Читать книгу Edgar Cayce's Origin and Destiny of Man - Lytle Webb Robinson - Страница 10

In the beginning was the Spirit: a vast sea of mind force, of discerning energy, occupying all space, all time. Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, this was the source of all: the First Cause, the Universal Force. This was the Whole, the essence of life, the I AM THAT I AM. This was the eternal God

The mind of God embraces the total life energy, for all in its elemental form is One. All time, all space, all power and matter essentially are one and are based on the force of attraction and repulsion, the positive and negative law around which the universe revolves. The movement, the vibration of this atomic structure, is the manifestation of the Creator. During its nebulous activity, the gathering of positive-negative forces becomes the creative power. Atoms, molecules, cells, and matter change; but the essence, the spirit, does not change. Only the form of manifestation changes—not its relationship to the First Cause.

The second cause was desire: desire for self-expression, desire to create, desire for companionship. The Spirit moved, and by moving Itself out of Itself created a separate vibration: a separate manifestation. Thus, into this sea of peaceful and harmonious vibration came one Amilius, the Light: the first expression of divine mind, the first manifestation of the spirit, the first Son who emanated in spirit from the Source as a beautiful thought is created or as an idea is born. This was the first creation.

Amilius by necessity was endowed with free will and reason, otherwise he would remain of the Whole, at the will of the Whole. Although a part of the Source and aware of his identity with the Source, he was a separate entity and conscious of his own individuality while still one with the Creator in spirit and purpose.

It was Amilius who fostered the coming of other soul entities into this electro-spiritual world—for all souls were created in the beginning; none was created later. With their free will and reason, they existed as children in a state of perfection, in full accord with the divine will of their Source. These numberless, sexless manifestations of the spirit were the perfect offspring of a benevolent Father and enjoyed a truly spiritual life in a truly spiritual world. Wholly attuned to the Supreme Will as was Amilius, they were the companions of the Father as they were intended to be: a part of the Whole yet aware of being separate and independent entities.

Since they possessed free will, each entity’s first thought, first reaction, and first expression were slightly different from those of all others. Thus each individual idea and each realization or motive became a part of the entity. Thought upon thought, experience after experience, each of these unembodied spirits built its own peculiar individuality and character. The activity of the spiritual entity thus became its soul-record. That which it thought it gradually became.

Every thought and every deed registered not only on the entity’s soul but on the skein of time and space, or the Akashic Records. This is the “Recording Angel” or the “Book of Life.” Nothing escapes it. Every vibration from the beginning is permanently recorded on the stream of time and space.

But not for long did the will of the souls remain the will of their Source. They began to experiment, fascinated with the power of their own creative individuality. Desire and self-aggrandizement gave birth to the destructive—that which was opposed to goodness, the opposite of God’s will. By magnifying their own will and independence, the selfishness of the ego came into being. It was this turning away from God’s will that brought about the downfall, the separation, the end of the state of perfection. This was the Revolt of the Angels, or the Fall of Man.

When souls turned from God’s will to their own, they separated themselves from their spiritual home, their natural home, for a long time to come. The link was severed by their own choice, and only by their own choice could it be reforged. Soon there was no turning back; the perfect state that was their birthright was already too difficult to attain. A self-created evolution was under way. They fell away further and further from the Divine Will, until there was no hope for a retreat—a return to their natural abode.

Amilius realized what was happening. A plan was conceived whereby a means of escape was devised from the predicament into which the lost souls had fallen. By intervening he accepted voluntarily the burden of the world to come—a task almost overwhelming in its magnitude. This was the first of many sacrifices.

In accordance with the plan, materiality came into being; for matter was essential in order to demonstrate physically the separation from spirit, so that the souls might become aware of their fall, although the earth was not created solely for man. The solar systems, the planets, and the earth took form, created by the same thought vibrations and the same life-essence emanating from the mind of God. The poles—the positive and negative around which the world revolves—were the keystones. The atom, made up of negative electrons revolving with positive protons, was the building block. Every atom, every cell is a world in itself and motivated by the same life-giving spirit: not the Creator but the manifestation of the Creator.

The Cosmos was built by and upon the principles that became known as music, arithmetic, and geometry; harmony, system, and balance. By changing the rate of vibration—the wave-length and the frequency, so to speak—varying movements, patterns, forms, and substances came into being. This was the beginning of the law of diversity that supplies endless designs for the universal pattern. Upon this law are based the great divisions in force and matter.

Each design carried inherently within itself its own plan of growth and evolution, which corresponds to the sound of a musical note. Notes unite to make chords; chords become phrases; phrases turn into melodies; melodies intermingle around and between each other to make a symphony. Back and forth the mind of God played upon the universe, unlimited within the scope of imagination of an all-creative Spirit.

All matter moved and changed, assuming its design according to its own vibration and maintaining its activity by the law of attraction and repulsion, the positive and the negative. Everything that came into being was an aspect of mind—the Spirit of the Creator.

All matter contains spirit and is electrical in function, manifesting in different forms because of varying rates of vibration or speed. Every condition that exists in the material plane has its counterpart and its pattern in the cosmic or spiritual plane. All force is one force. Things spiritual and things material are the same in essence although different in manifestation or expression.

The earth is only an atom in the universe of worlds. The solar system comprises other dimensions or other states of consciousness of existence. Although each dimension has its own set of laws, the same force governing the earth rules the planets, the stars, the constellations, for all are held in space by the same law of attraction and repulsion. The earth represents the third dimension, the testing laboratory for the entire system. The other planes—Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus—were to play their part in the plan of evolution for the soul, although in a way somewhat different from that later supposed.

“The earth plane, first a mass of vibrating heat from which arose a seething mist, settled itself as a companion world in the universe of worlds. As it began its natural rotation, it slowly moved closer to the sun, from which it receives its impetus for the awakening of the elements that give life in its various forms.” (364-6)

The laws of creative forces are universal. The first is the law of Love, the second the law of propagation, the third the law of evolution, or growth and development. Thus the spirit of God, the Creative Force, had moved over the face of the earth, and out of chaos came the beauty of raw nature in all its glory.

Said Cayce: “The mind of God embraces the one total life energy with its universally evolved portion called mind, in all its forms, all its stages of development, and all of its self-conscious, individual viewpoints, including ourselves. Yet while in the physical form we possess not the Creator’s kind of mind, but rather the kind that mind becomes in materiality.” (792-2)

“The First Cause was that the created would be the companion for the Creator; that it, the creature, would by its manifestations in activity of that (which was) given unto the creature, show itself to be not only worthy of but companionable to the Creator. Hence every form of life that man sees in a material world is an essence or manifestation of the Creator; not the Creator but a manifestation of the First Cause.

“Then a soul—the offspring of the Creator—(when) entering into a consciousness which becomes a manifestation in any plane or sphere of activity, is given free will for its use of those abilities or qualities or conditions in its experience. And it will demonstrate, manifest and show forth what it reflects in its activity towards that First Cause.” (5753-1)

To Amilius was given the keeping of the earth-sphere. The mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms were thriving long before man entered this plane. They were governed by immutable laws already set in motion. Souls still in the spirit were attracted by matter and came to the new outer realms in large numbers. The earth was only one of many spheres that came into their paths and to which they were drawn.

Those souls, still in the spirit, who were attracted to the earth plane observed the various forms of animal life and the fleshly ties. They hovered about it, viewing the abundance of growing things in the slowly cooling and tropical earth. They saw the fruit of the land and wanted to taste it; they observed the sex life of the animals and wanted to experience it. Since desire impelled them to seek expression in matter, they partook more and more of the material, becoming eaters of, feeders upon their physical surroundings.

Since souls were also self-conscious viewpoints possessed of God and capable of being that which God is, they played at creation—imitating the Creator. Thus they became absorbed with their own creative powers, with which they had been endowed from the beginning, and they mimicked the beasts of the fields and the fowls of the air, dreaming up ideas of bodies it would be pleasant to inhabit.

Thoughts are deeds, and these desires eventually materialized; for from the beginning the resources of all creation have been available to man. The forms so conceived were at first merely in the nature of thought-forms or visualizations, made by pushing themselves out of themselves in whatever manner desired—much in the way of the atom which, when split, eventually forms two more complete atoms; or as the growth of the amoebae in the waters of a stagnant pool, which multiply themselves again and again. As the gratification of their carnal and material desires took shape, however, the forms hardened or congealed into matter itself and took on the color of the environment, much as a chameleon adapts itself or takes on the color of its surroundings.

The mentality of the soul was its predominant activity, or direction of growth. The fact that the mental was constantly seeking expression in and becoming attached to the material necessitated a division of the mind-force. This resulted in the three phases of thought-process: the conscious mind, which gives direction to the building-up, use, and control of matter; the subconscious or unconscious, which is the storehouse of memory, the inter-between; and the superconscious, which is devoted entirely to the soul-mind.

These are not three distinct minds but rather are the functions of one mind at three different levels. Between the conscious and the superconscious there appears to be a constant war, or working at cross-purposes. Yet in the end the superconscious must be the victor.

As souls used and abused their privileges, the highest and the lowest applications of divine forces were made. The few who sought to know the way were given guidance, as it has always been given; the masses deliberately turned away, seeking fulfillment of their own desires. These became entrapped.

Chaos resulted not only from the forms taken but from the misapplication of spiritual powers. The male and female came into being. This was the separation of the sexes, the division of the nature of man into positive and negative forces.

The first female was called Lilith, the forerunner of Eve, and a conglomeration of monstrosities emerged. The cyclops, the satyr, centaur, unicorn, and various forms mentioned in mythology, having animal bodies and human heads, came into existence. Thus the souls who had been hovering about, influencing and directing, inhabited bodies that were projections of their own mental creations—and propagated a race of monstrosities.

Their bodies were their own creations, not God’s. These were the daughters of men, the giants in the earth, of the Old Testament. So a weird, corrupt state of existence came into being, but it was the beginning of a new period of evolution for the soul—the long struggle for spirit’s conquest over matter.

The monstrosities roamed the earth and mixed with the animals. Sex was the determining factor, as symbolized by the serpent. Through their offspring, souls were being born again and again into a prison of matter from which they could not extricate themselves. Trapped in these grotesque bodies, man as such was drifting further and further away from his Source, the harmonious existence in peace and love that had been his. This he had willfully discarded for the selfish gratification of the carnal; and he had accomplished it by the spirituality destructive use of creative powers for self. This was the Original Sin of man.

Only in the earth did souls take on matter and become physical. In other planes and realms—other states of consciousness—the plan for evolution of the spirit varied. Only in the physical, three-dimensional plane does the transition from one plane to another necessitate the process called birth and death. The soul, the spirit of God in man, has been immortal from the beginning. It is not born and does not die, for souls are as corpuscles in the body of God, the Whole.

Amilius, with the aid of spiritual-minded soul entities from other realms—the “sons of the Most High”—intervened in this misshapened evolution that earth-man had created for himself. From among the various physical forms on earth, a body was patterned that most perfectly fitted the needs of man. This was a body that would help, not hinder, in the struggle for at-one-moment (atonement) with the Maker.

By his own choice, Amilius himself descended into matter and became Adam, man as flesh and blood, the first of the perfect race, the first of the Sons of God as opposed to “Daughters of Men,” the freakish offspring of the Mixtures. This was the reason for the admonishment to keep the race pure, for “the Sons of God looked upon the daughters of Men and saw them as being fair.” (Gen. 6:2)

Adam was an individual but he was also more; he was the symbol of the whole race of man, the five races. Eve was created as the ideal helpmate for Adam, because of the division of man’s spiritual nature into positive and negative. Thus Eve was also the symbolic “other half” of man’s nature in all races. This was the last of the important creations.

In woman, the negative and receptive was expressed, the positive suppressed. In man, the positive and active was expressed and the negative suppressed. For at first the Sons of God, the souls, were androgynous, combining male and female as one. The first companion, Lilith, was a projection into the animal world—a means to an end, for the satisfying of desire that had entered. With the turning-back to the Creator’s plans and the turning-within to creative impulses, the creation of Eve was made necessary as a helpmate and a balance in the long struggle back to God, which was to ensue. Eve was created by God and drawn in an instant from the soul-entity already in existence. “God said, ‘Let there be life,’” and there was life.

Through Eve, the perfect complement to Adam, there was the channel for reproduction of the perfect race. Cain was born of physically perfect parents. Adam and Eve, with their contemporaries, were special creations and not evolutions from that which had already been created. Man did not descend from the monkey.

Everything in the earth had been prepared for the coming of man. The immutable laws of nature were established for his life and sustenance. Through the law of relativity, the positive and the negative, man and woman experience earth: night and day, hot and cold, good and bad—all realized through the five physical senses via the reasoning of the mind.

Yet always man retains—even unknowingly—the sixth, seventh, and eighth senses. These are the psychic or extrasensory factors of the soul that have gradually receded into the background as man has entered more and more into matter.

The projection of the perfect race into matter occurred not only in the Garden of Eden—which the readings say was in Iran and the Caucasus—but in five different places in the earth at the same time.

These five occupations in the world represented the five physical senses that are to be conquered before spiritual perfection can again be attained. There were 133 million souls in the earth at this time. The white race was in Iran, the Caucasus area along the Black Sea and the Carpathian Mountains of Central Europe. The yellow race was in what was later to become the Gobi Desert of East Asia. The black race was in the Sudan and upper West Africa. The brown race was in the Andes and Lemuria, the continent lying then in the area of the Pacific Ocean. The red race was in Atlantis and America.

The environment and climatic conditions determined the color of the race. For all peoples, regardless of color, were of one blood and members of the perfect race. Color of the race merely adapted man to the conditions that were to be met, and symbolized the chief attribute of the people of that race. In the white race, sight or seeing was predominant or emphasized; in the red, feeling or emotion; in the yellow, hearing; in the black, gratification of the appetites; and in the brown, the emphasis on the sense of smell.

The Jews, as a people, developed at a much later date. The Egyptians also came later, as a result of the mixture of red, black, and white races, in about 10,000 B.C.

The continent of Atlantis was the most important land area of the world and the center of the first civilization. With the second influx of souls—i.e., the coming of the perfect race, some 10—million years ago—a new era was to begin in the evolution of man in the earth.

The Atlanteans were a peaceful people and made rapid progress in utilizing the resources of nature. Natural gas and fire were among the first discoveries. In the years ahead, they were to build a civilization superior in many ways to any fashioned since.

Division of the forces of mind took place during the first thousand years of the occupation of the earth by the perfect race. By this division, part of the mental forces related to the material, and part to the spiritual. It occurred as man emphasized less and less the divine aspect of his nature, became less and less aware of that from which he came. For man recognized that he was a part of what was about him, and he acknowledged the oneness of all matter and force, but he relied more and more on the physical mind with its carnal interpretations. As time went on, only dreams, prayer, and religion remained to remind him of his divine origin. Desire led him to accept things that he instinctively knew were not true; he mingled with the monstrosities and produced the “mixtures”—half animal and half human. Finally, he put ego of self above everything else, “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him in his heart.” (Gen. 6:6) The Bible gives an account of the flood, which occurred about 28,000 B.C., and in Atlantis it resulted in the submergence of many large islands. Lemuria, too, vanished into the Pacific Ocean.

Yet even in those days, as in all ages, there were men who were able to attain to such a high consciousness of the Creator that it was not necessary for them to pass again through the earth plane. For “even in that day did they call upon the name of the Lord”. . . .and “Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.” (Gen. 5:24) A few souls return to the earth plane by choice, the many by law.

From time to time individuals were raised for specific purposes, and as the cycle continued, again and again there rose certain souls manifesting in a “more beneficent, more magnificent and noble manner” to show the way for man. There has always been direction for those who seek the light, the way to become one again with the Creator. Throughout man’s many and varied periods of development, his progress has accelerated or retrograded, or remained stationary in proportion to the exercise of his will toward good. Thus in each man’s development the first to be conquered is self. Like begets like, for this is part of the universal law. Putting it another way, the mind of man itself, in its total functioning, must be unified and harmonized if he is to remember and accept his divine origin, his inheritance.

There have been almost as many variations in the use of mind-force as there are individuals. What a soul fed upon or dwelt upon became its means of development or retardation; for good and evil were expressed according to motives and the use made of motives. The people of Atlantis were to pass through the same stages of development as did the other races in other lands; but their progress was to be more rapid, materially if not spiritually.

Thus through the Christ spirit, the Holy Spirit in Adam—in man as a race—a way was prepared for the conquest of the world; the conquest of spirit over matter, good over evil. Hence, Adam, as an individual as well as a group (Adam means man), started humanity on the long journey back to the state of being worthy of and companionable to the Creator. It was to be a long, weary journey, for men are strangers in the earth.

In the 1930’s Edgar Cayce gave a series of lectures on the creation story in the Scriptures. This is the gist of what he said.

In the Bible, the writer of Genesis had the task of explaining infinite happenings in finite words, understandable to finite minds in principle if not in method. The first chapters deal with the period before and during the five-point projection of the Christ Soul, Amilius, into the earth plane.

The book of Genesis is supposed to have been written by Moses with Joshua, and was evidently done with the idea of giving the people of Moses’ time a concept of what took place in the beginning of man’s advent into material consciousness.

The Book of Job, written by Melchisedek, is an account of the Son into whose hands the earth was committed and who passed through the trials in the flesh so that he might become the deliverer of mankind.

The Bible is primarily an esoteric book, a symbolic book; Genesis is the story of creation compressed into a few short verses. Symbols and personifications are used in an earthly setting to convey ideas behind occurrences throughout the universe, in the spirit realm, and in the human body itself.

It is in the second chapter of Genesis, in the story of Adam, that the real history of man as man begins. This is not a recapitulation of what has gone before. Where the first chapter of Genesis speaks of man the spirit, the second chapter deals with the coming of the perfect race and man’s physical tenure on earth, “for there was not a man to till the ground” (Verse 5). The earth was complete in itself, with the ability to supply everything necessary for the reproduction of itself.

As a result of the creation of the sixth day, the earth became occupied with souls who had projected themselves into matter, interested in the physical evolution taking place in the earth—and not yet conscious that they were thus separating themselves from the image in which they had been made. A perfect, physical man had to be created as a separate creation, in order that there might be a comparison for the souls who had projected themselves into animals and produced monstrosities. Man, perfect physical man, created in Genesis 2:7, would be a physical counterpart of that spiritual creation expressed in Genesis 1:26. The material man created was made in the image of God, in that he was formed of the dust of the ground—i.e., the human body is chemically composed of all the elements in the earth.

As the souls were created in the beginning, they were neither male nor female but both, a complete whole. The soul itself has no sex, and it takes on the positive or negative expression when it comes into materiality, according to its development and its purpose to be accomplished.

The time arrived when Adam, too, was divided as in other phases of creation. Eve was created to complete Adam’s expression as the example for others. Adam had already been made complete, so it was necessary to take from his physical body the negative force, which would be expressed by Eve. This does not mean that Adam’s soul was split, but that out of his body was taken negative force through which another soul manifested as Eve. They were what we might call twin souls. Each soul is complete in itself, but in relation to one another, man is positive and woman is negative.

Thus the universe came into being through Mind—the Mind of the Maker. The earth came into existence much in the same way in which each atomic cell multiples in itself; and worlds are still being made by the same process.

When the earth cooled and became habitable, man as man entered through the mind of the Maker. He entered into materiality in the form of flesh-man—that which carnally might die, decay, and return to dust. But the spirit in man is immortal and eternal that he may again be one with the Creator. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

Although man has come a long way towards subduing the earth, materially and scientifically, he nevertheless persists in trying to subdue his fellow man. He has not yet fully accepted the Brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God. For all men are indeed brothers; there is no other real relationship.

Overcoming the monstrosities, the mixtures, and the animal influences was accomplished through rebirth, surgery, and evolution towards a more divine purpose. The animal influences finally disappeared about 9000 B.C. Remnants of these pathetic creatures with their appendages of wings, tails, feathers, claws, and hooves were later depicted accurately in Assyrian and Egyptian art. The sphinx is a notable example of one of the earlier monstrosities.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CAYCE READINGS

“When the forces of the universe came together, upon the waters was the sound of the coming of the sons of God. And the morning stars sang together. Over the face of the waters was the voice of the glory of the coming of the plane for man’s indwelling. The earth in its form became a place; and afterwards able to be an abode for the creature called man.”

(341-1)

“The entity was . . . in the beginning when the first of the elements were given and the forces were first set in motion that brought about the sphere . . . called the earth plane . . . when the morning stars sang together, and the whispering winds brought the news of the coming of man’s indwelling, of the spirit of the Creator; and he became a living soul. The entity came into being with that multitude.”

(294-8)

“The entity finds itself body, mind, and soul; which answers to the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—in the three-dimensional world. God moved and the spirit came into activity. In the moving was brought light and then chaos. In this light came the creation of that which in the earth came to be matter; in the spheres about the earth, space and time. In patience it has evolved through those activities until there are the heavens and all the constellations, the stars, and the universe as it is known—or sought to be known—by soul-entities in the material plane.

“Then came materiality as such into the earth, through the Spirit pushing itself into matter. Spirit became individualized and then became what we recognize in one another as individual entities. Spirit which uses matter, which uses every influence in the earth’s environment for the glory of the Creative Forces, partakes of—and is a part of—the Universal Consciousness.

“As the entity, the individual, then applies itself, it becomes aware through patience, through time, through space, of its relationship to the Godhead. For in itself it finds body, mind, and soul. As the Son is the builder, so is the mind the builder in the individual entity.”

(3508-1)

“Let it be remembered that the earth was peopled by animals before it was peopled by man! First (there was) that of a mass, about which there arose a mist; and then the rising of same, with light breaking over it as it settled itself (to be) as a companion of those (planets) in the universe; as it began its natural (or now natural) rotations, with their varied effects upon various portions of same (earth), as it slowly recedes—and is still slowly receding or gathers closer to the sun, it receives its impetus for awakening the elements that give life itself (by radiation of like elements . . . from the sun) . . . . These elements have their attraction and repulsion, or . . . animosity and gathering together. This we see throughout all of the kingdom . . . whether we speak of the heavenly hosts, or of the stars, or of the planets.”

(364-6)

“Man was made as man. There were—there are, as we find—only three of the creations . . . matter, force, and mind. All flesh is not one flesh, but the developing of one has always remained in the same (pattern) . . . and only has been (developed) to meet the needs of man, for whom was made all that was made. Man’s evolving has only been . . . the gradual growth upward to the mind of the Maker.

“Man was made in the beginning, as the ruler over those elements which were prepared in the earth plane for his needs. When the plane became such that man was capable of being sustained by the forces and conditions . . . upon the face of the earth, man appeared. And in man there is found all that may be found without, in the whole earth plane, and other than that, the soul of man is that which makes him above the animal, the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms of the earth. Man did not descend from the monkey, but he has evolved, renewed from time to time—here a little, there a little, line upon line.

“Man is man, and God’s order of creation which he represents even as (does) His Son who, as the representative of the Father, took on the form on man, the highest of the creation in the plane; and became for man the element that shows . . . the Way, the direction, the Life, the Water, the Vine to the Everlasting . . .

“All souls were created in the beginning, and are finding their way back to whence they came.”

(3744-5)

“. . . God moved and said, Let there be light, and there was light. Not the light of the sun, but rather that light which—through which, in which—every soul had, and has and ever had, its being.”

(5246-1)

“In the matter of form, as we find, there were first those projections from the animal kingdom; for the thought-bodies gradually took form; and the various combinations . . . classified themselves as gods or rulers over . . . herds, or fowls, or fishes—in part much of the form of the present-day man . . . These took on many sizes as to stature . . . from midgets to giants, for there were giants in the earth in those days—men as tall as ten to twelve feet, and well-proportioned throughout.”

(364-11)

“The earth brought forth the seed in her season, and man came in the earth plane as the lord of all in that sphere; man appearing in five places then at once. There were the five senses, the five reasons, the five spheres, the five developments, the five nations. (5748-1) The number of human souls in the earth plane then was 133,000,000 souls.”

(5748-2)

“In the beginning, as matter was impregnated with spirit of the Creative Influence, there came into being Man, in his environment that made for indwelling of the spirit with a soul that might be made one with that Creative Energy.

“That matter became impregnated with spirit arose from the very fact that spirit, separated, had erred; and only through the environment of matter of flesh might the attributes of the source of good be manifested.

“For the spirit of evil has not—did not—become manifested in matter; it has only been moved by, or upon, or through matter . . . . Just as the process of time has moved in and through matter, so there has come to man—in the finite mind—the consciousness of the indwelling of soul, spirit, body . . .

“Hence, as we find, the mind of man then divided for the understanding into the conscious, physical-conscious; the subconscious or unconscious-conscious; and the super- or soul-conscious of the individual entity.”

(5752-3)

“For the entity came not merely by chance. For the earth is a causation world, and in the earth cause and effect are the natural law. And as each soul enters this material plane it is to meet or give such lessons or truths that others, too, may gain more knowledge of the purpose for which each soul enters . . .

“Then ye as a soul-entity in the beginning sought companionship with God; losing that companionship by choice of . . . what would satisfy or gratify merely the material desire. Thus ye, as the Master, enter again and again; coming to fulfill the law that brought that soul into being: to be one with Him.”

(3645-1)

“Q. Do the lower forms of creation, such as animals, have souls or any life in the spirit form?

“A. All have the spirit force. Man, as he was made, carries the soul force, that which was made equal with the Creator in the beginning in relation to production in his (man’s) plane of existence. Hence, the necessity for development of that soul energy . . . For in man we find both the spirit entity and the physical entity.”

(900-24)

“Survival of the fittest applies in the animal kingdom, not for man. Let all read history. Which has survived—brute strength or the development towards God? Which survives—the man who studies God and seeks to emulate His forces and powers, or the man who emulates the forces of earth or flesh? This answers itself . . .”

(900-340)

“Q. Are souls perfect, as created by God in the beginning? If so, where is there any need for development?

“A. The answer to this may only be found in the evolution of life, in such a way as to be understood by the finite mind. In the First Cause or Principle, all is perfect. That portion of the whole (manifest in the creation of souls) may become a living soul and equal with the Creator. To reach that position, when separated from Him, it must pass through all stages of development in order that it may be one with the Creator.”

(900-10)

“Q. The first problem concerns the reason for creation. Should this be given as God’s desire to experience Himself, God’s desire for companionship, God’s desire for expression—or in some other way?

“A. God’s desire for companionship and expression.

“Q. The second problem concerns that which is variously called evil, darkness, negation, sin. Should it be said that this condition existed as a necessary element of creation—that the soul, given free will, found itself with the power to indulge in it or lose itself in it? Or should it be said that this (evil, sin) is a condition created by the activity of the soul itself? Should it be described, in either case, as a state of consciousness, a gradual lack of awareness of self and self’s relationship to God?

“A. It is the free will, and its losing itself in its relationship to God.

“Q. The third problem has to do with the fall of man. Should this be described as something which was inevitable in the destiny of souls? Or something which God did not desire, but which He did not prevent once He had given free will . . . ?

“A. He did not prevent, once having given free will. For He made the individual entities or souls in the beginning . . . the beginnings of sin, of course, were in (the souls’) seeking experiences of themselves outside of the plan, or the way in which God had expressed them. Thus it was the individual, see?

“Having given free will, then—and even though having foreknowledge, even though being omnipotent and omnipresent—it is only when the soul that is a portion of God chooses, that God knows the end thereof.

“Q. The fourth problem concerns man’s tenancy on earth. Was it originally intended that souls remain out of earthly forms, and were the races originated as a necessity resulting from error?

“A. The earth and its manifestations were only the expression of God, and not necessarily as a place of tenancy for the souls of man—until man was created . . . to meet the needs of existing conditions . . .

“Q. The sixth problem concerns interplanetary and inter-system dwelling between earthly lives. It was given through this source that the entity . . . went to the system of Arcturus, and then returned to earth. Does this indicate a usual or an unusual step in soul evolution?

“A. As indicated, or has been indicated in other sources besides this, respecting this very problem—Arcturus is what may be called the centre of this universe; (the system) through which individuals pass, and at which period there comes the choice of the individual as to whether it is to return to complete (evolution) there; . . . that is, in this planetary system, our sun and its planetary system . . . or to pass on to others. This was an unusual step—and yet a usual one.

“Q. The seventh problem concerns implications from the sixth problem. Is it necessary to finish the solar cycle before going to other systems?

“A. Necessary to finish the solar cycle . . . .

“Q. Must the solar cycle be finished on earth, or can it be completed on another planet; or does each planet have a cycle of its own which must be finished?

“A. If it is begun on earth, it must be finished on the earth. The solar system of which the earth is a part is only a portion of the whole. For as indicated in the number of the planets about the earth, they are of one and the same . . . and they are relative to one another . . . .

“Q. Are heredity, environment and will equal factors in aiding or retarding the entity’s development?

“A. Will is the greater factor, for it may overcome any or all of the others—provided that will is made one with the pattern, see? For no influence of heredity, environment or whatnot surpasses the will, else why would that pattern have been shown in which the individual soul—no matter how far astray it may have gone—may enter with Him into the Holy of Holies?

“Q. The ninth problem concerns the proper symbol or simile for the Master, the Christ. Should Jesus be described as the Soul who first went through the cycle of earthly lives to attain perfection, including perfection in the planetary lives also?

“A. He should be. This is as the man, see?

“Q. Should this be described as a voluntary mission by One who was already perfect and returned to God, having accomplished His Oneness in other planes and systems?

“A. Correct.”

(5749-14)

“The worlds were created and are still in creation—in this heterogeneous mass which is called the outer sphere; or those portions to which man looks up in space. The mists are gathering . . . of what is this the beginning? In this same beginning, so began the earth’s sphere . . .”

(900-340)