Tag Archives: Reincarnation

Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity by Elizabeth Clare Prophet

Elizabeth Clare Prophet (1939-2009) was an American spiritual leader, author, orator, and writer. In 1963 she married Mark L. Prophet, who had founded The Summit Lighthouse in 1958 and when he died in 1973, she assumed control of The Summit Lighthouse. During her ministry, she taught on a wide variety of spiritual subjects: angels and archangels, karma and reincarnation, healing and wholeness, soul mates, twin flames and relationships, and practical spirituality, to name just a few.

In the book “Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity”, Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Erin L. Prophet make the case that Jesus taught reincarnation. The authors trace the history of reincarnation in Christianity―from Jesus and the early Christians through Church councils and the persecution of so-called heretics.

 

This book is very informative, and the work has been meticulously researched. Still, the book is easy to read with many quotes, references and illustrations. It includes a good summary of the various religions and schisms that believed in reincarnation and personal unity with the divine during the first several centuries of Christianity. The historical development of Jewish, Greek, Roman, Christian and Indian thought is outlined and contrasted. It makes a good case that beliefs in reincarnation permeated the population in Jesus’ day including some Jewish sects.

Besides the subject of reincarnation, pre-existence, (original) sin, karma, divine grace and spiritual ascension are discussed and there is a lot of historical, mystical and theological information on those subjects as well. Most of the ideas can be found in Theosophy and are based on religions and philosophers from ancient times to modern.

The book illustrates the history of how the Mystics, Gnostics, Cathars and others were left out of the Bible, how emperor Constantine and the Catholic Church eliminated the belief in reincarnation. In part 4, “The Church Rejects Incarnation”, the authors describe in detail the brutal extinction of the Cathars after the inquisition had succeeded in driving the Cathar faith underground.

In part 5, “Jesus Secret Teachings on the God Within”, the authors refer to Nag Hammadi texts, which the Elaine Pagels covers in more detail in her book “The Gnostic Gospels”. In the last chapters the authors include advice on how to work on unity with God. There is a chronological guide to people, events and ideas at the end of the book.

Reincarnation is mentioned often in the readings by Edgar Cayce.

The Essential Edgar Cayce: His Philosophy

There are many books out there about Edgar Cayce as well as books that summarize his readings about specific topics. One example is There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce by Thomas Surgrue.  Thomas Surgrue received first a “life reading” from Cayce and later medical readings for his debilitating arthritis. From 1939 until 1941, the ailing Sugrue lived with the Cayce family in Virginia Beach, and completed this biography while convalescing. It is the sole biography written of Cayce during his lifetime.

Another Examples is Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet by Sydney D. Kirkpatrick.  Kirkpatrick offers the reader in this biography a different perspective on his life and legacy. It is easy to read and has fascinating details about Cayce’s private life and work as a psychic and the author had unrestricted access to all of Cayce’s letters and papers. Examples for books covering a specific topic is Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis  by Gregory and Laura Little and John Van Auken. There are also books containing the readings pertaining to a specific topic such as Reincarnation & Karma (summarized on this website) or Edgar Cayce on Atlatnis  I decided to write more about the book The Essential Edgar Cayce by Mark Thurston because the author beautifully summarizes the most important philosophical points from Cayce’s readings.

The Essence of the Cayce Philosophy is: 

1) Everything is connected – all is one

Once we perceive this unity it is our challenge to apply this understanding as practical mystics.

2) Life is purposeful

Each of us is born with a personal mission, a “soul-purpose”. There is an aspect of service to soul-purpose.

3) Approach life as an adventure

Life is meant to be a playful search for the truth; it is research in the broadest sense of the word.

4) Be noncompetitive: show compassion

Nothing takes us away quicker from the sense of oneness, and therefore from our own soul-purpose, than the drive for competitiveness. Compassion is the capacity to be present for another person and experience how we are all really the same. It is a matter of feeling with another person, not taking responsibility for that person but being responsible and responsive to that person.

5) Take responsibility for yourself

Help is available but no one else can fix things for us. Ultimately each soul is accountable for itself. The principle of self-responsibility is a cornerstone of Edgar Cayce recommendations.

6) Look ahead rather the back

The present and the future cannot be understood outside the context of the past but in essence he was saying to always look ahead and never back and understand that you are going to come back again. We should make choices that will help create the best possible results in the next lifetime.

7) Changing anything starts with an ideal

Motives, purposes, and ideals are the center of Cayce’s psychology. If we want to change anything in life we have to start at the motivational level.

8) All time is one time

Sometimes we get hints about the deeper mysteries of time (e.g. a precognitive dream). If we pay close attention to our inner lives, we might find clues that time is more complex than we think.

9) Success cannot be measured by material standards

Measuring success, especially in terms of one’s soul, is elusive because we cannot use the same standards for measuring the internal and external life.

10) Courage is essential to any spiritual growth

High aspirations and ideals are not enough, we have to do something with them.

11) Evil is real and comes in many forms

  • A lack of awareness – a deficit in conscious awareness
  • Extremism – we need to watch for our own tendency to go to extremes
  • Aggression and invasion – all human relations have the potential for these forms of evil
  • Transformation – stay engaged with anything ungodly and keep working to transform it
  • Rebellion and willfulness – we choose every day how to respond to evil; the focus is on our behavior – are we going against the impulse to bring the spirit into the material world.

12) Learn to stand up for yourself; learn to say no when it is needed

It is similar to self-assertion and setting boundaries.

Cayce was a significant pioneer in many disciplines that have gained widespread acceptance since his death:

The value of dreams as a tool for self-understanding and[tooltip title=”” content=”See also Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung under Psychology” type=”classic” ] guidance[/tooltip]. He saw dreams as a safe and reliable work to explore one’s own soul.

The importance of[tooltip title=”” content=”See also The Bhagavad Gita under Religion” type=”classic” ] meditation[/tooltip]  as a spiritual discipline. He evolved an approach that was easy to apply to the Judeo-Christian world.

A perspective on[tooltip title=”” content=”See also Theosophy under Philosophy” type=”classic” ] reincarnation, karma, [/tooltip] and grace that is potentially acceptable to the Judeo-Christian world. He presents reincarnation as an inescapable reality of how the universe operates. Karma can be softened by the influences of grace available to all souls.

An approach to[tooltip title=”” content=”See also Why Astrology can Help Us under Science” type=”classic” ] astrology[/tooltip] that recognizes past lives and the influence of the planets, especially with regard to helping people find a sense of purpose in life. He used the influence of the planets as a way of describing innate temperament and its impact upon the personality and aptitude.

According to Cayce’s readings we live in an orderly universe that is governed by universal laws. Humanity has a purposeful place in this universe, and there is a plan for us as souls: to bring the qualities of spiritual life into the material world consciously. That plan requires that we make proper use of two great gifts that God has given each of us: a creative mind and a free will. He also emphasized the importance of staying healthy and that we take responsibility for our own lives

The Mysterious Order of Rosicrucians 

Rosicrucianism refers to a movement which arose in Europe in the early 17th century. The word “Rosicrucian” is derived from the name “Christian Rosenkreutz”or “Rose Cross”. The existence of the order first came into public notice, when two Latin pamphlets, known as the Fama Fraternitatis and as Confessio Fraternitati, were published in Germany describing the foundation and aims of this esoteric order. These manifestos aroused a lot of excitement and a third publication, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, increased the mystery.

The object of the mysterious Order of Rosicrucians was to throw occult light upon the misunderstood Christian religion and to explain the mystery of Life and Being from the scientific standpoint in harmony with religion. A high spiritual teacher with the name of Christian Rosenkreuz appeared in Europe to commence that work. His very name is an embodiment of the manner and the means by which the present day man is transformed into the Divine Superman. And the symbol, the Christian Rose Cross, shows the end and aim of human evolution, the road to be traveled, and the means whereby that end is gained.

According to the author Manly P. Hall, there are four distinct theories about Rosicrucianism:

1) There is an assumption that the Rosicrucian Order existed historically in accordance with the description in Fama Fraternitatis which appeared in print in 1614. This pamphlet reminds the reader of God’s goodness, warns the intelligentsia of following false prophets and ignoring the true knowledge, and makes clear that a reformation is necessary.

2) Some Masonic brethren accept the historical existence of the “Brotherhood of the Rose Cross” and believe that it originated in mediaeval Europe as an outgrowth of alchemical speculation and that Johann Valentin Andrea, a German theologian, was the founder and might have reformed an existing society established by Sir Henry Cornelius Agrippa; some believe that Rosicrucians represented the first European invasion of Buddhist and Brahmin culture; and still others believe it was founded in Egypt during the philosophic supremacy of that empire.

3) The third theory takes the form of a sweeping denial of Rosicrucianism claiming that it was entirely a product of imagination.

4) The fourth theory asserts that the Rosicrucians actually possessed all the supernatural powers with which they were credited. According to this theory, the true Rosicrucian Brotherhood consisted of a limited number of highly developed adepts who possessed the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone and knew the process of transmuting the base metals into gold but taught that these were only allegorical terms concealing the true mystery of human regeneration through the transmutation of the “base elements” of man’s lower nature into the “gold” of intellectual and spiritual realization.
There are quite a few books and articles about Rosicrucianism in print and online. Online can be found two works by the German Theosophist, Dr. Franz Hartmann:

  1. With the Adepts, an Adventure among the Rosicrucians
  2. Cosmology, or Universal Science, Containing the Mysteries of the Universe regarding God, Nature, Man, the Macrocosm and the Microcosm; Eternity and Time, by means of the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians.

The founder of Anthropology, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, has given numerous lectures, titled “Theosophy of the Rosicrucian”.

The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucianspublished in 1918 can be found online as well. In this book the reader learns that the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians is believed to have been built up gradually and carefully, by the old occult masters and adepts, from the scattered fragments of the esoteric teachings which were treasured by the wise men of all races. The legend runs that these fragments of the Secret Doctrine were the scattered portions of the old esoteric teaching of ancient Atlantis—the bits of the great mass of the Atlantean occult teachings which were scattered in all directions by the great cataclysm which had destroyed that great continent. The few survivors of the Atlantean civilization carefully preserved these Fragments of Truth, and passed them on to their chosen students and capable descendants.

The old Masters who made it the object of their lives to gather together these scattered fragments, and to reconstruct the Occult Doctrine of the Atlanteans, found a portion of their material in Egypt, in India, in Persia, in Chaldea, in Medea, in China, in Assyria, and in Ancient Greece, and also in the mystic records of the Hebrews, such as the Kabballah and the Zohar. The common source, however, may be regarded as distinctly Oriental. The great philosophies of the East, in fact, may be said to have been built upon the base of these still more ancient teachings. Moreover, the great Grecian Secret Teachings are believed to have been based upon knowledge obtained from this same common source. So, at the last, the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians may be said to be the Secret Doctrine of Atlantis, transmitted through the descendants of the people of that great center of occult knowledge.
The Rosicrucians teach that that there are Seven Cosmic Principles present and operating throughout the Cosmos, and extending even to its smallest activities. These Seven Cosmic Principles are as follows:

1) The Principle of Correspondence (manifests in a certain correspondence or analogy between manifestations of the various planes of activity in the Cosmos and is indicated by the old Hermetic aphorism: “As above, so below; as below, so above,” and by the Arcane axiom: “Ex Uno disce Omnes,” or “From One know All.”)

2) The Principle of Law and Order (manifests in the presence and manifestation of a regular sequence, and orderly procession of phenomena in the universe of things. It is voiced by the celebrated axiom of a leading scientist that “The Universe is governed by laws.” The spirit of this principle of truth is embodied in the very term “The Cosmos,” which term is derived from the Greek term “Kosmos,” meaning: “The world or universe considered in connection with perfect order and arrangement, as opposed to Chaos.” In the occult teachings of the Rosicrucians it is impressed upon the student that “there is no such thing as Chance,” in so far as Chance is used in the sense of “uncaused happening.”)

3) The Principle of Vibration (manifests in the manifestation of a state of vibration in everything in the Manifested Cosmos. It is voiced by the old occult axiom: “Everything vibrates.” Science now tells us that not only is every particle of matter, or every mass of matter, in a state of continual vibration, but also that light, heat, magnetism, electricity and every other form of natural force results from a state of vibration. The occultists go further than this, and assert that even on the mental and spiritual planes there is ever manifest a condition of vibration.

4) The Principle of Rhythm (manifests in that universal regular swing or time-beat which is apparent in all the manifested world, from its highest to its lowest manifestation. The ancient occult axiom “Everything beats time” expresses this fundamental fact of the Cosmos. Rhythm means: “Regularly recurring motion, change or impulse proceeding in time-measured, alternating sequence.”)

5) The Principle of Cycles (manifests that universal circular direction of process or progress which is apparent in all the manifested world, from its highest to its lowest manifestation. The spirit of this principle was expressed in the ancient occult axiom: “Everything proceeds in circles.”)

6) The Principle of Polarity (manifests that universal fact of “the pairs of opposites,” or “the antinomies,” which is apparent in all the manifested world, from its highest to its lowest manifestation. The spirit of this principle was expressed in the ancient occult axiom: “Everything has its Opposite, which is the other pole of its manifestation.” One of the most surprising features of this discovery is that we have to understand that the two contrasting sets of qualities are really but two aspects or phases of the whole thing—the real thing, or thing in itself—the unity of the two, instead of being two separated and distinct things. Or, stating it in other words, we discover that the two opposing sets of characteristics are merely relative to each other, and together form a correlated unity and balanced whole.)

7) The Principle of Sex (manifests in the universal presence of sex distinction and activity which is apparent in all the manifested world, from its highest to its lowest manifestations. The spirit of this principle was expressed in the ancient occult axiom: “Sex is omnipresent and all-pervasive in the universe. All creation is generation, and all generation proceeds from Sex.

Many concepts in Rosicrucianism are similar to the teachings of Theosophy. Examples are Reincarnation and Karma, which is also addressed by Edgar Cayce. It is a concept that existed even in Christianity for some time.

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

Elaine Pagels, (born in 1943), has taught at Barnard College, Columbia University after she received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1970 and chaired the department of religion at Barnard from 1975-1982. She joined the Princeton faculty in 1982 as a professor of early Christian history, shortly after receiving a MacArthur Fellowship. She has published widely on Gnosticism and early Christianity, and continues to pursue research interests in late antiquity and writes about the theological shifts and battles within earlier Christianity. This book is a provocative study of the gnostic gospels and the world of early Christianity as revealed through the Nag Hammadi texts.

In the introduction of the book we find out that in December 1945 an Arab peasant made an astonishing archeological discovery in Upper Egypt. Rumors obscured the circumstances of this find–perhaps because the discovery was accidental, and its sale on the black market illegal.

The manuscripts soon attracted the attention of officials of the Egyptian government. They bought one and confiscated ten and a half of the thirteen leather-bound books, called codices, and deposited them in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. But a large part of the thirteenth codex, containing five extraordinary texts, was smuggled out of Egypt and offered for sale in America.

Professor Gilles Quispel, a distinguished historian of religion at Utrecht, in the Netherlands urged the Jung Foundation in Zurich to buy the codex and succeeded. When he discovered that some pages were missing, he flew to Egypt in the spring of 1955 to locate them in the Coptic Museum. He borrowed photographs of some of the texts and when he deciphered them, he realized that it contained the Gospel According to Thomas; yet, unlike the gospels of the New Testament, this text identified itself as a secret gospel. Quispel also discovered that it contained many sayings known from the New Testament; but these sayings, placed in unfamiliar contexts, suggested other dimensions of meaning. Other passages, Quispel found, differed entirely from any known Christian tradition.

The finder later admitted that some of the texts were lost–burned up or thrown away. But what remains is astonishing: some fifty-two texts from the early centuries of the Christian era–including a collection of early Christian gospels, previously unknown.

Besides the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip, the find included the Gospel of Truth and the Gospel to the Egyptians Another group of texts consists of writings attributed to Jesus’ followers, such as the Secret Book of James, the Apocalypse of Paul, the Letter of Peter to Philip, and the Apocalypse of Peter.

What was discovered at Nag Hammadi were Coptic translations, made about 1,500 years ago, of still more ancient manuscripts. The originals themselves had been written in Greek, the language of the New Testament. About the dating of the manuscripts themselves there is little debate. They have been placed at ca. A.D. 350-400.

The texts had been buried and their suppression as banned documents were both part of a struggle critical for the formation of early Christianity. The Nag Hammadi texts, and others like them, which circulated at the beginning of the Christian era, were denounced as heresy by orthodox Christians in the middle of the second century.

This campaign against heresy involved an involuntary admission of its persuasive power; yet the bishops prevailed. By the time of the Emperor Constantine’s conversion, when Christianity became an officially approved religion in the fourth century, Christian bishops, previously victimized by the police, now commanded them.

But those who wrote and circulated these texts did not regard themselves as “heretics. These Christians are now called gnostics, from the Greek word gnosis, usually translated as “knowledge.” Those who claim to know nothing about ultimate reality are called agnostic (literally, “not knowing”), the person who does claim to know such things is called gnostic (“knowing”).

But gnosis is not primarily rational knowledge. The Greek language distinguishes between scientific or reflective knowledge (“He knows mathematics”) and knowing through observation or experience (“He knows me”), which is gnosis. As the gnostics use the term, we could translate it as “insight,” for gnosis involves an intuitive process of knowing oneself.

And to know oneself, they claimed, is to know human nature and human destiny. Yet to know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God; this is the secret of gnosis.

The main ideas in the Gnostic gospels are:

1) While Orthodox Jews and Christians insist that a chasm separates humanity from its creator, meaning that God is wholly other, some Gnostics believe that self-knowledge is knowledge of God and that the self and the Divine are identical. By knowing oneself, one might understand human nature and destiny.

2)  The “living Jesus” of these texts speaks of illusion and enlightenment, not of sin and repentance, like the Jesus of the New Testament. Instead of coming to save us from sin, he comes as a guide who opens access to spiritual understanding. But when the disciple attains enlightenment, Jesus no longer serves as his spiritual master: the two have become equal–even identical.

3) Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus is Lord and Son of God in a unique way: he remains forever distinct from the rest of humanity whom he came to save. Yet the gnostic Gospel of Thomas relates that as soon as Thomas recognizes him, Jesus says to Thomas that they have both received their being from the same source:

Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out…. He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.”

4) Gnostics emphasized spiritual “resurrection” (i.e,. spiritual rebirth) and physical “resurrection” (i.e., reincarnation). Christian Gnostics held the view that if spiritual resurrection was not attained in one lifetime, then the soul would be subjected to as many reincarnations as it takes until spiritual rebirth is attained. This is also taught in Theosophy.

5) The importance of Logos, the part of God that acts in the world. It is the perfect unity of the human and the divine. Everyone has the Logos within them and it is for this reason that Genesis describes humanity as created “in the image and likeness of God.” The Logos is the divine Spirit in humanity.

The identity of the divine and human, the concern with illusion and enlightenment, the founder who is presented not as Lord, but as spiritual guide sounds more Eastern than Western. Some scholars have suggested that if the names were changed, the “living Buddha” appropriately could say what the Gospel of Thomas attributes to the living Jesus and wonder if Hindu or Buddhist traditions have influenced Gnosticism. It is not conclusive but it is possible that what we call Eastern and Western religions, and  regard as separate streams, were not clearly differentiated 2,000 years ago.

The book has six chapters and Pagels does not attempt to summarize or examine in detail the Gnostic Gospels. She focuses instead on how Gnosticism affected the rise of the orthodox church that declared the Gnostics heretics.

We also learn that Gnostics maintained equality amongst individuals and established no fixed orders of clergy and that they allowed all individuals to seek to know God through their own experience and to achieve personal enlightenment through rigorous spiritual discipline and self-discovery.

The Christian church on the other hand developed a religious structure to encourage social interaction amongst individuals and required only that individuals accept the simplest essentials and put emphasis on a variety of church rituals.

The two most interesting chapters for me were “God the Father/God the Mother” in which she elaborates on the fact that instead of a monistic and masculine God, many of the texts speak of God as a “dyad who embraces both masculine and feminine elements”; and “Gnosis: Self-Knowledge as Knowledge of God”, in which we find out more about techniques of spiritual disciplines, such as getting rid of physical desires practicing meditation and praying.

The author mentions that much of the gnostic teaching on spiritual discipline remained, on principle, unwritten because Gnostic teachers shared most of it only verbally. Gnostic teachers had to take responsibility and pay individualized attention to each candidate and each candidate had to devote energy and time – often years – to the process.

 

 

Here are some websites that provide additional information on this book and topic:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/pagels.html
http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnation-gnostic.htm
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=10036
http://www.examiner.com/article/do-gnostics-believe-reincarnation

Reincarnation & Karma by Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was an American psychic who possessed the ability to answer questions on a variety of subjects. He is perhaps the most famous and most carefully documented psychic of the 20th century. His psychic abilities surfaced in his childhood and he began to use his unusual abilities starting as a young man for over forty years.

He would, usually twice a day, lie on a couch, go into a sleeplike state, and respond to questions. Over fourteen thousand of these discourses were carefully transcribed by his secretary and preserved by the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Cayce founded a nonprofit organization, the Association for Research and Enlightenment. Though Cayce himself was a member of the Disciples of Christ and lived before the emergence of the New Age Movement, some consider him the true founder of the movement and a principal source of its most characteristic beliefs.

Edgar Cayce was a deeply religious man who taught Sunday school all of his adult live and read the entire Bible once for every year that he lived. This book, Reincarnation & Karma, is a collection of discourses that address the concept of reincarnation and karma.

This book has two parts, one about reincarnation and one about karma. In the chapters about reincarnation we learn how Edgar Cayce answered in a sleep-like state questions about reincarnation, past-lives, the soul’s life between incarnations and on how to break free of the wheel of karma and reincarnation. In the chapters about karma we find out Edgar Casey’s discourse about karma including examples of karma and his tips for meeting karma.

He explained that every action and thought of every individual makes an impression upon the Universal Consciousness, an impression that can be psychically read. He correlated that with the Hindu concept of an Akashic Record. He stated that every soul remembers all of its experiences.

He said, that every form of life that man sees in a material world is an essence or manifestation of the Creator; in other words, that Life is a manifestation of the first cause – God. The first influences in the earth that brought selfishness was the desire to be as gods, in that rebellion became the order of the mental forces in the soul; and sin entered. Heaven and hell is built by the soul. [tooltip title=”” content=”Compare with The Gnostic Gospels under Religion” type=”classic” ]The gift of God is being conscious of being one with Him[/tooltip], yet apart from Him – or one with, yet apart from the Whole.

He addresses issues such as solar cycles, free will, and parent’s karma, the average fulfillment of the soul’s expectations, man’s development in the relativity of all forces and if Jesus should be described as the soul who first went through the cycle of earthly lives to attain perfection, including perfection in the planetary lives.

He advises us to use Him as the Ideal and understand that there is duty to oneself, to family, to society, to work and work relations and that all these duties must be weighed and made into oneness of purpose. At the end of the chapter about reincarnation he points out that an experience will convince a person of reincarnation and that the gospels of John in the New Testament teach reincarnation.

In the second chapter about reincarnation we are exposed to insightful past-life readings and Cayce explains in some cases the astrological influences these “entities” (clients) were exposed to in their lives. He mentions more than once, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”; this rule of cause and effect he addresses again later in the book when he talks about karma.

One of the clients asks him about his associations with particular people from this live in past lives implying that we reincarnate at least sometimes with the same people we have lived in past lives. In some of the readings he explains what the client has learned in a particular past life.

In the last part of the chapter we find out more about Edgar Cayce’s own past lives. One of the most important messages in this part is, that we have to understand that God is God, and that the Divine demands of us that we know ourselves, so that we may better serve our fellow human beings.

In the chapter about the soul’s life between incarnations we learn that after our death our consciousness understands that there have been failures and that there are needs for help. Then help is consciously sought because “[tooltip title=”” content=”Compare with Theosophy under Philosophy” type=”classic” ]Only they that seek shall find[/tooltip]!”. That’s where we decide in what body to reincarnate based on the plane of our consciousness. In this chapter he also explains the planetary influences on our lives, that each planetary influence vibrates at a different rate of vibration and that based on the universal law we can change our rate of vibration. He emphasizes that individuals have to magnify what is good and minimize what is false. But he does point out, that no influence surpasses the will of an individual.

I found one reading particularly helpful in which he tells the client that he had become discouraged in past lives when he was exposed to accusations of unkind things or lost confidence in friends and reminded him to stay committed to himself in this life. In another reading he shows how to subdue negative planetary influences.

In the last chapter about reincarnation we encounter readings where he reveals to clients (entities) information about former lives and reasons why people would not have to reincarnate anymore if they so choose. In the editor’s notes we find out that apparently the people who made changes within themselves, in their hearts and minds have a chance to stop the wheel of karma and reincarnation, unless they want to come back to “lead the way to those that are still in darkness”. Those readings revealed a lot of information about different aspects of spiritually developed lives. For me personally the most important messages in this chapter were the readings who advised “to be patient and to speak gently and kindly to those who falter and not to judge the activities of others but rather pray that the light may shine even in their lives as it has in thine”; “it is not what a mind knows but what the mind applies or does about that it knows, that makes for soul, mental or material advancements”; “for as you do it unto the least of these; thy brethren, ye do it unto thy Maker”; “to be true to the duties set by self”; and that “God looks upon the purposes, the ideals of the heart, and not upon that which men call convention”.

In the first chapter of the second part of the book Edgar Cayce explains that Karma can be considered as philosophy, as religion or as science in the manner of cause and effect and that we must consider that “karma may mean the development for self “. Hence, Destiny is: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

In the last two chapters he provides examples of cause and effect and tips for meeting one’s karma, and how to get from karma to grace.

Initiation by Elisabeth Haich

Elisabeth Haich (1897-1994) was a Spiritual Teacher and author of several books dedicated to spiritual subjects.

She was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. After the end of the World War II, she fled to Switzerland and founded with Selvarajan Yesudian a yoga school in Europe.

In her best known book Initiation, Elisabeth Haich relates the dramatic story of her past life, her apprenticeship with Divine Ptahotep and her introduction to yoga in ancient Egypt.

I would say that this book brought me on my path and eventually to Theosophy. I have read it numerous times and love it today as much as I loved it over 30 years ago.

In this book, which you can even find in pdf-format online Elisabeth Haich starts out with her earliest memory when she felt pain, how she awakened to consciousness, became accustomed to the fact that she was a child and shared her feelings how she thought early on that her father was not her “real” father”.

The concept ‘Father’ was identical in her mind with that of the ‘Great One’ who was above everyone and whose will everyone had to follow. His word is law, and obviously he is perfect. If it were not so, he would not be the ‘Great Master’!

She was over-sensitive as a child and had a reoccurring nightmare about a lion chasing her. She learned to read early and loved to read books.

She had a vision as a young girl of her “real father’s” loving blue eyes and remembers hearing his voice saying that she can’t obtain true things through false things when she came up with a signature that did not feel true to herself because she was always seeking a kind of eternal unity in friendship.

When Elisabeth Haich was nine, her brother saw a “Red Man” when he had pneumonia as a 2 year old and she did not understand the meaning of this until she visited India later in her life.

Still young she discovered Shakespeare, Ethnographical Research and the Encyclopedia. She also had a lot of interest in black magic, occultism, and ceremonies.

By performing in front of her family she had become accustomed to bringing things forth out of her inner world irrespective of whether her audience understood her truths or not. Already then she spoke for the sake of truth itself, and only one listener was important: God!

Without knowing what she was doing she started to practice certain poses that made her feel better, which nobody understood until a man who had traveled often to the Far East identified them as Yoga exercises.

Her first attraction to a young man served her to become very educated, learn several languages and develop a very strong will-power because he was ambitious and wanted her to be submissive and consider herself as his property. They even got engaged but at the age of nineteen her will was so strong that she let him know that she did not want to be his wife. She had lost all respect for him because of his domineering, tyrannical but sometimes cowardly behavior.

She understood early on that the path of her life could be only her own (compare with “Initiation” by Annie Besant), and that she could not accept the advice her mother gave her in respect to her future. During her engagement her attention was guided towards a world lying hidden deep within the human being: the unknown, unconscious world of the human self.

At 15 she discovered that she could sometimes see the future; at first through dreams and much later in her life trough an act of will.

While visiting her aunt at the age of 19 she thought the first time about death and asked herself why we should go through all the trouble of learning things. That’s when she heard that voice again telling her that only through the portals of death can she be released from her body, and that she cannot escape death.

During that visit she fell in love with a young man who showed compassion and they got engaged. During that time she had the first time a dream about her past life in Egypt – she heard that she will have to be in the tomb for 3000 years. She suddenly remembered that she had been the daughter and wife of the Pharao.

She tells the story of her wedding, how much she disliked the formality and that she didn’t feel that it was a special day. At the same time she felt great happiness and love.  At the beginning of her marriage she thought of death the second time in her life, and realized that in the days when she had not experienced happiness yet, she had been actually much happier because she did not yet have the possibility of losing her happiness!

Because everything lasts only for a time, because nothing is permanent, because everything dies, everything passes away, everything must pass away!

She bore within herself constantly a heavy spiritual burden without being able to shake it off. Sooner or later, however, a constant burden on the soul is bound to affect the body – she could never feel completely free and happy. The consequence was that she almost became blind. She was deeply concerned and saddened by the black streaks in her eyes but she hid those feelings on the outside. She had to receive salt injections into the eye and had to stay completely still despite the pain. She did not know at the time that  she was learning to control the natural instincts, the most advanced Yoga exercises which eventually bring about complete control over all bodily functions.

After that she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy. When she sees her son she asks herself ‘Is that my child?’ But she feels that only its body is ‘her child’, otherwise it is an independent being she knew has come into being as ‘their child’.

The birth was very difficult and she was very weak for some time. Her eyes had gotten better but were very sensitive to light. During her son’s young years she remembers spending many beautiful days with her extended family and friends and the secret sources of energy of the sea completely renewed her. She returned home in excellent health and very much more able to stand light.

On the surface everything seemed in order. Nevertheless she was not happy! She did not know why. An inner discontentment grew in her until she could not disregard it any more.

She was searching for fulfillment of an eternal nature, a real union which remains! She was searching for a union in which the identity of herself and that of her lover became one and the same thing. She desired to participate in his soul, his thoughts, his whole being! She wanted to become him! Then she understood that the physical union is a desperate attempt to become one being—every fiber and muscle is strained to the highest pitch—and in the moment when both believe that they have achieved fulfillment, they fall apart … without ever attaining union.

The body cannot carry within itself a wish which cannot be fulfilled by reason of its own presence. Who and what therefore desires this supreme union? It can only be the immaterial spirit, the self. Yet it is the body which itself impedes our success. Now she realized what is meant by the ‘fall from paradise’! This night was the turning point in her life. Sex can satisfy only the body, but never the soul, the self. Never could sexual satisfaction appease this desire!

She tried to find the truth by studying. Since religion had not answered her questions she started to read European Thinkers.

Once when she meditated again on death she heard the voice: “Life and death alternate in an everlasting circle. Death is but the other side of life …’.That’s when she remembered an event as a child standing in front of the mirror and understands the concept of reincarnation.  The body dies but the self remains and will one day “wake up with two new eyes” and that in the ‘unconscious’ there is no ‘time concept’. And that’s when she realized the dreams when she was young had brought an earlier life into consciousness.

Her search for the other world and the life beyond this one and her ideas about re-incarnation turned her attention to spiritualism. She experimented with a pen that on the third day made her write things. While the pencil was writing, she observed her arm and her hand. Whence came the force that moved my hand? If the pencil could write all by itself, she reflected, every pencil lying around could stand up and start writing.

Therefore, without any doubt, the pencil was being moved by her arm, but without her having wanted to do so. Consequently she concluded that the force must be coming from a source outside her own consciousness, but doubtless from her. Then she experimented with telepathy with her husband and followed the “materialized will” of her husband. She was thrilled by the new experience, the fact that the human will flows out of the solar plexus, literally reaching another person, embracing him like an octopus, and even cancelling out the effect of gravity. After the experiment she understood that it is only subjective when we feel something to be matter. Force gives us the impression of matter.

We can decide whether we want to compare this ‘material’ manifestation of the human will with a form of matter or with electric current. The result is the same in either case, for modern science knows that matter is nothing but a form of energy (compare with Quantumphysics), a vibration, and only gives us the impression of being matter because it is impenetrable for us. When she experimented with others she realized that everybody’s current is different. She understood clearly and in an almost physically palpable manner the real meaning of sympathy and antipathy: emanations that give and those that absorb. The former radiate strength, while the latter cling to a person like the arms of an octopus, drawing out and absorbing his strength. She also learned during this very tiring exercises that cultured, self-disciplined people emit very different radiations from those of coarse and uncouth people living only for the satisfaction of their instincts. These radiations cannot be hidden, falsified, counterfeited or ‘explained away’. They reveal immediately the kind of person one is dealing with. She stopped with those exercises after a few years because they were extremely tiring and there are a lot of people out there who don’t understand the power of the unconsciousness.

In her opinion only people who are strong enough to resist all influences, have deep psychological knowledge, extensive experience and an enormous conscious will power and self-control should concern themselves and experiment with spiritualism.

Spiritualism finally led her to the study of psychology. After doing a lot of readings she met a psychologist and got access to patients in mental institutions. Hell lay open before  her very eyes during that time, and in desperation she stood on the brink of an unfathomable ocean of suffering, desperate at the helplessness of mankind in the face of this terrible misery. She felt that something must be done! Everybody must be informed about the causes of mental disease. Healthy people everywhere must work together with united efforts to fight this misery.

As she was thinking how to help she again heard the familiar voice inside hersef: ‘Where will you find some help? Inside yourself! Don’t you see this is just the trouble—everybody is waiting for help from outside, and as everybody is expecting help and not giving it, nobody gets help. But if everybody would give help, everybody would receive it too. Then the whole world could be freed of suffering!’ Then she said: “Nothing else in life can interest me any more, nothing can make me really happy again as long as I constantly carry the sufferings of others in my consciousness. I want to be a co-worker in the salvation of the world!” That’s when the voice warned her that this would mean duty and sacrifice; said that she would have to put an end to her imperfections! That she must never forget herself for even a minute. She must always be on guard that she does not do a single thing in contradiction to the eternal laws of life. All the temptations she had not been able to withstand so far in her life will come back to haunt her again and woe to her if she does not withstand them. No mortal can play with the divine forces. She may never again use the powers you achieve as a co-worker for your own personal ends. After assuring the voice that she meant what she said he reminded her not to forget herself this time.

She started to investigate her motivation for every action, her inner thoughts. She kept herself constantly, uninterruptedly under observation. She learned that we have to control our instincts, desires and passions. She continued to study psychology and philosophy, without neglecting her woodcarving or her music. Artistic work provided her a wonderful opportunity to turn inward spiritually and to ponder all kinds of questions. She also started lessons in sculpt work.

One night she continued to see everything despite her closed eyes, but in a transparent way. Then she had a period where she had a lot of visions. One led to a heart attack and the realization that the fear of death is a physical condition. She was between life and death and when she decided she wanted to die she felt infinity, and saw a long road winding onward, and at its end, beyond everything material, standing in eternity, the majestic form of a (compare with Proof of Heaven) man made of blinding light, his arms stretched out in indescribable love. He seemed infinitely far away from her, and his countenance shone with such an intensely powerful light that it blinded her and she could not see his features. Nevertheless, she recognized him as the Savior of the world. Then she saw the road towards the light where many, many souls were walking and she guided them.  That’s when she realized that she would not die and that she still has a lot of work to do.

Another time she remembered a past life and when she told her husband he remembered it as well. He added that since that life he learnt to recognize the value of money. And he had come to realize that the worth of a human being begins when he is able to make a living for himself and his family. All of these views now lie anchored deep in his subconscious because of what he had learned and came to realize in that incarnation.

The next vision was a horrible apparition looking like a witch, which was already carrying her child in its arm and trying to escape. The witch was the personified servant of the ‘evil one’. She simply knew it. That witch was reality, a fact! Had the whole scene been merely a projection, an illusion? Why do we all carry this picture in our subconscious, if it really does come from our subconscious? She was convinced that the entire struggle occurred only between forces and not between ‘bodies’.

Another time she saw two beings with a pole and a loathsome greenish mass hanging from it coming towards the house. To express the matter in different terms, she did not really see these beings themselves but the hole they made in the rays of light where they were.

Soon after that her son got very ill and fought for his life. She took care of him and realized that a mother does not take care of her child for its sake, but for her own sake!
She understood that she was not allowed to pray to the greatest power, the Creator, for personal, subjective things; for He knows what is good and why.  And the child? For him too it is certainly best for God’s will to be done, whatever that may be. So as she sat there with her boy she was praying constantly, ‘Thy will be done … Thy will be done …’.  After six weeks the swelling broke and released a loathsome greenish mass which looked exactly like a ghost depicted in a Disney movie – and then the boy got better. Soon after this illness her son remembered a previous life as a black person.

When Elisabeth’s health condition due to the vaccine worsened again and doctors recommended surgery, a friend taught her to do certain Yoga exercises to get better instead. She did follow his advice,  paid attention to her consciousness and that worked.

During that time of her life she often felt that she was doing nothing even though she did a lot all day.  But it was for herself. Then she realized that every person who awakens and sees the goal of life goes through the growing pains of wanting to save humanity instead of first saving himself!

Her inner voice told her that talent without diligence and diligence without talent is not art. She understood that she had to combine her talent with diligence. She was told that she had talents which she simply allowed to lie idle: the ability to express the spirit. Practice the artless art. That’s when she became acquainted with Ayurvedic medicine and read other spiritual books.

In many of the readings it was repeated that Yoga is the way to plunge deeper into the secrets of human life and that there are various paths in Yoga: physical, mental, and spiritual exercises in concentration. During that time more and more people came to her to find the path to happiness and in order to practice Yoga she went to a small place in the mountains all by herself. The long exercises in concentration and meditation helped her to penetrate into the profoundest regions of her psyche.

And one day she not only saw the light and the loving eyes, but him.

She understood that he had always seen her. And that’s when she remembered her past life in Egypt. Her 16th birthday, the wedding to her father, the Pharao, how vain she was, how she could see the soul in people’s eyes and that she had one wish at the wedding – to become initiated because she was from the race of “Sons of God” and wore the  hoop that ends with the head of a serpent – a sign of the ruling race and the initiates.

Her father, the Pharao had come to the earth with the duty of guiding and governing people in their earthly life. She understood that the members of this race even kept their spiritual consciousness when they were born into their bodies. They never forget that only the body can be ‘a child’ or ‘an adult’ and that the spirit is and always remains the same.

The only thing which she thought could make her happy was what was in her, what was identical with her, but not things outside herself. Pharao send her to his brother Phahhotep, the highest of all Priests. He had come to earth with the duty and the task of leading the sons of men in their spiritual life and initiating them in the sciences. He stood above her father because he never identified himself with his body, whereas her father had married and thus anchored himself more firmly in the material plane. She says that God alone is the only one before whom one should fall to his knees, never a visible form.

Phahhotep begins his explanations:

Initiation means becoming conscious, that she is now conscious to a degree corresponding to the resistance of her nerves and body. When a person becomes conscious to a higher spiritual degree, he automatically guides higher, stronger, more penetrating powers into his body. For this reason, he must also raise the level of resistance of his nerves and body. He warns her that she is not ready because she had not yet learned to control the divinely creative power within her body. If she made herself conscious of this power on the spiritual plane before having learned to control it in its physical manifestation, this would mean a very great danger for her.

To be courageous in the face of a danger we do not know is neither courage nor power, but only ignorance and weakness! Love is the manifestation of divine creative force and is therefore as strong as God himself! You cannot destroy this creative force; you could only transform it. But if you don’t know this force, you can’t know how it can be transformed. One of the requirements of initiation is absolute self control.

Eventually she get permission to go the path of initiation because it is a law that when a member of the tribe of the Sons of God asks three times to be initiated, the priests cannot refuse him any longer.

After her father explains the earth’ development in detail, why some changes on earth appear suddenly, that in some periods change is very noticeable, that a very different race (they manifested completely the law of spirit and not the law of matter like the races of people living today; they also knew the secret connected with the transformation of force into matter and of matter into force) used to live on earth before; that other creatures lived at the same time and they were the ancestors of  present-day men and that the race of the sons of men in the country now represent a cross between these two races; that the power on earth is gradually falling more and more into the hands of ever more material races of people who were once under the guidance of higher, more spiritual races; and little by little the higher race is dying out, so that humanity may, without visible guidance, climb upward with its own power. The higher race had to implant its special powers in the lower race to enable the lower race—after a long, long process of development—to arise out of matter again. This is why many sons of the divine race made the great sacrifice of begetting children with the daughters of primitive man. There are men strong physically and others spiritually which leads to countries being led by men with different character. He also tells of a continent that was completely destroyed and why; and that some Sons of God were able to flee in time and created new civilizations. He explains that the Sons of God did not have to do physical work and used instruments with which they could control the gravitational force of the earth at will, neutralizing it or amplifying it. He further explains that they were able to shift their consciousness into the past or into the future at will and could move their consciousness to any place they wished, and that he could establish spiritual contact at any time with his brother Ptahhotep.  Only persons who have achieved perfect unselfishness can have such abilities.

After that she started the path of initiation, working on becoming conscious on the highest level, the divine plane. She strengthened her nerves, built up her resistance through physical and spiritual training to prepare the nerve center and worked on concentration.
The great initiation means consciously experiencing the vital energy and creative vibrations of eternal being, experiencing these vibrations on every plane of development and in their original frequency, without transformation, and simultaneously conducting these vibrations into the nerves and the body.

Every morning at sunrise the neophytes had to assemble in the garden. They began with physical exercises. The exercises involved strong concentration. They assumes various body postures and, while doing breathing exercises, had to guide their consciousness into different parts of the body. Through long and patient practice in this way they could make the entire body completely conscious, move at will, control and guide the smallest parts of the body and all internal organs.

Each neophyte started the morning with physical exercises involving strong concentration, followed by training of the mind and soul, by controlling emotions and were taken through the seven hells and seven heavens. The exercises made them independent of both external events and own personal moods. They were taught constant inner watchfulness and presence of mind. They discovered that every state of consciousness arises—and can only arise—within ourselves. She learns that it is impossible to concentrate on words – that one has to concentrate on the meaning. But then the meaning was not in the head but in the heart. She discovered that concentration cannot be a permanent condition, but only a transition between the projected world and being.

The next step she had to practice was to keep silent. She also learned that during concentration one goes through three phases – intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. In the spiritual concentration one becomes identical with the object of concentration. After that she had to concentrate on herself – consider what she was, feel what she was and then be what she was.

One day her father explained good and evil to her: The white stone, that is nothing and everything; the positive form of the leaf and the negative background when drawn on the white stone; before that the form of the leaf was not yet separated from the Everything that is contained in this Nothing. When the leaf appeared on the wall, it became separated from the Everything, and therefore recognizable. The fact that this leaf appears in green color means that it has left behind in the Everything its form in the complementary color, in this case red, as its invisible, negative picture.

He tells her whatever one see as he looks  is only recognizable because it has separated itself from its complementary half and the latter has remained behind in the invisible, unmanifested state.

She learns that one can achieve knowledge only through comparing the two sides, positive and negative, which have become separated from each other. As long as these
two sides are together, resting in each other, one can’t perceive or recognize anything.

Nothing can ever be manifested and  made recognizable, unless its opposite—its complementary half—is simultaneously present unmanifested! Inseparable divine unity therefore manifests itself always and everywhere; for even in this seeming separation, it continues to be active everywhere as the ever-present attractive force between positive and negative. The inherent force dwelling in everything that exists and drawing every created form back into the original unity is what we call God.

‘Both good and evil have arisen only through separation from unity which itself is neither good nor evil but divine. Only through separation is it possible to achieve recognition and knowledge. Consequently the recognizable world must consist of good and evil. If this were not so, it would not be recognizable and could not exist at all. God is unity itself.
Creation always means a half of the whole … the half which has fallen out of unity and which has become recognizable through comparisons, while its complementary half has remained behind, unmanifested. That’s why you can never find and never recognize God—the creator—in the world of creation, simply because God has no complementary half with which he could be compared. There is absolutely no possibility of comparing him, and so there is no possibility of recognizing him.—You can only BE God! God can be present everywhere as the self in every created form.

God is indivisible unity. And our body is the result of separation; it is only the visible half of our own true self. The other half has remained in the unmanifested, unconscious part of our being. By uniting these two complementary halves with each other, we can return to divine unity! Nevertheless we still can experience, in the body, this divine reunion with our complementary half: In a state of consciousness! We can expand our consciousness until we make the unconscious part of us completely conscious!

As long as a creature seeks its complementary half outside itself, in the created, recognizable world, it will never find unity, simply because its complementary half isn’t outside itself, manifested, separate from itself, but on the contrary, unseparated from itself, in its own unmanifested part, in its unconscious.

When you unite in your consciousness two halves of yourself, you’ve found your way back into the infinite all and nothing, you’ve become identical with God again!

Then she has to study the twelve sets of opposites and learn to control them because in order to be a useful co-worker in this great plan, one must first master the whole scale of the sets of opposites. Mastering these attributes means that we use them at the right time and in the right place. The same attribute that is divine at the right time and in the right place is satanically evil at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

‘These twelve sets of opposite characteristics are:

keeping silent talking
reciptivity (receptive and open to everything that is high and beautiful) resistance to influence (spineless capitulation)
obeying (God’s will/ We can recognize God’s will when we thoroughly examine everything that is asked of you to be sure that it is in agreement with your innermost conviction.) ruling (means giving ignorant and weak people some of the ruler’s ownwillpower.)
humility (towards the divine) self confidence (having confidence in the God dwelling within your heart, but not in the phantom being of your person as such)
lightning-like speed (You must learn, instantaneously, without hesitation, to choose the best of a number of different possibilities) divine circumspection (Before acting, you must control your temper and with lots of patience allow the decision to ripen within you)
accept everything (that fate brings you; never be affected by the way ignorant peopletreat you) to be able to differentiate (as a representative of divine guidance, must defend yourself against humiliation or calumny; to withdraw modestly from glorification by the crowds; To accept everything must never be allowed to degenerate into apathetic indifference or cowardly lack of character.)
ability to fight (with all your energy for the divinity on earth; don’t quarrel) peace (And even though you must often fight bravely, you must not forget thatyou have to fight with spiritual weapons in order to bring peace to the earth)
caution (to decide the right time and right place to use this divine gift) courage (not fear any danger.You must stride forth courageously to face any difficulty, valiantly fending off any attack against the divine)
to possess nothing (nothing, absolutely nothing, ever or anywhere really belongs to you; everything is God’s property) to command everything (You must master the art of being able to acquire as many material things as you need for your earthly task. And remember well that as long as you are on earth, you’ll have to be dealing with matter, not without it, and certainly not against it.)
to have no ties (don’t be attached to anyone; Don’t love the person, but love the divine within the person, tolerate the earthly, and go around the demonic) loyalty (You should be loyal, in life and in death, toward the people in whom you have recognized God’s manifestations. You love your master and your coworkers in the great divine plan because you have recognized God in them)
contempt for death (you must have the unshakeable conviction that there is no death at all; when you’ve become identical in your consciousness with life, you won’t shrink back in fear of death whenever your task brings you into mortal danger.) regard for life (You must appreciate life above everything else. Life is God himself; don’t expose yourself to danger)
indifference (give up your personal viewpoint, your personal inclinations and feelings, learning to love everything and everyone without distinction or discrimination, just as God himself loves everything and everyone!) love (‘When absolutely constant and completely impartial love radiates from you to all creatures, your love will never again be mixed with personal inclinations or antipathies. You too must let your fellow human beings apply their free will, and you must never compel them to do anything by force.)‘In every living creature there is the striving towards divine unity. The male seeks the female, and the female seeks the male. That is the attraction between the two forms of manifestation of creative forces …’

She continues telling about the ceremony when she becomes the Pharao’s wife and explains how she practices here telepathic abilities. She begins by fixing her entire attention on one single thought. With her eyes closed, she had to imagine the person she wanted to reach, seeing him with her inward eye, his body, his face, his eyes, and imagining she is he and he is she. She had to practice in three stages and on two levels (with the person closes by; at a distance with the other person knowing and then without arrangement; she had to practice to send and receive messages).

She worked on always remaining master of all her physical, spiritual and mental forces. She had to partake in public life in the afternoons and it’s sometimes hard because the Sons of God live consciously the spirit and are not so materialistic as the sons of men. She felt that people are slaves of their physical desires. She understood that the sons of men didn’t really know that earthly life is only a journey between being born into the body and leaving it at death, whereas the self is the same in every living creature. She can detect liars because lies create a kind of insulation around them and develop a dark shadow, like smoke, in their radiation. She learned about the development of the races and that the last initiate will destroy the devices and equipment through which they control the forces of nature. The tyranny of self-seeking rulers will awaken people out of their unconscious state. Through pain and suffering their attention will be guided to higher, spiritual truth.
Whenever spiritual darkness is so great that it threatens to get completely out of hand, there will always be some of the Sons of God ready to make the great sacrifice of descending to earth, being reborn in a human body, and in this way bringing divine light and consolation to humanity. ‘Through the intermarriages between the divine race and the human, the inheritable divine characteristics will be propagated among the people. In this way it will always be possible for a Son of God, through a pure woman, to receive a body with all the organs he needs to manifest himself completely. Their spiritual light will reach out in ever-greater waves, into ever-wider circles. The names of these spiritual giants will be known for thousands of years, and people will study their works hi the highest schools of the sons of men.

All the Sons of God have always brought and always will bring the same truth into different parts of the earth, but people will interpret it differently depending on the characteristics of their race and their degree of development. These different interpretations, as they get passed on to later generations, will give rise to different religions all springing from the same truths. One and the same Son of God will reincarnate himself at different times and in different places of the earth in order to proclaim the highest truth to humanity. And from the same truth proclaimed by the same spirit, people in different parts of the earth will develop different religions. Because of such differences arising merely from human ignorance, people will make war upon each other, trying to send each other to hell “in the name of God”.

In this way they will discover step by step that they don’t need to earn their bread through dull, difficult drudgery, that they don’t need to water the earth with the sweat of their brow, and that by activating their higher nerve canters they can command the forces of nature.

One day she and her father were out on a sea and find a young boy shipwrecked. He is  half dead and her father revived him with a life-giving staff resembling a cross with a ring on the top. She wanted to take care of him with the help of others and get him educated at the temple during the day.

She learned the use of the staff,  to speed up or slow down her heartbeat at will; and to bring her organs under her will.  She  was told when breathing to realize that not she is inhaling and exhaling, but that we are being inhaled and exhaled by our body.

People know very little about the laws of nature, with the exception of those they have experienced in daily life. But when they are suddenly confronted by some phenomenon they know nothing about, they immediately speak of “miracles” or “magic”. ‘People do not realize that these forces are no less laws of nature than those to which they have become accustomed to and think they know.

Everything, which has taken on material form, is visible and perceivable only because it has fallen out of perfect unity and perfect equilibrium. But from this state of disjunction, everything tends eternally to return to unison and balance. All energy, all the forces of the universe, are movements which emanate from one point—their own center—and radiate in circular waves in all directions, manifesting themselves as vibrations or oscillations. ‘The fact that the creative force manifests itself on each and every level of innumerable possibilities means there are countless different wave lengths, wave forms, and frequencies. Throughout the universe, countless varieties of vibrations are at work and all the myriad manifestations of creation are the effects of various forms of these rays. The whole universe consists of these various vibrations. The source of these creative vibrations we call God. God himself stands above all manifestations of life and rests in himself in absolute equilibrium without time and without space. But he is constantly radiating himself out into material forms in order to give these forms life. As God is omnipresent and fills the entire universe, everything that is in the universe is penetrated and filled by God.

This aspect of God who creates the material world and gives it life by penetrating it, that is, the actual life in us and in all creatures, we call the “higher self”. Expressions like “God”, “creator”, “universal self”, “higher self”(Logos) or the “creative principle” all mean one and the same divinity in its various aspects. The picture—the “name”—of God who manifests himself in the visible world is a circle, an inner circle of higher powers surrounded by a hard, material rind or crust. (This is also mentioned in the book Proof of Heaven). Expressed in letters, the symbol is OM. Another opposing force—centripetal force—is also active at the same time, drawing all material manifestations inward towards itself. One should never mistake this divine self for the personal “I” which in itself has no true existence and is merely an imaginary being.

The vital source behind every form of manifestation, be it a sun, planet, human being, animal, plant life or inorganic matter is one and the same God, the same divine self.

Each level of manifestation of life is characterized by its own degree of consciousness which is one octave removed from the next. Only man has the power to manifest several degrees of consciousness, all the way up to the divine level. Man, as a category, occupies four steps of the great ladder of evolution reaching from earth up to heaven; furthermore we see that each step corresponds to one octave on the scale of vibrations. Man knows about these four steps or degrees and has given them names: man characterized by his intellect; genius, characterized by intuition; prophet, characterized by his wisdom and universal love; and the last and highest degree, that of the God man, characterized by his omniscience and omnipotence. Every creature emits the vibrations of which it is made, that is, those which it consciously supports.

Matter: manifests itself as body – only through contraction, cooling off, and hardening

Plant: manifests two forces – on the material level and the level of force—vegetative force (searching, taking in and digesting food) —that gives life to it.

Animal: manifests three forces, the material, the vegetative and animal; conscious on the animal level: it has emotions, instincts, urges, feelings, sympathy, antipathy and desires

Average Man: stands one octave of vibrations higher because he is conscious on the mental level. He has intellect and the ability to think. But at the same time he manifests the three other levels. Man thinks consciously.

Genius: man lifts his consciousness out of the world of effects into the plane of causes. With the help of his intellect and spiritual power he is able to express his experiences on a higher plane in words or in other arts (music, painter, sculptor, dancer) and transmit them to his fellow men.

Prophet: manifests all the forces that work on the previously mentioned planes of consciousness, but he is also conscious on the next higher level too, the plane of divine wisdom and universal love. This love is universal, always giving, never taking, needs no supplement, no physical manifestation, but always radiates from the consciousness of divine all-unity.

God-man: is a person who manifests God— his own divine self—completely and perfectly through a perfect consciousness; one who experiences and radiates the divine creative forces in their primordial untransformed vibrations and frequencies.

Our will power is consumed by two great factors: time and space.

Sickness means that the vibrations of the body have gotten out of harmony. We restore the inharmonious part of the body to its own proper vibration and the person gets well. Every organ has its own characteristic vibration. This means that every organ is as it is because it has a certain characteristic vibration, and this vibration is constantly acting within it and maintaining it. When this vibration changes, the organ concerned becomes diseased.

The earth too has its complementary half in the unmanifested state, and the force of gravitation it exerts on all the creatures and objects living on it is the striving for reunification between the earth and its unmanifested complementary half which has been left behind in the void as its negative reflection. The resistance of matter keeps the earth and all creation from disappearing and being annihilated.

A return to the paradisiacal divine unity—to God—is only possible through the spiritualization of the matter, that is, through the transformation of matter into spirit! But matter, all by itself, could never become spirit without spiritual help. That’s why one aspect of God comes down into matter, clothes itself in matter, assumes material characteristics, and animates it as the self in order to make possible its spiritualization, its salvation.
The next lecture she received was about the pyramids, how they were built and why the particular format was chosen.

The first source of all truth and of all manifestation is the eternal being— God. But God is in the unmanifested state beyond time and space, and only his manifestations appears as projections in the three-dimensional world.

The fact that even the most primitive man has a concept of God shows that divine consciousness is dwelling within him, even though only very dimly and to the lowest degree. On the other hand, to become conscious in God, to understand God completely, and to be God means to become completely one with one’s own divine self, with the God dwelling within.

Man can never find God by seeking outside himself! When man seeks to return to God and re-establish his identity with him he must follow the same path with his consciousness: he must draw his consciousness more and more from his own little personal “I”—deeper and deeper into himself—turning to his own true self, to his creator, until he consciously recognizes himself in Him. (Compare with “Yoga and Christianity”.)

In the field of geometry, the form of the equilateral triangle is the symbolic image of God in which the recognizer, the recognized and the recognition are one and the same: 1 in 3 and 3 in 1.

As long as the numbers 1 and 3 form a unity in divinity, they remain 3 in 1 and 1 in 3. But when they emerge from the divine condition of unity, they separate, and out of the “1 in 3” there emerges “1 and 3”, and that makes 4. The equilateral triangle contains, hidden within itself, 4 smaller equilateral triangles.

This law also contains the secret of the key number of the three-dimensional world: the number 7.

In order for a force to emerge from the dimensionless state and manifest itself, it needs a point of departure. Because a point consists of only one single factor, it bears within itself the number of unity, the number 1.

First dimension – length: Line is always bound to involve three factors, its starting point, its end point, and the intervening space between the two. Thus the line represents the number 3, the key number for the 1-dimensional world.

In order for the number 2 to arise, there has to be a splitting of unity. The number 2 can only be born when two units are set beside each other. But inasmuch as nothing has any real existence outside unity, unity must project a reflection outside itself. Thus there arises a fission, a separation, which means the death of unity. That’s why the word for “doubt” is so closely related to the word for 2. This is true in every language.

Second dimension – width: A line consists of a series of points. Assuming the creative energy is active in each of these points with the same force and for the same period of time, each of these points moves outward from itself into the second dimension; each of them becomes a line, and out of the totality of these lines a plane is created: An equilateral rectangle. The rectangle is four in one and one in four and thus consists of five
factors: the four manifested lines: Line of departure, terminal line, right and
left lateral lines, and the fifth factor: the non-manifested area enclosed by
these lines. The key number is 5

Third dimension – height: The cube is six in one and one in six and it consists of seven factors: the six manifested limiting planes and the seventh, unmanifested factor, its cubic contents. The key number of the three-dimensional world is the number seven.

Just like the equilateral triangle, which makes up its mantle, the tetrahedron is the very incarnation of harmony and equilibrium. Since each of its corner points is equally distant from each of the others, there is no strain or tension in a tetrahedron, but rather a condition of rest in equilibrium.

Only man is able to manifest his higher self-—that is God—through his thoughts, words and deeds, when he identifies his consciousness, not with his body, but with its spiritual content, with his self. As long as a person identifies himself only with his body, he is like an opaque cube in that he reveals only the characteristics of matter, crowding the divine creative principle into a latent, unmanifested state.

But the shape of the cut cube turned inside out is the pyramid. Thus we see the pyramid is the symbolic form of the God-man, who reveals his divine, selfless nature and completely manifests God on earth.

By way of contrast, the symbolic representation of materialistic man who uses his intellect for the service of his material being is the cross—or a “T”— formed out of the four squares making up the surface of the cube. On this cross, or “T” the secret, indwelling, divine self is crucified. It is crucified on the two great beams of the three-dimensional world—on time and space—and dies on this cross of matter. Its death, however, is not final!

By cutting all four corners of a cube you would find the cube doesn’t contain just one tetrahedron, but two of them, one within the other, each an exact reflection of the other. These two tetrahedrons represent the innermost law of the recognizable world: the inseparable relationship between the two complementary halves—the positive and the negative—which, self-contained each within the other, form a perfect equilibrium and sit, as creative spirits, on the right hand and on the left hand of divinity. In creation they rule as two opposite laws: the law of spirit and the law of matter.

Spirit is life, matter is resistance. The law of the spirit is radiation, giving, selflessness. The law of matter is drawing inward, cooling off, paralysis.

The reflected image which has only been able to become spirit by virtue of the fact that God, as the self of the living creatures, has breathed his own life into matter, is Satan. Thus you can see that Satan is the law of matter come alive through the divine spirit. Satan lies dead in matter, as its law, until with its own life the divine spirit makes him come alive.

Whenever man’s consciousness identifies itself with the law of matter so that his thinking, words and deeds, instead of serving the divine law, serve the law of matter, man is bringing Satan to life, man is becoming satanic himself. Without man Satan cannot exist; for without the self of man, Satan is only an unconscious force, a necessary natural law of matter.

Satan can come to life only in the consciousness of a person who manifests the law of matter, the law of the flesh, in his spirit; who identifies his consciousness with his person, with his lower nature, with the drives and urges dwelling in his flesh, with the urge of self-preservation and propagation of the species. Such a person manifests the centripetal, coagulating power of matter as spiritual characteristics such as avarice, envy, vanity, bard heartedness and selfishness. No living creature has ever met Satan by himself, for without man Satan has no existence at all. Without man Satan is only the law of matter. We can meet the living Satan only in the human being; only in a human face can we recognize Satan as the expression of this face.

If we take half the number of faces of each of the geometric bodies we’ve talked about—the tetrahedron, cube, pentagonal dodecahedron, and icosahedron, we get the numbers 2,3,6 and 10. If we multiply these numbers together, we get the number 360, the number of degrees in the circle. And if we add these numbers together, we get 21, the number of possible connections between the seven factors of the key number of the  threedimensional world, the number 7.

Then she learned about the four faces of God:

” The four faces of God are in everything that has been created. God in his three aspects is one in three and three in one. But this condition—just like the equilateral triangle—carries within itself the possibility of the number four. When the three aspects of the basic number one separate from each other—and this happens when they move from the unmanifested into the manifested state— the “one in three” becomes “one and three”. In this way the number four is born.

When the triangle moves out of the unmanifested into the manifested state in the three dimensional world, a tetrahedron is formed. ‘As you have already seen, the first primordial form of material manifestation—the cube—contains the tetrahedron hidden and unmanifested within itself.

The four sides of the pyramid symbolize the four faces of God, each of which taken alone and by itself manifests the three aspects of the first source, the divinity at rest within itself and standing above all creation. The shape of the pyramid shows this clearly in that each of its four sides, standing on the square base, forms a triangle representing the three aspects of God. Thus the pyramid manifests four times three: the number twelve. The entire visible universe is based on this twelve-fold manifestation of God.

Both representations reveal the same fact: whenever the divine creative principle leaves its timeless spaceless condition in the unmanifested state to come out into the three-dimensional world and become matter, it manifests itself—-even while keeping its three aspects—in the number four. The shape of the pyramid shows this clearly in that each of its four sides, standing on the square base, forms a triangle representing the three aspects of God. Thus the pyramid manifests four times three: the number twelve.”

Ptahhotep continued: ‘And that brings us to another truth. As you can see from the symbolic representation in the form of the pyramid, each of the four faces of God contains the three divine aspects. This results in a twelve-fold manifestation which is present at every point of the universe and is acting in everything that exists, beginning with the individual creatures living on the planets and running throughout the planets to the suns and the systems of suns, throughout the universe, just like little circles in larger ones and larger circles in still larger ones, on and on to infinity. So if you understand one of these circles, you will understand the inner structure of the entire universe and of every single creature in it; for the entire visible universe is based on this twelve-fold manifestation of God.

But before we go on, you must realize that everything we human beings can perceive with our organs of sense from our personal point of view—that is from the outside—is the exact opposite of what exists in the divine state of being. Everything you can see when looking at it from the outside—whether from above or below, from front or back, from the right or the left—turns into its exact opposite as soon as you stop looking at it and start being it. When you look at something, you’re in a dualistic relationship to it. You, the observer, and what you see are two different poles. But when you are something, you’re in a monistic condition, in divine unity.’

Phahhotep leads her to two circles with the zodiac signs and only when she stands precisely under, and consequently precisely in the center of the disc she sees them the “right” way and experiences a state of being. He explains that the earth receives the twelve-fold radiation of force of the four faces of God from the direction of various constellations of stars. Taken together, these constellations surround us like a wheel called the zodiac.

It’s owing to the effect of the radiations of the zodiac that the earth can exist at all. Their vibrations met in a point in cosmic space, causing interference in the waves of energy and leading to condensation …materialization. Little by little our earth came into being through this process of materialization. As the sun played a great role in this process, the earth grew in the field of force of the sun and became its satellite. It receives its life energy from the sun, but it also is constantly receiving radiations from the zodiac and from its sister planets of our solar system.

The four faces of God—that is the four cardinal points—in the vault of stars, in the divine condition of being, are Leo, Scorpio, Taurus and Aquarius. Each face of God, each cardinal point of the vault of heaven, contains within itself the three aspects of the unmanifested divinity, and so the twelve signs of the zodiac come into being:

The four faces of God in the divine state of being.

But there’s not only a relationship between the three aspects of each of the, faces of God, the four triangles are actually so related that their centers are identical. In this way they make up the zodiacal circle of twelve revelations, much that the various aspects of the four triangles form an inter-related series of steps in development and progress. Then there is still a third relationship between the individual constellations, namely the one between opposite constellations, each of which is a complementary half of the other.”

Phahhotep continues to explain the twelve signs of the zodiac and that if one wants to know the inner birth constellation of the forces that have built a living creature and are working in his soul, in his body, in his entire being—and consequently also in  his fate—he has to figure out the constellation the stars had at the moment of his birth.

During the next session he explains: ‘The vibrations from the cosmos have such a great effect on the earth that they even influence world history. The leading ideas in religion, science and art are the result of the radiation of the particular constellation in which the
vernal point is moving throughout the course of a cosmic month. The incarnated spirits on earth—that is to say humanity—must always achieve a new epoch by reaching a new milestone in human development and establishing themselves in the ideas of the time.
A nation is a group of spirits, the incarnation of certain concentrations of energy. Each epoch brings to the earth a different group of spirits, a different race, and when this race has fulfilled its task of carrying out the new ideas and developing a new civilization for the space of a cosmic month, it leaves the earth in order to develop further on another planet. In every race, of course, there are always individuals who don’t quite “make the grade” before the end of the epoch. These remain behind, like the dregs in a drink, and must continue to develop on earth. That’s the reason why a nation experiences a sudden decline after achieving a high point in civilization. Degenerate and weak-willed descendants follow the highly developed fathers of the nation, and the nation, which was once greatly esteemed gradually, falls into debility and disrepute. These descendants are the dross of the nation, which has reached the highest degree of earthly development, become spiritualized, and departed from the earth.’

After explaining the end of the current time period he lays his hand on her head to show her pictures of what is to come, from Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt, to the birth of the divine child (the consciousness of the self). She sees the developments during the Age of the Fish and then during the Age of Aquarius/the Water Bearer. The great teacher of this epoch abolishes all the boundaries between the three dominant religions. With his own person he proves that the inner core of all religions is one and the same truth, one and the same God. The boundary between religion and science disappears during that epoch as well, as people discover that everything, even matter, is a wave movement . They learn that the only differences between manifestations of the spirit and those of matter are differences of frequency, while in its essence everything is only the manifestation of the one, single, prime source of all forces, God. Everything is a wave, just as the symbolic representation of the Water Bearer constellation shows: a supernal being pouring waves out of his pitcher.

She learns that the inhabitants of the earth receive their initiation in small groups and then in larger and larger ones, all inter-related one with the other. A person can be initiated individually within his own lifetime, and a nation can receive initiation if it works its way up to the highest level of development and fulfills its task here on earth. Eventually the whole world will receive initiation by completing the full circle of the four faces of God, experiencing step by step all stages of initiation in a systematic development, and finally achieving complete spiritualization—salvation from matter; but it will take ages and ages for this development to be achieved.

‘The history of mankind on earth is not a matter of accident or happenstance. It’s important for you to know that every step of development takes place according to divine providence, following a divine plan. A person can cover this infinitely long way in a single lifetime if he concentrates his will exclusively on this goal.’

After these lessons she gets ready for initiation. On the day she learns that her earthly career—was already determined and set the very moment she fell out of divine unity for the first time, that her present character and her destiny were built up by the same forces.
Both of them are the result of cause and effect, actions and reactions, deeds and experiences through countless lives in which the self has manifested itself throughout ages and ages of time. She also hears that destiny is an incarnated projection of the future, a materialized dream.

‘As long as a person allows the will of his self—the will of God—to rule, what happens on the material plane, in the so-called “reality”, (compare with Your Soul’s Plan) is what he himself consciously wants. Consequently he is also in control of his destiny. This is because a person’s self has the power to take those dreams of his which are waiting in his subconscious for materialization and transform them into spiritual energy. On the other hand, the moment a person identifies himself with extraneous forces which are rising, not from within his self, but from within his lower nature, his body, and the moment he recognizes these forces as his own will, what happens is no longer what he himself wants but what his body wants, even though he may be fully convinced that this is his “own” will.
In this way he loses control over his destiny and is completely at the mercy of the blind forces of fate. In this case, the “dream pictures” and projections lying latent in his subconscious unavoidably and with absolute certainty turn into “real” events on the earthly plane.’

An initiate has to be an absolutely impersonal instrument of God, because every initiate has the duty of continuing to work on earth in order to help other people out of the fetters of matter, out of the fetters of the body, out of the claws of blind fate, back into the divinely spiritual state of unity.  Everyone that has fallen into separation and into matter by virtue of becoming incarnated must find its way back home to the lost paradise, back to the divine state of unity.

At the same time she is told that if an initiate directs his high spiritual energies into the body, he falls from his high state and falls down low. He would burn out his nerve centers and plunge into the lowest depths like a falling comet.

And this is in the end what happened to the author.  She fell in love with a visitor, realized it too late and was killed by one of her lions.  But during the initiation process – where she became conscious on a higher level  – she didn’t see this event – just a mist – but she could see all her lives after that without realizing that those lives were ahead of her. During the preparation she also heard that the feeling of bliss connected with a higher state of consciousness is known to every person who is gifted with intuition, and everyone who drinks wine or uses other stimulants is seeking the same blissful feeling associated with a greater flow of current through the nerves. But the artificial stimulation is always followed by a depression which throws the person farther down than he was before.

She also learns that “marriage” always means a union of positive and negative but that on earth “marriage” means the vain attempt to achieve union with another being in the body.

The God-man consciously manifests and controls all seven levels of creation. But his consciousness identifies itself only with the seventh, divine plane, not with the lower ones. He knows them, masters them, uses them— but does not eat of these fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil! He consciously remains in God, in the paradisiacal state, He unites within himself all seven planes in divine unity: he is matter, has a body, is a plant: animates, nourishes and cares for his body as for a good instrument; he is
animal: he has instincts and feelings; he is a man: he has intellect and the power of logical thought; he is a genius: he has intuition and works out of the plane of causes; he is a prophet: he stands above time and space, seeing the future and the past, loving the entire universe with selfless, all inclusive love, helping all creatures towards redemption from the fetters of the world; and he is a God-man: he is omniscient and omnipotent; he is what he is, the eternal being, life itself, God!

At the end of the initiation process she sees a lot of details about her current life and recognizes the people who were with her during the life in Egypt as well.

During that initiation dream she also sees herself walking seven steps towards God to conquer the weight of her body, the forces of her body, her feelings, her doubts, becoming an invisible spirit, become universal love, and to forget about raising her own person in order to help someone else. When she arrives she sees her complementary half! His irresistible attraction draws her to him, and she melts into complete union with him in his heart. She realizes that He was always She and She always He, the dualistic projected image of her divine, true self. In this dualistic state she always faced God as a being separate from herself, and She felt Him as ‘You’. Now in paradisiacal unity, she feels that this invisible power she has so far always called ‘God’ will become herself in the next moment.

Then she sees all her past incarnations. She feels like fire, sees herself as light and realizes that every one and everything is living in her and that everything she has always believed she didn’t love was what she had not yet recognized within herself!

When she realizes: “I AM THE ONLY REALITY, I AM LIFE, I AM THAT I AM!” she hears Phahhotep’s voice and gradually feels returning to her body.

After the initiation she can feel the difference inside her and continues life as a low priestess but remembers with dread the incarnation, especially the last one. She describes the various duties of priestesses, among them those who seek out restless souls, penetrate their beings with the power of love irradiate their consciousness with ideas that help them find a solution and a way out of their condition. But she performs duties like a priest and teaches concentration and how to solve problems.

She learns that many people do evil things simply out of fear and not because they are bad people.

She also continues to perform duties as the Pharao’s wife and that’s when she meets an emissary from a foreign land and “loses herself” by falling in love. The consequence is death and because she wanted to become conscious in the perfection resting within itself, she had to fall into rigidity.  She had to start over as a stone and be in that state for 3000 years – in the condition of consciousness of matter with a human consciousness.

After all the sufferings and tortures of hell she finally lost consciousness and then she was reborn numerous times until she was born in Hungary which was the connection to the life in Egypt.

The end of the book describes how she met the Yogi from India, who had been the boy she had saved in Egypt, how they brought Yoga to Switzerland and wrote books together and  other tasks she fulfilled in her last life until she passed away.

In the end she realizes that all these events she had been experiencing as ‘reality’ in her life on the material, earthly plane were things she experienced several thousand years ago in her initiation in the pyramid and that identifying ourselves with God is

INITIATION

Elisabeth Haich (1897-1994) was a Spiritual Teacher and author of several books dedicated to spiritual subjects.

She was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. After the end of the World War II, she fled to Switzerland and founded with Selvarajan Yesudian a yoga school in Europe.

In her best known book Initiation, Elisabeth Haich relates the dramatic story of her past life, her apprenticeship with Divine Ptahotep and her introduction to yoga in ancient Egypt.

Your Soul’s Plan by Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz is a counselor and hypnotist and offers Spiritual Guidance Sessions, Past Life Soul Regressions, and Between Lives Soul Regressions to help people heal, resolve life issues, and understand their life plan.

In his book Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born he explores the premise that we are all eternal souls who plan our lives, including our greatest challenges, before we are born for the purpose of spiritual growth.

Through the compelling profiles of people who knowingly planned the experiences before they were born he shows that suffering is not purposeless, but rather imbued with deep meaning.

For this book Robert Schwartz worked with four mediums and reveals in each chapter the significance of one or two people’s life plan. Each personal story focuses on a specific life challenge and is organized by type for easy reference.

In chapter two he covers physical illness, in chapter three he talks about parenting handicapped children, in chapter four he focuses on deafness and blindness, in chapter five he covers drug addiction and alcoholism, chapter six is about the death of a loved on and in chapter seven he writes about accidents.  In the last chapter he discusses his personal thoughts and conclusions about pre-birth planning and summarizes what each person he had written about in previous chapters wanted to learn in this life.

We learn in this book that each of us has (compare with Journey of Souls) spirit guides, nonphysical beings who in most cases have had many physical incarnations, with whom we plan our lives prior to incarnation. Spirit guides speak with us in the same way our souls do: through inspiration, feelings, ideas and intuition.  Spirit guides whisper to us and meditation is a powerful way to quiet the mind so we may hear those messages.  We plan our life’s challenges before birth not for the purpose of suffering, but for the growth that would result. Prior to birth, we have in-depth (compare with Life Before Life conversations with our spirit guides and other souls with whom we will share our incarnation.

The realm of spirit, in which we plan our incarnations and to which we will return when they are complete, is accessible to us now through mediums and channels.

We choose our parents (and they choose us), when and where we will incarnate, the schools we will attend, the homes in which we will live, the people we will meet, and the relationships we will have.

But the personality that incarnates on the physical plane has free will. Life challenges may therefore be accepted or resisted. Earth is a stage on which the personality enacts or deviates from the script written before birth. The personality chooses how to respond – with anger and bitterness or with love and compassion.

Most souls plan life challenges to be of service to others. This desire is a fundamental aspect of our true nature as eternal souls.

We plan life challenges in part for our own personal growth (compare with Promised by Heaven). As souls we learn a great deal between incarnations, but the lessons become more deeply instilled in us when we concrete them on the physical plane. Learning while in spirit is similar to (compare with The Heart of the Soul) classroom work; life on Earth is the field study in which we apply, test, and enhance knowledge – a powerful experience for the soul (compare with Theosophy).

In appendix B he provides a list and contact information of the mediums he worked with.

Initiation by Annie Besant

Annie Besant (1847 – 1933) was a prominent British socialist, women’s rights activist, writer and orator and was one of the seminal figures in the Theosophical movement. Joining the Theosophical Society in 1889, she rapidly moved to the vanguard of leadership, and was elected president of the international Theosophical Society in 1907, a position she held until her death. She was the author of numerous books, including Esoteric Christianity, Thought Power, A Study in Consciousness, and The Laws of the Higher Life, and was active in numerous social and political causes as well.

In this book Annie Besant illuminates the spiritual and mystical themes of finding God within ourselves. She describes how one can walk the path towards Initiation and through Initiation to the Perfecting of Man.

Annie Besant, a Theosophist,  explains in this book that there is a Path, which leads to what is known as “Initiation” and through Initiation to the Perfecting of Man (compare with Self Healing, Yoga and Destiny). A Path, which is recognized in all great religions. She points out that it does not matter which faith one belongs to. She says, that one can take a shorter Path if he/she wants to and describes this Path as a more difficult way in which man evolves more rapidly than in the ordinary course of human and natural evolution.

There are four facts that underlie the whole Path of Human Perfecting:

  • Reincarnation, meaning the gradual growth of man through many lives
  • Karma, the law of causation
  • The fact that there is a Path and
  • The fact that there are men that have trodden this Path before and that these men are standing at the end of the Path – Guardians and Teachers of the World.

The first step towards the entrance to the Path is the Service of Man meaning to think more of the common good than of one’s own individual gain. If you want to serve man you have to be unselfish, strenuous, moved by the ideal to help and serve – anything that is of value to human life. If you are of service to man you can be engaged in anything but the difference lies in the conditions of the work you provide. What is your motivation? There lies the difference. Do not despise the common world of men with selfish motives making many errors because these are all lessons in life’s school. Man has to realize that not in seeking pleasure, wealth, and honor for himself can permanent joy be found but in the service of his fellow-men; in the helping of the miserable, the teaching of the ignorant. The recognition of social duty is the noblest sign of evolution of man. The key is to give yourself, and not only what you possess. You must feel the sorrow and pain of others as you feel your own pain. It must be the constant resolute endeavor to give everything away that others may profit.
In other words the service demanded is that unselfish service that gives everything and asks for nothing in return.

A man who becomes possessed by an idea and nothing can turn him away from it, that man is coming near to the Path, even if the ensuing action is folly. The outer action is the expression of some past thought or emotion; the motive for the action is what is all-important based on the occult rule.

This means that we have to study our motives more than our actions.

There are many ways on the Path to God – intense desire for knowledge, intense love for an ideal, the realization of the intolerable anguish of the world.

People who seek knowledge will then discover the Science of Yoga, which is nothing else but the application of the laws of evolution to the human mind and to the individual and to that it joins a Discipline of Life. The Discipline of Life is a necessary guarding of the would-be disciple against the dangers of his swifter process because of the great strain on body and mind.

Part of the Discipline of Life is
No alcohol because of the danger to certain vibrations
No flesh food because it coarsens the body

The seeker finds that there are certain Qualifications laid down:
1) DISCRIMINATION: Power to discriminate between the real and unreal – distinguish between the permanent and the impermanent.
2) DESIRELESSNESS: Dispassion or Desirelessness
3) GOOD CONDUCT: Six Jewels (mental qualities)
a) Control of the Mind
b) Control of Action
c) Virtue of Tolerance – holding your own, willing to share it, but ever refusing to impose or attack
d) Endurance
e) Faith
f) Balance, equilibrium
4) LOVE: Desire to be true, the will to be free, in order that you may help.

You reach them largely by meditation, and then practice in life. Concentrated thought is the instrument when you re-create yourself.

Once the seeker is aware of the facts and has worked on the Qualifications but has not perfected them yet, but he must have made some progress in weaving them into his character, must at least have shaped his conduct after these main ideas, the Masters will be found so that these Qualifications can be put into action along the lines that the Masters demand. Probably the Master finds him.

The first stage is that a particular Master chooses a particular aspirant and takes charge of him, in order to prepare him for Initiation. This constitutes a tie that cannot be broken. He summons the man through his astral body and places him on probation. When the Master sees he has gained to a considerable extent the Qualifications that are necessary and after seeing him he accepts him as disciple, no longer on probation, but accepted and approved.

One disciple wrote down in the book At the Feet of the Master what those Qualifications meant. To meditate on a quality and then to live it, that is the way of definite progress.  Example: The form is unreal while life is real. The religion does not matter but does the essence come out in his thought and life? The Occultist can never look with contempt at anyone whose form he himself has outlived. Never ascribe evil to another man because we cannot see the motive and have no right to judge.

You also must learn to discriminate between the duty to help and the desire to dominate. Only control those who are placed in your hands of guidance.
When it comes to desire we should not even want to see the result of one’s work. We have to learn to work but not demand payment in results for our labor. Silence is the mark of the Occultist. Speak when you have something to say that is true, helpful, kind.
Keep the mind away from all that is evil and keep it cheerful as well as calm.
For Tolerance we should study the religions of others so we can help others by seeing their standpoint.
When it comes to Endurance take troubles as an honor, not as penalty.
Then you need to learn One-pointedness and last confidence in your teacher and yourself.

The last Qualifications include avoidance of the vices of crimes against love, cruelty (against humans and animals and not paying a wage/bill) and superstition (animal sacrifice).
Example: The life of Christ and others. The cross is the symbol of life, of life triumphant over death, of Spirit triumphant over matter.
Initiation in the Mysteries means an expansion of consciousness.

There are five ceremonials on the Path. Four (related to the Christ-story) are the Portals on the Path leading to the final divine Perfection of Manhood, the Birth, Baptism, Transfiguration, and the Passion.
The Initiate is He whom the Christ is born – the little child – is born into this new life of the Spirit (all truth are known by Intuition not reasoning). He vows poverty, chastity and obedience meaning he gives up all sense of property, ownership, renounces all pleasures of sense and surrenders his own will. He must also give up three weaknesses – they are called three fetters.
1) The sense of Separateness (everything is part of himself, feel with their joys and sorrows, look at things from their standpoint, understand their feelings and be able to sympathize with them – judge none, criticize none.)
2) He must get rid of all Doubts as to certain facts in nature.
3) He must get rid of superstition, the belief that a particular rite or ceremony is necessary for the attainment of the result that is sought.

When those fetters are cast aside, then he has grown to manhood and is ready to pass the second of the great Initiations (baptism in Christianity). The Spirit comes down, the Spirit of Intuition and he must learn to bring it down, through his enlarged causal and mental bodies, to his physical consciousness so it may guide him.
At this stage man has to add powers, super physical powers so that he can more perfectly serve. During this stage he is perfecting all his bodies.

The he approaches the third great Portal (Transfiguration in Christianity), the symbol of the recognition of the “I” as one with God. Here two more weaknesses have to be gotten rid of, Attraction and Repulsion.

Between the third and fourth Portal he must feel the desertion by all, the loneliness in which the last great sufferings have to be faced, because here he faces the gulf of silence, where the disciple hangs alone in the void with nothing on earth to trust to, nothing in heaven to look to, no friend whose heart can be relied upon.

When he feels forsaken by all he finds the God within. Then the fourth great Initiation is accomplished; he is who has become the Christ crucified and therefore the helper of the world.

After that fourth Initiation, the Passion, there remains only the Resurrection, the Ascension, which is the Initiation of the Master. The last weakness, the desire of life in any world, has to be cast aside, for he is life. Now all worlds are open to him and he can pour down strength, help, knowledge. And that it is to have become a Christ.

After passing the four Portals he stands triumphant, with the door of the fifth great Initiation open before him – the all-embracing consciousness, the extinction of the lower Self. He stands among the many Brethren of whom the Christ is the Firstborn.

He can hear free cries of humanity, the suffering he has transcended. The fetters left that has power to bind, the fetters of compassion; they are the bonds of love. And then he turns backwards to the world he has left and takes it up and bears it still to help mankind. And so he becomes what we call a Master, a liberated Spirit who still bears the burden of the flesh, so that Humanity may not be without it’s Guides along the Path. He has become a Savior of the world.

They help the world in three general ways:
1) Their light pours down in general benediction and if we are receptive to it, we can profit for it.
2) He pours his blessing or strength into great organizations, communities and religious communities.
3) They help the thought of the world, sending out mighty thoughts of knowledge, of beauty, of inspiration, especially for those men and women of genius who have climbed to the point where they can be individually affected, and made channels to the world at large.

Some of these Masters take as disciples those who are willing to tread the Path.

There are two great departments of human life in addition to this more general and individual helping, in which the work of the Hierarchy is most especially seen – the Ruling Department, which guides all natural evolution, changes the face of the surface of our globe, builds and destroys continents, controls the destinies of nations, shapes the fate of civilizations. That mighty Ruling Department is one in which the Occult Hierarchy is ever at work. And then the Teaching Department with the Supreme teacher, which/who watches over the spiritual destinies of mankind. It includes the great One who appears from age to age to inspire a new religion.

When a great world-age is over, He comes for the last time.

All the great civilizations of the past had been built on the family as a unit; in the new age the note of the individual was struck. The overwhelming importance of the present life, of the value of the individual soul started. Chaos happened but it was necessary to have strong individuals fit to put together a mighty Brotherhood.

Through Christendom the note of self-sacrifice has been born, a civilization with social conscience, a realization of human duty and responsibility.

The one that comes will be the mighty One, Who is the Master of Masters, the Supreme Teacher.

We can see the work of the Ruling Department when we look back over history and realize that all the spreading and changes have a purpose and that behind it stand it’s Manu. All wars and conquests have a purpose and all these conquests work into the mighty Plan, and spread abroad through the nations the treasures that otherwise would be enclosed within the limits of a single country. Remember that destruction also means rebuilding; death only means new life.

Introduction to Theosophy by John Algeo

John Algeo was born 1930 in St. Louis, Missouri, and lived there for the first ten years of his life, with brief periods in Texas and California.  He joined the Theosophical Society at the age of 16 and became President of the Florida Lodge (Miami) in his teen years.

He was a student of the University of Florida and he joined the army and served in the Korean War. In 1971, John Algeo moved with his family to Athens, Georgia, where he served as Director of the Program in Linguistics, Head of the English Department, and Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor of English. He took early retirement from the university in 1994 to accept the Presidency (or General Secretaryship) of the Theosophical Society in America.

Theosophy refers to systems of esoteric philosophy seeking direct knowledge of presumed mysteries of being and nature, particularly concerning the nature of divinity. Theosophists seek to understand the mysteries of the universe and the bonds that unite the universe, humanity and the divine.

His articles on theosophy are widely published in Theosophical magazines. In “Theosophy” he explains the main concepts of Theosophy.

The Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society is a worldwide association dedicated to practical realization of the oneness of all life and to independent spiritual search. It was founded in New York City in 1875 by Helena P. Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott, William Q. Judge, and others. Blavatsky (1831-1891) is the primary force behind the modern theosophical movement. Her works and those of her teachers express the principal concepts of its philosophy. A Russian by birth, she traveled for twenty years in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Near East studying mysticism and occultism. Helena P. Blavatsky also wrote books titled Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine.

What is Theosophy?

Algeo starts out by explaining that we have made a lot of progress in science, technology, and other matters but in our relationship to others, in concern for our own health, on our work and our leisure, we do not apply the same intelligence and realism.

The three objects of the Theosophical Society are:

  • To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.
  • To encourage the comparative study of religion, philosophy and science.
  • To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in humanity.

The motto of the Society is “There is no religion higher than Truth”.

The word religion comes from a Latin term whose root meaning is “to link back”. Therefore different religions link their followers back in different ways to the ultimate source of life – the Absolute/God/Divine Reality.

Theosophy does not claim to be a complete and final statement of wisdom and truth; it holds that all things, including the human mind, are evolving. It does not bind an individual to any particular belief or creed. Theosophy asks you to live your religion, not to leave it.

Theosophy as Science

Science limits itself to what can be quantified and tested by repeated, controlled, and objective experiments. Every great discovery of science was at first a grand intuition and theosophy reaches into the area of these “grand intuitions”. Theosophy, while pointing out new roads to inner knowledge, also teaches that only those who prepare themselves in action, desire, and thought to hold the welfare of humanity above their personal benefit can safely gain such knowledge.

Theosophy as Philosophy

Theosophy is not a body of beliefs but a way of explaining things (a philosophy). It holds that the universe unified, orderly, and purposeful, that matter is the instrument for the evolution of life, that thought is a creative power which we can learn to use effectively, and that experience of both joy and suffering is the means by which we grow in character and ability and thus attain wisdom, compassion and power.

Religion, science, and philosophy are three ways of viewing the truth of the universe.

Some Fundamental Concepts

  • Ultimate reality is a unified whole – absolute, impersonal, unknowable, and indescribable.
  • The universe is manifold, diverse, constantly changing
  • The ultimate reality is the source of all consciousness, matter and energy
  • The physical universe of which we are normally aware is only one aspect of the total universe. Of the seven planes of our solar system, human beings function primarily on the lower three: physical, emotional and mental.
  • Everything in the universe is orderly, following patterns of regular cycles
  • Evolution is good and follows a plan
  • We are threefold beings: 1) a temporary, single-lifetime personality; 2) a spark or direct emanation of the ultimate reality; 3) an abiding, evolving individuality that reincarnates (see also Reincarnation and Karma by Edgar Cayce).
  • The process of evolution must eventually become a conscious process
  • The evolving human has more intelligence, some may serve as helpers
  • The pain, cruelty, and frustration we experience in life are the result of ignorance, unbalanced actions, or change.
  • It is possible, as a result of individual effort in this life, for human beings to come by intuitive knowledge or mystical experience to a full awareness of their non separateness from the ultimate reality

What is within counts!

The Theosophical Society guarantees full freedom to interpret the teaching and has three prepositions:

  • The universe and all that exists within it are one interrelated (Compare with Dying to Be Me) and interdependent whole.
  • Every existent being is rooted in the same universal, life-creating reality
  • Recognition of the unique value of every living being expresses itself in reverence for life, compassion for all, sympathy with the need of all individuals to find truth for themselves, and respect for all religious traditions.

Central to the concerns of Theosophy is the desire to promote understanding and brotherhood among people of all races, nationalities, philosophies, and religions.

Devotion to truth, love for all living beings, and commitment to a life of active altruism are the marks of the true Theosophist.

The three truths:

  • The human soul is immortal, and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendor has not limit
  • The principle that gives life dwells in us and around us
  • We are each our own absolute lawgiver; the dispenser of glory or gloom to ourselves, the decreer of our life, our reward, our punishment

The Ancient Wisdom in the Modern World

1) History

The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City in 1875 and the chief founders were Helena Blavatsky (HPB) and Col. Olcott (HSO).  HPB was a Russian woman, married young and left her comfortable life to seek an explanation to life’s mysteries. She came in touch with some teacher in her dreams who sent her to America.

Olcott was a lawyer who served in the civil war. When spiritualism became interesting he went to Vermont to write a story. Publicity rose after the first cremation. HPB and HSO soon moved to the East. HPB focused on the esoteric aspects, HSO on its public aspects.

Annnie Besant became HPB’s successor and also adopted and fostered the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti who grew up to be an independent teacher.

2) The International and National Societies

TS still has its international headquarters at Adyar and is now represented in about 70 counrties in the world.

3) Universal Brotherhood

The first object it to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.

Brotherhood is the primary focus of Theosophy because all humans are related. Because we are interrelated, everything each of us does affects everyone else. Brotherhood is spiritual siblinghood/family. In old English it refers not to a group of males, but to people generally. Brotherhood is spiritual family of humanity. It is a goal to form a Center/Core/Nucleus, since the brotherhood already exists.

The universe is an expression of the Divine Reality.

In Theosophy brotherhood means much more than a humanistic ideal of kindness and consideration of others; it is an integral part of our existence as human beings.

Instead of accepting that “the fundamental identity of every soul with the universal over-soul” is a fact, we fight what is in our own best interest.

The humans have not yet wholly freed themselves from the cramping bondage of self-absorption and self-interest. We should not only consider the welfare of ourselves, our family our fellow-believers or communities.
We need to understand that what happens in one country affect all others. We all ultimately reap what we sow and thus learn the lessons of our sowing.

We need to work on ourselves to achieve betterment in the world!

Compassion, a virtue taught by Christ and Buddha, is the last great virtue that must be fully attained by every aspirant. We cannot judge one another. We have to recognize our oneness with all life, in whatever form it manifests.

4) Human Beings and our Bodie

The physical body is not the real person (see also Heal Thyself). Theosophy teaches that we are really the “Monad” or inner unity, a fragment of unity, a spark of the divine flame (which lives in many houses). In addition to the dense physical environment, we have environments of vital energy, feelings, thoughts and intuitions. Our interface with each environment performs two functions. On the one hand, it is the channel through which we experience and influence that environment. On the other hand, the kind of interface we have with an environment also limits how much of that environment we can experience and respond to (House-windows-how many we have determines what we see). Limitations protect us and limit us. Too much would lead to be overcome by sensations, energies, emotions, concepts etc.

Theosophy teaches us that our solar system includes seven interpenetrating planes of matter or fields of energy. Three are directly involved in our personal evolution – the physical , the emotional, and the mental. The physical consists of the dense and etheric level. The mental has a lower and higher subdivision (lower = mental; higher = causal). Bodies are not fixed and static. All bodies are really localized fields of force of concentrations, individual foci, of the energies of the larger fields in which they operate. Each of the bodies ha around it a radiating energy field (auras). The “bodies” are not really separate. They are interdependent and function as a whole.

We know we never feel emotion without thought, nor do we think without feeling emotion. And thoughts and emotions affect our physical bodies and vice versa. The connection between our various bodies is the chakras. They are seven major energy centers over our body, where channels of energy converge, each having the appearance of a wheel or lotus flower.

The causal body is more permanent than the others (incorruptible body) – composed of the higher-frequency energies. Our consciousness functioning on that plane is the real “us”; the aspect of ourselves that incarnated in lower bodies to gain experience through them. It is the body of our permanent individuality. Here are the causes stored that sooner or later become effects in the outer, visible world.

One part of the physical body is the dense part composed of solids, liquids, and gases. The etheric double is largely invisible and gives the pattern by which the dense physical body is built – every cell of the dense body! It is the carrier of physical sensation. The etheric double absorbs energy from the sun and transmits is as vitality. The etheric double can be separated from the dense physical body by shock, anesthetics etc. but remains attached by the “silver cord”. When it breaks, death follows.

The emotional body, extending beyond both the physical form and the etheric double, is the vehicle of feeling and desire, ranging all the way from earthy passions to inspiring emotions (radiant – therefore sometimes called astral).

When the physical body sleeps, the consciousness continues to function in the emotional body sometimes remembered through dreams. Clairvoyants describe the emotional body of an evolved person as filled with vibrant and luminous color. Less evolved persons are darker.

Theosophy describes each of the planes or fields of the universe as having seven subdivisions of matter or frequency, The “lower” mental body is composed of the four denser subdivisions of the mental plane the causal body is the vehicle of consciousness in the three subtler or “higher” subdivisions.

When the mental body is in use, it vibrates rapidly and temporarily increases in size. Prolonged thought makes the increase permanent, so the mental body is built day by day through the right use of thought power.

Because emotions and thoughts are interrelated, each affecting the other, these two bodies are closely linked. The mental together with the emotional is called kama manas, which means “desire mind”. The causal body is the vehicle through which the human individuality or soul expresses itself as a series of personalities in the world. It does so by functioning through temporary bodies – mental, emotional, and physical –on the denser planes. Only the good, the true, and the beautiful enter into the causal body, because its vibrations are so subtle that they do not respond to that which is coarse, false or ugly.

It is small at the beginning, as we evolve, and the effects of our good thoughts, feelings, and actions gradually are registered there; it takes on greater color and grows in size, but very slowly until we reach the stage of unselfish or impersonal views of the world.

The causal body continues life after life – is our permanent embodiment.

After our body dies we interact with our subtler-plane environment for a while through our emotional and mental bodies. But eventually they too die; then the beneficial experiences of the previous incarnation are incorporated in the form of increased capacities.

When the experiences of the previous incarnation have been so absorbed and transmuted into increased powers and capacities, the desire for more experiences draws us into incarnation again. We then attract about ourselves first a mental and next an emotional body of the same general characteristics as those we sloughed off at the close of our last incarnation. Thereafter, we come to birth in a new physical body built according to the sort of pattern we have established in past lives, although not necessarily of the same sex.

We need to manage control of our lower bodies!

5) Life after Death

We have actually many reports about what happens after dying. Survival of consciousness after dying is a logical conclusion. Life after death is unique for each person. Life after death is a subjective state said to be largely determined by the individual’s attitudes, thoughts, and actions – that is, by the level of consciousness attained during the life just completed.

There are two patterns of the after-death state. As a person approaches death, the etheric double withdraws, only the silver cord left. At the end the events of the ending incarnation pass swiftly in review, then when dying the cord is broken and the person (etheric double) seams to float above the dense physical body in a state of peaceful unconsciousness (sleep-body stays attached to the etheric double). You help the dying by staying calm and without emotional resistance.

After hours the inner person disengages from the etheric double and releases itself entirely from the physical world. The double “dies” and disintegrates, while the person’s consciousness remains in the emotional body. After dying, the person is attracted to that level most characteristic of the habitual emotions during life. The denser, coarser vibrations form the outer most shell. A person who has lived a life governed by strong, coarse desires (materialistic), awake to the vibrations of that type in a sort of purgatory (the desire can’t be fulfilled because the physical vehicle no longer exists). It is a result of natural law.

Individuals of less coarse tastes and more controlled appetites will experience no such intense emotional stress.

One view: Individual sleeps through the entire post mortem experience in the emotional world awakening only on the mental plane Devachan.

Other view: Individual sleeps only through the coarser levels; when the higher levels are reached they find life similar to that which they left (pleasant earth life – less material). Thoughts are now visible, so deception is impossible. The dead communicate with the living, while the latter are asleep. Loving thoughts from living friends and prayers – free of sadness – often help. Excessive grief is not good.

Every person is eventually cleansed of emotional desires (20 – 40 years). Then the individual awakens to more favorable and pleasant surroundings – entrance into heavenly life.

The special characteristic of the heaven world (Devachan), which exists from the four lower sub planes of the mental body through the highest causal sub planes, is said to be an intensity of bliss. In Devachan we create the world that best suits us. The experience of Devachan (a term that means “the land of Gods”) is a consolation for every pain and disappointment of earthly life. Devachan is a state of consciousness in which energies have been stepped up to an immensely high level. The individual has the power to grasp every situation in its entirety.

We spend time there as long as we need. Experiences from past life will be stored for future use in the form of conscience and ideals.
After a stay on the causal plane the individual grows hungry for more experience which leads to a vision of the next incarnation.

6) Reincarnation

Reincarnation is a fundamental concept of Theosophy (see also Reincarnation and Karma by Edgar Cayce and Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity). Many people don’t accept the unfairness and inequalities with a God of justice and love. Each of us is an evolving part of the divine life (heavenly father who inexplicably plays cruel games while demanding unquestioning love!). Why does a soul have a future but no past? Since we have an earthly life, it must serve a purpose in the evolutionary process.

Reincarnation is the most logical and most in harmony with an orderly system (like school). Reincarnation is repeated entering into a fleshly body. Through each of our recurring lives in a body of flesh, we gather experience that (compare with Your Soul’s Plan), during the period between incarnations, we work into faculties and powers needed for further growth in spiritual statue. Some incarnations seem to be a failure but failure too is educative (humans enter after/at the end of a stream of animal incarnations).

We can start school in different years and vary in the progress we make (compare with The Heart of the Soul). Some are more/less advanced. We all have equal possibilities for development. The order varies. All learning follows a spiral pattern. Some things we have to relearn.

Reincarnation explains the differences we see all around us that neither environment nor heredity account for.

Each soul comes into a physical body bringing along the fruit of past lives. Talent is no gift; it is the result of lives of work in a particular endeavor. Conscience is the fruit of the past, the indelible record of lessons learned in other lives.

Reincarnation also offers an explanation for homosexuals. The inner self has no sex, but wears in one a male body, in another a female. If you pick the same sex for several lives and then switch, the other traits will remain.  It forces you to develop the other sexes’ response to experience.

It is believed by Hindus, old Egyptians, Buddha, Greek Pythagoreans, Kabbalah and it was believed among the early Christians.

Ian Stevenson wrote about past incarnations and the intersection of biology and reincarnation. We are affected by the “likes and dislikes” of past lives. Detailed memories are connected with the physical brain and when the body dies that brain consciousness is lost; detailed echoes of our past life are no longer active. When people remember it’s usually because the former life ended sudden and too early and the previous life was incomplete and the reincarnation took place quickly (close in place).

The past is eternally available but we do not know how to access it. Some people have achieved the necessary sensitiveness to recapture some memories of past lives.

Three main factors determine the circumstances of our next birth.

  • Law of evolution: The purpose of reincarnation is to further our intellectual and spiritual development.
  • Law of cause and effect: The law of justice determines if we either earned opportunities or if we will be limited.
  • Sympathy or connectedness: We have to meet those with whom we formed ties of love of hate; helpfulness or injury.

Everything works for the growth of the spirit!

7) Karma

Our universe is lawful and orderly, a place where nothing happens by chance. The energy put forth in thoughts and desires will sooner or later produce results. Even death does not cancel what we owe.

Karma is the law of cause and effect. Every action we do affects our relationship with our families, our friends, our business associates and others. Karma is the world of constant change; nirvana is the world of permanence. Karma is always educative; Karma is the law of growth. Karma is un-personal; it has no concern with us individually. Some karma is from present life; some from past. Some Karma is related to our family and some of it relates to humanity as a whole.

Every human being is constantly generating physical, emotional, and mental forces and the effects of those forces determine the kind of life we lead here. Reincarnation is part of the plan of evolution. We can continually modify the effects of any law. If any condition inconveniences, blocks or causes pain and discomfort to others, and ourselves we have a right, in some instances an obligation, to do what we can to change it. We grow and develop our powers through Karma, which helps us learn through dealing with problems. If in spite of our best efforts, the block or conditions remain, it may have other purpose – perhaps a lesson in renunciation, patience or sacrifice (first make sure it is inevitable).

You can counteract the effects of Karma. When we begin to find the right answers, we will realize that they come from within ourselves, where the problems also came from – for the answer is always in the problem. Each person’s life is intertwined with the life of all humanity.

We need to control what we think and feel! Whatever one of us does affects all others because at the deepest level of reality we are all one. Every time we think or feel or act unselfishly, we are helping. We can act for ourselves, but we have to act for others as well.  We also must act now!

8) The Power of Thought

We generate three karmic forces every day of our lives; thought, emotion and action. And the most powerful of these three is thought. Thought is an energy that consciousness produces to modify the subtle matter of the mental plane. Our thoughts vibrate. When we think the same thought, the resulting thought form is produced quickly and accurately. The effects of thought are of two kinds: those that react on the thinker and those that affect others.

Any repeated thought establishes a vibratory habit in our mental body and thoughts have side effects on the astral and causal bodies. We make ourselves by the way we think. When we think of others, radiating vibrations create a thought form that floats through the mental plane.

No external thought can impinge on us unless we are already attuned to its kind. If our thoughts are clear they will be resistant to being replaced by other thoughts.

Concentration and meditation are two important aspects of the power of thoughts.

Only a mind trained to stay on one subject, to concentrate on one task to the exclusion of all others, can succeed in meditation. Meditation is especially important if we are to undertake the inner work needed for treading the Path. It aims at quieting the personality to reach our individuality.

Devote 5 minutes each morning to quiet, positive thought, focusing on qualities to develop. We need to think about the opposites of our weaknesses. Close your eyes and see yourself acting with the quality you want to acquire. For this concentration is essential.

If you are easily irritated, practice seeing yourself as serene, calm, kind. But be aware that a test will come. And you will get irritated and think you failed but it passed more quickly and eventually you will not react with irritation, no matter what the situation. Then you can begin on another aspect you want to foster. Eventually 5 minutes is not enough. Regularity is more important than duration though.

Worry is one of the most difficult habits to overcome. You need to work in a new direction. When somebody is ill, don’t think about their illness but send them healing thoughts. We do not help “sinners” by dwelling on their faults. It is better to send them love and peace and progress. Send the dead ones only the most loving thoughts.

Ultimately, however, the purpose of meditation is not just to improve our personality, but also rather to put us in touch with our inner core. It helps us to discover who we really are. Spend 5 minutes every day just being quiet and becoming aware of your surroundings.

Goethe: Do not worry about your past. Do not be angry. Do not hate. Enjoy the present. Leave your future to Providence!

9) The Question of Evil

Why is there evil and pain in the world? There is no absolute, just relative evil in the world. Selfishness – no concern for the welfare of others – exists. Infants are selfish but not evil. It may help to substitute “incompleteness” or “imperfection” for “evil”. In this Universe nothing happens except in relation to something else. Evil, like good, exists only in relation to its opposite.

  • Stage: evolution towards ever-greater materiality, unconsciousness, and separation.
  • Stage of evolution: progression from materiality, unconsciousness, and separation to spirituality, awareness and unity; and from unselfishness, ignorance, coercion, and discord to altruism, knowledge, freedom, and harmony.

Evolution is a dynamic, onward-going process, with purposefulness at its core. Good is whatever is in harmony with the evolutionary purpose by aiding the journey onward, and evil is whatever works against it. Evil is the exaggeration of good, the progeny of human selfishness and greediness.

Good is all that works in harmony with the development of the universe; evil is what works against it.

Recognizing and opposing evil develops our moral sense. Pain results when we do a wrong action.

Struggle is not to be avoided, but to be acknowledged as the very root of existence in an evolving world.

We should lift our consciousness toward a level where evil cannot express itself.

Peace comes when we accept the nature of the world, with a selfless sense of detachment.

10) The Plan and Purpose of Life

What is the purpose of life? Science believes there is an orderly process in the universe; but it is concerned with natural causes and their effects, not with nature’s purposes and plans to achieve them. Theosophy believes there is intention and consciousness.

Three hypothesis:
1) Everything is chance.
2) The Universe is the product of inexorable natural law with no options and free will.
3) The Universe is a precisely ordered organization.

Theosophy takes the view that the purpose of existence is the development of latent possibilities into active powers.

Evolution is not only physically but also the evolution of consciousness from the restricted to the expanded and spirit to the consciously unified.

Earlier kingdoms – animal, vegetable, mineral – are more connected with each other than humans but they lack conscious awareness.

During the involution, life “descends” from a state of pure consciousness and becomes immersed in denser matters.

Each solar system is pervaded, energized, and controlled by a mighty collective consciousness, a divine Mind called LOGOS (or Word of God), which emerges from the Absolute. The divine Mind has called our solar systems into being and we are evolving fragments of the life of that Mind. The divine Mind lives through us.

According to the Theosophical hypothesis, three stupendous life impulses are needed to bring a world into being. The Trinity symbolizes them. When a world is formed, first that living matter has to be brought into existence, then it has to be molded into forms through which life becomes increasingly conscious, and finally that consciousness has to realize its identity and spiritual unity. The three steps are three Life Waves.

The first wave of creative energy corresponds to the Holy spirit and comes forth from the LOGOS. The first Life Wave passes “downward” or “outward” through seven stages, bringing into existence matter. During the “outward” breath or involution, matter reaches increasingly dense states. The process of creating matter takes eons. The densest matter in our universe is in the center of black holes.

While the first Life Wave is in the process of making matter, the second Life Wave – corresponding to the Son, or second person of the Trinity, also becomes active. The LOGOS sends out constant succession of these Second Life Waves. It brings characteristics that will enable matter to respond to stimuli through intuition, thought, desire, sensation and so on.

The first Life Wave develops and vivifies matter; the second builds from that matter the various kingdoms of life – canyons and mountains, worms and whales etc. which have the ability to respond to their environment. The Third Life Wave, corresponding to the Father, brings the most highly developed forms produced by the Second Life Wave into contact with the imperishable sparks of the divine life that are evolutionary units of consciousness called individual “monads” (units). In Theosophy this is the immortal spiritual Self, which becomes a separate evolving entity through the third Life Wave and which, by repeated incarnations, gradually unfolds its full potential.

The monad is consciousness plus the film of matter, but at the beginning it is not conscious of anything.

The monad is the ultimate spiritual identity or self-awareness.
The mineral kingdom has a single ensouling monad. In the vegetable kingdom, it is “divided” into separate functional units. In the animal kingdom, the monad becomes yet more “divided”. In the human kingdom, the monad reaches its nadir with a process called “individualization”, as a result of which the monad’s self-awareness linked with a single re-incarnating individual.

When we become human, we begin the process of evolving back to a realization of unity by linking up with our fellow creatures. The individuality is an extension of the monad, just as the personality is an extension of the individuality.

In the animal kingdom we have group souls. In lower forms of animal life (such as worms), a group soul is incarnated in a great many animal bodies. In higher forms (elephants) the same group soul incarnates simultaneously in only a few animal bodies.

Entry into the human kingdom is a great step forward in responsibility on the evolutionary journey. Gradually, we learn that we live in a world of natural laws, experiencing pleasure when those laws are obeyed and pain when they are disregarded. Great Teachers come and help us in our evolution. Humans evolve by gathering experiences in various cultures and genetic variations of our species. Such varying groups are called “root races”. Even the minor genetic and cultural variations of our species are useful for our schooling. We take birth in many “races” to learn specific lessons. Each culture/nation has a special lesson (Greece – beauty; Rome – organization; China – harmony etc.) Experience in many cultures is needed before the goal of the wholeness can be reached. To understand life, we must experience it in all of its variety.

One of the ways in which the variety of life manifests is called the Seven Rays – primordial cosmic energies. Those seven wavelengths make up the “white” that radiates from the sun.

Ray 1 – Atma – sense of Self

Ray 2 – Buddhi – relating to one another

Ray 3 – Higher Mind – discovering how to use knowledge to improve our world, ourselves and the purpose of living

Ray 4 – Vital Energy – balancing and harmonizing apparent opposites – life is our inner mediating power

Ray 5 – Lower Mind – discovering the world around us; understanding how things work and learning how to control our environment

Ray 6 – Emotional Self – relating to one another on a level; recognizing the underlying unity and equality of all beings

Ray 7 – Etheric Double – energy of acting formally, with discipline and habit, following a double

Every person and every thing has all seven of these energies in at least potential form, but various of the energies are dominant. The end of evolution is to have all seven of the energies fully developed and mutually integrated.

The purpose of life is the development of countless numbers of spiritually self-conscious and fully developed individuals who recognize their own individuality and unity – to discover who we are, to know ourselves and to know ourselves as integrated expressions of the oneness.

11) The Rise and Fall of Civilizations

The rise and fall of civilizations is part of the great plan. Cultures come and go, each supplying a particular field of development for the individuals incarnating in them and each contributing its own special gift.

The plan of evolution is sevenfold in nature. There are seven great evolutionary phases in which seven human types or “root races” appear and furnish vehicles for the process.  All types have their contribution to make . Each root race represents a school in which a major group of lessons must be learned; the sub-races represent grades within the school. Attendance is mandatory. Each school concentrates on learning/developing particular aspects of consciousness. We must recapitulate previous training. Root races exist as long as necessary.

The first two root races left no historical or geological records (no dense physical bodies). The first race – 55 million years ago – had sensations/perceptions at the most primary and basic level – sexless; they reproduced by budding. The second race – 35 million years ago – was luxuriant vegetation followed by violent terrestrial changes – the concentration was on activity, beginning to organize its bodies into vehicles of active expression by which to influence its environment. They sweated to reproduce.

The third root race – 18 million years ago – became physical. These were the Lemurians. The sexes were separated and emotion was developed. The mind was activated but relatively quiescent.

The fourth root race – 3 to 1 million years ago – was the actual development of the analytical mind and language (Atlentean). In Atlantis was a highly materialistic civilization, using magic evil in high places and endangered progress.

The fifth root race began 7500 years ago and started with refugees from Atlantis – Aryan (noble people). The present root race is still imbued with much of the Atlantean consciousness.  Problems are pride of intellect and indifference to moral and human values.
The fifth root race is now the dominant on this earth. We have to develop our social sense through the higher mind. Currently we are in the 5th subrace and hone this quality of mind and foreshadowing the next faculty – the intuition – which will begin to illumine the minds of the sixth subrace.

The sixth root race will recapitulate previous experience before bringing into full play the faculty of intuition (buddhi) and foreshadow the quality of spiritual will (7th root race).

Evolution does not leap but it happens gradually with much overlapping.

12) The Ancient Wisdom in Daily Life

Theosophy is practice as well as principle. Fellows can belong to any religion. Theosophy is non-dogmatic. It does not dictate any position. As Theosophists we are obligated by the principle of brotherhood to respect the right of others to differ from the position we hold.

All fellows are recommended to spend regularly some time in study to widen the mind by opening it to new truths, some time in meditation to internalize the truths learned.

Study, meditation, and service are the three aspects of “doing Theosophy” that Blavatsky alluded to.  Meditation can be 10 or 15 minutes of quietness first thing in the morning a review of the day’s activities before sleep at night. Service can be to the homeless, the dying, the disadvantages, to the society or its groups, or to the world by sending out thoughts of peace and harmony to all beings.

Other lifestyle considerations are vegetarian; no furs; no smoking, and no alcohol.

Thy truly Theosophy-life is one dedicated to learning by study, self-discovery by meditation, service to others; promotion of harmony among humans and respect.

The Theosophical Society has a website with lots of information and online resources: https://www.theosophical.org/

You can find a lot of information about Annie Besant, a  prominent theosophist, on this site: http://www.kurtleland.com/annie-besant-shrine

And there is Wiki specifically about Theosophy in four languages:  http://www.theosophy.wiki/