Max Heindel often quoted Goethe. One of his favorites was from Faust:
"From every pow’r that holds the world in chains,
Man frees himself, when self-control he gains.”
Freedom, a state of being we all long for, but do we do what is necessary to attain it? Our spiritual exercises are a means to freedom. In performing our exercises, we not only develop the self-control mentioned in the quote, we also
have a gauge of our success or lack thereof. When we turn inward everything
is meaningful and sacred. If, when we are in a state of prayer or meditation,
unwanted thoughts and desires enter our consciousness and divert us from
the object of our attention, we are not free. We are the prisoners of thought
and desire habits. To the degree that we can focus our attention where we
want it, to the degree that we can keep our stream of consciousness pure,
to that degree are we free. “When thy eye is single, the whole body is full of
light.” This is internal freedom, but what about freedom from “every pow’r
that holds the world in chains,” external freedom?
New aspirants to the spiritual path often misunderstand its nature. There are
expectations of spectacular psychic fireworks, and dramatic demonstrations
of powers. The reality is that the spiritual path is a path of increasing subtlety, not sensationalism. At first, we think we know ourselves, and are in
control of ourselves. We soon learn otherwise. As time goes on, and we apply
ourselves to what we intuitively know to be better living, we see things differently. We see the inner adversary as almost unbelievably cunning and subtle;
even some of what we believed were our most blessed intentions, turn out to
not be as beneficent as we thought them to be. As Shakespeare, in one of his
sonnets, puts it:
“What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never!”
Self-mastery is at least as demanding as any other kind of mastery. Subtlety
is also as important regarding powers that “hold the world in chains,” as it
is to inner freedom. Since the time of the ancient Greek mystery schools,
aspirants have been admonished to “know thyself.” The admonishment applies to both the within and the without. Many do not take the time to know
themselves. Consequently, when a thought comes into consciousness, many
cannot distinguish whether it is their own, or another’s. Hypnotists and propagandists take advantage of the power of suggestion in thoughts and feelings. If we were to tell almost anyone of almost any nation that they were
under the influence of a national spirit, which influences and directs many
aspects of their lives, we would not be believed. Subtlety. But if an issue of
patriotism arose, that same individual would be fervently patriotic, believing
their patriotic sentiment came from them, and them only. As sure as there is
a national character and a national patriotism, there is a guiding nationality
spirit. Along the same line of thinking in our time, White Supremacists are
certain they are intrinsically better than people of color, and that it is not a
matter of prejudice.
Spiritual beings, such as nationality spirits are, not the only factor curtailing
our freedom. Even our physical environment influences what we become. A
mountain man is bound to be different from the same man reared in a tropical rain forest. However, the natural physical environment is not inherently
inimical and inhibiting to the attainment of freedom. It is just one of almost
infinite evolutionary conditions, each of which brings out another facet of
infinite possibility in the spirit. It is morally neutral.
The psychic environment is another matter. Nationality spirits, and the spirits of religions, are part of the psychic environment. There are too many other components to the psychic environment, which is in a constant state of
flux, to enumerate them. One component is of supreme importance to us. It
is our human contribution. We influence one another directly and indirectly
through the psychic environment. We care about what others think of us,
just as others care about what we think of them. Social pressure, specific
and general, is enormously powerful. Almost no one is so self-reliant, and so
self-secure, as to be free from it. Peer pressure and its resultant conformity is
usually a direct influence in the psychic environment.
There are also indirect influences. Fads and styles are examples of indirect
influences. A style may have an individual originator, but it takes on a general life of its own as more people espouse it. Fads and styles are short-lived.
Some cultural attitudes linger in the psychic environment for generations or
even centuries. Cultural attitudes can be morally beneficent or malevolent.
Unless we are free, we are influenced, for better or worse, by cultural atti54
tudes, whether we are aware of them or not. Few are sufficiently sensitive to
tune in directly to cultural attitudes in the psychic environment. Nonetheless, anyone can be aware of them in their outward manifestations. Colloquialisms are some of the most common outward manifestations. It is easy to
be ensnared by them, because many of them are clever and, in our egoism,
we pride ourselves in the appreciation of cleverness. There are many kinds of
colloquialisms. Some have endured from the time of Shakespeare, e.g., “tomorrow never comes.” Some contain several cultural attitudes. “My dollar is
a green as anyone else’s” expresses both pride and materialism. Selfishness
is one of the most nasty and pervasive attitudes in the psychic background.
When asked to do something, the response is often “what’s in it for me?”
Selfishness is likely the most inhibitive attitude to freedom. It was the selfish
desire for immortality that caused us to fall into the bondage of sin we find
ourselves in.
We are seeking spiritual freedom “from every pow’r that holds the world in
chains.” Spiritual freedom is expressed in different ways and degrees. The
freedom in the Goethe quote is freedom “from.” Freedom “from” is elective
freedom. One can choose or elect to not be enchained. We say the United
States is a free country because we elect our government. A deeper way and
degree of freedom is the freedom “to.” Freedom “to” is creative freedom. In
freedom “to” we create in the psychic environment. It is a service, an important human service. The service of the minerals is providing form, the service
of the vegetable kingdom is vitality, the service of the animal kingdom is desire, and the service of humans is thinking. In thinking, the spirit expresses
itself in all forms of matter.
Freedom “to” is the very nature and duty of Spirit. Creator is synonymous
with God, the Spirit. As trained thinkers and prayers, it is our divine duty
to ourselves, to add positive, pro-evolutionary contributions to the psychic
environment. Ever since we have been able to precipitate our first thought,
our first expression of creative freedom, we have been responsible for our
freedom. We have polluted the psychic environment more than the physical
environment. It is our duty to redeem our misdoings. We do this by creatively transforming the negatives of our deeds into positives. To have the full
post-mortem experience of the desire world as a first heaven, with no purgatory, is a worthy goal.
Before we can contribute positively to the ongoing creation through
the psychic environment, we must know what it is. This can be done by
simple intuition which never fails but, as children of fire, we know that
it is much better to not only know what is true, but to also know why and
how it is true. Rosicrucian students begin by observation and discrimination. This activity, too, can be simple. One glimpse of a continent of
plastic floating on the Pacific Ocean, which eventually kills life forms, is
sufficient. One experience of a destructive, negative attitude disrupting
and spoiling a previously harmonious group activity is equally obvious.
We can take heart in the fact that doing the obvious right thing opens
one to more subtle and complicated things. Soul growth is a slow and
careful activity, and it is so because perfection is its goal. It is heartening to know this also, but it is so much more spiritually gratifying and
efficient, to have a method harmonious to the workings of the cosmos
in doing it. That is what the Rosicrucian philosophy is, and it is why we
study it. So, as aspirants, we ask ourselves, “how do we know what to
do about the pollution of the psychic environment?”
Much of the Rosicrucian philosophy evolved out of the ancient mystery
schools, particularly those of the ancient Greeks. We learn from Plato, an Orphic initiate, that it is best to refer things to the macrocosm
for accuracy. That is what we do when we pray. As the old hymn says,
“take it to the Lord in prayer.” This works intellectually, as well as devotionally. For us, the macrocosm is the threefold spirit expressed in
the Holy Trinity. The Greek mystery schools had a simple means for
characterizing the threefold spirit. Simply put, the characteristics of
the threefold spirit were truth, beauty and goodness. Truth represented the third attribute, and the equivalent is found in Christianity where
the Holy Ghost is known as “the Spirit of Truth.” Beauty represented
the second, the love-wisdom attribute which we associate with our loving Savior, love being the basis of beauty. Goodness represented the
attribute of the first and deepest aspect of the threefold spirit. This last
association is not always so obvious in Christianity except in the passage of St. John’s Gospel wherein Christ refers to carrying out the will
of the Father which is unspeakably good.
From the above we see that, if we want to know what the right or the
best thing to do is, our observations and actions must be founded in
the good as deeply as we can understand it. This way of looking for the good
is a little different than Rosicrucian aspirants usually conceive it, but it is no
less important.
One doesn’t have to look very far to find the intrinsic good in the cosmos. One
example can be found in the principle of attraction in the desire world. According to that principle, self-sacrificing love attracts, while self-assertive
grasping repulses. Suppose a salesperson wants to attract more customers
and tries to do so by expressing love. It would not work because the self-seeking intent would be repulsive. Intrinsic goodness. If the salesperson really
cared about the client, the result would be different. The principle of attraction is founded on the principle of cause and consequence which is, itself,
inherently good. Consequences inhere in causes. If one tries to “play” destiny
by acting with the motive to have a more pleasant rebirth in the future, the
selfishness taints the act, and it must come out in the consequences.
The beauty of Christ, and the Life Spirit, is within its common character. The
core of that character is caring for the other. St. John’s Gospel states this
repeatedly. Christ carries out the will of the Father but also cares for the individuals, all of us, given to him by the Father. The Life Spirit is the ultimate
other. St. Paul tells us, “the end of the law is love.” The purpose of the law is
to bring us to love, and to bring love to us. This latter function it carries out in
abundance. “I come to bring you life more abundant.” Life Spirit transcends
Human Spirit, so it is beyond the limiting ring of selfhood. Because of this,
when we act for the Christ’s sake, for the Ultimate Other, we partake of the
unlimited love, the love that is spoon-fed by the law.
The least experience of this love, as grace, is life-changing beyond words.
Even seeing only the effects of it in others is a moving experience. This writer
once knew a young man with a problem that would be a blessing to anyone.
His complaint was, “I cannot sacrifice.” He said something to the effect of
“Every time I try to do something with no return in mind, I am blessed beyond belief.” That is a problem we would all be blessed to have.
The character of Life Spirit is manifest in Christ. The act of Christ, in taking
on human experience, is a stupendous sacrifice. It was not in the divine plan.
Our sin in choosing the option of going against the divine plan was also not
in the plan, and it required the sacrifice of Christ to offer us the possibility
of redemption through the grace of Life Spirit, if we accept it. That sacrifice
was not without commensurate reward, a reward of cosmic scale. Exactly
what that reward was is not clear among writers on Christian Mysticism.
Some have stated that, because of the sacrifice, Christ was initiated into the
world of the Supreme Being on the highest cosmic plane. If that were true, it
would be a glorious reward of unthinkable proportion. This writer is not of
sufficient spiritual development to say if that statement is true or not. Having
met at least one writer who has made this claim, this writer is pretty sure that
said writer could not substantiate it either, except by secondhand experience. One doesn’t need to appeal to that claim to appreciate the reward from
the sacrifice of Christ. There is another kind of glorious and unprecedented
reward, from a much more reliable source.
From our experience of life, we know that putting forth action calls up necessary resistance. That is a simple manifestation of a cosmic principle. In
The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception we are taught that experiences of the
Universal Spirit call forth resistances in matter in the evolutionary creation.
The subsequent interaction between spirit and matter results in the spiritualization of matter through the generation of soul, which is absorbed and
assimilated into spirit. The concrete worlds of matter called forth in the creation are part of the creative process called the materialization of spirit. The
way in which the concrete worlds are called forth is called reflective projection. Reflective projection is specific in character. The will of Divine Spirit is
reflectively projected into the Chemical Subdivision of the Physical World,
where resistance to will is a characteristic. Life Spirit is reflectively projected
into the Etheric Subdivision of the Physical World, the realm of vitality and
energy, which is a reflection of spiritual life. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is projected and reflected in the Desire World. Through the lens of mind, spirit can
focus and enter into matter as it does in humans. In our human microcosm
this has resulted in waking self-consciousness which, as the spirit draws into
its bodies, will spiritualize those bodies directly from within. St. Paul tells us
we are “a peculiar people.” Indeed, we are, because we alone, in this creative
manifestation as threefold spirits, can awaken personally in all of the worlds
of this creative manifestation. In the divine plan, the Human Spirit or Holy
Ghost, was meant to, and did, awaken within its reflective projections, the
Desire Body and Desire World. Jehovah did, and dooe, function in his reflectively projected Desire World. In the divine design of the evolutionary creation, the Father, representative of Divine Spirit, and Christ, the Son,
representative of Life Spirit, were never to have entered their respective, reflective projections, the chemical and etheric subdivisions of the physical world.
Life Spirit, through its representative in Christ, would never have entered
into its reflective projection in the ethers, except for the sacrifice of Christ
taking on the etheric vital body of Jesus and, eventually, the etheric body of
the Earth. Entering intimately into one’s creative projection, which previously could only be experienced in reflection, must have been a cosmic Deja
vu experience of unparalleled wonder and creative satisfaction. And then,
entering into chemical experience as well, must have been astounding even
for Christ. Yes, there was, and is, limitation in this ongoing sacrifice, but it is
not without glory, immense glory. Thomas was like our modern humanity.
He wanted proof. We want proof, we want to see for ourselves. The Life Spirit
through the sacrifice of Christ does see its part in the creation from within
and, as indicated in the book of Genesis, it sees “it was good.”
Christ offers us a way to see the Kingdom of Heaven for ourselves, if we accept it. To do so we must, as St. Paul says, become like him. It means that instead of thinking, “what’s in it for me?” we must think, “what’s in it for you?”
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