The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul

Mysteries, indeed, to the ignorant monks who were already wrangling over creed, and dogmas, and who, in 325 at the First Council at Nice, fought it out surrounded by the soldiers of the Pagan Emperor, Constantine; and thus settled the “orthodox interpretation,” of what they were wholly incompetent to understand. Their successors are still engaged in the same wrangle of interpretation, so far as the “Infallible Pope,” and dogma of obedience, at Rome has been unable to suppress it.

Somewhere between the middle of the first and second centuries, an effort at union and reconciliation arose from another quarter. Ammonius Saccas, a Neo-Platonist, endeavored to unite men of different cults and beliefs on the lines of the Great Work, precisely as the Philalethean Society is doing in New York to-day; but his movement was soon engulfed and lost sight of by the tide of Ecclesiasticism, or suppressed by the soldiers of Constantine.

I am not attempting a history, for that would fill volumes. I am only giving a few sidelights of the Great Work.

In the Tenth Century, at Baghdad, a society was formed admitting Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, and atheists, with a similar purpose.

During the time of Martin Luther, John Reuchlin made a similar attempt. Both Reuchlin and Luther were pupils of Trithemius, the Abbot of St. Jacob’s at Würzburg, one of whose books I possess, printed in the year 1600, and also another book, “The Theosophical Transactions of the Philadelphian Society,” printed in London in 1697. Browning’s “Paracelsus” gives a splendid outline of the philosophy and teachings of Trithemius, and rescues Paracelsus with all who can understand, from the vile slanders of his monkish enemies; and Robert Browning wrote his “Paracelsus” at the age of twenty-three! Can you wonder why so few “understand Browning”?

For more than fifteen hundred years mankind has been involved between the speculations of Philosophy, on the one hand, and the creeds and dogmas of Theology, on the other.

There was also the deliberate destruction of ancient monuments, scrolls, and records, by religious fanatics. Diocletian, in A.D. 296, burned the books of the Egyptians. Cæsar burned 700,000 Rolls at Alexandria, and Leo Isaurus 300,000 at Constantinople in the eighth century. Then came the Mohammedans, who destroyed the remainder of the accessible scrolls at Alexandria. Gangs of fanatical Monks, Christian and Pagan, roamed over Europe destroying and defacing everything upon which they could lay their hands, as witnesses against their dogmas and superstitions. Even to-day, in India, it is difficult for Europeans to gain access to genuine ancient records. The records of these barbarities are still fresh in the minds of the guardians of sacred lore.

Even with such a record for thousands of years, Ecclesiasticism is as arrogant and rampant as ever to-day. The wonder is, that there is anything left but barbarism.

Two writers declare that the most ancient and valuable of the records of the Alexandrian Library were kept in secret crypts known only to the highest officials, and preserved still in secret crypts known only to the Illuminati. In Baalbec and all through the East to-day these underground temples are being explored, and even the fragments found excite wonder and admiration. Ignorant Barbarians may be destructive on general principles, but fanatical Ecclesiasticism has ever been destructive of all light, knowledge and civilization, through insane hatred or pure “cussedness”! We need only to regard intelligently what it has done, and is doing for Southern Europe to-day.

Can you wonder that the real science of the Human Soul found little recognition, or that it was denied as possible to man?

As already shown, the Science of to-day has neither recognized nor worked up to it; and the Theology of to-day covers it with fable, mystery, and miracle as of old.

In spite of both these the “Philalethean Society” exists, the “Seekers after God” were never more numerous than now, and the Magnum Opus, the Great Work, was never, in the whole history of man, more in evidence than it is to-day.

“Truth crushed to Earth shall rise again,The Eternal years of God are hers.”

Can it be that there is no great truth back of all these struggles and aspirations of the human soul? That there is no possible realization back of these soulful endeavors?

Is Tantalus, after all, the creator and Father of Man? inspired only by love of disappointment, defeat, and despair, in his children?

For one, I do not believe it.

To plant these aspirations in the soul of man, and doom them to everlasting disappointment and defeat, would brand the creator of man as an Infinite Liar, instead of a Loving Father.

The earnest student must first learn to recognize, and to discriminate; for the “blind leaders of the blind” are always legions.

This power of discrimination, to which I have referred, goes deeper, and means far more, than most persons ever realize, and this is why so many are continually deceived.

It is the light of understanding, of spiritual intelligence, within the soul of man.

It may be likened to a traveler in a foreign country, and a strange land, suddenly hearing one speaking fluently his own language, his native tongue. It is impossible to deceive him. In this case, however, it is not the mere words, the inflection or pronunciation, but the ideas, sentiments, and principles expressed.

“Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,” for example; or sympathy, Charity, and loving kindness.

The “sign of the Master” is at once recognized by one already prepared to receive and to understand it. The soul that really desires truth and wisdom above all things, has thereby developed the power to recognize it.

This is the discrimination referred to. It is not what someone else tells you, or what another claims. It is what you discern and recognize, and the teaching and the life are in perfect harmony, like chords in music; and they strike a harmonic chord in you, that may be first a surprise, and soon a great joy and a bright light.

It is not a question of authority, and of credentials, but of intrinsic reality. You must know how to assay and test the gold yourself. This is where the “Alchemy of the Great Work” comes in, and here lies the beginning of Adeptship, the preparation for the “Great Work.” I can demonstrate this from a score of old books, some of them going back many centuries.

It has also been symbolized and picturegraphed ’til the imagination ran riot, and ingenuity and fancy became lost, like ideas in a fantasy of words.

I know of but one place, one Institution, in modern times, where these essential truths of the Great Work have been preserved as a consistent whole, and that is in the symbolism of Free Masonry, but the craft long ago lost the real interpretation, though many to-day are on the lines that lead to it.

The whole symbolism and ritual of the Blue Lodge in Masonry is, from beginning to end, a symbol of the journey of the human soul on this earth, from darkness to light; from sin to righteousness; from ignorance to wisdom and understanding.

In other words, it is an exact theorem and solution of the Magnum Opus; a symbol of the philosophy and accomplishment of the GREAT WORK.

The science and the theology of the present day have been briefly contrasted. Neither of them pretends to give us any real science of the human soul.

Science says frankly she “does not know.” Theology bids us believe and obey; trust and hope. Philosophy speculates and reasons, while amusing itself with the kaleidoscope of “postulates” and “categories.”

Science must deal with facts, demonstrate their actuality, and classify them; that is, find their natural order and sequence.

In psychology, the facts are within the realm of consciousness, and therefore their demonstration is a matter of individual experience. This is why psychology differs from all other sciences.

No one can transfer his individual experiences directly to another. He can describe how he gained them, and give the result and conclusions, and here is where those who know nothing of the real problem, are often both incredulous and contemptuous. The only answer to these is, “they are joined to their idols, let them alone.” “They would not believe though one arose from the dead,” and yet we are told again and again that the “School of Natural Science” is the “school of personal experience.”

It may be well to reflect a moment, and ask ourselves, how it is that we really know anything? Is it not through personal experience? Real knowledge comes, and can come, in no other way.

No teacher of the real science of psychology can ever transmit or transfer his knowledge to another. All he can do is to describe the methods, and steps, by which he acquired it, and assist the student in acquiring it for himself in the same way, or under the same processes and laws.

We have only to reflect on the ordinary experiences of life, to realize that this is a universal principle and rule. In the deeper science of the soul, and the higher life, instead of this law being relaxed, it becomes all the more binding.

Do not the principles that adhere in atom, molecule and mass, still hold in worlds and solar systems? Is not this precisely what is meant by “The Reign of Law”? If man were built upon some other scheme or plan than the rest of nature, how could he apprehend or adjust himself to Nature? The very concept of miracle is lawlessness, and mystery is but another name for ignorance.

Knowledge means experience and apprehension of Law.

Neither can the laws of Nature and the laws of God be at cross-purposes, for that would make harmony impossible and inconceivable.

The confusion and discord are all in us, and the Great Work means adjustment, harmony, and then Knowledge.

It is the journey of the human soul on the Royal Highway to Light, Liberation, and Eternal Day.

For many centuries those who have achieved this Wisdom, this “Great Work,” have been trying to make it accessible to mankind, and to place it in such form that the ethical, scientific, and philosophical principles involved, and upon which it is based, should not again be lost. Every such effort has hitherto failed.

The scientific spirit of the present age, in a very broad way, seemed to offer a new and a more advantageous opportunity; for the whole process is one of strict science.

The Psychology of the present day has become involved in phenomena and automatism, and is in no sense constructive. It is one thing to build theories, and quite a different thing to systematize demonstrated facts, through the recognition of co-ordinate relations, and underlying law.

The work is open and accessible to all who manifest real interest, an open mind, and who have the intelligence and discrimination to recognize the character of the work. It has never, in the history of man, been open in any other way, on any other terms, or to any other individuals.

Those who can fill these requirements constitute to-day a larger number than have before existed at any one time, for perhaps many centuries.

The “School of Natural Science” is in evidence. The “Great Work” is carefully outlined.

There is no bar to one’s making a beginning on the path, except indifference, incredulity, preoccupation, or prejudice; and these need not be in the least disturbed, for they will be kindly and courteously passed by.

Arguments, controversy, and proselyting, have no part in the Great Work, as there is no organization, and no personal ambitions to serve.

Those who speak a common language, are inspired by a common purpose, and aspire to a common and universal good, will, soon or late, find themselves associated together and co-operating.

It is like a chorus of voices when an old song is started that we loved in childhood. Each takes up the strain, falls into his own part, and helps to swell the harmony, from the joy of his own heart.

Those who “never did like the song,” will “quietly steal away.” Both Swedenborg and Emerson have sufficiently illustrated the “Law of Correspondencies,” and “compensation,” to reveal the basis of all harmonious human associations, whether on the earth, or on other planes of being. Hence the “Harmonics of Evolution,” was the forerunner of the “Great Work.”

The pitiable byplay and claptrap of “Affinities” so often seen and heard nowadays, where all previous obligations are ignored, and personal responsibilities set at naught, only serve to emphasize the real law of harmony and constructive evolution, by showing what it is not.

The Great Work digs to the very foundations of life, and all human associations, and reveals the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, in the building of character, and the adornment of the Temple of the Human Soul.

This is indeed —

“Eternal Progress moving on,From state to state the spirit walks.”

Death is neither the end nor the beginning. It is only a change in pitch, a shifting of keys, and the same old Song of Life goes on, if we have but learned the score, and caught the harmony.

Salvation is not a thing accomplished once for all. We have only to consider the monotony, the poverty of invention, and imagination, of those who have tried to portray the joy of the Redeemed in heaven, in order to realize what a bore it would soon become, if that were all.

Inspiration, achievement, and eternal progress, with more and more helpfulness to others, with plane after plane achieved, revealing plane after plane beyond – does not this appeal far more strongly to the highest and best in us all?

And pray, what is this, but the Great Work, that I have tried herein to outline, and as taught and lived by Jesus, and every great Master the world has ever known? Each has achieved in his own degree, worded it in his own way, and “stepped out of sunlight into shade, to make more room for others.”

Long before the birth of Jesus, it was said, “The wise and peaceful ones live, renewing the earth like the coming of Spring.” And having themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence, help all those who try to do the same thing, without personal motive.

I have endeavored to give a general outline of the Great Work, drawn from history, tradition, philosophy, and symbolism, down to the present year of grace. I find many corroborations, many things pointing in the same general direction. But I find but one concise and definite formulation of the scientific theorem, in which the outline is clear, and the analogy complete, and thereby made accessible and apprehensible to the open-minded and intelligent student.

Such students need experience no real difficulty in finding a clew to the labyrinth of life, or, as our ancient brothers put it in regard to the Magnum Opus– “a key to the closed palace of the king.”

This is the purpose of the “Harmonic Series” of books. They need rest upon no authority beyond the intrinsic evidence of truth, on every page. If they are not consistent in themselves, then they must fall in pieces. The only appeal to the reader is: read them carefully, analyze your own mind and soul, and come to your own conclusions. If they find no response, no answering chord in you, then they were written for someone else, or in vain.

One further consideration remains to be noted at this time, as the question is sure to arise: “How about woman in the Great Work?” Seldom in the past has she received recognition, since the earliest days in Old India, though here and there have been the most noble women.

I heard Anna Dickinson, many years ago, open one of her famous lectures with these words, “I claim for man and woman alike, the right to attempt and win. I claim for man and woman alike, the right to attempt and fail.”

It seems to me to-day, as it did more than thirty years ago, that this is the whole problem in a nutshell, and that any number of words could add nothing to the statement.

The Great Work is as open to woman as to man, and on the same terms. They have perhaps more to overcome in some directions, and men more in others. This is like saying, “man and woman are different,” that is all.

One thing is certain; there will never be an ideal social state on earth, or a heaven anywhere, except as men and women co-operate together for the happiness of each, and the highest, noblest, cleanest good of all, and this is only another phase or department of the Great Work.

CHAPTER VII

THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM OF PSYCHOLOGY

The Science of Psychology, like any other science, must deal with demonstrated facts, classify them, and systematize the resulting categories.

Strictly logical conclusions drawn from categories of facts so derived, deserve the name of Science.

Science is, therefore, a definite method of arriving at exact conclusions. No other method can legitimately bear the name of science.

No one pretends to dispute the conclusions logically involved in the Binomial Theorem; or in the Parallelogram of forces; or in correlative mechanical equivalents; or in many of the known laws of chemistry and physiology.

When, however, we come to mental processes and psychical phenomena, the facts are so redundant, and so differently reported and apprehended, that argument, belief and prejudice, credulity and incredulity, overshadow and drown with a war of words all clear, scientific methods or conclusions.

But if man, as a whole, is a fact in nature; or if “God made Man a Living Soul,” then the whole nature of man exists under law, and is apprehensible to science.

Man’s function as a scientist is to read, to reflect, to weigh, to measure, and to understand.

There are those who object to Natural Science as applied to “Divine” things. They would preserve the mystery, and seem to prefer miracle and dogma to knowledge and law.

Their preference is to be respected, even though ignorance and superstition result. Since the domain of science, in America at least, is no longer restricted by ecclesiastic law, the conflict between Religion and Science has gradually disappeared, and the conflict is rather that between knowledge and ignorance, with ignorance on the wane.

“Things settled by long use, if not absolutely good, at least fit well together.”

This transition period seems confusing to many earnest souls with its “New Thought,” its “occultisms” and its “Lo here’s” and “Lo there’s.” But through and beneath it all, may be heard a note of harmony, the promise and the potency of the triumph of light and knowledge.

We may not know the final results, but every sincere and earnest seeker may have the peaceful assurance that he is on the open highway that leads to the noblest and the best.

The assurance of knowledge but makes clearer the revelations of faith.

That “absentee God” – of which Carlyle wrote, has been discerned as the Universal Intelligence, and equally Love and Law.

Among recent writers and books on the subject of psychology, Professor Hugo Münsterberg’s “Psychotherapy” occupies a very high place. It appeals especially to the physician, more familiar than others with morbid psychical states. Here I can look back on almost half a century of experience, the most active, in dealing with these cases.

But I am at present less concerned with mental pathology and therapy, than with the general psychological basis; the causative categories upon which they are based, and which occupy the first half of Münsterberg’s book.

Dividing the whole subject – the content of consciousness, all the faculties, capacities and powers, all processes and sequences – into two general groups or classes, the purposive and the causal, Münsterberg declares that “the causal view only is the view of psychology”; “the purposive view lies outside of psychology.” (P. 14.)

I hold, that without the purposive view equally included and co-ordinated, there can be no such thing as Scientific Psychology. Half views will hardly admit of synthetic generalizations.

The complete separation here instituted, between the purposive and causal factors, in itself, for purposes of definition and study, need not be objected to, if it were consistently carried out, which it is not. He so nearly pre-empts the whole ground for the causal, giving scant courtesy to the purposive, merely a few crumbs of comfort, so that it cannot be said to be ignored altogether, and drops the scientific method entirely in dealing with it; assenting to moral precepts and principles, without a clew to any scientific basis, that one must object to the name– Psychology – as being applied to it at all. It contains no hint of a “knowledge of the Soul.”

It is the Vito-Motor mechanism of the Mind. The Automatism of the elements, incidents, changes, and sequences of our states of consciousness; based upon, and including all that we know of physiology. Along these lines, Münsterberg’s work has probably never been equaled. It is concise, comprehensive, and exhaustive.

His physical, physiological, and mental syntheses are well-nigh complete.

Whenever, in the future, what he calls “the purposive view” shall be resurrected from the obscurity and nescience to which he has assigned it, and really habilitated in the garb of Science, and recognized as the lawful spouse of the causal, we shall indeed have a true Psychology, a Science of the Human Soul.

Münsterberg neither scouts nor denies the possibility of such a future discovery. In the meantime, his viewpoint, and necessarily some of his conclusions and generalizations, are one-sided, and out of focus.

Emphasizing the causal as he does, this could hardly be otherwise; and from this point of view, and for this reason, his practical Psychotherapy is purely empirical.

We need not deny his facts, or his results, even when mixed with hypnosis, more than he does the “cures” in “Christian Science,” “Faith Cures,” at Lourdes, or by the “laying on of hands.” All these things are too well known, and not one of them deserves the name of Science. They are solely empirical methods. Münsterberg’s broader view and deeper analysis give to his methods great prominence, and he can point to no results that transcend the others. These facts and these results are as old as the history of man. They have, even as he points out, constituted epidemics of “cure.”

There is, moreover, a scientific view and method regarding what he calls the purposive view which he overlooks entirely, and which by emphasis of the causal, makes seemingly impossible. It is our purpose to try and make this clear.

His analysis of Suggestion, though largely automatic, is well-nigh exhaustive. Awareness, and Attention, are illustrated copiously; but not clearly differentiated as they may be, and actually are in the experience of individual life.

Fortunately, and wisely, he eliminates the “Subconscious” as having no real meaning or scientific value as now used.

But it might be applied to the Mental awareness of physiological automatism (bodily habits, often beginning in an act of will, or attention; writing, speaking, music, dancing, and the like, and in less degree, all life impulses and movements below the line of attention or awareness).

If, by courtesy, these might be called sub-conscious, then there is another group above the habitual plane of awareness, that, by equal courtesy, might be called Supra-conscious. But, unless it is remembered, as Münsterberg points out, that, regardless of phenomena, Consciousness is one, these terms can only lead to confusion.

Certain cases designated “multiple” or “dissociated personalities” have only served to increase this confusion still further; and more especially, when the effort has been made to patch them together, or to control them from without, by hypnosis. The well-known case of “Sally,” reported by Dr. Morton Prince, stands at last, as a “personally conducted” psychological excursion, with Sally still preserving her incognito, and as much a mystery as ever.

That automatism incident to all progressive organization and perfection of function, and through which physical, physiological, mental, and psychic synthesis becomes possible, has been allowed to usurp the place of the “Builder of the Temple,” the “Driver of the Chariot,” and the “Player” upon the “Harp of a thousand strings.” Harmony and equilibrium are incidents resulting from causative processes! We need only to know the construction, relations of parts, and principles involved in the vibrations of the Harp, in order to understand and appreciate the music. The player, the musician – drunk, or sober, tone-blind or genius – is a mere incident, and however purposive or competent, is admitted by courtesy only, and warned not to interfere too much with the Harp!