1914_10_Oct Echoes from Mt. Ecclesia.pdf

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Entered as second class matter

November 3rd, 1913, at the Post Office

under the Act of August 24, 1912.

Our Esoteric Secretary is much encouragedby the hearty cooperation of the students, whohave, since the last Echoes went out, been writ-

ing their full names and addresses much moreclearly and on most of the letters. Now it is felta better understanding by the students of ourmethods will further enlist cooperation and helpthe office force. Hence the following requestand suggestions:

When you write asking for report blanks,please be sure to put your request on a separateslip with your full name and address.Sometimes such a request or an order forbooks or other important things are put in themiddle of ten-page letters, and naturally suchvoluminous communications are always putaside because we have not the time to readthem through at the time of receiving them.They are put in a basket where they must waittheir turn.

Therefore if a request for report blanks or anorder for books is sent in such a manner it is notto be wondered at that they are overlooked forsome time, and students therefore may be

annoyed at not receiving the books or the reportblanks; but if you will help by always writinganything that you want specially attended to ona separate sheet of paper, putting your full nameand address thereon, these important matterswill receive attention so much quicker that itwill be a surprise to you.

Food is Medicine

The new dining hall is nearing completionand we hope to be in it the first week in October.This will indeed seem a treat, after being in theold dining room, which was only built for tempor-ary use and a sort of camping out purposes, to

get into this permanent, new, beautiful building.As you know we believe that food is the onlyright medicine. Proper food given at the righttime and under the right conditions will not onlycure but prevent disease, and therefore we feelthat although we advocate frugality and the sim-ple life, there is no inconsistency in the fact thatour dining hall is the most pretentious buildingon Mount Ecclesia at the present time. We havebestowed a great deal of care upon it, and feelthat it is well warranted, for is not this body of ours the temple of the living God?

Only through a perfect, a good and a healthytemple can we really express ourselves here inthis world and do our best work and the simplebut sanitary food that we put into our bodiesunder such pleasant conditions is naturallygoing to do much more good to those who comehere in a run-down condition, and those who aresuffering with diseases than when prepared inan unsanitary kitchen and served in a stuffy

place. This place and the food that will beserved in it will in itself be a powerful factor inhealing.

The windows in this new dining hall are fac-ing the ocean, mountains and valley on threesides, and the wonderful California sunsets willbe plainly visible to all who are fortunate

Echoes From Mt. EcclesiaOCTOBER 10TH, 1914

OCEANSIDE, NO. 17 CALIFORNIA



enough to be on Mount Ecclesia and partake of their evening meal there. These sunsets overthe Pacific Ocean, with islands in the distance,sometimes the sky overclouded and the thou-sand tints of such indescribable beauty from the

most fiery and deepest red to the very faintestshades of violet, are blended in such a mannerthat I have never seen equaled in any other partof the world.

During the summer we have discouraged stu-dents who wanted to come to Mount Ecclesia,as we felt that the conditions in the old dininghall and kitchen were not as they ought to be.Perfect sanitation could not be had, especiallyfor a large crowd. But now that it is possible to

give them better accommodations in the newdining hall, and we have a bath department inconnection, so that it will be possible to givestudents bathing facilities and thus take propercare of the physical man, we intend to startclasses in November, we shall partition the din-ing room off so that we may use part as a classroom, and thus take care properly of the stu-dents along the mental lines. Last, but not least,the spiritual work will be carried on as usual in thelittle Pro Ecclesia which we all love so dearly.

A Flagraising

On or about Thanksgiving, Nov. 26th, we aregoing to have a flagraising on Mount Ecclesia.One of the students in the East has given us aflag with the Rosicrucian Fellowship's emblem.It is a beautiful flag, we feel very proud of it andlong for the day when we can hoist it on theflagpole on top of the dining hall. But it occursto me that, according to American law, it is notallowed to hoist a flag without having theAmerican flag above it. Now I would like tohear from some of our legal lights in regard tothis matter. Does this apply to flags of nation-alities only, or does it include also religiousorders or societies? In other words if we hoistthe emblem of the Rosicrucian Fellowship overthe dining hall will it be necessary to put an

American flag above it? I have no objection toputting the American flag up. I think it is agood idea to have the emblem of our gloriousland of liberty, but the Rosicrucian Fellowshipis a spiritual institution, and, as such, it is above,

it is something higher, than the kingdoms of men or nationalities. It beckons to everyone, nomatter under what national flag he or shebelongs, and therefore I do not feel that I wantto raise the flag of any one nation above thisuniversal international emblem unless it is nec-essary to fulfill the law of the land wherein welive, for that, of course, has been inculcated as aprinciple by the Christ when He said, "renderunto Caesar what belongs to Caesar" and we

must obey to the law in all matters.

This will be a good time for students to cometo Mount Ecclesia, for we are now enteringupon the most delightful time of the year inSouthern California. We have already had a lit-tle rain, and we hope soon to have more, so thatthe hillsides will become green and beautifuland add their share to the general tone of thelandscape. As you know the winter here inCalifornia is really much more like summerthan the summer itself, for the rainy seasonbrings out the verdure upon the fields and on thehillsides, covering everything with a carpet of flowers that is so wonderful that no pen is ade-quate to describe it. Besides the atmosphere isso much clearer. The snow-capped mountainsone hundred miles away seem almost so nearthat it looks like an easy walk before dinner, andit seems as if it were but a step from the shore tothe islands sixty miles out in the Pacific Ocean.

A Dilemma

Have you ever been in the situation describedas "between the devil and the deep sea?" I amthere not infrequently, on account of the injunc-tion placed upon me by the Elder Brothers, thatunder no circumstances may I put a price on theRosicrucian teachings, or solicit money for

2 ECHOES FROM MOUNT ECCLESIA



buildings or any other purpose. This I was toldwas to be left to the men and women whobecame interested; they must do that amongthemselves. With this idea I am heartily inaccord, and have obeyed it in the spirit as well

as to the letter, as far as I knew how; but con-tinually something comes up and I don't know just how to act on the right side.

Now we have received a letter from a friendin Chicago, one of our worthy members, a manwho, if I remember rightly, once collected$150,000 wherewith to build the Chicago PressClub, and did this in a very short time. He hasmade propositions at different times for raisingmoney to build the Ecclesia, and as you know,

that matter was taken up last year by theFinance Committee. I don't know how I shallkeep my hands entirely off it; I can't helpmyself, it seems I must publish such communi-cations, must give the men and women whowant to help a chance to express themselves, orelse they really cannot do the work. At the sametime I hope that you will understand that per-sonally I have nothing to do with it; that I havenot suggested it; that I am not taking any activepart in these attempts to raise money for any-thing, but that all that is done in that way is anoutcome of the feeling of these members thatthey want to do something to realize the plan of the Elder Brothers that an Ecclesia should bebuilt during the second decade of the presentcentury, as the philosophy was published beforethe end of the first decade. So we have until thethirty first of December 1920, to realize thisplan.

In the first decade of the century we made astart at preaching the gospel, publishing the lit-erature and the teachings given out by the ElderBrothers of the Rosicrucian order. In the seconddecade the effort must be made to start the sec-ond part of the work, namely healing the sick,and in this effort there is nothing of course tocompare with the spiritual panacea, and theEcclesia in which that is to be prepared should

therefore be started before the expiration of thesecond decade of the century or else we shallhave lost the opportunity for the time being, anda new start may not be made until the secondhalf of the century has dawned upon the world.

With this explanation of my position I giveyou herewith a part of the letter received fromour friend, G.W.W., in Chicago. There is onesentence, however, that I would call your atten-tion to; the one that says that whatever dona-tions are made to the Ecclesia should not inter-fere with the monthly contributions. When theFinance Committee last year endeavored to startthe work, many of the students sent their month-ly contributions to the Finance Committee, for

that work, and deprived Headquarters of thewherewithal to carry on the ordinary work of publishing our literature and carrying on thecorrespondence, and this was felt keenly by thestaff at Headquarters, so I hope that no mistakewill be made like that again.

And I trust that you will understand that whileI pray for the Ecclesia to be built as earnestly asany one, and am willing to publish whatever themembers have to say in regard to this matter, Imyself personally must stand outside the dis-cussion, and can have nothing to do with solic-itation of funds for this or any other purpose.That must come spontaneously from your ownselves. Moreover, when any more buildingshave to be built, I do hope and pray that someone will be here to take that work off my shoul-ders, so that I may devote myself to the spiritu-al side and not have to do any more of thiswork. I feel that I have given so much of mytime now to this material pioneer work, to thebuilding up of Mount Ecclesia, that really some-one else should come in to take the work off myshoulders, so that I may do the other work. Of course if nobody comes I am willing to stand inthe harness and remain there as long as it is nec-essary, but I feel really that it is not for the bestinterests of the Fellowship when my time isdevoted to such work as printing, pumping,

ECHOES FROM MOUNT ECCLESIA 3



contracting, etc., instead of to the work thatreally belongs to me, for I assure you that it isan awful wrench to have to work with buildersand to do with material things like that all dayand then get to the Dictaphone and do the spiri-

tual work at night. It is so foreign, they are sofar apart, that it is almost impossible to get intothe swing, and as a result I do neither branch aswell as it ought to be done.

Chicago Ill., Sept 18th, 1914Friend Heindel:

If for any reason you feel the time too short toraise the money for the Ecclesia between nowand Christmas, I suggest we at least start the

work and to that end I will give one hundreddollars and send it at a moment's notice if thework is started so that you may place the moneyin some good bank at interest; that is, you cantake a certificate of deposit for it and get proba-bly five per cent per annum. We could, if we allmake a Christmas offering for this purpose,have a great portion of the money raisedbetween now and Christmas, and this ought notto interfere with our regular monthly offerings;in fact it must not do so, as with your newkitchen and other expenses that should beincreased rather than decreased.

I feel we should make a start for the Ecclesia,if we do nothing more, and we should do it anddo it at once, as the time is already short. I will,if the work is commenced, mention the matterto all here, and if you could get one good work-er in each town to get the members together, thiswould so accentuate the matter that the moneycould and would soon be raised, as ourChristmas offering to the suffering Christ and asa tribute to Christian Rosenkreuz. Such a work would inspire the members, and nothing wouldso help the Fellowship as to get them enthusias-tically at work, as this would be real service.Think the matter over and communicate withsome of the members in whose judgment youhave confidence. A call for volunteers in

Echoes to push this work would not be a badidea. If it were not for giving the names to theproselyters, the names could be published sothat it might inspire others to work and to help.

The Esoteric Secretary has stated how ener-

getic the Los Angeles lodge is and how NewYork and Brooklyn are pushing forward for firstplace on all occasions, and has expressed hopethat Chicago might and she believed would notbe outdone in the end. Here is an opportunity totest and to enthuse the whole of the membershipeverywhere it seems to me. What could be bet-ter than to have the Ecclesia paid for before weeven begin it?

Churches lock their doors and hold their

members as in prison till they get the money byvoluntary subscription before we strike a ham-mer, and as we build without noise or sound of hammer, may we not set our young HiramAbiffs at work between now and Christmas?My money is ready and I know in my own mindthat many others are equally as ready to help theFellowship and yourself in the work as I am,yea, perhaps even more so. We claim to bebuilders. Let us make good our assertions, orelse refrain from such assertion.

Fraternally,G.W.W.

MEMORY

By C.K.How often, when I read the beautiful teach-

ings of the Elder Brothers and realize their won-derful truth and also the necessity of living up tothem, do I wish that I might always rememberthem and act accordingly.

When, in particular, I meet a vital truth whichseems like a living inspiration I have oftenwished that I might seize it and hold it forever;but, alas, it soon fades and when the time comeswhen it would be most useful it is gone and for-gotten until too late.

The seat of MEMORY is the vital body, andthe vital body is built by REPETITION; so then,




the teachings, which I would hold before myconsciousness, must be indelibly imprintedthere by constant repetition. From this may beinferred that progress along this line dependspretty much on repetition and the question nat-

urally presents itself: How can this repetitionbe best affected?

Now there are many ways of going about it, Iknow, but here is a good way for those who arein earnest. When you find a pointed truth whichapplies to you in particular, a virtue that youlack very much, or one which you desire verymuch to attain, write it out very neatly (I use atypewriter) on a piece of paper together with afew others that you wish to remember in partic-

ular and endeavor to read and realize themevery morning before you start to work. I say"endeavor" because you will find yourself for-getting to do it many times at the start. Butdon't let this discourage you. Try to form ahabit like the habit of using a toothbrush orwashing your face every morning. This is rep-etition with a vengeance and unless you are sin-cere, you will soon find soul-growth out- strip-ping your desire for it.

The first few mornings will be all right and arealization of what you wish to do will sweepthrough your very soul, but there will sooncome a time when you find that you don't wantthat virtue after all, not for a few minutes any-way.

Now this is the critical point, this is the reasonyou never had that virtue before. This is thetime when an ounce of RIGHT FEELING prop-erly planted will bring forth several tons of fruitlater on. It may be a hard pull but don't give up!Straighten your mind out and force the samerealization on your consciousness that you feltbefore. When you feel the same desire to dogood and fully realize your mistake in thinkingand acting, the Rubicon is crossed and the nexttime it will be easier.

By slowly adding the things which you yearnmost ardently to know, you will never again

have to sigh for the knowledge that slipped yourmind at the psychological moment and attain-ment will be nearer to your grasp than everbefore.

QUESTION DEPARTMENT

Question: When an arm or a limb is amputat-ed does that exist independently in the desireworld after amputation? And after death doesthe person appear minus hand or foot in thedesire world? I have known people to sufferpain in a limb long after the amputation evenyears? How is this accounted for?

Answer: When an arm, a limb or an organ has

been removed from the physical body by meansof a surgical operation, the dense part or organpermeated only by the planetary ether is takenaway. The four ethers, which constitute thevital body of the man or woman thus operatedupon, remain; but there is a certain magneticconnection between the part decaying in thegrave and that etheric counter part whichremains with the person. Therefore he or shefeels the pain and suffering in the organs forsome time after an operation, until decay hastaken place, and the ether has then vanished.

You will find some interesting cases demon-strating this point and some further teaching onthis matter in the Cosmo. When a person whois injured passes into the invisible realm, hethinks with the same mind, pictures himself there as he was in this world; consequently, ascar on the forehead or the loss of an arm orlimb is reproduced by his thought in the matterof the desire world and he appears there disfig-ured as he was here.

In the present European war this is verynoticeable, for all the soldiers who pass out withwounds which they can see and which theyknew how to determine the effect of, they havereproduced these wounds in their desire bodies,and they feel at the present time pain similar towhat they would feel if they were here, because




they fancy that there must be pain connectedwith it. However, they are very quickly con-vinced by one another and by those who havebeen helped by the Elder Brothers to see thematter right that there is no actual pain. They

wake up to that fact, but still they carry aboutwith them their lesion, and as these lesions havenot been bandaged in the physical world they goabout exhibiting in their bodies the frightfulwounds of bayonets and similar instruments of slaughter. All this however is only illusion, andas soon as they are convinced of that fact andtaught that by thought they may shape theirbodies in the normal and healthy state, thesethings will probably not continue to be an eye-

sore to those who behold the present conditionsof the invisible world.

Question: Why is it wrong for a Probationerto use alcohol and tobacco?

Answer: This question does not only apply toProbationers, but to every one who endeavors tolive the higher life, and therefore we answer itin the Echoes so that all students may know thatit is not only sentiment that dictates our ideasthat we should not use any intoxicants or drugswhich muddle the brain, for that is the great andimportant instrument whereby we are doing ourwork in the physical world, and without beingin good condition, we cannot expect to makeprogress.

Flesh and alcohol have the tendency to makeman ferocious and to turn his spiritual sightaway from the higher worlds and focus visionupon the present material plane. Therefore theBible tells us that at the beginning of the rain-bow age, the age where we live in an atmos-phere of clear and pure air, so different from themisty atmospheric condition of Atlantis spokenof in the second chapter of Genesis, Noah firstbrewed the wine. Material development hastaken place in consequence of the present focus-ing of our energies upon the material world,which resulted from partaking of meat and

wine.Christ's first miracle changed water into wine.

He had received the universal spirit at the bap-tism, and had no need of artificial stimulants.He changed the water to wine to give to others

less advanced. But no wine bibbers can inheritthe kingdom of God. The esoteric reason isthis: that while the lower ethers vibrate to theseed atoms in the solar plexus, and the heart andthus keep the physical body alive, the higherethers vibrate to the pituitary body and pinealgland. By imbibing this false rebellious spiritthat is fermented outside the body and is differ-ent from the spirit that is fermented inside, bysugar, these organs are temporarily dazed and

cannot vibrate to the higher world, and so,because of age-long abuse, man has ceased tofunction in the higher worlds.

If he takes too much of this spirit of alcohol,the organs named may be slightly awakened sothat he sees the lowest realms of the desireworld and all the evil things therein; that hap-pens in the disease known as delirium tremens.

To sum up, as the evolution of soul dependsupon the acquisition of the two higher ethersfrom which the beautiful wedding garment ismade, and as these ethers are attuned to theorgans named in the same manner that the lowerethers are attuned to the seed atom in the heartand the seed atom in the solar plexus, you willreadily understand the deadly effects to the spir-itual man of alcohol and drugs. To elucidatefurther I quote an incident of life.

There is an old saying: "Once a Masonalways a Mason"; that means that when any onehas received the initiation in the Masonic order,and by virtue of that becomes a Mason, he can-not resign, for he cannot give up that knowledgeand the secrets which he has learned any morethan a person who goes to college can give back his learning received at that institution; andtherefore, Once a Mason always a Mason, andlikewise, once a pupil, a lay brother, of a mys-tery school, always a pupil and a lay brother of




said same mystery school. But though thatholds good and life after life we come back con-nected with the same order that we have beenaffiliated with in previous lives, we may in anyone life so conduct ourselves that it is impossi-

ble for us to realize this in our physical brains,and I will as said cite for the benefit of all stu-dents a case which is very much to the point.

When I was taken into the temple of theRosicrucian Order in Germany, I was surprisedto see a man who I had known on the Pacificcoast; that is to say, I had seen him a few times;we had never spoken. He seemed at that time tobe in a station in the society where we were con-nected much above mine, and I had never had

personal acquaintance with him. However, hegreeted me there warmly, and seemed to under-stand all about his connection with said society,about our meeting there, and so forth; and Ilooked forward upon my return to America togetting much information from this brotherwhen I should be fortunate enough to meet himhere in the West.

When I arrived at the city where he was, I wastold by mutual friends that he had been expect-ing me and was looking forward to meeting mevery anxiously. So that when I did meet thegentleman, I at once went up to him and shook him by the hand. He also seemed to recognizeme and called me by name. It seemed there wasevery indication that he knew all that had hap-pened while we were both out of the body;besides, he had told me in the temple that heremembered everything that happened to himwhen out of the body; this of course I believedfor he was of a much higher degree than thefirst, into which I had just been admitted.

On the day of our physical meeting, after afew moments’ conversation, I said somethingthat caused him to stare at me blankly. I hadreferred to some incident of our meeting in thetemple, and he showed plainly that he knewnothing whatever. I had however said so muchthat I was forced to say more, or appear very

foolish; so I told him that he had professed toremember everything. This he denied, and at theend of the interview he begged me very earnest-ly to endeavor to find out why it was that he wasa lay brother of the Rosicrucian Order, yet could

not remember that which took place during hisabsence from the body. He was, as I knew, atvarious temple services, he took part, and still inhis physical brain he was absolutely ignorant of that which passed.

The mystery was solved a little later when Ilearned from him, out of the body, the fact thathe smoked cigarettes and used drugs, whichclouded his brain to such an extent that it hadbecome impossible for him to carry anything

through of his psychic experiences. When I toldhim that in the body he made a valiant effort torid himself of this habit, which he acknowl-edged, but after some time of abstinence, hefound that he could not do without the drugs andcigarettes and therefore he has been, up to thepresent, shut out from any consciousness of thehigher life.

This is a very pitiful case, and I have no doubtthere are more; and they illustrate how carefulwe should be to be clean in our habits, in every-thing to regard this body of ours as the templeof God, and refrain from defiling it, as wewould refrain from defiling a house of God builtof stone and mortar, which is not one millionthpart as holy as the body wherewith we havebeen endowed.

HEALING DEPARTMENT

A correspondent writes: “In Tannhouser IIyou say sickness attends soul growth to agreater or less extent. I also see in Lecture No.11, Spiritual Sight and Insight , that you say dis-ease is a manifestation of ignorance. In propor-tion that the Christ is formed in us we attain tohealth. These two passages don’t seem recon-cilable to my mind.”

Answer: They are nevertheless very much




reconcilable. Until the Christ life illumines usfrom within we do not comprehend, neither dowe follow, the laws of nature, and consequentlywe contract diseases by our ignorant contraven-tion of these laws. As Emerson puts it, a man

who is sick is a scoundrel in the act of beingfound out; he has broken the laws of nature.That is why it is necessary that the gospel of Christ should be preached, that every one of usshould learn to love our God with our wholeheart and our whole soul, and our brother asourselves, for all our trouble in the world,whether we recognize it or not, comes from theone great fact of our selfishness.

If the alimentative function is deranged, what

is the reason? Is it not that we have overtaxedour system because of selfishness? Or if wehave a nervous breakdown, is it not because wehave been angered and exhausted our nervousforce by trying to get someone to serve our self-ish ends, and we feel resentful because we havenot succeeded? In every case selfishness is theprime cause of most diseases, sorrows and pain;selfishness is the supreme besetting sin of igno-rance.

We append, as usual, a few letters from thosewho have been benefited during last month.H.C.O. writes,

“Another week has gone by, and can say amfeeling very well. I still have the spots in theeyes, but they do not appear constantly asbefore. The Invisible Helpers have done won-ders in helping me to health so far; with God’shelp and theirs I expect to some day reach thisgoal of being entirely well.”

This letter from a patient in England is self-explanatory:

“I may say that I am free from that spirit con-trol or hypnotic condition; also I have promisedmyself not to allow it to take hold of me again.I have steadily avoided associating with my so-called friends since the occurrence. Thank you.I will take your advice and give up worryingover this and other mistakes I have made. I will

try again more ever before to rise above thepast.

Yours very sincerely,B.H.”

C.A.P. was troubled with indigestion, insom-nia and a general nervous breakdown. Hewrites:

“My health has been very good during thepast week, and I have felt well except for feel-ing of uneasiness sometimes along towardsnight. I feel that Invisible Helpers are doing mean immense amount of good, and am verythankful for same.”

M.M. was troubled with chronic headaches,nearly driven insane by the pain thereof. Thedoctors wanted to operate, but told her that evenan operation would not be sure to give herrelief. We advised against the operation, andshe took up the healing as done by us. Shewrites now: “I am so glad and thankful to reportthat I have not had one single spell of pain sincewriting last week, and I am really feeling fine.”

H.P.C. was subject to fainting spells, especial-ly when going into crowds alone. Fear andweakness would seize her at the most inoppor-tune moments. This condition is passing awayunder the treatment of the Invisible Helpers,who are not only able to aid in physical but alsoin moral and mental troubles. She writes:

“I have been quite well during the past week.I am so lighthearted when I see how the thingsthat tortured me so much are becoming as noth-ing now, and I am very grateful for this help.”

M.P., whose letter we gave last month, hassince written as follows:

“My health has improved so much since Ihave written to you for help, and I have gainedmuch in flesh. I will follow out all your instruc-tions, and being a Probationer I feel I can nowdo for myself. Yours in Fellowship.”


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1914_10_Oct Echoes from Mt. Ecclesia.pdf