TAKE a seat in any cafe or restaurant and observe the people sitting at the tables around you! Listen to their conversation and note what they have to say to one another! Go into families, watch your most intimate friends in their hours of leisure when work no longer presses!
You will be shocked at the hollowness of their conversations when they cannot talk about their various occupations. If you observe them closely you will sense with disgust the emptiness of their thoughts and the oppressively narrow sphere of their interests, as well as their terrible superficiality.
The few exceptions you encounter, those whose words in their leisure hours of everyday life are penetrated by a longing for a greater development of their souls, will appear to you as solitary strangers in the midst of a fair.
It is just in his so-called leisure hours that you can best recognise the real inner man, when his daily work is done and he has lost the outer hold on life provided by his special field of knowledge. What then remains is the actual man. Watch him and listen dispassionately to his words! You will soon cease your observations because they will become intolerable.
You will be filled with deep sadness when you realise that many people are not very much different to animals, not quite so dull and equipped with a higher intellect, but on the whole the same. They go through life on earth as if with blinkers, never seeing more than one aspect, i.e., what is purely material. They attend to eating and drinking and aim to increase to a greater or lesser extent their hoard of earthly treasures, seeking for physical enjoyment and regarding all reflection on things they cannot see as a waste of time, which they consider would be better employed in »rest and recreation«.
They cannot and will not understand that life on earth, with all its pleasures and joys, only gets its real meaning when one has become more or less familiar with the Ethereal World, and knows about the reciprocal actions connecting us with it, for then one no longer has the feeling of being at the mercy of chance. They repudiate this idea under the misapprehension that, if an ethereal world really exists, it would only bring them discomfort or even dismay as soon as they concern themselves with it.
To them it is a strange idea that life on earth only gets real value through striving upwards, and that then a delightful, vital warmth also pulsates through all earthly joys and pleasures. These latter are not pushed aside; on the contrary, those who yearn for and earnestly seek what is pure and high will, as a beautiful result of reciprocal action, attain an ardent love of life, often ending in jubilant enthusiasm for all that exists and is proffered.
Fools are they who pass this by! Cowards, to whom the glorious joy of those who advance courageously will ever be denied!
Rejoice that all around you lives, far away to regions that seem immeasurable! Nothing is dead, nothing is void as it would appear! Everything is working and weaving in reciprocal action, in the centre of which you stand as men continually forming and directing the threads, being both starting point and final goal.
Mighty rulers are you! Each one of you is establishing his own kingdom in such a way that it will either uplift you or bury you beneath its ruins. Awake! Use the power given to you in the full knowledge of this mighty happening, lest in your stupidity and obstinacy, or even in your indolence, you bring forth only harmful deformities which choke all that is healthy and good and finally cause you as their author to totter and fall!
Even man’s nearest ethereal surrounding can contribute much to uplift or debase him. This is the strange world of thought-forms, the vital activity of which comprises only a small section of the giant mechanism of the whole Creation. Their threads, however, penetrate both into the Gross Material World, and further up into the Ethereal World, as well as descending into the realm of Darkness. Like a gigantic network of veins or nerve-strands, all is intertwined and interwoven, untearable and inseparable! Mark this well!
There are favoured ones who here and there can see a part of this, but much they can only divine. In this way some things have come to the knowledge of mankind, who have sought to build further upon this knowledge in order to obtain a complete picture. But in so doing gaps and mistakes were bound to occur. Many investigators of the ethereal realm jumped to conclusions which inevitably caused the proper sequence to be lost. Others again filled the gaps with fantastic imagery, bringing disfigurements and distortions which consequently shattered faith in the whole matter. The result was a justifiable derision which, based on the lack of logic of the so-called spiritual investigators, was certain to be victorious.
If these matters are to be spoken of at all it is necessary that first of all a cord should be drawn through all that happens in the working of Creation, which the onlooker can grasp in order to help him climb upwards. Many of the processes which perplex him have their origin in his immediate vicinity. One glance into the world of thought-forms should suffice to make him understand several things that seemed inexplicable before.
In dealing with many a case the Judiciary would also find the real originators to be quite different persons to those accused, and would first of all call such persons to account. The key to this lies in the connection between the individual and the world of thought-forms, which stands closest to humanity.
It is certainly a blessing for many that they are blindfolded and cannot see further than their physical eyes will permit, for the nature of the existing thought-forms would give them a fright.
Paralysing horror would grip many who today naively or frivolously lead unscrupulous lives. For every thought that is generated, like everything in the Ethereal World, immediately takes a form which embodies and expresses the essential meaning of the thought.
The Living Creative Power which flows through man collects ethereal substance through the volition of a completed thought and moulds it into a form which gives expression to the will of this thought. Thus this form is something real, something living, which now, in accordance with the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species, attracts what is homogeneous in this world of thought-forms or is attracted by them, depending on the strength it possesses.
Just as a thought when it arises is simultaneously perceived intuitively, with greater or lesser intensity, so its ethereal form will bear an equivalent life. This world of thoughts is densely populated. Through the mutual power of attraction complete centres have been formed which, by means of their accumulated energy, exercise a great influence upon human beings.
In the first place those persons will always be influenced who tend towards a similar nature, that is, who bear something similar within themselves. Such persons will thereby be strengthened in their corresponding will, and encouraged to continue producing new and similar forms which, working in the same manner, enter the world of thought-forms.
But also other people who do not possess these special tendencies can be bothered by these influences and gradually be attracted to them, if these centres are continually reinforced and so obtain unsuspected power. Only those are protected who possess other tendencies in greater strength, making a connection with what is dissimilar impossible.
Unfortunately, however, it is hate, envy, jealousy, lustfulness, avarice and all other evils which, through their greater numbers of adherents, form the strongest power centres in the world of thought-forms. Far less great are those of purity and love! This is the reason why evil is spreading with such uncanny rapidity. In addition these power centres of thought-forms in turn obtain a connection with analogous spheres of darkness. From there they are specially roused to ever greater activity so that as a consequence they are able to create downright devastation among mankind.
Therefore, blessed be the hour when thoughts of pure love will once more take a greater place among mankind, so that similarly strong centres will develop themselves in the world of thought-forms, which can be reinforced from the more luminous spheres and thus not only strengthen those striving towards what is good, but also slowly work on darker minds with a gradually purifying effect!
Yet another activity is to be observed in the Ethereal World. According to the wishes of their originator, thought-forms are sent out to certain persons to whom they may then cling.
If these thought-forms are of a pure and noble nature, they will beautify the person for whom they are meant, strengthen the shield of purity around him and, if they meet with inner intuitive perceptions of a similar nature, they can uplift him further and strengthen him for his ascent.
Impure thoughts, however, cannot fail to soil the person for whom they are meant in just the same way as a physical body is soiled if mud and dirt is thrown at it. If a man so attacked is not inwardly anchored firmly to the centres of light-streams, it may very well happen that in time his intuitive perception may become confused under this barrage of impure thoughts. This is possible because these impure thought-forms clinging to him are able to attract others of a like nature, which strengthen them so that by degrees they poison the thoughts of the person so encompassed.
The greater part of the responsibility naturally falls back upon the man who generated the impure thoughts and whose wish or desire sent them out to the person concerned, for the thought-forms also remain attached to their author and react upon him accordingly.
It is therefore necessary repeatedly to call out to all true seekers: »Give heed to the purity of your thoughts!« Put all your energy into this effort! You have no idea what you are thus doing; something stupendous lies in it! You can work with this like mighty warriors and pioneers for the Light, and thus liberate your fellow-men from the poisonous creepers that infest the world of thought-forms!
If now the bandage could be removed from the eyes of a man so that he could look into his immediate ethereal environment, he would at first be alarmed and terrified at the wild confusion he would see there. But this would only last until he realised the power within him, with which, as with a sharp sword, he can without effort clear a free passage merely by exerting his volition.
He would see thought-forms in a hundred thousand varieties in all possible and, to the physical eye, often impossible shapes. Each one, however, is sharply defined, showing and expressing what was the actual volition, unadorned and without artificial disguise, when the thought was generated.
Still, in spite of the thousands of varieties, one learns in time to recognise at a glance the nature of each thought-form, that is to say, one knows to which category they belong in spite of their different shapes. Just as one can distinguish a man from an animal by his face, or indeed recognise the different human races by certain facial characteristics, so in precisely the same way thought-forms have also quite marked expressions that clearly indicate whether the form belongs to hatred, envy, lust, or some other basic type.
Each of these fundamental types has its own particular stamp which has been impressed on each thought-form as the foundation of the characteristics embodied in it, no matter what outer shape each form has taken through the generating thought. Thus, in spite of the most grotesque distortion of a form, which may reach the most terrible deformity, one can immediately recognise to what fundamental type it belongs. Once this is recognised that which appears to be wild confusion no longer remains so.
One sees the inexorable order and strictness of the fundamental laws governing all Creation which, if one knows them and has adapted oneself to their course, afford unbounded protection and great blessing.
He, however, who opposes these laws will naturally be attacked and, if not utterly cast down and crushed, will at least undergo a severe grinding between the great millstones which, through pain and bitter experiences, will remodel him until he fits into the working of these laws and is no longer an obstacle. Only then can he be carried along upwards!
These thought-forms not only return their effects to humanity, but go further. For to the same Ethereal World belong the greater number of the elementals. He who has reconciled himself to the fact that all is alive and also has a form, whether physically visible or not, will not find it difficult to go a step further and realise that the elemental powers also have forms.
To these belong the gnomes, elves, sylphs, water-sprites, etc., the earth, air, fire and water elementals, which have been seen by many, but formerly more often than now. These are being influenced by the thought-forms so that also there much good or evil arises. And so it goes on! One thing gears into another like cogwheels in the finest and most highly-perfected mechanism.
In the midst of all this »machinery« stands man! He is equipped with the means to decide the nature of the weaving that shall proceed from the loom of Creation and to set the mechanism in motion in different directions.
Be conscious of this immeasurable responsibility, for it all takes place only within the circle of your earthly limits. By the wise ordinance of the Creator nothing goes beyond this, but falls back upon you yourselves. Through your wishes, your thinking and your volition you are able to poison this world and the beyond, or you may purify and uplift them towards the Light. Therefore direct your destiny so that it may lead upwards through the purity of your thoughts!
HOW OFTEN are these words of the Son of God quoted as well-meant advice and warning! But neither the giver of the advice nor the recipient take the trouble to reflect upon the real meaning of these words!
Every man knows what is meant by »praying«, or rather he thinks he knows, although in truth he does not know. He also imagines that he knows what »to watch« means, but he is far from doing so!
»Watch and pray« is a figurative rendering of the admonition to keep the ability to perceive intuitively on the alert, i.e., to keep the spirit active! Spirit in its true sense, and not the activity of the brain, for the way the living human spirit expresses itself is only and solely through the intuitive perception! In no other way does the spirit of man, i.e., the original kernel which evolved into his true »ego« in the course of its wanderings through Subsequent Creation, become active.
»Watch and pray« is therefore nothing less than the demand to refine and strengthen man's ability to perceive intuitively, which is equivalent to vitalising the life of the spirit. The only eternal value man possesses is his spirit, which alone can return to the Paradise from which it issued. It must return there, either matured and self-conscious, or again in an unconscious state; either welcome to the Light as a living ego which has become useful in Creation, or as a dismembered and dead ego if it has proved itself useless.
The admonition to »Watch and pray« is therefore one of the most serious which the Son of God bequeathed to mankind. At the same time it is a grave warning to stand as useful beings in Creation, lest damnation inevitably follows through the automatic working of the Divine Laws.
Look at woman! She has, as the most precious gift of womanhood, a delicacy of intuitive perception which no other creature can attain. For this reason one should be able to speak only of noble womanhood in this Creation, because womanhood possesses within itself the strongest gifts towards the realisation of all that is good.
This, however, places the greatest of responsibilities upon woman. For this reason Lucifer, with all the host that belong to him, aimed primarily at woman in order thus to subjugate the whole Creation to his power.
Unfortunately Lucifer found only too superficial a basis in the woman of Subsequent Creation! With open eyes she flew into his meshes and, in her own way, poisoned the entire Subsequent Creation by changing pure concepts into distorted images, which inevitably brought confusion to all human spirits.
The pure flower of noble womanhood, the crown of this Subsequent Creation debased itself under the influence of the tempter and soon became the poison plant which, with its glittering colours and seductive fragrance, attracts all to the spot where it flourishes, to the swamp, into the sultry softness of which the victims thus allured sink.
Woe unto woman! Because she did not make proper use of the highest of all values bestowed upon her, she will inevitably be the first upon whom the Sword of Divine Justice will fall, unless she decides to use the special mobility of her spiritual intuition, so peculiarly her own, to take the lead in the necessary ascent of mankind out of the ruins of such a faulty structure of perverted conceptions, which only arose through Lucifer’s promptings!
Instead of setting the example of honestly striving for the white blossom of noble purity and adorning herself with it, she chose to indulge in coquetry and vanity, the playground of which is a wrongly cultivated social life.
Woman fully sensed that she was losing thereby the genuine ornament of womanhood, and grasped at the substitute offered to her by the Darkness. She sought to offer her physical charms for sale and became a shameless slave of fashion, as a result of which she sank still further into the abyss, dragging men along with her by stimulating their instincts, which inevitably hindered the unfolding of their spirits.
All those who thus failed and became rotten fruit in this Creation had planted within themselves the seed which now, in the necessary Judgment, must cause their destruction through the reciprocal action, because it made them incapable of withstanding the roaring and purifying storms!
Let no one soil his hands by helping the worshippers of the idol of vanity and coquetry if they stretch out their arms to be saved in their hour of need! Let them sink, push them away, they have no valuable qualities which could be used in the new building up that has been promised!
They do not see how absurd and hollow are their actions! They laugh at and ridicule the few who try to preserve for themselves the decency and purity of true womanhood, at those who did not permit the delicate feeling of shame, the most beautiful ornament of girl and woman, to be extinguished, but their mocking shall soon change to cries of dismay and thus be stifled!
It is as if the woman of Subsequent Creation is standing on the sharp edge of a knife, because of the great gifts bestowed upon her. She must now give an account of what she has done with them up to the present! There can be no excuse for her! It is impossible to turn and retrace her steps, for the time is up! They should all have thought of it before, and should have known that their opinion cannot oppose the adamantine Will of God, in which there is nothing but Purity, clear as crystal!
The woman of the future, however, who has been able to preserve herself and her values during the dissolute period of a modern Sodom and Gomorrah, together with those who will be newly born, will at last bring womanhood to that blossom where all who approach her do so in holy awe and purest veneration. She will be the woman who lives according to God’s Will, that is, who so stands in Creation that she is like the radiant crown, which indeed she can and shall be, permeating everything with the vibrations she absorbs from the Luminous Heights and passing them on undimmed by virtue of her ability, which lies in the delicacy of the feminine intuitive perception.
The Son of God’s words »Watch and pray« will be embodied in every woman of the future, as they should already be in every woman of today, for in the vibrations of the feminine ability to perceive intuitively lies that perpetual watchfulness and most beautiful praying which are pleasing to God, providing she strives towards purity and the Light!
Such a vibration brings the experience of heartfelt gratitude and joy, and that is prayer as it should be! At the same time the vibrations contain a constant warning to be on guard at all times, that is, to watch! For everything nasty that tries to approach, and every evil volition, is sensed by such delicately sensitive vibrations and is noticed before it can become a thought. Thus it is made easy for the woman always to protect herself in time, unless she herself wants it otherwise!
In spite of the fineness of these vibrations they hold a power which can remodel everything in Creation. There is nothing which could resist this power, for in it is Light and therefore Life!
This was well known to Lucifer! Therefore he mainly directed his attacks and temptations towards womanhood! He knew that everything would succumb to him if he succeeded in winning over woman. And unfortunately he succeeded only too well, as everybody who wishes to can clearly see today.
For this reason the Call from the Light is again addressed in the first place to woman! She ought to be able to recognise to what depths she has fallen! She ought to, if ... her vanity permitted it! But this snare of Lucifer holds all womanhood so fast bound that she can no longer recognise the Light, and even no longer wishes to! She no longer wishes to because modern woman cannot forgo her life of frivolous trifling, although she is vaguely aware of what she has lost through it. Indeed she knows it only too well! And to dull this warning intuitive perception, which is the equivalent of »knowing«, she throws herself headlong and as if struck with blindness into the newest folly — emulating man in his profession and in his whole being!
Instead of returning to genuine womanhood, the most precious of possessions in all Creation, and thus to the task allotted to her by the Light!
It is she who robs man of all that is sublime and thereby prevents the flowering of noble manhood!
No nation and no people can flourish and prosper where the man is unable to look up to the woman in her womanliness!
Only genuine, purest womanhood can awaken and lead a man to great deeds! Nothing else! And that is the vocation of woman in Creation according to God's Will! Through this she uplifts her nation and all humanity, yes even the whole of Subsequent Creation, for in her gentle working alone lies that sublime power which is irresistible and compelling and, if of the purest volition, blessed by Divine Power. There is nothing to equal it, for she carries beauty in its purest form into everything she does and everything that proceeds from her!
That is why her weaving should permeate the whole Creation, refreshing, uplifting, furthering and animating, like a breath from the longed-for Paradise!
This was the pearl among the gifts of your Creator that Lucifer grasped at first of all, with all his cunning and malice, knowing that that was the best method with which to tear away your hold and your striving towards the Light! For in woman lies the precious secret that is able to set free the purity and sublimity of every thought, the inspiration to the greatest activity and noblest deeds — provided that she is the woman the Creator intended her to be when He lavished these gifts upon her.
You let yourselves be duped too easily! You succumbed to the temptations without a fight! As a willing slave of Lucifer woman now directs her beautiful Divine gifts to serve a contrary purpose, and thereby brings the entire Subsequent Creation under the domination of the Darkness.
Of everything that God wanted to come into existence for the joy and happiness of all creatures in this Creation, only repulsive caricatures are present! Of course everything did come into existence, but changed and distorted through the influence of Lucifer. Wrong!
The woman of Subsequent Creation made herself the mediator in this matter. A gruesome bog spread over the clear soil of purity, and radiant enthusiasm was replaced by sensual orgies! Now you are willing to fight, but against every demand of the Light, so that you can remain in that state of vain self-satisfaction which intoxicates you!
There are not many who today are capable of meeting a clear gaze steadfastly. The majority turn out to be leprous, whose beauty — true womanhood — has already been eaten away and can never be restored again. If after some years many who can still be saved recall all that they regard today as being beautiful and good, they will be disgusted with themselves. It will seem like awakening and recovery from the most terrible fever-dreams!
Just as woman was able to drag the whole Subsequent Creation down deeply, so also has she the power once more to uplift and further it, for man will follow her lead in this.
The time will come soon after the purification when one can joyously call out: “Look at woman as she should be, the genuine woman in all her greatness, her noblest purity and power!” Then you will experience through her the words of Christ, »Watch and pray«, in all naturalness and in the most beautiful form!
MARRIAGES are made in heaven! These words are often uttered by married couples with resentment and bitterness. But they are also used hypocritically by those who are furthest removed from heaven! The natural consequence is that one has taken to shrugging one’s shoulders, to smiling, mocking and even sneering at these words!
This is understandable when a person considers all the marriages with which he has become acquainted in his own and wider circles during the course of years. Those who mock are right! Only it would be better not to ridicule the saying but the marriages themselves! In the majority of cases these deserve not only ridicule and scorn, but even contempt!
Marriages as they are today, and as they have already been for centuries, have so discredited the truth of this saying as to prevent anyone from believing in it. Unfortunately, with but very few exceptions, they are distinctly immoral! They cannot be brought to an end quickly enough in order to save thousands from the disgrace into which they blindly run because of present-day habits! They imagine that it cannot be different because it is customary. Added to this, everything at the present time is shamelessly directed towards dimming and suffocating every purer intuitive perception. No one thinks of making the personality what it should, could and must be by also showing the necessary respect for the physical body.
The body, like the soul, must be regarded as something precious and therefore untouchable, something that should not be exhibited in order to entice! Thus in this particular respect also the body on earth is inseparable from the soul. Like the soul it must be equally respected and preserved as something inviolable, if it is to have any value at all! Otherwise it will become rubbish with which one soils oneself, deserving nothing better than to be thrown into a corner and picked up cheaply by the first passing hawker.
If today an army of such hawkers and second-hand dealers came swarming over the earth they would discover untold quantities of this rubbish. At every step they would find new heaps waiting to be added to their collection. And truly such hawkers and second-hand dealers are already wandering about in great numbers. They are envoys and tools of darkness, who greedily seize their cheap booty to drag it triumphantly down further and further into their dark realm, till they are all swallowed up in blackness and can never find their way back to the Light.
It is no wonder that everyone laughs when somebody seriously affirms that marriages are made in heaven!
Civil marriage is nothing but a sober business contract. Those who thus bind themselves do not do so in order seriously to tackle a joint task, which would raise the inner and outer value of the persons concerned, and also enable them to strive together for high aims, thereby becoming a blessing for themselves, for mankind and also for the whole Creation; but they regard it as a simple bargain ensuring each other’s material security, so that mutual physical surrender may follow without any further cogitation.
The position of the woman in this matter is a degrading one. In eighty out of a hundred cases she hires or sells herself simply to serve her husband, who does not seek in her a companion of equal worth but, apart from showing her off, merely uses her as a cheap and willing housekeeper to make his home comfortable, with whom he can also indulge his sensual appetite undisturbed and under the cover of a false respectability.
Young girls often leave their parents to marry for the most trivial reasons. Sometimes they are tired of being at home and long for a sphere of action in which they have the say. Others think it would be fascinating to play the role of a young wife or hope to get more excitement out of life. They may also believe they can better their material position.
There are also cases where a young girl marries out of spite to annoy some other person. Marriage can also be entered into merely out of physical desires, which have been awakened and artificially nourished by reading bad literature, through wrong conversation and by playing around.
It is seldom the true love of the soul that urges them to take this most important step of their earth-lives. Aided and abetted by many parents, girls are supposedly »too clever« to allow themselves solely to be guided by their purer intuitions, and thus they rush all the more easily into unhappiness. Such persons will already pay in part for their superficiality in their married life. But only in part! The bitter experience of reciprocal action in consequence of such false marriages comes much later, for the main fault lies in irresponsibly neglecting the opportunity to advance.
Many an earth-life is thereby completely lost to the real purpose of personal existence. This may even bring serious retrogression which must be laboriously retrieved!
How different when a marriage has been contracted on the right foundation and develops harmoniously! Joyfully and voluntarily serving each other, the couple grows upward together towards spiritual ennoblement. Shoulder to shoulder they smilingly face all mundane trials. Such a marriage through its sheer happiness becomes a gain for their whole existence! And in this happiness lies a swinging upwards, not only for the individuals concerned, but for all humanity.
Therefore, woe unto those parents who drive their children into false marriages by persuasion, cunning, compulsion or subtle reasoning! The burden of responsibility, which extends further than that concerning the child only, will sooner or later fall back with such persistence upon them that they will wish never to have entertained such »brilliant ideas«!
The marriage ceremony in church is considered by many as only part of a purely mundane celebration. The churches themselves or their representatives use the words: “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder!”
In religious cults the fundamental thought is that those contracting the marriage are through this act being united by God. »Advanced persons« give it the meaning that the couple is thus united before God. The latter interpretation is more justifiable than the former.
Such an explanation, however, is not intended by these words, which are meant to convey something entirely different! For they are based on the fact that marriages are really made in heaven.
When all false conceptions and interpretations are removed from these words, then every cause for laughter, ridicule or sneering will cease immediately. Their meaning will lie before us in all its seriousness and unalterable truth. The natural result will then be the realisation that marriages are meant and desired to be something entirely different from what they are today, that is, that marriage may only be entered upon under entirely different conditions, with entirely different views and convictions, and with absolutely pure motives.
»Marriages are made in heaven« indicates in the first place that already at birth every human being brings along certain qualities, the harmonious development of which can only be achieved through those with matching qualities. These matching qualities are not identical, however, but complementary to the others, and in completing each other they obtain their full value.
In this state of full value all the strings sound in a harmonious chord. If the one partner is complemented to full value by the other partner, then the latter will also receive full value through the former, and in their union, that is, in their living and working together, the harmonious chord will resound. Such is the marriage which has been made in heaven!
However, this does not mean that for each person there is only one other very special person on earth with whom he can enter upon a harmonious marriage, but there are generally several who possess the qualities to complete the other person.
It is therefore unnecessary to wander about the earth for decades to find this really suitable and complementary partner. It is only a question of exercising the necessary seriousness, keeping eyes, ears and heart open and, above all, giving up all those conditions which have so far been demanded for a marriage. Just what is regarded as important today shall not be!
Working together and having the same high aims are as necessary for a sound marriage as exercise and fresh air are indispensable for a healthy body. Whoever counts on having comfort and the greatest possible freedom from cares, and tries to build up a mutual life on this, will in the end only harvest something unhealthy, with all its accompanying consequences. Therefore seek at last to contract marriages that are made in heaven! Then happiness will be yours!
»Made in heaven« signifies that the two people were already destined for each other before or upon entering this earth-life. This »being destined« for each other, however, depends only on the qualities that each brought along, with which the two complement each other. Such persons are thereby meant for each other!
You could just as well express »destined for each other« by »suited for each other«, thus really complementing each other. In this lies the predestination.
“What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder!”
Much harm has already been caused by a misunderstanding of these words of Christ. Up till now many imagined that »what God hath joined« referred to the marriage. But this, however, had so far nothing to do with the meaning of the words. That which God has joined is a union where the conditions required for complete harmony are fulfilled, and it is thus made in heaven. Whether or not the permission of the State and the Church has been given for this union makes no essential difference.
It is, of course, also necessary to observe civil laws. If, then, with such a bond, a wedding takes place according to a prevailing religious cult and with appropriate devoutness, it is quite natural that, through the inner attitude of those concerned, the union will receive a much higher consecration, which will bring a real and strong spiritual blessing to the couple. Such a marriage is then really united by God and before God, and is made in heaven!
And now follows the warning: “Let not man put asunder!” To what insignificance has the high meaning of these words also been reduced!
Yet the truth is clearly evident! Wherever one finds a union that is made in heaven, that is where two people so complement each other that a full and harmonious chord results, there no third person shall attempt to bring about a separation. Whether it be to create discord, to make a union impossible, or to cause a separation, whatever the case, such an attempt would be a sin! It would be an injustice which in its reciprocal action must cling heavily to its originator, since two persons would be simultaneously affected by it, together with the blessing which through their happiness would have spread throughout the Gross Material and Ethereal Worlds.
The simple truth that lies in these words is evident to all. The warning is intended to protect only such unions as have been made in heaven under the aforesaid conditions, which is confirmed by the fact that they brought along with them the necessary psychic qualities to complement each other.
No third person should intervene between two such souls, not even the parents! It will never occur to the two partners to wish for a separation. The divine harmony which is based on their mutual psychic qualities does not permit such a thought to arise. The happiness and permanence of their marriage is consequently assured from the start.
If a divorce is proposed by one of the marriage partners it is the best proof that the necessary harmony is not the basis of the marriage, and therefore that it cannot have been made in heaven. In such cases the marriage should be definitely ended in order to reinstate the moral self-respect of the couple living in such an unsound state.
Such wrong marriages now form the great majority. The cause of this evil lies primarily in the moral retrogression of mankind, as well as in the prevailing worship of the intellect.
Parting those whom God joined together applies not only to the marriage, but also to the period which precedes it, the time of approach of the two souls who, through their complementing qualities, can only develop harmony and are thus destined for each other. If they enter into such a union and a third party tries to intervene by slandering or by similar well-known means, then this intention is already absolute adultery.
The meaning of the words: “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder!” is so simple and clear that it is hard to understand how they could be so erroneously interpreted. This was only possible by wrongly separating the Spiritual World from the Material World. This resulted in a narrow intellectual conception becoming prominent, which has never yet produced anything of real value.
These words issued from the Spiritual World and it is only in the spiritual sense that they can be truly interpreted.
MANY children live under an unfortunate delusion in regard to their parents, which will do them great harm. They believe they can charge their parents with being the cause of their existence on earth. One often hears the remark: “Of course my parents must take care of me, for they brought me into the world. It is not my fault that I am here!”
Nothing more foolish could be said! Every person is here on earth either at his own request or because of his own fault. The parents merely provide the possibility for an incarnation, and nothing else. And every incarnated soul must be grateful for the opportunity offered!
The soul of the child is only the guest of its parents. This fact alone gives sufficient explanation to enable one to know that in reality a child can claim no rights in regard to its parents! It has no spiritual claim on its parents! Earthly rights, however, have arisen solely out of a purely mundane social order, brought about by the State so that it need not take any obligations upon itself.
Spiritually the child is a complete personality in itself. Apart from its physical body, which it needs as a tool for its activity on this gross material plane, it has received nothing from its parents — only a dwelling which the already independent soul can make use of.
Still, through procreation the parents assume the obligation to care for the dwelling place they have thus created, and to maintain it until the soul which has taken possession of it is itself capable of undertaking its maintenance. The natural development of the body will indicate when the moment for this has come. Whatever is done beyond this is a gift from the parents.
Therefore children should finally cease to rely upon their parents, and would do better to think of standing upon their own feet as soon as possible.
In that respect it is really immaterial whether the child works in the home of its parents or elsewhere. But it must be an activity other than mere pleasures and the fulfilment of so-called social duties. It must definitely be a really useful duty, such as would have to be performed by some person specially engaged if the child no longer did it. Only in this way can one speak of a useful life on earth, which brings about the maturing of the spirit.
If a child, male or female, fulfils such a task in the parental home, then the parents should give it the same wage as they would have to pay a stranger engaged for the purpose. In other words, the child must be regarded and treated as a really independent human being while fulfilling its duty!
If the parents and children are linked by special bonds of love, confidence and friendship, it is so much the nicer for both, for then it is a voluntary tie born of inner conviction, and therefore all the more precious. Then it is genuine, and the bond will endure into the beyond for their mutual advancement and joy.
But when children have reached a certain age, it is unsound and objectionable that they should continue subject to family customs and servitude.
Naturally there should also be none of the so-called claims of kinship on which particularly aunts, uncles, cousins, and whoever else tries to come within the category of a relative, so often depend. It is exactly these claims of kinship which are an objectionable abuse, and which must always disgust a person who is free and independent.
Unfortunately tradition has caused this sort of thing to become such a habit that a person usually does not bother to think differently, but quietly submits to it, even though with aversion! But he who ventures to take the small step of thinking it over freely will, from the bottom of his soul, find it all so ridiculous and repulsive that he will indignantly turn away from such presumption.
Such an unnatural state of affairs must be cleared up! As soon as a new and healthy race of men awakens inwardly, then this type of abuse will definitely be tolerated no longer because it is contrary to every sound sense.
Anything really great could never arise out of such artificial distortions of natural life, because on account of this human beings remain far too bound. A terrible bondage arises out of these apparently minor matters!
It is here that the individual must begin to free himself by breaking away from these unworthy customs! True liberty lies only in the proper recognition of duties, to which their voluntary fulfilment is linked. Rights are only obtained by the fulfilment of duties. This also applies to children who can only claim rights if they loyally perform their duties.
There is, however, a long list of the strictest duties incumbent upon all parents, which have nothing to do with the rights of the children.
Every adult must be aware of what procreation really involves. The frivolity, thoughtlessness and wrong views hitherto existing in this respect wreak a terrible vengeance.
You must know and understand that there are in the immediate beyond a great number of souls standing ready and awaiting the opportunity to reincarnate on earth. They are mostly human souls bound by threads of karma, which they are seeking to redeem in a new earth-life.
As soon as the possibility is presented, they attach themselves to where an act of procreation has taken place in order to await and follow up the growth of the new human body as a prospective dwelling. During this waiting period ethereal threads are spun from the young body to the soul — which keeps itself persistently in the immediate vicinity of the prospective mother — and from the soul to the young body. At a particular stage of maturity these threads serve as the bridge which permits the alien soul from the beyond to enter the young body and immediately take full possession.
Thereby a strange guest moves in whose karma can cause its educators many worries. A strange guest! What an uncomfortable thought! Everyone should always bear this in mind and never forget that he also can have a say in the choice between the waiting souls, if he does not carelessly waste his time.
The incarnation is certainly subject to the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species. However, it is not absolutely necessary that one of the procreators should serve as the homogeneous pole; sometimes it may be a person who is often near the prospective mother.
Many an evil can be averted as soon as mankind really understand the whole process and consciously concern themselves with it. As it is they frivolously trifle their time away, attending games and dances, giving parties, and paying little attention to the important event which is being prepared during this period, and which later on will forcefully intervene in their whole lives.
Through prayer which is always based on fervent wishes, they should consciously take a guiding hand in these matters, thus lessening the evil and strengthening the good, so that the strange guest who then comes to them as a child would remain welcome to them in every way. Much nonsense is talked in the usual manner about pre-natal education — a misunderstanding or half understanding of certain outwardly observable effects.
As often happens the conclusions drawn by men from such observations are wrong. There is no possibility of pre-natal education, but instead there is a definite possibility of influencing the attraction, if it is done at the right time and with the appropriate seriousness! This is a difference, the consequences of which reach further than any pre-natal education could ever accomplish.
If this has become clear and people still carelessly and thoughtlessly enter into a union, they deserve nothing better than that a human spirit should penetrate into their circle with the risk of bringing only disquietude, if not evil.
For spiritually free human beings procreation should be nothing but the proof of their willingness to take a strange human spirit into the family as a permanent guest, offering it the opportunity on earth to atone and to mature! Only when both sides have the fervent wish to achieve this purpose should the opportunity for procreation be sought!
If you now take into account only these facts as regards parents and children much will automatically change. Their treatment of one another, their education and everything will rest upon a different and more serious foundation than has up till now been customary in many families. There will be more consideration and respect shown towards one another. The consciousness of independence and the striving for responsibility will make itself felt, resulting in a natural social advance for the nation.
The children, however, will soon learn to desist from claiming rights which never existed.
IF PRAYER is to be spoken of at all, then the following words are naturally only meant for those who concern themselves with prayer.
He who does not feel the inner urge to pray may well refrain from doing so, for his words or his thoughts would inevitably dissolve into nothingness. If prayer is not felt deeply within, through and through, it has no value, and therefore will have no effect.
The best foundation for a prayer which may be expected to have effect lies in those moments of spontaneous thankfulness arising out of great happiness or of deepest pain resulting from heartfelt grief. In such moments a person is filled with one particular intuitive perception which dominates all else. This enables the main wish of the prayer, be it gratitude or a request, to receive undimmed power.
People often have a wrong picture of how a prayer comes into existence, what happens to it, and how it further develops. Not every prayer penetrates to the Highest Ruler of the Universe. On the contrary, it is a very rare exception when a prayer is actually able to ascend to the steps of His Throne. Here also the basic Law of the Power of Attraction of Homogeneous Species plays the principal role.
A prayer which is seriously and deeply felt will be attracted to and itself attract those of similar nature, and come into contact with a power-centre of a kind identical to the main theme of the prayer. These power-centres can also be called sections of the spheres or something similar — basically it all amounts to the same!
The main wish of the prayer will become effective through reciprocal action. It will either bring calmness, strength, recovery, plans suddenly arising in the mind, the solution to difficult problems, or other things. Something good will always come of it, be it only increased composure and balance of mind, which will in turn lead to a solution and some way out of the difficulty.
It is also possible that the prayers sent out, having received increased power through the reciprocal action of homogeneous power-centres, will find an ethereal path to people who, being stimulated through this, will in some way bring help and thus fulfilment of the prayer.
All these happenings will be easily understood by observing ethereal life. Here again justice lies in the fact that it is always the inner quality of the one who prays which is decisive. The fervour with which he prays determines the power, i.e. the vitality and effectiveness of the prayer.
In the great ethereal happenings in the cosmos each variety of intuitive perception finds the homogeneous species to which it belongs, because not only could it not be attracted by others, but it would even be repelled. Only when meeting its similar kind does a connection take place with a consequent increase in strength.
A prayer embodying various intuitive perceptions, which still contain a certain measure of strength through the deep absorption of the one praying, will, in spite of its unconnected parts, thereby attract different things, and will also return different kinds of reciprocal effects.
Whether this results in any kind of fulfilment will depend entirely on the nature of the separate parts, which can either foster or hinder each other. However, in every case when praying it is better to send out only one thought as an intuitive perception in order to prevent confusion.
Nor did Christ intend the Lord’s Prayer to be prayed all at once, but in it He summarised that for which a person with an earnest volition may in the first instance ask with the certainty of being heard.
These petitions contain the foundation for everything which man needs for his physical well-being and spiritual ascent. They even give much more! They also indicate the lines which man should strive to follow during his life on earth. The composition of the petitions is a masterpiece in itself.
The Lord’s Prayer alone provides everything for the seeker if he penetrates into it deeply and grasps it aright. He would need nothing more than the Lord’s Prayer! It shows him the whole gospel in concentrated form. It is the key to the Luminous Heights for him who knows how to experience it rightly. It can be both a staff and a torch for the advance and ascent of everyone! What it contains is absolutely immeasurable! (* Lecture: »The Lord's Prayer«.)
The real purpose of the Lord’s Prayer is evident in the wealth of its contents. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus gave humanity the key to the Kingdom of God! It is the very essence of His Message! But He did not intend that it should be rattled straight off!
Man needs only to take note when he is praying to realise how often his attention wanders and how much the depth of his intuitive perception is weakened by repeating the separate petitions one after the other, even when he knows them fluently. It is impossible for him to pass from one petition to the other with the fervour necessary to a genuine prayer!
In His own way Jesus made everything easy for mankind. The right expression would be »easy enough for a child to understand«! Jesus particularly observed: “Become as little children!” That is, think as simply and look for difficulties as little as they do! He would never have expected anything so impossible from mankind as to pray the Lord’s Prayer, with the deep concentration it requires, straight through.
This should also convince humanity that Jesus wanted something different, something greater. He gave humanity the key to the Kingdom of God, and not merely a prayer!
It always weakens a prayer to make it manifold. Neither does a child come to its father with seven requests at a time, but only with that which is nearest to its heart, whether a grief or a wish.
This is the way in which man in his distress should also approach his God with a petition about that which oppresses him. In most cases it will be just one particular matter, not many at once! Man should not pray for something that does not really bother him. Since such a prayer cannot come to life deep within his intuition, it becomes an empty form and quite naturally weakens some other and perhaps really necessary request.
Therefore man should only pray for what is really necessary! All empty phrases should be avoided, as they are bound to fall to pieces and in time must foster hypocrisy!
Prayer requires profound earnestness. Pray in quietness and purity, so that the power of the intuitive perception will be increased through quietness and receive through purity that luminous lightness which will enable the prayer to be carried upward to the heights of all that is light and pure! Then the supplicant will receive that fulfilment which will be most beneficial for him and really advance him in his whole being!
The power of a prayer is not able to impel or force it upward; only purity with its corresponding lightness can do so. As soon as the urge to ask becomes alive within him, every person can achieve purity in prayer, although perhaps not in all prayers. It is not necessary for his whole life already to be based on purity, but while praying he will now and then be able at least to uplift himself for a few seconds in the purity of his intuitive perception.
Not only do the peace of seclusion and the deeper concentration made possible thereby help to strengthen the power of a prayer, but also every strong emotional feeling, such as fear, anxiety or joy.
This does not mean that the fulfilment of a prayer will necessarily always correspond to and harmonise with man’s earthly ideas and wishes. The fulfilment, in his best interests, reaches out far beyond these, leading towards what is best for the whole, not just for the earthly moment. If the prayer does not appear to be fulfilled this will be recognised later as the only right and best fulfilment, and the person will then be happy that things did not go according to his wish of the moment.
Now for the question of intercession! People often wonder how the reciprocal effect of a prayer of intercession, i.e. a petition for someone else, can find its way to a person who has not himself prayed, since the reaction must flow back to the petitioner along the way he has paved for it.
Here also there is no deviation from the firmly established laws. During a prayer the interceder thinks so intensively of the one for whom he is praying that his wishes are thereby first anchored or tied firmly to the person, and then start in their upward course from there. They can thus return to the other person, since the strong wishes of the petitioner have already become alive and circle around him. The one indispensable condition, however, is that the soil within the person being prayed for is receptive and, being of a like nature, offers an anchorage and puts no obstacle in the way.
If the soil is not receptive, thus unworthy, the fact that the intercessory prayer glances off reveals once more the wonderful justice of the Divine Laws, which cannot permit that help from outside through another person should fall on stony ground. This repulsing or glancing off of an intercession seeking anchorage in the person being prayed for, whose inner state has proved him unworthy, makes it impossible for help to come to him.
Here again we find something so perfect in this automatic and natural activity that man stands amazed before the unwavering and just distribution of the fruits of what men themselves willed!
Intercessions by people who have no definite inner urge from their intuitive perception have neither value nor success. They are as chaff before the wind!
There is still another way in which genuine intercession can take effect. That is when it acts as a signpost! The prayer immediately rises upwards and points to the one needing help. If now, in view of the way shown to him, a spiritual messenger is sent to give aid, the possibility of help reaching the person in need is subject to the same laws of worthiness or unworthiness, thus whether he is open to it or will repulse it.
If the person needing help has an inward leaning towards darkness, the messenger sent to help him in answer to the prayer cannot get in touch with or influence him, and must return without having accomplished anything. Thus the intercession could not be fulfilled because the living laws did not permit it.
But if the soil is suitable then a genuine intercession is of immeasurable value! Either it brings help without the person in need knowing it, or it unites with the wish or prayer of the person in need, thus giving him greatly increased strength.
