en
tirety. l o r interesting particulars, rend above.

The

ROSICRUCIAN DIQEST

SA N

J O S E .

C A L I F O R N I A .

U.S.A.

<rRgsicrucian Library
The follow ing books are a few of several recommended because o f the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II.

R O S IC R U C IA N P R IN C IP L E S F O R T H E H O M E A N D B U SIN E SS.

A very practical book dealing with the solution o f health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume III.

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V.

" I N T O T H E E I G R A N T . . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f T ibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
with attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VI.

A TH O U SAND YE AR S OF YESTERD AYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and m ystic lessons. This unusual book lias been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V II.

S E L F M A S T E R Y A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E .

A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. Better than any system o f numerology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V III.

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
Very com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X I.

M A N S IO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E CO SM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines o f reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price. $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volum e X II.

W ell

L E M U R IA T H E LO S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K now o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated w ith charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X III.

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete guide for attaining tlie state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $1.85 per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY

BU Ri AU,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , C alifornia.

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

(lj Pythagoras. the ancient ( >reek philosopher. was tlie lirst to tlr< hire that all things
are in accord with numher. and the secret harmony which exists between them is
the hey to the universe.

I he ancients also proclaimed that the perfect mathematical

arrangement of the planets produced magnificently enrapturing vibrations which

became know n as /he Al u s i c o f l l i e Spf i o res .
I his C osinic music was beyond the auditory sense of human
beings and was perceivable by man only through attunement with
the forces of nature when his inner being would rhythmically
oscillate in majestic time with the universe. I he great composers
of the centuries have sought to capture emotionall\ this music <>l the
L

spheres and reduce it to notes. In fact, the beautilul compositions of

many of the- masters arc evidence of the Divine influx. Many of

the Rosicrucian compositions also have

rhe composition.

a touch of this afflatus.

Sweet Rosae C ru< is.

is particularly inspiring

I his selection was dedicated at the lirst Rosicrucian New Aear cere
SW EET

KOSAV

e n v o is

mony to be held in tins jurisdic tion during the present cycle of tbe

T liis official. b ea utifully \'rilte n

Order. All lovers of music who have heard it at Rosicrucian lodges

Rosicrucian

or chapters, or elsewhere, have requested copies. Because of an in-

piano

song

arranged

accom panim ent

is

for
now

n \ ailal.tle. Its size is 0V2 x l a '/ i

c rensing demand for it. we have reproduced this selection in sheet

in d ie s.

music form at a nominal price so it may he had bv all music lovers.

It is artistically arranged

and w ell printed. Price includes

postage to you.

P R IC E :
25 cen ts p e r co p y .

T h e

Members will find In playing or singing it in their homes that it

produces a very soothing, peaceful effect. A limited number of copies
is available, so procure yours now. Send order and remittance to:

R O S I C R U C I A N

R O S I C R U C I A N

P A R K

S U P P L Y
S A N

B U R E A U

J O S E ,

C A L I F O R N I A

T H O R K I I M A L E H T O , K. R. C.
F ra te r K iim alehto has the distinction of being one of the oldest members, in point of time,
in the R osicru cian O rd er since its re-establishm ent in N orth A m erica. He w as an active co
w orker of the Im perator when the Suprem e Lodge w as located in N ew Y o rk C ity tw enty
y ears ago. He w as the first G rand M aster of the O rd er during its present cy cle, and he
directed the publication of the form er
m agazine, and headed the P ub
lishing D epartm ent of the O rd er at that time. H e is now a G rand C ouncilor and Inspector
G eneral of the O rd er. In F ra te r K iim alehto is exem plified a rare com bination of business
ability and m ystical tem peram ent. He has also been a member for m any y ears of the F reemasonic and M artinist O rders.

American Rosae Crucis

(Courtesy of The Rosicrucian D igest.)

What Secrets of L
W ere T a u g h t in the A n cien t W isdom Schools?
W a s

T he G r e a t K n o w le d g e o f

T he L o s t
P r e s e r v e d

C o n t in e n t s

. ..

H O were these beings that dared to in

vade the forbidden realms of nature?
Secreted in subterranean chambers, concealed
from the eyes and jeers of the curious, they in
voked the forces of the universe. W e r e tlie great
miracles of the past public demonstrations of
their secretly discovered profound laws of n a
ture? Tales, age-old, tell of strange feats the
transmutation of base metals into gold, projec
tion of thought, and an elixir for the preserva
tion of life. Are these fantasies or the echoes of
marvelous achievements of sages who devoted
their lives to investigating the mysteries of life?
W h a t great wisdom was theirs? W h a t startling
revelations were made to them? In the flicker
ing torchlight in the still hours of the ni ght, did
they learn the amazing wisdom of a forgotten
people whose culture survived a sinking land?

CiJ Condemned by those who feared its powers

and denied to those who would abuse it, this
heritage of learning has been preserved against
the ravages of time and man. 1 oday in all
their beautiful simplicity and practical useful
ness these age-old teachings are made avai Iable
to thousands.

T h i s S e a le d B o o k

F ree

QJ You men and women who have been seek

ing a means within to better your station in life,
or hoping to accomplish the things about which
you dream, will find in these truths of the cen
turies the end of your search. T h e Rosicrucians
(not a religious organization), the present cus
todians of these principles, invite you, if you
are sincere in your desire, to write for the free
Sealed Book which explains how you may
receive and share this unusual knowledge.

Th e R O S I C R U C I A N S
R O S IC R U C IA N

A M O R C

P A R K . S A N J O S E . C A L IF .

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
COVERS THE WORLD

TIIE O FFIC IA L, IN TER N A TIO N A L RO SICRUCIAN MAGA

ZINE O F T H E W O R LD -W ID E RO SICRUCIAN ORDER
Vol. XIV

m nFnni

MAY, 1936

No. 4

Thor Kiimalehto, K. R. C . (Frontispiece) ..................... 121

The Thought of the M onth: O ur Storm Sufferers.... 124
A Psychological A p proach to International
Understanding ............................................................126
C athed ral C o n ta c ts
128
W h a t is C h a ra c te r?
.............................
130
Spring, The Awakening Season.................................... 132
Pages from the Past......................................
133
N ew Fields of Exploration
........................
135
Summaries of Science ................................................... 137
To Those W h o Seek........................................................141
The Unseen Guardians
......................
142
A n cien t Symbolism ........................................................146
Immortality .....................................................................147
Sanctum Musings: The M ystery of M t. Shasta...
153
The Rosicrucian Planetarium (Illustration) ................... 157

Subscription to T h e Rosicrucian D igest, T h ree D ollars per

year. Single copies tw en ty-flve cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the P ost Office at San
Jose, California, under the Act o f August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the
month preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official e x
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.

P ublished M onthly by the Suprem e Council of

THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDERAMORC

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SAN JO SE. CA LIFO R NIA

E9nEHu"

S T . " M V t t R fiW

THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

OUR STORM SUFFERERS

H E most outstand
ing thought of the
month with all of
us here at H ead q u a r t e r s , and
th ro u g h o u t our
g e n e r a l member
ship, is of the un
fortunate c o n d i
t i o n s that have
s u d d e n l y come
upon a large num
ber of our mem
bers in v a r i o u s
parts of the United State s because of
the floods, storms, and winds. W e fully
expected that this year would be one of
strife and contention among the earthly
and Cosmic elements. T h a t is why we
termed the year " 1 9 3 6 and Conflicts.
B efo re the year is over it will have
proved itself to be a year of conflicts of
all kinds. But we regret, as does every
thinking person, the suffering, sacrifice,
agony, and mental torture that has come
to men, women, and children in various
cities and states in the past few months.
Reports coming to us from various
sections show that the floods that de
stroyed homes and p r o p e r t y came
through some areas very suddenly and
unexpectedly. N o one who has not been
through one of these floods can possibly
imagine the anguish, as well as the
actual suffering that follows the floods,
storms, or tornadoes, but one outstand
ing fact revealed in every letter we have
The
Rosicrucian received from the flood or storm area
shows that the spirit of the individual
Digest
has not weakened and the power of
May
right thinking has not lessened in any
instance.
1936

Some scientists attribute these freak

Cosmic and earthly conditions to the
appearance of spots on the sun. U n
questionably sun spots do affect Cosmic
vibrations and these in turn affect a t
mospheric and earthly conditions, but
in the charts of the tendencies of gen
eral conditions throughout the world
which we examined a number of times
in recent years, it was plainly indicated
that a cycle of storm and strife between
the elements of the earth and the air
would start again early in 1936 and
continue into the summer. And it was
indicated that many of these unusual
conditions would appear in parts of the
country or in places where they had
never appeared before, and that is why
we tried to intimate in our 1936 pam
phlet that places that had not been
visited before would be visited by co n
flict this year. T h e very unfortunate
thing about all of this is that even if our
members and friends had been properly
warned by due appreciation of what
was said in our pamphlets there is little
that could be done to avoid the results
except to have moved or changed their
localities, and to have abandoned their
homes and built others in other places,
but it would have been difficult even
then to tell where to move, or where to
go and count upon one hundred per cent
safety.
In some of the reports that we have
received it has been pitiful to learn that
the homes of our members and officers
o f chapters and lodges have been flood
ed to the second floor, and that beautiful
furniture, including pianos, has fallen
apart as the waters receded, leaving the
interior and exterior walls of the homes
One H undred T w en ty-four

and that they will sense the thoughts of

our thousands of other members who
will read these words and utter a prayer
in their behalf.

in jeopardy. O n e may ask whether all

of this is necessary in the great universal
scheme of things, but no one can answer
that question without having a complete
understanding of the Infinite M in d and
universal laws. M a n y of these homes
had to be without light, heat, cooking
facilities, or even the proper hygienic
facilities for five or six days or longer,
and many were deprived of the proper
food for many days. T h e r e was always
the constant danger of fire and the col
lapse of the temporary places or upper
parts of buildings where persons a t
tempted to live, and all business was
interfered with, and even the means and
facilities for communication by mail,
telegraph, telephone, or otherwise. O n c e
again the amateur radio stations played
an important part and rendered invalu
able services in sending communications
to relatives and friends without fee, and
kept the outside world in contact with
many communities that were otherwise
isolated. S o often those persons who
like to listen only to the popular broad
cast programs think that the slight hum
ming sound or other signal sounds which
the amateurs use in their experimental
work constitute a nuisance that should
be done aw ay with, but they forget that
it is the development of the experimental
work of these amateurs over a period of
twenty-five or thirty years that has
given us the modern use and benefits of
radio in entertainment and in business,
and in every great catastrophe these
amateurs with their thousands of con
tacts with others have played an im
portant part in the rendering of em er
gency services.

O n e of the most interesting features

of the entire situation has been the let
ters that have gradually come to us from
hundreds of communities, and hundreds
of members, in which the thought is e x
pressed (in the words of one of them ),
If it had not been for my understand
ing of certain laws and principles gained
through the A M O R C teachings, and if
it had not been for the strength derived
from my A M O R C membership, I could
not have born the suffering and the
trials and tribulations that have come
upon us. It is just one more instance in
which we are given ample proof of the
value of the A M O R C membership in
times of test and trial. W e have
learned in the past years through hun
dreds of letters coming to us weekly and
monthly that our members generally
find strength, hope, and certain definite
knowledge in our lectures, lessons, and
principles that enable them to meet the
obstacles, the trials, the problems, and
the too often discouraging incidents of
life that might otherwise cause them to
go down in defeat instead of rising as
M aste rs and facing the world with a
new power that carries them to victory.
W h a t e v e r may be the purpose in the
Divine M in d which sets the Cosmic
powers into action in a seemingly de
structive form, we must remember that
all which seems to be destructive is not
alw ays so, and that very often there is
a good purpose and a good motive back
of the darkest and most sorrowful event.
T h e Cosmic will undoubtedly assist
and help those who know how to c o
operate and keep their lives and minds
attuned to the higher principles and
never lose faith nor doubt the mercy
and goodness of G o d and His ways.

W e wish it were possible to extend

our hand in sympathy and love to each
one of our members and friends who has
suffered during these past few months,
but all we can say is that we hope that
this issue of the magazine will reach
them and carry to them our thoughts,

R E A D

One H undred T w en ty-five

T H E

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

A Psychological Approach to International

U nderstanding
By Soror R

on a

l iz a b e t h

V
V E N as two people
can k n o w e a c h
other only through
an interchange of
vibrations and to
t h u s interchange
or reproduce those
vibrations it must
be necessary that
they have a com
mon rate, or re
sponse so it is
with nations. E a ch
nation h a s w hat
might be termed a national vibratory
rate produced by mass habits of thought.
T h i s national 'mass vibration is the
result of historical occurrences, o f racial
habits, of speech, of food and drink and
wearing apparel, and is constantly in
fluencing the individual's method of
thought and checking and coloring his
reactions to impacts from those of a n
other country or race.
T o gain knowledge and comprehen
sion of another, to be able to respond to
him through reproducing his vibrations,
it is often necessary to widen the range
of the mind. Especially is this true when
T he
Rosicrucian one has to be able to respond to the na
tional rate before one can bring about a
Digest
response to the individual. In other
May
words, you have to produce within your
self a rate of vibration identical with
1936

orkm an

V
that of a nation before you can really
understand the individual citizen of that
country, because his vibrations are so
greatly influenced by those of the mass.
In thus increasing ones mental vibra
tory rate one is enabled to comprehend
many things heretofore non-existent in
so far as your particular mind is con
cerned, or not understood in its reality
because of lack of adequate response.
Sin ce this is true of individuals, it is
equally true of nations, for nations are
only individuals multiplied many, many
times.
T h u s it can be seen that the unfriend
liness, the lack of understanding be
tween countries is due in large part to
the barrier of the mass thought and to
the lack of individual response brought
about by the limited range of vibrations
among the m ajority o f the people.
It is appalling, in this age of books
and pictures, of radios and movies, to
contemplate the ignorance concerning
even ones next-door country which is
displayed by people supposedly welleducated, and when the width of a
world lies between, it seems impossible
for many to realize that those far-off
people really live and love, hate and
fight, give birth and die in essentially
the same manner and prompted by the
same impulses as those whom they con
tact in their daily life. How can one
O n e H un dred Tiventy-six

expect a realization of brotherhood, of

unity, in the face of such an inability
to respond, under such a lack of vibra
tory comprehension?
I recently heard a woman, who had
taught the rising generation for a num
ber of years, express absolute disbelief
when told that the people of India pos
sessed a bible and had a culture dat
ing back many, many centuries, while
her ideas of China certainly contained
no conception of their splendid philo
sophies, no comprehension of the charm
of their poetry, no realization of their
appreciation of beauty. T h in k of the
opportunities for the inculcating of the
ideals of international unity which had
been absolutely and utterly wasted
through this teach ers ignorance of other
lands and people.
Fundamentally all human life is the
same. W e are born, live, love, marry,
beget off-spring and die whether we be
long to one nation or another. It is only
in the transitory things of life, the un
essentials, that we differ, and when one
becomes cognizant of the inherent rela
tionship beneath the national masks we
wear, then a realization of unity, of
real brotherhood, begins.
During the last few years there has
been a notable increase in clubs o rg an
ized for the study of other lands, soci
eties for the establishing of international
relations, and various other attempts by
colleges and groups of private indi
viduals to bring about a greater devel
opment of response between ourselves
and other nations, and all are a decided
step in the right direction.
These
groups, even though working separately
will in time increase the vibratory range
of the mass vibration" about them
through the constant impact of their
own increasing rate, and with many

R E A D

T H E

strong minds working upon the welding

of the separated entities into a h ar
monious whole, the mass thought of the
entire country is bound to be influenced.
However, t h e s e various groups,
especially the study groups, can only
prove of benefit if they study, think,
and speak of that which each country
has to offer with A P P R E C I A T I V E in
terest instead of C R I T I C A L interest,
for if they concentrate upon the faults,
the evils, and the dissimilarities between
this other country and their own, then
they are generating a critical vibration
which certainly does not promote a
brotherly feeling, but does build up a
feeling of superiority in themselves,
which in itself will frustrate any further
development of comprehension. If you
can find nothing to admire in a nation
or a person, rest assured it is because
you have such a narrow range of vibra
tion that you cannot reach and respond
to all that they really are.
Furthermore, to study an y nation
only through one medium, history for
instance, gives no more real under
standing of the people in that country
than one would gather of a S h ak esp ear
ean drama if he attempted to see and
hear it through a pinhole. H istory gives
only one view-point, and not alw ays an
accurate one at that, and therefore will
increase your vibratory range only on
one line, but the study of a co u n try s
history, combined with an appreciative
knowledge of its literature, its art, its
philosophy, its folklore, will give a
development, a response, which cannot
fail to break through the barrier erected
by the mass thought and, contacting
and understanding the individual, bring
about a realization that all are but one
race E arth people, fundamentally the
same.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

g---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RO SICRUCIAN C O N ST IT U T IO N
The Constitution and Statutes of the Grand Lodge of A M O R C contain rules and
regulations which govern the membership of every Rosicrucian. Every member should
have knowledge of his or her constitutional rights, privileges, and limitations. Failure to
have a copy or to become conversant with it may inadvertently jeopardize your member
ship standing. Obtain a copy today. It may be had for practically cost, or 10c. Send
your order to the Rosicrucian Supply Bureau.
3--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B
O ne H undred T w en ty -sev en

T h e Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefit as well
as those who are members. T h e book called "Liber 777 describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e sta te w h eth er m em ber or not this is im portant.)

AN IN TERESTIN G LETTER
O doubt our mem
b ers and th o u
s a n d s of our
friends w h o are
interested in the
Cathedral of the
Soul will be glad
to know how far
and wide on this
old earth the in
terest in the C a
thedral has spread
The
among those who
Rosicrucian
like to lift them
Digest
selves above the material things of life
May
and dwell in Cosmic and spiritual
ecstasy from time to time. W e have
1936

often referred to the fact that during the

C athedral hours or the various periods
of the day there are thousands of our
members in various parts of the world
sitting in unified concentration and med
itation and that all the minds of these
persons meet in transcendental com
munion within the great Cathedral.
T h is fact, which all of our members
should be conscious of during their con
centration periods with the Cathedral
of the Soul, makes for a sense of spir
itual unity and human brotherhood. T o
think that while we are sitting in our in
dividual sanctums extending our con
sciousness upward and onward to the
H o ly of Holies o f the Cosmic C ath e
O n e H un dred T w en ty-eight

dral, others in various parts of the world

are doing the same thing, and that we
are all bound together for the time b e
ing in a sacred and spiritual union, helps
to give us strength and a feeling of
peace and happiness that is like a tonic
to the mind and soul.
W e have at this time a letter from an
eminent member of the Belgian Senate
living in Antwerp and author of several
books dealing with the history and anti
quity of the Rosicrucian O rd er and one
who is very learned and seriously en
thusiastic about the principles and
teachings of the Rosicrucians. In this
letter he makes the following comments:
During the past few weeks 1 re
ceived the interesting booklet, L iber 777.
Not only the Rosicrucians but all mys
tics throughout the world will enjo y
with you and with your American mem
bers this great privilege to which you
have invited them and will meet with
you and others in great jo y as though
all of us were actually in physical a t
tendance in the Cathedral of the Soul.
In the troublesome periods through
which the world is now passing the
Cathedral of the Soul will be an every
day jo y filled with the devotion of stu
dents and seekers under the guidance of
invisible masters, angels, and initiates.
T h e y will find in this contact the poise
and power to resent the activities of the
darker forces and the strength to guide
humanity. All who pay, through the
sign of the R osy C ross, their adoration
to the God of our hearts, will receive
inspiration from the G re a t H ierarchy
and will become true Disciples of the

R E A D

T H E

Lord Christ and help to carry out the

great plan of the Logos. T h e s e C a th e
dral periods of universal contact are
periods of profound transformation for
the world, leading to the establishment
of a new humanity. In our own group
of students in this country we are mak
ing much progress but I want you to
know how greatly we en jo y our con
tacts with you and those of the western
hemisphere in the communion periods of
the Cathedral of the S o u l.
It is indeed a great joy and pleasure
to think that the elect and select of hu
man minds and souls throughout the
world are constantly lifting to a higher
level the consciousness dwelling within
human forms. T h e r e is no more m ag
nificent and inspiring period in our
daily lives than the few minutes spent
mornings, afternoons, or evenings in
union with thousands of others in the
C athedral of the Soul where we bask in
the strength and life of G od the F a th er
of all creatures and find jo y in the uni
versal peace of the Cosmic mind.
If you want to help in this great work
and attract to yourself the more spiritual
values and a better comprehension of
life itself, be sure to call the attention
of your friends and acquaintances
whether they are members or not, to
this C athedral of the Soul and have
them send for the free booklet Liber 777
and join with us in the daily periods of
sacred communion. T h e r e are no obli
gations, no fees, nothing to be given
except thanks to G od and the best help
that we can give to humanity.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

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

pi

H A V E Y O U A L IT E R A T U R E PACKET?
W e have prepared a packet of attractive, assorted folders and leaflets explaining the
purpose of the Rosicrucian Order for members to distribute to friends and acquaintances.
The folders and brochures have been designed and written to appeal to different minds
and temperaments. Every Rosicrucian should obtain one of these free packets at once,
and select from it literature which he or she thinks would most interest his or her associ
ates. Make a practice of meeting a mind with a sympathetic thought. Study persons
interests and approach them with the proper Rosicrucian leaflet containing a text that you
know will appeal to them. W rite today to the Rosicrucian Supply Bureau, San Jose,
California, for the free packet.

la______________________________________________________________________
O ne H un dred T w en ty-nine

W hat Is Character ?
HOW W E M AY DISTINGUISH TH IS A T T R IBU T E
FROM SOUL AND PERSONALITY
B y F r a t e r J a m e s B. R
H I L E t u n i n g in
T h e V o ic e of E x
perience on my
radio a short time
ago, the question
came up: W h a t is
C h a r a c te r, how
d o e s it function,
and where does it
come from? It was
this question that
was asked of the
radio audience by
a great man whose
mission in life is to help, aid, and assist
those who are afflicted, unfortunate
cripples, the blind, and souls in delusion.
Is not this word ch a ra cte r" a term
much misunderstood by most o f us a
term to which we have not given due
thought as to the profound depths of its
true meaning as applied to human na
ture? O n e trying to analyze the word
is bombarded with a myriad of things
to which it is labelled, just like a drug
store of modern times that sells every
thing but drugs. W e note that a figure,
a letter, or sign is called a character,
also a reference or certificate of ability:
T he
Rosicrucian then again we say a graph or chart has
a characteristic curve and so on; in
Digest
quoting our fellow creatures we also use
May
the word in a sense that is more or less
1936
confusing to our comprehension of the

o w n ey,

F. R. C.

real idea of it as a function. F o r in

stance, the phrase, Bill is a bad ch ar
a cter, or A n d y is a peculiar char
acter," could convey a picture of the
outside of a person rather than the in
side that is, the things he does, and
not what he is.
A nd so the word is subject to so many
interpretations in our consciousness,
that it is really difficult to keep out the
multitude of ideas that bob u d , far re
mote from the primal idea which is that
of moral excellence.
L et us consider, however, the term
C haracter in the sense of moral virtue
as applied to the human personality,
and we find a most complex condition
relatively associated with functions of
our dual nature.
In the present system of education
within the walls of our schools and col
leges, mental development or brain cul
ture is the essential goal. T h e brain of
man, which is most wonderfully formed,
and whose functions are astounding and
beyond our comprehension, is glorified
as the physical organ o f consciousness,
and certainly sometimes unduly as the
supreme instrument of human control
and contact with the objective world
through the functions of the five senses,
reason, memory, will-power, etc.
D oes C h aracter have its seat in the
brain? And does mental development
One H undred T hirty

positively unfold that which is hidden

within and dormant? Let us answer that
by asking another question: D o we find
the man of great and developed brain
power, who is capable of occupying a
high and important position in the busi
ness world, correspondingly perfect in
the moral virtue which we call C h a r
acter? If such were the case, then we
could consider brain development as
man's means of attaining perfection.
But we do know that character func
tions through the brain as the organ of
consciousness and manifests itself in the
senses, while the organ itself is not the
generator. W h e n considered according
to the law of our sacred triangle, ch a r
acter is the positive point and brain the
negative point, through which mani
festation (the third point) takes place.
Ontology teaches us that G od formed
man out of the dust of the earth and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and man became a living soul. S o
in the wonderful teachings of A M O R C
we gradually grow into the realization
of this great truth, the truth which
makes you free, free from the illusion
that material substance forming our
body is the real man. D o we not learn
from science that the actual chemical
elements of which our body is composed
could be purchased at the drugstore for
less than a dollar?
This then proves that brain of itself
is but dust of the earth ," and as such
has absolutely no power of itself, in spite
of the fact that m ans education has
caused him to glorify his brain in a ma
terial aspect as the king and ruler of his
consciousness, failing to realize the truth
that it is but a transformer, just as the
electrical transformers in the power sta
tion which convert power into economi
cal distribution.
Here again we see a good illustration
of the subject under consideration, that
of human character. A s the great high
tension primary electric current enters
the " d e a d " transformer, bringing life as
it were into every part by its electro
magnetic vibrations, it impresses the
dead wires of the secondary coils. T h e y
are not physically connected to the
primary, yet within these coils electric
current is induced in suitable voltage for
contact of our homes, in illuminating
them and operating various other ap
O ne H un dred T h irty-on e

pliances for our needs. T h is secondary

current might be compared to the ob
jective faculties of the brain w hereby we
contact and operate material things,
while the high tension primary might be
compared to our psychic self.
T h is brings us into the line of thought
to recognize that the human character
in element is essentially spiritual and
not material; it is one of the many a t
tributes of the soul, which in turn is the
real essence of all consciousness both
subjective and objective, and is a verit
able segment of the Divine W h o le .
Just as rhe high-frequency radio
waves which are radiated out into space
from the broadcasting center are picked
up by tuning your radio tubes, and are
translated into audible sound through
your receiving set, so the Infinite Pow er
of the Cosmic is forever broadcast in its
incomprehensible high vibrations to be
received by the psychic attunement of
the soul and translated into objective
and subjective consciousness through
the brain and sympathetic nervous sy s
tem, the quality and efficiency of the re
ception being known as "c h a r a c te r.
T h e soul, which is in itself ever per
fect, is gradually unfolded as it is im
pressed upon the "dust of the ea rth
( m a n s material b o d y ). T h ro u gh many
incarnations in varied experiences this
unfoldment constitutes the ego or in
dividual personality of man, and here is
the actual seat of the character. It c a n
not be truly said that personality is the
picture of, or manifestation of the soul.
T h a t which we call soul is in reality
part of the Divine and essentially all
perfect, whereas the personality is as
something growing out of the dust of
the earth, like unto an acorn growing
into an oak tree. C haracter is the mani
festation of the personality and may
possess more or less moral excellence.
T h e r e was previously quoted the term,
"b ad ch aracte r," but we must not take
that too literally; one's personality or
ego in the process of evolution and
development may be termed good or
bad, and the varied experiences w here
in heredity and environment as im
pressed upon the mind play a most im
portant part as factors in the translation
of character as manifested in the outer
life, but there is no such thing as " b a d
character any more than we could think

of dry w et." T h e difference in person

alities is rather m ore or less for ch ar
acter means goodness.
F inally we conclude that human ch ar
acter is a paramount virtue of moral e x
cellence and is attracted to the ego in
the form of individual quality, sur
viving so-called death, and gaining
greater perfection in each incarnation
regardless of brain power but nourished
by, and dependent upon, the attitude of
the personality to environment and its
proficiency in conducting the goodness

of G od through all the aspects of mind

into service, love, and loyalty to o n es
fellow man.
C ha racter is power, fearless, and aims
straight for the goal of perfection; it is
as a rudder of the ship, guiding one
upon the straight course over the sea of
life; it alw ays smiles at adversity and
uses obstacles as stepping stones to a t
tain greater heights; it is ever kind,
considerate and unselfish; it is G o d s
idea.

Spring, T h e Awakening Season

B y S o r o r E lsa F . A
H A T jo y and e x
pectation fill the
air at this glorious
time! E verything
s h o w s s i g n s of
new life, the
awakening to a c
tivity and unfoldment. It takes a
keen observer to
see the first signs
of it, which are
precious promises
of the later beauty
which is enjoyed by the multitudes.
All powers of heaven and earth com
bine in this happy miracle which so
powerfully symbolizes a periodical re
surrection and continuity of joyful, use
ful activity. T h is happy awakening is a
beginning only in a relative sense and
depends largely on the periods preced
ing it. If everything has been handled
and prepared favorably to new growth,
now it will become evident. T h e r e will
be abundance of joyful promise in the
garden and field of him who has labored
honestly and intelligently in order to
produce, the season before. Likewise
will careless neglect and indifference be
come apparent as impoverished soil can
support only straggly growth. All re
gret and labor now cannot offset neglect
of former duties but it can lay the right
foundation for the season to come and so
The
bring
at a later date the deep satisfaction
Rosicrucian
which work well done alw ays brings.
Digest
Seed we now use is the result of past
May
efforts and our future success depends
entirely on the manner in which we use
1936

ngle

seed at the present time. T h e r e is

precious power everywhere and in
everything which N ature unlocks and
dispenses to those w ho learn from her
and adhere to her wise laws.
T h e great transformation laws of
Nature are beautifully held before our
eyes by those agile, dainty creatures,
the butterflies. H ow jubilant and ecstatic
their rhythmic frolicking!
N o more
creeping in loathsome form, destruction
to N a tu re s garment, but beautiful things
to behold, flying freely and gracefully
sipping the choicest nectar N ature
serving them generously. T h e crowning
touch of beauty, developed in silence
and obscurity.
W h a t an inspiration and stimulation
for our own efforts, in evoluting out of
the drab and sad things of life into the
sunshine and abundance of G o d s crea
tures. All is according to unchanging
and wise laws, and quick conformity to
them brings quickest results and release
from the burdens we accumulate through
ignorance of such laws or foolish dis
obedience. T h e r e is eternal spring-time
possibility for man; he may start any
time to give signs of awakening to a
higher sense of life and develop those
qualities and virtues which make for
eternal as well as temporal happiness
and satisfaction. T h e r e is alw ays resur
rection season for him who is willing to
step into the light and expand by earnest
effort to reach complete liberation. N ew
unfoldment is the springtime which pre
cedes full bloom and final fruitage. F o r
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap.
O n e H un dred T hirty-tw o

PAG ES
from the

B ....................... .................................................................................................................................*............. - B

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY

Each month we w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
of the past. These w ill g iv e our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through the
presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts.
Occasionally, such w ritin gs
w ill be presented through the translation o r interpretations o f other eminent authors o f the
past. T h is month w e present Sir H um phry Davy.
Sir H um phry D avy attained prominence as a renowned chemist and a poet and m eta
physician two spheres o f human expression quite opposite to each other. H e was born
at Penzance, Cornwall, England, December 17, 1778. H e began the study o f medicine in
1795, but was won over to chemistry. H e later became lecturer at the R oyal Institution,
then new ly established. H e was both b rillian t and forceful. H e gained prominence b y the
invention o f what is known as the "s a fe ty lam p fo r miners, preventin g the previously
common explosions in mines from what was termed by the miners as "fire-d a m p " or ignitible gasses. H e was knighted fo r distinguished service to his country in 1812, and be
came a Baronet in 1818. It has been said o f him that if he had not won recognition as an
outstanding chemist, he could have as a poet and metaphysician, because o f his poetic
temperament. Examples o f his m ystical insight are given below in the b rief essays. E very
lover o f mysticism and metaphysics w ill enjoy his cogent statements. Althou gh not a R osi
crucian in affiliation, he apparently was in thought and sympathy.

.........

.....

The Office of Pain

H E laws of nature
are all directed by
D iv in e W is d o m
for the purpose of
p r e s e r v i n g l i f e,
and in c re a s in g
h a p p i n e s s . Pain
seems in all cases
to p r e c e d e the
mutilation or de
struction of those
organs which are
essential to vital
ity, and for the
end of preserving them; but the mere
process of dying seems to be the falling
O ne H undred T hirty-three

into a deep slumber; and in animals,

who have no fear of death dependent
upon imagination, it can hardly be a c
companied by very intense suffering. In
the human being, moral and intellectual
motives constantly operate in enhancing
the fear of death, which, without these
motives in a reasoning being, would
probably become null, and the love of
life be lost upon every slight occasion of
pain or disgust. B u t imagination is
creative with respect to both these pas
sions, which, if they exist in animals,
exist independent of reason, or as in
stincts.

Pain seems intended by an all-wise

Providence to prevent the dissolution of
organs, and cannot follow their d e
struction. I know several instances in
which the process of death has been ob
served, even to its termination b y good
philosophers;
and the instances are
worth repeating: D r. Cullen, when dy
ing, is said to have faintly articulated to
one o f his intimates, I wish I had the
power of writing or speaking; for then
I would describe to you how pleasant a
thing it is to die. D r. B lack worn out
by age, and a disposition to pulmonary
hemorrhage, which obliged him to live
very low whilst eating his customary
meal o f bread and milk, fell asleep, and
died in so tranquil a manner that he had
not even spilt the contents of the cup
which rested on his knee. A nd the late
Sir Charles Blagden, whilst at a social
meal, with his friends, M onsieu r and
M a d am e Bertholt and G a y Lussac,
died in his chair so quietly, that not a
drop of the coffee in the cup which he
held in his hand, was spilt.

Indestructibility of Mind

The

T h e doctrine of the materialists was

always, even in my youth, a cold,
heavy, dull, and insupportable doctrine
to me, and necessarily tending to ath e
ism. W h e n I had heard with disgust,
in the dissecting-rooms, the plan of the
physiologist, of the gradual accretion of
matter, and its becoming endowed with
irritability, ripening into sensibility, and
acquiring such organs as were necessary
by its own inherent forces, and at last
issuing into intellectual existence, a
walk into the green fields or woods, by
the banks of rivers, brought back my
feelings from nature to G od. I saw in
all the powers of matter the instruments
of the Deity. T h e sunbeams, the breath
of the zephyr, awakening animation in
forms prepared by divine intelligence to
receive it, the insensate seed, the slum
bering eggs which were to be vivified,
appeared, like the new-born animal,
works of a divine mind; I saw love as
the creative principle in the material

R osicru cian
n.
d ig e s t
M ay
1936

a " d this love only as a d T e a t'

1 hen my own mind 1 felt con nected with new sensations and indefinite hopes a thirst for immortality; the
great names of other ages and of distant
rIf

tribute.

nations appeared to me to be still living

around me, and even in the fancied
movements o f the heroic and the great,
I saw, as it were, the degrees of the in
destructibility of mind. T h e s e feelings,
though generally considered as poetical,
yet, I think, offer a sound philosophical
argument in favor of the immortality of
the soul. In all the habits and instincts
o f young animals, their feelings and
movements, may be traced an intimate
relation to their improved perfect state;
their sports have alw ays affinities to
their modes of hunting or catching their
food; and young birds even in the
nests, show marks of fondness which,
when their fram es are developed, be
come signs of actions necessary to the
reproduction and preservation of the
species. T h e desire of glory, of honor,
o f immortal fame, and o f constant
knowledge, so usual in young persons
of well-constituted minds, cannot, I
think, be other than sym ptom s o f the
infinite and progressive nature of the
intellect hopes which, as they cannot
be gratified here, belong to a frame of
mind suited to a nobler state o f exist
ence.
Religion, whether natural or revealed,
has alw ays the same beneficial influence
on the mind. In youth, in health and
prosperity, it awakens feelings of grati
tude and sublime love, and purifies at
the same time that it exalts. B ut it is in
misfortune, in sickness, in age, that its
effects are most truly and beneficially
felt; when submission in faith and
humble trust in the divine will, from
duties become pleasures, undecaying
sources of consolation. T h e n it creates
powers which were believed to be e x
tinct; and gives a freshness to the mind,
which was supposed to have passed
aw ay forever, but which is now reno
vated as an immortal hope. T h e n it is
the Pharos, guiding the w ave-tossed
mariner to his home as the calm and
beautiful still basins o f fiords, surround
ed by tranquil groves and pastoral
meadows, to the Norw egian pilot escap
ing from a heavy storm in the North
S e a or as the green and dewy spot,
gushing with fountains, to the exhaust
ed and thirsty traveller in the midst of
the desert. Its influence outlives all
earthly enjoyments, and becomes strong
er as the organs decay and the frame
dissolves. It appears as that eveningO n e H un dred T hirty-fou r

seen in G od. T h e palm as an evergreen

tree, and the amaranth as a perdurable
flower, are emblems of immortality. If
I am allowed to give a metaphorical al
lusion to the future state of the blest, I
should imagine it by the orange grove
in that sheltered glen, on which the sun
is now beginning to shine, and of which
the trees are at the same time loaded
with sweet golden fruit and balmy
silver flowers. Such objects may well
portray a state in which hope and
fruition become one eternal feeling.

star of light in the horizon of life,

which, we are sure, is to become, in a n
other season, a morning-star; and it
throws its radiance, through the gloom
and shadow of death.

Intimations of a Future Life

Music is the sensual pleasure which
approaches nearest to an intellectual
one, and may probably represent the de
light resulting from the perception of
the harmony o f things, and of truth as

New Fields of Exploration

By

S o ro r F lo r e n c e M c L a n e E p le r

UR world is circum
scribed by compre
hension. W h a t we
do not know does
not exist for us,
therefore it cannot
come within the
radius of our hem
isphere until we
recognize it. N o
tw o
individuals
world is similar.
E a ch revolves in a
sphere of his own
anamorphous and limited conception of
life.
M a n y of us never expand beyond the
routine of our daily existence a n d
thought. Som e remain unenlightened
throughout their entire lives. Y e t most
of us are vaguely conscious of these un
known vistas expanding about us, but
lack the will or knowledge to awaken
the power that will encompass these
realms within our comprehension.
T o d a y , a good m any bemoan the fact
that there are no new continents to e x
plore, that the day of adventure is over.
Y e t as the Chinese philosopher, C o n
fucius, aptly expresses:
O ne H un dred T hirty-five

W e need not seek beyond

humble door to find the w orld."

our

N either need we seek beyond our

humble door for adventures or new
worlds to conquer. W i t h i n each of us
lies the dormant ability to explore the
thousand and one paths that lie hidden
beneath our consciousness.
Science is gradually enlarging the
physical universe for us, bringing stars,
suns, and constellations nearer with
sensitive instruments unfolding the
microscopic world before us, that we
may know something of the composition
o f physical things. However, it is a slow
process, and the occult student who has
so trained himself that he can obtain in
formation accurately, may after a com
paratively brief period of exacting re
search, disclose truths that would have
taken the world o f science by mere
physical means years to discover.
T o those sufficiently developed are re
vealed intraverse and extraverse worlds
of vibrations so fine or coarse that they
go within or beyond the gamut of phy
sical sensation
and comprehension.
Som e of these worlds in their cyclic re
volutions pass through our earth period

ically. T h e r e is no reason to doubt but

that they exert a profound influence;
the coarser sub-telluric spheres bring
ing in their wake a cycle o f lower forces,
war, pestilence, destruction, etc.; those
of finer radiation than our earth exert
ing vibrations of illumination, peace,
achievement, and so on.
B y increasing our faculties and con
sciousness beyond the gamut of every
day ability, becoming as sensitively at
tuned as the delicately wrought instru
ments that detect color and sound be
yond the color and sound of our pre
conceived spectrum and keyboard, we
may thus transport our activities into a
different realm, wherein lies untold
vistas to explore. Souls having attained
sufficient advancement and spiritual
power could thus divert the inclement
influence of these cycles of darkness by
knowing and understanding when and
how to so radiate an aura of spiritual
light about the earth that it could not be
affected by lower radiations.
R E A D

T H E

T h e mental realm opens another field

for the adventurous-minded. M a n y
scientists now aver that the average
person uses less than two per cent o f his
brain cells and that a genius like Edison
uses not more than five per cent. T h e
startling possibilities that await us in
this Reid can only be assumed; a field
where by degrees we may discover how
to vivify these dormant brain cells and
find a new world of undreamed splendor
awakened in our consciousness.
A bo ve all these realms of activity lies
the exploration of our Soul, the miracle
o f its hidden wonders and composition.
If we could find its meaning, w e could
find the meaning of all that is or ever
shall be. Could we find it in its complete
entirety we would find it contained the
Universe and all Existence, that it en
compassed the whole of Divine C om
prehension, which is all that there is.
T h e s e are but a few of the open fields
that lie before us, and all in end are but
paths that lead to T h a t which we sought
in the Beginning!

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

B U LLET IN REGARDING O UR SOVEREIGN

GRAND M ASTER
W e regret to say that our beloved and illustrious F ra te r
D r. Le Brun is still very ill and confined in his home under the
strict regulations of physicians and nurses. T h e r e have been a
few brief periods of slight improvement during the past month,
but often followed by periods of weakness and discouraging
symptoms. H e has sensed very keenly the loving vibrations and
healing thoughts sent to him by our members, and he is being
given every possible help. W e are hopeful of having him in full
health and vigor for the Convention sessions this summer, but
your good thoughts and prayers are needed at this time.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
May

H. S P E N C E R L E W I S .

1936
O n e H undred Thirty-six

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestiga tin g natures m ysteries and exten d in g the boundaries o f
knowledge. The w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
I t is with pleasure, therefore, that w e afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and b riefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherw ise specified,
we give fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

The Human Machine

Y N CH R O N IZ A TION plays a
fundamental p a r t
in o u r m o d e r n
electrical, m e c h
anical, and indus
trial world. M a
chines and devices
having d i f f e r e n t
speeds or functions
are made to per
form in unison so
as to serve a com
mon a n d higher
end. Synchronization is to the mechani
cal world what harmony is to the human
world.
Apparatuses are compelled to operate
jointly beyond or below the limits in
tended for them when they were orig
inally designed so that they may serve
a new purpose, having a greater util
itarian value than if they functioned
separately.
Simple mechanisms are
O n e H un dred T hirty-seven

oftentimes required to make a sacrifice

of their highest efficiency so that they
can be united with others for a greater
cause.
Sound motion picture equipment is an
example of this synchronization, this
harmonious relationship o f independent
ly developed devices. T h e motion pic
ture camera was originally never in
tended to pass film before its lens at the
rate of ninety feet per minute, but with
the advent of photographing sound on
film and if sound motion pictures were
to be produced, the speed of the camera
had to be synchronized with that of the
electrical recorder. T o continue the
phenomenon, no deviation from this
synchronization can be made. Inde
pendent consideration cannot be shown
to either phase of the process. T h e
camera and recorder mechanism have
been combined to bring about a new and
third factor the sound picture.

T h is combining of mechanical and

electrical units has given us today a
highly complex industrial development
with its multitude of products and facili
ties. T h e great mechanical advancement
today is not due to newly discovered
principles of mechanics embodied in de
vices unlike any others, but to the com
bining of established machines to per
form new duties. T h e uniting of ap
paratuses is the evolution of the
machine.
A s every engineer well knows, this
process of synchronizing the functions
of machines and devices involves a
m ajor problem. T h e y must avoid the
establishment of a conflicting factor.
W h e n perfect synchronization is a c
complished, the integral units become
one, but when imperfect synchroniza
tion results a state or condition is
brought about which interferes with the
functioning of the separate parts. H a r
mony, mechanically speaking, is when
the separate devices of an apparatus are
able to perform their functions, and
their functions in turn merge into an
other which does not conflict with them.
If, for example, a machine is so joined
to another to do a certain work that e x
cess heat is generated, and this heat
eventually retards its normal operation
and contribution of service, the a d
vantage of synchronization would ob
viously be offset by this danger factor.
All this is thoroughly understood by
engineers when they consider machines,
but unfortunately men generally give
too little thought to this principle when
they consider themselves and machines
jointly.
Biologically, physiologically,
and psychologically, man functions as a
machine; the mechanism of his body
and o f his mind is as bound by physical
laws as machines are by mechanical
principles. F o r perfect health and proper
functioning as a human, the integral
parts of his organism must be synchro
nized. All this man understands, but
what he neglects is the synchronization
of his being with the machines he has
created. W h e n man uses a machine,
T he
that is, when he directs and uses its
Rosicrucian function to serve an end of his own, he
Digest
is in a very definite sense combining
May
himself with it. W h e n man has created,
for example, a machine such as the
1936

tractor, giving it purposely great traction

and power, it is expected that he will
not pit his strength against it. T h e func
tion of the tractor is to exceed man's
power of pulling and pushing. M a n s
function is to direct and apply the
superhuman power of that machine and
any other effort on his part would be
but to oppose his and the tractors
proper function.
Consequently, man is obliged to syn
chronize himself with the machine to
produce the results expected from a
combination of their functions. T h e
first step in synchronizing with a ma
chine is to learn the functions of the
machine; the second, to learn the func
tions of the human.
M a n should ask himself such ques
tions as these: W h a t is the purpose in
directing and applying the power of the
machine? H ow far can a human go in
fulfilling his function without danger of
losing synchronization with the ma
chine? W h a t sacrifices should man make
to meet the demands of the machine and
yet avoid destruction by it?
M o s t of our horrible automobile ac
cidents are the result of man not proper
ly synchronizing his human machine
with the one he drives. H e over or
under-estimates the limits of his human
mechanism in concentrating on deriving
the utmost from the one he directs.
W h e n emergencies arise, this lack of
synchronization causes reactions which
he either did not contemplate or did not
imagine existed, which reactions are of
serious consequence. T h e s e reactions
conflict both with the functions of the
machine and of his being and disaster
inevitably results.
If man is going to unite himself with
the machines he creates, as he is doing
hourly, he must discontinue his practice
of exercising his functions as a human
and the functions of the machine to the
extreme without the necessary harmoni
ous relationship of them both. H ow this
lack of synchronization of the human
and the machine is one of the principal
causes of automobile accidents is e x
plained by Professor Yand ell Hender
son of Y a l e University. Professor
Y an d ell says in part:
A recent accident on a road by a
lake in Switzerland the most tragic
O ne H un dred T hirty-eight

and sorowful event in the entire history

of the motor car challenges science.
Accidents of this type are frequent.
The conditions producing them exist in
every modern car and every motorist.
For the analysis and explanation of
these conditions particularly as co n
cerns the reactions of the motorist all
that is needed is the application of wellestablished principles of neuro-physio
logy. Y e t up to the present time no one
appears to have made such an analysis.
"T h e type of accident is that in which
the explanation commonly offered is that
the car went out of control. Y e t in
many cases subsequent examination
demonstrates that the steering gear,
motor, and brakes were in good order.
"In reality, it is the motorist who
goes out of control.' Y e t he acts in the
only manner that his nature permits:
the manner in which every human being
always instinctively acts and always
will act under the circumstances.
"In all cars now, the throttle is co n
trolled by the downward pressure of
the motorists right foot upon a pedal.
Any occurrences that cause him sud
denly to press down hard upon that
pedal opens the throttle wide and causes
the car to leap ahead with maximal a c
celeration. If he is then forced by his
own reactions to continue to hold his
foot clamped down hard upon that
pedal, the car drives ahead until it col
lides with some object sufficiently solid
to stop it or until it is overturned or until
the motorist is thrown out of his seat.
If he is thrown out and his foot thus re
moved from that pedal, the car slows
down or stops. If, on the contrary, he
retains his seat to the end, the speedo
meter is generally found to indicate a
high speed at the instant of final crash.
T h e critical feature in these accidents
is, therefore, the continued pressure of
the motorists foot on the throttle pedal.
Norm ally the motorist regulates the
speed o f the car and its starting and
stopping by means of several highly
artificial reactions developed in his nerv
ous system through training and e x
perience. W h e n speed is called for, he
obtains it by a steady pressure with his
right foot: an act that through all the
ages prior to the invention o f the motor
car was never before employed by man
or any of his animal ancestors to pro
One H un dred T hirty-nine

duce either rapid acceleration or co n

tinuous motion.
" I f the motorist wishes to go more
slowly or to stop, he calls into play an
other much more complex acquired re
action. H e draws his foot back, moves
it a few inches to one side, and then
presses down upon another pedal. T h e
two acts that by which he induces a c
celeration and speed and that by which
he slows and stops the car are thus
closely similar in form, yet diametrically
opposite in purpose.
" T h a t the human nervous system
generally functions well even under
these highly unphysiological require
ments is indeed remarkable in view of
the observation of Pavlov on condi
tioned reflexes in animals. H e finds
that, when two closely similar stimuli or
conditions are used to excite quite dif
ferent reactions, serious nervous dis
turbance may result from the dilemma.
In the motorist two widely different
conditions one calling for accelera
tion, the other for stopping are re
quired to excite two closely similar re
actions. Y et, these two acts are seldom
confused, even in emergencies. T h e
motorist very rarely mistakes the throttle
pedal for that of the brake.
" W h a t happens in serious cases of
car out of control is rather that another
reaction is called into play: a reaction
so powerful that it instantaneously
abolishes all the motorist's acquired or
conditioned reflexes. T h i s reaction is
as instinctive as that of a drowning man
who seizes any one that tries to save
him and drowns both. In the motorist
the reaction concerned is the self-righ t
ing reflex that is excited by any sudden
severe disturbance of equilibrium. It is
a complex reaction in which the head,
body, arms and legs are all involved.
W h e n it occurs in the driver of a car,
the impulse that dominates him is to
steady himself in his seat. H e grasps
the wheel with his whole strength. His
arms stiffen, and he is as likely to steer
off the road as along it. Simultaneously,
and as part of the same nervous and
muscular complex, he performs another
act so instinctive that in most cases he
is entirely unconscious of it. His legs
are forcibly extended, and his feet are
pressed down hard. It is the muscular

act that Sherrington, who discovered it

in the dog, named the extensor thrust.
In less technical language this means
that any motorist, no matter how e x
perienced, who is suddenly and severely
jolted, instantly reacts to steady himself
in his seat; and in so doing he presses
his foot down hard on the accelerator
pedal.
If then the first jump of the car
sends it along a course where it meets
other jolts and bumps in rapid succes
sion, the driver tries in vain to recover
the equilibrium of his own body. And,
as part of this effort, he continues to
press down on the pedal and thereby
sends the car completely out of con
trol. S o far as he has time to think at
all, he is amazed at the w ay the car be
haves; yet that behavior is entirely due
to the pressure of his own foot on the
pedal and the grip of his hands on the
wheel.
T h is righting reaction to recover
equilibrium, and gain support for the
body, is universal. It occurs in all ani
mals. E v en a newborn baby has it fully
developed; and no training can eradi
cate its impulse. A cat, no matter how
it is dropped, alw ays twists its body
around and lands on its feet. A man
who slips on an icy pavement, or whose
chair falls backward, instinctively tries
to recover his balance. In all our a n
cestors through millions of years of
rough-and-tumble life, this instinctive
reaction has prevented many a broken
bone and saved many a life. It is only
now that the physiologically unwise a d
justment of the pedal controlling the
throttle of the modern automobile co n
verts this instinctive reaction of personal
safety into a reaction that often sends
the motorist to disaster.
H o w completely the righting re
action may dominate a motorist is e x
emplified in an accident in which the
following details were reliably estab
lished: A t a cross-road a high-powered
sport car, in which three young men
were riding, struck some obstruction
that gave it a severe jolt, but did not
T he
Rosicrucian overturn the car nor break any essential
part. T h e car then left the road, plowed
Digest
six hundred feet across a field, leaving
May
the ground at one place for twenty-five
1936

feet, and with the driver still in his seat

crashed at high speed into a house.
In another accident that happened
to come under my own observation, a
young and inexperienced motorist in
overtaking and trying to pass ahead of
another car, sideswiped and locked
with it. B oth motorists then accelerated
until they overturned one hundred yards
further on. If, on the contrary, the
power in both cars had been shut off,
they would have come almost or quite
to a safe stop in this distance.
In another case, directly reported to
me, a lady was driving a small sedan at
less than traffic speed, when a fast
truck passed ahead of her. T o give
room she drove to the right until two
wheels of her car went off the edge of
the cement. In getting back on the
cement, she accelerated and swerved
over to the left side of the road; then
still accelerating back to the right side;
and finally at full speed to the left side
again, where the car went off the road
entirely and turned over.
It is quite certain that none of the
four drivers included in these accidents
could have explained why their cars be
haved as they did. N o r could any of
them, after the initial event, have re
moved the right foot from the throttle
pedal. All that they were capable of
doing and in fact did was to steady
themselves in their seats by pressing
down on that pedal, not merely with
ordinary force, but with the whole
strength of their legs.
In such cases as these there is an
initial physical jolt. B ut even that is not
necessary. In the records of accidents
that I have examined, there are many in
which the driver was first merely startled
and responded as every one normally
does by a momentary extensor thrust
of his legs. T h e car jumped, thus jo lt
ing the driver, bringing his foot still
more forcibly down on the pedal, and
sending the car crashing into a tree, or
another car, or through a railing, or off
a bridge into a river. I recently saw a
new car with an inexperienced driver
jump forward, swerve, mount the side
walk and smash against a telegraph
pole. T h e perfect driver would not be
have as he did; but even normal men
and women often do. M a n y things may
O n e H undred F orty

of his foot on the pedal, even when he

realizes that his speed is excessive.
T h is tendency to accelerate is one of
the reasons that cars so often go off of
curves and smash or turn over.

startle a driver who with an apparent

ly clear road ahead is not paying very
close attention. It may be a child or
other pedestrian that suddenly appears
directly in front of the car; or it may be
another car cutting across or coming in
from a side road. A nd thus startled he
accelerates, instead of slowing down,
and crashes into the other car or runs
down the pedestrian.
On curves also a driver tends to feel
himself out of balance, and often finds
it hard to avoid increasing the pressure

S u ch in brief is the explanation that

physiology affords of w hy and how a
car that is in perfect order easily goes
out of control. It reveals a hitherto un
suspected interaction between the car
and human nature. W e can not change
human nature not in a million y e a rs.

T o Those W ho Seek
By

K a te F e e ly

O W definite is the
d e m a r c a t i o n be
tween discrimina
tion a n d d o u b t
though the skeptic
may not acknow l
edge it.
C lear and dis
tinct is the line be
tween d e v o t i o n
and sentimentality
though the mawk
ish do not observe
it.
Love holds no traffic with possessive
ness though the jealous will never be
lieve it.
Personality is the seed of suffering
though the ignorant elevate it.
Impersonal thought is the road to
wisdom though t h e r e be few who
seek it.
Impersonal affection is the blossom of
love though there be few who culti
vate it.
Impersonal deeds are the tools of ser
vice though there be few who use them.
T h e impersonal word is the creative
word through which righteousness is
born on the earth but there be few, as
yet, who utter it.
O n e H un dred F o rty -o n e

A w areness is the key that unshakles

the slave but many are the thoughtless
who know not their bondage.
Sorrow is a g r e a t emancipator.
T h ro u g h the burden of pain and the
friction of frustration man begins to
perceive his chains. Y e t all men seek
comfort and avoid sorrow.
Plasticity is a test of the disciples
understanding which the rigid do not
pass.
T h e M aste rs seek him who can do
many things acceptably. O n ly the un
knowing assert variety and mediocrity
to be synonymous.
Scorning humble means the proud im
poverish themselves.
F o r the path to
the M aste rs is paved with small and
humble services laid down by the dis
ciple. H e knows the M a ste rs do not
need them but he lays them along the
way that other men may more easily
and quickly find what he himself is
seeking and he thereby earns the re
ward of greater work in T h e ir service.
T o seek truly is to think.
T o think truly is to live.
T o live truly is to love.
T o love truly is to serve.
T o serve truly is to find w hat all men
seek.

T h e Unseen Guardians
LAWS OF NATURE THAT GOVERN OUR EXISTENCE
By

F ra te r

T. H.
V

I T H v e r y few, if
any, exceptions, we
human beings all
want t h i n g s to
h a p p e n in o u r
lives exciting, in
teresting, romantic
things, and some
times even painful
or harmful things.
A s long as we
think that the fu
ture m a y h o l d
some further ad
ventures and new experiences in store
for us, we feel that the present struggle
for existence is worth while.
In many cases it is a struggle against
heart-breaking odds, but we hang on.
W e fight as best we know how to fight
for the future, which as far as we know
may or may not bring to us the experi
ences we w ant to live through before
we are obliged to relinquish this earthly
life.
W h a t a picture it seems to be, yet, we
need not look far for an abundance o f
evidence that will support its truth
fulness.

The
If we could read our own futures and
Rosicrucian
find in them absolutely nothing that
Digest
would be new or interesting to us, how
May
many of us would care to go on with
1936

this business of living?

M ille r ,

F. R. C.

V
A t times our thinking seems to be do
ing its utmost to persuade us that we
cannot reasonably expect any further
happiness in this life, but we stand fas
cinated beside the table of chance and
wait with all the eagerness of a roulette
player to hear the cropier sing out the
glad news that the ball has stopped on
our number at last.
W e live in hopes. M a n y of us live in
the blindest of hopes, for we trust the
good will of chance to bring us the
things we are living for but do not see
how to secure by any other means. W e
often believe that we see success and
happiness come unearned, undeserved,
and unexpectedly, to someone else. W e
believe that we have as good a chance
as they had, so we continue to play with
life instead of depositing our energies
and abilities in the savings bank of
original and constructive effort.
W e who admit that we have not suc
ceeded in achieving our goals, are often
inclined to believe that the fault is in no
way our own. T h a t would be the logical
excuse, if we had never had an oppor
tunity to learn from the examples of
eminently successful persons the secrets
of their success. H ow many of us have
never had a chance to learn how some
of these men and women turned the
most adverse circumstances of poverty
and ill health into the most glorious
victories?
O n e H un dred Forty-tw o

Our many public libraries all contain

books in which are recorded the events
of the lives of every person who achieved
great success. All of these records in
dicate that these great ones did not
reach their goals by starting out for the
half-way mark. T h e y clearly indicate
that unless they had striven for the
highest, they would not have reached
beyond the middle. From them we can
learn that only the highest ambitions
will raise us above mediocrity.
If we desire no more than ordinary
success, are we likely to achieve even
that? If we are not willing to make the
sacrifices and put forth the best that is
in us, are we likely to rival the accomp
lishments of the great?
The lives of great men and women
are records o f incessant vigilance, of
being constantly on guard against their
own tendencies toward mediocrity. T h e y
are records of speech and actions that
have been analyzed before being spoken
or made. T h e y are not records of speed.
W h e n we are asked and seldom be
fore being asked we profess a faith in
the goodness of our fellow men and the
goodness of all creation. W e can glibly
quote instances of the provisions that
have been made for our w elfare and
happiness. W e see many things that
nature is doing for us, but w e fail often
to see the most obvious examples that
nature is setting before us as a guide to
our individual happiness and success.
W e see that nature permits one animal
to eat another for food, but w e fail to
see that the same animal is constantly
on guard against more enemies than
man has to watch out for. W e see how
the beautiful forests cover the hills of
our country, but w e fail to see the
thousands of insects, the diseases, and
the damaging storms which the trees
must conquer if they are to grow. C an
we not see vigilance and a constant
battle against deteriorating elements in
all that is? H o w much vigilance are we
exercising in the protection of our own
futures futures that are being made
today, this very minute?
T h e present contributes its nature to
the whole or final result. If we are still
at the gaming table, can we expect such
a contribution to produce an entirely
different result?
It seems that religion has suffered
more abuse than any of the other forms
One H undred F o rty -th ree

in which man has sought to embody

truth.
T h e great works of art are universally
admired. T h e efforts of science and
philosophy are discussed without bias,
but when we come to religion we find
that it has been literally torn to pieces
b y differences of opinion. W e do not
seem to realize that the truth which re
ligion is trying to give to us is the same
truth that art, science, and philosophy
are offering. W e have certainly found
some truth in each of these forms. H a v e
we been assuming that the truth is not
O N E and U N I V E R S A L ?
M a n y of us have the same blind faith
in our religions as we have in our chance
of happiness in this earthly life. W e
fail to connect the present with the im
mortal life that our religions speak of.
W it h o u t knowing or really caring
to find out how much truth is em
bodied in the doctrines that have been
taught to us from childhood, we leave
such abstract subjects to more ambitious
minds. W h e n those minds publish a
new proof or disproof of some point of
logic, w e give their findings a passing
glance; if the point in question does not
seem to apply directly to our own case,
we drop the whole matter in disappoint
ment and even disgust. C an we not see
that human beings must be appealed to
individually before they can become in
terested in any one elses ideas? C an we
not see that our failure to inculcate truth
into the minds of the masses o f our
fellow men is a result of our tendency
to generalize, instead of particularizing
and individualizing the truth?
W h i l e we a re maintaining that the
truth is universally applicable, we ca n
not afford to deny that human experi
ence is a greatly varied reality.
D oes it not seem possible that you or
I may be contacting the truth at one
place, but by virtue of our being in that
place we preclude the possibility of
anyone else contacting it in an identical
way, or at the same place?
How can we claim that we have co n
tacted the whole truth at once, unless
we have becom e as vast as the whole
truth in fact, its counterpart?
H o w can we expect anyone else to
believe that we know the whole truth,
unless they can see that we are con
stantly expressing all of it? W h e n we
realize how far short we fall in such e x

pression, it leaves us few grounds upon

which we can expect others to follow.
W e have discovered that a minute of
demonstration is more effective than an
hour of sa les talk, when we want to sell
an article that the customer will have to
operate himself.
If we lose confidence in an automo
bile when the salesman makes an error
in demonstrating it, we can readily see
w hat happens to the confidence of his
listeners when a reformer fails to dem
onstrate all of the truth all of the time.
O u r job of reforming the habits of the
world is very likely to assume such a
formidable aspect that we will lose our
enthusiasm for it.
If a gear is not perfectly meshed and
synchronized with the one that supplies
the driving force, we would not expect
it to drive a third gear efficiently. In
such an analogy we can understand the
w aste or dissipation of force that occurs
when the mechanism of transmission is
not perfect. W e can understand the
apparent failure of truth to reach all
minds of man at once and in its original
strength.
In its progress from the
Source, it has to pass through such
devious channels of personal experience
that in many cases it completely loses
its identity. W e do well to examine
w hat others give to us as truth, for it is
difficult to tell how far and by what
route it has finally come to our hand.
If we apply acid to a bit of yellow
metal, we may be greatly disappointed
when it begins to disintegrate before
our eyes; however, we know that we
have not destroyed anything of great
value. If it does not disintegrate, we
have removed all doubt of its value.
H ave we applied the acid test to all
of our opinions?
W h e n we know that our greatest
oratory cannot give to other people
first-hand experience of the subject we
are expounding, we are inclined to urge
experiment before urging belief.
Intolerance is practiced only when we
lose sight of a fundamental law of
human nature which clearly states:
" E a c h of us can see only through the
eye of our own experience. W h e n we
The
Rosicrucian are intolerant we are expecting super
natural abilities in others. W e do not
Digest
call it superstition, but we sometimes do
May
the pig an injustice by calling it pig
headedness. T h e pig seems to try very
1936

hard to lead his natural life, but can the

same be said of many of us?
In the business world the dealer in
wearing apparel both men's and wom
e n s knows that unless he can prove
that his new spring styles are being
worn by other people, he has little
chance of selling many of them. H e uses
a natural law to sustain his business.
H e displays pictures of living models
dressed in similar garments; he shows
clippings from fashion center news
papers, describing the new styles; he
makes much of the names of well-known
designers whose creations he is offering
for sale and how we do buy!
W e might not be proud to admit that
we are being deftly controlled by such
a law in the hands of the merchant we
patronize, but we need not be ashamed
o f our sheepish conduct. T h e law is
not of the merchants making. H e has
not "put one over on us," and we do get
our m oneys worth if we are careful
buyers. T h e merchant merely considers
it a principle of good business, which
it is.
If it were not for the functioning of
this law, we would know none of the
many interesting changes that take place
in some of our living habits. T h e law is
impersonal, but also beneficial.
T h e reformer who rants and raves
about the perversity of human nature
while he depends on his own example
and oratory to change the w ays of the
multitude, is actually robbing the ideal
of the dignity that would find approval
in the minds of his audience. His
chance of success is no greater than
that of a street vender who is yelling
himself hoarse trying to sell something
that nobody would care to be seen buy
ing or using.
It might be spectacular to pin an
artificial rosebud to a real rose bush, but
few of us would care to claim that it
would burst into bloom there.
W e all love to watch spectacles, yet
we all have a tremendous aversion to
becoming spectacles ourselves.
C o n tra ry to rumors that frequently
circulate, human minds still have a
genuine respect for the dignity of that
which is natural.
W h e t h e r it is sad or ju st natural, it
is a fact that many of us are antagon
ized by even the mention of the word
religion. W e get an unpleasant sensa
O n e H undred Forty-four

tion of squeamishness with the idea of

religion. It is the same sensation that
we experience when we come unexpect
edly face to face with a creditor whom
we have been dodging for some time.
W e are glad when the opportunity to
change the subject offers itself.
W hen we analyze this reaction, we
often find that it is really a repetition of
the sense of aversion that was aroused
in us by someone who first mentioned
the subject to us and who did not make
clear to us that religion does not de
mand that we must all become ministers,
priests, rabbis, reformers, or evangelists.
Since such roles did not appeal to us at
the time, we have continually been try
ing to avoid what we unconsciously
consider a creditor. If we thought that
science was trying to make scientists of
all of us, it is very probable that we
would feel a similar aversion to science.
Likewise with philosophy or any of the
arts.
Now we realize that we do not have
to be artists to enjoy and benefit by the
creations of art.
W e derive great
pleasure and recreation from the theatre,
which is an art. N o actors have ever
insinuated th at w e must all become
actors.
Let us not be too hasty in accusing
our religionists o f having caused this
aversion. W e must remember that we
have always the choice of applying what
they have taught or discarding it. N o
one can wield the power of our own
conscience over us unless we consent to
have it so; furthermore, they have no
right to do so.
W h e n we look analytically at most
of our pet aversions and personal a n
tagonisms, we discover little reason for
any attitude other than tolerance.
If we want our children to benefit
from the truth of religion, would it not
be wise to free their minds of the idea
that religion means to make preachers
of them, one and all? If they have no
desire to become preachers, religion will
not destroy their other natural ambi
tions, and if these predominate how can
they become conscientious preachers?
W e do not want to conduct a school of
hypocrisy with our own children as the
pupils.
T h e mind of a child readily grasps
the beautiful connection that exists be
O ne H un dred F o rty -fiv e

tween all of the forms of truth. If we

foster this impression, the child will soon
be in a position to teach us many things
that we have been blind to ourselves.
T h e child will not tell us what we must
believe, but will tell us what it sees and
w hat we have failed to see.
W i t h the commodity of truth we are
each one of us a salesman. If we c a n
not demonstrate the goods, we cannot
hope to sell much more of it. If what we
have sold in its place does not work
satisfactorily in the lives of our cus
tomers, are they not likely to be on our
doorsteps tomorrow, demanding a re
fund?
In the final analysis, when we have
applied the acid test to all of our co n
victions, we usually discover that the
only real perversity of which we are
guilty is ignorance. T h e discovery
makes us humble, and when we have
achieved humility we are on the thres
hold of light.
V o lu m es have been written about na
ture and the advantages of studying n a
ture, but we have wasted much time in
reading them if we have failed to com
prehend the unity of truth which all
creation is constantly illustrating for us.
A s we have noted above that the
truth which other people try to give to
us may be so distorted by its passage
through many minds and mouths, we
are making no mistake if we go to the
same source from which that truth came
originally.
If we do not believe that
such a thing is possible to us, it is very
often because we have permitted our
unbelief to keep us from trying. W e
have not applied the acid test to that
conviction. W e have not been sincere
with ourselves. W e have been hoping
that we might be able to use the brass
for gold and we have received no more
for our brass than it is worth. W e have
not deceived nature for she is always
with us; she has watched our plannings
to deceive her through our own eyes.
Sh e is trying to put us on our guard
against ourselves, but many o f us still
think that we have a chance to catch
her asleep.
D oes the heart that beats within us
ever sleep?
W e have examined the functions of a
few of the laws of nature that govern
our existence and we have found that

they are absolutely impersonal in o pera

tion and can be made to serve or to in
jure our purposes. T h e y are not of any
use to us until we understand them.
W h e n we do understand them we no
longer suffer from the errors of acting
in opposition to them. T h i s knowledge
is always at hand and is given freely to
those who seek it that they might co n
form to its dictates. N one other finds it.
It has been said, T h e noblest em
ployment of the mind of man, is the

READ

THE

study of the works of his C re a to r . If

we deny the truth of this statement be
fore we have tested it, which will suffer
more, the statement or ourselves?
T h u s the apprentices keep watch,
that the metal may be pure but not con
sumed by the fire which purifies it.
T h e unseen guardians exercise the
vigilance that we neglect until we per
ceive the advantage of it.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM
-9

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
Man, when conscious o f an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized it so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f it. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illuminate mankind
w ith their m ystic light.
F o r those who are seeking light, each month we w ill
reproduce a sym bol o r symbols, w ith th eir ancient meaning.

T H E T E M P L E O F L IF E
The circular structure, somewhat
like a temple, represents the period
of man's life from birth to death.
A lw ays in his presence is the tree
of knowledge, with its fruit of wis
dom. If man partakes of this fruit,
he m ay look beyond the narrow
confines of the

structure,

or his

daily life, and see the magnificent

vista of the universe, depicted by
the landscape which surrounds the
structure. The open doorw ay alludes to the portal through which man
will learn to look when he has eaten of the fruit of the tree.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
May

-------------- Ml

This impressive and beautiful symbolism is from a

------- $

Rosicrucian manuscript, centuries old, in the reposi-

5-------------------- 9

tory of the O rd e r.

Cs.

cs---------

sB-------------------- !l

1936
O ne H undred Forty-six

Immortality
IS IT SUSCEPTIBLE OF SCIENTIFIC PROOF?
By

A lb e r t A . S te w a rt

H E greatest ques
tion w i t h which
the mind of man
may struggle the
problem of the ages
is: W h e n c e
c a m e we a n d
w h i t h e r are we
tending?
Is o u r destiny
annihilation, reabsorbtion, or co n
tinued existence as
conscious b e i n g s
after the ordeal which we call death?
W h e n the question of future existence
breaks over the bounds of dogmatic
theology, and man is yet not satisfied
with his grasp of the revelations of n a
ture about him, we may gravely ask,
W h a t remains upon which the in
quiring soul may lean?
W e feel that through science nature
reveals to us evidences of the truth of
that which we all desire, but concerning
which many of us are compelled to en
tertain an honest doubt.
Science speaks thus: T h e r e is a
drastic and appealing method of illus
trating the wonderful contrast between
the millions of years of world history,
and the few thousand years of m an s his
tory, and that all the w ay along down
the ages, since the world began as a
mass of fire-mist having its birth in the
O ne Hundred. F o rty -sev en

sun, there has been a steady working

out of the supreme design of a glorified
type of man.
Suppose that the millions of years
since that nebulous beginning of the
world be represented by one day of
tw en ty -four hours.
O f that day, the
primordial period, reaching to the very
first appearance of life in its lowest
form, would occupy twelve and one-half
hours, from midnight to 12:30 at noon.
T h e epoch following, during which
the present coal layers were green, or
white forests, and life developed through
the Protozoa, Arthropoda and the fish
period to the Reptilian age, takes up the
succeeding eight hours, to 8 :3 0 in the
evening. T h e n came reptilia, comprising
snakes, lizards, crocodiles and other
Sauria, and their history occupies our
time up to a quarter past eleven at night.
W e now have left, three-quarters of
one hour. T h is three-quarters o f an
hour, with the exception of two minutes,
will be occupied in the development of
the T e rtia ry world the world of mon
ster mammals.
T h e two minutes remaining will be
the whole time of the life of man upon
the earth, from the glacial period until
now. Assuming that the last six thou
sand years will cover the period of
m ans recorded history, it will represent
the last five secon ds o f these last two

minutes o f our hypothetical day.

During these mighty ages carbon

dioxide, which is destructive o f the
higher forms of life, was being with
drawn from the atmosphere by the
vegetable kingdom. It w as just the right
element for that life, and was being de
posited in the earth, and finally the
earth's atmosphere w as reduced to the
proper chemical consistency to sustain
the present forms of life a higher order
than of any preceding age.
T h is would appear to be evidence of
the working out of an infinite design in
which man is the apex. E ls e why was
the earth so carefully prepared for his
reception?
W h e t h e r man was prepared for con
ditions here, or the environment was
made to fit the man, the inference of
definite design favorable to the creature
called man is hard to escape.
T o further illustrate this point, let us
briefly consider the most abundant and
useful of all metals, iron, and see if we
do not find more evidence of design
favorable to man in an exalted station
above other members of the animal crea
tion. T h e specific gravity o f iron is much
greater than that of many of the stones
that form the foundations o f continents,
and without definite, intelligent design,
would be drawn naturally, by the force
of gravity, below all lighter substances,
at the time o f the molten or plastic state
of the earth in its transition from the
gaseous state to the solid globe. Y e t
iron w as held in suspension in the a t
mosphere in the form of ferric acid and
other gaseous ingredients for long ages
a fter the lighter stones had crystallized
into their present forms. T h u s iron, so
useful to man, was solidified nearer the
surface, within m ans reach.
It even appears, in places, to have
been precipitated upon the present sur
face of the earth in the form of rain, as
at present upon the surface o f the sun.
S o it may have actually rained pitch
forks in the k no ck-d o w n over areas
now known as M ich igan and W i s c o n
sin, w here it is scooped up with steam
shovels, in the form of iron sand.
W h i l e it can be readily understood
how and w hy the coal beds were formed
The
Rosicrucian in the T e rtia ry , Carboniferous, Triassic,
and C retaceous periods, does it not seem
Digest
a little singular that iron should be de
May
posited in the same periods? W o u l d not
1936
this apparant anomaly be further evi

dence of design especially favorable to

man? N either coal nor iron would be

very useful to man without the other.
W o u l d it not seem a matter o f design
that the time necessary to ripen or pro
perly prepare this product for m an s
use was so accurately computed as to be
ready when the only being capable of
utilizing it had arrived at that state of
social and intellectual progress to need
that very thing in the development of
implements necessary in the conquest of
the natural forces, air, water, fire, elec
tricity?
W o u l d it not seem a m atter o f design
that the giant mammals of the T e rtiary
world, with their great muscular, but
low brain power, were succeeded by
classes of animals of much smaller bodies
but larger brains?
Science tells us that the present group
o f domestic animals appeared upon the
earth simultaneously with man, or per
haps a little previously, but endowed
with sufficient brain power and tractability to be readily brought under the
dominion of man.
F rom the first pulsation of life upon
the earth in the bit of protoplasm called
am eba, the dawn animal o f the Laurentian period and the primeval parent
o f organisms, all the w ay down the ages
to man, there has been a steady growth
of the divine essence called intelligence,
a process of psychic evolution. All the
prehistoric forms of life have been linked
into that growing chain.
T h e fact is borne in upon the mind
with irresistible force from a careful
survey of the facts of science, as r e
vealed to us a t this time, that avoirdu
pois and brute strength have been yield
ing steadily to the advance o f intellect
through all the ages past, which might
be construed to indicate that intellect
is the flowering and fruiting of the
divine plan.
It will be generally acknowledged that
the highest conception of human suc
cess is not the conquest of the material
world, but will be measured by the de
gree in which is found the most harmon
ious blending of the virtues of intel
lectuality and righteousness. T h e s e may
be characterized in the one word,
s p ir it u a lit y ,
Definitely, the g o o d
thought, the kind word, and the helpful
deed. H ere is a great sentimental plea
for immortality: w herefore this struggle
O n e H undred Forty-eight

for the finer attributes and sensibilities

of life, if death is to be the end of all?
Intellect is undoubtedly individualized
in definite psychic personalities, capable
of cogitation, volition, growth, variation,
and apart from and beyond chemical
action. If these things be true, then in
tellect is the only force in the universe
capable of grasping and comprehending
that concept, and intellect must have
conceived and is executing that plan. A
design which requires infinite intelli
gence to conceive and infinite time in the
process of development, must be of in
finite consequence to that Infinite C re a
tive Intelligence.
A highly glorified type of man, we
must inevitably conclude, is the end to
ward which all creation tends, the aim
of the infinite design.
It is hard to understand w hy an in
finite intelligence should busy itself
through countless ages to evolve a selfconscious, active, supreme ego that will
cease to exist at the moment of its de
parture from the earthly temple in
which it functions so nobly and for such
a brief period in the plans of mortality.
W e may conceive of each individual
organism as an assemblage of atoms, so
wisely coordinated as to produce a de
finite, complex, and pleasing fabric,
perfectly harmonized and synchronized
in all its parts the architect and builder
an ofF-shoot of the universal life, a spray
from the fountain-head of constructive,
vital, conscious force. T h e individual
consciousness functions to harmonize
with the physical organism, just as a
traveller down a lane bends his course
to its crooks and turns while he himself
was the maker of the lane and gave it
all its crooks and devious windings.
T h e dweller within a house may have
been the builder thereof, but makes his
life therein conform to the architectural
characteristics of the edifice. S o I co n
ceive the spirit of man to be influenced
in a large degree by the body in which
it dwells, though it has been the creator
of that body.
T h a t such a creature as man could
result from mere chemical and physical
force is inconceivable. R ath er must he
be the product and masterpiece of an
All-wise purpose, working throughout
all the ages past, and for such an ego
to step outside its earthly prisonhouse
will surely not mean annihilation. All
One H undred F orty-n in e

the known facts of mortal existence,

spiritual and material, demand the hy
pothesis of continued individual exist
ence for their rational explanation.
B y means of the laws of chemistry,
also biological science, revolutionary
variations may be achieved in the phy
sical world even to the extent of break
ing up the molecules and changing the
primal nature of substances.
If, by the magic of intellect, man is
enabled to change the essential nature
of the elements and assemble them in
such manner as to produce new sub
stances, and varying types of organ
isms, does not the very fact of being
thus able to control the forces of nature
amount to creation?
If we, by operating from a circumfer
ence to a focal center, produce a re
sultant in the nature of new entities
through the agency of our creative in
tellect, are we not creators? A re we not
thereby demonstrating our immediate
relationship with the C reator of all, and
must necessarily partake of the attribute
of eternal persistence?
M e r e energy, or modes of motion,
may be differentiated from life as being
devoid of cogitative powers. T o illus
trate: A weight is projected into space.
Its motion is momentum and not voli
tion. It can not be conceived of as ani
mated by the vital current self-contained
which runs through all organisms. T h is
is life, and must be conceived of as cap
able of appropriating unto its self the
material elements requisite to the co n
struction and maintenance of the physi
cal structures. T h is power we can not
conceive of as an attribute of force, as
electricity, which is energy which func
tions through various media and mech
anisms, without any capacity to think,
feel, or will.
Sin ce m ans intelligence seems to pos
sess the capacity to grasp and compre
hend the laws of the universe in ever
increasing magnitude and is thereby em
powered to alter the material creation
to suit his fancy, would it be unreason
able to assume that this intelligence
must be manifestations of that same in
telligence that has been w o r k i n g
throughout all the ages past and that
we are thereby linked with immortal
existence?

W e must admit that there is much in

nature that declares an intelligence far
beyond the utmost reaches of man.
W h i l e m ans intellect is of that trans
cendent power and quality to enable
him to survey every field, to contem
plate the heights, delve into the depths,
and reach out towards the breadths of
knowledge, yet we cheerfully grant that
in his quest of the absolute he must ever
fall short in any field. T h i s is a guar
antee of room for progress throughout
all eternity.
M a n s intellect is endowed with the
magical power of self-development. A s
far as we are able to observe, no other
creature has ever possessed this power.
All other forms of life have advanced
by the slow process of evolution. T h e r e
fore, it would appear that man occupies
the exalted station o f suprem e import
ance in creation's plans.
W e may observe from this point the
progression of the divine ray, the
quickening essence of life as it proceeds
through all the kingdoms of nature up
to man, which seems to be the objective
of the divine plan up to this stage. W e
observe the wonderful inherent power
of adaptation of all life to its environ
ment. B ut the most wonderful of all is
the fact that man is able to assist the
creator in that process of adaptation and
variation. In like observations the h y
pothesis o f m an s creative endowment
finds further support and strength.
A n apparent anomaly in creation is
found in the fact that while scientists
tell us that life results from chemical
action, yet while animating the body it
possesses the power to withstand the
coma-bacillus, the chemical ag ency of
disintegration, and hold in abeyance its
myriad army of bacteria. T h e re in we
see that the law of chemical affinity is
set aside and its power defied as long
as life persists in the body, but at the
instant of death the millions of bacteria
spring into action and disintegration of
the souls earthly temple soon results.
T h o s e who incline naturally by their
habits of thought to the philosophy of
biogenesis, spontaneous generation, may
The
R o sicru cian conceive that man is able to trace mortal
existence back to the union of the
Digest
psychic germ with inorganic matter
M ay
from which the living organism results.
1936
T h i s life germ, which is incompre

hensible at this stage of m ans powers

of discernment, possess the potency and
wisdom to construct and sustain the or
ganism under proper conditions per
forming the processes of excrement and
renewal during the entire period of our
sojourn here.
T his process, science
chooses to designate chemical action.
T h e psychic personality is conceived to
intelligently unite certain material co n
stituents as nitrogen, oxygen, calcium,
magnesia, iron, etc., and from such com
monplace materials a personality results,
with intelligence capable of embracing
and comprehending every phenomenon
in the universe, from the most minute
interchange of chemical atoms, to the
rotation of the fixed stars.
T h e material body may be likened
unto the outer wrapper behind which
the soul is partly hidden. It functions
through the agen cy of a nervous system
and through which shines gleams of
divine light, infinite intelligence. But let
the spirit inhabitant evacuate the temple
and those material elements be decom
posed into their various classifications,
and we find that all the material in the
construction of the human form divine
fat, iron, sugar, lime, phosphorus, mag
nesia, potassium, sulphur, w ater and all
is worth on the market today about
ninety-eight cents.
Suppose that the ego which has as
sembled the necessary elements and con
structed this physical organism departs
from this house it has built, is it not
logical that this psychic personality,
this intelligent, constructive force might
maintain definite individual existence
which it must have had prior to the con
struction of this particular edifice?
If it constructed this evanescent
dwelling after the form and law of its
spiritual existence, may we not conceive
that it might construct another, its
counterpart, in some other environment?
As it existed prior to this manifestation,
so it will hereafter.
I am the builder of a house composed
of lumber, brick, and plaster. I am the
vitalizing essence of that building, the
ego, the life of the structure. I existed
prior to it. It grows old and crumbles to
decay. M a y I not leave that house and
sail to the uttermost parts of the earth
and there find more lumber, brick, and
plaster, and construct another dwelling,
O ne H undred Fifty

a replica of the first, and function th ere

in the same as in the former?
Madam Curie, the discoverer of ra
dium, asserts that all materials are
radiating into space emanations which
are to them the same as life is to us. T h e
iron founder has much trouble with
dead iron. Lead dies if exposed too
long to the air. Copper dies through the
action of water. W e are told now that
lead is dead radium. W h o can tell but
what the vital essence of radium may be
restored to us through the agency of the
X " ray, or some other agency, or that
we may yet re-assemble those em ana
tions and reduce them again to radium?
And whereas there are now only a few
ounces of it in the world, we may have
tons of it if we so desire.
Now those emanations are not lost.
The law of the conservation of forces
forbids that. S o if my life force leaves
this body which it has constructed from
the elements, because of weakening
nerve connections, and finds those same
elements in some other plane, may it not
build another organism, more or less
ethereal, but not less potent and in
tellectual?
If, as science is telling us now, life is
chemical action, then it must follow that
the compounding of the same elements
will produce like results again and
again, so long as they are combined
under the same conditions and in the
same proportions.
But chemistry tells us that atoms are
not endowed with vital force, but are
moved, like the dead chess-men on the
board, by outside intelligence. W e l l,
that outside intelligence is the stay and
comfort of our souls. T h a t outside in
telligence must possess the attribute of
volition and be pre-existent. It first
manifests in the sphere of mortals in the
union of the psychic germ with a minute
particle of protoplasm, resulting in what
might be termed the Psych op lasm ,
which inherently possesses the potency
of a C aesar or a Shakespeare.
This brings us logically to the pro
position that both intellect and [orm
exist independent of the conception of
tangible matter or the material elements,
even outside of and independent of
protyle itself, which is as far down the
line as chemistry seems to go and at
which point science bumps against the
One H undred F ifty -o n e

brass wall. T h e electron is the vitalizing

force in protyle. Philosophy carries us
further in the proposition just laid down
by stating that personality exists outside
of matter and functions in the matter
composing our bodies through the
agency of the nervous system.
T h i s may be illustrated b y a very
familiar phenomenon. W e place the
frost crystals with their infinite variety
of beautiful figures under the compound
microscope and learn that in their end
less variety of artistic forms there is
just one prevailing primary geometric
figure. W e apply heat and the artistic
tracings disappear; more heat and the
w ater is evaporated; still more heat and
the water is turned into gas. T h ro u g h all
these transformations the fundamental
form persists. T h is may be demonstrated
by lowering the temperature until the
gas is reduced again through vapor and
w ater back to frost, where the tracings
reappear and are found to be all varia
tions of the original geometric figure.
T o make our application, we will co n
sider a few examples: Going aw ay
down in the scale of animal life we find
the fresh w ater hydra and the sea
anemone. If either is severed into bits
it will be found that each particle will
soon develop into a complete and per
fect organism conforming to the original
pattern, showing that form and intel
ligence with power to reconstruct the
organism must have existed independent
of the matter composing the original
organism.
A little higher up in the scale of ani
mal life we find a small animal of the
lizard family, known to natural history
as the newt. If a leg of the newt be
severed at the body, it will grow out
again, gradually develop and finally be
come complete as before toes, claws
and all. N ow w hat is it that keeps in
mind the form and dimensions of that
lost member and constructs the new
one?
W e may observe wonderful examples
of healing and reconstruction in our
own wounded and mangled bodies, per
formed by some intelligent agency
working from within through the instru
mentality of the nerves. T h is agency
m a y b e designated the Psychic P erso n
ality , which may be conceived to pos
sess a knowledge of the particular or

ganism it animates and the power of

construction and maintenance. S o we
will reassert that form exists in the laws
governing matter, and since a portion of
our bodies may be reconstructed may
we not be encouraged therefrom to
hope for the reconstruction of the entire
body by this same vitalizing intelligence?
If the P sychic Personality possesses
consciousness and volition, and by vir
tue of these self-determining attributes
results in mortal existence, is there any
reason for assuming that it will cease
to do so or lose that power or attribute
hereafter or in any other existence?
A fte r finding the material elements,
which are inexhaustible, to be the best
means of expression here, would it not
be logical to conclude that it will be the
same in any other corner of the illimit
able universe, and eternally, for matter
itself is indestructible and eternal?
W h i l e it seemed at one time that
faith in the immortality of the soul was
destined to destruction by the findings
of scientific research, it will no doubt
soon develop that science will furnish
our most convincing proofs.

A t this time, in the minds of many,

that faith is well established upon a
scientific base as a working hypothesis,
as protyle, ether, and ions of the scien
tist, and no one questions the reality of
those elements today.
Sin ce our intellectual bonds have been
broken and the fear of trespassing upon
the domain of the Almighty has been
removed, we may freely analyze in
telligently and verify scientifically all
the facts of life, and we may hope soon
to peer further into that realm where
Curtained varities their secret conclave
hold.
So, if we familiarize our minds with
the eternal realities of life within our
reach and prayerfully employ our M ind
that searchlight illumined by the
power of G o d we will be carried in
evitably to the solid ground of faith in
the permanence of the vital current and
its individual persistence, which in man
is manifest as the Soul, the highest ex
pression o f Divine Immanence which we
can conceive up to this point in Cosmic
Evolution.

P L A N T O A T T E N D T H E R O S IC R U C IA N C O N V E N T IO N J U L Y 12-18

a-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EG Y PT IA N ROCK TOM B

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
May

T h e full-size, exact reproduction of an Egyptian rock tomb of the Feudal Age of

Egypt, which is visited by thousands annually in the Rosicrucian Museum at San Jose,
California, bears a startling similarity to the newly discovered tomb beneath the Pyramid
of Chepheron. Visitors to the Rosicrucian Museum, who have seen the recent rare photo
graphs of the portal to the 5000-year-old tomb just excavated by Dr. Selim Hassan of
Egypt, have been amazed at the sameness of appearance between the reproduction and
the new archeological find. T h e tomb in the Rosicrucian Museum was constructed from
photographs and diagrams of rock tombs found in the V alley of Kings, Egypt. All of
these tombs were of about the same design and appearance; and it is not mystifying there
fore that Dr. Hassan's discovery should be similar. T h e recent publicity given these new
excavations has heightened public interest in things Egyptian and caused a keener ap
preciation of the accuracy of the Rosicrucian exhibit, which is the only one of its kind
in North A m erica. A M O R C s recent book, "T h e Symbolic Prophecy of the G reat Pyra
mid, is the only one today containing diagrams of the new excavations and referring to
the mysterious passageways now established as fact by science.

1936
O n e H un dred Fi[ty-two

SANCTUM MUSINGS
THE MYSTERY OF MT. SHASTA
R O M time to time
m e m b e r s of our
N ational R esearch
Council, and other
members interest
ed in the mystery
traditions of the
ancient Lemurians,
send us notations
of anci ent and
modern investiga
tions or reports of
old and new a c
counts pertaining
to Lemuria and from these we are
gathering a large mass of new and old
facts that are interesting indeed. It
would appear from the old newspaper
clippings, magazine articles, and scien
tific reports that have come to us, that
the traditions and weird tales regarding
a mysterious race or class of people liv
ing in the vicinity of M t. S h a sta date
far back into the earliest history of the
Pacific Coast. In fact, it is very evident
that the story regarding these mys
terious people living in three or four se
cluded or protected points of the Pacific
Coast, including the islands in the
Pacific near Santa Barbara, are part of
the earliest traditions of the W e s t . A s
time has passed on and means of in
vestigation have prepared incentive, it
has been found that many of the oldest
of the traditions of the Pacific C oast
were based upon facts.
O ne H un dred F ifty -th ree

O n e of the oldest of these traditions

was that reported in Spain or parts of
Europe long before C alifornia was
actually drawn upon any reliable map.
T h i s ancient tradition is to the effect
that California was more or less of an
island continent isolated and separated
from the W e s t e r n W o r l d and that it
was golden indeed. R eference was not
only made to the gold of the sunshine
and the gold of the setting sun in the
evening, but to the vast amount of gold
in its hills and valleys. T h e earliest
stories of California pictured it as a
place of untold wealth in many minerals,
not only gold. T h e s e stories persisted
for many years, even after California
w as explored by many expeditions, and
the reputed wealth, along with the
stories of gold, were scoffed at and
laughed at with ridicule in the same
manner as many ridicule today the idea
that any descendants of a lost or ancient
Lemurian tribe still live in some parts of
the P acifics mountain ranges or vol
canoes.
Certainly, the stories about the gold
o f California have been proved true and
even during the recent years of depres
sion thousands of men and their families
moved into the old vacated valleys and
sections of C alifo rnias Gold Rush
country and reoccupying the buildings
of the so-called ghost cities that still re
main, once more washed the old soil
and derived a living from it. M e n and

their families who wanted to work

found that without doing any actual
mining it was possible to earn a liveli
hood by merely washing the soil and
extracting the gold. M a n y husbands
and wives and sometimes children la
bored side by side, each earning a fair
income. Gold, as well as other minerals,
is still being extracted from various
parts of the S ta te throughout the year.
W h y should anyone believe that the
mysterious and weird traditions of the
ancient Lemurians, constituting another
one of the old W e s t e r n W o r l d stories,
would fail to be proved true also? In
nearly every case in ancient history or
the history of foreign lands where we
can trace traditions and stories coming
down to us from antiquity, scien ce has
found, or exploring expeditions have
discovered, that the traditions were
based upon fact. Certainly there is no
other story outside that of gold, con
nected with the early history of C a li
fornia, that was as wide-spread and
universally accepted and repeated as
that of the existence of descendants of
some very old race. T h e stories about
these so-called Lemurians or mystery
people passed on from one generation
to another in many of the oldest families
of the Pacific C oast and today the
stories are still being maintained as a b
solutely true. M o st of those writers or
speakers who have claimed that these
traditions are untrue or unreliable have
made no real investigation and are just
as biased in their attitudes as they claim
others are biased in giving them any
criticisms.
O n e of the interesting denials o f the
M t. S h asta traditions is that which a
M r. Pelley published lately in one of
his issues of a political newspaper ow n
ed and controlled b y him. H e sar
castically reports the story of two per
sons who were travelling through north
ern California and stopped for a day or
two in or near M t. Shasta and m ade
casual inquiry among some persons they
met in various places. M r. Pelley states
that each time they asked these natives
The
northern California about the mysR osicru cian ter*es f ^ t . S h a sta they were informed
that the stories were ridiculous and that
D igest
there was no foundation in fact in them.
M ay
Upon the statements thus made to them
M r. Pelley proceeds to ridicule the
1936

whole tradition and to label the stories

as an invention of some publishing
house, probably meaning the A M O R C .
W e have no w ay of knowing precisely
who was interviewed by M r. Pelley and
his associates, but it does not matter.
It is very evident from what M r . Pelley
says that his mind was biased and pre
judiced before he began his investiga
tion and with such an attitude he made
the inquiries and received just the kind
of information he wanted. N o doubt
there are persons living within the
shadows of M t. Sh a sta and families
who have lived there for several gen
erations and who alw ays ridicule these
ancient traditions and claim that there
is no foundation in fact for them. Such
persons usually say: I have lived in
the neighborhood o f M t. S h asta for
twenty-five years and have heard these
stories repeated often but I have never
met or seen anyone or anything that
seemed mysterious to me and, therefore,
I do not believe there is a word of truth
in the stories.
Such persons can be found in all
parts of the world today. T h e r e are in
dividuals living in the shadow of the
Brooklyn bridge in N ew Y o r k and the
W a s h in g to n M onum ent in the Distict
of Columbia who will probably say that
they know nothing about any of the old
stories that are told about these great
structures. I know of one old character
who lived within thirty-five or forty
minutes of N e w Y o r k and who said that
he had lived so close to N ew Y o r k all
his life and y et he did not believe any
of the stories about the existence in
N ew Y o r k C ity of buildings that were
more than ten stories high. H e said he
had never seen in any of his journeys
through N e w Jersey farm lands any
structures over five stories high and he
believed that one of ten stories might be
built but that the reports about build
ings in N e w Y o r k being forty or fifty
stories high were pure fiction because
he had never seen any!
O n the other hand, there are hundreds
of persons living in the district of Mt.
S h asta and in other points of Northern
California, as well as hundreds who
have visited there for short periods, who
testify differently. A nd as I have said
above, from all the reports and clippings
and comments we have gathered from
O ne H un dred Fifty-four

magazines and newspapers there have

been hundreds of persons in the past
centuries who have seen or heard and
written much about intangible and pecu
liar occurrences. C ertainly when tradi
tional stories of this kind have persisted
for so long a period and the reports
from various sources and various in
dividuals are so much alike, there must
be some foundation in fact for all that
has been said.
One of the interesting things about
the whole situation is that when tourists
journey through northern California
and come near to the district of M t.
Shasta and make inquiries as to how
and when they may see some of the
mysterious occurrences, the natives of
that district do not attempt to take ad
vantage of the situation and advise the
tourist to remain two or three days and
see the sights for themselves. T h e y
either say that they have seen these o c
currences at different times and do not
know when they may be seen again or
they deny they have ever seen anything
or anyone else will see anything. T h is
shows the truthfulness of the attitude
of the people and proves that the tradi
tions about M t. S h asta are not being
commercialized. If there was no foun
dation for any of the facts and the
whole story had been invented merely
to attract visitors to the district of M t.
Shasta, there would be a concerted
action on the part of the natives of that
section to encourage tourists to stay,
and there would be souvenirs sold and
hotels built to take care of the multi
tudes that would stay for days and
weeks, and in every w ay we would see
the evidences of a commercialized form
of fiction. T h e absence of all this proves
that these stories about M t. S h asta are
not the inventions of persons who wish
to take advantage of the gullibility of
the public. W h a t , then, can be the mo
tive for telling these stories and report
ing them in newspapers, magazines,
and other records for so many decades?
W e have talked with persons who
have called upon us here at H e a d
quarters and we have talked with others
in the district of M t. S h asta who have
seen and heard and made contact with
these peculiar affairs and incidents, and
although these different persons have
never met or come together to standard
O ne H undred F ifty -fiv e

ize their stories or agree upon the

points they dwell upon, their stories are
always much alike and for this reason
constitute a form of evidence that c a n
not be cast aside with indifference.
W e are sorry to note that a certain
group of lecturers now travelling about
the United State s have taken advantage
of these traditions and are presenting
them in an exaggerated, elaborated, and
aggrandized form that no longer bears
any resemblance to the original tradi
tions, and that they claim certain pos
sibilities to those who go and stay in the
district of M t. S h a sta for a certain
length of time. T h e result has been that
hundreds of persons have gone out of
their w ay to visit M t. S h asta and have
reported to the natives of that section
the most elaborate descriptions of imag
inary happenings that the human mind
could invent. T h e result has been that
the old timers of the M t. S hasta district
are thoroughly disgusted and no longer
w ant to talk about the matter to the
average enquirer.
Among the new bits of evidence that
have come to our files supporting the
idea that an ancient race of people,
commonly believed to be descendants
of the Lemurians of the lost continent of
the Pacific, is a report taken from the
files of some official surveyors who dis
covered similar occurrences and condi
tions near another famous mountain
peak on the Pacific Coast. It must be
kept in mind that if the stories about
M t. Sh asta are true or based upon
truthful facts, the whole Pacific C oast
is involved, or at least that portion of it
lying between C an ad a and M ex ic o . W e
know that in addition to the district of
M t. Shasta, the district of Klammath
F a lls and along the Klammath River
contains evidences of the existence of
an ancient race who left behind mark
ings and carvings of an unusual nature,
and we know that on the island just off
the coast at Sa n ta Barbara, California,
an ancient race once lived that has now
disappeared, and we know that in
southern C alifornia and down into
lower California and across the M ex ic a n
border there are evidences of o ccupa
tion by an ancient race.
According to this new report, a W i l
liam Pom ranky with R obert Stevens
and six more surveyors visited the

district above M t. O lym pia in the State

of W a s h in g to n about the 16th of M a y ,
1912. During the evenings while in and
about the district of M t. O lym pia these
men saw wonderful white lights near
the foothills o f the mountain and some
at points part w ay up the side of the
mountain. Surprised at such strange
sights which they knew could not come
from any known habitation or settle
ment, they investigated further one eve
ning and finally saw strange buildings
with people going back and forth in
front of them and heard the music
which these people produced. T h e ir re
port describes one large building in the
center with a large dome. T h e y say the
ground around these buildings w as on
an incline and was covered with grass
and small fir trees. T h e y said that in
the daytime all of their investigations
failed to discover these buildings and
the cause of the lights which could only
be seen at nighttime.
T h e report states that R obert Stevens
and M r . P om ranky believed that they
were looking upon supernatural people
and supernatural buildings since they
could see nothing in the daytime. A n
old hermit, however, living eleven miles
from the mountain, told them he had
seen lights many times and it was a
common occurrence. T h e y interviewed
Indians living in the vicinity and these
Indians plainly revealed their reluctance
to tell any facts. T h e manner in which
they held up their hands and refused to
be questioned about the strange people
and strange buildings told an eloquent
story.
W e have seen the Indians near Klammath take the same attitude. W e have

R E A D

T H E

met many others w ho refuse to tell the

ordinary visitor anything more than that
the traditions are true. W e understand,
of course, that those who are allowed or
permitted to make a contact or discover
anything definite are enjoined against
telling any of the facts.
T h e story of the discovery of M r.
P om ranky and his associates is part of
a report made by M r. Pom ran ky of
Idaho and vouched for by a M r. G arringer who lives in Idaho and who says
he has known M r. P om ranky and the
reports he makes for some years.
Undoubtedly, as time passes and
more surveyors, scientists, explorers,
and others peep through their old nota
tions and records, we shall have a large
addition to our verified facts.
T h e story of the lost continent of
Lemuria does not depend for its exist
ence and probabilities upon the existence
of any descendants now living in any
part of the world. T h e r e is ample scien
tific evidence to support the story of the
sinking of a great continent in the
Pacific O ce a n. B ut there is also an ac
cumulating mass of evidence to support
the ancient traditions of some strange
race of people having once lived in va
rious parts of California and some of
them still living near M t. S h a sta To
quote M r. Ripley, believe it or not, there
are some facts back of all these tradi
tional stories, but those facts will never
be commercialized through public lec
tures to the extent that Americans are
asked to believe the most highly im
probable and impossible of stories such
as those being told on the lecture plat
form by several modern lecturers on
psychology and mysticism.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

sr

RO SE-CROIX U N IV E R S IT Y

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
May

June 22nd is the date of the beginning of the Rose-Croix University summer session.
If you have not enrolled for the six-weeks' preliminary matriculation course, do so at once.
E very student desiring to register at the Rose-Croix University must first receive these
preliminary lessons and be examined upon them. T h e final examination must be received
by June 1st, otherwise it will not be accepted for this term. Even if you will not be able to
attend this year, take the course now and prepare yourself for a future registration.

1936
One H undred Fifty-six

THE

R O S IC R U C IA N

P L A N E T A R IU M

The picture above shows the front of the new Rosicrucian planetarium building now nearing completion at Rosicrucian Park. It is entirely in Arabic style of
architecture, making one more example of Oriental architecture in the group constituting the main buildings of the A M O R C Headquarters.
T h is planetarium will be distinctly unique in its arrangements and in the mechanical facilities which will enable the lecturer to demonstrate the theories of not
only the Copernican theory of cosmogony but the geocentric and cellular cosmogonies.
T h e building was designed and all of its mechanical equipment invented by the Imperator of A M O R C . It will be open for use during the coming annual
Convention.
(C ou rtesy o f T h e R osicrucian D igest.)

The M ark
of Distinction
'fla te in a l tfnsicjnia in c ite
NkY O U are never a stranger in any gathering, if your affiliations
are known.

S o c ia l barriers and bonds are broken by the simple

display of a membership emblem. Y o u are never an "u nknow n* to

others, if you signify your interests and ideals by the dignified wearing
of your fraternal insignia. N o land is far from home, or any nation
very foreign, if you can meet there, people who think as you do.
A

membership emblem is a magnet that draws out of the daily

passing throng, the indifferent world, the people you should know'
and make your friends.

This Handsome Ring

The

ring

is made of sterling silver, with

beautiful enamel finish, and has an embossed

E gyptian design consisting of the sphinx and
pyramids. T h e R o sic ru c ia n insignia is impres
sively set off. It is a ring every R osicrucian
m an or w o m a n will be proud to wear.

The

men s ring of the same design has a massive

ness w h ich is a desired feature o f all mascu
line jewelry. T h e wom en s ring is sturdy, yet
dainty and ornate.
O b ta i n your size by cuttin g a hole in a card
to accom m odate your ring finger, and send the
card with your order and remittance to the
address below.
I hese rings will give years
of constan t wear.

FO R M EN

^ 5 0
FO R W O M EN

Postuc/e In clu d e d

ROSICRUCIAN
R O S I C R U C I A N

PARK

SUPPLY
SAN

J OSE.

BUREAU
C A L I F O R N I A .

U.S.A.

TH E PU RPO SES OF

THE

M ember o f

FU D O SI
(Federation Unlverselle des
Ordres et
Societes
In itlatlques)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

T he Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. T h e purpose o f the organ i
zation is to enable all to live in harm ony w ith the creative, constructive.
Cosmic forces fo r the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
T h e O rder is internationally known as A M O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O RC in Am erica, and all other lands, constitutes the only form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation. T h e AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
free ly to all affilia ted members, togeth er w ith many other benefits.
Inqu irers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are Invited to send for
the free book, "T h e Secret H e rita ge. Address, F ria r S. P. C., care o f

AMORC TEM PLE

R osicrucian Park. Ran Jose, C alifornia, IT. S. A.
(Cable Address:

"A M O R C O "

Radio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the ^ o r t h and S o u th American Ju risd ictio n s

(Including the United States, Dominion o f Canada, Alaska, M exico, Guatemala. Honduras, Nicaragua.
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f America.
.......
Im perator
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS . F. R. C., Ph. D
R A L P H M. L E W IS . F. R. C..............
Supreme Secretary
C LE M E N T B. L E B R U N . F. R. C................................................................................................. Grand Master
H A R V E Y M IL E S . F. R. C
Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D . F. R. C
Secretary to Grand Master
H A R R Y L . S H IB L E Y , F. R. C..................
D irector o f Publications
Junior O rder o f Torch Rearers (sponsored b v AM O R C ). F or complete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park, San Jose. California.

T h e follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

Reading, Pennsylvania:
Reading Chapter. Mr. Carl Schlotzhauer.
Master: Mr. George R. Osman, Secretary.
Meeting every 1st and 3rd Friday, 8:00 p. m.,
W ashington Hall, 904 W ashington Street.
New York City, New York:
New Y ork Chapter, Rooms 35-36, 711 8th
Ave., cor. 8th Ave. and 45th Street. Louis
Riccardi, M aster: M argaret Sharpe, Secre
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
days and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
Delta Lodge No. 1, A M O R C , S. E . Corner
40th and Brown Sts., 2nd Floor. M r. Albert
Courtney, Master.
Benjamin Franklin Chapter of A M O R C :
W arren C. Aitken, Master: M artha Aitken,
Secretary, 2203 N. 15th Street. Meetings for
all members every second and fourth Sun
days, 7:30 p. m., at 1521 W e st Girard Ave.
(Second Floor, Room B ).
Boston, Massachusetts:
T h e Marie Clemens Lodge, Fortunatus J.
Bagocius, Master. Temple and Reading
Rooms, 739 Boylston St., Telephone Kenmore 9398.
Detroit, Michigan:
Thebes Chapter No. 336. Miss Ella A. Milliman, M aster; M rs. Pearl Anna Tifft.
Secretary. Meetings at the Florence Room,
Tuller Hotel, every Tuesday, 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone No. 1870.

San Francisco, California:

Francis Bacon Lodge, 1655 Polk
Mr. David Mackenzie, Master.

Street:

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. First Lodge. Ralph M. Ross, Master:
610 Arch Street.
Atlanta, Georgia:
Atlanta Chapter No. 650. Dr. James C. O akshette, M aster: Nassau Hotel. Meetings 7:30
every Thursday night.
Los Angeles. California:
Hermes Lodge, A M O R C Temple. Mr. Dun
can G. W right, Master. Reading Room and
Inquiry office open daily. 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.
and 7:30 p.m . to 9 p.m . except Sundays.
Granada Court, 672 South Lafayette Park
Place.
Birmingham, Alabama:
Birmingham Chapter of A M O R C . For in
formation address M r. Cuyler C. Berry,
Master. 721 So. 85th St.
Chicago, Illinois:
Chicago Chapter No. 9. H. C. Blackwell,
M aster: Mabel L. Schmidt, Secretary. T e le
phone Superior 6881. Reading Room open
afternoons and evenings. Sundays 2 to 5
only. 100 E . Ohio St., Room 403-404. Lec
ture sessions for A LL members every T u es
day night, 8:00 p. m.
Chicago Afra-American Chapter No. 10.
Oliver T . McGrew, M aster:
Nehemiah
Dennis. Secretary. Meeting every W ednes
day night at 8 o'clock, Y . M. C. A., 3763 So.
W abash Avenue.

(D irectory Continued on N ext P age)

Portland, Oregon;
Portland Chapter. Floyd D. Cook, Master:
405 Orpheum Bldg. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.
Washington, D . C.:
Thomas Jefferson Chapter.
Howard E.
Mertz, Master. Confederate Memorial Hall.
1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings every
Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Seattle, Washington:
A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter, Master:
Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry St.
Reading room open week
days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Monday, 8:00 p. m.

O ther Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N
Vancouver, British Columbia:
Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mr. H. B.
Kidd, M aster, A M O R C Temple, 878 Horn
by Street.
V ictoria, British Columbia;
V ictoria Lodge, Mr. A. A. Calderwood,
Master. Inquiry O ffic e and Reading Room,
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.
W innipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
G. F. Gostick, M aster: 361 M achray Ave.,
Session for all members every Sunday.
2:45 p. m.. 304 " B " Enderton Bldg., Portage
Ave. and Hargrave St.

BRANCHES

M ontreal, Quebec, Canada:

Montreal Chapter. F. E . Dufty, Master;
210 W e st St. James Street. Inquiry office
open 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. daily: Saturdays
10 to 1 p. m.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
Miss Edith Hearn. Master. Sessions 1st and
3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00 p. m., No. 10
Lansdowne Ave.
E dm on ton , Alberta;
Mr. Alfred H. Holmes, Master, 9533 Jasper
Avenue E .

S P A N ISH A M E R IC A N

SE C T IO N

This jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative O ffice are located at San Juan, Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
T he name and address of the O fficers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce sh ou ld b e a d d ressed as fo llo w s:
Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O . Box 36, San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A FEW

O F T H E F O R E IG N

Scandinavian Countries:

JU R IS D IC T IO N S

New Zealand:

T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.

Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand M aster: Carli
Anderson, S. R. C., Grand Secretary. Manogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Auckland Chapter A M O R C . Mr. G. A.

Franklin, M aster, 317 Victoria Arcade Bids.
Queen St., City Auckland.
England:

Sweden:
Grand Lodge Rosenkorset. Anton Svanlund, F . R. C., Grand M aster. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, Malmo.
H olland:

T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.

M r. Raymund Andrea, K. R. C., Grand
Master, 34 Bayw ater Ave., W estbury Park,
Bristol 6 .
Dutch and East Indies:

D e Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der

Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
M ile Jeanne Guesdon, S.R .C ., Corresponding
Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Switzerland:
A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel,
F . R. C., Gr. Sect., Riant-Port V evey-Plan.
China and Russia:
T he United Grand Lodge of China and Rus
sia. Tem porary new address: 651 W e i Hai
W ei Road, Ap. 22/b, Shanghai. Mail ad
dress P .O . Box 513, Shanghai, China.
R O SIC R U C IA N PRESS, LTD.

Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum, Grand Master.

W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang, Java.
Egypt:
T h e Grand Orient of A M O R C . House of the
Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia, Heliopolis.
Africa:
T h e Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast,
A M O R C . M r. W illiam Okai, Grand Master,
P. O . Box 424 Accra, Gold Coast, W est
Africa.
T h e addresses o f o th er foreig n G ran d L o d g es
and secretaries will b e furnished on application.
PRINTED

IN U . S . A .

UJILL IDE BE BORE

AQAin m PAin
AT1D SUFFERlTiq ?
M u S T we relive the misfortunes, discour
agements, and failures of this life? Does death
deliver us permanently from the vicissitudes of
tlie earth, or is it a temporary respite, returning us
once more to the world of man? Is death a glorious
opportunity to begin again, at some other time and
place, to undo what we have done, and to prolit by our
experiences of the pasO Shall we instead look upon
death as the end, the close of a chapter, with its story
incomplete and imperfect? Does our span here of a few
years constitute our sole existence as humans, and if so,
is that Divine justice? There are no questions which the
human mind can entertain that are more intimate or
more vital than these. I hey are interestingly answered
and discussed in a marvelous discourse entitled, " I he
Soul s Return, prepared by Dr. H. Spencer Lewis.
1 his discourse represents years of study on this subject
and his fascinating conclusions. To the point, under
standable and instructive, this manuscript should be in
your possession as a valuable document on the subject
of reincarnation. You may obtain it A B S O L U T E L Y
W I T H O U T C O S T by merely subscribing to this
magazine,
I he Rosicrucian Digest.
for just six
months. A six-months subscription costs only
1.50
a nd in addi tion to receiving six copies of this magazine,
you will receive at once, with postage paid, this most
unusual discourse, which alone is worth more than the
magazine subscription price. There
are but a limited number of these
discourses available, so we ad vise
that vou subscribe at once, and
A SK FO R Y O U R G IF T COPY.

A G IF T FO R

YOU

T h e discourse. I he Soul s Return, w as

once published serially, in answ er to hun
dreds of questions about reincarnation re
ceived from throughout the w orld by D r.
L ew is. T h is is the first time it has evei
been released in m anuscript form in its en
tirety. F o r interesting particulars, read above.

The

ROSICRUCIAN DIQEST

SA N

J O S E .

C A L I F O R N I A .

U. S. A.

^Rosicrucian Library
The follow ing books are a few o f several recommended because of the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II.

R O S IC R U C IA N P R IN C IP L E S F O R T H E H O M E A N D B U SIN E SS.

A very practical book dealing with the solution o f health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped with gold. Price, 52.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume III.

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V.

U N T O T H E E I* O R A N T . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f Tibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
w ith attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V I.

A TH O USAND YE AR S OF YESTERD AYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and mystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V II.

S E L F M A S T E R Y A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E .

A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate itours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. B etter than any system o f numerology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume

Vni.

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

**>

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped w ith gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X I.

M A N S IO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E COSM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines o f reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X II.

Well

L E M U R IA T H E L O S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K n o w o f their vast knowledge, much of which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X III.

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete 'uide for attaining the state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldinent. Price, $1.1 a per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

m m .

SU PPLY

BU REA U ,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , California.

THE INSTITUTION BEHIND THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

Our Suggestion To You

A MEETING OF THE MINDS
C1J W hen you write, you have one party in mind. Tliat party may be one
individual or a group of tbem, but your thoughts are alone for them. You
do not wish your thoughts to reach a mind or minds for whom they were
not intended. Furthermore, you do not wish others to interpret your ideas
for you. However. this is only possible when you take tfie proper pre
cautions to see that your communications are brought
directly to the personal attention of your correspondent.
The Rosicrucian student who fails to properly address
his or her communications, or give all needed information
lor their proper delivery, causes his or her letter or
report to be read, interpreted, and handled by many
persons before reaching its proper destination.
I o avoid such conditions and to facilitate a prompt re
ply to communications, we have prepared a special large
( orrespondence 1ablet for students, at an economical
price. 1 he cover of the tablet is also especially useful.
Besides being a blotter, there is printed upon it all essen
ST I DENT'S
tial instructions as I o W h o m , W h e r e and W h e n T o
CORRESPONDENCE
W r i t e . At the top of each sfieet there is printed informa
TABLET
tion lor the proper direction of your letter. 1 he stationery
E ach tablet contains 50 Inrye
S '/a -in cli x 1 i-in r ii business size
consists
of a light, strong, and good quality bond paper.
sheets. T h e blotter cover w ith
its printed inform ation about
I his is a most serviceable article and one that no
the various departments is a
use tut addition lo each tablet.
student should be without. ^ ou owe it to yourself to make
-10c each ; 3 for S 1 .0 0
this reasonable purchase. Send order and remittance to:

T h e

R O S I C R U C I A N

R O S I C R U C I A N

PARK

S U

P L Y
SAN

B U R E A U

J OSE.

CAL I F ORNI A

DR. J. C. GUIDERO
Prater Guidero, a member of the Order for years, was one of the founders of Hermes Lodge of A M O R C in
Los Angeles, for years master of that body, and for the last several years has been Deputy Grand Master of the
Order for the jurisdiction of Southern California. He is well known to thousands of members in Southern California,
who enjoy his jovial personality and wise counsel.
(C o u rtesy of R osicrucian D igest.)

The Spark of Qenius

H O W TO KI NDLE IT

F lo w in g hair and flowing lies do not make

a genius, but the How of ideas does. T h e
world may never beat a path to your door
or bestow honors upon you, b u t if you receive
one original idea about your work, trade, or
profession, you will rise head and shoulders
above all others a b o u t you. T h e world is
teeming with those who say about the sue
cesses of life, W h y didn t I think of th a t?
T h e reason is th at they were w aiting to be
struck with an idea. D o not let the years
slip by. hoping for an idea with great possi
bilities to descend upon you. Ideas are
thoughts and they can be generated, brought
into realization, m ade into everyday realities
but you must know how.

T h at M ysterious Som ething

H a v e you ever bad th at tightenin g s en sa
tion in your solar plexus, that slight Hush of
excitement from a sudden impression that
you could improve on the work ol another?
Have you felt the irresistible urge to create,
to build, to originate, to do differently than
you have ever done, and yet. do not know
where to b e g in ? It is the mysterious creative
power, the spark of genius w ithin you. D o

not let it d ie wi thin your bosom for want ol

direction and expression. T h e Rosicrucians
(not a religious organization) have for cen
turies shown men and women like yoursell
how to marshal their Heeling thoughts, make
out of them important factors for achieve
ment and accom plishm ent in life. Their
simple and rational method for the direction
of mind and the aw a ken in g of the dormant
powers of self is founded upon an age-old
system ol personal development, used by the
sages since antiquity.

I his Startling B o o k Free

I lie Secret H eritage
is a hook w hich contains no
bom bastic promises, no va in assurances, but a trank in vi
tation to a va il yourselt ol the know ledge it oilers. T h o u
sands have been led by it from m ediocrity to the highest
pin nacle of their hopes, for it tells just flow you may
a vail yourself of this helpfu l inform ation the Rosicrucians
gla d ly give. Lise the coupon below and w rite today for
your tree copy, il you are sincere in your w ish to advance
in life.

Scribe S. P. C . Rositrtn ian O rde r, A M O R (

San Jose, C a lifo rn ia
Gentlem en: I am sincerely interested in the
un usua l know ledge possessccf b y the R osicrucians;
therefore, k in d ly send me a F R E E ropy of " T h e
Secret H eritage at once, exp la ining how I may
obtain the inform ation they oiler.

T h e Rosicrucian Order

\,

S a n Jo se

A d d re s

A MO R C

C a lifo rn ia

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
C O V ER S THE W O R LD

THK OFFICIAL IN TERNA TIO NAL BO SK R IC IA N MAGA

ZINE O F T I I K W O RLD-W IDE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER
Vol. X IV

J U N E , 1936

No. 5

C O N T E N T S
Dr. J . C . G u id ero (Frontispiece)

Page
...

161

The Thought of the M onth: The AntiJewish Propaganda .....................................

H a i^ b JiL S

164

C rim e in A m erica

169

C ath ed ral C ontacts

173

Thoughts A b o u t Honesty

175

A n cien t Symbolism

176

Summaries of Science

177

C onvention Arouses Enthusiasm

180

Pages from the Past

183

Sanctum Musings: The Philosophy of M arriage

185

The Rosicrucian Planetarium

195

....

Thousands H e a r Rosicrucian Lecture (Illustration)

197

IIIIIIIH IM IIIM H Iim M IIIIIM IM IIIM IIim illM M IM IIIU n iM lllllllllllllllllim ilM llin ilM IIIIIIIIIIIII!

Subscription to The Rosicrucian Digest. Three D ollars per

year. Single copies tw enty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose, California, under the Act of August 24th. 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the month
preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official e x
pressions of the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.

Published Monthly by the Supreme Counoil of

C v T T iV ^ l IV

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R A M O R C

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

M

TH E

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

THE ANTI-JEWISH PRO PAG AN D A

T may seem strange

to s o m e of our
members and read
ers that with so
m a n y bombastic
news items in the
p a p e r s from all
parts of the world
i n f o r m i n g us of
highly "i mportant
council meetings,
a n d international
discussions, I
should look upon
the anti-Jewish propaganda as an out
standing thing to constitute my thought
for the month.
But there is growinn in the United
States and in some other parts of the
W e s t e r n W o r l d a campaign of propa
ganda and outright, deliberate, ridicu
lous attacks upon the Jewish people
generally, O u r members and friends
send to us from one end of the month to
the other leaflets, pamphlets, circulars,
newspaper items, magazine stories, and
what-not presenting the pro and con of
this absurd campaign. T o the mystic
and the philosopher, as to the artist,
musician, and inventor, there is no na
tionalism and no racial distinctions that
warrant the individual in looking upon
any one nation or race or sectarian class
of persons as universally inferior, evilminded. detrimental to world peace and
happiness, or deserving of unrestricted
condemnation.
The
W i t h i n the past twenty-five years
R osicru cian
there have been a number of campaigns
D igest
started in different parts of the W e s t e r n
June
W o r l d attempting to point out that the
Jewish people as a race have no other
1936

ambition in their hearts or minds than

to conquer the world and particularly to
conquer Gr ea t Britain, Canada, and the
United States. In the literature issued
by these wild propagandists we were
told twenty or more years ago that the
Jewish people had everything planned
and definitely settled to seize hold of
and control all of the farm and agricul
tural lands of the United States by
1930, and that thereafter all other per
sons in these States would be under the
tyrannical and nefarious dominion of
the Jewish people. A s 1930 approached
the literature setting forth this great
scheme became less prolific, less definite,
and finally disappeared, and the idea
was even abandoned by those who were
the most vociferous in their assurances
that we were all condemned to submis
sion to such racial control. T h e year
1930 came and the predicted revolu
tions and seizure of our great lands
failed to make appearance. On e of the
very disturbing incidents of the Ameri
can national life that let the bottom drop
out of the campaigns argument was the
fact that in the economic crash of 1929
Jews and Gentiles alike suffered and. in
fact, some of the greatest financial in
stitutions that were disasterously affect
ed by the collapse were those either
owned, controlled, or directed by per
sons of the Jewish faith.
T h e power
which was claimed to be in their hands
and by which they would take advant
age of every situation and never lose
but always gain was quite evidently
misrepresented by the propagandists.
Since 1930 campaign after campaign
along new lines, often very original be
cause very absurd, has been carried on
O ne H undred Sixty-four

through the wide dissemination of liter

ature and by news articles and stories
in such distinctly class publications as
that issued by an organization attempt
ing to promote a C hristian" political
party by fanning into wild flame the
mild antagonism that a small portion of
the American populace has toward per
sons and things distinctly Jewish.
As matters stand today, it would ap
pear that anything that is wrong was
born in the Jewish mind, and that a n y
thing evil was concocted out o f Jewish
instincts, and any program or practice
that is not to o n es liking can be instant
ly catalogued as being Jewish and,
therefore, deserving of immediate criti
cism and destruction. A ccording to
these propagandists, since all evil ema
nates from Jewish intellect and Jewish
power, the great spiritual writers, philo
sophers, and mystics made a serious
mistake in all of the past ages in not
realizing that Sa ta n was a Jew and that
His Satanic M a je s ty and his entire
kingdom constitute the center and source
of all Jewish traditions and practices. In
fact, the fires of hell must be attended
by the m ost devout o f the Jews, if we
are to believe the ridiculous stories of
these propagandists. Since G od is the
opposite of all evil and if all that is evil
is Jewish, then G o d must be a Gentile
wholly, exclusively so. H o w it comes
about that the Jews have ever been de
vout worshippers of this same G o d
which the Gentiles love and adore, is
one of the mysteries which the propa
gandists have not yet solved in their

inimical and most efficient im agery.

As a typical sample of the foolish
propaganda now in circulation in the
form of pamphlets, leaflets, broadsides,
long dissertations, and documents being
sent through the mail to every person
whose address can be secured, we have
one three-sheet specimen of literature
entitled, A Constructive A n t i- P r o
gram.' T h e program outlined therein is
anti-everything that can be directly or
indirectly traced to Jewish influence by
a distorted imagination. T h e r e is noth
ing at all constructive" about the liter
ature or the plan it contains. All of the
evils of our present times not only in
America but throughout the world are
attributed to the Jews. T h e reason our
American dollar is worth only 59c is be
cause the Jews have seized hold of the
O ne H un dred S ixty-five

other 4 1 c somewhere, somehow. T h e

only reason that eleven million men are
out of employment is because the Jews
are in control of all the good positions
despite the fact that among the eleven
million unemployed there are several
million who are orthodox Jews. T h e
reason that the sands of the desert blow
over cities, the waters of the rivers over
flow their banks, the snow came in bliz
zards during the winter, and the rain
fell too heavily along with storms at sea
and significant spots on the sun, is be
cause the Jews have directed these
things in order to help whip Americans
and others into submission to their in
sidious power.
A n d as a demonstration of the false
and ridiculous length to which these
propagandists will go to try to prove
one of their absurd contentions, one of
the pages in this large piece of propa
ganda is devoted to an attack upon
Franklin Roosevelt, the President o f the
United States. T h e attack is not a fair
and argumentative criticism of his ad
ministration generally, such as we are
apt to hear from the mouths of sane and
sensible persons during a political cam
paign, or as we might hear from the lips
of men and women who are good citi
zens and who honestly and patriotically
analyze national conditions with a hope
of improving them. T h e attack begins
on its first line with unkind and flippant
terms attempting to portray President
Roosevelt as a typical Jew, because for
sooth, Roosevelt admitted at one time
somewhere that perhaps his ancestry
could be traced back far enough to show
that there were Jews in their families or
persons of the Jewish faith or race. T h e
same thing might be said of many of our
very best families in America, and if
connections with persons of the Jewish
religion is a stigma, a great many noble
families in America and elsewhere in
the world had better hurriedly burn their
genealogies before these propagandists
get hold of them.
T h e n to support the idea that the
Government of the U nited States, and
particularly during this period under the
Roosevelt administration, is strictly
within Jewish control, the circular at
tempts to show that the new one dollar
bill, issued during 1935 under the
Roosevelt administration, is a Jew ish
one dollar bill. F o r proof of this con-

E?
T H E

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

THE ANTI-JEWISH PRO PAGAND A

T may seem strange

to s o m e of our
members and read
ers that w'ith so
m a n y bombastic
news items in the
p a p e r s from all
parts of the world
i n f o r m i n g us of
highly important"
council meetings,
a n d international
discussions, I
should look upon
the anti-Jewish propaganda as an out
standing thing to constitute my thought
for the month.
But there is growinn in the United
States and in some other parts of the
W e s t e r n W o r l d a campaign of propa
ganda and outright, deliberate, ridicu
lous attacks upon the Jewish people
generally. O u r members and friends
send to us from one end of the month to
the other leaflets, pamphlets, circulars,
newspaper items, magazine stories, and
what-not presenting the pro and con of
this absurd campaign. T o the mystic
and the philosopher, as to the artist,
musician, and inventor, there is no n a
tionalism and no racial distinctions that
warrant the individual in looking upon
any one nation or race or sectarian class
of persons as universally inferior, evilminded. detrimental to world peace and
happiness, or deserving of unrestricted
condemnation.
The
W ith in the past twenty-five years
R osicru cian
there have been a number of campaigns
D igest
started in different parts of the W e s t e r n
Ju n e
W o r ld attempting to point out that the
1936
Jewish people as a race have no other

ambition in their hearts or minds than

to conquer the world and particularly to
conquer G reat Britain. Canada, and the
United States. In the literature issued
by these wild propagandists we were
told twenty or more years ago that the
Jewish people had everything planned
and definitely settled to seize hold of
and control all of the farm and agricul
tural lands of the United States by
1930. and that thereafter all other per
sons in these States would be under the
tyrannical and nefarious dominion of
the Jewish people. A s 1930 approached
the literature setting forth this great
scheme became less prolific, less definite,
and finally disappeared, and the idea
was even abandoned by those who were
the most vociferous in their assurances
that we were all condemned to submis
sion to such racial control. T h e year
1930 came and the predicted revolu
tions and seizure of our great lands
failed to make appearance. O n e of the
very disturbing incidents of the Ameri
can national life that let the bottom drop
out of the cam paigns argument was the
fact that in the economic crash of 1929
Jews and Gentiles alike suffered and. in
fact, some of the greatest financial in
stitutions that were disasterously affect
ed by the collapse were those either
owned, controlled, or directed by per
sons of the Jewish faith. T h e power
which was claimed to be in their hands
and by wrhich they wrould take advant
age of every situation and never lose
but alw-ays gain was quite evidently
misrepresented by the propagandists.
Since 1930 campaign after campaign
along new lines, often very original be
cause very absurd, has been carried on
O n e H undred Sixty-four

through the wide dissemination of liter

ature and by news articles and stories
in such distinctly class publications as
that issued by an organization attempt
ing to promote a C hristian political
party by fanning into wild flame the
mild antagonism that a small portion of
the American populace has toward per
sons and things distinctly Jewish.
A s matters stand today, it would ap
pear that anything that is wrong was
born in the Jewish mind, and that a n y
thing evil was concocted out of Jewish
instincts, and any program or practice
that is not to one's liking can be instant
ly catalogued as being Jewish and,
therefore, deserving of immediate criti
cism and destruction. According to
these propagandists, since all evil ema
nates from Jewish intellect and Jewish
power, the great spiritual writers, philo
sophers, and mystics made a serious
mistake in all of the past ages in not
realizing that S atan was a Jew and that
His Satanic M a je s ty and his entire
kingdom constitute the center and source
of all Jewish traditions and practices. In
fact, the fires of hell must be attended
by the most devout of the Jews, if we
are to believe the ridiculous stories of
these propagandists. Since G od is the
opposite of all evil and if all that is evil
is Jewish, then G o d must be a Gentile
wholly, exclusively so. H o w it comes
about that the Jews have ever been de
vout worshippers of this same G o d
which the Gentiles love and adore, is
one of the mysteries which the propa
gandists have not yet solved in their
inimical and most efficient imagery.
As a typical sample of the foolish
propaganda now in circulation in the
form of pamphlets, leaflets, broadsides,
long dissertations, and documents being
sent through the mail to every person
whose address can be secured, we have
one three-sheet specimen of literature
entitled, " A
Constructive A n t i- P r o
gram. T h e program outlined therein is
anti-everything that can be directly or
indirectly traced to Jewish influence by
a distorted imagination. T h e r e is noth
ing at all constructive about the liter
ature or the plan it contains. All of the
evils of our present times not only in
America but throughout the world are
attributed to the Jews. T h e reason our
American dollar is worth only 59c is be
cause the Jew s have seized hold of the
One H undred S ixty-five

other 4 1 c somewhere, somehow. T h e

only reason that eleven million men are
out of employment is because the Jew s
are in control of all the good positions
despite the fact that among the eleven
million unemployed there are several
million who are orthodox Jews. T h e
reason that the sands of the desert blow
over cities, the waters of the rivers over
flow their banks, the snow came in bliz
zards during the winter, and the rain
fell too heavily along with storms at sea
and significant spots on the sun, is be
cause the Jews have directed these
things in order to help whip Americans
and others into submission to their in
sidious power.
A n d as a demonstration of the false
and ridiculous length to which these
propagandists will go to try to prove
one o f their absurd contentions, one of
the pages in this large piece of propa
ganda is devoted to an attack upon
Franklin Roosevelt, the President of the
United States. T h e attack is not a fair
and argumentative criticism of his a d
ministration generally, such as we are
apt to hear from the mouths of sane and
sensible persons during a political cam
paign, or as we might hear from the lips
of men and women who are good citi
zens and who honestly and patriotically
analyze national conditions with a hope
of improving them. T h e attack begins
on its first line with unkind and flippant
terms attempting to portray President
Roosevelt as a typical Jew, because for
sooth, Roosevelt admitted at one time
somewhere that perhaps his ancestry
could be traced back far enough to show
that there were Jews in their families or
persons of the Jewish faith or race. T h e
same thing might be said of many of our
very best families in America, and if
connections with persons of the Jewish
religion is a stigma, a great many noble
families in America and elsewhere in
the world had better hurriedly burn their
genealogies before these propagandists
get hold of them.
T h e n to support the idea that the
Government of the United States, and
particularly during this period under the
Roosevelt administration, is strictly
within Jewish control, the circular a t
tempts to show that the new one dollar
bill, issued during 1935 under the
Roosevelt administration, is a Jew ish
one dollar bill. F o r proof of this con-

tention, the writer of the circular who

signs himself R obert E . Edmondson
publicist-economist," called attention
to the fact that this one dollar bill has
on one side the reverse and obverse il
lustrations of the G re a t Seal of the
United States. T h e n he calls attention
to the fact that if a person exam ines the
obverse side of the Seal he will note that
directly over the eagle with its spread

in the center of the triangle represent

the letters M C L A , or the Jewish word
M e z la , which is generally interpreted
by all of the Jewish authorities as mean
ing a benediction and the blessings of
wisdom from the most High Influence.
It may be considered in modern times as
a good lu ck" symbol, but in reality it
is a sacred symbol or benediction and
not one to be used lightly by those who
wings there is a circular h alo o f glory have the highest understanding o f its
in the clouds in the center of which are
meaning. Among many Jews of the
grouped thirteen five-pointed stars. T h e
present time there is a more or less com
writer ignores the significance and sym mon greeting or passing salutation in
bolism of the number thirteen in this
the words M o zel-to v , which means
group, but calls attention to the fact that
good luck or the best of everything to
these thirteen stars are so arranged that
you ."
by tracing an outline of their group one
B ut this symbol of the interlaced tri
discovers that they are in the form of a
angles was not invented by the Jews
six-pointed star. T h e n he ignores that
and has never been limited strictly to
this six-pointed star is in truth an inter
Jewish use. Among the Rosicrucians
laced or double triangle, one triangle and mystics, and especially among the
having its apex upward and the other alchemists, metaphysicians, the Essenes
having its apex downward. T h e n quot and the Therapeuti, this sacred symbol
ing from some ancient books he shows
had a significance that w as not re
that this very, very old emblem or inter
ducible to the terse and commonplace
laced triangle is called King Solom ons expression of good luck, nor was it
Seal and was a part of the famous sym
limited or associated in any particular
bolical breastplate supposed to have
w ay in the minds of the mystics with
been worn by King Solomon and worn
any exclusive connections with the Jew
b y the high priests of the Jewish re
ish faith. T h e writer of this critical pro
ligion in their symbolic ceremonies. He
paganda fails to realize that almost all
shows also a reproduction o f a medal
o f the racial symbolism and mystical
that some Jewish organization prepared
terminology, as well as the dates of the
as a token of appreciation to Roosevelt
holy days and sacred ceremonies co n
on the back of which is this King So lo
stituting the basic prayers of the Jewish
mon's Seal with the three Jewish ch ar
religion, came from E g y p t and from
acters in the center of it thus making a
O riental lands. T o use this symbol,
complete replica of one of the most
therefore, as it is on the Seal of the
ancient of
all the mystical,
occult
United States to prove that Roosevelt
is a Jew and that he has sold out the
symbols.
T h e contention o f the writer o f the American Goverment to the Jews is just
circular is
that the mystical symbol
so absurd that it would be laughable
means good luck and wisdom to except when we realize that there are a
Franklin D. R oosevelt, our m odern few weak-minded and foolish persons in
every country of the world who are
M o se s leading Jewry in the Promised
Land (A m erica) under the Seal of So lo worse than sheep in following the
m o n . Could anything b e m ore ri
thoughts o f som e leader who attempts
to impress his listeners with the idea
diculous!
It is true, as every student of the
that he is most profound in his under
standing of things and very cunning in
K abala and of the Z o h ar, and of ancient
his ability to see behind the significance
mystical symbolism knows, that this
six-pointed star or interlaced triangle is of everything.
And in addition to the fact that the
known as the sign of the macrocosm or
The
Seal
of King Solomon is older than the
the
creation
of
the
greater
w
orld,
for
Rosicrucian
Jewish people or Jewish religion, this
the six points are supposed to be repre
Digest
new one dollar bill with the Seal of the
sentative of the six days of creation of
June
United States on it does not represent
the universe. T h e Jewish characters or
a new idea just released by M r. R oose
1936
letters of the Jewish alphabet which are
O n e H u n dred S ixty-six

velt. It was our unquestionably loyal

and truly patriotic statesm an of the past,
Benjamin Franklin, who was chairman
of a committee of three to invent and
design the original Seal of the United
States and, as a mystic and Rosicrucian,
Benjamin Franklin took up this matter
of the G reat Seal while he was in F ra n ce
and brought back to America a mystical
seal filled with mystical symbolism of a
prophetic nature. It was in this original
seal, submitted by Franklin and adopted
by our C ongress back in the 18th cen
tury, that this group of stars first ap
peared over the eagle and certainly B e n
jamin Franklin was not a Jew nor were
any of the members of his committee,
nor were all the members of C ongress
Jews, and the President of the United
States at that time was certainly not a
Jew. W h y does not M r . Edmondson
refer to the reverse side of the G re a t
Seal which also appears on the one
dollar bill? In that part of the Seal we
see the G reat Pyramid of E g y p t with its
apex suspended in the air in the form of
a triangle and in the center of this the
All Seeing E y e . Here is the remainder
of the mystical symbolism of the S e a l
and if M r. Ed m ondsons arguments are
in accordance with logical reasoning, he
should claim that because half of the
Seal of the United S tates has a Jewish
symbol on it and the other half has an
E gyptian symbol on it, there is going
to be a constant struggle in the United
States between the Egyptian s and the
Jews to own and control the country
and people, and that as we walk down
the street or attempt to buy or sell real
estate or attempt to carry on our every
day affairs, we should constantly watch
out for either the Jew w ho may be just
in front of us ready to rob us, or the
Egyptian who may be standing behind
us ready to mystify us or perhaps throw
us into a hypnotic sleep and take every
thing aw ay from us before the other
fellow does.
Y e s, all modern civilized countries
grant a certain amount of freedom of
the press and freedom of speech to e x
press our wishes, but does it not seem
that these privileges are becoming a
license to attack and tear down, thus
wilfully and maliciously deceiving a
portion of the public?
A s soon as we begin to analyze our
worldly and personal difficulties and at
One H un dred Sixty~seven

tempt to excuse our own w eaknesses, or

try to find the cause outside of ourselves
and pin the matter down to a difference
in religion, race, nationality, or some
thing else, we are not only making fools
of ourselves, but we are stirring up a
fundamental instinct that has been the
basis of wars, unrest, intrigue, and de
struction. T h a t there are bad Jews is
just as true and unmistakable as the fact
that there are bad Gentiles. T h a t as a
race of people the Jews have had to
exercise cunning as their greatest per
sonal asset in place of political power
is not a fault but a circumstance of their
situation in the world. T h a t they have
for centuries and in all countries been
picked as the race to be severely criti
cized is not the fault of any of the pres
ent day Jews, nor probably a fault of
those that represented the highest and
finest principles of Jew ry. It has been
due entirely to the unfortunate tendency
o f human nature for the stronger to pick
upon the w eaker with the inevitable re
sult that the w eaker are constantly
seeking to lift themselves up in selfdefense. If the Jews ever attain, as a
race of people in this country or else
where, one tenth of the political power,
financial power, cunning, fortitude, and
aggrandizement that is being attributed
to them by these propagandists, it will
be due entirely to these continuous
campaigns of attack.
O n ly by realizing that we are all
children of God, all having our in
dividual weaknesses, evil tendencies,
misunderstandings, ambitions, desires,
and dreams, can we put ourselves in attunement with the Cosmic and place
ourselves physically and mentally in the
category of universal brotherhood. Until
we learn to love all men and all women
as we should love G od and His crea
tures, and until we learn to think kindly
o f every creature, even those who have
walked in the shadows of sin and evil,
can we hope to find salvation and free
dom from the false shackles that hold us
earthbound to the grossest and most
animalistic instincts. T h e soul in the
body of a Jew today may be the soul in
the body of one born in the Christian
religion and attaining heights in C h ris
tian theology in the next century. W e
may reject the friendship of a Jew to
day only to find it necessary, or co n
venient, or profitable tomorrow to a c

cept not only his friendship but his hand

in fellowship.
Some of these propagandists have
claimed that A M O R C in its foundation
in America and the Supreme Grand
Lodge in its activities in Sa n Jose are
owned or controlled by Jews. Aside
from the falseness of this situation there
is a question of purpose or reason.
W o u l d the A M O R C be less than it is
today, or better than it is today, if Jews
had laid the foundation for its American
activities and were today directing its
affairs? I frankly admit that I cannot
answer such a question, and I have yet
to find anyone who can answer it with
out beginning his argument with bias
and prejudice.
T o those who think that other world
events occurring right now or precipi
tating unhappy conditions in various
places constitutes more important matter
for the thought o f the month than this
analysis of the anti-Jewish propaganda,
let me say that the very spirit of this

anti-Jewish propaganda is the spirit of

the wars that are in the offing, that are
being planned right now, that millions
of people are attempting to prevent and
which millions o f persons have had to
suffer and pay for in the past. T h e spirit
o f this anti-propaganda is the spirit of
racial and religious hatred and that is
the foundation and the basis of m ans
greatest errors of a personal and na
tional nature and until this unnatural,

poisonous, destructive spirit in man can

be eliminated and he can love his fellow
beings for their good qualities and for
give them for their evil ones and never
give thought to their race or religion,
universal peace and universal brother
hood can never be established and the
individual himself can never shake off
the shackles and chains that tie him
down to the lowest plane on earth.
( T h e foregoing remarks represent the
personal opinions of the Imperator as
dictated b y him for this department.
E d itor)

ATTEND THE ROSICRUCIAN CONVENTION JULY 12-18

COME W IT H U S T O EG Y PT

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
June
1936

i
E
E
|
i
|
I
\
E
I
E
E
E
|
I
EJ

There is still am ple time to m ak e reservations to accompany us on our tour next January
through the Mediterranean to Egypt, Palestine, and a dozen or more other countries bordering on the Mediterranean and in the very cradle of civilization. T his unique tour, the
second that has been conducted by A M O R C , will be under the direction of the Imperator
and his wife, and will include practically fifty cities of interest to students of mysticism
and ancient history. It will include outstanding features that have never been included in
any other trip to the Orient or to the mystical lands. Special trains, steamship, entire
hotels, and chartered automobiles in every city will make the tour conven ient, luxurious,
and happy and yet extremely economical. T h e price for this tour is lower than any
similar tour with so many special features, and will be an unforgettable event in the life
of each one who participates. Any member of any section or grade of our work with
his or her immediate relatives is entitled to go on this trip. W om en, unaccompanied by
their husbands, or young people who have been fearful of travelling alone, will find this
an unusual opportunity to travel safely in good companionship and with the utmost of
en joym en t. T he tour will last about sixty days beginning the last week of January, 1937.
F o r further information and registration, write to the Rosicrucian Egyptian T our Secretary, C/o A M O R C , Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

E
E
|
E
\

=
\

E
E
=

\
!
E
f

.............................................................................................................................................iniiMMing

One H undred S ixty-eight

Crim e In America
HOW ROSICRUCIANS WOULD PREVENT IT
B y F r a t e r H a rv e y M ile s , F .

R. C.

age and strength to face facts will

O A T T E M P T an
analyze the picture, and obtain that
article on Crime
jewel o f T R U T H that was smothered
P r e v e n t i o n and
in glamor, while the others remain in
cover the subject
thoroughly with
ignorance and wonder.
T h e re fo re , we will, in our humble
out incurring re
way, try to assist in the prevention of
buff and censure,
or hurting some crime by pointing out to our fellow
Rosicrucians and to all seekers of light
one's feelings and
causing some mis who read this article, the cause o f crime
understanding, is and how to prevent it. Crime is desig
nated as being the commission o f an act
difficult i n d e e d .
forbidden by public law, or a violation
T h e real t r u t h
of public right. J. M artineau said,
generally has to be
Human society may punish us for our
submerged and left for those who are
crimes; human monitors may reprove us
willing to
digdeeply and then are big
enough to
accept itwhen
they have for
it. vices; but G o d alone can charge
upon us the sin which H e alone is able
T R U T H suffers because of the narrow
ness o f its receptors, and that is the to forgive." A nd that sin which only
G od can forgive us is the T H O U G H T
reason that pages and sometimes vol
we hold in our minds. N o man-made
umes are written to explain a truth or a
principle when it could be given in just law can punish us for our evil thoughts.
W e can rob, murder, plunder, and com
a few words.
W h e n a philosopher, a mystic, or a mit the most atrocious crimes in our
thinker in any field of truth and le arn mind and nothing but G O D can repri
ing wishes to convey new light to those mand us; but the M A N I F E S T A T I O N
who are groping in ignorance and dark of those T H O U G H T S are punishable
ness, in superstition and fear, in delusion by law.
M a n is born a destroyer, as well as
and deception, and he feels that it may
not be well accepted, he paints or a creator, of life. If crime is the taking
of a m ans life for a personal, unjust
creates a beautiful picture around the
deed, or for the preservation of o n e s
truth and by the time he has finished
own life, man is simply acting under an
with his picture you have missed the
impulse that is born in him; for man
T R U T H which he so desired to con
kind the world over is imbued with the
vey. But the earnest soul w ho has cour
O n e H un dred S ixty-nin e

desire to kill. A s a rule, man does not

care so much what he kills, just so he
can prove the mastery of life through
physical force. M e n by the hundreds go
out into the woods and fields during
hunting season and slaughter and kill
beautiful and graceful animals just for
the joy of killing, and call it sport. T h e y
will come back from a hunting or sport
ing trip, so-called, and express them
selves on the great jo y and the wonder
ful feeling that it is to watch an animal
drop after they have carefully levelled
a gun at its head and pulled the trigger.
Civilized man roams the jungles of
India, A frica, and the M a la y Peninsula,
lurking to kill some beautiful specimens
of various types of animals just for the
jo y of watching an animal fall after
levelling a gun at its head. T h e y do not
need to kill these animals for food or
self-preservation, but it is the jo y of
killing that they desire.
T h e y call it
sport. M A N I S B O R N A C R I M I N A L ;
H E D O ES N O T BEC O M E ONE.
M a n evolves from the criminal through
civilization and the cultivation of the
H I G H E R M I N D and his psychic facul
ties, and it is such teachings as the R osi
crucian philosophy that give man an
understanding of life and teach him the
value of it. All life is sacred in the di
vine scheme of things, and no man has
the right to kill; yet some of our most
cultured minds prepare to slaughter
mankind wholesale by w ay of nation
wide w arfare.
If we are willing to admit that we are
born with the inclination to destroy life
and that the first thing w e would do to
preserve our own existence is to kill,
then we must say that to prevent crime
we must begin at home with the chil
dren, because the development of crime
begins in the mind of the adolescent.
T h e mind of the child is the most fertile
soil for the stimulation and breeding of
TH O U G H TS O F LUST, M URDER,
T H I E V E R Y , F A L S E H O O D , and all
other types of crime; and the best edu
cators of crime are your daily papers,
the moving pictures of certain types,
seventy-five per cent of the magazines
The
purchased from news-stands, obscene
Rosicrucian literature that gets into the home by
Digest
various channels, and stories that are
June
told by the parents in the presence of
their children. Children between the
1936

ages of seven and fourteen will go to a

show, witness an atrocious crime in the
play, and they will come home so e x
cited and enthralled over the lust which
they were permitted to witness that they
dream about it day and night, and final
ly they decide to execute the same per
formance but only in play. T h e y re
construct the scene, but the fun turns
out to be disastrous; for an accident
occurs that they do not expect and if
the child is old enough to go to a re
formatory or a home of correction, that
becomes his future home. If he is more
unfortunate, he may be sent to some
penitentiary where he will get future
education along similar lines.
W e read in the newspapers that if a
child twelve years of age commits a
major crime in Soviet Russia, he will be
liable for the full penalties of the law,
including capital punishment, the same
as adults. Isn t that enlightening for
mothers and fathers? Children born in
the midst of vibrations of the most hor
rible crimes, being punished by death
and executed by the very people who
have been responsible for the increase
of crime in their country. Imagine that!
Pronouncing a capital punishment sen
tence on a twelve-year-old boy or girl.
A nd this L A W is made by L E A D E R S
of a great country! D o they not realize
that the killing of such a young person
who is totally ignorant of morals and
ethics, or right or wrong, is stimulating
H A T R E D of the worst kind, not only
in the parents' minds, but in the minds
and hearts of all other adults in the
community, and this hatred is the be
ginning of more crime? Y o u can never
prevent crime by committing more crime.
It has been tried for thousands of years
unsuccessfully. Instead of helping hu
manity outgrow its natural tendency
toward crime, people's minds are stimu
lated in the desire for crime, and they
are agitating the objective mind by pro
paganda of war, gangsterism, under
world activities, and by showing pic
tures of insidious atrocities to fruitful
and immature minds.
Just recently a picture w as shown in
one of our local theaters illustrating the
operation of a photo-electric cell, and
there w as enacted a scene showing how,
by breaking the contact of invisible
rays, a trigger of a gun hidden in the
O n e H undred S ev en ty

wall would be pulled, someone shot, and

in no way could they detect the crime.
T h e device was so cleverly secreted in
the house that murder was continuously
carried on for G R E E D , A V A R I C E ,
L U S T , and S E L F I S H N E S S . A n e x
cellent illustration for our youths to give
them ideas to work out under the
proper environment.
W a r today is the biggest and most
profitable business the world has ever
known. It is the biggest ra c k e t" in the
world today and is controlled by a class
of W a r Lords that instruct and educate
young men in crime. T h e s e W a r Lords
seek only power and self-aggrand ize
ment. T h e y use the cleverest psycho
logy to induce young men in their ranks;
they are taught to kill and plunder, and
they are made to think that it is their
patriotic duty. T h e y are heroes when
they spill blood for politics. But if any
soldier would kill a man in self-defense
after returning to civil life, he is bran d
ed as a criminal and sentenced to prison,
if not acquitted by a jury of people who
are generally half-illiterate.
W e read in a Sa n F ran cisco new s
paper of a little girl, six years of age,
criminally attacked by a high-school
boy. H e coaxed her into his car, drove
to a place of seclusion, chloroformed the
little girl, assaulted her, and drove down
Stanford Avenue and threw her body
onto a lawn, leaving her to find her w ay
into the house half unconscious. W h a t
gave this young man the idea to do this
horrible thing? Is it something he has
inherited or is it instilled into his mind
by P I C T U R E S A N D
ST O R IE S ,
CHEAP N O V ELS AND O BSC EN E
L I T E R A T U R E ? If it is the latter, then
the first thing to do in the prevention of
this type of crime is to preclude the sale
of all such reading material and picture
shows that inform youths of such things.
(Bu t dont worry, it w o n 't be done; b e
cause there are thousands o f dollars
profit going to someone by publishing
this cheap trash.) If it is heredity, he
should be put under observation and
given the care of a psychiatrist, medi
cine, or any other branch of science that
is helpful in these cases.
Crime is induced into the young
minds of our modern youth by the glori
fication of gangster leaders and under
world brilliance, and until parents really
begin to think and act it will continue.
One H undred S e v en ty -o n e

W e read of T h e lm a Rediger, twentyyear-old Springfield, Missouri, business

-college student, who applied for the jo b
o f springing the death trap on F ra n k
M cD a n ie l, condemned negro. Sh e states
that she has plenty of nerve for that sort
of thing and that she would just like to
see how it feels to hang a man. Is n t
that an aspiration to be proud of the
lust to kill a human being just to see
how it feels, or to get the reaction?
W o u l d n t some young man just love to
have this girl for a wife, and to be the
M O T H E R of his children?
W e pick up another daily paper and
read of a fifteen-year-old school girl
who is spending her days in a hospital
as a result of being criminally attacked
by H arley Barrick, twenty-two, and
Lester Silva, seventeen. T h e youths o f
fered to drive the girl home from a
young-peoples party, but instead they
drove to a lonely spot, beat her and se
duced her, later taking her home,
ravaged by the lust of young men ob
sessed with a sex desire and perverted
minds. T h e youths are on their w ay to
some penitentiary to learn how to b e
have (or get w o rse). T h e girl is in a
hospital under the care of a nurse, try
ing to get well, and then to meet her
friends and family in shame and dis
grace. W h a t effect will this experience
have on her future? W i l l she be able
to live down the disgrace? W i l l the
public let her live it down? O n e thing is
certain she will alw ays distrust the
male sex and I am sure that no one can
ever blame her.
T h e cause of this crime can be traced
directly to the yellow press and the
moving pictures of the type that edu
cates young minds to this sort of crime.
Crime of this nature is the direct result
of sex filth that is seen both on the
vaudeville stage and screen, and is con
taminating the youth of modern times;
and it will continue among our young
people until the parents of these children
rise up in arms against the showing of
such trash to the public. T h e public
mind is perverted with sex and if we are
going to stop crime of this nature we
must first P R E C L U D E T H E S A L E of
all literature that is distorting and con
taminating the young mind and develop
ing perversion.

In looking over ten or fifteen various

magazines that are bought at new s
stands we take note of the type of a d
vertisements in them. H ere they are:
S e x L ife in A m erica"; Curious S e x
P ra ctic e s ; Scientific S e x u a lia ; S e x
ual S la v e ry ;
Underw orld V i c e ;
Love, W o m a n , S e x ; Stran g e E ro tic
C u sto m s ; S e x L ife in Europe and
A m e rica ; Revolting
R acial C e re
monials ; Love and Sexu al L ife .
T h e s e are the titles of volumes our
young men and girls are absorbing and
their minds are becoming channels of
filth and corruption, and the thousands
of people who read this foul and ob
scene literature are becoming one gi
gantic mental c e s s p o o l
T h e r e is organized in America the
Council of 76, in alliance with the
United S tates F la g Association. It is
the purpose and intention of the Council
of '7 6 to stamp out crime of every co n
ceivable sort; but they need the assist
ance of every R O S I C R U C I A N and
every man and woman in America who
stands for H I G H I D E A L S and H I G H
M ORAL STA N DA RD S.
O u r Im
perator, D r. H. Spencer Lewis, is the
S ta te Chairman for the Council of '7 6
in California, and has been awarded
special honors by the United Sta te s
F lag Association for the work his coun
cils have done. B u t they have only be
gun to eradicate crime from America;
they have hardly scratched the surface.

READ

THE

W e would like to have everyone who

reads this article write us and offer his
or her assistance in this gigantic problem
and uplifting movement which will
benefit all mankind.
A mong the thousands of Rosicrucians
throughout the world, we know there
are those who will constantly project
their thoughts and vibrations of strength
and power into the consciousness of the
multitudes who are weak and easily
swayed by desire and lust and the
glorification of sin, and not condemn
them, but help them rise out of the
depths of H E L L into which they have
permitted themselves to fall. T h e be
ginning of crime is in the T H O U G H T S
we create and radiate from our minds,
and when we can help the unfortunate
souls create thoughts of C O N S T R U C
T IV E N E SS , G O O D N ESS, LO V E,
and C O M P A S S I O N for all mankind,
we will have begun to stamp out crime
in America. T a k e the impression of
crime aw ay from the objective mind and
it will not breed and manifest a reality
for which som e innocent person will
have to suffer.
Crime must go, but it can only go if
every red-blooded American will lend a
hand. W r i t e to the Benjam in Franklin
Council of 76, Suite 7 0 7 -7 0 8 , F irst N a
tional B an k Building, San Jose, C alifo r
nia, for any information you wish, and
it will be graciously given to you.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

H O W Y O U M A Y H ELP
T h e R osicru cian D igest has been the means of interesting hundreds of persons in the
higher principles of life and has directed them to the teachings of A M O R C . It is neces
sary, therefore, that we have as many persons as possible read it. S o we offer for the
next ninety days a trial subscription of six months for $1.00. This special rate is for
N E W S U B S C R IB E R S only, brought in by members of A M O R C .
Fellow Rosicrucians, send the name and address of a friend and $1.00, and T h e
R osicru cian D igest will be sent to him or her for six months. Help us to place T h e R o si
crucian D igest into the hands of seekers and do them, as well as the organization, a great
deal of good.

The

T his special rate is allowed only to new subscribers whose names and addresses are
sent in by A M O R C members. Address: T h e R osicru cian D igest, Rosicrucian Park, San
Jose, California.

R osicru cian

Digest
June
1936

0.

0
O n e H undred S ev en ty -tw o

T h e "Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefits as well
as those who are members. T h e book called Liber 777 describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

.0

HOUSES OF GOD
T I S customary to
hear the Protestant
c l e r g y m e n , the
R o m a n Catholic
p r i e s t s , and the
Jewish rabbis alike
refer to churches,
c a t h e d r a l s , and
s y n a g o g u e s as
houses of G o d ,
and it is quite cus
tomary to hear the
average individual
who is devoted to
his religion speak of going to his church
to pray, to worship, to receive the Holy
O ne H undred S ev en ty -th ree

Sacraments, or to listen to G o dly a d

vice, as going into a sacred place to re
ceive therefrom the divine benediction
that resides within the holy edifice.
In fact, it is quite customary to hear
those who enjoy the quiet and peace of
the church or cathedral say that they
love to go there even when there are no
services, no music, no ritual, and no
sermon, because of the holy vibrations,
the sacred radiations from the altar, and
the holy of holies within the church
which seem to surround them and per
meate their very body and soul.
T h e interesting fact is, however, that
a church, a cathedral, a synagogue, a

(&\
|rru~u"Lr|

In looking over ten or fifteen various

magazines that are bought at new s
stands we take note of the type of a d
vertisements in them. H e re they are:
S e x Life in A m e rica ; Curious S e x
P ra ctic e s ; Scientific S e x u a lia ; S e x
ual S la v e r y ;
Underw orld V i c e ;
Love, W o m a n , S e x " ; S tran g e E ro tic
C u stom s ; S e x Life in Europe and
A m e rica ; Revolting
R acial C e re
monials ; Love and Sexu al L ife .
T h e s e are the titles of volumes our
young men and girls are absorbing and
their minds are becoming channels of
filth and corruption, and the thousands
of people who read this foul and o b
scene literature are becoming one gi
gantic mental cesspool.
T h e r e is organized in America the
Council of '76, in alliance with the
United S tates F lag Association. It is
the purpose and intention of the Council
of 76 to stamp out crime of every co n
ceivable sort; but they need the assist
ance of every R O S I C R U C I A N and
every man and woman in America who
stands for H I G H I D E A L S and H I G H
M ORAL STA N DA RD S.
O ur Im
perator, D r. H. Spencer Lewis, is the
S ta te Chairman for the Council o f 76
in California, and has been awarded
special honors by the United S tates
F lag Association for the work his coun
cils have done. B ut they have only be
gun to eradicate crime from America;
they have hardly scratched the surface.

READ

THE

W e would like to have everyone who

reads this article write us and offer his
or her assistance in this gigantic problem
and uplifting m ovem ent which will
benefit all mankind.
Among the thousands of Rosicrucians
throughout the world, we know there
are those who will constantly project
their thoughts and vibrations of strength
and power into the consciousness o f the
multitudes who are weak and easily
swayed by desire and lust and the
glorification of sin, and not condemn
them, but help them rise out of the
depths of H E L L into which they have
permitted themselves to fall. T h e be
ginning of crime is in the T H O U G H T S
we create and radiate from our minds,
and when we can help the unfortunate
souls create thoughts of C O N S T R U C
T IV E N E S S , G O O D N ESS, LO V E,
and C O M P A S S I O N for all mankind,
we will have begun to stamp out crime
in America. T a k e the impression of
crime aw ay from the objective mind and
it will not breed and manifest a reality
for which some innocent person will
have to suffer.
Crime must go, but it can only go if
every red-blooded American will lend a
hand. W r i t e to the Benjam in Franklin
Council of 76, Suite 7 0 7 -7 0 8 , F irst N a
tional B an k Building, S a n Jose, C alifo r
nia, for any information you wish, and

it will be graciously given to you.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

0 1 ,

H O W Y O U M A Y H ELP
T h e R osicru cian D igest has been the means of interesting hundreds of persons in the
higher principles of life and has directed them to the teachings of A M O R C . It is neces
sary, therefore, that we have as many persons as possible read it. So we offer for the
next ninety days a trial subscription of six months for $1.00. T his special rate is for
N E W S U B S C R IB E R S only, brought in by members of A M O R C .

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
June

Fellow Rosicrucians, send the name and address of a friend and $1.00, and T h e
R osicru cian D igest will be sent to him or her for six months. Help us to place T h e R osi
crucian D igest into the hands of seekers and do them, as well as the organization, a great
deal of good.
T his special rate is allowed only to new subscribers whose names and addresses are
sent in by A M O R C members. Address: T h e R osicru cian D igest, Rosicrucian Park, San
Jose, California.

1936
O n e H un dred S ev en ty -tw o

p.
T h e Cathedral of the Soul" is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefits as well
as those who are members. T he book called "Liber 777 describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

HOUSES OF GOD
T IS customary to
hear the Protestant
c l e r g y m e n , the
R o m a n Catholic
p r i e s t s , and the
Jewish rabbis alike
refer to churches,
c a t h e d r a l s , and
s y n a g o g u e s as
houses of G o d ,"
and it is quite cus
tomary to hear the
average individual
who is devoted to
his religion speak of going to his church
to pray, to worship, to receive the Holy
O ne H undred Seventy~three

Sacram ents, or to listen to G o dly a d

vice, as going into a sacred place to re
ceive therefrom the divine benediction
that resides within the holy edifice.
In fact, it is quite customary to hear
those who enjoy the quiet and peace of
the church or cathedral say that they
love to go there even when there are no
services, no music, no ritual, and no
sermon, because of the holy vibrations,
the sacred radiations from the altar, and
the holy of holies within the church
which seem to surround them and per
meate their very body and soul.
T h e interesting fact is, however, that
a church, a cathedral, a synagogue, a

mosque, or a holy sanctum within the

home is made holy, is made sacred, and
made divine in all of its vibratory in
fluences by the individual who goes
there and by his attitude of mind, and
by the sincere and religious expressions
o f his soul. Neither church nor temple,
cathedral or synagogue, is a holy place
simply because it has been constructed
in the architecture of a religious edifice,
and because it is to be or is about to be
used for religious worship or instruc
tion. T h e most magnificent cathedral or
temple built for religious worship and
in every sincere manner dedicated to
the worship of G o d and the preachment
o f divine principles, if left standing va
cant, idle, and unused from the moment
of its completion, would never become a
holy place charged with sacred vibra
tions and impressive in its radiations no
matter if it grew to be a thousand years
old and was venerated for its antiquity.
W h a t e v e r there is that is holy and
sacred within the walls of a church or
temple, and whatever sacred vibrations
and sacred spirit is felt as a part of the
holy place, are brought into the struc
ture or created and attracted there by
the religious devotion, sincerity, pray
ers, and meditations of the human be
ings who assemble within its walls.
It is usually said at the completion
and dedication of a church or temple,
cathedral or synagogue, that it is co n
secrated to G od and dedicated to re
ligious worship. A t the very best the
church upon its completion is offered to
G od and His worshippers, and it is the
performance of worship, the study of
sacred laws, the devotion of the w or
shippers, and their prayers and sincere
attitudes day after day, week after
week, and year after year, that fills the
very walls and all of the holy spaces
within with the vibrating energy of soul
essence that is so easily sensed by those
who enter the portals for meditation
and peace. F o r this reason man m ay ar
range a sanctum in his home and
through his sincere worship, his holy
respect and regard for the place, and his
attunement with the Divine Conscious
ness may cause his sanctum to become
T he
R osicru cian charged with the very spirit o f G od and
the vibrations of Divine power. T h e r e
Digest
fore, it is not the nature of the structure,
June
nor its location, the name o f its creator,
1936
nor the purpose for which it was plan

ned that makes a church or a cathedral,

a mosque, a synagogue, or a sanctum a
holy place. Such holy places can be
come filled with the spirit of G od and
charged with the emanations of His
consciousness through the projection of
H is mind and understanding, His love
and mercy to the worshippers, but these
transcendental elements that make a
church or a temple distinctive in its im
pressions from other buildings and pow
erful in its influences are attracted to
the place of worship b y the sincerity
and devotion of those who assemble
there.
T h e C athedral of the Soul built with
out any material elements, unsupported
by any financial powers, resting upon no
earthly foundation, and owned and con
trolled by no distinctive group of in
dividuals is just such a holy place made
sacred by the devotion and the worship,
the prayers and the love of the thou
sands who use it as the channel for the
contact with the consciousness of God.
It is the intangible, immaterial, and in
visible meeting place of the souls of
thousands who must lift up their con
sciousness to the cathedral and to God
in order to find attunement with the
church and its holy mission on Sunday.
If you are not a regular attendant at
any church, or if you are, you will find
the Cathedral of the Soul a great con
venience and a great help in lifting up
your heart and mind, your inner con
sciousness, to a higher plane where you
will meet within the C athedral the souls
of thousands of other individuals and
the consciousness and divine emanations
of G od and the H oly Saints, of Jesus
the Christ and His Disciples, of M ary
the Holy M other, and all of the patri
archs and angels of your religion and of
all religions.
Th ro u gho ut the day and moments of
doubt, despondency, tiredness, peace,
happiness, or want, you can momentar
ily lift yourself up and find in the
C athedral the attunement, the vibratory
harmony, and peace and power that
will enable you to commune with God
and with your soul. W h y not take ad
vantage of this opportunity and make it
a regular practice to devote a few min
utes each morning, afternoon, and eve
ning to meditation and prayer in the
Cathedral of the Soul? Y o u will find it
inspiring and illuminating, and you will
One H undred S even ty-four

Divine power, a G o dly benediction, a

peace and a power that will help you
along the path of life. S t a r t this month
by making the Cathedral of the Soul
your holy sanctum, not to supplant your
church, not to supplant your form o f re
ligious worship and instruction, but to
offer you a haven in your restless hours,
and a retreat for the soul in its anxiety
to contact the heavenly hosts beyond.

find it helpful in the hours of trial and

tribulation. If you are a non-member
and have not read and studied the op
portunities explained in the C athedral
booklet called Liber 777, send for a free
copy now and enjoy the benefits it of
fers. W it h o u t religious bias or pre
judice, without sectarian differences,
without distinctions of any kind, you
will always find a Cosmic surge of

Thoughts About Honesty

By

A lle g r o

O N E S T Y s e e ms
such a trite thing
to discuss. From
the day we first
began to hear with
conception in this
incarnation to the
present m o m e n t ,
we have continu
ally h e a r d t a l k
about h o n e s t y .
W h e n we learned
to read the printed
word we f o u n d
much said about honesty. A nd early in
our career we heard these expressions:
H onesty is the best policy, T h o u
shalt not steal," B e truthful," and " O h ,
what a tangled web we weave when
first we practice to deceive.
T h e n Karma, through the experiences
of life, began to teach us about honesty.
Incident after incident came about to
show us about truth and untruth. Hour
after hour, day after day, and year after
year the lessons of life pointed out by
the law of cause and effect and other
great principles that honesty is the k ey
note, the very foundation of all progress.
T o construct the foundation of hon
esty for our edifice of life, we must first
clear away the rough obstacles which
obstruct the building site. T h e s e ob
stacles are very much the same in
O n e H undred S ev en ty -fiv e

most cases. T h e outstanding ones are:

thoughtlessness, laziness, cowardliness,
love of material gain and pleasures, and
prejudice.
Thoughtlessness and laziness are very
closely related. It is hard to draw a line
between the sort of mind which draws
no lesson from the beauty, harmony,
and order about him, and the one who
steps crushingly upon the delicate blos
som of a lovely flower rather than use
the energy to alter his course a very few
inches.
Cowardliness and love of material
gain and pleasures are also related. A
m an s fear of being considered different
from his fellow man and the fear of be
ing held up to the ridicule of those about
him is a definite form of cowardice. B ut
it is the sacrifice of a sort of aggrandize
ment hoped for in the mind of his
friends or companions that he really
fears. In like manner he fears to lose
and wishes to hold the gleaming attrac
tions of material gain and pleasures. . . .
He considers these things his treasure
and where a m ans treasure is, there
will his heart be also."
Prejudice is a term that cannot be
fairly used without its co-partner ignor
ance. N either can be complete without
the other. O n ly the ignorant show pre
judice and certainly the prejudiced show
ignorance. T h e s e two are the greatest

enemies of honesty. W e find prejudice

in the assumptions taught us in our
earliest youth; w e find it in our govern
ment; we find it in the text books of
our schools; we find it in the teachings
of our churches, w ho seek to verify their
own assumptions and whims instead of
looking for truth; and we find it within
our own makeup when we yield to
selfish temptations.
W e fail to keep this honesty problem
steadily before our consciousness be
cause we have become so accustomed
to its presence and have overlooked its
eternal necessity. But we must have the
foundation, the base of honesty to build
on. If we will but appreciate the truth
that it is our first golden key to progress,

w e will learn to love it: and if we love

it we will give it more attention.
W e can remove the barriers of
thoughtlessness and laziness, of cow ard
liness and love of gain, o f prejudice and
ignorance, if we love honesty. W e can
replace these undesirable things with
everything of the greatest beauty and of
the greatest good. T h is foundation of
honesty will cause us to carefully a n
alyze what we see, hear, do, and think,
and will bring us to meditate more often
upon everything reaching our conscious
ness, seeking for truth.
S o a beautiful structure will be start
ed, for all that we are is the result o f
w hat w e have thought. And if we abide
earnestly by honesty our soul will abide
continually in more stately mansions."

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
M an, w hen co n scio u s o f an e te rn a l tr u th , h as ev er sym b olized it so th a t th e
hum an co n scio u sn ess could fo rev e r have realiz a tio n o f it. N atio n s, la n g u a g e s and
cu sto m s have ch an ged , b u t th e se a n cie n t d esig n s co n tin u e to illu m in a te m ankind
w ith th e ir m ystic lig h t.
F o r those who a r e seeking lig h t, each m o n th we w ill
rep ro d u ce a sym bo l o r sy m b o ls, w ith th e ir a n c ie n t m ean in g .

L IG H T A G A I N S T D A R K N E S S

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
June
1936

---------H

The allegorical illustration this

month, like many symbols and al
legories, can be interpreted in
various ways. The common inter
pretation of this very, very old
allegory is that before the arts and
sciences can be established in any
new land or community, there must
be driven from that land, all of
the superstitions, fears, and the
misbeliefs of the people. The coast
land in the illustration, represents it to be a new country. The figures of
humans with various symbols above their heads, d ep ict the different arts
and sciences, culture and learning.
They are shown driving from the
land, demons, serpents, and monsters, which allude to the misbeliefs
i

Ui

B -----

LJ

illustration from one of the rare Rosicrucian books

in the private archives of A M O R C .

5-----------

<4
a

"

3----------- 8

One H un dred Seventy~six

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g nature's m ysteries and extending the boundaries of
knowledge. The w orld at large, although profitin g by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
It is w ith pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some of these scientific researches, and briefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherw ise specified,
we give fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

C o s m ic R a y s

H E source of the
m y s t e r i o u s rays
which on the one
h a n d s e e m to
bombard the earth,
and on the other
to constitute the
magnetic
field
about it, is still a
muted question in
th e s c i e n t i f i c
world. In certain
circles it is being
m a i n t a i n e d that
the ray is the result of the destruction
of matter through either the tremendous
explosions of Cosmic bodies or the
gradual devolutionary processes of the
e a r th s elements. T h e s e scientists co n
tend that this disintegration returns a
mass to its primary energy, and it is this
force which is detected and identified as
the Cosmic ray. T h e y insist that the ray
is generated by this deterioration of
One Hundred Seventy-seven

matter. T h e y overlook the fact of first

causes, that is, that all our present mass
is the result of an energy and the energy
must have originally preceded the first
complex forms of matter.
In other
words, the energy responsible for the
nature of matter existed before it. F o r
example, modern science today in its
laboratories has reduced matter and its
forms to the basic energy of which it is
composed, and which generally speak
ing is termed an electronic energy. T h is
electronic energy consists o f electrical
potentials, both negative and positive,
the source of which is unknown to
science. A s science studies it, it learns
that this energy seems to constantly be
seeking to organize again into complex
forms, or in other words, to build itself
up into the structure we know as matter.
T h e refo re, this energy underlies all
things; all things consist of it. Peculiar
to state, this constructive energy of the
universe parallels in many respects, in

so far as its functioning is concerned, the

so-called Cosmic ray, and yet science
attributes the Cosmic ray only to the
destructive processes, to the disintegra
tion of matter. Now, certainly it is to
be realized that this energy, this elec
tronic energy, does not exist only in
mass, but exists and prevails every
where, even where there is no mass or
matter, as we know it. If this were not
so, then there would be true voids or
vacuums between all of the heavenly
bodies, and this we know is not true.
T h u s, if this electronic energy prevails
everywhere, it should alw ays be de
tectable. W h e n matter is destroyed, as
we term it, that is, reduced to its simplest
nature, it returns to this electronic
energy, but the energy may be ascer
tained before it has evolved into matter.
T h e re fo re , we as Rosicrucians contend
that the Cosmic ray and this universal
electronic energy are the same, and can
be detected at all times, aside and apart
from explosions of distant stars, and it
is not merely the result of destruction
and disintegration of matter. N o matter
how high one will rise above the earth,
whether one or a million miles, this uni
versal energy will alw ays be detected.
T h e Cosmic is a proper term for it,
for it is universal, but it is not gener
ated; it is the very being of the universe.
T h in g s arise from it and return to it. It
is the source out of which other things
are composed; it comes from nothing
else.
Fortunately, there are other
schools of science which also hold this
point of view, and who do not believe
that the source of the Cosmic ray can be
ascertained by flights into the stratos
phere or beyond. It is quite true that
the destruction of a large star will in
tensify the bombardment of a certain
area of the universe with Cosmic rays,
and it is because that mass of matter has
returned to its simplest state suddenly,
and would naturally intensify the abso
lute energy of the area. It is interesting
to read the following item of scientific
news in connection with these theories,
with regard to the Cosmic ray.

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
June
1936

Because a star exploded seven mil

lion years ago with the brilliance of
thirty million suns, there is a chance that
science will know more about the Cosmic
radiation that continuously bombards
the earth from remote depths of the uni

verse, Cosmic ray records are being

studied to see if they show any relation
to the gigantic stellar explosion or
super-nova that was discovered by Dr.
Edwin Hubble and Glenn M o o r e of the
M o u n t W ils o n O bservatory while they
observed with the world's largest tele
scope distant nebulae in the V ir g o con
stellation. Som e years ago Drs. F .
Z w ic k y and W . Baad e put forth a
theory that cosmic rays originate when
a star explodes into a super-nova. W i t h
the discovery of the great outburst of
Nova V irg inis there is new interest in
the theory. Dr. Hubble explained that
the bearing of his discovery on the
theory is as yet indeterminate but that
the spectra of the super-nova are being
studied."

A Code For the Embryonic Scientist

Recently the scientific world was
shaken by the announcement of the
death of the eminent and beloved scien
tist, Pavlov, on F ebruary 27, at the age
of 87 years. Just before his death he
was asked what he could wish to the
youth of his country who devote them
selves to science. His reply given below
is translated from Russian by Professor
P. Kupalov, chief assistant in the Pavlov
Institute at Leningrad. It is not only ap
propriate for the young scientists of his
country and all countries, but for all
who are sincerely interested in the
acquisition of knowledge.
Firstly,

gradualness.

most important condition

A bou t

of

this

fruitful

scientific work I never can speak with

out emotion. Gradualness, gradualness
and gradualness. From the very begin
ning o f your work, school yourselves to
severe gradualness in the accumulation
o f knowledge.
Learn the A B C of science before
you try to ascend to its summit. Never
begin the subsequent without mastering
the preceding. N ever attempt to screen
an insufficiency of knowledge even by
the most audacious surmise and hypo
thesis. How soever this soap-bubble will
rejoice your eyes by its play it inevit
ably will burst and you will have noth
ing except shame.
School yourselves to demureness and
patience. Learn to inure yourselves to
One Hundred Seventy-eight

drudgery in science.
collect the facts!

Learn, compare,

"P e r f e c t as is the wing of a bird, it

never could raise the bird up without
resting on air. F a c ts are the air of a
scientist. W it h o u t them you never can
fly. W it h o u t them your theories are
vain efforts.
" B u t learning, experimenting, ob
serving, try not to stay on the surface
of the facts. Do not become the archi
vists of facts. T r y to penetrate to the
secret of their occurrence, persistently
search for the laws which govern them.
"Seco n d ly , modesty. N ever think
that you already know all.
However
highly you are appraised, always have
the courage to say of yourself I am
ignorant.
" D o not allow haughtiness to take
you in possession. Due to that you will
be obstinate where it is necessary to
agree, you will refuse useful advice and
friendly help, you will lose the standard
of objectiveness.
"T h ird ly , passion. Remember that
science demands from a man all his life.
If you had two lives that would not be
enough for you. B e passionate in your
work and your searchings.

Brown Snow
T h is item could have been captioned
" T h e rain of bull-frogs, "R a in of red
snow, butter or ink for all these things,
like the recent storm of brown snow,
actually occurred. Som e of the instances
were separated by several centuries. T h e
so-called rain of butter, one of the most
mysterious of all of these phenomena,
was a peculiar grease-like, yellow sub
stance which fell from the skies and
which was found to be edible and re
sembled, strangely, the manna described
in the Bible, said to have fallen from the
heavens.
Science had no precedents by which
to judge these strange phenomena, so
when the reports of the occurrences
were submitted to their councils, and the
facts did not coincide with their estab
lished theories, they were damned. T h a t
is, they were declared to be mere
One Hundred Seventy-nine

legends without scientific foundation,

and of little or no importance, and cer
tainly not worthy of learned research.
E v en today, accounts of these strange
mysteries of the skies are discredited
and largely laughed at by either those
who wish to conceal their own ignor
ance of the causes or who frankly dis
believe the stories. Such an attitude is
not the true scientific spirit and the
Rosicrucian O rd er has often lamented
that science permitted the suppression
of these facts. W e may not believe
these instances are due to any super
natural influence, but it is our duty, if
we profess to desire the advancement of
learning, to thoroughly investigate the
unusual, the unknown. It is indeed,
therefore, encouraging to know that to
day, science thoroughly investigated the
brown snow phenomenon of N ew
Hampshire, and gave a well-founded
explanation of the cause. T h is is a step
in the right direction. T h e report reads:
"D u rin g the early morning of F e b ru
ary 25, 1936, about 2 cm. of sleet and
hail fell at Hillsboro, N. H., following
about 10 cm. of light snow the evening
before. T h e hail had a distinctly brow n
ish, purple color, and contrasted strong
ly with the pure white new snow be
neath when the crust was broken. C lose
examination revealed that the color was
due to minute particles of soil. T h e day
before newspapers had reported severe
dust storms in Colorado and other parts
of the W e s t . Connection between the
two occurrences seems generally a c
cepted.
In order to determine the
amount of silt deposited, 3 samples
1 sq. m. in area were laid out on level
ground about 100 m. apart, and aw ay
from trees or buildings near Hillsboro,
N. H. alt. 8 0 0 feet. All the snow and
hail showing discoloration was removed
from the sample areas with a clean plate
and placed in clean enameled kettles.
W h e n melted the resulting water was
distinctly dirty and some sediment
quickly settled out. D ark purple, oily
bubbles were common on the surface.
A fte r standing one week in a large
graduate the suspension had cleared
partially, but the purplish film persisted
on the surface. T h e w ater from the

Wt. of silt deposited

on 1 sq. m.

meter-square samples was evaporated

by boiling and the sediment collected in
a G o och crucible in sample I and in
weighed filter papers in II and III after
it had proven extremely slow work to
get water to pass through the soil col
lected in crucibles. T h e samples were
then oven-dried, cooled in a desiccator
and weighed. T h e results were as
follows:

Sample I .................................... 1.6192

Sample I I .................................. 1.16 00
Sample I I I ................................ 1.6682
A v .................................................. 1.3825

grams
grams
grams
grams

T h is is at the rate of 1,382 kg. per

sq. km. and roughly equivalent to 12.3
lbs. per acre or almost 4 tons per sq.
mile.

Convention Arouses Enthusiasm

YOU ARE IN VITED TO JOIN W IT H US IN A
HAPPY VACATIO N
By T h e C o n v e n tio n S e c r e t a r y

A N Y of you will
certainly m i s s a
very happy vacat i o n a n d ex tra
o r d i n a r y oppor
tunity to witness
many d e l i g h t f u l
demonst r ations
and hear many un
usual l e c t u r e s if
you do not attend
the annual C o n
vention this sum
mer. N ever before
have our members throughout the coun
try expressed so much enthusiasm about
our annual Conventions. T h is is due to
the fact that the good-will tour of our
field lecturers visiting so many cities
and showing moving pictures of the
buildings and grounds at Rosicrucian
Park, and giving brief demonstrations
of our laws and principles, has caused
hundreds of our members to be extreme
ly anxious to come to S a n Jose this sum
The
mer and spend a week or ten days with
Rosicrucian us here.

Digest
Ju n e
1936

T h in k of actually visiting each and

every one of the departments o f our or
ganization and seeing all of our activi

ties and all of the features of our work

in actual progress! T h in k of contacting
and interviewing the officers and de
partment w orkers with whom you are in
correspondence, or who prepare your
monographs and answer your letters
and render you the special services from
week to week throughout the year!
E ven without the great sessions of the
Convention with their lectures and
demonstrations, visitors to Rosicrucian
P ark are alw ays made happy by the
contacts with the scores of workers here
and with a visit to the various offices,
workrooms, scientific laboratories, and
other fascinating features of the organ
ization. T a l k with any member who has
visited Rosicrucian P ark within the last
two or three years and you will find that
he regretted his inability to stay for
days, weeks, or months.
N o w you have an opportunity to
spend a week o r more with us here in
the most delightful section of California
and during the m ost enjoyable climatic
period of the year. A vacation trip to
California is alw ays like the realization
of a lifelong dream. T h i s summer the
railroad {ares are greatly reduced, as
are the bus fares, so that not only is it
One Hundred Eighty

a real pleasure to visit California but

economical as well. E very visitor who
ever comes here from the eastern or midwestern States is impressed with the
fact that the moment your train or auto
mobile crosses over the heights of the
glorious and fascinating Sierra Nevada
Mountains, sprinkled with the ghost
towns of the mining camps, and charm
ing in its thousands of scenic wonders,
the entrance into California on the west
of these mountains is like the entrance
into a new world or a new empire. In
the winter months, when all of the
eastern and midwestern State s are co v
ered with snow and the weather is cold,
on the western side of the mountains
they find grass lawns and flowers grow
ing in abundance and the climate mild
enough to go bathing in the waters of
the Pacific, even on Christmas D ay.
Remember that the western coast of the
United States is a part of the ancient
continent of Lemuria. Its soil is different,
its earthly products are different, its
flowers and shrubbery grow in variety
and abundance, the climate is different,
and the very spirit of the people is so
different from that of other parts of the
continent that one cannot help being im
pressed with this fact.
It is because
everyone here is cheerful,
happy,
healthy, and enjoying the magnificence
of earthly and Cosmic blessings.
Y ou will be surprised and pleased
with what you find at Rosicrucian Park,
located in the center of S an ta Clara
Valley, known for many years as, T h e
Valley of H e a r ts D elig h t. It is from
this valley that the famous D el M o n te
products are shipped to all parts of the
world, along with hundreds of other
brands and varieties of fruits and vege
tables. Living here is economical and
healthy and along with these features
is that of continual pleasure in the
variety of scenery and the enjoym ent of
life in all of its phases.
Rosicrucian Park typifies the very
best of everything in Sa n ta Clara
Valley, or in the whole of California. In
the grounds of Rosicrucian P ark grow
all of the varieties of flowers and shrub
bery typical of California, in addition to
specimens of shrubbery and flowers sent
to us from various parts of the world.
Here you will find plants, trees, and
flowers that are typical of the hottest
climates of South A frica and Australia,
One H undred E ig h ty -on e

and even of E g y p t and Palestine, alo n g

side of those that grow in the snows up
on the sides of M t. S h a sta or in the
northern portions of Alaska, C anada,
and the European countries.
T h e n there are the interesting build
ings and fascinating structures. Since
the y ear 1927 A M O R C has built twelve
different units o f Oriental architecture
representing the various countries of the
N e a r E a s t and F a r E a s t where mysti
cism has influenced the design, the
coloring, and the beauty of construction.
Y o u will find at Rosicrucian P ark the
Administration Building and Supreme
Tem ple in Egyptian architecture of the
middle period; the Science Building in
the E gy ptian architecture of the earlier
period. Y o u will find the great C o n
vention Auditorium in M oorish archi
tecture, the large Oriental M useum in
Byzantine architecture, and you will find
also an open air temple built as a re
production of the style and architecture
of Amenhotep's temple at Luxor, E gypt.
A nd then there is the new planetarium
building in pure A rabic architecture,
presenting a perfect replica of one of the
large and fascinating mosques of the
F a r E a st. T h e r e are nooks and corners
in the P a rk grounds where little groups
can meet for discussion and pleasant
conversations. Hours can be spent in
the M useum looking at the hundreds
of individual exhibits from every part
of the world and particularly from the
lands of mysticism. Just to walk into
the full-size reproduction of one of the
ancient tombs of E g y p t and to dwell
there a while in meditation, as if one
were in the V a lle y of Kings at T hebes,
or to stand before a cross-section of the
G re a t Pyramid and see the initiation
chambers, or the interior of King T u t s
tomb, carries one far aw ay from this
modern world into the times and places
of the development of civilization.
Interesting programs with music, lec
tures, demonstrations, exhibits, and defi
nite instruction are held daily in the
large auditorium, and in the evenings
after the sessions members meet for pri
vate discussions and there will be
pageants on the lawns which will depict
incidents of ancient ceremonies in
E g y p t and other lands. A n opportunity
to participate in an Oriental E gy ptian
initiation in the Supreme T em ple is a f
forded every visitor to the Convention

so that those who wish may have the

distinction of having had an honorary
initiation in the highest temple of the
O rd er in N orth America.
In the planetarium (described else
where in this issue) there will be daily
lectures and demonstrations revealing
many of the Cosmic laws. Advanced
members and leading workers of the
O rd er from all parts of the country will
conduct special classes or forums for
the benefit of the members in each of the
various degrees, and at the end o f the
week there will be held the usual b an
quet given by the officers o f the O rd e r
as a parting honor to all who have a t
tended. T h is great banquet, the largest
held in this part of California each year,
will be held this summer in the new
Civic Auditorium of the city of S a n
Jose, with the impressive surroundings
of Spanish architecture and with de
lightful music and the utmost of comfort.
T h e re will be ample time mornings,
early afternoons, and late in the eve
nings for sightseeing, and automobiles
will be provided for those who come by
train, and guides will be glad to show
our visiting members the historical sites
of this very old part of the continent.
V
S

Remember, you may come a few days

before the Convention and visit various
parts of California, or stay in San Jose
and enjoy with us every hour of the
time; or you can remain for a few days
after the Convention and receive every
courtesy in enjoying your visit. T h e
Convention opens on Su n d ay evening,
July 12, and closes Saturd ay evening at
the banquet.
If you wish to know about automobile
camps in this valley which are con
venient and economical and of excellent
standard, or about hotel reservations
which are nominal and of a very high
quality, write at once to the Convention
Chairman for information.

Special Bus From the E ast

It is planned to have a special com
fortable and modern bus come from the
metropolitan area of N ew Y o r k and
C hicago to California, travelling along
the most interesting scenic routes. T h is
will afford an opportunity to travel west
ward in the most economical and en jo y
able manner. If you wish to make a r
rangements to join others in this four or
five day trip with the bus, see the an
nouncement below in regard to this
matter.
V

.......

.jp
S P E C IA L C O N V E N T IO N

The
R osicru cian
D ig est
June
1936

E
I
1
E
E
E
\
|

BUS FARES

W e have finally obtained, from a nationally-known bus company, special rates from
New York and Chicago to San Jose. N E W Y O R K to San Jose and return, round-trip
fare, $70.00. From C H IC A G O to San Jose and return, round-trip fare, $55.00. Make
your reservations at once. If you live within one hundred miles or more of Chicago, arrange for your transportation by writing to Mrs. Leta M. Santee, 3311 Diversey Avenue,
Chicago, Illinois; if within a hundred miles of New York, write to Mr. T hor Kiimalehto,
105 Pinehurst Avenue, New Y ork City. You must P U R C H A S E Y O U R T IC K E T B E F O R E JU N E 20th. These buses will travel through some of the most scenic sections
of the country. T hey are de luxe parlor coaches, comfortable, roomy, and each bus will
have two chauffeurs.

E
f

5
=

E
|
|

t i iiiit m iH iH t ia iM a ii liiiii m iia i iii i H i i i i i i i m m i i M a M i i i M t i i m i i a i i i i m t m i i i i i i i a i i i m i i m t i M m i i i i m i i i i t t i i i M M i i i t M i i i m i i i i i M i i M i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i M Q

One H undred E ig h ty -tw o

PAG ES
from the

............... ....................... ........

GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNITZ

:
:
:
|

Each month we w ill present excerpt3 from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through the
presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally, such w ritin gs w ill
be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors o f the
past. Thi3 month we present Baron von G ottfried W ilh elm Leibn itz.

=
i
i
i
|

:
:
:
I
\

;
\
\
:
\
:

Leibn itz' philosophy is definitely related to the period known as the beginning o f modern
philosophy. H e was born in L eipsig. June 21, 1616, and received his general education at
the U niversity o f L eipsig.
In 1667 he was invited by Baron von Boineburg to come to
Frankfort as councillor to the Elector o f Mainz. H is scientific inclinations were aroused by
several visits to P a ris in 1672 and to London in 1673. where he met many leading scientiflc men. P u b licity was given his philosophical view s and his mathematical genius when
controversy arose between him self and Newton, because o f his system of differential calcuius which greatly resembled N ew ton 's method o f fluxions. In 1676 he was appointed
librarian to the Duke o f Brunswick-Luneberg. From then on he spent the rem ainder o f
his life in Hanover. Am ong his chief works in philosophy are the M onadologie, and in nalural science his "P ro ta g a e a , a treatise on geology. Our readers and Rosicrucians w ill be
particularly interested in his metaphysical views, and below are two excerpts from these
metaphysical w ritin gs which are w orth y o f the careful attention o f every student.

=
|

\
;

\
\
s
\
I

How Conceptions Are Derived From the Senses

R I S T O T L E pre
ferred to compare
our souls to blank
tablets p r e p a r e d
for writing, and he
m a i n t a i n e d that
nothing is in the
u ndersta n ding
w h i c h does not
come through the
senses. T h is posi
tion is in accord
with the popular
conceptions as
Aristotles positions usually are. P lato
thinks more profoundly. Such tenets or
One H undred E ig h ty -th ree

practicologies are nevertheless allow

able in ordinary use somewhat in the
same w ay as those who accept the
Copernican theory still continue to
speak of the rising and setting of the
sun. I find indeed that these usages can
be given a real meaning containing no
error, quite in the same w ay as I have
already pointed out that we may truly
say particular substances a c t upon one
another. In this same sense we may say
that knowledge is received from without
through the medium of the senses b e
cause certain exterior things contain or
express more particularly the causes
which determine us to certain thoughts.

Because in the ordinary uses of life we

attribute to the soul only that which be
longs to it most manifestly and particu
larly, and there is no advantage in g o
ing further.
W h e n , however, we are
dealing with the exactness of meta
physical truths, it is important to re co g
nize the powers and independence of
the soul which extend infinitely further
than is commonly supposed. In order,
therefore, to avoid misunderstandings
it would be well to choose separate
terms for the two. T h e s e expressions
which are in the soul, whether one is
conceiving of them or not, may be
called ideas, which those which one co n
ceives of or constructs may be called
conceptions, conceptus. But whatever
terms are used, it is always false to say
that all our conceptions come from the
so-called external senses, because those
conceptions which I have of myself and
o f my thoughts, and consequently of b e
ing, of substance, of action, of identity
and of many others come from an inner
experience.

Maxims
A body is an aggregation of sub
stances and is not a substance, properly
speaking. Consequently, in all bodies
must be found indivisible substances
which cannot be generated and are not
corruptible, having something which
corresponds to souls.
All these substances have been al
w ays and will alw ays be united to or
ganize bodies diversely transformable.
E a c h of these substances contains in
its nature the law of the continuous
progression of its own workings and all
that has happened to it and all that will
happen to it.
E x cep ting the dependence upon God,
all these activities come from its own
nature.

E a c h substance expresses the whole

universe, some substances, however,
more distinctly than others, each one
especially distinctly with regard to cer
tain things and according to its own
point of view.
T h e union of the soul with the body
and even the action of one substance
upon another consist only in the perfect
mutual accord, express established by
the ordinance of the first creation, by
virtue of which each substance follow
ing its own laws falls in with what the
others require and thus the activities of
the one follow or accom pany the activi
ties or changes of the other.
Intellects, or souls which are capable
of reflection and of knowing the eternal
truths and G o d have many privileges
that exempt them from the transforma
tion of bodies.
In regard to them moral laws must be
added to physical laws.
T h e better things are understood, the
more are they found beautiful and com
fortable to the desires which a wise man
might form.
T h o s e who are not content with the
ordering of things cannot boast of lov
ing G o d properly.
Justice is nothing else than love felt
by the wise.
C harity
is
universal
benevolence
whose fulfillment the wise carry out
comformably to the dictates of reason
so as to obtain the greatest good.
W is d o m is the science of happiness
or of the means of attaining the lasting
contentm ent which consists in the con
tinual achievement of a greater per
fection or at least in variations of the
same degree of perfection.

|S i i n n M n m n i i m m i i i i m n m

m .Q

AM ORC REG ISTERED IN PEN N SYLV A N IA

The
R osicru cian
D igest
Ju n e
1936

E
E
E
E

Members and friends of A M O R C will be pleased to learn that the Supreme Grand
Lodge of the Ancient and M ystical Order Rosae Crucis, the Rosicrucian Order, a corporation, is registered in the State of Pennsylvania, and has been since September, 1934.
Lodges of A M O R C have been established in Pennsylvania for years prior to the
registration.

E
E
E
E

O ne Hundred Eighty-four

SANCTUM MUSINGS
THE PHILOSOPHY OF M A RRIAGE

A R R I A G E does
not begin with the
traditional hegira
from the stately
church steps
through the show
er of r i c e a n d
shoes to the w ait
ing car. N either
has it its begin
ning in that aw ak
ening to responsi
bility that comes
with the departure
from the squalid office of a small-town
justice of peace. Legally, the connubial
state may be said
to have then begun,
but the elements which will make for its
continuance or failure began years
previously.
T h e romance and courtship of life
begins with self-consciousness, the ap
praisal of the emotions and desires.
Humans, like all other animals, are im
pelled by the surges of sensations which
well up within them. In infancy, as do
the beasts, they instinctively and un
consciously attempt to either maintain
the emotional urges and to appease the
desires they engender, or to avoid the
causes which ag gravate them.
T h e infant, in performing even the
simplest function, is an automaton. W i t h
transcendency to an ag e of reason, the
O ne H undred E ig h ty -fiv e

conditions and things which gratify the

most intense desires are analyzed. T h is
analysis does not at first constitute a
study of the relationship of cause to e f
fect. It is far more superficial. It is an
identifying of the effect so it can be
more easily attained in the future. T h u s,
for example, the small b o y s analysis of
candy is not to determine its ingredients
or to ascertain w hat contributes to the
pleasureable state when he devours it,
but rather to establish in his memory its
taste, color, smell and shape, so that
when he again experiences the desire for
it he can be more certain of acquiring
the thing which will gratify it the most.
T h e factors that satisfy the desires
and appetites and appease the emotions
become the fundamental interests of life.
R eason is the slave of these interests for
it follows the dictates of our emotions.
W h e n the reason has suppressed a de
sire, it has done so only because of a
more subtle emotion of which we are
not fully aware. W i t h a realization of
the interests of life, as defined individ
ually, each human begins the courtship
of life.
T h e s e worldly interests are not with
out their romantic setting; in fact, if
they lacked glamor they would fall short
of that satisfaction they bring to us.
Hourly, daily, this wooing of interests
continues. W e endure hardships, abuse,

and suffering with the hope that we will

eventually be wedded to our fondest in
terests and find therein a lasting hap
piness.
T h e young boy has a growing con
sciousness of his increasing strength
and exercising it gives him a personal
satisfaction. It pleases the instinct of
preservation that endeavors to express
itself in aggressiveness and self-reliance.
H e plans and seeks out w ays of devel
oping his muscles and building a strong
body. Athletics becomes one of his prin
cipal interests in life. Books, games,
people, and everything related to this
interest has an attraction for him, and
he courts it.
T h e little girl is aw are earlier in life
than the boy of symmetry of form and
the harmony of color. Sh e seeks these
things because they are pleasurable to
her. T h i s appreciation of symmetry
and harmony is a realization of exterior
beauty and it aw akens the ego, the de
sire to be to others equally as attractive
as these things are to her. T h is results
in their adorning themselves with what
they think is beautiful, so that the things
may impart to the person a correspond
ing beauty. T h e little girl desires to be
as sought as she in turn seeks the beau
tiful. H e r interests center in all things
that satisfy this inherent vanity. She
openly woos them.
W o o in g these interests in life requires
a certain activity. A normal body gen
erates a nerve energy potential. T h is
energy is intended by nature to meet the
demands which may be made upon it.
T h is excessive energy is not produced
for the functioning of the involuntary
actions of the body, but to meet the de
mands of the will. It is the physical
force we are able to exert in moving our
limbs, in pulling, pushing, lifting, w alk
ing, running and talking. W h e n moder
ately utilized, we experience no discom
fiture, but if we exceed the normal sup
ply the depletion causes fatigue and
consequent irritation.
O n the other
hand, absolute inactivity, if one is
healthy, causes a corresponding ann o y
ance, an increasing tenseness, a tingling
The
R osicru cian sensation as though each cell were en
deavoring to discharge its surplus
D igest
energy. T h is unpleasant sensation pro
Ju n e
vokes bodily or mental action, for if the
1936
brain is very active this energy is con

sumed by its cells and the same end is

accomplished as if the limbs were used.
Th e refo re, healthy persons seek action,
both of body and mind, to eliminate this
feeling of irritation.
T h e person who mainly lives a mental
life has so developed his thought facul
ties that he unconsciously discharges
this excess energy in mental activity. It
is, in fact, easier for him to rid himself
of it in this manner, and it brings him a
greater pleasure. O n the other hand,
those accustomed to physical activity are
almost involuntarily compelled to do
bodily exercise in work or play. T h e
nerve energy follows the path of least
resistance in seeking to dissipate itself.
T h e r e comes a period in life when even
those accustomed in earlier years to
physical exercise find the body not cap
able of performing, and yet nature sup
plies an excess of energy. N ature com
pensates by permitting man to cogitate.
It affords reminiscence, the combining
of multitudes of previously registered
sensations into pleasing pictures of the
past. It is an effort which consumes the
less-frequent excess nerve energy.
Children have less experiences to
draw upon, and a greater nerve force.
Consequently, reflection is not sufficient
activity for them. T h e mere expenditure
of this energy in bodily action is not
very enjoyable. T h e r e must be more in
centive than the desire to just expend
the energy. Adults have an objective in
work and in play. Children find theirs
mainly in play, and mostly with other
children. Association with other chil
dren suggests the course that play shall
take and it is not as irksome as indi
vidually planning it; consequently chil
dren seek companionship of any nature.
If there are a number of children to
select from, the child will choose one
whose conduct nearest approaches the
ideal of his or her interests. A boy par
ticularly interested in athletics boxing,
for example will be drawn to one in
his group of companions who displays
the greatest boxing prowess. T h is selec
tion is secondary. T h e primary urge is
for companionship, which affords the
action desired.
If a child's interests are properly de
veloped and disciplined by the parents,
the child will naturally select com
panions whose conduct corresponds to
O n e H undred E ighty-six

those regulated interests. Suffice to say

that in play the child is continually
selecting a mate, wooing one who
pleases him or her. In very early years
the childs interests are sexless. H e or
she seeks to gratify them where they
may, and whoever contributes to their
interests boy or girl becomes a
chosen companion.
A boy and girl of five can find un
limited pleasure playing together in a
sandpile, without the disdain for each
others sex that comes a few years later.
T h e self-segregation that comes with the
attaining of the age of eight or ten years
is due to an imagined stigma if one is
found associating with the opposite sex.
Parallels are drawn. T h e girl is com
pared with the mother; the boy with his
father. T h e re is a realization of the
similarity. It is apparent to the boy and
girl at the age of eight or ten that the
father and mother, though having mu
tual interests, live to a considerable e x
tent in different worlds, worlds that are
distinctly related to their sex, and any
intermingling of these worlds is not con
sidered proper. T h u s the boy fashions
his conduct after his father, and the girl
after her mother. T o do the things the
girl would do would, to the boy, be a
sacrifice of the dignity of his sex, for his
father never attempts to assume his
mothers role. Consequently this segre
gation is more a matter of suggestion
than instinctive. T h e proof of this is
found in the cases of boys raised by
widows from infanthood without the in
fluence of a man about. T h e ir effeminate
interests are acquired by suggestion, and
not natural inclination.
W i t h puberty a new desire dawns,
which at first the mind is not able to de
fine. It is like the occasional restless
ness adults experience, and yet they are
not able to determine w hat will remove
it. T h e first development of sex con
sciousness is in the lessening antipathy
toward the opposite sex. It manifests in
a strange ecstasy when in the presence
of the other sex. T h is sudden transition
of sentiment is at times confusing to the
child and causes him or her to become
self-conscious when with those of the
other sex. T h is state of mind is fol
lowed by a more quizzical one, an at
tempt to self-explain the attraction the
other seems to have.
O ne H undred E ig h ty -sev en

T h e desire finally is idealized. T h e

boy or girl sees certain physical or
mental traits in the opposite sex that are
preferable. T h e r e is visualized the ideal,
the one whose presence it is imagined
will bring a great personal happiness.
Just as the small boy keenly interested
in boxing has a mental ideal of a boxer
and seeks among his companions one
who will exemplify it, so the youth
seeks among those of the opposite sex a
personification of the new desire he
experiences.
During this period all other traits and
characteristics of the opposite sex which
might have formerly appealed, even
have been the cause of previous com
panionship, are disregarded. T h u s be
fore the consciousness of this new de
sire, a boy might have braved the scorn
of his fellows by being seen with a
little girl companion because Susie or
M a r y could draw such nice pictures and
he likes pictures, but now his whole
and only interest in her is this subtle a t
traction of which he understands noth
ing. H e notices in her, or she in him,
only those characteristics which height
en or lessen the appeal of the ideal
which the desire has established.
T h e value of a member of the other
sex is measured by this predominant de
sire.
Accordingly, companionship is
found in this one interest the satisfy
ing of the desire to be in their presence.
It may be, as it all too frequently is, that
the one to whom the boy or girl is a t
tracted lacks interest in all those other
things which he or she has wooed since
early childhood before this new urge of
the emotions was felt. It is not that love
is blind, as the old proverb says, but
rather that love puts temporary blinders
upon the reasoning faculties. Love com
pels the senses to perceive only w hat the
mind desires.
A t the average age of marriage, the
man and w omans abilities are not fully
developed. T h e y have been awakened,
but their talents mature later with time,
if not hindered. However, at the m ar
riageable age the interests are already
well established. F o r years prior to mar
riage the youth and the girl have freely,
as much as time and opportunity per
mitted, given themselves over to their
individual interests those inclinations
which were felt in childhood, gradually

defined, and finally pursued. T h e s e in

terests constitute their life. W h i l e they
may have recently wooed or been wooed
by one of the opposite sex, they have
been married to these other interests for
years and they cannot easily be di
vorced, nor does the boy or girl desire
that they should be. T h e r e is, after
marriage as before it. the inclination to
continue devotion to these interests.
Prior to marriage most humans habitu
ally pursue their interests. T h e y are the
natural channels for the expressions of
their emotional and mental life. In fact,
it is difficult for the average youth to
explain w hat his interests are. Deprive
a man or woman of their habitual activ
ity and immediately they are aw are of
what their interests in life are. O u r in
terests do not follow in rotation, nor are
they constant. T h u s one may be inter
ested in music and need it for personal
gratification and happiness and yet there
would not be a persistent urge at all
times to play or listen to music. O u r in
terests are fundamentally related to our
instincts and our emotions.
Certain things which we do appease
an emotional desire. It brings such sa t
isfaction that we thereafter define the
desire in terms o f the things or condi
tions which removed it. T h e same emo
tional urge may develop in one person
a love for music; in another a love for
poetry. In one, harmony of thought
exists; in the other, harmony of sound.
Both produce the same emotional effect
in different persons. O u r interests are
therefore cyclical. T h e y make them
selves known with our moods, our emo
tional states. W e feel like drawing,
writing, playing an instrument, because
first we have an innate urge to act, and
secondly, this urge is only quieted by
doing those things which from experi
ence we know satisfies them. T h e s e
moods in some are frequent, and in
others but occasional.
However, the
mood is no less dominant because it only
occasionally occurs. T h e individual who
is moved to play his or her chosen in
strument daily derives no greater pleas
ure from that period than the one who
The
is possessed by the mood but once
R osicru cian weekly.
D igest
A fte r marriage these immanent inter
Ju n e
ests which have been common to a per
son will eventually assert themselves,
1936

and demand their rightful place in a

man or w om ans life. T h e first cog
nizance a husband or wife may have
that their marriage is fundamentally a
mistake is when their marital partner un
wittingly opposes one of these personal
interests. T o maintain domestic tranquil
lity, a personal desire of long standing
one of the expressions of an emotion
may be voluntarily suppressed, but in
doing so the individual always feels that
he or she has made a tremendous sacri
fice. W h e n such sacrifices are made, the
ultimate in connubial happiness can
never be attained. M a n y men and
women have a high affection for their
matrimonial mate, but the possible ex
cellence of their state of marriage is
lacking because there is not a coherence
of interests.
T h e poets for centuries have sung
that marriages are born of the heart. In
the poetic sense this is true. Trad ition
ally we think o f the heart as the seat of
emotions, the center which reflects the
feelings, joy, grief and the passions.
T h e motivating factor which ultimately
leads to the marriage ceremony pre
scribed by the state in the majority of
instances is the biological urge. Thus,
psychologically speaking, the emotions
symbolized by the heart are the birth
place of the natural desire for marriage.
T h o u g h this marriage impulse be born
of the heart, unless it is carefully nur
tured by the reason it grows like many
hot-house plants to abnormal propor
tions at the sacrifice o f its other attri
butes and longevity.
T h e exercise of reason in preparing
for marriage does not mean cooling the
romantic fervor by employing a method
which subjects the feelings to a chilling
laboratory analysis.
In fact, dwelling
on the harsh realisms of the functions of
marriage and the origin of the impelling
force which brings it about has a very
disquieting effect upon the idealism one
may have of it. If the illusionary glamor
which surrounds marriage is destroyed,
you strike deeply at public morals and
conventions. T h e refo re, any such form
of dialectics cannot be encouraged for
social reasons. But reason, instead of
robbing anticipated marriage of its ap
peal, can strengthen it, not by increas
ing the desire itself but by surrounding
it with as many complementary interests
O ne H undred E ighty-eight

as possible. If no complementary inter

ests can be related to it, obviously the
object in whom the marriage interest is
centered is at fault.
Suppose, as an analogy, you had a
friend of the same sex with whom you
had a common interest. T h is interest is
more than superficial. W e shall say it
is deeply instilled in your nature. Let
us also say it is not your only interest,
but it is one of the principal ones. Y o u
meet this person weekly at a place where
you may both devote yourselves to this
regard in a congenial and sympathetic
environment. It may consist of the love
of music, sculpture, drama, astronomy,
or one of a multitude of things.
For
this period weekly you give over your
whole mental and psychic self to a com
plete absorption in this interest. Y o u
willingly exclude all others. B ut would
you agree to eliminate from your life
continually your other interests? Y o u
realize their significance, their relation
to your needs and to your continued
happiness.
In fact, you would know
that the enthusiasm you have for your
hobby, your avocation, this preferred in
terest, would depend upon avoiding
monotony which would come if there
was not an alternation of interests. Y o u
would strenuously resist, therefore, hav
ing this friend who had a similar domi
nant interest share your daily life, if in
every other respect his or her conduct
or mannerisms and other regards was
diametrically opposed to yours. Y o u
would fully realize that the mutual single
interest could not be sustained at its
highest level at all times. T h e refo re, if
there was a vast divergency of other
habits and characteristics, conflict would
eventually result. T h is conflict would in
fact, reason tells you, even dampen the
attraction of the common interest exist
ing between you.
If you would apply such reasoning to
hobbies and avocations, then w hy not
exercise it with respect to marriage?
W h y not try to ascertain whether the
object of your affections is sympathetic
to your secondary interests the inter
ests which draw you to other individuals
where the matter of sex is not co n
cerned. T h e extent of these correlated
concerns is also a matter of importance.
It is a rare phenomenon indeed when
the interests of two people are identical,
O ne H undred E ighty-n in e

and in the same order of value. T h e r e

is a scale of appeals in life for each of
us. E a c h of us can quite readily in a
general w ay define our major interests
in life, and then in a downward course
name those less appealing. Som e of
those less fortunate who have a cramped
mental life cannot go beyond a second
classification.
Insofar as the married are concerned,
it is quite natural that their major inter
est is biological, those subtle intangible
influences which make themselves felt
merely because of the difference in
polarity of sex. Follow ing this, then,
there should be the main intellectual
binding factors, the things that were
preferred as interests in life prior to
marriage. All of these pre-nubial con
cerns may not be shared alike, but if
those for which each have the greatest
fondness are, the foundation of connu
bial happiness is sound. Matrimonial
companionship exists only in these
major interests. In fact, companionship
in all interests is practically an impos
sibility psychologically, and is not neces
sary for harmony. T h e r e are certain in
terests which are obviously related to
the inclinations of sex, interests which
are of the temperament of women, and
others which are rooted in masculine
impulses. T h e s e different interests are
natural, and not conflicting, for neither
sex looks to the other to share them or
seeks the other's companionship in them.
A test of marital companionship is
possible. If a man or woman can look
upon their mate dispassionately, and see
in them those intellectual and mental
qualities and characteristics which would
draw them to one of their own sex, then
there exists a bond other than sex. If
a husband or wife displays no concern
for anything which the other en jo ys in
dulging in a mixed society, the unity of
their interests is exceedingly fragile. If
one has a predilection for scholastic pur
suits, history and literature, and finds
stimulus in conversing with another of
his or her own sex on these topics, the
partner in marriage should naturally
have the same general cultural tenden
cies, for if he or she has not, mere sex
attraction will not be able to permanent
ly bridge the mental gulf between them.
During our recent economic upheaval,
the increase in divorces was alarming.

Crises of every kind alw ays disclose

formerly non-apparent weaknesses, for
they usually tax to the utmost the things
they affect. W h e n external pressure is
not severe, internal domestic strife can
be relieved by resorting to interests
which keep the discordant problem in
the background. W h e n two persons
whose temperaments and interests are
foreign to each other can no longer be
continually free of each o thers company
during leisure hours by indulging their
separate favorite pastimes, the matters
of issue between them are bound to
break through the restraint and cause
serious consequences. Reduction of in
comes and unemployment o f late years
has brought thousands of husbands and
wives together as they should have been
for years, but their original separateness
had been caused by extreme difference
of interests, and therefore the compul
sory companionship was short-lived and
they were soon added to the mounting
number of divorces. During these times
the hue and cry was that ex travagance
was the main cause of these divorces,
especially at a time when economy and
thrift was the vital need. In the m ajor
ity of instances, this cry was merely to
keep the real reason from being heard.
T h o u q h ex travagance in most states of
the Union and most countries of the
world is not good and sufficient grounds
for divorce, it has been declared the
contributing cause by men and women
alike in even prosperous times.
W h a t really constitutes domestic e x
travagance? T h e administration of home
finances can, in many respects, parallel
that of business. T h e first use of incom
ing funds by a business enterDrise is for
the maintenance of its program, its over
head, payroll, taxes, rentals, security
(insurance and reserve funds), and the
continuance of its advertising, sales and
good-will activities. Good-will activities
are contributions to the social needs of
the community, hospitals, charitable in
stitutions and benevolent societies. T h is
creates public respect for the concern
a necessary adjunct to any business.
Luxuries in business most often include
ventures into the realm of expansion,
The
R osicru cian unnecessary mechanizing of their plants,
financial contributions to political parties
D igest
to attempt to influence public opinion.
Ju n e
In prosperous times business can stand
1936
these luxuries, many of which are sheer

gambles, sometimes bringing fortunate

results. In depressing times these later
ventures, if they jeopardize the main
tenance funds, are naught but extrava
gances.
In a home, the first need is also to
meet the demands of maintenance, rent
and taxes, food, household and inci
dental expenses, and clothing. In these
first demands upon the family resources
must also, as with business, be included
G O O D W I L L . Domestic good will is
brought about by relief from the routine
duties of the day. T h u s under this head
ing must be classified entertainment and
cultural pursuits.
Sound home ad
ministration also includes the security
provision which wise business direction
considers a necessity. T h is security is
life, accident and fire insurance and a
surplus savings account. N o home is
extravagant where money is being spent
in accord with such a plan. E x trav a
gance cannot exist if each one of these
requirements has been met. It is true a
family can change the distribution pro
portion of their funds, but that does not
mean extravagance. F o r instance, the
rent and food costs can be reduced and
the difference applied to security or
good-will.
E x trav a g an ce in home re
quirements occurs only when any one
of the first demands is jeopardized. If
the family obligates itself to live in
squalid, depressing quarters so as to in
crease its savings, this constitutes an ex
travagance for it is a waste of the need
ed human comforts to attain a monetary
power. Further, if cultural pursuits and
pleasures compel limiting the amount of
life insurance to a sum which would
leave a member or members of the
family destitute after funeral expenses
had been paid, we have extravagance in
still another form.
In an analysis of the majority of those
cases where extravagance is given as a
direct cause of divorce, it is surprising
to note that it is not the extravagance
considered above. It is usually contend
ed that the extravagance consists of
pursuing an interest which to all intent
and purposes is constructive, and most
times cultural, but which is not consid
ered such by the complainant. In other
words, husbands bewail their wives
wasteful expenditure of money on little
O ne H undred Ninety

drama or music club membership fees,

or memberships in fraternal organiza
tions having nominal dues, and which
are devoted to an appreciation of the
arts, merely because they are not sym
pathetic with these interests, and they
themselves often spend an equal or
larger sum on the pleasures they think
necessary in life. W i v e s in turn will
often harass their husbands for throw
ing their money away, which seems so
to their limited vision and lack of in
tellectual comprehension, because their
husband spends two or three dollars a
month for a series of lessons on abstract
metaphysics and philosophy. T h e wife,
thinking in terms of the buying power
of money in satisfying her entirely dif
ferent concerns, cannot appreciate the
sincere enjoyment her husband gains
from this nominal expenditure. T h e
husband or wife whose values of life
are solely materialistic try to subject all
that they purchase or secure from in
vestments to an examination by the
senses. If they cannot, it seems to them
an extravagance.
T h e y will consider
knowledge not immediately convertible
into dollars and cents as a dissipation of
resources. However, this same type
when they leave the theater lobby after
a performance have nothing to display
for their investment except a personal
satisfaction. T h e y cannot see the simi
larity between the joy a student of
music, art, or philosophy receives from
his investment and the gratification he
obtains from the theatrical performance.
Objections to cultural pursuits not en
dangering the first demands upon the
family income are signs of incompati
bility.
One of the greatest torments a human
must endure is complete domination by
another. T h a t society, conventions, and
the law permit such subjugation of one
human to another makes it none the less
grievous. T h e r e is nothing that robs
life of those expectancies of the future
to which we strive to cling fast like the
suppression of our psychic tendencies
and latent talents. T h o u g h we may to
ourselves admit that the grains of genius
have not been planted in our souls, we
like to give utterance to those feelings
which we know are of the stuff from
which greatness comes. T h e humble
streetworker who loses his thoughts in
One Hundred N in ety-on e

the sounds he draws from his inexpen

sive violin has found refuge in a world
that transcends this a world of the
inner emotions. N o genius absorbed by
the ethereal-like tones he produces on
his Stradivarius can have his conscious
ness more liberated. T o deny another
human this occasional afflatus is the
greatest crime one can be guilty of, and
yet many husbands and wives with a
supercilious attitude interfere with their
mate's emotional manifestations. T h e y
deny them either the paltry few dollars
which makes possible these simple and
exquisite joys, or boisterously ridicule
these interests about which they are
most sensitive, until in defense they sup
press them within the recesses of their
being where they become rancor and
breed hatred. Th o u san d s upon thou
sands of homes are subject to this
domestic imperialism, an imperialism
born out of incompatibility. W i t h most
imperialists, a vain stupidity adds to the
hopelessness of the situation because
they sincerely believe that the oppres
sion they exercise is for the best concern
of all.
Domestic agreement between husband
and wife with respect to the particulars
of their individual interests is not es
sential. If the husband and wife are
both artistically inclined, though the one
may prefer sculpturing and the other
dress designing, there prevails a har
mony of sentiment. A man may vent his
imagination in inventive activity, and a
woman in short-story writing, and yet
these interests would complement each
other because they are inspired by the
same inherent urges. T h e r e is in each
the latent desire to create, to bring into
existence something which coincides
with the ideal their mind has conceived.
B oth can appreciate each o th ers thrill
of realization when the idea material
izes under the direction of applied in
telligence, and each o thers ebullient
pride when it is completed. T h e r e must
be a unanimity of emotional response.
T h e channels into which these tempera
ments are drawn are, so far as this a c
cord is concerned, not of importance.
W h a t matters is how the imagination
wishes to play, as long as it is not stilted
by ridicule or checked by absolute op
pression? A n emotion is an actuating
force. Its end comes in the movement of

mind and body. T h e means employed is

of no concern.
O n the other hand, an unimaginative
person may make life miserable for one
who finds freedom in the play of mind.
T h o s e who find exquisite joy in creating
in fiction incidents, characters and con
ditions which expand their mental world
and carry them to great heights not ob
tainable otherwise, are tortured when
their consciousness is continually forced
to return by persons of unimaginative
minds and bind itself to realities.
It is natural that men should fre
quently express differently a tempera
ment which they have in common with
their wives. Both may have creative
ability, but in the man it may take the
form of mechanical pursuits and in the
woman, aesthetic interests. T h is differ
ence in manifestation is influenced by
the general emotional nature of the sex.
A monogamous marriage is impos
sible, regardless of the restraint of soci
ety and the dictates of convention,
where the only existing tie is sex in
terest. N o human cares to merely live,
but rather to live for an end. M a n lives
because he finds in life something which
strongly appeals to him, because he has
desires he hopes to gratify b y living.
T h is applies alike to the dominant ap
petites of the lower nature of the sensu
ous and to the lofty ideals of the in
tellectual. T h e course o f one's life is,
therefore, always in the direction of
these interests. E ven disinterest, diffi
dence, and indolence are interests, for
those who are so inclined find pleasure
in them or they would not continue
them. In the main, it is extremely for
tunate for the human race that our de
sires are not easily satiated, or for very
long. T h e mental pleasures are intensi
fied by the continual growth and change
of the ideal toward which the mind is
drawn and the physical pleasures,
though often becoming less frequent be
cause of physiological changes, are
stimulated by the imagination and thus
kept alive.
W h e r e marriage has been established
on a foundation of sex interest alone,
The
marriage can last only as long as the
Rosicrucian the
marriage partner continues to represent
Digest
the height of the ideal of that interest.
June
A man, for example, who has a great
fondness for roses, visualizes the perfect
1936

rose in form, color and scent. T h a t vi

sion stays with him at all times. It does
not ch ange as long as the interest in
roses continues. If he obtains a splendid
specimen, one that is comparable with
his exemplar, it should not be expected
that he will continue his interest in it
even a fter its bloom has wilted. His
interest will direct him to search else
where for another like the perfect speci
men he still visualizes. S o it is with a
marriage built upon physical attraction.
T h e interest in physical attraction will
not diminish quickly with the years, but
interest in the original O B J E C T of the
attraction is bound to, for physical at
traction in a human reaches a zenith as
it does in a flower. Consequently, the
husband or wife seeks elsewhere for an
exemplification o f the physical ideal.
M arria g e s of this type clutter the divorce
courts and fill the front pages of yellow
journals with scandals. Fundamental
human interests such as sex, compel at
tention by man, but woe is the couple
whose sole mutual interest is sex. The
interest will persist, but within a few
years neither one will be the object of
the o th ers interest.
It may seem to some that we have not
taken into consideration moral force.
T h e y contend that sex attraction may
be the essential and dominating factor
in causing a marriage. It may also be
the sole interest each may have in the
other, and yet some characters assert
such a strong influence that with the
waning of sex glamor there will result
no promiscuity or improper conduct with
others of the opposite sex. It is said,
therefore, that marriages of this kind are
lasting because of the interposing of
moral responsibility. B ut this is a cir
cumlocutory argument, for when moral
values are interposed, there is no longer
the single interest o f sex. T h e re is, in
addition, the interpretation built up by
the reason of certain delicate emotional
reactions to conduct.
M o rals are definitely related to virtue,
and virtue is a kind of sympathetic emo
tion causing us to extend the same amity
to others as we hope to receive from
them. Individuals who can appreciate
such moral duties toward each other,
even when the sex interest in each other
wanes, have more than just a sex tie.
T h e y have this mutual moral responsi
O n e H un dred Ninety-two

bility which is as distinct a human in

terest as the love for harmony in color
and sound, or in other words, music and
art. Such couples then, in fact, have
double mutual interests.
W h e n the
physical one fails, the moral one pre
vails. It is evident a monogamous mar
riage depends up on a combination of in
terests other than sex. Especially should
one of the interests be cultural for the
cultural desire can never be quite satis
fied and is alw ays a higher end to strive
for, since mental pursuits can be fol
lowed later in life than physical ones.
T h e unifying efficacy of the former is
greater.
Psychologically, love is selfish, though
oftentimes indirectly so. W e love those
who love the things we do. T h is love,
of course, is not to be taken in the physi
cal sense. T h e s e higher loves, as Plato
termed them, will persist long after the
love of sex is dormant, and they make
for the staple marriages upon which so
ciety depends.
Contests between husbands and wives
for home dictatorship have been the
prime cause of many marital rifts. M a n y
of these conflicts are provoked by tradi
tions which are obsolete today. A t a
time in the past when woman was a
chattel of man, not far above the cattle
in the pasture in value to him, man was
physically and mentally superior to her.
His distinct physical advantage com
pelled him to be the provider, to travel,
to study natu res phenomena, to sharpen
his wits to better cope with enemies and
the elements. W oman was as confined
as the few domestic animals the family
owned. Sh e had no future, therefore
was not required to exercise her mental
powers. She was in every respect m ans
inferior. T h e r e could be no question of
man's rightful place as head o f the
house, lord and master of the home.
Civilization and the machine age have
changed all that. T h e modern woman
with a n y initiative can in the confines o f
her home become as conversant with
world topics as her husband through the
medium of the press, news periodicals,
radio, and motion pictures, not to men
tion a world of books by eminent au
thorities on the events of the day. T o
day the average man is less an in
dividualist than he was a century ag o
when the world was primarily an ag ri
One H undred N in ety-three

cultural one. M o s t men, whether of the

white collar or laboring class, are cogs
in modern industry. A fair livelihood is
assured them b y being if nothing else
routine plodders. T o a great extent the
law-enforcing agencies of society have
prevented man from resorting to physi
cal violence in disputes with his mate so
even that attribute affords him little su
periority in his home today. T h e refo re,
the present-day male has no claim to
home dictatorship by virtue of his sex
and tradition. T h i s position, if it is to
be assumed in the home at all, must go
to the natural aggressor the one who
is the most positive in his or her desires
and can enforce them by sheer power
of will.
T h e aggressive spirit is to be found
in either sex. It is not in a n y sense
strictly a masculine characteristic. A g
gressiveness can be acquired, but it is
most frequently instinctive.
P sy ch o
logically it is due to the ability to con
centrate intently upon an idea, keeping
it prominent in the consciousness, build
ing up thereby an artificial desire which
becomes directly related to the idea.
T h e artificial desire is will, which com
pels action of body and mind to satisfy
itself or attain the final end of the idea.
All other interests are subordinated to
this dominant thought and the person
moves constantly in a direction which
he or she believes will fulfill this single
purpose. T h is aggressiveness does not
relate to all the interests o f the in
dividual, but he or she usually tries to
relate other interests to the cause of the
aggressiveness. T h u s a man may be a
dynamic force in his business and in his
other interests be quite calm, but w hen
ever in his secondary interests some
thing suggests the possibility of further
ing the preferred one, this aggressive
spirit will be aroused.
W h e r e this aggressiveness is co n
cerned with domestic matters it will, if
it is resident in only one member o f the
family, cause that one, regardless of
sex, to be the director of the household.
T h e r e can be no unhappiness caused by
it if there exists between husband and
wife the needed mutual interests, for
this aggressive spirit will but promote to
the fullest the interests which they both
share and enjoy. W h e r e the common
interests are lacking, the aggressive one

will by the very momentum of his or her

will, pull aw ay from the other and
rapidly bring about the eventual divorce.
Husbands who are not naturally a g
gressive should not attempt to assume
the role and bring themselves into con
flict with a naturally aggressive wife
merely because they believe their place
in the home has been usurped. W h e r e
there is no common interest between
man and wife, the aggressive member
will continue the attempt to impose his
or her interest upon the other, and the
state of environment of the home can
easily be imagined. W h e r e one is par
ticularly aggressive in an interest not
shared by the other, tolerance will be
exhibited if both share another common
interest. Consequently, the n o n -ag gres
sor of the family should continually keep
before the other the things of mutual in
terest if domestic harmony is to reign.
W h a t is the ultimate end of marriage
is a question quite frequently asked.
T h e answer cannot be a general one for
it depends upon the point of view. M a r
riage serves not one purpose but sev
eral. Biologically, the legal and moral
aspects of marriage are inconsequential.
In the biological sense marriage consists
of a union of the two sexes and a propa
gation of the species. From this point
of view a man and woman have served
their purpose in life when they have re
produced their kind. T h is is the final
and ultimate attainment of nature, bio
logically. W h e n they are no longer
capable of this function in a strict bio
logical sense, they become liabilities in
stead of assets. Sociologists, on the
other hand, have a more illumined
though none the more utilitarian co n
cept of marriage. Fam ily responsibility
keeps alive moral values. It invokes
sympathetic emotions. T h e instinct of
self-preservation extends from the in
dividual to his immediate dependents.
It curbs the individuals brutal passions
and causes the finer sentiments to be e x
pressed in ways and means intended to
protect the weaker members of the
family. T h is restraining influence will
unite
men in supporting the institutions
The
of society which care for the indigent,
R osicrucian helpless and unfortunate which they
Digest
would not be concerned with if they

were thrown upon their own resources,

with no other responsibilities. T h e di
rect selfishness of man is curbed by the
thought that his acts may reflect upon
his dependents. If the state of marriage
did not exist, the family would become
extinct and so would those institutions
of society which depend upon an appeal
to man's charitable nature which is
aroused by family life.
M e n risk any conduct for their own
regard, but will weigh the risks of a
venture if it is to jeopardize their im
mediate family. Society is an enlarged
family promulgating on a larger scale
the interests of the families of which it
is composed.
D estroy the ties which
hold a family together, and society
crumbles.
Consequently every wise
government avoids experimentation with
family life, or those influences which
make for its strength and security.
Psychologically and philosophically,
the final object of the state of marriage
is the creation of an environment which
provides the emotional means to bring
man peace of mind and eliminate the
restlessness of search. M a n by nature
loves to peregrinate. He hopes to find
in point of space those thing which will
quell the longings of his emotional self.
T h e more aggravating these urges, the
more restless he becomes. H e expects
to find just over yonder hill that mys
terious something which he cannot de
fine which will quiet the welling sensa
tions within him. It is the extreme e x
ception who will climb the mountain top
within himself and from the lofty peak
of his mind seek within the depths of
his nature the cause of his restlessness.
M arriage provides the emotional en
vironment man needs to stifle these
pangs of agitation. C are of wife and
family runs man through a gauntlet of
his emotions. E very emotion is played
upon. N o sentiment is left unexpressed.
W h e n man experiences within the fam
ily circle those sensations to which his
emotional nature responds, lifes inter
ests become centered there. T h e uncer
tainties of a peace and pleasure beyond
the hill become a gamble which he will
not chance for the benefits of his im
mediate known environment.

June
1 93 6

V
O ne H un dred N in ety-fou r

T h e Rosicrucian Planetarium
AN UNUSUAL ADDITION TO THE FEA TURES A T
ROSICRUCIAN PARK
By T h e S u p re m e S e c r e t a r y
N T h e Rosicrucian
D igest f o r l a s t
month there was
reproduced a large
picture of the new
planetarium build
ing n o w nearing
completion at R osi
crucian Park. T h is
picture has aroused
so much interest
that we feel our
m e m b e r s will be
glad to have some
further facts about it.
T h e re are a number of scientific
planetariums in Europe, but there have
been only four in America. M o s t of
these were built upon high mountain
tops or in isolated points aw ay from the
hearts of cities and always more or less
inaccessible to the average visitor. T h e
Rosicrucian planetarium is the first one
to be built in a small city and directly on
one of the important highways and
easily reached without special convey
ances or the loss of considerable time.
F or this reason the Rosicrucian plane
tarium will not only be an enjoyable fea
ture for the hundreds of members who
visit Rosicrucian Park each year from
all parts of the O ccid ent and Orient,
but it will be unusually convenient to
the many thousands of tourists from all
One H undred N in ety-five

parts of Am erica who pass northward

or southward along the main highway
of California. T h u s one more Rosicru
cian cultural attraction will bring thou
sands of strangers to Rosicrucian Park,
there to become acquainted with the ra
tional, sane, scientific, and practical ac
tivities and teachings of our organiza
tion as compared with the extremely
fantastic, impractical, or theoretical
teachings of so-called occult organiza
tions that create many doubts in the
minds of the public and leave a very er
roneous impression as to what the vari
ous mystical organizations of the world
are attempting to accomplish.
Just as our O riental Museum at R o si
crucian P a rk brings thousands of visit
ors today who are surprised to find that
the Rosicrucian O rd er does not deal e x
clusively with intangible things of the
clouds, or invisible things of the imagi
nation, but with the practical and useful
things of life, so the planetarium will at
tract cultured, thinking men and women
of all parts of the W e s t , and likewise
the tourists from all parts of the world.
O n ce again the A M O R C will be dis
tinguished in encyclopedias and refer
ence books, and in statistical informa
tion published by the S ta te o f C ali
fornia, and by historical authorities
everywhere as the first and only fra
ternal organization in America, or per

(6
\
pjxruxrj

haps in the world, to build and operate

a planetarium for the public exhibition
of the scientific principles of the Cosmic
and the universe. It will impress think
ing persons with the fact that this or
ganization does practical things in a
practical w ay and deals with the most
advanced revelations of science.
B y reference to the picture of the
building as published last month in this
magazine, it will be seen that when the
Imperator designed this new building,
as he designed all of our other O riental
buildings at Rosicrucian Park, he made
this new one representative and typical
o f another of the O riental types of
architecture. T h i s one is impressively
and distinctively of the A rabic type of
mosque to be found in T u rk e y , Syria,
Palestine, E g y p t, and other places of
the E ast. Its two large domes, covered
with silvery metal, sparkle in the sun
light and moonlight and attract the at
tention of the tourists as they approach
Rosicrucian Park. Its spires and turrets
are typical of the minarets attached to
the mosques of the O rient. T h e color
ing of the building, while harmonizing
with the other O riental buildings or the
other eleven units of our buildings at
Rosicrucian Park, is distinctly that of
the M oham m edan and A rabic principles.
W it h in the building which is one
hundred and fifteen feet long, there are
large reading and lounging rooms, rest
rooms, cloak room, editorial room and
research library. T h e main foyer is
lined with black marble and with
marblesque floors and a wide stairw ay
leading to the planetarium proper. In
the planetarium the lecture sessions will
be conducted in theme as if one were a t
tending a performance in a theater of
R E A D

T H E

the sky. In this planetarium will be

demonstrated the movement of all the
groups of stars and of the planets and
o f the various Cosmic laws which oper
ate throughout the universe. T h e entire
movement of the stars, planets, comets,
and other heavenly features which
usually require a y e a rs time will be re
produced in one hour. O n e will learn
more about the fundamental principles
of astronomy and the formation and
operation of the universe in an hours
lecture than in the reading of many
books.
Differing from the other few planetariums in America, or those in Europe,
all of which are owned and controlled
by scientific institutions, the Rosicrucian
planetarium will not be confined ex
clusively to a demonstration of the
astronomical laws according to the
Copernican theory. In this planetarium
the old theories of ancient astronomy
which guided the E gy ptian s will be
demonstrated.
Because of the need of flexible mech
anical apparatus for this planetarium in
order to be free from the limitations of
the C opernican theories and to demon
strate at the same time the Cosmic laws
known to our members, every piece of
apparatus to be used was designed and
invented by our Imperator, and manu
factured under his direction right here
in California, many o f the parts and
most intricate pieces being made in our
own laboratories by the Imperator and
his assistants. E v ery feature of the
mechanical operation is therefore orig
inal and distinctly adaptable to the dem
onstration of the principles taught in our
monographs.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

'{9

1111 i n n ii t i i i m u i n n m u m 111

Q u in n

IM P O R T A N T B U L L E T IN
W e are happy to announce that our beloved Sovereign Grand Master, Dr. Clement
Le Brun, has gained slightly in health and strength and has been able to leave his home
for a few minutes at a time for short walks and drives. W e are very hopeful of his complete recovery, and he and his family desire to thank all of our members for their loving
thoughts, messages, and flowers.

The
R osicru cian
D ig est
T h e continued good wishes
Ju n e
1936
a . .........................................

=
[
i
\

of our members are earnestly solicited.

i
O n e H un dred N in ety-six

T H O U S A N D S H EA R R O SIC R U C IA N L E C T U R E
Since January, thousands of men and women in all of the principal cities of the United States have heard Frater P c o le . m em ber of the National Lecture Board of
A M O R C expound the history and purposes of the Rosicrucian Order. Thousands of members, likewise, have heard him elucidate the A M O RC teachings.
Althouqh the Courier Car has but half completed its second transcontinental tour, it has been so well received that plans are under way to again reroute it across the
nation. The public has also acclaimed the exhibition of the special sound and talking motion pictures by Frater Brewer, which are one of the features ol tie Courier ar s
visit to a citv T he picture above was taken recently on the occasion of Frater Poole's public address in Chicago.
*
y
^
(C ou rtesy o f R osicrucian D igest.)

I I

A MA Z I N t i

I I

Says W e l l ' K n o w n E g y p t o l o g i s t of

PYRAMID BOOK
O N E is belter qualified lo comment w ith authority <m a book about the G reat Pyramirl
than M r. H u g h A . M atier. w ell-kn ow n Egyptologist and archaeologist. M r. M atier spent
years in Egypt, m aking a personal study of the G re at Pyram id. H e participated in the renowned
Petrie expedition in F ayoum . E gypt, brin gin g to light m any astounding relics. H e is a founder
member of the P acific G e o g ra p h ic Society, and the A llie d A rchaeological Societies of the Pacific.
H e is also a m ember of the A rt, H istorical, Scientific A ssociation of C a n a d a , now searching for
evidences o! early man on the Pacific C oast of N orth A m erica. M r. M a tie r voluntarily wrote the
follow ing letter w h ile reading D r. L e w is latest book. " T h e Sym bolic Prophecy of the Great
Pyram id.

Hollywood, California
2 8 t h A p r il i W

Uy d e a r D r

'Lewie: -

I an, ju e t In the a ld .t of readln*

y o u r ne book,
O r e a t P y r a m i d ,"

"T h e S y m b o l i c P r o p h e c y o f t h e
and

how d . l l * t f u l

It

Is

I t re a lly Is a lon 6 time since

hPd so much p l e a s u r e I n a b o o k .
- i t h w h ich t h i s
T he c l e a r n e s s

pro-

fo u n d s u b je c t i s d e a l t I s am arlnP. t o nn
o l o g l e t l i k e m y s e lf and I am s u re you w
6 l v e th o u sa n d s o f p e o p le Br e a t p l e a s u r e ,
t h o s e who h a v e n o t been t o E g y p tI t was d i f f i c u l t t o p u t I t down e
f o r t h e few m in u te s r e q u ir e d t o w r i t e

th is ,

but

m u st th a n k you and c o n g r a t u l a t e you on

th is

s p le n d id

m a s t e r p ie c e .

3o now, t o y o u r book a 6 a l n
and w ith my co m p lim e n ts and b e s t w is h e s .
y 0 u t o b e l i e v e me, d e a r D r . S p e n c e r Lew s .
Y o u re m ot s t n c e r e l > i

T h is new book. I he Sym bo lic Prophecy of the G reat Pyram id, is therefore considered to he
by authorities and laym en a like. one of the most fascinating and accurate presentations of this
age-old mystery. It contains references to science s latest discovery, the hidden, subterranean
passagew ays ol the Pyram id and e xplains their secret purpose. f reat yourself to the best
obtain a copy at once.

Only #2. 00 , including postage.

The R O S I C R U C I A N
SAN

JOSE.

CALIFORNIA

S U P P L Y

B U R E A U
U.

S. A.

TH E PU RPO SES O F

THE

Member o f

Funosi
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societes
Tnitiatique.s)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

The Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. The purpose o f the o rga n i
zation is to enable all to live in harmony with the creative, constructive.
Cosmic forces fo r the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
The O rder is Internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O RC in America, and all other lands, constitutes the only form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation.
The AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
freely to all affiliated members, togeth er with many other benefits.
In qu irers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are invited to send fo r
the free book. "T h e Secret H e rita g e ." Address, F ria r S. P. C\, care of
AM OKC T E M P L E
Itosicriician P a rk , San -lose, C alifo rn ia, U. S. A.
(Cable Address: "A M O R C O "
Radio Station W tiH T B )

Officials of the North and South American Jurisdictions

(In cluding the United States, Dominion o f Canada, Alaska. Mexico. Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.
Costa Rica, El Salvador. Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f Am erica.)
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS . F. R. C.. Ph. D ..................................................
C L E M E N T B. L E B R U N , F. R. C...........................................
R A L P H M. L E W IS . F. R. C...................................................................
H A R V E Y M ILE S . F. R. C.
E T H E L B. W A R D . F. R. C
H A R R Y L. STITBLEY, F. R. C..........................................- .....................

Im perator
Grand Master
Supreme Secretary
Grand Treasurer
Secretary to Grand Master
D irector o f Publications

Junior O rder o f Torch Bearers (sponsored b y A M O R C ). For com plete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary. Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park. San Jose, California.

T he follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

S an Francisco, C alifo rn ia:

Reading, Pennsylvania:

Reading Chapter. Mr. Carl Schlotzhauer,

Master: Mr. George R. Osman, Secretary.
Meeting every 1st and 3rd Friday. 8:00 p. in..
Washington Hall. 904 W ashington Street.
New Y o rk City, New Y o rk :

New York Chapter, Rooms 35-36, 711 8th

Ave.. cor. 8th Ave. and 45th Street. Louis
Riccardi. Master; Margaret Sharpe. Secre
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
days and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.
P hiladelphia. P ennsylvania:

Delta Lodge No. 1, A M O R C . S. E. Corner

40th and Brown Sts.. 2nd Floor. Mr. Albert
Courtney, Master.
Benjamin Franklin Chapter of A M O R C ;
Mr. James De Fulio, Master: Martha Aitken.
Secretary. 2203 15th Street. Meetings for
all members every second and fourth Sun
days. 7:30 p. m.. at 1521 W est Girard Ave.
(Second Floor. Room B ).
Boston. M assachusetts:

The Marie Clemens Lodge, Chester A.

Robinson, Master. Temple and Reading
Rooms, 739 Boylston St.. Telephone Kenmore 9398.
D etroit. M ich igan :

Thebes Chapter No. 336. Miss Ella A. Milliman, Master:

Mrs. Pearl Anna Tifft,
Secretary. Meetings at the Florence Room,
Tuller Hotel, every Tuesday, 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone No. 1870.

Francis Bacon Lodge, 1655 Polk

Mr. David Mackenzie, Master.

Street;

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:

Penn. First Lodge. Ralph M. Ross, Master:

610 Arch Street.
A tlan ta, G eorgia:

Atlanta Chapter No. 650.

Dr. Janies C.
Oakshette, Master: Nassau Hotel. Meetings
7:30 every Thursday night.
Los A ngeles, C alifo rn ia:

Hermes Lodge, A M O R C Temple. Mr. Dun

can G. W right, Master. Reading Room and
Inquiry office open daily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. rn.
and 7:30 p. m. to 9 p. m. except Sundays.
Granada Court. 672 South Lafayette Park
Place.
B irm ingham , A labam a:

Birmingham Chapter of A M O R C For in

formation address Mr. Cuyler C. Berry,
Master, 721 So. 85th St.
Ch icago, Illin ois:

Chicago Chapter No. 9. H. C. Blackwell.

Master; Mabel L. Schmidt, Secretary. T e le
phone Superior 6881. Reading Room open
afternoons and evenings. Sundays 2 to 5
only. 100 E. Ohio St., Room 403-404. Lec
ture sessions for A LL piembers every T u es
day night, 8:00 p. m.
Chicago Afra-American Chapter No. 10.
Oliver T . McGrew, Master;
Nehemiah
Dennis. Secretary. Meeting every W ednes
day night at 8 o'clock. Y . M. C. A., 3763 So.
W abash Avenue.

(D irecto ry Continued on N ext P a g e )

Seattle, W ash ington:

Portland , O reg on:

Portland Chapter. Floyd D. Cook. Master:

405 Orpheum Bldg. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . llth Avenue.
Washington, D. C.:
Thom as Jefferson Chapter.
Howard E.
Mertz. Master. Confederate Memorial Hall.
1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings every
Friday, 8:00 p. m.

A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter. Master:

Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry Street. Reading room open week
days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Monday. 8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
M o n treal. Q uebec. C anada:

Edm onton. A lb erta:

Mr. F. G.
Avenue E .

Powell.

Master.

9533

Jasper

V icto ria , B ritish C olum bia:

V ictoria Ledge, Mr. George A. Phillips,

Master. Inquiry Office and Reading Room.
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a .m . to 6 p.m .
W inn ip eg , M an ito ba, C anada:

G. F. Gostick. Master, 361 M achray Ave

Session for all members every Sunday.
2:45 p. m., 304 B Enderton Bldg., Portage
Ave. and Hargrave St.

Montreal Chapter.
F. E . Dufty. Master:
210 W est St. James Street. Inquiry office
open 10 a.m . to 5 p.m. daily; Saturdays
10 a. m. to 1 p. m.
T o ro n to , O n tario . C anada:

Miss Edith Hearn. M aster. Sessions 1st and

3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00 p. in., No. 10
Lansdowne Ave.
V an cou ver, B ritish C olum bia:

Canadian Grand Ledge, A M O R C . Mrs.

Ethel M. W are, Master. A M O R C Temple,
878 Hornby Street.

SP A N ISH A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
T his jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative Office are located at San Juan, Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
T he name and address of the Officers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.

A ll correspondence should be addressed as follows:

Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O. Box 35. San Juan,

Puerto Rico.

A L E W O F T H E F O R E IG N JU R IS D IC T IO N S
New Z ealan d :

Scand in avian Countries:

The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.

Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand Master: Carli
Anderson, S. R. C., Grand Secretary. Manogtide 13th Strand, Copenhagen. Denmark.

Auckland Chapter A M O RC.

Mr. G. A.
Franklin, Master. 317 Victoria Arcade Bldg.
Queen St., City Auckland.
England:

Sw eden:

Grand Lodge Rosenkorset.' Anton Svanlund, F. R. C., Grand Master. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, Malmo.
H o llan d :

De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der

Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
Fran ce:

Mile. Jeanne Guesdon, S.R.C ., Corresponding

Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Sw itzerland:

A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel,

F. R. C., Gr. Sect., Riant-Port Vevey-Plan.
C hina and Russia:

The United Grand Lodge of China and Rus

sia. Temporary new address: 651 W ei Hai
W ei Road, Ap. 22/b, Shanghai. Mail ad
dress P. O. Box 513. Shanghai, China.
R O SI C RU C I AN PRESS, LTD. ,

The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.

Mr. Raymund Andrea. K. R. C., Grand
Master, 34 Bay water Ave., W estbury Park.
Bristol 6 .
D u tch and East Indies:

Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum, Grand Master:

W . J. Visser. Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang, Java.
Egypt:

T h e Grand Orient of A M O R C . House of the

Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26. Avenue Ismalia, Heliopolis.
A frica:

The Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast,

A M O RC. Mr. W illiam Okai, Grand Master.
P. O. Box 424 Accra, Gold Coast, W est
Africa.

The addresses of other foreign Grand Lodges

and secretaries will be furnished on application.
e*^||IS iS P R I N T E D I N U . S. A.

Indias Secret Control of Natures Forces

It all seemed so uncanny. T h e tense atmosphere, the throbbing pulsations, as
though an electrical current were passing through your body. Then, suddenly, before
your eyes, the body o f the subject to whom you had spoken but a few moments
before, rises rigidly, horizontally, from the stone floor upon which it rested. Y our
senses reel, as you realize that this body, this weight is rising without any physical
support. You involuntarily shake yourself, as if to awake from a dream. This cannot
be possible, you think, this control of natural law. It must be illusionary. T o con
firm your suspicions you thrust your hand into the cold vapor-like substance wh ich
surrounds the rising form. Y our hand passes freely about it, you encounter nothing.
It is true, you gasp, the body is levitated suspended in space.
So James D. W a rd , physician, world traveler, and metaphysician, described an
experience in one of India s mystery monasteries. He was one of the few occidentals
ever to he permitted to witness this feat. Scientists have scoffed at actual suspen ded
animation, but have never been able to satisfactorily explain the phenomena. The
secret principle is used in the Orient, not for theatrical effects, but for mystical
purposes. Or. W a r d s remarkable discourse on the use of this strange power, en
titled, Suspended A nim ation, is available as a special gift at this time.
Or. W a rd , on numerous occasions, was honored by the mystics of the Orient
because of his keen insight into tl leir ways and customs, and the integrity of the
author is therefore unquestioned.

FREE This Manuscript

Every new subscriber to f he Rosicrucian Digest will re
ceive this exceptional premium no extra cost whatever. Just
send a six-months subscription to 1lie Rosicrucian Digest
lor only $1.50 ami ask for your F R E E copy of the highly inter esting manuscript, Suspended Animation, by Dr. James D.
\\bird. Address:

T h e ROSICRUCIAN DIGEST
S a n Jose,

California,

U.S.A.

^Rgsicrucian Library
The follow ing books are a few of several recommended because o f the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue o f all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II.

R O S IC R U C IA N P R IN C IP L E S F O R T H E H O M E A N D B U SIN E SS.

A very practical book dealing with the solution of health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped w ith gold. Price, $2.1)0 per copy, postpaid.

Volume III.

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V.

UNTO TH EE I G R AN T . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f Tibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings of the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
with attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V I.

A TH O U SAN D Y E A R S OF YE STE R D AYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and m ystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V II.

S E L F M A S T E R Y A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E .

A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. Better than any system of num erology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V III.

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations of lodges and student w ork o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume XI.

M A N S IO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E CO SM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines of reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price. $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X II.

W ell

L E M U R IA 'T H E LO S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

T he revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K n ow o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X III.

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete guide fo r attaining the state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price. $1.85 per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY BU REA U ,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , C alifornia.

THE INSTITUTION BEHIND THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

DIGEST

STUDENT SUPPLIES

Our Suggestion To You

A MEETING OF THE MINDS
CIJ W h e n you w rite, you have one party in mind.

I hat party m ay he one

individual or a group of them , hut your thoughts are alone for them. You
do not w ish your thoughts to reach a mind or minds for whom they were
not intended. Fu rtherm ore, you do not wish others to interpret your ideas
for you.

H ow ever, this is only possible w hen you take the proper pre
cautions to see that your com m unications are brought
directly to the personal attention of your correspondent.
1 he R osicru cian student w ho fails to properly address
his or her com m unications, or give all needed information
for their proper delivery, causes his or her letter or
report to be read, interpreted, and h an d led by m any
persons before reaching its proper destination.
To avoid such conditions an d to facilitate a prom pt re
ply to com m unications, we have p repared a special large
( orrespondence
price.

1 ablet for students, at an econom ical

T h e cover of the tablet is also especially useful.

Besides being a blotter, there is printed upon it all essen

ST l D E N T 'S
C O R R E SP O N D E N C E

TA BI .FT
E a c h tablet contains 50 large
8 '/2-inch x 1 1-inch business size
sheets. The blotter rover w ith
its printed inform ation about
the various departments is a
useful addition to ear h tablet.

40c each: 3 for 31-00

T h e

tial instructions as T o
rite

P A R K

and \ \

W h ere

iien

To

A t the top of each sheet there is printed inform a

tion for the proper direction of your letter.

1 he stationery

consists of a light, strong, and good quality bond paper.

I his is a most serviceable article and one that no
student should be w ithout. Y ou owe it to yourself to make
this reasonab le purchase. S end order and rem ittance to:

R O S I C R U C I A N

R O S I C R U C I A N

W hom ,

S U P P L Y
S AN

B U R E A U

J O S E .

C A L I F O R N I A

ALBERTUS MAGNUS
O n e of the scholastic philosophers of the M iddle A ges. T e a c h e r of S t. T h o m as
Aquinas, and one of the greatest m ystics of all periods. T h is illustration is taken
irom an old R osicrucian volume of 1579 A . D . containing numerous portraits of
the old M asters.

(Courtesy of The Rosicrucian Digest.)

~
j r ")!.'^ jgell

w3^ :^ - *

W h a t S t r a n g e Power s
Did the A n c i e n t s Possess?

C V E R Y important d iscovery relating to mind

power, sound thinking and cause and effect,
as applied to self-advancem ent, w as known cen
turies ago, before the m asses could read and w rite.
M uch has been w ritten about the wise men of
old. A popular fallacy has it that their secrets
of personal pow er and successful living were
lost to the world. Know ledge of natu res law s,
accum ulated through the ages, is never lost.
At times the great truths possessed by the
sages were hidden from unscrupulous men in
high places, but never destroyed.

W h y W e r e Their Secrets Closely G u a rd e d ?

O n ly recently, as time is m easured; not more
than tw enty generations ago, less than 1/100th
of 1 % of the earth s people w ere thought cap
able of receiving basic know ledge about the laws
of life, for it is an elem entary truism that know l
edge is pow er and that power cannot be en
trusted to the ignorant and the unw orthy.
W isd om is not readily attainable by the gen
eral public; nor recognized when right within
reach. T h e averag e person absorbs a multitude
of details about things, but goes through life
without ever knowing w here and how to acquire
m astery of the fundam entals of the inner mind
that m ysterious silent something which "w h is
p e r s ' to you from w ithin.

Fundamental Laws of N ature

Y o u r habits, accom plishm ents and w eak
nesses are the effects of causes. Y o u r

thoughts and actions are governed by funda

mental law s. E xam p le: T h e law of com pensation
is as fundam ental as the law s of breathing,
eating and sleeping. All fixed law s of nature
are as fascinating to study as they are vital
to understand fo r success in life.
Y o u can learn to find and follow every basic
law of life. Y o u can begin at an y time to dis
co v er a whole new world of interesting truths.
Y o u can start at once to aw aken your inner
pow ers of self-understanding and self-ad vance
ment. Y o u can learn from one of the w orld's
oldest institutions, first known in Am erica in
1694. E n jo y in g the high regard of hundreds of
leaders, thinkers and teachers, the O rd er is
known as the R osicru cian Brotherhood. Its com
plete nam e is the "Ancient and M y stical O rd er
R osae C ru cis," abbreviated by the initials
" A M O R C ." T h e teachings of the O rd er are not
sold, for it is not a com m ercial organization,
nor is it a religious sect.
It is a non-profit
fraternity, a brotherhood in the true sense.

N ot For G eneral Distribution

Sin cere men and women, in search of the
truth those w ho wish to fit in with the w ay s of
the world are invited to w rite for com plim en
tary copy of the sealed booklet,
" T h e Secret H e ritag e. It
tells how to co ntact the
librarian of the archives
of A M O R C for this
rare know ledge. T h is
booklet is not in
tended for general
distribution: nor is
it sent w ithout re
quest. It is there
fore suggested that
you w rite for your
copy to the Scribe
w h o s e a d d r e s s is
given in the coupon.
T h e initial step is for
you to take.
Scribe S . P . C ., P osicru cian B r o t h e r h o o d .
S a n J o s e , C a lifo r n ia .
P le a s e s e n d c o p y o f s e a le d b o o k le t . " T h e S e c
ret H e r ita g e ," w h ich 1 sh a ll r e a d a s d ire c te d .
N a m e.
A d d r es s.

( R o sic ru c ia n M e m b e r s h a v e h a d this u n u su al b o o k le t .)

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
fc a m a tic c 1

SOCRAT

C O V ERS THE W O R LD

TH E O FFIC IA L IN TER N A TIO N A L ROSICRUCIAN MAGA

ZINE O F T II E W O R LD -W ID E ROSICRUCIAN ORDER
Vol. X IV

J U L Y , 1936

C O N T E N T S

r a a ia m M

No. 6

Page

Albertus Magnus (Frontispiece)-

201

The Thought of the M onth: O pening the Tomb

204

Im portant N otice to all Mem bers

208

C a th ed ra l C ontacts

213

Pages from the Past

215

Earth Rays in A ction

218

Summaries of Science

224

Sanctum Musings: A Study in Perfumes.

228

A n cient Symbolism

231

The " G r e a t M a s te r" Hoax

232

The Long N ight of the Soul (Illustration)

237

Subscription to The Rosicrucian Digest, T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw enty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the P ost Office at San
Jose. California, under the Act o f August 24th. 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the month
preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official exressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
e official communications.

E
t

tllU tu A '

Published M onthly b y the Supreme Council of

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R A M O R C

ROSICRUCIAN PA R K

SAN JO SE, CALIFORNIA

H E R E is one very
mysterious, mysti
cal, secret tradition
running t h r o u g h
the history and
esoteric principles
of the Rosicrucians w h i c h i s
never completely
understood either
in its symbolism or
p r a c t i c a l useful
ness until the stu
dent has reached
the highest degrees. I refer to the o pen
ing of the tomb of C. R. C.
It falls to the lot of each group of
chief executives of each branch of the
Rosicrucian O rder throughout the world,
periodically in each century, to open
the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz and
release therefrom that which has been
held in darkness and give to the world
that which will co 7
istitute the g reater
light. Not only is the b o d y" of C .R .C .
to be taken from the tomb and after a
period o f time reburied again to await
the next periodical removal, but the se
crets preserved in rare manuscripts or
carved hieroglyphs on the wall of the
tomb, engraved upon pieces of metal,
inscribed on jewels and marked with
blood on pieces of parchment, are also
to be made alive again with modern
interpretation and practical application.
Because of this old tradition, which
is an established custom and ruling, the
The
Rosicrucian Rsicrucians have been known for many
centuries as guardians of the tomb and
D igest
the co n serv a to rs o f the world's greatest
July
secrets. But among Rosicrucians them
1 9 36
selves they feel that they are more than

guardians of a tomb, for they rejoice in

the fact that it is their privilege to open
the tomb and to let the imprisoned
powers within it enjoy the light of day.
It is the bringing forth of knowledge
from the tomb into Light. Life, and Love
that constitutes the great joy of the a d
vanced R o sicru cia n s.
It is not to be wondered, therefore,
that this high ideal and glorious privi
lege of opening tombs and bringing out
of darkness into Light that which may
enjoy the Light of Life and Love, b e
comes a fundamental desire, ambition,
and practice with every real Rosicrucian.
He constantly seeks for every opportun
ity of opening any and every tomb that
holds within its enclosure that which
should enjoy Light, Life and Love, or
that which will bring Light. Life, and
Love to others. C on trary to the ambi
tions of the fanatical occultists of
Oriental lands who constantly seek to
hide and make secret the higher prin
ciples of life and the great fundamental
laws of nature, the Rosicrucians seek to
reveal rather than conceal. T h e ir only
restraint is governed by their knowledge
that there are times and seasons for such
revelations and that the periodic, cyclic
manifestations of the process of evolu
tion govern the periods in each year and
each century when certain preserved
knowledge and certain revealed wisdom
will be given in the scheme o f human
evolution.
It is natural, also, that the enthus
iastic, advanced Rosicrucians in every
country and every section of each coun
try would seek for ways and means of
carrying out this spirit of opening the
tomb and bringing into the Light that
T w o H undred Four

which has been held in darkness. S y m

bolically and allegorically this principle
can be applied in many w ays. F o r many
years the R osicrucians in N orth A m eri
ca, for instance, have been opening the
tombs in the hearts and souls o f those
who are confined in penal institutions or
places of correction by giving them such
knowledge and such guidance as will
enable them spiritually to leave their
places o f d arkness and en jo y the free
dom of know ledge and the pow er that
comes with such know ledge. In scores
of prisons or sim ilar institutions there
are students o f our teachings w ho are
being helped and who in turn are helping
others and who will some day put into
practice for their own betterm ent and
the upliftm ent o f those depending upon
them, the principles of our teachings.
T h is is but one phase o f the w ork o f our
W e lfa r e and Sunshine C ircles. B u t for
some time the Sunshine C ircles in v ari
ous parts of N o rth A m erica have been
planning to spread their w ork and in
crease their activities in a very distinct
and unique manner.
F o r some time the secret Sunshine
C ircles associated with each of our
lodges or chapters have placed small
advertisem ents in new spapers and m ag
azines throughout the continent offering
to give spiritual advice and help, p rac
tical assistance, free m edical and legal
advice, vocational and em ploym ent a s
sistance to the needy. T h e replies to
these advertisem ents have been carefu lly
analyzed and investigated and each
week or each month sees members of
t h e s e R osicrucian Su nshine C ircles
carrying on their w elfare w ork and
bringing sunshine into the lives of per
sons who may never have heard o f
R osicrucianism and w ithout any attem pt
to proselyte or enlist their interest in our
teachings. N o t only has help been given
in nursing, medical treatm ent, and busi
ness and professional advice, the m eet
ing o f sudden em ergencies, overcom ing
of obstacles, but clothing, food, and
many other m aterial, practical aids have
been given to these persons.
From time to time w e have mentioned
the activities of these Su nshine C ircles
in T h e Rosicrucian Forum and have
been encouraging each one o f these
C ircles to enlarge its staff of volunteer
T w o H un dred F i ve

w orkers and to widen the scope of its

interests and con tacts.
A short time ago we announced that
the largest of these R osicru cian Su n
shine C ircles, th at located in the Los
A n g eles d istrict and under the direction
o f F ra te r G eo rg e Baldw in, director o f
the Su nshine activities in Sou th ern C a li
fornia, had decided to take up the great
w ork o f bringing jo y and happiness into
the lives o f the shu t-ins. W e announced
th at other Sunshine C ircles should give
thought to this m atter also and replies
cam e even from foreign jurisd ictions of
our O rd er asking for details as to our
A m erican m ethods o f procedure, and we
are happy in the fact that the shut-ins
in m any lands are now receiving a new
and interesting form o f aid and a ssist
a n ce that brings forth enthusiastic com
m ents from them.
S o often w e forget th at there are
thousands of persons in every section of
the country w ho are not actually ill but
in dire need for com panionship, assist
an ce in solving som e of life s problem s,
enjoyin g some o f the privileges that are
m ans b irth righ t, and participating in
even the most simple and common of
every day indulgences w hich all o f us
en jo y perhaps so freely and so abun
d antly th at w e give little thought to
them. M a n y o f these persons are con
fined to bed, couch, wheel chair, or very
often special form s o f harness or equip
m ent w hich makes it n ecessary for them
to lie in uncom fortable positions hour
a fter hour and day a fte r day because of
som e abnorm al condition in their body
resulting from accident or other m isfo r
tune, and m any of these are in poor cir
cum stances dependent upon ch arity for
ju st food and clothing, or perhaps m edi
cal advice, and, too. m any of them are
in institutions, sanitarium s, hospitals,
boarding houses, or small furnished
room s separated from friends and rela
tives and dependent w holly upon an o c
casional kindly visitor to read to them
or to tell them of the things of the o u t
side w orld or bring them in con tact with
the g reater things o f life. V e r y seldom
indeed does an yon e offer to take them
for a ride in an autom obile or for an out
ing in their w heel chair, or tak e them
into the sunshine or am ong the trees
and flowers, or to see the hills, lakes,

rivers, or oceans. T h e y read of the

moving pictures, the co n certs, the happy
things of life, but they en jo y none of
them for they can n ot go alone and they
have no one w ho takes the time or the
trouble to bring these things into their
lives.
A nd so our Sunshine C ircle in Los
A ng eles planned to widen its activities
and to include all o f the service to the
shu t-ins that could possibly be arranged .
T h is activity on the part o f our Su n
shine C ircle has grow n to such an ex
tent that w e are happy to announce th a t
the great convention o f the Sunshine
F ed eratio n of S h u t-In s w as held in the
G reek T h e a te r in Los A n g eles on Su n
day, June 7. O u r good F ra te r G ordon
W illia m s, in ch arge o f the shut-in activ
ities, w orked unceasingly planning for
this convention together with the S u n
shine Com m ittee and the advice o f the
shut-ins them selves. T h e convention w as
one o f the greatest hum anitarian dem on
stration s ever held in the city o f Los
A ngeles. O v er five thousand helpless
persons w ere interested in planning to
go to the convention and arrangem ents
w ere made to assist them. M a y o r Sh aw
o f L o s A n geles endorsed the plan and
read a letter from the P resid en t o f the
U nited S ta te s and from various persons
and organizations approving this great
service to the shut-ins. T h e Los A n geles
R ealty B o ard , the L os A n g eles N o n P artisan League, and the new spapers
united to help in the plan, giving g reat
publicity to the affair. T h e largest o f
the moving picture studios arran ged to
send their very best talent to the co n
vention. T h e Y ello w T a x ic a b C om pany
offered thirty of its cab s to assist, w hile
the M o to r T ra n sit C om pany furnished
large buses. T ru c k s w ere donated to
carry w heel chairs and occupants to and
from the great park surrounding the
G reek T h e a te r. T h e special shut-in am
bulances, arranged and designed b y the
Su nshine S h u t-In Com m ittee, in the
form o f sedans arranged to hold one or
two cripples in their w heel chairs or on
cots, also carried large num bers to the
convention. A sixty -p iece band donated
its services and a band o f singers and
vaudeville talen t from various th eaters
also participated. A great op en-air pic
nic w as held along with the en tertain
m ent and am usement. H undreds of the

persons w ho attended enjoyed their first

picnic and out-door pleasure in many
years. Food in abundance w as supplied
and everything th at would feed body
and mind w as provided. T h e re w as no
attem pt at any form o f propaganda and
no distinctions w ere made in regard to
class or creed but in every w ord, in
every handshake, in every a ct per
form ed, the spirit o f good-w ill and love
for hum anity w as m ade m anifest. N ew
officers for the Su nshine and S h u t-In
activities w ere elected and plans made
for extending these sorts o f community
picnics and parties to all points o f the
cou n try.
T h is is som ething in w hich w e would
like to have every true R osicru cian p ar
ticipate. If you are a physician and w ant
to offer your services in b eh alf o f the
Su n sh in e and S h u t-In w ork, get in
touch w ith the n earest ch ap ter or lodge
in your district and offer your services
to the chairm an. If you a re a nurse, or
can do p ractical nursing, or you are an
atto rn ey and anxious to offer your ser
vices, be sure you do so. If you can
spare the time to act as an investigator,
or to visit am ong the shu t-ins, the un
fortunate, the sick and needy, and bring
w ords of ch eer and carry to them som e
thing o f the practical things they need,
or assist in bringing them in touch with
other w orkers w ho can give them advice
or guidance such as they require, get in
touch w ith y ou r Su nshine C ircle. If
you do not know the name and address
o f the officers of the ch ap ter n earest you
or you do not know the nam e o f your
local d istrict representative w ho can
w ork with you in starting a Sunshine
C ircle, w rite to the Suprem e S ecreta ry
in care of A M O R C , Sa n Jose, C a li
fornia, and ask for the name and a d
dress o f the proper person to con tact.
M a n y of those w orking in the Su n
shine C ircles are men and women busy
with their own professions and daily
affairs, y et they are w illing to sacrifice
some o f their time in b eh alf o f this great
w ork. O n ly recen tly I received a letter
from a jud ge of the Superior C ourt in
one o f the larger cities o f N ew Y o rk
S ta te in w hich he said that busy though
he w as in his regular court w ork and in
his special court o f dom estic relations,
he would be glad to give legal advice
and assistan ce to those who w ere direct
T w o H undred Six

ed to him by our Sunshine group in his

locality. L etters like this com e to us con
stantly from our members and we w ant
to see more o f this volunteer w ork ca r
ried on during the coming y ears so that
all of our Sunshine and S h u t-In C ircles
will render more and m ore efficient help
throughout the continent.
Rem em ber th at A M O R C as an insti
tution and as a foundation has grown to
be one o f the largest organizations of its
kind in the W e s te r n W o r ld as it has
been in other countries, solely because it

READ

THE

has so unselfishly rendered service to

others and because we know the truth
back o f the principle th at as w e offer
ourselves to the C osm ic as channels for
good, so the C osm ic will rem em ber us
in our needs and requirem ents. U n til
you learn the lesson o f giving before
receiving, or offering befo re you ask, or
being ready to serve b efo re pleading to
G od for help, you cannot know the jo y
o f being in tune w ith the Infinite and in
harm ony with the law s o f G od and the
C osm ic.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

1
IM PO R T A N T B U LLET IN
W e are very happy to announce that our beloved Sovereign Grand Master, Dr.
LeBrun, is very much stronger and is rapidly recovering from his recent serious illness.
He has been able to visit Rosicrucian Park and to bask in the sunlight on the lawns and
to visit his office for a brief period and even to visit the planetarium. M any offer daily
to take him riding in their automobiles and otherwise help to make him happy and con
tented while he is gaining strength, but his greatest joy is found in sensing and realizing
the continuous contact made with him through the thoughts and prayers of our members
in every part of the world. His recovery up to the present time is like unto a miracle
and all of us thank God for the granting of the pleas uttered by our members and for
the loving thoughts and tender wishes sent by all who know him. W e have every hope
that he will be able to attend many of the sessions of the Convention in July.

^
<

-IM P E R A T O R .

ST. LO UIS C H A PTER M EETIN G S

All Rosicrucian members of A M O R C who live within the vicinity of St. Louis,
Missouri, should avail themselves of the opportunity of attending the weekly chapter
meetings in that city. T h e special rituals, unusual addresses and association with others
of like mind will prove most beneficial to you. It is only necessary that you visit the
chapter and present your membership credentials to be entitled to all privileges. T h e
chapter meetings are held in Parlor C, Hotel Marquette, Eighteenth and W ashington
Avenue, on every Tuesday at 8:00 p. m. For information call the Secretary, Frater
Ernest G. Ross, 4515 Clayton Avenue, Telephone Newstead 1703.

T iv o H un dred S ev en

^
4

^
j
4

4
^

<
<

Important Notice T o All Members

W H E T H E R O R N O T Y O U A R E C O M IN G T O T H E A N N U A L
C O N V E N T IO N , P L E A S E R E A D T H IS M A T T E R
V ER Y CA R EFU LLY
By T

he

I m perato r

H E R E comes a
time in the life o f
every organization
w h e n i t s ideals,
and its pow er to
carry out its ideals,
and the grow th
a n d developm ent
o f its good w ork,
a ttra ct to it the
criticisms o f those
who either seek to
d i s t u r b its h a r
mony, or to co n
trol it for personal reasons.
F o r many y ears A M O R C has been
gradually increasing in membership, and
increasing in pow er and usefulness.
W h e n A M O R C w as small in its mem
bership, tw enty-five y ears or more ago,
and when its Im perator w as financing
all of its activities from his own re
sources, and when there w ere no sums
of m oney set aside for expansion or
grow th and development, there w ere no
critics, and no one claim ing that he
should be elected Im perator or elected
to the B oard of D irectors in order that
he might control and m anage the o rg an
ization.

The
In fact, for approxim ately tw enty
Rosicrucian
years nobody sought to be a director of
Digest
A M O R C , or to assume its responsi
July
bilities. its obligations, its financial defi
1936

cits, its worries, its trials and tribula

tions, and long hours o f labor. B u t to

day the situation is different, and it has
been so for the last two or three years.
E v e ry so often one or two persons in
the background of the membership, hav
ing w aited and w atched carefu lly for
some opportunity, suddenly arise pro
claim ing them selves com petent to be a
ch ief director of A M O R C , an executive
of its affairs, and demanding that
A M O R C either submit to the proposals
of reorganization, or stand the blasts of
criticism .
T h o u san d s o f our members are fa
miliar with these trials and tribulations
which have confronted the Im perator
and the present B oard o f D irectors of
A M O R C . T h e y know how these D i
rectors have borne the burden of labor
and responsibility, of trials and tribula
tions w ithout losing faith, w ithout sa cri
ficing one of the ideals or high principles
of the O rd er. A t every one of our
N atio n al C onventions these m atters
have been discussed, and in righteous
indignation the members have unani
mously voted their loyal support to the
Im perator and B oard of D irectors, and
vehem ently disclaimed the criticism s and
contentions of the tw o or three m al
contents.
E a ch o f our members should know
right now, befo re the C onvention is held
this summer, ex a ctly w hat the three or
four critics and com plainers of the
O rd er are contending and claim ing. W e
T w o H un dred E ight

It is to be noted, also, that the mem

bers w ho have been with the O rd er the
longest time in num ber o f y ears, who
1.
It is claimed by them that in past have reached the highest grades, w ho
years each and every member of the
have given the greatest services to the
O rder who held a membership card
O rd er, who have given the greatest sup
was equivalent to a shareholder, or a
port to the O rd er, are not am ong these
profit-sharing member of the O rd er, and
critics, and are w holly out of sym pathy
all of its finances, property, and assets. with the idea that the funds and assets,
T h e absurd claim is made that by hav
the buildings, the grounds, the rare
ing paid dues to A M O R C the member books and m anuscripts, and everything
was im m ediately a sharehold er in all of else belonging to the O rd er should be
the funds, assets, buildings, grounds,
distributed in stew ardship among all of
lectures, m anuscripts, teachings, and
the members, thereby leaving no au to
everything else of a valuable nature b e cratic au thority, no exclusive control of
longing to the O rd er. In other w ords,
the things that are the m ost sacred and
it is claimed that each member of the most valued.
O rd er in the past, no m atter how long
T h e questions th at might logically be
he has been a member, or w hat he has
asked by all o f our members are these:
done to help build up the O rd er, w as a
If these critical members joined A M
member also of the Suprem e Lodge
O R C for the benefit of its teachings and
(B o a rd o f D ire cto rs) and had a right to
direct, and vote upon every expenditure, its helpfulness, w hy are they spending
every im provement, every change or so much m oney, even hiring attorn eys
and going into court, to fight for the
modification in the lectures, the en g ag
rig h t to d irect the affairs of the
ing of an attorney to protect the O rd er,
O rd er? W h y are they spending hun
the extension of its activities, the in
dreds or thousands o f dollars trying to
creasing o f free benefits to the members,
or the addition of features th at will help secure voting control over the O rd e rs
the membership. It is claimed by these assets and its adm inistration? H ow do
they exp ect to get back again the money
few persons that because they had mem
bership in the Suprem e G rand L o d g e they are spending to fight the present
they had a right to vote upon everything adm inistrators?
T h e thousands upon thousands of
that the O rd er does. T h e further stran ge
claim is made that somehow, in some members who are deeply interested in
the studies, teachings, and practices of
w ay, the members w ere suddenly de
the O rd er have frankly stated over and
prived o f these rights and that the D i
rectors usurped the rights of the mem over again that they wish no one had to
bers and d eliberately took unto them bother at all with the rules and regula
tions, with the adm inistration, and with
selves the rig h ts of the members.
the direction o f the m aterial affairs of
It is to be noted th at the few mem
the O rd er, and they are p erfectly willing
bers who claim this sort of thing are not
to leave those things in the hands o f the
those who have ever given a single do
sam e D irectors, who for m any y ears
nation to the O rd er, or given any special have com petently and proficiently taken
services to build up the O rd er, or added
care o f these things.
to its assets, or added to the O rd e rs
2.
T h e n ext argum ent of these critics
dignity and reputation, or ever gone out
is th at the exclusive adm inistration of
of their w ay one iota to contribute to
the O rd er, and all o f its sacred posses
the spiritual, the sacred , or the p ractical
sions, teachings, m anuscripts, and other
helpfulness of the O rd er. T h e y have things, should be taken aw ay from D r.
merely paid their dues for a time, and
Lew is, the Im perator, and the members
in some cases have becom e delinquent of his fam ily, and D r. Le B ru n. T h e y
and dissatisfied because the Im perator demand a new B o ard of D irectors, prob
and the D irectors took exception to their ably selected by the critics, to be placed
lack of interest in the studies, and there in ch arge of everything. T h e ir argu
upon have becom e critics and claim ants m ent is that there is som ething sinful,
for the right to vote in directing the som ething w rong, som ething absolutely
affairs of the O rd er.
fraudulent in the fact th at D r. Lew is
will enum erate these u nfortu nate and
untrue contentions as follow s:

T w o H undred N in e

and three members o f his fam ily are on

the B o ard of D irecto rs along w ith D r.
Le B ru n, or with w hom ever else is
elected from time to time as Sovereign
G ran d M aste r. T h e y ignore the fact
th at nearly every one o f A M O R C s
charters and valuable docum ents is in
the personal nam e o f D r. Lew is, and a
few in the name o f R alph Lew is, his son.
T h e y ignore the fact th at w hen the In
ternational C ouncil of R osicru cian s and
the Suprem e H ierarch y o f the W o r ld
entrusted D r. Lew is w ith the form ation
and establishm ent o f A M O R C , and
placed in his hands the rare seals,
jew els, docum ents, m anuscripts, ch a r
ters, and other things in his ow n name,
they made him personally pledge that
as long as he lived he would protect
these things, and th at he would choose
and prepare tw o or three oth ers whom
h e could trust in his own im mediate
circle, to assist him in preserving these
things ag ain st the atta ck of enem ies and
ag ain st the inroads of the dark forces
and m aterialism . T h e y forget th at if a
new B oard of D irecto rs w ere elected
by the critics D r. Lew is could not, and
would not, turn over to these D irectors
all o f his valuable possessions and
thereby break his pledges and prom ises.
T h e surprising idea w hich these critics
have is th at they have been deprived
o f the pow er to appoint or elect others
to control and direct the affairs o f A M
O R C , and make D r. Lew is a mere h ire
ling of the new B o ard . T h e y would have
him obey their orders and tak e out of
his vaults the sacred teach in gs he is
preserving for the higher grade mem
bers and give them to all o f the mem
bers, and establish groups o f members
anyw here and everyw here accord ing to
their w ishes, and do everything they
would su ggest w hile he ju st spent his
time from m orning to night w riting le c
tures and preparing m atter for the gen
eral membership to dispose of as it
m ay vote.
T h e s e critics forget that the members
of the Lew is fam ily w ho are now a ssist
ing him in controlling and preserving
the O rd er w ere the original incorpora
tors o f A M O R C , the original co founders of it, the original w orkers w ho
sacrificed their hours of pleasure in home
life, and hours of recreation on Su nd ays
and holidays, w ho sacrificed their per

sonal incom es to build up and create

and m aintain the organization. T h e y
forget th at it is these sam e m em bers o f
the L ew is fam ily w ho began these activ
ities y ears ago w ith only the personal
funds of D r. Lew is, and w hen the O rd er
did not own an inch of ground or a
single little sh ack for its headquarters!

T h ere never was a time when all the

mem bers o f the O rder held or p ossessed
any voting pow er; th erefore, they could
not have been deprived o f it, nor did the
Lew is fam ily usurp any rights of the
members. B y careful planning, a very
econom ical expenditure o f the funds of
the O rd er, the utm ost o f personal sa cri
fice and labor, and preventing scandal
and attack s upon the O rd er, the present
D irectors have enabled the O rd er to
grow to a point w here it has its own
grounds its beautiful grounds and its
beautiful buildings, and all of its other
valuable assets.
T h e y forget, or ignore, the fact, that
instead o f erecting all o f the beautiful
buildings that these D irectors have
given to A M O R C , such as the Shrine,
the A uditorium , the O rien tal M useum ,
and the beau tiful law ns and fountain,
and now the large Planetarium , the
money expended for these things could
have been legally expended b y D r.
Lew is in large salaries to all officers in
the past tw enty y ears, and there would
have been no reason for the members to
demand that such beautiful buildings be
constructed, and so m any extra things
added to our teachings and principles,
and such special features as the G ood
W ill T o u r of the C ourier C a r and other
co stly featu res which the members now
en joy. T h e y ignore the fact th at in the
papers filed w ith the F ed eral G o v ern
ment, and w ith the S ta te of C alifornia,
and in the C onstitution of the O rd er,
D r. Lew is and his fam ily voluntarily put
into these papers the follow ing words
regarding the funds and financial assets
of the organization: N o t one part of
the funds or m aterial assets of A M O R C
shall ever accrue to the personal benefit
o f a n y o f the members, an y o f the di
rectors, or any o f the officers o f the
organization. In other w ords, y ears ago.
D r. Lew is and his fam ily put themselves
on legal record binding themselves
legally not to personally possess any o f
the finances or m aterial a ssets o f A M T w o H undred T cn

O R C . Y e t these critics contend that press their opinions or propose resolu

the members have possessed a control of tions, because th ey had not alw ays
these things, when D r. Lew is and his know n ju st w hat m atters w ere to be
fam ily voluntarily denied it to them voted upon, and no proxies w ere re
selves.
quired from those w ho could not attend.
W h a t is there w rong, or sinful, or T h e y claim th at the au to cratic form o f
destructive, about four members o f one
governm ent of A M O R C is w rong b e
fam ily being on a B o ard o f D irectors
cause the members never voted such
when the members of that fam ily w ere authority to the D irectors! Y e t, the
the creators and builders o f the o rg an i
C onstitution o f the O rd er, since the first
zation itself? M a n y o f the oldest firms members joined in 1909 to 1916 and
or institutions in E n gland and A m erica
since then has been au to cratic, and all
w ith w hich we are proud to deal, point members w ere accepted under that C o n
with pride to the fact that the control
stitution. W h a t a terrible time w e would
of the business has been in the same have as D irecto rs if each time some im
fam ily for m any generations, thereby
portant m atter arose we would have to
guaranteeing the integrity, safety , hon spend several thousand dollars in post
esty, and good-w ill o f the organization
age in sending a proposal to all of our
or concern. In the history of R osicru members to vote upon (a s w e are doing
cianism from the earliest ages the inner this m onth with this m a tter), and w ait
circle of directors, pledged to preserve
days and w eeks for the answ ers to come
the organization in their cou ntry, has back!
been members of one fam ily tied to
W h y are these members so fearful of
gether in such a m anner th at not one the present au to cratic adm inistration of
of them could take ad vantage o f the
A M O R C ? W h y have they w aited until
other, thereby preventing any outside A M O R C has becom e a large and pow
control, any outside destructive pow er. erful organization with beau tiful build
It is to be noted th at none o f our old- ings and beautiful grounds befo re they
time members, none of our advanced
sought to have a share in its m anage
and h igh-grade members, none o f our ment? W h y did they not come forw ard
members w ho has given im portant ser with such a demand to sh are in the re
vices and devotion to the O rd er, has sponsibilities and liabilities, deficits and
ever criticized the fact that four mem expen ses o f A M O R C w hen it w as small
bers o f the Lew is family w orked to and struggling and fighting to m aintain
gether harm oniously and so liberally
its dignity and ideals? H as not our
and sincerely to preserve the O rd er. A t
au tocratic form of governm ent for A M
each C onvention in past y ears this fact
O R C proved to be the fairest, kindest,
has been highly praised and unani and most ju st th at w e could have? Is not
mously indorsed, but tod ay three or four our C onstitution equally binding on all,
members who are not in good standing
in ju stice, w ithout show ing p referen ce
in the O rd er spiritually, and in very
to anyone? T h ro u gh o u t all the ages of
bad standing otherw ise, are claiming
the h istory of R osicrucianism the gov
through the courts that the Lew is fam ily
ernm ent has alw ays been autocratic with
occupies its position, and the Suprem e the pow er and control rem aining in the
O fficers hold positions of au thority w ith
H ierarch y of a few directors, th ereby
out the sanction of the membership!
enabling them to m eet quickly and hur
T h e y claim th at these D irecto rs the riedly, to take care of any sudden co n
founders and creato rs o f A M O R C il
ditions, to preserve and protect all o f its
legally usurped their position!
assets, and y et pledging among them
3.
T h e se critics further contend th at selves, and putting their pledge on legal
the members of the O rd er never have record, th at they shall not take unto
them selves in a mercenary way one iota
had an opportunity to affirm their ap
proval of the adm inistrators of the o f the m aterial assets o f the o rg an i
zation.
O rd er. T h e y say that the votes taken
at our C onventions here w ere not rep
So , these are the things th at will be
resentative of the O rd er despite the fact brought b efo re all o f the members at
th at all members had been invited to
the C onvention, and are being brought
attend, and to rise on the floor and ex befo re all of the members w ho cannot
T w o H undred E lev en

attend the C onvention. B efo re the C o n

vention is held in San Jose, beginning
July 12, a letter will be sen t to every
m ember o f A M O R C o f N orth and
Sou th A m erica, explaining these mooted
points, and asking each and every mem
ber to vote w hat he believes is right.
E a ch member will be sent a pink paper
w hich is in the form o f a p roxy, and if
he cannot com e to the C onvention in
person, he should send his p ro xy to
one of several persons in S a n Jo se who
will vote for him. W e have voluntarily
arran ged to have an accred ited , licensed
auditor w ho is not a member o f the
O rd er exam ine these proxies and count
them and tabu late them, and w e will
present them to the members w ho are
here at the C onvention as delegates
from every part of the country, and ask
them also to vote. B y this v ote o f our
members we will show th at our few
critics are w rong in their argum ents.
T h e se tw o or three com plainants claim
th at they represent the entire m em ber ship , and th at they are voicing the rest-

So w atch for the special letter that

will com e to you b efo re the 3rd or 4th
of July. O pen it im m ediately and read
it! C a refu lly analyze every point. D o
not take the attitude that you are not in
terested, unless you are perfectly satis

fied with the way the organization is

operated. If you are so satisfied that
you feel you do not w ant to vote, then
you need not do so, and no one can
make you vote. B u t if you resent this
so rt o f a tta ck upon the O rd er, then
sign the pink paper as your proxy and
mail it back to us in the special envelope
which you receive with it. It must reach
us b efo re July 12th.
E v ery lodge and every ch ap ter should
have its officers attend to this m atter
and urge th at every member vote. L et
every d elegate w ho is coming to the

Convention contact those w ho are re

ceiving these letters, and be able to tes
tify at the C onvention how these mem
bers feel about the m atter.
W e do not w ant an y member to feel
th at he is being unduly influenced, or
that his membership in the O rd er will be
jeopard ized by his vote, or that he will
in an y w ay affect his personal interests
by the m anner in w hich he votes; but we
do w an t fairness and ju stice to prevail,
and we w ant every member to express
him self, and once and for all determine
w hether A M O R C shall continue as it is
and grow bigg er and b etter all the time,
or w hether it shall be throw n into dis
ruption and the D irecto rs w ho have
w orked and sacrificed so g reatly be cast
aside and rebuked.
T h o s e w ho may feel th at the present
system o f A M O R C governm ent should
be com pletely ch an ged , or agree with
the critics, m ay com e to the C onven
tion and vote their opinions, or give
their proxies to an y delegates or mem
bers w ho are coming to the C onvention.

lessness an d spirit o f criticism o f all o f

our m em ber si W e know this is false
and we w ant to be able to prove it to
the C ou rt w here they have taken their
case and exp ect a jud ge to solve the
problem.
T h e ir statem ent that w e h ave implied
in our literature, or th at w e have im
plied at one o f our C onventions in the
past y ears that every m ember is also a
member o f the Suprem e G ran d L o d g e
(B o a rd o f D ire cto rs) and has a sort o f
dem ocratic voice in the control o f the
organization, is unfounded and cannot
be proved by a single truthful docu
ment. W e do not believe there are ten
mem bers in the w hole o f the A M O R C
organization w ho have ever believed
that they had a voting pow er in the
adm inistration o f the O rd er, or a co n
trol in its assets.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
July

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

1936
T w o H un dred T w elv e

p.!
T he "Cathedral of the Soul" is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefits as well
as those who are members. T he book called "Liber 777 describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

0.

A B I D I N G IN P E A C E

H ROUGHOUT
the w o r l d today
m o st c i v i l i z e d
countries are look
ing f o r w a r d to
u n i v e r s a l peace,
even w h i l e they
are contem plating
strifes and w arfare
in the very near
future. It is a l
w ays the hope of
every civilized na
tion of people that
the n ext w ar w hich will involve them
will be the last one and th at the ulti
T w o H undred T hirteen

mate good of to d ay s struggles and to

m orrow s b attles will be the end of w ar
and the establishm ent of perpetual
peace.
T o d a y great em phasis is placed upon
the n ecessity of political, national, p h y
sical peace. It is said that mankind
needs nothing greater in his social and
political life than the assurance of n a
tional peace and guaranteed protection
from the ravages of w ar.
B u t g reater than even such peace is
the peace that is acquired of the Soul
and the separation from all w orldly
struggles.

It is true th at nations of people can

make little progress in their cultural ad
vancem ent and their m aterial upliftm ent
w hile their minds and their hands are
occupied in destructive processes. It is
also true th at the laten t pow ers, the
physical and m aterial assets, the p ar
ticular ad vantages and possibilities of
each nation cannot be unfolded and
utilized to the b est ad vantage if w ar is
in the offing and plans and preparations
for a struggle against another nation are
under consideration. In fact, the mind of
the nation and its people can n ot think
constructively and con cen trate its vast
pow ers tow ard the ideal conditions o f
life w hile time and m oney are spent
need lessly in w ar and w hile the m ental
faculties and m oral stand ard s are low
ered to harm onize with the ideas and
principles of w ar.
N o r can the mind of the individual
and the Soul of man or w om an develop
along the highest lines and perm it o f
the unfoldm ent o f the individual facu l
ties and abilities w hile the heart and
mind are enslaved and inhibited b y the
o rd inary struggles o f life.
It is only w hen we take ourselves
apart from the everyday affairs o f life
that we see life in its true colors. T h e
struggle for the physical necessities o f
life is a battle. O vercom ing the op
posing forces of life is a continuous
w arfare. M eetin g the hypocrisy, evils,
deceits, the trickery o f the d arker side
o f life constitutes a tiresom e and e x
hausting w arfare.
From all of the w orldly, physical, m a
terial struggles of life, the Sou l seeks
separation. From all o f the annoyances,
discordant notes, and inharm onious situ
ations, the Sou l seeks restful seclusion
and peace.
W h e n the Soul is at peace, it is at
rest m om entarily. P ea ce is a tonic, an
inspiration to the heart and mind o f the

The
J?
ir r u r is ir t
tV O S lC T U C lan

Digest

j u ly

individual. R eligion furnishes the W a y

to eternal peace. B u t the Soul needs
here and now on this earth plane the
daily relaxation and daily attunem ent
th at quickens its spirit and bathes it in
the sublime effulgence of communion
w ith itself.
T h e C ath ed ral of the Sou l offers to
those w ho en jo y peace and harm ony as
periods of relaxation, an opportunity to
lift the mind up above and beyond the
con tests of life, the sordid and sorrow
ful incidents of our existence, and the
struggles o f our earthly affairs.
In the C ath ed ral of the Soul the
h eart and mind o f the individual may
enter m orning, noon, or night, for a few
minutes or for a few hours. Its vast
portals are ever open to the Soul that
seeks them. W ith in the C ath ed ral the
D ivine S e lf with all of us will meet the
Sou ls and hearts o f thousands of others.
H ere all m ay dwell for a while in peace
and harm ony, unmindful o f the personal
problem s o f life and o f the battle cries
of our existence. T h e effect o f such re
laxation and Cosm ic attunem ent is in
stantaneous in soothing the worried
mind and inspiring the troubled heart.
It brings health and strength and power
to the body and a sense of contentm ent
and peace th at nothing else can afford.
If you are a stran ger to the benefits
o f the C ath ed ral o f the Soul, w hether
member or not, w rite for Liber 777,
w hich will be sent w ithout obligation,
and join with thousands of others in
these daily periods o f C osm ic peace and
inspiration. L et the C ath ed ral o f the
Soul be your special sanctum , your holy
of holies, w here you in privacy and
spiritual jo y may dwell w henever the
need is g reatest or the Soul speaketh.
It is an experience never to be forgotten
and a hope th at is the last and ultimate
ideal of our life on earth.

MAKE T H E M OST OF Y O U R V A C A T IO N PERIOD

L et nothing interrupt your studies. T a k e w ith you w hile on vacation the particular
m onographs that you wish to review . L et us forw ard to you r vacation address your
* lessons and m onographs, and other m aterials. If you are going to be absent only one or
^ tWQ w eejCS( {f js nQf n e c e s s a r y that your mail be forw arded. W h e n you return home
the accum ulation of a few lessons can be easily overcom e by doubling your study
time f r two or three w eeks.

1 9 3 6 ............... I ............................ .................................................................................. ...................... ...........

Two Hundred Fourteen

PAG ES
from the

Q iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii h i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii ii ii ii i ii ii ii i ii i fjl

JO H A N N G O T T F R IE D

von

H ERD ER

Each month we w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through the
presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally, such w ritin gs w ill
be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors o f the past.
This month we present Johann G ottfried von H erder.
H erder was one of the outstanding German classical w riters o f his period. H e was
imbued w ith the ideal o f reform ing the philosophy and th eology o f his period. H e was of
a highly sensitive nature and worked w ith great ardor, on every new subject to which he
turned his attention, but unfortunately, his zeal did not endure and many o f his great
works are incomplete. H e le ft a definite impression upon the peoples o f his time, and
conveyed some profound thoughts which are more appreciated now, than during his own
time. H e wa3 born August 25, 1724, at Mohrungen, East Prussia. H e was o rigin ally
schooled and prepared to be a surgeon, but upon w itnessing his first operation, fainted
and turned th ereafter to theology. In 1764 he was appointed teacher and preacher in a
Cathedral school at R iga. H e gained prominence there, and was offered a chair o f th eology
in one o f the prominent universities, but in 1776 the Grand Duke appointed him Court
Preacher and Counselor o f the upper consistory. H e wa3 a great adm irer o f K a n ts w ritin gs
yet seemed extrem ely critical o f them at times. Although o f a m ild disposition, he was
quite vicious in his attacks on his enemies. Students o f metaphysics w ill all enjoy reading
his works, fo r they w ill find in them a keen sense o f the mystical. B elow is an excerpt
from one o f his prominent w ritin gs entitled. Man a L in k Between T w o W o rld s. Thi3
should not be read hurriedly, but digested slow ly.

E .............

.....ill

M A N A L IN K B E T W E E N T W O W O R L D S
V E R Y T H IN G
in N ature is con
nected: one state
pushes f o r w a r d
and prepares a n
other.
If, then,
man be the last
and h igh est link,
closing the chain
of terrestrial or
ganization, hem ust
begin the chain of
a higher order o f
creatu res as its
low est link, and is probably, therefore,
the middle ring betw een th e tw o ad
Tw o Hundred Fifteen

joining system s o f the creation. H e ca n

not pass into an y other organization
upon earth w ithout turning backw ard
and w andering in a circle. T h a t he
should stand still is im possible; since no
living pow er in the dominions of the
m ost active goodness is a t rest; thus
there must be a step b efo re him, close
to him, y et as exalted above him as he is
pre-em inent over the brute, to whom he
is at the sam e time nearly allied. T h is
view o f things, w hich is supported by
all the law s o f nature, alone gives us
the key to the w onderful phenom enon
of man, and at the sam e time to the only
philosophy o f his history. . . .

" F a r as the life of man here below

is from being calculated for entirety;
equally far is this incessan tly revolving
sphere from being a repository o f per
m anent w orks o f art, a garden of neverfading plants, a seat to be eternally in
habited. W e come and go: every m o
ment brings thousands into the world,
and takes thousands out of it. T h e
E arth is an inn for travellers: a planet,
on w hich birds o f passage rest them
selves, and from w hich they hasten
aw ay. T h e brute lives out his life; and
if his y ears be too few to attain higher
ends, his inm ost purpose is accom p
lished: his cap acities exist, and he is
w hat he w as intended to be. M an
alone is in contradiction with him self,
and with the E a rth : for, being the most
p erfect of all creatures, his capacities
are the farthest from being perfected,
even when he attain s the longest term
of life b efo re he quits the w orld. But
the reason is evident: his state, being
the last upon this E a rth , is the first in
an oth er sphere o f existence, w ith re
spect to which he appears here as a
child m aking his first essays. T h u s he
is the representative o f tw o w orlds at
once; and h ence the apparent duplicity
o f his essence. . . .
" I f superior creatures look down on
us, they may view us in the sam e light
as w e do the middle species , with
which N atu re m akes a transition from
one elem ent to another. T h e ostrich
flaps his feeble w ings to assist him self
in running, but they can n ot enable him
to fly; his heavy body confines him to
the ground. Y e t the organizing P aren t
has taken care o f him, as w ell as o f
every middle creatu re; for they are all
perfect in them selves, and only appear
d efective to our eyes. It is the same
with man here below : his d efects are
perplexing to an earth ly mind; but a
superior spirit th at inspects the internal
structure, and sees more links o f the
chain, m ay indeed pity, but can n ot des
pise him. H e perceives w hy man must
quit the w orld in so m any different
states, young and old, w ise and foolish,
grown gray in second childhood, or an
The
em bryo y et unborn. O m nipotent good
Rosicrucian
ness em braces m adness and deform ity,
Digest
and all the degrees o f cultivation, and all
July
the errors of man, and w ants not b a l
sams to heal the wounds th at death
1936

alone could m itigate. Sin ce probably

the future state springs out of the pres
ent, as our organization from inferior
ones, its business is no doubt more
closely connected with our existence
here than we im agine. T h e garden above
bloom s only with plants of w hich the
seeds have been sown here, and put
forth their first germs from coarser husk.
If, then, as w e have seen, sociality,
friendship, or active participation in the
pains and pleasures o f others, be the
principal end to w hich hum anity is di
rected, the finest flower o f human life
must necessarily there attain the vivi
fying form, the overshadow ing height,
for w hich our heart thirsts in vain in
any earth ly situation. O u r brethren
above, th erefore, assuredly love us with
more w arm th and purity of affection
than w e can b ear to them: for they see
our state more clearly ; to them the
moment o f time is no more, all discrep
ancies are harm onized, and in us they
are probably educating unseen partners
o f their happiness, and com panions of
th eir labors. B u t one step farther, and
the oppressed spirit can b reath e more
freely, the w ounded heart recovers: they
see the p assenger approach it, and stav
his sliding feet w ith a pow erful hand.
"S in c e , therefore, w e are of a middle
species betw een tw o orders, and in some
m easure partake o f both, I cannot con
ceive th at the F u tu re sta te is so re
m ote from the P resen t, and so incom
m unicable with it, as the animal part of
man is inclined to suppose, and indeed
m any steps and events in the history of
the human race are to me incom prehen
sible, w ithout the operation o f superior
influence. A divine econom y has cer
tainly ruled over the hum an species from
its first origin, and conducted him into
the cou rse the readiest w ay. . . ."
T h is much is certain, that there dwells
an infinity in each of m ans powers,
which cannot be developed here, where
it is repressed by other pow ers, by
anim al senses and appetites, and lies
bound as it w ere to the state of ter
restrial life.
P articu lar instances of
m em ory, of im agination, nay, of pro
phesy and prehension, have discovered
w onders of th at hidden treasure which
reposes in the human soul; and indeed
the senses are not to be excluded from
this observation. T h a t diseases and
T w o H undred Sixteen

partial d efects, have been the principal

occasions of indicating this treasure
alters not the nature of the case; since
this very disproportion w as requisite to
set one o f the w eights at liberty, and
display its power.
T h e expression of Leibnitz, that the
soul is a mirror of the universe, contains
perhaps a more profound truth than has
usually been educed from it: for the
powers of a universe seem to lie con
cealed in her, and require only an or
ganization, or a series of organizations,
to set them in action. Suprem e goodness
will not refu se her this organization, but
guides her like a child in leadingstrings, gradually to prepare her for the
fulness of increasing enjoym ent, under
a persuasion th at her powers and senses
are self-acqu ired . E ven in her present
fetters space and time are to her empty
words: they m easure and express rela
tions o f the body, but not of her in
ternal capacity, w hich extends beyond
time and space, when it acts in p erfect
internal quiet. G ive th y self no concern
for the place and hour of thy future
existence: the Sun, that enlightens thy
days, is n ecessary to thee during thy
abode and occupation upon earth; and
so long it obscures all the celestial stars.
W h e n it sets, the universe will appear
in greater m agnitude; the sacred night,
th at once enveloped thee, and in which
thou wilt be enveloped again, covers thy

READ

pr rw w 'w y r'W '^ 'vw w 'W 'W ^

THE

E a rth with shade, and will open to thee

the splendid volume o f im m ortality in
H eaven. T h e re are h abitations, w orlds
and spaces, th at bloom in unfading
youth, though ages on ages have rolled
over them, and defy the changes of time
and season; but everything th at appears
to our eyes decays, and perishes, and
passes aw ay; and all the pride and hap
piness of E a rth are exposed to inevit
able destruction.
T h is earth will be no more, when
thou th y self still art, and en jo y est G od
and H is creation in other abodes, and
differently organized. O n it thou hast
enjoyed much good. O n it thou hast a t
tained an organization, in which thou
hast learned to look around and above
thee as a child o f H eaven. E n d eavor,
th erefore, to leave it contented ly, and
bless it in the field, w here thou hast
sported as a child o f im m ortality, and
as the school, w here thou h ast been
brou ght up in jo y , and in sorrow , to
m anhood. T h o u h ast no farth er claim
on it; it has no farth er claim on thee.
A s the flower stand s erect, and closes
the realm of the su bterranean inanim ate
creation, to en jo y the com m encem ent of
life, in the region of day; so is man
raised above all the creatures th at are
bow ed down to the E a rth . W ith up
lifted eye, and outstretched hand, he
stands as a son o f the fam ily, aw aiting
his fa th e rs call.

ROSICRUCIAN

y r - w ^ ^ ' w

FORUM

yr'W'w ^ 'v y*^ 'W'W'W'wyr'W'W'-w-w'W'* 'w

1

<

S T U D E N T S S E L F -A D D R E S S E D E N V E L O P E S

<

Use the new large S E L F -A D D R E S S E D envelopes for your correspondence with

the Grand Lodge and assure a prompt delivery of your letters. T h e envelopes are nine
inches in length, made of durable white bond, printed neatly with the name and address
of A M O R C . T h ey provide space for your name and address, and the name of the
department to which your letter should be directed. T hey are large enough to accommodate report sheets, examinations, and letters of several pages. These special A M O R C
self-addressed envelopes are only 85c for a package of 100. Postage is included in the
price. This is less than one cent each for a large, P R IN T E D , serviceable envelope.

<

T w o H undred S even teen

i
i
i

Kjt

Earth Rays In Action

By

E rn e st G onzen bach

(E d ito rs N o te: In explan ation o f fa c t that this is the author o f the article in
"A m erican F o rests" o f A pril, 1934. qu oted in P ronunziam ento X IV .)

A R T H R A Y S , in
effect, are Cosm ic
R a y s in reverse.
T h e latter come to
us from the C o s
mos, the sun, the
planets, the stars
o f all m agnitudes.
T h e y have been
but recen tly dis
covered and little
is as y et actually
know n about them,
but it is the C o s
mic rays th at have had all the publicity.
E a rth ray s are identically the same
thing, except that they do n ot originate
in th e Cosm os but in the earth itself,
w hich, being one o f the planets, would
logically be expected to send out sim ilar
rays.
T h a t earth rays exist has been amply
established in m any w ays; the m ost cur
ious thing about them is how they have
com e to be overlooked b y science until
now. P erh ap s overlooked is not the
right w ord; disbelieved would better
fit
their case, for they are scornfu lly
T he
dismissed in quarters w here one would
R osicru cian
look for open-m inded reception. B o th of
Digest
the great electrical com panies o f our
Ju ly
country, G en eral E le ctric and W estin g -,
house, flatly turned down opportunities
1936

to investigate them. P ro fesso rs of elec

trical engineering sneered a t them, and
still sneer, when they are not actually
insulting.
B u t earth rays exist, and their ex ist
ence can be proven by the very instru
ments devised by electrical science.
T h e se instrum ents are nothing less than
radio receivers, with A , B and C b a t
teries connected in certain w ays and of
som ew hat higher voltage than com m er
cial receivers used for the sam e purpose.
A n y reader w ho h as a radio in his car
discovers them con stan tly, to his an n oy
ance. E v ery autom obilist know s, espe
cially peace officers w ith radio equipped
cars, th at there a re certain spots w here
the radio will n ot function, ceases to
transm it and is silent. Policem en know
w here these places are and avoid them;
th ey speak o f them as dead sp o ts and
never park their cars near them. A u tom obilists driving over roads will every
now and then find that their radio sud
denly is stilled as they drive along,
m aybe for only a fraction of a second,
then autom atically it resumes its func
tioning. W e ll, the auto has merely
passed over one of these dead spots.
H ere is w hat has happened. T h e se
dead sp o ts are alw ays, w ithout e x
ception, places w here tw o earth rays
cross each other! I have checked such
Two Hundred Eighteen

places several hundred times, and never

have I failed to find a crossing of two
rays ex actly a t the indicated dead
sp o t!" L ast summer a man riding a
m otorcycle w as killed by lightning on
a broad boulevard on both sides of
which there w ere row s o f tall trees and
also electric pow er lines. T h e re was
universal astonishm ent th at lightning
should strike in the middle of a broad
road bordered by trees and power lines,
both o f which would seem to be logical
targets for lightning, and certainly more
logical than a m otorcycle rider. A po
liceman show ed me the ex act spot w here
the man w as killed, then hurriedly
moved his bike a few feet, as it had
ceased to function. H e w as over a
dead sp o t. A little search w ith a
pendulum established the fact that it
was a crossing of tw o rays!
W h ic h is com plete confirm ation o f
the G erm an B aro n von P o h ls dictum
that lightning never strikes the earth

except at a p lace w here two rays cross

each other! It also explains w hy light
ning rods, and even the lightning a r
resters of electric pow er lines, so often
fail to function as expected. T h a t also
I have checked in several hundred cases,
especially on trees struck by lightning;
not only because trees nearly alw ays
leave visible effects o f lightning, but
also because I happen to be an arborist,
with a professional interest in the effects
o f earth ray s on trees. Invariably and
w ithout single exception, lightningstruck trees stand either over or near a
spot w here two ray s cross each other!
T h e explanation of the im portance of
these ray crossings is quite simple.
T h e rays originate w ithin the earth
itself at uniform density, but are de
flected by any good electrical conductor
in their path, such as m ineral deposits
and underground w ater veins. T h u s
one ra y 5 0 0 feet below the su rface
may rise above a w ater vein and in its
path to the su rface may cross another
w ater vein sim ilarly deflecting a ray.
T h e effect then is that the strength of
these two rays is the sum of the elect
rical forces of both rays. T h u s it rises
higher into the atm osphere than a single
ray, and the earth being n egatively
charged, it is the natural path to the
earth for any electrical discharge from
the clouds.
T w o H un dred N in eteen

T h a t this w hole universe o f ours is

one m ass of invisible rays is readily
believable. T h e b est an alogy in e x
planation I have ever seen is th at on
page tw o o f Pronunziam ento X I V , in
w hich the radiations surrounding the
earth are com pared to a piano k ey
board a mile long . . . o f w hich we are
using, and are cap able o f using, only
a few o cta v es. I m ay be perm itted
to doubt th at even a keyboard a mile
long could represent all the enorm ous
ran ge of earth ly radiations.
O u r ow n bodies are made up of in
dividual cells, som ething like a quad
rillion of them inside the hide o f every
one o f us, each o f them a pow er station
sending out rad iations. S o are all liv
ing things mere m asses of individual
cells, anim als, trees, grass, and every
thing th at eats, lives and reproduces
itself. T h a t each and every one of
them sends out radiations of differing
frequencies is to be expected, although
w e do not, a t this w riting, have an y
m eans o f m easuring or even detecting
these radiations. B u t there are cellular
creatu res w ell-equipped for the purpose,
at least th at is the theory o f the F ren ch
p rofessor G eo rg es L akhovsky o f P aris.
T h is em inent p ro fesso rs ideas w ere
m entioned all through the a rticle on
E a rth R ay s w hich appeared in A m eri
can F o re sts in A pril, 1934, and w hich
w as quoted quite accu rately in P ron un
ziam ento X I V . T h e experim ents he
carried on with carrier pigeons showed
conclusively th at it is neith er sight, nor
h earing, nor any special sense of o rien t
ation th a t guides the pigeons; they are
guided b y electrical radiations like those
com ing from a radio beacon on an air
field, but of infinitely sm aller power.
T h e fa ct that pigeons unaccustom ed to
long distance flights have to be trained
for them proved to be a certain co n
firm ation rath er than repudiation o f the
theory.
W o rk in g from th at basis, P ro fesso r
Lakh ovsky advances the astounding
theory that it is radiations originating
from at present unknow n sources which
guide eels spaw ned in the wide reaches
o f the A tla n tic ocean to th e particular
stream s from w hich their parents had
em igrated to propagate their species on
the unknow n breeding grounds o f the

A tlan tic. H e ad vances the sam e e x

planation for the m ystery of the salmon,
and even that o f m igratory birds. N o t
only advances the theory, but provides
pretty sound proof.
F o r w ithin the oral cavity of all these
long-d istance w anderers he found suit
able receiving devices! T h e y are n oth
ing less than the sem i-circular channels
filled w ith some organic liquid w hich
are part of the oral structu re of all
living things capable of moving about
from place to place, except among the
invertebrates; these have no sem i
circular channels, but in their place
possess mem branous vesicles which
serve a sim ilar purpose as do the oral
channels. B y experim entation he was
able to establish the fact that these o r
gans control the sense of d irection, and
when removed life did not cease, but the
mutilated living organism could only
move in such direction as that controlled
by w hatever part of the oral organs
had been left for the purpose. H is re
ports are quite com plete and, w hile not
pleasant reading for the squeam ish, are
conclusive.
H e finds th at these oral channels are
posed with a definite geom etrical ratio
to each other. In living organism s
w hich have the pow er to m ove in only
two directions, there are only tw o of
these channels, guiding the particular
living thing to right or left. In the
case o f birds, flying insects and sim ilar
organism s w hich have the pow er of
moving in three directions, there are
three of the channels, posing in goniometric position with the longitudinal
plane o f each channel a t right an gles to
the other two. T h is goniom etric ratio
should be readily understandable to any
one who has ever studied geom etry; it
is a w ell-know n figure in textbooks.
T h e additional fact is to be noted that
these channels are filled with some o r
ganic fluid highly sensitive to electrical
vibrations, the theory being that any
changes in radiations are com m unicated
to the highly sensitive w alls o f the
channels, who in turn activate the brain
cells th at control the flight.
B ird s and flying insects, then, capable
of three-dim ensional motion, can not fly
in any direction w ithout cutting across
any vibrations encountered in their
paths. T h e receptivity of the oral

channels to w hatever beam of vibra

tions they may encounter is therefor
proportional to the angle a t w hich they
cut across such beam , and so variation
o f electrical impulses is established; a
variation th at w ithout a doubt registers
w here it will have the desired effect.
N o doubt th at the receiving organs of
individuals is delicately ad justed to the
periodicity and w ave length of his
species and th at all vibrations o f d if
feren t nature are n ot perceptible and
have no e ffects.
S o far as I see it, this is a perfectly
simple and logical explanation o f the
so -called m ysterious pow ers which
guide living organism s such as fish,
birds and insects. B y the same token,
it explains th a t fam ous hom ing-in
stin ct w hich guides dogs, horses and
other anim als back to their place of
abode, although in their case the re
ceiving organ is not arranged for three
dim ensional direction, nor have they
need of it, since their movements are
purely tw o-directional. N o other e x
planation has ever been advanced that
sounds as logical as this.
T o accep t such explanation, however,
assum es that w e must n ecessarily a c
cept the existen ce o f earth rays and the
m yriads o f sim ilar rays th at vibrate in
the ether about us. T h a t the alleg
orical keyboard would have to be longer
than one mile is indicated by the fact
th a t these vibrations occur in frequen
cies o f hundreds o f cycles per second
to the frequency o f cosm ic ray s, which
vibrate at a rate o f five hundred quintrillion cycles
(5 0 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 ) per second. It would take
the L ick O b serv ato ry telescope to see
the oth er end of th at keyboard!
T h e re rem ains the question as to how
the living organism s which m ake use of
these ray s receive the electrical impulses.
In the case o f insects th at is readily
answ ered, for they are provided with
an tennae for the very purpose; in fact,
the nam e for the w ires w hich pick up
the radiations, and receive them, at
radio stations, has been directly borrow
ed from the insect w orld. Like Judy
O G ra d y and the C olo n els L ad y, the
an ten n ae o f insects and radio stations
are sisters under the skin. T h a t these
an ten n ae are sometimes referred to as
feelers is a mere figure o f speech;
T w o H undred T w en ty

their connection with the m ysterious

guiding impulses has been am ply es
tablished.
Birds and fish, on the other hand,
possess no such feelers. If they are
capable o f receiving electrical vibra
tions, and I fully believe th at they are,
they must come to them in some other
w ay. T h a t also has been answ ered by
Lakhovsky. B y long and involved re
searches he establishes the fact that the
friction o f b ird s w ings in the atm os
phere accum ulates an electrical ch arge
on the su rface o f the bird s bodies. B y
experim ent he finds th at this ch arge is
increased with the distance, or height,
o f the bird above the earth 's su rface
at the rate o f one volt for each cen ti
meter. F o r birds flying at a thousand
or several thousand feet above the su r
face, that am ounts to an astonishing
potential charge. A t 3 0 0 0 feet it is
close to 10 0 .0 0 0 volts! T h e re then is
the bird s A b attery! In the case o f
fish, the electrical ch arge is produced
by friction ag ain st w ater, but otherw ise
functions the sam e.
A ltog eth er, w e have no more then
touched th e edges of a h itherto u n e x
plored w orld and there is nobody in
position to tell us w hat the end m ay be,
or w hat preconceived notions will have
to be abandoned. In the light o f these
facts, the claim th at the ancient Lem urians possessed some organ for receiving
electrical vibrations o f the ether does
not sound at all stran ge; it is n o t only
possible, but highly probable, in the
ligh t of w h at modern science h as dis
closed.
N or can we close the discussion w ith
out some referen ce to the e ffe c t o f earth
rays on human beings. A fte r all, that
is the angle o f the m atter w hich most
directly a ffe cts us. M o st o f the E u ro p
ean investigators have rath er co n cen
trated their researches on th at human
angle, and it is to be noted th at quite
a num ber of them boldly assert that
earth rays are the h eretofore undis
covered cause o f human cancer. T o
my positive know ledge th at certainly
is the case w ith trees, for the peculiar
m alignant grow ths to be seen on many
trees are nothing more than vegetative
cancers; we recognize the relationship
w hen we call these grow ths can k ers.
T w o Hundred Ttuenfy-one

T h e theory o f the origin of human

can cers as being caused by earth rays
fits p erfectly into the modern medical
theory, w hich puts responsibility on the
presence o f dead cells in the human
body; cells w hich, once established, a f
fect a d ja cen t cells and so produce the
m alignant grow th w e know as can cer.
B u t w hat cau ses the dead cells in the
first place?
It is the G erm ans who have done
more w ork along that line than any
others, although Lakh ovsky in his re
cen t book L a T erre et N ous goes far
in confirm ing
the G erm an claim s.
T h e re is a d istinct and highly d istin g
uished school of G erm an m edical p ract
itioners w ho on their rounds carry with
them some instrum ent th at will disclose
the presence o f earth rays, either by
means o f a divining rod. a pendulum,
or a portable device of an electrical
nature the details o f w hich seem to be
clo sely guarded.
T h e ir very first act of diagnosis is to
see if the p atien ts bed, the one on which
he habitually sleeps or has slept, is ex
posed to an earth ray. If so, the bed
is im m ediately rem oved to some lo ca
tion in the house th a t is free o f rays.
In m any cases minor diseases, like rheu
matism, nervous condition and the like,
have been cured by m erely moving the
bed. B u t can cer is not cu rable in th at
w ay; once established it runs its course
and there is no rem edy, excep t radium,
w hich is ju st one oth er form of rays,
w hich cures on the hom eopathic prin
ciple th a t like cures like.
In our cou ntry the m edical profession
has greeted this m ethod with loud g u f
faw s, but then, so did they the antiseptic
theories o f th at D r. Som m elw eis o f
V ie n n a ,
w ho
ad vocated
antisepsis
tw enty y ears befo re L ister thou ght of
it; and w as rew arded b y being per
secuted and reviled to the point of
being driven into a m ental institution
and there died of his chagrin. A m eet
ing o f m edical men is the last place on
earth w here the earth ra y theory will
find a hearing.
N ev erth eless, we have earth rays and
w e have cancer. T h a t the tw o are
in ter-related I am firmly convinced, the
convincing having been of my own free
will. T im e a fter time I have investi-

gated the location o f a can cer bed and

am firm ly convinced th at the theory is
p erfectly sound and fits into every
m odern m edical view -point. T h e re is
neither necrom ancy n or ch ican ery in
volved, ju st plain facts. U n fo rtu n ately ,
there is nothing th at can be done about
it; the earth ray theory o ffe rs no more
than an explanation o f the cause of
cancer, not the slightest cue to a cure.
T h a t being so, and since w e have no
cure to o ffer, we m ay a t least m ake an
attem pt a t prevention. A n d preven
tion is so simple as to be alm ost lau gh
able! Sim ply move the sleep ers bed
out o f the influence o f any lurking
earth ray ; no d octor is needed, no m edi
cines, no expense. B u t rem em ber th at
can cer itself can not be so cured, it
m erely is keeping th e enem y a t a dis
tance. In minor diseases of a nervous
natu re I have m yself, w ithout m edical
know ledge, a ffe cted some cures for
w hich I could no doubt be sen t to the
p enitentiary; and no doubt will be, if
the method should happen to becom e
popular as the result of my ad vocacy.
T h e re is the case o f a member of my
own fam ily w ho developed alarm ing
abdom inal symptom s. It turned out
that there w as a crossing o f tw o ray s
directly under th at part of the bed
w hich is occupied by the abdom en. It
was only necessary to move the bed
to a location free from ray s and in a
couple of w eeks the sym ptom s had dis
appeared; nor have th ey ever returned.
O th er cases are not so simple of
solution, especially w hen th e exposed
bed is so located that it can not well
be rem oved w ithout disturbing the
organization o f the household. But
there are w ays w herever there is a will
and a little ingenuity will usually solve
the problem. It is fervently to be
hoped th at earth rays will never reach
a stage w here they will be or can be
com m ercially exploited and I am in
clined to doubt that they lend them
selves to those methods.
A ll this discussion is predicated on
the theory that one know s how to find
The
rays- T h e w ays and m eans to it
nncirm rirtti are exceed ingly simple, too simple, in
.
fact, for the divining ro d used for
D ig est
tk e pUrpOSe is looked upon as a jo ke
Ju ly
by the modern w iseacres. W h a t really
1936
is needed is a com plicated and cum ber

som e apparatus that will command res

pect and can be used w ith dignity. A s
m atters stand, dignity and divining rods
are not com patible, for to see a serious
and learned man w andering over the
landscape w ith a forked stick in his
hand and in tently w atching its g yra
tions knocks all the established props
from under the accepted codes of de
portm ent.
T h e G erm ans have got around that
by making highly com plicated devices
out o f their W unschelrute, equipping
it with graduated scales for m easuring
the stren gth o f each ray and, instead
o f forked tw igs, using steel and wire
bow s, w hich som etim es are hollow
tubes. T h e F ren ch w ord for th ese de
vices is baguette , but most of the
F ren ch and Italian seekers have ab an
doned the divining rod in favor o f the
pendulum; any kind of a light w eight
at the end o f a flexible support, such as
a string or a w atch chain. T h e pen
dulum has a distinct ad vantage in the
fa ct th at it n ot only tells the presence
o f the ray , but one can with accuracy
establish its ex act width and its direc
tion. F o r alw ays, and w ithout fail, the
pendulum will sw ing at a right angle to
the length o f the ray. A lso, the pen
dulum can readily be used to m easure
the strength o f the ray, and it should
n ot be n ecessary to explain that they
vary in stren gth , from quite feeble a f
fairs sw inging the pendulum through a
sm all arc, to those o f great strength
th at violently sw ing the w eight of the
pendulum through an arc o f as much as
ninety degrees. A little experience will
readily teach one to read the pow er o f
any ray to be found. O n the whole,
I like the pendulum much better than
I do the divining rod, one can get so
much inform ation out o f it.
B u t no m atter w hat one m ay use,
short of the cum bersom e instrum ent de
signed and used by P ro fesso r Lakhovsky, the action of the indicating instru
m ent is a function of the bodily cells of
the operator; in other w ords, it is not
the ray itself that agitates the instrum ent
so much as it is the com bination b et
w een ray and cellular functions of the
o p erato r's body. Sin ce human cells
unquestionably do not all function at
the sam e periodicity, it stands to reason
th at only some fixed relationship betT w o H un dred T w en ty -tw o

ween cells and ray will establish the

condition w hich moves the rod or the
pendulum. T o say it in other words,
the ray em anations and those o f the
human cells of the operator must be in
some form of resonance w ith each other.
T h a t is w hy neither rod nor pendulum
will function in ev ery bod y s hands, and
it has been my experience th at only
about one in five persons has the re
quisite qualities of resonan ce that are
necessary for the proper functioning of
the finding devices. It is th at fact
which is the most form idable hurdle to
popular accep tance and understanding
of earth rays and their place in the
schem e o f things.
It is w ith great pleasure th at I notice
the interest o f the R osicru cian O rd er
in this su b ject and I rath er suspect that
some o f their findings and teachings
have met with the same hostile recep
tion w hich has been the lot of the earth
ray theory. Incid entally, it may be
w orth recording the fact that my first
interest in this su b ject w as roused by a
R osicrucian, a young G erm an engineer
and w ar veteran, M r. T h e o d o re R oesch,
of N ew A lban y, Indiana. If I have
devoted more time to the su bject than
he has, it is simply because I have had
more time to devote, but all the delving
I have done has been at his original
instigation. It is true that most o f my
w ork has been in connection with trees,
and the stories I could tell about the
relationship betw een trees and earth
V

READ

THE

rays would sound even more w eird than

w hat has been said in this article, but
since I am professional, w ith trees as a
life work, those stories have no place
here.
T h e re is one more angle th at must not
be overlooked the case o f the C hinese
em peror, K w ang Hsu, w ho lived four
thousand y ears ago. T h e re is extan t
a picture or painting o f this em peror
showing him with divining rod in his
hand, and his nam e is still reverred
am ong his countrym en for the good he
w as able to accom plish w ith that rod.
H e originated the C hinese custom, still
prevalent today, of investigating a pro
posed building site b y m eans o f the
forked tw ig. If the tw ig ben t over
there w ere bad dem ons in the soil
and the building site w as abandoned.
C onsidering the influen ce o f ray s on
hum ans and their health, bad dem ons
n o doubt m eant earth ray s, a point that
could be grasped m ore readily than
would a scien tific explanation o f rays.
A nd the result show s up in statistics.
W h e r e a s the highest can cer rate in
E u rop e is about 130 per 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 popu
lation, the low est 45, and w hile th at of
our country is nearly 100, the can cer
rate in C hina, accord ing to figures
available to me, is 15! T h e bad de
m ons of C hina seem to have been
su ccessfully circum vented, ours are still
much
in
evidence.
C ivilization ?
Som etim es I w onder!
V

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

RO SICRUCIAN V IE W POSTCARDS

E very Rosicrucian who visits Rosicrucian Park is proud of the institution behind the
organisation the majestic buildings, the facilities afforded members, the artistic designs,
the symmetry of the structures, and the beautiful grounds. W h y not obtain view postcards of these different structures and the grounds, and send them to your friends and
acquaintances? Impress them with the fact that you are affiliated with a progressive
organization of stability, one that is able to attain its ideals. A packet of seven of these
actual photographic postcards costs only 35c, with postage paid to you. Send your order
and remittance to the Rosicrucian Supply Bureau, San Jose, California.

[
T w o H un dred T w en ty -th ree

4
<
^
4
<
1
4
4

Each hour o l the day finds the men of science cloistered In laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g nature's m ysteries and extending the boundaries o f
knowledge. T he w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
Is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular Imagination.
I t is with pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and briefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherw ise specified,
we g iv e fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

America's First People

E R E the a n c i e n t
r a c e s o f N orth
and C e n t r a l
A m e r i c a au toch
thonous o r d i d
they m igrate from
Northeastern
A sia? T h is is a re
cen t question of
science. O n e th e
ory advanced is
that ap proxim ate_ ly ten thousand
y ears ago, or as
early as the Q u atern a ry A ge, A siatics
crossed the B ering S e a . and in su cces
sive w aves pushed Southw ard into C e n
tral A m erica to eventually establish the
m agnificent M ay an civilization. T h e tw o
continents, N orth A m erica and A sia,
The
Rosicrucian are separated by a scan t forty miles of
sea, which for several months of the
Digest
y ear is com pletely frozen and can be
]uly
easily traversed. It is further declared
th at at that time the Bering Sea con
1936

tained a number o f small islands. T h is

is concluded from the fact that the sea
bottom is o f extrem e variations in depth.
Som e of the elevations are close to the
su rface, and apparently w ere once
above, form ing small islands. T h ese
islands interrupted the flow of the A r c
tic w aters Southw ard, and consequently
the w eather w as less severe. T h e a n
cient im m igrants would not have en
countered as extrem e w eather as now.
and therefore would not have been com
pelled to turn back, because o f e x
posure and hardship. T h e y undoubtedly
dwelled for a considerable time in the
N orth lan d , it is theorized. D ifference
in clim ate and living conditions influ
enced their A siatic culture. B y the time
they had reached C en tral A m erica, their
habits and custom s w ere different than
those of their progenitors on the m ain
land o f A sia.
T h e s e people must have differed
g reatly from the oldest races in evidence
in A m erica today. T h e A lgonkins, rec
T w o H undred T utenty-f our

ognized to be the oldest tribe in ex ist

ence in A m erica, and found in C entral
C alifornia, are far more prim itive than
were the ancient M a y a n s or A ztecs.
T h e architecture, wood and C eram ic
sculpture of the highly civilized M ayan s,
resembles A siatic art. W h y the A siatics
located in C en tral A m erica is still a n
other unansw ered question. Su ccessive
waves o f m igration from A sia might
have caused congestion in the N o rth
land, and forced these progressive
people to travel further Southw ard, in
search o f new, uncrow ded areas. O n
the other hand, they finally did band
them selves together into an organized
society and erected m agnificent temples
with spacious plazas filled w ith beau ti
ful sculptures. T h e re they also estab
lished an adm irable system o f govern
ment, acquired a know ledge o f m athe
matics and astronom y and expressed
their spiritual natures in com plex re
ligious cerem onies.
In contrast to this theory is the one
that man cam e d irect to A m erica from
across the P acific probably from some
o f the islands of the Sou th P acific. It is
known that for thousands o f y ears, the
P olynesian s w ere m aster navigators, and
would have been able to navigate the
Pacific to C en tral A m erica, but as one
authority said, D id th ey ? T h e re is
no evidence available that they did.
T h e refo re, the most probable theory is
m igration from A sia to N orth A m erica,
via the B erin g Sea. It is, how ever, en
couraging that anthropologists, ethn olo
gists, and arch aeologists are directing
their attention to A m erica in their search
for the most ancient human beings, for
the W e ste rn W o rld has most certainly
been neglected in this regard.
T h e follow ing is a brief accoun t of
this proposed expedition to prove the
Bering Sea port o f entry to A m erica
theory.
A hunt for the most an cient human
beings in A m erica will be conducted this
summer, by an expedition to the n o rth
w estern doorstep of the continent, w here
the first im m igrants presum ably entered.
Led by H en ry B . C ollins. Jr., o f the
Sm ithsonian Institute, the expedition,
sponsored jo in tly by the N ation al G eo
graphic S o ciety and the Sm ithsonian In
stitute, is en route to the w esternm ost
point of N orth A m erica, C ap e P rince
T w o H un dred T w en ty -fiv e

of W a le s , A laska. T h is is the most

likely place w here ancient men would
have crossed from A sia, only fifty-five
miles aw ay via B erin g Stra it. Previous
A laskan expeditions by M r. C ollins and
other arch aeolog ists have pushed E sk i
mo prehistory back to about 1000 B . C.
T h e expedition has hope of finding sk el
etal rem ains or discarded w eapons of
still earlier people who must have passed
this port of en try region at the dawn
of A m erican h ab itatio n .

U nity of the Universe

It is extrem ely difficult for the hu
man mind to relate the diversified phe
nom ena of nature to an order that is
as com prehensible and as dem onstra
ble as the particular m anifestations
them selves. E a ch realm of the phys
ical forces in its broad est and most
natu ral expression, seems distinctly d if
ferent from every other. E a ch realm
affords an unlimited opportunity for
specific research. T h u s, for exam ple,
during the past several centuries man
has learned more about the phenomenon
of light, its speed, source and extent
than ever before, and yet, it still re
mains greatly shrouded in m ystery. A n
other century of investigation could well
be spent in this one field b y science,
without attaining an absolu te m astery
o f it, and w ithout an y concern for the
other m ysteries of nature. It is not
stran ge, th erefore, th at scien ce has given
little thought in the past to hypothetical
links, w hich would unite the sep arate
phenom ena o f the universe. T h e indi
vidual forces w ere more evident, and
th erefo re w ere m ore appealing, and the
result o f con cen tration on them more
gratify in g . S cie n ce w as concerned only
with the prim ary causes o f the particu
lar results it analyzed. It left a co n
sideration o f the cau se o f all causes to
religion and m etaphysics. T h is indiffer
ence to the probability o f a single, su
preme cau se o f all, w as due to the lack
of evidence of such a cause. If it had
been apparent that all natural law s w ere
united, and not m erely presum ed to be,
science would have begun a critical e x
am ination of that problem at once.
D evotion to and specialization in a
field o f science soon developed know l
edge that every m anifestion o f the par-

ticular phenom enon had a common re la

tionship. F o r exam ple: C h an g e in the
diatonic scale w as proven to be depen
dent on a change in vibration of sound,
and variation of a w ave length of light,
it w as found, changed the spectrum .
U n fo rtu n ately , such know ledge as this
w as not applied to the solution of new
problem s extraneous to the fam iliar
field. T h e facts of one realm of nature
w ere considered exclusively of it.
It w as not until o f fairly recent years,
when a com parison of physical law s dis
covered by the different branches o f sci
ence w as made, that it becam e am az
ingly evident th at distinctly different
functions of natu re w ere dependent
upon similar law s. F u rth er inquiry re
vealed the fact that the phenom ena h ere
tofore thought unrelated, w ere united in
an orderly scale. U sin g this as a basic
key, sim ilar law s w ere found to solve
other m ysteries. A t last there w as suffi
cient foundation for science to begin to
probe the enigm a of the unified universe.
T h e postulations o f the m etaphysicians
w ere actually given careful co n sid era
tion, for it w as thought th at in them
there m ight possibly be discovered a
theory of order to w hich could be rele
gated the know n law s of nature. It w as
realized that the greatest future ach iev e
ment of science would be acquisition of
know ledge of the com plete pattern of
the universe, not ju st a com prehension
of the individual parts of its design.
T o d ay , therefore, we find the leaders
o f science striving for a synthesis of all
that is known about our physical w orld,
and expounding theories of the initial
cause o f all. T h e se theories, it is am us
ing to observe, cloak them selves in terms
and ideas w hich parallel the cosm ologi
cal concepts of the m etaphysicians of
centuries previous. C om pare the modern
abstract m etaphysical discourses on the
origin of m atter and the natu re of the
first causes of the universe w ith the dicta
of such scientists as E in stein and Sir
Jam es Jean s. D r. R onald K ing, o f th e
departm ent o f physics, L a fa y ette C o l
lege. in terestin gly tells of this new
<j'jie
search of science for the key to the

.
.
unity o f the universe. W e quote in part
R o s . c u c a n from hjs a r(jd e

D,gest

Ju ly
1936

..As a consequence of the methodology ju st outlined, one may conclude that

scientific know ledge has its inception in

the a ccu rate investigation o f a great

m any facts, including those disclosed by
carefu lly arranged and controlled exper
im ents.
K now ledge itself consists of
unified representations of know n facts
from which it is possible to derive by
logical steps all phenom ena qu an tita
tively and with precision.
B u t know ledge is never station ary
so long as in creasin gly skilful minds,
with ever m ore pow erful experim ental
and m athem atical tools, are finding their
w ay deeper and further into the secrets
o f natu re's structure. T h e growth o f
know ledge proceeds ( 1 ) from an in
crease in the num ber or the accu racy of
available facts: ( 2 ) from the creation of
new m athem atical con structs represent
ing m echanism s or system s which a c
count for facts alread y known and for
facts discovered as a result of the new
form ulation.
E v ery new form ulation, however,
must win its case b efo re the supreme
and unyielding jud ge of all science, ex
perim ent. If it fails it becom es fiction,
but may still continue to serve a useful
purpose in a limited w ay. Su ch is the
ca se with the B o h r theory o f the atom
and with N ew to n s law o f universal
gravitation. A n y new and more general
m athem atical representation must in
clude in the new form, everything in the
old which is verified by experim ent or
crude observation. T h u s, the general
theory of relativity must and does co n
tain the N ew tonian law o f universal
gravitation as a special and limiting case.
N othing w hich verifies N ew to n s law
can or does disprove E in stein s; but new
evidence w hich can not be explained in
terms o f N ew to n s law is explained and
coordinated by E in ste in s. Sin ce, m ore
over, E in ste in s law is at the same time
the sim plest and the most inclusive for
mulation w hich any mind has thus far
conceived, and w hich does satisfy all
available experim ental evidence, it rep
resents physical reality. It is to be noted
that it is quite easy for m athem aticians
to prove that E in stein 's equations are
not the only ones consistent w ith the
av ailable evidence. B u t all alternative
solutions so far suggested fall far short
o f E in ste in s in unity, in sim plicity and
in m athem atical elegance.
P h y sical reality may change from
day to day: physical fact does not, exT w o H undred T w en ty-six

cept in so far as it is determ ined more

accurately. W h a t has been called revo
lution in physics is but the pulse of a
gradual and p ersistent evolution. T h e
m ethodology undergoes no rad ical or
violent changes; it continues to be, in
the w ords of O A bro, 'the form ulation
of a mental con stru ct capable of coor
dinating in a simple and ration al m anner
the sum total o f our sense im pressions.
E xperim en tal facts becom e ever more
accu rately know n; m athem atical repre
sentations becom e ever more general,
more com prehensive, more unified. B u t
facts remain facts, and w hat w as once
true continues true, at least during a
tim e-span com parable w ith th at of hu
man history, for such is the structure
o f nature. N ew m athem atical forms and
new m etaphysical speculations and mind

pictures in no w ay alter the know n facts

about the schem e of things; they m erely
rearran ge an understanding of these.
T h u s, th e ancients w ere satisfied to let
A pollo pull the sun across the heavens
each day, to let Jupiter thunder his per
sonal w rath and to let A tlas b ear the
world upon his shoulders w hile his feet
rested in the nether region s. Som e
m oderns are still con ten t to let a m ys
terious and hidden force called grav ita
tion draw all bodies together. M e a n
while, it is the aim of science to elim inate
all gods, giants and hidden forces from
the m inds representations o f nature, and
to substitute for these unified m athe
m atical form s w hich coordinate sym m et
rically and system atically all known
fa c ts .

Summertime
By Soror Elsa F. Angle

H IS season stim ulates within

us great satisfactio n and co n
tentm ent and w e view with
delight the beau ty all around
us. H ere is the fulfillment of
spring's promises. T h e m yr
iad blossom s spreading their
fragran ce everyw here provide a tem pt
ing attraction for busy insects. T h e
fields and w oods are drow sily enjoying
the heights o f their developm ent, not
remembering that short is this span
and soon some sort of fruit will be e x
pected and should be in proper propor
tion to the efforts expended. T h e bloom
is a perishable thing and unless it leaves
behind some tangible evidence o f its ex
istence it will soon be ju st a pleasant mem
ory o f som ething that might have been.
N ature is bent on producing and e x
erts all her pow ers a t each season and
so we have the successive w onders of
system atic development. T h e re can be
no preference of any season since each
one is o f equal im portance and supplies
jo y s and opportunities no other season
can offer. A t the heights of the summer
season one will still be haunted by the
memories o f the past season when all
was a gay outburst o f new life and a c
tivity, that would not be held back by
cold or rain. A n d w hile resting idly
under sunny skies enjoying the fulfill
ment of all those early promises, one
T w o Hundred. T w en ty -sev en

nevertheless is caused to think of the

season ahead w hich will be the real
test of all the preceding activities. T h e re
are fruits to be delivered and all future
com fort depends on that event, when
blossom s depart and the earth gets ready
to shed its lovely garm ents, to retire for
a season.
M a y we well heed the sym bolic le s
sons o f N atu re w hich spread out before
us a book full of precious hieroglyphs
to be deciphered by each one of us.
T h e re is solemn truth behind every
thing and stern duties connect us with
every season. B u t when those are prop
erly taken care o f we shall have a happy
youth, en jo y deeply the gifts o f riper
y ea rs, and look in contentm ent on a life
well spent when the seasons draw to a
close.
P ea ce and contentm ent do not com e
with unproductive living but as the ju st
rew ard of a full life. O u r existence
leaves an im pression on everything and
ours is the choice of w hat quality that
influence shall be and w e will be con
fronted again b y the results at some
future day. M a n is here to w ork out
his own salvation and th at has to be
done in the earlier seasons largely; while
the soil is young and the sun is high!
L ab o r not for the m eat w hich perisheth, but for that m eat w hich endureth
unto everlasting life.

SANCTUM MUSINGS
A S T U D Y IN P E R F U M E S
(A Special Contribution by Frater Francis J. Ingman.)

R O M time to time
every S o ro r is b e
set with problem s
involving the co r
rect use o f co s
metics, colors, and
perfum es.
In h ar
m o n i o u s c o lo r
schem es cause un
pleasant com m ent.
Incom petent appli
cation o f cosm etics
________
cast in feren ces of
sim ilar nature. In
spite o f these common discrepancies, I
am firmly convinced th at the greatest in
consistency is to be found in the selec
tion and use of perfum es. T h is is due to
the fact th at little is to be found con
cerning the use of stock perfum es av ail
able on the m arket today.
Perfum e is perhaps the oldest w eapon
in the fem inine arsenal, and has certain
advantages that neither color schem es
nor cosm etics may approach in subtlety,
wholesome charm , or fascination. It
seem s as though it w ere an E n ch an ted
Isle by itself, isolated from science and
m aterial things, and belonging to the
artist and m ystical creators w ho delight
in serving their fellow m en with creations
and inspirations of fragran ce, like unto
their more renow ned cousins, the sculp
The
R osicru cian tor, com poser, painter, and poet.
B efo re taking up the modern notes
D ig est
and interpretation o f odors, let us b rief
July
ly, very b riefly , scan the past. T h e first
o f perfum e know ledge cam e from E g y p t.
1936

W illia m P ou ch er in his very excellent

tex t on P erfum es, gives cognizance to
the story o f A tlan tean s from whom the
E gy p tian s learned the lore of Perfum es.
T h e B ible is full o f referen ces to per
fumes and their frequent use. Both
Biblical and E g y p tian history mentions
the common arom atic gums and resins
as m yrrh, cinnam on, and frankincense.
T h e re is no doubt in my mind but w hat
perfum es played a very im portant part
in the toilet o f the E gy p tian women,
more than the average modern might
think. A t the heighth o f E gyptian
splendor, consum ption must have been
preem inently profuse. A ll the psycho
logy, theory, speculation, and em pirical
use of perfum es centered in its greatest
early exponent, C leo p atra. From her
time on, P erfum ery began to live as a
sep arate lore. T h e most celebrated
E g y p tia n perfum e is K yphi. T h o se of
you w ho are so fortunate as to be a
member o f the E g y p tia n T o u r, in 1937,
should not fail to em brace a ch an ce to
smell this typical perfum e. T h e genuine
article is n atu rally expensive, but it
might be arranged to smell the co rk
without undue charge. E x p ect to meet
a delightfully spicy fragrance, for all
E g y p t w as great on spices in both per
fume and em balming. N ot only per
fumes w ere prom inent at the time of
C leo p atra; women o f society w ere using
rouge on cheeks and lips, painting the
eyebrow s, and placing a dark line under
the eyes. F in g er and toenails w ere also
stained.
T w o H undred T w en ty-eight

Persians delighted in the fragran ce of

the rose. T h e ir poetry is full of re fe r
ences to this flower and i^s fine odor.
It was about this time that an A rabian
physician, A vicenna, tau ght the method
of perfume distillation as a m eans of
preserving the odor o f flowers. N atu r
ally his first product w as rose-w ater.
N arcissu s w as also valued at this time
as well as the Jasm ine.
India w as rich in trees, shrubs, and
bushes yielding arom atic gums and re
sins. Sandalw ood w as probably the
oldest perfum e to the E a st Indians, and
later cam e P atchou li and Spikenard .
Benzoin w as also collected in India and
reached W e s te r n m arkets.
C hinese are famous for their joss
sticks. T h e incense burner is an im
portant part of the C hinese home and
religious duties. In the northern parts
of C hina are found the m usk-deer, and
with a plentiful supply near at hand,
M usk has becom e a favorite perfum e o f
the C hinese.
G recian women early developed a
liking for perfum es. A s the rose w as the
favorite of the P ersian s, so the V io le t
becam e the favorite o f the G recian s. It
w as oftentim es blended with M in t or
T h y m e. T h e m o 't famous G recian per
fume is probably the M eg alleion , made
by M agallu s.
R om an women used a solid p irfu m e
in the form of an unguent. T h e essential
oils of the flower easily penetrated neu
tral fats, and the clinging affinity made
them adm irable as a vehicle for the va
rious fragrances. T h e Rom ans w ere not
much on the bouquet productions, but
rather preferred the single odors, such
as the R ose, N arcissu s, and Q uince.
C osm etics and pow der for the skin b e
gan to appear among R om an women,
and with but a few declines, progressed
steadily to its present day status.
T h e first decline in perfum e and co s
metic know ledge cam e with the advent
of the D ark A g es. N ot only did the
know ledge w ane, but its use becam e
som ew hat unpopular except in the larg
est cities and houses of roy alty . C u lti
vation of express flowers w as quite
abandoned, and had it not been for a
few zealous m onasteries and personages
devoted to N ature, the art and method
of flower grow ing m ight have had a
very considerable setback.
T w o H undred T w en ty-nine

A bou t the 16th centu ry, the use o f

perfum es w as quickly revived. T h e
D am ask R ose stood as a favorite. T h e
unguent o f the Rom ans had lost favor,
and the distillation of the P ersian s also;
now the dry petals or pow der w ere
placed in sm all silken bags and carried
in the pocket.
F ra n ce is fam ous for its C hypre per
fume as one o f its old arom atic land
m arks. T o d a y the F ren ch are p ara
m ount in the construction of perfum e,
and m any acres of land are devoted to
the raising o f flowers for subsequent
enfleurage and ex tractio n o f oils. T h e
H ouses o f Y b ry , C arron , C hanel, L a n
vin, and others, stand as monuments to
the artistic ability o f the F ren ch per
fumers.
E n glan d , alw ays com peting w ith
F ra n ce for perfum e honors, is fam ous
for its Lavend er W a te r . From the silk
en bag and sachet, E n glish vogue adju n ctly brou ght into use the bath salt
during the S tu a rt period.
O th er fam ous perfum es to survive the
advent o f critical time have been the
fam ous H u n gary W a te r , a favorite of
Q ueen E lizab eth o f H u ngary, and E au
de C ologne, w hose curious h istory
caused it to be discovered in Italy ,
named in F ra n ce , and made in C ologne,
G erm any. A lso there is Im perial W a te r ,
F lo rid a W a te r (a n A m erican produc
tion) and E sterh a z y fragran ce from the
P rin cess E ste rh a z y s perfum er.
A nd so to the perfum e o f tod ay and
tom orrow . M ilad y is becom ing more
and more individual in her dress, con
duct, m anners, and toilette. T h e dis
crim inate and fastidious woman is about
to demand perfum es constructed for her
individual type, taking into con sid era
tion her personality, color of hair, eyes,
skin, with variations for afternoon and
evening, as well as F a ll and W in te r , or
Sprin g and Sum m er. A ll this is based
on common sense Law s of H arm ony.
M a k e no m istake but w hat odors obey
law s o f vibratory propagation as does
sound, colors, etc.
W ith o u t going into the physics o f
O d o r, V e lo c ity (fo rc e of v o la tility ).
C hem istry, and H arm onics, let me say
in passing th at to D r. Septim us P iesse,
for whom I m anifest great respect, goes
the cred it o f pioneering O dors H a r
monics. P iesse, a F ren ch perfum er, con -

structed an instrum ent know n as the

O d o p h o n e. It w as sim ply a m usical
keyboard upon w hose blank keys w ere
ascribed odors of various flowers. T h e
assigning of these odors to musical
notes constitutes much o f his life w ork.
S o when a chord w as struck on the
keyboard of the O dophone, it w as also
found that the odors designated w ere
in perfect accord and harm ony. L et me
give you an illustration. K ey of F : M u sk
( F B a s s ), R ose ( C ) , T u b ero se ( F ) ,
T o n qu in B ean ( A ) , C am phor ( C ) , and
Jonquil ( F ) . A n o th er in K ey o f C :
Sand alw ood ( C B a s s ) , G eranium ( C ) ,
A cacia ( E ) , O ran g e F lo w er ( G ) , and
C am phor ( C ) .
W h e n e v e r a discord
sounded on the keyboard, an in h ar
monium w as found in the odors por
trayed. N ow all odors in the treble clef
have a high velocity, i. e., their w aves
are propagated rapidly and in high fre
quency. T h e se odors are then light and
ethereal, highly volatile, easy to per
ceive, becom ing more and more fugitive
as the scale heightens in vibratory rate.
T h e bass clef harbors odors w hose
w aves are slow ly and lazily propagated.
A s they descend their odor becom es decreasingly perceptible, but in creasin gly
pow erful as stab ilizers. T h e y are
know n as the fixatives, and em brace
such substances as M u sk, Sandalw ood,
Benzoin, C asto r, V a n illa , and P atchou li.
O ften tim es they are distinctly ob
noxious in concentrated form, but high
ly frag ran t in dilution. T h e ir function is
to hold and capture the highly fugitive
odors o f ethereal floral notes.
A n y discerning wom an know s it is
w rong for a blonde to spill heavy or
oriental perfum e over her body. It is
likew ise noted th at a bru nette does not
tolerate nor support a light and ethereal
perfum e. T h e medium and the T itia n
can use neither. T h e G ra y and W h ite
type have their individual requisites.
A n y deviation
from this categ ory
(though it is quite broad and inclusive)
produces varying degrees o f incom pati
bility and lack of harm ony.
B u t im m ediately a problem, moving
with
arm ored sw ay and m ailed-fist, evi
T he
dences
itself. Ju st as the foods we m ost
R osicru cian
relish and en jo y oftentim es produce dis
Digest
com fiture and indigestion, so it is th at
Ju ly
the perfum es we countenance and revel
in are precisely the ones w hich are not
1936

harm onious nor descriptive of feminine

type. I have pondered this question
from m any angles. I have know n cases
w herein, despite a breadth of selection,
the individual would Dersist in an in
harm ony, despite all explanation and at
tempts to reed ucate the preference.
Stra n g e ly enough, it is usually the
blonde and the medium demanding a
heavy L atin , Span ish , or O rien tal per
fume. It w as with considerable in
credulity th at I first caused to entertain
the possibility th at this strong, even ve
hem ent attachm ent to a certain odor,
might be due to preferences hanging
over from past cycles. I am now quite
convinced that this is true. T h e re is no
other explanation so accep table. A
little thought will bear this out admir
ably as I found, a fter having this crucial
point cleared up by a woman indirectly
interested in the th eory o f modern per
fuming.
G ettin g down to realities, let us take
under consideration a hypothetical case.
L et us select a woman of thirty, neither
true blonde nor medium opportunely
called the blonde-m edium . H er skin is
fair, eyes blue, hair light brow n. T h e
ethereal fragran ces of the blonde are
much too light for her; the consistent
and m aintaining odors of the medium a
trifle too w eighty and secure. T h is type
is proffered a h alf dozen odors: H on ey
suckle, M uguet, Q uinine, A ca cia B los
som, Sy rin g a, L ilac, or A rbutus (not
T r a ilin g ). O f these, the A cacia B lo s
som or S y rin g a are most descriptive and
pictorial of the type. If the eyes are
very light, I would suggest the former,
or if slate or g ray I would prefer the
latter. H on eysu ckle and Q uinine offer
excellen t substitutes in case personal
preference runs am iss, either having a
delicious and alluring sw eetness quite
individual, and a floral note th at is not
a t all common. A s to color, this type
would do well to m atch the eyes when
possible, with clothes fu rth er arrayed
in Blues, G reen s, light G olds, shades of
O rch id , Jade, and if the com plexion is
ruddy, V io le t and B lu ish -G reen is very
descriptive. A pp ropriate cosm etics can
be obtained by consulting a diagram ob
tainable at m ost shops and drug stores.
Sp ace will not permit a prescription for
the B ru nette, M edium , T itia n , Blonde,
or G ray , but rest assured th at their
T w o H un dred T hirty

harmonies do not encroach on this one

which is typical o f the B lon d e-M ed iu m .
A s to application, first let me adm on
ish the purchasing o f oily perfum es. T h e
higher the oil content, the better the per
fume. T h e most ad vantageous sites for
application are probably three: ( 1 ) B e
hind the ears at the hair line, but not in
the hair, ( 2 ) H ollow o f the neck w here
dress line ends, ( 3 ) O n the w rists,
thumb side, over the pulse.
D o not apply perfum e to the hair.
Fresh ly sham pooed hair has a w hole
some odor o f its own. P erfum e should
be applied fully h alf an hour befo re
leaving the house, allowing time for

R E A D

T H E

evaporation o f alcoholic fumes, blending

of perfum e with natural body fragran ce,
and for the im mediate strength to calm
down to the state of su b tlety . D o
not h esitate to put a few drops of F a ll
and W in te r perfum e inside your leather
gloves at intervals. Y o u will be d elight
ed with the am azing effect it has on the
hands. M o st perfum es contain small
am ounts of musk, am bergris, civet, or
castoreum , which have a special affinity
for fine leather, and produce a distinctive
note w hich will align itself w ith the
floral note o f the perfum e and lend su f
ficient o v erto n e to m ake a very de
lightful sym phony.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
Man, 'when conscious o f an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized it so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f it. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illum inate mankind
w ith their mystic Tight.
F o r those who are seeking light, each month we w ill
reproduce a symbol or symbols, w ith their ancient meaning.

by, is
out to
in the
flows.

This centuries-old allegory con

tains some profound principles of
mysticism and metaphysics, and
was used to illustrate a rare Rosi
crucian manuscript. The stream in
the foreground alludes to the flow
of the years of mans life. In the
center of it are found small bushes
and shrubs representing the op
portunities for the growth of ones
better nature if they are culti
vated . The wise man, instead of
standing idly on the banks of the
stream of life, letting years flow
seeking to make the best of these opportunities. H e is reaching
bring to the surface these partly hidden growths. In the distance,
bright sunlight, is seen the city of attainm ent tow ard which life
Ju s t before the stream reaches the sunlight, it is crossed by a
bridge which depicts the end of life for those who
have not prepared themselves to carry on in the fa ce
of obstacles. The obstacles are d epicted by the face
in the skies blowing a gust of wind tow ard the earth.

T w o H un dred T h irty -on e

T h e Great Master Hoax

IS Y O U R L I F E B E IN G I N F L U E N C E D B Y
T H E S E F O O L IS H B E L IE F S ?

By

T h e Im pera to r

T least once a y ear

I find it n ecessary
to w arn our new
mem bers, and
e s p e c i a l l y our
m any readers of
the D i g e s t w ho
have n ot yet b e
com e mem bers of
the O rd er, again st
the t e m p t a t io n s
that f o l l o w the
reading o f certain
forms o f mystical
literature issued in the W e s te r n W o r ld
by individuals or groups o f individuals
who seek d eliberately to mislead those
w ho are in search of the arcan e truths
of life.
A t the risk o f once more being a c
cused of intolerance, fear of rival claim s,
and jealou sy of other organizations that
are attem pting to establish them selves,
I again say that the claim s and p reten
sions o f som e o f the so-called m ystical,
spiritual,
m etaphysical,
occult,
and
se c re t societies o f N orth A m erica p ar
ticu larly are the most preposterous and
inane, as w ell as the m ost fraudulent
and insidiously destructive, th a t have
The
Rosicrucian ever been circulated since the dawn o f
religious and philosophical racketeering.
Digest
T h e re comes to my desk and to our
July
R esearch and E d itorial D epartm ents a
constant flow o f leaflets, booklets,
1936

pam phlets, as well as announcem ents of

public lectures and private classes and
carefu lly w orded letters of invitation
and insinuation, that make one w ish at
times that a large portion of the N orth
A m erican public could be taken b y the
hair o f the head and shaken until some
sense or som e common understanding o f
the simple truths of life could be forced
into their consciousness, and the gulli
b ility burned out through som e process
that would make a lasting im pression.
C ertain ly these individuals and groups
that live and grow on the returns from
their m isleading claim s, could not exist
and increase in num ber in the W e s te r n
W o rld tod ay if there w as not a large
portion of the public th at is more than
anxious to believe the ridiculous sta te
ments, and ap paren tly ready to fight
and argue, sacrifice and suffer, in order
to p ro tect and support these schem ers
in their brazen and stupid activities.
V e r y seldom is any of this literature
marked b y cleverness o f thought, by
real ingenuity, or by an attem pt to ap
peal to the cultured, thinking person.
Su ch literatu re is very often printed on
the ch eap est o f paper w ith the cheapest
of ink, and distributed in a m anner
w hich plainly ind icates that the person
or persons back o f the proposition could
not afford to spend more than a few
pennies to ca rry on their propaganda,
and show s no appreciation of artistic
T w o H undred T hirty-tw o

arrangem ents, cultural presentation, re

finement in ideas, or distinction in ch a r
acter. Y e t, with the earm arks on their
literature plainly labeling them as un
couth, illiterate, stupid, and deceptive,
they issue and distribute m atter contain
ing claims that are out o f proportion to
the picture o f the background, and
people who do not think and analyze do
not seem to notice the earm arks and the
telling signs w hich should and would
condemn the propaganda at once. It is
as if a person w rote with a cheap,
scratchy lead pencil on a common piece
of w rapping paper the statem ent th at
he w as the w ealthiest man in the w orld,
with a secret for producing w ealth that
he was ready to share with all, and that
at his command he could have the finest
things in life. O n e would im m ediately
say, "T h e n w hy h asn t he a good lead
pencil and a good piece o f paper upon
which to put his m essage in the proper
form ? L ittle groups o f unknow n, un
educated, uncultured persons located in
some sem i-furnished house in the poor
section of a city will organize them
selves as a "se cre t so ciety o f tran scen
dental w isdom and announce to the
w orld that they constitute the in tern a
tional head qu arters and w orld-w ide
foundation o f the m ost em inent, glori
ous, successful, prosperous, m ighty
brotherhood that civilization has ever
known. A n individual living an obscure
life with little or no education, no b ack
ground or preparation, no u nd erstan d
ing or appreciation o f human needs, will
proclaim him self the "g re a t M a s te r or
great leader o f a C osm ically decreed,
divinely ordained, and universally a c
cepted system o f unusual wisdom and
power. T h e more fan tastic, the more
extravagant, the more uncanny, w eird,
impossible, and unbelievable the claim s
thus made, the more quickly and com
pletely will a large portion o f the public
bow down b efo re him and do his bid
ding, accep t his offers, sacrifice their
w orldly holdings, and risk their lives
and reputations in his behalf.
W ith all of the m agicians and the ec
centric, stran ge, and m ysterious cults
and system s o f faith to be found in the
O rient, and with all o f the peculiar and
fan tastic representatives of these faiths
which one m eets in these lands, still in
no other cou ntry o f the world are such
T w o H un dred T hirty-three

preposterous ideas presented to the

public and turned into gold and silver
w hile the victim s fall into pits and traps
w hich bring ruin and disgrace to in
dividuals and their families.
T h e tales o f personal suffering, fam ily
discord, loss o f reputation, arrest, co n
viction, prison confinem ent, suicides and
murders th at are revealed to us from
one end o f the y ea r to the other b y the
victim s or friends o f victim s o f this
W e s te r n W o r ld deception would fill a
book th at would be a horrible com m en
tary on the developm ent o f civilization
in our enlightened w orld. M en and
w omen w ho would suspect even the
sincere recom m endations o f their friends
when they are extrao rd in ary , who mis
trust the scales o f their im mediate m er
chants, w ho cast out the statem ents o f
their priests, clergym en, and rabbis,
w ho exam ine their dollar bills very
closely in fear o f cou n terfeits, and w ho
bite their coins to see if they are real,
will accep t the ridiculous and fan tastic
claims o f these propagandists and
m ortgage their homes if they own any,
pawn their jew elry , take their savings
out of the banks, and even rob their em
ployers and friends to pour w ealth into
the coffers o f these deceivers with com
plete confidence and trust in the e x tra
ordinary claim s they make.
Y o u m ay think th at I am going to
extrem es w hen I speak o f robbery, and
o f hum an sacrifices, of d isgrace, o f im
m orality, or broken hearts and homes,
but w e can prove that these statem ents
are true b y the mass o f correspondence
in our files. R ig h t befo re me at this
moment is the report o f a man w ho w as
led to appropriate tw o thousand dollars
o f his em ployer's funds to assist a
wom an in giving birth to a new "D iv in e
M a s te r of the w orld in the foothills o f
M o u n t S h a sta . A broken home, a sad,
heartbroken w ife, several children dis
graced, a lost position, and a mass o f
unpleasant new spaper publicity w as the
inevitable result o f his foolish beliefs.
A nd this brings me to the crux of
most o f these sad situations. It is the
belief possessed by a large portion of
the public th at som e "G r e a t M a s te rs
o f D ivine origin, or at least D ivine ap
pointm ent, and possessing rem arkable
know ledge and m iraculous pow er, are
w alking the streets o f our N orth A m eri-

can cities, or are living in hum ble huts

and homes, or are hiding aw ay in caves
and grottos, and only occasion ally re
veal them selves to seekers w ho are
bidden to com e and p ro strate them selves
before them and sacrifice their w orldly
possessions. I can see m any o f my
readers smiling with sincere doubt as to
the possibility o f there being m any in
dividuals so gullible, and it is not a l
w ays among the m ost illiterate or the
most uneducated, or the m ost primitive
types o f mind th at w e find this gulli
bility. W e are shocked som etim es to
find it among those w ho have had edu
cational opportunities, w ho live in larger
cities and read various new spapers and
m agazines, w ho ca n make investiga
tions, w ho co n tact sane and rational
people daily, and who hold fairly good
positions in so ciety and business. But
evidently the age-old hope th at som e
day a m arvelous m ystic M a s te r or
highly spiritualized individual will come
into their presence or m ake him self
known to them and chan ge the course
of their lives in the tw inkling of an eye,
is still a popular belief.
M an y of our readers will say, D o
you mean to intim ate th at there are no
G re a t M asters, no C osm ically-inspired ,
D ivinely - sanctioned individuals w ho
possess the ability to receive direct rev e
lations o f great know ledge, and w ho
have developed to a high plane of
mental and spiritual pow er, and w ho
can aid and guide us in our w ordly a f
fa irs? T o such persons I would say
most positively th at th ere are such
M asters, and it is our hope and the
hope of every individual w ho is trod ding along the path of spiritual, philo
sophical, m ental, or cultural unfoldm ent
to some day co n tact such a M a ste r and
to becom e his pupil, and to be b en e
fited by his extrao rd in ary wisdom and
his Cosm ic understanding. W e are all
mindful o f the an cient injunction th at
w hen the pupil is ready the M a ste r will
ap p ear, but w hile this is true, there is
a vast difference betw een the ideal o f
the M a s te r in the minds o f the sane
rj'fie
and understanding student, and the fan _
.
.
tastic, im possible idol in the minds of so
R osicru ctan m any

D igest
Ju ly

1936

W e regret to say th at ever since we

ventured to reveal some o f the facts relating to the antiqu ity and th e tra d i

tions surrounding the M o u n t S h a sta

district in the stories w e published about
Lem uria, the m ystical ra ck e tee rs ever
seeking some new an gle and ever
anxious to seize upon a plausible excuse,
have been com m ercializing the M ount
Sh a sta district to a degree th at a sto n
ishes thinking individuals and is becom
ing a pitiful situation. W e w ere fearful
th at our stories about M ount Sh asta,
and especially some of the very old tra
ditions about it, might tem pt m any un
thinking persons to jou rn ey there by
autom obile or otherw ise, and tramp
through the w oods and up the hillsides
hoping to have some glimpse of the old
ruins or some co n tact with the stran ge
individuals claim ed to be living there.
W e w ere, in fact, fearful th at seekers
and explorers for novel experiences
might w aste some of their time, and per
haps some little m oney in such journeys
to be aw arded only with bitter disap
pointm ents. W e realize, how ever, th at a
brief vacation in the district o f M ount
Sh asta, and the very tiresom e and tedi
ous efforts of climbing its sides or pene
trating the w oods surrounding it would
be good, w holesom e exercise for a great
m any, and th erefore no great harm
could com e from such an exploration.
B u t w e never suspected th at sane men
and women would believe on e-tenth o f
the foolish, fan tastic, extrem ely im prob
able stories th at a score o f individuals
and groups have invented in the past
two y ears and used for the purpose of
leading men and women to the foothills
of M ount S h a sta , and incidentally lead
ing them also into disgrace, dishonor,
im prisonment, and even suicide. If we
could retract tod ay everything w e have
ever said about M o u n t S h a sta , we
would gladly do so, and thank G od for
the opportunity. B u t the books now in
the public libraries, and the stories that
have been reprinted from our book in
new spapers and m agazines and partly
verified b y recen t explorations, cannot
b e retracted , and all w e can do is to
continue to republish the original sta te
ments made in our book and thus show
by com parison with the idiotic propa
ganda of these other individuals and
groups ju st how foolishly they are b e
ing misled by exag gerated statem ents
and m oney-m aking illusions.
T w o H un dred T hirty-four

W h e n tw o of the leading schem es o f

deception are com bined in a fan tastic
form, it is a certain ty th at thousands o f
individuals are going to be placed in un
fortunate circum stances. O n e o f the
oldest means o f deception to the m ys
tically and spiritually inclined is that
fictitious elaboration, and deliberately
and know ingly false idea th at G reat
Cosm ic M a s te rs " or D ivine W o r ld
M a ste rs" are now ready to be revealed
to the public, and to receive follow ers
and w orshippers. F o r fifty y ears or
more this idea has been very popular
in the W e s te r n W o rld , much to the
amusement o f the m ystic o f the O rien t
w ho cannot im agine w hy the people o f
the W e s te r n W o r ld unfam iliar with
w hat a "re a l M a ste r o f W is d o m " rep re
sents should be so ready to believe an y
thing and everything said about such a
M aste r. W e have had propaganda th at
announced that a little babe in the crib
in some isolated com m unity w as dis
covered to be the coming Sav io r o f the
W o rld or M a ste r o f the U niverse, and
funds w ere collected and follow ers w ere
organized to care for and ed u cate the
little one, while his guardians filled their
coffers and lived a life o f luxury. W e
have had propaganda announcing that
a G reat M a ste r from som e unknown
place in the O rien t has suddenly arrived
in the darkness of the night in an a ir
plane or dirigible, and has descended
upon an isolated peak of some m oun
tains in a midwest or w estern p art of
the U nited S tate s, and is living in se
clusion and is ready to receive the
hom age (an d the m aterial th in gs) offer
ed b y prospective disciples and devotees.
W e have had propaganda announcing
th at an individual hereto fo re unknown
in the world of spiritual wisdom or in
the fields of m ystical literatu re and cul
ture, has suddenly discovered him self to
be the reincarnation or the still-living
Soul and Spirit of a great M a ste r of the
past, and that he has found on the earth
plane the very abode, the very grotto,
cave, or temple in w hich he lived tw o
thousand y ears ag o, and is now ready
to prepare men and w omen to be his
pupils, his follow ers, and at some later
date escort them in secrecy to his hidden
sanctum . W e have had lecturers trav el
ing across this continent giving free le c
tures to the public and conducting pri
T w o H un dred T hirty-five

vate classes w ith large fees, or on a vol

u ntary donation basis, claim ing that
they are in daily and hourly co n tact
with one of the G re a t M a ste rs o f the
past w ho has revealed to them his form
er earth ly abode, his form er earth ly p o s
sessions, and the inventions o f his past
life w hich will bring freedom , pow er,
w ealth, and happiness to his new dis
ciples. W e have had organizations a n
nounce th at a youth in their midst who
has been carefu lly reared is truly the
reincarnation o f Jesu s the C hrist, or is
most certain ly the second C h rist com e
again to the w orld. A nd thousands upon
thousands have paid him hom age, paid
for the instructions issued b y his guar
dians or propagandists, and have found
again th at they w ere deceived, and also
deprived o f m any o f the valuable things
of life.
In n early every case the follow ers o f
these M a s te rs " look upon them as
D iv inely-born individuals, and in som e
cases as im m aculately conceived, and
alw ays as individuals w ho have e x tra
ordinary om nipotence even g reater than
th at possessed b y Jesus the C hrist, and
the right to command and enslave w ith
out question or investigation. T h o u san d s
of men and women tod ay are living in
acco rd an ce w ith the d ictates o f a score
or m ore different D ivine M a ste rs
w hose predictions w hen in correct are
excused on the basis o f deliberate de
ception to test the faith of the follow
ers, or w hose nondescript bits of w is
dom a re accepted b ecau se o f th eir
sim pleness o f tru th , and w hose in
structions are follow ed even to the e x
tent of securing divorces, breaking up
homes, absconding with funds not b e
longing to them, abandoning children,
com m itting treason, recom m ending sui
cide, practicing deception, and doing a
thousand and one things th at no truly
D ivine being, no truly spiritual human
being would think of recom m ending or
permit to b e carried on in his nam e or
with his know ledge.
W b y is it that in this day of g reat en
lightenm ent, and a fter centuries of
Cosm ic revelations regarding the im
m utability of n atu res laws, the grandeur
o f universal principles, and the accum u
lating evidence of the ex isten ce o f a
Suprem e M in d an ever-living G od
who is the creato r o f all beings, and the

The
R osicru cian
D ig est
Ju ly
1936

ruler of everything, men and women

cannot understand tod ay th at there is
but one G o d , and that there can be only
one G o d , and that no M a s te r, no
especially appointed av atar, no highly
evolved human being, no extraord in arily
w ise person, can supplant G o d as the
sole o b je ct o f our ad oration, the cen tral
point o f our very life, the only depend
able source o f D ivine W isd o m , and the
on ly one w orth y of our w orship and
obedience? A nd w hy is it th at sane and
rational people, or those w ho are nearly
sane and rational, can n ot understand
th at the coming o f the C h rist w ill not
be in the form of an illiterate, uncul
tured, schem ing man or woman who
will deliberately deceive us, even with
the pretense o f testing our faith, nor
recom m end deception and d estruction
to us even w ith the pretense o f pointing
out evil to us, nor approve o f any in
ju ry, suffering, or unhappiness being
brou ght upon others, but will be the de
velopm ent o f the C hrist C onsciousness
w ithin each one of us, and not in the
form o f an extern al person? A n d w hen
will sane men and women come to rea l
ize that the greatest M a ste r whom
anyone can ever co n ta ct will be th at w ise
and learned, that m erciful and under
standing individual w ho will point to
w ard the inner self o f each individual
and say, T o him. the G od o f all crea
tures, the G od o f all the universe, sh alt
thou look for guidance, and shalt thou
w orship and a d o re! T h e g reatest o f
the great M a ste rs is he w ho has discov
ered through his wisdom, through his
evolving consciousness, through his
learning, and through his experiences in
life how to guide the seekers for truth
to the gatew ay of G o d s great palace
w here G od alone may be w orshipped
and inw ardly com prehended.
T h e greatest o f the great M a ste rs in
all o f the spiritual and m ystical m ove
ments o f the past and the present are
those w ho are laboring in G o d s vine
yard to lead seekers tow ard the K in g
dom o f G od, and not tow ard them
selves, nor tow ard any fancifu l, ficti
tious, and false kingdom s. A s M asters,
indeed they will urge and guide and

READ

THE

direct. T h e y will instru ct through in

tuition, they will reveal through visions.
T h e y will assist through their protective
influence the one who is on the path and
m aking his w ay straig h t tow ard G od,
and not tow ard any earth ly idol.
W h e n propaganda of an y kind tells
you th at it is co rrect to leave y ou r w ife
or your husband, rob your em ployer,
tak e th at w hich does not belong to you
and give it to another in exch an ge for
spiritual wisdom, m arry som eone w ho is
to give birth to a C h rist C hild a t the
foo t o f M o u n t S h a sta , abandon your
friends and your home and go to live
with others in a cam p or grotto in the
foothills, or some unknown and th eore
tical tem ple in the M o u n t Sh a sta dis
trict, or in any oth er district, or in any
foreign cou n try; w hen you are being
tem pted to turn your back upon all o f
the honest, straigh tforw ard principles of
life, to ignore the G old en Rule, to dis
continue your confidence in your m ar
riage partner, to violate all your sacred
obligations to G od and man, to make
y ou rself a hidden, hunted, despised,
and suspected individual, to break all
the decent moral, ethical ties and stand
ard s of life, to believe that you are to be
a disciple o f an im m aculately conceived
and D ivinely-born individual; when
you are told you are to see special
m iracles perform ed for your benefit, or
find a soul m ate or an affinity aw aiting
you in some secret encam pm ent when
an y or all of these things are held forth
to you, rem em ber th at it is the devil
him self, the satanic pow er o f the uni
verse trying to turn your spiritual prog
ress backw ard tow ard the only hell,
w hich actu ally is the hell o f w rong
doing here on earth, w hile the propa
gandists will prosper and benefit by
your th efts, your gifts, your sacrifices,
and your suffering. M a k e G od your
sole, om nipotent M aster; let the C hrist
C onsciousness o f the Sav io r o f M an be
your inspiration; let the real M a sters of
the C osm ic be your instructors and
com panions, and bew are o f the indi
vidual or groups o f individuals w ho say
otherw ise.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM
T w o H undred T hirty-six

f t

T H E L O N G N IG H T O F T H E S O U L
Painting by F. M atania revealing elaborate preparations by the ancient Egyptians for sealing a sar
cophagus (mummy case) in the burial chamber of a tomb. All the cherished, intimate belongings of the de
parted were interred with him for use in the after-world. Immortality was a fundamental doctrine of the
Egyptian religions.
( C ou rtesy o f R osicrucian D igest.)

he Universe Beneath Y o u r Reading Lamp!

IT H IN the cloister of your own home, in your favorite nook illuminated by the rays
of your reading lamp, you may find adventure and startling knowledge. W ithout
the aid of stupendous telescopes or the intricate paraphernalia of the physicist,
you can glim pse some of nature's profound secrets. Your pulse will quicken as your thoughts
explore space, and you contem plate the form of the strange world you live in. For cen
turies man thought the earth the center of the universe. This theory was then challenged
and supplanted by another. Then he was told the earth was a minute speck in a sea of un
limited space. This theory, too, is challenged with the advent of the new
one of the bending of light waves.

Now comes one of the most unique and gripping cosmologies of all.
It is that the earth is a gigantic cell. The earth itself is the universe,
and that within its center are vast Cosm ic bodies which we previously
thought were millions of miles distant. It is declared that the earth is
like unto all other cells of living matter and that it has life and action
within its center. This intensely interesting subject is discussed in a
series of simply understood and to the point lectures entitled A R C A N E
C O S M O L O G Y . It is one o f the special subjects
taught by the Readers' Research A cadem y. The
course consists of twenty-one lectures. Two a
month will be sent you for only 50c a month.
You can subscribe for one month or for as many
months as you please, until the course is com
pleted. Do not fail to get this real enjoyment
and pleasure for this nominal sum.
A ddress:

The
READERS RESEARCH A C A D EM Y
R O S I C R U C I A N

P A R K .

S A N

J O S E .

T h is is a cross section of
the universe, the earth; in
its center is space w ith the
specks
cal l e d
planets.
A round the inner edge of
the outer circle can be seen
the
topography
of t h e
e arth ,
m ountains,
plains,
etc.

T h e inner surface is a nega

tiv e, m agnetic area, and the
center positive, accounting
for the condition of the sun
and oth er phenomena.

C A L I F O R N I A ,

U . S . A.

THE PURPOSES OF

THE

M em ber o f

F U D O SI

(F e d e ra tio n U n ive rselle des

O rd res et
S o c ie te s
In itia tiq u e s )

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

T h e R o sicru c ia n O rder, e x is tin g in all civ ilized land s, is a n o n -se c ta ria n ,

fr a te r n a l body o f m en and w om en devoted to th e in v estig a tio n , stu d y , and
p ra c tic a l a p p lica tio n o f n a tu ra l and sp iritu a l law s. T h e pu rp o se o f th e o rg a n i
zation is to en a b le a ll to live in h arm on y w ith th e c rea tiv e, c o n stru ctiv e,
C osm ic fo rce s fo r th e a tta in m e n t o f h ealth , hap p iness, and P eace .
T h e O rd er is in te rn a tio n a lly known a s A M O RC (an a b b re v ia tio n ), and th e
AM O RC in A m erica, and all o th e r land s, c o n stitu te s th e o n ly form o f R o s i
cru cia n a c tiv itie s u n ited in one body h av in g re p re se n ta tio n in th e in te r n a
tio n a l fe d e ra tio n .
T h e AM ORC does n o t sell i t s te a ch in g s, b u t g iv es th em
fre e ly to a ll a ffilia te d m em b ers, to g e th e r w ith m any o th e r b en efits.
In q u ir e rs se e k in g to know th e h is to ry , p u rp o ses, and p ra c tic a l b en efits
th a t th ey m ay receiv e from R o sicru c ia n a sso cia tio n , a re in v ited to send fo r
th e free book, T h e S e cre t H e r ita g e .-' A d dress, F r ia r S. P . C.. c a re of

AMORC TEM PLE

Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, C alifornia, U. S. A.
(C ab le A d d re ss:

-A M O R C O

R a d io S ta tio n W 6 H T B )

Officials o f the J\[orth and South American Jurisdictions

(In clu d in g th e "United S ta te s , D om in ion o f Canada, A laska, M exico , G u atem ala, H o n d u ras, N icarag u a.
C o sta R ica , E l Salv ad o r. R e p u b lic o f P a n a m a , th e W e st In d ies, L o w er C a lifo rn ia , and all land
un d er th e p ro tectio n o f th e U n ited S ta te s o f A m erica.)
H. S P E N C E R L E W I S . F . R . C., P h . D ...........................................................................................................................Im p e ra to r
C L E M E N T B . L E B R U N . F . R . C............................................................................................................................ G rand M a ste r
R A L P H M. L E W I S , F . R . C.......................................
Su p rem e S e c r e ta r y
H A R V E Y M IL E S , P . R . C
G rand T re a s u r e r
E T H E L B. W ARD. F . R . C
S e c r e ta r y to G rand M a ste r
H A R R Y L . S H I B L E Y , F . R . C .............................................................................................................D ire c to r o f P u b lic a tio n s

Junior Order of Torch Bearers (sp on so red b y A M O R C ). F o r com p lete in fo rm atio n as to i t s aim s
and b en efits ad d ress G en eral S e c r e ta r y . G rand Ch a p ter, R o sicru c ia n P a rk , San Jo s e , C a lifo rn ia .
T he follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C
Reading, Pennsylvania:
Reading C hapter. M r. Carl Schlotzhauer.
M aster: M r. G eorge R . Osm an, S e cretary .
M eeting every 1st and 3rd F rid ay , 8 :0 0 p. m
W a sh in g to n H all, 904 W a sh in g to n Street.

New Y ork City, New York:

N ew Y o rk C hapter, Room s 35-36, 711 8th
A ve., cor. 8th A ve. and 45th Street. M r. W .
J. N orris, M aster; M arg aret Sh arpe, S e c re
tary . Inquiry and reading rooms open week
d ays and Su nd ays, 1 to 8 p. m.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
D elta Lodge N o. 1, A M O R C , S . E . C orner
40th and Brow n Sts., 2nd F loor. M r. A lbert
Courtney, M aster.
Benjam in Franklin C h apter of A M O R C :
M r. Jam es D e Fulio, M aster; M arth a A itken,
Se creta ry , 2203 15th Street. M eetings for
all members every second and fourth Su n
days, 7 :3 0 p .m .. at 1521 W e s t G irard A ve.
(Second F lo o r, R oom B ) .

Boston, Massachusetts:

San Francisco, California:

F ran cis B aco n Lodge, 1655 Polk
M r. D avid M ackenzie, M aster.

Street;

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. F irst Lodge. R alph M . Ross, M aster;
610 A rch Street.

Atlanta, Georgia:
A tlan ta C h apter N o. 650.
D r. Jam es C.
O aksh ette, M aster; N assau H otel. M eetings
7 :3 0 every T h u rsd ay night.

Los Angeles, California:

Herm es Lodge, A M O R C T em p le. M r. D u n
can G . W rig h t, M aster. Reading Room and
Inquiry office open daily, 10 a .m . to 5 p .m .
and 7 :3 0 p .m . to 9 p .m . except Sundays.
G ran ad a Court, 672 South L a fa y ette P ark
P lace.

Birmingham, Alabama:
Birm ingham C h apter of A M O R C
F o r in
form ation address M r. M . J. Collins, M aster,
1516 So . 15th A ve.

Chicago, Illinois:

C h icago C h ap ter N o. 9. H. C . B lackw ell,

M aster; M abel L . Schm idt, S e creta ry . T e le
phone Su perior 6881. R eading Room open
afternoons and evenings. Su nd ays 2 to 5
only. 100 E . O h io S t., Room 403-404. L e c
ture sessions for A L L fliem bers every T u e s
Detroit, Michigan:
day night, 8 :0 0 p. m.
T h e b e s C h apter N o. 336. M iss E lla A . M ilC h icag o A fra-A m erican C h ap ter N o. 10.
liman. M a ster;
M rs. P earl A nna T ifft,
O liv e r T . M cG rew , M aster;
Nehem iah
S e creta ry . M eetings at the F loren ce Room ,
D ennis, S e creta ry . M eeting every W e d n e s
T u ller H otel, every T u esd ay , 8 p. m. In
day night at 8 o clock, Y . M . C . A ., 3763 So.
quirers call dial phone N o. 1870.
W a b a s h A venue,
(D ire c to ry C on tin c led on N ext P a g e )
T h e M a rie Clem ens Lodge, C h ester A .
Robinson, M aster.
T em p le and Reading
Room s, 739 Boylston S t., T elep h o n e K enmore 9398.

New ark, New Jersey:

Portland , O reg o n :

Portland Chapter. Floyd D. Cook. Master*

405 Orpheum Bldg. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p. m. at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.

H. Spencer Lewis Chapter. Frank A. Ham

mond, Master: Sylvia Kingsley. Secretary.
Meetings at Hotel Douglas, 15 Hill Street.
Seattle, W ash ington:

W ash ington. D . C.:

Thom as Jefferson Chapter.

Howard E.
Mertz, Master. Confederate Memorial Hall.
1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings every
Frid ay , 8:00 p. m.

A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter, Master:

Mrs. Carolina Henderson. Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry Street. Reading room open week
days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Monday, 8:00 p. rn.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

PRINCIPAL CANADIAN BRANCHES

M ontreal, Q uebec, C anada:

Edm onton, A lb erta:

Mr. F. G.
Avenue E .

Powell.

Master,

9533

Jasper

V icto ria, B ritish Colum bia:

Victoria Lodge, Mr. George A. Phillips,

Master. Inquiry Office and Reading Room,
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a. m. to 6 p. in.
W inn ip eg , M an itoba, C anada:

G. F. Gostick, Master, 361 M achray Ave.

Session for all members every Sunday,
2:45 p. m., 304 B Enderton Bldg., Portage
Ave. and Hargrave St.

Montreal Chapter.
F. E. Dufty. Master:
210 W est St. James Street. Inquiry office
open 10 a.m . to 5 p.m. daily: Saturdays
10 a.m . to 1 p. m.
T o ro n to , O n tario , C anada:

Miss Edith Hearn, Master. Sessions 1st and

3rd Sundays of the month. 7:00 p. m., No. 10
Lansdowne Ave.
V ancou ver, B ritish C olum bia:

Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mrs.

Ethel M. W are. Master: H. B. Kidd, Secre
tary. A M O R C Temple, 878 Hornby Street.

SPANISH AMERICAN SECTION

T his jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative Office are located at San Juan, Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
The name and address of the Officers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp on d en ce should he ad d ressed as fo llo w s:
Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C . P. O. Box 36, San Juan.
Puerto Rico.

A FEW OF THE FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS

New Z ealan d :

Scand in avian Countries:

The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.

Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, G rand M aster: Carli
Anderson, S. R .C ., Grand Secretary. Manogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen. Denmark.
Sw eden:

Grand Lodge "Rosenkorset." Anton Svanlund, F. R. C., Grand Master. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, MaJmo.

Auckland Chapter A M O R C .
Mr. G. A.
Franklin. Master, 317 Victoria Arcade Bldg.
Queen St., City Auckland.
E ngland:

T he A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.

Mr. Raymund Andrea, K. R. C., Grand
Master. .34 Baywater Ave., W estbury Park,
Bristol 6 .
D u tch and East Indies:

H o llan d :

De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der

Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
Mile. Jeanne Guesdon. S.R .C ., Corresponding
Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gamhetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges. (Seine & O ise).
Sw itzerland:

A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel,

F. R. C.. Gr. Sect., Riant-Port Vevey-PIan.

Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum. Grand Master:

W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangternpel 10 Semarang, Java.
Egypt:

T he Grand Orient of A M O R C , House of the

Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia. Heliopolis.
A frica:

The Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast,

A M O RC. Mr. W illiam Okai. Grand Master.
P. O . Box 424 Accra. Gold Coast. W est
Africa.

C hina and Russia:

T he United Grand Lodge of China and Rus

sia. P .O . Box 513. Shanghai, China.
R O S I C RU C I AN PRESS. LTD. ,

T h e ad d resses o f other foreign G rand L odges

and secretaries will be furnished on application.
P R I N T E D I N U. S. A.

ikryqf/hvitalion
Indias Secret Control of Natures Forces
It all seemed so uncanny. T he tense atmosphere, the throbbing pulsations, as
though an electrical current were passing through your body. Then, suddenly, before
your eyes, the body of the subject to whom you had spoken but a few moments
before, rises rigidly, horizontally, from the stone floor upon which it rested. Your
senses reel, as you realize that this body, this weight is rising without any physical
support. ^ on involuntarily shake yourself, as if to awake from a dream. This cannot
be possible, you think, this control of natural law. It must be illusionary. T o con
firm your suspicions you thrust your hand into the cold vapor-like substance which
surrounds the rising form. Your hand passes freely about it, you encounter nothing.
It is true, you gasp, the body is levitated suspended in space.
So James D. W a rd , physician, world traveler, and metaphysician, described an
experience in one of Indias mystery monasteries. He was one of the few occidentals
ever to be permitted to witness this feat. Scientists have scoffed at actual suspended
animation, but have never been able to satisfactorily explain the phenomena. T he
secret principle is used in the Orient, not for theatrical effects, but for mystical
purposes. Dr. W a r d s remarkable discourse on the use of this strange power, en
titled, Suspended Animation, is available as a special gift at this time.
Dr. W a r d , on numerous occasions, was honored by the mystics of the Orient
because of his keen insight into their ways and customs, and the integrity of the
author is therefore unquestioned.

FREE T h is M anu script

Every new subscriber to 'The Rosicrucian Digest will re
ceive this exceptional premium no extra cost whatever. Just
send a six-months subscription to 1he Rosicrucian Digest
for only $1.50 and ask lor your F R E E copy of the highly inter
esting manuscript. Suspended Animation, by Dr. James D.
W a rd . Address:

T h e ROSICRUCIAN DIGEST
^ o 11

J o s e ,

C a l i f o r n i a ,

U . S . A .

Rosicrucianlibrary

The following books are a few of several recommended because of the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume n . ROSICRUCIAN PRINCIPLES FOR THE HOME AND BUSINESS.
A very practical book dealing with the solution of health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume III. THE MYSTICAL LIFE OF JESUS.

A rare account of the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life of the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that
isdemanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price. $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V. UNTO THEE I GRANT . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f Tibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
with attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VI. A THOUSAND YEARS OF YESTERDAYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and m ystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume VII. SELF MASTERY .AND FATE, WITH THE CYCLES OF LIFE.
A new and astounding system of determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. Better than any system o f numerology or astrologv.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price. $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VIII. THE ROSICRUCIAN M ANUAL.

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work of the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price. $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume

XL

M ANSIONS OF THE SOUL, THE COSMIC CONCEPTION.

The complete doctrines of reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Well

Volume XII. LEM URIA THE LOST CONTINENT OF THE PACIFIC.

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. Know' o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume XIII. THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MASTER.

The newest and most complete
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $1.

uide for attaining the state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work

per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY ' B U R E A U ,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , California.

INSTITUTION BEHIND THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

DIGEST

A MEETING OF THE MINDS

Clj YVhcn you write, you have one party in mind. I hat party may he one
individual or a group ol them, hut your thoughts are alone for them. You
do not wish your thoughts to reach a mind or minds for whom they were
not intended. Furthermore, you do not wish others to interpret your ideas
for vou. I low ever, this is only possible when you take the proper pre
cautions to see that your communications are brought
direcllv to the personal attention of vour correspondent.
T h eR osicrucian student who fails to properly address
his or her communications, or give all needed information
for their proper delivery, causes his or her letter or
report to he read, interpreted, and handled by many
persons before reaching its proper destination.
I o avoid such conditions and to facilitate a prompt re
ply to communications, we have prepared a special large
Correspondence I ablet for students, at an economical
price. 1 he cover ol the tablet is also especially useful.
Besides being a blotter, there is printed upon it all essen
STUDENT'S
tial instructions as / o W h o m . W h e r e and W h e n I o
CORRESPONDENCE
W r i t e . At the top of each sheet there is printed informa
TABLET
tion for the proper direction of your letter. T he stationery
E a ch tablet contains 50 large
8 W in c h x 1 1 -inch business size
consists of a light, strong, and good quality bond paper.
sheets. 1 lie blotter cover with
its printed inform ation about
1 his is a most serviceable article and one that no
tire various departments is a
useful addition to each tablet.
student should be without. You owe it to yourself to make
40c each; 3 for $ 1.00
this reasonable purchase. Send order and remittance to:

T h e

R O S I C R U C I A N

ROSICRUCI AN

PARK

S U P P L Y
SAN

B U R E A U

JOSE.

CALIFORNIA

A IR V I E W

O F R O SIC R U C IA N

PARK

T h is photograph is of one corner of R osicru cian Park, taken from an airplane during the recent C onvention by a pilot who dropped souvenirs of the C on
vention from a great height. T h e building in the foreground is the new Planetarium . T o the right is the D ean M em orial Fountain and the R ose-C roix U n i
v ersity Scien ce Building. T h e largest building is the C onvention Auditorium, and in the upper part of the photograph can be seen some of the Adm inistration
Buildings. T h e O riental Museum and other features are not in this photograph.
C o u r te sy o f T h e R o sic ru c ia n D ig est.

KNOWLEDGE
THAT

HAS EN D U RED

W ITH

THE

PYRA M IDS

SECRET METHODS FOR

T H E M A S T E R Y OF L I F E
W

AMENHOTEP

The first to
declare but one
God.

H E N C E came the knowledge that built the Pyram ids and

the m ightv Tem ples o f the Pharaohs? Civilization began
in the N ile V alley centuries ago. W here did its first
builders acquire their astounding wisdom that started man on
his upward clim b? Beginning with naught they overcam e na
tures forces and gave the world its first sciences and arts. Did
their knowledge come from a race now submerged be
neath the sea, or were they touched with Infinite inspira
tion? From what concealed source came the wisdom that
produced such characters as Amenhotep, Leonardo da
Vinci, Isaac Newton, and a host of others?
T O D A Y IT IS K N O W N that they discovered S E C R E T
M E TH O D S for the development of their inner power of
mind. They learned to command the inner forces within
their own beings, and to m aster life. This secret art of
livin g has been preserved throughout the ages. It is ex
tended to those today who dare to use its profound prin
ciples to challenge the problems of life.

ea led

ook

o an ed

to

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

Sculptor, artist,
scientist, and
mystic.

SIR ISAAC
NEW TON

ou

Has life brought you that personal satisfaction, the

sense o f achievement and happiness that you desire ?
I f not, it is your duty to acquire this rational secret
method fo r the m astery of life. N o t everyone is to be
entrusted w ith an intim ate knowledge of the m ysteries
o f life, for they are not capable o f properly using it.
But if you are one o f those who wish to forge ahead
and wish to make use of the subtle influences of life,
the Rosicrucian Brotherhood (not a religious organi
zation) will send you A Sealed Book of explanation
without obligation. This Sealed Book tells how you, in
the privacy o f your own home, without interference
with your personal affairs or manner o f living, m ay
receive these secret teachings, this secret method fo r
the m astery o f life. N o t weird or strange practices,
but a rational application o f the law's o f life. Use the
coupon on the right, and obtain your confidential copy
at once.

The

LEONARDO
DA V IN C I

Scientist,
philosopher,
master of
natural law.

S C R IB E S. P. C.

Rosicrucian Brotherhood (AMORC)

San Jose, C alifornia.

Please send me the free S E A LE D

BOOK. I am sincere; not m erely
curious.
N am e ..................................... - ................................................
Address.................................................
C ity

......................................

ROSICRUCIANS
(AMOR C )

SA N JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U .S .A .

Rosicrucian members have had this interesting book and need not w rite fo r it.

I\

J
v/

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
r a n r o

s o cKtm

C O V ERS THE W O R LD
T IIE O F F IC IA L IN T E R N A T IO N A L R O S IC R U C IA N M A G A
Z IN E O F T H E W O R L D -W ID E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R

Vol: X IV

A U G U S T , 1936

C O N T E N T S
A ir View of Rosicrucian Park (Frontispiece)
The Thought of the Month: Present Cosm ic

Tendencies
M aterialism and Human Mission
Supernaturalism
C athed ral C ontacts
O bverse and Reverse
A n cien t Symbolism
Pages from the Past
Dimension
Earth
Is M an a Free A g e n t?
Summaries of Science
Sanctum Musings: Rational Conception of G o d
C o u rier C a r Visits M t. Shasta C ity (Illustration)

Page
241
244
246
248
251
253
257
258
260
.. 263
266
267
270
277

Subscription to The Rosicrucian Digest, Three Dollars per

year. Single copies tw enty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose, California, under the Act o f August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the month
preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official e x
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.
Published M onthly by the Supreme Council of

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R A M O R C
R O S IC R U C IA N P A R K

SAN JOSE, C A L IF O R N IA

1
THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

PRESENT C O SM IC TENDENCIES
By T H E IM P E R A T O R

r N O other time
in recent years,
perhaps,
and
very likely at no
other time in the
past century, has
there been such a
universal restless
ness on the part
of thinking men
and women, and
particularly on the
part of those that
represent the socalled salt of the earth.
E very w h ere in every country where
there is any form of representation of
the mass o f people, there is a demand
on its part that certain moral, spiritual,
and m aterial principles be modified, and
certain ethical and cultural principles,
especially social and econom ical ones,
be established in the light of m an's
changing consciousness.
W e may see in the next few years the
gradual changing of m onarchies into re
publics, and o f republics into m onar
chies. W e may see ancient and tra
ditional law s and principles reversed.
E ven in the U nited S ta te s w here we so
proudly boast of our dem ocratic form of
governm ent and spirit, there is an in
creasing degree of favor tow ard d ic
tatorship, or an au tocratic form o f gov
ernm ent. It is not simply that the re st
lessness is causing the average person to
feel that he w ants that which he has
The
R osicru cian not had, or merely w ants a change from
his present w ay of living and existing
D igest
to another in order to see which is the
A ugust
better. It is truly a Cosm ic restless
ness, typical in m ystical understanding
1936

of the burning of the fire in the cru

cible for the purpose o f elim inating the
dross and refining the elem ents. O u t of
this C osm ically inspired restlessness will
com e not merely change, but im prove
ment. M an y of the things demanded by
the nations of people at the present time
will be conceded to them, or forcibly
attained , but in a short time they will
w ish to return again to that w hich they
now feel is inadequate or unsatisfactory.
T h e im provem ent will not come through
granting w hat is dem anded, but indi
rectly as a result of the changes that
will take place in the process of trying
to give the public w hat it feels it w ants.
N o human being is perfectly b a l
anced and making the proper progress
in life who is not restless to the extent
that he w ants to improve him self and
his environm ent. But. the sane, rational,
and balanced individual seeks to have
the changes come about through evolu
tion, and not through revolution. V ery
few of the changes made in the past
centuries socially, econom ically, mor
ally, spiritually, or otherw ise through
revolutions have remained fixed or are
looked upon today as fortunate and
direct results of revolution. T h e fixed
and progressive im provements that have
been made in civilization have come
about through evolutionary processes
at w ork. O n e o f these processes is the
spirit of restlessness. Just as all m atter
is m ade m anifest to us through the fact
that m atter is alw ays in motion, and
ju st as w e know of the existence of
ourselves and our relation to everything
else through the changes that are taking
place in all things, and just as science
proves to us that w here there is life
T w o H undred F orty-fou r

there must be continuous change from

one state of m anifestation to another,
so in m ans econom ical, social, political,
and other affairs, nothing can be static
or remain status quo for more than a
few seconds o f m ans com prehension
o f time.
M an y of our most glorified ideals of
one hundred y ears ago are not only
lost in oblivion today, but looked upon
as obsolete, useless, and very often ob
structive in the light of our modern
civilization. M an y of our present ideals
are not true ideals at all, but arbitrary
rules, opinions, conclusions, and dictated
doctrines which w e relu ctantly or o th er
w ise accep t, and w hich will gradually
disappear from our consciousness and
become obsolete and unw orthy o f ser
ious consideration.
A progressive man or woman must
keep abreast of these constant changes.
H e must becom e progressive in all
things, and not only in his own personal
interests. H e must not lose sight of the
generally accepted fundam entals, but he
can build upon these fundam entals v ar
ious types o f structures, and it is these
structures th at man is seeking to change
from time to time, and which constitute
the forw ard movement in civil evolution.
T h e im portant and interesting point
for us to consider is th at this restless
ness, as I have alread y said, is not born
o f the human desire for mere change,
or the natural desire to be released from
certain restrictions or lim itations. T h e
restlessness is born o f C osm ic inspira

tion and Cosm ic urge for w e have en

tered a new cycle, and the changes that
are to follow are natu ral to that cycle
of w orldly existen ce. F o r this reason
it is foolish for man to fight again st the
changes and to attem pt to adhere to all
of the conditions of the past w ithout
some slight concessions, m odifications,
and im provem ents. B u t he cannot per
mit these ch an ges to be made suddenly
or d ictatorially over night. It is m ans
duty to see th at all things are done a c
cording to law and order, and in a c
cord ance w ith the best light of the com
munity and nation. T h e truly p rogres
sive spirit in man must be in harm ony
with
the Cosm ic urge. T o le ra n ce ,
broadm indedness, a universal view -point
and a recognition of the human b ro th er
hood o f man are essential attributes of
a progressive individual o f this period.
Justice, fair dealing, recognition of ch a r
acter and principles of harm ony, peace,
and love are also essential.
U ndoubtedly the outlaw ing of w ar is
to be one of the great im provem ents in
human relations, and the sooner all men
and women cooperate with the Cosm ic
in not only preventing w ar but getting
out o f the consciousness of all human
beings the fictitious belief that w ar is
an honorable, or a fair, or an adequate
settlem ent of differences betw een n a
tions and peoples, the sooner will many
of our econom ical, social, and other
problem s be solved in accord an ce with
C osm ic law.

Q.

IM PO R T A N T B U LLET IN
Once more we are happy to state that our beloved Sovereign Grand Master, Dr.
LeBrun, is improving in health and continuing to recover from his recent serious illness.
Throughout the Convention week he was able to meet all of the members for a moment
or two while sitting under a shady palm tree on the campus of the Rose-Croix Univer
sity, and were delighted with the pleasure of having him officially open the first session
of the Convention.
W hile he has attempted to answer a few of the many letters he has received, and
partly carry on his routine work, he will absent himself from Headquarters for several
weeks during the month of August and will take at least one week of rest in the moun
tains which we hope will greatly add to his increasing strength. W e ask once more for
the continued good wishes and prayers of the multitude who love him.
IM P E R A T O R .

...................

T w o H undred F o rty -fiv e

Materialism and H um an Mission

AN ESOTERIC DISSERTATION
B y L e o p o l d o F r a n c is c o
S IN I T S present
cy cle o f life man
kind evolves to
ward spiritual im
provem ent, w e b e
hold tw o tangible
manifestations
th ereo f a w icked
and ruthless on
rush of ram pant
materialism w i t h
its sinister threat,
and a s h a m e f u l
decline o f human
spirit. T h e y are tw o unequivocal c h a r
acteristics revealing degradation and
relaxation in men, w hich now adays pass
as a fleeting shadow b efo re the retina
w ithout being noticed by th ose w ho are
dazzled by the glitter o f anything that
sm acks o f m aterialism . H um ans are
deaf, and do not hear the subdued voice
o f the hungry w ho ask for bread and
pray for love, and with their eyes
opened they cannot see, for their eyes
have no light for lustre.
C ertain it is that human scien ce has
achieved a great and marvelous progress
and revolutionized all the world, but all
that progress is only apparent and
shallow and has le ft in its evolutive path
a rill of tears. W h a t is science for if it
is the source of so much misery? H um an
The
Rosicrucian ity o f ancient times and th at of the
present age differ in many respects, and
D ig est
it m ay be said that they are tw o op
August
posite poles with a different progress.
T h e hum ankind o f the A tlan tic epoch
1936

w as more receptive to the spiritual

forces to such an exten t that room could
hardly be found there for materialism.
B u t human life in subsequent epochs
underw ent a trem endous metamorpho
sis, because it did alread y fall into the
grasp o f materialism and left behind the
spiritual robe, thus losing every notion
of higher sentim ents love and charity
and its h eart becam e so petrified that
to soften it, it becom es n ecessary to
make use of blow er and anvil. T h e
progress accom plished by mankind is
confined to things m aterial and physical,
o f w hich it jau n tily boasts, but no ac
count is taken of the fact th at if ma
terial advancem ent has been so great,
spiritual retrogression has reversely
gone as far. If m aterial progress and
spiritual retrocession are put on a scale,
w e will readily see that the latter is ex
celled by the form er both as to volume
and w eight.
T ru e progress does not consist mere
ly of m aterial or physical attainm ents;
it must keep path with the other prog
ress called spiritual, inasm uch as w ith
out its concourse human existence on
the earth would be simply a myth. M an
must live not only on m aterial bread;
he ought to live also, and mainly, on
spiritual food. If man w ere to depend
on m aterial things and condem n those
appertaining to the spirit, he would not
com ply with his duty but would violate
the divine precepts in coming to the
w orld as a member of the human family
which works and toils for its own wellT w o Hundred. Forty-six

being, since the w orld is the school of

experience w here we are taught all that
w e lack to be able to live spiritually in
other superior planes.
A nd w hat is the mission of man?
T h a t is a question rightly to be asked.
H as man fulfilled his mission? T h is is
another question w hich deserves our
whole attention. T h e s e two questions
must appeal to the conscience o f every
man, w ho has to answ er the same on his
own account and according to his own
criterion.
In spite of w hatever inquiries we
undertake to m ake, we cannot find a
man who has, even in part, fulfilled his
mission on this w orld, and there are
quite a num ber who have not even a
notion o f it, believing th at human life
consists in eating, struggling for life to
heap up money, sleeping, and enjoying
the pleasures o f high life. B ecau se from
our investigation w e find this to be
the conception o f life entertained by a
great m ajority o f men, it seems that w e
must not w onder at nor fear social and
seismic cataclysm s th at very frequently
shake the w orld s foundations. If men
do not know their mission, w hat is then
the o b ject o f our earthly existence? Is
money, or leaning to m aterial sa tisfa c
tions, the only end of man to fill up his
w hole am bition?
H um an inconsistency is apparent in
all the activities of life. N o end is g en
erally assigned to human action with
the exception o f a sordid materialism .
Scien tists are not entirely free of it, and
many are trying to attain su ccess in
their respective fields and to treasure up
riches. A nd w hat w e say o f men o f
science equally applies to most m er
chants, teachers, preachers, etc., for
their aims have the sam e goal, like d if
ferent river cu rrents em ptying into their
common recep tacle the sea.
C all a doctor w hen you feel sick, and
you will see that w ithout money you
cannot get the necessary rem edy for
your physical ailm ent but will die in the
solitude of your home w ithout aid. If
you have money enough you may ob
tain the desired cure, but little by little
at that, and m eanw hile your savings will
eke out as the w ater from a broken
faucet.
If you need the services o f a law yer,
money, too, is a necessary requirem ent
T w o H un dred F o rty -sev en

as w ithout it you can n o t en force your

right, and ju stice must fall through.
A m erchant would not part w ith the
article o f m erchandise you w ant to get,
unless you let out more than h alf your
money for daily expenses, to the pre
judice of your budget. B u t for the poor
th at is a bleeding, because it takes from
the mouth of their children the bread
they need for a w eek.
T h a t much may be said of a minister
o f religion, or parish priest, for he
would not m arry you, nor baptize or
confirm your sons, nor bless the corpses
of the dead, nor say m ass, w ithout
money, etc.
T h e foregoing is but an infinitesimal
part of human inconsistency, the enu
m eration o f w hich would be tedious
ap art from being common know ledge.
In the face o f these facts closely re
lated to trium phant m aterialism , we must
not w onder if there is everyw here
plenty of havoc and ravage afflicting
the entire hum anity. W e must not de
plore such a situation for th at is the re
sult of our own acts shown in a tangible
m anner. A boundless and unheard o f
am bition, promoted b y the thoughtform o f men, leads them to form an
obstacle that serves as an im pregnable
w all for evolutive progress in the w ay
tow ard the spiritual. T w o progressions
destroying one another, with ends dia
m etrically opposed, cannot go hand in
hand in a trium phal m arch along one
and the sam e road, w hich is the road
leading to the realm o f G o d . M a te ria l
ism belongs to the physical w orld, and
th erefore an y progress made by it re
mains there w hile spiritualism apper
tains to higher w orlds, the dwelling of
the A bsolute G od.
T h e distinguished readers o f the
R osicru cian D ig e st, as well as the
leading members o f the m eritorious
fratern ity A M O R C , well know that
social evils and every m anner o f suffer
ance undergone by hum anity are due to
m ens forgetfulness of their missions,
to their attachm ent to things tasting o f
m aterialism , and to their contem pt of
spiritual cultivation. M a n s h eart has
been petrified by the rude struggle for
life; conscience is galvanized, and mind
is focused on the acquisition o f w ealth.
W h e n these elem ents, w hich make for
individual advancem ent, are deviated.

and a different course, arid and abom in

able, is follow ed, men cannot reach the
goal of their aspirations, w hich is the
im provement o f soul, so essential and
necessary for them to becom e de
serving dw ellers o f the superior planes,
nor could they accom plish the mission
for w hich they have been reincarnated
in this physical world.
If conscience is galvanized, the heart
can n o t perceive the grow ing w ail o f
those that die helpless asking for bread.
V

love, and ch arity. If mind is con cen

trated on the hoarding of gold, it ca n
not know and be acquainted with the
m aterial sufferings o f hungry masses.
W h e n the fire o f love, ch arity, and
oth er lofty feelings is extinguished, men
m ay be said to be spiritually dead, and
they are th erefore unw orthy o f them
selves and o f their fellow -m en, and their
existen ce upon the world has no more
value than that of beasts.
V

Supernaturalism
ITS RELATION TO RELIGION AND MAGIC
By F r a t e r S. J. M a r x
(Late Grand Councilor of Pennsylvania)
H E study o f reli
gious tran sform a
tions o f early so
ciety is veiled in
d a r k n e s s . It is
doubtful if civili
zation w i l l ever
possess au thentic
inform ation of this
ch ap ter o f human
history, b u t o n e
m ight a t least co n
jectu re th at reli
gious r e v i v a l s ,
w hen they have occurred, have come at
periods o f em otional stress and strain,
perhaps precipitated b y inter tribal
co n tact or conflict, and th at in their
nature, both in m echanism and progress,
they are very sim ilar to the G h o stD an ce R eligions o f the A m erican In
dian and the heretical creed s o f the
Russian Sham ans.
T h u s w hile the psychological origin
o f religion can be made clear at least
theoretically, w e know n ext to nothing
o f the origins o f religions as part o f
primitive history. T h e only mode o f ap
proach to the problem, therefore, is to
study certain phenom ena o f relatively
recent occurrence and p ro ject the insight
The
R osicru cian ^ us 9 ained into
n i9h t o f the rem ote
past. T h is makes it of vital im portance
D igest
to the student to study the fast fading
A u gu st
o f the T rib a l custom s of the Indians,
1936
and th erefo re any d ata w e can obtain

on the so-called G H O S T D A N C E R E
L I G I O N S of the A m erican Indian is
pertinent.
A common cause o f these religious re
vivals is w ithout doubt to be sought in
the abnorm al conditions arising out of
the co n ta ct of the w hite m an's civiliza
tion w ith the religious and ethical tra
ditions of the Indians. T h e mode of
origin of the spirit revivals in the v a
rious tribes is very sim ilar.
Sm ohalla w as a m ember o f a small
tribe of the N ez P erce Indians. H e was
born about 1815, and during his youth
he attended the C atholic mission estab
lished among his people. H e later be
cam e a w arrior and achieved afterw ard s
much fame as a medicine man. A s he
grew in fame, he becam e involved with
a rival medicine man and ch ief of a
neighboring tribe, and the affair ended
in a fight in w hich Sm ohalla w as beaten
and nearly killed. H e escaped, however,
and taking a boat drifted down the
Colum bia R iver until he w as rescued by
some w hite men. H ere he recovered his
health, but as his people regarded him
as dead, he decided not to return to his
tribe, but determ ined to make a long tour
o f A m erica. H e w ent as far south as
M ex ico and then travelled north to
M o n ta n a . O n his trip, while visiting
m any tribes, he originated a doctrine
th at w as som ew hat new. H e stated that
he had been dead and had visited the
spirit world and that now he w as teachT w o H un dred F orty-eight

ing and preaching by divine command.

A s he cam e north, w here the tribes knew
o f his fight and supposed killing, he w as
believed. H is doctrine consisted in a
prophecy th at the early conditions of
Indian life would return, th at the buffalo
would come back and the w hite man
chased from the land. D ue to his early
training am ong the C ath o lic priests of
the mission he had attended, there w as
much o f this ritual in his cerem onies.
M a cM u rra y , in his report to the B u
reau o f E th n o lo g y, stated that undoubt
edly Sm ohalla w as su bject to trances,
and that he had seen people stick
needles through his flesh and cut him
with knives during a trance, but that he
apparently w as immune from pain while
in that condition. T h e strange part of
these tests w as that no blood flowed
from the wounds inflicted and the tribes
men present at the experim ents there
fore stated he w as not alive.
M a cM u rra y attended one of the
cerem onial m eetings o f Sm ohalla at
which Sm ohalla preached his religion
and made many converts. T h e cere
monial w as held in a large rudely co n
structed fram e structure o f dark and
rush m atting. Singing and drumming
w ere constant b y the hundreds of In
dians in attend ance. O n either side of
the room w ere twelve women standing
erect with arm s crossed and hands ex
tended. with finger tips at the shoulders.
T h e y kept time to the drums and the
singing by balancing on the balls of
their feet and tapping with their heels
on the floor. W h e n by the continual
drumming and singing and rhythm ic m o
tion of the tw elve women the Indians
w ere worked up into a religious frenzy,
Sm ohalla led the men in a dance, know n
as the G h o st D an ce, and Sm ohalla,
frothing at the mouth and in a wild and
enthusiastic manner, began preaching
his revival.
Sm ohalla not only made converts
among the Indians of the far w est, but
his institution o f the G h ost D an ce
spread as far east as the Iroquois tribes,
where the cerem onies w ere conducted
by an Indian called H andsom e Lake.
Handsom e L ake at the age o f 60 becam e
sick with w hat w as apparently a hope
less disease, and while on his death-bed
he had an elaborate vision or dream in
which he claimed to have received a new
T w o H undred F orty-n in e

doctrine. H and som e L a k es teaching re

jected m any of the ancient beliefs and
cerem onies o f the Iroquois as evil; at
the sam e time it incorporated in its pre
cepts a large num ber of new beliefs and
practices.
T h u s in both exam ples cited, it would
appear as if both o f these medicine men,
Sm ohalla and H andsom e Lake, used a
form of supernaturalism com bined with
an A N I M I S T I C
F A I T H , w herein
m atter is opposed to the w orld o f spirits.
A n analysis o f their teachings, seems to
indicate that the spirits they preached
and taught about w ere derived from
things of nature, anim ate or inanim ate,
or from a distorted com bination of them.
Spirits in the form o f inanim ate things
and plants are not unknown and D r.
F ra z er, in his G olden Bough, has w rit
ten much on the spirits of the corn,
w heat, and other plants, but anim al
spirits in the Indian p ractices predom i
nate, w hile spirits in the shape of man,
take a still more prom inent part.
T h e second part o f early superna
turalism is in its M A G IC F A I T H .
Som e so -called m agical practices can
scarcely be distinguished from m attero f-fa c t procedure. T h u s in the curative
practices of the prim itive m edicine man
there is o ften no breach betw een the
continuity o f the m agical m ethods and
those based on know ledge and common
sense; but the typical m agical a ct rests
on the faith that certain desired results
can be accom plished by a means of
m anipulation, rituals, or incantations.
T h is is p articularly noticed in an in
vestigation of the practices of the sham
ans who are the m edicine men of the
Eskim o and primitive races o f the S i
berian R ussian lands.
W h a t is really achieved by the m agi
cal acts are the o b jects of human desires
and fears. W h e th e r it be good or evil
for a fee the p ractition er tries to bring
to the people asking for it, food, ch il
dren, or the destruction o f an enem y.
U nd erlying both animism and m agic
is the F A I T H IN P O W E R of the
medicine man. T h is is the third and
most im portant tenet o f supernatural
ism. Sp irits count only in sofar as they
can and do exercise pow ers for good or
evil. M a g ic is but a system of pow ers,
positive or negative, actual or potential.
In m any o f their activities and m ani

festations, spirits, gods, and m agical

pow ers merely duplicate w hat can be
readily done by other m eans in the
present civilized w orld, but it is ch a r
acteristic o f all spirits, m agic pow ers,
and supernatural beings th at they can
do some things th at are beyond the
reach o f the m atter-o f-fa ct.
Supernaturalism is fed and reinforced
by two im portant ad ju n cts: M Y T H O
L O G Y and C E R E M O N I A L I S M . In
one o f its im portant aspects, m ythology
fulfills the function of primitive th eo
logy; it develops and system atizes the
ideas and conceptual con structs which
spring from supernaturalism . In lighter
moments it plays with supernatural ele
m ents, and alw ays it mingles them with
human adventures and episodes, thus
adding to the m agic of supernaturalism
the charm s o f the plot and dram a. T h e
functions fulfilled by m ythology with
references to the intellectual asp ects o f
supernaturalism are fulfilled b y cere
monialism in the domain o f em otion.
T h ro u gh the constan t drive o f ce re
monialism, the reactions tow ard the
supernatural assume fixed form s. T h e y
becom e su b ject to the control and pres
sure of social sanction ; they becom e
diffused and magnified through the in
fluence of the crow d psychological situ

READ

THE

ation. T h e never ceasing rhythm of

cerem onialism ever feeds the sacred
fires of supernaturalism . It does not
permit the phantasm agoria of m agic and
spirit to cool, for there, in the greyness
o f a sober mind and placid em otion, su
pernaturalism may fall prey to the in
roads o f experience and reason. Soon er
or later it will fall prey to these, but not
befo re man has learned, through m eas
urement, inquiry, criticism , and the de
tachm ent of the individual, to evade the
pitfalls of myth and ritual, the shrew d
ness o f the sham an, m edicine man, and
m agician, and w hat is more im portant
his O W N C R A V I N G for the I M
P O S S IB L E .
T h u s the teachings o f the A M O R C
have alw ays derided the so-called d oc
trine of B lack M a g ic as something that
has been exposed by know ledge. It is
only among the primitive races, among
the cults and isms o f the ignorant, that
these superstitious ideas still prevail.
T h e y show a lack of culture, a lack of
know ledge, and w hat is far more in
sidious, an attem pt to use the methods
of primitive sham ans and medicine men
and m agicians to prey on the em otions
of that part o f civilization that has not
by inquiry learned to evade the pitfalls
of ignorance.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

a .............................

qp

O BTA IN A C O N V EN TIO N PH O TO G RA PH
W hether you were present at the Rosicrucian Convention or not, you will be pleased
to see the photograph of the large gathering of members who attended the 1936 Convention. It was the largest Convention ever held by the Order in this jurisdiction.
You will note the smiling faces. T h ey express pleasure in meeting with hundreds of
like minds. T he Convention photograph reveals the magnitude of the membership. Every
member should obtain one of these large photographs and have it framed for his sanctum
and home. You will be proud to belong to an organization which has such functions.
You can point to it and say, "T here is our Convention."

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
August

T his photograph is exceptionally large, being one yard five inches long. W e have
a limited number of these in stock, so order yours today. Postpaid, the price is only $1.25.
Send your order and remittance to the Rosicrucian Supply Bureau. W h y not also obtain
a copy of the complete Souvenir Convention Program giving full details of the Convention, price 15 cents each, postpaid.

I
1
:
i
i
jj
\
\
\

1936
T w o H un dred F ifty

The "Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefits as well
as those who are members. T he book called "Liber 777" describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

TH E PO ETRY OF TH E PATH
F W E could take
you by the hand
and lead you out
into the valley of
dream s, w here a
little cathed ral or
mission, b u i l t by
loving hands and
held together by
s a c r e d thoughts
rests in its soli
tude, peace, and
h a rm o n y , you
would need no in
vitation to enter into the H oly of H olies
and rest a while.
T w o H undred Fi(ty~one

T h e portals o f the church would ad

mit you freely and w ithin the w alls of
stone or brick, w ood or plaster, you
would find a w orld set a p a rt for you.
T h e clam or and the noise, the intrigue
and design, the d eceitful things and the
sins o f man, the w orry and the strife,
the turmoil and the pain would all be of
the place you leave behind. T h e se
things can n ot enter w ith you w here
sacred ness prevails and the atm osphere
is divine. It is here that the soul finds
its haven, the h eart finds its peace, the
mind finds w isdom and understanding,
and the body finds rest and ease. In
the b alanced harm onious state you find

y ou rself, there is an unconscious prayer

to the G od of all th at is answ ered in
soundless words and invisible signs.
W h e th e r large or small the sacred place
is your spiritual home. R eg ard less o f
creed o r dogm a, or rules of man, it is
the place of the G od of your heart, the
temple of your soul. T h e consciousness
within you ever seeks to rise ab o v e the
common things of life. It w ants to soar
and live beyond the limits of the planes
o f m ortal life and dwell in ecstasy
w here all is endless, spaceless, tim eless,
and eternal.
T h e C ath ed ral o f the Sou l rises
above the earth itself and offers you a
place w hich you m ay reach in the so ar
ing flights of your soul's am bition and
desire. It is a place to rise unto and
into. It invites w ith its solitude; it in
trigues you w ith its m ystery; it implores
you with its silent voice; it em braces
you with its love and sym pathy. L et
your real self dwell therein and learn
the lessons which the soul can com pre
hend. G ive unto G od for a time th at
w hich is H is and take unto you rself
that w hich is your h eritage. A s a child
of L ight go unto the F a th e r and kneel
befo re H is throne and let H is kindly
benediction rest upon you w hile you

READ

THE

en jo y the tran scen d en tal quiet and

peace of Light, L ife, and Love.
T h e se are the things which the
C ath ed ral o f the Sou l offers to all who
are torn asunder w ith the strifes and
struggles, with the tests and trials, the
sadness and sorrow s o f this earthly
existence. H ere you will find health and
happiness, inspiration and understand
ing, a kindly w elcom e, a sincere greet
ing, a creative pow er and an all in
clusive contact with the highest degree
o f G o d 's consciousness from which you
w ill depart with relu ctance only to re
turn again and again.
A ll o f these things are offered freely
to you. It is for you to find the C a th e
dral o f the Sou l. T h e path is pointed
out by our literature. Com panions by
the score are seeking w ith you and
multitudes will pass you on their w ay,
but none will h esitate to help you, none
will fail to notice your stumbling steps.
T h e angels o f heaven hold forth the
L ight to guide you but you must start
on your w ay.
M a y heaven's g reatest blessing come
into your life soon and reveal to you the
glorious splendor of the C ath ed ral of
the Soul.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

{ J i m m m m i m i ................... m i t m m m m m m m m m m i ........... ......... m i i i i i i i i i i m i i i i i i i i i i m i m i m i i i i i m m i i i i i m m i i m m i i i i i i i l i i m i l t m i i m i , M i i i [ I J

R EPO R T O F T H E A N N U A L CO N V EN TIO N

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
August
1936

i
|
E
E
E

1
i

W e are happy to state that the 12th annual Convention which closed its week of
many important sessions on July 18 was the largest in attendance and the most enthusiastic and peaceful in the spirit of the work that we have ever held, with representatives
from many foreign countries and with delegates and representatives from every state
and section of North America, and with thousands of proxies from those who were
absent. T h e voting was not only unanimous but cheeringly and enthusiastically in favor
of the maintenance of the presen t administration without a single ch an g e. W e also take
this opportunity to express our appreciation for the hundreds of kind letters of encouragement, received by the administration from members, which accompanied their proxies.

jj

=
E
E

f
E

|
|

A complete report of the Convention with details of all of its sessions and interesting
comments on the many happy and beneficial features will be given in the next (September) issue of T h e R osicrucian D igest. W atch for your copy and read it carefully and
then preserve it for future reference.

=
i
i

=
=
=
i

This 12th Convention will go down in the history of the Order in North America as
one of its most important assemblies in many years. E very speech, every resolution,
every comment was carefully recorded by special Convention reporters and will be
preserved in our files. Long and interesting extracts from these reports will constitute the
main part of the magazine next month.

E
E
f

I
Q u n

C O N V E N T IO N S E C R E T A R Y .
m i m in im

............................. I ......... ......................................

m u m ............n u l l ................... m m m m m m m m m t i m ............m i i m i ............m m m l m m l u Q

T w o H un dred F i[ty-tw o

Obverse and Reverse

By

F ra te r

T. H.

HE unqualified
statem ent that all
humans are actu
ated by selfishness
is v e r y s e l d o m
m a d e i n public.
W e do not like
the i n f e r e n c e of
the w ord selfish
ness and w e are
very quick to let
t h i s d i s l i k e be
know n. T h is sta te
ment c a r r i e s its
explosive quality even into private con
versation. W e are not so zealous in our
practice of T ru th that we would de
liberately jeopardize the pleasure of a
personal ch at by inform ing our friend
that he or she is ultim ately selfish in all
o f his or her motives; even though we
intend to explain our meaning later. W e
are not so sure that they will care to
listen to any explanation after such a
bold accusation, and above all things we
do not w ant to antagonize our friends
for the sak e o f m erely enlightening
them. T h is is a price that few of us
think T ru th is w orth.
If w e will not permit others to ques
tion the unselfishness of our objective
we must needs ask the question of our-,
selves; for, w e are obliged to agree that
we are not digging very deeply into
human nature in our efforts to improve
upon it if we evade this issue. W e
cannot avoid it and then claim any
thoroughness for our m ethods. If char*
T w o H un dred F ifty -th ree

M ille r ,

F. R. C.

ity should begin at home, w e see no

reason w hy inquisition should not begin
in the sam e place.
T h e face value of a coin may b e five
cen ts; but, we know that all money
takes its real value from the supply and
demand for the com modities that it will
represent in a tran sfer of m aterial
w ealth. If potatoes are scarce, a nickel
may not be sufficient to purchase one of
them, but, if they are plentiful, the
nickel may be able to procure a w hole
bushel of them.
T h e law of supply and demand also
governs the real value of our motives,
regardless of any arb itrary value that
w e may stamp upon them. In an unin
habited land, our most altruistic desires
would not result in any im provement of
society. T h is, how ever, does n ot prove
that our altru istic desires are unselfish
in their true and absolute nature.
A miner does not dig ore because of
any d irect use th at the ore will be to
him. H e w orks his mine because the
m etal that the ore contains is of use to
other people and they, know ing its use
to them, will rew ard him for it, in terms
o f goods th at he can use d irectly, or
with some docum entary guaranty of
credit, m oney.
S o it is throughout the organization
of society; our labors transform crude
and im m ediately useless things into
articles that w e need and value highly.
Som etim es w e use m ethods that do not
release, sim ultaneously, as much value

appears to be w holly unselfish; but, is it?

Is not the desire still very much my own
and its realization likely to afford me
more pleasure than it affords anyone
else? W h e th e r my own or someone
elses good is my am bition, the ambition
is M I N E and my desire to realize it is
selfish. A ll desire is fundam entally
selfish and can n ot be otherw ise under
natural decree.
T h is discovery may lead us to ques
tion the value o f altruistic motives, but
we can easily remove all doubt o f their
value to ourselves: and are w e not pri
marily concerned with their value to
ourselves?
T h e m aterial resources of the earth
are more than sufficient to satisfy the
needs and whims o f every m ortal man.
W e have not consum ed the smallest
fraction of the w ealth that surrounds us
in actuality. P h ysics tells us that noth
ing is ever gained or lost in the physical
universe, and so, while we may be burn
ing up the coal from our mines and
using the electricity from the hydro
electric plant, we are not actually de
stroying any energy. T h e s e processes
do no m ore than transform the energy
from one expression to another. T h e
coal is transform ed into heat and power
and the electricity into heat, pow er and
light.
A n electric lamp radiates light in all
directions, and surely we do not utilize
all o f this light when we read a book.
W e do not feel that we are consuming
any of the light th at reaches us from the
o b ject that we are looking at. T h e
light is n ecessary to the functioning of
our sight sense, but these organs of
sight and the nervous system are not
consuming any of it or destroying it.
A nd w hat of all the light that is radi
ating in all other directions from the
source to the w alls of the room? W h e r e
is it used up, and w hy does it disappear
w hen the current is turned off?
Scien ce places the speed o f light at
some one hundred and eigh ty-six thou
sand miles per second. If this is so, then
the light w aves that leave the lamp
reach the w alls of the room in an in
The
hlder.
R osicru cian
}
w ant very much to h ave every com prehensibly short space o f time.
W h e r e do they go a fter they meet the
n .
other human being en joy the blessings
w alls? W e cannot see them coming
LftSest
o f m aterial sufficiency and good health
through the w alls of a house in which a
A u gu st
and I may devote much energy to the
light is burning. W e therefore conclude
1936
realization o f this objective. T h e desire
as is received and w e feel that w e are
getting ahead of the game. A ctu ally this
is not so; for, there is a limit to the
quantity of m aterial things that we can
use for our own gratification and any
surplus that we may be holding idle is
doing us no good w hatsoever. T h e re
com es a time when we no lon ger require
any of this w orld s goods and then this
excess is returned to circulation and we
pay the debt that w e have owed, albeit
unw ittingly. W e have deprived our
selves of the satisfaction o f consciously
settling our accounts and balancing our
books. W e have denied ourselves the
title o f good business men or wom en.
T h is does not mean th at the possible
exigencies and em ergencies of the future
should not be provided for. F ailu re to
do this might make an unjust demand
on som eone elses time and labor. A
surplus, above and beyond the needs of
the present, need not be an idle surplus.
W e w aste much time and nervous
energy, in trying to prove that the
w ealth y should distribute all of their
holdings am ong the poor. U su ally their
w ealth is producing more com fort for
the poor than they could produce with
the share that would com e to their
hands in an equitable distribution. T h e
w ealthiest men are usually those who
possess the ability to use w ealth to the
ad vantage of the g reatest num ber of
people. V e r y few poor people can bear
the responsibility of w ealth. T h e ir state
o f poorness frequ ently attests this un
fortunate fact. T h e re is more equity
than many o f us are conscious of. E ven
a fte r his passing, T h o m as E d iso n 's
w ealth continues to give the poor people
o f the world light and com fort that they
could not produce as cheaply or as w ell,
them selves. H o w m any o f them would
be willing to exch an ge their electric
light and conveniences for th eir small
part o f his m aterial w ealth?
A desire, w hether it be to help others
or to help o n es self, at the expense o f
others, is actually a personal w ish. It is
an objective, the realization of which
will afford a degree of satisfactio n to

T w o H undred F ifty -fou r

that the energy is transform ed into some

other m anifestation. Sensitive instru
ments will prove th at this is so. T h e
light becom es heat when it cannot con
tinue to radiate out into space. It heats
the w alls o f the room and causes other
changes in the substances that it en
counters, but it is never used up.
H eat radiates and travels through the
walls and roof o f a house at a much
slow er rate of speed than light moves
through space, but it eventually finds its
w ay out in to the atm osphere w here it
joins forces with all of the other heat
that is beinq radiated from the ea rth s
su rface. T h is heat can then cause
changes in air currents that will result
in rainstorm s. T h e rain replenishes the
rivers and the rivers bring the electricity
back to us again. W e can see that we
are actually using the same energy over
and over again.
O u r observations indicate that this
supply of energy comes to the earth as
light from the sun, and a fter we have
used w hat we need of it for aw hile, it
continues on its w ay out through the
universe. T h e secret of the suns supply
of energy is still to be found by science;
but, since cycles prevail in every phase
of creation that we have studied, we
shall not be surprised to learn some day
that the sun receives energy, in some
other form, as fast as it radiates it out
into space. T h e cosm ic ray has not yet
been explained.
T h e se cycles o f changing en ergy form
are easily illustrated in their finite
form s; but, to dem onstrate the opera
tion o f similar cy cles in the intangible
world o f thought and consciousness is
not such a simple task, though equally
feasible.
W e must begin som ew here, so w hy
not w ith our immediate am bitions and
desires? If there is actually a cycle, we
shall return to them eventually.
F o r instance, 1 have a desire to im
prove my financial position in the world.
T h is is a very personal desire and it
rises from my realization that my in
fluence for good or evil, as I wish, will
be extended through such an im prove
ment. M y influence, my will, my ego,
my consciousness craves expansion and
more freedom to exercise itself. T h is is
an inborn desire o f human consciousness
and accounts for all o f our efforts. T h is
T w o H un dred F ifty -fiv e

certain ly does seem selfish, but, w ho can

disprove it?
I know that the money will not com e
to me o f its own accord and so I first
reason about this m atter. I review in
my mind the processes by which effort
is transform ed into m aterial w ealth. If
my reasoning ability is only poorly
developed, I m ay simply visualize some
place or point at which a great deal of
money is accum ulated, som e bank or
some business office, or some m essenger
w ho carries a payroll w ith him. M y
n ext step in my attainm ent of w ealth
would be to plan action w hereby I could
secure this m oney w ithout in ju ry to my
person or my pride. I know that other
people fear personal in ju ry just as much
as I do and so I choose this human trait
as an ally in my drive to power. I select
a lethal w eapon and cover my face my
pride with a mask. I have learned that
a certain business office is open very late
nights and that one or two people
handle a large am ount o f money there.
T h is will be my destination.
E veryth in g w orks so sm oothly that I
am soon out of the building again, with
my pockets full o f more money than I
have ever seen a t one time b efo re. W h a t
v ictory and w hat elation is mine. I
shall now be able to buy w hatever I
w ant and en jo y all of the pleasures that
I have alw ays longed for.
B u t we have overlooked som ething.
W e have neglected a law o f (Physics?)
which states that for every action there
is an equal and opposite reaction. Ah!
the reaction; that w as it then. T h e re
action is responsible for these stone
walls and these iron b ars that prevent
us from using the w ealth that we
acquired so easily.
A lread y we are back to our starting
point. W e have travelled the com plete
cycle from desire through plan, ach iev e
ment and loss, and now we are back to
desire again, with our objective seem
ingly more rem ote than ever. W e still
w ant freedom to expand and express
ourselves.
Such cycles as this may be lengthened
and an illusory time of enjoym ent
com m ensurate with the cunning of the
planner m ay be realized; but. the law
o f com pensation is not altered or sus
pended. If freedom rem ains, the crim
inal can still pay in a coin that is equally

dear to him; peace of mind perhaps, or

health, or pride.
W e have been looking at one type of
cycle that can and does prevail in con
sciousness. Its shortness and unpleas
a n t nature, w e have discovered, is due
to its failure to com ply with natural
law s of motion; it has gathered no a d
ditional fo rce from the o b jects that it
has con tacted and has consequently
made no more progress than its original
fuel supply perm itted.
N ow we shall look at a cycle th at is
o f much longer period and of much
m ore p leasant nature though it begins
with the sam e desire, selfish as th at
may be.
W e again face ourselves w ith our de
sire to extend our influence and exp res
sion; but, w e have w itnessed the failure
of quick easy m ethods, so we shall plan
otherw ise. M en tally , we w rite the law
o f com pensation across the screen of
our consciousness so that we shall not
overlook this very im portant require
ment.
V e r y w ell. W e w ant m oney because
it is a convenient system o f handling
w ealth and pow er in the finite w orld.
A t the outset w e are faced with the
necessity o f com pensating in som e w ay
for this money. W e look about us and
study the m eans that others employ in
doing this. I f our qualifications fit us
best for it, we may undertake m anual
labor as a means o f com pensation, or,
if w e have spent more time in p rep ara
tion, we m ay select any profession th at
appeals to our fan cy. W e m ay choose
law, medicine, teaching, engineering, de
signing or entertaining. W e will be a
little bit arb itrary here and select medi
cine as the most interesting pursuit with
w hich to pay for our m oney.
T h in g s go very slow ly at first; there
seems to be a veritable epidemic of good
health and w ell-being; but, w e are
sincere in our desire to purchase our
m oney w ith this coin, and so we sit in
our office and read all of the m edical
literatu re that w e can afford to buy or
borrow . O u r pastim e soon begins to
assum e the proportions of a h abit; w e
The
can
feel a mild resentm ent again st the
Rosicrucian
occasional caller who drops in to have
Digest
an abscess lanced or a m ashed thumb
August
dressed. T h is is a sign th at w e have
found a new interest in life, and w here
1936

w e once had a very general aim in our

chosen profession w e now have a very
particular purpose, a baffling medical
problem has arrested our attention. W e
are developing a desire to elim inate all
in terferen ce and to devote ourselves
entirely to this problem ; but, necessity
m akes its own demands and so w e are
obliged to change our schedule some
w hat. W e put a strict limit on our office
hours and pursue our studies w ith a bit
more daily regularity. W e establish a
new rhythm in our life and this is bound
to have some effect, som e com pensation
for itself.
G rad u ally w e begin to live with this
problem as intim ately as though it had
becom e a part o f our bod y; actually it
has becom e a part o f our consciousness,
ob jectiv e and su bjective. W e work all
day with test tubes and m icroscope and
when we sleep we dream o f germ cul
tures, chem ical reactions, light reactions,
natu ral immunity and innoculations.
O u r mind becom es a great churn, in
w hich we w ant a particular com bina
tion of fact elem ents to coagulate.
D uring this intense concentration, we
give the m atter of our happiness no
thought w hatsoever. W e are really su
prem ely happy, and m atters that have
been taken care of do not continue to
occupy our attention. It is conceivable
th at w e are enjoying this w ork much
more than w e could have enjoyed the
m oney that w as our original aim; but,
w e are too busy to think o f such things
now . W e are alread y expressing our
selves to the fullest exten t of our de
sires. W e are thrilled and excited by
the con stan t possibility o f finding som e
thing th at has hitherto been unknown.
T h e pow erful a ttractio n of the unknown
draw s us ever onw ard and we are more
than willing to be drawn on. W e have
renew ed our fuel supply w ithout return
ing to our original desires. W e have en
larged our cycle until it becom es o f al
most infinite scope. W e have already
received more com pensation than would
have satisfied our simple desire for
m oney.
D oes the responsibility for this en
largem ent o f our cycle not rest in the
subtle distinction that we made betw een
a com pensated action and an uncom
pensated action? C an the secret of
happiness be more simply expressed
T w o H un dred F ifty-six

than in th e w ords of the law of com

pensation?
H ow better can we attack the serious
problem o f crim e prevention, than in
dem onstrating to our ad olescents the
very actual function o f this physical law
in the intangible world of consciousness?
T h e y are thinking creatu res. If they
can understand its application and
dem onstration in the physics laboratory,
they can also understand its use in
everyday living. If we w ant to make law
abiding citizens of them, would it not be
well to make such a thing rational and

logical to them? T h e simple statem ent

th at crime d oesnt pay, is no proof of
this fact. C hildren are thinking crea
tures and if we give them the facts, they
will draw the right conclusions.
W e have most definitely w itnessed
that even selfishness has a reverse as
well as an obverse side. F ortu n ately for
all of us, most o f us prefer to use it
constructively, though w e are free to
choose either use. T h is proves a very
g reat truth; but, it will be more real to
us if w e each find it for ourselves.

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
Man, when conscious o f an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized it so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f it. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illum inate mankind
with their m ystic Tight.
F o r those who are seeking light, each month we w ill
reproduce a symbol or symbols, w ith their ancient meaning.

Man in the early days of

his struggle for spiritual light,
attributed to the beasts,
birds and reptiles certain
supernatural powers. This be
lief arose from observing the
superior physical attributes
they possessed. Man's imag
ination ran riot. He con
ceived mythical animals hav
ing the combined forms and
characteristics of these be
ings with which he was fa
miliar. One of these was
the dragon, resembling a crocodile. The dragon was conceived as the
symbol of evil, deception and foreboding, the God of destruction,
in this illustration, taken from a rare book of Rosicrucian symbology,
we see the dragon about to devour his own tail.
The allegory implies that evil eventually detroys itself
and cannot endure.

T w o H un dred F ifty -sev en

are at an y time conscious of, w e a re a l

w ays at the same time conscious o f our
own nature; w e can affirm nothing w ith
out affirming ourselves. A nd since to
will, to feel, to think, are perfections,
essences, realities, it is im possible that
intellect, feeling, and will should feel or
perceive them selves as limited, finite and
nothingness are identical; finiteness is
only a power, i. e., as w orthless, as
nothing. F o r finiteness euphemism for
nothingness. F in iten ess is the m eta
physical, the theoretical - nothingness
the pathological, p ractical expression.
W h a t is finite to the understanding is
nothing to the heart.
B u t it is im possible th at w e should be
conscious of will, feeling, and intellect

as finite pow ers, because every perfect

existence, every original power and es
sence, is the immediate verification and
affirm ation of itself. It is impossible to
love, will, or think, w ithout perceiving
these activities to be perfections im
possible to feel that one is a loving, will
ing, thinking being w ithout experiencing
an infinite jo y therein. Consciousness
consists in a being becom ing objective
to itself; hence it is nothing apart, noth
ing distinct from the being which is
conscious o f itself. H ow could it other
w ise becom e conscious of itself; it is,
therefore, impossible to becom e con
scious of a perfection as an imper
fection, im possible, to feel feeling limi
ted, to think thought limited.

Dimension
B y F r a t e r D a n i e l O. H u n t , F. R. C.

N T H E study of
m atter and form
th e
R osicru cian
member who has
reached a certain
point in his studies
has a great ad
v an tage over the
n o n - m e m b e r in
th at he does not
se e m a t t e r as
others d o , n o r
does he com pre
hend form with
the identical realization the average p er
son does. In m atter he senses the spir
itual qualities, know ing w hat lies behind
it, and in form he m erely senses outline
and not separation from balan ce o f
mass.
N o question of form can be co n
The
sidered
w ithout an accom panying rela
R osicru cian
tionship o f w hat w e term dimension in
D igest
everyday life. T o be sure of ourselves
A u gu st
we must be able to sep arate truth from
error in an unerring m anner, otherw ise
1936

the solution of our problem s based upon

these premises would be incorrect, and
when we tried to prove them by appli
cation of the law they would not hold
w ater. O n ly those answ ers that hold
up to the standard of perfection in law
can be retained. U n less they do, we
are forced to sta rt over again and in
the process o f analyzation a fter dis
secting the problem and com parison with
careful mode and technique of balancing
each property or phase, we eventually
find our answ ers based upon the rock
of T ru th itself in such a firm manner
th at they can n ot be prevailed against.
Dim ension itself is a m atter o f per
sonal recognition b y physical or o b jec
tive senses. It is nothing in itself except
w hat we m ake it. T o prove this, ask
several persons at various times how
large the moon looks to them. O n e will
say it looks as big as a quarter, an
other as big as a w ater bucket, still an
other th at it appears the size o f a good
big w ash tub, w hile the w riter person
T w o H un dred Sixty

ally feels it looks to him about the size

of a good sized pea, or the cross section
of a lead pencil.
W h e r e does dimension commence,
and even if it is of the objective senses,
w here does it end? Is dimension som e
thing that is limited or unlimited? L et
us discuss in a rational m anner this sub
je c t right now and see w here w e stand
upon one of the m any m atters that com
prise the w isdom o f the w orld but are
foolish indeed in T ru th . T h e re must
certainly be a beginning to dimension,
therefore anything with a beginning
must have an end because beginning is
the first point of som ething that must
contain a t least tw o or it could not
exist, as w e will prove.
Assum ing that this first point o f b e
ginning is infinite and contained w ithin
itself, it would have to com e out of itself
and give birth to a second point and
continue in sequential order to give first
dimension. Just w hat is that first di
mension and w here is it? W e say we
have succeeded in securing a line by the
above method and that this line occu
pies one direction in space so must al
w ays remain as one dimension unless w e
apply a law o f moving it at right angles
to itself to secure the second dimension
which is the plane o f su rface. T o secure
the third w e must apply the sam e law
and move this plane to a point a t right
angles to the plane and thus secure the
cube. T h u s we have occupied all the
dimensions o f spatial term s.
If we think deeply, w e straightw ay
ascertain that the first dimension is
something in the objective w orld, or, it
is merely a qualitative im age. If it is not
an actuality but only a reality, then it
has no dimensions at all because it is
merely a series of infinite points none of
which have the pow er to tran sfer w hat
it does not have itself, nam ely, dimen
sion. If, on the other hand, the straig h t
line we have created by this method is
something that has objective features,
then it is obvious th at the in stan t the
infinite point gives itself up to another
point coming out of it, these must have
three dimensions. T h is is n ecessarily
so because the mind of man cannot cre
ate or im age anything existing on the
objective plane th at does not occupy
space, and anything that occupies space
occupies it in height, length, and w idth,
T w o H un dred S ix ty -on e

regard less of how small it is or w hat its

shape may be.
L et us assum e a circle or disc o f form
about six inches in diam eter and close
our eyes w hile w e gradually permit this
to shrink w ithin itself by draw ing it into
the infinite point of its cen ter until it is
com pletely demolished. A s it disappears
from vision on this side o f com prehen
sion, it must appear on the other side
and take its form in the ab stract. N ow
this is m erely a th eoretical dem onstra
tion necessary in order that we may be
able to bring the disc back for proper
understanding o f w here form comes
from. T h e re fo re , let us endeavor to
bring back the actual disc to this side by
reversing the process. O u t o f the in
finite point we draw itself and continue
to expand it as a circle or disc until it
gains the same dim ension it held p re
viously. T h u s we learn th at an infinite
point w hen expanded has three dimen
sions, but w hen w ithdraw n into itself it
has none. Seein g that it has none w hen
con tracted to infinity, it can n ot give out
w hat it does n ot have itself when it is
expanded, and its size is m erely som e
thing w e have created by process of
reasoning, or b y some action on our
part.
If instead of moving the point out
w ard in all directions in one plane we
had moved it in all directions in all
planes, w e would have had a ball of
void com posed of nothing or lack w hich
still could not entertain dimension even
though it holds to the physical law of
form. If w e had perm itted the infinite
point to com e out o f itself in one d irec
tion only, we would have two infinite
points. T h e se tw o points would have
either no dimensions, or they would
have to have all three, because w e ca n
not have a line extending from one point
to another regard less o f distance unless
it occupies the space it carries itself
through.
Inasm uch as there are lines, and these
are built up of infinite points, the line
of first dim ension can only be the farcial
delusion o f the physical senses, a som e
thing we have built up because in the
ob jectiv e plane w e must have form as
a physical n ecessity in order to conduct
our affairs, and as a m atter of co n
venience. R egard less o f this n ecessity
o r convenience, how ever, the m ystic

takes form and dimension for w h at it is

and not fo r w hat it seem s to be. H e
th erefore looks upon m atter itself as
merely form in delusional quantity; it is,
but it is not w hat it appears.
D im ension becom es m erely n ecessary
for the separation o f o b jects from the
balance of mass, and this due to the fact
w e live on a plane of physical proper
ties in w hich it would seem difficult to
do business w ith another w ithout reco g
nizing him as anoth er and not as o n es
self. W e could hard ly consider carrying
m ortar from one place to another w ith
out leaving one point and arriving a t
the other. In the spiritual realization all
points are here and here is everyw here,
w hile in the com parison of the physical
and the spiritual m odes the m ystic
blends the tw o to attain com prehension,
w hile the m aterialist seeks to keep them
apart, feeling that E a s t is E a s t and
W e s t is W e s t , and never the tw ain shall
m eet.
T h e re is no question as to w hich is
right, the m ystic or the m aterialist, for
both are right considering the level of
consciousness they operate on, and the
thing m an's ch ief in terest lies in is
w hether he lives in the consciousness of
eternal truth, or w hether he is content to
op erate upon one plane o f consciousness
th at elim inates spiritual qualities. W e
can see that religion plays no part in
such a study, but th a t w e as R osicru cians do advance in spirituality and
recognition o f truth in a m anner o rth o
dox religions cannot lift us up to. W e
have m any times been called Q u a sireligionists becau se those w ho fram e
us in such term s are unaw are, it seems,
th at truth em braces all things, and does
not confine itself to w hat church alone
gives out. T o recognize truth from the
standpoint of natural law therefore
would make a man a b etter Buddhist,
M oham m edan, or C hristian.
If he w ere n ot aligned w ith an y re
ligion or denom ination, but recognized
the facts o f N atu re and th at old ser
pent th at deludeth every man th at com eth into the w o rld , he at least would
The
fit him self to live b etter and a more
Rosicrucian abu ndant life here and now in an e x
D igest
panded U n iverse o f ideality and re co g
A u gu st
nition w hich at least even the most o r
thodox must adm it is w orth the effort.
1936

Inasm uch as form and dimension meet

us every d ay as w e open our eyes and

tran sact our business on the plane of
m atter, who, then, is better prepared to
m eet the problems th at co n fro n t them?
H e w ho lifts the veil o f m atter, form,
and dimension, or he who satisfies him
self with the life of delusion of physical
senses? T h e m ystic sees no such thing
as relativity in his spiritual conceptions.
E a ch thing is ex actly as it is and no
other w ay, but these th in g s" to him are
a unit in w hich he him self operates as
part, knowing he is in them in existence
and they are in him in realization.
H e has taken the step that leads into
the more full life and finally stands upon
the pinnacle of T ru th , gazing down
upon the w orld of delusion, refusing to
trade his place in the higher houses of
the F a th e rs mansion for all the world
spread out befo re him. 'T w a s ever thus,
and so to him E a s t is W e s t and W e s t
is E a s t, and alw ays the tw o are O N E .
In reading the w orks o f the past, as
well as those of the present day m ystics,
it must be borne in mind that alw ays we

must recognize that the mystic writes

from both planes o f conscious endeavor,
sometimes dropping into that of the ma
terial for descriptive purposes, and again
soaring to infinite heights in T ru th . T h e
R osicru cian thus reads and gathers w hat
others never conceive o f or im agine pos
sible. It is for this reason th at the w rit
ings are called in m any instances veiled
w ritin gs, not because the m ystic would
hide his know ledge, but th at it becom es
revealed only as the reader is able to
discern and a ccep t it. T h u s th ose who
read these very lines divide them selves
into sep arate classes, not by reason of
the w riter but by reason of the readers
them selves. T h o se w ho have traveled
over much o f the path can only advise
the others to hold fast, for beyond
w here they now stand there opens vistas
th at make the present seem as only a
kindergarten, and so we go on, and on,
and on. W h e n studied carefully this
article show s th at form is m erely the
distortion of the circle, and the circle
is m erely the infinite point enlarged in
com prehension.
T w o H undred Sixty-tw o

Earth
AN ANALYSIS OF THE COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES
By

S o r o r E u r o p ia

E V E R A L y ears
ago, P o p u l a r
S c i e n c e M aga
zine published an
article w hich ad
vanced the theory
t h a t the e a r t h
w as, a fter all, a
flat disk, and there
w as a prize offer
ed for an article
w hich would prove
that the earth w as
r o u n d , by some
other than the usual ideas that because
a ship disappeared hull first and sails
last, or th at w e can sail around the
world by going around in a circle to the
place w e started, the earth is round.
T h is seem ingly antiqu ated theory
contends th at the planet w e dwell on
is a flat disk with the E qu ato r a circle
passing about the N orth P ole h alf w ay
betw een it and the outer rim of the disk.
T h is rim is supposed to be a high bank
of ice to keep the w aters o f the oceans
on the flat su rface of the earth and also
to prevent sailors from going off into
space w hen traveling straigh t out from
the center, or N orth P ole.
T h e sun is claimed to be much sm aller
than the m easurem ents given by scien
tists and only about 8 0 0 ,0 0 0 miles from
us instead o f approxim ately 9 2 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0
miles aw ay, and that the moon also
moves above the earth betw een the
orbits of the sun and earth.
T w o H undred S ixty-three

L.

T u rn er

N ow it seem s stran ge that such an

idea should be advanced in these days
of higher education, superpow ered tele
scopes, and delicate m achines for m eas
uring accu rately the celestial bodies, and
calculating their distance from one a n
other. T h e n , again, there are so m any
w ays in w hich N ature and the fixed
law s of the universe show th at the
earth must be a spherical bod y; also
the idea o f an ice rim around the edge
of a supposedly flat planet, raised up
like a fence to keep m ariners from sail
ing their vessels off o f the top o f the
earth is rath er freakish, meaning no dis
respect to the ad van cer o f the fore
going ideas and theories.
N ow I shall endeavor to give con
clusive proof th at the w orld is n ot flat,
or hem ispherical, but a ball or sphere
to all purposes and intents, inasm uch
as people could go in a straigh t line
continuously about the earth in any
direction and not com e to any fences or
places they could fall off.
Follow ing are my reasons and proofs
for believing th at the earth is a sphere.
If the earth is a flat disk, according
to nautical m easurem ents, it is 2 4 ,9 0 0
miles around the E qu ato rial circle w hich
is h alf w ay betw een the N orth P ole and
the so-called Sou th Pole, or in this case
the edge of the disk, the Sou th Pole
being no longer a cen tral spot but a
circum ference.
N ow the longer the
radius, the g reater the circle, so the rim
o f the w orld would have to be about

4 9 ,8 0 0 miles around it, as the radius of

the 2 4 ,9 0 0 miles around the middle of
the earth would be the radius from the
N orth P o le to the equator and this
would have to be doubled to represent
the w hole distance from the N orth Pole
to the Ice Rim . N ow place the con
tinental bodies on the su rface in their
proper relationship to each other a c
cording to actual m easurem ent and let
the A tlan tic be the body of w ater we
keep in that proper distance. T h is
bunches the land on one side of the disk
and leaves a v ast ocean area in the
region of the pacific south o f the
E q u ato r and the distance betw een the
E a ste rn coast of A frica and the W e s t
ern co ast of Sou th A m erica (bein g a
great deal more than the actual m iles),
the whole thing will have to be
stretched out to correspond to the la ti
tudinal m eridians of the circle and this
would surely make some people w alk a
long w ays to cover a mile out there
beyond the E q u ato r. B u t granting that
even this w ere so, let us see w hat will
happen to the rest o f the suns and
moons, stars and planets.
If the earth is flat, then no doubt the
rest of the heavenly bodies are flat, b e
cause I dont believe th at our w orld is
a freak, or an exception to the U n iversal
law s, for if it w ere, it would have to
have a sep arate set o f law s to govern
its actions and m otions.
N ow the sun moves about in a cir
cular orbit as does the moon; therefore,
the earth must move in a circular path
in order to m aintain its position am ong
its neighboring planets and suns and
moons, and if this is so, it will also turn
about its axis as all moving bodies
develop a rotary motion when passing
through space. N o tice the stone or ball
w hen thrown from the hand or dropped.
N o m atter how irregularly shaped, it
starts turning about in some direction.
A flat disk, in order to m aintain its
upright position in space, would have to
move at a very rapid rate like a top and
this would have a tendency to throw the
more or less shifting elem ents of the
ea rth s com position to the outer edge,
The
for a spinning disk develops centrifugal
Rosicrucian
force. T h u s the su rface of the earth
D igest
would no longer be flat but concave on
A u gu st
either side and sailors would be going
uphill going straig h t out and downhill
1936

coming back to the P ole, and the water

and the land would gradually shift out
w ardly until it would cause a hole in
the center and the P ole would fall out.
It would be like a glass of w ater stirred
w ith a spoon or a w hirlpool in a river,
only slow er and not perceptible in so
large a disk. T h e movement of the
earth would probably be counter-clock
w ise so th at the sun would pass from
east to w est across the ea rth s surface
about 8 0 0 ,0 0 0 miles above it.
A gain , if the earth stood still as it ap
parently does, and a piece of the land
slipped down, as it som etim es does, it
would stick out below, for we know
there could be no holes down through
the earth anyw here as the w ater would
be lost, so it must be all land on the
bottom and the displacem ent is just as
great below as it w as above. Now if
this should happen near the edge, there
would be danger o f a piece of our disk
falling off into space and upsetting our
equilibrium and our w orld go toppling
overboard unless the attraction o f the
sun could hold it with the same side
tow ard it. If the earth stands still, the
sun must pass its orbit over the earth
so the d irect rays would fall on the
torrid path and this would cause the
circle of the su n s path to coincide with
the ^E q u ato r, or else the circle of the
sun's path would have to lap to one
side o f the cen ter o f the earthly disk.
In the latter case, because the suns path
would have to be greater on account of
its size, to keep it from rolling around
itself, this would bring a segm ent of
the path over the ice rim and the direct
ray s of the sun would melt two gaps in
the ^fence and in the form er case the
suns rays would melt the whole ice
rim and w oe to any unlucky mariner
who w ent over the edge into space
looking for some other soup plate of a
planet to land in. B u t it would be im
possible for the sun to move outside of
the equatorial circle as then the in
h abitan ts of the southern part of South
A m erica would not see the sun to the
N orth of them as they do now. This
again presents a problem, for, if the
earth is flat and the sun and moon rotate
above it, no m atter how much the orbits
paths lapped to one side of the earths
cen ter, we would see them both day and
night an d there would be darkness un
T w o H undred Sixty-four

less they passed so far aw ay that we

would lose sight o f them by perspective,
and I am thinking that they would have
to travel m ighty fast to get back again
in tw enty-four hours; not only that,
but w e could w atch them grow sm aller
and sm aller until lost to sight. B u t we
know that, if anything, they look larger
when they come up and go down, than
they do at any other time or during the
middle of the day due to atm ospheric
conditions.
T h e only w ay for us to have night
and still keep the sun nearly the sam e
distance from us during its journey each
day, would be for it to move tran s
versely and go off the edge at night and
come up over the opposite edge in the
morning. N ow if the earth is flat and
all the rest of the heavenly bodies are
flat, as they must all be in harm ony,
then the sun, being flat, would have to
move across the arc o f our sky in an
edgewise fashion in order to alw ays
present a round disk to us, for if it
didnt, we would sometimes see it edge
wise and it would look like a pole of
fire, or else it would have to spin over
and over very rapidly, then w e would
be unable to see the dark spots on its
surface or exam ine them with a tele
scope. B ang! T h a t th eory exploded. I
hope no one got hurt.
A gain , if the earth is a freak and the
rest of the suns, moons, and planets are
round and are held in their respective
places by certain u nchangeable law s,
then the p lanetary pull would cause our
earth to becom e distorted because it
would not have as much resistan ce on
the flat su rface as on the edges, and
nothing but a sphere has an equal re
sistance on all sides.
B u t granting that all the heavenly
bodies are flat disks, they must alw ays
keep their flat su rfaces tow ard us, for
we alw ays see them round, even the
other side of the moon being visible
when only part o f its su rface offers us
a bright side. A lw ays, through the tele
scope, the celestial bodies present a cir
cular appearance, so if they are flat,
they must be hung around above the
edge of the world like gold coins inside
of an inverted bow l, for if they w ere
not, some o f them would present only
the edge to us and w e should see an
elongated, illuminated pole in the sky,
T w o H un dred S ix ty -fiv e

or an elliptical shape like looking at a

w heel from an angle.
In order to reduce the great distance
betw een the continents in the region of
the Pacific, to the actual m easurem ents,
I am afraid M r. ---------------will have to
take some tucks in the outer part of his
plane, and in so doing, he will be com
pelled to bend the su rfaces downward
all around to make the edges of the
pieces meet so his m ariners would not
fall through the gaps. T h is would cause
the earth to becom e like the h alf o f a
rubber ball having a thick shell and no
one could climb up the sides. A n y
one flying off the low er edge into space
or rounding the rim would arrive in
darkness under the hem isphere as his
position would cut off the suns rays.
T h e com pass useless and no fam iliar
stars to guide him, he would land up
under this mushroom of a w orld w here
he would bump his head on the ceiling
like a caged fly.
A n o th er proven thing is th at the
N orth Pole and the m agnetic pole do
not coincide by a good m any miles and
there is a south m agnetic pole, too,
w hich, because of equal repelling forces
must be opposite each other. A sphere
is the only body w hich has a real chance
for a m agnetic axis as well as a central
a xis to turn on in two different portions
of its body and keep an equal am ount
o f m atter on all sides.
N ow w e know that ice exists a t the
N o rth P ole and at the so-called South
Pole and the sun must rotate and pass
along the cen tral position betw een the
two poles, but that does not account for
the seasons or the sw ing o f the sun back
and forth every year. T h e only w ay
for the sun to travel in the m anner th at
it does from season to season, is for the
earth to be round and move along in a
staggered position out of true line with
the sun's path.
If the earth is a sphere, then there is
a plausible explan ation for the rising
and sinking o f lands and the quakes, as
the e a rth s cru st shrinks or heaves with
the forces o f gas and steam in the inner
part, and there is a chance o f one part
being pushed up and another being let
down w ithout disturbing the rotation
or speed o f our planet. O n ly by our
earth being round, can man travel in all
directions continuously east, w est, north

or south without falling o ff the sides or

sents its spots in different positions,

edge and have a day and night in the

m anner that we have it.
O n ly by being a sphere can the
actu al distances betw een the continents
beyond the eq u ator be accounted for,
for the earth show s by m easurem ent
that the distance around the tw o tem
perate zones are p ractically equal, and
a sphere is the only shaped body which
will admit o f such m easurem ents.
T h e moon, likew ise, would have to
move in the same m anner as the sun
only at a different rate o f speed and at
a different distance, because sometimes
both are visible and a re observed to
near one side and som etim es opposite
sides of our visible sky. T h ro u g h the
telescope, the su rface o f the moon pre

som etim es nearer the edge, sometimes

n earer the cen ter as though it swung
over, y et it alw ays looks like a disk, and
only a ball could alw ays present a round
edge in all positions. T h e se spots move
over the visibility like a m ark on the
su rface of a ball, and so the sun being
round, our earth must be round, because
all of the heavenly bodies are formed in

accordan ce with a great unchanging

Law and are su b ject to the same laws,
th erefore there can be no freaks in the
great schem e of the universe.
It is true th at there are wild meteors
roving the sky, but even the newest dis
covery in the shape of a tiny planetoid
has a fixed path to travel and obeys the
law s o f the universe.

Is M an a F ree Agent ?
B y F r a t e r J o h n X. P e n n i n g t o n
N E w o n d e rs if
there is an y basis
in fact for the
principle so per
sisten tly tau ght by
the M y stics, that
M an is a F re e
A g en t. W e see
the forces brought
to b ear upon men,
both m aterial and
im m aterial forces,
and the statem ent
th at we are F ree
A g en ts seem s merely an empty phrase.
Y e t, when carefully considered, it is
plain that each individual has the priv
ilege of making final decisions in all
m atters affecting him, and no outside
ag en cy of any natu re can in any w ay
deprive him o f this privilege except the
T he
Sou rce o f the privilege, G od H im self,
Rosicrucian
and H e will not (fo r H e deliberately
Digest
created M an a F re e A g e n t) unless H e
August
is asked for guidance and the privilege
is freely and w illingly waived.
1936

It is true that a t times strong outside

pressure is brought to b ear on individ
uals or groups of individuals to coerce
them into surrendering this privilege.
E ven extrem e m ental or physical torture
m ay be resorted to, but if the W ill of
the individual is strong enough to en
dure it w ithout flinching, there is no
outside agen cy th at can induce him to
m ake a decision other than in accord
an ce with his own desires, or change it
a fter it has once been made. T h e de
cision made, even depriving him of
R eason , would not alter m atters, but
would only d efeat its own purpose.
A nd even if he surrenders through
coercion, he still exercises F re e W ill,
for the decision to chan ge his former
decision is still his own.
Could m ankind but grasp this great
T ru th and realize that the Pow er of
F re e W ill is his b y D ivine Privilege,
w hat a change would be wrought in
the w orld overnight! W o u ld the change
be for b etter or for w orse? It would
be M a n 's P rivilege to decide!
T w o H undred Sixty-six

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g natures mysteries and extending the boundaries of
knowledge. T h e w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce on ly those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
I t is w ith pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and briefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherwise specified,
we g iv e full credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

An Expanding Universe

H E theory o f an e x
panding universe
should receive the
laurel for persist
ence. T im e and
again this theory
has been attack ed
by philosopher and
scientist alike, and
shown to be un
sound, and yet, it
is frequently re
vived and during
its revival it a t
tracts consid erabe academ ic attention.
W e must consider the universe as a
single state of being. W e astronom ically
speak of island universes, but if this
w ere a fact, it w ould mean th at there
were existing sep arate states o f being
and a condition of absolute vacuum or
nothingness betw een them. S p ace we are
quite aw are, is relatively the absence o f
m atter; but in fact, it is a state of reality,
as real as m atter itself. It is, how ever,
T w o H un dred S ix ty -sev en

n ot perceivable in the sam e m anner as

m atter b y the human mind. W e must
consider then that m atter and space are
both reality or being. Being is the
only positive state. N on -bein g or vacuum
cannot exist. If it had existence, it
would, w hatever its apparent nature, be
as real as being. W e can im agine the
absence o f som ething, and at times we
see w hat seems to be the absence o f
som ething, but both these experiences
are negative; for, we repeat, there is no
state w hich is a true vacuum. Sp a ce can
alw ays be proven to have certain real
istic qualities; therefore, it is not a co n
dition of nothingness. E veryth in g th at
is I S ; th erefore, it is p art of the one
universal reality.
T h e question that con fron ts us here
is w hether this universe o f space and
m atter com bined is quantitative or qual
itative; in other w ords, has the universe
extension, or is it m erely som ething hav
ing a specific nature? A ll being, w h at
ever its nature, is reality. A molecule

and the moon are equal in the sense of

having a definite existen ce, regardless
of their variation in size. C onsequently,
the universe would becom e no more
real, would have no greater existen ce
if it expanded, or less existence if it
contracted . T h e fundam ental quality of
reality is not its form or its apparent
dimensions or its existen ce in time, but
that I T IS . T h e re fo re , expansion would
not add to its specific quality. E x p a n
sion or a quantitative universe presup
poses definite boundaries or limits to
w ard w hich the universe may move, or a
chan ge in density. If we think o f e x
pansion in term s o f increase, o f m agni
tude, w e must first locate a fixed co n
dition or thing apart from the universe
as the standard to determ ine the degree
o f its extension in relation to it. S o far
no such standard h as been established.
If the universe is self-con tain ed , all
things being a part o f it, such standards
could not exist. A thing can n ot expand
tow ard itself.
A ch ange in density also does not
indicate an expanding universe. If all
space would suddenly undergo some
transition and becom e m atter, the uni
verse would have changed its form inso
far as human perception is concerned,
but it would not have added anything
to itself. T h e space of the universe must
be considered a part o f it. P a rt of its
O N E reality and the ch an g e o f nature
o f a reality neither adds to nor sub
tracts from it.
W e must conclude, therefore, th at the
universe is qualitative; in other w ords,
only having the quality of being, w hich
is, w e have seen, just to be; and since
being cannot expand, becom e more real,
everything w hich is being is equal in the
sense o f existence. W e must deny,
th erefore, the theory o f an expanding
universe.
A lan S . H aw kesw orth, eminent phys
icist of W a sh in g to n , D . C ., also recen tly
attacked this theory, but along different
lines. H e contends that to m easure the
limits o f the universe and to determ ine
its extent, w e would have to take into
The
consideration the lapse of time betw een
R ndrru ritin
moment of radiation of light w aves
j-..
from a celestial o b ject in the stellar
l8 est
spaces until they finally registered upon
A u gu st
the retina o f our eyes. H is interesting
1936
a rtich follow s.

I would draw attention to a fallacy

in the fashionable concept of an ex
panding u niverse; linked as it is to the
older and even more w idely held illu
sion as to stellar d istances errors due
to faulty thinking.
F o r we can n ot tell the present posi
tion of any star or nebula. A nd thus
can n ot tell their distances from each
other or from us. So that through
lack of an y possible spatial relations
o f expansion, contraction, or relative
motions of any kind all talk of the
exp an sion of the island universes sy s
tem of nebulae, each w ith a lighty e a rs value differing by m any millions
of y ears, is folly. T h e re d -sh ift that
w e tentatively interpret as a sw ift re
cession from us of this nebula at so
many kilom eters a second so many mil
lion years ago, and o f th at other at so
many more kilom eters a second so many
more million years ago, lacks the 'w hole'
in a common tim e-setting that would
make such an expanision intelligible.
O bviously, a thing must exist, or be
in time, befo re it can occupy any place
in space. A nd thus two or more things
must be contem poraneous, or coexist in
the sam e in stan t, befo re there can be
an y spatial relation in that instant b e
tw een them. A n im aginary triangle, say,
connecting the earth with two stars
one, say, 60 ligh t-y ears aw ay and the
oth er 100 is w holly fictitious, since its
three apices the earth and the two
sta rs are given us in w idely separated
tim e-settings. A man in a C hevrolet
motor car w as driving eastw ard from
18th to 17th S treets, along Pennsylvania
Avenue in W a sh in g to n , D . C ., at forty
miles an hour at 1 0 :3 0 a. m. of the fore
noon o f Jan u ary 30, 1936, and another
man w as sim ilarly driving a F o rd w est
w ard along the same section, from the
17th to 18th, a t 3 0 miles an hour at 4
p. m. o f the aftern oon o f A ugust 10,
1913. H ow sw iftly are the two cars
approaching? T h e question is obviously
m eaningless. T h e two cars are not ap
proaching, or in any w ay spatially re
lated, for they are not in the same timesetting.
A g ain , taking the distance from 17th
to 18th as, say, 90 feet, you w ere stand
ing, a t noon o f M arch 15, 1936, on that
sam e section o f Pennsylvania Avenue,
3 0 0 feet from the 18th S tree t crossing,
T w o H undred Sixty-eight

and thus 6 0 0 feet from the 17th one.

Y o u know precisely how far you are
from w here the two cars w ere, six
w eeks, and 23 y ears previously, co rre
sponding ex actly to the lig h t-y ea rs de
term inations for various stars. B u t it
would be folly to assert that you w ere
therefore 3 0 0 and 6 0 0 feet, respectively,
from the two ca rs; or that those cars
w ere 9 0 0 feet ap art; either now, or six
w eeks, or 23 y ears ago. Q u ite sim ilarly
we can calcu late that, say, 100 y ears ago
a certain star w as blazing at a point 100
ligh t-y ears distant (o r the equivalent
number of miles or kilom eters) from
w here we are now. B u t it is im possible
to interpret this as meaning th at w e are
th at num ber o f miles or kilom eters from
the said star; either now, from the point
w here we are at present, or 100 years
ag o from the unknown point w here we
then w ere.
If the heavens w ere static it would
be permissible. But, u nfortu nately for
our purpose, the stars and nebulae are
all travelling at dizzy speeds along un
know n and unpredictable paths; and
each in a d ifferent direction, w hereof we
can merely deduce the radial com po
nent at some long past instant.
W e r e we to limit ourselves to our
'home grounds the solar system we
can, in that simple fram e o f refe ren ce,
approxim ately plot, w ith no great d if
ficulty, the elliptical paths o f our plane
ta ry fam ily, and thus determ ine our
rapidly varying several positions at any
given common instant, so that our dis
tances from each other, and from our
sun, can have a real m eaning. B u t
when we pass to the starry heavens as
a whole, with our solar system as
itself a star, all sw eeping with terrific
velocities along their several com pli
cated and compounded unknown paths,
there is no longer any possibility o f our
being able to evaluate relative positions,
at some common instant, for lapsed
hundreds, thousands and even millions
o f y ears. A nd y et unless w e could,
in this m anner, or some other, secure
relative positions a t the same moment,
all talk o f distances is m eaningless, and
the popular statem ents as to the dis

T w o H un dred Sixty-nine

tances of stars and nebulae, the size of

the g alax y , and especially the exp an
sion o f the universe as a w hole, are
foolish.
W e can trace the origin o f the
blunder to the quite human error o f
w rongfully applying in the heavens
concepts that are quite valid in the
w idely d ifferen t terrestrial sphere. F o r
from the daw n o f life until now, and
from our earliest in fan cy to this mo
ment, a co n stan t and invariable earthly
experience has driven into our subcon
sciousness the conviction th at light is
instantaneous, and th at w hat we see
now, exists now an assum ption that
is pragm atically co rrect and that w orks
in our daily life, but which is thoroughly
false and m isleading w hen w e consider
the stars and nebulae.
A s physicists
our educated brains accep t the fact that
light has an exact, though still high,
finite velocity, w hich, w hile still p ra c
tically instantaneou s in our daily lives,
yet becom es of param ount im portance
in the vast abysses o f space. F u rth er
more, in an y earth ly landscape not only
are the time d ifferen ces betw een the
farth est and the n earest o b jects in
appreciable, but our vision occupies
some little time; certain ly several sec
onds, being com posed of perhaps 5 per
cen t visual im pressions and 95 per cent
our interp retations thereof through ex
perience. O u r ord inary seeing, then,
is never m om entary; but deals with a
broad band o f contem porary events;
hom ogeneously blended from all parts
o f our landscape, which w e th erefore
view as a legitim ate w hole and can v a l
idly determ ine d istances and relative
m ovem ents.
B u t in considering the stars and neb
ulae, their v ast time d ifferences totally
exclude an y possibility o f such an over
lapping and unifying ban o f the sam e
tim es. A n d thus w e are com pletely
barred from stating anything as to their
positions, d istances or relative move
ments. A nd certa in ly have not the
contem poraneous w hole that the hypo
thesis o f an expounding universe
w ould dem and.

SANCTUM MUSINGS
RATIO N AL CONCEPTION OF GOD
H E su b ject o f G od
is one of the most
in terestin g , fasci
nating, and m ys
terious that man
can delve into, and
is also one o f the
most sensitive sub
je c ts upon which
one may discourse
or lecture. It is
sensitive b e c a u s e
the very thought
or conception of
G od reaches the highest emotion o f the
individual who has a concept or belief
o f a G od. It is the highest ideal in the
consciousness o f the individual, and if
that ideal is belittled in any w ay, or an
attem pt is made to minimize o n es ideal
o f G od, the passions of anger, m istrust,
disgust, and anim osity are aroused in
the one who has chosen the specific
type, form, or conception o f G od th at
the one lecturing, w riting, or discoursing
on is attem pting to explain.
T h e re fo re , in choosing the su b ject of
G od for our discourse this evening, we
wish to make plain that it is not our de
sire, nor are w e attem pting to break
The
Rosicrucian down or take aw ay from any of our
members or any group of individuals
Digest
their present understanding, conception,
August
or appreciation of the G od they adore,
but are merely presenting the su bject in
1936

such a w ay th at we may be able to con

ceive of a more understandable G od and
be able to g et in closer co n ta ct w ith God
that we may achieve a greater under
standing o f the laws and principles that
are m anifested to us t h r o u g h His
wisdom.
W e are going to explain briefly just
a few of the concepts of G od that are
know n in some o f the rem ote sections
o f the world, for w herever we find a
group o f human beings, we find them
w orshipping and adoring some form of
deity.
In A frica, there are innumerable con
ceptions, forms, and types of G od w or
shipped. In some parts of A frica, in
stead o f worshipping G od, they worship
w hat we would call the D ev il, and in
order that they may keep all evil in
fluences from m anifesting in their midst,
they do everything they possibly can to
please this D evil and keep him happy,
for they know that by keeping him
happy and contented, he will not cause
them any harm or in ju ry. T h e y give
little or no consideration to G od, b e
cause they feel th at the most im portant
thing for their w elfare is to keep the
D evil aw ay. T h e y carve out of bone,
w ood, or ivory, very small distorted
facial expressions o f these D evils, and
each o f these im ages or teraphim has
several thin legs around which are bone
ringlets that appear to be made from
T w o H undred Seventy

teeth. T h e A frican s carry these fetishes

with them constantly, and at various
hours of the day they dance w eird,
fan tastic dances and go through many
forms of gym nastics and contortions in
order to appease these D evil G od s or
fetishes. W e would say th at these
A frican s are appealing to and appeasing
a G od relative to their own develop
ment of consciousness and soul. T h e y
also have twin fetishes made and w o r
shipped by the parents of twin humans.
In other w ords, w henever there are
twins born to a family, the parents im
m ediately have these twin im ages made
b y the producer of these figures. If the
twins becom e ill, special offerings are
made to these twin G ods to propitiate
them. In other w ords, by appealing to
these teraphim they believe th at their
deity is giving them special con sid era
tion and is assisting in alleviating the
pain, misery, and the suffering o f their
twin children.
T h e A frican has many queer beliefs,
which are second only to his F ea rs. T h e
m ajority o f A frica n s live in constan t
fear of B lack M ag ic, and briefly , w e
wish to explain th at one of their most
common fears of this so-called B lack
M a g ic is the fear that certain sham ans
(w itch d octors) have the ability to
ch an ge their human forms to those of
very small insects, and by reducing their
forms to insects, ants, gnats, worms, and
flies, they can enter o n es room or hut
through a little opening, door, or crev
ice, and once inside, they can in ject
poison into the bodies of the sleeping
persons and cau se them great m isery
and untold suffering. T h e y state in their
communications to us a t H ead quarters
that they aw aken in the morning with
many scratch es and marks on their
bodies and faces, w hich they claim these
w itch doctors are responsible for. O u r
corresponden ce is replete with inform a
tion on the fears of w itch craft and
B lack M a g ic of these A frican s, and
they plead w ith us to offer them the
assistance o f our G ods that they m ay be
helped and relieved o f this appalling
condition.
In the O rien t w e have other types,
forms, and conceptions of G od.
For
instance, in C hina, w e have w hat is
called the M ulti-h ead ed B u d d h a. T h e
T w o Hundred. S ev en ty -o n e

m ulti-heads w ere to depict its im perial

ness and om nipotence. It is called the
C hinese G od o f Joy, and w henever one
desires jo y , contentm ent, and happiness,
he appeals to the m ulti-headed Buddha,
for he feels th at his obsecrations and
pleas will be answ ered b y this G od and
he will be given the things th at bring
jo y, pleasure, and happiness.
O u r O rien ta l M useum here a t R o si
crucian P a rk contains m any relics of the
O rien tal, A frican , and E g y p tia n G od s
and fetishes, and are available to our
members and friends.
In T ib e t there are num erous types
and form s o f G od . O n e o f the most
outstanding is the Living G od, w ho is
elected every ten y ears to give to the
people the things that are n ecessary and
the things they desire. It is a human
being chosen b y the people to jud ge
them w isely and establish for them com
fort, peace, happiness, success, and
prosperity, and a t the end of ten y ears,
this G od loses his throne and another
G od is elected. T h is is the only G od
th at the T ib eta n s in one section o f T ib e t
w orship. T h e y have no appreciation, no
understanding, or no concept of a G od
beyond the highest ideals and abilities
of one of their own tribe. T h e re are
m any other tribes, how ever, in T ib e t
that place great faith in fetishes, similar
to the A frica n s and many o f the South
S e a Island ers.
In E g y p t we read o f the G od , R A ,
the creato r o f all things, w orshipped
some six thousand y ears ago. R A w as
the Sun G o d , and there are m any
legends about him. O n e explains the
origin of the universe and all contained
therein resulting from a union of
H eaven and E a rth . ( T h is conception in
varied f o r m s is c o m m o n to many
people.)
A n o th er legend m akes R A , the sun
(som etim es a sacred beetle, Scarab aeu s;
sometimes a fa lc o n ), em erged from an
egg, sailed in a boat upon the ocean,
and created the w orld and its in
habitants. L ater, R A becam e irritated
by the growing w illfulness o f his crea
tures and b y their law lessness and in
creasing im piety, so he destroyed them
and reorganized the universe.
A n o th er legend attributes the creation
to the m agic arts and pow ers of

T h o th (R e a s o n ), the w ise chief, M o o n G od of H erm opolis, w hose voice, with

its true intonations, called forth the
world from nothingness. T h e re are
many m yths and legends concerning the
G o d , R A , and other E g y p tia n G ods,
but they are too num erous for us to
mention at this time.
In India we have Brahm a, the creator,
the all-in -on e com poser o f the sacred
books called T h e V e d a s , w hich teach
us to believe in one G od, B rahm a, w ho
personifies three pow ers: B rahm a, the
C reato r: V ish n u , the P reserver: and
Siva, the D estroy er, w ho is also the R e
g enerator. T h e se three are the T rim urti.
or T ria d .
T h e re are lesser G od s, F o r exam ple:
Indra, G od of H eaven, T h u n d er, L ig h t
ning, Storm , and R ain ; A gn i, G od of
F ire : Y am a, G od o f the In fern al
R egion s: Su ry a, G od of the Su n ; and
so on. A ll G ods and men spring from
B rahm a, the G re a t So u rce; and into
him will again be absorbed. Y o u will
notice herein that the B rah m an s bring
out the T rin ity th at would be equivalent
to the H oly T rin ity , or the conception
of the T rin ity as is tau ght in our
C hristian religion and our C hristian
churches.
A g ain w e have a sim ilarity o f the
T rin ity and G od in the religion or
myths o f the Fam N egro es. F rom their
m ythology w e read that b efo re the b e
ginning there w as nothing but there
w as the G od, N zam e, w ho is really a
T rin ity called N zam e, N h ere, and
N kw a; w ho presently m ade everything,
and chose the sky to dwell in, giving the
earth to Fam , the first man, who, being
like the G ods, lives alw ays. Fam w as
too pow erful for his own good, and not
clever enough, for he becam e conceited
and refused to w orship the G od s.
N zam e, N h ere, and N kw a made a
palaver and decided to burn off the
earth and start afresh . T h e y im prisoned
Fam in a hole, and by the time he had
dug him self out, he found a new people
inhabiting the earth, w hose children he
has been torm enting since. H ere we
have a sim ilarity to our G od and our
The
S atan .
Rosicrucian
T h is is sufficient to show that w her
Digest
ever w e travel upon the face o f the
August
earth, w e find a G od w orshipped in
some form or another, and g enerally, it
1936

is relative to the evolution and develop

ment o f the consciousness of the people.
W h a t is G od? W h o is G od? W h e re
is G od? H ow can w e meet Him, talk
with Him , appeal to Him as a Loving
F a th er, and how can we reach Him in
our hours of trial and need? A nd if we
could, would H e, in H is m ercy, relieve
us o f our infirmities?
If w e are to accep t the sacred litera
ture th at h as been handed down to us.
such as T h e B o ok of Ja sh a r, the
Bible, T h e B ook o f the D ea d , the
K oran, and other sacred w ork, as defi
nite and conclusive proof and evidence
that there is a G od, and especially if we
accep t the C hristian B ible as an authori
tative docum ent on the h istory of God,
we are face to face with the proposition
that G od may not be ju st a Loving
F a th er, but rather, a very prompting
and exacting parent. A lso, we are
forced to believe th at G od has the same
em otions, feelings, and attributes that
we human beings have, and that God is
an entity with personality and traits of
ch aracter more human than Godly.
T h is would make G od ju st a little above
man. C hristians like to picture their
G od as love personified. B y this, we
mean that G od would never cause an
in ju ry to anyone or anything. W h e n
ever anyone is injured or is caused any
illness, m isery, and discom fort, it is al
w ays the D evil or Sa ta n w ho is re
sponsible. N ev er could it be G od, for
he is love, kindness, m ercy, and a com
forting F a th er, w ho is D ivine and im
m ortal.
It follows, then, according to our
m any learned m inisters and preachers
of the H oly T e x t, that G od would have
a P E R S O N A L I N T E R E S T in each of
his children o f the human race, especial
ly if w e follow the code given to us by
the authors o f the Bible.
B e fo re w e go any further with this
epistle, let us look into the w ritings of
Jash ar, w ho w as one o f the chief lieu
tenants o f M o ses, and w ho gave us an
excellen t n arrative of M oses and his
activities. W e must quote Jashar and
M o ses here a t this time, because it was
really M o ses w ho gave the Christian
w orld a personal G od. A s we read a
few verses from T h e B ook of Jashar,
we are com pelled to admit that certain
T w o H undred Seventy-tw o

conduct of M o ses in planning his cam

paign on M t. Sin ai with the seventy
elders and four ch iefs or lieutenants,
Jethro, Joshua, N ad ab, and A bihu ap
pears as an artifice.
W e hope our readers will keep in
mind that this discourse is not presented
as an attack on M o ses and his con
temporaries, his helpers and follow ers.
W e are simply going to quote the w orks
of Ja sh a r and the O ld T estam en t in
order that we may classify the su bject of
a personal anthropom orphic deity which
is w orshipped by the multitude and
differs from the true M y s tic s ideal of
G od.
(Ja sh a r, C hap ter X V I I , V e rs e s 1 to
9 ) Jethro, the M id ian fath er-in -law of
M oses, instructs M o ses to build a
Tem ple, and in w hat m anner and w hat
form it should be built. A lso instructs
M oses in establishing a priesthood, put
ting A aron, M o se s brother, in ch arge,
and making A a ro n s sons priests. B u t
it cam e to pass, w hile M o ses, Joshua,
N ad ab, Abihu, and the seventy elders
w ere in the m ountains preparing the
laws, statutes, and ordinances by which
the tribes w ere to be governed, the
people becam e suspicious of M oses and
his tactics and began to murmur and
w hisper to each other that it may be
b etter to return to E g y p t and be sub
je c ts of the P haraoh, who they knew,
rather than becom e the slaves o f M o ses
and Jethro, the M id ianite, w ho they
knew not.
T h en we observe in C hap ter X V I I ,
V e rse 16 of T h e Book o f Ja sh a r that
the people spake unto A aron and said:
M oses, w ho by his cunning hath
brought us up out o f the land o f E g y p t,
now seeketh to make him self a King
over u s.
H ere we begin to see the multitudes
suspicioning politics and trickery taking
the place o f nobility and real G odliness,
for we read further and learn that
A aron sent m essengers to M oses,
Joshua, N adab, and Abihu, and they in
formed M o ses of the restlessness o f the
people and said they w ere ready to take
their families and return to E g y p t.
W h e n M o ses heard this he w as ex
ceedingly w roth, and here we see
further evidences of the subtlety and
artifice of this outstanding B iblical ch ar
acter, lor a fter he sent the m essengers
T w o H un dred S ev en ty -th ree

aw ay, he spake unto Joshua, N ad ab .

A bihu, and the seventy elders and said:
( T h e B ook o f Ja sh a r, C hap ter X V I I ,
V e rs e 2 2 ) Behold, thus it behooveth
us to say unto the people, w e have seen
the Lord in the mount, w e have ate and
drank in his presence, and the w ords
w hich he has spoken unto us, they are
those which we now deliver unto you.
(Ja s h a r, C h ap ter X V I I , V e rs e 2 2 )
A nd the saying o f M o ses w as pleasing
unto Joshu a and unto the seventy elders,
but unto N ad ab and A bihu it w as not
p leasin g." (R e fe re n c e to the B ible will
show that Joshua w as a great general,
a m ilitary man, one ready and willing
to force others to submit to his will and
d esire.)
(Ja s h a r, C h ap ter X V I I , V e rs e 2 4 )
A nd N ad ab and A bihu w ere cut off
from the assem bly, and they hastened
unto the camp of the children of Israel,
w hich lay a t the foot of M t. S in a i. A s
we read the n ext C hap ter, X V I I I , and
see how M o ses and his general, Joshua,
tried to force the people to accep t their
law s as being D ivine and H o ly , pur
porting them to be given to the people
by G od personally a fter the multitude
had learned from N ad ab and Abihu
(A a ro n 's son s) th at the law s w ere com
piled by M o ses and his elders, and
there w as nothing of a Divine natu re or
anything H o ly connected with the jo u r
ney to M t. Sin ai, and to read C hap ter
X V I I I , V e rs e 6, th at M o ses com m and
ed N ad ab and A bihu and all rejecters
o f his law s be slain, w e are compelled
to discount much o f the P en tatuech ,
w hich is considered by authorities to be
w ritten by M o ses. In other verses it
states that they, with N ad ab and Abihu,
and three thousand others w ere slain,
only because they would not and could
not accep t the m isrepresentation of
M o ses.
(Ja s h a r, C hap ter X V I I I , V e rs e 8)
A nd it c a m e to pass w h e n the
S L A U G H T E R w as over that the chil
dren o f Israel humbled them selves, and
they said: A ll that the Lord shall say
unto us, th at w e will do.
T h is seems to parallel the tactics of
our presen t-d ay m ilitary tyran ts. A fte r
the slaughter, the people that survive are
alw ays glad to humble them selves b e
fore the ty ran t and ask for peace.

A fte r reading T h e B o o k o f Ja s h a r,'

w e com e to the conclusion th at M o ses
w as an adroit organizer w hose code of
ethics did not limit his am bitions. If
our readers will study the P en tatuech
and T h e B ook o f Ja s h a r, they will
also come to these sam e conclusions.
W ith these facts in our minds, we
can look into the B o ok o f G enesis and
read the C H A R A C T E R of M o ses in
the G od that he has created for the
people of Israel, and also for the C h ris
tian w orld.
A s we read through
G enesis, w e can easily see th at M o ses
gave to the world the anthropom orphic
conception o f G o d ; th a t is, a G o d w ith
human attributes, em otions, and ch ar
acteristics. It is easily discernible that
M o ses could not conceive of a G od
higher or g reater than his own inner
self, nor having qualities superior to his
own, for G od (accord in g to G en esis)
has too many o f the idiosyncrasies and
w eaknesses of man. H e reflects too
much the ch aracter o f man. It is only
necessary to quote G en esis, C h ap ter IV ,
V e rs e 11, w here it states that the Lord
C U R S E D C ain from the earth. O n e
would assum e th at if G od w ere love
and w ere the F a th e r of all, H e would
have forgiven C ain and would have
shown him m ercy. A lso, H e would have
show n him w here he did w rong and
would have helped him to do right in
the future, rath er than curse him the
rest o f his days.
A g ain, in G en esis, C h ap ter X I I ,
V e rs e 3, the Lord says to A bram : I
will bless them that blesseth thee, and
C U R S E them that C U R S E T H th ee.
So , here w e see again that the moral
nature o f G od according to the early
com m entators, w as not g reater than
man, for he had the same feelings and
w eaknesses of man.
G enesis, C hap ter 38, V e rs e 7, states
that E r, Ju d ah s first born, w as w icked
in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord
S L E W him. T h is would imply that the
Lord or G od could only get satisfaction
through destroying man, instead of try
ing to help him overcom e his w eaknessThe
es. C hristians have been taught to forR nsim irisiti 9*ve th se w h trespass, B U T w ere
A dam and E v e forgiven? Instead , it is
D igest
related, E v e w as told: I will greatly
A u gu st
multiply thy so rro w ." T o Adam it was
said: C U R S E D is the ground for thy
1936

sake. In sorrow sh alt thou eat o f it all

the days of thy life.
T h e re are other quotations in T h e
B ook of Ja sh a r and G en esis too numer
ous to mention which show , according
to the conception o f M o ses, that G od
was not an all-loving F a th er, one who
w as forgiving, just, m erciful, and kind,
but one w ho w as exacting , cruel, and
unm erciful.
T h is B o ok of G en esis we can plainly
see is sim ply a reflection of the con
science, consciousness, and the im agina
tion o f the man M o ses, and lacks much
th at is D ivine, H oly, or C osm ic. T h e
C hristian people have been worshipping
and appealing to this personal G od, not
o f the more illumined minds o f men, but
o f M o ses, for thousands o f y ears. T h e
H ebrew people have im plicit faith in the
concepts of M o ses. T h e y have been
taught in an orthodox m anner th at their
G od has all o f the attributes o f human
beings, and th at their G od has a limited
nearly mundane personal interest in all
of the things th at happen to each human
being and the things that occur in the
lives of each w orshipper of this person
alized G od .
Profou nd students of R osicrucian and
m ystical philosophy fail to see the per
sonification of G od as M o ses depicted
Him. T h e y fail to com prehend how G od
could be personalized and have a speci
fic in terest in the human being any more
than he would have a specific interest
in all other things that he had created
or that are the m anifestations of the
law s and principles o f G od.
T o prove this, we w ant to bring to
your attention a few o f the incidents
that occur in our daily lives which, if
G o d w ere a being th a t perceives each
human a ct would make Him seem lack
ing in com passion, justice, m ercy, kind
ness, and even the tolerance and com
passion th at is resident in a human
h eart. F o r if H e w ere a personal being
having an interest in all o f H is creatures.
H e would not and could not permit the
suffering and misery, the pain and the
horror, which human beings are afflicted
with som ew here on the earth every
minute o f the day.
W e wish to bring to your attention
the case of little H ow ard M aco n , three
y ears of age, th a t com es to us through
T w o H undred S ev en ty -fou r

the A ssociated P ress, w hich states th at

H ow ard M aco n , age three, w as de
capitated today when the end o f a rope
he had about his neck caught in the
w heels o f his fa th ers dump truck in
which he w as riding. T h e w heels, a c t
ing as a w indlass, jerked the boy from
the truck. T h e father, a W . P . A . em
ployee, w as unable to stop in time to
save him. W h y did not G od protect
this three-y ear-o ld boy w ho had not yet
grown old enough and developed the
ability to observe the danger he w as in
w hile riding with his father in the truck
and playing with the rope he had about
his neck? If G od has a personal interest
in human beings, surely H e would have
a special interest in all infants and chil
dren who have not the wisdom and the
know ledge o f self-preservation , and
w hy w as not the fath er inspired by G od
to take special cognizance of the son
and remove the rope from about his
neck, which dragged him beneath the
w heels and caused him to be decapi
tated? Su rely a ju st and loving parent
would do this, and if G od is the parent
of us all, and is om nipresent, w hy did
H e fail to help this lad? T h is conduct is
obviously not o f our just G od. It proves
that we do not think of Him properly,
if we conceive Him as a limited being
supervising our individual lives.
A gain w e have news by the A sso
ciated P ress o f a case w here a m other
w as taking her son, eighteen m onths
old, on an autom obile trip w hen the
door flew open and the eighteenm onths-old son rolled out and under the
w heels o f the car. Su rely, if G od w ere
directing each human creature, it could
be very simple and easy for Him to see
that the door w as kept closed until the
mother had reached her destination.
T h e n again, w hy did not G od with all
his power, as M o ses has explained, in
spire the mother with the thoughts of
special care for this you ngster and see
that the door w as more firmly locked so
that he could not possibly be su bjected
to injury and death so early in life? Is
there an answ er to this?
A nother incident w hich comes to us
through the M ercu ry H erald, a San
Jose, C alifo rn ia, new spaper, is of a
little fou r-year-old bo y, w ho, w hile
playing in the backyard , fell into his
fath ers barbecue pit and w as burned to
T w o H un dred S ev en ty -fiv e

death b efo re his parents discovered him.

It also happens that his fath er w as
w orking on his autom obile not more
than fifty feet from w here the child w as
playing. W h e r e w as this D ivine ob
servance w hen this little fellow, en jo y
ing him self in the yard, either stum bled
and fell into the pit, or through curi
osity, tried to climb down in the pit and
fell? If G od could appear to M o ses and
to the seventy elders and M o s e s lieu
tenants and instruct them with laws and
principles for the tribes of Israel, could
not, it m ight well be asked, G od have
the pow er and the com passion enough
to appear befo re this little boy and re
sist this b o y s fall and horrible crem a
tion? D o not these incidents make you
question, not G od as a C reato r, nor G od
as a universal intelligence, or as a m as
culine and fem inine force in nature, but
the fact or thought, or even suggestion,
of a personal G od that has a limited
special interest in mankind, and no in
terest at all in the other m anifestations
that are the result of the same law s as
man?
If there w as and is a G od such as we
have been taught to believe by a study
o f the O ld T e sta m e n t o f the B ible, and
such as we learned from T h e B ook of
Ja sh a r and m any o f the other religious
conceptions of G o d , would H e n ot have
interfered in the incidents related?
W e have one more incident to offer
which appeared in one of the Los
A n geles papers. W e read o f a case o f
C harles H . H ope, w ho pleaded guilty
to the murder of M rs. M a ry Busch
Jam es, the murder being conducted by
him self and the husband o f M rs. Jam es.
A fte r much contem plation and consid
eration o f this crime, the two men tied
the woman to a kitchen table, taped her
mouth and eyes with adhesive tape, and
having obtained a few rattlesnakes,
brought them to the home in a box, and
thrust her foot into this box of ra ttle
snakes for them to strike at. T h e woman
died a few hours a fter being bitten. If
there is a G od of m ercy and com pas
sion, and if G od is om nipotent, om nis
cient, and om nipresent, w here w as H e
when this fiendish crim e w as committed?
It appears to me that we have perm itted
the stinted view s of an cien t prophets,
some self appointed, and who lack qu al
ities o f a highly developed soul or the

E lizab eth B a rre tt Brow ning w rote:

con scien ce of a philosopher and a

M y stic such as w e have in Jesus and as
is taught by Jesus in the N ew T e s ta
ment; and such as w e have in A kh en aton, who contributed the 104th Psalm
in the O ld T estam en t, and w ho con
ceived of the one sole G od m anifesting
to us through the sun to paint an unreal
picture o f a personal G od.

E a rth 's cram med with H eaven,

A nd every common bush afire with
G od;
B u t only those w ho see, take off their
shoes,
T h e rest sit round it and pluck b lack
b erries.

A rational concept of G od, on the

other hand, has been given to the world
by the R osicru cian s. T h e sincere, de
vout student of nature and the divine
law s cannot fail to understand from
their concept th at G od is represented in
every m anifestation. T h e consciousness
o f G od, accord ing to the R osicrucian
doctrines, expresses itself through the
vibrations of the m atter that contains
H is essence, and the degree o f co n
sciousness expressed is relative to the
high or low quality or vibrations of
m atter that gives birth to G od , for
really, that is w hat happens when a new
thing is born or a new birth of an old
thing occurs. G od is a power, intelli
gence, and a force. H is attributes are
alm ost innum erable, and every m ani
festation w e know of is an attribute of
G od . It is these attributes that bring the
soul o f G od closer to us that w e may
know our C rea to r and learn to live in
harm ony w ith H is essence.

READ

THE

T h o se who have studied life and n a

ture and have kept in harm ony with the
law s and principles underlying m atter
and the m anifestations of m atter, cannot
fail to see the truth of G od as Elizabeth
B a rre tt Brow ning so cap ably expressed
it. E v ery th in g that is is of G od, but it
is of the essence of a creative, divine in
telligence, w ise in H is designs, and cap
able in H is w ays. C onstruction and
d estruction are two o f his attributes
from w hich comes the thousands of
others w hich are m anifested through
mankind as love, hate, m ercy, kindness,
jo y , and many others. If you would
know G od personally, study you rself
your inner self. C on trast it with your
outer self, and observe the duality one
is positive, con structive; the other is
n egative, destructive. T h e n learn to
harm onize this duality so that they
blend p erfectly. Y o u will then sense the
p erfection o f G od, know H is conscious
ness, and have the illum ination of the
G od of your heart, which is the only
G od the R osicru cian can conceive.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

0 .............................................

-0

T H E RO SICRUCIAN EG Y PT IA N TR IP

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
August
1936

|
|
E
E
|

0-

All members of the Order who have registered for the Egyptian trip are urged to
make their second payment or installment on their tickets in August, if possible, and
not later than the 10th of September in order to preserve their individual positions on the
registration list. T h e registrations are increasing monthly and all are becoming very enthusiastic about this trip. If you desire further information, write at once to the Egyptian
T our Secretary, care of Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

I
I
1
E
E
S

T w o H un dred S ev en ty -six

C O U R IE R C A R V IS I T S

M T. SH A STA

C IT Y

Completing a transcontinental tour the Rosicrucian Courier Car is shown on the principal street of this unique Pacific Slope city. Standing in front of the
car are members of the tour party and city officials. In the background mysterious, majestic Mt. Shasta is visible. T he A M O R C sound motion picture, Lemuria,
the Lost Continent, was being exhibited in the local theatre upon this occasion. Because of the interest in the subject of Lemuria and Mt. Shasta, the visit of the
Courier Car and the exhibition of the films attracted considerable attention.

Courtesy of The Rosicrucian Digest.

QUESTIONS WHICH TOOK

6 0 0 0 Years To Answer
O R 6 0 0 0 years men have hunted, worked, fought, and thought together. From a simple society of
thatched huts, grouped about a central lire, to the modern complex government, civilization has
advanced. Each century had its perplexing problems seemingly inexplicable phenomena and ques
tions which proved the knowledge of the day hopelessly inadequate. Each generation, however, brought
forth geniuses, incessantly inquiring minds who sought the answers, and one by one the mysteries of
nature and man faded into understanding and wisdom. These accumulated answers constitute our learn
ing o f today; but to some they still remain unknow n, for they are out o f touch with them. In their
thinking they belong to an era o f centuries ago. B elow are typical questions to which man, now, for
the first time, knows the answers. But can you answer them?

W h a t arc the em otions?

How can
intuition?
D o you know the m ystery of sleep?
H av e anim als souls?
Can anim ation be suspended?

we direct

D oes consciousness exist in the living cell?

H av e dream s a significance?
W h at are auras?
A re there secret tem ples in T ib et?
H ave drugs a beneficial effect?
Can nature he used in business?

A Bi-Monthly Parade of Human Thought

T h e answers to the above questions and hundreds of others appear bi-m onthly (every other month)
in T h e Rosicrucian F oru m ." "T h e Rosicrucian Forum " parades before you the greatest array of vital
inform ation ot a philosophical, mystical, and scientific nature without religious, political, or other re
strictions of any magazine o f its kind published today. W h y w rite letters asking questions which neces
sarily must bring brief, limited, condensed answers, when the same questions are thoroughly analyzed
and answered in T h e Rosicrucian Forum ?" W h y limit your knowledge to answers to your own que>
tions? W h y not also read with pleasure the answers to thousands of questions asked by others from all
over the world, which you will find o f equal interest?
T h e Rosicrucian Forum " is a private magazine for Rosicrucian members only.
It is, therefore, w ritten in a conversational, frank manner. Each issue contains 32
large pages o f solid, fascinating reading matter. W e are so confident that you will
find it of great interest and benefit that w e will gladly refund your
subscription fee if the first copy you receive is not all we say about it.
/
Subscribe today. A one y ears subscription is only S I . 75. T hree
thousand three-page personal letters a year could not
provide you with the same amount of inform ation! Use
, csc- ^
the coupon opposite.
t\
T H E M A G A Z IN E F O R M E M B E R S

^ C P ^

A S P E R S O N A !. A S A H A N D C L A S P

TH E

R O S I C R U C I A N

^ 0^c ^
^
\0<'

.,*

^
'a e * "

F O R U M

TH E PU RPO SES O F

T HE

M em ber o f
F U D O S I
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societes
In itiatiques)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

The Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. T h e purpose o f the organ i
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive.
Cosmic forces fo r the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
T he O rder is internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in Am erica, and all other lands, constitutes the only form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation.
T he AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
freely to all affiliated members, together with many other benefits.
Inquirers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are invited to send fo r
the free book, "T h e Secret H e rita g e ." Address, F ria r S. P. C.. care o f
AM O RC T E M P L E
Rosicrucian Park , San Jose, California. U. S. A.
(Cable Address: "A M O R C O "
R adio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the T^orth and South American Jurisdictions

(In clu d ing the United States, Dominion o f Canada, Alaska. M exico. Guatemala. Honduras, Nicaragua.
Costa Rica. El Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f Am erica.)
Im perator
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS . F. R . C.. Ph. D ......................................................................................
C L E M E N T B. L E B R U N , F. R. C.................................................................................................Grand Master
R A L P H M. L E W IS . F. R. C..................................................................................................Supreme Secretary
H A R V E Y M IL E S , F. R. C.............................................
Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D , F. R. C
Secretary to Grand Master
H A R R Y L . S H IB L E Y , F. R. C.....................................................................................D irector o f Publications
Junior O rder o f Torch Bearers (sponsored by A M O R C ). F o r complete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter. Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

T he folloiving principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

Reading, Pennsylvania:

San Francisco, California:

Reading C hapter. M r. Carl Schlotzhauer,

M aster: M r. G eorge R . O sm an, Secretary .
M eeting every 1st and 3rd F rid ay , 8 :0 0 p. m..
W ash in g ton H all, 904 W ash in g to n Street.

New York City, New Y ork:

N ew Y o rk C hapter, Room s 35-36, 711 8th
A ve., cor. 8th A ve. and 45th Street. M r. W .
J. N orris, M aster: M arg aret Sh arp e, S e cre
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
d ays and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
D elta Lodge N o. 1, A M O R C . S . E . C orner
40th and Brow n Sts., 2nd F loor. M r. A lbert
C ourtney, M aster.
Benjam in Franklin C hapter of A M O R C :
M r. Jam es De Fulio, M aster: M arth a A itken,
Se creta ry , 2203 15th Street. M eetings for
all members every second and fourth Su n
days, 7 :30 p .m ., at 1521 W e s t G irard A ve.
(Seco nd F loor, Room B ) .

Boston, Massachusetts:
T h e M arie Clem ens Lodge, C h ester A.
Robinson. M aster. T em p le and Reading
Room s, 739 B oylston St., T elep h o n e K enmore 9398.

F ran cis B acon Lodge, 1655 Polk

M r. D avid M ackenzie, M aster.

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. F irst Lodge.
610 A rch Street.

T h eb es C h apter N o. 336. M iss E lla A . M illiman. M aster;

M rs. P earl A nna T ifft,
S e creta ry . M eetings at the F loren ce Room ,
T u ller H otel, ev ery T u esd a y , 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone N o. 1870.

Ralph M . Ross, M aster:

Atlanta, Georgia:
A tlan ta C h apter N o. 650.
Dr. James C.
O akshette, M aster: N assau H otel. M eetings
7 :30 every T h u rsd ay night.

Los Angeles, California:

Herm es Lodge, A M O R C Tem p le. M r. D u n
can G . W rig h t. M aster. Reading Room and
Inquiry office open daily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.
and 7 :30 p .m . to 9 p .m . except Sundays.
G ranada Court, 672 South L a fa y ette P ark
P lace.

Birmingham, Alabama:
Birm ingham C h apter of A M O R C
F o r in
form ation address M r. M . J. Collins, M aster,
1516 So . 15th A ve.

Chicago, Illinois:
C h icago C h ap ter N o. 9. H. C . Blackw ell.
M aster: M abel L. Schm idt, S e creta ry . T e le
phone Superior 6881. R eading Room open
afternoons and evenings. Su nd ays 2 to 5
only. 100 E . O h io S t., Room 403-404. L e c
ture sessions for A L L rncmbers every T u e s
d ay night,
p. m.
C h icag o A fra-A m erican C hapter N o. 10.
O liv er T . M cG rew , M aster;
N ehem iah
Dennis, S e creta ry . M eeting every W e d n e s
day night at 8 o clock, Y . M . C . A ., 3763 So .
W a b a s h A venue.

8:00

Detroit, M ichigan:

Street:

(D irectory Continued on N ex t P a g e )

Portland, Oregon:

New ark, New Jersey:

Portland Chapter. Floyd D. Cook, Masters

405 Orpheum Bldg. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.

H. Spencer Lewis Chapter. Frank A. Ham

mond, Master; for information address Sylvia
Kingsley, Secretary, 31 Leo Place.
Seattle, W ash ington:

W ash ington, D . C .:

Thom as Jefferson Chapter.

Howard E.
Mertz, Master. Confederate Memorial Hall.
1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings every
Friday, 8:00 p. m.

A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter, Master:

Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry Street. Reading room open week
days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Monday, 8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R I N C I P A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
Edm onton, A lberta:

Mr. F. G.
Avenue E .

M ontreal, Q uebec, C anada:

Powell.

Master,

9533

Jasper

V icto ria , B ritish C olum bia:

Victoria Lodge, Mr. George A. Phillips,

Master. Inquiry Office and Reading Room,
101 Onion Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.
W inn ip eg. M an itoba, C anada:

G. F. Gostick, Master, 361 M achray Ave.

Session for all members every Sunday.
2:45 p. m.. 304 " B " Enderton Bldg., Portage
Ave. and Hargrave St.

Montreal Chapter.
F. E. Dufty, Master:
210 W est St. James Street. Inquiry office
open 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. daily; Saturdays
10 a. m. to 1 p. m.
T o ro n to , O n tario , C anada:

Miss Edith Hearn, Master. Sessions 1st and

3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00 p. m No. 10
Lansdowne Ave.
V an cou ver, B ritish C olum bia:

Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mrs.

Ethel M. W are. M aster; H. B. Kidd. Secre
tary. A M O R C Temple. 878 Hornby Street.

S P A N IS H A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
This jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative Office are located at San Juan. Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
The name and address of the Officers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce shou ld b e ad d ressed as follow s:
Secretary General of the Spanish-Amcrican Jurisdiction of A M O R C . P. O. Box 36. San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A FEW

O F T H E F O R E IG N JU R IS D IC T IO N S

Scand inavian C ountries:

New Z ealan d :

The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.

Mr. Arthur Sundstrup. Grand Master: Cnrli
Anderson, S. R. C., Grand Secretary. Manogade 13th Strand. Copenhagen. Denmark.
Sw eden:

Grand Lodge "Rosenkorset." Anton Svanlund, F. R. C., Grand Master. Jerusalemsgatan. 6, Malmo.

Auckland Chapter A M ORC.

Mr. G. A.
Franklin. Master, 317 Victoria Arcade Bldg.
Queen St., City Auckland.
England:

The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.

Mr. Raymund Andrea, K. R. C., Grand
Master, 34 Baywater Ave., W estbury Park,
Bristol 6.
D utch and East Indies:

H o llan d :

De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der

Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect.. Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.

Dr. W . T li. van Stokkum, Grand Master;

W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karanqtempel 10 Serna rang, Java.
Egypt:

Fran ce:

Mile. Jeanne Guesdon, S.R.C .. Corresponding

Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villcneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Sw itzerland:

A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel,

F. R. C., Gr. Sect.. Riant-Port Vevey-Plan.

The Grand Orient of A M O R C , House of the

Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia. Heliopolis.
A frica:

T he Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast.

A M O R C . Mr. W illiam Okai. Grand Master.
P. O. Box 424 Accra. Gold Coast. W est
Africa.

China and Russia:

The United Grand Lodge of China and Rus

sia. P .O . Box 513, Shanghai, China.
R O S IC R U C IA N PRESS. LTD..

T h e ad d resses o f other foreign G rand L odges

and secretaries will b e furn ished on application.
P R I N T E D IN U. S. A.

Indias Secret Control of Natures Forces

T h e ROSICRUCIAN DIGEST
San

Jose,

California.

U.S.A.

^Rgsicrucian Library

The following books are a few of several recommended because of the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II. ROSICRUCIAN PRINCIPLES FOR THE HOME AND BUSINESS.
A very practical book dealing w ith the solution of health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume III. THE MYSTICAL LIFE OF JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life of the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price. $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V. UNTO THEE I GRANT . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f T ibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient M asters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
w ith attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VI. A THOUSAND YEARS OF YESTERDAYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and mystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound w ith attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume VII. SELF MASTERY AND FATE, WITH THE CYCLES OF LU"E
A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. B etter than any system o f num erology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VIII. THE ROSICRUCIAN M ANUAL.

Most complete outline of the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student w ork o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V e ry com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume XI. M ANSIONS OF THE SOUL. THE COSMIC CONCEPTION.

The complete doctrines of reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Well

Volume XH. LEM URIATHE LOST CONTINENT OF THE PACIFIC.

T he revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K n ow o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume XIU. THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MASTER.

The newest and most complete ruide fo r attaining the state o f Cosmic Consciousness, ft is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $1.1 5 per copy, postpaid.
Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittan ce, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N S U P P L Y B U R E A U , Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, C alifornia.

STUDENT SUPPLIES

Our Suggestion To You

A MEETING OF THE MINDS
(]J YVKen you write, you nave one party in mind. I hat party may be one
individual or a group ol tbem, but your thoughts are alone for them. You
do not wish your thoughts to reach a mind or minds for whom they were
not intended. Furthermore, you do not wish others to interpret vour ideas
for you. However, this is only possible when you take the proper pre
cautions to see that your communications are brought
directly to the personal attention of vour correspondent.
The R osicrucian student who fails to properly address
his or her communications, or give all needed information
lor their proper delivery, causes his or her letter or
report to be read, interpreted, and handled by many
persons belore reaching its proper destination.
I o avoid such conditions and to facilitate a prompt re
ply to communications, we have prepared a special large
Correspondence Tablet lor students, at an economical
price. 1he cover of the tablet is also especially useful.
Besides being a blotter, there is printed upon it all essen
STUDEN TS
tial instructions as I o W h o m , W h e r e and W h e n T o
CO RRESPO N D EN CE
W r i t e . At the top of each sheet there is printed informa
TABLET
tion
for the proper direction of your letter. 1he stationery
E ach tablet contains 50 large
8V2 -inch x 11-inch business size
consists of a light, strong, and good qua litv bond paper.
sheets. T h e blotter cover w ith
its printed inform ation about
I his is a most serviceable article and one that no
the various departments is a
useful addition to each tablet.
student should be without. You owe it to yourself to make
40c each; 3 for $1.00
this reasonable purchase. Send order and remittance to:

The

R O S I C R U C I A N

R O S I C R U C I A N

P A R K

S U P P L Y
S A N

B U R E A U

J O S E .

C A L I F O R N I A

D E D IC A T IO N O F R O S I C R U C IA N P L A N E T A R IU M
T h e above photograph show s a portion of the hundreds of R osicru cian s w ho stood on the lawns of R osicru cian Park, listening to the dedi
cation addresses from the M oorish balcony of the new planetarium. T h e edifice w as officially open to R osicru cians by D r. H. Spencer Lewis.
Im perator of the Order, on July 13. T h e dedication cerem ony w as held during the annual A M O R C Convention.

(C ou rtesy o f R osicrucian D igest.)

C l (y e c le t (yO lKjht

30 0 0

tjea te!

An elixir to prolong life!

A strange process to change the composition of metals!
A weird device for communication with distant planets!
Did the ancients accomplish these things? W ere they masters of a
lost wisdom? Down through the ages these rumors persisted. W as it
possible that a vast knowledge accumulated by forgotten civilizations
still existed? Tales of strange phenomena gave support to the belief
that there was hidden from the world stupendous secrets of nature,
possessed by a chosen few.
T o the far corners of the earth journeyed men in search of these
gems of wisdom. To the finder would come fame, power, wealth.
Tyrant and peasant alike strove to find this, the greatest of all treasures
a mastery of nature. One man had the key. H e alone seemed to
know the answer.
T o Roger Bacon, medieval monk and scholar, man of mystery, the
eves of the world turned. He accomplished feats at which the peoples
of the eleventh century gasped. They begged and implored him to
divulge his formulas, to reveal his source of wisdom. T o these and their
threats his lips were sealed. H e knew the wisdom was too powerful,
too dangerous to be in the hands of those who might locally use them.
For generations his manuscripts were a hopeless confusion of strange
hieroglyphs and symbols. Then in recent years came their decipher
ment, and the world learned of many of his great experiments and the
source of his tremendous knowledge. H e was one of a secret brother
hood which had carefully guarded in code the great knowledge of the
ancients.

O B T A IN T H I S F R E E SEALED B O O K
Today this great brotherhood, known as the Rosicrucians, still
flourishes. It still keeps from the eyes of the curious, as in Bacons
time, the profound truths of nature, which give man mastery of self
and happiness in life. Its keys of universal wisdom are extended to
all who are sincere in their desire to unlock the hidden truths of the
universe and find freedom, power, and success in such knowledge.
A fascinating free book, T he Secret H eritage, will explain how you
may receive these helpful facts. Direct a letter to the address below,
asking for it.
SCRIBE S. P. C.

O IL RO SIC RU CI A N S
A M O R C
SA N JO S E . C A L IF O R N IA , U. S. A.
(Rosicrucian members have had this unusual booklet.)

o f

AV8 C32

c9ccf
V A ),f5
o

fr c c tM .
M/w/

C CX3

4 9 -

H3HZ51S

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
B B E S v F IT

C O V ER S THE W O R LD

TH E O FFIC IAL IN TER N A TIO N A L ROSICRUCIAN MAGA

ZINE O F T H E W O R LD -W ID E ROSICRUCIAN ORDER
Vol. X IV

S E P T E M B E R , 1936

N o. 0

Dedication of Rosicrucian Planetarium

(Frontispiece) ........................................... ......

The Thought of the M onth: Cosm ic Politics
A N ew Lemurian M ystery
C athed ral Contacts
Summaries of Science
Pages from the Past .....................................
Ancient Symbolism
O ur H a p p y Convention

A Rare Rosicrucian Book (Illustration)..........

Subscription to T he Rosicrucian Digest. T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw enty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose, California, under the Act of August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth of the month
preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official e x
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.

P ublished M onthly by the Suprem e Council of

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R A M O R C

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SAN JO SE, CALIFORNIA

THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

C O SM IC POLITICS
By T H E IM P E R A T O R

IS g e n e r a l l y
understood by all
of our m e m b e r s
and friends that
o u r organization
does not deal in
political matters to
the extent of a d
vising our mem
bership to support
any one political
party or any one
candidate for any
office. So far as
political alliances are concerned, our o r
ganization remains absolutely neutral
and the only thought that any of us
give to these matters is to try to deter
mine which of the various candidates
for the many, many offices to be filled
at each election are best qualified from
a universal point of view. W e may from
time to time express in this department
of T he Rosicrucian D igest or in The
Rosicrucian Forum some of our own
personal views regarding candidates
and political principles, but we have
never expected all of our members to
adopt our opinions as a matter of
course, or as an incident to their mem
bership in the organization.
T h e mystic and the student of n a
tural philosophy may be inclined to say
that politics constitutes a field of activity
and study that is entirely outside of his
realm, but he forgets that the Cosmic is
very greatly interested in politics and
The
R osicru cian without a political scheme of some kind
the Cosmic could not carry out its uni
Digest
versal principles. In the course of many
S e p te m b er years I have noted with much satisfac
tion that in any complicated situations
1936

the Cosmic intervenes and selects or

elects a person to a position who is best
fitted to meet the crisis. In fact, in the
intervention of the Cosmic, as in in
stances where God intervenes to settle
a much mooted point, we have a distinct
revelation of the political acumen, the
political understanding, and superior
comprehension of things political here
on earth.
T h e cyclic birth of a great avatar in
each nation, the periodical rise of a
great leader to guide the thoughts of
men. and the powerful influence of a
savior of m ans best interests through
out the ages clearly points to a supreme,
divine, omnipotent comprehension of
our needs, and a dependable interven
tion on the part of God and the Cosmic
forces when we are in need of superior
guidance.
T h is does not mean, however, that
each one of us should fail to study the
situations that have arisen from our
own attempts to control our worldly a f
fairs. W i t h the human error that is in
evitable. we make mistakes from time to
time and these mistakes must be co r
rected and this lies in our own hands to
a great extent.
Inasmuch as man has
taken unto himself the prerogative of
creating laws for governing himself and
his fellow beings, and inasmuch as man
has also assumed a superior position in
interpreting G od s universal laws and
applying them in a specific way. man
has assumed a responsibility that he
cannot lightly cast aside or pass on to
God and the Cosmic when he himself
must work out the problem. F o r this
reason, if no other, each individual
should give serious thought to the selec
T ir o H undred E ighty-fou r

tion of candidates for such offices as

control the administration of man-made
laws, or the working out of new laws
and the interpretation of them.
M a n can do his best in this regard by
keeping in mind the political attitude
which must be that of the Cosmic. C e r
tainly the Cosmic does not take into
consideration the religious race, or color
distinctions which man has magnified to
such great artificial importance. In the
sight of G od all of the children on earth
are of one human family, and regardless
o f race or color or of religious faith, our
worldly problems are much alike and
can be solved only by a common under
standing and a common application of
sensible interpretations of fundamental
principles.
W e should therefore analyze each
political situation from its international
and universal point of view rather than
from its distinctly local point of view,
and each candidate for office should not
be analyzed from any limited, narrow,
or local situation. A mayor of a small
city is not just a ruler or administrator
of the interests within the confines of
the city, but he becomes a member of a
more or less universal hierarchy of
worldly rulers, and his actions, his de
crees, his rulings, decisions, interpreta
tions and evolving ideas cannot be
separated from our universal interests.
A t any hour of the day during his term
of administration he may become an im
portant national figure or even an inter
national influence. Certainly his influ
ence upon the people within his own
city can become of nation-wide import
ance. A President of the United States
is not merely an administrator of the in
terests of these United S tates alone, but
he becomes a part of the international
scheme of administration and we must
consider his qualifications to meet and
act with the international problems that
will arise along with the local ones.
And in analyzing the individual we
must not be guided by party ties and
affiliations nor by his promises, no
matter how sincerely and honestly they
may be made before election. W e must
consider w hat his tendencies may be in
future situations that are not anticipated
or unexpected at the present time. W e
must judge him not by what he wants
T w o Hundred. E ig h ty -fiv e

to do or desires to do in the future but

w hat he may be capable of doing under
stress or in circumstances now un
known. It is probably true that the av
erage political candidate is anxious to

give a better administration than his

predecessor and tries to make his ad
ministration a monument to his integrity,
goodness, honesty, and creative powers.
But this desire, this honest intent, is not
the most important thing that we should
consider. W e must analyze his ch ar
acter, his abilities, his methods of think
ing, and his fundamental appreciation of
Cosmic and universal laws.
T hro u gh o ut the United S tates and in
many parts of North America and else
where in the world the next few months
will see the wildest possible activities in
political circles. W e shall h ear and
read of contentions, arguments, disparraging remarks regarding one or the
other of each classification of candi
dates, and bombastic promises for the
future. T h e r e are millions of voters who
will blindly vote for the one or the other
o f the many candidates either with the
belief that all are good or all are bad,
and an y attempt to select one as better
than the other is a useless waste of time
or that it makes little difference who is
elected inasmuch as political influences,
conniving and underhanded scheming
will control the cand id ates actions re
gardless of his claims. T h is is a wrong
w ay to look at the matter, the wrong
w ay to vote inasmuch as it fosters the
very situation that is so seriously criti
cized. T h e r e have been candidates in
the past who were elected to office on
the basis of their promises, and they
have sacrificed their future success and
fame in remaining steadfast to the
promises made and in fulfilling their
obligations regardless of all pressure
from the outside and all temptations.
W e can encourage men of fine ch ar
acter and fine mind to take an interest
in political matters by showing in our
manner of voting that we are using
descrimination, that we are approaching
the subject prayerfully, analytically, and
Cosmically.
T h e r e is no greater power on earth
of a mundane nature than that of public
opinion. It is a complementary and sec
ondary power to Cosmic law.
If all

human beings would unite at this time

in a demand for universal peace by
thinking only of peace and of brotherly
love and o f universal prosperity and
happiness, not only would the thought
of w ar be eliminated from the minds of
those who make wars possible, but even
the reflection of this power of opinion
would affect the Cosmic laws and uni
versal peace would become an im
mediate and unchangeable condition.
W h e n public opinion in any locality or
in an y nation centers itself upon certain
demands that are righteous, reasonable,
fair, or especially of general good to all,
the strongest and most influential of
political powers, political parties, and
political leaders is set to naught and can
accomplish nothing in the face of this
decision on the part of the mind of man.
A man who is elected to office by the
universal opinion of the vast majority of
persons who believe and demand that
he is to do the things that are right, is
suddenly given from the Cosmic a
power to fulfill the demands of the
public and is made fearful of any varia
V

tion of those demands. In such a case

the public who has established the
opinion and who has elected the man to
office must assume all responsibility of
its judgment. T h i s man is in a position
to exert powerful influence and to be
the master of his own fate in all political
senses just as he is a master of his own
personal life and must therefore assume
the responsibility of his own acts.
Th e refo re, it is right and proper that
the members of our organization at
tempting to work in harmony with uni
versal Cosmic laws should analyze the
political situation of today and select
their candidates and vote for such per
sons as they honestly believe will con
form to Cosmic rules and give the public
the very best service possible. P art of
our duty lies in attempting to make
worldly conditions proper in a national
or community sense, as well as in a pri
vate, social sense, for. after all, we are
our b ro thers keeper in a wide interpre
tation and a nations Karma can become
a part of our own Karma.
V

IM P O R T A N T B U L L E T IN
W e regret to state that our So v ereig n G rand M aster, D r. C lem ent L eBru n, has not
fully recovered. H e is still in an extrem ely precariou s condition and we are all doing our
utmost to m ake him rest and to give nature and the Cosm ic principles an opportunity to
strengthen him and m aster the condition w hich has affected his body fo r several years.
Y o u r continued good thoughts and pray ers are solicited w hile he is in a place of re
tirement and rest, and our members will understand that it is impossible for him at the
present time to answ er an y of the letters or carry on his form er activities.
T H E IM P E R A T O R .

R O S IC R U C IA N R A D IO

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
September
1936

BRO A D CA STS

D uring the fall and w inter months it is custom ary for the R osicru cian O rd er to
broadcast entertaining program s of a m ystical, inspiring, and instructive nature over
the leading radio stations of the U nited S ta tes and C an ada. T h is y ear we extend our
broad casting to the H aw aiian Islands w here we will present from station K G U in
Honolulu a w eekly program starting Septem ber 17. T u n e in at 8:45 to 9 :0 0 p .m ..
P acific Standard T im e and hear this inspiring program . A noth er radio broadcast will
be presented from H ollyw ood ov er station K N X , a fifty thousand w att transm itter
operating on 285.5 meters, 1,050 kilocycles. T h is K N X program will start on T u e sday, Septem ber 15, at 8:45 to 9 :0 0 p. m.. P acific Standard time. T u n e in on these tw o
stations and e n jo y the period of m editation and concentration, the unusual, inspiring music, the "philosophical p ro v erb s, and the high type of program in general.
T e ll you r friends about the program s and help us to create a large radio audience.

.....................................................................

z
z
z
:
\
=
=

a
T w o H un dred E ig h ty s ix

A New Lem urian Mystery

A SURPRISING STORY ABOUT THE MYSTICS OF MT. SHASTA
By

T h e Im p e ra to r

V
N T H E first week
of A u g u s t just
past, several men
of distinction and
unique
ch a ra c
ter a r r a n g e d for
a confidential in
terview with me in
my private sa n c
tum. It was the
fourth time within
t h e past f i f t e e n
years that t h e s e
representatives of
a unique class o f evolved beings have
been in confidential communion with me
and have given to me interesting facts
for release through our official publica
tions. T h e first time that these gentle
men spent many hours with me was in
the year 1919 while my sanctum was in
S a n Francisco. A fte r making a special
appointment in a very secret manner,
they called upon me and as a result of
our long interview, the papers and n o ta
tions, photographs, and drawings which
they left with me, I was able to get in
direct contact with many persons and
groups of persons in California and in
other parts of the United State s and the
Orient, and through these contacts
verify the importance of their mission
and the reasonableness of their aston
ishing stories. T h e outgrowth of the
interview and investigations w as a very
T uk> H un dred E ig h ty -sev en

V
reserved and carefully edited announce
ment about the existence of a mystic
colony living in or near M t. S h a sta in
California. T h e announcement thus ap
pearing in one of our magazines im
mediately brought additional facts and
substantiation and led to many inde
pendent investigations, and throughout
the years 1920 to 1935 the facts regard
ing this mystic colony have been multi
plied and verified in a very satisfactory
manner. But in keeping with the very
spirit of the story and in harmony with
the facts in the case, A M O R C has been
reserved and carefully reticent in what
it has said and in the manner in which
it has stated the facts. E v ery sincere
mystic and every other investigator of
the matter has discovered or had re
vealed to him in some manner a realiza
tion of the true situation, and has come
to the understanding that the officers of
A M O R C have refrained from publish
ing all of the facts possessed by them
and have carefully withheld such data
as w as necessarily secret and confi
dential. T h e astute and well-developed
student of mystical philosophy has read
more between the lines of our state
ments about this mystic colony than we
have actually put into print.
O u r book entitled, Lemuria, the L ost
C ontinent o f the Pacific, has contained
for the past few years all that we have
felt was proper and safe to say regard

(6 \

p jtT L T U -|

ing the mystic colony, and the reserva

tion of facts so self-evident has whetted
the curiosity of the insincere seeker and
hundreds of others who have tried in
every possible w ay to fathom the un
explained mysteries.
T h e recent visit on the part of these
emissaries of an age-old mystical group
which does not function any longer in
a material or worldly manner was not
wholly unexpected. C ontacts made with
this very secret group o f individuals
from time to time in the past years, and
particularly in the past months, has in
clined us to believe that certain im
portant changes were taking place with
in the secret organization or group of
beings and that we would be informed
about these things very shortly.
A nd so it came about that these
representatives called upon me for an
other long and pleasant interview and
made many startling, interesting, and
important announcements, and arranged
with me an outline o f w hat might be
said publicly to our members and read
ers. w hat might be said very confiden
tially to our international officers of the
Hierarchy, and w hat might not be said
to any others than our own staff of
executive officers here in California.
T h e refo re, the facts which I am pre
senting at this time in this announce
ment in T h e Rosicrucian D igest, co n
stitute all that I may say or explain at
the present time. T h e r e may come a
time in the very near future when addi
tional facts may be released, but I must
definitely state here and now that under
no circumstances and for no pretext, or
reason, and certainly for no worldly
consideration, will I give an y additional
facts to any member or reader of this
magazine nor to the world a t large and,
therefore, may not augment the an
nouncement made here. F o r this reason
I hope that our members and friends
will not write, telegraph, telephone, nor
call upon us in personal interviews for
any additional facts, not even for names,
addresses, dates, descriptions of loca
tions, or any other points concerning
The
this announcement, for such additional
Rosicrucian information will not be given under any
circumstances.
Digest

September
1936

T h e purport of the visit was to in

form me quite definitely and thereby

support my intuitive and Cosmic im

pressions that the main body of this
mystic colony, meaning the essential
group of individuals and their chief
officers and most advanced directors of
the colony, has moved the center of
activities and isolated residence from
the very old location at M t. Shasta to
another more isolated, secret, and de
sirable location in California. T h e new
location is not an arbitrarily selected
site but rather a place that was for sev
eral centuries occupied and used by
these mystics and especially by a large
section o f them that had at one time oc
cupied a large territory in another part
of this W e s t e r n W o r ld . T h i s new loca
tion was never completely abandoned,
but has alw ays been maintained by a
few with great secrecy because of the
treasures (not gold or silver coin)
hidden and preserved there and because
of the existence of several very beauti
ful and unique temples or sanctuaries.
T h e most important reason for this
change of location and the almost com
plete abandonment of the M t. Shasta
district was the unfortunate and wholly
inconsiderate publicity that was being
given to the location and the resulting
intrusion upon their privacy, secrecy,
and spiritual progress made by curiosity
seekers, newspaper investigators, skep
tics and doubters of all kinds, bold and
brusque persons with unlimited selfish
demands, and an increasing degree of
commercializing the historical facts.
From the reports given to me, it
would appear that there has hardly
been a week o f any month during the
past two years that has not seen in
dividuals and groups of individuals pry
ing into the secret, sacred areas of the
colony o f M t. Sh asta and refusing to
obey an y of the requests made by per
sons w ho would kindly ask them to re
frain from trespassing and intruding.
T h e r e were persons who would de
liberately set fire to sections of the
underbrush, or who would throw small
bombs into deep recesses to cause an
explosion of light or flames or illumi
nating powders for the taking of pic
tures, resulting often in damage to
property and life. Furthermore, many
of the investigators would approach the
dark sections or wooded areas in the
T w o H un dred E ig h ty-eight

daytime or nighttime with loaded guns

and would discharge these guns into
the dark areas upon the least provoca
tion, giving little heed to the suffering
or destruction that might result there
from. A few unworthy and unprepared
investigators from time to time would
find entrancew ays to caves or subter
ranean passagew ays and force their
w ay into them and cause great co n
sternation, loss of property, and some
times injuries to themselves and to the
peaceful inhabitants who had every
right to remain unmolested in their own
area. But even all of these annoyances
and dangerous disturbances and intru
sions did not affect these quiet, reserved,
peace-loving and sincere mystics as
greatly as did the increasing use of the
M t. Sh asta traditions for commercial
purposes and fraud. A t one time as
many as six different colonies of in
vestigators or seekers for mystical e x
perience were encamped in various sec
tions around M t. Shasta, each under the
direction and control of a self-appointed
leader who had either promised and
guaranteed to his followers in exchange
for their contributions and their support
that he would lead them to the mystics
in the colony and show them marvelous
experiences, or through their support of
his claims and through their following
o f his system of instruction and guid
ance they would witness, somewhere in
the S h asta district, the birth of a new
M aster, a world saviour, a divine child,
or a great god.
M a n y of these groups remained into
the winter months suffering great priva
tion along with bitter disappointments.
O thers were encamped sufficiently long
to discover that they had not only been
deceived but had helped to fill the
coffers of some individual leader. In
other cases, travelling psychology lec
turers going from city to city in the
United States and C anad a have claimed
to have direct or secret connection with
the M t. Sh asta colony of mystics and
have claimed to have had initiation in
their mystic temples or to have dis
covered these temples, and a vast for
tune along with valuable equipment,
scientific instruments, and other things
thereby enticing men and women every
where to become interested in their
T w o H un dred E ighty-n in e

private classes or to buy their books or

to follow their system of unique mys
ticism. T h is deception has resulted in
thousands of persons being misled even
to the extent of hundreds of them jo u r
neying to the M t. Shasta district in the
hope of discovering these marvelous
possessions or coming face to face with
the mystics themselves.
W e , the chief executives of A M O R C ,
voluntarily assume some blame in this
regard. W e regret that in our first an
nouncements years ago we made the
mistake of mentioning almost too defi
nitely the location of these mystics. W e
should have avoided mentioning M t.
S h asta or the area around it. But at the
time the information was given to us
there was no restriction placed upon the
mention of the area and w e did refrain
from being geographically exact, much
to the chagrin of hundreds of curiosity
seekers who have demanded from
month to month and y ear to y ear that
w e give them a map or a more detailed
description of the exact location. But
until a few years ago when certain in
dividuals discovered that the stories of
the M t. Sh asta district and its strange
people contained commercial possibili
ties, no real harm had been done by the
announcements which w e made. O u r
announcements were the first in many
years to give all of the traditional
stories about these mystic people and
yet many of the self-appointed schools
of mystical thought, claiming to have a
connection with M t. Sh asta , now pre
tend that they possessed this informa
tion and this secret connection for
many, many years.
T h o s e who have read the story of the
descendants of the lost continent of
Lemuria will recall that those descend
ants settled in various groups in differ
ent sections of California, O regon, and
M ex ico . T h e y will recall that one of
the largest of the groups of descendants
established itself on a large island just
off the coast of California near San ta
B arb ara. F o r many years government
and state records, as well as historical
and expeditionary records, referred to
this strange island and its strange
people. Gradually, however, there was
a reduction in the number of people
living there and finally the island was

abandoned as though all had passed

through transition within a few years.
T o d a y that island with its strange struc
tures and strange memorials of the
ancient race that occupied it constitutes
an interesting field of investigation. But
the remnants of the occupants of that
island did not cease to exist as has been
believed by some. T h e y moved to the
mainland, coming into C alifornia by
strange methods of their own and going
inland into the foothills and valleys still
unexplored by any but a few, and here
they have been continuing their exist
ence, and, according to inform ation just
given me, the birthrate among them has
kept pace with the so-called death rate
until there are today practically the
same number in this colony as in the
days when they were living upon the
island. T h e ir location in California is
known to many of the mystics of va
rious international schools of mystical
philosophy which are of age-old integ
rity and responsibility. A n o th er such
colony exists in Lower California, just
across the borderline that separates it
from the United States.
O n e o f the
larger colonies to remain after the be
ginning of the 17th century made its
headquarters in the foothills or sides of
an old volcano in M e x ic o not far from
the American borderline. T h e eminent
mystic, M r. V a n der Naillen, author of
such books as In T h e Sanctuary, and
with whom I was well-acquainted many
years ago, visited this colony in M e x ic o
and brought back with him to his san c
tum many manuscripts of the mystical
teachings held so sacredly by these
mystic philosophers. It w as this colony
that his son later attempted to locate in
M e x ic o and came in co n tact with other
mystics instead.
F rom time to time I have had reports
of strange sights and occurrences hav
ing been witnessed or accidentally noted
in at least four parts of California aside
from M t. Sh asta, and these lights,
sounds, and other effects were precisely
like those witnessed so often near M t.
Shasta, which confirms the old tradi
The
tions of a number of mystical locations
Rosicrucian in California, Low er California, and
M ex ico .
Digest

September
1936

P a rt of the very interesting story

given to me by these representatives

dealt with the manner in which this

mystic colony that had been living near
M t. Sh asta for so many years a c
complished the feat of moving itself
little by little to another point of the
state. H eavy pieces of furniture and
large caskets of iron, strange boxes,
were moved in wooden crates that were
prepared to look like ordinary express
shipments, and these were taken to
various points near M t, S h a sta for ship
ment by railroad and motor trucks with
out creating an y excitement or interest
on the part of those who handled the
large ciates.
T h ey w ere delivered to
two or three different points near the
old mystical location where the re
establishment of their activities was to
take place and then gradually brought
to the location by trucks or private
automobiles. O th er articles of a more
portable nature were taken in trucks
direct or in w hat appeared to be private
automobiles.
T h is transfer of material things was
carried on for many months beginning
last O cto b e r 12. During the winter
months, and especially during the cold
and rainy seasons, a great amount of
the matter was transferred and shipped
because the presence of intruders and
investigators in the district was at a
minimum. Some very large things and
some things that were not crated and
were of a strange nature were taken to
a northern point by several friendly
persons who secured the use o f large
motor trucks, and some were brought
to a southern point and then recon
veyed northward again to the new
location.
A fantastic incident of the transfer
was in regard to the movement of
groups of members of the mystic colony.
B ecause of the strange dress and
strange appearance, countenance, and
height, and age of some of these old
mystics, it would have been impossible
for them to make the journey in auto
mobiles or by trains without attracting
a great deal of attention and without
revealing the object o f their journey.
T h e refo re, according to the very sur
prising story given to me, these per
sons were taken by private autom obile
owned b y a few friends, to an open
area just north of Sh a sta and there
T w o H un dred N in ety

A t any rate, the mystic colony that

placed in a strange dirigible which rose
formerly occupied certain structures,
into the air at night and proceeded
caves, subterranean passageways, and
southward taking twelve to fifteen of
grottos in the M t. Sh asta area, is now
the persons on each trip and making a
located in an entirely different area
number of trips back and forth to
M ex ico , bringing and taking various where the members occupy very old
structures once possessed by another
objects and persons to the old colony
group of their fellow beings and more
previously referred to. T h e s e repre
secluded and isolated than they have
sentatives related how even this method
came very near exposing their plans, for been in recent years.
on one of the trips of the dirigible b e
A few caretakers, so to speak, or ap
tween M e x ic o and California a sudden
pointed guardians, remain in the M t.
thunder storm with considerable light
Sha sta district who will protect the pos
ning in the distance lighted the sky to
sessions there, but will carry on no
such an extent that the dirigible was
mystical activities and will refrain from
seen by the natives of M ex ic o and be
being seen or contacted in any w ay by
cause of its very unique form and other
any w ho m ay approach that district.
peculiarities it was thought to be a
O th er interesting facts regarding these
foreign aircraft and was immediately
mystics and their new plans I may e x
reported by the natives to various army
plain in a future article at some time
stations and even to American border
after I have had another interview.
patrol officers or other persons near the
O n e thing is certain, however, and
American line. T h e newspapers later
that is that all the stories we have been
contained an item about the strange ob
reading in newspaper, magazines, and
ject seen in the sky and witnessed by
several hundred persons, but neither the
especially the literature o f various
army nor navy could give any answer
travelling teachers and lecturers re
or explanation, for it had not been ob
garding their connections with the M t .
Sh a sta colony of mystics and their
served by them and the whole affair
eventually passed out as a myth. I re
ability to take their students to M t.
member seeing some of the newspaper
S hasta for mystical initiation have been
clippings in this regard for a number of
absolutely untrue and unsound, and by
them were sent to us by our members.
this move of the colony from the old
In answer to one of my questions, I location to a new secret place which
will not be revealed, thousands of
was reminded that we had already e x
foolish followers of such matters will
plained in some of the articles about the
Lemurians that in their day they pos have a sad awakening. W e have pre
dicted this from time to time and have
sessed great secret knowledge and
scientific ability regarding the building
tried to warn our members not to give
of ships that would float in the air as
credence to such claims as have been
well as on water and that a motive
offered in the past y ear or two. M a n y
power is used that is unknown to us
were misled, however, and we are glad
today.
that this will not be continued for long.
g

DO Y O U LIV E N EA R T H ESE CITIES?

For the benefit of Rosicrucian members living within the vicinity of the cities listed
below, we suggest that they avail themselves of the opportunity of attending Chapter
meetings which are held there regularly. T he special addresses, ritualistic ceremonies, and
association with others of like mind will prove most beneficial. It is only necessary to
visit the Chapter and present one's membership credentials to be entitled to all the
privileges of attendance.
Oakland and E ast Bay Chapter: W . Meadows, Master. No. Entrance Madison Masonic
Temple Library Room, 15th & Madison Sts. Meetings 1st and 3rd Sundays, 8 p.m .
Dallas Chapter: Mrs. A- C. Turney, Master. Meetings 1st and 3rd Mondays at 4917
Junius St., 8 p. m. Meetings 2nd and 4th Mondays at the Hotel Jefferson, Room 229,
2nd Floor, 8 p. m.
Johannesburg Chapter: Mr. Norman Dingwall, Master. 7 Tow er Building, Plein St.
Meetings every Thursday, 8 p. m.

T w o Hundred. N in ety-on e

*
The Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefits as well
as those who are members. T he book called Liber 777" describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (P le a s e state w hether m em ber or not this is im portant.)

a.

THE MAN'MADE GOD

S

O N E journeys
around the world
and contacts vari
ous religious rites
and r i t u a l s and
listens to the di
versified interpre
tations and under
standings of the
nature and being
o f G od, one b e
T he
comes convinced
Rosicrucian
that the universal
Digest
conception of G od
September is a man-made conception to which man
attempts to adhere and conform his life.
1936

E v en in the matter of ecclesiastical

art and religious sculpturing and paint
ing we see the universal attempt to
create or interpret G od in the light of
individual understanding, colored by the
national view-point and the historical
background. T o the ancient Jews, G od
w as o f a distinctly Jewish type, while to
the Chinese, G od was of Chinese ch ar
acteristics. T h e Russians in their ex
treme devotion and reverence portrayed
G od as typically Russian. W i t h each
nation G od was interpreted in the light
o f their own characteristics plus an
emphasis of understanding of their own
localized problems.
T w o H undred N in ety-tw o

T o the mystic and philosopher of uni

versal laws, G od is not limited in ch a r
acteristics, nature, or interpretation. H e
is o f all nations and all people unified
in one being and yet more than all of
this. G o d is at once the god of the
heathen and the god of the saved and
redeemed, the G od of the white man,
black man, the yellow and every pos
sible color and pigmentation. H e is also
the saviour of each race and the inter
preter of the laws and problems of each
group of peoples. A nd G o d is not only
the sympathetic, the understanding
knower of the past of each race, but of
the present and the future.
Until we have the universal concept
of God, we cannot have the correct ap
preciation of the fact that we are all
children of G od.
In the Cathedral of the Soul we have
a place and condition freed from w orld
ly, physical, material limitations, and
beyond all political or social distinctions
and national characteristics w here the
G od of each being, the G od of each
race, the G od of each nation can be
found in his sublime glory and trans
cendental power. In such a Cathedral
G o d is sensed in His purely Cosmic
existence with such spiritual qualifica
tions and powers as are easily compre
hended in the language, character, and
thought of each type of mind.
It is for this reason that the C athedral
has become such a happy, peaceful
meeting place of the uplifted conscious
ness of thousands of human beings in
many lands. If you have n ot sensed this
inspiring, universal contentment; if you

have not enjoyed the freedom of the

Cosmic existence, you should spend a
few moments daily in attunement with
the C athed ral o f the Soul and the re
sulting contacts with the consciousness
of G od and the universal mind of all
beings.
Health, invigorating strength and
understanding, peace beyond the de
scription o f words, and a marvelous
strengthening of the spiritual and men
tal faculties and powers come to those
who give a few minutes of communion
and meditation daily in this universal
Cathedral. R egardless of your doctrinal
beliefs or the sectarian nature of your
religious faith, you can meet with others
in this Cathedral not on common ground
but on a fundamental spiritual and uni
versal plane. Y o u can take with you
into this C athedral the cross you carry
on your back, the burdens you carry on
your shoulders, the sorrow in your
mind, and the grief in your heart and
the problems that weigh heavily on your
hands. All of these you can take with
you and leave there and come forth free
and unburdened, happy, inspired, em
powered, and strengthened to meet the
situations and to resist the evils and the
influences that disturb your tranquillity
and make you a victim of circumstances.
Y o u emerge from each period of medi
tation a M a s te r of Cosmic law because
of G o d 's omnipotence and power resid
ing in you.
If you have not enjoyed or even e x
perienced these C athedral contacts, send
for the free book, L iber 777 , and let it
be your guide from day to day.

SE E K E R S F O R W O R K IN C A L IF O R N IA
W e find it necessary to advise our members and friends that planning to abandon ones
home or temporary position or location in any part of the United States and come to
California with the conviction or hope that it will be a simple matter to secure a position
of some kind throughout the fall and winter months is a very serious and disappointing
action. There are many thousands of unemployed in this state and according to Cali
fornia customs, those who have been living here for some time and paying rent and taxes
are given preference whenever there is an opening in any form of work or labor, or any
trade or profession. Thousands are being returned to the E ast by charitable institutions
or have to wend their way back eastward bitterly disappointed and minus their previous
homes and funds.
A M O R C itself cannot offer any opening to members who live in the E ast in the face
of the natural rules of adding to its staff from time to time from the list of members who
have been living in this valley or state for many years, and who are taxpayers and con
tributors to the state support. Therefore, do not make plans to come to California in
search of any kind of a position without first writing to the Chamber of Commerce of
some one of the larger California cities and making proper inquiries.
W ELFA R E D EPA RTM EN T.
T w o H undred N in ety -th ree

(\
pj~u~Lru~j
v w ;

Each hour of the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g nature s m ysteries and exten din g the boundaries of
knowledge. T he w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure of review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to

the popular Imagination.

I t is with pleasure, therefore, that w e afTord our readers a m onthly summary

o f some of these scientific researches, and b riefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherwise specified,
we give full credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

T h e E v o lu t i o n o f P h y s ic a l C o n c e p t s
E W of us, perhaps,

realize as often
as we should how
many startling and
important changes
have been made in
our physical conce pt s and our
k n o w l e d g e of
physical laws dur
ing the last fifty

years. In that little

stretch of eternal
time man has seen
more of these changes than in any other
similar period in the history of civiliza
tion. T h e writer has seen in his life
time, for instance, the invention and a p
plication of the telephone and the radio,
the telegraph and the cable, the X - r a y
and the moving pictures, the dictaphone,
phonograph, and recording of sound on
film, television, and even the transmis
sion of energy for power through the
air, the mastery of the air in flying,
T he
Rosicrucian and the mastery of the depths of the
sea in submarines. Just taking these few
Digest
things by themselves, man has changed
September more of the universal or general concept
of physical laws than the greatest of
1936

dreamers could have imagined in past

ages.
T h e result of these rapid changes has
more or less paralyzed the imagination
of present-day thinkers. W e might say
in one sense, however, that these magni
ficent accomplishments of the past fifty
years have encouraged or strengthened
the art of imaging or imagining, for one
could truly say that we have learned in
the past fifty years that nothing is im
possible and that on e therefore may
venture to imagine almost anything with
a very good possibility of its being ful
filled. But the truth of the matter is that
it is difficult today to imagine any really
surprising and startling innovation, any
unthought of concept or law, any really
new discovery without finding that it
has already been touched upon or in
cluded in the fundamental principles in
volved in the achievem ents o f the past
fifty years.
O n e of the most universal concepts
of man that has been changed in recent
years is that which was so often e x
pressed as seeing is believing. Less
than fifty years ago it was quite uni
versal to say that if a thing could not
be seen or felt, tasted, weighed, or
T w o H un dred N in e ty jo u r

smelled, it did not exist. In fact, that

strange law of measurement is still ap
plied by those who deny the existence
of the Soul. B ut think of how that con
cept has been changed!
Right in your room at the present
time, wherever you m ay be, there are
more than likely the strains of beautiful
music music unseen and unheard by
you yet nevertheless so real in its exist
ence in your room that it cannot be shut
out, it cannot be eliminated, and it c a n
not be denied. M e re ly with the assist
ance of a small box containing electrical
devices for the transmutation o f in
audible vibrations into audible ones, the
unheard music in your room becomes
something o f startling reality. T h e
transmutation of the alchemists of the
past was as nothing compared with the
transmutation that takes place in the
ordinary radio receiving set. A nd it is
not a matter of large equipment nor of
expense to perform this great feat of
transmutation. O n e can take a small
coil of wire, a single phone piece, a piece
of crystal, a needle, and a few little
pieces o f wire and b y connecting one
wire to the w ater pipe and another to
the window screen one can instantly
transmute and translate the inaudible
radio vibrations and hear w hat is go
ing on in a distant musical studio. T h is
feat would have been not only hailed as
a miracle in the past century, but a
demonstrator o f the principle would
very likely have been burned at the
stake.
T h is matter of the evolution of physi
cal concepts is very excellently dealt
with in the Science M onthly o f M a y ,
1936, b y Dr. Saul Dushman, A ssistant
D irector of the R esearch L abo rato ry of
the G eneral E lectric Com pany.
He
says: Let us summarize briefly the new
developments in physical science since
1895.
R oetgen discovered X - r a y s in that
year, and Becquerel made his first ob
servations on radioactivity in 1896. In
1902-1903
Rutherford
and
Soddy
brought forward their theory of spon
taneous disintegration of radioactive
elements. T h e atom had lost its attri
butes of indestructibility. In 1897 J. J.
Thom son first published the results of
his investigations on the charge and
mass of the electron, and shortly a fte r
T w o H un dred N in ety-flu e

w ards O . W . Richardson began his re

searches on thermionic emission, thus
initiating an era which was to witness
the harnessing of these electrons to the
electromagnetic radiations which had
been discovered by Hertz in 1887.
During the last decade of the nine
teenth century refined measurements
were carried out on the energy distribu
tion in the radiation from a black body.
T h e s e observations could not be recon
ciled with certain deductions from the
kinetic theory of gases and statistical
mechanics. In consequence, Planck was
led in 1901 to enunciate his theory of
energy quanta. T h e new suggestion re
ceived scant attention in spite of its ap
plication by Einstein ( 1 9 0 5 ) to the in
terpretation of the variation with tem
perature of the specific heats of solids.
But in 1911 Rutherford put forward
his theory of the nuclear atom; in 1912
v. Laue carried out his famous demon
stration of the w ave-nature of X - r a y s ,
and in 1913 M o seley published his in
vestigations on the relation between
X - r a y frequencies and nuclear charge.
All these observations and the mass o f
spectroscopic data, which had hitherto
failed to find a satisfactory explanation,
were now fused together into a beauti
ful conception by N . B o h r in 1913.
It is difficult for the present genera
tion to realize the immense transform a
tion in physical concepts which resulted
from the publication of Bohr's papers.
T h e idea of discrete energy states as
the origin of spectral lines furnished a
union of P la n c k s quantum concept and
electromagnetic
radiation.
However,
this new point of view raised what ap
peared to be insurmountable difficulties.
B o h r used classical, that is, Newtonian
mechanics to give us a model of an atom
constituted of one or more electrons re
volving in periodic orbits about the
nucleus. But in order to limit the num
ber of these orbits, as required by the
observations on the relations between
spectral lines, he had to bring in a socalled quantizing condition. O n ly those
orbits can exist, he claimed, for which
the angular momentum of the electron
is an integral multiple o f h/2r. T h e
theory worked for hydrogen and ionized
helium, but it required a tremendous
amount of patching to explain the
spectral behavior of more complex

atoms.
B o h r attempted to bridge the
gap between his peculiar mechanics and
N ewtonian mechanics by means of his
famous Correspondence Principle. But
none of the mathematical physicists
could even suggest a plausible theory
for the behavior of the electrons in a
helium atom.
M oreover physicists were co n fro n t
ed with another grave difficulty. Is
light, or electromagnetic radiation in
general, to be interpreted on the basis
o f the undulatory or on that of the co r
puscular theory? T h e experiments of
A. H. Compton in 1923 showed conclu
sively that in the interaction of X - r a y s
with electrons the radiation behaves as
if constituted of corpuscles having
energy hu and momentum hu/c-hX. O n
the other hand, these X - r a y s may be
diffracted by a crystal lattice and they
then behave as waves.
Physicists were thus confronted with
a dualistic conception o f the nature of
radiation. But meantime the difficulties
involved in the B o h r theory began to
accumulate in spite o f the valiant efforts
of Sommerfeld and a number of th eo
retical physicists.
In 1925 Goudsmit
and U hlenbeck showed that the elec
tron must be regarded as possessing an
energy of spin.
T h i s smoothed over
some of the difficulties, but raised
others. T h e r e arose a searching of the
heart, as it were, which was remi
niscent of that time five hundred years
or so ago when the Ptolemaic system
began to break up under its own weight
of a d hoc assumptions.
A F ren ch
physicist, Louis de Broglie, boldly su g
gested ( 1 9 2 5 ) that perhaps, after all,
classical mechanics is not valid for
atomic systems, that corpuscles which
possess a momentum of the order of
magnitude of h may not behave like
Newtonian particles at all and that they
may even exhibit the properties of
waves. Thereu pon an event occurred

which was quite dramatic. T w o Amer

ican physicists, Davisson and Germer,
showed that de B ro glies hypothesis was
the very explanation which could a c
count for their observations on the re
flection of electrons from nickel crystals.
M oreover, to add further evidence in
confirmation of de B ro glies suggestion,
G . P. T h o m so n repeated with electrons
the same experiment which v. Laue had
devised to demonstrate the wave nature
of X - r a y s . O n ly in this case, what was
proven, beyond the shadow o f a doubt,
w as that if G . P. T h o m so n s father had
not already found that the electron be
haves like a little bullet, the son would
have concluded from his experiments
that the electron is a wave motion.
T h e physicists, like other intelligent
human beings, have always had the in
tuitive feeling that an y interpretation o f
nature must be monistic. It made them
extremely uncomfortable, especially be
fore their colleagues in the realm of
philosophy, to be espousing waves on
M on days, W ed n e s d a y s , and Fridays,
as Einstein described it, and to think in
terms of corpuscles on intervening days.
Perhaps they needed a day of rest in
order to reconcile this Jekyll and Hyde
existence.
In this dilemma the physicist began
to inquire, quite rightly, W h a t got us
into this trouble? W e l l , for one thing,
we had tried to put into our theories
more than we could ever test by ob
servation. It became evident that the
B o h r mode] was too concrete. It sug
gested too many questions that could
not be answered. Bridgman designates
them meaningless questions. Perhaps
that is w hy we discard so readily the
naive stories of our childhood. T h e
fairies and princes are so well drawn
that when we begin to compare them
with actual beings it is no longer pos
sible to believe that both can exist in
the same w orld.
TK

A N EW M EM BER OF TH E STA FF

The
R osicru cian

Digest
S e p tem b er
1 9 36

W e are pleased to announce that we have added Frater Cecil A. Poole to our staff
of employees at the Grand Lodge, because of his proficient work in con n ^ ' >n with the
Courier Car Tours and as a lecturer for the National Board of Lectureship of A M O R C .
Frater Poole will assume a position at the Grand Lodge as an assistant in the De
partment of Extension. Frater Poole is well qualified for his duties as an Extension
Department employee and assistant, because he has met hundreds of District Commis
sioners of the Order and has learned of their problems, lectured to thousands of the
A M O R C members as part of his duties, and spoken to other thousands of the public
from the lecture platform.

k ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

T w o H un dred N inety-six

PAG ES
from the

PAST
M & i
jsle?

A V IC E N N A
Each month we w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill giv e our readers an opportunity of know ing their lives through the
presentation of those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally, such writings
w ill be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors o f the
past. T h is month w e present Avicenna, also known as Abdallah ibn Sina.
Avicenna, bora in 979 in the province o f Bukhara, was one o f the greatest o f Arabian
physicians and philosophers. A t the age o f ten he was w ell acquainted w ith the K oran and
the Arabic classics, and fo r the follo w in g six years he studied philosophy, mathematics,
astronomy and medicine. In connection w ith his philosophical studies he memorized the
M eta p h y sics o f A ristotle, but its meaning was not understood by him until he chanced
upon the commentary o f A lfarab i o f Farab, who was the com piler o f the first encyclopedia
o f Rosicrucian science and art.
A t the age o f seventeen Avicenna proved his medical
know ledge b y curing the Samani ruler, Nuh Ibn Mansur, from a dangerous illness, the
event leading to a post in court and access to the royal library. A fte r his fath er's death,
Avicenna traveled quite exten sively and lectured fo r a period of tim e on logic and astro
nomy at Jurjan, near the Caspian. L a te r when in Hamadan he gained the favor o f Sham 3
Addaula and was made v izier; but the soldiery mutinied against their sovereign and de
manded the life o f the new vizier. Under the successor of Shams Addaula, Avicenna was
imprisoned in a fortress, but managed to escape and fled to Isfahan. W hen the ru ler o f
Isfahan captured Hamadan in 1024. Avicenna spent the rem aining thirteen years of his
life as court physician to A la Addaula, as w ell as general litera ry and scientific adviser.
Avicenna led a very arduous life, and although he traveled a great deal, he still found
time to w rite many o f his w ritin gs contributing gre a tly to our Rosicrucian literature and
teachings. About 100 treatises are ascribed to Avicenna, but his most influential w ork was
his Canon of M edicine, which was translated into many different languages and used as a
text-book in both the Orient and the Occident. Avicenna was g rea tly influenced in his
philosophical studies by A ristotle and to some degree by N eo-Platon ic ideas. I t was his
desire to reconcile philosophy and religion, an object which was the endeavor o f many later
Arabic and Jewish philosophers. H ow ever great his attainm ents in the field of meta
physics, logic, and astronomy, the eminence which Avicenna gained lies chiefly in his con
tributions to philosophy and medicine not only in his own country o f A r a b ia but to the
advancement o f philosophy and medicine throughout the world.
B elow we g iv e you a short excerpt from his m ost famous work en titled Canon o f M edicine,
which our members especially w ill find most interesting.

i11111111it1111111

U Jim iiiiiiiiiiiM iiiiiim iiiin iiiilH iiiiiiiiiiiiiin n H M im iiiiim iim iiiiiim iw i

O N M E D IC IN E
E D I C I N E consid
ers t h e h u m a n
b o d y as to t he
means by which it
is cured and by
which it is driven
aw ay from health.
T h e knowledge of
anything, since all
things have causes,
is not acquired or

com plete unless it

is known by its
causes. T h e re fo re
in medicine we ought to know the
causes of sickness and health. A n d be
T w o H un dred N inety~seven

cause health and sickness and their

causes are sometimes manifest, and
sometimes hidden and not to be compre
hended except by the study of symp
toms, we must also study the symptoms
of health and disease. N o w it is estab
lished in the sciences that no knowledge
is acquired save through the study o f
its causes and beginnings, if it has had
causes and beginnings; nor completed
except by knowledge of its accidents
and accom panying essentials. O f these
causes there are four kinds: material,
efficient, formal, and final.
M aterial causes, on which health and
sickness depend, are the affected mem-

ber, which is the immediate subject, and

the humors; and in these are the ele
ments. A n d these two are subjects that,
according to their mixing together, alter.
In the composition and alteration o f the
substance which is thus composed, a
certain unity is attained.
Efficient causes are the causes ch an g
ing and preserving the conditions of the
human body; as airs, and w hat are
united with them; and evacuation and
retention; and districts and cities, and
habitable places, and w hat are united
with them; and changes in age and
diversities in it, and in races and arts
and manners, and bodily and animate
movings and restings, and sleeping and
wakings on account of them; and in
things which befall the human body
when they touch it, and are either in a c
cordance or at variance with nature.

Form al causes are physical constitu

tions, and combinations and virtues
which result from them.
F in a l causes are operations. A nd in
the science of operations lies the science
of virtues, as we have set forth. T h e se
are the subjects of the doctrine of medi
cine; whence one inquires concerning
the disease and curing of the human
body. O n e ought to attain perfection in
this research; namely, how health may
be preserved and sickness cured. And
the causes of this kind are rules of eat
ing and drinking, and the choice of air,
and the measure of exercise and rest;
and doctoring with medicines and doc
toring with the hands. All this with
physicians is according to three species:
the well, the sick, and the medium of
whom we have spoken.

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
Man, when conscious of an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized it so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f it. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illum inate mankind
w ith their m ystic light.
F o r those who are seeking light, each month we w ill
reproduce a sym bol or symbols, w ith their ancient meaning.

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
September

M any will recognize in this

illustration age-old geometrical
symbols, and their arrangement
will recall their mystical mean
ing. T h e circle represents the
universe without beginning or
end. W ithin the circle is the
square, representing stability
and dependability. W ithin the
square is shown the equilateral
triangle with point upward, al
luding to nature's manifestations
on the material plane.
W ritten in Latin about the
circle are the names of the sea
sons. Behind all is humanity
represented by the figure, at
tempting to render justice as is
indicated by the scales and the
sword which he holds.
Since an understanding of justice will come from a careful study of nature and
her laws, it is noticed that the figure is shown scrutinizing the symbols of nature
before him. T his is another combination of mystical sym
bols reproduced from a Rosicrucian book dated 1618 A. D.
the original book being in the archives of A M O R C .

1936
T w o H un dred N in ety-eight

Our H appy Convention

IN TERESTIN G DETAILS OF TH E 1936 ANNUAL CONVENTION
By T h e C o n v e n tio n S e c r e ta r y
H I S was the twelfth
national C on ven
tion. W e antici
pated an attend
an ce s o m e w h a t
l a r g e r than the
preceding ones b e
cause each y ear has
shown a growth in
membership, a n d
a consequent in
crease in attend__________ ance at the C o n
vention. B u t we
could not have anticipated, nor even
hoped for the extremely large attend
ance that we had this year. T h e mem
bers and delegates started arriving here
four and five weeks ahead of the C o n
vention date. T h e n came those who
were going to take the summer course
at the R o se -C ro ix University. T h e y a r
rived here three and four weeks ahead
of the Convention, and much to our
surprise the attendance at the U n iver
sity this year a little more than doubled
that of the preceding year. T h e stu
dents were enthusiastic, and the spirit
they manifested throughout the many
days preceding the Convention indi
cated that we were going to have a
glorious time.
W h i l e speaking of the University and
the students, may I be permitted to e x
press my opinion from contact with all
T w o H un dred N inety-nine

of them, and say that not only were

they highly enthusiastic when they ar
rived, but each hour o f the day added
to their enthusiasm. Som e additions
and improvements had been made in
the faculty and in the arrangem ent of
the study and lecture periods, and some
new features of a scientific and meta
physical nature had been added to the
subjects. W h e n a large group of stu
dents are willing to attend classes from
very early in the morning until sixthirty or seven o clock in the evening,
and then return again in the evening for
additional lectures and demonstrations,
and keep this up for six days a week
including Saturd ay s and the Fou rth of
July, and then wish at the end of the
term that there were more weeks in the
term, there must be something very un
usual about the course of study and the
manner in which the subjects are pre
sented. T h e students elected a new
Se cre tary and President of the Alumni,
they composed new songs which were
sung at the banquet, and then even
produced a play one evening. A few
of the students were those who had
taken a previous course at the Univer
sity, and some who graduated this y ear
have already planned to return for a n
other course n ex t year. T h e students
highly praised the faculty, and indorsed
the system and methods with much en
thusiasm. Q uite a few of the students

were graduates of other universities and

colleges, and very freely admitted that
they found our laboratories, our scien
tific equipment, our lecture system, and
the entire method of instruction su
perior to anything they had seen or
experienced in other institutions. It was
indeed a happy class of graduates who
received their graduation certificates on
Su n day night during the opening ses
sion of the Convention. T h e y passed
various resolutions which they engrossed
and signed and presented to the Imperator and other officers of the o rg a n
ization. E a ch of them gladly accepted
the University pledge to become a rep
resentative of the highest and most
idealistic principles of Rosicrucianism in
America, and to perpetuate and pre
serve the integrity and honor of the
institution. W e are certainly proud of
the graduates of our University and
the work they will accomplish in their
own lives and in their communities.

T he First D ay , Sunday, July 12

B efo re the first session of the C o n
vention opened, the number of mem
bers registered in the precise manner
that has been maintained for registration
at all of our Conventions equalled the
total registration of last year. W h i l e we
were all happy about this, it caused
some consternation in the hearts and
minds of the officers of the organization,
for it revealed the fact that before the
week was over our auditorium, grounds,
and all of our facilities would be taxed
beyond anything that could be hastily
arranged or planned.
Promptly at eight o'clock on this
first evening, the Supreme Secretary
stepped upon the platform of the C o n
vention Auditorium in the grounds of
Rosicrucian Park, and announced that
the Convention should come to order,
and that as Te m p o rary Chairman he
would introduce the Sovereign G rand
M aster, D r. Clement Le Brun. T h e re
had been days and weeks when we des
paired of any possibility of having our
The
Sovereign G ran d M a ste r personally
R osicru cian present to open the Convention, and
Digest
it was a joyous sight to see him smil
S e p tem b er ingly and proudly announce that in a c
cordance with the Constitution and
1936

rules of the organization he proclaimed

the annual Convention in session, and
heartily welcomed every member and
delegate. H e made a very brief speech
which was limited by the officers of
the organization who have carefully
watched and guarded his actions for
many weeks in order that he might co n
serve his strength and health.
A t the end of his brief address he
announced that the election of a per
manent Chairman for the Convention,
and the adoption of Convention rules
were in order. T h is proceeded in proper
manner in accord ance with our rules
and regulations, and afte r various nom
inations had been made by the mem
bership committees from the floor of
the Convention, and after M arie L.
Clemens, the Inspector-G eneral of the
N ew E nglan d district, and M r. Elrod
W a r d of Sa n F ran cisco had declined
their nominations, and others made
similar statements, the Convention final
ly elected F r a te r A. B. W a l k e r of Los
A ngeles as permanent Chairman of the
1936 Convention. T h e rules for the
Convention were carefully read and
analyzed, and adopted section by sec
tion without any dissension. T h e C h air
man then proceeded to appoint chair
men to function throughout the C o n
vention, and announced that the usual
procedure would be followed of permit
ting the members and delegates present
at the Convention to voluntarily join
an y one of the committees which they
believed they could assist, or through
which they believed they could well
serve the O rd er during the Convention.
N o restrictions or limitations by any of
the officers o f A M O R C were placed
upon the method by which members or
delegates could voluntarily join these
committees. A t the conclusion of the
appointm ent of the chairmen of the
committees selected by the Convention
C hairman in accordance with his own
personal judgment, the various high o f
ficers and department heads of the or
ganization were introduced, and each
made a brief speech of welcome. A
voluntary Convention Reporter was a c
cepted, and the Imperators private sec
retary was appointed as a second Con
vention Reporter, and these two were
charged with taking accurate steno
T h ree H undred

graphic notes of all the official and

semi-official sessions of the entire C o n
vention, along with the reports of the
various committees, and the signed com
ments by delegates and members to
form a very complete and accurate rec
ord and picture of the entire C onven
tion. A fte r all of the officers and de
partment heads had made their speech
es of welcome, the Imperator was intro
duced, and he gave the official opening
address to the Convention with his a n
nual message. First, he made the sacred
invocation, and followed this with a dis
course on the spiritual values of our
lives and our contacts with human a f
fairs, pointing out the necessity for in
dividual attunement with the higher
planes of thought and action while here
on this earth as children o f one F a th e r
and members of a universal brother
hood.
A number of times while the Impera
tor spoke he was interrupted by en
thusiastic applause and cheering, and on
several instances it appeared as though
the entire audience of many hundreds
of members and delegates, officers, and
special workers in the organization was
about to rush toward the platform and
make a mighty demonstration of their
unanimous concurrence with his re
marks, his challenges, and his inspiring
suggestions.
T h e first session closed late in the
evening, and all agreed that it was the
most spiritualized, happy, and inspiring
session of any Convention assembly we
have ever had. In the hearts and minds
of everyone were the ringing words
spoken by the Imperator during his mes
sage to the effect that, In peace and
spiritual love do we once again open a
national Convention, and this peace and
love will be maintained to the very last
hour as has been so notably demon
strated in all of our Conventions, and
we are assembled in love, pledged to
bring peace on earth, and this is the
paramount keynote of our C onvention.
I should like to say in passing that
the members and delegates freely e x
pressed their surprise and delight at the
many, many wonderful improvements
that have been made in Rosicrucian
Park since the last Convention. O n e of
the outstanding improvements w as the
T h ree H undred O n e

enlargement of the park grounds, and

campus, and of secondary though fasci
nating and intriguing interest was the
new Planetarium building in all of its
beautiful colors and architecture, and so
beautifully placed in new green lawns
facing P ark A venue and with an a t
tractive balconade facing the interior
grounds of the park, and surrounded by
beautiful oriental shrubbery of the type
that grows in E g y p t, Palestine, Syria,
and other places near the M ed iter
ranean. W i t h more large trees casting
their shady places on the lawns, with
more stone seats and benches, the
members found ample places to meet
throughout the day and evening in little
nooks and corners where they could
carry on group discussions, committee
meetings, and also rest and meditate.
AH day Su n d a y and Su n d ay evening
after the opening session, and through
out the whole Convention week, I heard
from hundreds of lips the expression,
W h a t marvelous work the officers
have done, and what an achievement it
is to build a park and place like this
with ten or twelve units of oriental
buildings so grouped and arranged that
when one enters the park and moves
around under the palm trees or among
the flowers on the lawns, or sits around
the playing fountain, he feels as though
he were in an oriental country separated
from all of the materia) strife and trials.
And it is literally true, Lor within R o si
crucian P ark there is not a single
modern building modern in architec
ture, coloring, or plan. Standing a n y
where in the park and looking in an y
direction one faces the fronts or sides
of various oriental buildings typifying
the spirit of E g y p t, India, Persia, or
Palestine.
Late Saturd ay afternoon, just as the
sun was beginning to set, there arrived
at the park the large bus of pilgrims
from N e w Y o r k City, headed by that
very old member and early worker in
the Order, M r. T h o r Kiimalehto. A
score of members had traveled across
the country, and as they stepped out of
the bus into Rosicrucian P ark they e x
pressed their delight by claiming that
it was as though they stepped from a
magic carpet that had whirled them
from America to the O rient. Perhaps

nowhere else in America has any o r

ganization or group of people a n a
tional park or center of activity of a
distinctly oriental nature so completely
separated from the spirit of the W e s t
ern W o r l d architecture and landscap
ing. T h e members felt that they had
come to their spiritual home or mystic
home, and before the week was ended
they expressed regrets that they had to
leave this part of California and be
separated from a place that w as so
ideally beautiful, and yet so mystically
attractive and alluring.
All of the officers felt well repaid for
the time and trouble they put forth
throughout the year in making improve
ments and adding features to R osicru
cian P ark that will live for y ears to
come, and which express the sentiments
and emotions of the members through
out the country.

T he S econ d D ay, M onday, July 13

E a rly in the morning the Registration
Department was busy again registering
those who had come to S a n Jose during
the night, or early morning hours, and,
in fact, the registration desk had a line
in front of it practically the whole of the
second and third days. It seemed to us
that there would be no end to the a r
rival of members and delegates, and
since we were already beyond the mark
for other years and reaching the cap a
city of the Auditorium, we did not know
what to do to carry out our organized
plans.

The

From eight-thirty to nine forty-five in

the morning there was a special T em ple
Service in the Supreme T e m p le for
those who had never enjoyed a ritual
istic service, and especially for those
who had never had the opportunity to
hear the chanting and use of the vowel
sounds in connection with the various
exercises contained in the monographs.
T h e n from ten forty-five to noon there
was a special class held in the Auditorium for N eo ph yte students, or those

R osicru cian
D igest
S ep te m b er
1936

w >!0 had rc ce 1>'. Soi" ed

, rder- and
who were still in the N eophyte D e
grees. Soror E th el W a r d took charge
o f this class and made explanations and
elaborations upon the various laws and

principles contained in the first three

degrees.
E a rly in the afternoon an
nouncement w as made that the new
Rosicrucian Planetarium would be dedi
cated with a ceremony conducted by
the Imperator. T h e hundreds of mem
bers and delegates gathered on the
campus around the Planetarium build
ing, while the Imperator and his staff
stood upon the oriental balcony facing
the campus and fountain and inner
courtyard of Rosicrucian Park. It was a
brilliant sight because of the artistic
oriental coloring of the building itself
and the bright coloring of the summer
costumes of those who were present. In
his speech the Imperator said that since
the first great astronomer in America to
give America a real observatory and
make valuable contributions to the
science of astronomy was David Rittenhouse, a member of the early Rosicru
cian settlement in Philadelphia and an
active w orker in all of the scientific de
partments of Rosicrucianism, he took
pleasure in dedicating this new P lan e
tarium in the name of the Supreme
G ran d Lodge and the organization to
the memory of David Rittenhouse. He
said, furthermore, that while the P lan e
tarium would always be available to our
members, and would be a valuable ad
dition not only in research work, but in
demonstrating the Cosmic laws and
principles and the marvels of the heav
ens, it would be open to the public cer
tain days of the week throughout the
year, and thus would be another factor
in the contribution on the part of the
organization to the cultural develop
ment of the public generally, thereby
augmenting the work that is being done
by the organization throughout the
country.
A fte r the dedication services the Im
perator p e r s o n a l l y conducted tw o
groups of sixty members each through
the Planetarium, and operated the
equipment revealing the marvelous me
chanical devices and the startling effects
of being seated on an open plateau of
the Sa n ta C lara V a lle y under a beauti
ful canopy of stars. Even the effect of
the wind blowing the clouds of fog from
the Pacific O ce a n into the V a lle y was
demonstrated in such realistic manner
that the real cold and moisture of the
T h ree H un dred T w o

fog could be felt by those sitting in the

Planetarium. A nd with the rapid revo
lution of the celestial sphere, whereby
the whole of the tw enty-four-hour day
was presented in tw enty-four minutes,
the fog was cleared aw ay revealing the
clearest, brightest, starlit night. T h e
movements of the planets through the
Zod iac, the phases of the moon, the
journey of the sun, the shooting comets,
and even the approach of the Peltier
Comet to the earth were shown in the
demonstrations. T h e re were also other
scientific exhibits shown in the P la n e
tarium such as the surprising principle
of the Foucault pendulum which proves
the revolution of the earth upon its
axis.
All those who visited the planetarium
said that it was the most beautiful build
ing inside and out that they have ever
seen in the W e s t e r n W o r ld . M a n y re
ferred to it as a beautiful jewel or gem
in the setting of Rosicrucian Park, be
cause of its sparkling colors and green
luminous domes which reminded one of
an emerald. E a ch hour of the day as
tourists go through California and
travel the main highway from N orth to
South, and pass along one side of Rosisicrucian P ark facing the new P la n e
tarium, men and women alike stop to
view the building and photograph it, for
it makes beautiful photographs to take
home to any part of the country, inas
much as such pictures appear to be
taken in some foreign land.
T h e newspapers printed daily a c
counts of the Convention and its activi
ties, with the daily program of the C o n
vention itemized, with photographs of
the delegates and members, and with
comments regarding the Planetarium.
In the evening, Chairman A rthur B.
W a l k e r opened the greatly crowded
Convention assembly promptly at eight
o clock, and the first feature was the in
troduction to the members and delegates
of the various chairmen of the C onven
tion committees, so that members who
wished to voluntarily join such commit
tees would know to whom to appeal.
A fte r various preliminary announce
ments w ere made, the Chairman intro
duced the Supreme Secretary, Ralph M .
Lewis, who delivered an interesting a d
dress on W h a t Is M a n ? T h is very
Three Hundred Three

enlightening subject w as highly ap

plauded, and at its conclusion the chair
man introduced to the audience the
M aste rs and Secretaries of various
chapters and lodges who were present.
D r. J. C. Guidero, Deputy Grand
M a ste r from Los Angeles, and F rate r
G eorge A. Baldwin, chief of the S u n
shine Circle work of the O rd er in the
western division, were presented to the
organization, and they made brief a d
dresses telling of the fine work being
done by the Sunshine Circles every
where, and by the S h u t-In M ovem ent
headed by F ra te r G ordon W illiam s.
T h e members were greatly pleased in
knowing of the marvelous activities of
the S h u t-In M ovem ents under the care
of our Sunshine W o r k e r s .
A t the close of the evening session
the members remained on the lawns and
campus until after midnight, enjoying
refreshments, the cool evening breezes,
the beautiful colored lights on the foun
tain and various buildings, and the
social contacts with members from all
parts of the world.

T he Third D ay, T u esday, July 14

Again the day began with two ser
vices in the Tem ple, one at 8 :3 0 and the
other at 9 :45.
O n each occasion the
Supreme G ran d Lodge T em ple was
crowded to its capacity and all were en
thusiastic about the beautiful spiritual
service and the marvelous results from
the intonations of vowel sounds and
chanting.
During the remainder of the morning
there were demonstrations in the R o se C roix University laboratories under the
direction of the Imperator and Dr. R. K.
Collins. T w o of the most fascinating
features of these demonstrations were
the painting of mystical pictures by sun
light and the marvelous revelations of
black light. B y using a sunbeam coming
down into the dark laboratory through
a special channel, the rays of sunlight
were broken into the spectrum colors.
T h e s e were thrown upon a large white
chart on the wall and through the re
volving of the prism and the rotation of
a lens, the colors painted large mystical
pictures on the screen. T h e s e pictures
varied from minute to minute and in

eluded magnificent sunset scenes on

lakes and oceans, O riental scenes,
sandy deserts, old world castles and
temples, magnificent trees and sky with
foregrounds of flowers, symbolical and
emblematic designs, sometimes letters
and words spelling mystical terms, and
patterns and pictures that intrigued the
imagination and startled the observation
of all in the room. B y the mere move
ment of the sun in the sky changing its
angle o f reflection in the room from
minute to minute marvelous pictures
were formed. N o other mechanism than
the prism, lens, and mirror was used
and yet d ay afte r day throughout the
Convention, as at last y e a r s C o n v e n
tion, these pictures were formed and
seldom w ere two o f them alike.
During the early part of the a fte r
noon the meeting of the first three de
grees of the T e m p le studies w as con
ducted by So ro r Ethel W a r d who co v
ered the essential points in an interest
ing manner.
L ater in the afternoon there were two
demonstrations for two groups o f mem
bers and delegates in the new plane
tarium showing the marvels of the sky
and the ancient traditional mysteries in
their scientific unfoldment. About three
o'clock in the afternoon sound moving
pictures were taken of the members and
delegates and visiting officers, and at
four o clock the Supreme Se cre tary gave
a lecture in the O riental M useum on
the various exhibits, pointing out their
ancient mystical use and significance.
T h e evening session opened prompt
ly at eight o clock after many prelimi
nary committee and council meetings
were held in various parts o f the Park.
It w as announced that Soror Clemens,
Inspector-G eneral for the N ew E n gland
district, and one of the oldest officers
of our chartered lodges present at the
Convention, would be available for in
formal interviews every morning begin
ning at 8:30. T h i s service on her part
proved to be one of the most valuable
helps to members who were advancing
through higher as well as lower degrees.

The
A further announcement was made of
R osicru cian
various special meetings to be held and
D ig est
then the chairman introduced F rater
S ep tem b er G eo rg e Baldwin, the chief director of

1936

the Sunshine and W e l f a r e activities for

the W e s t , and stated that he would de

liver a special address on W e d n e sd a y
afternoon.
T h e chairman then appointed F rater
Elrod W a r d as guest chairman for the
evening.
F ra te r W a r d of San F r a n
cisco was the very proficient and happy
chairman of our Convention in 1935.
F ra te r W a r d made a few introductory
remarks and then an address was given
by S o ro r E thel W a r d .
A t the con
clusion of her interesting lecture, the
Imperator stepped upon the platform
and informally announced a surprise for
the evening. H e called attention to the
fact that in recent years there has been
much publicity given to the scientific e x
periments being conducted in various
universities regarding the possibility of
human telepathy and clairvoyance. He
called attention to the fact that one of
the outstanding scientific leaders in this
new field of research was P rof. Rhine
of D uke University, who made himself
well known throughout the world by
his unique test of the telepathic ability
of human beings through the use of five
cards containing special emblems or de
signs. T h e n the Imperator stated that
Prof. Rhine was present, not as a mem
ber of the Order, not as a delegate, but
as a visiting scientist paying his respect
to the organization and its officers, and
that he had consented to make a brief
address.
D r. Rhine was warmly greeted and
made a very interesting talk on the
future possibility of investigating more
thoroughly the latent mental or psychic
abilities of human beings from a purely
scientific point o f view, and spoke o f the
manner in which these investigations
were now being conducted by a number
of universities. H e cited as an illustra
tion his recent investigation o f a young
boy who was described as having re
markable psychic ability and whose
claims had appeared in many news
papers throughout the country. T h e re
sult of P ro f. R h in es careful investiga
tion was o f a nature that cannot be re
vealed here to the public, but the
startling and surprising results were
given to our members during Prof.
R h in e s address.
O n e outstanding thought expressed
by P rof. Rhine w as this, speaking of
T h ree H undred Four

the work that is being done by other

professors and himself: W e want to
find out what powers we have as per
sonalities that will enable us to better
dominate our scheme of living, to realize
more fully our own capacity to create a
better society out of the increased abili
ties we hope to find. W e have found
certain distinctly marked capacities in
the mind which have not been recog
nized by academic psychologists.
A fte r P rof. R h in e s brief talk the Im
perator directed that the statistics o f the
Convention be compiled by having
questions asked from the platform and
answered b y the members themselves.
First, in regard to the number of various
religions represented, the various pro
fessions, occupations, trades, etc. T h is
is done at each Convention to show the
great diversity of mind represented.
Among the surprising facts brought out
this year were: T h a t there were almost
as many Roman Catholics present as
those of either the Episcopalian or
M ethodist denominations, and more
than those of the Baptist, Lutheran,
Presbyterian, or Congregational. T h e re
were eighteen religious denominations
represented, the highest number being
those of the Episcopalian section.
T h e re were more young people pres
ent at this Convention than at any
previous year, especially those below
the age of twenty-five, and there were
a very large number between tw entyfive and thirty-five.
In regard to sectarian matters and to
settle the point as to whether the R o si
crucian
O rd e r
had
any
tendency
through its teachings or otherwise to
subtract membership from churches or
orthodox religions, it was found that
sixteen of those present had gone back
to their churches as sincere worshippers
since becoming members of the O rder.
It was found that 90 per cent of those
present had become more sincere and
careful readers of the Christian Bible
since becoming members of A M O R C .
In answer to the question as to how
many
believed
since
joining
the
A M O R C that churches of all denomin
ations are doing good work and should
be supported by our members, 700 per
sons present answered in the affirmative.
T h ree H un dred F iv e

In regard to the twenty-five definite

occupations and professions represent
ed, it was found that the highest num
ber came in the classification of musi
cians, the next highest being professors
in universities and colleges and followed
by nurses, physicians, electrical engi
neers, agricultural, newspaper editors
and reporters, army and navy men.
T h e r e would have been a very high
representation of the dental profession
if it had not been that on this particular
evening there was a special meeting for
dentists at the dental convention being
held in Sa n Francisco, which caused
many of them to be absent from our
Convention.
O f course, homemakers,
or so-called housewives, also repre
sented a large number.
O n ce again,
however, it w as found there were more
males than females attending the C o n
vention.
In regard to the locations represented
by the members and delegates, it was
found that 22 outside of the United
States were represented, including two
from England, one from G erm any, one
from Finland, one from Italy, one from
Havana, one from Hawaii, seventeen
from C anada, one from P orto Rico, and
two from M ex ico .
T h e figures also
showed that every state in the country
was represented, the largest number
outside of California, coming from the
northeastern, the central, and the north
western States, followed closely by the
midwest and south central States. In
regard to the length of time the mem
bers had been in the Order, the follow
ing interesting facts were revealed:
T h o s e longest in the O rd er had join
ed in 1917. T w e lv e of those present
had resigned from the O rd er definitely
at one time or other and had rejoined
again. T h e newest members in the
O rd er were those who had joined a few
hours after the opening of the first ses
sion, or on one of the first two days of
the Convention.
It was found that there were present
one hundred man and wife couples who
were members of the O rd er as a unit.
It was found that there were represent
ed ten families whose children were in
the Junior O rd er, in addition to those
who w ere workers in the Junior Order.

T h e r e were a large number of the chil

dren of the Junior O rd er who produced
a play during the Convention.
In regard to the races represented, it
was found that outside of the English,
those of F ren ch birth had the largest
representation by far, and the Sc an d i
navians second, closely followed by
those o f Irish, Swiss, Holland, Italian,
and G erm an birth.
Speaking of large families, every
member of which belonged to the
O rd er, it w as found that in the C o n
vention auditorium were sixteen families
representing five members each: eighteen
families of four members each; twentyone families of three members each;
sixty families of two members each;
and one family of six members. W e do
not think there is any other organiza
tion that can show such large family
representations as this where three,
four, five, or six persons in a family are
advanced members in the organization
at the same time.
A nother interesting fact was in re
gard to the ages represented. T h e r e
were two 76 years of age, one 79, one
77, one 72 and tw enty-seven over 65
years of age. Fin ally one dear old
F ra te r arose and said he broke the
whole record because he was over 80
years of age. T h i s answered the ques
tion as to whether elderly persons can
find any benefit, any interest, or any
reason for being active in the work. O f
course, there was present not only Soror
Clemens, who w as one of the earliest
workers in the Order, but F ra te r T h o r
Kiimalehto who joined in the prepara
tion and foundation of the Order, and
who w as actively assisting in the im
portant affairs back as far as 1915 and
who has been a loyal member ever
since. H e came with a large party of
members in a special bus from N ew
Y o r k City.
T h e meeting was closed at ten o clock
with the announcement that there would
be two more sessions of demonstrations
in the new planetarium followed by
The
social activities on the lawns. T h e
R osicru cian w eather was ideal, and the enthusiasm
over the statistics and the information
revealed thereby, plus the many other
S e p tem b er little surprises of the evening, made the
1936
whole day a very happy one.

T h e Fourth D ay, W edn esday, July 15

In the morning there were the usual
mystical services in the temple with
special classes for the members of the
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth D egrees at ten
o clock, and a Forum session conducted
by Deputy G rand M aster, D r. Guidero.
A little after ten o'clock F ra te r H arvey
M iles of the executive staff addressed
the members of the Fourth, Fifth , and
Sixth D egrees covering the salient
points of their work, and he was fol
lowed by F r a te r D r. Herdocia, a medi
cal physician of long experience who
has been proving in recent years the
value of the Rosicrucian principles in
his professional work. H e greatly
thrilled the members and delegates with
an explanation of the many wonderful
things that can be accomplished by a
scientific and careful application o f the
Rosicrucian principles in curing disease
and preventing ill health.
During the lunch period a special
meeting of the Sunshine Circle was held
for the purpose of working out some
new details in connection with the ex
tension of the Sunshine and W e l f a r e
activities throughout the organization.
Immediately after lunch a special
meeting of the M asters and Secretaries
of all chapters and lodges was held with
So ro r Clemens and the Imperator pres
ent to make special recommendations
and answer questions regarding prob
lems that face the officers of the various
chartered divisions o f the organization.
A little after one o clock a special
meeting of the Junior order was held
under the direction o f So ro r Ethel
W a r d , and a model meeting of a typical
chapter of the Junior O rd er was pre
sented with all o f the ritualistic and
formal elements, making an excellent
presentation of the scientific training
these young people are receiving in the
various branches of the Junior Order
throughout the country.
T h e Planetarium lectures by the Im
perator and his associates continued
also during the afternoon with scienti
fic demonstrations in the R o se -C ro ix
laboratories.
A t four o clock the Supreme S e cre
tary delivered a lecture in the Museum
on the mystical exhibits to be found
there.
Three Hundred SLx

Promptly at eight o clock in the eve

ning the Chairman called the hundreds
of members in from their recreation and
social gatherings around on the lawns
to open the important evening session.
Some cablegrams from foreign juris
dictions were read and the Chairman
introduced the first speaker of the eve
ning. G rand Councilor T h o m a s W .
Kuhn, who spoke on the subject of
W h y A M O R C Should M a k e Itself
K now n. Following this very illum
inating and helpful lecture delivered in
F rater K u h n s very pleasant and m ag
netic manner, Inspector G eneral F rate r
Landis of Reading, Pennsylvania, gave
an address on W h y Spiritual O rd ers
Need M und an e A uthority, His talk
revealed the true relationship between
spiritual, Cosmic, and M u n d a ne laws,
and the so-called spiritual mundane cor
respondence whereby mundane law and
authority is necessary to carry out
spiritual principles. His talk answered
hundreds of questions that were in the
minds of the delegates and representa
tives who are actively engaged in or
ganization work throughout the country.
T h e n the Imperator, Dr. Lewis, was
introduced, and he immediately apolo
gized for finding it necessary to bring
before the Convention an old, old sub
je c t but one made necessary again b e
cause of certain unsettled and disputed
legal problems facing the organization.
H e called attention to the fact that a
notice had been mailed to all members
in good standing on the records of
A M O R C in N orth America advising
them that certain administrative, legal,
and organization matters would come
before the 1936 Convention for voting
and that proxies had been sent for all
to use who could not attend.
T h e Imperator said he hoped that this
would be the last occasion when such
matters would have to be brought be
fore one of our Conventions and the
peace and harmony of the spiritual n a
ture of the work disturbed by dealing
with such unpleasant, mundane matters
as were forced on the organization by
the few enemies who had for years con
trived to use every legal device to con
stantly revive and re-present every few
months the same conditions and the
same mooted points. H e announced that
T h ree H un dred S ev en

it was at the advice of a number of

eminent attorneys consulting with vari
ous judges that resulted in his decision
to permit these matters to come before
the Convention again, especially since
the 1935 Convention had so unanimous
ly voted its approval of all the so-called
mooted points and had believed it had
cleared these things from the slate of
consideration for all time. A fte r making
these introductory remarks, the Im
perator carefully w ent into detail re
garding each and every one of the
charges and mooted points which the
enemies were using in efforts to injure
the integrity, repute, and good standing
of the organization. It was very evident
that the Imperator was not attempting
to mitigate or make light of the charges
made by the enemies nor to set aside
any of their contentions. In the same
fairness of spirit with which the Im
perator has always presented the prob
lems of the O rd er before the assembly
of members at each Convention, he told
in carefully selected words precisely
what the enemies charged against him
as chief executive, against the Board of
Directors, against the Supreme G rand
Lodge, and against each and every de
partment head or assistant executive. It
became quite evident that the Imperato rs purpose was to present their side
of the case as fairly and as completely
as though he were an attorney, or some
one representing them in a complete
hearing.
A t the conclusion of his remarks he
then introduced the present attorney of
the organization, M r. Clifford Cottrell.
C hairman of the W a y s and M ean s
Committee of the California S ta te A s
sembly. H e called attention to the fact
that M r. Cottrell and the Lieutenant
G overnor of the S ta te of California
w ere the legal representatives of the
O rd er in the recent hearing brought in
the F ed eral Court of California by the
enemies and which w as still unsettled
and which involved the few points that
the members were to vote upon at this
Convention.
M r. Cottrell carefully presented the
legal side of the entire contention and
then read those resolutions, motions,
and other principles upon which the
Convention was to vote and which

would clarify the entire situation. A s

each resolution, each motion, was read,
it was immediately proposed by some
member from the floor, seconded by one
or more members or delegates, and then
analyzed and put to vote. In each and
every case every motion and resolution
was unanimously adopted without a
single dissenting comment or protest.
F rom time to time the Imperator insisted
that the assembly consider their votes
carefully and re-analyze the motion or
resolution, and he requested the C hair
man to give time for any person present
to rise and make any protest or register
any objection or negation in voting. A l
though members were urged to speak
freely and were assured by the Im
perator that their negative vote of dis
approval would not interfere with their
good standing in the Order, still there
was no one present who voted n eg a
tively or protested. S o each and every
one of the resolutions was passed u n
animously and in most cases with such
enthusiastic applause as brought the
entire Convention to its feet in a demon
stration of approval.
Finally, as all of the resolutions were
completed, one of the members present
among the membership who had made
recommendations or analytical com
ments on the resolutions arose and p ro
posed one more. H e identified himself
as a judge of one of the superior courts
of N e w Y o rk S ta te and said he b e
lieved that the resolution which he was
about to propose would prevent the
continuance of the unfair persecutions
and attacks that has been made upon
the Supreme Officers, the Board of D i
rectors, and the Supreme G ran d Lodge
by the few enemies. T h e proposed
resolution was finally moved by a physi
cian from Arizona and seconded b y a n
other member and unanimously carried.
Inasmuch as the few enemies were co n
stantly attempting to claim that they
represented the entire membership in
their criticisms of the organizations
executives and claimed to be bringing
their continued legal actions on behalf
The
of the membership and pretending that
R osicru cian they were supported b y the entire memD igest
bership as against the administration,
S e p te m b er officers, and chief executives, this reso1936
lution proposed b y the judge and

adopted by the entire Convention with

out a dissenting voice, is very significant
indeed. T h e resolution w as as follows:
W e , the members of the 1936 C on
vention of A M O R C , do not approve or
accept or in any w ay tolerate the actions
on the part of the enemies in going into
court and saying that they represent us;
therefore be it resolved;
T h a t we the members of the Grand
Lodge of the A ncient M ystical Order
R osae Crucis do not approve, recognize,
or in any w ay accept the actions of sev
eral purported members of this O rd er in
bringing law suits or other actions
which tend to annoy and harass the
D irectors of the Supreme G rand Lodge
and which also are instigated to bring
into disrepute the good name of the
O rd er;
B e it further resolved that these
members so bringing such law suits are
not properly representative of this
Grand Lodge or the members thereof;
B e it further resolved that we, the
members of this G rand Lodge of the
Ancient M ystical O rd er R osae Crucis
attending the 1936 Convention, request
the court to dismiss all law suits now
pending or existing against any officers
of the Supreme G ran d Lodge or against
any of the directors thereof.
T h e enthusiasm which accompanied
the unanimous vote for this resolution
w as a demonstration seldom seen at a
Convention. T h e members and dele
gates cheered and applauded while ris
ing to their feet.
It is to be noted that the reporters of
the Convention carefully recorded each
of these resolutions and the name of
each person who proposed them, moved
them, seconded them, or commented
upon them. T h e representatives who
had been empowered by the members
to vote for them through the use of
proxies, added these votes to the total
number.
T h e result of the voting gave not
only unanimous approval of the present
constitution of the G rand Lodge and
Supreme G ran d Lodge, but complete
approval of all the statutes and regula
tions of the autocratic power of the
Supreme G rand L odge in governing the
O rder, along with complete approval of
the present Board of D irectors and their
T h ree H un dred E ig h t

method of perpetuating the H ierarchy

o f the O rd er and of all the past acts of
the Board of D irectors and administra
tors and unanimous endorsement of the
chief officers, including the Imperator,
the Supreme Secretary , and their asso
ciates. In other words, the voting on the
part of the members and delegates and
through the proxy vote of those who
were not present completely denied all
of the allegations made by the two or
three critics, and completely denied the
claim that the entire membership or any
large portion of it was dissatisfied with
the administration of A M O R C , or dis
approved o f any o f the administration
acts, or had any desire to interfere with
or continue harassing the present a d
ministration of the organization.
T h e attorneys and officers present at
the Convention pointed out that w here
as these enemies claimed that their sole
desire was to save the organizations
funds and prevent any m a la d m in istra
tion, or any w rong-doing, or any use
less or unnecessary expenditure of the
organizations funds or material assets,
the continued harassing legal actions,
injunctions, suits, and other activities of
these enemies had actually cost the or
ganization between $ 2 5 ,0 0 0 and $30 ,0 0 0
in legal fees, court costs, and other in
cidentals during the past few years
without resulting in one iota of benefit
to the organization, its administration,
or the members, and that this fact in it
self clearly proved that these enemies
were not seeking to protect either the
funds or soundness of the organization
but were, in fact, doing those things
which had a far greater destructive
character to them than anything which
they attempted to prove against the ad
ministration and the executives.
T h e Imperator made a very short
speech at the end of the voting, thank
ing the members and delegates on be
half of the administration for their
loyalty and sincerity and their devotion,
and it was evident that the Imperator
was deeply affected by the many dis
plays of cooperation and sincere love
expressed toward him and his associates.
H e assured the Convention that having
spent this portion of one session of the
Convention with such unpleasant details
and the Convention having expressed it
T h ree H un dred N ine

self so completely in this regard, there

would be no further reference to these
matters throughout the remainder of the
sessions and at no future Convention.
Briefly, the Imperator explained that
inasmuch as the entire membership hav
ing been given every opportunity to
either be present or express itself
through its proxy votes, or through v a
rious delegates or officers who were
coming to the Convention, and since no
protest had been presented during the
voting, he and the other officers of the
Supreme G rand Lodge representing the
H ierarchy of the O rd er in N orth and
Sou th Am erica would stand pat upon
the decisions rendered by the evening
voting and hereafter refuse to give any
consideration to the claims made by
these enemies, or by the few newspaper
or magazine writers or others who had
been misled by these insincere critics.
T h e present constitution and statutes
of both the Supreme G ran d Lodge and
the G ran d Lodge, therefore, having
been first recommended by the 1934
Convention, approved and adopted by
the 1935 Convention and now endorsed
and made valid again by a 1936 C o n
vention and the vote of the entire mem
bership of North and South America,
are in full force and constitute the un
questioned and unchallenged rules and
regulations of the Order.
A t the conclusion of the sessions in
the Convention Auditorium all present
were invited to arrange themselves as a
large amphitheater audience on the
grounds of the park to witness the an
nual Convention pageant. T h is y ear it
was in the form of a three-act play en
titled. T h e Life and T im es of Am enhotep I V . T h e great central portion o f
the park with many Egyptian buildings,
tiled plaza, and fountain, presented an
excellent stage for such a production.
T h e dialogue of the play was written by
F ra te r C hester Lafferty, based upon the
writings and documents found in the
Rosicrucian O rd er and in the books by
Prof. Breasted. F ra te r Lafferty also de
signed the costumes for the score or
more who participated in the pageant,
including the characters of Amenhotep
I V (th e traditional founder of the R o si
crucian F ra te rn ity ), his wife, Nefertiti,

T he
R osicru cian

Digest
S e p tem b er
1936

his mother, T i a . and many scribes,

priests, temple officials, dancing girls,
attendants, slaves, foreign visitors and
others. W i t h special lighting effects
and specially made O riental tables,
chairs, and other pieces of equipment,
the three acts moved from the front of
one building to another, in keeping with
the story of the play. Since the build
ings are so typically E gy p tian in color
and architecture and the lighting effects
emphasize this, it required only the a d
dition of the coloring o f the flesh o f the
slaves and others and the costumes of
the characters to make the picture com
plete, and as we looked upon this play
with the beautiful girls in white robes
dancing barefooted across the lawns, the
O riental music filling the air, the
P haraoh and his court attendants in
their costumes upon the Egyptian b a l
co n y reviewing the dances and all the
other elements of the presentation, we
could not help feeling that here was the
most gorgeous replica of an Egyptian
setting of 1350 B . C . that might be
found anywhere in the W e s t e r n W o r ld ,
and perhaps not even duplicated today
in the very country that was so beauti
fully represented. T h e play lasted for
an hour and a half and those w ho were
witnessing it were moved deeply by the
dances and music, the fine oratory and
acting, and finally brought to tears by
the scenes of transition and burial of the
great Pharaoh. T h e funeral procession
across the park with the elaborate sar
cophagus of Amenhotep being carried
by the slaves and the scores of relatives,
friends, and temple priests following,
made a picture of Orientalism that
would have been worthy o f presentation
at any great conclave of an historical
nature. T h e se annual presentations are
not only one of the most pleasing inci
dents of the Convention but one of the
instructive features, and F r a te r Lafferty
and his wife, a thoroughly trained and
experienced instructor of drama, were
highly congratulated for the wonderful
production this y ear as they were for
the magnificent one of the Convention
of 1935.

T he F ifth D ay, Thursday. July 16

T h e weather proved to be extremely
mild during the Convention week and

the evenings delightfully cool, but we

found that our members and delegates
attending the Convention arose very
early in the mornings and a fter an early
breakfast came to Rosicrucian Park to
enjoy the social contacts and the many
interesting forms of recreation and
amusement that various committees had
planned. M a n y of the members brought
with them their wives or husbands, sons
or daughters, and in cases where these
members of the family were not mem
bers o f the O rder, they were allowed to
visit the campus and grounds of R o si
crucian Park, attending the lectures in
the Planetarium or Science Building, or
enjoying the amusements and recrea
tion. but no one w as ever allowed into
the Convention sessions unless he was
duly registered and proved to be a
member in good standing. A t each ses
sion the m em bers had to show their
registration cards in order to participate
in any form of official activity.
It was a delight to arrive at the park
early in the morning and to find the
grounds sprinkled with so many happy
persons in varied summer costumes and
smiling so delightfully in manifestation
of the joy that was in their hearts. T h i s
w as especially noticeable on T hu rsd ay
morning because of the happy events of
the preceding night. But everywhere
the attitude was the voting is done,
our decisions are made and t h a ts
th a t! T h e r e was no further discussion
of any of the mooted points and it
seemed to be as one of the M asters of a
large eastern lodge said, W e are going
to duck in the big pond here the first
F ra te r or So ro r who says anything more
about the ridiculous charges of the fool
ish enemies.
O n c e again F r a te r M iles opened the
first session in the Auditorium, address
ing himself to the members of the
Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Degrees.
A f te r explaining many of the higher
principles of these grades, he turned the
meeting into a forum for the answering
of questions and it was a lively and in
structive session indeed.
T h e n a t a little after eleven o clock
word w as passed around that the
Courier C a r which had been traversing
many of the states of the country with
the moving pictures and other equip
Three Hundred Ten

ment used to demonstrate our principles

to the various lodges and branches was
entering the city of S a n Jose in con
clusion to its long trip. E very o n e within
the confines of Rosicrucian P a rk a s
sembled out on the lawns around the
main driveway and awaited the arrival
of the car and its three happy workers.
T h e y were given a great ovation and
several hundred of those present who
had seen the Courier Car, F ra te r and
So ro r Poole, and F rate r B row er in their
own cities were happy to see them
again.
W h i l e speaking on this subject, I am
permitted to say that the Courier C ar
will be reconditioned and equipped with
some new and interesting additional
scientific and demonstrative features and
will be ready early this coming y ear to
start out again on its transcontinental
tour of many states and scores of cities.
F rate r Poole, however, has been a s
signed to an official position at H e a d
quarters, joining the staff as a director
in the Department of E xtension. His
contact during the past two years with
hundreds o f our chapters and lodges
throughout the country and his personal
interviews with several thousands of our
members who are actively engaged in
extension work and holding positions
as M asters, Secretaries, T re asu re r, or
T ru stees in the various branches, has
given him a foundation and a b a c k
ground for directing the activities of the
E x ten sio n Department that could not
have been acquired in any other way.
H e is now familiar with all of the prob
lems and all of the difficulties, ob
stacles, and requirements of the various
localities throughout the country, and
he is also familiar with the possibilities
that are undeveloped in almost very
section o f the country.
F ra te r Poole
will have a staff of eight or ten to assist
him and this coming y ear will see the
extension work carried on in a wider or
more systematic manner in cooperation
with the Propagand a D epartment which
has also been augmented.
A new lecturer to take the place of
F ra te r Poole in next y e a r s program has
already been selected and is being pre
pared for this very important work.
During the noon period, F r a te r Dr.
R oberto Herdocia again conducted an
T h ree H undred E lev en

important session dealing with the heal

ing and treatment principles of the or
ganization and was assisted by F ra te r
F . B. Brasau, who also delivered a very
fine address.
During the day, the Imperator co n
ducted a special session in the Supreme
Tem ple lodge room for members o f the
higher section of the Ninth D egree and
those who are the members of the eso
teric H ierarchy. T h e Imperator was
very pleased to find several hundred of
these old-time and highly advanced
members present. In fact, there were so
many that two different sessions of
these members had to be held because
the temple could not accommodate them
all at one time. T h e members were very
pleased and enthusiastic about the
secret matters discussed by the Im
perator. All of them, representing the
highest esoteric and spiritual body of
the organization,
were
enthusiastic
about the proceedings of the night
before.
A t one o clock the official Convention
photograph was taken, which is always
a happy occasion. However, it is no
simple task to arrange nine hundred to
a thousand persons in one large circle
and, o f course, a few are alw ays absent,
some come at the last minute, and all are
in the gayest of spirits, and the taking
of such a large panorama picture forty
or more inches long is really a problem.
B u t while the individuals were being a r
ranged in front of the Science Building
and around the large fountain our own
moving picture operators were taking
sound motion pictures of the whole pro
ceedings, and then later individual pic
tures as the various members and dele
gates walked past the fountain to other
parts of the grounds. T h i s film will make
a permanent record of the attendance at
this Convention.
During the early part of the a fter
noon further demonstrations were con
ducted in the science laboratories and
S o ro r Clemens of B o sto n continued to
conduct interviews and personal co n
tacts with members who needed in
dividual or personal guidance.
Later in the afternoon further demon
strations were given in the planetarium
and at four o clock began the special
honorary initiations in the Supreme

Tem ple. T h is is one o f the interesting

features of each Convention. M em bers
who have never had the pleasure and
delight of participating in the Egyptian
initiation ceremony of the ancient form
known in the Rosicrucian O rd er as
Crossing the T h re sh o ld are permitted
at each Convention to attend such a
ceremony and receive honorary initia
tion in the Supreme Tem ple. All of the
officers conducting the ceremony six
teen were in beautiful E gy ptian co s
tume, and with the beautiful golden and
colored decorations of an E gy ptian type
in the Tem ple, the soft lighting, the
strange music, and the beautiful ritual
itself, the incident was one never to be
forgotten. T h is y ear there were so
many who received this ceremony that
it required from four o clock in the
afternoon until nine in the evening to
complete the ceremony for the groups
of twelve to fourteen who were taken
across the T hreshold . E a c h received
later a beautiful certificate affirming the
honorary initiation.
In the main Auditorium at eight
o clock Chairman W a l k e r opened the
evening session with a number of a n
nouncements, particularly calling a t
tention to the fact that one of the large
restaurants and soft drink concerns in
the city had set aside that night for our
members with an entertainment, frolic,
and dance a fter the evening session.
T h e first speaker of the evening was
F r a te r Kendall Brow er, who had just
returned with the Courier C ar. H e
spoke of the many things that occurred
in the various cities and his talk was
thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. F rate r
Brow er was followed by F ra te r Poole,
who also spoke of his experiences dur
ing the Courier C a r tour and then cen
tered his address on the subject, W h a t
Humanity Is Searching F o r . His out
line of what thousands of enquirers and
seekers in various parts of the country
expressed to him regarding their desires
and searches in life clearly indicated the
growing demand for such instruction
and help as our organization offers.

The
'
R osicru cian
D igest
S e p te m b er
1 93 6

F ra te r Poole was then followed by

S o ro r Clemens of B oston, who spoke
on the subject, T w e n t y Y e a r s
in
A M O R C . S o ro r Clemens called attention to the fact that it was in the

summer of 1917 a t the first national

Convention of the organization in Pitts
burgh, Pennsylvania, that she was initi
ated into the O rd er and at the same
time received authority from the Im
perator and the Supreme Council to re
turn to Boston and organize the first
lodge of the work in that city. Since
that year the lodge has been maintained
without interruption, and for many
years So ro r Clemens was G rand M aster
of the G ran d Lodge of that state. This
very old and sincere body of members
is now known as the M arie L. Clemens
Lodge of A M O R C . So ro r Clemens told
of her own participation in the organiza
tion work at Headquarters in N ew Y o rk
S ta te during the early years when the
Imperator w as personally financing all
of the activities, and working night and
day with his wife and a few close
friends, such as F ra te r T h o r Kiimalehto,
in laying the foundation of A M O R C in
such a permanent manner that it has
withstood through all of these years the
trials and tribulations that might have
wrecked any other organization of such
a nature.
O n e of the impressive points regard
ing So ro r C lem ens address and many
other talks throughout the week was the
fact that although this dear So ro r is
now over seventy years of age and has
worked hard and long each day
throughout her life, she still has the ap
pearance of a vigorous, vital, magnetic
woman of fifty, or even less, and when
she appears upon her lodge platform or
the Convention platform in her beauti
ful official robes, she is indeed a start
ling as well as beautiful illustration of
how the application of Rosicrucian prin
ciples can aid in the process of regener
ation and the maintenance of a healthy,
magnetic body and spirit.
A t the conclusion of the address by
So ro r Clemens the Supreme Secretary
delivered another address on the sub
ject of T h e Problems of the Stud ent.
T h e r e were many humorous as well as
a great many serious points brought
forth by this address, and it tended to
straighten out in the minds of our
branch officers and directors, and in the
minds of our District Commissioners
and representatives, the puzzling prob
lems with which they have to deal.
T h ree H un dred T w elv e

B efo re the mystical demonstrations

were given, the Imperator asked permis
sion of the Chairman to give a short
talk on T h e O rigin and Universal A p
plication of Ritualism." It is noted at
these Conventions that the Imperator is
inclined to give two different forms of
address or lecture those which are
very serious and those which are
humorous. T h i s was the occasion for
one of his spontaneous and humorous
talks in which he pointed out that al
though a great many persons claim and
firmly believe that there is something in
their natures antagonistic toward ritual
ism and therefore they seek to eliminate
ritualism from their lives, they are
nevertheless slaves to some form of
ritualism from the time they arise in the
morning until they go to bed at night.
H e pointed out that the manner in
which in each country the common
practices of life have been adopted, the
common customs, habits, social methods
and programs, etc., are truly ritualistic
whether the individuals realize it or not.
Humorously he pointed to the manner
in which persons arise and bathe and
dress, following almost a standard sy s
tem. H e spoke of the manner in which
the dishes and other utensils are placed
upon the table for meals, and the man
ner in which the children go to school,
and the sessions are opened, or the
manner in which the business man
enters the office and proceeds with his
business, the manner in which tele
phones are answered or calls made. T h e
audience laughed and cheered through
out the talk because it pointed out very
clearly the frailties, foibles, and follies
of modern life w hereby we are much
like sheep following certain rules and
regulations of a ritualistic nature with
no better reason or excuse for doing so
than that It is being d one.
A t the conclusion of the address the
usual T h u rsd a y night mystic session
was opened by the Imperator, and after
a brief spiritual ceremony and invoca
tion, the lights in the Auditorium were
lowered and the doors closed and all re
mained in perfect silence while the Im
perator again made his annual demon
strations of the highest esoteric and
mystic principles of the Rosicrucian
teachings. T h i s is one of the annual
T h ree H un dred T hirteen

Convention events which is looked for

ward to b y all who have ever attended
a Convention or heard the details of the
program. T h e principles of thought
transference, increasing of aura, pro
jection of consciousness, the giving of
distant treatments through the ex ten
sion of conscious contact, the formation
of clouds for obliterating or making in
visible certain objects, the methods of
causing his own body to disappear from
sight on the stage, and finally a demon
stration of levitation, were among the
many interesting things manifested by
the Imperator during this period. T h e n
with the lights turned on full again the
Imperator performed once more his
strange demonstration of mental al
chemy w hereby the handwriting and ink
on a piece of paper selected by the audi
ence itself w as changed by thought
waves without the Imperator coming
closer to the paper than fifty or more
feet. T h is one demonstration that has
been repeated under the most severe
test conditions during the last seven or
eight Conventions is one that always
proves conclusively the power that can
be exerted by the human mind.
T h e evening session adjourned at
11:45, and although it was late the
members remained on the lawns and
grounds to indulge in social contacts
and particularly enjoy the formation of
the many
scenic
effects
produced
through the colored lights upon the v a
rious groups of O riental buildings.

T he Sixth D ay, F riday, July 17

A gain there were temple services
throughout the morning in the Supreme
G rand Lodge with personal interviews
with the various officers and committee
meetings occupying most of the morning.
A special exhibit was made in the
Convention Auditorium of the charters
and documents granted to the Imperator
and the Supreme G ran d Lodge by the
various foreign officers, lodges, and
Rosicrucian societies. M a n y of these
had attached to them the certificates of
foreign diplomats, American consuls,
and government officials certifying to
the genuineness of the papers. O th er
historical records of a rare nature were
on exhibit also for all of the members
to examine and read.

V a rio u s newspapers of the W e s t had

representatives present to photograph
groups o f foreign members and dele
gates for the official reports of the
Convention.
A t one o clock there was a meeting
of the G rand Councilors, while a very
large group of other members visited
the Rosicrucian Press building in the
business section of the city and were
escorted through all of the many de
partments and witnessed the August
issue of the Forum magazine being
printed and bound.
Betw een one and two in the a fte r
noon a special and newly invented air
plane circled around over Rosicrucian
P ark in a gesture of salutation and
dropped souvenirs in the form of p ara
chutes containing the American flag,
the Rosicrucian emblem, and the words,
W e l c o m e
Rosicrucians.
Airplane
views w ere also taken of Rosicrucian
P ark on this occasion and one of these
was published in the August issue of
this magazine.
D emonstrations in the Planetarium
and Science Building continued and
committees were very busy in various
rooms of the Administration Building
and in groups under trees and in shady
nooks preparing their reports for the
evening.
T h e evening session opened shortly
after seven thirty o clock and Chairman
W a l k e r introduced as a surprise for the
evening the world famous violinist, Jan
Kubelik, and his equally famous son,
Rafael, the eminent orchestra conductor
of Europe. T h e auditorium platform
had been especially arranged for them
and the enthusiastic greeting given to
these two wonderful musicians was im
pressive indeed.
A selection of eight
masterful numbers was rendered and at
the conclusion of this surprise program
when the applause was exceedingly
great, Jan Kubelik requested that the
Imperator go out on the stage between
him and his son, both of whom placed
their arms around the Imperator and
made quite evident their high esteem
T he
and respect for him.
Rosicrucian
A t the conclusion of this wonderful
Digest
period of marvelous, masterful music,
September S o ro r Clemens of Boston was again in
1936
troduced in order that she might bring

a special message to the assembly. Soror

Clemens concluded her message with a
request that the entire audience repeat
after her a famous old affirmation: I
will walk in mine own integrity. She
begged them to remember that this was
a special message from her heart. T h e
intensity of the vibrations at this time
was impressive in both a mental and
psychic way.
F r a te r H arvey M iles then followed
with a dialectical discourse entitled, A
Rational C oncept of G o d ." His talk
was thoroughly enjoyed b y the mem
bers and has already been reproduced
in on e o f the departments o f this m aga
zine so that all of our members and
readers may benefit by it.
T h e n Chairman W a l k e r introduced
Dr. A . Cartland Bailey, a former asso
ciate of Dr. Millikan and other eminent
scientists in the California Institute of
T e ch n o lo g y , and in recent y ears presi
dent of the faculty of the R o se -C ro ix
University. H e address was on the sub
ject of N ew Fields of S c ie n ce." His
brilliant and profound explanations of
the marvelous possibilities of scientific
achievement in the future were inspiring
to all.
T h e Chairman then announced that
in accordance with the constitution of
the O rd er and the customary procedure
of the Convention, the election of
G ran d Councilors for the coming year
was in order. H e read from the minutes
of the previous Convention the appoint
ment of a committee to recommend and
nominate persons for such election and
then called for the committes nomina
tions. Following the reading of these,
he called for nominations from the floor
of the Convention. W h e n the nomina
tions were completed, Deputy Grand
M a ste r Guidero made a motion that the
entire group of nominees be elected.
T h e motion was seconded and unani
mously carried. T h e s e elected Grand
Councilors for the coming year are:
T h o m a s Kuhn, W a sh in g to n , D. C., Jim
Blaydes, Dallas, T e x a s ; S. R. Landis,
Reading, Pennsylvania;
Dr. Stanley
Clark, T o ro nto , C anad a; Annie Laurie
Smith, Springfield, M assachusetts; Brian
M . C asey, St. Louis, Missouri; A. F o n t
de la Jara, S a n Juan, Porto Rico; Oliver
Hughes, T o p e k a, Kansas.
T h ree H un dred F ou rteen

F rate r W a l k e r then announced that

the Supreme G ran d Lodge had ap
pointed So ro r M a rie Clemens as In
spector-G eneral o f the N e w England
district for another year. T h e elected
officers and appointed In sp e cto r-G e n
eral were given an impressive ovation.
Reports from the various commit
tees were then called for by the C ha ir
man. F rater O . R a y Stevens, President
of the N ational D efen se Committee,
read an interesting report showing how
that committee had worked diligently
throughout the country to protect the
interests of the members on all occasions
when these interests were threatened by
unfair criticisms or legal actions. T h e
Convention generously applauded this
report and a motion w as made by So ro r
Crittenden that it be accepted. T h is
motion was seconded by So ro r Phillips
and unanimously voted into the C o n
vention report.
F ra te r Norris of N ew Y o rk State, as
president of the G rievance Committee,
read an interesting report of the recom
mendations and suggestions of his com
mittee and this was moved for accep t
ance b y F rate r Huntington and second
ed by Soror Hausermann and un
animously carried.
F ra te r Saunders of San Diego, presi
dent of the Resolutions Committee, read
a fine report of the activities of his co m
mittee throughout the week, outlining
the nature of many excellent resolu
tions that had been offered and empha
sizing the fact that not a single un
pleasant, unhappy, or critical resolu
tion had been offered to him. M otion
for its acceptance w as made by F ra te r
N aw joks, seconded by F ra te r Parks,
and was unanimously carried.
T h e 1937 Convention Committe then
read its report and this was unanimous
ly accepted. T h e n F ra te r Hammond of
N ew Jersey, president of the Admini
stration and W e l f a r e Committee, read
his report explaining how this volun
tarily organized committee of a large
number of business men and women had
carefully analyzed all of the administra
tion affairs of A M O R C , had gone over
all of the books and records, financial
systems, banking and commercial activi
ties, and had found no errors, nothing
to criticize, and no important recom
T h ree H undred F ifteen

mendations to make. A motion for the

acceptance of the report was made by
F ra te r Ruch, seconded by F ra te r B lac k well, and unanimously adopted by the
Convention.
A resolution was passed reaffirming
and approving the activities of the N a
tional Membership D efense Committee
with the same officers continuing their
excellent work for another year. A n
other resolution w as adopted recom
mending that the time, place, and con
ditions of the next annual Convention
be left to an appointed committee, and
that nominations for G ran d Councilors
for the y ear beginning at the C onven
tion in 1937 be submitted b y a special
committee.
Closing remarks were then made by
the Imperator commenting upon recom
mendations and suggestions that had
been made throughout the Convention
week and outlining the desires of the
administration to cooperate with every
recommendation that had been made
and promising a number of improve
ments and additions to the work. H e
thanked the Convention for the several
resolutions approving all the administra
tion's affairs and particularly for the
resolution that very carefully and defi
nitely affirmed certain specific as well
as general activities of the Board of
D irectors in the past years, and also for
the resolution of faith and trust in the
present administrative officers of the
organization.
A t 11:15 P . M . the Chairman an
nounced that all of the business sessions
of the Convention were closed and that
the entire program that had been out
lined and prepared for the Convention
had been duly completed, and that all
matters that had been brought to his
attention, to the attention of the various
committees, or submitted from the floor
by any member, delegate, or repre
sentative of the O rder, had been given
full and proper attention, and the C o n
vention unanimously endorsed his state
ments and accepted the closing as
proper and warranted.

T he Seventh D ay , Saturday, July 18

T h ro u gh o u t the entire day there were
no regular sessions in any of the build

ings at Rosicrucian Park, but the mem

bers were to be found in every nook and
corner of every part of the grounds co n
tinuing their social and educational dis
cussions and participating in further
demonstrations in the Auditorium and
the Planetarium.
A s evening approached, everyone
dressed and prepared for the occasion
of the beautiful banquet. T h is y ear the
official banquet was held in the new
Civic Auditorium where in a space that
could accommodate three thousand per
sons, long and beautifully appointed
tables were arranged giving everyone
ample space to see and hear b y means
of the microphone and public address
system that was provided. T h e banquet
opened at seven o clock with an invoca
tion and ended at nine o clock with the
announcement that the K e p h e r -R a Club,
composed of the employees of A M O R C ,
would conduct a dance until midnight
in the adjoining hall.

A s the Imperator and his wife and

other officers bade farewell at a little
after ten o'clock, there were hundreds
dancing to the rhythm of pleasing
music, and everywhere was heard the
joyous note of happiness and satisfac
tion because of the very peaceful, suc
cessful, and decisive work accomplished
at this important Convention.
F o r many days after the Convention
members continued to visit H e a d
quarters for interviews and to enjoy the
grounds and the many attractions that
bring visitors to Rosicrucian Park
throughout the year. O n c e more we
found that a large number had decided
to remain in California for an indefinite
period, principally in the vicinity of San
Jose, while a number of families decided
to purchase or rent homes and remain
here definitely, thereby adding to the
large colony of Rosicrucian member
gradually forming in this V a lle y of
H e a r ts Delight.
A nd now we are looking forward to
eleven months of intensive activity and
then another Convention.
In those
eleven months the A M O R C will un
questionably have a greater growth
than in any other early period in its
history. T h e new plans evolved, the
important decisions reached, the un
animous clearance of all the mooted
points, the w hole-hearted endorsement
of the administration and its activities,
and the enthusiastic support of the or
ganization vouchsafed by every member
present, has given the organization an
impetus, a swing, an incentive, as well
as a power and a force that will not be
stopped by any ordinary conditions.
T h e Convention Se cre tary salutes all
of the members who were not present
and instead of simply saying, I wish
you had been here, he says to you
now. I ll see you next Ju ly !

During the course o f the banquet

there were many humorous announce
ments, and brief addresses were made
not only by the officers but by depart
ment heads and their wives and asso
ciates. T h e A M O R C acapella choir
sang several numbers and the university
graduates sang their new university
song. It was the most elaborate and
beautiful and impressive convention
banquet ever given in the city of S a n
Jose and certainly the most beautiful
and impressive one ever given by
AM ORC.
A special gathering, composed of
those members who are going with the
Imperator and his wife to E g y p t on the
mystical cruise next February, was held
a fter the banquet. All were surprised
at the large number present who were
a part o f the registered cruise lists.
$
T H E R O S IC R U C IA N E G Y P T IA N T O U R

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
September
1936

W e have very good news to announce to all who have registered or contemplate going
with the Imperator and his family to E gypt and other mystical places early next year.
T h e Imperator has secured the use of the large and magnificent ship A quitan ia which
guarantees to the tourists many wonderful accommodations including a safe, steady
journey across the seas.
In addition, the Imperator has slightly modified the itinerary so that from three to five
days will be spent at both Paris and London, including sightseeing and many forms of
entertainm ent.
T he date of departure of the ship from New Y ork City has been definitely set for
February 18, which will take us into Paris and London during the beautiful springtime.
T here are still opportunities for registration. W rite to me for further information.
E G Y P T IA N T O U R S E C R E T A R Y .

!-!
T h ree H undred Sixteen

rftd c n lu

t h e

0'

A'

ANATOMY" OF
MELANCHOLY

)/
if 13.QtT t f J iht
cau&cs
oumnfemes pn'irr.tvfrc/(s/bgJsurnij} turd ijjif
In three Partitions vt nfk flicir^ several 1
Sections, members V subfechons
nail*,
Q t l l ( * - j . f : l l * * a t ! * /
cui-va %
^
fiu h .-n .u liu . event*

fiy

(pemaenha (Jununr .
a .S * fu r t a * J i

to flu
Jh e

fh tR t tlifa v n

p r e f* u

in j

C *m *u *u u

(Jiu c o u n e .
ii-m -a t n
uirnnr*-'

an*.1
.

Omne hd\f- fuintttim

J-U/ftMrtibnaau

+numx+*ate

cAT c V

iucersfttufu.%

fum tr-

T ^

illamdiuj

A R A R E R O S IC R U C IA N BO O K
T h e above is a photograph of the title page of a book published in 1628. T h e re w ere other editions at
later dates. T h e author uses the fictitious name of "D em ocritu s Junior.
In all R osicru cian records this
name is registered as that of the w ell-known R osicru cian Burton.
T h e title of the book is typical of those that w ere used to disguise the real nature of the book and its
su bject matter, often devised for the purpose of discouraging the casual inquirer from looking any further.
T he copies of this book are very scarce, but it is one of many preserved in the A M O R G vaults in San Jose.
T h is book is particularly important because on one of its early pages there is a footnote describing the
author of one of the quotations in it. T h is footnote reads: "V a le n t. A ndreas. Lord V eru lam ." T h e d iscov
ery of this footnote some y ears ag o substantiated the evidence of the title page shown above which reveals
many R osicrucian emblems and show s it to be a ty p ically secret R osicrucian publication. T h is conviction
is also confirmed by the w ater marks in the pages of the paper. T h e footnote proves beyond all question
that V alentine Andrea w as the name often used by Lord V erulam . otherw ise known as S ir F ran cis B acon.
T h is in itself proves that Andrea, the author of one of the first R osicru cian publications, was an agent and
representative of B acon, and that Bacon had the permission of A ndrea to use his name in various offi
cial w ays.
T h o se w ho are fam iliar with the Sh akespeare-R osicrucian symbolism in the Sh akespeare folios and
B acon publications will recognize the standing and seated figures in the central panels of the title page.
( C o u r t e s y o f T h e R o sicru cia n D ig e s t.)

Balked
By a Word!
Does a Definition Stand Between
You and Understanding? . . . .
Does the lack of meaning of strange words and terms block
your study progress? Do you find yourself caught in a web
of uncertainty as to the inner, esoteric significance of mys
tical phrases? Are you one of many who finds the common
dictionary inadequate in providing the true philosophical
interpretation of rare words? Do you know the Rosicrucian
definition of S p irit, C o s m ic , S o u l, C o s m ic C on scio u sn ess,
f o u r t h d im en sio n , h a r m o n iu m ,
sh e k in a h , e tc .?

Karm a,

Nous,

p r o je c tio n ,

Stop guessing at truths. Obtain the Rosicrucian Manual

and learn the proper meaning and use of all the unusual
mystical words of your monographs.

The Students Guide

Read between the lines of your lessons, by the aid of

the Rosicrucian Manual, the students guide book.
It is an encyclopedia of official Rosicrucian terms and
phrases. It also contains diagrams and explanations of
all symbols and outlines of the habits and customs of the
Order. Further, it has special instructive articles
on such topics as the Great White Lodge and
how to obtain psychic illumination. It is, in fact,
many books in one. Profusely illustrated, large,
bound in red silk cloth and stamped in gold, it is
a magnificent reference work for all Rosicrucian
students. It is priced, postpaid, at
O n l y $ 2 . 0 0 per co p y .

ROSICRUCIAN SUPPLY BUREAU

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

TH E PURPO SES OF

THE

M em ber o f
"F U D O S I
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societe3
In itiatiqu es)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

The Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. The purpose o f the organ i
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive,
Cosmic forces fo r the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
The Order is internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in America, and all other lands, constitutes the only form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation.
The AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
freely to all affiliated members, together w ith many other benefits.
Inquirers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are invited to send to r
the free book, 'Th e Secret H e rita g e ." Address, F ria r S. P. C., care o f
AM ORC T E M P L E
Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California, IT. S. A.
(Cable Address: "A M O R C O "
R adio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the N orth and South American Jurisdictions

(In clu d ing the United States, Dominion o f Canada. Alaska. M exico. Guatemala, Honduras. Nicaragua.
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f Am erica.)
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS . F. R. C.. Ph. D ............................................................................................... Im perator
C L E M E N T B. L E B R U N . F. R. C.................................................................................................Grand M aster
R A L P H M. L E W IS . F. R. C........................................
Supreme Secretary
H A R V E Y M IL E S . F. R. C
Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D . F. R. C
Secretary to Grand Master
H A R R Y L . S H IB L E Y , F. R. C.....................................................................................D irector o f Publications
Junior Order of Torch Bearers (sponsored b v A M O R C ). F o r complete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park, San Jose. California.

T h e follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

San Francisco, California:
Francis Bacon Lodge, 1655 Polk Street:
Mr. David Mackenzie, Master.
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. First Lodge. Ralph M. Ross, Master;
610 Arch Street.
New York City, New York;
Atlanta, Georgia:
New York Chapter, Rooms 35-36, 711 8th
Atlanta Chapter No. 650. Mrs. V . Cunning
Ave., cor. 8th Ave. and 45th Street. Mr. W .
ham, Sr., Master; Nassau Hotel. Meetings
J. Norris, M aster; M argaret Sharpe, Secre
7:30 every Thursday night.
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
Los Angeles, California:
days and Sundays. 1 to 8 p. m.
Hermes Lodge, A M O R C Temple. Mr. Dun
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
can G. W right, Master. Reading Room and
Delta Lodge No. 1, A M O R C , S. E. C orner
Inquiry office open daily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.
40th and Brown Sts., 2nd Floor. Mr. Albert
and 7:30 p.m . to 9 p.m . except Sundays.
Courtney, Master.
Granada Court, 672 South Lafayette Park
Place.
Benjamin Franklin Chapter of A M O R C ;
M r. James De Fulio, M aster; M artha Aitken,
B irm ingham , A la b a m a :
Secretary, 2203 15th Street. Meetings for
Birmingham Chapter of A M O R C For in
all members every second and fourth Sun
formation address Mr. M. J. Collins, Master.
days, 7:30 p.m.. at 1521 W est Girard Ave.
1516 So. 15th Ave.
(Second Floor, Room B ).
Chicago, Illinois:
Chicago Chapter No. 9. H. C. Blackwell,
Boston, Massachusetts:
Master; M abel L. Schmidt, Secretary. T e le
T he Marie Clemens Lodge, Chester A.
phone Superior 6881. Reading Room open
Robinson, Master. Temple and Reading
afternoons and evenings. Sundays 2 to 5
Rooms, 739 Boylston St., Telephone Kenonly. 100 E . Ohio St., R oom 403-404. L ec
more 9398,
ture sessions for A LL embers every T u es
Detroit, Michigan:
day night, 8:00 p. m.
Chicago Afra-American Chapter No. 10.
Thebes Chapter No. 336. Miss Ella A. MilO liver T . M cGrew, M aster;
Nehemiah
liman, Master;
Mrs. Pearl Anna Tifft,
Dennis, Secretary. Meeting every W ednes
Secretary. Meetings at the Florence Room,
day night at 8 oclock, Y . M. C. A., 3763 So.
Tuller Hotel, every Tuesday, 8 p. m. In
W abash Avenue,
quirers call dial phone No. 1870.
(D irecto ry Continued on N ex t P a g e )
Reading, Pennsylvania:
Reading Chapter. Mr. Carl Schlotzhauer,
Master; Mr. George R. Osman, Secretary.
Meeting every 1st and 3rd Friday, 8:00 p. m.,
W ashington Hall, 904 W ashington Street.

Portland, Oregon:
Portland Chapter. Floyd D. Cook, Master;
405 Orpheum Bldg. Meetings every Thurs
day, 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.
Washington, D. C.:
Thom as Jefferson Chapter.
Howard E.
Mertz, Master. Confederate Memorial Hall,
1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings every
Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Newark, New Jersey:

H. Spencer Lewis Chapter. Frank A. Ham
mond, M aster; for information address Sylvia
Kingsley, Secretary, 31 Leo Place.
Seattle, Washington:
A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter, Master:
Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry Street. Reading room open week
days 11 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Monday, 8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
Victoria, British Columbia:
Victoria Lodge. Mr. George A. Phillips.
Master. Inquiry Office and Reading Room,
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 10
a.m . to 6 p.m .
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
G. F. Gostick, Master, 361 M achray Ave.
Session for all members every
Sunday,
2:45 p. m., 304 " B Enderton Bldg., Portage
Ave. and Hargrave St.

Edmonton, Alberta:
F. G . Powell. Master. 9533 Jasper
' CnuL
Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
Miss Edith Hearn, Master. Sessions 1st and
3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00 p. m., No. 10
Lansdowne Ave.
Vancouver, British Columbia:
Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C .
Mrs.
Ethel M. W are, Master: H. B. Kidd, Secretary, A M O R C Temple, 878 Hornby Street.

SP A N ISH A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
T his jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and Administrative Office are located at San Juan, Puerto Rico, having local Represen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
The name and address of the Officers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce should b e ad d ressed as follow s:
Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O. Box 36, San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A F E W O F T H E F O R E IG N JU R ISD IC T IO N S
Scandinavian Countries:
T he A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.
Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand Master: Carli
Anderson, S. R. C Grand Secretary. Manogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sweden:
Grand Lodge "Rosenkorset." Anton Svanlund, F. R. C., Grand Master. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, Malmo.
Holland:
De Rozekruisers Orde; Groot-Lodge der
Nederlanden. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
Mile. Jeanne Guesdon. S.R .C ., Corresponding
Secretary for the Grand Lodge (A M O R C )
of France, 56 Rue Gambetta, Villeneuve
Saint Georges, (Seine & O ise).
Switzerland:
A M O R C Grand Lodge. August Reichel.
F. R. C., Gr. Sect., Riant-Port Vevey-Plan.
China and Russia:
The United Grand Lodge of China and Rus
sia. P .O . Box 513, Shanghai, China.
R O S IC R U C IA N P R E S S , L T D ..

New Zealand:
Auckland Chapter A M O R C . Mr. G. A.
Franklin, Master, 317 Victoria Arcade Bldg.
Queen St., City Auckland.
England:
T h e A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.
Mr. Raymund Andrea, K. R. C., Grand
Master, 34 Baywater Ave., W estbury Park,
Bristol 6.
Dutch and East Indies:
Dr. W . T h . van Stokkum, Grand Master:
W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang, Java.
Egypt:
The Grand Orient of A M O R C . House of the
Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia, Heliopolis.
Africa:
The Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast.
A M O R C . Mr. W illiam Okai. Grand Master,
P. O. Box 424 Accra, Gold Coast, W est
Africa.
T h e ad d resses o f other foreign G ran d Lodges
and secretaries will b e fu rn ished on application.
a

P R IN T E D IN U . S . A .

ofH evitation
Indias Secret Control of N atures Forces
It all seemed so uncanny. T h e tense atmosphere, the throbbing pulsations, as
though an electrical current were passing through your body. T h en, suddenly, before
your eyes, the body of the subject to whom you had spoken but a few moments
before, rises rigidly, horizontally, from the stone floor upon which it rested. Your
senses reel, as you realize that this body, this weight is rising without any physical
support. ^ ou involuntarily shake yourself, as if to awake from a dream. T h is cannot
be possible, you think, this control of natural law. It must be illusionary. T o con
firm your suspicions you thrust your hand into the cold vapor-like substance which
surrounds the rising form. Your hand passes freely about it, you encounter nothing.
It is true, you gasp, the body is levitated suspended in space.
So Jam es D . W a rd , physician, world traveler, and metaphysician, described an
experience in one of Indias mystery monasteries. He was one of the few occidentals
ever to be permitted to witness this feat. Scientists have scoffed at actual suspended
animation, but have never been able to satisfactorily explain the phenomena. T h e
secret principle is used in the O rient, not for theatrical effects, but for mystical
purposes. D r. W a r d s remarkable discourse on the use of this strange power, en
titled, Suspended Animation, is available as a special gift at this time.
D r. W a rd , on numerous occasions, was honored by the mystics of the O rient
because of hiskeen insight into their ways and customs, and the integrity of the
author is therefore unquestioned.

FREE This Manuscript

Every new subscriber to "The Rosicrucian D igest will re
ceive this exceptional premium no extra cost whatever. Just
send a six-m onths subscription to T h e Rosicrucian D igest
for only $1.50 and ask for your F R E E copy of the highly inter
esting manuscript, Suspended A nim ation, by Dr. Jam es D.
W a rd . Address:

T/ie ROSICRUCIAN DIGEST

San

Jose,

C aliforn ia,

U.S.A.

<rRgsicrucian Library
The following books are a few of several recommended because of the special knowledge they
Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.

contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere.

Volume II. ROSICRUCIAN PRINCIPLES FOR THE HOME AND BUSINESS.

A very practical book dealing with the solution of health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume III. THE MYSTICAL LIFE OF .lESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life of the
G reat Master, from the records o f the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation of Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V. UNTO THEE I GRANT . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f T ibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the P a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
with attractive cover. P rice, $1.25 per copy, post paid.

Volume VI. A THOUSAND YEARS OF YESTERDAYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and mystic lessons. T h is unusual book has-been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume VII. SELF MASTERY AND FATE, WITH THE CYCLES OF LIFE.
A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. B etter than any system o f num erology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VIII. THE ROSICRUCIAN M ANUAL.

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student w ork o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume XI. M ANSIONS OF THE SOUL. THE COSMIC CONCEPTION.

The complete doctrines of reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
Illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

W ell

Volume XII. LEM URIA THE LOST CONTINENT OF THE PACIFIC.

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K n ow o f their vast knowledge, much of which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X III.

T H E TEC H N IQ U E O F T H E M A ST E R .

T he newest and most complete guide fo r attaining the state of Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittan ce, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY BU REA U ,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , California.

THE INSTITUTION BEHIND THIt ANNOUNCEME

PERF UME
UJ

OF THE

SOUL

I fie (indents attributed directly to di\ine source everything which

to the liuruan senses seemed fieri eel tlie fragrance ol llowers. llie sweetsmelling early morning' air. tin* tang ol Ilie sea. the mysterious scent of
strange herbs.

Ifiese pleasing odors wore associated with tin* di\ine

being ol the gods.

Lven llie soul was tbouglil to have a fragrance ol its

own far superior to anything else wbicb man could ever

sin <*11. In tfie sacred temples herbalists would mix secret
potions and compound rare incenses which were thought
to ap proach the divine fragrance ol the soul.

I he one

compounding the most exquisite scent b ecam e a favored

person with pharaoh and high priest alike.

1 hey paid

homage and sought his serv ic es.

It was believed that an inhalation ol llie stented fumes
would lilt the soul to greater heights.

It is known that

Sanctum Incense

rare incenses will aid

harmony ol

I rut i a M o ss R o se S( cut.
Espo< iafl\
<oiupnunded
lor m editation purposes.
C onsists ol tw elve la rg e

senses, and lor this reason the Rosicrucians have hail,

in producing

the

specially prepared, an incense that is quiet and sooth

ing and most

sjou burning ruJ>rs.

helpful

lor meditation purposes.

C on-

sidering its quality, it is oxtremelv low priced at 65 cents,

Only 6 5 r per box

Send order and remittance to:

postpaid

T h e

postpaid, lor a box o I tvvel v e slow burning large cubes.

R O S I C R U C I A N

ROSICRUCIAN

PARK

S U P P L Y
SAN

B U R E

JOSE.

A U

CALIFORNIA

COLOM BE THELM A
T h e above is a late photograph of Suprem e Colom be T helm a, a member of the official
staff of the Suprem e G rand Lodge of A M O R C . Colom be T h elm a has been of such valued
assistance to the unfortunate w ho have appealed to the
Council of S o lace of A M O R C for so
many years that she has won a host of friends in this
work as in her other official duties at
our C onventions and special initiatory cerem onies. Hundreds of our members throughout the
country in appreciation of her services are contributing small sums to a special fund to send
Colombe T h elm a with the touring party next w inter on
the tripto the H oly Land.

Courtesy of The Rosicrucian Digest.

PLAY YOUR TRUE PART IN LIFE

J_TAS Life been casting you in the role

of worry and strife? Have circumstances been masking

-* you witb fear and doubt about what tomorrow will bring? D o you lind it difficult to bring
to the front your old spirit of buoyancy and conlidence you once had? Are your words of assur
ance to Iriends and relatives but hollow mockeries of your true feelings?
Let me tear from you this mask of uncertainty. Let me show you life as it really can be, with
you playing the lead . . . dominant and
rnasterful.
I am not a miracle worker, but I can bring
about a transformation in you. You still
retain the
inherent forcesof your mind, the creative
genius of your inner intelligence. T h e real you is not gone. It has been stnpified, deadened by the
shock of changing conditions. I can bring back in you a renewed mental energy the ability
to pia n, create, and master your life. 1 c anno t give you these powers, no man can, but through
the unusual knowledge and age-old principles taught by tl ie Rosicrucians, 1 can reawaken and
develop the real you, the self you have never known or used.

Let This Sealed Book Reveal The Real You

Chall enge these statements, if you wish, by
writing today for the Free Sealed Book. It has
within its pages a warm, cordial message of
fellowship, hope, and inspiration. No man or
woman can be raised to tfie higher places in
life without their effort. If you are willing, how
ever, to do half of what is necessary to bring
about a change in your life, then write today
lor this I'ree Sealed Book. I can assure you that
in a few weeks from now your view-point of life
wi II be so changed that you will not be able to
recognize your old ways of living and thinking.

W r it e today for this hook which w ill tell you

how you may obtain these startling principles
for the unmasking of your mind.
S crib e S . P. ( . i lit- Rosi< n ician s ( A M O R C )
S a n Jo s e , ( alifornin.
P le a s e send m e, w ithout obligation, the l're e St taletl
Book w hich exp lain s how I may obtain the secret
principles lor the unm asking of my mind.
X a n te .

.Addre;

S C R I B E S. B . C .

<r7heRosicrucians
lA M O R C j

ROSICRUCIAN PARK, SAN JOSE,CALIF.

THE

O N LY

O R G A N IZ A T IO N

IN

A M E R IC A

P E R P E T U A T IN G

THE

O R IG IN A L

(R o s ic r u c ia n s h a v e a ll h a d this h o o k .)

R O S IC R U C IA N

T E A C H IN G S

essbebsbes

m E m tZ T M

ROSICRUCIAN

DIGEST
I5335EE33B

COVERS THE WORLD

TH E O FFIC IAL IN TER N A TIO N A L BO SICBUCIAN MAGA

ZINE O F T H E W O R LD -W ID E BO SICBUCIAN ORDER
Vol. X IV

raaH flM

O C T O B E R , 1936

No. 9

CONTENTS

Page

C olom be Thelma (Frontispiece) ..........................

321

The Thought of the M onth: A dult Education

324

Don'ts for Rosicrucians

328

C athed ral C ontacts

333

..................

Summaries of Science

335

A Demonstration of Faith

339

Light from China

340

A n cien t Symbolism

343

Pages from the Past

344

W h y Spiritual O rders N eed Mundane Authority

348

Sanctum Musings: H appiness ......................

A P r a y e r ..............

351
. 356

A Rare Book of Value to Rosicrucians (Illustration) 357

Subscription to The Rosicrucian Digest, T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw enty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the P ost Office at San
Jose, California, under the Act o f August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the month
preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official ex
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.

P ublished M onthly by the Suprem e Council of

THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDERAMORC

TO W

BO SICBUCIAN P A B K

rT E H H h T

SAN JO SE, CALIFORNIA

S T flV lA -ftT IN

NE
of the last
t h i n g s , perhaps,
that anyone should
suggest to the av
erage adult is that
he needs some a d
ditional education.
It is strange how
the average adult
will resent the in
sinuation or inti
mation that he can
l e a r n something
more, and yet G od
help the individual who thinks that he
has learned all he needs and has com
pleted his education. F ortunately for
America and the W e s t e r n W o r l d gen
erally, the progressive nations have a t
tained their progressive situation through
the wide-spread acknowledgment on the
part of the average human being that he
needs more education. T h e growth and
development of the public- library sy s
tems in the W e s t e r n W o r ld constitute
one outstanding proof of this self-reali
zation and magnificent way in which
advantage is taken of golden opportu
nities to attain or acquire that additional
education.
And of all the interesting w ays that
have developed in the W e s t e r n W o r ld
in recent years for enabling the adult
man or woman to add to the store
house of necessary knowledge, the most
popular and really the most efficient
method for the amount of time and
The
money involved is that of the new form
R osicru cian of adult education offered by the high
D igest
schools and state colleges.
O c to b e r
W it h in the last few days 1 have had
the opportunity of visiting one of the
1936

high schools in the locality of San Jose

where adults were registering for the
fall and winter free courses. E ach regis
trant is required to pay one dollar and
this permits him or her to take one, two,
three, or more courses of study through
out the fall and winter. O n the occassion of my visit I found many hundreds
of men and women of every walk of life
and of every social standing and of
every degree of education waiting to
register and become a part of the great
educational classes that were being
formed. I can imagine little boys o b
serving the line of registration saying
to themselves, " O h , look. Papa and
M am a are going to school a g ain !" And
that is really as it should be.
Unless an adult does go to school
again, he is sure t j find himself very
early in the prime of life more ignorant
and more unqualified to proceed with
life than he ever suspected. Y o u cannot
acquire any kind of an education to
any point or degree of scholarliness and
stop at that point and say, " I have now
acquired all that is necessary in the
form of knowledge." Even if such a
thing could be true on the day of ending
the course of study, it would not be
true tw enty-four hours later because in
those tw enty-four hours more things
could be discovered in science, litera
ture. art. the professions, mechanics and
trades than one person could learn about
and analyze and become familiar with in
a whole year's course of study.
Knowledge, like matter itself, is co n
stantly becoming. Y o u cannot put your
finger on any piece of matter whether
the page of this magazine or the top of
the table or chair where you are seated.
T h ree H undred T w en ty-fou r

or on a morsel of food, a beam of sun

light, a bucket of water, or a large piece
of machinery and say, " T h i s is it; this
constitutes a certain kind of classifica
tion of matter. W h i l e you are saying
the words the rates of vibration fluc
tuate and the piece of matter is starting
to become something else. It may revert
or so improve or change its vibrations
as to become something else in a mo
ment. M a tte r is alw ays on the w ay to
being something different. It is co n
stant change in the rate of vibrations of
matter that gives motion and life and
makes matter manifest itself.
T h e same is true of knowledge. It is
the evolution of knowledge, the new
application of it, a newer realization of
it and the modifying of it into new
ideas and new thoughts that makes
knowledge a useful thing and a t the
same time reveals to us our lack of
knowledge.
B o o k knowledge acquired academi
cally and never applied becomes not an
asset but a liability. A curriculum com
pleted in college or university even when
it results in examinations that give a
grade as high as 80 or 90 is merely a
white elephant locked in the brain or
set on top of the head which we carry
around with us as dead weight unless
we apply that knowledge and use it
constructively not only for ourselves
but for the benefit of others. T h e y say
there is nothing as useless as an elec
tric cleaner, the sort of vacuum cleaner
that is used in the home, if it stands
in the closet and is never applied in a
manner to perform its proper function
ing. It is just a mass of machinery tak
ing up space and neither ornamental
nor beneficial.
It is when w e come to apply w hat
knowledge we have attained that we
run face to face with problems which
reveal to us that there is still some
knowledge which we do not possess, and
some knowledge that is in the process
of being revealed or unfolded and which
we must add to our present knowledge
if we would keep up-to-date or make
w hat we previously had of some value
to you.
In the long line of persons registering
in the adult classes there were those
who had completed a professional course
of study and had graduated as physi
T h ree H un dred T w en ty -fiv e

cians, surgeons, dentists, engineers, elec

tricians, and even good cooks and
housewives. T h e extension of knowl
edge is not only automatic but sy ste
matic and if voluntary cooperation is
not used in complying with the demands
of the system, knowledge is attained
haphazardly and becomes of little value.
T h e professional man who may have
passed a high examination in the spe
cific courses of his selected study is sure
sooner or later to realize that there are
allied subjects so interlaced with his
own profession that without a knowl
edge of these subjects his professional
development is incomplete.
O n the
other hand, there is a business man who
may have attained great acumen in the
secret practices of his trade but who
finds he is incompetent to meet with
and deal with average intelligent per
sons unless he is ready and prepared
to discuss the important matters of the
day and to keep abreast of the achieve
ments of knowledge in all science de
partments and in the fields of literature,
art, travel, music, etc.
I found in these registration lines
those who were seeking to secure some
fundamental knowledge of psychology
and its application either professionally
or in the affairs of life generally. A nd
who can deal with the human problems
of this day and understand the complex
situations politically, economically, and
otherwise, without coming face to face
with matters that can be solved only
by a knowledge of the fundamentals of
psychology? A n d there were those who
were determined to perfect themselves
in some of the fine arts in order that as
hobbies or spare-time indulgences they
might not only occupy themselves pleas
antly but profitably. T h e n there were
those who like members of the ancient
school of philomathics simply loved
knowledge for the sake of revelling in
its power and its magnificence of uni
versal influence.
I found that a large portion of the
men and women seeking this free edu
cation of a limited nature were anxious
to take up brief courses of study in
w hat would add ^o their cultural refine
ment and intellectual prowess. I heard
one of the professors, an eminent au
thority, stating that there is nothing that
will build up a persons jo y in living and

a persons power to attract and influence

people like the study and practice of
personal hygiene and the development
of a refined and cultured personality.
It used to be said that next to godli
ness is cleanliness and we might para
phrase this by saying the third point of
the triangle is that of culture culture
of the mind, body, thinking processes,
of all actions and of all habits and ten
dencies.
T h i s is precisely the work of the great
school of Rosicrucianism, If there is
any one thing that distinguishes one in
dividual from another outside of neat
personal appearance, it is the m anifesta
tion of intellectual assets. O n e can go
too far in overdressing with clothes
that will be impressive. O n e can wear
just too much jew elry to make the
proper imoression of wealth and social
position. But one can never go too far
in exhibiting intelligence, for along with
intelligence comes an understanding of
its purpose, application, and the proper
cultural refinement in its use. N o one
can have so much education that he
overuses it or misuses it.
N ot only does knowledge beget
power, as the ancients learned and have
advised us, but it begets many of the
blessings of life that are unsuspected.
N ot many months ago I stood in one
o f the night courts of C alifornia w atchinq the unfortunates who w ere arrested
and picked up on the streets and who
were brought into the court for prelim
inary hearincr before being assigned to
cells in a prison to await trial. T h e
night courts were developed for the pur
pose of avoiding the unfortunate co n
dition of placing in a cell for a night
or a night and a day those who were
w ronglv or unjustly suspected of some
wronq-doing and who should have a
proper trial before being released. In
many instan es those w ho are suspected
and arrested are instantly freed and are
saved the mbarrassment as well as the
extremely depressive experience of beinq confined to a cell to await trial at
a later hour. A nd whil I was watching
those who were called upon and brought
The
R osicru cian before the judge by the police officers,
I noted that in every case where an in
D igest
telligent person had some degree of cul
O c to b e r
ture or refinement, more consideration,
1936
more leniency, was given in the exam

ination. I do not mean bv this that the

intelligent and cultured evil-doer was
shown leniency in regard to punishment
for his crime, but he was given more
opportunity to explain his unfortunate
situation and was given more courteous
treatment simply because in some subtle
manner that perhaps the judges and the
police themselves did not notice for the
moment, the officers were influenced by
the culture, refinement, and education
of the individual automatically to show
him or her more consideration.
It is not true that the cultured person
cannot do evil or that the highly edu
cated and refined evil-doer should be
forgiven on the basis that the King
can do no w ro n g, or that the cultured
creatures of society should have special
privileges. But it is true that the more
intelligent and cultured an individual
is, the more unlikely will he indulge in
evil and the more likely will he be able
to explain away a situation that is un
fortunate or suspicious. It is simply that
intelligence enables an individual who
is in the complicated situation to under
stand his predicament and to meet it
more than half w ay and to show how
and why he is guiltless or innocent and
merely involved hrouqh circumstances.
Certainly a study of the cases in courts
reveals that the man who is ignorant and
deliberatelv inclined to shun culture, re
finement, and education as being un
necessary things in life, involved himself
in sad situations and unfortunate con
ditions by the bias, prejudice, and ig
norant beliefs he holds. H e enters a
court of trial with a prejudice against
the person who suspected him, with
malice toward the officers who arrested
him, with suspicion of the fairness and
justice of the court who will hear him,
and with radical criticism of the whole
form of government. From the moment
that he begins to explain the situation
or answers questions, he entangles him
self deeper and deeper in the net that
has fallen upon him.
S o many persons think that the use
of strong adjectives, even profane ones,
the bombastic ejaculations o f a loud
voice, the hammering of the fist, or the
making of wild gestures enable them to
emphasize or carry over to the mind
of another the points of their arguments.
T h e truth of the matter is that these
T h ree H un dred T w en ty-six

things are tell-tale marks of ignorance,

the lack of culture and refinement, and
therefore the proper signs of weakness
to yield to evil temptations. Again I
would warn my readers not to think that
I am implying that ignorance carries
with it alw ays an easy spirit to sin, or
that the uneducated person is criminal
at heart and weak in that stamina which
makes for good character.
But the most powerful form of ora
tory is that which is refined in tone
and quality, void of almost all gestures,
and psychologically expressed so as to
allow the ones who are listening to put
into the argument their own degrees of
emphasis and their own interpretations.
O n e of the most profoundly impressive
psychological actresses whom I have
known, outside of Sarah Bernhardt, was
one who was able to recite Little B o y
B lu e and move the entire audience to
the deepest emotions, even tears, with
out arising from her chair or making a
single gesture with her hands or raising
her voice unduly throughout the entire
recitation. W e must remember that he
who knows retains to himself the glory,
the assurance, the confidence, and the
power of his knowledge. W h e n one
knows, and know s that he knows, one
can remain quite passive and coolly col
lected throughout the most trying situ
ation. It is like one who holds the trump
card in his hand and passively waits for
the end of the game when he may qui

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

T h ree H un dred T w en ty -sev en

etly and without ostentation lay his

trump on the table and clear the deck.
T h o s e who are acquainted with even
the fundamentals and the profound
principles of life and the great mysteries
and great laws that can be used in
emergencies have no need for the outer
show of physical power, nor for a dom
inating voice that might tend to frighten
animals but can do nothing but raise
question and doubt in the minds of other
beings. Such a person is familiar with
the means w hereby he can immediately
and most efficiently protect himself and
have his best i n v e s t s preserved intact.
T h e true Rosicrucian is not one who is
widely educated with a smattering of
many subjects, nor one who is so in
tensely educated that he becomes a
walking encyclopedia of all the import
ant facts of the universe; but he is one
who is well cultured in fundamentals
and has used tl-ese to evolve and perfect
the cultural evolution, the refined pre
sentation, and the masterful control of
himself and his personal affairs. Such a
person is never fearful o f the outcome
of an y test or trial, is never confused
by the complexity of situations, never
confounded by the threats and chal
lenges of those w ho are without his
knowledge and is alw ays at home and
at peace with his peers those who like
himself know the fundamental truths of
life and possess the keys to power.

FORUM

Donts for Rosicrucians

AN ADDRESS GIVEN A T THE 1936 CONVENTION
By

S o ro r E th e l

N P R E V IO U S
years, during our
C o n v e n t i o n ses
sions, it has been
our practice to tell
you w h a t to do,
as Rosicrucians, in
o r d e r to attain
development of the
inner or psychic
powers, and how
to do it.
T h i s y e a r we
have decided to
approach the subject from a different
angle tell you w hat not to do and why.
In other words, we are going to give
you the D o n ts F o r R osicrucians.
N o w according to pedagogy, psycho
logy, and a number o f other ologies
and isms," the word dont should be
eliminated from our vocabulary entire
ly. Y o u are ah familiar with the claims,
and with a good deal of substantiating
facts back of those claims, that to say
d ont to a child is to immediately en
gender in the heart and mind o f that
child an intense desire to do the dont
dos . B ut then w e are no longer chil
dren we hope.

The
R osicru cian
D ig est
O c to b e r

1936

N o w our first d o n ts are for the

Neophyte: Don't come into the O rd er
and start the journey on the Rosicrucian
path with the idea that everything is
going to be smooth sailing; that whereas
previously you were struggling for a

B.

W ard

bare living, perhaps envious of those

who had plenty, miserably unhappy and
broken in health, now that you have had
your application for membership ac
cepted and are receiving the preliminary
instructions are a member of the great
Rosicrucian Brotherhood your troubles
a re over and all you need to do now is
read your lessons, following instructions
more or less religiously, and wait for
things to happen, for prosperity, good
health, and hanoiness to be automatical
ly poured out upon you by the Cosmic
Hosts. O h, no! In the first place the
years of wrong thinking and wrong
acting, perhaps right up to the time you
received your first instructions, have
built up a wall of Karma which you
alone can tear down and the tearing
down process is painful. T h e path of
the N eophyte is full of pitfalls and
stumbling-blocks and the more sincere
he is, the harder he tries to live the new
laws he is learning, the more difficult
becomes his path. I ts easy to drift with
the tide or downstream, but have you
ever tried to beat back aqainst the tide
or swim upstream ? It takes real effort
and you may become bruised and b a t
tered on your way.
Don't be fooled, either, if in some
miraculous w ay everything does seem
to smooth out for you immediately after
affiliating with the Brotherhood, and
think that your path from then on is to
be strewn with roses. Y o u may pass
successfully through the three Neophyte
T h ree H un dred T w en ty-eight

degrees, riding on the crest of the

waves.
Some members report such
marvelous demonstrations in their per
sonal affairs immediately following their
acceptance into the O rd er and such
satisfactory results in the experiments
all through the N eoph yte degrees, then
when they enter the first T em ple de
grees many find that the whole bottom
seems to have fallen out and they are
left to flounder around trying to grasp
this law or that principle and make it
work. T h e y write to us saying, W h a t
is w rong? During the N eophyte work
I seemed to be having wonderful results
with the experiments and now that I am
taking some of them up again I can a c
complish nothing. During the N eophyte
degrees my personal affairs were mira
culously straightened out and now I am
rapidly losing ground. W h a t have I
done, or what am I doing, that is
w ro ng?
W h i l e it may be a difficult thing to
do, such a student should be thankful
for these periods of shadow, these
stumbling-blocks. Could you ever reach
the high mountain peak by traveling
only on the smooth plain or valley? A nd
is the climb to the summit ever an easy
one? But, oh, what a thrill when we
reach the top! W h a t satisfaction there
is in attainment! B ut look, we have not
yet reached the highest point. Just b e
yond is another peak gleaming and
scintillating in the great light of Cosmic
love and understanding! W i l l you give
up now and be satisfied to wait for a n
other cycle of life to start at the bottom
again and retrace your steps, or will you
press on, taking the tumbles and the
periods when you must pass through
dark tunnels or deep canyons where you
can scarcely find your w ay, confident
that if you continue on in the path that
is marked out, doing your very best
until the end, you will ultimately reach
the last and highest peak?
Y o u h avent lost anything. T h e N e o
phyte degrees have served their purpose
and you are now starting on a slightly
different angle o f the journey. Y o u r
development is still going on within, for
let me assure you it is absolutely im
possible for any member or student of
the Rosicrucian Brotherhood to sincere
ly devote himself to the study and ap
plication of Rosicrucian principles with
T h ree H un dred T w en ty-n in e

out making definite progress on the

path, without assisting his Soul in its
unfolding. Suppose you d on t see visions
or hear the music of the Spheres! Su p
pose you d o n t succeed in creating all
the colors in the candle aura; suppose
you d o have difficulty with the oil drops
and match on the w ater experiments
and other similar experiments. Y o u will
succeed in all of these experiments at
least to some degree in time, and while
you are doing your very best, with
earnest desire and sincerity of purpose,
there is that gradual inner awakening,
that slow but safe stirring into action of
various centers, and that marvelous attunement with Cosmic Consciousness
and Divine law, which will give you that
quickness of perception, those almost
uncanny inner impressions which m ay
enable you to see the solution of some
problem that a few years back would
have been too much for you; or if that
problem or experience is a form of com
pensation and there seems to be no im
mediate solution to it, you will find
yourself fortified with a calmness, an
inner poise and strength borne of a
knowledge of these Divine laws and
principles, which will astonish those
around you. Y o u will come through that
experience with a mellowness and rich
ness of understanding which will be
come part o f your Soul personality and
make it unnecessary for you to ever e x
perience the same trial again.
N o w another don't for the Neophyte:
D on t be impatient. S o many in the
N e o p h y te degrees and, also, in the
first few T e m p le degrees, feel that they
are not receiving the work fast enough.
P erh ap s they h a v e
studied N e w
T h o u g h t, Y o g i teachings, Christian
Science, or the teachings o f some other
school of metaphysics in which a few
principles similar to those presented in
the first degrees are to be found, and
they feel they are wasting time by go
ing over familiar ground, although we
know absolutely that nothing they have
studied was presented just as it is in the
Rosicrucian teachings and with such
definite results. B ea r in mind that the
system of presenting the teachings o f
A M O R C the gradual leading of the
student step b y step guarantees safety
and a substantial awakening and devel
opment. W h e r e would be the gain or

point in giving a student, say in the

first degrees, the laws and principles
pertaining to projection with the various
experiments and exercises for develop
ing the power to project the psychic
self, the Soul personality, at will? In the
first place, nine out of ten would not
know what we were talking about and
certainly would not get anyw here with
the experiments because they had not
covered the ground necessary to de
velop other faculties leading up to pro
jection. It is true that a few may have
come into this cycle with some of the
inner faculties fairly well developed, but
they may not have developed certain
others equally as important and neces
sary before they are ready for pro
jection. M a n y such persons may take
up the study of occult and metaphysical
laws presented by some schools which
boast of short-cuts and become the
sadly unbalanced creatures we meet
everywhere and who even occasionally
end up in a padded cell. It is much
better to proceed slowly and safely.
Som e students complain that we take
them just so far along a certain line of
thought, with a certain type of exercise
and experiment, and then jump to
som ething else." as they put it some
thing which seems entirely irrelevant,
the former subject perhaps being of
special interest to them, and they are all
upset about it.
N o w there is a definite reason for
such a procedure. F o r instance, you will
find that any good vocal teacher who is
working for a certain quality or place
ment in the voice of his student, will
very often keep that student on a ce r
tain number or vocal exercise, or even
just a part of a piece of vocal music for
a little while, and sometimes for a long
while, and then suddenly have him lay
it aside and take up something else en
tirely different. T h a t is done for a defi
nite purpose and the teacher knows
w h at he is doing. I am sure our good
So ro r V io let C owger, who is in charge
of our Departm ent of M usic, will agree
with me when I say that the student
must have faith in his teacher and
The
R osicru cian follow absolutely, if he wishes to obtain
best results. It naturally follows that
D igest
one should seek out the proper teacher.
O c to b e r
T h e fact that A M O R C is presenting
the teachings of the oldest schools as
1936

well as the latest developments of the

oldest laws, all of which have been test
ed and proven to bring the best results
in the safest manner, should give you
absolute confidence and faith as well as
a willingness to abide by the require
ments and direction of your teachers.
M y next d on t is concerning experi
ments and exercises, and this applies to
advanced students as well as N e o
phytes. D o n t strain or strive too hard
in any attempt to perform an experiment
or practice an exercise. T o do so means
only that you will fail to obtain the re
sults you desire and perhaps cause a not
dangerous but unpleasant physical re
action. T o strain and strive with an e x
periment keeps you in a predom inantly
objective state which most certainly is
not conducive to satisfactory results in
psychic experiments. F o r instance, when
concentrating upon the candle flame in
an effort to see its aura, if you stare and
strain the eyes and nerves in your in
tense desire to see w hat you have per
haps been told by some other student
may be seen, or which has been sug
gested in the lesson, I assure you dis
appointment, a headache, or smarting
eyes will more than likely be your only
result. O n the other hand, if you will
maintain a relaxed state and look at
that candle flame or any other object
around which you are trying to see the
aura, in a dreamy almost indifferent
manner, with partly closed eyes, utterly
relaxed, body and mind, you will soon
become predominantly subjective, which
is the only state or condition under
which the aura or any psychic mani
festation may be sensed.
W i t h further reference to the experi
ments and exercises, whether they be
for the purpose of demonstrating some
law or principle presented in the mono
graph, or for the purpose of bringing
about some definite result or condition
in connection with developing certain
psychic centers or causing some reaction
in the psychic realm, d o n t fret or worry
if at first you seem to have no success.
A s we have said again and again, it is
very difficult and sometimes practically
impossible for one to judge his own
psychic progress and development, and
although you may fail to see or hear or
feel any psychic manifestations for a
long time, you may rest assured, if you
T h ree H un dred Thirty

are following instructions and are in

earnest, development and progress are
taking place. E v ery time you co n cen
trate your gaze upon a candle flame or
any object, excluding all other objective
thoughts and senses to the best of your
ability; every time you concentrate your
thoughts upon any one of the psychic
centers with the desire to awaken it, to
the exclusion of all other thoughts;
every time you pronounce a vowel
sound for some definite purpose or do
any of the various exercises and experi
ments given throughout the degrees, you
not only develop the power to concen
trate, but you also do gradually bring
about that definite purpose for which
the exercise or experiment was given.
Suppose you do fail to achieve or attain
the exact results for which that particu
lar exercise or experiment was given, in
this cycle of existence it isnt your last
chance. Besides, perhaps in this cycle
you are for the first time making definite
effort to awaken your inner self. P e r
haps most of your past cycles have been
spent in ignoring the inner urges in
refusing even to acknowledge the pos
sibility of an inner man. All this cannot
be overcome in a few months, a few
years, or even in the short period of one
lifetime. Y o u have eons of time in which
to accomplish all that is possible for man
to do and rise to the heights possible
for him to attain. T o w orry and fret
because you feel you are failing to meet
with results some students experience
certainly does not help you along and is
more than liable to retard your progress
and attainment of the very results you
are worrying about.
T h is leads us to another important
d ont!" Don't neglect your health. A
weak, diseased body certainly will re
tard your attainment not only in psychic
development but in every other field.
F o r this reason the fundamental health
principles known to Rosicrucians down
through the ages are given in the early
degrees. If your health is not what it
should be, it is your duty to first find
out the source or cause of the pain or
condition of D I S E A S E which is only
n atu res w ay of warning you that all is
not well in the temple housing the inner
man. If you are unable to ascertain the
cause of the disturbance yourself, then
consult someone skilled in that kind of
T h ree H un dred T h irty -on e

work. T h e n use the most sensible and

natural method of removing the cause
and repairing the damage. T h e method
used would naturally vary with different
cases.
D o n t think for one moment that to
abuse or ignore the body and its needs,
or to submit it to deprivation and suf
fering tends to induce or produce spirit
uality that is one of the most ridicu
lous teachings ever promulgated. It goes
without saying that one who thinks only
of the flesh and its desires and caters
only to the cravings of the physical,
mortal being, lacks spirituality but how
long does such a one retain perfect
health? No, a perfect physical body is
much more conducive to spiritual growth
and attainment, and one who has aw a k
ened his inner self through his own e f
forts should also look to the well-being
of the outer, physical self, if he wishes
to maintain the proper functioning of
those awakened inner powers. T h is is
of great importance. O n e cannot ignore
or neglect the one without injuring or
retarding the growth of the other.
N o w in your search for spirituality,
inner, psychic growth, or whatever you
may term it, d o n t lose your sense o f
balance. Along with your desire and
search for spiritual or inner understand
ing and power, be practical; keep your
feet on the ground. Y o u are still living
on the physical plane, in a physical
body. B e rational and normal in your
living and remember that while you may
not own anything, not even the talents
you have received as a reward for e x
perience, you will be held responsible
for the manner in which you use them.
T h e re fo re , use your own judgment and
ability to reason; do your own thinking.
N o w for a few special donts for
the advanced student. Because you have
reached an advanced degree, that is, re
ceived the weekly lessons for five, six,
or seven years, or even ten or fifteen
years, dont sit back and rest on your
oars, feeling that you have done all that
is necessary that you need only read
the monographs when and as you are
disposed, allowing them to pile up at
times perhaps and making no special
effort to apply the great laws learned
earlier in the degrees. D o n t feel that
you have accomplished the purpose for
which some of the earlier experiments

and exercises were given and it is no

longer necessary to practice and apply
the laws presented in some of those e x
periments, but that you need only drift
along now on a smooth sea and wait for
the gifts of the gods to be dropped into
your lap. If you wish to reach the high
est possible peak in this cycle, you must
continually review and occasionally go
back over some of those exercises and
experiments. T h o s e of you who have
not reviewed for some time should do so
immediately. T h e r e are some wonderful
surprises in store for you. It is easy to
pick out the student who is the w orker
the one who is continually digging,
tracing out, and following the trail of
every new thought or inspiration which
may come to him as a result of studying
a monograph, or possibly during a
C athedral contact, or a few moments of
quiet meditation in his sanctum. Y o u
can literally see that student grow and
expand in wisdom and understanding
and he may be a N eo phyte or a mem
ber of the highest degree.
N o w I come to a very important
" d o n t for the student of the advanced
degree, and I can't stress the importance
o f it too strongly. It is this: D on t con

also his desire to encourage or spur the

younger student on in his efforts, but I
am sorry to say that in some cases it is
purely due to a desire on the part of the
older member to impress the younger
one and lead him to believe that he is a
very greatly advanced or privileged
Rosicrucian. It is never necessary to
prove to another member that fact. It is
alw ays self-evident. N o w the reason I
speak of this at all is because of the
many letters received from our mem
bers many in the N eophyte degrees
who have talked with older members, in
the higher degrees, and have been so
badly confused and sometimes grossly
misinformed on such subjects as p ro

fuse N eop h y tes and m em bers o f the

first Tem ple d eg rees whom you may
m eet by telling them o f experiences you
may have had in connection with certain
w ork you have received which may be
much in advance o f what they are re
ceiving. W e realize that in the majority

understand the subject yourself.

o f cases this is done only because o f the

enthusiasm of the older member and

jection, the G reat M asters, reincarna

tion, etc., that it is positively a shame
and often requires a great deal of work
and tact upon the part of the officers in
charge of the various sections of the
Instruction Departm ent to set them
straight.
It is perfectly all right to encourage a
younger student and even try to help
him understand any part of the work he
may be having difficulty with, but be
sure you dont go beyond what he has
been prepared for an d be sure you
Now, beloved members, I believe I
have given you a sufficient number of
" d o n 'ts and will finish by giving you
my favorite don't become discouraged
about your progress; proceed with confi
dence, knowing you cannot possibly
lose, but have everything to gain.

ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
The
R osicru cian f t
ft
D igest
ft
O c to b e r

R O S IC R U C IA N

C H R IS T M A S G R E E T IN G

FOLDERS

It costs no more to give a Christm as folder of distinction. T h is y ear send a C h rist

m as folder with a unique, allegorical, m ystical m essage. W e hav e prepared some v ery
beautiful C hristm as folders o f a distinctly
design. T h e y are of tw o colors
and embossed in gold, w orded appropriately, and also contain an attractiv e, incon
spicuous sym bol of the O rder. E a ch C hristm as folder has an envelope to m atch.
T h e y m ay be had at the reasonable price of 6 for 80c, or only $1.30 fo r one dozen.
W e p ay
the
you. O rd ers fo r less than six
accepted.
O rd er now. E v e ry order will receive prom pt attention. D o not w ait until the C h rist
mas congestion o f the mails. R osicru cian Su pply Bureau, S a n Jose. C alifo rn ia.

different

postage on

shipment to

cannot be

m
m

ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft
ft

1936
T h ree H un dred T hirty-tw o

r/viiVitv;r/v:

r^v;r^sv:r/v:rT^Mr/*\*

r r/ttr,r/stvir/i^ ,vvir^sv:rrg\ir/7ss>i

I ti m ii it ii ii ii ii i ii H ii im ii im iM ii im ii ii iii iiM m iii ii iii iii iH im ni iii iii iii iiM iii iii iim iim iii iii iii ii iiH iii ii i

r/*\ir^v;r^>1r/>;r/^vnV4
m i n i u m ........... i m i m m

T h e "C athed ral of the S o u l" Is a Cosm ic m eeting place fo r all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and w orkers of the
R osicru cian F ratern ity . It is a focal point of C osm ic radiations and thought
w aves from which radiate vibration s of health, p eace, happiness, and inner
aw akening. V a rio u s periods of the d ay are set aside w hen m any thousands
of minds are attuned w ith the C athed ral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the C athedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibration s. T h o se w ho
are not members of the organization m ay share in the unusual benefits as well
as those w ho are members. T h e book called L ib er 7 7 7 describes the periods
for various co n tacts w ith the C athed ral. C opies will be sent to persons w ho
are not members by addressing their request for this book to F ria r S . P . C ., care
of A M O R C T em p le, San Jose, C alifo rn ia, enclosing three cents in postage
stam ps.

(Please state whether member or not this is important.)

ITI i n n i i i i n i i i i n i i i i n i i i n i i i i i u i i i n i i i i n i i u u n i i i i i i i i i n i i i m i i i n m n i i i i i i i i i n i i n n i i n u i i n m u i m m u u i i i i i m n i i u i n i m u i i i i i u n i i i r i i

W H E R E IS G O D ?
C A R E F U L study
of the sacred writ
ings of the world
beginning with the
earliest and most
primitive form of
religious
expres
sions, up to the
very present day,
reveals many hun
dreds of different
methods of con
veying to the hu
man mind an idea
of the nature and place of G od. W i t h i n
the past several hundred years the
tendency on the part of religious writers
has been to reject the almost universal
idea that G o d sat upon a great heaven
ly throne with the earth as His foot
T h ree H un dred T h irty-three

stool and that G od was exclusively lo

cated in some distant place or condition
in the heavens.
A very definite return to many
ancient principles and ideas has resulted
in an almost general acceptance o f the
thought that G od is not enthroned or
located exclusively in any one place nor
limited in any sense to any one condi
tion. T h e early Christian idea that G od
could be found w ithin as well as uni
versally everywhere, has become the
modern conception of the nature of
G od, for in accepting this idea that G od
may be within us as well as in the uni
verse around us, and that His divine
presence is everywhere, it has affected
our comprehension of the nature and
being of God.

Along with the idea that G od was

enthroned in a heavenly kingdom where
H e ruled not only the spiritual beings
close to Him but ruled the entire uni
verse, there was the old conception of
G o d as a being in likeness to human b e
ings and this was further strengthened
by a misunderstanding of the statement
that we mortals were created in His
image. In fact, the very word im age had
a limited and confining meaning to the
average person and the old text books
used in the Su nd ay school lessons which
carried imaginary pictures of G od as a
large physical being sitting upon a
throne augmented the misconception.
T o d a y we comprehend G o d as a be
ing without form of a physical or earth
ly nature and distinctly different by
comparison with anything known to
exist in the material world. A nd our
modern conception of heaven as being
a spiritual condition not confined to any
Cosmic location but as real and genuine
here on earth as anyw here in the
heavens has brought about the sublime
and transcendental conception of G od
as the spiritual consciousness pervading
all space and being a part of a universal
consciousness which is resident even
within the human bodies of forms on
the earth.
T h is newer conception brings God
closer to human beings without robbing
Him of the im aginary and fictitious
qualities which created in the minds of
young and old alike a reverence based
upon fear and aw e and an almost im
possible approach as children of a uni
versal father.
T o d a y we understand that w e can
approach the Kingdom of G od through
the Soul within us, and that in a san c
tum of that Soul or in the Divine C o n
sciousness of which it is composed we
will find the consciousness and mind of
God. F o r this reason we have come to
believe that it is possible to worship G od
and especially to commune with G od in
the privacy of our homes, out in the
open field, on the mountain top, in the
valley, or w herever we may be and feel
The
inclined to attune ourselves with the
R osicru cian divinity within and around us.

D ig est
O c to b e r
1936

T h is has brought about a new co n

ception of the place and functioning of
churches and cathedrals in the human

scheme. W e know now that the church

is not the exclusive place for a contact
with G o d but rather a convenient place
for such contacts as can be made any
where at any time. T h e church becomes
not a symbol of a distant G o d nor a
specially appointed channel for the con
tact with G od, but an abode of holiness
in which we may dwell with others and
find inspiration to carry on and develop
the natural divinity which w e inherit
from G od as children of a universal and
divine F ather. F o r this reason the con
cept of a Cathedral of the Sou l is
logical and appealing. W i t h i n the Soul
of each of us there is not only the Holy
o f Holies or sanctum in which the
divine presence of G od dwells as in the
Shekinah or synagogue, but as a part of
G o d s kingdom. T h e Soul therefore
does not necessarily have to lift itself
up to commune with G od but the outer
self of man must attune itself and adjust
itself to permit an objective realization
of the divinity, the righteousness, and
the holiness that dwells in this incar
nated Soul.
In order that our hearts and minds
and our objective thinking may separate
themselves emotionally and inspiration
ally from the physical body and thus
give the Divine Consciousness and Soul
within us an opportunity to manifest it
self as an entity, we have the Cathedral
of the Soul in a spiritual concept which
enables us to lift our thoughts of the
o bjective mind to a higher plane and
thus become attuned with the universal
divinity which is within man and around
man.
Furthermore, this Cathedral of
the Soul provides a focal point for all
Souls and all minds to reach irrespective
o f sex, race, color, or theological differ
ences of opinion. If you have not ex
perienced the great sacredness, inspira
tion, and spiritual tonic of attunement
with the universal consciousness of God
through the C athedral of the Soul, then
you should begin at once to add this
marvelous privilege to your daily affairs
for the resulting effects will manifest
themselves in both the spiritual and ma
terial matters of your present existence.
Send for the free book L iber 777 and
join with thousands of others in every
part of the countries of the world in
universal attunement with God for a
few minutes each day.
T h ree H un dred T hirty-four

SUMMARIES
j
OF SCIENCE I

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, investigating nature s m ysteries and extending the boundaries of
knowledge. T he w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their work, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
It is with pleasure, therefore, that w e afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and briefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherwise specified,
we give fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

The Influence of the Sun on Human Affairs

T lO U S the sun is the
most important of
all heavenly bod
ies, since upon it
d e p e n d s heat,
light, and life on
earth. T h is central
governing star of
the solar system,
because of its rel
ative nearness, a f
fords us a choice
o bject of investi
gation, but this
apparent nearness is comparative only.
W h e r e a s we may carelessly think of the
sun as being one of the largest and
brightest stars in the heavens, it is a c
tually one of the smallest and faintest of
the naked-eye stars this illusion being
upheld by the fact that the next nearest
star is nearly 3 0 0 ,0 0 0 times as far away.
T h e study of solar physics may be
said to have commenced with the in
vestigation of sun-spots over 3 0 0 years
ago. However, it is interesting to note
that while their existence was unknown
to the W e s t e r n W o r l d until the inven
tion of the telescope, sun-spots have

T h ree H un dred T hirty-five

been known since the third century of

our era. Observations of forty-five sun
spots are recorded in the first edition of
the great Chinese Encyclopedia, pub
lished in one hundred volumes in 1322
A . D . M e a g re as is our indebtedness
to China in the field of scientific dis
covery, there is no reason to doubt the
authenticity of these observations, for
the largest spots are easily visible to the
naked eye when the brightness of the
su ns disk is reduced by smoke or haze.
It is a strange coincidence, though
certainly nothing more, that the phe
nomenon of magnetism, now known to
be an invariable attribute of sun-spots,
is said by many authorities to have been
first recognized in China. H oan g-ti is
said to have constructed a chariot on
which was a female figure indicating the
four cardinal points at a date which can
be fixed at 2 6 3 7 B. C. A chariot of
the south" was given to some envoys to
direct them on their journey across the
desert about 1110 B . C . , while in the
following century, according to later
history, there were C hinese cars which
held a floating needle.

Although the Chinese had some

knowledge of magnetism at the time of
their discovery of sun-spots, no syste
matic investigation w as made regarding
these related phenomena, and thus it
was that our knowledge of the nature o f
sun-spots may be said to begin with
the observations of Galileo and his con
temporaries in 1610. while the optical
discovery which made possible the de
tection of their magnetic phenomena was
not made until 1896.
Some interesting facts on this subject
of the influence of sun-spots on our
daily life are clearly brought out by
D r. Harlan T . Stetson of the Institute
o f G eographical Exploration, Harvard
University.
T h e study of the effects of the sun
on affairs on the earth opens many in
teresting possibilities. Aside from the
more obvious changes that take place
as the result of seasonal variations in
the amount of sunshine, there are
changes going on in the sun itself which
may have far-reaching counterparts in
terrestrial affairs.
P robably everyone is aw are that there
is a more or less definite cycle of about
1 1 J 4 years through which the sun
passes from one disturbed condition to
another. W h a t e v e r the effect of these
physical alterations in the sun's b e
havior may be. and whatever may be
their ultimate cause, they are marked by
the observations of hurricanes in the
solar atmosphere; hurricanes that would
make the most violent of our tropical
disturbances appear insignificant in com
parison. T h e storms consist of vortical
whirls raging on either side o f the sun's
equator. Clouds of hydrogen, calcium
and the vapors of other elements spiral
about in a clockwise or counter-clock
wise direction, attended by violent cu r
rents in the solar atmosphere. In the
heart of these stormy areas the tempera
ture is sufficiently lowered to produce
an appreciable darkening in the brill
iancy of the solar surface, as seen
through a telescope. T h e s e darkened
areas which appear by contrast as black
spots have been known as sun-spots as
The
R osicru cian far back as the invention o f the tele
scope in the early seventeenth century.
D igest
E ven prior to the telescope era disturb
O c to b e r
ances of this character had occurred of
1936
such huge dimensions as to be recorded

in certain instances by the naked eye,

probably during the sunrise or sunset
hours when the e a r t h s atmosphere
screens the harmful rays and allows
one to see the reddened disk of the sun
with the unprotected eye.
System atic observations of sun-spots
have been m ade for m ore than 300 years
so that the definite rise from minimum
to maximum in the numbers of these
spots has been well established for at
least some twenty cycles. T h e last per
iod of maximum disturbances occurred
during the years 1 92 8 -2 9 , July 1, 1928,
being the approximate middle date
marking the top of the last maximum
o f the sun-spot curve. T h e autumn of
1929 showed a large drop in the num
ber o f sun-spots which, incidentally, can
be remembered b y the season of a rapid
fall in certain terrestrial markets. S u n
spots continued to decrease until they
reached a minimum in September, 1933.
Sin ce that time, they have been def
initely increasing and during the last
y ear have gained rapidly in numbers
and in size.
T h e so-called 'sun-spot number' is
a characteristic figure derived from ob
servation and takes into consideration
not only the actual number of spots
but the number o f the groups of spots
as well. T o reconcile the results of
telescopes of various apertures a coeffi
cient is introduced into the formula for
deriving the sun-spot number of a given
date. O n e characteristic in the develop
ment of the sun-spot cycle concerns the
position of these spots on the suns sur
face. T h e disturbances invariably break
out at relatively high latitudes on the
sun. W i t h the progress of the cycle the
spots increase in number in both hemi
spheres and at increasingly lower lati
tudes until the maximum is reached in
the neighborhood of solar latitude 20
degrees either side of the equator.
T h e r e a f te r the spots decrease until the
few survivors vanish within four or five
degrees of the solar equator. Almost
never are spots seen higher than the
latitude 40 degrees or within less than
five degrees of the equator.
W a tc h in g the spots for a few days
in succession will reveal to one that
they drift across the solar disk, show
ing that the sun rotates on an axis.
From the motion of the spots it is found
T h ree H undred Thirty-six

that the suns axis is inclined to the

plane of the earth's orbit some seven
degrees. In June and D ecem ber the
earth is in the plane of the suns equa
tor. E a rly in September the north end
of the suns axis is tipped seven degrees
towards the earth and, therefore, spots
in the northern hemisphere of the sun
having latitudes of this amount may
pass directly in line with the earth.
Similar circumstances occur for the other
hemisphere of the sun six months later.
T h is has an important bearing on the
question of the effects of sun-spots on
the earth, since there is some evidence
for believing electrically charged par
ticles may be propelled around the sun
with respect to the earth in just 27.3
days. A t higher latitudes the sun ro
tates more slowly, and n ear the poles
some 35 days are required for one ro ta
tion. T h is, of course, shows that the
solar surface consists of a luminous
gaseous atmosphere. T h e difference in
rotation at different latitudes causes,
therefore, a shearing or dragging effect
in the different zones which is most con
ducive to causing cyclonic whirling in
the region of sun-spot zones.
All sorts of fantastic calamities on
the earth have been blamed on sun
spots. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, the
productivity of fur-bearing animals and
the weather, even economic depressions
have all come in for their share of co r
relation with solar phenomena. W h e t h e r
or not there is any scientific basis for
presuming such intimate relationship b e
tween sun and the earth, the most con
servative scientists are agreed that the
characteristics of the mysterious earths
magnetic field change step b y step with
the sun-spot cycle. M o re than 2 0 0 years
of observations of the earths magnetic
activity, as is evidenced by the w ander
ing of a compass needle, substantiates
beyond doubt that magnetic disturb
ances on the earth accompany these
solar disturbances that we call sun-spots.
Not, however, until early in the present
century did we have any clue either
from the solar or from the terrestrial end
as to w hy such a connection should be
evidenced.
It was in 1908 that D r. G eorge E .
Hale, founder and first director of the
M o u nt W il s o n O bservatory, announced
the true cyclonic character of sun-spot
T h ree H un dred T hirty-seven

disturbances. A s soon as it was evident

that hot solar gases w ere whirling at
terrific velocities about the sun-spot
centers, it could be seen that if such
gases were ionized or carried electrically
charged particles, then huge currents
of electricity must be flowing around the
vortex creating a magnetic field within
the sun-spot itself. Confirmation of this
hypothesis came about through the brill
iant demonstration of the changes in
the frequency of the light waves eman
ating from the vicinity of sun-spots. It
was in 1896 that Zeem an n showed in
the laboratory the effect of the magnetic
field upon the behavior of light. Hale
found the identical effect in the light
from sun-spots, thereby showing unmis
takably that the sun-spots in themselves
w ere centers of powerful magnetic fields
many times stronger than the magnetic
field of the earth. T h u s, from the solar
end came the first clue as to the cause
of magnetic changes in the earth a c
companying the occurrence of great
sun-spot outbreaks.
T h e second clue, this time one from
the earth end of the chain, came about
through the advent of the radio. In the
early days of wireless transmission it
was thought that these electromagnetic
waves traveled in straight lines and
therefore could not be picked up at
great distances on account of the curv
ature of the earth. O n ly b y building
higher and higher antenna towers was
it thought possible to increase the range
of wireless communication by the early
experimenters. However, some observers
thousands of miles from the original
wireless stations were eavesdropping
and heard signals from the distant tow
ers that w ere well beyond the limit for
bidden by theory. Sin ce observation is
the last court of appeal in science it is
obvious that the theory of wireless
transmission had to be revised.
It was then that P ro fe sso r A . E .
K ennelly of H arvard ventured the h y
pothesis that the upper layers of the
earth's atm osphere w ere electrified or
ionized by the suns radiation falling on
it and formed a conducting, and hence
an excellent reflecting shell, for turning
back toward the earth the wireless
waves which had ascended skyward.
T h e English scientist, Heaviside, was
seized with the same idea at about the

same time and made a similar announce

ment a short time after that of Dr. K en
nelly. In honor to the imagination of
these gentlemen, radio technicians today
refer to the ionized strata in the earth's
atmosphere as the Kennelly-H eaviside
Layer.
W i t h the advent of radio bro ad
casting stations for the public benefit, a
new tool was now in the hands of the
scientist for investigating new changes
in the electrical state of the upper a t
mosphere. Austin, Pickard, Appleton
and others, including the author, became
interested in systematic measurements of
intensity of the carrier waves sent out
from broadcasting stations to see if by
an y chance long periods of fading or
increasing intensity might not show
some correlation with solar phenomena.
B y the time of the sun-spot maximum
of the years 1 9 2 8 - 1 9 2 9 sufficiently
quantitative results were in hand to
prove beyond much doubt that the ion
ization or electrical condition of the
e a r t h s upper atmosphere responded
promptly to the outbreak or decrease of
sun-spots. Combining the knowledge
gained from the magnetic character of
the sun-spots themselves and the know l
edge of the electrical condition of the
e arth s atm osphere obtained through
radio measurements, it becomes possible
to see how magnetic changes in the
earth follow solar disturbances. T h e
magnetic field of the earth is due partly
to a kind of sub-permanent magnetism,
apparently hidden within the earth itself,
which accounts for the north magnetic
pole some 1400 miles from the true geo
graphic pole. It is also partly due to
the magnetic effect of the electrified shell
of the e arth s atmosphere in rotation
about the true geographical pole as the
earth turns on its axis. T h e combina
tion of these effects may well account
for the diurnal variation in the direction
of the compass observed at all magnetic
observatories. A nything then which dis
turbs or changes the degree of ionization
or the number of charged particles in
this electrified shell of the earths a t
mosphere will alter the amount of m ag
The
R osicru cian netism induced in the earth through the
rotation of the shell..................
D ig est
Perhaps one of the most remarkable
O c to b e r
and most romantic stories in science
1936

relative to sun-spots and seasons of dry

and wet w eather is to be found in the
work of P ro fesso r D ouglass at the U ni
versity of Arizona. D r. Douglass has
given a life-time to the study of tree
rings. M a n y of us strolling through the
woods have amused ourselves in count
ing the rings left in the stumps after a
recent clearing, thereby determining the
age of the tree. Perhaps fewer of us
have been aware of the inequalities of
the spacing of those same rings. W h e r e
the annual rings are widely separated
we have the record of years unusually
favorable to growth. W h e r e the rings
are narrow, we have similar records of
years less favorable to growth. From
the study of many thousands of trees,
D r. D ouglass has been able to show
very definitely that years of drought and
relatively wet w eather in the south
western part of the United S tates show
a close correspondence with the sun
spot cycle. T h e Arizona redwoods and
the California sequoias appear to have
been recording years of maxima and
y ears of minima in the movements of
sun-spots even long before the inven
tion of the telescope. T o analyze the
complex data which he collected. Dr.
Douglass devised a special apparatus
called a cyclograph, which has proved
a great aid in discovering these cycles
hidden in tree-ring growth. W h i l e the
11-year sun-spot cycle could be traced
very definitely through the century.
D ouglass was much perplexed by the
apparent lack of an y significant cycles
during the latter part of the eighteenth
century. In fact, his theory of sun-spots
affecting tree growth broke down so
exasperatingly during this period that
he nearly abandoned the idea of con
necting sun-spots with weather cycles.
It was in 1922 that Professor Maunder,
however, called Professor D ouglass at
tention to the fact that old astronomical
records had turned up, showing a great
dearth of sun-spots from 1645 to 1715.
T h is w as cheery news, for it is obvious
that the trees behaved just as they
should have behaved in giving no defi
nite indication of a sun-spot cycle dur
ing this interval.
W h i l e Professor Douglass interprets
the spacing o f his tree rings in terms of
periods of drought and wet weather, it
seems not unreasonable to suppose that
T h ree H undred T hirty-eight

there may be other factors besides pre

cipitation which enter into the favor
able growth of trees. P erhaps the
amount of sunshine, variations in its
quality and the proportional amount of
heat and ultra-violet light in the su n s

READ

THE

beams are other factors favoring growth.

T h e tree, therefore, may be looked upon
as a biological specimen which has in
tegrated all the favorable factors to
growth which pass through cycles cor
responding to cycles in solar activity.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

A D EM O N STRA TIO N O F FA IT H

<
4

W h ile philosophers and students of things arcan e, m ystics, and prophets, as w ell as
thousands of devoted students of the prophetic m easurem ents of the G reat Pyram id
have fo r m any years prophesied that a great catastrop he w as to com e to the w orld on,
W e d n e sd a y , Septem ber 16, 1936, and that this date would be the beginning o f serious
conditions in all lands w ith the center of catacly sm ic effects beginning at the G reat
P yram id itself betw een 4 :0 0 a. m. and 4 :0 0 p. m. on the stated d ay, A M O R C alone, of
all the m ystic organizations that have issued and uttered dire predictions for this d ay,
stated in its literature, correspondence, and in its book dealing with the G reat Pyram id,
that no disastrous effects, no catastrophes, and no disturbing, destructive results would
be noted on that day or thereafter, but rather the beginning of a new cy cle of reconstruction and betterm ent of the conditions of the advanced nations of the world. S o sure
w as A M O R C , and so great its faith in its ow n R osicru cian records and interpretations
of the signs and m easurem ents of the P yram id, that it stood out alone from all the other
organizations and all of the other prophets and students of world events, and for several
y ears has accepted silently the rebuffs and criticism s of those w ho said that A M O R C
and its interpretations w ere decidedly w rong, and therefore evidently not in attunem ent
w ith the revelations being made by the G reat W h ite Brotherhood.
H ow ever, the time is at hand for a revelation of the truth. Septem ber 16 has come
and gone, and none of the dire things predicted have made even the slightest m anifesta
tion, w hile on the other hand, there is much evidence to be found even at this early date
that w orld conditions are im proving, and that certain good events of a m inor nature, but
laying the foundation for greater ones, did have their birth on Septem ber 16.
A s a dem onstration of the faith of A M O R C and its officers in the R osicru cian records
and private interpretations of the G reat P yram id indications as revealed only to the
R osicru cians through their affiliation w ith the G rea t W h ite B rotherhood, the Im perator
comm issioned his son, R alph M . Lew is, the Suprem e S e creta ry , and his w ife, both of
whom are m embers of the Board of D irecto rs of the Suprem e G rand Lodge, to proceed
through E urope to E g y p t, and to participate in certain cerem onies there on Septem ber
16, 1936, and on that v ery day betw een the hours of 4 :0 0 a. m. and 4 :0 0 p. m., w hen the
direst of things w ere to occur there, to be present as rep resentatives of A M O R C of N orth
A m erica w ith others, "w ith in the arc of the G reat P y ram id ," and to cross the threshold
into the K in g 's C ham ber. F earlessly and with sublime faith in the records of the O rder
and the proven correctn ess o f our interpretations of the P y ram id s revelations, the representatives of A M O R C w ent to E g y p t and remained "w ith in the arc of the P y ram id "
throughout the w eek beginning Septem ber 16; and a m essage received on that v ery d ay
indicated that at the G reat A ssem bly of the M asters of the G reat W h ite B rotherhood
held on that day, the beginning of a new cy cle of Cosm ic pow er and direct influence
of the Brotherhood w as given the impetus and significant beginning that we h av e an ticipated, and w hich will m ake itself felt throughout the world during the com ing year, and
particularly am ong those w ho are established as recognized initiates of our O rd er.
W h ile the Suprem e S e cre ta ry is in E g y p t he will
visit and attend private assem blies
of the rep resentatives of the Am enhotep Lodge of
E g y p t of w hich thousands of our
m embers in N orth A m erica are honorary m embers and hold certificates of honorary affiliation. O u r organization of A M O R C w as the on ly one in N orth A m erica represented at the
Pyram id on this significant day of Septem ber 16, 1936. T h is will be recorded in all of the
international records of the G reat W h ite Brotherhood, and the results of the day will
place all o f the false prophets and alarm ists in the unhappy position
of attem pting to
defend their strange attitude, and their lack of understanding of the higher revelations
of the K in g s C ham ber.
T H E IM P E R A T O R .

T h ree H un dred Tkirty~nine

]
'

]
1
]
<
]
!
1

'
1
'

'

1
]
3
*

<
'
!
1
]

*
<
;
!
<
1

<
<

(p j
)
in - n - T j

Light from China

IN T E R E S T IN G F A C T S F O U N D IN A N O L D
C H IN E S E M A N U S C R IP T

By T

he

I m perato r

R O M one of our
members far across
the seas comes the
story and revela
tion of an ancient
manuscript, and it
sheds much valu
able light upon the
age o f many of
o u r present - day
scientific and m ys
tical d o c t r i n e s .
A ccording to the
facts submitted to
us, and verified b y the editors of several
newspapers who made a thorough in
vestigation, a very unusual manuscript
was discovered quite accidentally dur
ing the early part of June of this year,
along with some other precious docu
ments in a specially made vault in a
section of the G re a t W a l l of China.
T h e records show that a few years
ago a Japanese bomb blew aw ay a part
of the famous C hinese wall, and that
the large opening in the wall remained
untouched and uninvestigated for a
long time. H ere recently investigation
was made b y tw o men who claimed to
have in their possession some ancient
manuscripts marking that section of the
The
R osicru cian G re a t W a l l as a sacred place with in
timations that it contained a hidden
D igest
treasure of a mystical and educational
O c to b e r
nature, and they secretly devoted much
time to the removal of the debris around
1936

the injured wall and to exploring the

adjoining sections.
T h e s e two men
claimed to be the present-day descend
ants of an ancient and mystical organi
zation, the name of which they refused
to reveal. N ew spaper men who in
vestigated these claims finally decided
to withhold whatever information they
had secured, claiming that the men were
undoubtedly the preservers and conservers o f some ancient traditions and
unquestionably associated with some
secret society still existing in China. At
least the newspapers were impressed
sufficiently with the fact that the men
w ere representatives of a highly esteem
ed secret organization of world-wide
existence, or at least w'orld-wide affilia
tions, and were not commercially mind
ed. nor in any w ay associated with any
political plan or worldly scheme in
volving the political conditions of either
China or Japan.
A t an y rate the two men. with the
assistance of several trusted associates,
continued their explorations and finally
uncovered precisely w hat they had pre
dicted they would find; namely, an
especially built vault of a small size, and
o f such construction and materials as
had never been found in any masonry
or similar work in an y other part of
China, and much like the vaults of to
day. It was quite evident from the very
beginning of the discovery of this vault
that while it had been built many hund
T/iree H undred F orty

reds of years ago it had been built by

men who had knowledge of building
materials and building principles long in
advance of their time.
O n e of the principal manuscripts
brought to light from this strange vault
explains in an introduction by the
author of the various manuscripts, how
and why these manuscripts were placed
in this strange enclosure. If the intro
duction is true, the author was a priest
in one of the mystic temples, living at
the time of Em peror Chin Ize W a n g .
Up to the present time a study of the
manuscript has not revealed the exact
y ear or era of this emperors rule, and
because of the many changes in the
calendar and the many different w ays in
ancient times in which periods of cen
turies and eras were indicated, the prob
lem is a difficult one. It would also ap
pear that this emperor who was evident
ly highly intellectual and scientifically
trained, but with a very exaggerated
opinion of his own powers and abilities,
wanted to create the impression in the
minds of the people of the future that
all advanced knowledge and all high
developments of civilization among the
Chinese began during his reign as em
peror. In other words, it was his intent
to create the impression upon posterity
that up to the time of his reign the
Chinese dwelt in great ignorance, and
that it was his learning spread among
his people and promoted b y him, and
his great scheme for the development of
Chinese civilization that gave to the
Chinese people the high culture which
they had at the close of his reign. H e
therefore ordered all manuscripts of
learning and knowledge to be burned or
otherwise destroyed. H e issued a pro
clamation much to the effect that every
manuscript or every written or engraved
material that would reveal the culture or
scientific or educational standing of the
Chinese people preserved in an y place
whatever, or possessed by anyone,
should be destroyed and nothing of this
nature should be preserved except that
which was written and prepared during
the latter years of his life. T h is would
create the impression that all scientific
and cultural knowledge began during
his reign.
T h e Em peror therefore engaged the
learned priest to act as the author of
T h ree H un dred F o rty -o n e

several manuscripts which were to be

prepared in a manner that would last
for many centuries. T h e s e manuscripts
were to contain an outline of the scien
tific and cultural knowledge possessed
by the emperor and his people at the
time they were written. T h e wording is
such as to pay high tribute to the genius
and influence of the Emperor, but it also
proves that many hundreds of years ago
this Em peror and his people were pos
sessed of knowledge and ideals, laws,
and principles which we are apt to think
are quite modern. F o r instance, the
manuscript shows that the Chinese em
peror and his people had adopted the
Law s o f M anu which w ere written in
the V e d ic language ten thousand years
ago.
In fact, these laws became the
basis of Chinese law at the time the
Em peror ordered the manuscript pre
pared. Secondly, the manuscript re
veals that the Em peror and his people
were well acquainted with the so-called
Darwinian theory of Human Evolution,
and that this law was well understood
in China several thousand years ago.
A n o th er important secret contained in
the manuscript pertains to the methods
whereby the patriarchs and mystics in
those days preserved a private formula
for lengthening their lives. T o u ch in g
upon the Darwinian theory an extract
in the manuscript reads, From the
plants life passed into fantastic creatures
which were born of the slime on waters;
then through a series of different shapes
and development of nature, man gradu
ally changed from animal to his present
form.
Touchin g upon the matter of the
secret of long life, the manuscript inti
mates that some of the patriarchs and
mystics lived to an extremely old age,
if we are to believe that their calendar
and length of y ear was the same as ours
today.
In their secret formulas for
lengthening life there is reference to the
use of the juices of the cypress tree
which, by the way, is regarded today as
the tree o f death. However, the cypress
tree is known to be the longest living
tree the world has ever known. U n
doubtedly some part of the juice o f the
cypress tree w as extracted, and from
this cultures of some kind w ere made
and taken into the human system to add
length of life to the human body, as

these cultures added to the length of life

of the tree. It would be interesting to
note that in our own present century
several eminent scientists determined to
find out the secret of the longevity of
the famous sequoia or redwood trees
o f California. T h e y found that the
reason why many of these trees have
lived thousands or more years, some of
them having been standing at the time
that Christ was born, is that a certain
protective cell or germ in the juice or the
sap or pitch of the tree overcame all
diseases or tendencies toward old age.
and a breakdown of the vitality of the
tree. T h e s e scientists succeeded in e x
tracting from the sap of the tree these
particular germs or cells which are not
found in other trees. T h e y believe that
this extract can be injected into the sap
of other trees and thus help to preserve
them and triple or quadruple their length
o f life. If the cypress trees contain such
a germ as would prevent old age and
disease, it may be true that the Chinese
mystics and philosophers or scientists
did discover what it was and did ex tract
it and make a medicine of it for the pre
vention of disease and old age.
It is claimed b y many of the mystics
and wise men of China today that there
are members of their secret brother
hoods who still possess this ancient
secret, and that some of their members
have reached a very old age. T h e y claim
that at the present time there is living
in the province of Szechw an, a Chinese
man named Li C hang Y u n , who is 252
years old and still very active. T h e y
claim that he has survived tw enty-three
wives and is now living with the tw en
ty -fourth. T h is man has intimated a
number of times in newspaper inter
views that his secret will be found in
the cypress tree and similar plants. O f
course, with the various changes of the
calendar that were made in the last 252
years, and considering a n y possible d if
ference in the w ay of computing time
according to the Chinese calendar, this
man may not be actually 2 5 2 years old
as w e figure time. Reports that have
come to us intimate that according to
The
our modern calendar and length of y ear
R osicru cian he would be about 137 years old.
D igest
A n o th er interesting fact revealed by
O c to b e r
the manuscript is that about the time it
1936
was written the priest of the mystic

temple who did the actual writing for

the Em peror and a large number of
philosophers and mystics with whom he
was in contact had a close connection
with similar mystics and philosophers in
India and other countries of the Orient.
And there is one intimation of cor
respondence or indirect contact with a
people living in a distant country to the
east of China, which would appear to be
a reference to ancient America, or
America during the primitive Indian
days. W e should not overlook the fact
that many scientists and philosophers
have claimed that the ancestors of the
American Indian w ere undoubtedly per
sons who had mixed their blood with
Chinese blood, or who had come to the
American Continent from China via
the Bering Strait after having inter
married with Chinese. O thers claim that
these primitive American Indians were
descendants o f one o f the lost tribes of
Israel who passed through China and
lived in China a number of centuries
intermingling their blood with Chinese
blood, and the new race formed thereby
oing onward toward the E a s t and
nally settling in various parts of the
new continent of America.
V e r y recently discoveries of old Jew
ish synagogues and temples hidden in
secret parts of China brought to light
the fact that many hundreds of years
ag o a large number of Chinese persons
in various parts of China were of the
Jewish faith and had married into Jew
ish families, and the temples and orna
ments within revealed Jewish emblems
and symbols with a distinct Chinese
character. A nd many o f the ancient
Jewish scrolls in typically Jewish form
w ere found buried in these Jewish syna
gogues with Chinese characteristics
about them indicating that Chinese skill
had made them, but following a Jewish
form. W e know from many ancient
mystical manuscripts that those tribes or
[roups of Jews who wandered away
rom E g y p t or Palestine or both coun
tries and found a pathway into India
and China carried with them into those
countries the mystical teachings of
E g y p t and o f India, and that these
finally passed on into China and Japan
and even into Korea. If it is true that
any of these persons of Chinese-Jewish

T h ree H undred F orty-tw o

ancestry did find their w ay into America

and their children were gradually mold
ed by the climate and environment of
America, we would have a good explan
ation of the strange blending of O rie n
tal and W e s t e r n W o r l d mysticism which
the American Indians displayed in their
rituals and art. In fact, most of the
American Indian art is identical with
that to be found in China, India, E gypt,
and the Y u ca ta n , and a book could be
written on this subject, and perhaps it
will be some day.
Regarding the manuscript found in
the W a l l of China, it was finally taken
to London and turned over to a group

R E A D

T H E

of Chinese experts headed by Professor

A n thony Craeme, who is still busy
translating it. W h e n the first transla
tions of it were shown by Professor
C raeme to S ir W a l l a c e Budge of the
British Museum, it is claimed that he
said that the manuscript w as of even
greater value than the C od ex Sinaiticus
which is acknowledged today to be one
of the oldest and most valuable of re
ligious manuscripts. T h u s we see that
old light hidden for centuries under the
G re a t W a l l of C hina may become new
light to us today, but whether old or
new according to epochal standards,
such truths are alw ays eternal truths.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

a-

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM

d3------------------M an, when co n scio u s o f an ete rn a l tru th , h as ev er sym b olized it so th a t the

h um an co n scio u sn ess could fo re v e r have realiz a tio n o f it. N atio n s, la n g u a g e s and
cu sto m s have ch an ged , b u t th ese a n cien t d e sig n s co n tin u e to illu m in a te m ank ind
w ith th e ir m y stic lig h t.
F o r th o se who a re se e k in g lig h t, each m o n th we w ill
rep ro d u ce a sym b o l o r sy m b o ls, w ith th e ir a n cie n t m ean in g.

K------------------ '
s

T h e skeleton standing
above the casket and the
broken trunk of a tree
in the middle distance
signify t h a t notwith
standing the fact that
w e build churches and
cathedrals in which to
worship G od and place
the proper value upon
spiritual things, w e still
look upon the physical,
material side of life,
even in its broken and lifeless state, as being important. B y the
position of the skeleton above the casket the idea is symbolized
that even after death with the cross embroidered cover on the
casket and the candles still burning, we have in mind throughout
mourning the loss of the physical and give little consideration
to the spiritual side of man. T h e opposite
symbol, revealing w hat is proper, would be the
spirit of the soul rising from the casket to the
heavens.

T h ree H un dred F o rty -th ree

PAGES
from the

inm nninm iunnin iin u n n iu iin iin n in iim iiin n n n n n in m in iiin in n n iim n n n iiiiiim n m n iin n n n n m n in in n n in in iin iim iim iin i

HAM M URAPI
Each month w e w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill giv e our readers an opportunity to know their lives through the
presentation o f those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally, such w ritin gs w ill
be presented through the translation or interpretations o f other eminent authors o f the
past. T h is month we present Hammurapi, king o f Babylonia.
Ham murapi is one o f the most illustrious figures of ancient history. Am ong the kings
o f Babylon, modern scholars have chosen this ancient monarch as the crow ning genius of
his country and race. It was under his reign o f 43 years, 2067-2025 B. C., that B abylon s
pow er and influence began to spread beyond the Euphrates Valley, and it was not until
then that her people became aware o f the rival civilization o f E gypt. Hammurapi may be
compared in some respects to Am enhotep IV o f E gyp t in that he also prom ulgated the
peaceful and cultural interests o f his country. T h is was indeed a revolutionary ambition
fo r any king o f Babylon, fo r the easily accessible Euphrates V alley encouraged many
invasions and constant warfare, thus causing the Babylonians to fight w h ile the men of
E gyp t thought. I f such conditions had not existed, however, there would have been no
incentive fo r the m ilitary and political achievement o f K in g Hammurapi in establishing
a central and efficient governm ent at Babylon, which accomplishment is regarded as one
o f the most far-reaching events in ancient history. D uring the follo w in g period o f peace
which under his dominion extended throughout the sorely suffering valley, a series of
public works such as temples, city walls, and canals w ere constructed, w h ile literature
reached its fullest splendor. M any relics o f H am m urapi's reign have been preserved
his personal letters depicting the just and energetic ruler that he was, and his celebrated
code revealin g that he was a w ise law -giver. H e was very religious and attributed all his
successes to his c ity's god, Bel-Maduk. H is most noted w ork was his code o f laws, the
earliest-known example o f a ruler assembling a body o f laws in ord erly manner and pre
senting it to his people that they m igh t know what was required o f them. Ham m urapis
code o f laws was not really the earliest. Traces o f others preceding him have been found,
so he m erely reorganized a legal system lon g established bu t introduced it in a different
way. T he code was carved upon a black stone monument eight feet high, and clearly
intended to be reared in public view . It begins and ends w ith addresses to the gods.
Even a law code in those days was regarded as a subject o f prayer, although the prayers
here are ch iefly cursing w hoever fails to adhere to the law.
In order to acquaint our readers w ith the system o f conduct which was practiced in this
ancient land almost fou r thousand years ago, w e quote below a section o f K in g H am
m urapi's famous Code o f Law s.

..........

n fi]

CODE OF LA W S

The
R osicru cian
D igest
O c to b e r
1936

F A N Y O N E en
snare a n o t h e r ,
putting a ban up
on him, but he can
not prove it, then
he that ensnared
him shall be put
to death.
2.
bring an accu sa
tion against a man,
and the accused
go to the river and
leap into the river,
if he sink in the river his accuser shall

take possession of his house. But if the

river prove that the accused is not
guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he
who had brought the accusation shall be
put to death, while he who leaped into
the river shall take possession of the
house that had belonged to his accuser.
3. If anyone bring an accusation of
a n y crime
If before
a n y o nthe
e elders, and does
not prove w hat he has charged, he shall,
if it be a capital offense charged, be
put to death.
4. If he satisfy the elders to impose
a fine of grain or money, he shall re
ceive the fine that the action produces.
T h ree H undred Forty-four

5. If a judge try a case, reach a de

cision, and present his judgment in
writing; if later error shall appear in
his decision, and it be through his own
fault, then he shall pay twelve times the
fine set by him in the case, and he shall
be publicly removed from the ju d g es
bench, and never again shall he sit there
to render judgment.
6. If anyone steal the property of a
temple or of the court, he shall be put
to death, and also the one who receives
the stolen thing from him shall be put
to death.
7. If anyone buy from the son or the
slave of another man, without witnesses
or a contract, silver or gold, a male or
female slave, an ox or a sheep, an ass
or anything, or if he take it in charge,
he is considered a thief and shall be
put to death.
8. If anyone steal cattle or sheep, or
an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong
to a god or to the court, the thief shall
pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged
to a freed man of the king he shall pay
tenfold; if the thief has nothing with
which to pay he shall be put to death.
9. If anyone lose an article, and find
it in the possession of another; if the
person in whose possession the thing
is found say A merchant sold it to me,
I paid for it before witnesses, and if
the owner of the thing say, I will
bring witnesses who know my prop
erty, then shall the purchaser bring the
merchant who sold it to him, and the
witnesses befo re whom he bought it,
and the owner shall bring witnesses who
can identify his property. T h e judge
shall examine their testimony both of
the witnesses before whom the price
was paid, and of the witnesses who
identify the lost article on oath. T h e
merchant is then proved to be a thief
and shall be put to death. T h e owner
of the lost article receives his property,
and he who bought it receives the money
he paid from the estate of the mer
chant.
10. If the purchaser does not bring the
merchant and the witnesses before
whom he bought the article, but its
owner bring witnesses who identify it,
then the buyer is the thief and shall be
put to death, and the owner receives
the lost article.
T h ree H un dred Forty~five

11. If the owner do not bring wit

nesses to identify the lost article, he is
an evil-doer, he has traduced, and shall
be put to death.
12. If the witnesses be not at hand,
then shall the judge set a limit, at the
expiration of six months. If his w it
nesses have not appeared within the
six months, he is an evil-doer, and shall
bear the fine of the pending case.
14. If anyone steal the minor son of
another, he shall be put to death.
15. If anyone take a male or female
slave of the court, or a male or female
slave of a freed man, outside the city
gates, he shall be put to death.
16. If anyone receive into his hou se a
runaway male or female slave of the
court, or of a freedman, and does not
bring it out at the public proclamation
of the m ajor domus, the master of the
house shall be put to death.
17. If anyone find runaway m ale or
female slaves in the open country and
bring them to their masters, the master
o f the slaves shall pay him two shekels
of silver.
18. If the slave will not give the
name o f the master, the finder shall
bring him to the palace; a further inves
tigation must follow, and the slave shall
be returned to his master.
19. If he hold the slaves in his house,
and they are caught there, he shall be
put to death.
20. If the slave that he caught run
aw ay from him, then shall he sw ear to
the owners o f the slave, and he is free
of all blame.
21. If anyone break a hole into a
house (break in to steal), he shall be
put to death before that hole and be
buried.
22. If anyone is committing a robbery
and is caught, then he shall be put to
death.
23. If the robber is not caught, then
shall he who was robbed claim under
oath the amount of his loss; then shall
the community, and . . .
on whose
ground and territory and in whose do
main it w as compensate him for the
goods stolen.
24. If persons are stolen, then shall
the community and . . . pay one mina of
silver to their relatives.

25. If fire break out in a house, and

some one who comes to put it out cast
his eye upon the property of the owner
of the house, and take the property of
the master o f the house, he shall be
thrown into that self-same fire.
26. If a chieftain or a man (common
soldier), who has been ordered to go
upon the k in g s highway for w ar does
not go, but hires a mercenary, if he
withholds the compensation, then shall
this officer or man be put to death,
and he who represented him shall take
possession of his house.
27. If a chieftain or man be caught in
the misfortune of the king (captured in
b attle ), and if his fields and garden be
given to another and he take possession,
if he return and reaches his place, his
field and garden shall be returned to
him, he shall take it over again.
28. If a chieftain or a man be caught
in the misfortune of a king, if his son is
able to enter possession, then the field
and garden shall be given to him, he
shall take over the fee of his father.
29. If his son is still young, and can
not take possession, a third of the field
and garden shall be given to his mother,
and she shall bring him up.
30. If a chieftain or a man leave his
house, garden, and field and hires it
out, and some one else takes possession
of his house, garden, and field and uses
it for three years; if the first owner re
turns and claims his house, garden, and
field, it shall not be given to him, but
he who has taken possession of it and
used it shall continue to use it.
31. If he hire it out for one y ear and
then return, the house, garden, and field
shall be given back to him, and he shall
take it ever again.
32. If a chieftain or a man is cap
tured on the W a y of the K in g (in
w a r ) , and a merchant buy him free, and
bring him back to his place; if he have
the means in his house to buy his free
dom, he shall buy himself free; if he
have nothing in his house with which to
buy himself free, he shall be bought free
by the temple of his community; if there
The
R osicru cian be nothing in the temple with which to
buy him free, the court shall buy his
D ig est
freedom. His field, garden, and house
O c to b e r
shall not be given for the purchase of his
1936
freedom.

35. If anyone buy the cattle or sheep

which the king has given to chieftains
from him, he loses his money.
36. T h e fieldl garden, and house of a
chieftain, of a man, or of one subject
to quit-rent, can not be sold.
37. If anyone buy the field, garden,
and house of a chieftain, man or one
subject to quit-rent, his contract tablet
of sale shall be broken (declared in
valid) and he loses his money. T h e
field, garden, and house return to their
owners.
38. A chieftain, man, or one subject
to quit-rent can not assign his tenure
of field, house, and garden to his wife
or daughter, nor can he assign it for
a debt.
39. H e may, however, assign a field,
garden, or house which he has bought,
and holds as property, to his wife or
daughter or give it for debt.
40. H e may sell field, garden, and
house to a merchant (royal agents) or
to an y other public official, the buyer
holding field, house, and garden for its
usufruct.
41. If any one fence in the field, gar
den, and house of a chieftain, man, or
one subject to quit-rent, furnishing the
palings therefor; if the chieftain, man,
or one subject to quit-rent return to
field, garden, and house, the palings
which w ere given to him became his
property.
42. If an y one take over a field to till
it, and obtain no harvest therefrom, it
must be proved that he did no work on
the field, and he must deliver grain, just
as his neighbor raised, to the owner of
the field.
43. If he do not till the field, but let it
lie fallow, he shall give grain like his
neighbors to the owner of the field, and
the field which he let lie fallow he must
plow and sow and return to its owner.
44. If any one take over a wastelying field to make it arable, but is lazy,
and does not make it arable, he shall
plow the fallow field in the fourth year,
harrow it and till it, and give it back to
its owner, and for each ten gan (a
measure of are a) ten guv of grain shall
be paid.
45. If a man rent his field for tillage
for a fixed rental, and receive the rent
of his field, but had w eather come and
T h ree H un dred Forty-six

destroy the harvest, the injury falls

upon the tiller of the soil.
46. If he do not receive a fixed rental
for his field, but lets it on half or third
shares of the harvest, the grain on the
field shall be divided proportionately
between the tiller and the owner.
47. If the tiller, because he did not
succeed in the first year, has had the
soil tilled by others, the owner may
raise no objections; the field has been
cultivated and he receives the harvest
according to agreement.
48. If any one owe a debt for a loan,
and a storm prostrates the grain, or the
harvest fail, or the grain does not grow
for lack of w ater; in that y ear he need
not give his creditor any grain, he
washes his debt-tablet in w ater and
pays no rent for this year.

tillable for corn or sesame and order

him to plant co m or sesame in the field,
and to harvest the crop; if the cultivator
plant corn or sesame in the field, a t the
harvest the corn or sesame that is in the
field shall belong to the owner of the
field and he shall pay corn as rent, for
the money he received from the mer
chant, and the livelihood o f the culti
vator shall he give to the merchant.
50. If he give a cultivated corn-field
or a cultivated sesame-field, the corn or
sesame in the field shall belong to the
owner of the field, and he shall return
the money to the merchant as rent.
51. If he have no money to repay,
then he shall pay in corn or sesame in
place of the money as rent for w hat he
received from the merchant, according
to the royal tariff.
52. If the cultivator do not plant co m
or sesame in the field, the d ebtors co n
tract is not weakened.

49. If any one take money from a

merchant, and give the merchant a field

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

IM P O R T A N T

FORUM

N O T IC E

N ew spaper clippings coming to us from A ustralia indicate that some little group or
organization calling itself R osicru cian and not otherw ise identified in an y definite m anner
has gained new spaper pu blicity through stating that it anticipates a great world w ar that
will start in Septem ber of this y ear and affect all countries, and for that reason has sought
permission to build w hat it claim s to be an asbestos section of its tem ple in order to
protect itself and the country of A ustralia.
Such nonsense
R osicru cian O rd er.
would it be foolish
would be of help in

does not em anate from any authorized person or branch of the true
T h e R osicru cian O rd er does not anticipate any w orld-w ide w ar nor
enough to believe that an asbestos tow er or building of an y kind
such a situation.

O u r organization in A ustralia is not interested in an y m atter of this kind and does

not know of the existen ce of any other recognized R osicru cian m ovem ent in A ustralia.

T h ree H un dred F o rty s e v e n

Why Spiritual Orders Need

Mundane Authority
L E C T U R E G IV EN A T T H E R O S IC R U C IA N

1936

C O N V E N T IO N

By F r a t e r S. R . L a n d is
HROUGHOUT
the past year,
while enjoying the
privilege of serv
ing o u r Beloved
O rd e ra s InspectorG eneral and G rand
Councilor, it has
also been my priv
ilege to a s s i s t
many members in
understanding
b e t t e r how they
should p r o c e e d
with their studies, and especially their
A T T I T U D E toward their studies and
the Rosicrucian O rder.
By A T T I
T U D E , I refer principallv to that state
of mind necessary to acquire a full
understanding of the su bject to be
studied. If your A T T I T U D E of mind
is predicated on assumptions accumu
lated through the objective intellect and
you are unwilling to examine facts in an
unbiased manner, you are incapable of
complete and perfect reasoning and
understanding. B u t to be willing, in
your search for truth, to lay aside the
egotistic attitude developed as a result
The
of the popular educational systems, their
R osicru cian
deductions and conclusions, and almost
D ig est
compulsory necessity of conforming the
O c to b e r
thoughts and actions to the ever-chang
ing fashions of the day, and to let go
1936

o f the superstitions and false knowledge

acquired in the past, is the first pro
cedure required o f the student in order
to free the mind o f its superstitions,
prejudices, and errors, which are the
greatest obstacles to the reception and
understanding of truth.
It requires C O U R A G E to question
the order of things in our religious,
social, and economical life. If thought
and action are to be directed into new
channels, it will require the same tedi
ous effort and perseverance that was
necessary when each one first started
school to learn the fundamental prin
ciples as taught in our schools to meet
the demands of the present order of
things. It will also require I N I T I A
T I V E to explore new fields of knowl
edge that will take you into a different
world from the one you know.
It is natural to suppose that all mem
bers are interested in esoteric principles,
spiritual things. W e can be interested
in any number of things, but interest
alone will never attract those things to
us Interest must be founded on sin
cerity of purpose; otherwise, in all
probability, it is just curiosity. T h a t
which you grasp intellectually may be
overthrown b y a new argument, but
w h at you R E A L I Z E is yours forever.
Y o u c a n truly know and understand
only that which you can feel, be con
T h ree H un dred Forty-eight

scious of, and realize. W e cannot a p

proach a subject and comprehend its
full meaning, unless we become sym
pathetic to it in our attitude and desire.
Therefo re, the interest of the student
must be augmented by C O U R A G E and
I N I T I A T I V E , which is the case of the
student who believes in the existence of
undiscovered powers and abilities in
himself and is resolved to awaken the
sleeping self within. T h is desire must
become the ruling purpose.
T h e student then must O R G A N I Z E
his objective mind and faculties, and
subject them to discipline. H e must
establish order in his life and being. H e
must organize his available moments in
his struggle to extricate himself from
the web of circumstances he has created,
into C O N S T R U C T I V E effort, in order
to avoid a repetition of the same or
worse conditions.
H e must through
D I S C I P L I N E seek the Divine self and
cultivate attunement with the Divine
Self, so that the Divine S e lf can ulti
mately dominate all his activities.
In order to raise your consciousness,
it is necessary that you conduct your
lives in such a manner that you use
every opportunity to test the laws and
principles. T h i s provides the student
with the opportunity of S E R V I C E to
others. M a n y find it difficult to accept
this task whole-heartedly, and it applies
not only to the Neophyte, but also to
many who have studied for many years.
S E R V I C E actually causes a develop
ment of the psychic self, and this
development and evolution is surely and
definitely attuning the inner self with
the Cosmic forces, and attracting an in
flux of vitality and more of the Divine
Consciousness than w as possessed b e
fore. W h i l e it is possible to make some
occult progress without giving service,
R aym ond A nd rea states:
but only
within verv narrow limits." T h e mystic
does not care for anything else but love
of his fellowman, alw ays trying to do
something for someone else without
thinking of any kind of reward for him
self. In rendering service, it does not
necessarily mean occult service, but only
that which you are able with your own
knowledge to give. T h e Cosmic recog
nizes only such service as one w ants to
give and must give of their own free
will without thought of reward.
T h ree H un dred F orty -n in e

All this requires H U M I L I T Y , S I N

C E R I T Y of purpose, and D E V O
T I O N to the highest ideals embodied in
your concepts of the M a s te r and his
work.
T h ro u g h H U M I L I T Y you acquire
U N D E R S T A N D IN G .
T h ro u q h S I N C E R I T Y you acquire
C O N F ID E N C E .
T h ro u g h D E V O T I O N you acquire
F E L I C I T Y , which is the P eace P ro
found you acquire by being about your
F a t h e r s business.
In order to understand life and the
experiences we encounter from day to
day, we must turn our mind to the
source or cause of material m anifesta
tions. W e must first know ourselves in
the image and likeness of our C reator,
and as man increases in this under
standing so does his knowledge of the
spiritual world increase.
W h e n I started as a student of
A M O R C , I studied earnestly with an
intense desire and performed the experi
ments with all the enthusiasm I had, yet
all the while seemingly conscious that
I had no more than a material, intel
lectual understanding. L ater I encoun
tered a time for introspection: and then
I began to realize that there is a deeper
meaning, a fuller understanding, and
that the time must come, if I continued
in full devotion to the O rd er and its
teachings and exercised my knowledge
to the help of all that I contacted, when
I would receive a greater realization of
these finer forces and attributes of the
Soul. T h i s brought light and increased
my understanding, and in the light of
this clearer understanding, this greater
realization, I would review the mono
graphs and find a deeper meaning
oftentimes finding the things that seem
ed to puzzle my mind written there in
very simple language. T h i s intense de
sire to prove and realize the laws and
principles taught by our Beloved O rd er
provided the opportunity for S E R V I C E
to others, and thereby brought to my
consciousness added knowledge and
understanding that enabled me to
R E A L I Z E more fully the teachings,
and raise my consciousness to a better
understanding of love, peace, and
harmony.
In desiring the wisdom and power
that all sincere seekers hope to attain,

there is required in addition to intel

lectual study and knowledge the e x
perience which comes only from trans
lating your knowledge into acts of liv
ing. A s the physical sun sheds its light
on the physical earth and acts upon the
invisible matter in the air, thereby bring
ing into manifestation an abundance of
everything that man needs, so the sun
of the Soul must be made to shed its
light into all of the corners and recesses
o f the Inner Self, thereby bringing into
manifestation the fruits of the spiritual
world.
T o attain knowledge of esoteric prin
ciples and spiritual things first n eces
sitates adjustment on this plane of
manifestation, and it is necessary that
this adjustment must be orderly and in
harmony with spiritual law. T h u s, order
pervades the universe, the macrocosm,
and also the microcosm, man. T h e pro
cesses for the unfoldment of the Soul
are dependent upon your experiences on
this mundane plane of existence. O u r
Beloved O rd er contains in its teachings
the accumulated knowledge and wisdom
of the ages. Its archives contain the
records of the M aste rs and their teach
ings. T h e teachings contain the laws
and principles of G o d and Nature.

READ

THE

F ra n tz Hartm ann stated, " I f we wish

to know nature, we must learn to know
G od, and G o d cannot be known with
out a knowledge of one s own Divine
S e lf ."
So, I have found through my contacts
with the members, that though they may
be interested in esoteric principles,
spiritual things, they cannot attain such
heights unless their mundane lives are
properly organized, disciplined, and
conducted according to order; therefore,
it is necessary for Rosicrucians to ad
here to the rules and regulations of the
organization to get the utmost from the
teachings.
T o learn that within lies the Kingdom
of Heaven, which was proclaimed by
the G re a t M aste r. T o learn that the
w ay to the within is not sought in the
material complexities of this mundane
world, but through the experiences of
life on this plane of existence and the
mastery of the self, the power is given
to control the body and the emotions,
and at the same time raise the conscious
ness so that through the S O U L , you
can R E A L I Z E the consciousness of the
D I V I N E and S P I R I T U A L L I F E .

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

The
R osicru cian
D igest
O c to b e r
1936
T h ree H un dred F ifty

SANCTUM MUSINGS

H A PPIN ESS

(A special contribution by Prater

Jam es D .

Fulio, M aster of the Benjamin Franklin Chapter.)

A N Y h u m a n beings
have falsely pur
sued ha ppi ne s s
only to cease be
cause they consid
ered it as a will-owisp, a figment of
t h e philosophers
m a d imagination.
Concluding that it
must be a special
gift of the gods
because of its in
accessibility, they
easily resign themselves to the belief
that it was originally handed out in
neatly wrapped packages and given to
a select minority. T o most people this
minority is regarded as the prosperous
and consequently more fortunate among
them. Still with great eagerness and in
a multitude of w ays they stage many
brief but ineffective attacks, only to be
again deceived and deluded. Y e t the
very reason for the failure to discover
happiness is not lack of energy but
rather the illusive nature that man has
attributed to it. Happiness to most
people is unfortunately synonymous
with possessions of great wealth, of
great power, of great splendor, or un
bounded indulgence o f an y one appetite
or desire. Y e t happiness is none of
these, nor is its true nature readily ob
T h ree H undred F ifty -o n e

served because of its intangible, retired

nature. F o r happiness lies in the mind
and inner part of man, hidden from the
prying spectacle seeker. A n d since the
approach to happiness is lacking in
glitter and sensation, many fail to reco g
nize its true nature. Hastening aw ay
they are attracted to the brilliant, d an
gerous illusions that life offers.
T h e refo re, because happiness is of an
immaterial nature or condition existing
in the mind of man, anyone, providing
he is in moderate circumstances, is cap
able of attaining happiness that is truly
surprising. If, then, we accept the pre
mise that true religion is a process of
conversion or development of the inner
part of man, which eventuates in a re
flection in his intellect and body and his
happiness, expansion of the inner being
to the level of spiritual truths and the
expression of these truths in his every
day life in the form of positive virtues
and the development of a noble ch a r
acter, he will from the very expansion
of mind, bo d y and Soul realize a condi
tion of happiness. T o be happy, then,
we must ever continue to unroll ourself
on the background called life. Since
every human being is different and on
different levels of circumstances and en
vironment, and is affected in body,
mind, or Soul from different experi
ences, happiness must then be of vary

ing degrees in the entire lot of in

dividuals and also must, because o f the
fluctuating of the interactivity of the
three phases of his being, be a variable
condition in his own life, depending on
the balance and harmony that exists
within him. If, then, one part of his n a
ture is affected, his other parts will
eventually be involved and until a re
adjustment is gained some degree of in
harmony will exist, thus marring his
happiness and well-being. T h e r e is,
then, because happiness is dependent on
this very condition, but on e vitally im
portant thing that is necessary, and that
is to seek through experience, know l
edge, or the evolution of consciousness,
to enable promotion of a finer and more
complex integration and balance. T h e
source of this knowledge is only real e x
perience in any form. W i t h every
human that knowledge is real which he
himself has experienced and knows is
the truth because he has reasoned upon
it and observed the effects on his
growth. Hence, knowledge that is a c
cepted and not proven to us in our in
dividual experience is useless for the
furtherance of our inner growth.
Since experience is of vast import
ance, it is well to further investigate it.
T h e meaning of the term experience is
according to its original derivation from
the Latin "e x p e rio r, the bringing forth
to light. E xperience, then, is the pro
vider of material for thought which
should be an unerring guide to the
present, and through our imagination
into the future, so that we by slow de
grees pass from the darkness of ignor
ance to the light of knowledge, wisdom,
and understanding.
N o experience,
then, can be treated as unimportant or
trivial, if w e are truly desirous o f
traversing from the darkness of error
and its boon companions, ignorance and
unhappiness.
Slowly, then, it is only
from the lessons gained from experience
that we proceed in life and reach deeper
and deeper levels of truth, light, and selfknowledge. T h is it is that enables us to
rectify our lives in the course of every
day living. Surely, then, it is this that
The
R osicru cian enables us to evolve to a higher form of
life. F o r unless we evolve toward truth
D igest
and continue to grow we have not real
O c to b e r
ized one whit from the glorious life with
which we are infused. T o be allowed to
1936

live and seek to understand the marvel

ous creation that we witness should, if
we are healthy minded and our instinct
of wonder has not been buried, make
life intensely interesting.
T h e refo re, if we must discover truth,
it is the inalienable right of every per
son to seek experience and the refining
influence of education to aid in the wise
interpretation of all experience, so that
a comprehensive picture is gained of the
true picture of life. Because the Divine
in His infinite wisdom recognizes the
need of individual experience, He does
not withhold us from it. O n the con
trary, we are placed in a condition of
life according to the specific lessons we
are to learn, so that we can benefit and
grow through the gradual overcoming
of that which retards us from going
into a higher grade of consciousness.
E a c h human being is a unique differen
tiation, possessing characteristics of
varying degrees and different levels of
consciousness and inner evolvement
which he must im prove and refine. T h u s
where the Divine allows us to work out
our own furtherance by giving to us the
power of choice and selection toward
the ultimate end without interference or
protectiveness, man, through his blund
ering and ignorance, attem pts to restrict, possess, and restrain other hu
mans from reaching for that which coin
cides with their inherent desire and
ideals to experience life after its own
particular needs and past levels of truth
gained and molds them into a pattern
based not on inner requirements but
false standards erroneously conceived.
But the human spirit will not be quelled.
T r y to crush it, impose restrictions on
it, and still it will continue to resurge;
despite certain modifications and limita
tions placed on it as a result, it never
theless fights against total crystalliza
tion, or slavery to the outer self, and
seeks to release itself to the day it dies.
T h e degree to which man is crystallized,
of course, depends on effect of his re
actions to everything in his particular
environment and the particular habits
developed.
In the consideration of the causes
that injure and incalculably harm an in
dividual, the question of environment is
important. In the world of nature, if the
environment is favorable to the particu
T h ree H u n dred F ifty -tw o

lar needs according to the inherent de

sign of a particular species, it flourishes
and grows, fulfilling its destiny. M an ,
on the other hand, due to his associates
with others and the complexity and
divergence of his mode of living from
natural principles and laws, is seldom
born in a condition where he can find
the proper relationship of proper guid
ance and type of experience that he
needs for his plane of sensitivity and
inner needs. If from birth he were
properly studied and guided in the un
folding o f his self, he would with ease
modify his environment and create for
himself one which would mean expan
sion and growth of mind. H e would
then have revealed and shown to him
his present level of development upon
which he must focus his attention and
effort. Instead, the average persons
most impressionable years are spent in
the reception o f negative images, the
interpretation of which assumes strange
complexes of ideas which burn into his
inner depths, pervert his imagination
which is necessary to conversion, and
cause confusion and disorder in his
thinking.
T h is negative imagery, or the im
proper ideals and misconceptions that
arise in the mind, is very significant.
E v ery event, whether it be happy or un
happy, creates in the mind mental
images that compose our thinking,
which become centers of action and suc
cession, progress or regression, in our
relation to life. All abnormal states of
mind or destructive complexes are only
a group of interactive negative images.
T h e s e complexes burn into our su b
conscious depths and through habit
formations they inhibit normal, healthy
processes of thought and thus breed
fear and negative virtues. T h e sum
total of these complexes is w hat consti
tutes our realization of life, our mental
attitude, personality and character. T h u s
we all have a particular point of view,
an intermingled group of positive and
negative complexes which is the screen
through which all experiences are filter
ed and sifted. A nd life, according to
the extent that this screen contains mis
conceptions and divergence from truth,
is met with by a series of abnormal
mechanisms and impossible fears which
limit our reasoning processes. T h u s do
T h ree H un dred F ifty -th ree

we humans become psychically blind,

prejudiced, biased and egocentric. In
harmony must eventuate, as it unfail
ingly will, due to the confusion, co n
fliction, and disorder of the intellect of
the outer being and the emotional depth
of the inner being when we fail to build
our complexes of ideas on truth. T o
realize harmony m ans two natures must
concur.
Instead, then, of m an i outer nature
becoming synchronous with his inner
nature and being me ely a vehicle
through which his rea1 self, the inner
being, expresses itself, man, due to his
wrong and faulty interpretation of the
meaning o f his experience and the ob
literation of reality, becomes a slave to
the improper habit formations and ap
petites of his outer self and its limita
tions of the intellect. It is the confliction
between his two selves and the confu
sion that this causes with other human
beings that cause man to feel that life
is nothing more than a hard struggle
from which he experiences terrific re
actions from a world of apparently
never-ending battle. F o r how can a man
be harmonious or at peace with others
if he is discordant and turbulent within?
P eace or jo y he knows not, for early in
life he has received shocks and wounds.
D espair and morbidity grew in his
heart and confliction tears him asunder.
H e does not possess balance and the in
tegration of a happy person. Rather,
he becomes tragically unhappy, seeking
some measure of jo y and aid that will
bring him the understanding that will
reduce this conflict and bring him a
measure of peace. T h e psychic loneli
ness and solitude he must endure cause
him pangs of anguish and torture. Still,
because he is human, he fights and seeks
light. And if he seeks long and hard he
will from it all have grown toward light,
whether it is consciously realized or not.
H e then merely needs the spark that
will kindle his Soul, set it aflame and
activate him toward further heights.
Consequently, in an endeavor to grasp
and understand life, the environmental
influence creating distorted and negative
images deny him full experience, and
instead of normal expressions based on
reality with constructive tendencies of
thought and feeling causing him to
master his environment and change it

to his special needs as he progresses to

the fulfillment of his destiny, he sinks
into a condition of negative impulses
and neurotic thinking where the habit
structure o f his outer nature is an im
prisonment of his Soul. Ill-health and
inharmony and wrong thinking are the
cause of his suffering.
Y e t it is this very suffering that is to
redeem him, if he but heeds its message;
for suffering is the crying out of the
Soul against the desecration it has under
gone. Pain and suffering, if regarded in
an impersonal kght, is not destructive;
rather, it is constructive. It is nature's
warning that man is transgressing the
laws of the universe to which he is sub
ject, either in the emotional, the mental,
or physical realm. N ature, if superfi
cially considered, may appear hard and
unjust, but if we stop and think, she has
our w elfare at heart. P ain, then, has a
constructive significance in our life. F o r
if we really think, we learn to surrender
to the natural laws governing the n a
tural order of which w e are a part and
gain self-expansion in that obedience.
T h e re fo re , the technique of meditation
and concentration is the mental condi
tion we seek to maintain in our approach
to life and its experiences, and through
the understanding of law that this
brings to us, we learn how to obey. F o r
obey we must if we would free ourself
from pain and suffering.
B efo re we can accept this view of
suffering as evidence of wrong thinking
and acting in life, we must realize a de
finite point of view. W e live in a n a
tural world in which we, as human b e
ings, are but a part of the wonderful
phenomena that exists, and life, if it is
evolutionary, of which there is small
doubt, is the result of natural order and
intelligence. W e , to evolve with it, must
conform to the rules and regulations
that govern it, by working in harmony
with its constructive processes. T h i s re
quires orderly thinking and orderly liv
ing. Pain, then, is the consequence of
wrong thinking, wrong action, harmful
attitudes, misunderstandings or ignor
ance. It is a delimitation of the power
The
th
a t inheres within us and is a mere
R osicru cian
fragmentary point of view, or some per
D igest
sonalized attitude toward the drama of
O c to b e r
experience in short, it is a failure to
think. T h is entire attitude of pain is
1936

hard but logical, if we are to understand

the vicissitudes of man. From it surely
we must gain a new idea, a fuller view
o f the impersonality of G od and his
marvelous creation of life.
T h is broader vision brings faith in
the justice o f creation and endows us
with trust and hope, and keeps us grow
ing to higher and higher levels of
spiritually. T h u s we cannot shield a
human from suffering, because we keep
him from the reality which is so neces
sary to interpret life on a higher spirit
ual plane. B ecause the condition of life
that man finds himself in is to him being
governed by ignorance of law, we must
ever try through study to understand
the relation of a human being to the un
changing laws and principles of nature
and G od as they are gradually revealed
to us, and from the understanding gain
ed lift our vision for the future of our
life to loftier and nobler realms.
W h a t is this lofty realm that we
should aspire to? Is it not to possess a
mind that is capable of evaluating self
and others in the light of truth; to
possess such sensitive development of
the inner self that it would enable us to
have an insight into the inner life of our
fellow man so that we could always
offer sympathetic understanding and aid
in his needs; and to grow to such a god
like person that our personality is vitally
alive and independent. T h u s, due to a
transcendent view-point, we could look
out into the world and determine the
truth and worth of all that transpires
therein. T h e deep penetration into the
Soul of man would then allow us to see
clearly the masquerades, delusions, and
misconception of man with their little
measures and petty selfish aims, differ
ences, desires, and false ideas of hap
piness. Y e t we would not w ant this to
blur the vision of the eternal verities
that we seek to fathom. Neither do we
w ant to bow our head in misery over the
affairs o f lesser men. T ru e , we may
silently weep and compassionately offer
solace and comfort to the suffering
world and probably sorrow for mankind
and even deliver ourself for love of
them, but this would be facing the stern
reality of life. T h e tarnish and clutter
that w orry most human beings in their
everyday life and obscures their vision
and perspective we would not want to
T h ree H un dred F ifty -fo u r

stir us. R ath er would we want to meet

all conditions of our life with under
standing and mastery. W i t h clearness
and cleanness we could then live with
success in a world of turmoil, strife, and
tragedy. Surely would we want to be
impersonal and remain true to a spiritual
integrity which alone gives peace of
mind and happiness. M a y b e we could
not attain to such largeness of character
and Soul, but we can and should at
tempt to reach that sense of timeless
ness and impersonality in an impersonal
universe. T o reach this high level we
must never lose our focus.
T o keep our eyes focused on the
highest good we can perform in our
present level of experience and develop
ment, the greatest service we can per
form and the fullest, deepest meaning of
truth we can understand and follow so
that we can reach a noble life in the in
tricacies of life, where it is sometimes
difficult to know the true course of
righteousness, is our true focus. W h e n
and only when we learn to think im
personally with concentrated poise and
seek a relation between cause and effect
in life and our experiences, egotism in
all its forms will not possess our
thought, nor will we seek to justify and
excuse ourself for our mistakes and dif
ficulties in life. Instead, then, of think
ing backwards from effects to wrong
cause, choosing a superficial element
and trying to prove that something other
than ourself has created our trouble
some experiences, rather let us seek the
reality of truth, of goodness and beauty
of life. T h e y are in life if we but seek
them.
F o r without reality life is a mere de
lusion, a masquerade in which we seek
idle, sensuous pleasures and destructive
pastimes to fill the void of living and
stunted growth that we ourselves have
created. O n ly through contact with
reality can we experience a sense of joy
or expression, or gain a sense of
achievement so necessary to happiness.
B ut let us not err in thinking that mere
intellectuality will bring about our co n
version and set us free. It must extend
beyond this limited faculty of our b e
ing. It is this performance that cures us
of negative imagery and helps us to
establish convictions based on positive
images created from real facts of life
T h ree Hundred. F ifty -fiv e

formed in the mind b y concentration

and meditation and the balance between
our mind, our Soul, and our body which
alone insures growth and happiness.
Important is this because images are the
masters of our volition. W i l l power
obeys our mental imagery and the reas
oning that it engenders. If we can dis
card the old images for the new, we can
and will achieve a new form of expres
sion, and because of this become crea
tive human beings as w e were intended,
if we wish to enrich our lives and find
greater happiness.
O u r purpose, then, is to discover our
self, uncover our abnormal tendencies
and attitudes created when we did not
know better, tear down negative abit
by slowly changing the course of our
formations, and thus free our inner self
life into constructive channels based on
laws of life and truth, beauty and good
ness. W e must learn to think and use
our reasoning to determine w hat and
how to create normal health tendencies.
T o know the true relation of self with
the true facts of life and the drama of
life as we interpret it, will result in co n
structive processes of thought and will
produce a momentum of positive imag
ery, rhythm, and balance on all planes
of our being. T h e n will we be truly
happy and sane in our attitude toward
life.
In conclusion, then, let me quote that
the person that has a sane view of life
considers it neither wholly repugnant
nor wholly sweet. T o him life is, tritely
but none the less truthfully speaking, an
adventure or series o f adventures in
which the proper blending of the joys
and sorrows, aches and pains make it
invariably interesting and almost alw ays
reasonably exciting. Such a person
has learned to regard every little inci
dent no matter how pleasant or un
pleasant as an offering from which to
draw threads of humor, pathos and
drama to weave on the loom of the
mind, another episode on the tapestry
that is human life.
Happiness, then, comes to us acco rd
ing to the tapestry that we have woven
through our minds. If, then, we have
woven or created a distorted, disor
ganized, inartistic picture, it will be re
flected in our lives, for w e see in life no

more than we have created. E n v iro n

ment is the mirror of our inner life and
thoughts. N o man can see in life what
is not within himself. If. then, he has
created a pattern and woven a beauti
ful design from the string of laws and
principles of truth, he will realize

READ

THE

beauty. If, on the other hand, he has

woven a hideous ogre, it will haunt and
torment him.
Images are the threads
you use. T h e y can either be positive or
negative. T h e type of threads and the
particular design you create depends
first, last, and alw ays upon you.

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

oA Prayer
By

S o ro r Id ah H erm a n ce W ood

|EAR G O D , T h o u encom
passed by the Cosmic,
T h o u A l l - S e e i n g , A llKind, A ll-E n d earin g Soul
of the Infinite; list to the
plea of one entity, one
human Soul, an humble bit of T h in e
O w n D e a r Life.
In mine work strengthen me through
w eary moments of stress and strife.
G re a t engulfing waves of sorrow threat
en to envelop me, but keep me ever free.
T e a c h me that I in turn may teach
those that look to me for guidance.

The
R osicru cian
D igest
O c to b e r
1936

Let mine lips ever cheer the w eary

Soul and comfort the broken spirit. Let
not mine lips speak naught but truth
save when in tact it bolster the courage
of the weak or praise the laggard to
greater heights. Let not mine lips wound
a tender heart.
Strengthen my hands to deeds that
aid the sick; my back to share the bur
den of the weary.
M a y I be ever tolerant o f o th e rs
views or beliefs as I wish th tir tolerance
of mine. Knowing that at the end of the
trail all return to T h e e .

L et mine eyes glory in the exquisite

beauties of nature knowing that T h y
hand painted the canvas thereof.

M a y I know tolerance of o thers

weaknesses knowing that I too stumble
on the path. M a y I judge not lest I be
judged; throw no stones lest I be stoned.

Attune mine ears to sublime music

that it may meet the vibrations of mine
Soul and merge with the divine music
o f the spheres.

O pen mine eyes wih pity for w eaker

mortals but close mine lids before envy
for those stronger than I materially,
physically or mentally.

Let not mine ears hearken to idle

gossip, nor that I be deterred from mine
chosen purpose thereby. N o r mine sane
view of life be changed through heark-

M a y the Light of T h in e dear Life

and tender Love walk with me always
and P eace Profound abide with me
forever.
Amen.

ening thereto.

T h ree H un dred F ifty s i x

cjo

dp
X

u s t a v i

S r.L r.si

CRYPTOME
NYTLCES

ET CRY

P T O G It A P H I A
~

In (juibu< &

S T E G A N Q G R A P H I/E
J OH ANNE

1 R I T H E M K

A s.. ate SjUiih.yrncnti c< :-i. ibipo:.r

j.in urn< ': ngc: i \ U 0 , t
6an
c v . m to..-

N 0 D A T IO
traclunr.

In. perlis ubicjue Authoris ac

Aiior-.tn, non ..outcmncndn
m.cv.iA.

A RARE BOOK OF VALUE TO

R O SICRU C IA N S

T h e above is a photograph of the yellow ed and faded title page of a very rare book of a
large size w hich has been of great value to students of R osicru cian and Sh akespearean m anu
scripts as well as the questioned w orks of Johan V alen tin e A ndreae and F ran cis B acon . T h e
title page show s that the book is by G ustave Seleni on cryptogram s and secret cipher codes.
It contains the key to all of the principal ciphers and codes used by Bacon and other Rosicru.cians and enables the student to trace the R osicru cian. Bacon. A ndrea connections through the
Shakespeare plays and other w orks of that time.
T h e book w as published in the early part of the sixteenth century and you will notice in
the two upright panels on each side of the center of the page and in the panel at the bottom of
the page figures that are to be found in the d ecorations of the Shakespeare folios and in some of
B a co n 's books, along with dainty and delicate pieces of design that are sym bolic of the R o si
crucian O rder. T h e book is one of the extraord in ary w orks in our R osicrucian archives. T h e
size of the book is eight and one-half inches by fourteen and one-half inches.
W e have other books in which Seleni is a co-au th or with A ndrea and B acon and another
book by Seleni in which the frontispiece is a fine engraving of Andrea and underneath the
portrait some R osicru cian sym bols and the words "Joh. V alentinu s A n d reae." Som e historians
and R osicru cians claim that Seleni and A ndreae w ere the same person. If this is eventually
proved to be true, it will solve one of the greatest m ysteries of the B acon -S h ak esp eare co n tro
versy.

Courtesy of The Rosicrucian Digest.

l a

A MYSTIC SALUTATION TO THE DAWN

w w I I I f face turned eastward and tfie solt rays
ol the rising sun illuminating fiis fervent
expression, Amenbotep IV slowly repeated his
solemn prayer to the sole, ever-living ( >od. Over
a thousand years before Christianity this pharaoh dedirated his life and power to directing man
to the divine source of all. W i t h him began the
first true religion and mysticism. Daily, he would
ascend the steps of his sacred altar and offer his
prayers to the Mast, from whence all light came.
I oday, in Rosicrucian temples throughout the
world, we commemorate his spiritual attainment,
and beau tiful. simple ceremony by erecting a sim
ilar altar, known as the Slip kinah, with its three
symbolic steps representing a mystical law of the
universe.
fuin one

SANCTUM INCENSE BURNER

E S P E C IA L L Y

D E S IG N E D

FOR

R O S IC R U C IA N S

Now, the Rosicrucian Supply Bureau has designed

an incense burner which embodies this beautiful spir
itual significance of Amenhotep s salutation to the
dawn so loved by all members of A M O R C . T h e face
is an exact copy of the sculptured head of Amenhotep
IV found in the ruins of his great temple at Tel-EIAmarna. I he front of the altar is inscribed with the
sun dish, sacred symbol of the ever-living C od. O n
each side can be seen the Crux Ansata (the looped
cross). More important still is the position ol the
handsforming the Rosicrucian sign of supplication.
T h e incense rises from the miniature censer resting on
top of the Shekinah. Designed by a Rosicrucian officer
and executed by an internationally-known sculptor, size
six inches in height and length, and made of Egyptian
clay. the censer is a beautiful piece of art. It shou Id be
in the sanctum of every' Rosicrucian. Finished in a n
tique bronze, it sells lor
O n l y 2 . 0 0 , p o sta g e p aid .

.-I r u lu u b le a d d it io n to Ih e
Rose c ru c ia n san ctu m .

ROSICRUCIAN SUPPLY BUREAU

ROSICRUCIAN PARK

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

TH E PU RPO SES O F

THE

M em ber of
FU D O SI"
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societe3
In itiatiques)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDE R

T he Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body of men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application of natural and spiritual laws. T h e purpose o f the o rgan i
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive.
Cosmic forces fo r the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
The Order i3 internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in Am erica, and all other lands, constitutes the only form o f R os i
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation.
T he A M O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
free ly to all affiliated members, togeth er w ith many other benefits.
Inqu irers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they m ay receive from Rosicrucian association, are invited to send for
the free book, "T h e Secret H e rita ge. Address, F ria r S. P. C., care o f

AMORC TEM PLE

R osicrucian Park, San Jose, C alifornia, U. S. A.
(Cable Address:

"A M O R C O "

Radio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the J^orth and South American Jurisdictions

(In clu d in g the United States, Dominion o f Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f Am erica.)
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS , F. R. C., Ph. D ......................................................................
Im perator
C L E M E N T B. L E B R U N , F. R. C..............................
Grand Master
R A L P H M. L E W IS , F. R. C..................................................................................................Supreme Secretary
H A R V E Y M IL E S , F. R. C
Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D , F. R. C
Secretary to Grand M aster
H A R R Y L. S H IB L E Y , F. R. C....................- ...............................................................D irector o f Publications
Junior Order o f T o rc h Bearers (sponsored by A M O R C ). F o r complete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter. Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

T he follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

R eading, Pennsylvania:
Reading C hapter. M r. Carl Schlotzhauer,
M aster; M r. G eorge R . O sm an, S e cretary .
M eeting every 1st and 3rd F rid ay , 8 :0 0 p. m.,
W a sh in g to n H all, 904 W a sh in g to n Street.
New Y o rk City, New Y o rk :
N ew Y o rk C hapter, Room s 35-36, 711 8th
A ve., cor. 8th A ve. and 45th Street. M r. W .
J. N orris, M aster; M arg aret Sh arpe, S e cre
tary . Inquiry and reading rooms open week
d ays and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.
Philadelphia, P ennsylvania:
D elta Lodge N o. 1, A M O R C , S . E . C orner
40th and Brow n Sts., 2nd F loor. M r. A lbert
C ourtney, M aster.
B enjam in Fran klin C h apter of A M O R C ;
M r. Jam es D e Fulio, M aster; M arth a A itken,
S e creta ry , 2203 15th Street. M eetings for
all members every second and fourth Su n
days, 7 :30 p .m ., at 1521 W e s t G irard A ve.
(Seco nd F loor, Room B ) .
B oston, M assachusetts:
T h e M arie Clem ens Lodge, C h ester A .
Robinson, M aster. T em p le and R eading
Room s, 739 Boylston S t., T elep ho ne K enmore 9398.
D etro it, M ich igan :
T h eb es C h ap ter N o. 336. M iss E lla A . M illiman, M aster;
M rs. P earl A nna T ifft,
S e cre ta ry . M eetings at the F loren ce Room ,
T u ller H otel, every T u esd ay , 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone N o. 1870.

San Fran cisco, C alifo rn ia:

F ran cis B acon Lodge. 1655 P olk Street;
M r. D avid M ackenzie, M aster.
P ittsburg, P ennsylvania:
Penn. F irst Lodge. R alph M . R oss, M aster;
610 A rch Street.
A tlan ta, G eorgia:
A tlanta C hapter N o. 650. M rs. V . C unning
ham, Sr., M aster; N assau H otel. M eetings
7:30 every T h u rsd ay night.
Los A ngeles, C alifo rn ia:
Herm es Lodge, A M O R C T em p le. M r. D u n
can G . W rig h t, M aster, R eading R oom and
Inquiry office open daily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.
and 7 :3 0 p. m. to 9 p. m. except Sundays.
G ran ad a C ourt, 672 South L a fa y ette P ark
Place.
Birm ingh am , A labam a:
Birm ingham C h apter of A M O R C
F o r in
form ation address M r. M . J. Collins, M aster,
1516 S o . 15th A ve.
C h icago, Illin ois:
C h icago C h apter N o. 9. H . C . B lackw ell,
M aster; M ab el L . Schm idt, S e cre ta ry . T e le
phone Su perior 6881. R eading R oom open
afternoons and evenings. Su nd ay s 2 to 5
only. 100 E . O h io S t., Room 403-404. L ec
ture sessions for A L L jpem bers every T u e s
day night, 8 :0 0 p. m.
C h icag o A fra-A m erican C h ap ter N o. 10.
O liv er T . M cG rew , M aster;
N ehem iah
D ennis, S e cretary . M eeting every W ed n es
day night at 8 o'clock, Y . M . C . A ., 3763 So .
W a b a s h A venue.

(D irecto ry Continued on N ex t

P age)

P ortland , O reg o n :
Portland C hapter. F loyd D . C ook, M aster;
405 Orpheum Bldg. M eetings every T h u rs
day, 8 :0 0 p .m . at 714 S . W . 11th A venue.
W ash ing ton, D . C .:
T h o m as Jefferson C hapter.
How ard E .
M ertz, M aster. C onfederate M em orial H all,
1322 V erm ont A ve. N . W . M eetings every
F rid ay , 8 :0 0 p. m.

New ark, New Jersey:

H. Sp en cer Lew is C hapter. F ran k A . H am
mond, M aster; for inform ation address Sy lv ia
K ingsley, S e cretary , 31 L eo P lace.
Seattle, W ash ing ton:
A M O R C C h ap ter 586. Fred M otter, M aster;
M rs. Carolina H enderson, S e cretary . 311-14
Low m an Bldg., betw een 1st and 2nd A ves.
on C h erry Street. R eading room open week
d ays 11 a. m. to 4 :3 0 p. m. V isito rs welcom e.
C h ap ter m eetings each M ond ay, 8 :0 0 p. m.

O th er C hartered C h apters and Lodges of the R osicru cian O rd er (A M O R C ) will be found in

most large cities and tow ns of N orth A m erica. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
V icto ria, B ritish C olum bia:
V icto ria Lodge, M r. G eorge A . Phillips,
M aster. Inquiry O ffice and Reading Room ,
101 U nion B ank Bldg. O pen week d ays 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.
W inn ip eg , M an ito ba, C anada:
G . F . G ostick , M aster, 361 M ach ray A ve.
Session for all members every Sunday,
2:45 p. m., 304 " B " End erton Bldg., P ortage
A ve. and H argrave St.

Edm onton, A lberta:

M r. F . G . Pow ell,
A venue E .

M aster,

9533

Jasper

T o ro n to , O n tario , C anada:
M iss E dith H earn, M aster. Sessions 1st and
3rd Su nd ays of the month, 7 :0 0 p. m N o. 10
L ansdow ne A ve.
V an cou ver, B ritish C olum bia:
Canadian G rand Lodge, A M O R C .
M rs.
E th el M . W a r e , M aster; H. B . Kidd, S e cre
tary, A M O R C T em p le, 878 H ornby Street.

SP A N ISH A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
T h is jurisdiction includes all the Sp anish-speaking C ountries of the N ew W o rld . Its Suprem e
Council and A dm inistrative O ffice are located at San Juan, P uerto R ico, having local R epresen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
T h e name and address of the O fficers and R epresen tatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.

A ll correspondence should be addressed as follows:

S e creta ry G eneral of the Sp anish -A m erican Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P . O . B ox 36, San Juan,

P uerto R ico.

A F E W O F T H E F O R E IG N JU R IS D IC T IO N S
Scand in avian Countries:
T h e A M O R C G rand Lodge of D enm ark.
M r. A rthur Sundstrup, G rand M aster; Carli
A nderson, S. R. C ., G rand S e creta ry . M an ogade 13th Strand, C openhagen, D enm ark.
Sweden:
G rand Lodge "R o sen k o rset." A nton S v a n lund, F . R . C ., G rand M aster. Jerusalem sgatan, 6, M alm o.
H o llan d :
D e Rozekruisers O rde;
G root-L od ge der
Nederlanden. J. Coops, G r. S e ct., H unzestraat 141, Amsterdam .
F ran ce:
M ile. Jeanne Guesdon, S .R .C ., Corresponding
S e cretary for the G rand Lodge (A M O R C )
of F ran ce, 56 Rue G am betta, V illeneuve
Sain t G eorges, (Sein e
O is e ).

&

Sw itzerland:
A M O R C G rand Lodge. A ugust R eichel,
F . R . C ., G r. S e ct., R ian t-P o rt V e v e y -P la n .
C hina and Russia:
T h e U nited G rand L odge of C hina and R u s
sia. P . O . B o x 513, Shangh ai, China.
R O S IC R U C IA N P R E S S . L T D .,

New Z ealan d :
A uckland C hapter A M O R C .
M r. G . A.
F ran k lin, M aster, 317 V icto ria A rcade Bldg.
Q ueen S t., C ity Auckland.
England :
T h e A M O R C G rand Lodge of G reat B ritain.
M r. R aym und A ndrea, K . R . C ., Grand
M aster, 34 B ay w ater A ve., W estb u ry Park,
B ristol 6.
D u tch and East Indies:
D r. W . T h . van Stokkum , G rand M aster;
W . J. V isser, Secretary -G en eral.
K arangtempel 10 Sem arang, Java.
Egypt:
T h e G rand O rien t of A M O R C , H ouse of the
T em p le, M . A . R am ayvelim , F . R. C ., Grand
S e cretary , 26, A venue Ism alia, Heliopolis.
A frica:
T h e G rand L odge of the G old C oast,
A M O R C . M r. W illiam O k ai, G rand M aster,
P . O . B ox 424 A ccra, Gold C oast, W e st
A frica.

The addresses of other foreign Grand Lodges

and secretaries will be furnished on application.
P R IN T E D IN U . S . A .

arthbound

Is there a strange, ethereal,

mental cord that

hinds the consciousness ol those departed from this

world with those that remain ?

A re souls denied

liberation alter transition until they have com m uni

cated to their loved ones important m essages? A r e
the fantastic experiments ol the seance room trickery
or fraud, or are they the result ol earthbound en
tities seeking freedom from the confining interests
ol th is world. Is the human consciousness suspended
for a n indefinite period between the spiritual and
earthly realm s?

Is psychic communication, with

minds gone on, a farce or a f a c t /

DO NOl

EXPOUND

ol its unusual doc trines.

S P IR I I I S M .

Yet they have m ade an imp artial investigation

Let us send our Irec discourse entitled,

w hich is devoted to this subject.

Rosicrucians

E arth bou nd ,

Y o u will be fascinated with it.

to you.

In addition, w e will

gladly send you, absolutely Iree. twenty other discourses on interesting, intriguing sub
jects such as the following:
Reincarnation and O ld A ge,
I he M ind. A H u m a n R adio,

A Stran ge E xperience,

I he Mystery of Sleep.

etc., etc.

\ Y e have never m a d e an oiler of such astounding value before. M erely subscribe to

tills helpful, interesting publication.

1 he

Rosicrucian Digest,

lor six months lor $ 1 .5 0 .

and all these discourses will be sent to you in addition to the six-months magazine sub
scription. Just send your remittance ol $ 1 . 5 0 for I I ie Rosicrucian Digest,
Send me the twenty I R E E discourses in addition.

and say,

Do not overlook this splendid op

portunity ol wonderlul reading matter. This offer is lor a limited time only. Send order
and remittance to:

~7hc Rjosicrucian D ig e s t
SAN

J O

S E , CAL

F O RN

A , U. S. A.

FREET w enty bound and

p r i n t e d discourses
like t h o s e listed
above. R ead above
for details and send
for y o u r s

today.

(rRgsicrucian Library
The follow ing books are a few o f several recommended because o f the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II.

R O S IC R U C IA N P R IN C IP L E S FO R T H E H O M E A N D B U SIN E SS.

A very practical book dealing with the solution o f health, financial, and business problems in the home and

office.

W ell printed and bound In red silk, stamped with gold.

Volume

in.

Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret

studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the

Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V.

U N T O T H E E I G R A N T . . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f T ibet.

It is filled with the

most
ost sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f tne F a r East. T he book has had many editions. W ell printed
w ith attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V I.

A TH O USAND YEARS OF YESTERD AYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and mystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V II.

S E L F M A S T E R Y A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E .

new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. Better than any system o f num erology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.
A

Volume V H I.

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

Most complete outline of the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price. $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X I.

M A N S IO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E COSM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines o f reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X D .

W ell

L E M U R IA T H E L O S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K now o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X III.

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete euide for attaining the state of Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Send ail orders for books, w ith rem ittan ce, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY

BU REA U ,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , C alifornia.

THE INSTITUTION BEHIND THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

---

STUDENT SUPPLIES

Our Suggestion To You

PERF UME

OF THE

SOUL

CIJ T h e ancients atlrilmted directly In divine source everything which

to the human senses seemed perfect the fragrance of flowers, the sweetsmelling early morning air. the tang ol the sea, the mysterious scent of
strange herbs.

I hese pleasing odors were associated with the divine

being ol the gods. E v e n the soul w as thought to have a Iragrance of its

own lar superior to anything else which man could ever
smell. In the sacred temples herbalists would mix secret
potions and compound rare incenses which were thought
to app roach the divine fragrance of the soul.

I he one

compounding the most exquisite scent becam e a favored

person with pharaoh and high priest alike.

T h ey paid

hom age and sought his services.

It w as believed that an inhalation ol the scented fumes
would lift the soul to greater heights.

It is known that

Sanctum Incense

rare incenses will aid

India M oss R o s e scent.

I .specially <onipounded
for m editation purposes.
C onsists of tw elve la r g e
slow fiurning culies.

senses, and for this reason the Rosicrucians h a v e had.

in producing harm ony of the

specially prepared, an incense that is quiet and sooth

ing and most helpful for meditation purposes.

Con

sidering its quality, it is extremely low priced at 65 cents,

Only

65c

per box

Send order and remittance to:

p ostp aid

T h e

postpaid, lor a box ol twelve slow-burning large cubes.

R O S I C R U C I A N

RO SI C R U C I A N

PARK

S U P P L Y
SAN

B U R E A U

J O S E.

C A L I F O R N I A

AM ORC R EPR ESEN TA TIV ES A T STO N EH EN G E

I he above photograph was taken during September of this year by the Supreme Secretary who was conducting an expedition through Egypt,
visiting and photographing the mystical places and sacred shrines that are related historically and traditionally to the activities of the Great W hite
Brotherhood in past and present centuries.
The photograph shows Prater Kendal Brower, the expedition s photographer, making professional-size moving pictures of the mysterious Stone
henge pillars at W iltshire. England. This strange group of stones, a part of some ancient temple ruins, has been one of the greatest mysteries of mys
tical history for centuries.
Other pictures made by the A M O R C expedition will appear from time to time in this magazine.

(Courtesy of The Rosicrucian Digest.)

Have you ever stood in solitude upon the brink

of a yawning chasm, a deep canyon in the dead of
night? You can easily imagine your reactions to
such an environment
the increased acuteness of
your hearing, the unconscious strain to hear the
slightest sound, the attempt to peer through the veil
of darkness to see what lies beyond, what mysteries
await revelation.
Do you realise that each hour of your life you
stand upon the brink of such a chasm the chasm of
eternity? The span of your life is suspended between
the vast mystery preceding your birth and the great
one still to come. Are you satisfied to endure years
of conscious life in ignorance of the purpose of life
itself, or the end toward which life is moving?

T H IS FREE SEA LED BO O K

S C R IB E S. P. C.
T H E R O S IC R U C IA N S . A M O RC
SA N JO S E . C A L IF O R N IA . U. S. A.
Please send me the Free, Sealed Book. I am
interested in knowing how I may obtain the
masterful Rosicrucian teachings.

N am e ..................................................................... ............
Address ......................................................................................

Life is what you make it. Are you content to

tramp with the multitude, head bowed by petty
fears, moved by blind hopes, years slipping by, to
pass into oblivion, having lived, but having never
known the joys of living?
Would you prefer to be one of life's directors,
mastering each play of the game, avoiding its cor
ners, marching into the king row of personal power,
security and attainment? If you seek to intelligently
direct the affairs of your life, we offer you an ageold method, preserved by the Rosicrucians (not a
religious organization) and used by thousands in
realizing their ideals. Use the courtesy coupon op
posite, and receive the free. Sealed Book of inter
esting particulars.

o The

Rosicrucians
(AMORC)

SA N JO S E

C A L IFO R N IA

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
C O VERS THE W O R LD

THE OFFICIAL IN TERNA TIO NAL ROSICRUCIAN MAGA

ZINE O F T H E W O RLD-W IDE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER
Vol. X IV

N O V E M B E R , 1936

No. 10

C O N T E N T S

ARISTOTLE

A M O R C Representatives at Stonehenge
(Frontispiece) ............
The Thought of the M onth: The Toleration of W a r
N ew Fields of Science
C athed ral C ontacts ..................
O ur 1937 Prophecy Book
Summaries of Science
........
An Unusual M ystical C erem on y
Internal C oncepts Externalized
Sanctum Musings: Initiative O ver Inertia
Fall, The H arvest Time
Ancient Symbolism
Keep Your Feet on the Ground
Pages from the Past
...................................
Temple of Thutmose III (Illustration)

Page
361
364
367
371
373
375
379
383
386
389
390
391
394
397

Subscription to The Rosicrucian D igest, T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw en ty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose, California, under the A ct o f August 24th, 1912.
Changes o f address must reach us by the tenth o f the month
preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official e x
pressions o f the organization or its officers unless stated to
be official communications.

Published Monthly by the Supreme Council of

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N O R D E R A M O R C

ROSICRUCIAN P A R K

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

S T . M A 'R T I N

A N Y times in the
past I have called
attention to the in
consistency on the
part of those de
vout C h r i s t i a n s
who v e h e m e n t l y
and with seeming
s i n c e r i ty sing
songs in which are
found the words,
T h e r e is no
d eath," and then
participate in the
support of great cemeteries, the building
of uuiusoleums, the erection of ex p en
sive tombstones, and the anniversary
visits at the side of the grave where one
and all unite in subscribing to the
strange epitaph to be found on most of
the tombstones " G o n e but not for
gotten." W h e n we stop to think of the
large portion of civilized citizens in the
world today who affirm on Sundays in
their churches and cathedrals that there
is no such thing as death, and that the
Soul is immortal, and that nothing dies
but merely changes form, and then
realize how these same persons through
out the remainder of the week bow
down in almost religious homage to the
graves of the departed, or weep in
bitter sorrow because the loved ones are
"g on e forever," one realizes that despite
our affirmations of faith, it is true that
our toleration of customs, habits, or
ancient practices, brings about seeming
The
manifestations of inconsistency.
F or
R osicru cian Fijndreds of years since the Prince of
Peace proclaimed to the world that we
^
should live in love and harmony, the
N o v e m b e r world has had many brutal, horrible, un1936
necessary wars, and throughout the

world today there is far more talk

among men and women assembled in
diplomatic, political, or economic dis
cussions regarding the possibilities or
necessities for war than there is talk
about peace, or the love of mankind
among the followers of either the
Christian or pagan religions.
Just as we join in affirming that
"there is no d eath," and then through
our toleration of ancient ideas give our
support to the idea that death ends all,
in the same manner millions of thinking
men and women throughout all of the
civilized countries of the world affirm
daily that war must end. that war is an
unnecessary and destructive practice
among nations, and then by their tolera
tion of war and war preparation give
support to the very thing which they a f
firm should not exist.
W a r throughout the world today, and
war in any little section of any country
could not possibly occur or if a war
actually started it could not continue for
more than twenty-four hours if it did
not have the support and toleration of
the very same millions of persons who
decry it and who even claim that they
are fighting through various organiza
tions and business methods to eliminate
war in every possible form.
W e read in the daily papers at the
present time that war is more imminent
in Europe right now than it has been for
many years. W e read also that three
or four of the larger nations of Europe
"are on the very brink of international
war and conflict." W e read that certain
outstanding
political observers and
statesmen of Europe are convinced that
a new and greater world war is "just
around the corner." But all of this is
T h re e H und red Sixty-fo ur

untrue. It is propaganda. It is a form

of preparation to quiet the conscience
and to inhibit the activities of peaceloving men and women in every part of
the world. T h e continuous intimations
that war is sure to come very soon are
a part of the program of creating wars.
E ach announcement of this kind is the
advance notice of an ultimatum that we
must have more wars. M o st of the
statements regarding the coming wars
are issued directly or indirectly by those
who profit by them. T h e statements are
untrue in the beginning, and are made
true through their continued utterance
and through the toleration of peaceloving persons who are intimidated by
the announcements, or frightened by
their own personal responsibilities.
W a r among human beings is not
something that is created by external in
fluences. National or international wars
are not things that creep up on us or are
wished upon us, or dealt out to us by an
unmerciful G od and the connivings of
Satan . W a r s are made by us. T h e y are
supported by us. T h e y are created by
our thinking, and supported by our
toleration of them. N o country in the
world could have a great war within its
own boundaries or make war against
another nation outside of its boundaries
if the people within the country itself
would refuse to tolerate or support war.
W h a t e v e r power we fictitiously a t
tribute to the so-called war-lords is
given to them and maintained by our
own indifference, our own toleration of
war, and our support of it. T h e w ar
lords would soon have to resort to a
study of ways and means that bring
happiness and peace, instead of sorrow
and catastrophe, if you and I and
everyone throughout the world insisted
from this day onward that there shall
be no more w ars.
M a n y peaceful little countries in
Europe, and, in fact, in many parts of
the world are trembling today in fear.
T h e r e is naught but harmony, peace,
love, prosperity, and happiness within
their own boundaries, and even across
the borders in their adjoining nations
they see every indication of peace and
prosperity; yet they tremble because
they hear the roarings in the distance of
those who are proclaiming that w ar is
close at hand. T h e y have learned that
war does not come upon them, and in
T h ree H undred S ix ty -fiv e

volve them as an earthquake does w ith

out warning and without casting its
shadows beforehand. T h e y know that
w ar in each and every case is a true
result of man's own wilful and deliber
ate intentions to establish a w ar and
support it, and that the first move in the
direction of creating wars is to proclaim
that they are inevitable, close at hand,
and must be accepted as a part of the
universal scheme of things.
Sometimes the plans of these prophets
of w ar are frustrated by the deliberate
decisions and intentions of nations to re
main at peace. All through the summer
and fall of 1935, it was predicted that
E urope would plunge itself into an in
ternational or world war almost momen
tarily. T h e predictions became so serious
and so universal throughout Europe that
it was finally accepted and tolerated as
being a possible fact that before D ecem
ber of 1935 closed the yearly cycle, the
larger portion of Europe would be in
volved in a war that would reach across
the waters of the English Channel, and
stain the waters of the S e a of Gibraltar,
and reach the ancient capital city of
Cairo, the seaports of Northern Africa,
Palestine, Italy, G reece, and F ran ce. It
was declared that no ship would be safe
in the waters of the M editerranean
throughout the winter months of 1935
and 1936, nor would most vessels be
safe on the high seas anywhere. Even
the ship that was to take our members
on a peaceful tour throughout the
M ed iterranean in January, 1936, was
cancelled by orders of the country in
which the steamship line had its head
quarters. Hundreds of persons through
out the United S tates were bitterly dis
appointed by the cancellation of their
plans to journey to the M editerranean
because of the warlike spirit of so many
persons who were ready to involve the
entire world in another selfish conflict.
Y e t we knew that no such war would
occur because of the peaceful attitude
of America, and because of the peaceful
thoughts of many other nations who
centered their hopes and their aspira
tions upon peace throughout Europe.
And, what happened? Throughout
the entire winter of 1935 and 1936 not a
shot was fired on the M editerranean,
not a country in Europe was involved in
a great war, not one passenger ship
would have been unsafe in any of the

waters of the world, and not a single

tourist to Europe or the ports of the
M editerranean would have been in an
unsafe position for a single minute. O u r
Rosicrucian touring party could have
left N ew Y o r k just as we anticipated
and explained, and could have travelled
for its entire sixty or ninety days in the
complete tour, with extensions also,
without having been embarrassed a
single moment by any conditions of
warfare.
T o d a y we read again that war is im
minent. W e are told once more that
war is sure to come quickly and fright
fully. Y e t in our new little pam phlet
dealing with the close of 1936 and the
events of 1937, it is revealed very plain
ly that war propaganda is becoming less
and less effective inasmuch as the
peace-loving people of the world are
not being influenced by the dire pro
phecies of the war-lords and their emis
saries, and are not giving credence to
these predictions to such an extent that
they repeat them and by their indiffer
ence give toleration to the idea of war.
M o re nations of the world today are in
peace and striving to maintain peace
than in an y of the past centuries. And
even where we hear exaggerated reports
of localized conflicts and contests in
volving the fundamental elements of
war, the truth when discovered reveals
that there was a greater struggle to try
to attain peace and prevent war than to
make w ar a glorified fact. It will be just
as safe to travel throughout Europe and
many parts of the world this coming
winter and next spring and summer as
it has ever been, and far more safe in
most of those countries than the diplo
mats thereof would dare to predict at

R E A D

T H E

N O TIC E T O

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
November
1936

:
:
|
|
1
|

the present time. Right now A M O R C

has five o f its high officers and delegates
touring the very parts of Europe, in
cluding the M editerranean, Palestine,
Greece, T u rk e y , Italy, a n d France,
where according to all of the pre
dictions of past months there should
be the utmost of strife and danger, and
where travel would be delayed, lives
would be in jeopardy, and the pursuit
of peaceful interests and constructive
plans would be impossible. Y e t after
weeks of travel in these places the tour
ing party has not witnessed or taken
part in any actual discomforts or limi
tations of their free movements. T h e y
had no fear of war and gave no thought
to the possibilities of war. T h e ir very
natures refused to tolerate the idea of
war and they have found millions of
other individuals like themselves.
W h e n a majority of the civilized be
ings of this earth begin to have the same
attitude of mind and the same peaceful,
constructive thinking in regard to the
differences of mankinds opinion, and
have the same high regard for peace and
happiness, then war will be outlawed
not by any bills passed by legislatures,
not by any ostentatious proclamations
of rulers who are moved by hypocritical
attitudes toward peace and happiness,
but by the power of public opinion and
by the power of the thoughts, sincere
and true, held unwaveringly in the
heart and mind of the average citizen.
W h e n all of us decide that war is of the
D evils kingdom, and has no place in
the scheme of things, human and Divine,
and when once we realize that war
exists only through our toleration and
support, war will end permanently.

R O S I C R U C I A N

F O R U M

OUR COLORED MEMBERS

Our colored members living in New York City or the Metropolitan area are invited
to get in touch with our chapter for colored members which meets every Sunday in the
Y . M. C. A., Rooms A and B, at ISO W e st 135th Street, New York City, at 8:00 P .M .
G o there on Sunday evenings and show your membership card, introduce yourself, and
receive a cordial welcome without any costs or obligations. You will be pleased with
your contact, and the help that can be given you in your studies.

S ...................................... .................................................................................................................................
T h ree H undred Sixty-six

New Fields of Science

AN ADDRESS GIVEN AT THE 1936 ROSICRUCIAN
CONVENTION
By F
A. C
B
, Dean of Rosc'Croix University
rater

artla n d

a il e y

H E T R E N D of
S c i e n c e is ever
f r o m superficial
ities to the inner
nature of things.
It progresses from
a study of the sur
face appearance of
the earth and sky
and all observed
things to a deeper
and clearer under
s t a n d i n g of the
n a t u r e of t h a t
which lies beneath the surface appear
ance. A t first sight things seem unor
ganized, unclassified, and, therefore,
early attempted classifications are upon
the basis of superficial appearances of
shape, form, color or use that can be
made of them.
M a n has, naturally, a scientific mind
and he enjoys digging beneath the sur
face and unearthing hidden character
istics and discovering new things. H e
takes pleasure in classifying, organizing,
and relating the facts he has discovered.
From the beginning of time he has been
working as a m aster craftsm an and as a
true artist should work. F a c ts have been
to him as precious jewels, and he has
been polishing them, relating them, and
arranging them to make the finest
finished jew eled setting that h e can de
vise. E a c h new fact discovered has to
be placed against the background and
T h ree H un dred S ix ty -sev en

beside other jew els in order that it may

show up in the best light and to the best
advantage not only to itself, but, also,
to the best advantage of the organized
whole.
In the vast work of the world some
souls have incarnated who have had un
usual discriminative ability, inventive
genius, and an unusual love o f the un
known. It is these men that we have
come to call our scientists, discoverers,
classifiers, organizers, our fact-collect
ing and fact-setting craftsmen.
O u r fact collectors are in no particu
lar w ay different from other jewel col
lectors.
A s the discoveries are made,
tentative and preliminary classifications
are made, with the idea that later, with
more time and a deeper study of the dis
covery of what lies beneath the surface,
a better classification can be made and,
perhaps, eventually a final classification.
Stones and metals are tested with
lights, fires, chemicals, tools and ap
paratus for every conceivable ch arac
teristic of their inner nature before they
are finally placed in their proper setting
beside other jewels, stones, and precious
metals. T hu s it is with all discoveries.
It goes without saying that the older
fields of science were more superficial.
During the past half century we have
advanced to an investigation of w hat
lies beyond ordinary human vision. W e
have made microscopes, ultra micro
scopes, telescopes, spectroscopes, stetho

scopes, and all sorts of devices for get

ting at hidden information things that
lie beneath the surface, even though
those things lie far off in distant stars
or in the very interior of atoms.
T h e field of Science in the immediate
past has been that of discovery of those
things with which man comes in con
tact. F irst it was the science of the
stars, the earth, the atmosphere, the
rocks, inanimate things, and the cruder
forces at work upon them. T h e n , we
began a systematic investigation of liv
ing things. W e discovered the cellular
structure of biological forms and the
atomic structure of matter. Animals
and plants of all descriptions have been
investigated, worked with and upon,
and improvements have been made for
man's benefit. W e have found that
food, temperature, light, and environ
ment, in general, have their effect in the
variation of the quantity and quality of
wool, eggs, milk, meat the power to
work and produce w hat man needs or
wants. W e have experimented upon ra
tions and balanced foods to get the most
desired characteristics.
M a n has worked all about him in the
past and touched with a magic wand
everything in his environment, but, in
general, he has failed to see the import
ance and necessity of touching himself
with that same magic wand. T h a t is
changing, however. W i t h i n the last
quarter of a century we have gone on
discovering facts about human diet,
human efficiency, human improvement,
human thinking, thought directing, and
the development of a human race that is
more nearly on a par with the efficiency
of the animals which he has tried to per
fect. M a n now thinks of balanced diets
for himself, as well as for his cattle,
hens, pet cat, and dog. T h i s is a recent
field o f science and, indeed, is still a
new field for the great majority of the
human race, but it is not the newest
field.
A s the biological sciences have fol
lowed N atural P hilosophy or the
sciences of inanimate nature, so now the
science of mind and soul is gaining
recognition as a fertile field for the dis
T he
covery of important jewels of knowl
Rosicrucian edge.
Digest
It is undoubtedly true that m a ns
November mind must be whetted and sharpened
and made truly analytical and synthetic
1936

while working with the cruder things of

the universe. His understanding must
be improved and his powers of dis
crimination made keener by working
upon the grosser things about him b e
fore it is capable of dealing with the
subtler things within. M a n has done
well and, in no sense, is to be blamed
for not doing better. H e has worked
with his G od implanted powers and he
has improved himself and his environ
ment tremendously. A n y o ne who doubts
it should have the privilege o f going
back to more primitive times to stop and
compare, point by point, humanity then
and now.
W i t h the powers gained in the past,
and with the knowledge made available,
with the judgment and discrimination
and intuition developed, man now
stands ready for new discoveries within
himself. T h e N e w Field of Science lies
within man himself. E v ery metaphysical
thinker recognizes that. T h e trouble is
that most metaphysical thinkers have no
background against which to set the
jewels they find. T h e r e is no great value
in plunging into a new field if the older
fields have not been explored and the
facts of value to be found there are left
unclassified or even unrecognized.
Y o u may think I am blowing the
Rosicrucian horn, but I am not ashamed
o f it if I am. I have been ashamed,
though, of the budding zealots I have
met in metaphysical circles who ramble
on in a hazy mental daze about things
supernatural and spiritual and who
h aven t the first inkling of tried and
tested knowledge concerning even the
proper food and care of their own child
ren or of their own bodies. T h e y seem
to think that knowledge of the things
of the physical world is a dangerous
thing. A little knowledge is dangerous;
none is worse; more is much better.
W h a t is the use of studying a heal
ing art that is classed as metaphysical
when ordinary scientific knowledge of a
physical and physiological nature is
completely ignored? W h e n a person
doesnt know the difference between a
carbohydrate and a protein, a starch
and a fat, or a calorie and a vitamin,
and feeds just food to himself in the same
old-fashioned w ay of a thousand years
ago without any thought of what is
good, better, or best, in defiance of all
the known laws of efficient and healthy
T h ree Hundred. S ixty'eight

living, then we wonder how much

understanding that person has about
things that are more subtle than the
physical.
N o t only is the subject of biologic
living badly ignored, but, also, the
whole subject of psychologic living. W e
think harmful, spiteful, fearful thoughts
and indulge our emotions in displays of
anger, jealousy, hatred, and selfishness
and, then, piously talk about mental,
divine, spiritual or metaphysical healing
of our ills. Science has quite definitely
proved that both badly balanced foods
and certain types of foods, by them
selves or in combination with others,
produce toxic or other harmful effects,
and it also has very definitely proved
that thoughts and feelings of fear,
anger, jealousy, etc., produce poisonous
chemical or alchemical substances and
toxic products in the human system. S o
long as we persist in ignoring the find
ings of physical science, what real use
can we make o f m etaphysical science?
If a boy persists in going out and eat
ing green apples time after time, or in
repeatedly smoking himself sick, his
mother sooner or later comes to the
point where she will tell him that he had
better suffer awhile without her min
istrations and suffer enough so that he
will decide to be sensible. Ignorance of
natural, physical, chemical, physiological
or psychological law doesnt excuse
anyone. Action and reaction are parts
of one whole.
"K n o w th yself" is an ancient instruc
tion, still in modern times, with all of
our increasing enlightenment, we are
only beginning to find out what that
means. I am speaking of us human be
ings as a whole and not of the few souls
incarnate amongst us, who have been
sufficiently evolved to study and de
velop self and live scientifically both
physically and metaphysically.
As a race we do not yet know our
selves, and it is taking a lot o f aches and
pains to teach us that while evolving our
nervous systems to more highly organ
ized and sensitized systems, we can not
completely ignore ourselves as though
we were merely fish worms or even
higher lower animals. "S tu d y to show
thyself approved" has been recognized
among the few for a long time, but the
T h ree H undred S ixty-nin e

instruction has been only words to the

masses.
O u r knowledge of each other and of
ourselves is very superficial. W e have
known the beauty of form and shape,
complexion and type, and we have given
ourselves superficial beauty treatments.
W e do whatever fancy dictates to the
exterior but, as yet, we have not gone
in very earnestly for aura beauty treat
ments. T h e surface is valuable and we
must save and beautify it, but the
trouble with us is that, too often, we are
thinking of merely the surface appear
ance not all Rosicrucians, of course.
W e are learning the importance of what
lies beneath that surface. W e are think
ing of pure blood streams, healthy
muscles, organs and glands; we are
thinking of foods, drinks, internal as
well as external hygiene. M o s t im
portant of all, we are thinking of
thoughts and feelings as of equal or
even of greater importance than that
which goes into the mouth and beauti
fies the surface.
W e have been growing from a
knowledge of the external man of
superficial appearan ce to a knowledge
of the physiological man, the man of
functioning organs and glands, the as
similative man of cells and blood cells,
to the man of nerves and brain and
thought.
Certainly
advancement has been
made. W h e n in the history of the
world has so much thought been given
to " A s a M a n T h in k e th ? W h e n have
so many studied seriously and sincerely
these things beneath the surface and the
very soul itself as now?
It would take a long list of names to
cover the organizations, occidental and
oriental, which are ploughing up ground
in this psychic field. M a n y are com
mercializing upon it, but, even at that,
they are reaching minds and getting
them to thinking about thought and soul
powers. W e are advancing gradually to
the Inner Life, the Soul Life. From one
point of view teachings regarding it are
of the ancient times, yet it is one of the
new old things new to this modern
world and is the newest field of science.
It is so new that the recognized a c a
demic scientists are only beginning to
consider it within the field of science.

T h e power of mind over body and

matter in general, and its influence over
other minds, is barely beginning to be
recognized. T e le p a th y is hardly estab
lished as academic fact. O f course, if
mind can affect inorganic matter it
should be able to influence organic
matter and other minds, but it is not
recognized as a proved fact in academic
scientific circles.
W e do have evidence here in the
R o se -C ro ix University of a force or an
emanation from the fingers that seems
to produce some physical, measurable
change in water. T h e reply to a report
that w as made concerning this w ork
brought the statement from a very emi
nent psychologist and experimenter in
mental kinetics that it was the most im
portant piece of work he had seen re
ported in twenty years.
T h e facts that are now being dis
covered, and that we are about to dis
cover and classify, are undoubtedly the
most precious of all that will have been
discovered.
M etaphysically
minded
scientists are now unearthing hidden
faculties and bringing them to the a t
tention of the world. T h e r e is a tre
mendous lot of systematizing and cor
relating to be done, but our master
craftsmen are at work and we may rest
assured that, as rapidly as possible, the
facts will be disclosed, brightened up,
and set into the whole in their proper
places to make the finest jeweled setting
that is possible. All true scientists want
nothing but the real facts. F a c ts are
precious jewels and they have to be
tried and tested over and over for any
possible flaws before they can be set
into the craftsm ans masterpiece.
F a c t s relating to the mind or soul
when discovered and set up will be the
crowning jewels. T h e s e facts lie in the
N ew Field of Science, the field of
M en tal Science or Soul Scien ce what
is known today as Psychology. P s y c h o
logy is a mere infant and has grown
into our academic life only within this
century.

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
November
1936

READ

THE

N ow we have psychological labora

tories and para-psychological labora
tories, and the time will soon be at hand
when metaphysicians or metaphysicists
will be just as far behind the times in
their knowledge of things truly scienti
fic and established in these fields as they
are generally about things physical,
biological, physiological, and sociologi
cal. M a y Rosicrucians not be that way.
M a y Rosicrucians and R ose-C ro ix U n i
versity students not have to be accused
of knowing less than physical scientists
know, but all of that and then more.
A nd now may I close with a quota
tion made at the end of one of our class
discussions. It is interesting to note
that this thing for which man has been
seeking these centuries as he has poured
over his books by the light of his little
candle, or as he today has been experi
menting in his electrically lighted labor
ato ry or black light lighted labora
tory, has literally been bathing him
bombarding his face, his hands, his
eyes. H e missed it only because be
tween the retina and the mind there was
a gap. T h e r e is the big gap. T h e mind
did not know what was missed, though
the eye was bombarded.
T ru th is within ourselves; it takes no
rise
From outward things, w h ateer you may
believe.
T h e r e is an inmost centre in us all.
W h e r e truth abides in fulness; and
around.
W a l l upon wall, the gross flesh hems
it in,
T h is perfect, clear perception which is
truth
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and to
KNOW ,
R ath er consists in opening out a way
W h e n c e the imprisoned splendor may
escape,
T h a n in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be w ithout.
V

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

T h ree H un dred S ev en ty

T he "Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thought
waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
awakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousands
of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who
are not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefits as well
as those who are members. T he book called "Liber 777" describes the periods
for various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who
are not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., care
of A M O R C Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage
stamps. (Please state whether member or not this is important.)

DIVINE WORSHIP vs. RELIGION

H E R E is a consid
e r a b l e difference
b e t w e e n sincere,
Divine w o r s h i p
and t h e practice
of a religion. W e
may be in error in
our interpretation
a n d understand
i ng, but in t he
W e s t e r n W o rld
today there is the
general o p i n i o n
that a religion is
a definite code and form of Divine w o r
ship associated with a church and with
ritual and limited creeds and doctrines.
Divine worship, on the other hand, can
T h ree H un dred S ev en ty -o n e

be and should be free from creeds or

dogmas and not necessarily associated
with any definite form of religion, nor
with any specific sectarian church or
temple.
O n e of the problems that faces the
churches of the world today is how to
bring within the portals of the church
the millions of persons who are es
sentially worshipful of the divinity in
man and worshipful of the omnipotence
of G od. W h i l e it is not true that the
individual who follows as a code of
ethics the Golden Rule and lives a clean
and noble life in accordance therewith
is a good and worshipful man, it is true
that there are millions of human beings
unassociated with any church and not

given to any definite form of religious

worship who are essentially good in
every religious sense and are meeting
the demands of G od and the heavenly
hosts to the best of their ability.
T h e conversion of man from a non
worshipful state in his youth to a state
of fine appreciation of the spiritual
values of life is always much easier
than converting a man to a definite re
ligion as specifically to a set of dogmas
or creeds that bear a sectarian label.
M a n from his earliest years is es
sentially worshipful and naturally seeks
to contact that which is Divine and su
perior to himself. But he generally a s
sociates this appreciation of the spiritual
side of life with the utmost freedom of
thought and spiritual or philosophical
expression. In many millions of cases
the direct association with a church or
institution of limited or definite creeds
and dogmas is a hampering condition
extremely annoying to the young person
w ho looks to find evidence of the spir
itual things of life all around him.
W i t h the broadening of man's con
sciousness through the discovery in
scientific fields and otherwise of the
greatness and universality of G o d s and
natu res laws, man has become worldly
conscious to such an extent that the
limitations and narrowness of certain
creeds and dogmas find no harmonious
place in his mind and in his thinking.
If G o d is the creator of all beings, H e
is the father and lover of all beings and
there cannot be in the consciousness of
G od any of the distinctions regarding
class of religious thinking, race, or
color that are portrayed to us or repre
sented to us by the various religious de
nominations now existing on earth. T o
the average individual who is at all co n
scious of spiritual qualities and of the
essential divinity of all beings, there is
one fundamental truth that permits of
no distinction and no division in classi
fication. T h a t fundamental truth is:
T h e r e is but one G od and none shall
have any other god before H im . T h is
fundamental truth is the basis of the
realization of the fatherhood of G od

and the brotherhood of man, and these

two realizations are essential if the true
spirit of divinity and the spiritual unfoldment of the kingdom of heaven on
earth is ever to become a reality. But
the moment that this one universal God
is distinguished by various races and
classes of people by putting on Him at
various times robes of many hues and
titles that are in disagreement, the G od
of all beings becomes a sectarian G od
of multiple personalities and principles.
T h e little child whose simplicity of
religious thought we are always urged
to follow can think of but one G od,
the G o d of all gods, the Supreme C re a
tor. T h e moment you attempt to class
ify that G od or distinguish Him as hav
ing certain qualities that place Him in
the possession of, or association with, a
sectarian group, you take your G od
from His universal throne and necessi
tate His hourly change into gods of
many names and many qualities.
In the C athedral of the Soul all minds
and hearts can meet in Divine worship
regardless of any previous sectarian
qualities. T h e Cathedral of the Soul is
for those who know but one G o d the
father and creator of all beings. T h e
C athedral of the Soul knows of but one
race of men throughout the universe,
that race which was created in the
image of the one G od and constitutes
the human brotherhood of man.
If you would participate in the uni
versal, Divine, holy spiritual blessings
that come from the attunement with the
C athedral of the Soul, and thus make
your life better because of your contact
with the consciousness of God, then
send for our little free booklet entitled.
L iber 777 , which explains the Cathedral
of the Soul and its simple form of w or
ship. (N o n -m em bers are especially in
vited to do so.)
Join with millions of human beings
who lift up their hearts and thoughts to
the one G o d of all and find there mercy,
love, toleration, kindness, and most of
all, universal recognition of the spiritual
image which constitutes the real man or
woman on earth.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
T he only significance o f life consists in helping to establish the kingdom o f G od;
November and this can be don e only by m eans o f the acknow ledgm ent and profession o f the

V V V

1936

truth by each one o f us. Tolstoi.

T h ree H undred S ev en ty -tw o

Our 1937 Prophecy Book

A FEW TIMELY EXTRACTS FROM ITS PAGES
By T

he

Im perato r

O R the past two

months our mem
bers and friends
have been inquir
ing as to the date
o f publication of
our 1937 prophecy
book. It has been
customary to is
sue the book of
p r o p h e c i e s each
year d u r i n g the
latter part of O c t o
ber or the month
of November. W e hope to have the
1937 booklet in wide circulation during
November. N early all of it has been in
writing for many weeks and extracts
have been used in lectures, correspond
ence, brief speeches here and there, and
otherwise, in order to establish evidence
of the early announcement of many of
the facts contained in it and to put into
permanent record the actual time of re
lease of these important facts.
Because so many of our members are
interested in the coming presidential
election and the results of that election,
we feel that it is just and proper to
publish in this November issue of T he
Rosicrucian D igest such extracts from
our 1937 prophecy book as have any
bearing upon the political situation in
the United States.
Please remember that the following
extracts were written during the latter
part of September of 1936. In fact, they
T h ree H un dred S ev en ty -th ree

were compiled during August, 1936, and

quoted in various places in California
during the first week of O ctober, and
are being placed in this article on M o n
day, O cto b e r 12. T h is is many weeks
before the coming election and the
whole country is still very much in
doubt as to the outcome o f the present
political contest. T h is issue of T h e R osi
crucian D igest should reach most of our
members and friends before the presi
dential election is held and therefore
will give them a preview of the situation
for the coming year or more.
Herewith are a few extracts from the
1937 booklet of prophecies:
P ractically every tendency and trend
indicated in our 1935 pamphlet is now
in operation, despite the seeming im
possibility which surrounded many of
these events or trends.
T h e U . S. A. is very definitely solv
ing the worst economic situation it has
faced in many years, and solving it in
ways and means quite new and chal
lenging to conservative or orthodox
principles.
T h e U. S. A. has kept out of war
and international conflicts just as we
indicated in our 1934 and 1935 a n
nouncements issued in 1933 and 1934,
despite the almost universal opinion in
those years that our country would be
come involved in European wars and
that our participation was inevitable.
T h e peaceful, neutral trend of the
U . S. A. is very definite throughout

n_r\_rx/vn

)L2

1937 so far as international affairs are

concerned. W o u l d that it prove so in
regard to domestic matters and local
civil strifes!
T h e scandals in high places in the
present U. S. A. administration threat
ened so generally by opposing political
agitators at the present time, will not
materialize to any unusual degree such
as that to which we have, unfortunately,
become accustomed.

Election o f President
S o far as the presidential election is
concerned the most important event
and source of disturbance many unex
pected and surprising facts are to be re
vealed to the American public during
November, 1936. In our pamphlet deal
ing with and predicting the results of
the last presidential election, we stated
that Roosevelt would be the last presi
dent of the U . S . A. for many years who
would be elected in the same manner or
hold office in the same manner as all his
predecessors. Such a prediction made
and printed and put into circulation
months before the election was uni
versally challenged, and our definite
warning of the trend toward dictator
ship in the U . S . A. was ridiculed by the
leading analysts o f American trends.
B ut the statements have been proved
true, and today we are face to face with
a unique situation in America in an
avowed democracy.
T h e election this coming fall will be
unique in that the Sta te s will be called
upon to vote for at least one man whose
political platform, for the first time in
American history, challenges the sound
ness of the United S tates Constitution,
the impeccability of the United States
Supreme Court, the standardization of
our monetary valuation, and the demo
cratic spirit of Congressional admini
stration. All of the fundamentals of the
American nation are now challenged
for the first time.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
November
1936

dictatorship, electing a man who became

a self-appointed dictator and whose
N ew D e a l principles and platform will
constitute the new form of government
by which or for which he will be elected.
Certainly no president of the U . S. A.
was ever elected in the past on such
claims to autocratic power!
However, the claims and contests of
opposing candidates and the wide
spread opinions of 'staid, conservative
citizens that the U .S . A. is not gradu
ally accepting dictatorship and calmly
adopting it (as we predicted a few
years ago when the idea was called
unthinkable ), the results of the elec
tion this coming November will prove
that almost half of the citizens of the
U. S. A. are quite ready to accept the
N ew D e a l, while a large portion of the
remainder are of vacillating opinion.
T h e closeness of the vote in most parts
of the U . S. A. will reveal in startling
manner that the average citizen is not
so bitterly opposed to a change in the
democratic spirit of our government, as
has been claimed.
And when the fire and smoke of the
election has cleared away, the R epu b
lican P a rty will proceed at once to
modify its principles, realizing that if it
desires to keep itself in good favor and
approval during the coming four years
and win the support that was given to
it at the time of the election it must
(reluctantly or otherwise) swing quite
definitely to the other side and attune
itself with the evolving consciousness
and desires o f a large portion of the
American citizens.
T h u s will the Cosmic urges and
processes bring the inevitable changes
in the American scheme of government.
In similar manner have other nations
modified their traditional forms of
government.
W h e n the 1937 book of prophecies is
ready for distribution, announcement
will be made to our members in the
regular manner and our members should
be patient until this announcement is
made, or a copy of the booklet is sent
to them.

It means that with the reelection of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt the United
States will definitely adopt a form of

V
READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM
T h ree H undred S ev en ty d ou c

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g nature s mysteries and extending the boundaries o f
knowledge. The w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g th eir work, since general periodicals
and publications announce on ly those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
I t is w ith pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and b riefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherw ise specified,
we give fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

The Lure of Archeology

R C H E O L O G Y is
truly a science as
well as an art, but
because o f the hu
man interest att a c h e d to t h i s
study, it attracts
many trained as
well as untrained
minds. W h i l e it is
true, as the au
thority quoted be_________________ low states, that it
is not a science re
quiring the technical skill necessary in
the physics or chemistry laboratory, in
all fairness to the profession there is in
deed a certain amount of scientific train
ing necessary to efficiently uphold a re
putation of proficiency in this field of re
search. In the warmth of his enthusi
asm, the ambitious amateur has often
been carried to fields outside his under
standing and experience, and in a t
tempting to meet the many problems of
digging properly and conserving the ob
jects of antiquity, his endeavors have
T h ree H undred S ev en ty -fiv e

often proved only a disastrous experi

ment. T h e result of such unfortunate
occurrences was inevitable. In some
countries where excavation work is
looked upon in a serious manner, re
strictions by law have been made to pre
vent the damage that may be caused by
these amateur archeologists. E g y p t is
one country, for instance, that takes her
excavation work in all seriousness. In
fact, no digging is allowed by an y per
son unless under the direct supervision
of a museum, university, or some other
scientific body. Regardless of his fame
or reputation from the scientific point of
view, the amateur is definitely refused
permission to do any actual digging un
less he is accompanied by an experi
enced scientific explorer who will direct
his excavation work.
T h e system used in archeology may
be divided into two parts: the method
of study and that of work in the field.
Although many are lured to this profes
sion, there are comparatively few who
are competent as scholar, historian, and
field-worker combined. T h e scholar-

ryxruxn

historian is usually the one who classi

fies the antiquities, who reads the hier
oglyphic and cuneiform writing and
other languages, and who has a knowl
e d g e of the history of the ancient
people whose relics are unearthed. T h e
excavator in the field work must also
have his qualifications to meet the prac
tical problems which are abundant in his
type of occupation. P erhaps the lure of
this work would lose some of its glam
our if the amateur w ere acquainted with
a few of the m atter-of-fact, un-romantic
requirements of the field worker. F o r
instance, his enthusiasm would be tested
by his willingness to familiarize himself
with the knowledge of elementary engi
neering and of lifting heavy weights, as
well as taking the full responsibility of
digging and conserving anything that
he may find. H e must use initiative and
know how to make use o f w hat material
he has at hand to work with in case of
emergencies. A n understanding of hu
man nature is necessary in managing his
men and he must know the O riental
mind in order to work smoothly with
them while in their native lands. H e
must also have a knowledge of practical
photography.
Last but not least, the
success of an excavator is measured not
so much by all these previously enumer
ated accomplishments, but in his ability
to diagnose his probable findings
through an understanding of the land
indications in the area in which he wish
es to work. H e must be sure that there
is something to dig for he must not
w aste time and money digging at ran
dom. T h e more he is acquainted with
the studious side of his work the more
efficient he will be as a field worker. F o r
example, if he w ere interested in tomb
excavations, an understanding of the
methods of ancient tomb construction of
various periods would help him a great
deal in appraising the land situation and
increasing that faculty of eye for coun
tr y which is the greatest asset of the
field excavator.
T a k in g everything into consideration,
archeology is indeed a fascinating sub
ject of study, but after reading the folT he
lowing words of M r. N. W . Nelson,
R osicru cian C urator of Prehistoric A rch eo lo g y of
D ig est
the American M useum of N atural H isN o v e m b e r tory, we may more clearly understand
1936
the reason for the attraction that so

many feel toward this field of investi

gation.
Archeology, or the study of relics
pertaining to man and to his mode of
life in times before history came to be
written, has been a topic of considerable
interest to this country for about 150
years. It began to attract attention im
mediately after the Revolutionary W a r ,
when many of the discharged soldiers
moved out into the O h io T e rrito ry to
take up land and there discovered
numerous great mounds and other
earthworks, which they erroneously at
tributed, not to the Indians, but to a
mysteriously vanished people whom
they called the mound-builders. F o r
about a century thereafter, or through
out our busy pioneer period, actual
antiquarian pursuits, as far as we know,
were limited to a comparatively few in
dividuals, either of a scholarly turn of
mind or endowed with the instinct for
collecting. Am ong these early amateurs,
it may interest you to know, were at
least two Presidents of the United
States, one of them being T h o m as Jeff
erson. B ut during the last fifty years
trained investigators have come for
ward, and one o f the results of their in
tensified and improved work is that to
d ay widespread popular interest, not
only in American antiquities but in the
archeological findings of the entire
world, has become generally apparent
and is steadily growing. It is my pur
pose on this occasion merely to suggest
to you some probable explanations of
this phenomenal enthusiasm for knowl
edge about prehistoric man.
If by chance you are not personally
fascinated by the collection and study
of Indian relics, or if you are not direct
ly aware of the public response to these
activities, allow me to call your attention
to a few proofs. First, there is the daily
press, which in recent decades has fur
nished an ever-increasing amount of
news about archeological discoveries in
all parts of the world. T h e opening,
for instance, of T u ta n k a m en s tomb in
E g y p t in 1922, and the later removal of
its contents, were considered good
co p y off and on for a period of years.
A nd when last spring a mummified body
was found in M ammoth Cave, Ken
tucky, t h e
details were circulated
through our newspapers from coast to
coast and doubtless reached even the
T h ree H un dred S even ty-six

foreign press. T h e n there is the lively

interest shown of late by the B o y Scou ts
and similar organizations in hunting and
digging for arrow -points and such
things all over the country. M a n y in
dividuals, within and without these
groups, are making private collections
of more or less value and far more
stimulating, as I believe, for independent
thinking about human affairs than, for
example, the collecting of postage
stamps can ever be. Incidentally, I may
tell you that scarcely a week passes that
I do not personally receive a letter from
some young man or woman even from
grammar school children who wants to
know how to become an archeologist.
Finally, in our larger cities, like N ew
Y o r k and Chicago, the museums are
visited annually by hundreds of thous
ands of school children, and they are
giving special attention to the archeo
logical exhibits. In the meantime, sev
eral of our universities have acquired
small collections for teaching purposes,
and the day is probably not far distant
when even our secondary schools will
have displays of Indian relics of local
origin to serve as a supplement to the
teaching of American history. W h y , we
may well ask, this all-round genuine in
terest in prehistoric archeology?
A precise and positive answ er can
not of course be given in fifteen minutes.
Indeed, there are doubtless many an s
wers, and by exploring our subject, even
if hurriedly, from center to circumfer
ence, as it were, we shall certainly dis
cover some of them.
O u r most natural starting point is at
the circumference or vague outer limits
of the field. Here, then, we may proper
ly begin by asking whether the reason
for the present popularity o f archeology
may not be connected with the general
truth that we are all, without perhaps
clearly knowing why, deeply interested
in everything that directly concerns hu
man kind. M o s t of us, in our idle mo
ments, are talking about ourselves and
our acquaintances, i. e., about man, and
only rarely about things. T h e ancient
G reeks actually had a motto which read
Know thy self and which indicates
what they considered the most im
portant subject for study. Pope, one of
the English poets, suggested the same
idea when he wrote that T h e proper
study of mankind is m an . In short, it
T h ree H undred S ev en ty -sev en

appears that there is no escape from the

conclusion that in man in ourselves
are centered finally all our instinctive
and rational interests. W h y otherwise
are fiction and biography so popular,
unless it is because we never tire of
reading about human behaviour? Even
the comparatively dry facts of ordinary
history have a wide appeal, and when it
is realized that archeology is after all
only a supplement to history, perhaps
we have the basic answer to our
question.
B u t for present purposes we require
a more immediate and concrete explana
tion. W h a t precisely is, then, the lure
of archeology or how in specific terms
account for its broad appeal? T o come
to the point at once, may not our com
mon, though perhaps often unacknowl
edged, love of romance be part of the
secret? W h a t youth, for example, has
not at some time or other wanted to be
a pirate or a treasure-seeker, a prospec
tor for gold, a big game hunter, an e x
plorer or even a merely ordinary trav
eler? N o w it so happens that archeology
satisfies in a unique w ay these longings
for adventure. T h e search for archeo
logical treasure, entered upon b y dig
ging in a cave or by walking open-eyed
across a plowed field, takes one instant
ly out of the normal daily routine into
direct con tact with men and things of
an earlier, unrecorded time, and thus
gives present life a new and broader
significance.
Coming to closer quarters with the
subject, perhaps I can do no better than
to begin by confessing why I myself be
came interested in archeology, interest
ed sufficiently to make a life work of it.
It happened this way. A s a student in
high school I suddenly found it neces
sary to know something about how,
when and where man really originated
and, in general, how things as they are
in the world today came to be so. M y
teachers either could not or would not
enlighten me.
M y history books did
not tell me. A s a last resort, therefore,
I had to turn to prehistoric archeology.
Y o u may easily guess that I have not
yet found the final answers to all my
questions; but I trust you will believe me
when I say that I feel sure we are all
well on the w ay to solve these per
plexing riddles.

W h e n it comes, now, to other peoples

interest your interest in archeology,

I suspect there are many different re
plies. F o r an opening I venture to
guess that some of you are collecting
Indian relics simply for the pure jo y of
collecting. T h is collecting habit is a
trait which we share with some of the
birds and mammals and consequently
need not apologize for or even try to
explain. It is enough that its legitimate
exercise gives us satisfaction. But no in
telligent collector is likely to go very far
with his hobby of gathering primitive
implements without being impelled to
think about the various uses to which
they are put and perchance also about
w hat relation they bear to our similar
modern implements.
Sooner or later,
therefore, he will be picturing to him
self the kind of life the ancient makers
lived; and, if he possesses a complete
series of chronologically arranged speci
mens, he will be perceiving also how by
slow stages of improvement the simple
early inventions of stone, bone, wood
and shell gave rise to our present metal
lic contrivances. T h is visible demonstra
tion of origin by gradual modification of
most of our own material equipment for
life is perhaps the greatest lesson in
evolution that archeology has to teach.
W e must conclude by citing yet an
other possible reason for current popu
q .

lar interest in our branch of study.

Archeology, while by courtesy called a
science, is not quite in the same class
with such exact or highly technical in
quiries, as, for example, physics and
chemistry. In other words, archeology
is a study which can, within certain
limits, be profitably pursued by any one
with ordinary common sense. Special
training for effective work is today pro
vided by several of our universities; but
there are still a number of workers in
the field who, without such professional
equipment, have for years been making
important contributions to anthropo
logical science. It may well be, there
fore, that archeology or prehistory is
popular in part for the simple reason
that it is a study of everyday things
a study, namely, of earthworks, ceme
teries, village sites, house ruins, house
hold furnishings, tools, weapons, bodily
ornaments, etc. in brief, a study of
things that we all know something about
and therefore can to some extent under
stand. If in addition to this the amateur
is aw are of the scientific requirements
of his task, and knows that by partak
ing in this world-wide investigation he
is really adding new facts to our stock
of knowledge about the development of
human civilization, he is bound to enjoy
a measure of satisfaction as every dis
coverer know s."
.0

T H E RO SICRUCIAN EG Y PT IA N TO U R
All indications that arc dependable warrant us in feeling that no one need hesitate to
join with us on our tour next January because of threatened disturbances in some parts
of Europe. Last winter the threatening news reports were more disturbing than they are
today and yet not a single cruise or tour around or through the Mediterranean was dis
turbed by any unhappy incident. Do not be deceived by newspaper propaganda. W e
will either make the cruise and tour with perfect assurance and proper comfort and hap
piness, or we will not make it at all. You still have time to register with us and enjoy
this unusual opportunity. W rite to the Egyptian T our Secretary, C/o A M O R C , San
Jose, California, for further information.

B.
0 ..

N O TIC E T O CA LIFO RN IA MEMBERS

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
November
1936

T h e weekly, general meetings of all members have been resumed in San Jose. California,
at the Supreme Grand Temple at Rosicrucian Park.
All members of any grade of the studies are invited to be present at these meetings
on Tuesday evenings. T he meetings begin promptly at 7:30 and are conducted by the
special officers assigned to this work.
You will be greatly benefited by the training and instruction in the use of the vowel
sounds, meditation, relaxation, concentration and help in many other ways by the brief
special lectures. No additional fee is required of those who wish to attend these weekly
meetings, but each must show his or her membership card.
GRAND SEC R E TA R Y .

B
T h ree H un dred Seven ty-eight

An Unusual Mystical Ceremony

FROM THE GREAT PYRAMID IN EGYPT COMES
INTERESTING NEWS
By
S

T h e I m pe r ^ tor

S O O N as the
O ctober issue of

T h e Rosicrucian
D igest went into
circulation, we be
gan receiving in
quiries from our
members
and
friends about the
special m y s t i c a l
m e e t i n g held in
the G re a t P y r a
mid of E g y p t on
September 16, and
attended by Ralph Lewis, our Supreme
Secretary and others. C ertainly such an
event is worthy of more explanation
than we could give in the announcement
in our O ctober issue. I am happy to say
that since September 16 the cable re
ceived from Cairo has been augmented
and amplified by letters giving many in
teresting details.
I feel sure that it is not necessary for
any of us to make extensive comments
on the statements that were broadcast
by radio, magazines, newspapers, pam
phlets, and circulars, and even through
public lectures during the past year per
taining to the birth of an important
cycle in the history of civilization, and
which was to have a memorable start,
or at least a highly disastrous beginning
on September 16, 1936, between sunrise
and sunset.
T h o s e who have given much thought
to the study of the Pyramid in the last
T h ree H undred S even ty-n in e

twenty-five years, and those who have

become what is called Pyramid students
in the last ten years, are familiar with a
number of books and pamphlets that
have been issued in recent years deal
ing with the highly significant measure
ments, mathematical indications, and
other signs contained in the Pyramid,
which have been proved to be prophetic
of the development of world events be
ginning with the time of the building of
the Pyramid itself. Em inent archeologists, scientists of various kinds, and
especially those profound in the art of
mathematics and geometry have called
the attention of the world to the fact
that the interior measurements and
mechanical and engineering lines when
calculated in various degrees and seg
ments in Egyptian, British, and P y r a
mid inches, have marked definitely from
y ear to y ear and century to century the
almost precise date of coming events of
world-wide interest. T h e s e eminent
authorities, including many men of high
recognition in G re a t Britain, Germ any,
F ra n ce, and Italy, have pointed out in
their newspaper articles and books, and
especially in magazine contributions, the
fact that even the birth of Jesus the
Christ at the beginning of Christianity,
and many of the subsequent national
and international events were definitely
predicted by the signs and indications
built into the interior of the Pyramid.
Before the great W o r l d W a r started in
1914 these scientists and students

pJU-U~U-|

.
V" S

warned the world of the predictions

found in the Pyramid pertaining to the
summer of 1914 and to the gradual in
clusion of the principal countries of the
world in a war that they said would last
until about the fall of 1918. In fact, long
before the W o r l d W a r was over these
scientists definitely stated that the end
of the w ar was indicated in the Pyramid
as taking place in November of 1918.
Because so many of these Pyramid
predictions have been fulfilled accurately
during the past twenty-five years, the
number of Pyramid students has in
creased throughout the world, and the
literature dealing with the subject has
become exhausted, and even new s
papers and magazines that originally
smiled at the strange prophecies altered
their attitude, and in all seriousness re
ferred to the new predictions revealed
from time to time. Among the many
events that were predicted for modern
times was the outstanding cycle of
events that would begin on September
16, 1936. T h a t date was indicated in
the Pyramid as being as important as
the one on which the W o r l d W a r be
gan, or as important as an y of the out
standing dates in past history. But in
the method of interpreting the nature of
the events to occur during this new
cycle, there seemed to be a little doubt.
T h e prophetic signs clearly read left no
doubt in the minds of any as to the exact
date that the new cycle of strange
events would begin. O v er one hundred
eminent authorities agreed upon the
mathematical indication of September
16, 1936. It was this uniformity of de
cision in regard to the date that caused
many
newspapers and
magazines
throughout the world to look upon the
coming period as one that would be
highly significant. But the indications
took the investigators out of the old
channels, wherein so many of the indi
cations were found, into a new place, a
new condition of Pyramid indications.
A s the days and years passed by and
the date of September 16 approached,
more and more concern was felt by the
eminent students of the Pyramid in reThe
gard to the precise nature of the new
R osicru cian c Yc le ^ at should have its birth on that
p..
date. T h e r e was one important element
regarding the cycle to which all of the
N o v e m b e r scientists agreed. T h e y said that inas1936
much as this new cycle had its indica

tion at the very threshold of one of the

great passagew ays, it was to be the be
ginning of a cycle of world-wide effect,
and that the consequences would un
doubtedly be tragic in the extreme.
From this point onward the interpreters
of the indications followed various tan
gent lines of thought, but all of them
were sure that international wars, eco
nomic collapses, labor strifes and dif
ficulties, and religious contentions would
reach a high crisis on September 16,
and that the new cycle would begin
with the entire world in the greatest up
heaval known to man for many cen
turies. Even on the very eve of that
eventful day, the radio stations in
America, and especially those that car
ried the program known as the M arch
of T i m e , referred to the day of W e d
nesday, September 16, as one that
would mark the beginning of the great
est cataclysmic conditions civilization
has ever seen.
M a n y writers on the subject repre
senting themselves as affiliated with oc
cult and mystical schools of the Orient
placed great emphasis upon the point
that the great catastrophes and trage
dies that would be ushered in by this
new cycle would begin not only between
sunrise and sunset on September 16,
but would begin with tragic and direful
occurrences in C airo around the Great
Pyramid, and possibly within the P yra
mid itself. Som e of these representa
tives of mystical schools went so far
as to describe how the Pyramid might
collapse, or how an earthquake might
cause it to fall into ruins after having
remained in good condition for so many
centuries. O thers said that the very
spirit of the great invisible masters
would vacate the Pyramid on that day
and rise and go forth throughout the
world to change the world first through
upheavals of a political, religious, social,
moral, and economic nature, and then
slowly evolve the coming cycle of per
manent changes and improvements.
T ho usand s of our members and
friends who had heard or read these
direful predictions wrote to us about
them. A s far back as 1933, we received
letters sometimes from editors and
publishers asking if we could confirm
or deny the predictions that were being
made. W e assured everyone that the
Rosicrucian understanding of the PyraT h ree H undred Eighty

mid indications included nothing of a

tragic or destructive nature. W e soon
found that we were alone in our inter
pretation. T h e n began the rebuffs, the
criticisms, and the ridicule. A nd we
were classified as being out of harmony
and agreement with the Cosmic and
the invisible masters because we
failed to know and understand what
would happen on September 16. S o
great became the investigation of the
subject, and so large the correspondence
dealing with it, that in revising our book
dealing with the G reat Pyramid we pur
posely put into one chapter of that book
our understanding of what would hap
pen on that day and throughout the new
cycle that would be born on that day.
W e called attention to the fact that it
would bring illumination and a high de
gree of understanding of the human
brotherhood of man and of the father
hood of God, and that it would be a
new cycle of reconstruction and spiritual
unfoldment. W e admitted that there
might be in the course of the first few
years a little disturbance here and there
such as is always incident to the making
of important changes in human affairs,
but that each week, month, and year of
the new cycle would be predominantly
constructive making for peace, happi
ness, and prosperity, rather than for
sorrow, grief, pain, and destruction.
W h e n that new Pyramid book went
forth to the public, and particularly to
our members and friends during the
early months of 1936, many letters of
criticism and ridicule were heaped upon
us by public lecturers and leaders of
so-called mystical, occult, and spiritual
movements, and by the majority, if not
all, of the writers of Pyramid pro
phecies. M o s t of them claimed that the
statements we had issued clearly proved
that the A M O R C and its officers were
without the pale of the mystical o rg an
izations of the G rea t W h i t e B ro th e r
hood, otherwise we would have no such
understanding of the significance of
September 16. T h e n to show our faith
in what the records of the G reat W h i t e
Brotherhood had revealed exclusively to
us, and what our Rosicrucian records
revealed, we not only took a firm stand
in this matter, but prepared to demon
strate our faith in our records and in the
revelations of the G re a t W h i t e B ro th e r
T h ree H undred E ig h ty -o n e

hood. W h e n we were informed that

September 16 was to be the date for a
high, important meeting of delegates of
the G re a t W h i t e Brotherhood in Cairo,
we immediately planned to have our
Supreme Se cre tary and his wife, our
moving picture technician, F ra te r K e n
dall Brower, and the manager of our
publication department, F ra te r H arry
Shibley, and his wife, go to Europe and
thence to E gy pt, to be present as our
official delegates in C airo and in the
Pyramid during the hours between sun
rise and sunset on that eventful day.
A nd so it was! O n that day our five
delegates accompanied by Rosicrucian
delegates of E g y p t, and others, entered
the G reat Pyramid with special permis
sion and proceeded to take not only
pictures of the outside of the Pyramid,
but of the interior.
Professional size
pictures of a new and distinctly different
nature were taken minute by minute
with all of the sound effects to be repro
duced later in our showing of such por
tions of the picture as we will be al
lowed to make public.
B u t there was one feature connected
with the visit of these delegates to the
G re a t Pyramid on that day that will go
down in history and in the history of
the G re a t W h i t e Brotherhood, and
even in the history of the Pyramid
itself as a unique event. It will be
remembered by our present members
and their children and their descendants
as a distinct mark of honor in the his
tory of A M O R C of North and South
America.
T h o u san d s of our members through
out the United State s will recall the
presence of F ra te r Brow er at the private
and public lectures given last y ear in
many of the cities from the E a st C oast
to the Pacific C o ast by the Courier C a r
and its staff. M o s t of our members will
recall that F rate r B ro w er acted not only
as the moving picture technician in co n
nection with those lectures, but that as
the official C hanter of the Supreme
Lodge of A M O R C , he conducted the
vowel sounds and chanting at each one
of the private meetings throughout that
lecture tour. O u r members will recall
the beautiful tones of his voice, and the
accuracy with which he pitched each of
those vowel sounds and made the vibra-

tions of them manifest in many ways.

Hardly an individual within sound of
his voice on those occasions failed to
sense physically, mentally, and other
wise, the effects of the vowel sounds as
he produced them.
Because of his ability and long train
ing in this specialized line, F ra te r B ro w
er was selected by the delegates in the
G reat Pyramid on September 16 last,
while they were all assembled in the
K in g s C ham ber and in the great Hall
of Illumination adjoining the other
chambers, to conduct the chanting and
the intonations during the sacred period
of concentration and meditation. O u r
members, therefore, will be pleased to
know that for the first time in the his
tory of that G reat Pyramid, and the
first time in the history of the Rosicru
cian O rder, an American chanter co n
ducted the chanting and vowel sounds
in a mystical ceremony within the G reat
Pyramid on what was to be the most
eventful day in the history of the P y r a
mid itself.
T h o s e who had predicted the dire
catastrophes that were to begin on S e p
tember 16 in the Pyramid itself would
have prophesied that the chanting and
expression of the ancient, mystical
vowel sounds of the Egyptian rituals
within the K in g s Chamber, or any of
the central chambers of the Pyramid,
would have been disastrous indeed on
that day, for the vibrations would have
disturbed the tranquillity of the Pyramid
and would have tended to assist in its
collapse and complete destruction. From
what these alarmists predicted and from
the manner in which they anticipated
the events of that day, not one of them
would have risked his life or the life of
a dear one within the Pyramid on that
day by chanting those vowel sounds that
have the tremendous force and power
which thousands of our members have
found them to have. It requires some
thing more than mere blind faith or an
optimistic point of view of life to enter
The
one of those secret chambers for the
R osicru cian first time in o n es life, and in the pres
D ig est
ence of others pronounce those vowel
November sounds that represent the complete mys
tical scale of vibrations as are used in
1936

our rituals. P robably never since the

last and final mystical ceremony was
held in that K in g s Cham ber when it
was dedicated to its purposes have those
same vibrations and vowel sounds been
set into motion, carrying their trembling
power in every passageway and from
wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and stone
to stone.
It requires, as I have said,
something more than faith to encourage
one to go into such a place while not
knowing precisely what vibrations were
established there in the founding of the
Pyramid, and to use vowel sounds again
whose power and nature might be dis
turbing to the vibrations established in
every nook and corner of that great
structure. F ra te r B row er might have
been the Samson who brought the struc
ture down upon his very head by the
chanting and expression of those sounds
and the utterance of those words.
W h a t interests us very greatly, how
ever, is the fact that the assembled dele
gates spent a marvelous period of that
eventful day within the Pyramid, and
certain honors and dignities were con
ferred upon our representatives. C e r
tain other important matters had their
culmination in Luxor a few days later.
W it h in a week after September 16, our
delegates moved onward in their jour
ney to various other mystical meetings
in Palestine out in the desert amid the
ruins of ancient Babylon. N o catastro
phes and no unfortunate events or cir
cumstances occurred to affect them, per
sonally, and nothing throughout the
world occurred on September 16 that
could be classified even by the most
pessimistic mind as being the fulfillment
of the dire things that had been predict
ed by all of these organizations and
representatives except A M O R C .
W h e n our delegates return to Ameri
ca this fall and prepare for moving pic
tures from the various mystical lands
and places to be used in the Courier
C a r lecture tour of 1937, our members
can look forward to seeing not only
some of the most interesting pictures of
a mystical nature that have ever been
exhibited, but they can look forward to
hearing the demonstrations of vowel
T h ree H un dred E ighty-tw o

proud of the fact that the A M O R C was

the only one of all of the so-called mys
tical organizations and W h i t e B ro th e r
hood bodies in America represented in
the G reat Pyramid on that historical
date.

sounds and mystical chanting by one

who has now the great honor and dis
tinction of having been the only mystic
from America who has ever conducted
the ritualistic chanting in the G rea t
Pyramid. All of our members can feel

Internal Concepts Externalized

B y F r a t e r F . M . L ip e

H E f undamental
T ru th s of all ages
a r e t h o s e pro
nouncements ever
the same, unceas
i n g l y repeated
unchanging. O n e
may read of them,
hear about them,
and observe the
effects caused by
them. O n e may be
permitted to a s
siduously s t u d y
them, but until this first of them is
understood, their benefit may be of little
practical value.
A s a prerequisite to the true under
standing of these pronouncements, the
ability to externalize an inner concept
stands as one of the essentials. T o live
these T ru th s and to apply them for the
benefit of all concerned, is the goal of
every aspiring practical mystic.
T h e use of this basic, fundamental
procedure requires more than belief,
more than faith, more than intellectual
comprehension. In order to gain a per
fected technique in the application of
such T ru th s, an inherent understanding
of the process of externalization is
necessary. T h is faculty of interpreta
tion and application may be aroused and
brought into use by study. M a n y pos
sess it unknowingly; others never grasp
it.
T o successfully transmute the highly
refined essence representing an inner
concept into objective materialization.
T h ree H undred E ig h ty -th ree

more is required than a mere projection

of an image, symbolic of that inner co n
cept, into the realm of the Cosmic.
A s the Law of Duality is expressed
within the Atom, so is the same law
found in all things made up of Atoms.
T h e r e then follows by induction, the
knowledge that in the process of e x
ternalizing internal concepts, there must
be two complete phases before the third
point of perfect manifestation can take
place.
P ractically all beginning students in
their attempts to bring their desires into
realities, rely upon Concentration alone
to satisfy the requirements of the Law
of Duality. E v en as this article may be
incom plete from the standpoint of those
who have a more full understanding, so
too and for the same reason, C on cen tra
tion meets only a part of the total need.
T h e individual in his use of C on cen tra
tion, made up of its Active and Passive
phases, has consciously imaged an inner
concept and has allowed that symbolic
representation release into the Cosmic
realm. T h e process is apparently com
plete. yet not perfect, for the other half
of the Duality, also containing its two
phases, has not yet been added.
T h is second step of the process is
called A C T I O N . Action applied here
truly means physical doing. M a n y stu
dents believe that to externalize inner
concepts. Concentration alone is all that
is needed. A successful conscious reali
zation of an internal concept, expressed
upon the physical plane, must have a
physical vehicle through which to ex-

press. P H Y S I C A L A C T I O N supplies
that vehicle upon or through which the
concept may be carried to completion.
W h e n this second step of the process is
properly related to and combined with
Concentration, then and not until then,
has the Law of Duality been fulfilled.
It has been stated that A C T I O N in
itself is D U A L in nature, having its
positive and negative phases. E a ch in
dividual who will analyze the entire pro
cess of purchasing a house, for example,
will clarify these dual expressions, C o n
centration and Action, each with their
respective phases of passivity and a cti
vity. T o follow the procedure in detail
is to say, that the individual desires a
certain house for his purposes. A fte r
having followed the rules of C o n c en tra
tion, actively and passively, the great
majority of students sit down and await
results. W h e n the results forthcoming
are not according to that which was
anticipated, the process is condemned.
If the individual has completely analyzed
the entire procedure, he would have
recognized the necessity of acting on the
physical plane in harmony with the
Concentration of the inner concept and
in accordance with his understanding of
Cosmic Law.
T h e step omitted may be exemplified
by stating that the individual should,
after proper Concentration, physically
contact the party responsible for the
sale of the house, inquiring of the neces
sary details, thus fulfilling the Positive
phase of A ction. T h e r e now has been
prepared a vehicle through which or
upon which the Concentration may act.
T h e Passive or Seco nd ary phase of A c
tion consists merely in allowing the
causes created or thus focalized, to
operate according to natural law as e x
pressed in the L aw of the T rian gle. T h e
way has now been prepared for the e x
pression of a complete and perfect
manifestation, which upon the physical
plane is equal to the Internal Concept,
p l u s Concentration, p l u s Physical
Action.
T h e objection may here be raised,
that we in our finite understanding are
The
incapable of carrying out such physical
Rosicrucian action that maV
in harmony with
p..
Cosmic D ecree.
It the Concentration

has been carried out according to the

N o r ember rules as laid down and adherence given
1936
to proper motive, etc., then this o b je c

tion cannot arise.

If, in the physical
action the dictates of inner comprehen
sion are followed, assurance may be
given that the entire procedure will
come to a successful conclusion.
T h i s entire action may not only be
applied to the reorganization of material
phenomena in everyday life, but also
may advantageously be brought to bear
upon the development of the inner
faculties. T h e inherent, intuitive, deep
understanding of the mature student
upon the Path, is evidently assisted
through the use, either knowingly or un
knowingly, of some similar procedure.
In the effort to constantly increase the
circle of consciousness; broaden the
vision; enlarge the scope of activity; in
crease the ability to grasp the profundi
ties; simplify the complexities; create
constructively and heighten and sharpen
the expression of the psychic being and
mental capabilities, the fundamental
operation of the process remains un
changed. T h e method of Concentration,
Passively and Actively, with the laws
governing its use as set forth elsewhere,
must be followed closely. It should be
made clear that the method is now being
applied to the inner development of the
individual. T h e field of operation may
seem more complex, but with sufficient
study,
that
inherent
understanding
necessary to the proper use of the
method is easily grasped.
E v ery illumined individual of past
and present who has sought to convey
a message to those who read the printed
page, has extolled the indescribable
magnificence of the influx of the W i s
dom of the A g es. It is the undeviating
goal of every Disciple to so attune his
S e lf by objective and subjective action,
that he, too, may earn that wisdom
through the Secret H eritages of M a n
kind.
Inner C oncepts received from the
Cosmic realm as a result of proper C on
centration or P rayer, fulfils the ancient
injunction, A sk and ye shall receive,
and subjectively satisfies one-half of the
D uality when the process is applied to
inner unfoldment. T h e gateways thus
opened into the Subjective Self, permit
the reception of that which may perme
ate the entire being. T h i s influx may
not only be known to the trained ob
server attuning himself to the magnetic
field surrounding each individual, but,
T h ree H un dred E ighty-fou r

also, may become known O bjectively to

the recipient only after the second step
has followed its normal course. In this
field as before, this second step consists
of A C T I O N with its two phases. T h e
first phase is the Passive or Negative
portion of A C T I O N , which consists of
the reception of that which is desired by
w ay of the opened channel acting as a
vehicle to the Subjective Self. It should
be noted that on the Physical Plane this
phase is the Active or Positive phase,
thus clearly showing the change of
Polarity when the field of operation is
shifted from the M undane to the C o s
mic realm.
T h e second phase is the Active or
Positive portion of A C T I O N and in
cludes the leavening within the in
dividual of that which has been re
ceived, as well as the externalization a t
some future date, w hereby he becomes
O bjectively aware of the influx. T h e
regeneration of the individual is thus
made manifest before the eyes of a
kindred spirit. T h e refo re, it may easily

be seen that A C T I O N must be taken

on the Physical P lane as well as on the
Subjective Plane, in order to externalize
O bjectively an inner Concept. So, too,
on the Subjective Plane, permission may
be granted to utilize an esoteric process
whereby inner Concepts illuminate not
only the Inner S e lf but cast its reflec
tions from the O u ter M an .
In order that the fundamental pro
nouncements spoken of may be inter
preted in the light in which they were
given, a like plane of understanding
must be attained. T h e evolution to this
degree of enlightenment lies along the
P ath of an ever ascending spiral, known
only to those who have traversed it. It
lies within the province of each of these
personalities, few as they may be, to
guide, instruct, and heal the blind that
we may open our eyes and see. B y the
Dual use of this one process, which is
Dual in itself, a little light may be
gathered unto each, making the work of
those more highly evolved personalities
less difficult.

V V V

SEND ROSICRUCIAN CHRISTMAS CARDS THIS YEAR

...Q

g . . . .......................................................

SPECIAL B U LLET IN
E
E
E
E
E
|
E
1

E
E

W e regret to say that for the past thirty days there has been no change in either the
mental or physical condition of our Sovereign Grand M aster, Clement LeBrun. F o r another month he has dwelt on the borderline of transition more in physical and mental
closeness with the spiritual world than with this earth plane, practically unconscious of
his physical existence. In fact, physicians, nurses, and all who see him believe that only
the thoughts, the prayers, and the metaphysical vibrations directed to him during the
past months have maintained the slender silver cord that unites his body with his soul.
O nly a miracle of this kind maintains the slight semblance of life in his body and it is
a demonstration of how love and the beautiful thoughts of friends and companions of the
Rosy Cross can hold to the earth in a feeble and completely exhausted body a soul that
is evidently seeking to free itself and rise to the Higher Initiation, to the Kingdom Beyond.
Y et all of us must continue to unite in praying for a continuance of that strength that
enables him with the will of God to maintain some degree of consciousness here.

EU............................................
T h ree H un dred E ig h ty -fiv e

IM P E R A T O R .

E
E
E

E
E

\
|
E

SANCTUM MUSINGS

INITIATIVE OVER INERTIA

( A S p ecia l C ontribution b y P rater T. H. M iller.)

E A R E so used to
d i s c u s s i n g and
reading about eco
nomic depressions
as impersonal, in
evitable c y c l i c a l
occurrences, t h a t
we have a l m o s t
ceased to ask our
selves w h a t we.
as individuals,
can do to avoid
being b l o w n off
our feet d u r i n g
the hurricane. T h is attitude is only one
of the many human practices that il
lustrates our propensity toward the
establishing
of
arbitrary
standards
through the repeated application of un
sound principles. O u r lives, for the
most part, resemble closely cropped
pastures, in which unsound premises
have been given free range.
Fortun ate we are that we inherit in
stincts along with the vital force that
activates our bodies. If the maintenance
of our health were left entirely to our
own poor abilities to reason correctly,
it seems likely that we should, by this
time, have become a race of invalids, if
The
Rosicrucian indeed we had not already exterminated
our species from the face of the earth.
Digest
O u r salvation lies in the fact that we
November can recognize and deplore our w eak
nesses. r o r this we must be thankful.
1936

W it h o u t this G od-given faculty, our

present troubles might very well seem
pleasures when compared with the
miseries that we could create for our
selves.
O u r experience, so far as we have
utilized it, has taught us that there are
very definite limitations to the power of
our physical organisms and to the
amount of use and abuse to which we
may su bject them without jeopardizing
their efficiency and continued existence.
W e know that there are laws we may
not violate in the finite world if we de
sire to live in com fort and health. W e
know what the past has taught us, but,
we do not know what the future has yet
to teach. W h a t we have found of Truth
will remain forever; but, what is yet to
be added to it?
W h a t possibility does not exist in un
certainty? H ow foolish is our assump
tion that an end to knowledge will ever
be reached. How arbitrary is our belief
that our possibilities are to be complete
ly exhausted in the few short years that
constitute our mortal life. W h a t do we
learn in one lifetime? W h a t purpose
does the knowledge that we acquire in
our few score years fit us to serve? In
one breath we say that knowledge is
power, and very often in the next we
infer that all of this power is useless and
is wasted. How final is our aye or nay
in the matters of the future?
T h ree H undred Eighty-six

All of these are questions without

answers in the minds o f most o f us; but,
we have no basis for the contention that
we shall never find the answers, and
while this possibility remains, we should
not cease to try. W h a t force moves us,
if not the attraction of the unknown?
W h e r e should one begin to clear the
jungle? W h e r e should the first tree be
felled when we find ourselves surround
ed by a growth so dense that we cannot
judge the nature of the terrain on which
we stand?
N o less perplexing than this is the
predicament of the venturesome Soul
that seeks to make for itself and for
others a Paradise on E arth. Surrounded
by an infinity of possibilities, and yet,
firmly believing that its own power is
limited, the mind of man knows not its
most fortunate course of action. U rg ed
on by its desire to subdue the world of
actualities, it is also inhibited by its de
sire to waste none of its strength in
fruitless labors. T h e s e two opposing de
sires seem to balance each other so
exactly in the minds of many of us that
we hang motionless, suspended in a
world where all else swings in a joyful
harmony of many different rhythms.
W e feel the tension of a great spring,
wound tight within us, and yet no cog
or pinion seems to receive this power
and no purpose seems to be served by
our presence in this world of motion.
Could any fabled Hell or P urgatory be
more torment than this?
T r u e as this is, it is not all of T ru th .
W e are not creations of matter alone.
W e possess a faculty that permits us
to step outside of ourselves and to study
the functioning of these other members.
W e can visit with them awhile and per
haps learn something of the secret of
their busy movements. O u r own mech
anism will not be impaired for future use
if we abandon it for a time. N o one else
desires to usurp that which has no active
part in the economy of the whole; our
life will be waiting for our return and
we may once more enter the cubicle of
the engineer, to push the buttons and
pull the levers that heretofore have eli
cited no response. How better could we
serve ourselves than in learning, from
others, the rules for the efficient opera
tion of the vehicle that we must drive
and ride? Let us make a short journey
T h ree H undred E ig h t y^seven

through the maze of cogs and shafting

that surrounds us.
O u r neighbor here, right across this
treadway, what of him?
H e says that he is a plumber and that
his jo b is to maintain, in good working
order, a part of the equipment that is
vital to other members in their activities.
Y e s , but from whence comes the force
that activates the plumber surely he is
not the source of all the power that is
evident in the motions o f this vast or
ganization?
No, indeed, he is not the source. H e
draws his strength from those that he
contacts in the course of his daily
actions.
W e l l , then, lets visit some of those
that he contacts, perhaps we'll find in
them, the real spring o f this great force.
V e r y well. H ere
says that he busies
buting a certain kind
members must have
progress.

is a teacher. H e
himself in distri
of energy that all
in order to make

T h e n he must be the source, or at

least one of the sources, of the power.
Let us not be too hasty. T h e teacher
says that he has gathered some of this
force from many and divers places, and
that a great part of it comes to him
through the very members that he
serves. His function is actually that of
a transformer for the energy that these
members bring to him. T h e y bring it to
him in units too large for individual
use, so he stores it in a reservoir and
dispenses it as it is required and re
quested.
H e seems to be quite contented with
his duties. D oes he have no desire to
accumulate enough of this power to en
able him to rest and enjoy the remainder
of his days, free from the responsibility
of this limited activity?
His answer is a question. H e asks us
what he could do that would make him
more happy than to be useful? H e in
sists that his surplus of the power would
soon be dissipated if it were not co n
stantly renewed by those that he serves,
and since he has no desire to be de
prived of his motion, he prefers to co n
tinue in his present capacity until a
greater one is afforded.

A n d how does he know that a g reat

er opportunity for activity will be
opened up to him?
H e says that he has not always oc
cupied his present position and that it
was opened up to him from a more
humble state. H e further claims that the
same thing will happen again and again,
just as all motions are repeated through
out creation. H e seems to base his co n
clusion on the evidence that all things
operate in rhythms of alternate op
posites, and that an opportunity to step
from one rhythm to a greater one is o f
fered with the periodic coincidence of
these rhythms, just as one might board
a fast boat from a slow one when the
fast boat is slowed down preparatory to
changing its direction. T h is, he says, is
the opportunity that all men pray for
and seldom recognize when it is before
them. H e insists that his only chance of
meeting with a greater rhythm lies in
his maintaining the present pace; for,
if he stops, others can easily avoid such
a collision, and will do so rather than
risk contact with a snag that will impede
their own motion.
If this is so, then he is no more the
source of the power than is the plumber.
T h a t is correct. T h e y are both no
more or less than transformers and co n
ductors of the force that actuates all
things, and yet, they are both happy to
be in use and motion with the possibility
of changing to a greater rhythm likely
to be offered at any moment.
W h e r e can we find someone who is
in closer contact with the origin of this
tremendous power? It seems that we are
wasting our time in such interviews.
E a ch one of these members claims that
he gets his strength from every other
member that he contacts. T h e r e must be
a center or point from which all this
energy radiates or flows.
W e might go on forever. T h e o rg an
ization is infinite in scope, but we can
learn no more by exploring all of it than
we have already learned.
Y o u may think we had found what
we sought. W e have seen no more than
T he
the operation of a few parts of the en
Rosicrucian tire plant and surely they are not vital
parts.
Digest

November
1936

All parts perform according to the

laws that we have observed functioning

in these few instances, and the organ

ization is so perfect that none of the
energy is lost in its pulsations through
out the universe. Infinity offers no re
sistance.
M a n y different styles of
houses can be built from the bricks that
come from the same clay, and many dif
ferent kinds of plants and animals can
grow from the same soil and air. E v e n
tually the houses return to the clay and
the organisms return to the soil and air.
Consciousness, only, can retain its
form through the changes that obtain in
the physical world; for, consciousness
is infinite and without form. It may ride
the rhythms that prevail in finite things,
but it cannot be confined to them. T o
man alone is given the privilege of rid
ing these rhythms of life and of leaping
from one rhythm to another.
T h is may be true, but how are we to
start our own pendulum swinging with
such an intangible force as an abstract
principle? H o w can we harness this to
finite things?
Ah, my friends, you perhaps think in
ignorance of finite things. Y o u speak of
them as though they had no points of
contact with intangibles or anything in
common with the infinite. Know you
not that it takes two things to make the
one? D o you not yet suspect that actual
ity is but one of the pair whose off
spring is reality? W h o among you has
not a father and a mother? W o u l d a
rose be such without the space sur
rounding it?
Still we see no solution to our prob
lem. W e have here a creation of finite
appearance and we realize that it is un
able to move without the infusion of
some force be that force finite or in
tangible and, furthermore, we desire
that this force shall so infuse the parts
of this creation that we may enjoy the
sensation of motion. W h a t yet is lack
ing, that we remain inert?
D o you wish merely to swing forever
in your own arc and en joy only the
scenes that such a restricted motion
would repeat before your eyes? W h a t
advantage would such motion have over
stagnation?
B ut these others do they not find
their happiness in just such repetition?
W h a t can you judge from the present
positions of any of these others? Have
you not seen them spring from one
T h ree H un dred E ighty-eight

pendulum to another, just as the acrobat

on the aerial trapeze who leaps from his
swing and imparts enough force to it
at the same time so that it will return
in its arc to the hand of another per
former? T h e ir happiness is not in re
maining with their present perches. T h e
thrill and zest of life is found only in
the transfer from a known to an un
known arc.

A gain you are right, most respected

guide, and if our motion depends on our
willingness to change our position when
the opportunity affords, we must con
fess that we do have such a willingness.
W a i t ! wait! revered guide; why do you
smile as you recede from us? But, no
look! It is we who move. W e move!
we move! praise G od, we move at last.

Fall, The Harvest Time

By S o r o r E ls a F . A n g le
H I S most impres
sive, joyous season
is often misinter
preted as a re
in i n d e r of past
joys. Such an a t
titude robs one of
th e u n d e r l y i n g
significance of this
b l e s s e d season.
W h y contemplate
the wilting leaves,
instead of the lus
cious fruit beneath
them? A re not the fruits the sole pur
pose of all the glories of spring and
summer, the blooming, developing, and
final ripening of the various fruits of
the earth? Fall, therefore, is indeed the
crowning success after all the labor and
hardship of the foregoing seasons. In
looking back on the struggle with the
elements, re-viewing the hours of anx i
ety when faith alone kept one hoping
and trusting in final success, a deep
peace and satisfaction enters the heart
as one beholds the plentiful harvest.
W h e t h e r a worker recognizes the
fact or not, only the united forces within
and without make growing and reaping
possible. M a n s intelligence may select
the best seed and prepare the right soil
in which to place it, yet he acquires this
knowledge only by watching nature's
preference. W h e n his part is done, n a
ture is left in charge of it and her mar
velous, secretive methods achieve the
myriad miracles mostly unheeded and

labor. O n c e more it is left to m an s in

telligence and love as to how he will
utilize the achieved results. M u ch com
fort and happiness may be brought to
many and great lessons may be stored
aw ay to assure better methods and
greater success in future planting. T h e r e
is equal opportunity for selfish with
holding, waste, or unproductive pride
which enjoys resting on pleasant laurels,
thus thwarting the great purpose from
further development.
Life itself is just one season after an
other and the fall-time of life will give
clear evidence of the attitude taken in
spring and summer. T h e fields o f a c
tivity are as various as the choice of
methods in reaching desired results.
E qu al effort and determination develop
splendid fruits in any case and attract
the assistance of the great forces all
about.
Y o u th is satisfied with growing and
spreading, not yet comprehending the
importance of the direction taken. W h e n
wiser minds lovingly but firmly guide,
they, also, know that only harvest time
will bring the full realization of the
value of such early pruning.
Full summer bloom and its fragrance,
floods of sunlight and balmy breezes
may lull us into intoxicating content
ment and we may neglect the all-im
portant task of nourishing and protect
ing the promising growth of many fine
tendencies, which must be brought to
ripe maturity if we would enrich our
own life and insure a truly glorious fall

unappreciated by man. T hen com es a

season.

time when nature's work is done and

she delivers the fruits of the combined

with watchfulness, since every season

makes stern demands as forerunner of

T h ree H undred E ighty-n in e

A t no time may w e dispense

the next season. Barren fields and

barren trees are only faint symbols of
unproductive lives and winter will feel
far more dreary and oppressive when
there is no memory of golden fruits
produced and left to enrich mankind.
W h e n summer's great possibilities are
cleverly utilized, an amazing crop of
choice fruits can be produced late in life
and such earnest activity will be a c
companied by a serene, well-balanced
contentment, the blending of which will
outshine any beauty or satisfaction
spring and summer brought.
Just as the last patch of green grass

and the last flowers of fall are cherished

because they are rare, so will the final
fruits of a well-spent life bring the
greatest comfort and joy to make the
fall of life the best season of all. T h e re
must, however, be continuous sowing if
one would expect continuous reaping,
otherwise we shall be forced to accept
at a late date the impressive truth of
Bible-teaching, which tells in divers
parables of the self-evident fact that
one cannot reap without sowing first.
T h e eternal truth remains: W o r d s
without W o r k s are dead."

S E N D R O S IC R U C IA N C H R IS T M A S C A R D S T H IS Y E A R

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
te)
M an, w hen co n scio u s o f an e te rn a l tru th , h as ev er sym b olized It so th a t th e
hum an co n scio u sn ess could fo re v e r have re a liz a tio n o f it. N atio n s, la n g u a g e s and
c u sto m s have ch a n g e d , b u t th e s e a n cie n t d e sig n s c o n tin u e to illu m in a te m ank ind
w ith th e ir m y stic lig h t.
F o r th o se who a re se e k in g lig h t, e a ch m on th we w ill
rep ro d u ce a sy m b o l o r sy m b o ls, w ith th e ir an cien t m ean in g .

N early all of the symbols

used by the mystics of the
M iddle A g es contained astro
logical or astronomical signs and
chemical signs. In the symbol
shown herewith the Z o d ia c of
twelve divisions with the twelve
signs is shown in the outer
circle, representing the twelve
classes of human beings and the
twelve primary qualities or con
ditions in life. Inside the circle
at the four sides of the square
are shown the Latin words for
fire, air, earth, and water, representing the four principal elements
in the manifestation of natu res laws. In the center is shown a
star with the various astronomical and chemical emblems indicating
natu res products. T h e relationship of all these
D
things to man and his life and interests was the
basis for the metaphysical science of astrology
and not the modern form of fortune-telling.

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
November
1936

B i

te:
T h ree H undred N inety

Keep Your Feet On The Ground

AN ADDRESS GIVEN AT THE 1936 CONVENTION
B y T h o r K i i m a l e h t o , F. R. C.
T IS amusing that
the topic for this
discussion should
be, Keep Y o u r
Feet On Th e
G ro u n d . T h is has
been and still is a
favorite expression
of mine. In fact,
more than once a
mild raillery has
been directed to
me by the officers
at H e a d q u a r t e r s
because of my fondness for saying,
Keep your feet on the ground. Just
as chickens come home to roost, so this
topic has returned to me to present to
you at this time. I have not given up my
practical, m atter-o f-fact view-point. I
am more convinced than ever that most
of our members need a cold shower of
common sense and every-day realism.
O n e of the popular books on the market
is entitled, W a k e U p and Live. T h a t
should be our slogan for today. T h a t is
the message we need.
T h e first fundamental error of stu
dents is to underestimate material prog
ress and physical well-being. O u r aim
and object has always been a balanced
development of the personality. T h e
sequence of the monographs is plan
ned with that object in view. Physical
and mental development are of equal
importance with spiritual and psychic
development. In fact, the latter is de
T h ree H undred N in ety-on e

pendent upon the former. Y o u should

have good health and a sound mind.
V ita lity and a strong mind are impera
tive for psychic and even for spiritual
development. Tem peram ent, disposition,
personality, and the attitude toward
life, will be influenced by the state of
your health and the degree of your
mental development. O u r Colleges and
Universities recognize this psychological
law, and therefore make physical train
ing and athletics part of their curri
culum.
T h e danger of lack of balance is more
imminent and menacing in our Rosicru
cian system of education. T h e N eophyte
is often drawn to the O rd er through
various expectations. A great many are
attracted to the O rder because they e x
pect to receive a secret formula whereby
they can get what they desire at will,
and, often, at the expense of their fellowman. I am happy to say that most
of our permanent members enter the
work of the O rd er with a desire to learn
and improve their knowledge and
understanding of life and its problems.
It is true that you will get that secret
formula, but it is only through diligent
study and application of our principles
that you come in possession of it.
T o repeat, the first error that many of
our students make is to fail to realize
the necessity of a balanced develop
ment. T h e second error is the retention
of ideas absorbed from other systems of
thought, such as Christian Science, N ew

(6 \
pjtrtn -rj

v w y

Th o u g h t, Spiritualism, Hindu Cults,

and O rth o d o x Religious teachings. A
great many of you will indignantly ob
ject to these statements of mine, but I
assure you, my friends, that it is im
possible for you to take the right atti
tude toward the aim and content of our
course of instruction, if you are condi
tioned by years of living in the spirit of
other systems of thought.
If you are going to retain fatalistic
ideas and predetermination, how can
you develop the essential qualities of in
dependence and self-reliance?
If you
honestly believe that it is all-sufficient to
rely upon prayers, affirmations, and
faith in the goodness of G od and in
Divine guidance, how can you cultivate
initiative? H ow can you consider it im
portant to do research work, to increase
your knowledge, to be informed? W h e r e
will you get the initiative to act? If you
believe with the Hindus, that the mortal
body must be crucified and subjugated
in order to attain spirituality, how can
you be enthusiastic about developing
your potentialities?
O u r fundamental principles and pre
mises are completely opposed to those
of other systems of thought. Y o u are a
segment of the Divine G o d -force, and
your body is the only medium through
which you can express God. F o r that
reason, it is not only your privilege, but
your duty to know your own body and
how to keep it well and in excellent co n
dition for proper expression. W h a t e v e r
can be achieved through exercise of
personal initiative, independent effort,
and obediance to well-known and thor
oughly tested natural laws, will not be
granted through prayer, or affirmations,
or other spiritual means alone. If fresh
air, exercise, proper food, or rest, for
example, is needed for increase of vital
ity or restoration of health, mere C a th e
dral C on tact alone will not suffice. In
seeking employment or advancement
you must be able to fulfill the demands
of the position.
In aspiring to social
success you must consider worldly co n
ditions and requirements.
K EEP Y O U R F E E T ON T H E
The
G R O U N D . B e sensible. D on 't live in
R osicru cian t^ie w o r^
make-believe. D o n 't waste
your time in reverie or in day-dreams.
D ig est
D o n t think that romance exists only in
N o v e m b e r books, or in moving pictures, or that
1936
glamour belongs only to the Arabian

N ig h ts T a le s. A s Charles H addock
said: T u rn a Hurricane on Hallucina
tions." D o n t misunderstand my inten
tion. D o n t misquote me, or think that
I disapprove of moving pictures, the
theater, novels, and the imaginative
flow of poets and artists. All these arts
are wonderful for interpretation of life
and for relaxation, provided you clearly
realize that living your life and solving
your problems comes first. O f course,
if you are contented with what you have
and what you are, and you are able to
spend your days beautifully, indulging
in philosophy, poetry, music, art, and
literature, you may be considered
fortunate.
M o s t people need all they have, and
what they are, to solve the difficult
problems confronting them. T h e y must
concentrate on what will be of material
assistance in meeting lifes challenge and
they must be able to differentiate be
tween w hat is of primary and what is
of secondary importance in their per
sonal lives. Knowing that in the course
of a lifetime many desires may meet
with unexpected fulfillment and that
what is not completed in one incarna
tion may be accomplished in another,
should be of sufficient consolation for
the seeming restrictions and limitations
of our immediate environment and cir
cumstances. It is compulsory that we
overcome and work out of every limita
tion, restriction, and problem confront
ing us.
L et us summarize thus far. T h e
F I R S T E R R O R that we make is to fail
to realize the necessity of a balanced
development of body, mind, and person
ality. T h e S E C O N D E R R O R is the
retention of ideas absorbed from other
systems of thought.
The T H IR D
F U N D A M E N T A L E R R O R is a be
lief that material and worldly success is
inevitable if you are a faithful student,
and that lack of success is equivalent to
failure and means a wasted life.
T h is point of view is wrong. Material
success is not the true yardstick. It is
true that most of us hate failure. W e
w ant to do the right thing all the time.
W e want to avoid difficulties, hard
ships, and defeat. W e seek good advice
and guidance constantly. W e want the
approval of friends and relatives for
each step we take. W e get a mistaken
notion from certain religious systems
Three H undred N inety-tw o

that through F A I T H all obstacles can

be either avoided, eradicated, or easily
overcome.
O n e of lifes fundamental purposes is
completely overlooked that of training
and developing the personality. W h i l e
a smooth life is seemingly very pleasant,
on the whole it paralyzes the individual.
Incentive is lacking for developing of
character, for strengthening the body,
for exercising initiative and resourceful
ness, for overcoming defects of tempera
ment and disposition.
Failure C O M P E L S
a complete
change of view-point. Failure C O M
P E L S reexamination of basic principles.
T h ro u gh illness we frequently concen
trate for the first time in our lives upon
the laws of health. Because of failure
in one profession or in one line of busi
ness, we are compelled to study our
selves and develop our potentialities. A
job that we loathe, or a forced associa
tion with difficult or unpleasant people,
may give us an insight into affairs and
men that can never be attained in any
other way. T h e re is something mellow
ing and broadening in being among the
sick and the defeated, the unhappy, the
maladjusted, the discouraged, and the
discontented.
From these people and
such experiences we learn much about
the laws of life, about the motives that
prompt the hearts of men, about the
conditions existing in the world in the
various walks of life.
W h e n you have passed through a
serious physical, mental or spiritual
crisis, all life seems different, and you
look at every human being with new
eyes. T h o se who have been uniformly
fortunate seem very unreal and super
ficial and limited. W e all admit that it
is very hard to go through difficult e x
periences.
W h i l e you are passing
through them you imagine that the end
will never come, and that you can bear
no more, but if you look back upon the
difficult experience that you have had,
you will find that as a result you have
attained very real benefits in physical,

mental, and spiritual development. Y o u

know better how to take care of your
self; you are more aware of your limi
tations; you understand people and
conditions better; you are more tolerant;
you are more controlled; you have
achieved a philosophy of life. Y o u are
a better and a more valuable human
being even though you may not be a
material success.
T o conclude, these are the three prin
cipal errors I have found limiting the
development and preventing the solu
tion of difficulties of those who have
come to me for advice and assistance.
Because I have stressed three important
principles in our course of study, do not
for a moment entertain the thought that
I am unaware of many other aspects
that I have not mentioned. D o n t ask
me whether I believe in prayer, faith,
hope, charity, mercy, love and mutual
helpfulness. I certainly do. E m phatical
ly so. B ut these virtues can be positive
and active as well as negative and
passive.
T h e middle ages of simple, childlike
faith is no more; the fear o f hell is gone;
the renaissance of initiative, independ
ence, and personal development has
flowered. O u r ideal is a brotherhood of
harmoniously developed masterful hu
man beings, each contributing the
beauty of his personality and the fruit
of his genius to the world. Such beings
make G o d manifest on earth.
Carlyle in Sa rto r R esartu s speaks
of passing through the black despond
ency of the Everlasting N a y and the
C enter of Indifference. T h e n the light
dawned and he entered into the E v e r
lasting Y e a of S e lf Aw areness. H e had
found his place in the W o r ld . T h is is
the keynote of the N e w A ge, this is the
trumpet call of the O rder. W e want to
know, to realize and understand our
work. W e want to know our place in
the N e w W o r ld . W e want to do our
work with joy for the glory of G od and
M an .

SPECIAL N O T IC E TO MEM BERS O F T H E H IE R A R C H Y

Special meeting of all members of the Hierarchy will be held on the evenings of
November 29, December 6, December 11, December 22, and December 29 at 8:00 o'clock,
Pacific Standard Time.

s ........................
T h ree H un dred N inety~three

............

PAGES
from the

:
=
i
z
i
z
i
:
:

=
z
i
i
i
i
:
|

:
z
E
|
i
I
z

di

...................

....

LAOTSE

Each month w e w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through the
presentation of those w ritin gs which ty p ify th eir thoughts. Occasionally such w ritin gs w ill
be presented through the translation or interpretation o f other eminent authors o f the past.
Lao-Tse, an ancient Chinese sage, was the founder o f the philosophy known as Taoism,
the most w id e ly spread popular religion o f China today. There are few facts concerning
him that are reliable, fo r his life has been so surrounded w ith legends invented by modern
Taoism that the truth has been somewhat obscured. One o f these legends stated that his
m other carried him in her wom b fo r seventy years and that he was born w ith white hair,
thus causing him to be named Lao-Tse, which can mean either old b oy or venerable
philosopher." H is birth is placed at 604 B. C., fo r it is well-established that he was a
contem porary o f Confucius. H e became librarian and archivist o f the Chou dynasty and is
supposed to have had some influence on Confucius, who visited him about 517 B. C. According to the Chinese historian, Sze-ma Ch ien, he resided at the capital o f Chow, but the
evils of the w orld and the decaying dynasty caused him to sever his w orld ly connections,
but not before he complied w ith the request o f the last civilized man he met, the warden
o f the outer gate, to put in book form the essence o f hi3 great teachings the doctrine o f
"th e W a y .
L ao -T se attempted to make no converts to the Tao, which indicates that he m ay have
realized that he was far ahead o f his age and the people were not ready to receive the
Tao teachings. B eing o f a retirin g nature and alw ays seeking obscurity fo r himself, it was
not an unusual thing fo r him to w ith draw him self from the w orld at an age reputed to be
from 160 to 200 years, and to leave unknown the tim e o r place o f his transition.
Lao -T se professes to be m erely a transm itter o f earlier knowledge. In fact, he asserts
that his teachings are really those o f H w an g-Ti, the legendary c ivilizer o f China, 2697 B. C.,
whose teachings in turn are traced back at least five thousand years previous. T he T ao-Teh
K in g , the gospel o f Taoism , is the only surviving w ork o f Lao -T se and is ranked with the
greatest books o f the w orld. W e give you below various chapters o f this famous w ork by
a translator who interprets the Tao as meaning God.

................................... ........ ................................ ........................ ................................... .................

TAOTEH KING OR
BOOK OF THE VALUES OF THE TAO

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
November
1936

RA N SCEN D EN T
G oodness is l i k e
water.
W a t e r is peace
ful and extends its
beneficent a c t i o n
t h r o u g h o u t N a
ture, not even disdaining those
g l o o m y depths
which the vulgar
l o o k u p o n wi t h
horror, for water
w o r k s much as
G od does.
Now, the term G o o d n e ss has a va
riety of applications. It may refer to the

quality of the ground upon which a

house stands; or to profundity in a
thinker; or to sincerity in a speaker; or
to well-ordered government: or to a
capacity for doing; or to punctuality;
but it is only when goodness is used in
reference to freedom from contention
that it can be considered faultless.
It is easier to carry an empty vessel
than a full one.
T h e point which is often felt after it
has been sharpened will soon become
blunt.
T h e hall which is filled with silver
and gold will not long retain its con
tents.
T h ree H undred N in ety-fou r

H e who bears wealth and honor a r

rogantly will work out his own destruc
tion.
W h e n meritorious services have led
to fame, it is time to follow the heaven
ly rule and retire into obscurity.
H e w ho makes the investigation of
his spiritual nature his chief object will
be able to bring all his studies to a
focus, and this concentration of his
energies will render him capable of ar
riving at a condition of sensibility to im
pressions similar to that which belongs
to a young child.
H e who is able to wash himself clean
from all obscure and gloomy thoughts
will become sound in mind, and should
he be a ruler if he govern his people
on principles founded on love, he will be
able to remain in perfect repose and
peace as he w atches the processes of
N ature proceed around him. H e will be
as the brood hen who carries on her
work when in a state of perfect rest; and
who, whilst the light of intelligence may
overspread the world, is able, without
knowledge, to procreate and nourish;
to bring forth, and not retain posses
sion; to increase and multiply, and not
to hold in subjection; to act, and not to
depend upon others for assistance.
W e l l indeed may this be called a deep
and impenetrable mystery.
T h e thirty spokes of a chariot-wheel
and the nave to which they are attached
would be useless, but for the hollow
space in which the axle turns.
T h e vase molded out of clay would
be useless, but for the empty space left
for its contents.
T h e door and window frames of a
house would be useless, but for the
empty spaces they enclose, which permit
of ingress and egress, and the admission
of light and air.
T h is teaches us that, however bene
ficial the m aterial may be to us, without
the immaterial it would be useless.
T h e eye is dazzled by a variety of
colors.
T h e ear is deafened by a diversity of
sounds,
T h e taste is vitiated by a mixture of
flavors,
T h ree H un dred N in ety-five

T h e mind is excited by excessive

exercise,
And the character is ruined by seek
ing to be rich.
H ence it is that the wise man prefers
to be emotional rather than to be sensu
ous, and it is through this that his per
ceptive faculties become cultivated, so
that he is able to arrive at just con
clusions.
T h e r e are two sayings which require
explanation
Promotion and degradation alike
give rise to fear, and Suffering and
honor are alike corporeal.
T h e meaning of the first is, that he
who has been promoted lives in fear
that he may be degraded, whilst he who
has been degraded is haunted by the
dread that his degradation may be
continued.
W i t h respect to the second saying, it
means that the sense of suffering is a
consequence of corporeal existence;
without a body there could be no bodily
pain, and for the same reason there
would be no personality on whom honor
could be bestowed.
T h is is why he who does honor to his
own person, or he who bestows the
same love upon others as he does upon
himself, may be entrusted with the gov
ernment of an empire.
T h a t which you look at and can not
see is called invisible.
T h a t which you listen to and can not
hear is called inaudible."
T h a t which you seize upon and can
not grasp is called intangible.
T h e s e three definitions are difficult of
realization when taken singly, let us
therefore try what can be done by
bringing them together and uniting them
in One.
T h e three negations now form a
single combination, but if we scrutinize
it closely, no matter in what aspect we
may regard it, we shall find nothing
either hidden or revealed; and let us be
careful not to define it or give it a
name, or it will escape from us and be
come even more subtle than it was be
fore. T h is is what is meant by seeking

to define the indefinable, and to

establish a resemblance between things
which have no real existence.

A good speaker is accurate and keeps

his temper.

G od is indeed a deep mystery. W e

can not recognize His presence; if we
advance toward Him we can not see
what is behind Him; if we follow Him
we can not see what is before Him. Y e t,
if we would gain a knowledge of our
present lives, we must hold on to the
G od of the Past, and the only clue
which will lead us up to Him is a knowl
edge of the processes which formed the
beginning of that Past.

A good smith needs no wooden bars,

yet the doors he fastens can not be
opened.

T h e virtues of the olden time, as

practiced by the Sages, come down to
us in such an exiguous, indefinite, and
obscure form that it is very difficult for
us to understand them, I will, however,
do my best to make them clear.
T h a t which the S a g e s took a pleasure
in doing may be likened to the wading
across a swollen torrent in mid-winter.
T h e ir caution resembled that which
is produced by a fear of our associates
and of those who live in our neighbor
hood.

A good reckoner needs no tablets.

A skilful joiner needs no cords to

keep his work together.
In the same manner, it is through the
skill and ability of the S a g e that his
fellow men are aided without one of
them being discarded or lost, and it is
the same when he deals with the brute
creation or material objects.
T h is is what is called being doubly
enlightened, and hence it is that the
skilful man becomes the unskilful m ans
master, and the unskilful man becomes
the skilful man's slave.
W h e n the slave does not honor his
master, and the master does not love his
slave, although they may both have a
knowledge of what is suitable, they will
be guilty of gross stupidity.
T h is may be considered an abstract
of the leading principles belonging to a
very difficult and subtle subject.

T h e ir carriage was as the bearing of

a guest toward his host.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
November
1936

T h e ir self-effacement was as the

melting aw ay of an icicle.
In their indignation they were rough
as a piece of unplaned wood.
T h e ir influence was as far-reaching
as the flow of a mountain torrent, and
like the torrent it became turbid through
its own movement.
N o w who is there capable of cleans
ing the impurities of his nature by tran
quillity and rest? A nd who is there cap
able of producing a state of perfect re
pose by the long-continued calm of a
peaceful life?
In conclusion: T h o s e who affect to
cherish these principles, and yet have no
desire to carry them out in their entirety,
will become capable of committing vile
actions, and so remain to the end of
their lives in an unreformed and imper
fect condition.

A good walker moves lightly over the

ground, and his footsteps leave no trace.

G od
nam e.

is

unchanging

and

has

no

Now, although this statement is so

short and so simple, the world can not
take it in. Y e t if kings and princes were
but to receive it, there is nothing under
H eaven which would not resort to them,
and it would produce a spirit of har
mony which would descend upon the
Empire like a fragrant dew, so that the
people would no longer require to re
ceive orders from their superiors, but
would be rendered capable of con
trolling their own actions.
B ut when a name was given to the
G rea t F irst Cause, which has been con
tinued to this day, the knowledge I
speak of became arrested, and we soon
cease to be familiar with that which it
withheld from us.
Ah! if the right knowledge of God
were but spread through the Empire, it
would become like the ocean and great
rivers into which the rivulets and
streams continuously flow.
T h ree H un dred N inety-six

TEMPLE OF THUTMOSE III

The photograph above w as made by the A M O R C expedition under the direction of the Suprem e S e cre ta ry during the month of O ctober
of this year. T h is beautiful temple w as built by T hu tm ose III close to the Nile in E g y p t and it is considered one of the earliest of the m ys
tery temples in which the traditional foundation of the R osicru cian O rd er w as laid.
'I he cartouch e of T hu tm ose III used in N orth A m erica as a part o f the R osicru cian emblems is clearly shown in the carv in g around and
above the center doorw ay which is the threshold to the most sacred room of the temple. T h e holy altar w ithin is clea rly shown in this photo
graph as are the benedictions and adorations to the "G od of all gcds. ruling forever and ever etern ally above the door surmounted by the
sym bolical wings. T h is is but one of the many m ystical temples w hich will be carefu lly and beautifully photographed by our expedition
photographers for use as sound m oving picture lectures in the courier car jou rneys acro ss N orth Am erica.

(Courtesy of Rosicrucian Digest.)

The
Worlds
Mysteries
Within Your
Family
Circle!
The world is at your fingertips in the peace and quiet of your home. Free
dom to investigate the unusual, to study the mysteries of the earth now exist
within the friendly atm osphere of your home circle. For centuries those who
openly dared to study the nature of G od, declared the earth round or probed
the inner workings of the mind, were scoffed at, scorned and subject to death.
The thinker and seeker who had the sincere desire to satisfy the urge +o
know' was obliged to expose himself to these abuses. No longer is this
necessary. The Readers' Research A cadem y brings to you in simple, interest
ing m anuscript form the startling disclosures of the scientists who challenge
obsolete ideas, the suppressed teachings of tine
modern philosophers, and the fascinating mysteries
of our universe. W ithin the dignity of your home
the members of your family may participate in
the fascinating discussions which will arise from the
reading of these unusual discourses. Select any
Stonehenge. T h e an series below you wish. Anyone may receive them.
cient temple of an early

Amenhotep IV, Kgyptiun Pharaoh. One of

t h e worlds greatest
m y s t i c s . Read the
course. Faiths of the
World."

brotherhood whose sec

rets of nature are grad
ually becoming known.

(N o. 1) A R C A N E COSMOLOGY. Man has alw ays wondered

about the Cosmic speck called earth. Is the earth a cell
with life on its surface, or is it a great cell w ith life on
its inside? In other words, have we a cellular universe? T his new theory is startling
in its revelation, complete with charts and diagrams.
(No. 7) M Y S T IC A L B IB L E IN S T R U C T IO N S . T h is course reveals outstanding inform a
tion. Did Christ die on tiie cross? The unknown fact o f the periods of Christ's life.
W as He a member (if a secret brotherhood? W ho were His sisters and brothers that
are referred to, etc., etc.?
(No. 5) M Y S T IC A L A D V E N T U R E S . Do you feel there is som ething beyond the eve ry
day life that casts an influence over you? W ould you like to venture into the realm o f
psychic experience and phenomena? T his course w ill enchant you with its sim plicity
and interest.
There are a number o f other courses available. T w o discourses of any course
you select w ill be sent to you each month as long as you desire them. When
ordering, please do so by number, and send to address below. The courses
are extrem ely economical. T w o large discourses sent each month fo r only

I f

Per Mo.

THE READERS RESEARCH ACADEMY

ROSICRUCIAN PARK, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A,

Cellular C o s m o l o g y .
The universe as a cell
with the earth as its
center. Amazing in its
i n t e r e s t i n g .scientific
facts. Can you refute
it? Read about it.

s-

THE PURPOSES OF
THE

Mem ber o f
F U D O S I
(Federation Universelle des
Ordres et
Societes
In itiatiques)

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

The Rosicrucian Order, existin g in all civilized lands, is a non-sectarian,

fraternal body o f men and women devoted to the investigation, study, and
practical application o f natural and spiritual laws. T he purpose o f the o rgan i
zation is to enable all to live in harmony w ith the creative, constructive,
Cosmic forces fo r the attainment o f health, happiness, and Peace.
T he Order is internationally known as AM O R C (an abbreviation), and the
AM O R C in America, and all other lands, constitutes the only form o f R osi
crucian activities united in one body having representation in the interna
tional federation.
T he AM O R C does not sell its teachings, but gives them
free ly to all affiliated members, togeth er w ith many other benefits.
Inquirers seeking to know the history, purposes, and practical benefits
that they may receive from Rosicrucian association, are in vited to send for
the free book, "T h e Secret H e rita g e." Address, F ria r S. P. C.. care o f
AM ORC T E M P L E
Rosicrucian Park , San Jose, California, U. S. A.
(Cable Address: "A M O R C O "
Radio Station W 6 H T B )

Officials of the Worth and South American Jurisdictions

(In clu d in g the United States. Dominion o f Canada. Alaska, M exico. Guatemala, Honduras. Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Republic o f Panama, the W est Indies, L o w e r California, and all land
under the protection o f the United States o f Am erica.)
H. S PE N C E R L E W IS , F. R. C., Ph. D ............................................................................................... Im perator
C L E M E N T B. L E B R U N , F. R. C................................................................................................ Grand Master
Supreme Secretary
R A L P H M. L E W IS . F. R . C...................................
H A R V E Y M IL E S , F. R. C
Grand Treasurer
E T H E L B. W A R D , F. R. C .
Secretary to Grand M aster
H A R R Y L . S H IB L E Y , F. R. C....................
D irector o f Publications
Junior Order o f Torch Bearers (sponsored b y A M O R C ). F o r complete inform ation as to its aims
and benefits address General Secretary, Grand Chapter, Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California.

T h e follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C

Reading, Pennsylvania:

San Francisco, California:

Reading C hapter. M r. Carl Schlotzhauer,

M aster: M r. G eorge R . O sm an, S e cretary .
M eeting every 1st and 3rd F rid ay , 8:00 p. m.,
W a sh in g to n H all, 904 W ash in g to n Street.

New York City, New York:

N ew Y o rk C hapter, Room s 35-36, 711 8th
A ve., cor. 8th A ve. and 45th Street. M r. W .
J. N orris, M aster; M arg aret Sh arpe, S e cre
tary. Inquiry and reading rooms open week
days and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
D elta Lodge N o. 1, A M O R C , S . E . C orner
40th and Brow n Sts., 2nd F loor. M r. A lbert
C ourtney, M aster.
B enjam in Fran klin C hapter of A M O R C ;
M r. Jam es D e Fulio, M aster; M arth a A itken,
Se creta ry , 2203 15th Street. M eetings for
all members every second and fourth Su n
days, 7 :3 0 p .m ., at 1521 W e s t G irard A ve.
(Seco nd F loor, Room B ) .

Boston, Massachusetts:
T h e M arie Clem ens Lodge, C h ester A .
Robinson, M aster. T em p le and R eading
Room s, 739 Boylston S t., T elep ho ne K enmore 9398.

Detroit, Michigan:
T h eb es C h ap ter N o. 336. M iss E lla A. M illiman. M aster;
M rs. P ejirl A nna T ifft,
S e creta ry . M eetings at the F loren ce Room ,
T u ller H otel, every T u esd ay , 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone N o. 1870.

F ran cis B acon Lodge, 1655 Polk

M r. D avid M ackenzie, M aster.

Street;

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. F irst Lodge. R alph M . Ross, M aster;
610 A rch Street.

Atlanta, Georgia:
A tlan ta C hapter N o. 650. M rs. V . C unning
ham, S r., M aster; N assau H otel. M eetings
7 :30 every T h u rsd ay night.

Los Angeles, California:

Herm es Lodge, A M O R C T em p le. M r. D un
can G . W rig h t, M aster. Reading Room and
Inquiry office open daily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.
and 7 :3 0 p .m . to 9 p .m . except Sundays.
G ran ada C ourt. 672 South L a fa y ette P ark
P lace .

Birmingham, Alabama:
Birm ingham C h ap ter of A M O R C
F o r in
form ation address M r. M . J. Collins, M aster,
1516 So . 15th A ve.

Chicago, Illinois:
C h icago C h ap ter N o. 9. H. C . B lackw ell,
M aster; M ab el L . Schm idt, S e creta ry . T e le
phone Su perior 6881. Reading Room open
afternoons and evenings. Su nd ay s 2 to 5
only. 100 E . O h io S t., Room 403-404. L ec
ture sessions for A L L jpem bers every T u e s
day night, 8 :0 0 p. m.
C h icag o A fra-A m erican C h apter N o . 10.
O liv er T . M cG rew , M aster;
Nehem iah
D ennis, S e creta ry . M eeting every W ed n e s
day night at 8 o clock, Y . M . C . A ., 3763 So .
W a b a s h A venue,

(D irecto ry Continued on N e x t P a g e )

Portland, Oregon:

Newark, New Jersey:

P ortland C hapter. F lo y d D . C ook, Mastery

405 Orpheum Bldg. M eetings every T h u rs
d ay, 8 :0 0 p .m . at 714 S . W . 11th Avenue.

H . Sp en cer Lew is C hapter. F ran k A . Ham

mond, M aster; for inform ation address Sy lv ia
K in gsley, S e creta ry , 31 L eo P lace.

Seattle, Washington:
Washington, D. C.:
T h o m as Jefferson C hapter.
H ow ard E .
M ertz, M aster. C onfederate M em orial H all.
1322 V erm ont A ve. N . W . M eetings every
F rid ay , 8 :0 0 p. m.

A M O R C C h ap ter 586. Fred M otter, M aster:

M rs. Carolina H enderson, S e cre ta ry . 311-14
Low m an Bldg., betw een 1st and 2nd A ves.
on C h erry Street. Reading room open week
d ays 11 a. m. to 4 :3 0 p. m. V isito rs welcom e.
C h apter meetings each M ond ay, 8 :0 0 p. m.

O th er Chartered C hapters and Lodges of the R osicru cian O rd er (A M O R C ) will be found in

most large cities and towns of N orth A m erica. A ddress of local representatives given on request.

PR IN C IPA L CA N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
Edmonton, Alberta:

Victoria, British Columbia:

V icto ria Lodge, M r. G eorge A. Phillips,
M aster. Inquiry O ffice and R eading Room.
101 U nion B ank Bldg. O pen week d ays 10
a. m. to 6 p. m.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:

G . F . G ostick, M aster, 361 M ach ray A ve.
Session for all members ev ery Su nd ay,
2:45 p. m., 304 " B Enderton Bldg., P ortage
A ve. and H arg rave St.

M r. F . G .
A venue E .

Pow ell,

M aster,

95 3 3

Jasper

Toronto, Ontario, Canada:

M iss Edith H earn, M aster. Sessions 1st and
3rd Su nd ays of the month, 7:00 p. m.. N o. 10
Lansdow ne A ve.

Vancouver, British Columbia:

Canadian G rand Lodge, A M O R C .
M rs.
E th el M . W a r e , M aster: H. B. Kidd, S e cre
tary, A M O R C T em p le, 878 H ornby Street.

SPA N ISH A M ERIC A N

SEC TIO N

T h is jurisdiction includes all the Sp anish-speaking Countries of the N ew W o rld . Its Suprem e
Council and A dm inistrative O ffice are located at S an Juan, Puerto R ico, having local R epresen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
T h e name and address of the O fficers and R epresen tatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.

A ll correspondence should be addressed as follows:

Se creta ry G eneral of the Spanish-A m erican Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O . Box 36, San Juan,
Puerto R ico.

A FEW

O F T H E FO R EIG N

Scandinavian Countries:

N fp ty

T h e A M O R C G rand Lodge of D enm ark.

M r. A rthur Sundstrup, G rand M aster; Cnrli
A nderson. S . R . C ., G rand S e cretary . M an ogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen, D enm ark.

Sweden:
G rand Lodge R o sen k orset. A nton S v an lund, F . R . C ., G rand M aster. Jerusalem sgatan, 6, M alm o.

Holland:
D e R ozekruisers O rd e;
G root-L od ge der
N ederlanden. J. C oops, G r. S e ct., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam .

France:
D r. H an s G ruter. G rand M aster.
M ile.
Jeann e Guesdon. S e creta ry , 56 Rue G am betta. V illen eu v e S ain t G eorges. (Sein e 6
O is e ).

Switzerland:
D r. Ed. B ertholct, G rand M aster. Odette
Bosset. Secretary', Cham blandes Les V iolettes,
Lausanne.
C hina:
T h e United G rand Lodge of China.
B o x 513, Shangh ai, C hina.

P. O.

R O SICR U C IAN PRESS, LTD .,

JU R ISD IC TIO N S

V p a lo n r l*

A uckland C hapter A M O R C .
M r. G . A.
Franklin, M aster, 317 V icto ria A rcade Bldg.
Q ueen S t., C ity A uckland.

England:
T h e A M O R C G rand Lodge of G reat B ritain.
M r. Raym und A ndrea, K. R . C Grand
M aster, 34 B ay w ater A ve., W e stb u ry Park,
B ristol 6.

Dutch and East Indies:

D r. W . T h . van Stokkum , Grand M aster;
W . J. V isser, Secretary -G en era l.
K aran gtempel 10 Sem arang, Java.

Egypt:
T h e G rand O rien t of A M O R C , H ouse of the
T em p le. M . A. R am ayvelim , F . R . C ., Grand
S e cretary , 26, A venue Ism alia, Heliopolis.
C airo Inform ation Bureau de la R ose Croix.
J. Sap p orta, Secretary . 27 R ue Salim on
P ach a, C airo.

A frica:
T h e G rand Lodge of the Gold C oast.
A M O R C . M r. W illia m O k ai, G rand M aster,
P. O . B ox 424 A ccra, Gold C oast, W e s t
A frica.

The addresses of other foreign Grand Lodges

and secretaries will be furnished on application.
ovJjjp^O o P R I N T E D I N U . 3 . A .

arthbound

Is there a strange, ethereal, mental cord that

hinds the consciousness of those departed from this
world with those that remain ?

A re souls denied

liberation after transition until they have com m uni

cated to their loved ones important m essages? A re
the lantastic experiments of the seance room trickery
or fraud, or are they the result of earthbound e n
tities seeking freedom from the confining interests of
thi s world? Is the hum an consciousness suspended
for an indefinite period between the spiritual and
earthly realm s?

Is psychic communication,

minds gone on, a farce or a fact?

DO NOT EXPOUND
of its unusual doctrines.

SPIR IT ISM .

with

Rosicrucians

Y e t they have m ad e an impartial investigation

Let us send our free discourse entitled, E a r th b o u n d , to you,

which is devoted to this subject. \ ou will be fascinated with it.

In addition, w e will

gladly send you, absolutely free, twenty other discourses on interesting, intriguing sub
jects such as the following:
Reincarnation and O ld A g e ,
T h e Mind. A H u m an R adio,

A Stran ge E xperience,

T h e Mystery of Sleep,

etc., etc.

W e have never m ade an offer of such astounding value before. M erely subscribe to
this helpful, interesting publication.

he Rosicrucian D ig e st, for six months for $ 1 .5 0 ,

and all these discourses will be sent to you in addition to the six-months magazine sub
scription. Just send your remittance of $ 1 . 3 0 for
Send me the twenty F R E E discourses in addition.
portunity of wonderful reading matter.

T h e Rosicrucian Digest,

and say.

D o not overlook this splendid op

I his offer is lor a limited time only. Send order

and remittance to:

~7lic Rosicrucian D ig e s t
SAN

J O S E , C A L I F O R N I A . U. S. A.

FREETwenty bound and

p r i n t e d discourses
like t h o s e listed
above. Read above
for details and send
for y o u r s today.

Rosicrucian(Library

The following books are a few of several recommended because of the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found In our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue of all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II. ROSICRUCIAN PRINCIPLES FOR THE HOME AND BUSINESS.
A very practical book dealing with the solution o f health, financial, and business problem s in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped with gold. Price, S2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume m . THE MYSTICAL LIFE OF JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V. UNTO THEE I GRANT . .

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery of Tibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
with attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VI. A THOUSAND YEARS OF YESTERDAY8.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and mystic lessons. T h is unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price, 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume Vn. SE LF MASTERY AND FATE,

W IT H T H E

CYCLES OF LIFE.

A new and astounding system o f determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. Better than any system o f numerology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume VIII. THE ROSICRUCIAN MANUAL.

Most complete outline o f the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work of the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and com plete dictionary o f Rosicrucian terms and words.
V ery com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped w ith gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volum e

XI. M ANSIONS OF THE SOUL, THE COSMIC CONCEPTION.

The complete doctrines of reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
Illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

W ell

Volume X n . LEM URIATHE LOST CONTINENT OF THE PACIFIC.

The revelation o f an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the eartn. K now o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume XIII. THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MASTER.

The newest and most complete guide fo r attaining the state of Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

S tn d

a ll

ordert for boo ka, with rem ittance, d ir e c t to R O S IC R U C / A N

SU PPLY

B L R i iA L , R o s ic r u c ia n

Pack,

San

Jo s t ,

C a lif o r n ia .

PERFUME

OF

T HE

SOUL

CIJ I lie ancients attributed directly to divine source everything which

to the human senses seemed perfect the fragrance of flowers, the sweet
smelling early morning air. the tang of the sea, the mysterious scent of
strange herbs. I hese pleasing odors were associated wi th the divine
being of tfie gods. Even the soul was thought to have a fragrance of its
own iar superior to anything else which man coidd ever
smell. In the sacred temples herbalists would mix secret
potions and compound rare incenses which were thought
to approach the divine fragrance of the soul. The one
compounding the most exquisite scent became a favored
person with pharaoh and high priest alike. They paid
homage and sought his services.

S a n c t u m In c e n se
I r1<Iif1 M oss Rose scent.
E sp e c ia lly compounded
for m editation purposes.
C onsists of twelve Inrqp
slow fm rning cubes.

Only 65^ per box

postpaid

T h e

It was believed that an inhalation of the scented fumes

woidd lift the soul to greater heights. It is known that
rare incenses will aid in producing harmony ol the
senses, and for this reason tfie Rosicrucians have had.
specially prepared, an incense that is quiet and sooth
ing and most helpful for meditation purposes. C onsidering its quality, it is extremely low priced at 65 cents,
postpaid, lor a hox of twelve slow-burning large cubes.
Send order and remittance to:

R O S I C R U C I A N

R O S I C R U C I A N

P A R K

S U P P L Y
S A N

B U R E A U

J O S E .

C A L I F O R N I A

DR. H. SPENCER LEWIS, F. R. C.

Im perator o f A M O R C for N orth and South America
V ice-P resid en t of the International R osicru cian C ouncil: L egate of the F U D O S I ; H onorary
M em ber of various arcan e and philosophical brotherhoods; V ice-P resid en t of the B acon
So ciety o f E ng land ; C ross o f H onor and K night o f the O rd er o f the F lag , Lf. S . A .; C ross
o f H onor o f the Sovereign M ilitary O rd er o f the T em p le of F ran ce, Belgium , and Sw itzer
land; C h evalier o f the C ord a F ratres o f Italy ; G eneralissim o for N orth and South Am erica
of the M ilitia C ru cifera E v a n g elica ; Chancellor of R ose-C roix U niversity o f the LI. S . A .:
D octor o f S cien ces o f the R ose-C roix U niversity o f Belgium : Sovereign G rand M aster o f
the M artiniSt O rd er o f North A m erica.
( C o u r te s y
R o sic ru c ia n

of The

Digest.)

Stop Searching inThe Dark!

D ont P lay B lind M a n s Buff
with Y o u r Life
M> reach out blindly toward the things that constitute R E A L H A P P I
N E S S in life? If you are depending on opportunities to make themselves
g
known to you, by waiting to hear, see, or feel them, then you are letting
g the future slip by. You can create in your life, through the direction of
your I N N E R F O R C E S , those things tkat your outer self has been
blindly seeking. Edison s greatest inventions were conceived IN T H E
M IN D . not in the eye or sense of touch.

Let This Free Book Reveal the W a y

For ages the Rosicrucians, an established brotherhood of learning, have shown
I F U N K IN G men and women how to use their inner forces to attain I I A P P I N E S S
and P E A C E O F M IN D . It Iias not been done in a sensational, bombastic way,
but in preparing them through fascinating study to conquer their daily problems
as they arise. Let me send you a F R E E C O P 't of The Secret Heritage which will
put vou in touch with this dependable way of obtaining a new life HF!R E A N D
N O W . A Iuvnd of fellowship and help is here extended to you. W i l l you clasp it?
Add ress:
S C R I B E S. P. C.

The ROSICRUCIANS
(A M O R C )
SA N

J O S E

C A L I F O R N I A
(Rosicrucian members have received this interesting hook.)

ROSICRUCIAN
DIGEST
COVERS THE WORLD

&
SO CRA TES

T il E O F F IC IA L IN T E R N A T IO N A L R O SICR UCIAN M AGA

Z IN E O F T I I E W O R L D -W ID E ROSICR UCIAN ORDER

Vol. XIV

DECEMBER, 1936
CONTENTS

Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, F. R. C. (Fro n tisp ie ce )..

The Thought of the Month:
O ur H oliday G re e tin g s ..........
Duality of Tone
....
The Guide Within
...............
Cathedral Contacts ..............
The Dawn of a New Age of Progress
Ancient Symbolism
Summaries of Science
The Village of the Devil .........
Pages from the Past
Sanctum Musings: Value
Live the Principles

Mrs. H. Spencer Lewis, F. R. C. (Illustration)

Page
401
404
406
408
410
412
417
418
423
430
433
436
437

Subscription to T he Rosicrucian D igest. T hree Dollars per

year. Single copies tw en ty-five cents each.
Entered as Second Class M atter at the Post Office at San
Jose, California, under the Act of August 24th, 1912.
Changes of address must reach us by the tenth o f the month
preceding date o f issue.
Statements made in this publication are not the official ex
pressions o f the organization o r its officers unless stated to
be official communications.
Published Monthly by the Supreme Council of

THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDERAMORC

R O SICR UCIA N P A R K

SAN J08K, C A L IF O R N IA

1#IA

S T ; M A'RTIN

THE

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

OUR HOLIDAY GREETINGS

L L of our officers
and d e p a r t m e n t
managers at H e a d
quarters have ask
ed that I include
them in my greet
ings at this holi
day season. W e
all wish that we
were able to send
a personal holiday
greeting a real,
personal message
of some kind to
every one of our members. W e would
like to make such messages as personal
and as intimate as we really feel toward
each one of our fellow members and
workers throughout the whole of the
North and South American jurisdictions
and in some foreign, countries. But such
a thing is not possible because of the
very large number of members and the
great amount of time it would take to
make such messages really personal.
A n y means that we may take to send
such a message in an impersonal manner
or in printed form would be very little
better than transmitting our greetings to
you through this department of our
magazine. A fter all, the Th o ug h t of the
Month department of T he Rosicrucian
D igest is the proper place for any time
ly matter and certainly the holiday
season is so close to us that it is timely
for us to think of the duties and obliga
tions that would fall upon us between
The
R osicru cian now and the first of the year.
F o r the past quarter century or more,
D igest
the three important American holidays
D ecem b er
Thanksgiving, Christmas. N ew Y e a r
1936
have been linked together as a group.

and the period beginning with the first

one and ending with the last has become
a real season of joy and good-will. In
other words, we no longer have three
separate holidays accompanied by three
periods of recreation, gift giving, and
felicitations, but one long season of
merry making and celebration lasting
from thirty to thirty-five days. I think
that American records would show that
more social events, more happy cere
monies, and formal and informal activi
ties are prepared at this particular
period of the year than at any other
time. It seems to be a very appropriate
period of the year for the offering of
things for the blessings we have had
during the past months, the spread of
good-will
and
h uma n
fellowship
throughout the nation and the anticipa
tion of a new year with all of its op
portunities and benedictions.
Certainly A M O R C has much to be
thankful for as an organization and the
officers individually and collectively
have much to be thankful for. W e are
not unmindful of the many wonderful
tokens of love and respect, esteem and
confidence, that the members have
showrn to us throughout the past years
and which they reveal from day to day
in their continued loyalty and coopera
tion. T h is year we are especially ap
preciative of the fine stand in our behalf
and in behalf of the integrity of the or
ganization which all of our members
made manifest during the month of July
by their votes and their proxy votes and
by their hundreds of letters, personal
calls, telegrams, and even cablegrams.
It was a time of crucial test for the or
ganization in some ways and called for
F o u r Hundred F ou r

a definite expression on the part of the

membership. O u r permanent records
will carry far into the history of R osicrucianism the marvelous testimony that
was so voluntarily brought into light by
our members and friends during this
past year. Certainly none of us should
fail to want to pass on to each of our
members the expressions of good-will,
thankfulness and good wishes for the
future that were so magnificently e x
pressed in our behalf during the C o n
vention period.
T h i s y ear is also the anniversary of
m any important events in our past his
tory, giving us a double reason for
wanting to celebrate in a truly festive
manner the month of December, 1936.
T h is year marks the twentieth anniver
sary of the opening of the first lodge of
A M O R C under our present admin
istration for the reception of new mem
bers in regular formal manner. T h e
year also marks the twentieth anniver
sary o f our first year o f nation-w ide
activities under the present administra
tion. It marks also the twentieth anni
versary of the nation-wide activities of
the Supreme Council of the O rd er and
of the general proclamation to the public
that the ancient O rd er of Rosicrucians
was widely established in the western
world again. It is the twenty-seventh
anniversary of the granting of author
ity and power to the present administra
tors, and it is the twenty-fifth anniver
sary of the first formal declarations
made by the first American Supreme
Council in the present cycle.
So we hope that each and every mem
ber of the O rder, including those who
are temporarily inactive for one reason
or another, will feel that these words on
this printed page are the true expres
sions and thoughts of the happy hearts
of officers and department managers at
Headquarters. W e wish for each of you
not only a happy holiday season with
abundant expressions of good-will from

friends and acquaintances, but we wish

for each o f you a wonderfully happy
N ew Y e a r filled with all of the worldly
and Cosmic benedictions that can be b e
stowed upon you.
W e could ask for no greater gift to
us as officers than the knowledge that
all of our members and co-w orkers
throughout the world are happy, peace
fully contented, and devoting them
selves to a greater realization of the
blessings that have come to them and
will come to them. T h is knowledge of
the jo y of our members; this compre
hension of their smiles and their en
thusiastic spirits would be truly a gift
sublime to us, for it would make us even
more happy in the great work that we
are doing. W e realize that the greatest
jo y that can come into our lives is that
which reflects the jo y we have put into
the hearts and minds o f others. T h e re
is a degree of real selfishness in the
spirit that moves us during the holiday
season and causes us to give gifts to
others. W e derive our real pleasure
from giving pleasures to others and it
is hardly possible for the human con
sciousness to be wholly unselfish in its
w ays and means of giving gifts and
bringing jo y into the lives of other in
dividuals.
S o we frankly say that our great hap
piness this year will be the satisfaction
of knowing what we have tried to do for
our members and the expression of their
good wishes for what we have accomp
lished. W e are selfish enough perhaps
and certainly enthusiastic enough to
hope that each one of you will derive
from your contact with A M O R C and
through your contact with the organiza
tion more real happiness and joy, more
prosperity and good health during the
coming year than you have ever had in
past years. A nd our good wishes in this
regard carry with them our official bene
diction and plea to the Cosmic for their
fulfillment.

SPECIAL N O TIC E T O M EMBERS O F T H E H IE R A R C H Y

Sp ecial meeting of all m embers of the H ierarch y will be held on the evenings of
Janu ary 7, Janu ary 18, and Janu ary 28 at 8 :0 0 o 'clo ck , P acific Standard T im e.

F ou r H undred F iv e

Duality of Tone
AS EXPRESSED IN SPEECH AND SONG
By

V io le t C o w g er,

N A t r e a t i s e on
Song. M a x Spicker h as wr i t t e n:
" B e a u ty o l T o n e
is dual; a material,
sensuous beauty in
and of the T o n e
alone, and a spiri
tual beauty giving
it inspiration and
c h aracter."
Rosicrucian stu
dents , through
mystical training,
may realize to the fullest the dual beauty
of T o n e . M oreover, with the under
standing acquired through the study of
their monographs, they may realize that
beauty of T o n e is not only dual it is
also sacred, being a manifestation of the
Breath of Life.
V o c a l T o n e is both material and
psychic in its manifestation. M aterial
T o n e is produced by the entire material
body.
F o r this reason, the careful
teacher of V o ic e considers many points
concerning the general health and well
being of the student, for excellent health
is required to produce T o n e that is vi
brant with buoyancy, vitality and power.
T h e first point to be considered in
building T o n e technique is posture. In
the monographs of the Sixth Degree
The
Rosicrucian valuable information is given concern
ing the skeleton framework of the hu
Digest
man body: how delicately it is poised
December and balanced on the framework of the
feet, how beautifully it supports the
1936

F. R.

C.

various organs, and how wonderfully it

shields and protects certain organs. If
the posture of this delicately adjusted
framework is poor or deficient, various
ills may result, such as: shoulders out
of position, sunken chest, weakened
waist muscles, crooked back and many
other malformations. All of these, or
any one of them may cause illness or
some physical ailment. In the study of
voice fine posture is one of the great
essentials of good tone production. C e r
tain exercises are given to improve and
perfect posture. Practiced over a period
of months, the student walks, stands and
sits with good posture, and this very es
sential item regarding body-welfare
sometimes brings about a tremendous
change in the general health of the in
dividual. F ine posture not only im
proves personal appearance, but it has
a most beneficial effect upon the stu
dents attitude, helping to create poise.
T o n e beautifully rendered, must be
absolutely free from tension or inter
ference, and float on the breath. In
vocal technique the most careful con
sideration is given to the breath control
of the singer. Exercises involving deep
inhalation and smooth, evenly executed
exhalation build strength and endurance
in the student. T h e buoyant expansion
of the diaphragm, without tension in any
part of the body, contributes to the
power and stability of T o n e . Poor
breathing and poor exhalation are often
the cause of the much dreaded Tremolo.
F ou r H undred Six

Added to posture and breath control

is the subtle art of V o ic e Placement.
T h e o bject o f placing a V o ice is to cause
an adjustment of the vibrations of T o n e
that will enable T o n e to float on the
breath entirely free from tension or in
terference.
In studying the organ or
piano, one may watch the fingers oper
ate the keys and observe the technique
of T o n e production, but one cannot see
a V o ic e nor watch any of the ad just
ments that occur in the vocal chords or
other parts of vocal mechanism to
change pitch or produce T o n e . All
manner of procedures have been under
taken by teachers to place the V o ice ,
and thousands of students have taken
up one method after another only to be
come confused and discouraged.
V o ic e teachers of today agree that
voice placement should be obtained by a
mental picture of the T o n e . T h o s e who
teach voice placement from the physical
point of view coaching students to
hold the tongue with a spoon, or to
cause the T o n e to lift the soft palate,
or that the lips must be distorted in some
fashion bring about tension in these
parts of the vocal mechanism, thereby
defeating the production of T o n e that
is mellow, loose, ethereal and pure.
T e a c h e r s who present a mental picture
of T o n e teach the focusing of vibrations
just above the teeth, or just back of the
cheeks below the eyes, or finest of all
bringing the vibrations to a focal point
back of the forehead between the eyes.
In the W e s t e r n W o r l d of today,
competition, speed of living, the hurry
of crowded schedules, and the wear and
tear of a multitude of activities cause a
high tension and severe strain that is
seen even in growing children. In order
that the body may release T o n e that is
smooth and velvety, the student of
V o ic e must realize the value of re la x a
tion. M a n y fine exercises are given for
this purpose, for strain and tension must
be eliminated if freedom of T o n e is to
be realized. Relaxation of the entire
body and a breaking up of the stiff lines
of a set posture are conducive to the
release of T o n e .
Summing up these few items, one
finds that the technique of material T o n e
embraces:
F ou r H un dred S ev en

C orrect Posture
C orrect Breathing
C orrect V o ic e Placement
Relaxation
T h e psychic manifestation of T o n e is
of paramount interest to the student of
mysticism. T h e true mystic knows that
the M aterial T o n e , perfected by the best
possible technique, is merely a vehicle
for the real T o n e which is produced by
Soul.
T h e old saying, as a man
thinketh so is h e, is true of the V o ice ,
for as a man thinks and lives, so does
he color the tonal quality of his V o ic e
in speech and song. E v ery emotion, be
it good or bad, uplifting or degrading,
reflects its vibrations
through
the
medium of T o n e . It is a mystical truth
that Sound is the F a th e r of C reatio n ,
for in the beginning the emanation of
the word from the Divine So u rce
brought into being all manifestations of
creation. S o in an infinitesimal w ay
man sends forth vibrations through
sound that are creative or destructive
according to the emotions that color his
V o ice .
A woman scolds and nags in her
home and vibrations of pain are sent
through the nervous systems of her
children: a man in an office greets his
patrons with a sharp tongue and repels
and loses his customers; an agitator
talks to crowds and arouses them to
deeds of evil; a criminal talks over his
plans in a back room and a murder is
committed: propagandists shout to the
multitudes and a w ar is started; but
a young mother croons to the child in
her arms and the inner self of the child
glows with the love expressed in her
tones; an older mother rules her home
with cultured, softly modulated tones of
unselfish love and a young son receives
the vibrations into his consciousness,
never to lose them. A t a later day he
may be tempted to some wrong but the
vibrations of her voice hold him back
and steady him, and even in later life
they remain the most sacred and revered
of all influences. A teacher in a school
talks calmly and helpfully to hundreds
of students and the vibrations of his
voice contribute to their individual ad
vancement; a minister speaks to a
crowded church and thousands are

of the T o n e as well as the material

value. T h e Suprarenal glands, being
the center of the emotions, supply emo
tional value to the T o n e . T o o much
stress cannot be placed on the excellent
exercise of breathing given in an early
N eophyte D egree. T h is exercise con
sists of inhaling and concentrating on
various parts of the body, bringing to
the individual a keen realization of the
psychic self. It also develops a tremen
dous power within the singer, and the
use of it may enable a soloist to sing
with very little of the objective con
sciousness. T h e same is true o f speech.

soothed and uplifted; a soloist pours out

her heart in song and tears mark the
cheeks of the listeners; a man speaks
kindly to his dog, and the dog would
protect him with his life. T h e psychic
power expressed through speech and
song is almost beyond human compre
hension.
In the sanctums of Rosicrucian stu
dents, sacred vowel sounds are intoned
as a means of attunement. T h e s e vowel
sounds affect certain psychic centers in
the individual, arousing with vibrations
the dual functions o f these glands. C o r
rect breathing and V o ic e placement are
invaluable to the T o n e in providing a
perfect channel for the psychic effect of
these centers through T o n e . T h e mental
tone picture of focusing the vibrations
o f T o n e back of the forehead between
the eyes brings this point of focus in
front of the pineal gland, called the
S e a t of the So u l. P roper breathing
fortifies the glands of the chest and head
which contribute to the psychic value

E v e ry individual contains within him

self a nucleus of tremendous power.
T h e mystic is trained to know and use
this power in the right way. T h e human
V o ic e is one of the great channels
through which this power vibrates and
it behooves every sincere student to
purify, beautify and perfect this chan
nel whether for speech or song.

T h e Guide Within
By S o r o r E ls a F. A n g le , F . R . C.
V E R Y O N E has at
one time or the
other become con
scious of a definite
urge from within
which he may de
fine as the voice
of his conscience
or his better self.
T h e fact remains
that after a little
t h o u g h t on the
subject we all have
to admit that there
is a certain influence from within which
we may heed if we choose to do so, or
we may drown it out with our opinions
The
which rest on sense impressions and
Rosicrucian
outside influences.
Digest
W i s e is the man who holds council
December with this inner voice and cultivates his
relationship to it. T r u ly it is a still,
1936

small voice at first; simply because one

is not familiar with its high vibrations.
B ut a keen desire to listen to its message
will soon make it plainly audible. O n e
will readily discern its persistent urge
for or against the many influences which
are like the undercurrents of an a p
parently safe shore. T h is inner safe
guard is beyond all lower vibrations and
gives us the message of a higher view
point by which to navigate lifes sea
more intelligently and safely. In obedi
ence to I T , fine accomplishments b e
come the natural result while disregard
of the Inner Guide leaves one either at
a loss or at the mercy of all destructive
forces.
H o w often does one not think, I
wish I had done so and so , or when
confronted by situations the cry goes
out, I wish I knew w hat to do. T h e r e
is an answer to be gotten, advice to be
F o u r H un dred E ight

and grateful because of this ever present

guiding voice, that health and disposi
tion improve considerably. W h a t a
blessed difference it makes to turn with
in for the guiding answer to any prob
lem and question. Heeding its warning
or its urge for action means one is never
acting contrary to the infinite plan and
so one is always on the winning side.
T h is Inner Guide or Divine Selfhood is
really the Soul force which elevates
every action and happening into the
domain of divine events. Everything
can be made an uplifting, constructive
influence to benefit o n e s neighbor and
the world at large. D aily affairs become
of greatest importance because they
furnish marvelous opportunities for
progress.
Having established this connection
with the innermost Self, through which
all Cosmic F o r c e is contacted, one is at
the threshold of all blessings and need
only utilize this privilege with ever in
creasing devotion. T ru ly as a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he.

found at the right time if one has

learned to respect and appreciate this
inner voice which separates man into a
class by himself and high above every
other creature. M a n not knowing his
divine selfhood, which remains hidden
too much, accounts for all the failures
and disappointments. Seeking council
without instead of within, decides the
result of every action. Reason based on
sense experience is not the safest or
only guide man has, indeed there is a
far more important and reliable guide to
be consulted if one wishes highest re
sults. O u r intuition which rises from
within and draws its knowledge from
the invisible sources, must be turned to
first and always, if on e seeks the right
form of success.
A fte r experimenting and practising
along these lines one soon gets con
vincing proof of the wisdom of such
procedure. O n e experiences the g reat
est relief from worry and anxiety; and
fear which dominates many a life, de
parts for ever. O n e becomes so happy

READ

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

AN IM PO R TA N T LEGAL DECISION
A ll of our members w ho hav e been w ith us for m any y ears will be glad to know that
within the past month the Suprem e C ourt o f C alifo rn ia has rendered a decision in favor
of A M O R C as ag ain st the consp irators w ho hav e been responsible in past years for the
m alicious propaganda that has been so w idely circulated against A M O R C and its ofFicers.
Se v eral individuals, including a man in P enn sy lvania w ho conducts a small m ystical
organization of his ow n and another individual at the head of another m ystical organiza
tion of the W e s t, w ere included am ong the consp irators found guilty of m alicious co n
spiracy by a Su perior C ourt in C alifornia several y ears ago. T h e s e individuals decided
to make an appeal to the Suprem e C ourt asking fo r a setting aside o f the Su perior C ourt's
decision. A fter m any months o f carefu l study and an aly sis of all the evidence used in
the Su perior C ourt, the Suprem e C ourt judges unanim ously decided that the Su perior
C o u rt's conduction of the trial and an aly sis of the evidence and the final decision w ere
proper and com plete, and that the consp irators w ere unquestionably guilty. T h e Suprem e
C ourt Justices decided after exam ining all of the evidence that not only w ere all of the
m alicious ch arg es made by the consp irators proved and found to be untrue, but that the
consp irators knew that their statem ents and ch arges against A M O R C and its officers
w ere false at the time they made them. T h is is the final and ultim ate decision in this
m atter, and brings to an end this v ery unpleasant incident.

F ou r H undred N in e

i
i

T h e "C ath ed ral of the S o u l is a C osm ic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and high ly developed spiritual m embers and w orkers of the
R osicru cian F ra tern ity . It is a focal point of Cosm ic radiations and thought
w aves from w hich radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and inner
aw akening. V ario u s periods of the day are set aside w hen m any thousands
of minds are attuned with the C athed ral of the Soul, and others attuning with
the C athed ral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. T h o se w ho
are not m embers of the organization m ay share in the unusual benefits as well
as those w ho are members. T h e book called "L ib e r 7 7 7 " describes the periods
for various co n tacts with the C athed ral. C opies w'ill be sent to persons who
are not members b y addressing their request for this book to F ria r S . P . C .. care
of A M O R C T em p le, S a n Jo se, C aliforn ia, enclosing three cen ts in postage
stam ps. (Please state whether member or notthis is important.)

THE THREE W ISE MEN

N C E upon a time
according to the
very best records
three great and
learned
men,
k n o w n in t h e i r
c o u n t r y as wise
men b e c a u s e of
their unusual wis
dom a b o u t t h e
mysterious things
of life, were sent
out from an old
T he
monastery
in
Rosicrucian
Heliopolis, E gy pt, by their great mystic
Digest
lord and master to follow a star that
December shone in the heavens with unusual
brightness. It was a star that had been
1936

observed approaching E g y p t from a

great distance and which had never
shown itself in that part of the heavens
before. Its great size, its brilliance, and
its unique path in the heavens had
caused the wise men of all the Oriental
lands to watch it closely night after
night. W h e n it arrived at a point in the
heavens just over the sacred mystical
city of Heliopolis on the banks of the
Nile, it seemed to become even brighter
than it had been and seemed to shed a
beam of special silver light downward
toward the earth and directly on to the
mystic city.
A f te r a night of observation the wise
observers of the skies proclaimed that
the great star was moving eastward and
F o u r H un dred T en

was increasing in light and seeming to

lower itself in the heavens as though it
were about to bury itself in the fields of
the land across the sea.
T h e s e mystics and wise men knew
that the great star that had so gradually
approached them was a symbol and sign
of the coming of a new king, a new lord,
a new ruler, who would become the
Saviour of M en and the King of Kings.
And so the great master commis
sioned his three most learned men to go
forth from the city and follow the star
that portended the coming to earth o f a
new being. A s the wise men followed
their star with their eyes continually up
lifted, they visioned in the heavenly
space above them a Superior Intelli
gence, a Supreme Consciousness, a
Divine Intellect, that created all things
and whose likeness on earth alone
would bring salvation to man and an
understanding of the omnipotent laws.
Although the wise men were led to a
humble manger where they found a little
child in swadling clothes manifesting
the spirit of the G od of the universe, it
was in the heavens and above the land
of Palestine that these wise men vision
ed the temple of the soul, the cathedral
of spirituality, the universal altar of the
living children of G od. S o there came
into existence, and especially into the
hearts of all who had understanding, the
firm conviction that above all the mani
festations on earth, and above all the
creations of God through the hands of
man, the one supreme creation was the

Kingdom of Heaven to be found in the

consciousness of the one eternal everliving God.
So today throughout the world thous
ands of beings daily lift their worldly
consciousness upward in a spiritual
understanding of the existence of the
Cathedral of the Soul in the esoteric and
physically intangible kingdom of the
sky.
If you have not turned your eyes up
ward. as did the three wise men, and
discerned in the heavens above you the
light that points out the spiritual side of
life, and if you have not dwelt in su
preme ecstasy and spiritual joy in the
temple of the Soul, unrestricted and un
limited by doctrines and creeds, be sure
to let your Soul visit its own cathedral
composed of the love, the sincerity, the
devotion, and the serving hands of mil
lions of human beings. Until you have
dwelt for a time within that great
Cathedral and have been bathed by its
holy vibrations, strengthened by its
Divine power, and guided by its wis
dom, you will never know how truly the
Soul yearns for such religious devotion
and spiritual attunement.
T h e refo re, send for our little booklet,
Liber 7 7 7 , and attune yourself with
us whoever you may be and wherever
you may be and enjo y with us the
strengthening that comes to our hearts
and Souls and the inspiration that
comes to our members while we live in
attunement with the invisible and tang
ible essence of God.

FIN AL N O TIC E REGARDING O UR EG Y PT IA N TO U R

All members are advised that on the first d ay of Janu ary , 1937, the book of reservations
for our R osicru cian M editerranean T o u r will close. T h e re are still a number of good
reservations open, and a few m ore can be added, if necessary , to take care of an y re
quests that may come to us before the first of Janu ary . W e have added m any interesting,
helpful, and attractiv e features to the original plan for the tour. T h e time of sailing is
now definitely set for Jan u ary 30, 1937. W e w ill sail from N ew Y o rk C ity on that date
on the Italian Liner R O M A , and return to N ew Y o rk about the first o f A pril on the
Italian L in er S A T U R N IA . T h ese tw o ships have been modernized into L id o-D eck cruise
ships, and by using one ship to start the cruise and another to com plete it, the length of
the tour w as extended and m any extraord in ary features added that are not included in
other M editerranean cruises. F o r full inform ation and prelim inary reservations address
a letter to R osicru cian E g y p tian T o u r S e creta ry , c/o A M O R C , R osicru cian P ark, San
Jose, C aliforn ia.

F ou r H undred E lev en

pjm-ru~j

The Dawn of a New Age of Progress

THE LIGHT OF TRUTH WILL DISPEL THE DARKNESS
OF IGNORANCE
By W i l l i a m H. M c K e g g , F. R. C .
A R IN H e a v e n !
W a r in M a n !
W a r o n E arth!
T h e hosts of evil
a r e b e i n g v an
quished and are to
be flung into the
e t e r n a l abyss.
M ich ael and his
angels are warring
against the dragon.
(R e v . 1 2 :7 -9 )
A ll t h i n g s
on e a r t h reflect
macrocosmic upheavals.
T h a t is why today the world breath
lessly awaits some radical change. A
change, not local, or national, but uni
versal. A change every earnest soul has
been expecting for many ages. In man
is felt the stirring of his N ew Self.
E v ery city, every town, is arousing to
a new order of thought. People are ob
sessed by one fixed idea that to bring
about this change all Evil must be
blotted out of public and private life.
In this spiritual awakening G oodness
is blotting out Evil. Light is obliterating
D arkness. W is d o m is destroying Ig n o r
ance.
T h e wild rumors o f war people harp
on are in reality the harbingers of the
N ew Age. Just as Cosmic upheavals
T he
Rosicrucian foreshadow events on earth, so are poli
tical upheavals outer reflections of the
Digest
inner wars of man.
December
Right now man is near the end of his
spiritual and political conflict.
The
1936

Golden D aw n o f the N ew A g e is glim

mering on the horizon, ready to burst
into brazen glory against the dark
shadow the world has just passed
through.
In T he H eart O f Asia, F ra te r N ich
olas Roerich, the illuminated artist and
mystic, states that during each Tibetan
N e w Y e a r an ancient stone chalice is
half filled with water and sealed. T h e
following N ew Y e a r it is unsealed. T h e
water is found either to have increased,
or decreased. In 1914, just before the
W o r l d W a r , the w ater was found to
have greatly increased, which meant
dire calamity.
B efo re the war man was in darkness.
Unbelief prevailed. D ecadence was up
permost. T h e downfall had to come, for
all things that go against Cosmic Law
and O rd er find themselves destroyed by
self-created chaos and confusion.
T h e spiritual rebirth of the universe
is reflected within man by his own
spiritual regeneration. T h is has caused
him to be firmly convinced that a great
T e a c h e r is about to appear amongst us
to restore T ru th and Light. M a n y feel
sure that the M aster Jesus is about to
return.
Ye s, the Son of M a n is coming into
glory, as every true Rosicrucian knows.

T he Divine Inner Being O f M an.

W it h in the past century various socalled religious sects have essayed to
present a new means to speedy salva
tion. E a c h claims the M a ste r Jesus as
its own particular property. In other
Four H undred T w elv e

words, all poor outsiders will be lost

souls.
M a n y of these religious sects and
orders are now in conflict, because each
has long ago departed from the Real.
Blind faith is not the faith of T ru th and
Light, but the useless faith of Lies and
Ignorance.
T h e s e schools of exotic thought have
proved of little help or comfort to their
followers in recent times of Stress.
M em bers seeking practical benefit dis
covered that their fantastic teachings
were up in the clouds and of little
earthly use.
T o d a y is the time when false orders
and their equally false teachers are
about to topple down and crumble into
dust. N o w is the time to find out which
O rd er follows the Tru th!
L et us ask one question. W h i c h
O rd er has done most for the w orlds
advancement and m ans spiritual en
lightenment? Look down the centuries
to ancient times. In every case the men
and women who have become the g reat
est of their age in art, science, literature
and religion, have all been Rosicrucians.
T h e only worthwhile philosophy is
the one which helps man to progress.
O th ers might claim to be the only elect
of God. B ut their seclusion from the
world and its affairs, their lack of
proofs, show them up as futile bodies,
obviously far removed from G o d s
works, for Eternity is in love with the

productions o f Time.
All religious sects must agree on one
thing that there is a Supreme Being.
A Divine Source of Love, B eau ty and
Light to which all races and creeds turn.
T h e sad fact that we w ander about in
doubt lies solely on material education
and false teachings. It is from ignorance
that man is now seeking escape.
O n ly those who have broken aw ay
from the maxims of their childhood can
attain to the knowledge of T r u t h ,
wrote Spinoza, for one must make
extraordinary efforts in order to over
come the impressions of customs and in
order to efface the false ideas with
which the minds of men are filled before
they are able to judge about things for
themselves.
T o d a y the ancient realization of the
Supreme Being is to be transformed
back to its pristine purity, and the T ru e
F o u r H u n dred T hirteen

Light will shine clearly from behind the

dark veil of past ignorance.
T h e Jehovah of the Jews, the G od of
the Christians, the Allah of the M o
hammedans, are man-made Gods. E a ch
has been attributed more or less with
having m an s reasoning.
T h e Divine
Being each was intended to represent
w as hidden by the darkness created by
worshippers on earth. M a n gave G od
form. H e has worshipped him in body,
not in spirit.
Scholars learned in forgotten tongues
and symbols have proved to us that
every modern religion comes from one
original source the Hidden M ysteries
of the lost continents of Lemuria and
Atlantis.
W e are told that Atlantis had an
O rd er of mystics known as the So ns of
Solitude. T h e y studied the mysteries
of Nature, and attained Cosmic C o n
tact. T h e n the Atlan s colonized first
in E gy pt, later in northern India, where
secret colleges were organized to teach
others the Hidden M ysteries.
A noble prince, a great mystic in his
own land of Atlantis, giving up worldly
wealth and prestige, went to E g y p t to
open the first college at Sais. T o this
school came all the foremost G reek
philosophers.
T h e race of man is
eternal, the priests of Sais told Solon,
and our temples are the guardians o f
its h istory.
It is recorded that the A tlan Sons of
Solitude had foreseen the unescapable
doom of their motherland, and accord
ingly set up their secret colleges in other
countries so that the Hidden M ysteries,
and means of studying them, should not
be lost to the world.
In this w ay they and their successsors
were able to carry on their work in
foreign lands, even after Atlantis had
become engulfed. T h e y worked under
the name o f the Essenes. L ate r they
evolved into the Rosicrucians formed by
Amenhotep I V . It is said he was the
reincarnation of the Atlan prince who
first instituted the ancient mysteries into
A frica. Amenhotep reopened the tomb
and gave rebirth to those Hidden M y s
teries. T h is periodic rebirth has o c
curred down the ages to the present.
( C . - R . C .)
M aterialists notwithstanding, man has
ever sought contact with a Divine B e -

mg. T o d a y he is returning to the source

of all religions; he is realizing that he
himself is the pivot round which the
powers of the Supreme Being manifest.
In the beginning, Adam that is,
mankind in general lived in harmony
and peace. T h e first race was made
spiritually in the image of G od. A per
fect soul. ( G e n . 1:26, 2 7 )
T h ro u gh
ages of evolution man was divided into
two beings. His nobler part became
woman. ( G e n . 2:7, 2 0 - 2 2 )
In the dawn of civilization m ans be
ing w as pervaded with the Divine
Breath. Cosmic Consciousness abound
ed everywhere. It was the era of the
Garden of E den. O n e warning alone
was given man never to eat with his

imagination o f the fruit o f the T ree o f

L ife. F o r Imagination is the secret of all
good and all evil!
B y imagining the sensual form of life,
the hard outlines of Nature, man was
forced to see his imaginings manifest.
It became easier to see things objective
ly than in his real, spiritual faculties.
His objective life drew him to it. B y
his own choice of the Natural Form he
lost contact with the Divine Breath, for
Light must withdraw from Darkness.
M a n thus lost the Logos, the W o r d . H e
could no longer fill his physical being
with its power.
T hro u gh repeated
failure he gradually lost memory of the
Logos. But a few who had held fast to
the Light retained the W o r d .
T h e Divine Breath had no desire to
withdraw from the created ones, as he
had no desire to withdraw from Lucifer,
also one of His creations. Pride caused
man to break aw ay from his T r u e B e
ing, like Lucifer, and believe himself an
individual god.
T h e natural reasoning of man said:
Y o u will not die; but your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like G o d . His
eyes were opened his material physical
eyes. His spiritual sight, his minds eye,
became dark and cloudy. H e no longer
could see the Divine Breath in Nature.
H e saw only the outer perishable form.
T h u s death entered the world.
S o man became like G o d but on the
The
Rosicrucian lower, material plane, and subject to
change and dissolution. Spirit can be
D igest
used for two purposes; it can be put into
December its right channel and used for good, or
1936
it can be perverted and put into evil.

And now, lest he put forth his hand,

and take also of the T r e e of Life, and
eat, and live forever, G o d sent him forth
from the G arden of E d e n . T h is was
necessary. Had man been able to retain
the W o r d he would have been able to
live in a world of undying Evil. F o r
with the Divine Fire of Life he could
have made evil as eternal a state as
good.
Spirit. Soul and Nature. M a n had
these in complete harmony within him
self. Inwardly he was drawn to God,
his Source of Being, Outwardly he de
sired material form. H e perverted his
spiritual will and thus created his own
evil. T errestrial desire became conscious
in man. Since he desired this state it
possessed him. Until man once again
becomes worthy of the inrushing of the
Divine Breath he will be ruled by his
stars. T h is led one of the world's great
est poets and philosophers to say; T h e

fault lies not in our stars, but in our

selves, that we are underlings."
Thro u gh o ut the ages great souls have
essayed to enlighten man with teachings
of the Hidden M ysteries. M o se s did as
much as he was able for the Jews. He
gave them the ten commandments, taken
from the Egyptian B ook of the Dead,
which he had studied in the secret
schools of E gy pt.
H e mixed these
teachings with those of the ancient
Hebrews. T h e Hebrews were not Jew
ish, but a few last remaining members
of the most highly evolved race on
earth. T h u s do the Jews possess some
of the true teachings, which are un
known to the majority of that race. T h e
secret doctrines are known to few!
T h e ancient teachings in India had
long been distorted by the priests and
their followers when the G autam a Budd
ha revolted against the Brahmans for
corrupting the wonderful V e d ic religion.
H e went to the secret college in northern
India to regain the true lost teachings.
W h e n he returned and entered public
life he taught the T ru th once again.
Ignorant people did not know this.
T h e y accepted Buddha as a divine be
ing, and after his transition worshipped
him as a god. T o d a y the Divine T e a c h
ings revived by the G autam a Buddha
are a far w ay from the ones he taught.
O n ly a few adhere to the Real!
F ou r H un dred Fourteen

Several centuries later, when the

M a ste r Jesus appeared, he met with a
similar condition. He, too, went first to
E gypt, then to India, where he studied
the ancient Hidden M ysteries, H e was
the first great avatar to bring man back
nearer to the Lost S ecret than ever he
had been before,
Christ explained that G od was in
him, as he was in God. H e called him
self the So n of G od, and pointed out
that we were all sons of God, but he
met with the one obstacle of all religion,
idolatry. It was the only failure of his
Divine M ission on Earth . People start
ed to worship him an attitude he combatted in his own time, and constantly
denounced. O f himself he could do
nothing, he repeatedly stated. W it h o u t
the Divine Breath surging through his
physical being he was helpless. In vain
he told others they could be as he, if
they worshipped G od in Spirit and in
Tru th .
Several centuries after his transition
mankind lapsed back to the same old
errors. T h e y moulded the Hidden M y s
teries once again with man-made reason.
Dogm a took the place of T ru th . Form
took the place of Spirit.
Just as M o ses had allowed the Jews
to retain many of their old savage and
pagan customs, so did the early Church
F ath ers keep in the Christian rituals
many of the G reek and Roman pagan
rites. M a n was not easily deprived of
his ancient beliefs.
T h e Church had to com bat this
atavistic trait, and did the best they
knew how. T e a ch in g s had been re
ceived by word of mouth from those
gone before. M u c h the apostles wrote
was written very guardedly, or in mys
tical terms, difficult to interpret.
T o d a y the churches themselves real
ize, as well as the people, that a radical
change is imminent and necessary.
M a n has returned to his first desire
a spiritual revelation. H e might pervert
Spirit and T ru th , but never intermin
ably. A revelation is now at hand.

W h a t the world will receive is a new

ontology. A new doctrine of being. A
clear, simple explanation and under
standing, so each individual will not see
himself as an objective instrument in the
workings of a blind force, but realize
himself to be the subjective w orker of a
Fou r H un dred F ifteen

Divine Law operated within himself!

W h e n man has attained this supreme
knowledge the system of the world will
change overnight.
1924 was the D aw n of the N ew Age.
In this present y ear occurred the first
move toward Enlightenment. 1937 will
see the enlightenment of the N ew A g e
in full swing. If, by T ib e ta n standards,
we take but sixty years to a century,
1984 will be the time when civilization
reaches its greatest heights in religion,
art and science.
Science is phenomenal proof of spir
itual truths.
O n e o f the foremost of
modern scientists, Professor Robert A.
Millikan, clearly states the inseparable
affinity of Science and Religion.
"In three words, I conceive the es
sential task of religion to be to develop
the consciences, the ideals and the
aspirations of mankind. . . . Looking to
the influences of religion in the future,
I have found the essence of the gospel
of Jesus in the G old en Rule, which,
broadly interpreted, means the develop
ment in the individual of a sense of
social responsibility. Civilization itself
is dependent in the last analysis pri
marily upon just this thing. . , . F u rn ish
ing an example to the world of how the
religious life of a nation can evolve in
telligently,
wholesomely,
inspiringly,
reverently, completely divorced from all
unreason, all superstition, and all un
wholesome emotionalism." Science and

the N ew Civilization.
In Sham bhala T h e R esplendent, an
other enlightening book by F ra te r
Nicholas Roerich, perhaps the clearest
explanation of the N e w A g e is to be
found. H e tells how all true seekers in
A sia firmly expect the coming of a new
teacher. T h is teacher will be the leg
endary R igden -jyepo, who dwells in
his golden T o w e r in Shambhala.
In vision, a Lama had seen the
peoples of all nations looking toward
the west. T h e n a giant rider appeared
in the sky on a fiery steed. It was R ig den-jyepo, and he bade the masses turn
their faces to the east. (R e v . 19: 1 1 - 1 6 )
Roerich painted a picture of Rigdenjyepo, and gave it to the M ongolian
government. T h e Lama declared the
majestic rider seen by him in vision was
the same in features as the one painted
by the artist!

All of R o e ric h s paintings within the

past ten y ears have depicted events fore
telling the coming of the N e w A ge. In
symbolic vision he has shown w hat is
about to take place.
" I n M a rc h 1 9 1 4 ," he writes, " I e x
hibited a series of paintings in which
was previsioned the coming w ar; now I
have been happy to bring for the A m eri
cans the visions of A sia the A gni
Y o g a , the T e a ch in g of Flame, the same
conception outlined by the wisdom of
the old Y u ca ta n wise men, the Union of
Fire!
" A n d A sia when
Blessed Sham bhala,
about the T e a ch in g
that the holy spirit
the human hearts in
lution."

she speaks of the

about A gni Y o g a ,
of Flame, knows
of flame can unite
a resplendent evo

H ere we have the regaining o f the

Divine B reath. T h e Logos, the Lost
W o r d that will unite mankind as one
being in spiritual brotherhood! (Isaiah
3 3:17)
In N orthern India there has always
been the belief in a mystic region, hid
den from humanity, where the G reat
M aste rs dwell, guiding the world and
those worthy.
O n the summit of Sikkim, at the foot
o f the Himalayas, a Lam a said to
Roerich:
T h e r e is the entrance to the holy
land of Shambhala. B y passages through
wonderful ice-caves under the earth, a
few deserving ones, even in this life,
have reached the holy place, where all
wisdom, all glory, all splendor are
g athered.
A n o th er sect spoke o f some w onder
ful A saras, "the wise men who know
how to master the inner energies and to
unite them with Cosmic energies.
O nce, before sunrise, an English
major saw a strange figure standing on
the other side of a gorge. N oting some
thing below, the figure leaped down the
vertical slope and disappeared. T h e
The
major was informed by a servant that
Rosicrucian he had seen one of the strange snowmen
who guard the forbidden region.
Digest

December
1936

" T h e s e snowmen are very rarely

seen, the author relates. " T h e y are the

faithful guardians of the Himalaya

regions, where the secret Ashrams of
the M ah atm as are hidden. T h e s e wise
M ah atm as of the Himalayas direct our
lives through unceasing work and study.
T h e y master the highest powers. A s
ordinary people, they appear in various
places, here, beyond the ocean and
throughout Asia.
" T h e r e , behind that mountain, live
holy men. T h e y have departed from the
world in order to save humanity through
their wisdom. M a n y have tried to reach
their land, but few have ever reached it.
T h e y know that one must go beyond
the mountain. B ut as soon as they have
crossed the bridge, they lose their w ay.
T h e merely curious are never satis
fied. T o those who first seek wisdom,
and receive the Light, the route is not
difficult. T h e y cross the bridge and
find the way!
Soon the world will learn the alle
gorical meaning of Shambhala and even
see some o f its glories, for they will be
shown the mystic P ath leading to its
domain. W i t h the influx of the Divine
B reath space becomes non-existent.
(Isaiah 3 5 :8 )
" I do not diminish either west, nor
south, nor north, nor east, says R oer
ich, "becau se in practice these divisions
are non-existent. A nd the entire world
is divided only in our consciousness.
B u t when, with his consciousness, the
fire of S p ace penetrates, then is created
the U nion of Fire, and the F ire of E n
thusiasm is unconquerable. . . W i t h this
holy banner we can reach most beauti
ful lands and w e can awaken ancient
cultures for new achievements and for
new splendors."
T h i s N ew A g e is the time of the
V o ic e of the Seventh Angel, when the
mystery of G o d made by man is to end.
W h e n false teachings and dogma which
have darkened the Hidden M ysteries of
old are to crumble down before the
new T e a c h e r who is to come. T h e great
R igden-jyepo, the Ruler of Shambhala,
whom the world so eagerly expects
(H eb rew s 1 2 : 2 5 -2 7 )
T h e man-made mystery that has been
wrapped around the world will end. T h e
Spiritual Light of the Divine M ystery
F o u r H un dred Sixteen

will unfold itself. T h e N ew Science of

Being will be the return of the O riginal
Religion. T h e mystic path to the leg
endary Sham bhala will shine in every
faithful human soul!
W h at is must be of the finite and al
w ays dark; for it springs from the
shadow of man and can only be in
distinct. B ut W h a t Can B e is infinite,
because it em anates from Spirit and
Light and has no imperfect vision, but
springs complete and perfect from the
Divine Breath. W h e n man sees through
form he will have attained creative
powers for the N ew A ge, the a g e in
V

READ

THE

which we are now entering. A n age in

which all that is greatest and best in
man will shine forth in mighty words of
A rt and Scien ce and T r u e Religion.
T h e Spiritual F o rces of Heaven have
been stirred for m ans progress to this
end. M a n has felt this Divine stirring
and is making the w ay clear for the
coming of the mighty King of Strength.
D arkness is being vanquished, for it
creates only death and destruction, and
is evil to look at. Light is to shine in all
its glory. A n d in the Light how beauti
ful are all things!
V

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM
Man, when conscious o f an eternal truth, has ever sym bolized it so that the
human consciousness could forever have realization o f it. Nations, languages and
customs have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illum inate mankind
w ith their m ystic light.
F o r those who are seeking light, each month w e w ill
reproduce a symbol or symbols, w ith their ancient meaning.

T h is strange looking symbol

becomes easily identified when
o n es attention is called to the
fact that it is the basis of the
swastika cross symbol. T h e low
er section of the symbol com
posed of a circle containing
three hearts is the mystical in
terpretation of the trinity. R e
member that the snake in a n
cient symbolism was a sacred
representation of the world.
T h i s old symbol had a religious, a philosophi
cal, and an alchemical significance according to
how it w as used and w hat principles of activity
were associated with it.

F o u r H un dred S ev en teen

iruvLrj

SUMMARIES
^ OF SCIENCE |

Each hour o f the day finds the men o f science cloistered in laboratories without
ostentation, in vestigatin g natures m ysteries and extending the boundaries of
knowledge. T he w orld at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentim es
is deprived o f the pleasure o f review in g their w ork, since general periodicals
and publications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to
the popular imagination.
I t is w ith pleasure, therefore, that w e afford our readers a m onthly summary
o f some o f these scientific researches, and b riefly relate them to the Rosicrucian
philosophy and doctrines. T o the Science Journal, unless otherw ise specified,
we give fu ll credit fo r all m atter which appears in quotations.

Zero and the Calendar

H E calendar is a
su bject of keen in
terest to all of us.
It has become such
a casual o bject in
our lives, however,
t h a t we fail to
realize our depend
ency upon it and
the inevitable dis
ruption that would
be caused in our
r o u t i n e li vi ng
should it suddenly
be universally abolished. Such an oc
currence would be on a par with the
confusion that would result if all o f our
clocks stopped simultaneously. T o d a y
such a thing would cause a catastrophe;
in the days of our primitive forefathers
a like occurrence would scarcely be
noted, even though they also had calen
dars and clocks and understood their
The
usefulness just as we do. T h e r e was no
Rosicrucian
demand in the olden days for such ac
Digest
curate divisions of time, just as there
December was no need for the cliff-dwellers to
have the latest model radio hook-up to
1936

tune in on what? A s man progressed

from the sole desire for self-preservation
to that of including with it the enjoy
ment of the comforts and luxuries of
life, he multiplied his problems in bring
ing such aspirations to fruition and thus
voluntarily added to the complexities of
life. E v er since he has no longer been
entirely satisfied with the natural divi
sions of time such as the solar day, the
solar year, and the lunar month, and
placed his trust in the conventional
divisions of the hour, the week, and the
civil month and year, he has involved
himself in the perplexities of trying to
reconcile the solar and lunar periods to
suit his purposes all of which has been
one great experiment of trial and error
throughout past centuries. W h e n we
observe the confusion of chronological
systems used in the past, such as that
of the ancient M a y a n , the Chinese,
E gy ptian , Babylonian, Hindu, Greek,
Roman, and Jewish, we cannot help but
look with relief upon our primitive man
and his simple counting of the days in
"sleep s, "su n s. "n ig h ts, and "d aw n s,
and his w atchfulness for such constant
F ou c H undred E ighteen

ly recurring phenomena as the sun,

moon phases, rains and snows, sprout
ing of the leaves, ripening of fruits, and
the falling of leaves.
How ever envious we may be of such
simplicity, we must admit that such a
system would not help us to get up in
the morning on time, reach the office
promptly, catch a train or street-car, or
systematize the wheels of industry. W e
are living in an age when our method
of time division must contribute more
accurately to man's achievements. T o
day we must have our railroad trains,
busses, and airplanes leave appointed
stations and reach their destination
three thousand miles distant exactly on
schedule; we must keep our postal ser
vice with its veins of action running in
clock-work form; we must have our
communication systems so perfect that
in an incredibly short time we can co n
verse across the continent; we must have
events timed so accurately that when we
read in the paper of a motion picture,
lecture, train departure, or christening
occurring on a certain day o f a certain
month at such-and-such an hour, we
know that nothing other than a calamity
will avert it. W e schedule everything
by clock and calendar because such a
medium seems to suit our evolution of
consciousness today, yet who can deny
that perhaps a thousand years from now
our present system will be as obsolete
and inadequate for future purposes as
primitive man's methods seem to us.
Regardless of any future possibility
of our present calendar becoming an ob
ject of curiosity, it might be a good idea
for the present to focus our attention on
this subject long enough to realize just
how little we know about this manmade invention and the many complica
tions that have arisen from our efforts
to measure and label the illusive condi
tion called time. W e quote to you some
interesting facts by the eminent Dr.
R. M . W in g e r , Professor of M a th e m a
tics at the University of W a sh in g to n .
" O u r western (n ew style) calendar
has been in use in parts of Europe since
the time of its promulgation by Pope
G reg o ry ( 1 5 8 2 ) and in E n gland since
1752. In America there is scarcely a
household that is not supplied with at
least a dozen every year. Y e t ignorance
of the calendar is at once profound and
Four Hundred Nineteen

universal. T h e following generaliza

tions seem warranted by the w riters
experience:
A majority of the college population
(including members of the faculty) are
aw are that leap year comes at intervals
of four years. B u t a greatly reduced
number can state the rule governing e x
ceptions which excludes such years as
1900. A still smaller number know how
the date for E a ste r is fixed. F ew er yet
perhaps will answer with certainty when
asked whether the death of W a s h i n g
ton ( 1 7 9 9 ) occurred in the last year of
the century. A n d those who can com
pute the age of the emperor Augustus
( 6 3 B. C .- 1 4 A . D .) are just as scarce
as those who understand Einstein.
" T h e year just closed revived the
question of the proper method of reck
oning the time between two events, one
B. C . and one A. D . F o r the classical
teachers and scholars from Ireland to
Australia selected 1935 as the year in
which to celebrate the bimillennium of
the poet H orace, born 65 B. C. Lik e
wise the celebration o f the bimillennium
of V erg il, born 70 B. C., was initiated
by the Italian Government with ela
borate ceremonies and the issue of
memorial stamps in 1930. A nd it is re
ported that plans are under w ay in
R om e for the observance of the bimillen
nium of Augustus in 1937.
" W h a t is wrong with these dates? T h e
trouble is that a bimillennium represents
a lapse of 2 ,0 0 0 years, whereas the time
between each pair of dates in question
is 1999. T h e error arises in computing
time as if 65 B. C., for example, were
6 5 years and 1935 A. D . were + 1 9 3 5 .
Numerous familiar scales of measure
ment are indeed constructed on this
principle. T h u s north and south latitude
may be regarded as + and , respec
tively. So also may west and east longi
tude, as well as temperature above and
below zero. In each of these systems,
however, as in the algebraic number
scale, there is a number zero which
divides the positive numbers from the
negative, itself belonging to neither
class. T h u s the latitude of all points on
the equator is zero, as is the longitude
of all points on the prime meridian.

(But there is no year zero in the histor

ians calendar.) O r, as Kubitschek says,
T h e years 1 B. C. and 1 A . D . o f ordi

nary usage follow one another directly

without the intervention of zero. H ence
it is clear that a child born on December
8, 1 B. C. would be one y ear old (and
not two) on December 8, 1 A . D . B y
the same token if H orace was born on
D ecem ber 8, 65 B . C., he would have
been 65 years old on D ecem ber 8, 1
A. D . (had he lived) and his bimillen
nium would occur 1935 years later,
i. e., on D ecem ber 8, 1936.
G enerally we have the rule for com
puting the time between events B. C.
and A. D., as stated by Herschel: T h e
sum of the nominal years B . C . and
A. D. must be diminished by 1.' T h is
rule is emphasized by all the authorities
on chronology from Ideler ( 1 8 2 5 - 6 ) to
Kubitschek ( 1 9 2 8 ) , including the writer
of the article C hro n o lo g y in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition,
though I fail to find any mention of it
in the latest edition of the Britannica
either under chronology or calendar.
Indeed two scholars, one of them a his
torian, writing for this work, have erred
on this very point.
In the article on
Augustus occurs the statement: H e died
on A ugust 19, A. D. 14 . . . on the anni
versary of his entrance upon his first
consulship 57 years before (4 3 B. C . ) .
A g ain in the article on Ovid, it is stated
that the poet was born on M a rch 20,
4 3 B. C . and that H e died in his sixty
first y ear in A. D . 17. B oth of these
writers have plainly neglected to dimin
ish by 1 the sum of the nominal years
B. C . and A . D.
If those who wish to honor the
bimillennial birthdays of ancient poets
choose to ignore this rule and count in
clusively, as the Romans did, that is
their own affair. E v en they perhaps
might demur at a hotel bill computed on
this principle for to the Romans
three days a g o meant day before y es
terday.
T h i s inclusive counting, by
which every fourth y e a r w as inter
preted to mean once in three years, al
most wrecked C a e s a r s calendar reform.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
December
1936

It should also be noted that the num

ber denoting the year in the calendar
must be interpreted in the ordinal sense.
T h e present year, e. g., is the 1936th of
the Christian era, but 1936 years will
not have elapsed until the end of D e
cember 31. T h e beginning of the tw en

tieth century, therefore, about which

there was much confusion and argu
ment, beqan with the beqinninq of the
y ear 1901.
Since there is no available event to
mark the beginning of historical time,
it was a stroke of genius on the part of
Dionysius Exiguu s (D e n y s the Small)
to propose that the years be numbered
in both directions from some intermedi
ate event, such as the birth of Christ.
M o s t of the confusion mentioned above
would have been avoided had he in
serted a year zero in its proper sequence
in the calendar scale. B u t historically
there is the best of reasons for its omis
sion: T h e number zero was probably
unknown in Europe at the time the
Dionysian system was adopted, in the
sixth century. Z e ro seems to have been
originated by the Hindus and used as
a part of their positional system of nota
tion. In this connection its function is
to fill the empty places in such numbers
as 4 0 0 4 and it may have been a mere
symbol of vacuity. Just when the con
cept of zero as a genuine number
emerged is not clear, though rules for
its combination with itself and other
numbers in arithmetical operations are
given by Brahmagupta. Recent research
seems to confirm the view that a placevalue zero was known in India as early
as 5 0 0 A. D., or possibly earlier. But
the earliest occurrence in India of the
symbol 0, according to D . E . Smith, is
in an inscription of 8 76; while the oldest
E uropean manuscript which contains the
Hindu numerals (without the zero, how
ever) was written in Spain in 976.
Long ago Ideler remarked on a n
other difficulty of the historians calen
dar, namely that leap years are now
numbered 4, 8, 12, etc., A. D . but 1, 5,
9, etc. in the era B. C . A nd he observed
that if 1 B. C. were changed to 0, 2 B . C.
to 1, etc. not only would leap years
be named by multiples of 4 in all cases,
but the time between two events before
and after the beginning of the Christian
era would then be found correctly by
adding the number of positive and nega
tive years. T h is method of reckoning
time, now generally adopted by astro
nomers, was introduced by Jacob C a s
sini, according to Kubitschek, and first
used in the introduction to his T a b le s
Four Hundred Twenty

Astronom iques, 1740. Schram, com

menting on this system says:
" Z e r o is often falsely understood
and identified with nothing, whereas
it is nothing but the number coming be
fore unity in the natural number scale.
N o one will deny that 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
are five consecutive numbers which
might denote any five consecutive years:
then an interval ten years earlier would
be denoted by 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and an
interval ten years still earlier by 2,
1, 0, 1, 2. T h is however the historians
will not recognize but call these years
3 B. C.. 2 B. C., 1 B. C., 1 A . D., 2
A . D., so that zero has been thrust out
of its natural number sequence. T h u s we
have two systems of numbering years
before the birth of Christ, the astro
nomical and the historical which differ
from one another by one unit.
In the astronomers calendar, the
birth of Augustus would be placed in
the year 62, consequently his bimillen
nium, computed as in elementary alge
bra, would fall in 1938. T h e r e is one
important difference, however, between
the astronomers calendar and the alge
braic scale: W h e n plotting numbers in
algebra, each number corresponds to a
single point, 0 marking the point of
origin. In the calendar, on the other
hand, each integral number designates
an entire year. ( S e e accompanying dia
gram.)
A stronomical
Scale

Algebraic
S cale 3 -2 1

1 2

" I n the algebraic scale we have n a

turally made the number 0 correspond
to the beginning of the Christian era.
O n the algebraic scale the number a t
tached to any point, whether integral or
not: indicates the ex act time interval
measured from the beginning of the
Christian era. T h u s April 1 of the year
3 ( A . D .) corresponds on the algebraic
scale approximately to 2.25, which is the
time elapsed from the beginning of the
Christian era. Again April 1 of the y ear
2 would be represented on the alge
braic scale approximately by 2.75,
which gives the number of years before
the era.
Four Hundred Twenty-one

" T h e astronomers calendar would

more nearly conform to our experience
in measuring if it had placed the begin
ning of the Christian era at the begin
ning of the year 0 instead of at the end.
T h is could be accomplished by sliding
the whole astronomical scale of the
above diagram one unit to the right,
making 0 the first y ear of the Christian
era. T h e dates B. C. would then be the
sam e as in the present historian's cal
endar, while each date A. D . would be
increased by 1. T h e number denoting
the y ear A . D. would then indicate the
integral number of years elapsed from
the beginning of the era. N o w April 1,
A. D . 2 (o r the y ear + 2 ) would cor
respond on the algebraic scale to 2.25,
and the time elapsed is 2 + .25 (the
time from January 1 to April 1 ) ; and
April 1, B . C. 2 ( i . e . , the year 2)
would correspond on the algrebraic
scale to 1.75, which is 2 + .25 (the
time from January 1 to April 1 ). T h u s
in each case the fractional year added is
positive due to the fact that time
moves forward while the integral year,
i. e., its ordinal number in the calendar,
may be either positive or negative. T h is
is entirely analogous to the notation
used in writing logarithms, where com
monly the mantissa (th e decimal part)
is taken as positive, whereas the ch ar
acteristic (th e integral part) may be
either positive or negative.
" I t is unfortunate that a zero year
has not been introduced in the calendar
of the historian and the chronologist.
A n d since zero in the calendar stands
for a whole year and not a single in
stant of time as it would in the alge
braic scale, perhaps the astronom ers
choice is the most satisfactory under all
the circumstances. T h a t would require
only the change of the dates B . C., rela
tively few of which are known with cer
tainty. T h e years of the Christian era
would be numbered as at present, start
ing with 1, as we number the days of the
month, automobile licenses, the pages of
a book. T h e chronologists could institute
such a reform by simple agreement
among themselves. If they are unwilling
to insert a zero y ear in the calendar,
then let the writers of school histories
explain its absence and the em barrass
ment which its omission entails. In the

matter of reckoning time, It wad frae

mony a blunder free us.'
M a n y of the difficulties of a satis
factory calendar are inherent. F o r e
most of these perhaps is the fact that the
three most natural units of time, namely,
the periods of the rotation of the earth
on its axis, the revolution of the moon
about the earth and the earth about the
sun are incommensurable.
T h a t is,
neither the year nor the (lunar) month
contains an integral number of days,
nor is the fractional residue of a day a
rational number such as 1/4 or 1/5.
Some of the anomalies of our present
calendar are accidental or at least avoid
able, such, for example, as the incidence
of N ew Y e a r on different days o f the
week and of E a ste r on different days
of the year in two different months. T h e
correction of these irregularities was the
hope of a vigorous agitation for calen
dar reform a few years ago, which how
ever has somewhat subsided of late.
T h e re remain serious problems of
chronology which have been bequeathed
to us from the past. A major source of
confusion has been the use of different
calendars by different countries. A n
other is the use of different calendars by
the same country at different periods of
its history or even the same period. F o r
example, the civil y ear and the ecclesi
astical year have not always agreed,
while the astronomical year agrees with
neither.
Indeed, there are several
astronomical years all in good standing.
N o t only has the length of the year
varied, but the beginning of the year
has been fixed at numerous dates.

Among the dates selected to mark the

beginning of the year, four are related
to the life of Christ: M a rch 25 (style
of the annunciation), December 25
(style of the nativity), January 1 (style
of the circumcision) and E aste r (style
of F r a n c e ) . O thers were doubtless de
termined by the seasons. Both the
vernal and autumnal equinoxes have
been used. Also may be mentioned
September 1 and 24 ( G r e e k ) , M a rch 1
(R o m an religious and G erm an) and
August 11 ( D a n i s h ) . Likewise t h e b e ginning of the day has been reckoned
variously from sunrise, noon, sunset and
midnight. A gain every instant of day
and night on a fixed meridian is (solar)
noon on some other. A nd in crossing
the international date line one changes
time by an entire day.
W i t h all this multiplicity of calen
dars, whose months and years are of
varying length with irregular and some
times capricious intercalations of days
and months, it requires no imagination
to perceive that the problem of an a c
curate historical chronology is one of
the greatest complexity.
T o quote
Herschel,
T h e history of the calendar with
reference to C hrono log y
may be
compared to that of a clock, going regu
larly when left to itself but sometimes
forgotten to be wound up; and when
wound, sometimes set forward, some
times backward, either to serve particu
lar purposes and private interests, or to
rectify blunders in setting.
A n d he might have added that the
clock records no zero time!"

SEND ROSICRUCIAN CHRISTMAS CARDS THIS YEAR

IM P O R T A N T B U L L E T IN

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
December

W e are happy to announce that our So vereig n G rand M aster D r. L e Brun is still with
us on this plane of existence, and has been well enough to hold a number of conferences
w ith officers of the organization, and to particip ate in some official discussions and attend
to some personal mail. H e is still extrem ely w eak, but hopeful as all of us, and again
we thank our m embers and friends for their health-giving vibrations and thoughts of love
directed to him. H e is still confined in an institution for rest and recuperation, and w ants
to be rem em bered with kind greetings to all of our m embers and friends.

1936
Four Hundred Twenty-two

The Village of the Devil

A STRANGE, FASCINATING STORY OF MYSTICAL
PRINCIPLES
(Reprinted from the private records of Cromaat 1918)
By H. S
L
, F. R. C.
pen cer

e w is

I n t r o d u c t io n
T L A S T
this
strange story will
be given to the
thousands of men
and women who
will understand its
mystical
signifi
cance and historica1
relationship
with certain very
important t r a d i tions and ch arac
ters connected with
th e
Rosicrucian
Order. T h e story was originally com
piled and given to a few members in
1916 for the purpose of acquainting
them with the historical background
surrounding a character in our R osic
rucian activities known as T h e P a d re .
T h is
character became well-known
through his psychic manifestations and
messages to our members during 1916,
1917, and 1918. Undoubtedly, thou
sands of other members have contacted
this character in various w ays in recent
years,* and many more may co ntact
him in the future. T h is story, there
fore, will serve to make his personal
history more familiar to those who may
contact him, or who have contacted
him, and at the same time, reveal inter
esting principles of intense fascination
to every student of mysticism.

T h o s e members of the Rosicrucian

O rd er who have followed the stories of
my first visit to Europe in seeking the
contact with the Rosicrucian O rg a n iz a
tio n ** and w ho enjoyed the brief out
lines of the various experiences in my
different journeys in Europe, have often
asked whether the Imperator had any
further experiences of a mystical nature
in any of his journeys through F ran ce.
I have alw ays felt reluctant to give this
present story to the entire membership
of our O rganization, or even to the
general public until sufficient members
in the O rganization had had an oppor
tunity to verify the facts contained
therein, and thousands of others had
become familiar with one of the out
standing characters of the story.
I called the narrative here a story
but in truth it is a mixture of fact, fic
tion and tradition. And, there are many
who are ready to claim that even the
fiction and traditions in the story are
absolute facts.
It may be of interest to know how I
came in contact with the facts contained
in this story. During my travels in
Southern F ra n c e I made it my business
to stop at every small city or location
where historical records indicated there
had been a mystical temple, Rosicrucian
shrine, or relics of interest to a member
of our O rganization. M o s t o f my vis

"P ad re" is introduced in the Monographs of

the higher Degrees.

**S e e the book, "Rosicrucian Questions and

Answers.

F o u r H un dred T w en ty -th ree

its to such places were directed by

M a ste rs and members of the O rg a n i
zation w ho knew where the strangest
sights and most weird experiences could
be found. Finally, I reached the inter
esting little city of M ontpellier for the
second time after passing through
Nimes and other localities described in
this story. In M ontpellier, I met some
o f the oldest (and retired) officers of
our O rder. And, in a very old build
ing where once the mystical sessions
were held, surrounded b y many relics,
I sat and listened to part of the story
told herein. Naturally, I was not satis
fied with just hearing an outline of such
a story and I asked the privilege of
visiting the V illage o f the D evil, and
there, in person, experience the strange
influences which m ay never have been
the good fortune of other Americans
and probably a very few of those E u r o
pean tourists who think that they have

THE

V IL L A G E

covered F ra n ce and its historical places

in a thorough manner.
In addition to the personal experi
ences, I spent many days searching
through Rosicrucian and other archives
for historical and recorded evidence of
the facts contained in the story. In
order to make this story as interesting
as possible, I have purposely arranged
it in the form of a personally conducted
tour to the V illag e, and not in the form
in which I experienced the facts. I
have given very precise details regard
ing the location of the V illa g e and the
manner in reaching it so that those who
wish to may go to this unusual site and
verify the facts for themselves. I trust
every reader, especially those who are
mystically intuitive, will recognize the
one character in the story who has
been of much interest to our members
in the past and present.
T h e Author.

OF

THE

D E V IL

C hapter O ne
T
IS generally
conceded that E u r
ope
possesses
m a n y interesting
monuments of his
t o r y . Americans,
especially, m a k e
E u rop e their ulti
mate goal when
planning a genuine
s i g h t- s e e in g trip,
a n d f e w indeed
are there of wealth
or even moderate
means who do not harbor an innate love
for the beauties of F ran ce , England,
Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and G ermany.
It cannot be said that this love for
Europe is inspired by any idea that only
in E urope can we find the ear-marks,
so to speak, o f the birth of the human
race. W h i l e admitting that abroad we
see the monumental evidences of the
The
Rosicrucian beginning of civilization, we are forced
to admit, or at least give credence to the
Digest
theory, that the earliest material evi
December dences of human existence upon this
1936
earth are to be found in the caves or

cliff-dwellings of the early moundbuilders whose peculiar constructive

work is still to be found along the O h io
River in the U nited State s as well as in
A sia, and while we accept the scient
ists' claims that these prehistoric edi
fices antedate all known records of men,
we may or may not accept the claims
that an y of them was the original G a r
den of E d e n .
T h e charm of Europe, however, does
not exist altogether in its magnificent
ruins and inspiring historical remains;
but in the more subtle magnetism of its
poetic romance and the mysticism of its
traditions.
In this respect F ra n c e is the most
popular, and, rightly, the most inter
esting. Its history from the days of
the Gauls through the 8th, 9th, 10th
and up to the 15th century is one con
tinuous tale of mystery, romance, valor,
sacrifice and achievement. Its liter
ature of these days the songs of the
troubadours in their romance tongue,
and the monkish Latin historical docu
ments alike revel in the delightful in
F o u r H un dred T w en ty-fou r

cidents so dear to the lover of F rench

history and Fren ch mysticism.
T h e Courts of Love, the F lo w er
F etes, the various royal ceremonies in
the chateaux of the Counts, Dukes,
Lords, and Kings, the imposing cru
sades, the romantic struggles for the
hands of the beautiful heiresses, and
the regal wars against religion, the sup
pression of vice and the loss of property
and title all these vie in their impres
siveness and emotional settings. T h e s e
were the days of pleasure, love, and
war, and F ra n ce more than any other
country, was the stage upon which the
truly great scenes of life have been so
wonderfully and fatally portrayed.
Should one wonder, then, th at the
F renchm an is proud of his country, of
its history and its thousands of historical
monuments, of which many lie in for
lorn ruin and equally as many have
been restored or rebuilt b y a commission
of scientists, architects, and historians,
which labor diligently to preserve for
future generations of history-loving
tourists, the most ancient and historical
of the many chateaus, citadels, castles,
forts, walls, churches, and mystic
shrines?
It is apparent to even the most casual
tourist of Southern F ra n c e that the pro
vincial natives consider these monu
ments of history as personal assets.
T h e y bring to their villas a continuous
train o f tourists from all parts of the
world, who b y their extended visits pat
ronize their hotels, restaurants, stores,
road-houses, garages, and local means
of transportation. T h e native finds in
the tourist an incentive to keep thor
oughly posted on the facts relating to
existing ruins, the legends of those now
gone, and the history o f those being
preserved. H e is always alive to the
opportunity to act as a guide at a
small fee and takes special delight in
being able to point out many new and
unsuspected wonders.
Is it not strange, then, that in So u th
ern F rance, in the midst o f sections
w here tourists travel the most, where
artists w ander yearly preparing the
many books we now have on the C h a t
eaux of F r a n c e and the M onuments
of F r a n c e , and where the natives are
ever seeking new points of alluring in
terest to the tourist, there should have
F o u r H un dred T iven ty-flve

existed, unknown to the outer world

until 1883, one o f the most marvelous,
weird, and mysterious cities in the
whole world? And, stranger still is the
fact that until the present time, in the
story the author now presents, this city
of mystery has been unchronicled, its
true history untold, and its beauty un
pictured, in a complete and connected
story.
Befo re attempting to take my reader
upon a personally conducted tour of
this wonder of wonders, it is well that
I describe some of the historic features
of the surrounding cities in order that
one m ay the more naturally comprehend
the significance of the history and
legend of the Ville Du D iable.
And
this can be accomplished more inter
estingly by describing the ordinary
route to this city from that of Paris.
Paris is the hub from which the
various railroad lines radiate and we
can make the trip to Southern F ra n c e
by night by leaving at about 7 :3 0 P . M .
and go by w ay of D ijo n and Lyon to
Avignon, where we must change cars.
W e arrive here early in the morning,
and after a brea kfa st we find that there
are several hours in which we can co n
veniently view the monuments of this
city.
Avignon is a city of 4 2 ,0 0 0 in habi
tants, the capitol of the D epartm ent of
V auclu se. It is situated on the left
bank of the R hone and in the b ack
ground we see the ancient P alace o f the
Popes, where from 1305 to 137 7 seven
successive Popes reigned prior to the
establishment of the V a tic a n at Rome.
W e examine the C ity W a l l s built in the
14th century by the Popes, then visit
the Cathedral built in the 11th century
(plainly showing where it has been re
built and remodeled) and then, desiring
to reach our destination as quickly as
possible, we take an omnibus and cross
the river to V illen eu ve-les-A vign on to
visit the F o rt St. Andre. T h is beauti
ful monument of architecture is consi
dered one o f the rarest o f the kind
built in the middle ages. Its imposing
front, its mighty and w ar-like appear
ance, showing plainly m an y evidences
of struggle and strife, do not lead one to
think that within its walls and towers
are a peaceful convent and several
houses containing very poor families.

W e return to the G a re and depart

b y train for Nimes, the next important
city on our route.
It is necessary to spend one whole
day in Nimes in order to become a c
quainted with the many antiquities of
special interest to the mystic.
W e find this city to be a typical,
prosperous provincial town of about
7 0 ,0 0 0 inhabitants, beautifully located
at the Southern extremity of hills which
join the Cevennes (th e R o c k y M o u n
tains of F r a n c e .)
B efo re us is spread
a beautiful boulevard whose trees am
ply shade us as we retreat from the
hot sun. B efo re visiting the many
sights we inquire regarding the history
o f the city and learn that in 121 B. C.
this city was called N em ausus by the
Romans and that it was the capital of
the V o lc a e Arecomici. It became one
of the principal colonies of the Gauls
who took particular delight in embel
lishing it and in erecting many of the
beautiful buildings and monuments we
are about to see. During the 10th and
11th centuries this city w as the property
of and ruled by the Counts of T o u l
ouse, from Guillaume in 1800 A . D. to
the long line of Raym unds ending in
122 2.*
Until 1704 during the wars of
religion, it suffered much because threefourths of its population had embraced
Protestantism and it is today an impor
tant town in this respect.
It was also the seat of much strife
during the 12th century when the R a y
munds V I and V I I w ere being pro
secuted and excommunicated for per
mitting heretics and mystics in their
domains, and everywhere we find evi
dences of war, rebellion, and defeat.
Passing up the main boulevard ( F e u cheres) from the G are, we see before
us, facing the Esplanade, the A ren a, or
Amphitheatre. It w a s built during the
1st or 2nd centuries and is typical of
the Roman architecture. It is in the
form of an ellipse, 146 y ards long, 111
wide and 70 feet high. Its exterior is in
better condition than those of Rome
because of the Commission's constant
The
restoration and because here, on many
Rosicrucian Sundays throughout the year, as many

Digest
December
__ ,

1936

The Genealogy and history of these Raymunds

is Pa fdy set forth in the book "Rosicrucian
Questions and Answers with History of the
Order.

as 2 4 ,0 0 0 spectators see typical Spanish

Bull-fights; the city being under S o cial
ist government the money thus derived
from a pleasure which the provincial
natives themselves abhor is used for the
good of the community.
W e turn and follow the beautiful
boulevard Victor H ugo, where we find
an open square, and facing
T he
T heatre we see the ancient and strange
M aison C arree. It is one of the finest
and best preserved Roman temples in
existence. 76 feet long, 40 feet wide
and 4 0 high, with 30 unusually beau
tiful Corinthian columns. T h e date of
its building is unknown, it being cred
ited to the period of Augustus and the
Antoinines; and foundations discovered
recently show that it was probably
located in the center of other important
buildings. It is this building, whose
perpendicular and horizontal lines are
strangely curved, that was imitated
when the N o tre D am e was built in
Paris. T h e M aiso n C arree now con
tains ancient F ren ch coins and some
sculpture.
W e continue a few blocks further
and there we enter the Jardin D e La
Fontaine, with its strange canals which
feed water to this city in summer when
water is very scarce and have their
origin in the Roman baths beyond.
T h is garden and its canals were orig
inally of Rom an construction but were
greatly beautified and enlarged by many
miles by King Louis in the 18th cen
tury.
A t the side o f the garden is the
ancient T em ple of Diana, a beautiful
sight and still showing in its ruins the
rooms of Diana and the rare carvings.
C lose by are the old Roman baths for
men and women; the former being a
stagnant pool now, enclosed b y high
marble walls; and we are warned not
to approach the steps leading to the
w ater too closely for no one has ever
learned the depth of the pool, and all
w ho have fallen into it never returned."
says the pleasing guide. T h e womens
baths, so often referred to in romances
and as often pictured in paintings and
etchings, are really magnificent and are
below the street level under a private
walk and enclosed by rows of columns.
Further on, outside of the city, we see
the mysterious Roman ruins of some
F o u r H u n dred T w en ty-six

unknown building, never as yet given

a name except that of L es T ro is
Piliers.
W e now hasten to Montpellier,
another ancient city and one which has
considerable connection with the his
tory of the V illa g e of the Devil.
B ut before entering this city we must
begin the strange and romantic story
which links these two cities together
and which, for the first time, reveals
the legendary secret of our strange,
mysterious goal.
T h e whole Southern part of F ra n ce
was at one time part of the Roman E m
pire, and C aesar in his Commentaries
describes these regions as Gaul. Its
history from then until its possession
by the Franks, the Normans, and the
English, is exceedingly interesting, but
has no place here except to introduce
into this story one of the characters
heretofore unknown as associated in
any w ay with the V illag e of the Devil.
During the first few centuries after
Christ, F ran ce was governed mostly by
the various Counts and Lords of its
provinces. A king at that time was
nominal as far as his influence over
these southern S enechau sees w as con
cerned.
Toulouse and its county of the same
name, known to the Romans as T o lo sa,
was always the center of external strife
and w arfare; for its possession meant
not only powerful rulership of vast
lands, and wealthy towns and products,
but such rulership gave influence to
conquer and rule over other adjoining
countries and towns. T h u s, the zeal
to become Count or Lord of Toulouse
was shown by every European nation,
and after Pepin the Sho rt ceased to
exercise such rulership, Charlemagne,
the great ruler of F ra n c e and G ermany,
undertook to select the second Count.
T h is, of course, was a new method to
those who had believed that w arfare
and possession of the land gave govern
ing authority.
T h e man chosen by Charlem agne
w as Guillaume. In these days there
were no family or surnames and this
Guillaume, like many others, was given
a second name because of some pecu
liarity and thus we find him called Guil
laume Cortnez (from Au C ort N e z ).
F o u r H un dred T w en ty -sev en

H e was a son of C ount Theodoric,

and as C ount of Toulouse this G uil
laume had mediate or immediate rule
over the County of Toulouse with its
many villas, and also over the impor
tant and ancient cities of Beziers,
Nimes, Agde, M aguelon, Lodeve and
Uzes. T h e history of this man, in the
many peculiar Fren ch manuscripts, is
remarkable for its numerous legends,
chronicles, and poems of praise, notably;
L e C harroy D e N ism es and L e M oinage
D e Guillaume. H e was a sincerely re
ligious man and a lover of peace and
justice.
In a rare account of his life we find
the following incident of interest to this
story:
H e sought a place for a monastery
where those, like himself, sincere in their
religious beliefs, and desiring quiet and
peace, might worship undisturbed by
the wars constantly being w aged about
them. H e found, in the mountains of
Lodeve (in the very district where we
shall visit the V illa g e of the Devil) one
gorge closed and profound, favorable
by lsolm ent, for meditation and prayer.
In effect, in the middle of the savage
sight, surrounded by enormous masses
of granite was this beautiful plateau,
whereon Guillaume decided to build one
of the most famous monasteries of
E u r o p e .
T h e monastery w as built elaborately
and magnificently of that rare white
granite which is so plentiful in this
section of F ra n ce : and it rose m ajestic
ally amid the other rocks of dark and
tinted
colors. Guillaumes intention
was to call this monastery the Abbey
de Gellon, a name which is often used
for it in ancient manuscripts; but after
Guillaumes death, when it was conse
crated by the Pope, it w as named the
abbey of Saint-G uillem -D u-D esert , in
honor of its founder and in souvenir of
its deserted location.
Guillaume died in 8 1 2 or 813. In
two ancient charts, dated in the 34th
year of the reign of C harlem agne (8 0 4
A. D . ) , there appears the fact that he
left, besides several sons, two daughters,
A lban c and Berthe. It is with these
two sisters that w e must begin the foun
dation of the known history of the
V illa g e of the Devil.

stantly courted by Dukes, Lords, Counts,

If we are to believe the troubadours
V iscoun ts, and Princes, and at all times
and the monks of these days, who were
so colorful to chronicle the smallest de the center of every conceivable form of
tail, we must believe that these two sis entertainment.
ters were extremely beautiful. B eau ty in
In addition to their charms, they were
those days was not of the standard of wealthy.
Considerable property had
today. T h e s e girls were F ren ch, not of been given to them by their father, and
the Parisian, but of the Roman type. It since it covered a large and prosperous
is features such as they possessed, the territory, there were always among their
beautifully modeled chins, lips, nose and admirers those w ho sought to obtain
forehead, that we see in the rare paints possession of it through marriage.
of the old masters; it was the highest
A n d thus the tw o sisters eventually
type of that Latin charm now almost became engaged to two brothers, M s.
extinct.
Jean and Pierre D e Almond. Little is
A nd they were young at the time this known of these two, except that they
story begins. In these days knighthood were gallant, romantic in their songs,
was in flower. T h e ambition of every and ardent in their seemingly sincere
young man was to become a Lord. T h e
love for the two girls. T h e y w ere not of
strong, the brave and fearless became noble birth, but cunning as a fox, and
the Counts, the D ukes and Princes. diligent in their aspiring fortitude." A l
P rofessions there were none, and the w ays together, always intoxicated with
trades with their manual work w ere left plans for overthrowing kingdoms with
to the masses. W a r f a r e , gallantry and their power, and always holding them
love were the occupations of the young
selves aloft from the other gallants of
men, and, consequently, the beautiful
the day, it is little wonder that they
and w ealthy D am es were fervently and were considered as suspicious ch ar
steadily courted by these aspiring acters.
Princes.
T h e D evils pair w as a common
It w as in these days that the art of name for them; and F reres du D iable"
serenading became so popular. T o be seemed to be the most apt description
a successful troubadour was to be the of John and P eter de Almond.
admiration of all the noble and gentle
T h e ir home was situated in the moun
ladies, and the envy of every man in
tains in the vicinity of Millau; and these
the kingdom. Here we find the origin
black mountains seemed to cloak the
of the beautiful romance language and
actual location of their claimed chateau.
the weird and captivating poems of love.
A t least no positive knowledge is evi
T h e troubadour, young or old, with
denced as to its exact situation, but from
some musical instrument strung over his circumstances now to be related, it is
shoulder and clad in the knee breeches
apparent that their chateau or castle
and cloaks so popular then, w as alw ays
must have been in the immediate vicinity
welcome at the royal ceremonies, and
of T h e V illa g e o f the Devil.
the Q u e en 's chamber or court w as al
C ertain it is, that all this land was
w ays open to him. H e would sit for
owned
by these two Virgins, Albane
hours, and surrounded b y these noble
girls and women, would compose and and Berthe, a name given to them be
cause of their undoubted purity even
sing words of love and admiration,
while they would shower upon him though in constant company with such
suspicious characters as these two bro
flowers of many colors. Here, too, was
thers. A n d still more certain is the fact
the origin of the famous F lo w er F ete s,
that these two brothers desired to marry
and the Courts of Love.
A lbane and Berthe only that they might
It was in this manner that Albane
obtain possession of this land.
and B erth e were courted. Beautiful,
Rumors began to spread that Jean
The
young and noble, they were famed for
and Pierre held nightly conferences with
R osicru cian
virtue. T h e ir home was a strange
old stone castle built upon the pinnacle his Satan ic M a je s ty ; for, did not many
&es
of a large rock situated in the mountains see, in the mountains near L a R oque
D ecem ber
leading to the V illa g e of the Devil. H ere Ste. M arguerite, midnight fires of bril
liant red? And, w ere not these confer1936
they led a most enjoyable life, con
Four Hundred T w en ty-eight

ences and signals followed by dire re

sults in w ar and pestilence?
N o wonder that these mountains be
came forsaken in the localities where
small towns were situated! T h e provin
cial F rench were a mystic people and
were awaiting the predicted second
coming of Christ, or the end of the
world; and the year 1000 (w hen this
was to take place) was rapidly ap
proaching, bringing with it every con
ceivable lorm of superstition. T h o u
sands were forsaking their homes, their
friends, and their wealth to journey to
Jerusalem, that the coming of the Lord
might find them within Holy precincts;
and the thieving and cunning took ad
vantage of these fears of the ignorant
to secure power and wealth.
Just w hy these two brothers and two
sisters never married is a matter of co n
jecture. B ut the legends relate that it
became fairly well-established that John
and P eter were in some mysterious w ay
associated with all that was evil, unfor
tunate and repulsive and that, literally,
if not in fact, they were F reres Du

D iable. W h e n this idea had implanted

itself into the minds and hearts of A lbane and Berthe, and when they dis
covered that possession of their prop
erty was the brothers only motive, it
was only natural that they should look
with scorn upon their proposals and re
ject them with rebuke and disdain.
B ut this added only wrath to their
many evil qualities and soon these two
brothers were the subject of much dis
cussion throughout the kingdoms of
Southern F ra n ce ; and much attention
at the time was directed to the C ano ns
of the T a r n where, in the B lack moun
tains. was supposed to dwell these two
in some mysterious village.
A lbane and Berthe, disappointed not
only in their love, but in their faith in
mankind in general, agreed henceforth
to live a life of celibacy and religious
activity, and a few months later retired
to a convent built by order of their
father some time previous to his death,
and located a short distance from the
M o n astery bearing his name.

(T o be continued)

N O T IC E TO B U FFA LO M EMBERS
W e wish to call to the attention of the National Lodge members residing in the vicinity
of Buffalo, New York, that there is now a local Rosicrucian A M O R C Chapter in that
city. National members are cordially extended an invitation to visit and avail themselves
of the benefit of this Chapter. It meets each W ednesday evening at 7:30 at Hotel
Lafayette, Parlor C.

i
SAVE Y O U R CHILD A FO R T Y -Y EA R H AN D ICAP

"I wish I had known these mystical truths of life in my youth. If I had, my life
would have been much different." T his lament is made today by thousands of men and
women, who, unfortunately, were left in ignorance of their unused powers and faculties,
and who discovered them later in life either by accident or after wasted years of search.
These things Y O U K N O W and your children can have the advantage of your
experiences. T hey can be taught in their early years how to discern the powers of self,
how to develop the inner character, and how to draw upon Cosmic forces to meet the
days problems.
Are you going to impose a handicap of forty years upon them? Must they wait
until middle age to learn that there is a strange force, a subtle something within which
they can rely upon? W ill they afterwards say, " If my parents had only told me."?
The Junior Order of Torch Bearers is an organization which serves these needs of
children. A chapter can be organized in any city or town, where in simple, beautiful
and inspiring language, children are acquainted with the marvelous laws of self and with
the Cosmic truths in a way which deeply impresses them, and shapes the course of their
lives. It is N O T a religious or commercial movement. Every child within a certain age
limit is eligible, whether of Rosicrucian parents or not. For full, interesting free particulars, address a letter to Junior Order of Torch Bearers, Secretary-General, Rosicrucian
Park, San Jose, California.

F ou r H undred T w en ty-n in e

PAG ES
from the

ANSELM

Each month we w ill present excerpts from the w ritin gs o f famous thinkers and teachers
o f the past. These w ill give our readers an opportunity o f know ing their lives through
the presentation of those w ritin gs which ty p ify their thoughts. Occasionally such w ritings
w ill be presented through the translation or interpretation of other eminent authors of
the past. T his month w e present Anselm, one o f the greatest thinkers that Catholicism
has produced.
Saint Anselm, Archbishop o f Canterbury, was b o m in Ao3ta in 1033. From childhood he
was fired w ith the love o f learning, but upon reaching the age o f fifteenafte r having been
refused admittance to a monastery he was diverted by the pleasures o f youth and his
inherent ardour fo r learning was tem porarily lost. L ik e Abelard, he led a wandering life
through France, as was the custom o f the scholars o f those days. In 1060 he entered the
monastery o f Bee, in Norm andy, where he studied under the illustrious Lanfranc. In three
years he became prior, and in 1078, abbot o f this monastery, which under his guidance
became famous as a center o f learning. M eanwhile Lanfranc had become Archbishop o f
Canterbury, and when he died in 1089, W illiam Rufus seized the revenues o f the see, made
no new appointment, and fo r four years kept the Church o f England in a state of
anarchy. Such were the conditions that existed when the K in g , in a moment o f repentance
when he thought he was dying, refused to consider Anselm 's protests and appointed the
well-loved Abbot o f Bee to this high position in 1093. Thus began Anselm s tumultuous
career as Archbishop o f Canterbury, w ith its many em broilm ents w ith W illia m Rufus and
his successor, H enry I. H ow ever, his indom itable spirit even when subjected to banish
ment proved his resoluteness o f character, and as a stalw art champion o f the Church, he
became one o f the chief figures in religious history. A s a w rite r and thinker he may
claim yet high er rank, fo r it is not often that a Catholic saint wins the admiration of
German philosophers and English historians. In 1720, Clement X I placed him in the list
o f Church authorities, his works being recognized as a pattern fo r all theologians He
died A p ril 21, 1109. and the day o f his death is observed in the Roman Catholic church.
Anselm 's chief achievement in philosophy was the ontological argument fo r the existence
o f God put forth in his P roslogiu m , wherein he strove to demonstrate the existence of
God from the conception o f a perfect thing. Below we giv e you 30me interesting excerpts
from this famous work.

PROSLOGIUM, OR A DISCOURSE ON THE BEING OF GOD

H I S good thou art,
thou, God the
F ath er; this is thy
W o r d , that is, thy
Son. F o r nothing,
other than what
thou art, or g reat
er or l e s s than
thou, can be in the
W o r d by which
thou dost express
The
thyself; f o r t h y
R osicru cian
W o r d is true as
D igest
thou art truthful.
D ecem ber
A n d hence it is truth itself, ju st as thou
art; no other truth than thou; and thou
1936

art of so simple a nature, that of thee

nothing can be born other than which
thou art. T h i s very good is the one love
common to thee and to thy Son; that is,
the H o ly Spirit proceeding from both.
F o r this love is not unequal to T h e e or
to thy So n ; seeing that thou dost love
thyself and him, and he, thee, and
himself, to the whole extent of thy
being and his. N o r is there aught
else proceeding from thee and from
him, which is not unequal to thee
and to him. N o r can anything proceed
from the supreme simplicity, other than
what this, from which it proceeds, is.
F o u r H un dred T hirty

But what each is, separately, this is

all the T rinity at once. F ather, Son, and
Holy Spirit; seeing that each separately
is none other than the supremely simple
unity, and the supremely unitary sim
plicity, which can neither be multiplied
nor varied. M oreover, there is a single
necessary Being. Now, this is that
single, necessary Being, in which is every
good; nay, which is every good, and a
single entire good, and the only good.
A nd now, my soul, arouse and lift up
all thy understanding, and conceive, so
far as thou canst, of what character and
how great is that good. F o r, if in
dividual goods are delectable, conceived
in earnestness how delectable is that
good which contains the pleasantness
o f all goods; and not such as we have
experienced in created objects but as
different as the C reator from the crea
ture. For, if the created life is good,
how good is the creative life! If the sal
vation given is delightful, how delightful
is the salvation which has given all sal
vation! If wisdom in the knowledge of
the created world is lovely, how lovely
is the wisdom which has created all
things from nothing! Finally, if there
are many great delights in delectable
things, what and how great is the de
light in him who has made these de
lectable things!
W h o shall enjoy this good? A nd
what shall belong to him, and what shall
not belong to him? A t an y rate, w hat
ever he shall wish shall be his, and
whatever he shall not wish shall not be
his. For, these goods of body and soul
will be such as eye hath not seen nor ear
heard, neither has the heart of man con
ceived (Isaiah lxiv. 4; 1 Corinthians
ii. 9 ) .
W h y , then,
dost thou wander
abroad, slight man, in thy search for the
goods of thy soul and body? Love the
one good in which are all goods, and it
sufficeth. D esire the simple good which
is every good, and it is enough. For,
what dost thou love, my flesh? W h a t
dost thou desire, my soul? T h e re , there
is whatever ye love, whatever ye desire.
If beauty delights thee, there shall
the righteous shine forth as the sun
(M a t th e w xiii. 4 3 ) . If swiftness or en
durance, or freedom of body, which
naught can withstand, delight thee, they
F ou r H un dred T hirty-on e

shall be as angels of G od, because it

is shown a natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body (1 Corinthians xv. 4 4 )
in power certainly, though not in nature.
If it is a long and sound life that pleases
thee, there a healthful eternity is, and
an eternal health. F o r the righteous
shall live forever ( W is d o m v. 15) , and
the salvation of the righteous is of the
Lord (P salm s xxxvii. 3 9 ) . If it is sa t
isfaction of hunger, they shall be satis
fied when the glory of the Lord hath a p
peared (P salm s xxviii. 15) . If it is
quenching a thirst they shall be abun
dantly satisfied with the fatness of thy
house (P salm s xxxvi. 8 ) . If it is melody,
there the choirs of angels sing forever,
before G od. If it is any not impure, but
pure pleasure, thou shalt make them
drink of the river of thy pleasures, O
G od (P salm s xxxvi. 8 ) .
If it is wisdom that delights thee,
the very wisdom of G od will reveal it
self to them. If friendship, they shall
love G od more than themselves, and one
another as themselves. A nd G od shall
love them more than they themselves;
for they love him, and themselves, and
one another, through him, and he, him
self and them, through himself. If co n
cord, they all have a single will.
If power, they shall have all power
to fulfil their will, as G o d to fulfil his.
F or, as G od will have power to do what
he wills, through himself, so they will
have power, through him, to do what
they will.
F or, as they will not will
aught else than he, he shall will w h a t
ever they will; and what he shall will
cannot fail to be. If honor and riches,
God shall make his good and faithful
servants rulers over many things (Lu ke
xii. 4 2 ) ; nay, they shall be called sons
of God, and gods; and where his Son
shall be, there they shall be also, heirs
indeed of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ (R o m a n s viii. 17) .
If true security delights thee, un
doubtedly they shall be as sure that
those goods, or rather that good, will
never and in no wise fail them; as they
shall be sure that they will not lose it of
their own accord; and that God, who
loves them, will not take it aw ay from
those who love him against their will;
and that nothing more powerful than
God will separate him from them against
his will and theirs.

The
Rosicrucian
Digest
December
1936

soul, and all the man, are full of that

joy, jo y beyond measure will still re
main. Hence, not all of that jo y shall
enter into those who rejoice; but they
who rejoice shall wholly enter into that
joy.

B u t what, or how great, is the joy,

where such and so great is the good!
H eart of man, needy-heart, heart a c
quainted with sorrows, nay, over
whelmed with sorrows, how greatly
wouldst thou rejoice, if thou didst
abound in all those things! A sk thy in
most mind whether it could contain its
jo y over so great a blessedness of its
own.
Y e t assuredly, if any other whom
thou didst love altogether as thyself
possessed the same blessedness, thy jo y
would be doubled, because thou wouldst
rejoice not less for him than for thyself.
But, if two, or three, or many more, had
the same joy, thou wouldst rejoice as
much for each one as for thyself, if thou
didst love each as thyself. Hence, in
that perfect love of innumerable blessed
angels and sainted men, where none
shall love another less than himself,
every one shall rejoice for each of the
others as for himself.
If, then, the heart of man will scarce
contain his jo y over his own so great
good, how shall it contain so many and
so great joys? A n d doubtless, seeing
that every one loves another so far as
he rejoices in the o th ers good, and as,
in that perfect felicity, each one should
love G od beyond compare, more than
himself and all the others with him; so
he will rejoice beyond reckoning in the
felicity of G od more than in his own and
that of all the others with him.
B ut if they shall so love G o d with
all their heart, and all their mind, and
all their soul, that still all the heart, and
all the mind, and all the soul shall not
suffice for the worthiness of this love;
doubtless they will so rejoice with all
their hearts, and all their mind, and all
their soul, that all the heart, and all the
mind, and all the soul shall not suffice
for the fulness of their joy.
M y G od and my Lord, my hope and
the joy of my heart, speak unto my soul
and tell me whether this is the jo y of
which thou tellest us through thy Son:
A sk and ye shall receive, that your joy
may be full (Jo h n xvi. 2 4 ) . F o r I have
found a jo y that is full, and more than
full. F o r when heart, and mind, and
V

READ

THE

Show me, O Lord, show thy servant

in his heart whether this is the joy into
which thy servants shall enter, who shall
enter into the jo y o f their Lord. B ut that
joy, surely, with which thy chosen ones
shall rejoice, eye hath not seen nor ear
heard, neither has it entered into the heart
of man (Isaiah Ixiv. 4; 1 Corinthians ii.
9 ) . N ot yet, then, have I told or con
ceived, O Lord, how greatly those bless
ed ones of thine shall rejoice. Doubtless
they shall rejoice according as they shall
love; and they shall love according as
they shall know. H o w far they will
know thee, Lord, then! and how much
they will love thee! T ru ly , eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither has it
entered into the heart o f man in this life,
how far they shall know thee and how
much they shall love thee in that life.
I pray, O G od, to know thee, to love
thee, that I may rejoice in thee. A nd if
I cannot attain to full jo y in this life may
I at least advance from day to day, until
that jo y shall come to the full. Let the
knowledge of thee advance in me here,
and there be made full. Let the love of
thee increase, and there let it be full,
that here my jo y may be great in hope,
and there full in truth. Lord, through thy
So n thou dost command, nay, thou dost
counsel us to ask; and thou dost promise
that we may receive, that our jo y may
be full. I ask, O Lord, as thou dost
counsel through out W o n d e r f u l C oun
sellor.
I will receive w hat thou dost
promise by virtue of thy truth, that my
jo y may be full. Faithful God, I ask
I will receive, that my jo y may be full.
M eanw hile, let my mind meditate upon
it; let my tongue speak of it. L et my
heart love it; let my mouth talk of it.
Let my soul hunger for it: let my flesh
thirst for it; let my whole being desire
it, until I enter into thy joy, O Lord,
who art the T h re e and the O n e God,
blessed for ever and ever. A m en."
V

ROSICRUCIAN

FORUM

F ou r H un dred T hirty-tw o

SANCTUM MUSINGS
VALUE
HROUGHOUT
all mens lives we
find that they are
constantly putting
forth effort effort
to live, effort to
accomplish, effort
to accumulate. T h e
goal o f this energy
which is expended
in attempting to
gain those things
which they believe
will be the most
desirable acquisitions of their existence
is what we might term, if we could use
just one word, value. W e all strive to
attain those things which to us will be
of definite value. In order to consider
value from a definite point of departure,
we might refer to W e b s t e r s Dictionary,
and we find that value is defined as "th e
property of a thing by which it is ren
dered useful or desirable.
W e can
readily appreciate from this definition
that value fundamentally is something
of a relative nature; in other words, that
which has value to one individual, might
not contain the same inherent value to
another.
H isto ry very definitely illustrates this
point. If we look at man as an aborigine
in the early days of the beginning of
man's thinking, we believe that his idea
of value, at least in comparison with
ours, is very distorted. T h o s e things to
which he assigned value would to us
Four H un dred T h irty-three

today seem queer. W e know of many

stories in the early history of North
America where Indians sold or trans
ferred their rights to large pieces of
property to the white men for nothing
more than a string o f beads or some
other minor thing to which the white
man assigned very little value. M a n y
things which are commonplace to us are
not commonplace to another group of
individuals in another part of the world,
or in the past they were not common
place to a group which resided even in
this part of the world. If an Indian vil
lage, for example, discovered a vein of
hard coal and found only a small quan
tity of that hard substance, they might
have assigned the same value to it as
we do to some more recently discovered
metal, such as platinum or iridium.
Should these two latter-named metals
become as plentiful as iron or even
silver, then their value in our estimation
would drop accordingly. B y following
the trends of thought throughout mens
development, we can, to a certain e x
tent, estimate the conditions of his
civilization and of his growth simply by
a careful analysis of those things to
which he gave value.
However, we fully appreciate that it
was not only the material things to
which the savage or the primitive man
gave value because, while he used bits
of stone or teeth from animals as a
medium of exchange or as a potential
value, he still recognized the powers of

other forces to hold in themselves a de

finite value. W e find that among these
primitive groups, for example, there
were three other abstract values. T h e s e
were fear, power, and love. F e a r be
came a value to him because upon co n
quering it he could use it as a weapon
against those who did not understand
the phenomena which he had recently
learned. Pow er was a value greatly
guarded by those who were rulers of the
tribe, who held in their hands the
destiny of the group. Love was manifest
in the beginning of family relations
relations within the clan or the immedi
ate group an invisible power or a value
which was beneficial in binding them
together. H ad not abstract values been
o f important significance to these people,
the medicine man or the witch doctor
could not have held the control which
he is known to have performed in all
tribal customs and ceremonies.
W e see in this w ay that the sense of
value by the perceiver definitely reflects
the inner character, ideals and ambitions
of the individual. T h o s e who only set
their highest value upon things which
had no particular importance in their
existence gradually became less known;
that is, it was the tribes who put their
most important value upon greater
things the abstract qualities already
mentioned who were able to rise above
primitive conditions and lay foundations
for civilization. T h e s e things made it
possible for the tribe to move ahead, to
stand out among its neighbors and
build a basis or future civilization.
W e readily appreciate that as various
substances were used as a basis of pur
chasing power, the thing or article
chosen as a medium of ex chan ge began
to represent in the mind of man a poten
tial value. T h e string of beads, the little
shell had no value in themselves only as
they were capable of being exchanged
for something which was useful or de
sirable to the holder of these material
tokens. W e in our present-day civiliza
tion have changed very little in this re
gard from primitive man. W h i l e that
The
which we call money in the form of
Rosicrucian gold, silver and paper is looked upon by
Digest
us as a value in itself, it is in reality
December nothing more than a potential value
holding within itself, in a sense, the
1936

power to bring us those things which

we desire in our environment.
T o aspire to greater values than those
which are strictly material, we must
realize that it is necessary to lift our
selves out of a strictly material world.
T h e world in which we live is definitely
limited. It is limited b y the three dimen
sions of which we are conscious. W e
consciously or unconsciously bind our
existence by width, depth and height.
T h e objective mind of man cannot co n
ceive of a fourth dimension. It is simple
for him to conceive of a line moving in
space to form a surface, a surface mov
ing in space to form a solid, but can man
picture a solid moving in space and
forming at some outside point another
o bject containing not only what was inherent in the solid itself, but building
from that as a basis, form a fourth di
mensional object? O u r objective facul
ties are given us in order that we may
perceive the world in which we live; that
is, the manifestations that take place in
three dimensions, but they were not
given us to limit our perception to this
third-dimensional world. W e have been
given perceptive abilities beyond our
objective senses which make it possible
for us to reach out into what we might
call the fourth-dimensional world and
become conscious of the existence of
those forces which are as much a part
of the Cosmic scheme of things as is the
paper upon which I write.
According to many authorities who
have studied the fourth dimension, it is
stated that the lower animals do not
fully appreciate the third dimension;
in other words, they are two-dimension
beings. All their existence is in terms
of surfaces, and whenever they come in
contact with a solid object, which would
be the manifestation o f a third dimen
sion, they only perceive it as a surface.
However, there are many manifestations
upon this second dimensional world,
which the two dimensional being could
not describe, explain or comprehend,
and so if this being by attuning himself
outside of the possibilities of his o b
jective faculties with the constructive
forces of the universe could bring into
his consciousness the conception of a
third dimension, it would explain to him
much phenomena, which living strictly
Four H undred T hirty-four

in a two-dimensional world would not

be understandable to him. Immediately
he would first perceive that those things
which his broadening consciousness had
brought to him would in reality be the
things which could be made most valu
able in his life. T h a t would be because
this third dimension would explain the
other two dimensions of his existence
complete the triangle, in a sense and
not leave the phenomena of the twodimensional world entirely in a field of
speculation. It is also important to note,
as so well described by the Russian
scientist, Ouspenski, that once this twodimensional being had grasped the
significance of the third dimension, he
could not either by will, volition or ob
jective comprehension ever forget this
third-dimensional
quality;
in other
words, once he had raised his conscious
ness to a higher plane, he could not pos
sibly content himself to again live in a
two-dimensional world without having
full comprehension of those phenomena
which were the m anifestation o f the
third dimension. S o when man has e x
panded his inner consciousness, when
those psychic faculties which man has
within his being have reached out be
yond the limitations of his objective
senses and he has understood the
phenomena which exist outside of his
limited three-dimensional world, he
could no longer, even if he desired, pos
sibly exist strictly in a three-dimensional
world again without having conscious
ness of the explanation of the pheno
mena m anifest due to the fourth dimen
sion.
All of the abstract ideals to which I
have previously referred lie, if I may
speak in the very broadest sense, out
side the third dimensional world their
complete manifestation being made by
the fourth dimension. T h o s e abstract
qualities to which man in the final
analysis gives the ultimate value are
those things which he cannot confine to
the objective third-dimensional world
of his everyday existence. Let us take,
for example, even the more simple and
well known of these. C an you create,
establish and fully understand happiness
in a three-dimensional world? Is not
happiness something that is not built en
tirely upon a physical, material founda
tion? Its greatest manifestation comes
F ou r Hundred. T hirty-five

to us as the result of peace of mind, as

the result of knowledge, which is only
indirectly connected with the material
existence. A n artificial happiness can
be built upon the acquisition of all ma
terial things which we desire, but it is
not stable, for as soon as these material
things are removed, the foundation upon
which happiness is built is gone, and as
a result the state of happiness itself will
exist no longer without the support of
the material factors which brought it
into existence and maintained it. R ecent
economic conditions in the world have
very clearly illustrated that a happiness
or peace of mind built upon a material
manifestation no longer exists once the
material which made it possible is gone.
A happiness, however, established upon
a non-material basis like other abstract
values of love, friendship, sympathy,
tolerance, goodwill, brotherhood, and
all the factors which are necessary to
the advancement of m ans civilization,
is not dependent directly upon a ma
terial foundation, and as a result it
continues to stand once it has been
established, regardless of the fluctuation
or changes in social and economic con
ditions.
It might be difficult for any one in
dividual to name the one thing which to
him had the greatest value; but probably
there is one point, one definite mani
festation which has more value to us
than any other thing. T h e aim of life
then should be to discover this value and
make it the most important factor of our
existence, but in establishing one thing
as the ultimate or the most important
value of our existence, we must take
into consideration three important points
regarding it.
First, as has already been discussed,
it must not be founded on a material
base because it can endure no longer
than the material upon which it stands.
Second, there must be in the mind of
the individual a conviction a convic
tion amendable only to modification
born of true wisdom. T h e simplest
thing in the world is to have an opinion.
All men have opinions, but an opinion
is not sufficient. A s someone has said,
an opinion is a thing which an individual
carries around with him, while a con
viction is a thing that carries the in
dividual around. A true value must be

a conviction in the fullest sense of this

definition.
Third , we must not only believe in the
existence of this value, but must live in
making it the motivating power and
force of our life and a storehouse of
potential energy for future use. A fixed
conviction, a value which is greater
than any other thing in our lives will
not only be a condition which pushes us
on, but in direct proportion to the time
which we retain this conviction, we
build for ourselves a force or a reservoir
of potential power which in our own be
ing can be called upon to manifest when
we need this reserve. W e must live so
as not to let this reserve go all at one
time. M a n is prone to brag or to a d
V

vertise his great accomplishments, and

in so doing, he is simply letting go the
reserve power which he wishes to hold.
Such a value, if it constitutes these
three factors, will in itself be the first
manifestation of mastership, Cosmic
Consciousness, complete peace and hap
piness. W e cannot consider these great
values as conditions apart from us; but
we must consider them as actual realities
that once we have recognized and begun
to reach are existing for us, that the
state of mastership exists all about us,
and we as human beings are simply at
different grades or degrees of advance
ment on the path toward the attainment
of these higher values.
V

Live T h e Principles
By A lle g r o
P R O B L E M of
great importance
for the new stu
dent on the path
is solving the ques
tion of how to be
discreet with his
tongue.
W h e n his eyes
b e h o l d and his
heart s e n s e s the
first dazzling beau
ty of the R o s e
C r o s s , he is so
profoundly moved b y thankfulness that
he desires to repeat every thought and
principle completely and in detail for
the whole world to hear.
A s he starts up the path he beholds
the universe from a new angle and en
thusiastically he feels that he must por
tray all this also to his fellow man.
Probably, he thinks, his neighbor is just
as w orthy to receive this new light as
he, and he is tempted to reveal it.

T he
Rosicrucian
Digest
December
1936

T h e n , later, having progressed to a

higher level, he looks back upon the
things he was so sorely tempted to tell
his friends. B ut now they do not look
the same. W h a t he would have revealed
w as only a part truth and might have

been wrongly interpreted and could

have caused grave troubles.
P art truths, badly mixed with the
prejudice of the average profane mind
and entangled with age-old supersti
tions which are still so prevalent in
this era, bring about much inharmony.
Criticism and reproach are not only
brought to the student who attempts to
reveal in full that which he knows but
partially, but his instructors must also
bear the brunt of the reaction.
T h e only w ay in which the student
can reflect the teachings for the world
to behold, to enjoy and to profit by, is
to incorporate the principles into his
own life. W h e n he mirrors the truth of
a principle by acting in accordance with
the law, he creates a manifestation far
more convincing and beneficial without
explanation than any statement of mere
words.
In an ancient writing we find these
words: Like a beautiful flower, full of
color but without scent, are the fine but
fruitless words of him who does not act
accordingly.
But, like a beautiful flower, full of
color and full of scent, are the fine and
fruitful words of him who acts ac
cordingly.
F o u r H undred Thirty-six

M R S . H. S P E N C E R L E W I S . S. R. C.
T h e first lady to Cross the Threshold of A M O R C of North America in its new cycle:
Co-Founder of the A M O R C and member of the first American Supreme Council in 1914:
President of the Child Culture Institute, and a member of the Board of Directors of the
Supreme Grand Lodge of A M O R C for North and South America. Soror Lewis has served
in various capacities throughout the past twenty-three years, giving special advice to
mothers in the application of the Rosicrucian principles and the proper education of children,
and help to the widespread activities of the Council of Solace and Sunshine Circles of
A M O R C . O f Huguenot lineage, born and educated in Brooklyn, New York, she is now
an official delegate of the International Council, and a F lID O S I Legate.
(C ou rtesy o f T h e R osicrucian D ig est.)

Try this Test

D o Y o u Know the Rosicrucian

Answers to These Q uestions?
H o w d o y o u c o n ta c t p a st in c a rn a tio n s?
W h a t is t h e r e a l p u r p o s e o f s le e p ?
W h e n is m e n t a l t e l e p a t h y p o s s i b l e ?
W h a t is t h e c a u s e o f p s y c h i c i n h a r m o n y ?

H o n ' c a n v is u a liz in g a n d d r e a m i n g b e
m a d e p r a c t ic a l? Is t h e r e r e a l sex su
p e r io r i t y ? C a n c a n c e r e v e r b e c u r e d ?
W h a t is t h e m e a n in g o f p s y c h i c b o r d e r
lin e e x p e r i e n c e s ?

I lie Rosicrucian I'orum reader knows the answers. I hese are typical of but a
lew of the subjects explained in each inspiring issue he receives. Subjects in the
l orum are intimate, human; they .ire about affairs of the days that you and I
confront. I he Rosicrucian I'orum is a private magazine lor members. Its matter
is written in conversational slvle as though you were present. listening to a session
in the ( irand Lodge. It has no articlesjust statements of fact. I he "Rosicrucian
lorum is Irankly one of the greatest assets to the Rosicrucian student that the
Brotherhood has ever publish ed.

An Encyclopaedic Companion
1 he Forum is known to its thousands of
readers as I he Rosicrucian ( ompanion. ^ et,
it is more than that; it is an encyclopedia of
practice ol (he teachings. At the end of each
year s subscription you receive an index of all
subjects contained in each issue for your com
plete reference. Avail yourself of ibis great
instructive feature.

One Year's
Subscription, only

ROSICRUCIAN
v;
FORUM

$ I 75

T H E ROSICRUCIAN FORUM - - San Jose, Calif.

TH E PU RPO SES OF

THE

ROSICRUCIAN

ORDER

T h e R o sicru cia n O rd er, e x is tin g in all civilized land s, is a n o n -secta ria n ,

fr a te r n a l body o f m en and wom en devoted to th e in v e stig a tio n , stu d y , and
p ra c tic a l a p p lica tio n o f n a tu ra l and sp iritu a l law s. T h e pu rpose o f th e o rg a n i
zation is to en a b le a ll to live in h arm ony w ith th e crea tiv e, co n stru ctiv e,
C osm ic fo rce s fo r th e a tta in m e n t of h ealth , hap p iness, and P ea ce .
T h e O rd er i in te r n a tio n a lly know n a s AM ORC (an a b b re v ia tio n ), and th e
A M O R C in A m erica, and all o th e r lan d s, c o n s titu te s th e o n ly fo rm o f R o s i
cru cia n a ctiv itie s u n ited in one body h avin g re p rese n ta tio n in th e in te r n a
tio n al fe d era tio n .
T h e AM ORC does not sell its te a ch in g s, b u t giv es th em
fre e ly to a ll a ffilia te d m em b ers, to g e th e r w ith m any o th e r b en efits.
In q u ir e rs see k in g to know th e h isto ry , p u rposes, and p ra c tic a l b en efits
th at th ey m ay receiv e from R o sicru cia n a sso cia tio n , a re inv ited to sen d fo r
the free book, T h e S e cret H e r ita g e ." A d dress, F r ia r S. P . C., c a re of

M ember of
FU D O SI
(F e d e ra tio n U niv e rselle des
O rd res et
So ciete3
In itia tiq u e s )

AMORC TEM PLE

Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, C alifornia, U.
(C ab le A d d re ss:

AM ORCO"

S . A.
R ad io S ta tio n W 6 H T B )

Officials of the N o rth and South American Jurisdictions

(In clu d in g th e U n ited S ta te s, D om inion o f Canada, A laska, M exico. G u atem ala, H o n d u ras, N icarag u a,
C osta R ica , E l Salv ad o r, R e p u b lic o f P a n a m a , th e W e st In d ie s, L o w er C a lifo rn ia , and a ll land
under th e p ro tectio n o f th e U n ited S ta te s o f A m erica.)
H. S P E N C E R L E W I S , F . R . C., P h . D .................................................................................
Im p e ra to r
C L E M E N T B . L E B R U N , F . R . C ............................................................................................................................G rand M a ste r
R A L P H M. L E W I S , F . R . C............................................. - ............................................................................. Su p rem e S e c r e ta r y
H A R V E Y M IL E S , F . R . C
G rand T re a s u re r
E T H E L B. W ARD, F. R . C
S e c r e ta r y to G ran d M a ste r
H A R R Y L . S H I B L E Y , F . R . C............................................................................................................ D ir e c to r o f P u b lic a tio n s

Junior Order of Torch Bearers (sp on so red b y AM ORC) F o r co m p lete in fo rm atio n as to its aim s
and b en efits ad d ress G en eral S e c re ta ry . G rand C h ap ter, R o sicru c ia n P a rk , San Jo s e , C a lifo rn ia .
T h e follow ing principal branches are District H eadqu arters o f A M O R C
San Francisco, California:

Reading, Pennsylvania:
Reading C hapter. M r. Carl Schlotzhauer,
M aster: M r. G eorge R . O sm an, S e cretary .
M eeting every 1st and 3rd F rid ay , 8:00 p. m.,
W ash in g ton H all, 904 W ash in g to n Street.

New York City, New York:

N ew Y o rk C hapter, Room s 35-36, 711 8th
A ve., cor. 8th A ve. and 45th Street. M r. W .
J. N orris, M aster: M arg aret Sh arpe, S e cre
tary . Inquiry and reading rooms open week
d ays and Sundays, 1 to 8 p. m.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
D elta Lodge N o, 1, A M O R C , S . E , Corner
40th and Brown Sts., 2nd F loor. M r. A lbert
Courtney, M aster.
Benjam in Franklin C hapter of A M O R C ;
M r. Jam es D e Fulio, M aster: M arth a A itken,
Se creta ry , 2203 15th Street. M eetings for
all members every second and fourth Su n
days, 7:30 p .m ., at 1521 W e s t G irard A ve.
(Second Floor, Room B ) .

Boston, Massachusetts:
T h e M arie Clem ens Lodge, C h ester A .
Robinson, M aster.
T em p le and Reading
Room s, 739 Boylston St., T elephone K enmore 9398,

Detroit, Michigan:
T h eb es C hapter N o. 336. M iss E lla A . M illiman, M aster; M rs. P earl A nna T ifft,
S e creta ry . M eetings at the F loren ce Room ,
T u ller H otel, every T u esd ay , 8 p. m. In
quirers call dial phone Tow nsend 6-2967.

F ran cis B acon Lodge. 1655 P olk

M r. D avid M ackenzie, M aster.

Street;

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania:
Penn. F irst Lodge. R alph M . Ross, M aster:
610 A rch Street.

Atlanta, Georgia:
A tlan ta C h apter N o. 650. M rs. V . C unning
ham, Sr., M aster; N assau H otel. M eetings
7 :3 0 every T h u rsd ay night.

Los Angeles, California:

Herm es Lodge, A M O R C T em p le. M r. D u n
can G . W rig h t, M aster. Reading Room and
Inquiry office open daily, 10 a. m. to 5 p. m.
and 7 :3 0 p .m . to 9 p .m . except Su ndays.
G ran ad a C ourt, 672 South L afay ette Park
P lace.

Birmingham, Alabama:
Birm ingham C h apter of A M O R C
F or in
form ation address M r. M . J. Collins, M aster,
1516 So . 15th A ve.

Chicago, Illinois:
C h icago C h apter N o. 9. H. C . B lackw ell,
M aster; M abel L . Schm idt, S e creta ry . T e le
phone Superior 6881. Reading Room open
afternoons and evenings. Su nd ays 2 to 5
only. 100 E . O h io S t., Room 403-404. L e c
ture sessions for A L L jpem bers every T u e s
day night, 8 :00 p. m.
C h icag o A fra-A m erican C h apter N o. 10.
O liv er T . M cG rew , Master;
Nehemiah
D ennis, S e creta ry . M eeting every W e d n e s
day night at 8 o'clock , Y . M . C . A ., 3763 So.
W a b a s h A venue.

(D irectory Continued on N ext P age)

Portland, Oregon:
Portland Chapter. Floyd D. Cook, Master*
405 O rpheum BJdg. M eetings ev e ry T h u rs
d ay , 8:00 p.m . at 714 S. W . 11th Avenue.
Washington, D. C.:
Thom as Jefferson Chapter.
Howard E.
Mertz, Master. Confederate Memorial Hall,
1322 Vermont Ave. N. W . Meetings every
Friday, 8:00 p. m.

Newark, New Jersey:

H. Spencer Lewis Chapter. Frank A. Ham
mond, Master: for information address Sylvia
Kingsley, Secretary, 31 Leo Place.
Seattle, Washington:
A M O R C Chapter 586. Fred Motter, Master:
Mrs. Carolina Henderson, Secretary. 311-14
Lowman Bldg., between 1st and 2nd Aves.
on Cherry Street. Reading room open week
days 11 a.m . to 4:30 p.m . Visitors welcome.
Chapter meetings each Monday, 8:00 p. m.

Other Chartered Chapters and Lodges of the Rosicrucian Order (A M O R C ) will be found in
most large cities and towns of North America. Address of local representatives given on request.

P R IN C IP A L C A N A D IA N B R A N C H E S
Victoria, British Columbia:
Victoria Lodge, Mr. George A. Phillips,
Master. Inquiry Office and Reading Room.
101 Union Bank Bldg. Open week days 12
a. m. to 5 p. m.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
G . F . Gostick, Master, 361 M achray Ave.
Session for all members every Sunday,
2:45 p. m.. 204 Kensington Bldg.

Edmonton, Alberta:
Mr. F. G. Powell,
Avenue E .

Master.

9533

Jasper

Toronto, Ontario, Canada:

Miss Edith Hearn. Master. Sessions 1st and
3rd Sundays of the month, 7:00 p. m.. No. 10
Lansdowne Ave.
Vancouver, British Columbia:
Canadian Grand Lodge, A M O R C . Mrs.
Ethel M. W are. Master: H. B. Kidd. Secre
tary, A M O R C Temple, 878 Hornby Street.

S P A NI S H A M E R IC A N S E C T IO N
This jurisdiction includes all the Spanish-speaking Countries of the New W orld. Its Supreme
Council and A dm inistrative O ffice are loca ted at San Juan, P uerto Rico, having local R epresen
tatives in all the principal cities of these stated Countries.
The name and address of the Officers and Representatives in the jurisdiction will be furnished
on application.
A ll co rresp o n d en ce shou ld b e a d d ressed as fo llo w s:
Secretary General of the Spanish-American Jurisdiction of A M O R C , P. O. Box 36. San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

A FEW

O F T H E F O R E IG N JU R IS D IC T IO N S

Scandinavian Countries:
The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Denmark.
Mr. Arthur Sundstrup, Grand Master: Carii
Anderson, S. R. C., Grand Secretary. Manogade 13th Strand, Copenhagen. Denmark.
Sweden:
Grand Lodge "Rosenkorset." Anton Svanlund, F. R. C.. Grand Master. Jerusalemsgatan, 6, Malmo.
Holland:
De Rozekruisers Orde: Groot-Lodge der
Nederlandcn. J. Coops, Gr. Sect., Hunzestraat 141, Amsterdam.
France:
Dr. Hans Gruter. Grand Master. Mile.
Jeanne Guesdon. Secretary. 56 Rue Gambetta. Villeneuve Saint Georges, (Seine &
O ise).
Switzerland:
A M O R C . Grand Lodge, 21 Avenue Dapples.
Lausanne; Dr. Ed. Bertholet, F. R. C., Grand
Master. 6 Blvd. Chamblandes, Pully-Lausanne; Pierre Genillard, Grand Sccty.. Surlac
B, Mont Choisi. Lausanne.
China:
T he United Grand Lodge of China. P. O.
Box 513, Shanghai, China.
R O S IC R U C IA N PRESS, LTD ..

New Zealand:
Auckland Chapter A M O RC. Mr. G. A.
Franklin, Master. 317 V ictoria Arcade Bldg.
Queen St., City Auckland.
England:
The A M O R C Grand Lodge of Great Britain.
Mr. R aym und A ndrea, K. R. C., Grand
Master, 34 Baywater Ave., W estbury Park.
Bristol 6.
Dutch and East Indies:
Dr. W . Th. van Stokkurn. Grand Master;
W . J. Visser, Secretary-General. Karangtempel 10 Semarang, Java.
Egypt:
The Grand Orient of A M O R C . House of the
Temple, M. A. Ramayvelim, F. R. C., Grand
Secretary, 26, Avenue Ismalia. Heliopolis.
Cairo Information Bureau de la Rose Croix,
J. Sapporta. Secretary. 27 Rue Salimon
Pacha, Cairo.
Africa:
T he Grand Lodge of the Gold Coast.
A M O R C . Mr. W illiam Okai, Grand Master.
P. O. Box 424 Accra, Gold Coast, W est
Africa.
T h e ad d resses o f other foreign G ran d L odges
and secretaries will be fu rn ished on application.
P R I N T E D IN U. S. A

arthbound

Is there a strange, ethereal,

mental cord that

binds the consciousness of those departed from this

world wi th th ose that rem ain?

A re souls denied

liberation after transition until tbey have com muni

cated to tbeir loved ones important m essages?

A re

the fantastic experiments of tbe seance room trickery

or fraud, or are tbev tlie result of earthbound e n
tities seeking freedom Irom the confining interests of
this world? Is tbe human consciousness suspended
lor an indefinite period between tbe spiritual and
earthly realms?

Is psychic communication, with

minds gone on. a farce or a fact?

DO NOT EXPOUND
of its unusual doctrines.

SPIR ITISM ,

Let us send our free discourse entitled,

which is devoted to this subject.

Rosicrucians

Y e t they have m ade an impartial investigation

Earthb ou nd ,

You will be fascinated with it.

to you,

In addition, we will

gladl y send you, absolutely free, twenty other discourses on interesting, intriguing su b
jects such as the following:

Reincarnation and OldAge,

A Strange Experience,
The M ind,A Human Radio,etc.. etc.

Tbe Mystery of Sleep.

W e have never m ade an offer of such astounding value before. M erely subscribe to
this helpful, interesting publication,

I be Rosicrucian Digest,

for six months for $ 1 .5 0 .

and all these discourses will be sent to you in addition to the six-months m agazine sub
scription. Just send your remittance of $ 1 .^ 0 for

T h e Rosicrucian Digest,

Send me the twenty F R E E discourses in addition.

portunity of wonderful reading matter.

and say,

D o not overlook this splendid op

1 his o ffcr is lor a limited time only.

Send order

and remittance to:

~7 h e [ R o s i c r u c i a n D i g e s t
SAN

J O S E , C A L I F O R N I A , U.

S.

A.

FREETwenty bound and

p r i n t e d discourses
like t h o s e listed
above. Read above
for details and send
for v o u r s todav.

^Rgsicruciart Library
The follow ing books are a few of several recommended because o f the special knowledge they
contain, not to be found in our teachings and not available elsewhere. Catalogue o f all publica
tions free upon request.
Volume II.

R O S IC R U C IA N

P R IN C IP L E S FO R T H E H O M E A N D BU SIN ESS.

A very practical book dealing with the solution of health, financial, and business problems in the home and
office. W ell printed and bound in red silk, stamped with gold. Price. $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume H I.

T H E M Y S T IC A L L IF E O F JESUS.

A rare account o f the Cosmic preparation, birth, secret studies, mission, crucifixion, and later life o f the
Great Master, from the records of the Essene and Rosicrucian Brotherhoods.
A book that is demanded in
foreign lands as the most talked about revelation o f Jesus ever made. Over 300 pages, beautifully illustrated,
bound in purple silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V.

U N T O T H E E I G R A N T . . ."

A strange book prepared from a secret manuscript found in the monastery o f Tibet.
It is filled with the
most sublime teachings o f the ancient Masters o f the F a r East. The book has had many editions. W ell printed
w ith attractive cover. Price, $1.25 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V I.

A TH O U SAND YE AR S OF YESTERD AYS.

A beautiful story o f reincarnation and mystic lessons. This unusual book has been translated and sold in
many languages and universally endorsed. W ell printed and bound with attractive cover. Price. 85c per copy,
postpaid.

Volume V II.

SELF M ASTERY

A N D F A T E , W IT H T H E C Y C L E S O F L IF E

A new and astounding system of determ ining your fortunate and unfortunate hours, weeks, months, and
years throughout your life. No mathematics required. B etter than any system o f num erology or astrology.
Bound in silk, stamped in gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume V n i.

T H E R O S IC R U C IA N M A N U A L .

Most complete outline of the rules, regulations, and operations o f lodges and student work o f the Order with
many interesting articles, biographies, explanations, and complete dictionary of Rosicrucian terms and words.
V e ry com pletely illustrated. A necessity to every student who wishes to progress rapidly, and a guide to all
seekers. W ell printed and bound in silk, stamped with gold. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X I.

M A N S IO N S O F T H E SOUL, T H E COSM IC C O N C E P T IO N .

The complete doctrines of reincarnation explained. This book makes reincarnation easily understood.
Illustrated, bound in silk, stamped in gold, extra large. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume XH .

W ell

L E M U R L Y T H E LO S T C O N T IN E N T O F T H E P A C IF IC .

The revelation of an ancient and long forgotten M ystic civilization. Fascinating and intriguing. Learn how
these people came to be swept from the earth. K now o f their vast knowledge, much o f which is lost to man
kind today. W ell printed and bound, illustrated with charts and maps. Price, $2.20 per copy, postpaid.

Volume X H I.

T H E T E C H N IQ U E O F T H E M A S T E R .

The newest and most complete guide for attaining the state o f Cosmic Consciousness. It is a masterful work
on psychic unfoldment. Price, $2.00 per copy, postpaid.

Send all orders for books, w ith rem ittance, direct to R O S IC R U C IA N

SU PPLY

BU REA U ,

Rosicrucian Park, San Jo se , California.

THE INSTITUTION BEHIND THIS ANNOUNCEM ENT