Version: October 10, 2004
O Thou! Beautiful illuminating Star of Faith, lighting the quiet stillness of the lonely Path of weary feet.
Guiding and sustaining each step of learning -- Thy beams penetrating deeply into the lurking shadows of doubt and fearfulness, that the pilgrim soul may serenely walk through their deceptive guile while Faith grows, and thrives, and lives forevermore in its true home -- the heart of man in the Heart of God.
2001 has been a momentous year. On the one hand, by everyone's system of counting, the millennium has truly arrived; and on the other hand, our lives worldwide have changed forever.
Following the events of September 11, people everywhere have turned to each other for comfort, and to old and new expressions of a Higher Power, whether that Power be called God, Lord, Christ or Buddha; or Jehovah, Allah, Master, Krishna, Osiris, or any other expression of The Nameless One. In the face of the fear, grief, and anger that sweeps the world, we need to reaffirm our trust in God and in our innate ability to express all that That represents in our lives today, through daily -- indeed, hourly -- acts of kindness, tolerance, sympathy, courtesy, understanding, and love.
Many find continuing reassurance, insight, and comfort in the writings of Francia A. LaDue, born 153 years ago. Also known as Blue Star, or BS, she was the first Guardian in Chief of the Temple of The People. Blessed with a deep understanding of all that makes us truly human and Divine, and overshadowed by the Masters, her writings continue to give us a timeless penetration of Universal Truth.
We dedicate this issue of The Artisan to Francia A. LaDue not only as tribute to her, but to offer to people everywhere a collection of her commentaries, essays, and poetry. She offers us tools with which to build into ourselves and the world around us those Universal Principles from which she never wavered. As we face a new year filled with seemingly overwhelming challenges, let us resolve to follow her example and strive for the very best that is within us.
- Eleanor L. Shumway
Guardian in Chief
Francia A. La Due was born at Chicago, Illinois, on January 19, 1849. When she was about four years of age her parents moved to Syracuse, N. Y., where the greater part of her life was spent until she came to California in 1902. She used the name Frances until about twenty years ago, when she began using Francia as her given name. She was educated in the public schools and, early in life, manifested marked literary ability; some of her writings and poems appeared in the daily press during that period. Her life was not a happy one, touching as it did depths of experience along many lines. A character cast in such a large mould would be grossly misunderstood. Privations, hardships, suffering and poverty marked her path. Capable of rising to the greatest heights, she was kept chained to the lowliest tasks of duty. Though not a trained nurse, she followed that calling for many years and was very competent in both private and institutional work. Her family name was Beach. Her first marriage occurred at the age of sixteen and was disastrous and soon over. The second marriage occurred much later in life and Mr. La Due passed into the other world later on. Her mother died a few years ago, but she has two sisters and one brother still living in the eastern states.
The outer events of her life, while filled with the most intense and the deepest experiences of soul and body, from an ordinary standpoint would not interest the public so far as details are concerned. Her inner and occult life, however, reveal the richness of her soul and the supernal character of the Logos governing that personality. A vast storehouse of writings, facts and experiences remain to indicate her occult status and these will be given out through Temple channels as time unfolds.
-- written after her death on July 20, 1922 by W. H. Dower
In general, when we speak of the ordinary man or woman as being of good or bad character, we simply imply that their code of ethics is relatively good or bad and that they have made some attempt at least to put this code into general use.
Question: Are character and ethics interchangeable words?
Answer: At first thought it might appear so; but, coming down to a closer analysis of the word character, it is evident that it is something which can be temporarily divorced from ethics.
A man may not steal or lie, he may be moral and courteous, and still have no character worth mentioning. He may be sickishly insipid or the entire reverse and still have character. Force and character are closely allied, for after the last word is said it is simply force that gives good or bad character and individuality to man or woman. Force is disturbed energy in action and we see different degrees of powerful forces at work all about us and within our own souls constantly, and some of us recognize their effects on this and other planes of manifestation as good and evil, which are relative terms for the positive and negative poles of a universal law.
Each human entity has within itself, potentially at least, the force that can be developed into character and power; but in innumerable cases this force lies dormant and consequently we are surrounded by people that are walking automatons, insipid personalities, of whom Jesus said, "Because thou art neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth."
I am sorry to say I would oftentimes really delight in seeing one of this class commit some flagrant act of evil, even something terrible, if it would break up their normal condition of stagnation and prove that they had some character, whatever its nature. I do not say I would like to live with them during the operation; but I do say it might prove their salvation in the end, for then they would begin to realize their innate possibilities which, if properly directed, might lead them to heights of attainment and knowledge hitherto unsuspected by them.
Doubtless we have all often heard the expression, "The greatest sinner may become the greatest saint." And Confucius has said, "That the greatest glory consisted not in never stumbling but in always picking one's self up after one had fallen." I have often thought that, when it came to choosing my Devachanic companions, I would like to get among those who had sinned most deeply, become conscious of that sin, and expiated it fully and consciously; but if you will think for a moment you will see I am inclined to be very choice in my selection of companions, for such would be Masters indeed, and in Them we reach our highest conceptions of humanity.
They have become Masters through the right use of this very force now under consideration. These exalted Beings are now our leaders, though we must not forget that in some of their numerous lives they have been somebody's prodigal son.
How much of real character can be imputed to the elder son of the Gospels, who sulked around and spit out his venomed thoughts when his brother had returned from his sojourn among the swine? Which of these two had the more character, and which the more desirable even from a superficial standpoint?
Don't make the mistake of thinking I am advising any of my brothers to start off on a junketing trip of a like nature; for if you have not reached the bedrock of the pigsty in the past, you will get there fast enough without my assistance, for this condition, very undesirable from our present point of view, is a necessary experience; without it one can never obtain perfect knowledge of existing conditions and power over the same, and for still another reason -- namely, that the highest can only be interpreted by the lowest, whatever law of life is brought under consideration.
I once heard the story of an Irish girl who, on applying for a situation, was very much concerned at having left her character at home in the "buery" drawer; and this is not an isolated case, by any means.
There are far too many, both men and women, who keep all the character they possess at home in some bureau drawer, in the form of bonds, mortgages, church memberships and general social distinctions, and it remains there permanently. But when one considers those noble ones who have gone step by step through slums of creation and have walked in reality and taken the kingdom of heaven by violence, one realizes there is some hope for even us "little sinners," if we will only cultivate the force that lies within each, waiting to be called like Lazarus from the tomb, and which alone can help us.
At some time in the future this force must accrue through the very concentration of purpose that I believe animates each of this little handful of Divine possibilities.
It does not make so much difference after all what a man or woman has done in this life alone, for the thoughts and deeds of other lives have led up to every incident of this; but it does depend very much upon how one uses the experience gained whether or not he will ever reach the true ideal of the soul.
It is a literal fact that right ethics alone may possibly prove a hindrance to real development, for they may raise a barrier of pride and ambition in people that will stay their feet on whatever step of the ladder of evolution they have reached by this process, and it is only by becoming like a little child that one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Character is in no sense connected with the outer physical personality but is, as I have said before, disturbed energy that, by the concentration of the mind principle of man, builds or destroys the image of the inner man known as the higher astral and literally forms the man on the lines laid down and brought into manifestation by this force. "As a man thinketh, so is he" is no idle statement; it is the thoughts of man crystallized, coordinated and correlated with the forces which this disturbed energy sets in motion that bring upon the "stage of time" the real actor in the tragedies of the soul.
We have all heard the expression, ''Building Character," but we do not all fully realize that this architecture of an inner body is being daily built by every act, deed and thought of every earnest man and woman who is looking for the realities of eternal life.
The force of Brotherhood is passive unless a higher form of force gives it an impulse that will change it into action on a higher or more exalted plane.
Every atom of matter has a character of its own, a manifestation of its own peculiar force, around which nature builds a body or vehicle; and this uphadi or basis is the groundwork of a still higher form of manifestation. If we know, we do not all sufficiently consider the triple evolution of spirit, soul and matter, which is interblending, interpenetrating, interacting on all planes and in all states of consciousness.
If we could catch a glimpse of our own greatness, it would humble us to the dust while it exalted us to the heavens, for it is the greatness of the absolute, only differentiated in time and space, destined in future ages to become one with it.
Veil after veil will fall and leave veil after veil behind. Character after character will change on all the planes of consciousness, giving place to higher types and forms of the same force, adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying with all other forms of vital energy, and we the immortal pilgrims will go forward and upward, taking with us all lower forms of manifestation, hand in hand and heart to heart with our brothers, our divine fragments, until we are lost in the mists that surround the divine, eternal, immutable law of Love.
Character is closely allied to individuality. It is co-eternal, incommunicable. The difference between the two exists in the fact that character can only be gained by persistent, earnest, unremitting endeavor while individuality is the sum of all that endeavor. The latter is the work of ages, for it is the overcoming, or rather overpowering of the four lower principles, and taking by violence the best that each has to give and forming it into a bouquet of sweetness and fragrance, and also making of it a sympathy of color and harmony.
What gives character to a rose, for instance, but its fragrance, beauty and use; and in use is the true keystone of value for everything brought into manifestation, for no matter how high and noble a character had been gained, it could only deteriorate and retrograde unless put to the noblest uses of which it was capable.
Here and there over the abyss of time are scattered stars of the first magnitude; men and women who from the lowest possible conditions of life, by the aid of this Divine force of character, have carved for themselves lasting monuments of fame and power, and in every case it is the uses to which they have put the character so gained that has determined the position they occupy.
-- Edwin Eberman
On the other hand, in greater ratio, are others who have gained the power and used it for their own selfish aggrandizement, have trailed it in the mire of ambition, avarice or sensual gratification, and now stand out in history as monuments of infamy.
Of this number stands out preeminently the Roman Emperor Nero, whose long reign was one series of horror upon horror.
As an example of the former we need look no farther back than our own beloved martyred president Abraham Lincoln, whose whole life was and is one long inspiration. There can be no question as to what constituted his power or gave it expression.
I have confined myself largely to human character, and its correspondences are easily discerned in all lower manifestations of life. But when all is said, we are only able to perceive the inverted character of even those whom we most admire among the celebrities of the world; the real character is hidden in the real man.
This inversion of soul or spirit has been a standing puzzle to me ever since I first heard the expression used. While I understood the definition of the word as ordinarily used I could not perceive its significance as applied to man until I dug a little deeper into consciousness than usual, last evening, and brought forth that which is a treasure to me. It is merely a matter of cyclic development; possibly there are some here who have been confronted with the same difficulty, and my newly found treasure will be acceptable to them also.
A man commits a good or an evil action; we see, comment upon and probe for the motive, but the real test of the action lies farther back than in motive; it is hidden in the desire body and reflected back into the material plane of action just as our real selves are reflected from the inner planes of consciousness, something in the manner illustrated below.
ILLUSTRATION
I have made no subdivisions of these principles, as it was unnecessary for this illustration. As I have said, from Atma, spirit descends to soul, from thence to the Astral; what was then the inner is reflected to the outer man on the material plane, the negative pole of spirit.
From this point the process changes; the outer again becomes the inner, or the higher astral, and is completely subordinated in the spiritual soul; and in Atma, spirit is again triumphant. Its positive pole is once more manifested.
I am quite sure this illustration will serve to explain a great many things that have puzzled me in the past, for character is not the only inverted force brought forth for our consideration. Every manifestation of spirit, matter and force that we are able to perceive, is in the same position as to our finite consciousness from which plane alone the ordinary man or woman can view the things of this world.
Is it surprising that souls who have developed along these lines grow dissatisfied with earthly conditions and strive to reach the reality of life? I think not, for it seems that even I have started on another little trip inward since the truth came to me.
-- Blue Star
Father, Mother, Son in One:
From our inmost hearts we plead
For power to love unselfishly,
For wisdom to perceive aright,
For perception of righteous course,
For determination of purpose,
For power of action according to Thy Will.
The eyes of this humanity are closed as yet. It is only a glimmer now here, now there, of the truth that reaches the outer world. These glimpses are priceless, and the fact that there are those who catch them shows the great advance of the whole.
Once having learned that there are in the world teachers of Occultism, Masters of Wisdom, there springs up in the breast of the man who hungers for spiritual knowledge a fervent longing to come under Their personal notice, to receive Their teachings. But many such aspirants mistake the force generated by the longing for the recognition of spiritual teachers for worthiness to become a disciple. Some have fancied that to attain spiritual wisdom it is necessary to forsake the world, renounce all outer activity, becoming like the mystic of the Orient, immured in some dark forest, his mind absorbed in some vague reverie, ever seeking absorption into the Supreme. Such dreamy mysticism is one extreme of life, the feverish activity of Western civilization the other; and in neither of these two extremes can the true path be found. The character of the Yogi of the East -- vast, imaginative, loving, with his constant effort to lose himself in the whole -- must lie in the West wind and receive the call to action, devotion to that whole in its most microscopic portion.
The two characters -- that of the East and that of the West -- must be fused, and the dross burned from each. If we are to give a form either to government, ethics or religion, we must become masters of that form and not its trembling slaves, fearing that we are doing it a wrong. We must be able to transmute and absorb it into our own essence, lay the lines and send the force over these lines to and fro -- in other words, become one with it. Outer work, work for this tortured, tried humanity, is necessary -- more necessary than many know; for it must give the impulse to the great current that on the physical plane is lifting the world as it sweeps around the lowest arc of the cycle. But outer work is selfish and useless unless the torch of love and wisdom in the heart of each has been lighted from the great flame, the flame that burns without wick or oil. The watchers of that flame blow it in certain directions; those catch it who can -- that is, those whose torches are trimmed.
Many of us are children yet, grasping at imaginary flame; but woe be to those to whom it has been given to pass on the fire and who may have kept it for their own special purpose, whether they call that purpose work for humanity or self-aggrandizement. Thus it has ever been with those who seek ambitiously to become leaders -- guides on the path their own feet have never trod, teachers of the science of life before they have learned the first elements of right living. Playing upon the selfish tendencies of their followers by subtle touches of flattery, they bring them at last into abject servitude. Even the sincere and worthy student may become the prey of such false teachers, following them until he finds, as inevitably he must, that his aspirations have been travestied, his inner life desecrated.
Do not put the treasures of your inmost heart into the keeping of another human being, however high. They will come back to you freighted with the tears of those who have suffered, as you too have suffered, in order to learn there is only one sure refuge -- your own soul.
Yet every failure has a lesson to teach; and even mistaken efforts are not fruitless when a true motive actuates them. But it usually happens that in any misguided attempt one injures his fellows; and we naturally learn to hate those we have wronged. One of the strongest tests of true spiritual advance is to know one loves the persons one has injured most.
Jesus of Nazareth solved the great riddle of spiritual progress for the world in His words: "Her sins are forgiven, for she loves much." He perfectly understood that the woman who had sinned through love held in her soul the germs of a spiritual love that would render absolute self sacrifice, the power to stand still in the furnace until the dross was all burned away.
No effort for good is ever wasted. It disappears from your view, but only to fall into the world of causes, into the soil of wisdom, to be watered by love and again brought forth to bloom.
Religion is too much occupied with the fate of man after death, and concerns itself too little with our immediate life. Learn to live; trust God for dying. The latter is His business, the former is yours. To eat, drink and sleep, to be merry or sad, is not life. Life is the intense, pulsating, vibratory acme of knowledge, truth, love, beauty and faith. Reach out and breathe it into your own soul, as a famishing man reaches for bread to sustain his fainting body.
Self-abasement -- false humility -- is erroneously supposed by some to be an essentially religious attitude of mind. Learn to merge yourself in the whole and, from the standpoint of that whole, judge your own personality. You will then find that personality to be no better, no worse, than those with whom you are closely associated; the varnish is spread more thickly on the parts that seem better than your associates; it has not been well done on the parts where you seem worse. Could you see beneath the surface, you would find but little difference. The good, the Godlike, lies in the law, the power, that is raising the son of God from the tomb.
Do not look too far for the thing you are seeking most earnestly. You will generally find it close to you. The very longing has brought it. This is due to the law of supply and demand. Uncover the crust of the personality nearest you, the one who loves you most unselfishly, and you will generally find it. There are sterile bits of bleak wilderness in almost all lives. Sometimes we pass them in youth, sometimes later in life; but pass them at one time or another we all must, and with parched lips and weary limbs. But thanks be to God for the oasis on the other side of each barren stretch, and for the waters of life that renew our strength for another trial. To the last hour of our mortal life the memories of those terrible struggles, battles with the powers of darkness, remain with us and pass on with us into the Silence. We look back on those hours with an involuntary shiver of the heart, as we think of the somber desolation, the isolation, the unapproachable loneliness of those great altitudes where man first comes face to face with his own soul and in his mad, unreasoning terror of its own greatness turns about to flee away, and finds that he cannot flee from himself, for he is everywhere.
Material existence is one of darkness, bleak darkness, thick and cold, and shrouded by a pall of loneliness unutterable through which the soul, the tender nursling, blind, helpless as a little child, totters on and on, in search of that sweet voice it once has heard and never can forget. Hell, aye, hell indeed, thou mystery of life! The body's anguish is a hell, but beside the anguish in the hell of its own longing that the starving soul creates, the body's hell is joy. 'Twill pass, aye, pass it must, or the soul, undying as it is, would wither in the furnace of that outer fire, and there will fall a peace, hard won, the peace of the great brotherhood of souls. Therefore, learn to wait. Life holds no harder lesson.
The soul of man is like the soul in a tree, awaiting the death that is to give it life: its branches swaying in the wind, its head towards heaven, its roots in miry clay. Steadily through the long years it stands, bearing the storms that sweep over it, bending toward the earth but never breaking, waiting, always waiting the woodman's axe, the turning-lathe, the careful hands of the human creator and the Master hand that will bring it to life in harmonious rhythm, low and passionate, loud and inspiring, tones that cause a nation to weep and rouse an army to patriotism. In its earth-life, performing its natural functions in its own place, could the tree dream of its inherent possibilities? Are we any wiser as a rule? The hand of the Creator is upon us, the loose strings of our human nature are being stretched and tuned. Now here, now there, in the great workshop we catch a few notes from a nearly finished instrument; occasionally an octave of melody sweeps around the world from a few strings that have been attuned; and the leader of the great orchestra, the Master, is still waiting, waiting for the full number with which the paean of universal praise may be sounded.
-- From Beacon Fires by B. S.
Hungry and thirsty for love god's Love,
What other can satisfy?
What a plummet sounds the depths of the heart,
His Spirit doth sanctify.
In sad appeal I lift my arms,
The arms of my earth-bound soul,
And strain my ears till over my brain
Billows of tortures roll.
The calm and quiet of azure skies
But mock my storm-tossed heart.
The cry from my lips makes no rift in the cloud
That seems of my life a part.
There were murmurs heard when God came down
To visit His children of old
But the silence and fear and gloom of death
Over my spirit hath rolled.
Only a hopeless stretch of years
The future holds in store,
For the lamp is out, and my inner shrine
Darkens more and more.
The truth once taught, though a priceless gift,
Began to fear 'tis a carnal love
I have offered to God on High.
Else why no answer to hungry heart,
No answer to tear or sigh?
From the walls of heaven into my soul,
Resounds each anguished cry,
Ah! See! a light, and a whisper soft
That thrills all space around.
"Work and watch by light given here."
The "day star" is at hand.
A LETTER
Dear Friends,
We are very rich. Deny it who may, the fact remains we are very, very rich. We have passed through an adventurous year. We were threatened with crash, panic, submergence of various kinds, from various sources. We suffered blows, hurled from without, hurled from within, from right, from left, from behind and before, they came. Blows intended to destroy, to humiliate if possible, on all planes of existence.
But we are here. What of it all? Facts declare themselves as never before in all the years of our previous existence; we are here in the midst of wealth and surrounded by riches. We are very, very rich. It could not possibly be otherwise, for us to be gathered here today as we are, in Convention assembled, after all we have gone through, and not be very rich. We did not know how wealthy we were. That was all. We had not gone over our bank account thoroughly enough for a considerable season. We did not realize the vastness of our possessions. It is a question if we realize them now. We have been in the midst of world-wide depression, and our real values have not been touched. The enemy, the opposing forces intended, desired, they should be.
But we are unshaken, solid, reinforced, strengthened as might seem incredible for an apparently insignificant body of people, for a group such as we appear to be. We are carrying on a work of purpose, so little recognized, so less than understood by the warring, disrupting, separative elements, they do not even know how to intelligently attack us to accomplish the designs they so much desire to carry out. Who and what are we, pray tell? Advocates, delegates of earthly power and might are we, or Warriors -- Soldiers Brave, unflagging, of Eternal Light and Truth? The latter, say we; the latter are we, and we do not forget instructions given us -- instructions that everything of importance to the human race today must first take place in some form or aspect within the aura of The Temple, that the Lodge's transforming, receiving, distributing Station may interchange, exchange forces existing on and between inner and outer planes, for truer adjustment, balance, equilibrium and progress generally.
Therefore, just what else should we have expected, but all that we did and have experienced, every step of the way? A stirring of forces, changes everywhere, tumult, excess of calm in spots, depression, forerunners of storm, battle, actual battle, in some form or other; then mastery, victory over the warring elements whatsoever they were, with new, established, constructive conditions humming in the work of a new cycle. Nothing slow, stagnant, negative is even allowed to remain in a Lodge Center. The instant stagnation sets in, that instant is the death warrant written in so far as actual worth and service is concerned.
Give us rest; give us peace, comes the cry. Constant disturbance, incessant turmoil, strife, dissatisfaction with work, is too much. Peace, place and rest for old age and closing years, is the prayer and the pleading.
Peace and rest: What are they? Did the Savior of Mankind pass from this plane in the midst of outer conditions of peace? Did He, we ask you? Was there even a far-away suggestion or echo of such? Rabble, cries, screaming of crucify, crucify, attended that event, if read rightly.
But, Peace, yes, Peace Itself existed in Supremacy beyond all power of understanding of those witnessing the fateful scene. Peace. Yes, vibrating in the Highest, within the Conscious Spirit of the One Crucified in flesh only.
There, there alone in the Spirit do we find the qualities themselves, the riches desired -- find them generated, liberated, applied to each and every need possible to all men and women. Peace in war, poise in victory, courage in apparent defeat, the glad smile in distress or disappointment.
Here within such qualities is the Temple wealth. Not to the without did we turn for food, for sustenance. Not from the physical do we receive orders, word of command. In voice we take on all planes, to be sure, but around the interior Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Unconquerable Love, do we rally and nothing can defeat us. No outer conditions, depressions, attacks however vicious, no loss of circumstances; friends, however momentous, however influential, can lessen our values, lower our standard in any form or manner. We greet the light the same glad way, we go on with our work with the same busy cheer. We find ways and means provided according to the nobility of our attitude, our fidelity to service and principle. We hold our heads high in self-respect, in reverence to Truth and the Masters of Truth, and we know, we acclaim our glorious kinship as Sons and Daughters of the King.
What makes us rich? What makes a nation or a people rich? Certainly not the owning of outer things, not the overcrowding of massed numbers. The nation that can create conditions to meet its needs, the people who accept bold attempts at destruction as challenge to conquer higher and more critical levels, the individual who finds peace in crucifixion from the hand of friend, who translates his consciousness to clearer, brighter, purer, more lasting strata to finer spiritual atmospheres: these are they who are rich. These are the Abiding Wealth, the countless jewels, the rare Treasures beyond price, of The Temple. We are, indeed, very, very rich.
-- Blue Star
We frequently hear the term "Patriotism" defined as "Love of one's native land." If that is a true definition, then we should decide upon our individual interpretation of the word "native" as applied by each one who considers himself or herself a patriotic American or a patriot of any other country.
-- If, by the words "our native land," we mean the country inhabited by our forefathers, are we patriots in the sense the word is used in America? If by "our native land" we mean the birthplace of this one single life out of many lives of which we know nothing; or if America is our adopted country and we have sworn off allegiance to any other country and become subject to the laws and customs of America by choice, is not America our native land, the land of our love?
If America has given us everything we have of wealth and honor, every opportunity for advancement in all fields of material life, protection, education, home and friends, have we any alternative, in common honesty, but that of repaying our indebtedness by any and all means in our power? Does the fact that we may disapprove of some action which involves the whole nation release us from the obligations of a patriot -- indebtedness to the land of our birth or adoption? Is it not our Native Land, our Country, right or wrong? Have we any right to accept all those opportunities and advantages and refuse to pay our indebtedness in whatever coin is demanded of us?
These are the questions the great majority of American people are asking of their own souls today, and only their own souls can answer, for the answer lies far deeper than surface indications would promise. They are not questions of choice; they are questions of Principle.
If we believe in a God, a Supreme Ruler of all life in manifestation, we believe He is responsible for our birth in America, or for our adoption by America, as the case may be, and thus has made us debtors to this land. Is it in human reason that He should have so placed us and then given us the right or privilege to repudiate our obligations to this land? All Christians are exhorted by their Priests or Ministers to use the "Lord's Prayer," in which occur the words: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," but we can find no words in that prayer, nor in any other true prayer, which bid us to forgive our own debts; in other words, to repudiate our own indebtedness.
If we do not claim to be patriotic, do not claim to consider America our Native Land, the land we love, have we a moral right to remain in America and partake of her advantages if there is any question of our obedience to her laws, or refusal to pay our debts to her? Do we not owe allegiance, love, patriotism, to whatever land we claim as our Native Land?
In trying to solve these problems, it is only right to consider the viewpoint of those to whom has been revealed a different view of the obligations of life than that held by the average man of the world -- in one sense of the word, a cosmopolitan class; men and women who are without A country because they have made ALL countries their own, all men their brothers, and who believe they are living under a higher law than the law of any one land. If they believe that the laws and policies of any one land in which they are residing conflict with what they believe to be the Higher Law, they are in a very difficult position. The highest Exemplar of that Law that this particular class of men recognizes, seems to have solved the question in these words: "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." There have been many different interpretations of those words; no one human being can interpret them for another.
Argue as we may on all the questions here presented, does it not finally occur to us that the Divine Light in each one of us, the Light of Conscience, is the Voice of God? It alone can answer these questions to our satisfaction. The man who believes he is a cosmopolitan patriot and who thus claims the whole world as his Native Land, may find his justification for his action, or refusal to act in some emergency wherein, to his mind, a principle must be violated, in his belief in the fundamental unity of the human race. Another man, believing that the single country to which he has given allegiance is his native land will find his justification in his belief that he must act or refuse to act as his country demands, regardless of any other claim on his obedience. When all is said, who is great and wise enough to answer these questions for all mankind? Can any lesser being than the Lord God Almighty do so unless it be as the enlightened soul of each conscientious man and woman gives answer to the questions put in the light of divine wisdom?
-- B. S.
It is a very difficult thing for the average intellect to form an adequate conception of what is meant by the word "impersonality" as applied to the Higher Life.
One first thought is apt to be, "I know that I am one person -- one distinct individuality -- and I would not part with that individuality though it may be much worse than that of those about me." But when we really set seriously to work to find out of what that individuality consists, there soon comes a moment when we realize we have little cause for the belief and much less for pride.
-- Edwin Eberman
Most of us acknowledge that Spirit is our highest Attribute and to be one in Spirit with good, or one in Spirit with evil, is a necessity, and not a human invention. The next highest power is Mind or Soul: the oft-repeated paradox "Great minds run in the same channel" is applicable here. People acting from the same high aims necessarily think alike on all vital points, or in other words have entered into one plane of Mind, are in fact one in mind so on down to the most degraded point. There is -- there must be -- a distinct, though invisible, impalpable line, drawn between each of these planes of thought, and the rule must extend to every phase of Nature. We cannot fail to see it. One can look at the subject from an impersonal standpoint, since there are certain traits of our own characters that touch and blend with the like characteristics of our neighbors, and that just so far as this is the case, just so far are we identical. If it is an evil trait and the higher life within us is not developed enough to cope with and vanquish the evil -- the evil will force the good to retire from that personality, and it will rush farther on into a definite tide of evil.
We who have a sincere longing for the higher life believe that the time is coming when the good will over-balance the evil; and, as that time approaches, Spirit, Soul, and Mind in their highest sense must become more impersonal. If we can ever be brought to face the fact that Selfishness is the root of all evil, and that it is simply selfishness in some disguised form that causes us to cling so persistently to our own individuality -- we may be more capable of realizing the great truths hid in the word impersonality -- the same truths that Christ lived and died to teach us.
All the phenomena of unconscious cerebration has a great attraction for me. I am convinced that the true ego of man lies in silent waiting within the life forces, while the Power, Attributes, and passions which are situated in the Astral body roam about the Earthly plane at all times when we are unconscious.
-- Blue Star
"His strength is as the strength of ten because his heart is pure," writes the poet of his ideal, Sir Galahad. Therein lies the true philosophy of life. We are on the eve of a new cycle. We have lived through the ages when the physical and intellectual powers were most in harmony with the environment of the times. We are approaching the spiritual, where purity of heart, such purity as had Sir Galahad, is the one requisite.
Genuine love or friendship is discovered, not acquired. We must meet on our life journey those who have special work to do with us, under special circumstances. Among these are the people with whom we have no real relationship. They converse with us, do business with us and pass out of our life. Then there are those who come somewhat closer. We are related to them by family ties, by so-called friendship. We bear them in our memory unto the end. Again there are those who are not mere acquaintances or friends but sharers of our very existence.
There can never be any real separation between such. They are born under the same star; the same thought is given at the same moment to both. In fact, it is born of their meeting. Such have come down, hand in hand, through the ages, and must so continue. The Love that has given them birth is divine and eternal. Shadows may sometimes drift between for a little while but only to scatter again, and show forth a greater radiance. Their love is of the Sir Galahad type.
The life of the spirit is joy, peace and exaltation; and the test is not religiousness, but Love -- the life of Love.
We have been told that the masses of the people now in this world are the degenerate sons of the past ages, many of whom are on their way down and out of manifestation, as far as their personal lives are concerned. The Egos will be compelled in time to build new houses for their use; and after studying the subject physiologically, morally and psychically, I am convinced of the truth of this statement.
Even so-called sensuous civilizations, such as that of Pompeii, have a serious lesson to teach us. In those past ages, people caught large glimpses of Divinity. While they were too apt to consider the lower phase of the Law of Love, the true poets, sculptors, artists and musicians beheld and embodied the true principles of beauty and truth. It was not considered a subject of which they were half-ashamed. Love was the one grand, great reality of inspiration, and the greatest lover was the greatest hero. But we, poor pitiful pygmies, are half-ashamed of our love for others and on the way to becoming incapable of such friendships as were then considered the most desirable prizes of the world.
We are too small, too mean, to receive and act out faithfully the ideal given us by Plato. For example, if there does not creep into our friendships some sensual taint, some devilish, malignant scandal will supply it; and still that ideal is of all others the one we should strive for, for without Love we are powerless for good. Charity and Love are synonymous terms but they are differently interpreted by the ordinary man and woman.
St. Paul gave us the true definition of Charity: "Charity suffers long and is kind, thinketh no evil, is not easily offended, endureth forever."
How much of that kind of Love are we the possessors of? Thank God we have the hope of it, and the faith to strive for the ideal; and for the future let us try to remember that "whoso loveth most, hath most to give." Most of what the world needs, most of what we individually stand in greatest need; and finally, the most that the Great Lodge needs from us to carry on its work for the evolution of the Brother/Sisterhood of All Humanity.
-- Blue Star
The Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays provided all of us with the opportunity to visit friends and family both here and out of town. After the events of the fall, everyone focused on better communication with each other, the joys of being together in simple fellowship, and gratitude for the privilege of freedom, friends and family. Everyone here would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone around the world a Happy New Year. Let us resolve to take time to honor each other and truly make peace on earth a reality.
Temple groups: There are groups in New York City and London, England, as well as several in locations in Germany. Anyone wishing more information about these groups can call the Temple offices in Halcyon.
William Quan Judge Library serves Temple members, residents of Halcyon, and friends with an interest in Theosophy or who are doing research involving some of our special collections. Our library is staffed by volunteers; hours are Mondays, 9-11 a.m. and 6-8 p.m., and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Other hours are by appointment through the Temple office.
The University Center Gallery is open by appointment. Please call the Temple office at (805) 489-2822 for information. This year the exhibition consists of paintings by Harold E. Forgostein, fourth Guardian in Chief of the Temple. This exhibit, "The Refreshing Green of Nature," features both watercolors and oils depicting Harold's deep insights into the the world of nature about us. Also on display are many interesting articles and artifacts accumulated through Temple history.
The Temple Healing Service is held at 12:00 noon each day in the Temple. All are welcome to attend. A Meditation Meeting is held in the Temple on Sunday evening from 7 to 7:30.
Study Classes under the auspices of Temple Officers and various Temple Orders are held regularly in the University Center on Tuesdays and Fridays at 5:30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Sunday Services are held at 10:30 a.m. in the Temple. The Feast of Fulfillment (the Communion Service of the Temple) is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month. The last Sunday of each month is a prayer and meditation meeting. Other Sundays are speakers' meetings. The public is cordially invited to all services.
Speakers in the Sunday services were: September 9, Eleanor L. Shumway, The Temple Purpose; September 16, Chris Thyrring read The Masters by Dr. Dower; September 23, Willy Gommel, De Profundis; October 14, Margaret Thyrring read America by Wenonah Varian; October 21, Eleanor L. Shumway, The Light of Peace; November 11, Eleanor L. Shumway, Remembering; November 18, Debra Rowlands, Learning Gratitude; December 9, Eleanor L. Shumway, Voices from the Past, Addressing Issues of the Present; December 16, Linda Rollison read Art and Peace by Harold Forgostein.
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