(124) But if thou art thus, then raise up thy spirit and see: through thy astrological art, thy deep sense and thy measuring of circles thou canst not apprehend it; it must be born IN THEE, else thou gettest neither grace nor art.

(5) Would that it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowings of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftness, [and] the coursing of the stars, the swiftness of heaven's circuit round them [all]! Most blessed sight were it, my son, to see all these beneath one sway - the motionless in motion, and the unmanifest made manifest; whereby is made this order of the cosmos and the cosmos which we see of order.

(44) Therefore, thou child of man, be not discouraged, be not so timorous and despondent; for if thou sowest in thy zeal and earnest sincerity the seed of thy tears, thou dost not sow it in earth, but in heaven; for in thy astral birth thou sowest, and in thy animated or soulish birth thou reapest, and in the kingdom of heaven thou possessest and enjoyest it.

(27) But that there is assuredly a pure glorious heaven in all the three births or genitures aloft above the deep of this world, in which God's being, together with that of the holy angels, riseth or springeth up very purely, brightly, beauteously and joyfully, is undeniable, and he is not born of God that denieth it. But thou must know.

(70) This is the true being of God in heaven, yea heaven itself: If thy eyes were opened, thou wouldst see it plainly and clearly on earth, in that place where thou art at present.

(24) If you lift up your Thoughts and Minds, and ride upon the Chariot of the Soul, as is before mentioned, and look upon yourself, and all Creatures, and consider how the Birth of Life in you takes its Original, and the Light of your Life, whereby you can behold the shining of the Sun; and also look with your Imagination, without the Light of the Sun, into a vast large Space, to which the Eyes of your Body cannot reach, and then consider what the Cause might be that you are more rational than the other Creatures, seeing you can search what is in every Thing; and consider farther, from whence the Elements, Fire and Air take their Original, and how the Fire comes to be in the Water, and generates itself in the Water; and how the Light of your Body generates itself in the Water; and then if you be born of God, you attain to what God and the Eternal Birth is.

(26) For the true heaven is everywhere, even in that very place where thou standest and goest, and so when thy spirit apprehendeth the innermost birth or geniture of God, and presseth in through the astral and fleshly geniture, then it is clearly in heaven.

(18) The teaching is that the race as a whole is slowly evolving on to the said higher Plane of Consciousness, and long ages from now will "conscious" normally on it. In the meantime, however, certain advanced souls have transcended the Human Plane, and have passed on to the higher plane, where they aid and assist the rest of the race. Moreover, to the individual whose unfoldment is rapid, from one or more of many well-known causes, there come at times "flashes of consciousness" from the higher plane aforesaid, which at least for the time being bring the individual into conscious contact with that plane. The pages of the mystic records are filled with statements of experiences of this kind. In certain forms of poetic fervor, religious exaltation, and mystic experience, these flashes come and are then recorded by the individual experiencing them—the record, however, usually being given in the terms of the philosophy, religion, or general belief of the person experiencing the contact or "illumination," the person not fully realizing from just what source the flash of Truth has come.

(70) But if thou art wicked, then thy birth or geniture is not capable of heaven, but of the wrath, and remaineth in the other part of the astral birth or geniture, wherein the earnest and austere fire- source riseth up, and bolts it up into death, so long till thou breakest through heaven, and livest with God.

(40) Thou wilt also become quite another man, and wilt think thereon all the days of thy life; thy delight will be more in heaven than on earth.

(22) When you pluck up your foot you escape from the mire, When you obtain salvation at God's hands, O wanderer, You are free from the mire, and go your way. When the suckling is weaned from its nurse, You are bound to the bosom of earth like seeds, Eat the words of wisdom, for veiled light When you have accepted the light, O beloved, When you behold what is veiled without a veil, Like a star you will walk upon the heavens; Nay, though not in heaven, you will walk on high.

(12) But if thou raisest thy thoughts, and considerest where God is, then thou apprehendest the astral birth or geniture, where love and wrath move one against the other. But when thou drawest up the faith in God, who ruleth in holiness in this government or dominion, then thou breakest through heaven, and apprehendest or layest hold on God at his holy heart.

(27) There is nothing that is nearer you than Heaven, Paradise, and Hell, unto which of them you are inclined, and to which of them you rend [or walk,] to that in this [Life] Time you are most near: You are between both. And there is a Birth between each of them; you stand in this World between both the Gates, and you have both the Births in you: God beckons to you in the one Gate, and calls you; and the Devil beckons you in the other Gate, and calls you; with whom you go, with him you enter in. The Devil has in his Hand Power, Honour, Pleasure, and [worldly] Joy, and the Root of these is Death and Hell-fire. On the contrary, God has in his Hands, Crosses, Persecution, Misery, Poverty, Ignominy, and Sorrow; and the Root of these is a Fire also, and in the Fire [there is] a Light, and in the Light the Virtue, and in the Virtue [or Power] the Paradise, and in the Paradise [are] the Angels, and among the Angels Joy. The gross Eyes cannot behold it, because they are from the third Principle, and see only by the Splendor of the Sun; but when the Holy Ghost comes into the Soul, then he regenerates it anew in God, and then it becomes a paradisical Child, and gets the Key of Paradise, and that Soul sees into the Midst thereof.

(44) If you be born of God, then you [may] thus understand God, Paradise, the Kingdom of Heaven and Hell, and the Entrance in, and End of the Creatures, [and] the Creation of this World; but if not, then the Vail is as well before your Eyes, as it was upon Moses. Therefore saith Christ; Seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you: No Son asketh his Father for an Egg, that he should give him a Scorpion: Also my Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask it.

(125) If the eyes of thy spirit are to stand open, then thou must generate thus, else thy comprehensibility is a foolish virgin, and it befalls thee, as if a limner should offer to pourtray the Deity on a table, and tell thee, It is made right, the Deity is just so.

(25) "These experiences, when they have come to one, have left him in a new state of mind, and he has never been the same man afterward. Although the keenness of the recollection has worn off, there remains a certain memory which long afterward proves a source of comfort and strength to him, especially when he feels faint of faith and is shaken like a reed by the winds of conflicting opinions and speculations. The memory of such an experience is a source of renewed strength—a haven of refuge to which the weary soul flies for shelter from the outside world which understands it not. From the writings of the ancient philosophers of all races, from the songs of the great poets of all peoples, from the preachings of the prophets of all religions and times we can gather traces of this illumination which has come to them—this unfoldment of spiritual consciousness. One tells the story in one way, the other in other terms, but all tell practically the same essential story. All who have recognized this illumination, even in a faint degree, recognize the like experience in the tale, song, or preaching of another, though centuries may roll between them. It is the song of the Soul, which when once heard is never forgotten. Though it be sounded by the crude instruments of the semi-barbarous races, or the finished instruments of the talented musician of today, its strains are plainly recognized. From Old Egypt comes the song—from India of all ages—from Ancient Greece and Rome—from the early Christian saint—from the Quaker Friend—from the Catholic monasteries —from the Mohammedan Mosque—from the Chinese Philosopher—from the legends of the American Indian hero-prophet—it is always the same strain, and it is swelling louder and louder, as many more are taking it up and adding their voices or the sounds of their instruments to the grand chorus." The student must remember that in the experiences noted above, the individual simply has flashes, or period of dawning consciousness on this Sixth Plane of Consciousness, and is not to be regarded as having entered fully and completely into its manifestations, much less as having evolved into a state in which he functions normally and habitually on this high plane. There are beings—once men—who have evolved into the higher state in which they function normally and habitually on this plane of conscious being; but these individuals are no more than mere men, and have earned the right to be called "Demi-Gods." But, even as they once were men, so all men become as they now are by the unfoldment of this higher region of Self. These flashes of consciousness from this high plane are prophetic signs and messages indicating the awakening of the higher faculties, and giving assurance of further growth and unfoldment.

(41) But whoso seeks his water of life in worldly joys, The eyes of the heart which behold the heavens Mankind are ever being changed, and God's elixir Joins the body's garment without aid of needle. On the day that you entered upon existence, You were first fire, or earth, or air. If you had continued in that, your original state, How could you have arrived at this dignity of humanity? But through change your first existence remained not In lien thereof God gave you a better existence

(103) Thou child of man, behold now, how great a gate of heaven, of hell, and of the earth, as also of the whole Deity, the spirit openeth to thee.

(54) If man's eyes were but opened, he would see God everywhere in his heaven; for heaven stands in the innermost birth or geniture everywhere.

(37) Now behold, thou Child of Man, (seeing thou art an eternal Spirit) thou hast this to expect after the Breaking [or Deceasing] of thy Body; thou wilt be either an Angel of God in Paradise, or a hellish ugly diabolical Worm, Beast, or Dragon; all according as thou hast tbeen inclined [or given to] here in this Life; that Image which thou hast borne here in thy Mind, with that thou shalt appear; for there can no other Image go forth out of thy Body at the Breaking [or Deceasing of it;] but even that which thou hast borne here, that shall appear in Eternity.