,,war ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,by ,,elsa ,,barker ,,the ,,son ,,of ,,mary ,,bethel ,,the ,,frozen ,,grail ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,love ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,savitri ,,stories ,,of ,,the ,,new ,,testament ,,for ,,children ,,the ,,scab ,,letters ,,from ,a ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,war ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,war ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,written ,,down ,,by ,,elsa ,,barker ,,with ,,an ,,introduction ,,new ,,york ,,mitchell ,,kennerley #aiae ,,copyright1 #aiae1 ,,by ,,mitchell ,,kennerley ,,contents ,,letter ,,page ,i4 ,,the ,,return ,,of 8,x0 #ag ,,ii4 ,a ,,dweller ,,on ,,the ,,threshold #bb ,,iii4 ,,an ,,assurance #bg ,,iv4 ,,the ,,way ,,of ,,understanding #bh ,v4 ,,astral ,,monsters #cb ,,vi4 ,,the ,,archduke #ch ,,vii4 ,,the 8,,chosen ,,people0 #dc ,,viii4 ,,spectres ,,of ,,the ,,congo #di ,,ix4 ,,unseen ,,guardians #ed ,x4 ,,one ,,day ,,as ,a ,,thousand ,,years #fj ,,xi4 ,,many ,,tongues #ff ,,xii4 ,,the ,,beautiful ,,being #fg ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,body ,,of ,,humanity #ga ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,foeman ,,within #gf ,,xv4 ,,listening ,,in ,,brussels #hb ,,xvi4 ,,the ,,sixth ,,race #hh ,,xvii4 ,,an ,,american ,,on ,,guard #ie ,,xviii4 ,a ,,master ,,of ,,compassion #ajj ,,xix4 ,,the ,,rose-,,veiled ,,stranger #ajh ,,xx4 ,,above ,,the ,,battlefields #aah ,,xxi4 ,a ,,soul ,,in ,,purgatory #abe ,,xxii4 ,,peace ,,propaganda #aci ,,xxiii4 ,,the ,,mystery ,,of ,,desire #adc ,,xxiv4 ,,the ,,scales ,,of ,,justice #adh ,,xxv4 ,,for ,,love',s ,,sake #aee ,,xxvi4 ,a ,,master ,,of ,,mind #afd ,,xxvii4 ,,invisible ,,enemies #agb ,,xxviii4 ,,the ,,glory ,,of ,,war #agh ,,xxix4 ,a ,,friend ,,of 8,x0 #aha ,,xxx4 ,,the ,,rose ,,and ,,the ,,cross #ahi ,,xxxi4 ,a ,,serbian ,,magician #aif ,,xxxii4 ,,judas ,,and ,,typhon #bjb ,,xxxiii4 ,,crowns ,,of ,,straw #bjg ,,xxxiv4 ,,the ,,sylph ,,and ,,the ,,father #baf ,,xxxv4 ,,behind ,,the ,,dark ,,veil #bbc ,,xxxvi4 ,,the 8,,lusitania0 #bcb ,,xxxvii4 ,,veiled ,,prophecies #bcg ,,xxxviii4 ,,advice ,,to ,a ,,scribe #bci ,,xxxix4 ,,one ,,of ,,these ,,little ,,ones #bde ,,xl4 ,,the ,,height ,,and ,,the ,,depth #bee ,,xli4 ,a ,,conclave ,,of ,,masters #bef ,,xlii4 ,a ,,lesson ,,in ,,the ,,kabala #bfj ,,xliii4 ,,the ,,second ,,coming #bfc ,,xliv4 ,,poison ,,gases #bfi ,,xlv4 ,,the ,,superman #bgd ,,xlvi4 ,,the ,,entering ,,wedge #bhc ,,xlvii4 ,,the ,,new ,,brotherhood #bif ,,xlviii4 ,,in ,,the ,,crucible #cja ,,xlix4 ,,black ,,magic ,,in ,,america #cjc ,l4 ,,things ,,to ,,remember #caa ,,introduction ,,in the ,spring of #aiad there was published in ,london and ,new ,york a book of mine called 8,letters ,from a ,living ,dead ,man10 being automatic writings from an ,american ,judge and teacher of philosophy who had been known to his intimate friends as 8,x40 ,there were circumstances connected with the writing of that book1 explained in some detail in the ,introduction1 which made any other hypothesis than that of genuine communication from the other world seem untenable to me4 ,it began1 for instance1 some days before ,i knew in ,paris that my friend had died on the ,pacific coast of ,america4 ,in that first book of 8,x0 ,i did not state who the writer was1 not feeling at liberty to do so without the consent of his family2 but in the ,summer of #aiad1 while ,i was still living in ,europe1 a long interview with ,mr4 ,bruce ,hatch appeared in the ,new ,york ,sunday ,world1 in which he expressed the conviction that the 8,letters0 were genuine communications from his father1 the late ,judge ,david ,p4 ,hatch1 of ,los ,angeles1 ,california4 ,for the benefit of those who have not read the former book1 ,i wish to say that 8,x0 was not an ordinary man4 ,he came nearer than any other ,occidental of my acquaintance to that mastery of self and of life which has been called ,adeptship4 ,after the 8,letters0 were finished in #aiac1 during a period of about two years ,i was conscious of the presence of 8,x0 only on two or three occasions1 when he wrote some brief advice in regard to my personal affairs4 ,on the fourth of ,february1 #aiae1 in ,new ,york1 ,i was suddenly made aware one day that 8,x0 stood in the room and wished to write2 but as always before1 with one or two exceptions1 ,i had not the remotest idea what he was going to say4 ,he wrote as follows3 8,when ,i come back and tell you the story of this war1 as seen from the other side1 you will know more than all the ,chancelleries of the nations40 ,this letter ,i confided to two friends who had been much interested in the former book1 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,vance ,thompson2 and it was arranged1 with the cordial consent of 8,x10 that they should sit with me about once a week1 to make a better 8focus40 ,their loyal faith was a great support to me during the first half of a trying labor4 ,the writing was not confined to the days when we three sat together2 but about a third of the first half of the book was written in the presence and in the house of ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,thompson4 ,then they went to ,california1 and ,i continued the work alone4 ,it may be of interest to some readers if ,i describe the process of this writing1 which has changed gradually from a violent and mechanical seizure of the hand from the outside1 as in the beginning of the first book1 to a quiet impression on the mind within4 ,if the reader will imagine a well-known friend of vivid personality present with him1 then subtract from that impression the seeing of the physical eye1 leaving only the subtle vibration of the actual thinking and feeling presence1 then add the indescribable 8inner sight10 he may begin to realize how ,i know that 8,x0 is in the room4 ,it is probable that ,helen ,keller knows when her friends are near her1 and can tell one from the other1 though she is deaf and blind4 ,when made aware of the presence of 8,x10 ,i take a pencil and a notebook1 as any other amanuensis would1 and by an effort of will1 now easy from long practice1 ,i still the activity of my objective mind1 until there is no thought or shadow of a thought in it4 ,then into the brain itself come the words1 which flow out without conscious effort at the point of the pencil4 ,it is exactly as if ,i heard the dictation with a single auditory instrument1 like a small and very sensitive sphere1 in the centre of the brain4 ,i never know at the beginning of a sentence how it will end4 ,i never know whether the sentence ,i am writing will be the last or if two thousand words will follow it4 ,i simply write on1 in a state of voluntary negativity1 until the impression of personality described above leaves suddenly4 ,then no more words come4 ,the writing is at an end for that time4 ,the question will naturally arise in the mind of the skeptical reader 7it has in mine71 whether my own subconscious mind has not itself dictated the following 8,war ,letters from the ,living ,dead ,man10 in the attempt to explain a world tragedy which would have seemed impossible two years ago4 ,but from my long experience in writing for 8,x10 and from the fact that during two years ,i had not written for him except on two or three unimportant occasions1 though often thinking of him1 and from my acquired habit of minute observation of supernormal phenomena1 ,i now feel safe in assuming that ,i know the difference between the actual presence of 8,x0 and my own imagination of him1 my reminiscence of him1 or even the suggestion of his presence from another's mind4 ,no person who had had even a minute fraction of my occult experience could be more coldly critical of that experience than ,i am4 ,i freely welcome every logical argument against the belief that these letters are what they purport to be2 but placing those arguments in opposition to the evidence which ,i have of the genuineness of them1 the affirmations outweigh the denials1 and ,i accept them4 ,this evidence is too complex and much of it too personal to be even outlined here2 but the ,letter ,,xxxvi1 written one hour after the sinking of the ,lusitania and nine hours before ,i knew of it1 is merely one incident out of dozens4 ,also it may be considered at least an interesting coincidence that at the very time ,i began writing this second book1 three occult students1 in different countries1 wrote me that they felt that 8,x0 had come back and would write again through my hand4 ,since then several other persons have so expressed themselves by word or pen4 ,many of the events of this war ,i myself have seen 8astrally0 at the time of their occurrence4 ,i was a wide-awake astral participant in the first action in which the ,british army was engaged on the ,continent1 and related the experience to a ,british officer in ,england before it was reported there1 my narrative being verified the following day by a ,french newspaper brought over from ,paris by a friend4 ,i saw in ,new ,york the shelling of ,scarborough at the hour when it occurred1 and related the incident to a friend some hours before it was reported in the newspapers2 though ,i did not know the name of the ,english coast town where ,i had seen the assault4 ,nevertheless1 ,i cannot read what is in the mind of 8,x0 even when ,i am conscious that he is actually present in the room4 ,i know only what he dictates1 and have no idea how much or how little he knows4 ,he has stated in one of the letters that he should tell me only what his judgment approved from time to time4 ,there is one point where ,i myself do not quite follow 8,x40 ,sometimes when he says that the ,german people are so and so1 had ,i been writing ,i should have said the ,prussians4 ,i have many ,german friends1 and ,i cannot hold them individually accountable for the awful conditions into which their government has plunged the world4 ,i must emphasize that ,i do not assume personal responsibility for what 8,x0 writes1 but merely record his words4 ,it did not occur to me until several days after his last letter was written1 on ,july #bhth1 that he had finished the war book exactly one year from the date of the first declaration of war1 that of ,austria against ,serbia1 and on the very day when the ,pope sent out his great appeal for peace4 ,in his former writing1 which began more than three years ago1 8,x0 requested that ,i should never summon him1 and later advised me not to ask questions4 ,i have therefore generally refrained from doing either2 though the temptation has often been great to ask him as to the final issue of this war by which ,i have been so profoundly affected4 ,but ,i knew that such questioning might stimulate the action of my own objective mind and becloud my receptivity4 ,i have recently shrunk from seeking for such answers even in my hypnogogic visions1 lest ,i should see something which would make me less negative in the reception of these letters4 ,this situation seems to have cured me forever of curiosity2 it has made me feel detached as a comet and almost as lonely1 and strong enough to be willing to remain so4 ,but1 by a strange paradox1 as my hatred for the brutalities of this war grew deeper and deeper1 my love for all those struggling human souls in every camp grew with it1 until ,i came to feel that each one of all those millions who died and suffered on those battlefields was my brother and my friend4 ,love is a miracle that touches the brutal facts of life and makes them divine4 ,in the third letter of this book1 dated ,march #ajth1 8,x0 said that the forces of good had overpowered the forces of evil and that peace would return to the world--though he did not say when4 ,before ,i learned of the ,lusitania sinking1 but one hour after it had actually taken place1 he wrote that the demons whom the workers out there had driven back had rallied and returned to the assault1 and that he ought to have known that the very ,law of ,rhythm would drive them forward again after they had generated another supply of energy4 ,in the light of rhythmic law1 that letter is to me the most interesting part of the book4 ,it illustrates what he has said so often1 that even the 8living dead0 do not know everything1 and that the reason why they know so much more than we do is because they have a wider vision and a greater fund of data on which to base their conclusions4 ,in regard to that second onslaught of the powers of darkness1 it is perhaps significant that the letter describing his first conversation with the 8dark-veiled one0 was written next before the ,lusitania letter4 ,aside from his narrative1 two major ideas seem to dominate 8,x0 in this writing3 the mystery of good and evil 7love and hate71 and the brotherhood of man4 ,through his soul-challenging exposition of the conflict between good and evil1 both in the human heart and in the universe1 a man might learn to protect himself against his own evil as well as against the evil outside him4 ,in pursuit of this end 8,x0 has revealed certain mysteries to which the attention of the common man has not heretofore been effectively called4 ,that there is an 8astral world0 permeating and extending beyond the world of dense matter has been stated in ,theosophical and other literature2 8,x0 makes his readers realize the fact4 ,the astral world is said to be the world of feeling and desire2 and it is through man's astral1 feeling or desire body1 made of a tenuous kind of matter invisible to untrained eyes1 that he connects with and functions in that world4 ,within and beyond this again is said to be the thought world1 and the theory is that man has also a thought body through which he contacts with and functions in it4 ,and so on1 plane after plane1 till man reaches the formless and the universal1 in other words pure divinity4 ,the evil astral beings described by 8,x0 are beings dwelling in the astral world4 ,some of them have no physical bodies in the material world2 others are the more or less independent astral selves of men1 which during sleep go here and there in the world invisible to our open eyes4 ,they have been active in this war4 ,there are also said to be beings of the elements1 earth1 air1 fire and water1 who are evolving along a line different from that of man4 ,some of these are amiable1 some are malicious4 ,much information about these elementals can be found in the writings of ,paracelsus4 ,they also have been active in this war4 ,other and superior beings work on all three planes1 physical1 astral and mental1 and in still higher worlds beyond our cognizance4 ,but for the beneficent activity of some of these1 mankind would destroy itself or be destroyed4 8,x0 says that the feelings of hatred and the sufferings engendered by the great war have made the astral world at this time a very unpleasant place of sojourn4 ,the purgatory of the ,roman ,catholics is the same thing as the place of post-mortem trial described by 8,x04 ,the ,church has great knowledge4 ,good and evil may be called opposite and complementary forces1 one working in harmony with the ,law of the ,universe 7otherwise called the will of ,god71 the other working disharmoniously with that ,law4 ,some readers may be shocked by what 8,x0 says of black magic4 ,he is not writing to shock them1 but to protect and instruct them4 ,superstition has been called the dark side of religion2 but superstition is to be understood1 not dismissed with the lifting of superior eyebrows4 ,all things are to be understood4 ,the great psychologists1 scientists1 do not now consider these subjects beneath their investigation4 ,refer to ,professor ,william ,james1 to ,sir ,oliver ,lodge1 to ,dr4 ,baraduc4 ,the names of recognized scientists who are now investigating occult phenomena would fill a small directory4 ,when ,i admit that ,i am seeking to chart the unseen world1 ,i am modestly enrolling myself in good company4 8,x0 speaks of the 8dark-veiled one0 who inspired ,nietzsche in the misleading of young ,germany4 ,perhaps behind every powerful man or woman whose work has told in the world there has been an invisible one1 either light or dark-veiled4 ,the question is not without interest1 both practical and theoretical4 ,inspiration1 like magic1 may be either black or white4 ,the 8voices0 of ,jeanne d',arc would in our day be called clairaudient phenomena4 ,history declares that they rendered her more1 not less1 efficient as the saviour of ,france4 ,martin ,luther threw his ink-pot at 8the devil02 but the ,reformation was no less ably engineered because ,luther had visions4 ,saul of ,tarsus also had a vision1 if we may credit the reporters4 8,x0 speaks of his own ,teacher1 a 8,master40 ,when ,i compare the ,california ,judge whom ,i knew with most of the men and women with whom ,i prattle about commonplaces1 ,i do not find it difficult to admit the possibility that man may progress even further than 8,x10 given the resolution so to do4 ,if 8,x0 became what he was in a little less than seventy years1 there is hope for us who look forward to eternity4 ,the second major idea of these 8,war ,letters0 seems to be the brotherhood of man4 ,the world has progressed thus far through a series of well-marked periods1 and by means of a series of predominant races which stamped their time with their own peculiar color4 8,x0 says that a new race1 the ,sixth ,race so-called1 is about to arise now in the ,united ,states4 ,if ,america would accept this idea as a working hypothesis--not another 8,deutschland ber ,alles10 but say 8,america for 7not over7 all0--she might build a peace-machine as ,germany has built a war-machine4 ,if she should go about it with the same thoroughness1 postulating the ideal brotherhood as ,germany has postulated world-dominion1 she might make a demonstration in the next generation4 ,in the mixture of races in ,america she has all the materials for any kind of spiritual experiment4 ,asia and ,europe would look on with interest4 ,england1 ,germany1 and ,france1 even ,japan who is spiritual underneath and material only on the surface1 perhaps ,russia above all1 would respect such an avowed purpose4 ,it may be that the world will have suffered enough by the end of this war to be ready to welcome universal brotherhood4 ,already there are movements in ,america which would gladly fall into line4 8,x0 speaks of the ,woodcraft movement1 a loosely organized body of perhaps a hundred thousand men and boys and a few women1 who in their playtime have gone back to ,nature and the camp-fire for that fraternity which cities do not give4 8,x0 says that he has another service to perform in the future4 ,i do not know what that service is1 nor whether ,i have any part in it2 but if he should one day declare to me that it was in connection with the ,woodcraft purpose1 ,i should not be surprised4 ,but after living for months with this war book1 ,i cannot yet see it in perspective nor gauge its value4 ,i give it to the world because it seems to belong to the world1 and because among the thousand letters which ,i have received from the readers of 8,letters ,from a ,living ,dead ,man10 so many have asked for further writings of 8,x40 ,the first book is now being translated into four ,european languages1 and other translations have been offered4 ,i want to thank all those persons in many countries who have written me so kindly about the book4 ,it was more for them than for myself that ,i embraced the offered opportunity to hear what 8,x0 had to say about the ,great ,war4 ,to receive genuine communications from the other world 7assuming as ,i must that such communication is possible7 involves sacrifice on the part of the amanuensis1 even in the protected quiet of a country home4 ,to do it in a great rushing city like ,new ,york1 amidst the distractions of a complex social life1 and during a war like this by whose horrors the 8sensitive0 is especially buffetted1 and in a clashing pro-,german pro-,allies environment1 has been an education in self-control4 ,but the war cannot last forever1 and some day joy will come back to the world4 ,new ,york1 ,sept41 #aiae4 ,,elsa ,,barker4 ,illustration3 ,,david ,,patterson ,,hatch ,born ,dresden1 ,maine1 ,november #bb1 #ahdf ,died ,los ,angeles1 ,california1 ,february #ba1 #aiab ,,war ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,letter ,i ,,the ,,return ,,of 8,x0 ,,in a far away star ,i heard the command3 8,go back to the earth1 and learn the mysteries of love and hate40 ,i did not know to what ,i was going1 but went as commanded4 ,as ,i neared the earth an army of angry beings sought to bar my way4 8,what are you doing here80 they cried4 8,this is our field1 and we brook no interference40 ,i called to the ,teacher1 and he stood beside me4 ,even he was grave at the power of the forces before us4 8,it has come10 the ,teacher said2 8it has come suddenly1 after a long preparation40 ,wrath is a cosmic force1 and hate is a cosmic force1 and love is a cosmic force1 and fear is a cosmic force4 ,did you think that love was a pretty sentiment8 ,did you think that hate was a mere annoyance8 ,i have seen the sources of wrath and hate and love and fear1 and that my experience may be of use in helping men to understand the forces working in and behind the race1 ,i have made the effort to write for the world again4 ,this war is more than a war of men2 it is more than a war of angels4 ,its roots are in ,necessity itself4 ,a new race has to be born1 and races like men are born in the pain and the blood of their predecessors4 ,but as 8the curse of ,eve0 came through her listening to the envious serpent of evil1 so this curse has come upon the world through mankind's listening to the suggestions of envy and hate from the forces of evil within and around the world4 ,i have seen those forces in forms1 ,i have faced them and wrestled with them4 ,i am strong because ,i have struggled4 ,i came back to the world nearly five weeks before war was declared on earth1 but war was already declared in the spaces above the earth4 ,as the nations had long been getting ready their forces1 so the entities outside were ready and in arms4 ,the demons who met me--for they were demons--had triumph in their eyes4 ,a beginning had been made1 a seed of anger sown in the heart of ,austria4 ,and the seed was watered in the ground by those who felt that their harvest was approaching4 ,you must understand that evil is co-existent with good so long as the egos of men evolve4 ,the forces of good and the forces of evil are complementary4 ,they are in actual forms1 they have acquired egos2 their concentration on their work would shame the greatest geniuses among men4 ,but they too are consciously or unconsciously servants of that ,cosmic ,will whose designs we call the will of ,god4 ,i have learned much since the days when ,i entertained you with stories of the newly-dead who had died serenely in their beds and had gone out into the astral world as into an adjoining room4 ,a million souls have gone out recently1 shocked1 torn1 mangled1 buffetted by their own hate and the hate of those who sought to destroy them4 ,pity those who have died even tranquilly during the last eight months4 ,they have passed through a region of torment--those who have passed through4 ,many have remained below1 spun round and round in the whirlpool with those who died by war4 ,had ,i not a great purpose1 and the conviction of a great mission1 in thus revealing the secrets of the other world at this time1 ,i should not harrow your feelings by a recital of what ,i have seen and sometimes taken part in since my return from that journey among the stars4 ,comfort yourself--if you need comfort--by my assurance that the race is passing through a rite of initiation4 ,those who have died in the service of an unselfish enthusiasm will in time rebody themselves and reap on the earth the fruits of their service4 ,but not all who have died have been filled with this enthusiasm4 ,many have hated for hate's own sake4 ,they are the ones who have failed4 ,pity them if you must1 but it is better not to think about them4 ,they are the willing victims of the demons who sought to bar my way1 when ,i was commanded to return to the world and learn the mysteries of love and hate4 ,love6 ,yes1 there has been more love born of this war than the earth has known in all the two thousand years of ,christianity4 ,for the human race is awake at last1 and that it may not go to sleep again is my purpose in once more breaking through the wall that separates me from you4 ,march #e1 #aiae4 ,,letter ,,ii ,a ,,dweller ,,on ,,the ,,threshold ,,there was one demon who seemed to be a leader of demons4 ,he was unlike many of the others--more personal1 more egocentric4 ,as we stood opposite each other ,i entered into conversation with him1 partly to satisfy my curiosity1 partly to throw him off his guard4 8,who are you80 ,i asked4 8,you seem to be a ruler among your kind40 ,he straightened himself with pride4 8,i am indeed a ruler10 he said1 8a ruler on earth and up here40 8,on earth also80 ,i queried4 8,yes1 also on earth10 he answered1 8for ,i am the deeper self of a man who is great among men1 a man who will follow my will as others follow his will40 ,then he made a claim which startled me1 and ,i forbear to repeat it4 8,if you are the evil self of a man still living10 ,i demanded1 8how do you stand as a separate entity up here8 ,how are you apart from him80 8,you are somewhat ignorant10 he said to me4 8,i am ignorant of many things10 ,i admitted4 8,instruct me in any way you can4 ,i have a thirst for knowledge40 8,know then10 he said pompously1 8that ,i broke away from the earthly form that had enchained me when he acknowledged my ruler-ship and worshipped me as his genius40 8,he set you free80 ,i asked4 8,he set me free by acknowledging me as his ,master4 ,his knowledge is even less than yours1 and he called me by a name that ,i despise2 but so long as ,i rule ,i care not the name ,i rule by4 ,or ,i care little10 he corrected himself4 8,but such things as these are too deep for you60 8,i am deeper than you think10 ,i asserted1 8and ,i have met your kind before40 8,my kind maybe1 but not my equals4 ,i am a ,king among spirits40 8,i had observed your crown10 ,i said1 8it has a familiar look40 ,during this colloquy the ,teacher had stood silently by1 but now ,i turned to him with an unspoken question4 ,he led me aside a little way1 and said3 8,when a man exalts himself too much1 he sets free the demon within him4 ,he often thinks that he rules the demon1 and sends him on errands through the ,invisible2 but it is really the demon who commands1 and the commands of the man are only echoes40 8,and it took this vision of hell to teach me that60 ,i exclaimed4 8,what you would have learned in due time by reason or by precept1 you now learn by example10 the ,teacher said4 8,you have truly beheld the evil self of a great ruler40 8,it is very powerful10 ,i admitted4 8,it will grow in power for a time10 the ,teacher said1 8and then it will go to ,gehenna40 8,and when will it go to ,gehenna80 8,when peace returns to the world1 after the war is exhausted up here4 ,but the war will be exhausted up here before peace returns to the world40 8,what war is about to be fought80 ,i asked4 8,the greatest war of all time10 the ,teacher said1 8the greatest war of all time up here1 and also on the earth40 8,and when will it begin80 8,it is already begun here1 as you have seen4 ,had you not been far away you would have known it before40 8,i have indeed been far away10 ,i said4 8,an angel has shown me many stars1 and ,i have learned much40 8,the angel kept you away from the world until you should be strong enough1 and rested enough1 to work as well as learn40 8,and where does my work lie80 ,i asked4 8,in many fields10 he answered4 8,but first you must fight your way through the astral world above ,europe and save your friends who are in danger40 ,swimming the ,hellespont was a minor feat compared to swimming that sea of devils1 but ,i got through4 ,a year before ,i could not have done it1 perhaps1 for the forces of good were overpowered4 ,there is a tide in good and evil1 as well as a tide in the sea4 ,evil was at the flood4 ,i saved one friend in danger1 and saw that another was safe4 ,back in the sea of hate1 when ,i was nearly exhausted1 the ,beautiful ,being1 that angel who had been my guide so long1 came and whispered something in my ear4 ,it was a spur to ambition4 8,you may be the historian of this great struggle10 it said1 8if you do not fail in your tasks40 ,do not be startled by the word 8ambition40 ,there are many kinds of ambition1 and a sincere wish to be personally of service may as well be called by that name as by any other1 if there is love behind it4 ,march #f4 ,,letter ,,iii ,,an ,,assurance ,,take it from me at this early stage of our writing3 ,the forces of good overpowered the forces of evil a month ago1 and the issue is settled here4 ,the power set in motion will spend itself1 and peace will return to the world4 ,march #aj4 ,,letter ,,iv ,,the ,,way ,,of ,,understanding ,,before ,i tell you any more horrors1 ,i want to assure you now that out of those horrors will come a beauty such as the world has not known during this cycle of existence4 ,it will not come at once1 for many adjustments will have to be made2 but the way is open already for those who choose to walk in it4 ,it is a curious commentary on unregenerate humanity1 this war in which each side declares loudly its own righteousness and execrates its opponent4 ,as in all quarrels1 there is more wrong on one side than on the other2 but the side which triumphs--and it will be the side that has least wrong--will have to understand and to forgive its enemy before it can go forward to its own great future4 ,though international organizations have failed for the time being1 ,i am not discouraged about international organizations4 ,they were merely shocked into failure1 the peace people1 the socialists1 and others who make far higher claims to the ideal of universal brotherhood4 ,even now1 during the stress of the conflict1 go out yourself in thought and in love to that nation which you feel to be your enemy4 ,try to understand it4 ,and do not try to understand it by telling yourself that it is evil4 ,that is not understanding4 ,there is evil in all men4 ,try to understand it by becoming it1 for the time4 ,put yourself in its place2 feel as you would feel if you stood alone--even though by your own fault--with the whole world against you4 ,you draw back a little with the thought that you could not have placed yourself in a position where the world for its own protection would be obliged to range itself against you4 ,but are you sure8 ,by entering the consciousness of that nation you are placing yourself in such a position1 and ,i tell you to do it temporarily1 in order that you may be a centre1 a beginning1 an infinitesimal part of that international comprehension and pardon which must become general to a degree before the long-heralded and always misunderstood ,universal ,brotherhood can even begin to find room for itself in this unbrotherly world4 ,if all those aggregations of people who have long believed that they stood for this ideal would now try to make peace with one another1 if they would acknowledge the ideals of one another1 however much the working-plans of those ideals may differ1 a force could even now be set in motion that would shorten this war and lessen the number of those who must die for their conflicting ideals of national honor and loyalty4 ,in the reaction from hate to love1 in the reaction from criticism to understanding that will follow a formal declaration of peace1 all these quarrelling spiritual organizations may if they will1 begin to work harmoniously4 ,if their members cannot bring themselves1 because of their narrow pride and the memory of all the harsh things which they have said against one another in the past--if they are too meanly afraid of eating their words1 publicly to acknowledge one another as brethren1 let them begin to feel thus in their hearts4 ,perhaps in time the greater courage will come1 and some daring leader will say to his flock that those with whom they once worked1 with trust and the profession of love1 may be trying1 according to their lights1 to serve the ideal4 ,i do not know that any further elaboration of this idea would make it any clearer to you1 and these remarks are only an interlude1 a relief1 in the tension of the story which ,i have to tell4 ,march #ac4 ,,letter ,v ,,astral ,,monsters ,,did you know that ,i was near you when you crossed the ,north ,sea more than two weeks before war was declared1 crossed to ,england under an irresistible1 an overwhelming impulse to get away from the continent of ,europe and back to the people of your own blood8 ,i was near you4 ,but ,i did not remain when you were safe with your friends4 ,i returned to the centre of war determinism1 went back to that land which1 despite all protestations to the contrary1 hatched out the egg which an irresponsible bird had laid in the region farther south4 ,did ,i say irresponsible8 ,only a madman is irresponsible for his acts4 ,let me say rather deluded1 for not all deluded souls are mad4 ,the hand that slew the ,austrian ,archduke was used1 as others have been used1 by the forces working against progress4 ,pity that man also1 and let the law of cause and effect deal with him as it must1 for there is no favoritism in that court and no appeal to a higher jurisdiction4 ,i returned to ,germany4 ,it will be necessary in this writing to call spades1 spades4 ,if ,i hurt anybody's feelings1 ,i am not writing to hurt anybody's feelings4 ,facts are facts1 and no specious pleading can change them4 ,i returned to ,germany4 ,i listened to war counsels4 ,i heard orders given1 for by a special hardening of my astral ears ,i can hear what is spoken in the world of men and hear very distinctly4 ,my astral body is a well-lubricated though tenuous machine that answers to the lightest touch of my will4 ,but do not jump to the conclusion that all astral bodies are like mine4 ,remember that ,i am the pupil of a great ,master1 and that his purposes are not his purposes but those of the law of progress which he serves4 ,i saw again the monster of which ,i wrote you in my second letter4 ,they speak truth who say that the ,german ,emperor did hesitate to touch the spring which should open the doors of hell4 ,the ,war ,lord had a certain pride in his record as a ,peace ,lord1 and he shivered at the responsibility that faced him while gloating in that responsibility1 which further exalted his already self-exalted ego4 ,pity him too1 but do not sentimentalize over him4 ,will is free4 ,in yielding his will to the evil genius he was exercising free will4 ,but those eyes of his were wet in the night and he did pray to the ,force he calls his ,god4 ,the name of ,god was not only on his lips but in his inner thoughts4 ,god is a word that means many things to many persons4 ,there were also in that conclave of evil spirits many who were not attached to individual men4 ,there were vast elemental beings4 ,when ,lytton wrote1 in one of his occult novels1 of a gigantic foot which stepped through a gap in the magic circle drawn by a black magician in the primeval wilderness1 he referred to a fact in ,nature4 ,nature6 ,you with your narrow sight have no idea of the meaning of the term4 ,all your studies have not taught you even the alphabet that ,nature uses4 ,learn that alphabet4 ,begin to study that language4 ,study chemistry1 biology1 electricity1 and study the mysteries of the vibrations of matter on as many planes as you can consciously reach4 ,the knowledge of the future lies there4 ,man has only begun the conquest of ,nature4 ,any expression of hate which you ever beheld in the material world was only a weak replica of the hate that was let loose upon the earth when the hour struck last year1 the hour when the orbits of certain planetary bodies blended their influences and allowed a free passage for beings who are generally more limited in their freedom of movement4 ,the giant foot6 ,i saw the great being to whom such a foot belonged4 ,it was a being of the air1 but earth beings were allied with it and monsters from the deeper circles of matter where the light of the sun never shines4 ,will you let me describe one of those beings8 ,you need not fear it now for it has been driven back to its lair in the bowels of the planet4 ,a gross bluish bag-like body1 with a long fat tail covered with bristles1 arms and legs like elongated bags1 and a head that was a larger and half-submerged bag in the rolls of its monstrous neck4 ,but the eyes6 ,there was no fat-like substance in them4 ,they were wide and round and glaring with a thousand years of malignity concentrated in a moment4 ,pale eyes they were4 ,if you dread an evil dark eye1 dread more an evil pale eye4 ,suffering unimaginable and hate of everything above it were expressed in the eyes of that entity from the deep of things which from the lowest astral plane spat and drooled its venom toward the surface of the planet4 ,immense it was in size1 toothless and shapeless its mouth4 ,what the nourishment might be which had kept it together ,i refrain from telling you4 ,again ,i say1 do not dread it4 ,it cannot reach toward the surface of the earth now4 ,its existence is near its term4 ,but the germs of astral disease which were spewed from its shapeless mouth have been multiplying in spite of all the efforts of those who know how to cope with such things4 ,the beings of the air are not filthy1 however evil they may be1 and few of them are really evil--few in proportion to those who are amiable or indifferent to man4 ,the more revengeful of the beings of fire may yet make themselves felt2 for sporadic efforts will still be made1 though the great struggle is won in the invisible regions4 ,stay where you are for the time4 ,a danger still threatens ,europe beyond the danger of armies4 ,wait--and pray4 ,for prayer is an astral force and its effects1 being in the higher astral1 are far-reaching4 ,wait--and pray4 ,march #ae4 ,,letter ,,vi ,,the ,,archduke ,,have you ever thought of the posthumous feelings of him whose murder precipitated this war8 ,no1 you have not2 but ,i have1 and ,i sought for him and found him4 ,others were seeking him too1 the souls of the dead and the astral souls of those who slept on earth4 ,truly his was not a peaceful passing1 either in flesh or in spirit4 ,the dread of assassination which had long hung over him like a dark cloud predisposed him to a dark and stormy period after death1 even if he had not been shocked out by the murderous assault4 ,this was another illustration of that law by which the thing we fear attacks us sooner or later4 ,at first he passed into darkness and a period of somnolence1 like a vague nightmare2 then as he gradually awoke to a more vivid consciousness he awoke with pain and anxiety and wailing of soul4 ,the dreaded thing had come at last1 and he knew that he was outside his body and searched for it4 ,the customary funeral was even more dismal for him than it is for most souls1 because the slight opening of vision which his passing had given made him realize that far more than his personal death was bound up with this change4 ,he was not attacked by the evil things which had brought about his death4 ,what more could they want with him8 ,he had served their purposes4 ,had there been anyone else round whose murder so much obscurity and so complex a series of misunderstandings and suspicions could have gathered1 probably that other man would have suffered in his stead4 ,but whose murder could have served that purpose so well as this man's8 ,whose relations placed him in such a focus of rays8 ,his relations with the ,german ,emperor1 the relations of his family with those for whom he had no sympathy1 the relations of the present heir with ,russia--all these and many other sources of error and doubt and confusion formed an ideal centre of tumult4 ,and the soul felt this tumult in addition to his anger and disappointment at being driven from the world4 ,his anxiety for his children was not small1 for they stood in a peculiar position regarding the families around them4 ,imagine the thought of every man1 woman and child capable of following an event like that1 centred on one soul1 in anger1 love1 grief1 curiosity1 doubt1 uncertainty--every mind in almost every country of the world6 ,it was enough to shatter his astral body altogether4 ,generally when a ruler dies he is followed by loving thoughts1 or thoughts of dislike1 but not by confusing thoughts4 ,his race is run4 ,the ,king is dead1 long live the ,king6 ,for some time this heir to a great throne was even driven away from the companion whom he loved4 ,he had nothing to lean on4 ,he was drawn upon and victimized by thoughts1 thoughts1 thoughts1 from all directions and in all stages of intensity4 ,even the prayers offered for the repose of his soul in purgatory had not the effect which such prayers of love generally have4 ,they were only a drop in the river of thoughts which rushed in his direction4 ,yes1 ,i say in his direction2 for he remained a long time in that storm-centre of thoughts4 ,even the band of helpers1 of whom ,i told you when ,i wrote for the world before1 were not able to assist him very much2 for they too were attacked by the beings of evil who made war in the astral regions4 ,as a rule the death of one man makes little difference to the world4 ,those who love him grieve1 and those who dislike him or who profit by his death are glad4 ,this man went out with the flaming torch of war in his vapory hand4 ,after a time he sought and found his friend1 the ruler of ,germany2 but that ruler could not see him1 though he sensed a presence in the room4 ,he was half afraid4 ,what was the presence8 he wondered4 ,was it his own genius8 ,did it come to remind him that the hour of his 8great destiny0 was at hand8 ,the hesitation of his weakness was rather shameful to see2 but the determination of his strength1 of his evil self1 set its heel upon the weakness and the preparations for war went on4 ,the soul of the ,archduke was too confused to play a part in those counsels4 ,he had been a strong man1 and will be strong again2 but during the time when he might have exercised an invisible influence1 he exercised none2 he strove to make himself visible1 and in one instance at least succeeded4 ,yes1 ,i spoke with him and advised him2 but ,i had other things to do just then and left him with a priest of his own church1 a gentle and strong soul who stood like a rock in the tumult4 ,i only mention my seeing the ,archduke because of one who will some day read these lines4 ,i cannot offer much comfort1 but she will be glad to know of the strong and quiet priest1 and ,i shall have kept a promise which ,i made but have so far been unable to keep in any way save this4 ,march #ag4 ,,letter ,,vii 8,,the ,,chosen ,,people0 ,,the nations began to declare war on one another4 ,i stood with twenty others for hours in the palace at ,potsdam1 trying by the silent pressure of will to reduce the pressure of the war-will which surged in the ,german nation towards its ,emperor4 ,and they say that ,germany did not want war6 8,der ,tag0 seemed near1 and war seemed to mean triumph4 ,it is a commonplace to say now that ,germany believed that ,england could not go to war4 ,and had ,england not gone to war1 the issue would have been settled before the date of this writing4 ,the ,german navy would have met the ,french in battle and would have worsted it4 ,it would be well for you to cease shrinking when ,i say what does not please you4 ,i state what ,i know2 you merely write down what ,i say4 ,i and twenty others centred the force of our will in ,potsdam and in the ,wilhelmstrasse4 ,not that we did not know what the issue would be4 ,we knew4 ,this war was written in the stars4 ,but as the soldier does his duty though he knows that he will lose the day1 so we stood our ground against the war devils4 ,the greatest of the ,masters did not stand there with us1 and ,i do not know where he was4 ,probably on some business that we might not have understood4 ,perhaps holding back worse forces from the outer stars4 ,no1 that is not a dream1 though it is only a supposition4 ,there is evil as well as good in the outer stars4 ,had it not been for the restraining influence of those who watched up here1 many of the foreigners in ,germany at that time would have been torn limb from limb4 ,what do you know of war-madness1 hate-madness8 ,were you capable of feeling it in your present personality1 you could not write for me now1 while those whom you love and respect are nearly all on one side of a war not yet finished4 ,you may grasp hate intellectually1 you may dramatize it2 but you do not feel it1 though you have suffered from its effects4 ,the worst in the ,german heart is very bad--though ,i tell you not to hate them4 ,the worst in all people is very bad1 but the ,german is the greatest bully on the planet4 ,the cruel ,oriental races have a restraint which has grown in them through ages of culture2 the ,german knows only the restraint of the ,german law1 he respects only the restraint of the ,german law4 ,he has no sense of right and wrong in the abstract1 though he is often extremely sensitive as to what is right and wrong for him in his relation to those near him1 his kinsmen and fellow-citizens4 ,but those outside the race-group are outside his code of honor1 however polished he may be4 ,i am speaking now of the race1 not of the few who have by long residence abroad absorbed somewhat of world-brotherhood and the more delicate sensibilities of international relations4 ,and mark this also3 ,the ,german can love as thoroughly as he can hate2 but he can love only his own1 something which is an extension of himself1 a secondary ego1 the me in another form4 ,a ,german may love a foreign wife1 if he can ,germanize her4 ,a ,german may love a foreign friend1 if that friend does not stand in the way of something he wants for himself4 ,i am not referring to those sudden outpourings of emotion to which those emotional people are subject4 ,i am not referring to their surface kindliness1 which is the overflow of emotion4 ,and still ,i say1 love these unlovable people1 love them so much that they will be detached from their race-centre and will flow out in melting response to everything that is not ,german4 ,the world can never really soften the ,german shell by throwing stones against it4 ,when they break down in this war1 they will not be any more essentially lovable because they are weaker4 ,love them by trying to understand them4 ,it will take decades for the arrogant and self-exalting ,german to see that there is anything outside that may be superior to what is inside his shell4 ,he respects only might4 ,he must be conquered by might4 ,from his enforced respect of a superior might he may be led gradually to see the superior right of that gentleness which does not use its might to coerce him when further coercion is unnecessary4 ,i have stood in ,german households since this war began1 ,i have entered into and for the time being have become ,german men and ,german women1 and ,i understand them and love them4 ,i even admire them1 for their devotion to their own is immense4 ,once let that strength go out in real brotherhood to all mankind1 and these people would be truly great4 ,is it possible8 ,all things are possible to the human soul1 and these people are very human4 ,the defect is in their vaunted education4 ,they teach themselves that they are the chosen people4 ,when they learn that they are not the chosen people in war1 the very force of the shock may upset the pillar of egotism that stands upright in the centre of the ,german soul4 ,the world should not let that pillar fall with a crash1 but softly ease the blow--not too softly1 lest mercy be mistaken for war-weariness4 ,the ,world-,mother has a hard and erring child4 ,it has to be punished1 but not refused a seat at the family table4 ,i have said these things to you because1 if you do not shrink1 ,i have things to tell you in my next letter which will need fortitude for you to receive1 fortitude and charity1 whose other name is love4 ,march #bd4 ,,letter ,,viii ,,spectres ,,of ,,the ,,congo ,i ,,have been in ,poland and ,i have been in ,serbia2 but now ,i want to write of ,belgium and of karma1#a race karma1 karma old and new4 ,with and behind the invading ,germans1 urging them on to murder1 pillage and destruction1 rape and burning1 were not only the devils from the outer vast1 whose time for activity had come2 but with and behind the ,german army was a horde of undeveloped and earth-bound spirits who had suffered in the ,congo4 ,karma1 always karma6 ,the world knows something of what has been done in ,belgium1 something of what ,germans have done there4 ,i have seen men1 women1 and little children murdered in cold blood4 ,i have witnessed the soul of a murdered man tearing at a soldier who was violating the murdered man's wife4 ,i have seen the soul of a mother wringing her hands as she would have wrung them on earth when her little daughter was being maltreated by brutes who were blind with madness4 ,an old man out here followed a soldier for days until he saw revenge accomplished by means of a ,belgian bayonet2 then as the ,german soul came out he grappled with it again1 and the two were torn by each other1 the soldier not knowing he had left the body and feeling that he was at grips with an enemy still on earth4 ,there was much of what is called ,voodoo in the ,congo4 ,its practitioners do not go to sleep for a long time4 ,they go on and on in the invisible world1 making their evil preparations and weaving their spells4 ,they gather round spilled blood1 they absorb vitality from it1 and that vitality they use to bring evil and death upon anything toward which they direct their will4 ,did you fancy that will was weakened when man lays aside the brain8 ,it is weakened in the sense that there is less freedom of choice2 but there is tremendous will in following a choice already set up when the physical base of the brain was attached to the will4 ,but now all the evil karma of ,belgium is lived out1 and she stands like a new soul in the face of time4 ,another race has taken up the load that she laid down4 ,will that too be expended soon1 or late8 ,germany has woven round herself a shirt of evil causes that will cling to her and chafe her flesh for generations4 8,it must needs be that offences come2 but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh40 ,the karma of nations is known to the ,masters and ,adepts4 ,the karma of ,england6 ,have you ever thought about the karma of ,england8 ,granting that she has done much wrong1 as all old nations have1 yet she has allowed herself to be used by the world-will4 ,she1 more than all the other old races1 has been an instrument in the unifying of the races4 ,did you fancy that the ,british ,empire was a fortuitous concourse of atoms8 ,did you think the ,british ,empire merely happened8 ,and now the ,british ,empire may be used further4 ,she may be used in ,belgium4 ,and ,i do not mean the mere presence of her army in ,belgium4 ,it is said that the ,masters1 the world's teachers1 hold back the awful karma of the world4 ,i am trying to do a little toward holding back the awful karma of ,germany4 ,she has disgraced the human race in ,belgium4 ,everything that has been believed about ,german outrages in ,belgium is true except one thing4 ,so far as ,i know1 and ,i have enquired of those who know more than ,i1 ,german soldiers have not cut off the hands of living ,belgian children4 ,but they have murdered women1 and outraged women1 and mocked and insulted pregnant women1 and maltreated the new-made mothers of babes that they have murdered4 ,they have burned men alive1 and they have buried men still alive4 ,i say that ,germans have done these things4 ,should ,i say that the forces of evil1 the beings of evil1 the superhuman and the once-human forces of evil1 have done these things1 using as their instruments the forms of ,german soldiers from which they had thrust for the moment the moral soul8 ,take it whichever way you please1 for both ways are true4 ,the men who ravaged and destroyed ,belgium were not all obsessed1 save that evil may be always an obsession4 ,help to hold back the awful karma that ,germany has made in ,belgium4 8,ye have heard that it hath been said1 thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy4 ,but ,i say unto you1 love your enemies1 bless them that curse you1 do good to them that hate you1 and pray for them that despitefully use you1 and persecute you2 that ye may be the children of your ,father who is in heaven40 ,march #bg4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #a3 ,the law of ethical causation4 ,,letter ,,ix ,,unseen ,,guardians ,,in the devastated region of ,belgium--and most of ,belgium is devastated--there stands a little house unharmed and tranquil as before the war4 ,round about it are ruined walls1 standing black with smoke or grey with the powder of shell-fire4 ,two women live there1 middle-aged women4 ,they did not flee their home when the war-tide rushed over them4 ,they were frightened--yes1 but they did not flee4 ,they saw neighboring houses in flames1 they heard the detonation of shells bursting2 but they remained between their four thin walls1 and waited and prayed4 ,four gods they prayed to1 ,god the ,father and ,god the ,son1 and two others--their father and mother1 who had passed on some years before into the other world1 their ,belgian father and their ,german mother6 ,so great was their faith that they believed they would be unharmed1 and they were not harmed4 ,incredible as it may seem1 that little house stands there secure in the midst of desolation4 ,love is a protective force4 ,the father and mother of those two middle-aged women had loved each other tenderly4 ,race was no barrier to their love4 ,the ,german woman and the ,belgian man had taught their children that ,germany was their mother and ,belgium was their father4 ,their bones lie together in the village churchyard1 and their souls kept watch when the armies passed over4 ,they guarded the children they loved4 ,does this seem an impossible story8 ,i know it to be a fact4 ,i have spoken with that father and mother1 and ,i shall speak with them again4 ,their faith is rare1 and their love is rare1 and their reward has been rare4 ,it is easier to guard a little house than to move a mountain1 and it has been said that faith like a grain of mustard-seed could move a mountain4 ,those two souls had not yet passed away from the neighborhood of the earth2 they waited for their children4 ,when the war-tide rolled over1 they stood guard at the doorstone of their home4 ,the spirits of the peaceful dead do not like the sound of shells1 but those two did not fly away4 ,had they been frightened from their vigil1 the little house might now be like its neighbors4 ,am ,i over-credulous8 ,do you remember my telling you one day years ago that you were not credulous enough8 ,i see that you remember4 ,these two--the ,belgian father and the ,german mother--were also credulous1 as the world uses the word1 and their children were credulous1 too4 ,had the nations been equally credulous of the power of love1 there would have been no war2 for there would have been no armies to make war4 ,i am not preaching against armies4 ,i am only preaching love and faith4 ,when love and faith grow greater1 armies will grow smaller1 and war will be at an end4 ,i asked the ,belgian father how he felt about the war1 and he looked toward his ,german wife2 ,i asked the ,german mother how she felt about the war1 and she looked toward her ,belgian husband4 ,neither would speak for fear of wounding the other4 ,how should ,i feel now if my nation were at war1 you wonder8 ,but since the eyes of my memory opened and ,i saw my past lives1 ,i realize that ,i have had so many nations1 have fought in so many armies1 have lain in the lap of so many mothers of mine in so many lands1 that my spirit is uprooted4 ,i have joined the great ,white ,brotherhood1 to which all men are brothers and all women sisters4 ,it would be difficult for you to see with my eyes4 ,i watch and wait1 like the parents of the two old maids in ,belgium1 and so far the house of my faith stands untouched by the fires of war4 ,in the great ,white ,brotherhood there are members from many races1 there are members from the races now at war4 ,do you fancy that they looked askance at one another when the world went mad8 ,they did not look askance at one another4 ,each stood guard where he could do the most good4 ,each sought to soften the blow for the brethren of his brother1 each sought to soften the hearts of his own blood-brethren4 ,but as this war was written in the stars1 the ,teachers of the world could not prevent it when the hour struck4 ,do you know what it means to be a member of the great ,white ,brotherhood8 ,it means to work for the welfare of the human race1 for the good of the planet as a whole4 ,and there is another thing ,i want to tell you4 ,you have heard of a ,black ,brotherhood4 ,it is a misnomer4 ,brotherhood is never black4 ,there is no ,black ,brotherhood4 ,there are many ,black ,masters1 for ,mastership1 like a garment1 may be either white or black4 ,in this war the black forces who have inspired hatred in men have worked for one end1 and that very fact will weaken their power to do evil for a long time1 when the results of their present labors are over4 ,do you get my meaning8 ,a combination of evil forces1 in the very act of combining1 weakens the individual power of its members2 for evil is strongest when individual4 ,two who are full of love may work together with the power of four2 but two who work together for evil have only the power of--shall ,i say one and a half8 ,and one and a half against four6 ,if you love power1 use power for good and increase it4 ,it is because of the multitude of elementary evil forces1 all hurling their malice at the world1 not because of their combination1 that this madness was made possible4 ,hate is a disintegrating force4 ,those who hate after this war will disintegrate themselves4 ,those who love after this war will grow strong4 ,france especially will grow strong1 because there is more love than hate in ,france4 ,france loves so much that even her enemies do not hate her4 ,it is not merely because she is not so brutally strong as her great enemy4 ,love your enemies4 ,that is the surest way to overcome them4 ,march #bi4 ,,letter ,x ,,one ,,day ,,as ,a ,,thousand ,,years ,,as ,i am writing about war1 ,i wish to talk to those who have lost their loved ones in this war4 ,you who grieve for the untimely dead1 have you not read that one day shall be as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day8 ,we must start on the basis of rebirth1 whose other name is rhythm1 and whose course is immortality4 ,immortality presupposes no beginning and looks forward to no end4 ,the spirit always was and always will be4 ,in the life of the spirit one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day4 ,birth is the morning of a new day1 and death is the evening of that day1 and the period between lives is the period of sleeping and dreaming4 ,or you may turn it the other way and say that life is a dream and death the awakening to reality4 ,but the rhythm is sure4 ,falling asleep is a passing through the astral world1 much as the soul passes through it after death4 ,you who write for me1 and a few others1 pass through it in full consciousness4 ,some day all men will pass through it consciously and will bring back the memory4 ,you who grieve for the dead1 remember that a lifetime is but a day to the immortal spirit4 ,often have you parted from a loved one for a day and felt no grief thereat4 ,the loved one left home to perform a duty and you felt sure that the next day you would see him again4 ,can you not feel that in the next day of the soul1 the next lifetime 7it is all the same in eternity71 you will greet your loved one again8 ,friends do not meet in every life unless they are very intimate4 ,as you do not see one friend or another oftener than once a week1 so in the greater days of the soul you may not meet all your friends every day4 ,you part from one on ,monday with a definite engagement to meet on ,friday4 ,four days1 four lifetimes1 it is all the same in eternity4 ,but from some you only part for a few hours1 from noon to sunset1 and meet again in the evening in the intimacy of home4 ,those who have left you now at the midday of life will perhaps come home to you at the sunset2 which is only another way of saying that they may meet you at the end of this day of the soul1 the end of this life1 and be with you in the twilight period of the astral life and in the sweet dream of heaven beyond4 ,do not grieve4 ,love waits for its own4 ,some friends you may meet again two1 four or seven lifetimes away2 but those who are really your intimates1 your lovers1 your own1 you will meet again at the sunset1 or at the latest tomorrow--the next day of the soul on earth4 ,how will you prepare for the meeting8 ,will you not work cheerfully all day1 knowing that at dusk ,love will come back to you8 ,as sunset approaches1 will you not robe yourself in the white garment of faith1 the evening garment1 and watch for ,love at the window8 ,love will come4 ,can you not in anticipation hear his footstep on the gravel8 ,can you not hear the click of the lifted latch8 ,will you not go forward with a smile to greet ,love8 ,surely1 one day shall be as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day4 ,i took counsel with the soul of an ,english officer who died in leading a charge4 ,his death was quick and painless4 ,a shot through the heart and he found himself--after a period of unconsciousness--still1 as he supposed1 leading a charge4 ,but there was no enemy before him1 nothing but the tranquil fields above the tumult2 for so great was his exaltation of spirit--he had died with the thought of his ,love in his heart--that he had gone up and up to the region where ,love may have room4 ,seeing nothing before him he paused1 looked round and saw me4 8,brother10 ,i said1 8you have left the war behind you40 ,he understood4 ,those who have lived for weeks in the tents of ,death are not slow in recognizing ,death when he lifts the curtain4 8,and what of the charge80 he asked eagerly4 8,was the charge won80 8,yes10 ,i replied1 8the force of your spirit won it40 8,then all is well10 was his answer4 8,rest a little10 ,i said4 8,rest and talk with me40 8,have we met before80 he asked4 8,for your face is familiar to me40 8,my face is familiar to many on the battlefields10 ,i said4 8,when did you come----out here80 8,three years ago40 8,then you can teach me much40 8,perhaps ,i can teach you something4 ,what do you want to know80 8,i would know how to comfort one to whom my death will bring great grief40 8,where is she80 ,i asked4 ,he named the place4 8,then come10 ,i said1 8,i will go with you40 ,we found a beautiful woman in a little room in ,england1 a little room which contained a little bed4 ,and in the bed was a boy four or five years old4 ,we could hear the voices of the mother and child as they talked together4 8,and when will father come home80 the little one asked4 8,i do not know10 said the mother4 8,father will come home1 won't he8 ,are you sure that he will come home80 8,i pray that he comes home soon10 was all the mother said4 ,the eyes of children1 as they pass into the twilight world1 the world between waking and sleeping1 are sometimes very clear4 8,why1 father has come home60 the child cried1 and he stretched out his arms to the father with a glad cry4 ,and the mother knew and was very still4 ,but her grief was softened by knowing that he whom she loved had come home and that her child had seen him4 ,i think he will remain with her until she can join him here4 ,the delay will not retard the progress of his soul4 ,love is the fulfilling of the law4 ,there is time in eternity for love and the delays of love4 ,in love a thousand years are as one day4 ,march #bi4 ,,letter ,,xi ,,many ,,tongues ,,learn languages4 ,my work in this war has been hampered by my knowing so little of ,german4 ,with the souls of those long here ,i can hold converse by pure thought2 but the souls of the newly-come speak the language they spoke on earth and often that language is but a patois4 ,that is one reason why ,i have had best success among the ,english armies4 ,i can read the thoughts of the ,germans and the ,french1 but they cannot always understand me4 ,the father and mother of the two women in ,belgium had been so long out here that we could understand each other's thoughts4 ,learn languages4 ,when you come to work in this world you may want them even more than on earth1 for distances here are short as thought1 and one goes from place to place in the twinkling of an eye4 ,march #cj4 ,,letter ,,xii ,,the ,,beautiful ,,being ,,the angel we call the ,beautiful ,being1 who guided me on my journey among the planets1 would like to insert here a few words on ,love and ,hate4 ,they seem to be an expression of the mortal and the ,immortal ,self1 in the early days of the war4 ,,love ,,and ,,hate ,one whom ,i loved made war on me1 and the nations of the earth made war on one another4 ,the green fields were stained with blood and the hum of the harvest crickets was drowned in cries of pain and rage1 as men rushed on to wreak their hate upon their human kindred4 ,my heart was sadder than the skies of the ,london winter4 ,no joy there seemed in all the earth2 for love was dying and peace was dead1 and men were going everywhere to death4 ,,mene1 ,,mene1 ,,tekel1 ,,upharsin was written on the walls of the human temple4 ,and ,i said to my heart3 8,where have we drifted in the midday of our life8 ,and why do we wait for the sunset8 ,for love has failed1 and the world has failed1 and have we not failed1 too80 ,then as ,i sat gazing into the nothingness of my own faith1 ,i heard a voice that seemed to come from the centre of all things and the voice said3 8,take your pen and write1 for to him who has lost everything the treasures of the ,self are opened4 8,i am that ,self that you had forgotten when you looked outside for love4 ,i am the ,self that the nations had forgotten when they went out to destroy one another4 ,i am the ,one ,self1 and my house is in all these hearts that throb with hate and love4 ,when they wound each other they wound me2 when they doubt each other they doubt me2 when they love each other they love me4 ,there is no other way of realizing me save by love and hate and faith and doubt4 ,for love and hate are two poles of the one magnet1 and doubt and faith are my twin-born children4 8,he who has never doubted all1 knows not the meaning of faith2 and he who has never been hated1 knows not the meaning of love4 8,when the heart is empty of joy ,i fill it with myself4 ,when my own destroy each other on earth they rush together in heaven4 ,freed from the blindness of the body they see each other true4 8,two soldiers went forth to war1 and the bullet of each pierced the heart of the other4 ,their hate was hot as love4 ,then in the sudden darkness of death they reached for each other's hand2 their hate had found its other pole and they melted together in love4 8,two friends went forth to war against each other1 and with every wound they drew nearer together--the soul of each grieved for the other's pain1 and neither in death nor life can one escape the other4 8,would you avoid a loved one1 then never dare to hate him4 ,the soul has pity when the brain is pitiless2 the faith of the soul may be strongest when the mind is weak with doubt4 8,the soul of the brain that hates you keeps watch when the brain is still1 it wipes with its vapory hand the tear-drops from your eyes4 8,when you weep in dreams1 know that your soul is weeping for the tears you have caused your enemy4 ,when you wake with wet eyes1 you are paying the debt of love4 8,be kind to him who loves you1 for love is a helpless waif2 if you drive it from the heart it can only wander alone4 8,be kind to him who hates you1 for his waif is wandering alone4 8,when you go to sleep1 send love to the one who wounds you by day4 ,if you go to sleep in hate you will wake with wet eyes4 8,i am the go-between4 ,i am the ,self whose house is in every heart4 ,i take messages in the darkness4 ,i am too great to be proud4 ,i run errands for my own4 8,how well you have tried to hate ,i know by your heart's sadness4 ,that you have failed to hate is because your soul is sleepless4 8,i am the go-between and ,i keep my lantern lit40 ,april #a4 ,,letter ,,xiii ,,the ,,body ,,of ,,humanity ,i ,,have said that as twenty of us stood in the palace at ,potsdam and in the ,wilhelmstrasse1 the greatest of the ,teachers was not with us4 ,you do not know the name by which we know him1 nor do you need to know4 ,he is one who has left so far behind him the personal limitations of life as you know it that he can look upon that life somewhat as the ,planetary ,logos may look upon it4 ,he can look at the restless and warring beings on earth as you would look at micro-organisms through a lens4 ,amba1 fat-cell1 pus-cell1 he sees them all as parts of the great ,whole1 and their wars do not make him partisan4 ,the assertions1 the reiterations1 the bombastic prayers of the ,german ,emperor1 who goes on the assumption that ,god must be on his side because it is his side1 do not move this ,master even to smiles4 ,absurdity and tragedy are one to him1 except as they further or retard the growth of the organism of ,humanity4 ,if you get into your consciousness a realization1 not a mere philosophic theory1 of the ,one and the many1 you will understand that the ,one is in all the many1 whether some of them be your friends or your enemies4 ,another thing remember3 ,to posit is to create4 ,posit and thus create brotherhood4 ,but do not posit it too violently1 lest you climax your rhythm too soon and produce by reaction the opposite of brotherhood4#b ,the greatest of the ,masters seemed to us to posit no new thing when the war-cloud gathered4 ,we whose knowledge is not infinite tried to serve as physicians1 tried to cool the fever that was burning the cells of the ,great ,man1 ,humanity4 ,we may be said to have given him mental treatment1 to have urged on the curative process4 ,the astral forces with which we struggled were like germs of disease in the air4 ,from the view-point of the great ,master they were no more than infusoria which you could see through a lens4 ,adjust your view to eternity as well as to time1 if you would understand him and help him in his work4 ,but do not regard your own work as unimportant because it is in time1 because from the greater point of view you fancy that it may appear small4 ,how does a man become a ,master save by doing his work as if the health of the whole planetary organism depended on it8 ,the perfect health of the organism does depend on the work of every cell4 ,now let me tell you why this war had to be4 ,the time had come when humanity must realize brotherhood in preparation for the new race that had to be born4 ,instead of that1 there was greater and greater separation in feeling1 though the material discoveries and organizations of the last hundred years were making brotherhood possible in the material world4 ,the rhythm of separateness was climaxed by this war of separation4 ,without it the brotherhood of man would have been retarded by man's refusal to work emotionally with the law that had already been demonstrated to him in the physical world4 ,in other words1 the body had grown faster than the soul and the soul had to suffer with the body2 the soul had to be torn in order that it might heal itself by its own power1 the power of love4 ,i spoke of not climaxing too violently the rhythm of brotherhood4 ,that applies to all rhythmic waves4 ,the ,germans desired to be the ruling race of the world4 ,they posited their own superiority so violently that they are producing the opposite of superiority4 ,posit with calmness4 ,they might have been the leaders in the new spirit of unity4 ,they have failed and have lost their opportunity4 ,the mass of ,germans in the ,united ,states might have been a unifying force between the ,united ,states and ,germany4 ,see what they are now6 ,the reason why ,germany was not permitted by the ,masters to have large colonies of her own was so that her surplus population might scatter over the earth and mix with other races4 ,the ,german blood needed mixing4 ,her efficiency in material ways might thus have leavened the world4 ,instead1 she became drunk with her own greatness4 ,she climaxed the rhythm that might have carried her steadily forward4 ,it is a karmic failure she has made4 ,the races are like organs in the body of ,humanity4 ,if one race refuses to work with and for the body of ,humanity as well as for itself1 it becomes diseased4 ,if ,germany would even now turn to the ,supreme ,unity and worship the ,one of the ,system instead of her little racial god1 she could recover the ground she has lost1 after a time of suffering and initiation4 ,will she do it8 ,that remains to be seen4 ,help with the ,masters to hold back the bad karma of that race4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #b3 ,i have been somewhat troubled by the unusual expression1 8climax a rhythm40 ,but as there are many rhythmic ripples in every great wave1 and as the highest reach of a wave may be said to be its climax1 ,i assume that 8,x0 is using words with the same judicial precision which he used on earth1 and that the climax of a rhythmic wave may be called the climax of a rhythm4--,editor4 ,,letter ,,xiv ,,the ,,foeman ,,within ,,you have something more to do than simply to write down what ,i say about brotherhood4 ,with selfless devotion you must help the world to realize it1 pointing out the way to individuals and aggregates of individuals4 ,universal ,brotherhood6 ,it has a pretty sound1 and mouths have repeated it for the sake of its music1 when the meaning of it was neither in the heart nor in the brain4 ,universal ,brotherhood is not only the brotherly relation between the units of the ,many1 but ,universal ,brotherhood is also their unity1 conscious and real1 in the ,one ,self4 ,universal ,brotherhood is the return of the ,many to the ,one1 as well as their enjoyment of the journey itself4 ,you have repeated the old ,hindoo word1 formula1 mantra1 ,,aum1 repeated it like a parrot2 but if you had realized ,,aum ,i should not have to preach brotherhood to you1 and by 8you0 ,i mean all men and women who have prattled of ,universal ,brotherhood4 ,a-,u-,m--the ,one1 the ,many1 and the ,union between them3 the ,self1 the ,not-,self1 and the ,negation of separateness4 ,,aum1 the seed1 the plant and the perfume4 ,what do you fancy that you are in the world for8 ,you have heard of ,mulaprakriti1 you ,theosophists3 ,mulaprakriti1 root-nature4 ,you have heard of the three gunas1 or qualities of ,mulaprakriti1 satwa1 rajas1 tamas3 satwa1 light1 being1 peace2 rajas1 action1 passion1 assertion2 tamas1 darkness1 inertia1 denial4 ,some of you have also heard of ,christ1 ,lucifer1 ,ahriman4--,satwa1 rajas and tamas1 again1 under other names4 ,you ,kabalists have heard of ,neshamah1 ,ruach1 ,nephesh3 aspiration1 individual intelligence1 materiality4 ,you have all heard of ,vishnu1 ,brahma1 ,shiva3 the ,preserver1 the ,creator1 the ,destroyer4--,yes1 that is the proper order1 for ,vishnu preserves from kalpa to kalpa1 and ,brahma recreates4 ,krishna 7,vishnu7 says in the ,bhagavat-,gita1 8,i am the ,self that is seated in the hearts of all beings40 ,he is the ,one and the ,many1 for ,he is in the many and the many are in ,him4 ,you cannot realize ,krishna save as you realize ,him as the ,self that is seated in the hearts of all beings4 ,you cannot realize the ,christ until you can see ,him in the hearts of all beings4 ,yes1 you may struggle with one another and call it hate1 or war2 that is separateness4 ,separateness is necessary as a stage of evolution1 that the ego may realize itself as distinct2 but the time has come when the race should turn back toward its ,source1 to ,unity1 to the ,atma that is the same in everyone4 ,i have learned much since ,i last left you two years ago4 ,on earth ,i did not talk incessantly of ,universal ,brotherhood4 ,i wanted to achieve a 8peerless individuality40 ,well1 ,i have achieved it4 ,on my two years' journey among the planets and elsewhere1 ,i found the power ,i sought2 but ,i found something else--love1 the greatest power of all4 ,brotherhood is love and that is why ,i preach brotherhood4 ,you may acquire individuality by hating1 but not a 8peerless individuality40 ,do not be afraid of losing your identity4 ,so long as you can love something other than yourself you will not lose your individuality4 ,for to love something other is to posit your individuality4 ,to love only your separate self is to lose your hold on individuality1 for you are only an individual in relation to other selves4 ,alone in the universe1 you would have to be nothing or everything1 and you cannot be everything--not just yet1 save as you are everything through unity with everything1 and that is love4 ,rebel as you will1 by that very rebellion against others you assert their equality with you1 you assert their co-existence1 and behind co-existence is ,unity1 ,krishna1 8the ,self that is seated in the hearts of all beings40 ,do not be shocked when ,i say that from our point of view this war seems very childish1 very ignorant4 ,war was noble a long time ago when mankind was on its way out and needed to realize separateness2 but in course of time war will become not only unnecessary1 but banal4 ,i am not jesting with serious things4 ,i know far better than you can know how very serious this war is1 for ,i have watched it on both planes4 ,the war between the forces of good and evil was not banal4 ,in the human heart that war will go on for a long time yet1 aeons on aeons2 but the day has come when men should war with the evil in themselves1 and let other men war with the evil in themselves4 ,the sword of ,mars1 the war-god1 will not rust so long as the ,mars in man wields it against the powers of darkness in himself4 ,i have seen the powers of darkness in men exteriorized1 have seen them in objective form1 and ,i assure you they are foemen worthy of your steel4 ,each of you has within a foeman worthy of his steel4 ,each man has also the ,self1 the divine1 the ,christ1 the ,krishna that is seated in the hearts of all beings4 ,i want to tell you something which ,i saw with my own eyes4 ,on a battlefield in ,france1 two soldiers killed each other with the bayonet4 ,the devil in each escaped with the soul4 ,they were not ordinary men4 ,i saw these two devils1 these two 8dwellers on the threshold10 these two 8desire-elementals10 call them what you will4 ,do you think they fell upon each other to destroy each other8 ,not at all4 ,each fell upon the soul it belonged to4 ,they had no interest in each other2 they had nothing to give or to take away from each other1 these devils1 dwellers1 elementals4 ,do you see what ,i mean8 ,your enemy is within you4 ,the one you fight outside is your brother4 ,love him with brotherly love and your devil will grow weaker as your angel grows stronger4 ,your angel is descended from the ,atma1 the ,christ1 the ,krishna in you4 ,it is similar to the ,atma1 the ,christ1 the ,krishna in your brother4 ,the devils are all very individual4 ,the angels are all very much alike1 though some are stronger than others and older in experience4 ,seek the ,christ in yourself1 that it may arise1 with tidings of great joy unto all men4 ,that is what ,i wish to say to the world on this evening before ,easter ,day4 ,april #c4 ,,letter ,,xv ,,listening ,,in ,,brussels ,,no1 do not expect me to write essays4 ,i am writing letters4 ,let me be as discursive as ,i please4 ,but you will see at the end of my labors that the building has a frame1 and that all the parts are in place4 ,having philosophized the last time1 ,i will now tell you a story4 ,when the ,german army passed through unresisting ,brussels 7three days1 if ,i remember rightly1 it was passing through1 a long1 moving grey-green river of men1 on whose helmetted ripples the sunlight or the lamplight glittered71 ,i stood for an hour unnoticed upon a balcony1 reading the thoughts of man after man as he passed before my place4 ,as ,i have explained to you before1 ,i have no difficulty in reading the thoughts of the ,germans2 it is only in trying to make them understand me that ,i often fail4 ,the river of men and the river of thoughts1 each man a ripple1 each thought a ripple6 ,here are a few ripples of thought which caught the light of my attention3 8,what a beautiful city ,brussels is60 8,my feet are tired4 ,my shoes hurt me40 8,that tree yonder is like the one beside the door at home40 8,mother will be making coffee at this hour40 8,what a pretty girl--the one with the bread in her basket60 8,i wonder if ,gretchen will talk much with ,hans now ,i am gone40 8,that gate on the left is the one that ,marie sent me on a picture postcard last year40 8,my feet are tired4 ,my shoes hurt me40 8,so this is ,brussels6 ,i always wanted to see it40 8,my head aches40 8,deutschland ber ,alles6 ,deutschland ber ,alles60 8,i wonder if the ,lieutenant paid his tailor40 8,how warm it is60 8,what is father doing now80 8,i wish ,i had a glass of beer60 8,i am glad we don't destroy ,brussels60 8,what is all this war about1 anyway80 8,the ,fatherland6 ,the ,fatherland60 8,what will they give us for supper80 8,i wonder where we are going80 8,this isn't so fine as the ,unter dem ,linden40 8,when we get to ,paris ,i must see the ,venus of ,milo40 8,my head aches40 8,our baby has a tooth60 8,will it ever be supper-time60 ,and so on and on and on1 as the long grey-green river flowed through the city of ,brussels4 ,and these were the men that in a little while would murder and rob and burn and rape1 and murder and rob and burn6 ,many of them had done so already--these tired men with their aimless1 unwarlike thoughts1 their commonplace soldier thoughts1 of home and food and aching feet and of postcards ,marie sent last year and the hour for mother's coffee6 ,what power transformed them into devils8 ,what demon dehumanized them till they forgot their weariness8 ,was it the raucous cry of the war-trumpet8 ,was it the devil behind the devil who blew the trumpet8 ,was it the evil spirit of a nation1 or merely the spirit of war8 ,it was all of these things4 ,perhaps when they began their marching they thought of glory and hate and life and death and honor2 but they had been marching long and their thoughts had become simple as the thoughts of weary old men4 ,what was it all about8 ,what power was driving them on8 ,some of these men killed unresisting civilians1 struck down helpless children1 maltreated nuns and other virgins1 drove old men and women before them as a shield against the fire of the opposing forces4 ,what roused the devil in them8 ,your friend is right in saying that the war-trumpet is an instrument that can rouse the demon that sleeps in the human breast4 ,he says that the demonic forces outside can make their entry into our world and our personalities riding on the tones of the trumpet-horn4 ,he is right4 ,he says that it brings the element of fire into the soul4 ,profoundly true6 ,fire1 the element of destruction1 that purifies by destroying what cannot resist it4 ,fire in the soul and fire in the nerves and fire at the end of the rifle--and death by fire to all that gets in its way6 ,i have listened for days to the ear-splitting noise by which ,germany seeks to put hell into the hearts of her soldiers4 ,my ears rang with it yesterday4 ,why do you start8 ,have you not yet accustomed yourself to the thought that ,i can go back and forth1 from the hell of ,europe to the purgatory of ,new ,york8 ,yes1 the ,germans in ,new ,york are in purgatory1 for they know that their cause is lost4 ,purgatory is for purgation4 ,let us hope that it may accomplish its purpose in their hearts4 ,and ,i do not say this to be unkind1 but rather as a blessing4 ,i love the ,germans1 and all other races4 ,so also do you--in your heart of hearts4 ,yes1 it was ,i who1 through an easy instrument1 directed you to the ,german doctor4 ,i wanted you to see how good a ,german can be4 ,there are many such in that hell-racked nation4 ,you should understand that hell comes into a man--he does not go into hell4 ,have you not heard that man is the ,microcosm of the ,macrocosm8 ,those tired grey-green soldiers that ,i watched in their march through ,brussels were each of them large enough to contain hell and heaven and a world of spirits4 ,all of them had contained heaven many a time1 when listening to the strains of their master-musicians4 ,it was when the war-trumpet sounded1 and the war-hate and the war-lust awoke in them1 that they contained hell4 ,many a time have ,i clutched with my too-tenuous hands a ,german soldier who was about to disgrace himself4 ,once1 at ,namur1 ,i kept a young man from doing something that would have darkened his judgment of himself while his life lasted--and it lasted only twenty-one days thereafter4 ,he was a good boy2 but the devil awoke in him as it awoke in others4 ,it was because he was more sensitive than some others that ,i could make him feel my restraining hands4 ,he thought they were the hands of his dead grandfather1 who had left him only a year before4 ,what matter8 ,he let his victim escape4 7,yes1 look up ,namur on the map1 if you wish to6 ,you will find it in the right place4 ,your uncertainty as to ,belgian geography does not trouble me2 but your return to the world of your own thoughts has broken the thread of mine47 ,,letter ,,xvi ,,the ,,sixth ,,race ,,have you thought about the ,united ,states after this war8 ,a new race is being prepared for in the ,united ,states4 ,that is why you had to be born there--you through whom ,i write4 ,that is why ,i am trying to use you in my work for ,universal ,brotherhood4 ,no1 you need not remain in the ,united ,states4 ,it is better that you should continue to mingle with other races in their old habitations4 ,the ,theosophical ,society could not have been born anywhere else4 ,spiritualism could not have been born anywhere else4 ,in the ,united ,states is a readiness for new things1 a reaching out for the untried1 a welcome for things because they are new4 ,of course this tendency may be and is abused4 ,almost any faker can find followers in the ,united ,states2 but without that hospitable spirit towards the ,new1 the great new race could not come into existence there4 ,this race is not made of new souls1 but of the oldest and most experienced souls1 experienced in other lives of the past4 ,the ingenuousness and the childlike quality of ,americans are the results of spiritual maturity4 ,the race1 as a race1 is in its youth2 but the souls are old as time4 ,after they have taken a much needed rest1 many or most of the souls that go out by death in this war will find rebirth in the ,united ,states4 ,oh1 that land will be a very wonderful place in seventy-five or a hundred years6 ,you will not be here then1 unless you discover the fountain of immortal youth1 or unless you come back soon1 renouncing the rest in heaven4 ,ponce de ,leon was inspired when he sought the fountain in the ,new ,world4 ,it is there if anywhere2 but ,australia and ,russia will run you a keen race for the future4 ,no1 ,i shall not tell you about the ,seventh ,race4 ,it will come in good time2 but now ,i want to talk to you about the ,sixth1 one of whose pioneers you are4 ,do not cut this out of my book because an enemy once said that you were egotistical4 ,our enemies always see and hate their own qualities in us4 ,develop some quality an enemy has not1 and he 7or she7 will love you for it4 ,the horseman is not jealous of the musician in his quality as musician4 ,it is the musician who is jealous of the musician1 the egotist who sees and hates another's egotism4 ,if ,germany were a weak nation she could not so hate ,england for her greater power4 ,when the ,sixth ,race is fully incarnate1 all men and women of real development will be able to see in the astral world1 and to hear unspoken words1 and to read the thoughts of others4 ,of course there will be people of all grades of development in that new race4 ,equality of development is a pretty dream1 you ,socialists4 ,have you not also your superior ones1 your leaders8 ,the less developed souls who come into incarnation with the ,sixth ,race are those who have earned in the past the right to be open to the quickening influences of that race4 ,how have they earned that right8 ,by their willingness to change and to grow4 ,go out on the hillside and watch the growing things4 ,take a leaf from the book of ,nature4 ,you wonder about the future of ,england4 ,old ,england is provided for4 ,has she not given birth to the civilization you enjoy8 ,other races were present1 of course2 but language tells the story4 ,as ,i said before1 ,england has been an instrument in the hands of these ,great ,ones who wished to make possible the fraternity of races4 ,she has carried the torch round the world4 ,she has tied continents together1 and woven the chain which will bind men to each other in days that are to come4 ,honor her1 for she deserves honor4 ,honor all nations1 as aggregates of souls1 your brother-souls2 but honor most those nations that have worked with the ,law and not against it4 ,those who aspired to see ,germany the cradle of the new race should have made less noise in the birth-chamber4 ,they have scared the angel visitor away4 ,there are four races in ,europe that are cruel races4 ,they cannot rock the cradle of the divine infant4 ,they would not remove the pin that stuck in its back1 lest if it did not suffer and cry its lungs would lack air4 ,i need not name these races4 ,the ,sixth ,race is a sensitive infant and learns more through love than through discipline4 ,the ,sixth ,race will apply the discipline to itself when it feels the need of it4 ,its schoolmaster will be curiosity1 and its play will be the sciences and arts of peace4 ,its cradle-song will be a chant of brotherhood4 ,no1 it could not be rocked in a ,german cradle2 but many a ,german-,american will help to rock it4 ,they make lovely cradle-songs1 the ,germans1 when they forget the superiority of being grown-ups and go back to the fancies of childhood1 the myth-making fancies4 ,we want to see more and more ,frenchmen in the ,united ,states1 for ,france has more to teach the new race than has any other nation--,france1 the inspired prophet1 and most of all ,france the critic4 ,americans are not critical enough1 not analytical enough1 not subtle enough4 ,america needs ,france1 and the men and women of ,france4 ,you have heard the old saying1 8,every man has two countries1 his own and ,france40 ,i may be misquoting1 but the idea is there4 ,you wonder how anyone born to the glory and charm of ,france should ever come to the ,new ,world8 ,but many will come1 and more will follow1 both by the path of the ocean and by the path of rebirth4 ,you came that way yourself1 if you but knew it4 ,recover the memory of past births1 you pioneers of the ,sixth ,race6 ,you can do it4 ,it is part of the heritage of that race4 ,america1 the 8melting-pot0 of nations6 ,you were not made to rule an outside empire4 ,when the time comes make over the ,philippine ,islands to a nation that can be trusted with them4 ,your empire is within your own body1 you race of a score of races1 you inheritor of a score of fathers1 you mother of the one new race6 ,increase your army and navy so long as you are nervous4 ,put lightning-rods on your house and burglar-alarms on the doors and windows4 ,feel secure4 ,then dream about brotherhood--when you can trust in it4 ,sit by the fire of your own coal dug from the ground by ,dutchmen1 as it burns in a chimney of your own bricks made by the hands of ,irishmen1 read your own newspaper printed in the language of ,englishmen1 by the light of your own lamp made by a ,german1 on your own hearth-rug made by a ,turk or an ,armenian1 enjoy the feel of your own muscles trained by a ,swede1 in your own linen washed by a ,chinaman1 listen to your daughter playing on your own piano the music of a ,russian1 an ,italian1 a ,pole or a ,frenchman1 see all over your own room things made by the sons of a dozen other races1 your neighbors1 your fellow-citizens1 your fellow-,americans1 then tell me whether you dare not to believe in ,universal ,brotherhood1 and in the new race1 the synthesis of all races6 ,april #h4 ,,letter ,,xvii ,,an ,,american ,,on ,,guard ,i ,,want to speak more of ,france1 and of what she can do for ,america1 the land of the coming new race4 ,i have spoken before of her love1 which is so great that even her enemies cannot hate her4 ,i have praised her critical genius1 which analyses all things and compares one with another4 ,but now ,i want to speak of her charm and her courtesy4 ,you have said yourself that good-manners are the imitation of kind-heartedness4 ,to imitate is to emulate4 ,a race that has charming manners has a heart4 ,a race that is brusque needs to cultivate heart4 ,employ ,french teachers in your schools1 you ,americans4 ,a ,french teacher or a ,french mother tells her children not to do a certain thing because it is not pretty1 another word for charming1 for kind-hearted4 ,if you imitate kind-heartedness in this way1 perhaps you will some day feel it1 you ,american children4 ,by setting up the standard of beauty in deportment you need have no fear of forgetting the ethical4 ,you all drank ,puritan ethics with your mother's milk2 there is no danger that those precepts will be lost if you practise charm a little by way of variety4 ,every face in ,france was once a smiling face4 ,it was not so this afternoon when ,i passed through ,france on my way to you4 ,but the faces are still brave1 because it is not pretty to make a parade of sorrow4 ,i know the excess of ,french mourning-apparel might be called a parade of sorrow1 but the black is worn as a mark of respect for all the dead of ,france4 ,taste6 ,there is a race which has it4 ,and in advising ,america to learn from the ,french1 ,i am naturally selecting the good qualities of that nation4 ,we all have faults of our own4 ,the taste of the ,french in the ,united ,states at this time6 ,do they print journals in ,english attacking their enemy8 ,do they support a lobby in ,washington and a press-bureau in ,new ,york8 ,if so ,i have not heard of them1 and we hear of most things out here--we who keep our ears to the ground4 ,if they grieve for their stricken country1 they do not drop their tears on ,america's freshly ironed shirt-bosom4 ,if they hate their enemy1 they hate him with a quiet1 well-bred hate4 ,if ,france wins a victory in the field1 they do not bluster about it4 ,if ,france loses in the field1 they do not call their enemy a rattlesnake or some other kind of reptile4 ,it would not be pretty4 ,it might not be unethical1 but it would be bad taste4 ,americans bluster too much4 ,i said that when ,i was myself an ,american1 before ,i was uprooted and became a citizen of the world invisible and universal1 and ,i have not changed my mind by association with angels1 adepts and masters4 ,they never bluster1 but the devils often do4 ,in advising ,america to learn from ,france those things in which ,france is supreme1 ,i am not depreciating other races4 ,each nation can learn something from every other nation4 ,the ,chinese and the ,japanese have points where they rise above their neighbors4 ,so have the ,americans4 ,this war has brought out the dominant traits in all the warring peoples1 and their complementary traits4 ,have you ever thought of the 8turbaned ,turk0 7or1 to be less ,shakespearean1 the fezzed ,turk7 as being gullible8 ,treacherous races are always gullible1 as cruel races are apt to be sentimental--in all that touches themselves4 8,free ,america0 must beware of too many laws4 ,england1 too conscious of her virtue1 will one day yield to temptation4 ,germany1 8over all10 has got the whole world on top of her4 ,italy1 the excitable1 is now deliberating to a degree that would be dangerous for any other land4 8,neutral ,america0 is so unneutral that her right hand threatens her left1 and both the whole body4 ,do not be impatient with ,president ,wilson4 ,he is dealing with the problems of the present war as if they were dated #ejj ,b4,c41 and the long view is apt to be the clear view4 ,the professor in him is safer than the politician in him4 ,he is not happy just now4 ,why8 ,oh1 that is an affair of ,state1 and ,i am writing for publication6 ,i know so many secrets that ,i am discreet as the family doctor4 ,but there is an 8,american on guard to-night40 ,who is he8 ,old ,abraham ,lincoln1 who renounced heaven that he might watch over the land he lived and died for4 ,no1 ,i shall not tell you any more about him4 ,there is something sacred in a soul's renouncing rest4 ,he will not go too far away until ,america passes through her next great trial4 ,when will that be8 ,as the ,beautiful ,being says1 8,nay1 ,child1 you ask too much40 ,and still you are eager to know about ,abraham ,lincoln6 ,i was eager to know about him myself a few short years ago2 but ,i did not ask too many questions4 ,it would not have been pretty1 as the ,french mothers say4 ,april #h4 ,,letter ,,xviii ,a ,,master ,,of ,,compassion ,,in my former book ,i reminded you that your friends who had passed into the astral world did not know everything2 that though their sight was longer than before and their eyes less clouded by matter1 they yet could not always prophesy as glibly as fortune-tellers--or at least that they were wiser not to attempt it4 ,now ,i have in mind an illustration of that very point1 only the subjects are much more exalted than the ordinary dwellers on the astral plane4 ,there is1 for instance1 not perfect unanimity in our minds as to all the details of the end of this war4 ,there are two of us who often discuss ways and means1 who1 while desiring the same result of peace1 have slightly varying views as to the best possible way to bring that result to pass4 ,one of our ,brothers1 who is still occupying his physical body most of the time1 has a great desire to soften so far as possible the blow that is to fall upon one of the nations in this war4 ,we all want to soften so far as possible the blow for that nation2 but he has in his mind a plan which would1 if put into effect1 very materially soften it4 ,he knows that he could perhaps bring it about in the way he wishes2 yet he is far too wise to force the issue4 ,he will not force the issue4 ,he tries softly to inspire those who have it in their power to suggest the beginnings of peace according to his ideas4 ,we do nothing to deflect the current of his loving thoughts1 for he is the only one among us--and by us ,i mean the ,brothers of a certain development--he is the only one among us who has a greater tenderness for one race than for all the others4 ,he is not so old as some of us1 but he is one of the greatest4 ,he may be able to do what he wishes1 but ,i personally am not sure4 ,in one way he is wiser than ,i am2 but my judgment is not at all influenced by tenderness for my own native land1 which is not yet directly concerned1 and so ,i may be a safer judge than he4 ,do not take this as an admission of weakness in my ,brother4 ,love is not a weakness4 ,this ,brother wrote a prediction through the hand of a pupil of his not long ago4 ,perhaps it will be verified4 ,nothing will be thrown by any of us in the way of its verification4 ,in fact1 if it is the best way it will have the support of all4 ,even a ,master does not know everything1 though to the blind eyes of lesser men he seems to know everything4 ,and a ,master is too wise to attempt to force his individual will upon the world4 ,the black magician is willing to bring things to pass by the power of his will1 and often he can do it2 but he does not always count on the reaction4 ,the ,white ,master always counts on the reaction4 ,he works with the ,law4 ,there is arising now in ,america a school of magic1 for it is a form of magic that they practise1 and the teachers of this school instruct their followers how to bring events to pass1 how to demonstrate in the material world the material desires of their hearts4 ,they can do it1 the strong ones can1 if their desires are not against the great stream of desire that carries the race forward4 ,but often these material desires are not in strict accord with the karma of the person desiring2 that is1 the balance of karma being worked out now may be so violently drawn upon in one direction1 that for the following life there will be left only a lot of unhappy karma1 weak karma1 which has not been wisely distributed over that time in which they have been operating with this new plaything1 this magic power which they are using to make their present lives one glad sweet song4 ,the way to get what you want is to will what the great ,law decides4 ,that is what the ,masters do4 ,and ,i am not denying the greatness of my ,brother whom ,i mentioned a few pages back4 ,he wills the will of the great ,law1 the same as all of us do2 and if his tenderness for his native land has inspired him to devise a plan which seems in harmony with the great ,law1 he would not put the plan into effect if he could1 should he realize that it was not in accordance with that law4 ,there is always danger for the man who is not a ,master in pitting his judgment against the law of karma4 ,if a poor man wants to be rich1 and if he wills hard enough1 he can become rich2 but he may miss by the way other things that his soul needs far more than it needs riches4 ,one of the greatest dangers that face ,america in the future is the danger of black magic4 ,among a hundred men or women who take up ,new ,thought1 ,christian ,science1 ceremonial magic1 and certain philosophies with even loftier verbal aims1 there may be one whose desire is perfectly pure and unselfish4 ,there is great power in ,america4 ,the untrodden hills and mountains are full of fresh new forces that man may draw upon4 ,also the astral world above ,america--that layer of the astral which lies immediately outside the physical continent1 as the aura of man extends beyond his body--that layer of the astral world above ,america is full of forces1 elemental and astral forces1 which can be used consciously by those who know how to use them1 and which are used unconsciously by those whose personal desires are so strong that the more or less impersonal forces are obliged to follow them--swung into line by the power of desire or will4 ,great danger lies that way for those who use such forces for evil1 and between selfish desire and evil the veil is very thin4 ,there are seeking incarnation in this new race many of those whose magical work along dark lines was interrupted in the old days of ,atlantis4 ,yes1 that story of ,atlantis is true4 ,many of these souls are now coming in1 some here and some in other countries2 but their main course is in the direction of the ,new ,world4 ,more and more the forces of magic will be used in the ,new ,world4 ,it is for you and for others who know that magic used for selfish purposes is always black magic1 to warn those who are too much fascinated by the idea that they can be the makers of their own fortunes at the expense of others4 ,this warning is much needed4 ,and ,i want to say to those whose only desire for occult knowledge is that they may use it for their own selfish ends1 that if they stand in the way of the ,law that works for unselfishness in the new race1 they will be destroyed again as they were destroyed in ancient ,atlantis4 ,and ,i do not mean that their souls will be destroyed1 but that their lives will be cut short and their influence for evil nullified4 ,do not be shocked when ,i tell you that there have been working in ,europe during and before the present war 8artificial elementals0 that were created in the time of ,atlantis4 ,those beings1 for they have a force and a pseudo-individuality1 have been used in this war by those 7now reincarnated7 who created them ages ago4 ,they have drifted to their creators by the power of attraction4 ,one such creature was destroyed last ,july1 and ,i assisted in its destruction4 ,at the time of the birth of a new race1 will has great dynamics4 ,use your will with the ,law1 not against it4 ,do you realize1 you who put your desires above all things1 that each of you is but a drop in the stream of souls8 ,the drop that would isolate itself from the stream may be sucked up by the sun in the form of vapor and wait a long time before entering the stream again4 ,now do not take any of this as applying to my ,brother who wants to soften the blow for his native land4 ,i want to soften the future of my native land1 and that is why ,i am writing about the new race that is going to be born in ,america4 ,but if ,i should learn1 through counsel with my ,brothers or through individual inspiration1 that it was best that the new race should be born elsewhere1 ,i would work with the same devotion to bring it into being in that other place4 ,and so would my ,brother4 ,we who work with the ,law put the welfare of the human race above our own individual loves4 ,all races are one race--the human race--and we work together as one4 ,april #aj4 ,,letter ,,xix ,,the ,,rose-,,veiled ,,stranger ,,one day the angel whom we call the ,beautiful ,being came to me leading another angel by the hand4 ,long association with this extraordinary being has taught me never to be surprised by anything it does4 ,i accept its vagaries as expressions of a state of consciousness above and beyond my own1 and much that ,i have learned during the last three years ,i owe to its whimsical but tender friendship for me4 ,as ,i explained in my former writing1 the ,beautiful ,being--whom we call an angel for want of a better term--has never shared the physical life of earth4 ,it is a being of another evolution than the human1 and for that reason its views of human life are uniquely valuable4 ,it smiled as it came to me1 leading by the hand another similar to itself but far less like mankind4 ,introductions in the celestial regions are often very unconventional2 but the ,beautiful ,being1 who has observed the life of men1 sometimes amuses me by delicious mimicry of the ways of mortals4 8,rose-veiled one10 it now said to its angelic companion1 8permit me to present to you my friend #8,x'1 a ,judge recently arrived from the planet ,earth1 who will consent ,i am sure to act as your cicerone over a section of territory where history is in the making4 ,ask him anything you will and he will answer you--if he can4 ,he is still unlearned in the language of your distant star2 but he can converse in thoughts with you whose coarsest vesture is a body of thought40 ,i expressed my pleasure at meeting the stranger1 and asked if ,i should show it a battlefield4 8,i do not understand the idea--battlefield10 it answered2 8but ,i should like to see it40 8,you will understand far less when you have seen it10 smiled the ,beautiful ,being4 ,it chanced that day that the opposing forces in ,france and ,belgium were unusually active in the beginning of the ,spring campaign1 and ,i led my two friends to a point where they could watch the combat4 8,what are those beings down there sending back and forth80 asked the rose-veiled stranger4 8,those objects are known as shells10 ,i replied4 8,shells80 the stranger returned in bewilderment4 ,the ,beautiful ,being answered for me4 8,shells are elaborately convoluted houses in which our brothers of the great deep live and disport themselves40 ,the look of bewilderment increased on the face of the stranger4 8,my friend forgets10 ,i said1 8that you know not the language of earth1 where a word1 an arbitrary symbol for an idea1 may stand for two ideas very dissimilar40 8,what are those objects that the beings down there are sending back and forth80 the stranger repeated4 ,i have to translate its form of speech into ordinary ,english to make it intelligible4 ,literally1 its communication would stand like this3 88 ,objects beings sending reciprocally80 ,from my long association with angels1 both those with astral bodies and those without1 such a form of speech is intelligible to me2 and ,i answered1 translating my cumbrous native idiom into the simpler language of ideas3 8,the objects that are hurled back and forth between those beings on the plain below us are explosive shells1 with a marvelous power to shatter the forms of other objects and to scatter them in all directions40 8,is it a form of play80 asked the rose-veiled stranger4 8,it is not10 ,i answered4 8,it is war40 8,war80 ,all the horror that in my mind is associated with the word war was conveyed by my thought to the mind of the angelic visitor1 and its rosy veil grew pale with pain4 8,what is this strange emotion that ,i feel80 it asked4 8,truly1 were it not for your presence here1 my friends1 ,i should desire to go away40 8,the emotion that you feel10 ,i said1 8is a sympathetic reflection of the emotions of war40 8,and what is war80 8,a horrible passion felt mutually and indulged by two opposing aggregates of souls1 by which they are enabled to overcome their natural pity and to destroy each other's bodies in vast numbers40 ,the veil of the stranger grew almost white4 8,and does ,god permit this horror80 it asked4 8,he permits it on the planet ,earth40 ,now the word ,god is not an adequate translation of the idea expressed in the angel's question1 but let it stand4 ,the real idea is untranslatable by any one word in any language of earth4 ,it was a composite of ,love and ,time and ,purpose1 raised to the highest power1 an idea for which ,i can find no other word than ,god4 8,earth is a strange star60 the angel said4 8,the inhabitants of this world have a common saying to that effect10 ,i answered4 8,it is a fragment of race wisdom1 handed down from their remote ancestors1 who1 when they first tried to adjust their celestial consciousness to the baffling conditions of this star on which they had been placed for their education1 observed to one another1 #8,this is a strange world4'0 8,and are they obliged to perpetrate this horror before us by the conditions of this planet80 8,no40 8,then why do they do it80 8,from force of habit40 8,then was it ever necessary80 8,in far away times10 ,i said1 8men were more isolated than at present1 there were fewer of them in incarnation1 and a brilliant archangel who had their training in charge taught them to develop courage and resource1 and to accentuate their egos1 by struggling with each other1 two by two40 8,but there are millions of beings down there60 the angel exclaimed4 8,and ,i see bodies fall by thousands60 8,that is what they call a great victory10 ,i said1 8and one of their commanders gives to those who have slaughtered a vast number a little iron cross40 8,an iron cross8 ,why iron80 8,iron is the metal of ,mars10 ,i said1 8,mars1 their war-god40 8,and why a cross80 8,it is the symbol of their ,christ40 8,the one who died down here to make men love one another80 8,the same10 ,i admitted4 8,truly1 ,i agree with the remote ancestors of these people1 from whom they have inherited the saying1 #8,this is a strange world4'0 8,would you like to approach nearer80 ,i asked4 ,the stranger hesitated1 then said1 with a patient smile3 8,my friend10 glancing at the ,beautiful ,being1 8wishes me to learn something of this star4 ,i will approach nearer40 ,we descended to perhaps a hundred feet above the lane which separated the enemies4 8,look60 exclaimed the stranger4 8,the souls are leaving their bodies6 ,is that the purpose of this business1 to free souls from bondage80 8,not directly10 ,i answered4 8,each would like to hold the other in bondage2 but being unable to do that to any great extent1 they take the opposite way40 ,the stranger looked more confused4 8,my friend10 explained the ,beautiful ,being to me1 8came from a region where the ,law of ,opposites does not apply40 8,you have never taken me there in our wanderings60 ,i exclaimed4 8,no1 you are so attached to the ,law of ,opposites40 ,this was an old jest between me and the ,beautiful ,being4 8,look60 the stranger interrupted me4 8,there is a soul coming toward us now40 ,i went forward to greet the newcomer4 ,he was a ,german officer4 8,welcome10 ,i said1 but he seemed not to understand me4 ,the face of his astral body was contorted1 as if he had died in pain4 ,now the ,beautiful ,being seems to know all the languages of earth2 and though the purity of its nature is such that few on earth can understand it1 yet when a soul leaves its body it can understand the speech of the ,beautiful ,being if there is anything in its nature that responds to the higher vibration which makes the life of that angel so intense and wonderful4 8,welcome10 said the ,beautiful ,being to the soul1 in the accents of his native land4 8,where am ,i80 asked the bewildered soul4 8,you are in the region above the world10 the ,beautiful ,being answered4 8,you mean----0 8,i mean that your name will be in the list of the dead40 8,then it has come60 8,yes40 8,but ,i always feared death40 8,you see it is nothing to fear40 8,where is the ,kaiser80 8,at his headquarters40 8,can ,i not report to him80 8,if you wish40 ,we moved farther east--slowly1 for the newly freed soul had not yet learned that distance is nothing4 ,we found the ,war-,lord seated beside a table looking at a map4 ,his face was drawn and haggard4 8,there10 ,i said to the stranger1 8is the man who is believed1 by the whole world outside his own country1 to have caused this vast war40 ,the stranger 7and also the soul7 approached and read the thoughts in the brain of the ,war-,lord4 ,i give them as they were1 disconnected1 tragic in their import3 8,the slaughter of our forces6 ,god punish ,england6 ,i am the ,lord's chosen6 ,i cannot make a mistake6 ,my generals have blundered4 ,i will degrade--7the name of our newly-arrived charge74 ,this defeat is his fault4 ,i ordered him to take those trenches4 ,he has lost our own instead4 ,i cannot make a mistake6 ,i am the ,lord's chosen60 ,the ,beautiful ,being turned to the soul who had been a ,general4 8,do you wish to report yourself to the ,kaiser80 ,the eyes he turned to us were sad4 8,i will not trouble the ,kaiser10 he said4 ,a silence had fallen between us4 ,after a little1 the ,beautiful ,being turned to the ,general again1 and its face was soft with pity4 8,can ,i not do something for you80 it asked4 8,will you take me to my mother1 who died of grief for my only brother's death1 in the early days of the war8 ,i am very tired4 ,i want to see my old mother40 ,the eyes of the rose-veiled stranger were luminous with wonder4 8,why1 there is even love in this strange star60 it said4 ,april #aa4 ,,letter ,,xx ,,above ,,the ,,battlefields ,,picture to yourself a battlefield1 a long-stretching irregular double line of men and guns and horses and all the paraphernalia of war4 ,in the old days on earth ,i once gave some study to the theory and practice of war1 but that labor had little value in preparing me to study this war4 ,not only did it take for granted conditions that no longer exist1 but my point of observation then was an imaginary station on one side or the other of an imaginary field2 now ,i am really here1 there and everywhere4 ,i read the thoughts of the commanders on both sides1 ,i am with the men in the trenches sometimes half-buried in mud and water1 ,i am riding with the cavalry1 ,i go forward with the guns of the artillery1 ,i go out and up with the escaping spirits of the dead--go with them into the hell of confusion that almost always swallows them for a time after they are violently thrust from their bodies4 ,truly1 8,war is hell60 ,have no glorious delusions to the contrary1 you who dwell in the haunts of peace and babble of what you know not4 ,the horrors do not end when the guns cease firing4 ,the dark and silent night of rain is full of souls in bewilderment and torment4 ,often one will grope his way hither and thither1 seeking to find a trench-mate to whom he had become attached in the camaraderie of war--that sweet flower which grows upon an ugly stem4 ,often they live over and over again the rage and madness of the attack2 they plunge an imaginary bayonet into the form of an imaginary foe2 or1 if a mass of them are together1 and they generally are1 they strike recklessly at anything before them1 conscious always of an opposing force4 ,the ,general of whom ,i wrote in my last letter was a man of marked spiritual development2 he soon broke away from the entanglements of matter2 he was a devotee to whom his country was a god and his ,emperor a hero to be followed with aspiration4 ,but most men who die on the battlefields are common soldiers who fight because it is the will of the mass behind them4 ,they generally go out into darkness for a time1 and most of them wander in darkness and bewilderment for varying periods4 ,some1 on the contrary1 are vividly conscious almost from the hour of death4 ,these may attack the men of the opposing army while they sleep4 ,the dreams of the battlefields are terrible in their intensity4 ,sometimes again1 for in the general confusion distinctions may be quite lost1 souls that had believed themselves enemies cling together in the tragic yearning of the dark that separates the worlds of the 8invisible40 ,in their great need they do not know their former friends from their former enemies4 ,another pale flower that grows from the ugly stem of war6 ,the astral forms of men of low development are often found here in shocking distortion1 their consciousness only a glimmer1 and with no power of feeling anything but pain4 ,no wonder the dreams of the unselfish lovers of humanity are full of horror during these dark nights of the world1 for there are many noncombatants in all lands whose hours of sleep are given to a devoted labor for the souls that need help so horribly4 ,there is one man whom you know who bears at this time a burden almost superhuman1 and speaks of it to no one4 ,it is needless for me to say how you yourself spent the nights of many months1 and when we bade you cease that labor it was only that you might have more strength for the labor of writing these pages at my dictation4 ,a soul still held in the flesh cannot work all day and all night4 ,that is burning the astral candle at both ends4 ,when you return to the countries now devastated by war1 some of your friends will relate to you experiences similar to your own during these terrible months4 ,they who can be used are called upon when the need is greatest1 and the need is immense at this time4 ,realize that those souls in the lower regions of the astral world are actually in space near the ground of the physical planet4 ,those who hang over the battlefields where they met their fate are still thrilled or horrified by the noise of the battle horns1 they can still hear the shriek of shells and feel the shattering force of the explosions4 ,day in1 day out these unfortunate earth-bound ones live over and over again the emotions of war1 night after night they dread the morning when the sounds will begin again4 ,they cannot get away4 ,they are not free merely because their bodies are buried under a few feet of earth1 or worse still left unburied4 ,i advise you to avoid for some years at least the actual scenes of these battles4 ,you can go to ,switzerland or to the more southern regions of ,france1 but do not stay long in ,northern ,france or ,belgium1 or in any other place that may be thus affected4 ,the thought world of ,england is just now troubled1 but the layer of astral matter immediately above the earth is not full of the awful emanations of death4 ,astral forms go there from the more terrible region1 but in order to go they must have themselves broken away from the immediate scene of their worst suffering4 ,it is easier to protect oneself from sad thought-forms than from the distracted astral entities and the 8boiling0 astral matter that lie above those battlefields4 ,why1 even the field of ,waterloo before this war was not a pleasant place to spend the night4 ,after a lapse of time you may briefly visit the scenes of these recent battles1 for the sake of the practical experience2 but do not go there just yet4 ,the best place in ,europe for a long period will be the mountains of ,switzerland4 ,you should spend much time there4 ,do you remember telling me how1 when a child1 you used to see the forms of ,american ,indians on the hills and in the valleys of your native ,state8 ,they were those who many years before had walked those hills and valleys in the sunlight1 and who were still held in the tenuous matter above that region4 ,the eyes of childhood are sometimes very clear4 ,above those battlefields of ,europe the sensitive eye may see for many years the forms of those who will not be able to make their escape4 ,and ,i do not mean akashic records4 ,war is hell1 and the hell does not end with the signing of peace papers4 ,that is one reason why we want you1 and those others who believe in brotherhood1 to carry that spirit of brotherhood among the nations that have been at war4 ,you have no conception of the power of a quiet faith in a great and true idea4 ,the man who really loves his fellows has a wider influence than his own immediate circle of friends4 ,the atmosphere around him is permeated with that brotherly love1 and sensitive souls can feel it4 ,some day sail up the ,rhine with that sentiment in your heart4 ,april #ab4 ,,letter ,,xxi ,a ,,soul ,,in ,,purgatory ,,dare ,i talk to you of the purgatory to which the rage of battle conducts so many souls that only a little while before walked the earth as men1 and went their daily round from house to office1 loving their wives and children and exchanging worldly commonplaces in the intervals of work1 all unmindful that they were hourly drifting toward the ,great ,event8 ,yes1 ,i dare4 ,we will follow one soul that ,i myself followed4 ,his story ,i can reconstruct from memory1 for every act of it is stamped upon my mind4 ,no1 ,i do not need brain-cells to remember with4 ,neither will you--when you have escaped the prison of your brain-cells4 ,the man was an officer in an ,english regiment and he was a bachelor4 ,outwardly he was much like other men1 but his consciousness was different4 ,he lived in a world of his own1 for he was a reader and a thinker4 ,he was not a very good man4 ,not all ,englishmen are good even now when ,england is at war1 you who bristle at any criticism of your beloved maternal island--you who write for me6 ,this man was not very good because there was so little love in his heart4 ,he was not incapable of love1 yet he was unable to awaken love in others1 and so was soul-starved4 ,but sometimes he was conscious of a great yearning1 and when the yearning came he was impatient1 and took a drink1 or cursed his servant1 or both4 ,sometimes when he was most impatient with the world and with himself1 he went on a 8spree40 ,the war began4 ,his natural impatience found something congenial in the hurry and noise of the expedition4 ,he was glad to go4 ,he had known a ,german in ,london and had disliked him thoroughly4 ,the ,german talked too much1 and his loud tones jarred on the sensitive ears of the refined officer4 ,as he led his men into battle he thought of this ,german4 ,he felt that he was battling with him at last face to face1 and the feeling gave him a thrill of satisfaction4 ,hate had become an almost sensual luxury4 ,the ,german had fascinated by his blustering personality a woman of rather coarse type to whom the officer had been impatiently attracted4 ,he hated himself for the attraction1 and he hated the ,german for frustrating it4 ,we always hate those who frustrate the emotions we hate4 ,the officer was killed by a ,german bullet1 in the early days of the war4 ,where8 ,oh1 no matter where6 ,there are those who might recognize the man1 and ,i am not a betrayer of unwilling confidences4 ,when ,i listen at the keyhole of life ,i never report too much of what ,i hear4 ,i use my discretion4 ,i shall call this man my friend1 for ,i was so much his friend that ,i have a right to claim him4 ,before the battle in which my friend met death ,i had lingered near him1 with a desire to soften the hard feelings in his heart4 ,those feelings are not usual among the soldiers of a particular section of the northern battle-line4 ,to them fighting is a sort of glorified sport--or it was so last ,september4 ,my friend was an exception1 and that is why ,i choose to write about him1 that my assertion of his exceptional qualities may keep the reader from shuddering too much4 ,i should not like my readers to feel that their friends went through a similar experience4 ,you who hang above this page1 my friend was not your friend4 ,the experiences of your friends were less terrible4 ,they were all better men than he1 because you loved them1 and this man was not good because he was not loved enough4 ,he met death by a rifle bullet4 ,then all became dark before him1 and he was unconscious for a time4 ,he was awakened by the noise of a bursting shell4 8,the battle has begun10 he thought4 8,damn that man6 ,he should have awakened me at dawn40 ,he was among the men of his regiment4 ,they seemed larger than usual1 and blurred in outline4 ,he rubbed his eyes4 8,hell and damnation6 ,who have they put in my place80 ,for he saw a minor officer who commanded where he had commanded4 ,he turned away1 then came back again4 ,he would demand to know6 ,he started toward the place where his superior officer should have been1 some distance away1 and found himself instantly there4 8,what is the matter with me80 he thought4 8,have ,i lost my mind80 ,he saluted the officer1 who paid no attention to him4 8,am ,i asleep80 he wondered4 ,he went up to a soldier who was loading a rifle and touched him on the arm4 ,the soldier also paid no attention4 ,he gripped the man's arm4 ,still he paid no attention1 but raised his rifle and fired4 ,my friend went toward two men who were talking together4 8,poor old ------60 he heard one of them say4 8,shot through the heart6 ,he was a good officer1 though a surly fellow4 ,i'm sorry he's dead40 ,the ------ they spoke of was himself4 8,shot through the heart--a good officer--a surly fellow--dead60 ,he knew4 ,knowledge sometimes comes more slowly4 ,he was 8dead40 8,just my luck60 was his instinctive thought4 ,another shell burst behind him with a shattering report4 ,suddenly he saw before him a face that riveted his attention4 ,it was a malignant1 an insolent face4 ,then it changed into the face of his enemy1 the ,german back in ,england whom he hated4 8,so it's you1 is it80 he asked4 ,the spectre made no answer1 but changed its shape again4 ,this time it was like the woman whom my friend had hated himself for liking4 8,you1 too60 he said1 impatiently4 ,again the spectre changed countenance4 ,it was like a servant whom my friend had cursed once too often1 and who had left him the year before4 8,are you1 too1 dead80 he asked2 but the face before him had now resumed its original appearance4 ,it was merely a malignant1 insolent face1 resembling nobody in particular4 8,what are you1 anyway80 my friend demanded2 but still there was no answer4 ,the eye of the spectre interested him--the left eye4 ,as he gazed at it1 the eye gradually enlarged until it seemed the size of a target in a shooting-gallery4 ,the iris1 of a peculiar greenish-blue1 was in the very middle of the eye1 so that the white showed all round4 ,the black pupil stared at him with its concentrated malice--a pupil large as a saucer4 8,why do you do that80 demanded my friend2 but the eye still made no answer4 ,then it vanished4 ,a troop of hateful shades came in its place1 ugly shades1 some human1 some subhuman4 ,another shell burst nearby1 and the shades began to dance4 ,they caught at him and whirled him around with them1 around and around until he was dizzy4 ,then suddenly they stopped1 and each and all of them changed into the form of the ,german back in ,england whom my friend had hated4 ,then another group of mad beings mingled with them4 ,they also changed suddenly--there were a dozen duplicates of the woman whom my friend had hated himself for liking1 and they and the duplicates of his enemy caught one another's hands and kissed each other4 ,sick1 revolted1 my friend wished himself away1 and he was away4 ,he was over among the soldiers of the ,german army across the plain4 ,he heard the sounds of the language he disliked4 8,what the devil60 he thought1 and the devil stood before him1 hoofs1 horns and tail complete4 8,hadn't thought of me before1 had you80 sneered the evil being4 ,my friend was hurt and bewildered by the appearance1 for it looked1 with all its unlovely accessories1 so like himself4 8,will you1 too1 change form in a moment80 he asked4 8,oh1 no6 ,i change slowly4 ,i only change as you change40 8,what do you mean80 8,you only can change me40 8,change1 then60 said my friend4 ,but the demon remained as before4 8,change60 repeated my friend2 but still the figure before him changed not at all4 8,then you lied when you said ,i could change you60 8,i said that ,i change slowly40 8,what do you mean80 8,i only change as you change40 8,and ,i have not changed1 then80 8,it is my business to keep you from changing40 ,in company with his devil my friend now went through scenes which ,i refrain from describing1 ,goethe in the ,walpurgis ,night having done it so well before me4 ,reckless1 desperate1 he followed his leader until he was weary and exhausted4 ,days1 weeks passed away1 like a nightmare4 8,can ,i never get rid of you80 he asked his companion4 8,yes1 you can get rid of me40 8,how80 8,by getting rid of yourself40 8,that's easier said than done40 8,yes1 that's easier said than done40 ,often they found themselves on the battlefield in the fighting line1 or at the mess of the soldiers4 ,the smell of the coffee and of cooking meats brought temporary satisfaction to my friend4 ,he tried to drink from brandy flasks tilted to the mouths of men who could not see him or protest2 he steeped himself in hungers and despairs4 ,his companions were always changing themselves into the forms of the man he hated and the woman he loved4 ,he witnessed their coarse love-making4 ,sometimes the simulacrum of the woman turned to him with a friendly word4 ,he cursed her1 but clung to her hand4 ,but always she vanished when his mouth yearned to hers4 ,sometimes in a great battle the rage of war awoke in him4 ,he hurled himself at the men of the opposing army1 as if he would take revenge upon them for all he was suffering4 ,he struggled to tear the rifles from their hands1 and when one of them passed out of the body he tried to awake him from the darkness and the sleep into which he was sinking2 but never could he succeed in doing this4 ,never could he succeed in doing anything4 ,his very existence was failure and futility and discouragement4 ,one day ,i came to him and touched him on the forehead4 8,you are not like these others10 he said1 dully4 8,where do you come from80 8,i came from a distance10 ,i said4 8,would you like to go with me80 8,anywhere away from here10 he assented4 8,do you want to be alone80 8,no4 ,it is worst when ,i am alone40 8,the worst is over10 ,i said4 8,what do you mean80 8,i mean that you have exhausted for the time the springs of your lower desires4 ,you are weary and disgusted with the life you have led since you escaped from your body40 8,that is a strange expression--escaped6 ,it is only now that ,i long to escape40 8,and it is ,i who will help you to escape from another layer of your prison1 another skin of the onion that shuts you in40 8,and why do you do this80 8,to spare you unnecessary fumbling to break the skin10 ,i said4 8,would you like to go to sleep80 8,i should like to rest a little40 ,while he slept ,i helped to loosen him further1 and when he awoke into another and a freer world ,i was still with him4 8,what would you like to see80 ,i asked4 8,something beautiful10 he answered1 8something beautiful and pure40 8,would you care to witness a dance of elves80 ,i asked1 smiling4 8,a dance of elves8 ,are there really such things80 8,the universe contains innumerable forms of life and consciousness10 ,i said4 8,and you who believe in devils from experience can surely believe in elves40 ,they came toward us as ,i spoke1 lithe1 tenuous forms1 dancing with joy across the flowery spaces of the ,elysian ,fields4 ,they swayed and circled around us1 those beings pure as the air in which they moved1 light as the happiness they exhaled1 enduring as hope and lovelier than mortal dreams4 ,the shadows had all gone from my friend's face1 and he too seemed to taste joy1 he too was light as air1 and pure4 ,he joined their dance and circled with them around me4 ,i tell you in a burst of confidence that ,i also have danced with elves4 ,this companion and friend of the ,beautiful ,being has swum in the sea of universal life and floated on the wings of irresponsibility4 ,he who knows too much of the world's sorrow must sometimes lighten the load by knowing nothing but joy4 ,when the sylphs had gone to their more inviolable retreat1 another shape came toward us4 8,what would you like to see now80 ,i asked him4 8,can ,i see a person who still lives in ,england80 he asked1 half shyly1 yet with the winning confidence of souls who trust their own desires--the higher wisdom which comes with the purification of desire4 8,perhaps10 ,i said4 ,the form that came toward us was unfamiliar to me1 but my friend recognized and welcomed it4 ,a woman of intense and vital personality1 yet with that purity of atmosphere without which no communion is possible in the region where we then were1 was standing beside my friend4 8,let us sit together a little10 ,i said4 8,it will seem more homelike40 ,the two beside me seemed happy in each other's presence4 8,sisterly-sweet hand in hand10 they sat together2 and though ,i knew that one of them was only the simulacrum of a living woman1 yet she also seemed real to me for the moment1 for the kind sentiments of the heart are real1 and in the region to which ,i had conducted my friend all sentiments are kind4 ,no enemies are found there1 and the woman he liked also liked him1 or she could not have been there4 ,soon ,i left them in each other's company and went back to the labors of the battlefield2 for there were others who needed me1 and my friend was safe for the time4 ,after a while ,i shall help him onward to an experience still less restricted4 ,we take an interest in those whom we have helped1 and wish to help them further4 ,why did ,i choose this man for my friendly ministrations1 you are wondering2 for as ,i described him in the beginning of this letter he was not an attractive character4 ,i tell you a little secret3 ,it was because he was unattractive that ,i chose him4 ,no one had ever loved him enough1 and so he needed help more than others4 ,those who are loved are already helped by that love4 ,as the ,beautiful ,being says1 8,do you get my meaning1 daughter of earth80 ,just now ,i live to serve mankind through the horrors of this war4 ,serve also by loving those who least attract your love4 ,so shall you learn the way to the ,path where walk the ,masters of ,compassion4 ,april #ad4 ,,letter ,,xxii ,,peace ,,propaganda ,,were you shocked and grieved by what ,i told you of the futile struggle in that intermediate world between the bondage of dense matter and the freedom of purer regions8 ,it is nothing to grieve about2 it is nothing but the necessary transition stage4 ,it lasts but a little while1 a few days1 a few years--what matter1 in the endless leisure of eternity8 ,you yourself have passed through it many times4 ,all pass through it in going out to a freer life1 though all do not suffer it consciously and lingeringly as my friend did4 ,it is a nightmare1 yes2 but no nightmare lasts forever4 ,think of the joy and the freedom beyond6 ,they are worth the boatman's penny4 ,it is true that ,i have not told you the most terrible things that are possible in this transition1 have not told you the most terrible things that ,i have seen in my journeys round the battlefields4 ,those unwritten chapters are not necessary for the book which ,i dictate to teach brotherhood in place of separation1 peace in place of war4 ,would you know how you may do something to shorten this war1 to hasten the coming of peace8 ,then listen6 ,you can personally hasten the coming of peace6 ,is the idea startling8 ,when ,i say 8you10 ,i mean others1 too1 all those who are weary of war1 and of hate1 the mother of war4 ,has anyone injured you in the struggle of life8--for life is a kind of war4 ,go out in thought to those whose desires have clashed with your desires1 those who have hurt you or hated you4 ,go to them one by one--not several at a time in this exercise1 and one by one try to understand them4 ,see yourself with their eyes1 feel toward yourself with their hearts4 ,if they still hate you1 you may hate yourself at first in sympathy with them4 ,but remaining there in sympathy with them1 you will gradually feel their hard thoughts of you change1 gradually begin to be friends with yourself through them4 ,this ,i am advising you to do is not a form of 8black magic10 because the object is unselfish4 ,you are making a beginning toward softening the enmities of the world4 ,but ,i warn you against using this practice to win the regard of anyone whom you love selfishly or with passion1 because the reaction would bring about a very undesirable condition of disharmony4 ,when you have thus understood and forgiven all your personal enemies1 enter the souls of the warring nations4 ,understand them also by sympathy1 and soften their hearts4 ,though this is a much easier thing to attempt than the other1 the results may seem incommensurable with the effort4 ,but1 small and great1 you are all part of the ,whole4 ,and this brings me to the idea of race spirits1 race entities1 for every race has its guardian being--a composite being1 yet self-conscious as separate1 in a way you could hardly understand4 ,have you not noticed the effect on yourself of passing from country to country8 ,have your feelings--has your consciousness not changed almost at the frontier8 ,do you remember the shock you once had on setting foot for the first time in a certain foreign land8 ,the race spirits seem no larger to themselves and among themselves than you humans do among your friends and acquaintances4 ,size is relative4 ,heretofore ,i have spoken of the races as organs in the body of humanity4 ,in speaking of them now as separate beings ,i am not contradicting myself4 ,what reason have you for assuming that the organs of your body may not each be animated by a more or less separate consciousness8 ,your cells exist in your organs1 your organs exist in your body1 you exist in your race1 your race exists in the body of humanity on earth1 the entity of the earth exists in the democracy of planetary spirits in the solar system1 the solar system exists as one in the company of its fellows in the greater democracy of the ,cosmos4 ,a small blood-clot on the brain could seriously hamper the working of your cosmos4 ,so you see there is nothing preposterous in my saying that you can hasten infinitesimally the peace between the race spirits by forgiving and making peace with your personal enemies1 especially if they belong to races on the other side of this war4 ,the small is not so unimportant and the great is not so important as you have the habit of supposing4 ,yes1 you personally--and all of you--can hasten the coming of peace4 ,april #af4 ,,letter ,,xxiii ,,the ,,mystery ,,of ,,desire ,i ,,have written about the hunger and thirst of disembodied men in the astral world1 and ,i have written about the evil astral beings who brought about this war to satisfy their malice4 ,they too are hungry beings and the war has given them food4 ,do you know what they live on8 ,they may live long on blood and the exhalations of slaughter4 ,i have seen them by myriads hovering over a battlefield1 gorging themselves on the blood that dripped from the wounds of suffering men and from dead men4 ,the leaving of the dead unburied has also satisfied their hunger4 ,vampire entities came up from ,hungary and from other countries and fed on the living4 ,the awful weariness of war opened a door through which they might pass to the life forces they craved4 8,blood is a peculiar fluid10 as ,goethe said4 ,the life of an evil entity may be renewed for another long period of existence if he can have blood enough4 ,if you stop eating the carcases of dead animals1 you will cease to feed certain evil entities in yourselves4 ,it is not merely for reasons of sentiment that the pupils of the great ,masters are advised to refrain from animal food4 ,you are told that meat-eating feeds the passional nature4 ,what is the passional nature but the hungry nature that longs to feed on something not itself8 ,so long as you eat meat habitually you will never be quite free from the influence of entities who live on the blood and the other properties of meat4 ,eat purely1 and by and by you will find yourselves thinking purely and desiring purely4 ,i do not tell you to kill out all desire this afternoon1 for desire is the dynamics with which you work for even the ideal2 but kill out desire for blood and for the flesh of dead animals1 and all sorts of other desires which serve no necessary purpose in your evolution will expire4 ,a lot of nonsense is talked about desire4 ,you desire to develop spiritually1 you desire to do the work of the ,masters2 you are not merely led along like a lamb to do the work of the ,masters4 ,there is desire and desire4 ,if it seems 8desirable0 that you shorten the road to conscious union with the ,all1 you will desire that union probably2 you are not likely to drift into it4 ,i am not talking about the violent desires of ambition4 ,you need not be ambitious for occult development4 ,in fact1 if you are too ambitious for occult development you will be in danger of becoming a black magician4 ,but you can quietly 8desire0 even union with ,god4 ,all action on this plane springs from desire of some sort1 and it has been said that desire and will are the same4 ,perhaps they are4 ,it has also been said that desire relates to the temporary1 and that will is some kind of superior motive force2 but ,i should be inclined to say that will in its more dignified phases was merely desire for a higher thing--that is1 if ,i wanted to separate the two4 ,music may be sublime and music may be rag-time2 it is still music4 ,the force of the wind may fan the flame that burns your house1 or it may fill the sails of the boat that takes you across the sea to your soul's desire4 ,it is still the same wind4 ,you may even desire to desire the higher things4 ,you may will to will with the ,law instead of against it4 ,is that not desire1 too8 ,in advising you not to feed by blood sacrifices the elemental forces in yourself which crave that impure food1 ,i am not inviting you to kill out desire4 ,you will have to desire to purify your system from the material of dead animals before you will wilfully cease to feed on them4 ,the evil in you1 the hungry fiery selfish nature1 sucks up the blood that passes your lips somewhat as the evil beings above the battlefields suck up the blood that flows from the wounds of the fallen4 ,if you have no further use for these creatures1 you can cease to feed them with blood4 ,you will never kill out your emotional nature by ceasing to eat meat4 ,you will merely purify it4 ,the whole soul-world is a world of emotion1 and the pure beings of the elements are very emotional1 but they do not feed on blood4 ,yes1 mind is higher than emotion1 it is beyond emotion4 ,you can have mind without emotion1 and you can have emotion without mind to any great degree1 as in the animals2 but man is made of both4 ,he is dependent on his middle register1 his soul-desire nature1 in order to work in the soul world as a growing entity there4 ,when you reach the highest heaven you will be living in thought with only so much of the desire nature as you have raised with you by memory and assimilation4 ,you can raise more of soul-dynamics into the highest region if you do not clog your feet on the road by desire for bloody food4 ,leave that to the demons who gorge themselves on the battlefields4 ,during the reign of brotherhood which ,i am trying to help in bringing about1 the race will subsist on a pure diet4 ,even now there is a tendency toward the elimination of dead animals from the dietary4 ,the desires of the new race will have to be purified1 their emotions raised and intensified4 ,the emotions of a man are much more intense than the emotions of a lion4 ,the emotions of a god are cosmic4 ,april #af4 ,,letter ,,xxiv ,,the ,,scales ,,of ,,justice ,,lest anyone should think that in working for brotherhood ,i am either knowingly or inadvertently striving to bring about a state of lax acquiescence in the wrongs committed by my fellowmen1 by my brothers1 ,i want to talk about justice4 ,as one who has been a so-called ,judge in a court of justice1 ,i have had some little experience in the practical working out of a balance between mercy and severity4 ,justice is one of the gods that ,i have always placed high in my personal pantheon1 and never in handing down a decision did ,i1 through weakness or sentimentality1 hamper the right of the good in order to pander to the wrong of evil4 ,i have given mild judgments when most good seemed to be promised that way2 ,i have given severe judgments when it seemed to me that evil would be best curbed that way4 ,much nonsense has been talked and written about universal brotherhood1 as about most of the other ideals of mankind4 ,universal brotherhood is not universal acquiescence in evil2 it is universal acceptance of the ideal of good4 ,and you will never have a brotherhood worthy of the name until you raise1 not lower1 the standard of justice4 ,justice is balance1 justice is equilibrium between forces1 justice is poise4 ,it is because ,i hope to see a more poised humanity that ,i am urging men to concentrate upon love instead of upon hate4 ,since ,i have been stationed in ,europe and in the immediate neighborhood of the western battlefields1 ,i have helped hundreds of souls to help themselves through the terrible astral conditions into which a sudden and premature dropping of their physical bodies has precipitated them2 but in no case have ,i tried to upset the balance between cause and effect by helping a soul to a freedom for which it was not prepared4 ,i have let men suffer when ,i could have shortened their suffering2 ,i have let many souls work out in the astral world the slow battle with their lower desires1 because ,i knew that if they were plucked from the tree of pain before they were ripe1 they would have to go through it all anyway and battle harder in another life with those very forces which now by their suffering they were severing in the region where--from the very limitation of satisfactions--elementary desires are more easily starved out than on the earth4 ,there was in one of the armies a very cruel officer who was hated by his men4 ,he came out here and many of the men came out here1 and ,i made no attempt to protect him from their reproaches1 because he needed to learn that injustice deserves reproach4 ,on earth their mouths had been stopped by army discipline1 but out here he had to realize how much he had wronged them4 ,he could never have realized it in any other way4 ,had ,i preached to him he would have told me to mind my own business4 ,the law of justice does not preach4 ,it demonstrates4 ,he had to endure the demonstration of his own injustice through the dark and reproachful shadows by which he was long surrounded4 ,and ,i may say in passing that he is still surrounded by them4 ,i have made no effort to help him4 ,perhaps ,i could have done so2 but such determined opposition on my part to the law of justice might have let him go forward into his own selfish heaven with such a load of injustice on his soul that in his next earthly life he would have been crushed by it4 ,the resentment of these men was very deep1 and while ,i might have softened it for their sake--not his--,i let it work itself out4 ,had there been no one else needing my help and deserving it more1 ,i might have spent a long time with these men and yet made little impression4 ,i did exactly as ,i should have done on earth had such a case come before me1 and ,i believe that ,i did right4 ,whenever ,i see a soul afflicted by the unjust judgments of others ,i seek to set the balance true1 as ,i should have done on earth2 but ,i am not here to upset the law of cause and effect4 ,when ,i can help1 ,i help2 but ,i am more useful in preventing the setting up of evil causes than ,i could ever be in deflecting the legitimate course of effects4 ,when ,i urge men to help the ,masters in holding back the awful karma of ,germany1 ,i am not talking sentimentally4 ,i am talking as a just judge4 ,the ,german people have been deceived by their leaders and have followed blindly a course they have not understood4 ,collectively they are responsible to the other races1 but individually they are not responsible in the same degree2 for they have been themselves deceived1 and they do not know that their cause of national aggression is unjust and of satanic origin4 ,it is the hope of those ,teachers who can watch from the outside and above1 that the docile ,german people should not be forever hated by the world because the arrogant war-party has hurled them at their neighbors4 ,i am not condoning the unlovely traits in the ,german character1 or in the character of any other people2 but of all the races engaged in this gigantic struggle1 the ,german race knows least about the causes that hurled it forward4 ,a spoon-fed press and the penalties of lse majest have kept them from knowing anything which could have made them less flexible instruments in the hands of their leaders4 ,the karma of those whose headstrong and arrogant policy precipitated this war is an individual karma1 and it will have to be worked out by individual suffering and so-called punishment2 but the karma of the great mass of the ,german people is a race karma4 ,they have let themselves be led on to their own defeat4 ,think how the very law of reaction will throw the light of popular and democratic investigation into the darkest nooks and crannies of the ,german nation and government after this war4 ,those who have been deceived to their hurt will demand to be deceived no more4 ,in twenty years the life of the ,german government will be as open as that of the ,united ,states4 ,the so-called 8muck-raker0 will arise with a lantern on his hat4 ,also by the law of reaction ,england will be shaken out of her sluggishness that has filled her shops with the wares of other countries because she was too slack to make her own4 ,by that same law a demand will arise for an uncorrupt political machine in ,france4 ,one or two things have happened in ,france which she prefers for the moment to keep to herself4 ,the great shock of this war will cause each nation to examine itself more closely1 to look into its own motives1 to see wherein it fails to come up to the very exigeant standard demanded by the ,new ,time4 ,look also for changes in ,russia1 and ,austria will be but another name for change4 ,justice will advance many paces by reason of the great injustice of this war4 ,the ,law of ,opposites again6 ,most things can be explained by that law4 ,in writing about the reign of brotherhood which ,i hope to see established in the world1 ,i am not laboring under the delusion that an impossible ,utopia is about to be ushered in with a blare of trumpets4 ,i am not recording a prophecy that the ,kingdom of ,heaven is immediately at hand4 ,the human race is not ready for the ,kingdom of ,heaven1 and will not be ready for a long time2 but if one person in ten can be made to realize that brotherhood is an ideal to be striven for1 they can leaven the other nine-tenths and make the loaf of human society much lighter and more palatable than it is at present4 ,the loaf will not become fruit-cake all at once4 ,that is too much to expect of the next race2 but if you can carry the memory of this prophecy through a sufficient number of births and deaths1 you may see a very sweet loaf come from the planetary oven when the second race following1 the ,seventh1 is brought forth into the light of the sun4 ,april #ag4 ,,letter ,,xxv ,,for ,,love',s ,,sake ,,so serious and philosophical have been my last few letters1 that ,i should like to revel in romance4 ,have you thought of the hard life of the war-nurses and wondered from whence they gather the strength for their daily and nightly labors8 ,love is the source of the almost superhuman endurance of many of the women who seem to their charges like angels of light and healing4 ,one nurse whom we will call ,mary1 for she is a type of the virgin-mother of hearts1 has gone out into heaven a hundred times in the souls of those she has tended4 ,will that love not guard her on earth through the whole course of her life and follow her also into the heaven world beyond8 ,be sure it will4 ,mary is neither a scholar nor a poet4 ,you would not have dreamed of inviting her to a reception had her path ever crossed yours2 but ,mary is not unfit for the society of angels and gods would not scorn to have her in their company4 ,she was just an ordinary nurse before she became a war-nurse1 and before the white fire of love touched her personality and burned it up as a sacrifice on the altar of her country's need4 ,she was a very pretty nurse and in her hours of leisure once wore stylish hats and revelled in laces and furbelows2 for the love of beauty and daintiness often nests in a heart that is capable of heroism4 ,when the war broke out ,mary was engaged to be married to a soldier4 ,mary went to the front and he also went to the front2 but neither of them knew where the other was for many1 many days4 ,every man who was brought to her severely wounded ,mary nursed as if he had been the absent friend of her heart1 and many a life she saved by her tender care and by the atmosphere of hope which radiated from her as fragrance from a rose4 8,if he should be wounded10 she said to herself1 8some of the girls will care for him as ,i care for these men40 ,mary was not jealous lest another should have the privilege of nursing the man she loved1 and lest in his heart should blossom the flower of thankfulness for another than herself4 ,mary had not much time to think about herself2 her thoughts were too busy with others4 ,it may have been because she was not jealous nor over-watchful for her property in her lover1 that when he was wounded he was really brought to the hospital where she served so faithfully4 ,of course he was given to ,mary to nurse--it could not have been otherwise1 and he was very seriously wounded4 ,when the operation was performed by which the doctors hoped to save his life1 it was ,mary who stood by and assisted4 ,she did not faint nor cry out even when they cut his broken arm away1 the arm on which she had dreamed she might lean for the rest of her earthly life4 ,mary was thinking about his mother and was glad that she was not there to see what she herself saw4 ,during many of the hours when ,mary might have slept1 she was writing to the mother--writing brave letters wherein she sought to veil the fear that was in her own heart4 ,tom--we will call him ,tom because that was not his name--,tom had never been able to believe in any life beyond the earth life1 and as ,mary watched his strength grow less she prayed all day and most of the night that something might happen to make ,tom believe in heaven and angels4 ,the exigencies of war had left him long on the battlefield after the shell had shattered his right arm1 and his wound had been infected before the operation by which the doctors sought to save him for ,england and for ,mary4 ,tom knew that he might have to leave the world4 ,mary would not keep the overwhelming possibility from him1 though she still kept it from his mother2 for she hoped that in the hours or days which might be all that remained for him in the sunshine of the upper world something might happen1 some miracle of thought or of love1 which should open his eyes to what she called the ,truth4 ,each day ,i spent a little time in the long white room in which ,tom lay2 but even if he could have seen me1 ,i might not have been much comfort to him1 and ,i cannot speak to any ears except those trained to listen for unusual sounds4 ,i sympathized with ,mary4 ,having convinced so many souls of the truth of immortality through a former writing of mine1 ,i wanted to convince one more--for ,mary's sake2 because ,i knew that if ,tom should go out of life firmly believing that death was the end of him1 it might really be the end of him for a long time4 ,in my perplexity ,i sought the ,beautiful ,being for advice4 ,that angel's knowledge compared to mine is like an arc-light beside a tallow dip4 ,together we went back to the hospital where ,mary sat talking with ,tom about the future life1 about ,god and ,christ and angels4 ,she had many soldiers under her charge2 but the other nurses worked a little harder to give her more time with ,tom1 for all the world loves a lover--especially in the horrors of war-time4 8,it isn't that ,i do not want to believe10 he was saying to ,mary1 8it's that ,i just can't4 ,if ,i could see with my own eyes an angel1 or someone that ,i knew was dead1 it would be different4 ,but how could ,i see such a thing80 ,the ,beautiful ,being drew nearer1 smiling1 and waved its gauzy veil before the eyes of the dying man2 but he could not see4 ,the ,beautiful ,being wove a glamor of light around him1 and sang as only angels can2 but ,tom could still neither see nor hear4 8,i think you will have to #8materialize'10 the ,beautiful ,being said to me1 with a whimsical smile4 8,those eyes are stopped with matter1 and cannot see anything finer than matter40 ,i was not attracted by the suggestion1 but my incomprehensible friend followed it up4 8,in that bed yonder10 it said1 8is one of those mortals who are called natural mediums1 natural materializing mediums1 because their tenuous bodies are so loosely held by the physical that they are easily detached and borrowed from4 ,now materialize yourself and let ,tom see something which he will take for an angel40 8,i am no angel10 ,i said1 8and the eyes of a dying atheist would never mistake me for one40 8,try it1 and see10 said the ,beautiful ,being1 pointing to a man in a neighboring bed1 who was the 8medium0 in question4 ,i looked at the man and read around him the story of his life4 ,he was a coarse fellow1 a saloon-keeper1 and another familiar compound-word would have fitted him like a glove4 8,clothe myself in that man's etheric body60 ,i said in disgust4 8,i would not touch him with a ten-foot pole60 8,how dainty-fingered you are60 said the ,beautiful ,being4 8,did ,i not know you so well1 ,i could almost believe you self-righteous40 8,call me what you like10 ,i replied1 8but ,i will not do phenomena with that body40 ,the ,beautiful ,being laughed4 8,it would be so easy10 it said1 as if to itself1 8so easy and so convincing40 ,the angel moved toward the sleeping saloon-keeper 7,i had almost written the harsher compound71 and gradually from his side there issued a vaporous stream4 ,from force of earthly habit ,i rubbed my eyes1 for ,i could not believe that ,i saw aright4 ,the pure and exquisite angel was clothing itself in the unhealthy emanations of the sleeping medium1 and in the space of twenty ticks of the clock on the wall it passed1 fully materialized1 with a speaking throat1 to the foot of ,tom's bed4 ,he sat up1 in the surprise and shock of the vision4 8,what are you80 he asked1 hoarsely4 8,i am an angel10 said the ,beautiful ,being1 truly1 8and ,i have come to prove to you that miracles can happen1 and to assure you that when you leave your body behind on the morrow ,i shall meet you on the other side of the change40 ,mary could also hear and see1 and she fell on her knees with a little sob of joy and wonder2 for she had never seen an angel1 though her faith was strong enough to remove mountains4 8,then it is really true60 ,tom gasped4 8,i shall not die with my body4 ,and how wonderful you are60 ,for the ,beautiful ,being had performed the transformation so well that it preserved in its borrowed body all the glory and amazing loveliness of that form which charms the hosts of the unseen world4 8,i no longer doubt10 said ,tom4 8,i believe1 and ,i die happy40 8,i shall not forget to meet you when you come out10 smiled my friend4 8,good-bye now1 for a little while4 ,i leave you with ,mary1 who is also a kind of angel40 ,slowly the borrowed shape retreated towards the body of the sleeping saloon-keeper1 and after a moment my friend stood beside me1 clothed in its own pure form2 but on its shoulders and feet were dark stains that looked like mud4 8,they will soon blow away in the fresh air outside10 smiled the ,beautiful ,being4 8,and was it not worth while to convince that soul of its own immortality80 ,we passed out under the stars1 but the scene left an indelible impression on my consciousness4 ,and ,i shall often remember when ,i feel self-righteous1 how the purest being ,i ever knew wore the soiled garment of a vulgar saloon-keeper1 which left stains on its dainty shoulders and its shining feet--how it dipped itself for the first time in the filth of the world1 for love's sake4 ,april #ag4 ,,letter ,,xxvi ,a ,,master ,,of ,,mind ,,to-,,night1 the seventeenth of ,april1 nineteen hundred and fifteen1 there passed along the battle line of one of the nations at war a great spiritual being1 a being whose body is mind and who works through the mind alone4 ,the hour had come when a certain number of those who had fought bravely for their ill-starred country might know that their cause was hopelessly lost4 ,a few only might know to-night2 but their knowledge will spread1 and with spreading knowledge will come a change of spirit4 ,it is disheartening to fight on for a lost cause4 ,it takes a peculiar quality of devotion1 a rare quality of devotion4 ,what will come from the visit of that celestial being1 you wonder8 ,wait and see4 ,i rarely permit myself to prophesy4 ,i only figure out the probable result of causes known to me4 ,you can do the same1 if you let reason take the place of predilection4 ,to judge clearly of the effects of a given cause1 the mind must be unbiased by desire2 it must be as cold as a mathematical calculation4 ,it is by this celestial algebra that ,masters look ahead4 ,when you get in symbols or pictures the answers to questions propounded to your ,higher ,self1 it is by this profounder mathematics that the interior one prepares its answer4 ,it knows causes that are unknown to you1 and from these causes can foretell effects with a degree of accuracy almost as great as that of an astronomer foretelling an eclipse4 ,almost1 ,i say1 not quite2 for in dealing with human affairs even the greatest ,masters must take into consideration an erratic element1 the free will in human beings4 ,that1 too1 may be guessed2 but it is guessing1 nevertheless4 ,a sudden uprush of free and erratic will1 and a new cause is set up1 and the calculation must be made afresh4 ,there is a certain charm in dealing with the erratic element of will4 ,perhaps that is why some persons find cats more fascinating than dogs4 ,a cat is a wilful erratic animal2 so are many men4 ,the great being who passed this night along the battle line has been watching the course of earthly events for a considerable time4 ,he is one of those who serve the planetary spirit of the earth by carrying certain ideas around the earth when the time has come for them to play their part in history4 ,i cannot tell you many details about the life of this being1 for ,i know only a few facts concerning him4 ,he is so far superior to me that my possible comprehension of him is limited4 ,he may once have been man1 ,i think so2 but of that ,i am not even sure4 ,i have been told that it was he who first impressed upon a small but courageous section of the ,american people the conviction that the time had come when human slavery in ,america should cease2 that it was he who inspired ,columbus with the idea that he could find land by sailing west1 though in the latter case he was not able to force through into the mind of his instrument the great fact that an immense and independent continent lay off there beyond the western sea1 and between it and another sea whose waters washed the eastern shores of ,asia4 ,again1 ,i have been told that it was this being who was instrumental in revealing the knowledge of electricity to mankind4 ,can you imagine the life of such a being8 ,can you extend your consciousness so as to touch his8 ,i am frank enough to say that it is difficult even for me1 who have been able to remember so much of my own long past1 and to work out so many of the probable effects of the causes which ,i myself set up in the far past1 effects which will shape my future lives on earth4 ,imagine an independent entity of vivid life1 yet without a physical or even an astral body1 a being of thought whose lowest medium is thought1 who influences his chosen instruments by contact with their naked minds4 ,what personal wishes can such a being have8 ,what ambitions can he have8 ,the lower and limiting word ambition seems grotesque as characterizing the motive force of such a being4 ,he has a name among us1 but ,i am not permitted to tell you the name4 ,it has a great mantramic value1 that name1 and if you should repeat it too often it might raise your own consciousness1 and the vibration of yourself1 to a height which would make it extremely difficult for you to keep your hold on that physical body1 without which you cannot do certain work that it is your privilege and duty to perform at this stage of your evolution4 ,there is a certain initiation which the pupils of the great ,masters take under the guidance of this being2 but those who take that initiation retire permanently from the everyday life of men4 ,they get into the centre of causes1 which makes them so dynamic--which makes their personality and their thoughts so forceful--that for the sake of the world itself they must not come too close to it2 because all things work by cyclic law1 and to hasten too much the evolution of humanity would be dangerous to humanity4 ,it can only go safely at a certain rate of speed4 ,above that speed it is likely to meet with accident4 ,i know exactly the stage that ,i myself must reach before ,i can take the initiation which is presided over by this being4 ,when ,i have reached that stage ,i shall not be able to come and write through your hand1 unless you raise yourself a corresponding degree above your present consciousness1 because to do so might dangerously accelerate your own rate of growth4 ,since coming out here ,i have learned much about those beings who have in charge the higher evolution of mankind4 ,their development would be quite incomprehensible to the mass of even enlightened men at the present time4 ,they are and must be very lonely beings1 though they too have their peers and fellow-workers4 ,can you imagine remaining alone a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand years1 yet all the time extremely active in mind1 following with your thought the course of an evolution which you yourself have long left behind in your own growth1 following it with the mind alone1 because the emotional nature you have also left behind1 and doing all this not for any personal reward but because it is a labor in accordance with the great law of a ,being still above and beyond yourself8 ,obedience is taught in certain schools1 not in an effort to control the pupil in the interest of the ,master1 but that the pupil may thus take his first steps on the path which leads to obedience to the ,cosmic ,will4 ,on that path he will have to go an immense distance before he can be trusted to do such work as is being done by the being who passed this night along the battle-line of one of the opposing armies1 shedding the light of his thought and the certainty of his purpose into a few minds whose receptivity made possible their grasping what he gave4 ,do not weary on the path1 you who are taking the first and easiest steps of the journey that shall one day lead you to the ,masters6 ,the path is indeed steep1 and as one inspired writer said1 it leads uphill all the way2 but there are stages at which the traveller may pause and enjoy the prospect4 ,i seem to have reached such a stage myself1 and though ,i am always working now1 yet ,i enjoy my work4 ,the awful battle that some of us fought with the elemental beings is now over4 ,the worst calamity that could have befallen mankind is happily averted4 ,the labor of the present is light compared with the labor of that struggle4 ,if the world could realize what it owes to the ,masters whom most men regard as myths6 ,but such ,teachers do not work for gratitude nor for reward4 ,follow you in their footsteps1 for it is the only road that can lead mankind above the awful calamities that threatened recently to engulf mankind4 7,i am not referring to a mere ,german victory47 ,it is wise to keep from the knowledge of men in general the great evolutionary facts which govern the life of the planet4 ,a mind must be lifted above the small circle of everyday interests before it could endure such knowledge4 ,you all use words without realizing their meaning4 ,you talk of guardian angels2 you talk of hell and purgatory1 and of vicarious atonement1 and of sacraments4 ,sacraments6 ,i could tell you of a sacrament that is verily an eating of the body and a drinking of the blood of ,god2 but ,i refrain lest you should tell the world1 and if you should tell the world the evil forces of the world would destroy you4 ,but ,i am coming now perilously near the things that may not be spoken1 so ,i will wish you a good-night--a good-night indeed--and go back to my labors1 in the rear of that being of light who passed along the battlefields this evening4 ,april #ag4 ,,letter ,,xxvii ,,invisible ,,enemies ,,you may have wondered why the elemental beings that as ,i have told you precipitated the great war were so malicious at this time1 why they hurled themselves upon mankind with such overwhelming force4 ,there is no reason why you should not know something of these causes1 having seen so much of their effects4 ,the saying that man has made more material progress in the last hundred years than in the preceding two thousand1 has become a mere newspaper commonplace4 ,it is because he has not made a corresponding moral progress that the evil elemental beings1 who fear for their rule in their own kingdom1 could come so near to succeeding in their attacks upon the human race4 ,it is not merely in material ways that man has progressed with such amazing rapidity1 for some of his inventions and discoveries touch the invisible regions4 ,the doors of man's mind are opening on the untracked spaces of aether in which these beings live4 ,man is chaining the elements1 and to chain the elements may be to chain the elementals4 ,one man in ,america has come so near to a great and dangerous secret that his eyes have had to be veiled by those who fear for man's too rapid progress4 ,occult societies dot the world4 ,in other days these societies were really secret1 and no one had access to their knowledge until after tests were passed which proved fitness for further study and further secrets4 ,but the doors of the unseen have been besieged by an army of intellectual enthusiasts who have not passed those tests4 ,curiosity demands to know that which only the nobility of the spirit was once trusted with4 ,democracy has spread even into the occult orders1 and sacred mysteries have been published broadcast by those who put no curb upon their personal ambitions4 ,the hosts of the unseen world have themselves suffered invasion4 ,now the hosts of the unseen will obey a great soul that they know to be more powerful than themselves4 ,they run like docile children at his call1 and they go at his command as a dog goes4 ,but the unseen hosts are very jealous of their freedom1 and they will yield it only to one whose superiority is manifest to them4 ,many--yes1 most--of those who are now seeking to open the doors of that region are unfit to command there2 because he only can command the unseen forces outside who can command the unseen forces inside himself4 ,in a former letter ,i spoke of the danger of black magic in ,america2 but the danger is everywhere4 ,and what is black magic8 ,it may be briefly defined as a use for selfish purposes of those very forces of the unseen world4 ,not until a man has advanced beyond himself will the invisible forces serve him long without rebellion4 ,pick up a common newspaper1 and you will see the advertisements of men and women who promise for a fee to bring about results which can only be brought about by using those invisibles4 ,what blasphemy6 ,what presumption6 ,if these advertisers could make good their claims1 they would be more dangerous than typhus fever4 ,such advertisements arouse all the curiosity and ambition and fiery selfishness latent in the heart of the ignorant4 ,these untrained dabblers in the mysteries attempt to do things which an ,adept would never dream of doing1 for most of their efforts have for purpose some attack upon the free will of others2 they seek to influence the desires and the judgment of others in the narrow and personal interest of those who pay them to set the forces in operation4 ,would you let a child loose in a gunpowder factory with a box of matches in his hand8 ,that is what has been done in the last few years all over the western world4 ,no wonder the invisible beings have rebelled4 ,they will follow a ,master1 but they resent the interference of a fool4 ,it is not the fools they fear1 however4 ,the men they fear are the great scientists4 ,man's progress in science has been such that he must purify his motives1 or he will be destroyed4 ,that is one reason why ,i am preaching brotherhood1 in an attempt to save men from their own folly4 ,once let the feeling for brotherhood become general1 and these experiments with unknown forces would be less dangerous4 ,mankind as a mass might work with the power of a ,white ,master1 whose motives are always unselfish4 ,the great scientists come nearer than anybody else to that pure working with mind for mind's own sake1 which ,i recently described in writing of a great being1 a great ,initiator1 who serves the world by influencing along the line of evolutionary law the thoughts of certain men who are the chosen instruments of evolution4 ,how little men know of the unseen world surrounding them6 ,i recently followed you into a lecture room in ,new ,york that was even more crowded with invisible beings than with men and women4 ,your restlessness there had cause1 as you well knew4 ,the purpose of that meeting was to form a nucleus of a society of curiosity-seekers for investigating the unseen1 for necromancy and ceremonial magic4 ,madness of madness6 ,i heard one man express the determination that the proposed society should not1 like the ,society for ,psychical ,research1 close its doors to the outside world2 but that the society should invite all who were interested in the investigation of the unseen1 including the newspaper reporters4 ,a press agent for the occult6 ,let me describe a few of the auditors who were invisible to any in the room except one person3 ,a long lean hungry being with the face of a gargoyle and the stomach of an unfed leech yearned over the gathering4 ,he was almost affectionate in his interest in one of the speakers4 ,another1 bloated and lethargic1 had already fed himself since entering the room4 ,another1 frightened and tortured1 was seeking an exit2 but could not get outside the desire-aura of one of the participants in that orgy of curiosity4 ,another1 powerful and malignant1 moved from place to place1 selecting his future victims4 ,he will be present at the meetings of the society4 ,he will try to keep it alive1 for he knows of a fascinating possibility which ,i shall not record here4 ,why do you go to such places8 ,april #ah4 ,,letter ,,xxviii ,,the ,,glory ,,of ,,war ,i ,,have written of the beauty of peace2 but ,i now want to write of the glory of war1 for war has its glories4 ,anything that arouses man to the highest pitch of enthusiasm is glorious2 for what is glory but a radiation of light1 a burst of that life which is the ,sun in man8 ,i regret this war4 ,the suffering1 the agony1 the torment that ,i have seen and have felt through sympathy1 have left their marks upon me2 but had ,i remained in the safety of the neutral stars ,i should have missed the glory of the fight4 ,man had grown too tame1 without acquiring the virtues of tameness2 but this war has served the purpose of the gods by hurling man into the primitive1 the savage1 where life had its roots1 but from which the sap flows that will blossom later in such a faith as the world has never seen4 ,suffering and joy are forever opposite and equal4 ,man may rest for a time in the neutral condition of a well-fed half-consciousness2 but when the extremes of suffering and joy come to him1 he is no longer half-conscious1 but awake and alive1 and glory shines round him4 ,could the ,masters have prevented this war8 ,they could have retarded it2 but the causes were present in the hearts of men1 in the invisible forces within them as well as outside them1 and to have further delayed the explosion would have served no planetary purpose4 ,the men who are not dead are more alive than they were twelve months ago1 and even the so-called dead are living-dead4 ,we pushed back the forces of evil1 yes2 but that was a part of the struggle1 that was the struggle in our world4 ,let me tell you the story of one man whom ,i knew in the days of peace4 ,he was well-fed and half-asleep with prosperity1 he prattled mild commonplaces about life1 and ethics1 and the duties of a citizen2 but what did he really know of life1 or of ethics1 or of the duties of a citizen8 ,we will call him ,johnson4 ,he has been in this war some months1 a fighter for ,england1 and the integrity of ,england2 and now when he speaks of life his speech has meaning1 because life to him now is the opposite and mate of death4 ,he feels enthusiasm for it1 the glory of it shines round him4 ,johnson had a son1 an only child4 ,fathers will know what ,i mean4 ,in the great retreat in which ,johnson was one of the leaders his son fell before his eyes--wounded but not dead4 ,for one swift heart-beat the father turned to his boy 444 then he went on with his command that otherwise would have been leaderless1 leaving his only child to the tender mercies of an army drunk with the pitiless glory of conquerors4 ,johnson will never again prattle commonplaces about life4 ,he has learned the meaning of death1 and of tortured uncertainty far worse than death4 ,april #bj4 7,this letter was left unfinished--for no reason apparent to me4--,editor47 ,,letter ,,xxix ,a ,,friend ,,of 8,x0 ,a ,,man died yesterday with your name in his thoughts4 ,no1 he was not a friend of yours1 but someone you have never seen4 ,back in ,england last year he read the former book which ,i wrote through your hand1 and was intensely interested in it4 ,for months he wanted to meet you1 but being a modest man he waited4 ,then the war broke out1 and he went with the army to ,belgium4 ,day and night since the first fighting he has been meditating the facts and possibilities of that book4 ,is there a future life continuous with that of earth8 ,can a man return as ,i claimed to return1 and can he give to a woman still in the land of the living a record of his experiences among the dead8 ,had ,i really seen the things ,i reported1 and did ,i go to the pattern world and the heaven world1 where ,i saw the ,saviour of men with a lamb on his arm1 etc41 etc48 ,one thing this man never questioned1 and that was the sincerity of the scribe4 ,of that he was convinced by instinct and by a kind of ,anglo-,saxon chivalry difficult for the men of some races to understand4 ,he was always talking to his trench-mates about the future life4 ,he would sit smoking his pipe in silence and gazing off into space1 and when other soldiers asked him what he was thinking of so busily1 he would often say3 8,i am thinking of a book ,i read last summer1 and wondering if it was true40 ,when they asked him what book he referred to1 he would tell them about the ,letters of a ,living ,dead ,man1 and quote to them whole sentences from it1 and give them the outlines of its stories1 and explain to them the philosophical propositions scattered through the book4 ,whole evenings have been taken up with these discussions4 ,you have not been to the wars1 either as a soldier or as a nurse2 but you have been to the wars4 ,it was a curious coincidence that that book should have been published only a few months before the greatest taking-off of human souls in the history of the world4 ,had you thought of that8 ,i had not1 until the ,teacher pointed it out to me4 ,there was one question which particularly interested our friend who died yesterday with your name in his thoughts3 the question whether1 if he should go out of life at the hands of the enemy1 he could prepare such a 8little home in heaven0 as we wrote about1 for a girl whom he loved back in ,england2 and if he should prepare it and wait for her1 whether she would be true to him after his death1 and meet him there in a few years1 and dwell with him in the little home4 ,this young man had read certain writings of an ,american mystic on the theory of counterpartal souls1 and he believed that in the girl back in ,england he had found his counterpartal soul1 as ,i hinted of the man in my story who built the little home in heaven4 ,but no word of this did he speak to his trench-mates4 ,to them he spoke about the other stories in the book1 not about that one4 ,it is curious that we never mention to others the favorite subject of our thoughts--that is1 most of us do not4 ,another thing in the book which interested our friend was the story of the woman in the invisible who made a journey into ,egypt with her still-living husband4 ,he used to wonder whether1 if he should die1 he could go in the spirit1 as he said1 to the little place in ,north ,wales which he had once visited with his sweet-heart1 and which they had selected as the future scene of their wedding journey4 ,one night he wrote her a long letter asking her1 in case of his death1 to go there this summer1 and saying he would try to meet her there4 ,then after reflection he destroyed the letter1 fearing it might make her sad4 ,when ,i saw about him a peculiar light which the indwelling spirit throws round its vehicle when that vehicle is about to be destroyed1 ,i waited1 knowing there would soon be work to do4 ,suddenly ,i saw his body fall to the ground1 and saw the tenuous bodies exuding themselves4 ,i waited but a moment1 then went forward and lifted the spirit out of the sleep into which it would have drifted4 ,i breathed on the forehead of the astral--for astrals have foreheads1 make no mistake about that--,i breathed on the astral forehead of the man who had paid our book the compliment of thinking about it and about us in the last moment of his life4 ,he opened his eyes on my face4 8,hello1 #8,x'60 he said4 8,i hoped you would meet me here4 ,you're a good fellow not to disappoint me40 8,oh1 ,i was always a good fellow60 ,i answered4 8,how did you know so quickly that you had come out80 8,because ,i saw you40 8,and how did you know me80 8,by your photograph1 which ,i saw in a magazine40 8,but do ,i still look like that old hulk80 ,i asked2 for ,i rather pride myself on the recovery of a certain part of my original youth and beauty4 8,why10 he said1 8you do look like the photograph40 8,that is strange10 ,i replied4 ,then ,i remembered that my very knowledge of the man's thoughts of me1 as being the old ,judge of the story1 might have made my body transform itself to meet the demands of his recognition1 even without the intervention of my will4 8,do you want to take a nap80 ,i asked1 though there was no sleepiness in his eyes4 8,no1 thank you1 #8,x4' ,i should like to go to ,england4 ,but perhaps you have something to do besides indulging my wants and wishes40 ,i laughed4 8,your wants and wishes are just as important as mine10 ,i said4 8,i'll go to ,england with you40 ,we went4 ,crossing the ,channel we passed a transport laden with troops4 8,i wish all those fellows knew as much as ,i do10 my friend said4 8,maybe they would fight with renewed vigor if they could see what a good companion ,i have found out here40 ,do not be startled1 you clergymen who say1 8,ashes to ashes1 dust to dust10 and draw solemn faces as you preside over the passing of souls6 ,do not be startled or shocked by the jolly conversation of my newly-arrived soldier-boy4 ,he knew that he was with an old friend1 and he knew also that death is no more sacred than life1 and need not be any more solemn4 ,we went to call on a girl4 ,i often went courting in my youth1 but never did ,i feel more interest in such a visit than when ,i went with this soldier to see his girl4 ,the fact that she could not see us made no difference4 ,i am used to that now4 ,she was combing her hair when we arrived1 beautiful long hair1 and on the mantel before her and under the mirror was a photograph of my friend4 ,as her eyes rested on it lovingly1 suddenly he passed between her and the photograph1 and she cried out3 8,why1 the eyes are alive60 and dropped the comb on the floor4 ,then1 as the truth flashed through her mind1 she said1 very solemnly3 8,my dear1 if it is really you1 and if you have come to me in this strange way1 know that ,i love you and shall always love you1 and that ,i will meet you in heaven40 ,then she sat down in a little chair and began to cry4 ,i left him with her2 but ,i shall return occasionally to see how my charge is getting along1 and by and by ,i shall teach him some of the lessons on which his future welfare depends4 ,i do not wish him to return to the neighborhood of the battlefields4 ,why should he8 ,he has served1 and has earned his reward4 ,perhaps later ,i may tell you something more about the man who died with your name--and mine--in his thoughts4 ,april #bd4 ,,letter ,,xxx ,,the ,,rose ,,and ,,the ,,cross ,,more and more ,i am charmed and amazed by that one whom we call the ,beautiful ,being4 ,i shall never understand it1 for its ways are not our ways4 ,yesterday it passed over the battlefield again1 and ,i should have written when ,i came to you a few hours afterward had ,i not pitied your weariness4 ,do not be discouraged4 ,sometimes the ,masters of ,compassion may seem to their servants to have no compassion2 but they know1 as the servants cannot know1 that the hardest road leads up the highest mountain1 and that there is rest at the top4 ,the ,beautiful ,being passed over the battlefield4 ,imagine a rose in a cannon's mouth1 a bird singing in the heart of an earthquake1 a pearl in a landslide1 an angel in hell4 ,you know not the meaning of the word battlefield4 ,yesterday thousands died in the awful uproar4 ,noise6 noise6 noise6--till the nerves shrieked with pain and despair seized the soul4 ,to go out of life in that seething maelstrom is generally to pass into another seething maelstrom1 hotter and noisier than the one left behind4 ,how can ,i write of war so as to spare your feelings8 ,the great ,teachers are not trying to spare your feelings4 ,they want you to feel and feel1 till the very force of the wave of feeling carries you high on the shore of ,adeptship4 ,and they want you to think and think1 till the irresistible cold of logic freezes self out of you4 ,ice and fire6 ,if you shrink from knowing what the soldiers of the nations have suffered that you may be free1 you are unworthy of that freedom4 ,do not shrink from suffering4 ,the husk of the seed must be broken before the sprout can appear4 ,in dying for their country1 those souls in the hell of battle are giving birth to the new time4 ,in suffering with them1 your souls are giving birth to the new in yourselves4 ,do not look for joy while humanity is in travail1 unless you can find the joy in suffering4 ,yes1 ,i know the time when first1 and through whom1 that grand idea found lodgment in your consciousness4 ,it is the secret of great souls in this hour of the world's pain4 ,if you suffer till you can suffer no more--then the poles shift1 and the joy of suffering illuminates the soul4 ,then the beautiful being in yourself hovers over the battlefield where the lesser self has been slain4 ,there is a beautiful being in every one of you1 the bird that sings in the heart of the earthquake1 the rose that nestles in the hot mouth of the cannon1 the pearl that cannot be crushed by the landslide1 the angel that illumines hell4 ,all the normal feelings of the human heart are intensified at this time4 ,no one is the same as before the war burst--no one1 anywhere in the world4 ,the soul of humanity is in travail4 ,this incarnation of humanity is turned against itself1 and rends itself4 ,the heart of humanity is an abyss1 into which humanity had grown too blind to look1 so the blazing torches of the guardians of good and evil have been thrust into the abyss1 and all the drowsing dwellers therein have been suddenly1 rudely awakened4 ,oh1 hearts of earth1 do not fall asleep again6 ,pity and love one another1 for the pain of one is the pain of each1 and over the battlefield of the suffering race the ,beautiful ,being hovers4 ,humanity is the ,one1 and humanity is the many1 and all together you may come into the inheritance of your ,father which is in heaven4 ,you are familiar with the symbol of the ,rose-,cross4 ,not until the hard wood is driven through your four limbs1 in the pain of your shocked and wounded nerves1 can the great red rose of love unfold its perfumed petals upon your breast1 between the arms of the cross4 ,the human in you is the pain of the cross1 the divine in you is the perfume of the rose1 and you yourself1 you human and divine1 are the ,rose-,cross4 ,if you shrink from the splintering pain of the wood as it claims you for its own1 you cannot smell the perfume of the rose which also claims you for its own4 ,do not refuse the great initiation1 ,o humanity of the races6 ,do not hide yourself in the dungeon of fear when the great ,initiator comes6 ,on the awful cross of war shall blossom the red rose of the new race4 ,on the cross of each mortal form may blossom its red rose4 ,the rose marks the balance between the ,east and the ,west1 between the rising and the setting sun1 between the human and the divine4 ,the arms of the cross extend to infinity1 its feet are buried in the substance of eternity1 its head is among the angels and the gods1 and the heart of the rose is everywhere4 ,it is in every heart of all these myriads who shrink at the touch of the hard wood4 ,i hear every day the shrieks of those who are making the vicarious atonement for the race4 ,when they lie mangled on the battlefield1 the arms of the cross are being driven through their quivering flesh1 and the petals of the rose are unfolding in their hearts4 ,they are dying for love at the hands of hate1 for love and hate are opposite and omnipresent4 ,their love for their country is their call to the atonement1 their at-one-ment with the ,god who established the law of the ,east and the ,west1 the ,height and the ,depth1 the opposing forces of ,love and ,hate4 ,they have accepted the sacrifice4 ,for them shall be the resurrection and the life1 after their sojourn among the dead1 their sojourn in hell4 ,they shall appear to the ,magdalen at the door of the sepulchre1 the one whose sins were forgiven because she loved much1 and who shall call the disciples to give them the tidings of great joy4 ,the soul of the world is the risen ,christ1 and the disciples rejoice at the tidings4 ,how can ,i withhold from you the great event which ,time has ushered in8 ,for thirty pieces of silver the soul of the world was sold1 and the ,judas of the world has given the kiss of betrayal with the name of ,god on his lips1 and the ,roman soldiers are already dividing the garments4 ,pontius ,pilate has washed his hands of the issue1 and his wife weeps in her chamber at the disregarding of her dream4 ,the priests of the ,sanhedrim are wagging their heads with satisfaction1 but the veil of the ,temple of ,humanity is rent from top to bottom4 ,how could you receive the message if you had not suffered1 ,o listener at the door of ,time8 ,who would believe you1 had you not grasped the truth of the atonement8 ,until the wood of the cross had been driven through your limbs1 the rose could not blossom1 ,o world in travail at this hour6 ,be still1 and know that ,god is ,god4 ,in the stillness of perception the petals begin to open1 and joy steals over the heart1 and the heart swells with the expanding joy1 till every fibre of the cross is alive and tingling with the joy at the heart of the rose1 and the fragrance sweetens the world4 ,and the ,beautiful ,being1 a ray of the ,holy ,spirit1 hovers over the ,calvary of the battlefield4 ,april #be4 ,,letter ,,xxxi ,a ,,serbian ,,magician ,,it is a long road from the sacrifice of the ,rose-,cross to plague-stricken ,serbia1 but that is the road you take with me this morning4 ,there is a reason why that country has been most susceptible to the astral germs of disease1 that a loathesome being of which ,i wrote you in a former letter spewed forth into the upper world4 ,long ago in the mountains of ,serbia there dwelt an evil magician1 a man whose studies in the deeper sciences were undertaken solely for the intellectual and selfish pleasure which he found in them4 ,he had progressed so far beyond the normal human consciousness that he had no worldly ambitions4 ,to him the world was but a despicable place to escape from1 and the people of the world were insects beneath his notice1 save only as he could use them for his purposes4 ,he considered himself a kind of god1 and so diligent were his selfish labors that had he devoted his knowledge to the good of the human race from which he sprang1 he might really have become a kind of god4 ,but selfish and evil beings need never aspire to godship4 ,at most they can take but a step beyond the human4 ,the grub may become a butterfly1 but if it hates the sunlight and the air of the higher regions1 its wings had better not have grown4 ,this man1 this selfish magician1 had learned that by certain magical formul he could call to himself beings of the elements1 and that by the aid of these invisibles he could create astral beings which1 while themselves soulless1 he could energize with his own force4 ,now the turn for real and active evil which marked a certain stage in his life1 came about in this way3 ,he had found what seemed to him a secure retreat among the mountains1 he had prepared and magnetized the neighborhood of his hut so that it was a centre of astral force1 and his right to the undivided possession of that spot was one of the ideas which he energized for his own protection4 ,now the owner of the mountain where the magician lived discovered that the neighborhood of his hut was a good place for hunting the wild animals of that region1 and soon the quiet of the magician's studies was broken by the reports of the guns of the hunters1 who even crossed with their despised bodies the very circle which the magician had prepared for his own use4 ,this proved that he was not a very high magician1 for had he made that centre for a work having as object the benefit of humanity1 members of that humanity could not have profaned it4 ,the retreats of the ,masters of ,compassion are secure against intrusion4 ,in his rage and disappointment he called down curses upon the hunters and upon all the region roundabout1 and by his evil magic he created beings who should execute his curses4 ,he created them upon the earth and in the air above and in the region below the surface of the earth1 and to each he allotted a task with fearful penalties for disobedience4 ,his use of the power he had gained was a use positively forbidden by the ,law under which the real ,masters work4 ,it really caused the hunters to go away from that neighborhood1 but the beings he had called and the beings he had created remained there2 for he had not sufficient knowledge1 or maybe not a sufficient sense of responsibility for his nefarious work1 to make him destroy or banish them himself4 ,and when he died1 at the ripe age of one hundred and twelve years1 and his will was removed from them1 they still remained in a state of semi-animation in the lower regions of the astral world4 ,then1 a century or more afterwards1 when the great war wave broke over ,europe1 and the evil hosts of the unseen came clamoring for their prey and their satisfaction1 these old astral monsters awoke out of their sleep and joined themselves to them1 and the whole neighborhood which the evil magician had cursed became an infected place1 from the exhalations of those beings whose raison d'tre had been a man's hatred of the people who had disturbed him in his selfish labors4 ,i am not going to describe the process by which he had created them and laid an evil spell upon a whole neighborhood1 for ,i am determined not to bestow upon a selfish world any knowledge that it can use to make more trouble in future4 ,but ,i want you to realize that ,serbia is really a dangerous place4 ,that is why it was chosen as the focusing point for the evil onslaught of war4 ,the people of ,serbia are brave and innocent of all this astral evil which has come upon them4 ,they were used because the evil forces could get at them through this region already under a curse from of old4 ,the time has come when the men of the new race must know that there are things to be avoided in the astral world4 ,if certain teachers had told less1 this warning might not be necessary2 but the world has acquired already so clear a perception that there is another world within and outside their own1 that their natural curiosity must be protected by warnings not to fool with the unseen1 until they have acquired such a selfless devotion to their fellow-beings that they may explore it without being themselves infected by the poison of the snake that nestles there among the flowers4 ,the old magician has passed on into that sphere where selfish scholars pursue their investigations unhampered by the limitations of gross matter2 but the full responsibility for his actions in those ,serbian hills when he was last on earth will wait for him at the door of rebirth4 ,when he comes to the world again it will be in a body which is itself a victim of all the plagues which he let loose there1 in the determined effort to protect himself against others who had as good a right there as he had4 ,stay out of ,serbia till it has been cleansed of plague1 you whose work is not connected with the specialty of plague-destruction4 ,but those doctors and other scientists who are devotedly going thither to save the race from the horror that threatens it--to them shall be accorded all the honors and glories of war and of peace1 for they have consented1 their higher selves have consented1 that they be used in the service of the world4 ,i have said before that the evil elemental beings fear the scientist2 and though the scientists fight this plague with material means1 yet the force of their will and of their unselfish purpose acts beyond the material base of their operations1 extending its influence even into the invisible world of which their objective minds have no knowledge1 purifying it with vital air4 ,yes1 all honor to the scientists6 ,april #bf4 ,,letter ,,xxxii ,,judas ,,and ,,typhon ,i ,,have spoken of the crucifixion through which the soul of the race is passing4 ,now ,i want to speak of the ,judas who betrayed that race for thirty pieces of silver4 ,reader of this book1 whether you are a ,jew1 a ,christian1 a ,hindoo or a ,mahometan1 if you know anything at all about the initiatory process of the soul1 you must know that the gospel drama--be it historical or legendary1 whichever way you choose to take it--is a faithful dramatization of the process of initiation4 ,and in that process the betrayal of ,judas is an inevitable part4 ,without it1 the cup of bitterness would not be full1 and the cup of bitterness must be full for the soul of the race1 the soul of the individual1 the soul of the ,christ4 8,my ,father1 why hast ,thou forsaken me80 has been on the lips of many a mangled soldier on this awful ,calvary of the race4 ,the heavy cross has been borne all through the toilsome months of the journey from ,autumn to ,spring1 and now in the ,april time the race has been nailed to the cross for the agony4 ,the crown of thorns is on the bleeding brows1 the nails have pierced the hands and feet1 the cup of vinegar has been offered1 and now on a million lips is the cry1 8,eloi1 ,eloi1 lama ,sabachthani60 ,the betrayal of ,judas was inevitable1 as the deed of ,typhon was inevitable4 ,had it not been for ,judas1 the story would not be complete4 ,had it not been for the act of ,typhon in slaying ,osiris1 ,horus the ,son could not have arisen4 ,and yet in the face of this ,i stand here--safe behind the veil of the invisible1 as some objectors will say--and advise the world to soften the awful punishment of ,judas1 so far as lies in its power4 ,for did not that ,one himself say upon the cross1 8,father1 forgive them1 for they know not what they do08 ,nothing in the ,sermon on the ,mount1 nothing in the sacred records of the ,east1 nothing in the archives of the whole world can compare with those ten words for grandeur and spiritual significance3 8,father1 forgive them1 for they know not what they do60 ,they who now sin against the race1 indeed know not what they do4 ,they are drunk with the rage of destruction1 maddened by the sub-consciousness of their own guilt2 but what they do they cannot know4 ,only the initiate souls among the ,germans even vaguely know what ,germany has done4 ,and yet ,i say1 forgive and pity them2 for their office is a terrible one1 and their suffering will be great4 ,fear not1 when your blood relations are slain by thousands1 and when you feel yourself also slain by spiritual participation1 the good must triumph in the end1 because the race is on its upward journey4 ,its blood is not spilled in vain4 ,did the human race not know1 when it gave the sop to ,germany in the last conclave1 that it was ,germany who would betray it8 ,the race knew4 ,and in that awful ,july the subconscious selves of men knew in their sleep that the terrible trial was at hand4 ,do you remember8 ,in many a sensitive soul that drama was pre-enacted1 before it was enacted on this ,calvary of the nations4 ,that ,germany would betray the world was written in the soul of ,germany2 but if the world should hate her with a continuing hate for that betrayal1 it would be a sore in the heart of the human race which would ache for a thousand years4 8,father1 forgive them2 for they know not what they do40 ,to admit the necessity of evil in the cosmic scheme is not to condone evil4 ,to forgive the sinner is not to minimize the sin4 ,it is because of the inability of the undeveloped mind to grasp the awful law of the balance of forces that the ,guardians of the sacred knowledge have been so reticent in their public utterances4 8,it must needs be that offenses come2 but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh10 has been repeated in thousands of churches2 but the latter half of the sentence has been understood far better than the first half1 8,it must needs be that offenses come40 ,being what she is1 ,germany could not help betraying the race to this crucifixion4 ,it was written that the human race would be betrayed1 and no nation could have done it but ,germany4 ,typhon was obliged to slay ,osiris1 by the very law of his being4 ,and now ,isis1 the great ,mother1 the ,womanhood of the world1 wanders wailing up and down seeking for the fragments of the body of her husband4 ,on the battle line for a thousand miles those fragments are scattered4 ,isis is indeed widowed4 ,and as man is the type of the great ,archetype1 so one man stands this day as the type of the ,betrayer1 and that man is ,wilhelm of ,germany4 ,the disease which long has eaten at his brain1 a contributory cause of his ego-mania1 was the vulnerable spot1 the spot unguarded between the lamps of the magic circle of ,europe1 where the evil forces found entrance4 ,verily1 it shall be woe to him by whom this offense has come6 ,and in saying that the world must not hate the nation which ,evil has used as its servant1 ,i am not advising sentimental weakness in the final closing of this account4 ,the world for its own protection must make it impossible that ,germany should ever repeat this betrayal4 ,the details ,i leave to the specialists1 being a modest ghost1 and speaking from my safe retreat behind the veil of the invisible4 ,april #bg4 ,,letter ,,xxxiii ,,crowns ,,of ,,straw ,,in seeking to hold back the karma of ,germany1 ,i am not seeking to upset the law of justice1 the law of cause and effect4 ,on the contrary4 ,your studies in the law of karma have been but superficial if you have not learned that time is a factor4 ,many a solvent firm would be thrown into bankruptcy should all its creditors demand at once full payment of their accounts4 ,the moral and financial indebtedness of ,germany is its awful karma4 ,give it a little time in which to adjust itself to an entirely new way of thinking4 ,i listened to a discussion which you had with a friend the other day#c in regard to the hypothesis that ,germany's false assertion of 8,deutschland ber ,alles10 being so powerfully postulated1 could overcome facts2 that the human race might be evolving into the era of mind1 and that a powerful concept1 however false1 might make facts conform to it4 ,let us see4 ,the idea that ,germany and the ,germans are superior to everything else in the world lies so deep in the minds of that race that it will be difficult to eliminate it4 ,as you yourself observed1 there is another race known to history which declared itself to be the chosen people of ,god1 and for that arrogant assumption is now scattered over the face of the earth1 a homeless people1 no longer even a nation4 ,the attempt to create a thing by postulating it as already existent is not new4 ,affirmation and denial are used with telling effect by a modern school of thinkers1 who disregard utterly the facts of nature4 ,now when we disregard and deny the facts of nature1 we may suspend the operations of nature in ourselves to a certain degree and for a certain time1 or we may fail in so doing1 and by reason of our consciousness of our failure become more than ever the puppets of nature4 ,the ,christian ,science healer who fails to heal and honestly acknowledges his failure1 may go on asserting his power in the face of that demonstrated failure1 or he may become a complete doubter of himself and of the claims of his science1 or he may re-examine both in the light of facts and become a real student of the mysteries of nature and of mind4 ,germany may take any one of these three courses when she has demonstrated the old saying of the wisest of men1 that they that take the sword shall perish with the sword4 ,did you ever try to convince a ,german of a fact which he denied8 ,i see that you have4 ,did your proof of his mistake convince him that he could be mistaken8 ,probably not4 ,now ,germany has really made herself into a great nation by postulating her greatness and superiority in all things4 ,her mistake consisted in trying to prove it4 ,in trying to prove a statement you tacitly admit for the time that the opposite assumption may have some base1 and if you are not able to demonstrate your contention you are lost--unless you are a ,german4 ,a ,german convinced against his will is of the same opinion still4 ,if facts do not bear him out1 then facts are false4 ,now facts are not false1 and ,germany is not superior in all things to every other nation on earth4 ,she may have more guns and more soldiers than two or three of the other nations1 that is a fact which we gladly admit2 but superiority in guns and soldiers is only superiority in guns and soldiers4 ,it is not superiority in all things4 ,germany has said in effect that might is right4 ,well1 let her prove her might1 and we will then discuss the right of might4 ,some years before ,i left the earth ,i was stronger than most men of my acquaintance2 but if ,i had on that ground knocked them down and taken their watches1 my own superior strength might have been useless to me except to propel my six-foot body up and down a cell in the county jail4 ,i might have taken the watches1 but ,i could not have kept them1 for my individual might would have been out-classed by the might of the society in which ,i dwelt4 ,so with ,germany4 ,most men consider themselves superior to their friends and acquaintances1 and are secretly annoyed that their friends and acquaintances do not acknowledge it4 ,but on the strength of that supposed superiority they do not generally knock their neighbors down4 ,my assertion of my superiority to all other men and angels does not make me superior to them in anything but fatuous conceit4 ,if a ,christian ,scientist with a broken leg asserts that he has not a broken leg1 it does not change the fact4 ,the strength of his assertion may work in the direction of curing the defect--granted4 ,it often does4 ,the conceit of ,germany has called out her energy and made her material present superior to her material past2 but that cannot place her 8over all10 unless she convinces the world of it1 and the world accepts an inferior place4 ,germans are not convincing advocates1 because they always arouse opposition by overstating the facts in their favor1 and in disputing the facts against them4 ,so little do they understand the critical minds of the more critical races1 that they try to convince by mere assertion1 and so prejudice their case from the start4 ,one service ,germany will have done the world2 she will have hardened it4 ,it is a tragic service1 and one that will turn against herself4 ,many a parent by his blind brutality has made his son a greater brute than he4 ,many a man by wounding a friend has been stabbed to the soul in return4 ,the friend may be harder than before1 but has he profited8 ,perhaps4 ,experience is an asset4 ,man grows by pain as well as by pleasure4 ,if the brutality of ,germany makes the races of ,europe more vigorous1 they are the gainers--not ,germany4 ,the ,doctor who gives too bitter medicine is sent about his business1 sometimes without his fee4 ,there was once a 8mental0 scientist who declared that it was not necessary for his daughter to practice the piano2 that all she needed to do was to affirm that she was a pianist1 and she would be one4 ,germany is in the position of the daughter who had acted on that teaching1 and has become the horror of the neighborhood4 ,she is in danger of being dispossessed as a public nuisance4 ,also an aggregation of individuals making one assertion do not necessarily have an effect in proportion to their numbers4 ,do you remember what ,i wrote you about white and black magicians1 that two who worked together for good had the power of four1 and that two who worked together for evil had only the power of one and a half8 ,now what is ,germany working for in this combined effort8 ,solely for herself--exactly like the black magician4 ,so deep has the ,german conceit sunk into the ,german soul1 that they really believe that in occupying and enslaving other countries they would be doing them a favor4 ,no1 ,i am not exaggerating4 ,i have heard ,germans make that humorless statement4 ,lunatic asylums are full of men who assert that they are kings1 and an occasional inmate declares himself the ,king of kings4 ,these patients are even more fully convinced than are the ,germans1 who assert their kingship4 ,if assertion alone can transcend fact1 these men are kings4 ,are they8 ,to themselves they are1 and the ,germans are just as surely 8over all0 as are the straw-crowned kings in the asylums4 ,it is useless to argue with a king in a straw crown4 ,he has an irresistible argument--his crown4 ,can you not see it8 ,if you do not salute1 he turns his back and walks away4 ,but even a king in a lunatic asylum may be cured and restored to a sane equality with his peers4 ,that is what ,i hope for ,germany4 ,that is what the ,masters hope--for ,germany stands high in the record-book of the ,masters4 ,a king in a straw crown has not lost his soul through his false assertion of kingship4 ,he is an immortal son of ,god4 ,his spirit is as genuine as yours or mine4 ,his error is only temporary1 and is generally caused by brooding too long over imagined wrongs and slights4 ,not unlike ,germany4 ,when this idea of superiority began to fester in the minds of that noble people1 they were not a great nation4 ,they felt their wrongs and the slights put upon them4 ,the only escape for their wounded egoism was into the world of the mind1 where assertion has free play4 ,they turned their backs and plaited their straw crowns4 ,they were kings1 and anyone who did not see it was unworthy of the honor of their friendship4 ,then1 their madness having taken a violent form1 came the great doctor1 ,war1 and confined them in a relatively narrow space2 but the small people they knocked down in their first attack of violence still lie prostrate from the blow4 ,the heirs of these kings will have to pay damages4 ,the law of nations is even more just than the laws of men4 ,who dares to say that a ,state has no morals8 ,is a ,state spiritually inferior to a man8 ,no more than a ,planetary ,spirit is inferior to a ,state4 ,there is a cosmic morality1 and whoever goes against it--whether a ,state or a man--will meet the day of reckoning4 ,karma is a law4 ,april #bi4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #c3 ,the following clauses of this paragraph1 not being clear in the original1 were rewritten by me4--,editor4 ,,letter ,,xxxiv ,,the ,,sylph ,,and ,,the ,,father ,,passing yesterday along the line where the great ,french army stands before its powerful opponent1 and marking the spirit of courage and aspiration which makes it seem like a long line of living light1 ,i saw a familiar face in the regions outside the physical4 ,i paused1 highly pleased at the encounter1 and the sylph--for it was a sylph whom ,i met--paused also with a little smile of recognition4 ,do you recall in my former book the story of a sylph1 ,meriline1 who was the companion and familiar of a student of magic who lived in the rue de ,vaugirard in ,paris8 ,it was ,meriline that ,i met above the line of light which shows to wanderers in the astral regions where the soldiers of la belle ,france fight and die for the same ideal which inspired ,jeanne d',arc--to drive the foreigner out of ,france4 8,where is your friend and master80 ,i asked the sylph1 and she pointed below to a trench which spoke loud its determination to conquer4 8,i am here1 to be still with him10 she said4 8,and can you speak to him here80 ,i asked4 8,i can always speak with him10 she answered4 8,i have been very useful to him--and to ,france40 8,to ,france80 ,i enquired1 with growing interest4 8,oh1 yes6 ,when his commanding officer wants to know what is being plotted over there1 he often asks my friend1 and my friend asks me40 8,truly10 ,i thought1 8the ,french are an inspired people1 when the officers of armies ask guidance from the realm of the invisible6 ,but had not ,jeanne her visions80 8,and how do you gain the information desired80 ,i asked1 drawing nearer to ,meriline1 who seemed more serious than when we met some years before in ,paris4 8,why10 she answered1 8,i go over there and look around me4 ,i have learned what to look for1 he has taught me1 and when ,i bring him news he rewards me with more love40 8,and do you love him still1 as of old80 8,as of old80 8,yes1 as you did back there in ,paris40 8,time must have passed slowly with you10 said the sylph1 8if you call a few years ago #8as of old'40 8,are a few years1 then1 as nothing80 8,a few years are as nothing to me10 she replied4 8,i have lived a long time40 8,and do you know the future of your friend80 ,i asked4 ,a puzzled look came over the face of ,meriline1 and she said1 slowly3 8,i used to know everything that would happen to him1 because ,i could read his will1 and whatever he willed came to pass2 but since we have been out here he seems to have lost his will40 8,lost his will60 ,i exclaimed1 in surprise4 8,yes1 lost his will2 for he prays continually to a great ,being whom he loves far more than me1 and he always prays one prayer1 #8,thy will be done6' ,it used to be his will which was always done2 but now1 as ,i say1 he seems to have lost his will40 8,perhaps10 ,i said1 8it is true of the will as was once said of the life1 and he that loses his will shall find it40 8,i hope he will find it soon10 she answered1 8for in the old days he was always giving me interesting things to do1 to help him achieve the purposes of his will1 and now he only sends me over there4 ,i don't like over there60 8,why not80 8,because my friend is menaced by something over there40 8,and what has his will to do with that80 8,why1 even about that1 he says all day to the great ,being that he loves so much more than me1 #8,thy will be done'40 8,do you think you could learn to say it1 too80 ,i asked4 8,i say it after him sometimes2 but ,i don't know what it means40 8,have you never heard of ,god80 8,i have heard of many gods1 of ,isis and ,osiris and ,set1 and of ,horus1 the son of ,osiris40 8,and is it to one of these that he says1 #8,thy will be done'80 8,oh1 no6 ,it is not to any of the gods that he used to call upon in his magical working4 ,this is some new god that he has found40 8,or the oldest of all gods that he has returned to10 ,i suggested4 8,what does he call ,him80 8,our ,father who art in heaven40 8,if you also should learn to say #8,thy will be done' to our ,father who is in heaven10 ,i said1 8it might help you toward the attainment of that soul you were wanting and waiting for1 when last we met in ,paris40 8,how could our ,father help me80 8,it was ,he who gave souls to men10 ,i said4 ,the eyes of the sylph were brilliant with something almost human4 8,and could ,he give a soul to me80 8,it is said that ,he can do anything40 8,then ,i will ask ,him for a soul40 8,but to ask ,him for a soul10 ,i said1 8is not to pray the prayer your friend prays40 8,he only says----0 8,yes1 ,i know4 ,suppose you say it after him40 8,i will1 if you will tell me what it means4 ,i like to do what my friend does40 8,thy will be done10 ,i said1 8when addressed to the ,father in heaven1 means that we give up all our desires1 whether for pleasure or love or happiness1 or anything else1 and lay all those desires at ,his feet1 sacrificing all we have or hope for to ,him1 because we love ,him more than ourselves40 8,that is a strange way to get what one desires10 she said4 8,it is not done to get what one desires10 ,i answered4 8,but what is it done for80 8,for love of the ,father in heaven40 8,but ,i do not know the ,father in heaven4 ,what is ,he80 8,he is the ,source and the ,goal of the being of your friend4 ,he is the ,one that your friend will re-become some day1 if he can forever say to ,him1 ,thy will be done40 8,the ,one he will re-become80 8,yes1 for when he blends his will with that of the ,father in heaven1 the ,father in heaven dwells in his heart and the two become one40 8,then is the ,father in heaven really the ,self of my friend80 8,the greatest philosopher could not have expressed it more truly10 ,i said4 8,then indeed do ,i love the ,father in heaven10 breathed the sylph1 8and ,i will say now every day and all day1 #8,thy will be done' to ,him40 8,even if it separates you from your friend80 8,how can it separate me from my friend1 if the ,father is the ,self of him80 8,i would that all angels were your equal in learning10 ,i said4 ,but ,meriline had turned from me in utter forgetfulness1 and was saying over and over1 with joy in her uplifted face1 8,thy will be done6 ,thy will be done60 8,truly10 ,i said to myself1 as ,i passed along the line1 8he who worships the ,father as the ,self of the beloved has already acquired a soul40 ,april #bi4 ,,letter ,,xxxv ,,behind ,,the ,,dark ,,veil ,,one night1 when the roar of battle was still1 and the rays of the full moon shone down upon trampled mud1 and man-filled trench1 and tender spring-green growing things and soft-hued flowers1 ,i met face to face a powerful being in a dark mantle who passed along the line of war with slow1 majestic steps4 ,seeing me he paused1 and ,i paused also1 struck by the grace of his tall form and the royal air of him4 ,his face was veiled4 8,who are you10 he said1 8who walk here at this hour as if in meditation80 8,i am a man much given to meditation10 ,i replied1 8and this hour seems fit for it40 8,and what was the subject of your meditation80 8,the war below us40 8,and what was the course of your thoughts1 which my appearance interrupted80 8,my thoughts were of peace10 ,i said1 8and they were full of questions as to how the carnage of this war might be made to cease40 8,your questions were in order10 the majestic being answered4 8,perhaps ,i can be of help to you40 8,will you not unveil80 ,i suggested1 8for ,i like to see the faces of those with whom ,i hold converse40 ,he threw back a fold of the dark covering of his head1 revealing a face which ,i know not how to describe4 ,power and evil were blent in it1 and a strange beauty1 both superhuman and subhuman4 ,the face was marked as if by an eternity of pain and struggle2 but in the eyes was a light of will which startled me by its force4 8,who are you80 ,i asked4 8,what matter who ,i am80 he replied4 8,i am one who can solve the problem of your meditations40 8,you do not look like an angel of peace10 ,i said1 8but rather like one who has seen much war of his own making40 8,it is for that reason that ,i am competent to speak of peace4 ,what do the peaceful know of peace8 ,only the warrior knows the meaning of that word40 8,i will listen10 ,i said1 8to whatever you have to say2 for ,i recognize that you know something of the ,law40 8,i am one of the executors of the ,law10 he answered1 8and ,i have a plan for bringing peace to the world40 8,will you state that plan80 8,it is for that ,i came out here to meet you10 he said4 8,and how did you learn of me80 8,i know all the strong workers and many of the weak ones4 ,you are a powerful worker40 8,truly you do me too much honor10 ,i said1 8for ,i am only a humble soldier in the army of the ,law's executants40 8,the modesty of the great10 he observed1 while he eyed me closely to see the effect of his words4 8,whoever you are10 ,i said1 8and ,i perceive that you are something unusual1 know that my interest in my own stature is no longer paramount with me40 8,it is for that reason that you may be used in the interest of peace40 8,continue10 ,i requested4 ,he regarded me for a time with brilliant1 questioning eyes1 and then he asked3 8,you are weary of war1 of the labor of war80 8,i am weary with my sympathy for those who suffer40 8,and you would like to end their suffering80 8,it seems to me at times10 ,i said1 more to myself than to him1 8that ,i would gladly give my life1 if by so doing ,i could shorten the horrors down here40 8,your life8 ,and what do you mean by your life60 8,i mean my consciousness of freedom1 my freedom of consciousness40 8,a good definition of the life of such as you10 he observed4 8,and would you really sacrifice that life for the world80 8,most gladly1 if by so doing ,i could save the world40 8,it might be possible10 he said4 8,will you speak more plainly80 ,i demanded4 8,you seem to me to be feeling your way to some statement of importance40 8,what can be more important10 he returned1 8than the sacrifice of such a life as yours for the world80 8,go on40 8,there is a way10 he said1 8by which your sacrifice of what you call #8the consciousness of freedom and the freedom of consciousness' might save those men down there from further pain40 8,again ,i repeat1 go on40 8,it lies in my power10 he said1 coming nearer and regarding me fixedly with his glowing eyes1 8it lies in my power so to work upon the minds of the opposing armies1 the armies on both sides1 that they will refuse to fight any longer40 8,and betray their countries80 ,i asked4 8,and bring peace10 he corrected me4 8,and what have ,i to do with it80 8,you might have much to do with it40 8,your words are still dark to me10 ,i said4 8,then ,i will make them clearer10 he replied4 8,in order for you to understand my meaning1 it is necessary that ,i explain myself4 ,i am one of those who serve the good by opposing the good1 and thus giving it greater activity40 8,so ,i had observed4 ,will you now state in clear words what purpose you have with me80 8,my purpose is to make you a proposition4 ,if you wish this carnage to cease--and already it has gone on long enough to serve the purpose which ,i serve1 to soak the world with blood1 to destroy that which a decade of labor will be too brief to rebuild1 to awaken all the hatred and other evil passions which nest in the hearts of men--if you wish this carnage to cease1 ,i have the means by which it can be made to cease40 8,and where do ,i come in80 8,i have long observed you10 he said1 8observed your diligence in applying the principles given you by your ,teacher40 8,then why did you ask me who ,i was1 a little while ago80 8,only as a preliminary to further conversation40 8,oh60 ,i said4 8,i have observed you10 he repeated1 8and realized that with your power and attainments you might be of greater service if you should shift your allegiance and join us4 ,your consciousness of freedom would be even greater40 8,but that consciousness of freedom was my definition of life6 ,i suppose you would say1 in adjusting your argument to the limitations of my mind1 that in losing my life ,i should find it40 ,a slight smile curved the lined features of the being before me4 8,you would be always an entertaining companion10 he said4 8,think twice before you decline my proposition40 8,in your proposed agreement10 ,i replied1 8you do not state clearly the consideration4 ,i am an old lawyer1 and a stickler for forms40 ,there was no smile now on his face1 as he said to me3 8,if you will transfer your allegiance to us1 ,i will bring this war to an end40 8,and could you80 8,i could40 8,how80 8,i have already stated how40 8,but the medicine you propose would be worse than the disease1 even assuming1 which ,i deny1 that the patient would swallow it40 8,but would you not make the sacrifice1 if ,i proved to you that ,i could make good my end of the bargain80 8,no40 8,then surely you care little for the world60 8,you argue like a ,german propagandist10 ,i said4 8,you mean that they argue like me10 he corrected4 8,i have wondered10 ,i said1 8in what school of logic they were trained40 8,and you refuse my proposition80 8,i wonder you should take the trouble to make it40 8,why call that a trouble which gives me the pleasure of your society80 8,i have already heard10 ,i said1 8that the devil was a great flatterer40 8,the devil has great tact40 ,we stood looking at each other1 measuring each other4 ,he was an interesting study4 8,dropping for the moment10 ,i said1 8our differences of purpose and ideal1 and speaking merely as two minds--0 8,equal in brilliancy10 he interrupted4 8,speaking as two minds10 ,i continued1 8will you not tell me why you played upon my love for the world1 my willingness to sacrifice myself for the world1 in your attempt to win me to your standard80 8,what else could ,i play upon80 8,surely ,i must have some fault1 some hidden sin1 through which your subtle mind could have thought to reach me40 8,oh10 he said1 8,i am too wise to tempt you through your hidden faults1 for you are determined to conquer them6 ,you could not be thrown off the track that way4 ,only those young on your path are easily conquered through their faults4 ,the greater souls we attack through their virtues40 8,continue10 ,i said1 8for truly you interest me40 8,it is said in the world10 he went on1 8that there is more than one way to skin a cat4 ,there is also more than one way to get rid of a worker for the ,teachers whom you follow4 ,when we cannot deflect a worker through his evil passions1 his hatred1 anger1 avarice1 lust1 jealousy or fear1 we are sometimes able to weaken him through his good passions1 his love1 his loyalty1 or his self-sacrifice40 8,thank you for your confidence10 ,i said4 8,and now ,i will wish you good evening40 ,as ,i passed along the line ,i murmured to myself3 8,truly is the serpent more subtle than any beast of the field1 and man needs all his wisdom to stand against him40 ,may #a4 ,,letter ,,xxxvi ,,the 8,,lusitania0 7,this letter was written on the #gth of ,may1 at #aj4cj ,a4,m41 ,new ,york time1 one hour after the sinking of the ,lusitania1 and nine hours before the writer knew of it47 ,,and still they press forward against us--the menacing powers of darkness and evil1 seeking to vent their rage against the world and to glut themselves on the blood of the slain4 ,i have not been near you for a few days because ,i have had no time4 ,did you fancy that ,i had escaped time8 ,not yet4 ,had ,i escaped time1 ,i could not speak thus to the world in the grip of time4 ,had ,i quite transcended space1 your room could not hold me4 ,during the six days that you have not seen me ,i have been here1 there and everywhere in ,europe--even in ,asia have ,i been1 for the attack is world-wide4 ,a little while ago ,i told you that we had driven back the forces of evil4 ,they have rallied and come forward again1 not quite as strong1 but more desperate and more frenzied4 ,they seek now to embroil the ,united ,states1 and the whole continent of the old dead race that fed them on blood by magical rites ages ago1 that continent where the new race has to be born when this prolonged labor is over4 ,had ,i remembered the ,law of ,rhythm ,i should have known that the tide of evil would flow back again1 and that we should have to struggle with it a second time4 ,it may even now gather fresh force and renew the attack1 a little weaker still4 ,the evil beings whom we have slain are slain1 they can trouble us no more for a time2 but the slain are few beside the many still active4 ,help us with your thoughts4 ,many of our friends in the world have staggered and grown weary during the last few days4 ,do not you6 ,as thy day1 so shall thy strength be1 ,o ,world that we struggle for1 and for which we shall win in the end the crown of peace and brotherhood6 ,as ,i have said before1 the world is in the throes of an initiatory ceremony4 ,the trial by water1 the trial by air1 the trial by fire--all these must the world go through before it can take its place among the initiates of the stellar hierarchies4 ,there is no drawing back now1 and the world must not fail4 ,should it fail there would soon be a vacant place in the circles of the ,zodiac4 ,but the world will not fail4 ,again have ,i met with the evil being of whom ,i wrote at the beginning of these letters4 ,he is lashing himself in fury now1 drunk with the power of his place4 ,ere his hour draws near1 he is hot to assert himself4 ,the climax is approaching1 and if ,i visit you less often than before1 it is because ,i cannot leave my place so often4 ,never falter in courage4 ,your faith shall be the evidence of things still unseen--as it has been before4 ,this second struggle with the powers of darkness will leave us stronger and leave them weaker4 ,i know many things which ,i cannot tell you1 for you are not strong enough to receive them2 but remember this--the ,law of ,rhythm holds1 it is the ,law of laws1 and after this storm will come a corresponding calm1 after this agony a rest in the quiet of love4 ,when hate has spent itself1 then love can have its way4 ,do you not hate1 but stand steady1 merely withstanding attacks4 ,do not waste your strength4 ,it will be needed by and by4 ,if we use you sometimes as a material base on which to plant our etheric feet for a greater spring into space1 remember that you offered yourself for the service of the world1 and the service has been accepted4 ,this is no time to talk of reward1 but the law of justice is behind the world4 ,so far as possible1 strengthen those who suffer too much1 and we will strengthen you4 ,the angels you saw last night are the bodyguard of the ,masters' servants4 ,as thy day1 so shall thy strength be4 ,i will give you a formula for use in time of stress and storm3 ,reach up to the indwelling ,spirit and repeat1 8,for her ways are ways of pleasantness1 and all her paths are peace40 ,it is only in contact with mind1 with desire and with matter1 that the ,spirit struggles and suffers4 ,in its own home all is peaceful and pleasant4 ,reach up to that home when the storms are too loud1 and you will find a place of silence4 ,do not let go your hold upon the body4 ,you could no longer be used as a material base should you loosen your hold on the material1 and those who come to live altogether in the astral world just now have a hard time at first4 ,be calm and poised and sure4 ,be not a quicksand but a rock4 ,that is all for the present4 ,this little time of writing has rested me as well as you1 and ,i will return4 ,may #g4 ,,letter ,,xxxvii ,,veiled ,,prophecies ,,if you were less easily startled1 less easily thrown out of the negative condition in which only you can take down my words1 less easily thrown back by shock into your normal objective consciousness1 ,i could have told you yesterday that the ,lusitania had gone down1 instead of merely hinting at disaster4 ,you are quite right always to stop the writing the moment your own brain begins to work2 but you can see that it limits us in the giving of definite news4 ,we were near that ship when it went down1 several of us1 including the one whom we call the ,beautiful ,being4 ,hold steady now4 ,that is the only advice ,i am offering you1 save only to remain in ,america for the present4 ,the good you could do in ,england now is outweighed by something else which you will understand before the middle of ,august4#d ,if you look up the letter in which ,i told you that a great ,being of ,thought had passed along the ,german line telling those who could understand that their cause was lost1 you will see that ,i said to watch for the result4 ,the result is this desperate and frenzied attack everywhere by that nation4 ,may #aeth is a significant date4#e ,no1 ,i tell you no more than that4 ,the powers of good will not fail4 ,you will have disturbing news from ,europe before long4 ,hold quiet through everything4 ,we have done and are doing our best4 ,thank you for what you have done for my friend and pupil4 99 99 99 ,also there is another thing you can do for us4 99 99 99 ,there is much that you do not understand1 but that we understand4 ,the road of initiation is a hard road for all4 ,love one another1 you who try to tread it4 ,it makes the way easier4 ,may #h4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #d3 ,extraordinarily verified on the fourteenth of ,august4--,editor4 ,footnote #e3 ,date of the reception by ,germany of the ,united ,states note on the sinking of the ,lusitania1 and also of the demonstrations in ,italy which precipitated the entry of that country into the war4--,editor4 ,,letter ,,xxxviii ,,advice ,,to ,a ,,scribe ,,you can be of more use to us if you do not allow yourself to be crushed by the sadness of the world at this crisis through which the world is passing4 ,each day rise to the plane of the spirit1 above the physical world1 beyond the desires of the astral world1 beyond the lower stratum of mind1 up and up to the ,source of all life and all wisdom4 ,set apart some time every day for this exercise4 ,use the ,hebrew formula which you have used before1 and use it with power1 in connection with the yoga practice in which you are versed4 ,this combining of two systems makes for strength1 because it avoids the limitation of too closely identifying the ,self with one race or one period4 ,occult development1 occult power1 is of all times and all races4 ,the knowledge of the new race about to be ushered in will include all the systems of the past1 taking from each the special thing in which it surpasses the others4 ,do not sink again into that slough of depression from which ,i called you this day4 ,it is not necessary for you to die a thousand times in order to know death4 ,it seems to me that you have gone deep enough into the woe of the world4 ,now rise to a corresponding height4 ,your sympathy will be no less tender if you do not die of sympathy every day4 ,your real work comes after the war1 when the world can and will listen to the teaching of brotherhood4 ,do not perish beforehand is my advice1 and the advice of my ,teacher through me4 ,the ,teachers are very grave in this crisis1 but they are not crushed to earth4 ,they know that after the storm comes the calm and their faith has survived4 ,in the awful depression in which you have been sunk for the last few days1 how could you help anyone8 ,it is not for you to ask help from others1 but only from us4 ,you know where we are4 ,it is for you to revive the drooping spirits and the drooping faith of those who have not received the assurances which you have received4 ,this letter is not a reproof1 but a lesson4 ,i would not have you retire to a selfish peace above the tumult and stay there1 forgetting the world4 ,i do not forget the world4 ,i work by day and by night4 ,but what help could ,i be to these war-shocked souls that come out here should ,i weep when ,i encounter them8 ,no help at all should ,i be4 ,instead1 ,i seek to strengthen them with my strength1 to encourage them with my hope4 ,i do not mean1 when ,i say that your work begins after the war1 that you can do nothing now4 ,far from it4 ,you can do much1 in both worlds4 ,but if you die of the wounds you behold out here1 if you are caught yourself in the whirlpool of despair1 how can you draw others out of it8 ,i cannot repeat too often that this war is the world's initiation4 ,it will be a new and an enlightened world which will rise from the ashes of the old one--a phnix of a world1 and ,i want you to rise with it4 ,the agony cannot endure forever4 ,it is too intense just now1 which means that the climax is approaching4 ,when ,i told you that the issue was settled here1 ,i did not mean that the war would end in a day or two4 ,study cause and effect4 ,study the rise and fall of everything according to cyclic law4 ,the tidal wave must spend itself on the shore before it subsides again into the sea4 ,be calm4 ,keep faith with those whose task it is to uphold the faith of mankind4 ,when you say that you want to suffer as long as the world suffers1 you are speaking as our pupil1 and we would not have it otherwise4 ,but remember that one may be strong in suffering4 ,we would not have you shirk the experience2 but master and use the experience1 instead of letting it master and use you4 ,in regard to ,america1 did ,i not tell you some time ago that there was 8an ,american on guard to-night10 old ,abraham ,lincoln1 who renounced heaven that he might watch over and guard the land he died for8 ,rest in confidence on that assurance4 ,the other countries that you love are watched over also4 ,and another country which you do not love is watched over1 lest it wander so far that it cannot find its way back into the fold of human brotherhood4 ,there are souls in that country who are keenly aware that she has gone as far as she safely may without becoming an outlaw among the nations4 ,there are even ,germans in ,america who know it4 ,if ,i named a few of them1 you might be surprised4 ,it is well that ,germans in ,america should feel the ,american repudiation of this latest piracy on the high seas4 ,let them feel it to the quick4 ,they can learn in no other way4 ,do you fancy that in writing through your hand this book to be published after the war1 ,i am impressing my thought only upon you8 ,i am impressing others besides you4 ,a few days after ,i wrote you that ,abraham ,lincoln was on guard1 a newspaper cartoonist published a drawing of the ghost of the great ,lincoln standing behind ,president ,wilson4 ,did you think it was a mere coincidence8 ,it was not a mere coincidence4 ,i impress my thought1 and the thought of the ,masters behind me1 on other minds than yours4 ,i am a worker in the astral world4 ,to impress the minds of men is one of the duties assigned me4 ,i go here and there where ,i am needed2 but ,i have not written anywhere else as ,i have written through you4 ,i have tried to1 but with very indifferent success4 ,an accurate amanuensis between the worlds is rare4 ,they have to be trained to distinguish between the thoughts of the dictator and the thoughts of their own minds1 objective and subjective1 also between these and the thoughts of irresponsible entities who like to have a finger in the earthly pie4 ,you wonder why ,i do not tell you more stories8 ,i will tell you a story on my next visit4 ,may #aa4 ,,letter ,,xxxix ,,one ,,of ,,these ,,little ,,ones ,,the story ,i have to tell you is a sad one1 but we are writing of war4 ,it was three days after the ,lusitania went down4 ,leaving the plains and hills of war-harried ,france1 ,i had come out across the waters to serve where service was most needed at the moment4 ,drawing near to the scene of the disaster1 ,i met a child-soul who wandered up and down looking for something which it could not find--a girl-child of maybe a dozen years1 with troubled and bewildered eyes4 8,can ,i help you80 ,i asked1 taking her by the hand1 so that she ceased her restless moving to and fro and paused with me4 8,i have lost my mother10 she said4 8,where is my mother80 8,i do not know10 ,i answered1 8but we will look for her40 ,it is not always easy for a bewildered soul to find in the astral world another soul whom it seeks1 though it is sometimes very easy for a calm soul to find another4 ,as on earth1 the one we look for with turmoil in our hearts seems to be held away from us by invisible hands4 ,passing along with the child1 ,i met many others equally bewildered4 ,all were looking for someone or for something4 8,why are we here80 asked the child4 8,i thought we were going to ,london40 8,do you not know that you have been drowned80 ,i asked4 8,did ,i really drown when ,i was in the water80 8,yes40 8,i thought it was a dream1 for ,i have been asleep40 8,yes1 you have been asleep1 but the drowning was no dream40 8,then where am ,i80 8,you are in the other world40 8,the other world6 ,but ,i thought the other world was heaven40 8,heaven is also in the other world40 8,you do not mean that ,i have gone to the bad place80 8,no1 you have not gone to the darkest place10 ,i said1 8and you will find your way to heaven by and by40 8,but why was ,i drowned8 ,why did the ship go down8 ,it was such a beautiful ship1 and we were so happy playing about the decks60 8,you were drowned because ,germany is at war with ,england40 8,but why should they drown me80 8,in an attempt to prove that ,england does not hold the seas40 8,but what has that to do with me80 8,nothing1 my child4 ,it has nothing to do with you4 ,you are only a helpless victim40 8,but who drowned us80 8,the commander of a submarine40 8,is he a very bad man80 8,i cannot imagine a good man doing it40 8,and why can't ,i find my mother8 ,was she drowned1 too80 8,i don't know yet40 8,then you don't know everything80 8,no1 ,i don't know everything40 8,are you an angel80 8,no1 ,i am not an angel40 8,what are you1 then80 8,a man40 8,and were you drowned1 also80 8,no1 ,i came to the other world more than three years ago40 ,the child began to cry4 ,did you suppose that children never cried after death8 ,dead children often cry4 ,would you not cry at the thought of being drowned1 if you woke and could not find your mother8 ,i too could have cried with the child1 for ,i have had children of my own1 and one of them died young4 8,have ,i been very bad without knowing it1 that ,i should be drowned like this80 asked the little girl4 8,no1 ,i do not think that you have been very bad40 ,as we passed across the rough waters we saw the corpse of a woman floating face upwards in the pale light4 ,the child could see it dimly1 though not so well as ,i4 ,have you ever seen a living child weeping over the soulless corpse of its mother8 ,if that seemed sad to you1 would it not seem sadder to see the living soul of a child weeping over the corpse of a mother whose soul was absent8 ,to me it was the most pitiful of all sad sights4 8,come away1 little one10 ,i said1 8your mother is not here40 ,a little farther on we saw the body of a child also floating face upwards in the pale light4 ,i knew whose body it was1 and so did the child4 8,why1 it isn't pretty any more60 she said4 8,come away1 little one10 ,i repeated1 8come and look for the mother40 ,but she seemed held fast near the floating thing in the water4 ,no1 it was not pretty2 but the soul beside me was very beautiful for all its sadness4 8,what will become of it80 she asked1 awestruck4 8,i do not know40 8,do you think they will bury it somewhere80 8,if they find it they will bury it40 8,could you not tell them where it is80 8,if we wait to look for them1 we may not find the mother40 ,we met many women passing to and fro over the water1 mothers looking for their children1 wives seeking their husbands1 some seeking their own lost forms1 others merely passing to and fro in bewilderment and grief4 8,it is very sad to die10 said the child4 8,it is not always sad to die10 ,i answered4 8,it is sometimes beautiful to die40 8,where is the man who drowned us80 8,why1 do you want to see him80 8,i want him to see me40 8,he will see you his life-long in dreams10 ,i said1 8whether he lives to be old1 or dies tomorrow40 ,coming toward us across the sea was the form of a woman wringing vapory hands4 8,where is my child8 ,where is my child80 she was saying over and over4 8,mother1 ,i am here60 cried the little girl1 and the two forms melted in a close embrace4 8,i have found you6 ,i have found you60 the mother and child repeated over and over1 as they clung together4 ,i remained near them a little while1 for ,i wanted to help them to free themselves from the sadness of their fate4 8,will you not come with me80 ,i asked them1 when they could listen4 8,but where shall we go80 8,away from here40 8,i want to go home10 said the child4 8,we are homeless now10 the mother answered2 8we are in the other world40 8,then you also know what has happened80 ,i asked her4 8,oh1 yes1 ,i know1 ,i know60 8,will you not come away with me80 ,i repeated4 8,are you an angel80 asked the mother1 even as the child had asked4 ,i told her who ,i was and what ,i was doing there4 8,is there no help for us80 she asked4 8,it is to help you that ,i have come40 8,but where shall we go80 8,anywhere1 away from here40 ,as we stood talking together1 another woman came toward us looking for a lost child2 another child--not hers--came toward us looking for a lost mother4 ,i am willing to tell you that ,i did not well know what to do with all these stricken souls4 ,where could ,i take them for rest or comfort8 ,the whole astral region around the earth is full of sadness and crying4 ,only the strongest and most resolute souls can get far enough away to escape the gloom and the horror4 ,and these newly arrived ones have not the strength2 for you must know that in this world we go where our desires and our thoughts go1 and we go with our fears and our griefs4 ,i led the mother and child to another part of the world1 and left them with others in the care of two ministering older souls who have given themselves to this sad work4 ,but as one cannot teach a child the differential calculus1 so we cannot take to the lofty regions of peace those beings in whose hearts there is no peace4 ,i shall ask the advice of the ,teacher as to how much ,i should tell the world of the awful conditions around us4 ,even the restoration of peace on earth will not immediately purge the astral world of the sores of war4 ,you think that you suffer--and ,i know better than anyone else how much2 but you can escape into the material world1 you can walk on the green hills in the sunshine1 you can rise occasionally to the place of spiritual calm above the conflict astral and material4 ,these millions of grieving ones cannot go back to the physical1 and few of them can yet rise to the spiritual4 ,their immediate future is a problem for the greatest of the ,masters1 a problem that taxes the wisdom of the ,masters of wisdom4 ,hold steady1 you for whom there is another day of anxiety not far off4 ,hold steady2 for though you may not realize it1 ,i to whom you look for strength find also strength in you4 ,that is a mystery which ,i may or may not explain by and by4 ,you are a solid platform from which ,i can spring1 when ,i need the force of a material base4 ,i shall not over-use it4 ,if you are unable to stand the strain1 alone as you are now1 you may communicate with my son2 but do that only as a last resort4 ,you must learn to stand alone4 ,in my other writing the strain on you was far less1 the demand on you far less1 the need of your strength far less4 ,you could not have done then what you are doing now1 nor could ,i have done then what ,i am doing now4 ,again ,i say1 hold steady4 ,the wounds1 the tortured faces which you see at night1 the pitiful appeals for help which you try to answer1 are only typical of what we see and try to help1 nightly1 daily and hourly4 ,i have used the actual substance of your etheric body to build myself an optical instrument1 through which ,i can see into the sun-lighted world--your world4 ,you will suffer no injury in the long run for this loan that you have made me4 ,have you not pledged yourself to the service of mankind8 ,mankind are out here as well as in there1 and the eyes ,i have built of your substance have enabled me to do service which otherwise ,i could not have done4 ,count that with your good karma4 ,may #ac4 ,,letter ,,xl ,,the ,,height ,,and ,,the ,,depth ,,do not lose faith in the future of the world4 ,have you not studied the ,law of ,rhythm8 ,do you not know that the height is equal to the depth1 and that when things are at their worst they are getting ready to improve8 ,life moves rapidly in these ,twentieth ,century days4 ,a thousand years ago it would have taken a decade to accomplish the horrors of the last ten months4 ,perhaps the reconstruction will be equally rapid4 ,do not lose faith in the future of the world4 ,there are even ,germans who repudiate the sinking of the ,lusitania6 ,all is not well in that ,empire1 from the standpoint of the ,empire4 ,be poised1 and await the issue4 ,may #ad4 ,,letter ,,xli ,a ,,conclave ,,of ,,masters ,,some day the races of men will return to the love which they have now forgotten4 ,some day ,german and ,english1 ,italian and ,austrian1 ,french and ,turkish1 will all sit together at the banquet table of life and drink to the health1 not to the death1 of one another4 ,and that day is not so far distant as the present hate and slaughter would indicate4 ,there is peace after strife1 and love after hate1 and sunshine after the storm4 ,love and hate6 ,to know the one you must have seen the other4 ,surely ,i need not tell you this6 ,what did you know of love till you had been hated8 ,love and hate are the twin-born children of emotion4 ,some day men will look for their enemies within themselves2 some day men will fight the evil in themselves1 and then they will not need to slay their brothers4 ,some day love will re-establish itself upon the pedestal of the world1 and hate will return to the shades4 ,i have told you of the evil beings who brought about this war4 ,there are also loving beings who long to do away with war between brother and brother4 ,to-night in the spaces above the world there is a strange quiet4 ,is it the quiet before the storm1 or the quiet after the storm8 ,it is all rhythmic4 ,be poised and wait1 trusting in ,god4 ,some storms clear the air4 ,the present thunder and lightning will clear the air4 ,yes1 the world has been too sultry1 and the atmosphere had to be broken4 ,do not cry out1 do not weep1 do not laugh4 ,be quiet1 and trust in ,god4 ,what do ,i mean by ,god8 ,look deep in your heart and see ,i ,,am ,,that ,i ,,am4 ,in the childhood of the world men believed in a ,power beyond themselves4 ,now in the maturity of the world men believe in a ,power within and beyond themselves4 ,that is ,god1 ,i ,,am ,,that ,i ,,am6 ,seek the high place of the ,spirit and prepare yourself for the service of the world4 ,the ,spirit is crucified on the cross of the world4 ,christ clothes himself in matter that he may raise it4 ,love wears the garment of hate1 that love and hate may become one4 ,what do ,i mean8 ,do you not know that love and hate are ,one ,thing--the eternal opposites that complete each other8 ,when hate rests1 love comes into its own4 ,when love rested1 hate came into its own4 ,this night do hate and love unite4 ,find out my meaning if you can4 ,look in the glass of visions and find the picture there4 ,the uniting of love and hate6 ,there is a neutral point where the two join hands4 ,there is a council held this night among those who serve the world--a conclave of ,masters4 ,at what hour1 you ask8 ,go to sleep1 and learn the hour4 ,if you are still enough1 you may listen at the keyhole4 ,if you are not still enough1 you will hear nothing4 ,do ,i seem to write strangely to-night8 ,all things are strange to-night1 if by strange you mean unusual4 ,be still1 and know that ,god dwells in the hearts of all men1 though in some ,he lies asleep4 ,for the ,god in you will sleep until you awake ,him4 8,this is my commandment1 ,that ye love one another1 as ,i have loved you40 ,love your enemies1 even when they smite you2 for the ,god is asleep in those who smite with hate4 ,you will never understand your enemy by hating him4 ,you will never understand the ,masters until the love and hate in you unite4 ,on the declaration of peace your love will flow out again to your enemy4 ,can you not anticipate the event1 and love your enemy to-night8 ,the enemy needs love when he shows least of it4 ,be still1 and know that the world is the footstool of the ,spirit4 ,hate will not serve you4 ,hate never serves willingly4 ,remember the words of the ,man-,god1 8,forgive them2 for they know not what they do40 ,go to sleep now1 and listen at the keyhole of the ,masters' council-room4 ,you may hear things that you cannot tell the world4 ,may #ad4 ,,letter ,,xlii ,a ,,lesson ,,in ,,the ,,kabala ,,shall ,i repeat to you what you saw in your vision of last night--the races of earth as the ,sephiroth on the ,kabalistic ,tree of ,life8 ,you know more of the ,kabala than ,i do2 but you would never have known the ,kabalistic correspondences of the nations had they not been pointed out to you by the ,teacher4 ,it is true that ,germany 7,geburah1 ,mars1 ,severity1 ,pachad7 has become so extremely severe and ,martian that the welfare of the whole ,tree is threatened1 the balance is upset2 and it is through the strength of the ,united ,states1 shown by a certain ,yetziratic ,path1 and through the prudence of the ,united ,states in relation to another ,sephira which represents the ,british ,empire1 that justice may be reestablished between ,britain and ,germany4 ,the ,teacher has been instructing me in the ,kabala4 ,and you also see by that vision the part which the ,united ,states has to take in the future of the world--that of ,chesed1 ,mercy4 ,that is the keynote of the ,sixth ,race1 and ,germany thought to establish it--the ,sixth ,race--in herself by blood and iron6 ,what folly and short-sightedness6 ,you need not tell the world where the other races were on the ,tree of ,life in your vision1 save that the ,three ,supernals are not represented by races on this material plane4 ,that much you may state1 on my authority1 lest some ,german ,kabalist should claim for the ,teutonic race the place of ,kether4 ,no1 the ,three ,supernals are not represented on the material plane4 ,watch and pray that ,america may be guided aright4 ,so far1 she has been so guided4 ,the great soul of ,abraham ,lincoln was with ,president ,wilson during those days of retirement4 ,did ,i not tell you that he had renounced rest that he might watch over the land he died for1 when the day of her own great trial came8 ,i shall tell you no more than my judgment dictates1 day by day4 ,it is well that you were able to rise to the plane of that vision1 lest you should become too warlike4 ,now pray that the hands of the ,president may be upheld1 and that his soul may be strengthened by the living soul of ,america's greatest son1 ,abraham ,lincoln4 ,the future is on the laps of the gods4 ,may #ae4 ,,letter ,,xliii ,,the ,,second ,,coming ,,to those who have suffered in this war1 either from wounds of the body or wounds of the soul1 it has sometimes seemed that the ,christ of the ,christian world had turned ,his back and gone away1 perhaps to some other star where ,his teaching could be understood and ,his law of love become a real influence in the lives and hearts of men4 ,but the ,christ who died to teach men how to live has not left the world in this its hour of trial4 ,he is the same ,christ of love and compassion2 and whoever attempts to put in ,his place a ,christ of hate and pitilessness1 blasphemes ,his sacred name1 and will one day pay the awful penalty of that blasphemy4 ,i have seen face to face the ,christ who walked the world in ,galilee4 ,are you startled1 you ,christians who hope to see ,christ when you die8 ,why should ,i not see ,him8 ,have ,i not served1 in life and in death8 ,am ,i not serving now1 to the best of my individual power8 ,yes1 ,i have seen the ,christ4 ,look for ,him to come again 8in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory10 though ,he may not walk the earth again in material form4 ,what need is there for ,him to walk the earth now in a mortal body1 when more and more men and women are opening their spiritual sight1 so that they can see ,him while still held in their robes of flesh8 ,i have told you of the ,beautiful ,being on the battlefields1 and now ,i want to tell you of the ,christ on the ,battlefields4 ,he was never afraid of pain1 that son of ,light1 who showed the way of pain to the shrinking souls of men4 ,the cross of ,christ is a living thing1 and its power will be felt more and more as the tired world recovers itself after its baptism of blood4 ,when the half-gods go the gods arrive4 ,when ,mars1 the half-god1 the war-god1 is sent back to his place1 the god of love and pity can make ,himself seen in the hearts of men and women4 ,they are wise who hope for the ,christian faith a renaissance of life4 ,it had grown old and indifferent4 ,thinking itself saved1 it had forgotten to save the world4 ,feeling itself secure1 it let its security be surprised by ,mars1 the war-god4 ,many a soul in its last hour of agony has seen the ,christ2 many a soul in ,france1 in ,belgium1 in ,poland1 and on the war-rocked sea has recognized the ,friend that sticketh closer than a brother4 ,many a mother has seen in true vision her dying son held up by the ,christ4 ,catholic1 ,protestant1 8free-thinker10 they all have called on the ,son of ,mary to comfort their sons in the last dread moment and beyond4 ,from the shrieking hell in ,belgium ,i yesterday saw a man1 a common soldier1 go straight from death into the high place beyond even astral turmoil1 because in dying he called on the ,christ of his mother's faith to take him away from strife to the heaven of peace above the world4 ,many have gone that way since this trial by fire began1 but more have remained below4 ,few have faith enough for the great flight4 ,whatever religion you work with1 let it include the ,christ and the cross of ,christ6 ,what other comfort is there for the soul that feels its pain and feels the awful sum of the world's pain at this time8 ,philosophy is good1 ,i have called myself a philosopher2 but love is the highest reach of philosophy1 and ,christ is the highest reach of love4 ,they talk of a new religion1 as if the love of ,christ were an old and worn-out love4 ,the love of ,christ is reborn whenever a soul in a flash of illumination beholds that mystery in his heart4 ,worship the ,christ in your own heart1 for ,he is there4 ,worship ,him in the heart of your friend1 for ,he is there4 ,worship ,him in the heart of your enemy1 for ,he is also there4 ,then slay if you can1 when you know whom you seek to slay4 ,a new spirit has entered the hearts of the soldiers4 ,they fight on1 but they have been told in dreams that they fight their brethren4 ,murderers on the high seas1 pirates under the eagle1 they too are your brothers4 8,forgive them2 for they know not what they do40 ,conquer them1 because you must2 but do not forget that they are your brothers4 ,the ,christ who hovers over the battlefields carries no flag4 ,he is the first of the neutrals1 because he loves all1 even the pirates under the eagle and the murderers on the high seas4 ,the ,roman soldiers on ,golgotha were not execrated by ,him4 ,when ,he took upon himself the limitations of the flesh1 ,he understood limitation by transcending it4 ,we can never understand any limitation until we transcend it4 ,who should know better than ,he the agony of torn flesh and broken bones and mangled nerves8 ,can the wounded soldiers teach ,him anything8 ,can the betrayed world give ,him advice in settling with its ,judas8 8,that thou doest1 do quickly40 ,the betrayer of the world has hanged himself already in his excess of zeal4 ,when his effigy was burned in ,rome1 do not think that he did not feel the fire4 ,he felt it4 ,the supreme ,war ,lord has had one moment of sanity4 ,yesterday ,i saw his demon go snarling along the battle line4 ,he did not snarl when ,i met him first1 now many months ago4 ,if ,i could only make you understand that ,i speak of facts1 not fancies6 ,i have seen what ,i describe1 as clearly as you see the table before you1 or the pencil in your hand4 ,when ,i say that ,i have talked with demons1 ,i mean that ,i have talked with demons4 ,when ,i say that ,i have seen the ,christ1 ,i mean that ,i have seen the ,christ4 ,i am not weaving romances1 nor have ,i come back from my journey among the stars to compete with the spinners of tales4 ,i write to reveal what otherwise would be unrevealed1 to show to the world the causes lest the world go wrong with the effects4 ,i want to help even the race that all other races1 including its ally the ,turk1 now execrate4 ,only the charity of ,christ is wide enough to cover this world-betrayal4 ,and ,i tell you the betrayers were egged on1 inspired and themselves betrayed by the personal forces of evil1 in their supreme effort to put back the clock of civilization4 ,but the ,christ cast out devils and raised the dead4 ,can ,he not cast out these devils behind the purpose of war8 ,can ,he not raise the dead to the region of peace in the end8 ,can ,he not raise you to the level of ,his charity8 ,may #af4 ,,letter ,,xliv ,,poison ,,gases ,,to-,,night ,i shall not prate to you of charity4 ,instead1 we will speak of east winds and poison gases1 and the demons that ride on poison gases4 ,all hell is again let loose upon the world4 ,it is worse out here than during the month before the war4 ,for eleven days ,i have not been with you4 ,i have had no time for eleven days to spend even an hour with you4 ,were you strong enough to hear what ,i could tell1 you would never publish it for the world2 but ,i can tell you much which you are strong enough to hear and which the world is worthy to know4 ,east winds and poison gases6 ,the very idea seems infernal1 for men die in indescribable agony from the gases borne on those winds from the ,german camps over to those camps where rational human beings wage war by human means4 ,but poison gases are demonic1 and demons ride on them4 ,i have seen them come rolling forward in droves1 their eyes aflame with hate1 their mouths horrible with rancor and triumph4 ,oh1 you safe there as yet in your native land6 could you see behind the trenches of the enemy1 could you see what lurks in the air above the camps of the enemy1 you would even pity the enemy4 ,i may tell you that many out there are stark raving mad4 ,when human beings1 invoking the powers of hate1 send such hell-fumes to choke and torture their fellow-beings1 they have ceased to be quite human4 ,i1 who see their souls1 am sick with horror4 ,it is perhaps well that you are alone now1 for ,i may tell you things which you can best endure alone4 ,were it not for the work which you have to do in future1 were it not for this work and that which is to follow1 ,i should take you out and away from the world for good1 as far as this life is concerned4 99 99 99 ,but you must endure to the end1 as ,i shall endure to the end2 for you have work to do4 ,those who say that all is well in ,germany lie in their throats1 or they are hypnotized by the lie that holds ,germany to the belief that she can conquer4 ,could hell conquer heaven all souls would be destroyed4 ,should hate conquer now the world would be broken asunder4 ,hate6 ,you know not the meaning of the word4 ,hate of ,england1 hate of ,america1 hate of ,italy6 ,the race that inspired this war is poisoned to the last molecule with hate4 ,babes imbibe it with their mothers' milk and their stomachs turn sour4 ,children see it in their parents' eyes1 and shrink away in fear of their own source4 ,no1 you know not the meaning of hate4 ,on the poison gases borne by the east wind there came across to me a demon with no eyes4 ,where did he come from8 ,from some subterranean hell where no light is1 and therefore no need for eyes4 ,could ,i draw1 ,i could make you see him2 but words were devised to express those things which are known in the experience of the race1 and no one who has seen such things has used language to describe them4 ,groping his way1 that astral monster fastened himself upon a human victim1 a prisoner in the hands of the ,french--one who had spit at his keepers in the madness of hate4 ,no1 ,i must not tell you what followed2 but the astral soul of the prisoner went out of his body and remained out4 ,this attempt to tell the world what ,i know now is like trying to play ,beethoven on a penny whistle4 ,i feel as a mathematician would feel should he set himself down to teach addition to small children4 ,i dare not tell you more than ,i do1 for you could not contain it4 ,the world is old1 and the world deemed itself wise1 and the world has come to this6 ,there are many earnest souls who desire experience in the astral world4 ,i have heard one say in your presence that a certain attack was 8only astral40 ,i listened1 and said no word4 ,do you know what the astral world is1 you who seek knowledge of it8 ,the astral world is the world of feeling1 the world of emotion1 the world of love and hate4 ,the astral world at this time is so thick with evil passions that one could cut it with a knife4 ,it is often cut with knives now1 with bayonets1 and the crowding demons suffer from contact with the steel4 8,only astral60 ,the astral world above ,new ,york1 awful as you know it to be1 is nothing to the astral world above those battlefields4 ,keep away6 ,you can do no good there4 ,if possible1 go up among the mountains and seek in the pure breath of the pine-trees healing from the poison of the astral world above ,new ,york4 ,go there and stay there until the pressure is exhausted4 ,you can do no good either where you are4 ,i can write better in the pure air of the pine woods4 ,get away from the poison fumes of unneutral ,new ,york1 for devils ride on the winds of hate1 and you are not to be destroyed by them4 ,you have work to do in the future4 ,may #bg4 ,,letter ,,xlv ,,the ,,superman ,,in one of the upper regions of the astral world--not in the region of pure mind but near it--,i met a man last night who passed to and fro with his head bowed in thought4 8,what troubles you1 friend80 ,i asked1 as ,i stood before him4 ,he paused in his restless walk and gazed at me4 8,who are you80 he enquired1 listlessly4 8,i am a ,judge10 ,i answered4 ,his eyes brightened with interest4 8,you must have come at the call of my thought10 he said1 8for ,i have need of a ,judge40 8,on whom do you wish me to pass judgment80 ,i asked1 half smiling at his strange words4 8,i would like you to pass judgment on me40 8,and your offence80 8,my offence--if it is an offence1 and on that you shall give your opinion--is having led a nation to its undoing40 8,with malice aforethought80 ,i queried4 8,with malice1 perhaps10 he answered1 8but not in the sense of your question4 ,i never believed they had spirit enough to believe me40 8,you pique my curiosity10 ,i said4 8,who are #8they8' and in what did they believe you80 8,they are the ,germans10 he answered1 8the ,germans whom ,i despised1 and they believed my theory that man becomes supreme by doing what he wills to do40 8,and the devil take the hindmost80 8,yes1 and the devil take the hindmost40 ,he bent on me his sombre eyes1 and ,i waited for his words4 8,what a folk those ,germans are60 he said4 8,whatever they do1 they do too thoroughly4 ,one cannot trust them with a great truth40 8,they do seem to have systematized you into the ground10 ,i answered4 8,i wanted to make them gods10 he complained1 8and ,i have made them devils40 8,god only can make gods10 ,i said4 8,perhaps you were too ambitious40 8,humph6 ,perhaps ,i was too confiding40 8,hermeticism is safer10 ,i suggested4 8,you told them far too much40 8,or far too little1 maybe40 8,in how many volumes80 8,go ask the librarians4 ,not the foreign ones--they bind my works in packages of salable size40 8,and how can ,i help you80 ,i asked4 8,judge me40 8,while you prosecute and defend yourself80 8,who else is fit1 either to prosecute or defend me80 8,go on with the prosecution40 8,i have corrupted a whole people1 and led them to their ruin40 8,elaborate the charge40 8,i thought to remedy their spinelessness1 and following me with characteristic thoroughness1 they have become all spine2 they have neither heart nor bowels40 8,continue10 ,i said4 8,i preached ,beyond ,man4 ,they have practised below man40 8,so far10 ,i interrupted1 8you have prosecuted them1 not yourself40 8,how can ,i charge myself without charging them80 he demanded4 8,then ,i will step down from the bench10 ,i said1 8and talk with you man to man40 8,i am glad you didn't say soul to soul40 8,oh1 man is good enough for me6 ,as ,i said before1 you were too ambitious40 8,yes1 too ambitious for man1 too sick of man1 too much in love with what man might become60 8,we have come already to the defence10 ,i said4 8,the smell of the court is still about you10 he growled4 8,you asked me to be your judge40 8,yes1 that is true40 8,i am sorry for you10 ,i said4 ,he smiled a sad and searching smile4 8,you seem to have both heart and bowels10 he observed4 8,and you have been too long alone10 ,i replied4 8,you have lost your gift of words4 ,shall ,i prosecute1 defend and judge you8 ,you can interrupt me whenever you like40 8,go on10 he assented4 8,you were born under a restless star10 ,i began4 8,you followed heroes2 they disappointed you by being men4 ,then you made self your hero1 and that disappointed you most of all40 8,you seem to know all about me40 8,that is the glory and the shame of your greatness1 that one knows all about you40 8,i deny it6 ,you do not know all about me40 8,what is it that we do not know80 8,you do not know how ,i loved man60 8,you spoke of him with contempt40 8,that he might rise to ,beyond ,man40 8,oh6 ,and drown the children on the ,lusitania1 and hack his way through ,belgium1 and turn every friend against him1 and be the curse of the planet60 ,he raised an arresting finger4 8,you are speaking of the ,germans10 he said4 8,they are the only ones who have followed your philosophy to its logical conclusion40 8,and you taunt me with that80 8,i taunt you with nothing4 ,i am stating facts4 ,it was you who taunted them--to their undoing40 8,i only preached ,beyond ,man40 8,so far beyond man that man misunderstood you40 8,is that my fault80 8,whose else80 8,not theirs80 8,not altogether theirs4 ,you hated too much4 ,you taught them to hate man40 8,i taught them to hate all that was not ,beyond ,man40 8,but man is not ,beyond ,man1 and so you taught them to hate man40 8,but they themselves are not ,beyond ,man60 8,they aspire to be4 ,you taught them to aspire to be4 ,they believed themselves ,beyond ,man1 beyond good and evil4 ,you taught chemistry to babes and sucklings1 and they have blown up the nursery of the world40 8,i wanted only to teach them40 8,you should have begun with the a-b-c40 8,and what do you think is the a-b-c of ,beyond ,man80 he asked4 8,the a is love1 the b is humility1 the c is truth10 ,i answered4 8,and why did ,i not teach them love1 humility and truth80 8,you knew not love1 humility and truth40 8,i knew not love80 8,you knew not love40 8,and ,i knew not humility80 8,your arrogance is a by-word40 8,and ,i knew not truth80 8,you knew but half the truth1 and half the truth is not truth1 as half an apple is not an apple40 8,do you think ,i taught them falsehood80 8,the supreme falsehood1 that they could be ,beyond ,man4 ,they are not ready for ,beyond ,man40 8,but man must be surpassed60 8,man must surpass himself10 ,i answered4 8,you see1 there is a difference40 8,what should ,i have taught them80 8,that ,beyond ,man is the servant of man1 not the bully and the tyrant40 8,but they would not have understood40 8,be not too sure of that4 ,some few have understood the ,son of ,man40 8,oh1 him60 8,whom you repudiated40 8,but he taught men to be slaves60 8,a good servant maketh a good master1 and he that is greatest among you let him be the servant of all40 8,oh1 if you are going to quote ,scripture--0 8,i quote the ,beyond ,man40 8,and you believe----0 8,i believe that you repudiated the only well-known example of your own ideal40 8,and you also believe----0 8,yes1 ,i also believe that you went mad because you saw too late that all your teaching was a lie4 ,i believe that you had not the courage to repudiate yourself1 and so surpass yourself2 so surpass yourself and become yourself ,beyond ,man40 8,then you think ,i knew80 8,i know that you knew4 ,i know that you had a vision of ,him1 that you saw where you yourself had failed to understand1 and that you would not acknowledge your own new understanding--which came too late40 8,you know too much10 he said4 8,you asked me to be your judge10 ,i retorted4 8,but not my executioner40 8,you have been your own executioner1 and the executioner of your people40 8,my people60 ,his tone was scornful4 8,did ,i not say that you had no love80 ,i demanded4 8,and what do you now bid me do80 8,go back to the earth1 and teach mankind how man can surpass himself4 ,go back to the earth1 and teach men to follow the carpenter's ,son whom you taught them to despise4 ,go back to ,germany1 and repudiate yourself40 8,and how shall ,i go back80 8,in another body1 of course1 a clean and wholesome body1 which you are to keep clean40 8,what do you mean80 8,you know very well what ,i mean6 ,i have told you that you had no love4 ,you had only fastidiousness1 and arrogance1 and the desire for sensation40 8,you have set me a hard task10 he said4 8,eternity is long10 ,i replied1 8and the new ,germany will have need of your new teaching40 8,shall ,i thank you80 he asked4 8,there is no need4 ,it is ,i who thank you for not appealing from my decision40 8,good night10 he said4 8,good night10 ,i repeated4 ,and the soul of ,friedrich ,nietzsche passed on4 ,was it toward the gate of rebirth8 ,june #a4 ,,letter ,,xlvi ,,the ,,entering ,,wedge ,,after our writing of last night1 in which ,i told you of the tortured soul who asked my judgment on a course of teaching which had corrupted a nation1 ,i went back to the battle line in ,france4 7,the ,germans cannot sink me with their torpedoes47 ,passing slowly along on the ,german side1 ,i saw again the tall majestic form1 dark-veiled about the head1 which ,i described to you in a previous letter4 ,this time ,i hailed him1 without waiting for him to hail me4 8,how goes your work80 ,i asked4 ,he threw back the veil which covered him1 and ,i saw the dark and splendid face1 marked deep by thought and evil4 8,my work goes as it goes10 he answered4 8,and what have you been doing80 8,writing to the world this evening10 ,i replied4 ,he laughed4 8,have you been writing about peace80 8,not this time4 ,i have been writing about a conversation ,i had with a great and troubled soul40 8,yes1 ,i know40 8,you know1 do you8 ,were you listening80 8,through my long-distance telephone40 8,brilliant invention1 the telephone10 ,i observed4 8,did you inspire the invention80 8,i8 ,oh1 no6 ,i worked against it40 8,and why80 8,it is not well that man should know too much40 8,but when man makes discoveries1 notwithstanding your efforts to hinder him1 you attempt to use those discoveries against him1 do you not80 8,of course40 8,you interest me10 ,i said4 8,and were you interested by my conversation with the soul of ,friedrich ,nietzsche80 8,more interested than you can imagine1 until ,i tell you why40 8,and you will tell me why80 8,there is no reason for my not telling you4 ,i am frank with those who see through me40 8,why don't you teach that to the ,germans80 8,because it would spoil my game4 ,i want to destroy them after ,i have used them1 and if they should turn frank1 they would be so thorough in their frankness that they would disarm the indignant world40 8,they are frank enough in their brutality10 ,i said4 8,oh1 yes6 ,but that is another matter4 ,should they be frank in their repentance1 the world would forgive them40 8,but what of ,nietzsche80 ,i questioned4 8,only this1 that it was ,i who inspired him40 8,you did your work thoroughly40 8,i do my work as thoroughly as it can be done40 8,tell me more10 ,i urged4 8,what a worker was lost in you10 he exclaimed1 8when you chose good for your standard60 8,but ,i am an excellent worker10 ,i insisted4 8,i have even balked some of your work40 ,he laughed1 a quick1 sharp laugh4 8,don't think that ,i care too much for that10 he said4 8,there is more than one road for me4 ,if you block the door1 ,i can go in by the window40 8,and how did you go in to ,nietzsche80 8,sometimes by one way1 sometimes by another4 ,he only locked his door against man1 and you see ,i also am ,beyond ,man40 8,i perceived that at our first meeting4 ,he who goes beyond man must make the choice between good and evil40 8,there is no fooling you10 he said1 8and so ,i no longer try4 ,yes1 it was ,i who inspired ,nietzsche to preach ,beyond ,man to the ,germans1 who could only choose evil when they believed themselves strong40 8,and what do you get out of it80 ,for answer1 he asked a question3 8,did you ever play chess80 8,often1 in many lives10 ,i answered4 8,did you have an interest in the game80 8,a great interest40 8,did you play for stakes80 8,no40 8,then what interested you80 8,why1 the game40 8,of course10 he said4 8,that is how ,i enjoy my game4 ,i play to win1 if ,i can4 ,when ,i do not win1 ,i have had the pleasure of the game40 8,and you played with that great man's soul80 8,as a cat plays with a mouse4 ,i found in him an earnest spirit1 with a sore spot in his head and in his heart4 ,he was an easy one40 8,how did you go about it80 8,by the usual method40 8,and that is80 8,flattery40 8,and he did not smell a rat80 8,the rats were perfumed4 ,he is an aesthete40 8,do you always perfume the rats80 8,it isn't always necessary4 ,i perfumed yours40 8,yes10 ,i said1 8with the patchouli of peace4 ,but ,i have a keen scent40 8,yes1 the ,others have taught you too well40 8,did ,nietzsche ever see you as ,i see you80 8,he saw my distinguished face1 and he felt the thrill of my power1 and he envied and desired to be like me4 ,it is great sport when these earnest mortals are ambitious to emulate me60 8,and so you taught him ,beyond ,man80 8,yes1 and ,i taught him to despise the ,one who was really ,beyond ,man40 8,then you are not really ,beyond ,man yourself80 8,my head is4 ,my other members are nearer the earth40 8,notwithstanding the dignity of your presence80 8,oh1 there is a dignity in the earth and in what belongs to the earth60 8,did the ,german philosopher ever know you for what you are80 8,yes1 toward the end1 but then it was too late to undo my work40 8,then also at the end10 ,i exclaimed1 8he saw the two forms of ,beyond ,man1 you and the ,christ60 8,yes1 he saw4 ,the seeing drove him mad40 8,and you have no remorse for your work80 8,remorse8 ,what is that80 8,remorse is an emotion which men feel when they are conscious of having done evil40 8,an emotion that men feel10 he repeated4 8,but ,i only feel those emotions of men which give me pleasure in the feeling40 8,such as----0 8,you are really too curious and inquisitive60 8,granted1 my curiosity and my inquisitiveness10 ,i said4 8,but it interests me1 this labor of a lifetime1 a man's lifetime1 to make him an instrument through which all this could be produced10 and ,i indicated by a gesture the battle line beneath us4 ,his eyes were brilliant with fire as he answered3 8,what is the lifetime of a man in comparison to the glory of all this8 ,one might labor a thousand years and produce nothing in comparison with this60 8,it pleases you then1 this slaughter80 8,what a trifling question6 ,it gratifies me1 glorifies me1 exalts me--all this carnage of battle brought forth by me and my kind40 8,and did you have all this in mind while you were preparing one man to corrupt a nation by his writings80 8,yes4 ,he was the one perfect instrument4 ,none other could have served our purpose so well--ambitious1 dissatisfied1 aristocratic1 arrogant1 unloving in the broader sense1 capable of infatuation and hence of disenchantment1 and last but not least1 with eyes open to the vision40 8,the vision of you80 8,yes4 ,he saw me first in dreams1 and admired me1 and desired to emulate me40 8,and then you spoke to him of ,beyond ,man80 8,yes1 and ,i used the old arguments that women were of small account2 that the love of woman stood in man's way2 that woman enslaved man unless he enslaved her2 that ,nature was the devil1 not the ,great ,mother1 and so was to be combatted as far as possible2 that man rose to ,beyond ,man by denying all that could influence him1 including ,nature1 and by asserting whatever gave him freedom1 such as his own superiority to all other beings1 his mastery of them1 his mastery of his own thought1 his mastery of good and evil1 of fact and falsehood40 8,a fine combination of fact and falsehood1 that teaching of yours10 ,i said4 8,of course10 he answered2 8but what would you8 ,truth alone could never have produced this40 ,and he swept with his long arm the line of battle beneath us4 8,and what else did you teach your chosen disciple80 ,i asked4 8,i taught him all that he taught the world4 ,whenever he drove a woman's face from his heart1 ,i scored a point and he thought himself nearer ,beyond ,man4 ,whenever he swelled with pride and superiority1 ,i scored a point and he felt himself nearer ,beyond ,man4 ,whenever he read the ,gospels and sneered to himself at the humility of the so-called ,son of ,man1 ,i scored two points--one against him and one against your ,christ40 8,thank you10 ,i said1 8for enrolling me with the followers of the ,crucified ,one4 ,i am such a follower40 ,he ignored my last remark1 and proceeded3 8,i encouraged his wish to produce a new ideal of a leader1 a new ,christ1 an ,antichrist1 a hard-faced ,german ,christ1 who should not win men by love and compassion1 but by cruelty and hardening4 ,oh1 ,i have done that work well6 ,many a ,german has exalted my ideal to the place of the ,son of ,mary4 ,many a ,german has put me in place of the ,sun-,god1 and hailed me as ,beyond ,man1 though he was too cowardly to hail me frankly as ,antichrist4 ,instead1 he added my attributes to ,christ and called us by one name1 and by that name he sought to destroy all pity and compassion1 both in himself and in others1 sought to destroy all love that stood in the way of his becoming like me4 ,it was ,i who taught him to exalt the cross as a symbol of cruelty1 of sacrifice to himself1 and not of himself for the love of man40 ,he paused1 and gazed out toward the stars that shone serenely above us4 8,you seem to me10 ,i said1 8to be yourself conscious of the superiority of ,christ to ,antichrist40 ,again he ignored my remark1 and continued the line of his own thought4 8,what intellectual pleasure it has given me1 this transforming of a ,christian nation into monsters of egotism and cruelty to all things not their own6 ,the foreigner was to be hated1 despised1 used1 ridiculed1 and whenever possible insulted4 ,i taught them that such were the ways of ,beyond ,man1 that so was man surpassed40 8,but why do you tell all this to me80 ,i asked4 8,why do you thus lay your cards upon the table1 when you know that ,i hold a better hand80 ,the eyes he turned to me were smouldering lakes of flame4 8,because ,i envy you10 he said4 8,is that some new and more subtle attack upon me and the principles ,i stand for80 ,the dark one laughed again1 his sharp and mirthless laughter4 8,frankly1 no10 he said4 8,you no longer amuse me as an opponent40 8,which means----0 8,that ,i throw up the game in weariness--this is1 for the present4 ,already the souls ,i deluded are weary of me and my teaching4 ,they have seen a new light--some of them40 8,perhaps10 ,i said1 8they have seen the light of the ,christ1 the true ,beyond ,man40 8,perhaps10 he repeated4 8,and have you seen it1 too80 8,faugh60 he said4 8,are you ambitious to convert the devil80 8,ah1 no60 ,suddenly he turned to me3 8,will you take me for a pupil80 8,again1 no10 ,i answered4 8,you will make that request of some good woman1 with a better chance of deceiving her40 8,so you know all the tricks80 8,my ,teacher has taught me much regarding the ways of your kind40 8,then ,i bid you good evening10 he said1 and disappeared in the darkness4 ,world for which ,i write1 ,i am telling you these things that you may be armored with knowledge4 ,when ,satan asks you to convert him1 beware lest he convert you4 ,when ,satan points to ,beyond ,man1 even to ,christ1 be sure that his ,christ is not ,antichrist2 be sure ,he is full of compassion1 that ,his heart bleeds for the woes and weakness of the world1 that ,his crown of thorns is the mark of ,his sacrifice for man1 and not merely a becoming ornament4 ,for1 as ,he said3 8,by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples1 if ye have love one to another40 ,and also3 8,take heed that no man deceive you4 ,for many shall come in my name1 saying1 ,i am ,christ1 and shall deceive many1 99 99 99 for there shall arise false ,christs1 and false prophets1 and shall show great signs and wonders1 insomuch that1 if it were possible1 they shall deceive the very elect40 ,june #b4 ,,letter ,,xlvii ,,the ,,new ,,brotherhood ,i ,,want to speak of the new race1 the coming race4 ,the world is big with child1 and the present generation will look with wonder into the clear eyes of the infant that shall redeem its parent4 ,pin your faith to the standard of the new race1 work for it1 make the garments that it shall wear1 and be ready for its coming4 ,already you are in touch with those who will help in its training1 who will be its teachers and guides4 ,give yourself also to the ,great ,work that is planned for ,america in the coming days4 ,no1 you need not spend all your time there2 but do not remain away too long4 ,come and go1 that going away you may receive new impressions1 and that coming back you may bring the romance of older lands to entertain and inspire the new land4 ,but be ever loyal to the new4 ,in the untrodden wilderness of ,america there is strength that shall renew you from time to time4 ,the cities of ,america will be redeemed by the wilderness4 ,the cities are too worldly4 ,they have forgotten ,god4 ,in the open air1 under the open sky1 the message may be received by the awakened soul4 ,send the children out to the wilderness to drink from the uncontaminated springs4 ,the water that flows through lead pipes may refresh the body2 but the water of mountain springs refreshes the soul4 ,behind the veil of ,nature is the face of the ,great ,mother1 and though she does not always smile1 yet her eyes are full of dreams and mysteries4 ,nature is not the devil4 ,the devil is ever at war with ,nature4 ,nature is ,isis1 the ,mother4 ,do not listen to the blasphemers4 ,they have confused the offices of ,isis and of ,typhon4 ,it is ,isis1 ,nature1 which shall bring forth ,horus4 ,go back to ,nature and ask her for her message4 ,she waits in the silence of the woods1 and the voice of the brook is her whisper2 when the wind stirs in the trees it is the rustling of her garments4 ,the ,mother is coming1 ,o children of the new race6 ,in her arms you shall know refreshing rest1 and in her eyes shall you read the love that knows no selfishness1 the bliss of self-giving4 ,too long have you dwelt in cities1 forgetting the ,mother who bore you4 ,too long have you lived without the magnetism of the kind earth in contact with your naked feet4 ,too long have you trodden the dead1 stony and unmagnetic streets1 that take from you but give nothing4 ,go back to the woods and the streams4 ,read your destiny in the eyes of the stars themselves--not merely on a printed chart4 ,jupiter has a message for you which he will give only face to face1 and so has the gentle ,venus and the eager ,mars4 ,go to them for your lessons1 in the quiet of the hill-top alone with the ,mother4 ,do not set up your temple in the market-place4 ,let your cathedral be the aisles of the forest4 ,go to the city when you must1 for it is always well to know the opposite4 ,the cathedral is stiller after the voice of the mart4 ,give honor where honor is due1 to those who have led the children forth to learn the mysteries of the primeval life4 ,you grown-ups are only taller children4 ,dance in a ring round the mulberry bush or round the camp-fire4 ,in the smell of burning wood the visions may come1 as ,i wrote you once before of your wood-fires in ,paris4 ,but what is a wood-fire in a ,paris grate compared with a camp-fire in the woods8 ,yes1 ,i was there the other night1 on the outskirts of the gathering1 and ,i enjoyed it1 too4 ,my greetings to the ,chief6 ,the salvation of ,america lies in this wild-wood movement4 ,movement6 ,well may you call it that4 ,it is stirred by the very forces of the earth herself2 it is inspired by the race-spirit2 it will go on and on1 in ever-widening circles4 ,whoever puts a stone in the way of this work will stumble over it himself4 ,whoever brings ,satanism into this movement will be devoured by the demonic forces4 ,there will not be enough left of him to grease two sticks for the camp-fire4 ,rest you in peace4 ,we watch1 and with us the souls of all the thousands and tens of thousands and millions of native ,americans1 who cannot go on to their rest until they have passed on the torch of the ,nature mysteries that were their heritage from their remote ancestors4 ,they may be despised by those who despoiled them2 but their forgiveness shall redeem you1 ,o ,america of the new race6 ,do you not know that many of those who made their escape into the rest of the 8happy hunting ground0 are already coming back to incarnation in the land they loved before8 ,look at the high cheek-bones of many of the children1 look at the eagle eyes and the straight taut forms4 ,o ,america1 you did a great wrong once in the pursuit of your destiny6 ,yes1 you did4 ,now strive to atone4 ,let the reincarnated red children play in the wild woods1 teach them the old code of honor and courage1 and they will work hand in hand with the reincarnated souls that came by way of ,europe1 hand in hand shall they stand together in the ,woodcraft ,brotherhood4 ,my salutations to the ,chief6 ,july #i4 ,,letter ,,xlviii ,,in ,,the ,,crucible ,i ,,am still profoundly interested in the land that gave me birth4 ,there are dark days ahead for her1 and the great soul of ,abraham ,lincoln is very near to the helm of ,state at this moment1 when peace and war hang in the balance and the action of a day may decide the question4 ,no irreparable injury must overtake this land4 ,it is the great pioneer of race freedom4 ,as ,i told you months ago1 one of ,america's hands threatens the other1 and both threaten the whole body4 ,may she keep peace so long as she can have peace with honor6 ,but if the dark day comes1 may she face it with squared shoulders2 and if her foes be also those of her own household1 it will not be the first time4 ,a man once prayed to be saved from his friends1 declaring that he could deal with his enemies himself4 ,the stillness of the ,germans in ,america at this moment is potent with danger4 ,if the hour comes when drastic action is necessary1 they should be invited to return into the fold of their naturalization1 and those who refuse should be dealt with severely1 even to deportation4 ,there yet remains one country which might receive them for transportation to that ,fatherland they left--in quest of the freedom which they have now abused and betrayed4 ,the world is in the crucible1 and ,satan is in the laboratory with all his cohorts4 ,our labor is to stand4 ,it is not always easy to stand steady4 ,be calm1 and trust in the ,motherland that shall yet give birth to the new race1 the synthesis of races4 ,,letter ,,xlix ,,black ,,magic ,,in ,,america ,,you have seen pretty clearly the methods employed by the evil forces to balk progress1 to destroy the work of centuries1 to destroy the workers for the future1 and to frighten away those who seek to interfere with this maliciousness4 ,notice that none of this is constructive work4 ,it is all destructive1 all tearing down4 ,wars of construction have been engineered by angels2 but this is not a war of construction4 ,now let me tell you a few of the things against which the new race in ,america will have to guard itself4 ,as always where the forces of progress are strong1 the opposition is strong4 ,i have written enough about the good influences of this new birth2 but ,i want to give a few warnings1 to analyze a few influences which are of a destructive character4 ,there is developing in ,america a great group of people who seek to gain control of the desire-nature and the will of others1 that they may use them for their own purposes4 ,these people are not all in one place1 they are not organized into one body but into many bodies1 and some of them are working quite independently4 ,but in the astral world1 and in the language of us who work in that world1 they are known as a 8group40 ,they teach to those who will pay them1 either in money or in service1 certain rules for controlling the mind of self and of others4 ,they teach the rudiments of astral knowledge to the many1 and they teach more advanced principles to the few4 ,some of their teachings are true1 some of their teachings are false2 but there are few among them who undertake any real discipline of character with their students4 ,as one profound teacher has said1 for every step in psychic development1 three steps should be taken in the development of character4 ,i need not name those who are most criminally active in teaching the formulas of black magic to men and women who are utterly unfit to be trusted with that knowledge4 ,the question will naturally arise in the mind of the reader1 ,what is black magic8 ,i think ,i have given a similar definition before1 but you may restate it thus3 ,black magic is an attempt to gain control over the will or the astral or the mind of one's fellows1 through means other than the normal physical or the legitimate mental influence by word or pen2 be it through the use of the elementals of nature1 artificial elementals1 or one's own mental or elemental nature4 ,black magic may be deliberately used to influence1 or black magic may be deliberately used to injure2 and its votaries often employ the substances of the body of the victim1 through which to gain sympathetic control of his astral and etheric nature4 ,i want to say to those who think it smart or amusing to fool with these things3 ,beware of any man or of any woman who by normal or abnormal means seeks to get possession of the fluids of your body1 especially the blood and the other vital fluids4 ,i shall not go into detail here4 ,those who accept my warning owe me no thanks2 those who disregard my warning do so at their own peril4 ,it gives me no amusement thus to thrust myself between the evil forces and their victims4 ,by so doing ,i draw down upon myself the rage of those forces that ,i thwart so far as ,i can4 ,be it so6 ,i am competent to deal with them4 ,and ,i want here to notify anyone who thinks to destroy my work1 or to destroy those who with self-abnegation and selfless courage are helping me in the work of trying to save my country from the forces of hell which are now ravaging ,europe--,i want to notify any evil magician who is interested in this matter1 that if he gets in the way of my resolve it will be he who will suffer and not ,i4 ,the ring which ,i and the ,masters behind me draw round our workers can be passed with evil intent only at the peril of the one who passes4 ,this is no threat to use evil magic4 ,we do not use evil magic4 ,but we know how to deflect a malicious current from its chosen victim1 so that it returns with overwhelming force upon its own source4 ,and ,i also want to say to those who in their ignorance or wantonness allow themselves to be used as catspaws to draw the devil's chestnuts from the fire1 that fire will burn1 and that the devil's hot chestnuts stick to the fingers4 ,this is an unpleasant subject4 ,i will now leave it4 ,let me talk to those who are ignorant of these matters1 and most people are ignorant--even those who have 8studied psychism40 ,many an innocent 7or half-innocent7 soul has been driven nearly insane by the pressure of the evil thoughts of others1 by the will-driven thoughts of others4 ,let me advise such not further to weaken themselves by fear1 but to strengthen themselves by prayer4 ,i have said that there is a god and a devil in every one of you4 ,turn to the god for protection from the devil4 ,if there were no devil in you1 the devils of others could not harm you4 ,remember that4 ,set your own devil to serve your own god4 ,if you want to use signs and symbols1 meditate on the cross of ,christ4 ,the cross of ,christ is profound enough for a lifetime's meditation4 ,do not use evil magic to protect yourself against evil magic4 ,call on the god within to send evil back to its source4 ,protect yourself before sleep by prayer to your god for protection4 ,the evil workers can sometimes reach your soul in sleep when they cannot reach you while awake4 ,the child's prayer1 8,now ,i lay me down to sleep1 ,i pray the ,lord my soul to keep10 is more potent than a magician's spells4 ,childish1 you say8 ,yes1 but ,i am writing now for those who are children in these things1 be they seven or seventy4 ,of all countries on earth1 ,america is the most abysmally ignorant of the dangers of evil magic4 ,be willing to be children until you acquire adult knowledge of these subjects4 8,i am in no danger1 for ,i understand these things10 is often said with self-gratulation by these who are in the very grip of the evil forces4 ,truly1 a little knowledge is a dangerous thing4 ,if you want an added protection1 my children1 guard your own evil passions and resentful thoughts1 your jealous emotions and unkind criticism of others4 ,the devils ride on waves of anger and resentment4 ,beware also of temptations1 remembering that young souls are tempted through their faults1 greater souls through their virtues4 ,be not deceived into saying there is no evil4 ,evil is--so long as good is4 8,beyond good and evil0 is a state to which few of you can aspire1 and you have no conception of it4 ,but 8beyond good and evil0 is a mighty slogan for the temptation and bewilderment of vain souls4 ,when you are really beyond good and evil you will not gossip about your neighbors1 nor envy them their charm or their possessions1 nor try to use them for your own ends1 nor worry lest some evil person shall do you harm1 nor twist your faults till they seem virtues1 nor deceive yourself as to your motives4 ,examine yourselves1 my children4 ,look for your faults4 ,if you can find no fault in yourself1 hang your harp on the nearest willow1 for your progress is at an end4 ,man progresses through recognizing his faults1 through transmuting them and transcending them4 ,if you are perfect1 this world is no place for you4 8,beyond good and evil10 indeed6 ,judge not1 that ye be not judged4 ,but do not flirt with the devil to prove that you judge him not4 ,yes1 all men are your brothers1 even bad men4 ,attend to your own affairs1 and leave the issue with ,god4 ,this much to you1 dear children of the world1 from my vantage place above your passions4 ,july #be4 ,,letter ,l ,,things ,,to ,,remember ,,that the contents of this book may become the possession of those who want it1 ,i will now bring it to a close4 ,one might go on writing forever about the astral incidents of this war1 and not exhaust the subject4 ,what ,i have been able to give is a mere sketch1 a few incidents1 a few suggestions4 ,these things1 however1 bear in mind3 ,that there are angels as well as devils in the neighborhood of the battlefields4 ,that those who see the war from above see causes as well as effects1 and from those causes can draw sane conclusions based on a richer fund of data than that available to the men of earth4 ,that war1 like everything else1 has its rhythms4 ,do not be discouraged when the pressure of battle bears heavily on the side that you call yours4 ,if your side went forward too quickly1 you would need to look for a violent reaction1 as in the retreat from the outskirts of ,paris4 ,that though evil is a necessity so long as good exists1 though evil is the other pole of the magnet1 yet it is the duty of those who desire to walk the ,white ,road ever to do battle for the right4 ,and this is no repudiation of the saying of the ,christ1 8,resist not evil40 ,a paradox1 you say8 ,great wisdom is locked in paradoxes1 for those who have the key4 ,the existence of evil gives greater strength to good4 ,this is the ,kali ,yuga1 as the ,hindoos say4 ,that this war is an attempt of the personal evil forces to destroy mankind4 ,a former attempt was made in ,europe before the so-called ,dark ,ages1 but the ,renaissance followed and restored the balance4 ,that man has in himself both the ,christ principle and the demonic principle2 that will is free1 and that man can make his choice between them4 ,that new races are born of revolutions and wars4 ,he that hath ears to hear1 let him hear4 ,that though ,i may have a wider sight than you1 ,i do not know everything4 ,i draw conclusions from premises1 the same as you do4 ,i predict the probable effects of causes known to me2 but a sudden irruption of free and erratic will sets up a new cause1 and my calculation has to be made afresh4 ,my predictions are not the result of divine omniscience4 ,i see further than you1 that is all4 ,my logic may be no better than yours4 ,for instance1 when we drove back the forces of evil during the early months of the war1 ,i forgot the ,law of ,rhythm that would enable them to roll forward again when they had generated another supply of strength4 ,even devils generate their own strength4 ,yes1 they too are ,units of ,force1 and must be figured on as such4 ,i shall not make that mistake again4 ,my ,teacher1 who stands beside me at this moment1 directs me to say that even the ,masters do not know everything4 ,as my vision is wider than yours1 so their vision is wider than mine2 but they cannot always see what goes on in the farthest stars4 ,they invite you to become like them2 but they know that you are held by rhythmic law1 and that for every two steps you take toward them1 you will fall back at least one step4 ,that you do not fall back two steps is because of your free will1 and because of that greater rhythm which urges mankind to the flood-tide4 ,each achievement is a ripple in a larger wave which you cannot always see4 ,i have been requested to write further of my ,teacher1 but my ,teacher wishes to remain in the background4 ,i may tell you this1 however1 ,o world6 my ,teacher still has a physical body and walks the earth as a man4 ,he works in both the material and the astral worlds1 and in higher worlds beyond them1 and the purposes of his life are outside your comprehension4 ,he is a servant of the ,law1 and his joy is in working with the ,law4 ,the ,black ,masters1 for there are ,black ,masters1 work against the ,law4 ,i have told you of my conversations with one of them1 and have given you a hint as to his methods4 ,when you are strong1 you need not fear the ,black ,masters4 ,you may pass the time of day with them1 as ,i do4 ,they are far more afraid of me than ,i am of them4 ,i do not go out of my way if ,i see one coming4 ,i find them rather diverting1 though ,i recognize the tragedy of their lot4 ,they fill a terrible office1 which must be filled1 and their sufferings are great4 ,they are the erring brothers of the ,white ,masters4 ,in the beginning they were trained in the same school2 but the great 8moment of choice0 came1 and the evil ones separated themselves from their source4 ,the ,white ,masters do not seek to destroy them1 knowing that in the end they will destroy themselves4 ,why waste effort in striving to hurry the sunset8 ,do not let the black ,masters and their servants mislead you1 and avoid them if you can until you are stronger than they4 ,but when you are stronger than they1 you have nothing to fear from them4 ,when they cannot affect you directly1 they strive to affect you through those you love4 ,be at peace4 ,you are not your brother's keeper4 ,if your brother delights in the devil1 let him have the pleasure of his preference4 ,will is free4 ,give testimony of the truth that is in you2 but do not attempt to muzzle the hounds that bay the summons to the witches' sabbath4 ,enter the ,holy ,temple and shut the door2 then invoke the angels4 ,the baying of the hounds cannot drown the music of the angel voices4 ,be still1 and know that ,god is ,god4 ,a great day is dawning for ,america--after a time of trial4 ,the sun will rise from behind a bank of clouds2 but in the freshness of the dawn much labor will be done for the new race1 and for the ,brotherhood of races4 ,all over ,america movements will be started for the training and perfecting of mankind4 ,give them your help1 for thus you will be working with the ,law4 ,thus you will be learning the first lessons in the school of the ,white ,masters1 whose watchword is ,service4 ,though ,i am not going far away this time1 yet ,i leave you my blessing1 ,o world that ,i have labored and suffered for--far more than you know during the last hard year4 ,and ,i want to thank the world for its great interest in my former book1 8,letters from a ,living ,dead ,man40 ,yes1 ,i am living still1 and am far more alive than when ,i wrote for you before4 ,little by little ,i am growing into an intensity of life which ,i could not have imagined when ,i walked the earth as a man among men4 ,in these ,war ,letters from the other world ,i have tried to give you glimpses of that intenser life which ,i lead now1 after my return from the journey among the stars4 ,i had thought to tell you of that journey when ,i should return again2 but the story would not have been so instructive at the present time as this story of the war in the astral world4 ,for you are nearer the astral world than you are to the stars1 and until you learn the a-b-c you cannot read and understand romances4 ,i am only a humble servant of the ,law1 a learner in the school of those who are wiser than ,i4 ,to get1 ,i must give4 ,to learn1 ,i must teach4 ,to go forward1 ,i must try to bring you forward with me4 ,it has seemed to me that what the world needed most at the present time was a knowledge of the mysteries behind this war4 ,i have been an unseen soldier in this war1 in which ,i have received many a wound4 ,i have had my nights of vigil and my days of labor2 but they have given me a strength that ,i could not otherwise have gained4 ,i am strong because ,i have served4 ,serve you1 and the reward will come in due season6 ,i am going to rest now for a little while1 because ,i have another service to perform in the near future4 ,i shall not go far away4 8,x40 ,july #bh1 #aiae4 ,,the ,,end4 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes ,simple typographical errors have been silently corrected2 unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious1 and otherwise left unbalanced4 ,punctuation1 hyphenation1 and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book2 otherwise they were not changed4