Post Mortem Conditions

C H R I S T I A N O C C U L T I S M a development of character, a spiritual growth, it is empty and worthless. The desire to know more than your neighbours, to be more advanced, as it is said, is an evil thing, ·and will inevitably stop you, and finally, if yielded to, will draw you down, and you will come under the domination of an evil lower self whose power it will he difficult to escape from. You are no teachers of each other, ye are fellow-students, fellow workmen, each for the good of all, each to be encouraged in his task, however humble, for all are working with the great Master Craftsman Himself. We here do specially commend that little faithful Group in the City of Cromlech who have loyally worked in the best way to fulfil our behests, for all have been seeking unity with each other, and have been trying to overcome those fine and invisible, yet strong, barriers which the lower personality of each makes between souls who are very much at one on astral and spiritual planes. Verily brethren, this is the true advance, to try to look through the eyes of another, to feel with, for this is your first step in learning to Love. And when ye begin to love ye have joy-they cannot he separated.

So we send all our loving blessings, and may this Year of New Beginnings hold for you the best of all new things; the beginnings of Love and Joy in the heart of each one of you. ShMSh.

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Some teachings as to Post Mortem Conditions For the First Five only

Some of you enquire mentally concerning the motives of the ancient Egyptians in mummifying the dead. The question could not then be answered-neither can it now be fully answered. But ye may know and bear in mind that a certain link usually remains between the freed spirit after death and its earthly surroundings. In the vast majority of cases the Spirit is not objectively conscious of this connection. Yet it feels a certain uneasiness at any sudden alteration of its former tenement.

The practical lesson of this highly occult teaching is that the survivors valuing the comfort of their departed friends should not suddenly nor hastily change the surroundings in which they lived, nor the things which they took pride in. For thereby unwittingly they may cause great discomfort, and pain to the spirit which is slowly, as it were, losing its hold on the things of the earth and is by no means parted suddenly from them when the breath leaves the body. Remember there are four Elemental Kingdoms and what we call physical death refers not to the Kingdoms of Air and Fire.

For those spirits now going through what is sometimes termed the cycle of Incarnations-the periods between two Incarnations are by far the most real and important parts of their existence -are in fact their true life. Those who teach that the Ego after an incarnation sleeps in Devachan, entertained by unreal illusions, or suffers in Avitchi-or wanders in Kama Loka-are in error, seeing only part of the truth-still more so are they who teach that the Soul's final and eternal destiny is fixed a t the moment o f death-for which there i s no warrant i n any revelation. For the truth is that in what ye earth dwellers term physical death the Ego returns to its full normal life, wherein indeed there is sleep, and dream, and suffering, and joy, yet these things are but part of its fullness.

To understand somewhat of the relation of an incarnation to the fuller and larger life-imagine a young lad who once or twice a week goes to a gymnasium or a drill hall. While 201

C H R I S T I A N O C C U L T I S M there, the exercises he is engaged on take up the whole of his thought and energy, he is concentrated on horizontal bars, ladders and the like, and forgets everything else. Yet when he changes his gymnastic dress and leaves the gymnasium he resumes his real life, probably so much stronger and healthier for the keen exercise-yet, it may be, with a strain or bruise which will smart for days.

As it is the microcosm of the world, so it is in the macrocosm of the larger life. In the gymnasium there are but the pupils who are in the arena, and the instructors and such parents and guardians as may accompany them, but outside, in the more real life, are countless hosts of others, very many whose childish training is long over, and who are now training children themselves. Thus, in the discarnate life, the Ego meets multitudes of other spirits-som e unknown to and unconnected with him, others who to him are in the position of parents and friends or guardians-with these he walks hand in hand, in loving converse, for the stress and striving of incarnation do not exist there and rebellion against wisdom and authority is unknown.

Yet note that these things in themselves are not evil-they form part of the gymnastic apparatus which ye call earthly life -and are hurtful only when an exercise is improperly done. Consider how the weight of a dumb-bell is a good thing-yet if the pupil lets i t fall on himself its weight becomes a source of pain and trouble. As we have said, those going through the cycle of Incarnation are as small children-and their friends and guardians are close beside them.

These are not children themselves. As parents, friends and guardians on earth often accompany children to a gymnasium, assisting, advising, and watching over them-albeit it may be that the children lose sight of everything save the arena and its apparatus-so do these spiritual Guardians stand near those they watch over during Incarnation, albeit the strong develop-ment and vitalisation of material symbols in the Aura prevents the Ego from recognising (save fitfully and by vision or intuition) his beloved friend and guide of the larger life.

It is true that death is a very gradual process and that the

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