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                                 CHAPTER I


                      THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS


     The  first  step  in Occultism is the study of  the  invisible  Worlds.
These Worlds are invisible to the majority of people because of the dormancy
of  the finer and higher senses whereby they may be perceived,  in the  same
way  that  the  Physical World about us is perceived  through  the  physical
senses.   The majority of people are on a similar footing in regard  to  the
super-physical Worlds as the man who is born blind is to our world of sense;
although  light and color are all about him,  he is unable to see them.   To
him they are non-existent and incomprehensible,  simply because he lacks the
sense of sight wherewith to perceive them.   Objects he can feel;  they seem
real; but light and color are beyond his ken.

     So with the greater part of humanity.   They feel,  and see objects and
hear sounds in the Physical World, but the other realms, which the clairvoy-
ant  calls the higher Worlds,  are as incomprehensible to them as light  and
color  are  to the blind man.   Because the blind man cannot see  color  and
light, however, is no argument against their existence and reality.  Neither
is  it an argument,  that because most people cannot see the  super-physical
Worlds  no one can do so.   If the blind an obtains his sight,  he will  see
light and color.   If the higher senses of those blind to the super-physical
Worlds are awakened by proper methods,  they also will be able to behold the
Worlds which are now hidden from them.



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     While many people make the mistake of being incredulous concerning  the
existence or reality of the super-sensuous Worlds,  there are also many  who
go to the other extreme,  and,  having become convinced of the verity of in-
visible Worlds, think that when a person is clairvoyant all truth is at once
open  to him;  that when one can "see,"  he at once "knows all about"  these
higher Worlds.

     This  is  a  great mistake.  We readily recognize the fallacy of such a 
contention in matters of everyday life.  We  do not think that a man who was 
born blind, but has obtained his sight, at once "knows all about" the Physi-
cal World.   Nay, more;  we know that even those of us who have been able to 
see  the  things  about  us  all  our  lives are far from having a universal 
knowledge  of  them.   We  know  that it requires arduous study and years of 
application  to  know  about  even that infinitesimal part of things that we 
handle in our daily lives, and reversing the Hermetic aphorism,  "as  above,
so below,"  we gather at once that it must be the same  in the other Worlds.
At the same time it is also true that there are much greater facilities  for 
acquiring knowledge  in  the super-physical Worlds than in our present dense 
physical condition, but not so great as to eliminate the necessity for close 
study and the possibility of  making a mistake in observation.  In fact, all 
the testimony of reliable and qualified observers prove that much  more care 
in observation is needed there than here. 

     Clairvoyants must first be trained before their observations are of any
real  value,  and the more proficient they become the more modest  they  are
about telling of what they see;  the more they defer to the versions of oth-
ers, knowing how much there is  to learn and realizing how little the single



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investigator can grasp of all the detail incident to his investigations.

     This  also accounts for the varied versions,  which superficial  people
think are an argument against the existence of the higher Worlds.  They con-
tend that if these Worlds exist,  investigators must necessarily bring  back
identical descriptions.  If we take an illustration from everyday life,  the
fallacy of this becomes apparent.

     Suppose  a  newspaper sends twenty reporters to a city with  orders  to
"write it up."   Reporters are,  or ought to be,  trained observers.   It is
their business to see everything and they should be able to give as good de-
scriptions  as can be expected from any source.   Yet it is certain that  of
the twenty reports,  no two would be exactly alike.   It is much more likely
that  they would be totally different.  Although some of them might  contain
leading features in common,  others might be unique in quality and  quantity
of description.

     Is it an argument against the existence of the city that these  reports
differ?   Certainly not!   It is easily accounted for by the fact that  each
saw  the  city from his own particular point of view and  instead  of  these
varying  reports being confusing and detrimental,  it is safe to say that  a
perusal of them all would give a fuller,  better understanding and  descrip-
tion  of the city than if only one were read and the others were  thrown  in
the wastebasket.  Each report would round out and complement the others.

     The same is true regarding accounts made by investigators of the higher
Worlds.  Each has his own peculiar way of looking at things and can describe
only what he sees from his particular point of view.   The account he  gives
may differ from those of others, yet all be equally truthful from each indi-
vidual observer's viewpoint.




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     It  is sometimes asked,  Why investigate these Worlds?   Why is it  not
best  to take one World at a time; to be content for the present  time  with
the lessons to be learned in the Physical World, and, if there are invisible
Worlds  why not wait until we reach them before investigating?   "Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof!"  Why borrow more?

     If we knew without doubt that at some time,  sooner or later,  each one
of us must be transported to a far country where, under new and strange con-
ditions,  we must live for many years, is it not reasonable to believe  that
if we had an opportunity to learn of that country in advance of our  removal
to it we would gladly do so?   Knowledge would render it much easier for  us
to accommodate ourselves to new conditions.

     There is only one certainty in life and that is--Death! As we pass into
the beyond and are confronted by new conditions,  knowledge of them is  sure
to be of the greatest help.

     But that is not all.   To understand the Physical World,  which is  the
world  of effects,  it is necessary to understand the super-physical  World,
which is the world of causes.   We see street cars in motion and we hear the
clicking  of telegraph instruments,  but the mysterious force  which  causes
phenomena remains invisible to us.   We say it is electricity,  but the name
gives us no explanation.   We learn nothing of the force itself;  we see and
hear only its effects.

     If  a dish of cold water be placed in an atmosphere of  a  sufficiently
low  temperature ice crystals immediately begin to form and we can  see  the
process  of their formation.   The lines along which the water  crystallizes
were in it all the time as lines of force but they were invisible until  the
water congealed.  The beautiful "frost flowers" on a windowpane  are visible



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manifestations  of currents of the higher Worlds which operate upon  us  all
the time, unrecognized by most of us, but none the less potent.

     The higher Worlds are thus the worlds of causes, of forces; and we can-
not really understand this lower World unless we know the others and realize
the forces and causes of which all material things are but the effects.

     As  to  the reality of these higher Worlds compared with  that  of  the
Physical World,  strange as it may seem,  these higher Worlds,  which to the
majority appear as mirages, or even less substantial,  are,  in truth,  much
more  real and the objects in them more lasting and indestructible than  the
objects in the Physical World.   If we take an example we shall readily  see
this.   An architect does not start to build a house by procuring the  mate-
rial and setting the workmen to laying stone upon stone in a haphazard  way,
without  thought or plan.   He "thinks the house out."   Gradually it  takes
form in his mind and finally there stands a clear idea of the house that  is
to be--a thought-form of a house.

     This house is yet invisible to all but the architect.   He makes it ob-
jective on paper.   He draws the plans and from this objective image of  the
thought-form the workmen construct the house of wood,  iron,  or stone,  ac-
curately corresponding to the thought-form originated by the architect.

     Thus  the  thought-form becomes a material  reality.   The  materialist
would assert that it is much more real, lasting and substantial that the im-
age in the architect's mind.  But let us see.  The house could not have been
constructed without the thought-form.   The material object can be destroyed
by dynamite,  earthquake,  fire, or decay, but the thought-form will remain.
It  will  exist  as  long  as  the architect lives and from it any number of



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houses similar to the one destroyed may be constructed.  Not even the archi-
tect himself can destroy it.   Even after his death this thought-form can be
recovered  by  those who are qualified to read the memory of  nature,  which
will be dealt with later.

     Having thus seen the reasonableness of such Worlds existing around  and
about us, and having satisfied ourselves of their reality, their permanency,
and of the utility of a knowledge concerning them, we shall now examine them
severally and singly, commencing with the Physical World.


               CHEMICAL REGION OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD

     In the Rosicrucian teaching the universe  is divided into seven differ-
ent Worlds, or states of matter, as follows:

                      1-World of God.
                      2-World of Virgin Spirits.
                      3-World of Divine Spirit.
                      4-World of Life Spirit.
                      5-World of Thought.
                      6-Desire World.
                      7-Physical World.

     The division is not arbitrary but necessary,  because the substance  of
each  of these Worlds is amenable to laws which are practically  inoperative
in others.   For instance, in the Physical World, matter is subject to grav-
ity,  contraction and expansion.   In the Desire World there is neither heat
nor cold, and forms levitate as easily as they gravitate.  Distance and time
are also governing factors of existence in the Physical World,  but are  al-
most non-existent in the Desire World.

     The matter of these worlds also varies in density,  the Physical  World
being the densest of the seven.

     Each World is subdivided into seven Regions or sub-divisions of matter.



[PAGE 30]                                   THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

In the Physical World,  the solids,  liquids and gases form the three denser
subdivisions,  the remaining four being ethers of varying densities.  In the
other Worlds similar subdivisions are necessary, because the matter of which
they are composed is not of uniform density.

     There are still two further distinctions to be made.   The three  dense
subdivisions of the Physical World--the solids,  liquids  and gases--consti-
tute what is termed the Chemical Region. The substance in this Region is the 
basis of all dense Form.

     The Ether is also physical matter.  It is not homogeneous,  as material
science alleges,  but exists in four different states.   It is the medium of
ingress for the quickening spirit which imparts VITALITY to the Forms in the
Chemical  Region.   The four finer or etheric subdivisions of  the  Physical
World constitute what is known as the Etheric Region.

     In the World of Thought the three higher subdivisions are the basis  of
abstract thought,  hence they,  collectively,  are called the Region of  Ab-
stract Thought.  The four denser subdivisions supply the mind-stuff in which
we embody and concrete our ideas and are therefore termed the Region of Con-
crete Thought.

     The careful consideration given by the occultist to the characteristics
of the Physical World might seem superfluous were it not that he regards all
things from a view point differing widely from that of the materialist.  The
latter recognizes three states of matter--solids, liquids, and gases.  These
are all chemical,  because derived from the chemical constituents of  Earth.
From this chemical matter all the FORMS of mineral, plant,  animal,  and man
have been built, hence they are as truly  chemical  as  the substances which




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are commonly so termed.   Thus whether we consider the mountain or the cloud
that  envelops its top,  the juice of the plant or the blood of the  animal,
the spider's thread, the wing of the butterfly or the bones of the elephant,
the  air  we  breathe or the water we drink--all are  composed of  the  same
chemical substance.

     What  is it then which determines the conformation of this  basic  sub-
stance into the multiplex variety of Forms which we see about us?  It is the
One Universal Spirit,  expressing Itself in the visible world as four  great
streams of Life, at varying stages of development.   This fourfold spiritual
impulse molds the chemical matter of the Earth into variegated forms of  the
four Kingdoms--mineral, plant,  animal, and man.  When a form has served its
purpose as a vehicle of expression for the three higher streams of life, the
chemical forces disintegrate that form so that the matter may be returned to
its primordial state, and thus made available for the building of new forms.
The  spirit  or life which molds the form into an expression of  itself  is,
therefore,  as extraneous to the matter it uses as a carpenter is apart from
and personally independent of the house he builds for his own occupancy.

     As all the forms of mineral, plant, animal, and man are chemical,  they
must  logically  be as dead and devoid of feeling as chemical matter  in  it
primitive state, and the Rosicrucian asserts that they are.

     Some scientists contend that there is feeling in all tissue,  living or
dead,  to whatever kingdom it belongs.  They include even the substances or-
dinarily classed as mineral in their category of objects having feeling, and
to  prove their contentions they submit diagrams with curves of  energy  ob-
tained from tests.  Another  class of investigators teach   that there is no




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feeling even in the human body,  except in the brain,  which is the SEAT  of
feeling.   They say it is the brain and not the finger which feels the  pain
when  the latter is injured.   Thus is the house of Science divided  against
itself  on  this as on most other points.   The position taken  by  each  is
partly right.  It depends upon what we mean by "feeling."  If we mean simply
response to impacts, such as the rebound of a rubber ball that is dropped to
the ground, of course it is correct to attribute feeling to mineral,  plant,
and animal tissue; but if we mean pleasure and pain, love and hate,  joy and
sorrow, it would be absurd to attribute them to the lower forms of life,  to
detached tissue,  to minerals in their native state,  or even to the  brain,
because such feelings are expressions of the self-conscious immortal spirit,
and  the brain is only the keyboard of the wonderful instrument  upon  which
the human spirit plays its symphony of life,  just as the musician expresses
himself upon his violin.

     As there are people who are quite unable to understand that there  must
be and are higher Worlds, so there are some who,  having become slightly ac-
quainted  with  the higher realms,  acquire the habit of  undervaluing  this
Physical World.   Such an attitude is as incorrect as that of the  material-
ist.   The  great and wise Beings who carry out the will and design  of  God
placed us in this physical environment to learn great and important  lessons
which could not be learned under other conditions, and it is our duty to use
our  knowledge of the higher Worlds in learning to the best of  our  ability
the lessons which this material world has to teach us.

     In one sense the Physical World is a sort of model school or experiment
station to teach us to work correctly in the others.   It does this  whether
or not we know of the existence of those other worlds,  thereby  proving the




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great  wisdom of the originators of the plan.   If we had knowledge of  none
but the higher Worlds, we would make many mistakes which would become appar-
ent only when physical conditions are brought to bear as criterion.   To il-
lustrate:   Let us imagine the case of an inventor working out his idea of a
machine.  First he builds the machine in thought, and in his mind he sees it
complete  and in operation,  performing most beautifully the work it is  de-
signed to do.   He next makes a drawing of the design,  and in doing so per-
haps finds that modifications in his first conception are necessary.   When,
from  the drawings,  he has become satisfied that the plan is  feasible,  he
proceeds to build the actual machine from suitable material.

     Now it is almost certain that still further modifications will be found
necessary before the machine will work as intended.  It may be found that it
must  be entirely remodeled,  or even that it is altogether useless  in  its
present form, must be discarded and a new plan evolved.  But mark this,  for
here is the point:   the new idea or plan will be formulated for the purpose
of eliminating the defects in the useless machine.   Had there been no mate-
rial  machine constructed,  thereby making evident the faults of  the  first
idea, a second and correct idea would not have been formed.

     This applies equally to all conditions of life--social, mercantile, and
philanthropic.   Many plans appear excellent to those conceiving  them,  and
may  even look well on paper,  but when brought down in the actual  test  of
utility  they often fail.   That however, should not discourage us.   It  is
true that "we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes," and the
proper light in which to regard this Physical World is as a school of  valu-
able experience, in which we learn lessons of the utmost importance.






[PAGE 34]                                   THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION


                  THE ETHERIC REGION OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD.

     As  soon as we enter this realm of nature we are in the invisible,  in-
tangible World,  where our ordinary senses fail us,  hence this part of  the
Physical World is practically unexplored by material science.

     Air is invisible, yet modern science knows that it exists.  By means of
instruments its velocity as wind can be measured;  by compression it can  be
made visible as liquid air.  With either, however, that is not so easy.  Ma-
terial  science  finds that it is necessary to account in some way  for  the
transmission of electricity,  with or without wires.  It is forced to postu-
late  some substance of a finer kind that it knows,  and it calls that  sub-
stance "ether."  It does not really know that ether exists, as the ingenuity
of the scientist has not,  as yet,  been able to devise a vessel in which it
is  possible to confine this substance, which is altogether too elusive  for
the  comfort of the "wizard of the laboratory."   He cannot measure,  weigh,
nor analyze it by any apparatus now at his disposal.

     Truly,  the achievements of modern science are marvelous.  The best way
to  learn the secrets of nature, however,  is not by inventing  instruments,
but by improving the investigator himself.  Man has within himself faculties
which eliminate distance and compensate for lack of size to a degree as much
greater than the power of telescope and microscope as theirs exceeds that of
the  naked eye.   These senses or faculties are the means  of  investigation
used by occultists.  They are their "open sesame" in searching for truth.

     To the trained clairvoyant ether is as tangible as are the solids,  li-
quids, and gases of the Chemical Region to ordinary beings. He sees that the



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vital forces which give life to the mineral forms of plant,  animal and  man
flow into these forms, by means of the four states of ether.   The names and
specific functions of these four ethers are as follows.

  (1) Chemical Ether--This ether is both positive and negative in manifesta-
tion.   The forces which cause assimilation and excretion work  through  it.
Assimilation is the process whereby the different nutritive elements of food
are incorporated into the body of plant, animal and man.  This is carried on
by forces with which we shall become acquainted later.   They work along the
positive pole of the chemical ether and attract the needed elements,  build-
ing them into the forms concerned.   These forces do not act blindly nor me-
chanically, but in a selective way (well-known to scientists by its effects)
thereby accomplishing their purpose,  which is the growth and maintenance of
the body.

     Excretion is carried on by forces of the same kind,  but working  along
the  negative pole of the chemical ether.  By means of this pole they  expel
from  the body the materials in the food which are unfit for use,  or  those
which  have outlived their usefulness in the body and should  be  expurgated
from the system.   This, like all other processes independent of man's voli-
tion,  is also wide,  selective, and not merely mechanical in its operation,
as seen, for instance, in the case of the action of the kidneys,  where only
the urine is filtered through when the organs are in health; but it is known
that when the organs are not in health,  the valuable albumen is allowed  to
escape with the urine, the proper selection not being made because of an ab-
normal condition.



[PAGE 36]                                   THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

     (2)  Life Ether--As the chemical ether is the avenue for the  operation
of the forces the object of which is the maintenance of the individual form,
so  the life ether is the avenue for the operation of the forces which  have
for their object the maintenance of the species--the forces of propagation.

     Like  the  chemical ether,  the life ether also has  its  positive  and
negative  pole.   The forces which work along the positive  pole  are  those
which  work  in  the female during gestation.   They enable her  to  do  the
positive,  active work of bringing forth a new being.  On the other hand the
forces which work along the negative pole of the life ether enable the  male
to produce semen.

     In the work on the impregnated ovum of the animal and man,  or upon the
seed  of the plant,  the forces working along the positive pole of the  life
ether produce male plants,  animals and men;  while the forces which express
themselves through the negative pole generate females.

      (3)  Light  Ether--This ether is both positive and negative,  and  the
forces which play along its positive pole are the forces which generate that
blood heat in the higher species of animal and in man,  which makes them in-
dividual sources of heat.   The forces which work along the negative pole of
the light ether are those which operate through the senses,  manifesting  as
the passive functions of sight, hearing,  feeling,  tasting,  and  smelling.
They also build and nourish the eye.

     In the cold-blooded animals the positive pole of the light ether is the
avenue of the forces which circulate the blood, and the negative forces have
the same functions in regard to the eye as in the case of the higher animals
and man.  Where eyes are lacking, the forces working in the negative pole of
the  light ether are perhaps building or nourishing other sense  organs,  as
they do in all that have sense organs.




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     In  plants the forces which work along the positive pole of  the  light
ether  cause the circulation of the juices of the plant.   Thus  in  winter,
when  the  light ether is not charged with sunlight as in  summer,  the  sap
ceases  to flow until the summer sun again invests the light ether with  its
force.  The forces which work along the negative pole of the light ether de-
posit the chlorophyll,  the green substance of the plant and also color  the
flowers.   In fact,  all color, in all kingdoms is deposited by means of the
negative pole of the light ether.  Therefore animals have the deepest  color
on  the back and flowers are deepest colored on the side turned towards  the
light.   In the polar regions of the earth,  where the rays of the  sun  are
weak,  all color is lighter and in some cases is so sparingly deposited that
in winter it is withdrawn altogether and the animals become white.

     (4)   Reflecting Ether--It has heretofore been stated that the idea  of
the house which has existed in the mind can be recovered from the memory  of
nature,  even after the death of the architect.   Everything that  has  ever
happened  has  left  behind it an ineffaceable picture  in  this  reflecting
ether.   As  the giant ferns of the childhood of the Earth have  left  their
pictures  in the coal beds,  and as the progress of the glacier of a  bygone
day may be traced by means of the trail it has left upon the rocks along its
path,  even so are the thoughts and acts of men ineffaceably recorded by na-
ture in this reflecting ether,  where the trained seer may read their  story
with an accuracy commensurate with his ability.

     The  reflecting ether deserves its name for more than one  reason,  for
the pictures in it are but REFLECTIONS of the memory  of  nature.   The real



[PAGE 38]                                   THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

memory of nature is found in a much higher realm.   In this reflecting ether
no thoroughly trained clairvoyant cares to read, as the pictures are blurred
and  vague compared to those found in the higher realm.   Those who read  in
the reflecting ether are generally those who have no choice,  who,  in fact,
do  not know what they are reading.   As a rule ordinary psychometrists  and
mediums obtain their knowledge through the reflecting ether.  To some slight
extent  the pupil of the occult school in the first stages of  his  training
also reads in the reflecting ether,  but he is warned by his teacher of  his
insufficiencies of this ether as a means of acquiring accurate  information,
so that he does not easily draw wrong conclusions.

     This ether is also the medium through which thought makes an impression
upon the human brain.   It is most intimately connected with the fourth sub-
division of the World of Thought.   This is the highest of the four subdivi-
sions  contained in the Region of Concrete Thought and the homeworld of  the
human mind.   There a much clearer version of the memory of nature is  found
than in the reflecting ether.

                              THE DESIRE WORLD

     Like the Physical World,  and every other realm of nature,  the  Desire
World has the seven subdivisions called "Regions,"  but unlike the  Physical
World,  it does not have the great divisions corresponding to  the  Chemical
and Etheric Regions.   Desire stuff in the Desire World persists through its
seven subdivisions or regions as material for the embodiment of desire.   As
the  Chemical Region is the realm of form and as the Etheric Region  is  the
home of the forces carrying on life activities in those forms, enabling them




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to live,  move and propagate, so the forces in the Desire World,  working in
the quickened dense body, impel it to move in this or that direction.

     If  there were only the activities of the Chemical and Etheric  Regions
of the Physical World, there would be forms having life,  able to move,  but
WITH  NO INCENTIVE FOR SO DOING.   This incentive is supplied by the  cosmic
forces active in the Desire World and without this activity playing  through
every fibre of the vitalized body,  urging action in this direction or that,
there would be no experience and no moral growth.  The functions of the dif-
ferent  ethers would take care of the growth of the form,  but moral  growth
would  entirely lacking.   Evolution would be an impossibility,  both as  to
form and life,  for it is only in response to the requirements of  spiritual
growth  that forms evolve to higher states.  Thus we at once see  the  great
importance of this realm of nature.

     Desires,  wishes, passions, and feelings express themselves in the mat-
ter of the different regions of the Desire World as form and feature express
themselves in the  Chemical Region of the Physical World.   They take  forms
which last for a longer or shorter time,  according to the intensity of  the
desire, wish, or feeling embodied in them.  In the Desire World the distinc-
tion between the forces and the matter is not so definite and apparent as in
the Physical World.   One might almost say that here the ideas of force  and
matter are identical or interchangeable.  It is not quite so, but we may say
that to a certain extent the Desire World consists of force-matter.

     When speaking of the matter of the Desire World,  it is true that it is
one degree less dense that the matter of the Physical World,  b