FIFTH
LESSON.
THE REUNITED SOUL.
INCLUDING PARENTAL SOULS,
AND KINDRED SOULS.
Not alone is any Soul pushed out of the Celestial
Heavens, out of the whiteness of the throne of God, to seek expression
in material life. Even as the mother bird gently pushes her young from
the parent nest that they may learn to fly, but ever hovers near and hovers
beneath, spreading her wings to catch them if they fall, so the Infinite
Mother Love watcheth the fledglings of the skies.
Not alone do Souls approach the earth. In all
manifestations of nature there are association and groupings; atoms arranged
in duads, triads, quadrads and quintads; the flora and fauna in species
and families. So groups of Souls pass from the Celestial State toward a
solar system for expression. Archangels and Angels, of degrees adapted
to the states of expression intended, accompanying them.
In groups of one hundred and forty-four thousand
come Souls under charge of an Archangel. This is a Kabalistic and Messianic
number, is referred to in the vision of the Apocalypse in the New Testament;
it here refers to such Souls as approach the earth (or any planet) at any
given time for expression. Other groups, of Souls each numbering one hundred
and forty-four thousand approach the earth, until all are embodied that
the planet can ever perfect in its expression. This largest group is divided
into smaller ones, the two smallest numbering one hundred and forty-four
Souls, and twelve Souls, respectively. The group of twelve is called a
Family of Kindred Souls, and is in charge of a Parental Soul; i.e., a Soul
having passed through the degrees of earthly expression and being, therefore
one of its angels.
The number twelve is the mystical number, the
sacred number of the ancients. The larger number, one hundred and fortv-four,
twelve times twelve, expresses also a mystical meaning, and has relation
to the Twelve Angels, who, grouped in the angelic state, have charge of
the twelve groups of Souls. One hundred and forty-four thousand constitute
all that come in a certain period of time and begin, approximately, their
lives together on the earth. One of these groups are those who first approach
the earth and form what is called the " primal nation," the beginning.
These take their primary lessons and pass on through the different steps
of this life, taking the same steps at the same time, though scattered
far and wide upon the earth.
The indications of the relations of the groups
is made manifest in the first nations of the earth, where tribes and nationalities
held sway according to their physical states, and there the indications
are very strong. The tribal rules of the primal nations, the absolute sway
of the patriarchal form of government prove that the idea of the parental
Soul was recognized, that the one who has charge of the tribe is considered
the superior. Sometimes this parental rule is represented by both
man and woman. This patriarchal rule, and the harmony of the tribe and
family, existing among primal nations, is like the innocence of childhood,
and is soon disturbed by the material selfishness that follows.
There are periods of peace in the primal conditions
of the nations of the earth; after that there are discord, striving, and
warfare; the groups of Souls then have become dispersed into different
nationalities; the members of the same nation are no longer kindred, they
quarrel in the same household. The typical Cain and Abel of Scripture are
the typical aliens in the same household, not being kindred in Soul, expressing
different stages of growth in connection with earth. These aliens are to
be found in almost every household in any society or community. But for
these illustrations, and the true causes, of them, there never could have
been wars among the nations, and families of earth. Souls become separated,
they are no longer nations, of the life of the Soul, but nations of the
body.
The foregoing explains why the ties of relationship
and the ties of consanguinity in the lower orders of human life are much
stronger than they are in the intervening states, between the lower and
higher orders, because the ties of consanguinity are the physical expression
of what is termed affection. The first beginnings of strife are after the
dispersion of the primal household or nation, and before the higher or
spiritual recognition begins. The kindred Souls have become dispersed and
only gradually, with occasional glimpses and vivid flashes, do they come
together in the same household or nation. They do notusually meet until
in later embodiments when there are great crises or culminating periods
on the earth.
Illustrations of these groups of kindred Souls,
and their recognition, are upon the earth now in great numbers, and are
to be found in every period of human history. When you see, in different
portions of the earth, lives spring up suddenly, with natures that resemble
one another, similar in thought, alike in purpose, having corresponding
sympathy, you may know they are kindred Souls, and yet they may have never
met in their earthly forms. There are those who appear and act together
in emergencies. Take, for instance, bodies of reform ers or groups of people
who are intent on carrying forward art or science; musical, artistic, scientific,
patriotic lives, who are as brothers and sisters, yet do not belong to
the same earthly parents.
It has been observed by thoughtful minds very
frequently, that poets and painters exist in certain countries and ages
in groups. What constellations clustered around a certain period of time
in Italy; the Preraphaelite period, leading up to the wonderful age of
art when there seemed to be poured out a new spirit upon the earth, an
age created by the group of geniuses that clustered around imperial Rome.
Then followed the Renaissance. In poetry also there was the Grecian age;
afterward was the Dantean age, and later the Elizabethan age of poetry
and literature; all these ages are so named because of the constellations
of minds that seemed born for the same epoch, and created the art, or literature,
of their period. Who other than a group of kindred Souls could have thrilled
Germany with such light as finally clustered around Goethe and Schiller
in the small court at Weimar?
When any great movement is in the world, like
temperance, like the abolition of slavery, like anything that enlists the
attention of philanthropists, there spring to the surface workers in that
movement, seemingly already prepared though they dwell in different lands.
Around the Reformation there clustered a certain galaxy of minds that seemed
to have been made ready for the occasion and the work; were one in the
fraternity of the Soul.
In the matters of scientific discovery or invention
it usually occurs that more than one mind, perhaps several, make the discovery
or invention at the same time, and there is scarcely any nation that does
not claim for her favorite scientific mind the honor of each discovery,
proving that many think in the same direction at the same time. Each is
as much the author of the discovery as any other, but the friends of each
frequently have accused the others of plagiarism in ideas; in most cases
this refutes itself, since none could know of the experiments leadingto
the discovery of the others. In the time of a great intellectual epoch,
like the period of the Platonists, there are those who are ready to rally
around and receive the central thought. The teacher, like Socrates or Plato,
represents the center of the group. The household or children of any particular
light rally around their center as there are others who gather around other
centers, of art, science, philosophy, or religion; all in these groups
are more closely united than those who are simply united by the ties of
consanguinity, each recognizes that theirs is a larger brotherhood.
These fraternities are observable in advanced
states of human society not in the lower states, as said before, because
of the selfishness in external things that intervenes. In the higher states,
when great themes or purposes enlist humanity, you will observe that there
is a spontaneous fraternity formed among certain people for working out
great moral purposes. This is why there are groups of reformers, groups
of men of science, groups of artists. What greater evidence of these groups
of Souls could be offered than that afforded in the high state of art revealed
in the geniuses who gathered around the period of time when Raphael was
upon the earth? What greater evidence than when the poets of England followed
one another in quick succession, and when they passed on left the earth
almost bare and barren of poesy until a new generation of poets came into
the world? What greater evidence than in the patriots, heroes, and statesmen,
who rise with wonderful power of pen, or sword, or voice to fight for country?
what greater evidence than Italy; than Hungary; than Europe to-day, where
not only individual groups, but constellations of groups, seem to rally
around the great movements that are upon earth?
Even in ordinary states of earth-life, how easy
it is among the multitude of people, if formality is withdrawn, to discover
the attractions of each: artist seeks artist, poet seeks poet, the musician
seeks his fellow harmonist, the convivial seeks one of his kind, men of
trade and commerce confer together, and the butterflies, who hover near
the gaudy blossoms of fashion and pleasure, are found at the shrine of
their worship.
Frequently people in different stations in life
associate mysteriously together. Sometimes a prince of royal blood finds
his chosen companion in a peasant. The court, society, and all the world
are scandalized, but the prince, in some subtle way, recognizes the fact
that there is more spiritual sympathy and kinship between the peasant and
himself than between himself and a whole line of his royal kinsmen. This
kind of illustration extends in many ways into lines of thought that
are most fascinating; sometimes in reading a book one will recognize a
kindred Soul in the author, although unknown in person.
If one were on the plane of Carlyle, but had never
seen him, and if in perusing his works his sentiments would impress one
more than any other writer, this would prove a kinship. If one understands
another person and sympathizes with each aspiration, it is always evidence
that they belong to the same family of Souls. One often meets with strangers,
so far as any previous personal acquaintance is concerned or any outward
recognition, yet after five minutes in the presence of such an one, each
feels that there has been an acquaintance of years. One frequently enters
into conversation with another and in a short time the two become intimate
friends; while with others one may live in the next house, or even in the
same dwelling, and each never know the other. A clasp of the
hand in an hour of need or sorrow; a look of encouragement from kindly,
although strange, eyes; a tone of the voice that sounds like the voice
of one long lost and well beloved; these are the occasions that sometimes
reveal a kindred Soul.
This is the solution of those ideal friendships
that history has recorded: they are typical illustrations of the fraternity
of the Soul. Damon and Pythias is the ideal brotherhood which, beyond all
ties of consanguinity, made these two one in the consciousness of the Soul.
This tie is that which frequently binds men together in business or in
literature, or science, and they are as one man, they are brothers.
This longing for the kinship of the Soul explains
often the great loneliness that is felt in the world. How many people have
felt that they were aliens, almost outcasts from human life! Many
people feel that there is, perhaps, not one upon the earth who can enter
into their feelings or understand them. The most God-like mind, even the
Christ, was heralded in the ancient record as the one who trod "the wine
press alone;" so far in advance of mankind as not to he recognized. This
loneliness which many feel, which sometimes results from friends and relatives
having passed out of mortal life, or from being alienated by conviction,
sentiment, exaltation, from other friends and relatives, is explained in
this higher kinship of Souls. Thus when one meets with a mind who is sympathetic,
who understands every thought, who in conversation seems to understand
what truth it is that one is striving to express, who continually exclaims:
"I understand this, it is plain;" the thoughts of each flow together: such
as these are Soul kindred, unknown to each other by name or nationality;
they may each be of a different country, speaking another language; but
when that language is translated by the spirit, when each thought is understood
as coming from within the Soul, it expresses the kinship; such as these
are of the household of Souls. When You find your friend, your brother,
your sister, though not reared in the same family, who has a different
name and parentage, yet to whom in your very heart and Soul you feel nearer
than to those who have ties of consanguinity, you have found one of your
Soul kindred. For such friendship the whole world has often been forsaken,
as history many times has revealed.
We have known those who were orphans in the midst
of their parents, and a whole house full of brothers and sisters, so far
as the earthly tie was concerned. The story of Cinderella is not a fable:
rejected by earthly kindred, the Fairy is the Soul who works wonders out
of meanest material things and brings each Cinderella to her own inheritance
where her Prince is sure to be found.
We have known those who had wealth of kindred
in Soul who had no human relatives. To those who feel the orphaned state
which seems full of desolation and wandering weariness; that which sometimes
takes possession of lives at birth; that which causes them to feel as aliens
upon the earth; that which comes to each one, oftentimes in crowded cities,
or even in the midst of friends, of family and of the household, that there
is no one who understands, no one who can appreciate the feelings and thoughts
that are within, we will say: do not believe it; there are those who do
understand, those who appreciate; and the time will come when you will
meet, when you will recognize one another, when the longing for the brother
or the sister will be fulfilled; when the Soul-tie is accomplished.
These periods of recognition come only at some
great height: when the Soul has had expressions of sorrow, when the heart
has had its tears, and the days of weariness have been full of trials,
they have quickened the perceptions and made the Soul rush through and
claim its own. This recognition does not come to those who have not need
of it: to those in the outward conditions of life, who are satisfied with
worldly things and treasures; nor is it always true that they come to those
who are dissatisfied. Sometimes there are members of the same family who
are Soul-kindred. Two brothers will be more attached to one another than
to the others, two sisters will seem to be nearer and closer to each other
than to the other members of the family. Sometimes the adopted child is
the heart-child of the mother, is nearer to her in spirit than those of
her own flesh and blood. She puts it aside in outward conviction, or it
is veiled from her consciousness by the soft light of tender pity, but
in spirit she knows it. Even those who have no children oftentimes may
recognize in the ones about them those who are children in a dearer and
nearer sense than if they were their own in mortal tie. So what is denied
in material life the spirit always provides.
Sometimes, like a prophecy of the divine family, the whole household are
kin. This is the ideal household on earth; there is no jarring or discord;
all are pervaded by deep spiritual love.
There are those who say, concerning these teachings
of embodiments: "They divide the mother from her child." We answer the
tie that is real can not be divided either by mortal birth or death.
Can any one tell us what tie it is that binds the mother to her child unless
it is the Soul-tie? There is no Soul-tie, and sometimes no human love,
accompanying some states of physical parentage. Can any other teaching
explain why the harsh parent sometimes casts aside the child, disinheriting
from love, estates, home or crown? No teachings ran separate the
mother from her child; the world and its selfishness divide, but the Soul
reunites, and the true parent and the real kindred find every tie perfect
in the kingdom of the Soul.
All Souls having expression at one time upon earth,
being in groups, those in the groups of any twelve Souls (twenty-four embodied
human lives) express themselves in similar states at the same time. The
twelve groups composing the one hundred and forty-four are also, as groups,
passing through similar experiences. But there are divergences among the
one hundred and forty-four thousand, some groups passing through an experience
or series, of experiences a little in advance or in slightly diverging
lines from the others; but when the culminating period is reached all groups
belonging to one Dispensation will have had similar experiences.
As all Souls in these groups of twelve, and one
hundred and forty-four, and, at last, in the whole one hundred and forty-four
thousand, have similar expressions and experiences within one of the cyclic
periods of the earth, their ripening (or perfection in expression on earth)
forms one of the smaller Messianic periods, or Dispensations, hereafter
to be explained.
The foregoing will explain why in great crises,
like that of the Reformation, there were those who were ready, those who
rallied to the cause of the Reformation. All who thus answered were kindred
in Soul, belonging to the same or kindred group, had reached the same altitude
of perception, through expression and experience, at the same time. If
upon the earth to-day the highest subject that enchains the human thought
could be presented simultaneously to the whole world, as one might fire
something from a cannon's mouth without warning, there would be one hundred
and forty-four thousand ready to receive it. Soul-groups of twelve and
one hundred and forty-four would receive the new truth together, and the
ones who are ready are in those numbers.
All religious societies, brotherhoods, and sacred
recluses who have united for an exalted purpose are illustrations of this
idea. Associations, or communities like the Shakers, Quakers, and some
of those smaller bodies who have retired from the world to establish the
millennium, are prophecies: the ideal of Socialism, (not its degenerate
namesake,) the ideal human brotherhood, of which Fourier might have been
the prophet, and Shelley the poet.
Kindred Souls, as said before, do not recognize
each other, except in momentary glimpses and prophecies, until a certain
line of embodiments are being completed, or in culminations of genius.
They recognize each other in great crises of nations, and, finally, in
periods of great spiritual change, like the birth of a new religion. Every
Dispensation appears simultaneously to those who are ready among all nations.
The truth which is the heralder of the New Dispensation is not given to
you alone in this far western land, but to all the nations where human
lives are found ready to receive it: the light from beyond death, and the
truth which is now being expressed to you, finds also its expression in
almost every language beneath the sun.
We have thus made known who are kindred Souls;
they come under charge of the same Angels, and their Angels under charge
of the same Archangel. They traverse together the degrees of human life,
and reach those states that will be referred to throughout these lessons
as the "first fruits," in each Dispensation, that are gathered by the Messiahs.
We now, with reverent steps, approach the most
sacred shrine of the Soul in the expression here: the reunion, or recognition,
on earth of the Soul, divided in expression by material existence. This
is the culmination of all embodiments, the Crown and Kingdom of all experience.
As the monogamic marriage is the highest state
of human society, so is it a prophecy of the Soul marriage, this divine
reunion. This ideal state is revealed in all poetry, in the highest literature,
and is that which constitutes the dream of the world. In every human life
that is lifted above the clod, there is the one ideal state: the thought
of each that there is, somewhere, another all its own, its possession.
Once each one seems to remember having had this Soul companion, this other
self, in some long past period of human expression; or was it an ante-natal
dream, a glimpse of the heretofore and the hereafter in the skies?
The Soul, in its twofold expression, having passed
through all forms of embodiment, meets. This is the perfected Soul,
in its conquest over matter. What is meant by this is, that when the expression
of life is spiritually perfect, when the exaltation is complete and the
earth has no more temptation, the Soul having expressed in every form,
then the life is complete, then the dual life appears.
Once only, in the entire series of embodiments,
do these divided expressions of the Soul meet, before this final expression.
In such cases the meeting is called "a happy marriage," a union of those
"Made for each other," a "marriage made in heaven." This meeting is when
one half the cycles of earthly experience have been passed. It is a prophecy
of the final recognition and leaves its impress or reminiscence. Such instances
of marriage, form the typical state of human happiness; it may not be accompanied
with great exaltation in any other ways; but in the perfectly happy marriage,
where there is never any jar nor discord, nor divergence, there is spiritual,
as well as mental and moral interchange and interblending. This is not
because the two portions of the Soul are interchangeable or may be expressed,
the masculine portion in other than the masculine, and the feminine in
other than the feminine form, but because, in this meeting, there is a
mutual exchange of experiences, which forevermore is borne on until this
final experience when all the lines are complete in the Angel. This is
why the most exalted men are tender and loving as a woman, not that they
are "weak and effeminate," but that they are tender, kind, and feminine;
because, having come in contact with the feminine portion of their Souls
in expression in the one half cycle, they have received the baptism of
this feminine life. The same is true with women who express, as did "George
Eliot," the intellect of a man, but with all the sensitive nature of a
woman; as did many Grecian women in philosophy, or poetry, or strength
of physical endurance, express the qualities that are supposed to be masculine,
but always coupled with refinement and delicacy.
In this, as in all other states of human expression,
there are the false and the true heights; the fictitious and the real attainments;
so in this Soul relation there are the most fatal earthly mistakes before
the real height is reached. In many states where the life otherwise is,
apparently, ideal, as in the intellectual height of Greece, marriage seems
to be disgraced and disregarded; in the revolutionary period in France,
when woman's power seemed to be the greatest, there was the least sanctity
in the home life.
Frequently minds who are illumined somewhat on
the subject of the Soul-life start from their anchorage as though they
expected to become angels at once. Let no one suppose that by going out
with intellectual, spiritual, or other than angel light, this angelic state
is to be found. No man seeks or finds that which is greater than his attainment.
The false and feverish states in social life are as easily solved in this
system as the many other complex problems of human life, as you will perceive
ere the close of the lesson. When we portray the real it is the truly ideal,
the divine; not a present possession with many, but a prophecy for all.
The different stages of human experience convey
indications of approaches to the angelic or perfected state. Human society
offers many beautiful and many painful illustrations of the true and the
false heights in this direction.
In human states there are many who expect to attain
this perfect angelic life while merged in the imperfection of the senses;
there are those who expect to convert, or pervert, the accepted states
of human society into something that will lead them to the triumph of the
ideal height where their selfishness will never permit them to ascend.
Human beings are not angels until the angel, by growth in expression, is
fully revealed, and then the perfection is manifested in that perfect state.
Many social reformers, as they are named, suppose the ideal state is to
be reached by the making or unmaking of human laws, but most of the unhappy
conditions and relations in human life (indeed we may say all) are the
results of the states of individuals, which no human ordinance can affect.
One must not confound this ideal and final state with degrees of expression
less than perfect
Many suppose that they have to begin at the apex
to build the structure of perfect life on earth, instead of growing to
the height by attaining self-abnegation by growth. So it has been supposed
that institutions are in the way of human happiness, but human
states are in the way of perfect happiness. Let no one suppose
that he or she can find this Soul-state by going out and searching for
the immortal matehood. When one grows to the height of a perfect marriage
there is no power in heaven or earth that can keep it from one. Until one
grows to that height, there is no power in heaven or earth that can bring
it to that one. Therefore the lesson to be learned is that every human
state of society is as perfect as the individuals that compose it. Fulfillment
of all the duties in life, fidelity to each relation, constitute the highest
law in human progress.
There are often lives that are trembling toward
completion, having longings, aspirations, prayers and hopes which certainly
do not belong to the physical, but are the approximation of a nearer relation,
an inner unfoldment. You have, perhaps, known gifted people, similarly
endowed, who were merely kindred, but who have entered into a nearer relationship
that has proven disastrous to both. Many of these instances might be cited
in those intellectual marriages, so nearly do they resemble the real, so
nearly are the ties of intellect and aesthetic taste like the ideal, that
it is often the fatal mistake of genius to suppose that in another genius
is to be found also the other portion of the Soul. Where, sometimes, such
association has been but a blessed state of mutual helpfulness, there are
other lives where it has been shipwreck and disaster, not from any immorality
in either, not from any fault that could be named, but from the mistaken
idea that that kinship is Soul-marriage.
There is always a restless period accompanying
any reform. These agitations afford most singular illustrations of what
we are now teaching: that wherever the changes of such revolution affect
the intellectual, political and religious states, they affect marriage.
Under imperial decrees there are marriages formed or abrogated, set aside
or increased; in periods of speculation as in France or in this country,
marriage becomes a commodity, a matter of barter and sale. In periods of
revolution all marriage is lightly set aside and lightly entered because
every depth of human life is being stirred. This is why many reformers,
springing toward the ideal, as in the German "Storm and Stress" period,
or in the French Revolution, or in the earlier Grecian history, or as in
more recent times, have expected the perfect marriage on earth before there
were perfect men and women.
The highest law of Christian lands is the marriage
law, as the highest state of Christian society is the marriage state, the
bulwark of all social and moral ideals. The mistake is in supposing that
the ordinance makes perfection; it is the state in each individual that
makes the perfect or imperfect marriage. By laws man merely regulates the
differences that must arise in states that are inferior to perfection,
but the Divine law is in itself the ordinance of Heaven. That which made
the typical man and woman in Eden, before and after the fall, cling together,
makes marriage sacred in the light of Heaven, as truth unto the present
state. No one can depart or fall from that truth and win the highest, because
the highest must grow up from within. As marriage is the highest state
of civilization, so its abuse by perversion, by force, by unjust laws,
must constitute the deepest source of human misery. There must come a state
to the whole world, as there has come to individuals and groups of Souls,
when all dross will be put aside and the Soul will be one in this state.
Each will become the angel again.
The Souls embodied here do not pass back through
the Eden state, but through the experiences of darkness and light, sorrow
and joy, tribulation and conquest, reach perfection; and this perfection
can not be reached until all earthly things are vanquished. Foregleams
of this ideal state, prophecies of this divine fulfillment have been given
in the perfect lives of past dispensations, and in the expressions of Genius,
whose Soul-dreams become the reality of the perfect human paradise.
This Soul-marriage is the theme of many writings;
many songs and many philosophies; of music, poesy, painting, sculpture;
so does it pervade and imbue literature and art., and different forms of
philosophy, that it has become accepted generally in human thought that
this perfect Soul-union must belong to the perfect human state, when that
state becomes divine.
The Deities of antiquity reveal this Soul possession
as the final recognition on earth. Osiris and Isis were a prophecy; also
Jove and Maia, and the enthralling divinities that clustered around Olympus
and Parnassus. Great scholars, teachers and geniuses, as Cadmus, the builder
of the city of Thebes, and the inventor of sixteen letters of the Greek
alphabet; he it was who searched in vain for his sister, his spouse. Plato
pictured the ideal of his Soul in the divine "Una." Dante, at Florence
and Verona, exiled, bereft and lone, revealed in his sublime vision Beatrice,
who from out her Paradise taught him the words and works of his divine
poem, gave him the syllables in which to breathe it to the world, and across
the only stream which divided them, which was human life and his earthly
state, gave him the White Rose of Immortal Love.
Schiller's "Mystery of Reminiscence" is the surpassing
poem of this Soul recognition:
"Who and what gave the wish to woo thee,
Still lip to lip to cleave for aye unto thee,
What made me long thy very breath to drink,
Thy soul in mine to sink?
"As from the conqueror's unresisted glaive
Flies without strife, subdued, the ready slave,
So, when to life's unguarded fort I see
Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly,
Yields not my soul to thee?
* *
* * *
* *
"Were once our beings blent and intertwining,
And for that glory still my heart is pining;
Knew we the light of some refulgent sun
When once our souls were one?
"'Round us in waters of delight forever
Ravishingly flowed the heavenly nectar river;
We were the masters of the seal of things
And where truth in her ever-living springs
Quivered our glancing wings.
* *
* * *
* *
"Weep for the godlike life we lost afar,
That thou and I its scattered fragments are,
And still the unconquered yearning we retain,
Sigh to renew the long and vanished reign,
And grow divine again."
We have only quoted a portion of this beautiful
poem, also wonderfully rendered into your own tongue by one of your own
poets--Longfellow. Shelley's rare but imperfectly understood ideal, as
revealed in the Soul-poem "Epipsychidion," portrays this possible recognition
as seen in the highest realm of poesy, which is also the realm of inspiration.
The most sacred Soul-love is also the most enchanting
to mankind. Dante, painting the divine image of Beatrice upon canvas as
well as in verse: who would not give more to see that picture that he held
sacred, than to read the poem given to the world? Who would not rather
have seen the sonnet that Raphael wrote to his beloved, his wife, than
to see all the beautiful images, the dear Madonnas that he painted? And
who, knowing that Plato worshiped his divine ideal called "Una," would
not rather know what mystic tie of human recognition was included in that
Una than solve all the problems of his "Kosmos"?
What this revelation and recognition means, when
it is attained, let those lives who have given perfect truth to the world
attest; what this revelation means let every heart longing and thirsting
for perfect love realize in the promise divine; what it is when attained
let each wandering waif in existence bear in the voice of prophecy from
within.
You who are alone, lonely and desolate; you who
think yourselves companionless and unknown; you who long for the highest
companionship, remember: that there is no dream, however beautiful and
perfect, that can, by any possibility, equal the perfection of the Soul
that knows and claims its own; that there is no ideal, however pictured
by painter or poet that can possibly illustrate the Soul possession. But
it is by no self-seeking; when all external self is vanquished, then, as
a revelation, comes this divine state, and the nearer you approach it the
more humble and less expectant do you become, for you feel the presence,
at such time, of the divine and perfect life. Sometimes it has been revealed
in the typical marriage of earth, which is also the ideal and, in its highest
estate, is the prophecy of this divine marriage.
When all vanquishment of earth and self have been
made this final recognition comes into human life; it is not necessary
that when the recognition takes place there shall be any exalted external
position, or anything that people will recognize as greatness in art, science,
or learning. Sometimes it is in the lowliest walks; sometimes it is in
the cloister
or convent when across the sacred barriers of vestal vows and celibate
lives the flashing light of the revelation comes, not to break down the
barriers, but to send the light of Soul-love far from the body within the
Soul. In the angelic condition there is no turbulence nor turmoil.
All lives tend to this ideal. This perfect, transcendent
state is that which was pictured by Swedenborg when he said: "Those who
are truly married on earth are in heaven one Angel." When Jesus was
asked about marriage in heaven, He said: "They are neither married nor
given in marriage, but are as the Angels." This is the meaning of the state
of "the Angels." No spirits are angels, but when the Soul has been
expressed in all possible states of mortal life, the recognition then takes
place and the Angel is there. The two are one Angel. This is the revelation
that comes from the angelic state to earth. Disembodied spirits do not
know it, but Souls. The light of this truth gleams fair and bright above
all earthly conditions, and this is that which comes as the crown of all
expression and experience on earth.
So step by step the progress to attainment of
power and glory must be won in equal portion, and that achievement, that
attainment, that final recognition betokens the Angel. It is the final
step which is always indicated by no self-seeking, but by the vanquishment
of all earthliness; by that which makes humanity perfect and complete,
a life of self-abnegation and self-forgetfulness; and he who would go to
find the Angel because he thinks himself ready is blinded by selfishness.
Lives that are dissatisfied and restless will do well to attend to the
duties of the hour and know that when the Angel appeareth there is no more
self-seeking. Sometimes in dungeon cells wherein the self-forgetful life
has been immured; sometimes in lowly paths of duty; sometimes in such self-denial
as expelled Dante from his native home, and gave him the key to the gates
of paradise; whenever and wherever found it is the one life of fulfillment,
the crown of existence.
The dual life merged in one becomes the Angel;
not by the pathway traversed in the involution, but by the pathway of overcoming,
of vanquishing the material expression until there can be revealed through
the mortal form the angelic Soul. This height has been attained by such
as have led and guided the world, which slowly follows after them.
The dual lives flow together in outward expression,
and that is the perfected life, the expression of the perfect Soul; the
final embodiment on earth is that perfected Soul expression, and not until
this expression is attained by every conquest can the recognition take
place, and not until that recognition has the Soul finished the earthly
expressions, then the Angel is made known.
When the Angel is completed in expression, when
such as these pass from mortal forms, they are not in spirit states,
but as one Angel enter the angelic state, which is beyond the spiritual
state, the perfection of all spiritual states; they will no more be embodied
in mortal form, but will have charge of the Souls that come after them.
These Angels are Parental Souls, or Guides; not in the sense that
the word parent is used generically, here it is used to express the degree
of difference between the perfected Soul, i. e., the Soul that has perfected
its expression in the 'earthly state, and the states of the Souls who are
still in the progress of perfecting the expression. So those who enter
and pass through the earthly state and who have been gathered into the
angelic kingdom constitute the Parental Souls of those who are to follow
in the next cycle or dispensation; are their guardian Angels. When any
one is told of a Guardian Angel this term must always mean the Parental
Soul of a group of twelve Souls, (twenty-four human embodiments) who are
kindred Souls.
These Angels have possession of all experience
and wisdom of earth, and thus have the power to aid others who are following
on in the pathway and pilgrimage of earthly life. Those in the spheres
of Angels, being beyond the spheres of ministering spirits and departed
friends, keep watch and guard by appointment over those spiritual states
connected with the earth, each Angel appointing ministering spirits according
to the need or state of mortals. There are many degrees of Angel life which
will hereafter be referred to.
These completed, or angelic Souls, remain in the
state of angelic ministry unto earth until succeeded by another harvest
of Souls, who become in turn guardian Angels of those on earth; so that
all who ripened under the past dispensation remain as guardian Angels of
the Souls that they have in charge for the present dispensation.
There are other angelic states; and in each of
these states, there are degrees; but that which is to borne in mind in
this lesson is, that none are either left to grope their way in darkness
nor are they unduly aided, but are assisted by all the light and knowledge
in the universe, by the Parental Soul, adapted to the needs of each.
In great periods, like those of spiritual dispensations,
more lives culminate than at any other time. So when Christ passed into
and out of the earthly ministration His Angels accompanied Him, and the
"first fruits" of His kingdom were completed Souls who were ready to become
angels when He appeared.
Unto those to whom this ideal thought, this perfect
revelation can come, this recognition of kindred Souls, this knowledge
of the Parental Soul and its guidance, this Soul-marriage, there is complete
fulfillment of all prophecy. The states of mortal life, chastening, purifying,
uplifting, unfolding, lead, step by step, to the condition of fulfillment,
to the condition of perfect recognition, and under that love, under that
fulfillment, the Angel is won. Then all lines of life are revealed, there
is no more imperfection, each portion of the Soul sees within the other
that which has been passed, there is all reminiscence with its perfect
grace; and all divinest prophecy.
The points to be remembered in the lesson just
given are:
THE SOULS ACCOMPANYING
EACH OTHER TO AND PASSING THROUGH EARTHLY EXPERIENCES AT THE SAME TIME
ARE IN GROUPS.
THOSE IN THE SMALLEST GROUPS,
OF TWELVE SOULS, ARE CALLED A FAMILY
OF SOULS, AND ARE SOUL KINDRED.
THE LARGER GROUPS OF ONE
HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR SOULS ARE SOCIETIES
OF KINDRED GROUPS.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR
THOUSAND SOULS ARE MESSIANIC
GROUPS AND ARE THE "FIRST FRUITS" OF EACH DISPENSATION.
PARENTAL SOULS
ARE ANGELS HAVING CHARGE OF GROUPS.
THE SOUL
REUNITED OR RECOGNIZED ON EARTH BECOMES THE ANGEL.
This
angel state is the result of the conquest over every form of earthly imperfection,
the perfect man, the perfect woman, the two perfect expressions of one
Soul.
ALL SOULS
ARE IN GROUPS.
ALL SOULS
HAVE KINDRED,
ALL SOULS
ULTIMATELY RECOGNIZE THEIR KINDRED.
ALL ARE IN CHARGE OF A PARENTAL
SOUL:
AN ANGEL.
ALL WILL ULTIMATELY ARRIVE
AT SOUL RECOGNITION AND REUNION IN THE SOUL-MARRIAGE:
THE ANGEL.
.THE
SOUL: ITS
NATURE, RELATIONS, AND EXPRESSIONS IN HUMAN EMBODIMENTS.
.LESSON
VI
