Ans.   Spirit is the eternal, indestructible permanence concealed within all objective manifestations. It is the germ of perfect homogeneity, which dwells within the center of its own radiations, which radiations are called heterogeneity. Universal spirit is the essence of Eternal Being. We might say that spiritually it is the root of the verb to be. The spirit in man is an indestructible spark of the Great Flame. It is separate from, yet always a part of, Universal Reality. It is the root and seed from which grows the triple branch of consciousness, intelligence, and function. Among the lower forms of Nature this spiritual spark is called the Monad. Among those beings with a separately organized mental nature, it assumes the dignity of the Ego (I AM).

   Ans.   Body is a group of lives less highly individualized than the spirit which manipulates them. These lives have been ensouled by the emanations exuding from the superior spirit, and have been formed into composite heterogeneities which we know as vehicles. These vehicles serve as channels for the manifestation of the subjective ideations of the superior consciousness. Bodies are a series of non-eternal, perishable vehicles composed of the substances radiated outward by consciousness, these radiations being attuned to the several major rates of vibration which we know as planes of Nature. The adjustment of these self-born bodies to their correlated cosmic prototype gives function to the individual spirit upon any and all planes whereon these adjustments have been made. Physical life is the function of consciousness in that grade of vibration called physical density as the result of a body composed of physical atoms gathered around certain specified rates of vibration radiating from the Ego or Monad which we call the spirit.

   Ans.   Mind is a center of activity existing as a circumscribed area or vortex in that plane of vibratory force which we know as Rupa or Arupa substance. The basic atom or substance plasma of the mental plane is called the mentoid. All organisms that have created a functioning organism of mentoids are said to have minds. All that have created a vortex or agitated the surface of astral substance or astroids are said to have feelings. All those having vortices of function in the substance known as etheric granules are capable of generation and reproduction. Those capable of circumscribing and agitating along directional lines the base Koylons of physical substance are said to have dense chemical bodies.

   Ans.   Manifestation is an agitation of substance. Agitation creates friction; friction, incident; incident, experience; experience, intelligence. As intelligence, therefore, is the fruitage of a series of non-intelligent or semi-intelligent functions, so the soul is the chemical and atomic fruitage of the actions, reactions, and inter-actions of the bodies upon themselves, each other, and their environment, and in turn the reaction of their environment upon them. As soul represents the highest perfection of all bodies, it becomes the ultimate homogeneous attenuated vehicle for the manifestation of the enlightened Ego.

   Ans.   The most simple comparison is the relationship between a person and the house they live in. Bodies are vehicles of opportunity, existing in order that consciousness may learn and experience sequentially the great lessons of life. Function on any plane of Nature or in any environment proves conclusively that that plane or environment offers opportunities of finer adjustment and higher perfection than the individual who is functioning there has yet attained. When the consciousness has completely absorbed and made part of itself the lesson of the environment, he discards as useless and as an impediment the vehicles which he has outgrown. The bodies should be the servants of the consciousness, seeking to assist it in its labor of unfoldment. The consciousness in turn must be considerate of the bodies, for they make possible his growth. Each must assume his responsibilities to the other—the bodies as faithful servants, the spirit as a just and intelligent overlord.

   Ans.   Bodies are built by the grouping of the minute particles of cosmic substance along lines of force and around vortices of cosmic energy. Man in building bodies drops tiny atomic spirals from the Egoic globe itself or, we might say, projects lines of force. These lines of force are adjusted to the three lower worlds, namely, Mental, Emotional, and Substantial. The Substantial universe has two divisions, Chemical and Humidic, each of which has its own vortex of force. These tiny spirals connect the consciousness with these planes of substance, and the impetus to gather the atoms of the respective worlds into functional organism descends along these lines of force as nerve impulse.

   Ans.   Spirit is androgynous, and its manifested polarity is merely the result of the fact that the same vital forces used for propagation are used for thought and mind building; therefore, in order to reproduce its kind and in that way offer further opportunities for incoming Egos and at the same time build a brain for the objectifying of the mental temperament, it was necessary to divide the life force. As positive and negative are necessary for all creative work, whether spiritual or physical, these currents are sent alternately. In one incarnation the positive pole is turned downward and the negative upward, and in another the positive pole is turned upward and the negative downward. This process results in what is physically known as sex.

   Ans.   Man has five senses awake and two latent; the five awakened being hearing, feeling, seeing, smelling and tasting, and the two latent being sensitiveness to the astral world and sensitiveness to the impressions of the mental world. All function and sense is the result of the law of necessity, based upon the theory that "self preservation is Nature's first law." Each of the races developed a sense. The first race developed the sense of hearing; the second race, the sense of feeling; the third, sight; etc.

   Ans.   The normal man has four bodies—the physical, the vital, the astral, and the mental. It is possible for the trained Adept to develop still higher bodies, such as the Buddhic and the Nirvanic. When he has developed the Nirvanic body, he is said to be free from the wheel of birth and death.

   Ans.   We know that the physical body is the medium of expression for all of the higher vehicles in physical substance. Taking the physical body, therefore, as a base, we know that the vital body vitalizes it, giving the principle of life; the astral body moves it, gives it heat and circulation, and also the senses; while the mental body crowns it with intelligence. The higher bodies, if awake, manifest as various super-normal qualities.

   Ans.   If the Earth Spirit is meant, it is indeed difficult to give an answer. In Kosmos time is measured by immensities of ages and not by years. The earth as we know it is only one of the bodies assumed by the Earth Spirit, and is merely an incarnation of the Planetary Lord. Occultism teaches that the physical earth globe is a little over 350,000,000 years old. This time includes those periods when it passed through the dark mist, the fire mist, the water mist, and the earth periods. It will remain, so records tell us, for another 250,000,000 years at least. During these great periods it passes through numerous changes, and is reinhabited a number of times.

   Ans.   There were no really human creatures as we know them upon the planet until about 18,000,000 years ago. At approximately that time Lohitange, the Fire Lord of Mars, separated the sexes. (This is the origin of the story concerning Adam's rib.) This was during the Lemurian Race, while the earth was still covered with the water mist. The early half of the Lemurians had no lungs, but gills like fishes. These early Lemurians were not called races, but rather species. The sixth sub-race of Lemuria was the first to be composed of truly human creatures. This was the beginning of man.

   Ans.   The First Root Race existed while the earth was still part of the nebula of the Sun. They were loosely organized forms of baggy and senseless shapes. They had very little consciousness, but were connected by magnetic cords with the higher spiritual side of their own natures, and also with guardian intelligences. They were not subject to mortality, but lived forever. They lived in the fire element exuded from the Sun. They developed vaguely the sense of hearing. Those are the sons of Yoga. At first there was no reproduction, but later reproduction was accomplished by fission. The Third Eye was active as the pole of the magnetic cord. These are called the Polarian species.

   Ans.   These are the children of the Golden Father and the White Mother. They were rough globes of a golden yellow color. The Pineal gland served as a medium of impression. These creatures had two senses—hearing, which was more highly developed than in the First Race, and feeling, slightly developed. The early half of this race multiplied like cells by fission, but the element of growth was introduced. The later species of this race multiplied by swelling and budding somewhat like trees. The last of this race were called the Sweat-born, and were the first to show any sexual nature. Like the previous race, they were destroyed collectively by the Gods. They still lived in the Sun nebula, and were connected by the magnetic cord in recapitulation of the Moon Chain. They had very little consciousness of any kind, were subject to the Cosmic Urge, and are known as the Hyperborean specie.

   Ans.   At this time the Earth had become differentiated, and the Third Root Race had three senses—hearing, feeling, and seeing. Sight came when the fire mist and the water fogs cleared. This was the first race to see the Sun as we know it. The first sub-species of the Third Race were the Sweat-born. Then came the Egg-born. The Egg-born ran and walked from the time of birth. Slowly through the millions of years that followed they lost this power. Division of the sexes took place in the fourth sub-Race of Lemuria. The Lemurians had no distinct language, but copied the voice of Nature. They were strange hairy creatures little resembling the modern man. During the millions of years since first appearing, they rose to their greatest height and then gave place to later races. Remnants of the Third Race are still to be found among the black peoples of today. They were called the Lemurians, and occupied a continent in the Southwest Pacific. The last two subdivisions of the Lemurians were called the Lanouas, and were the first truly human beings. These two sub-races formed the Lemurian Race, while the five previous divisions were the Lemurian specie. It was in the fifth sub-Race of Lemuria that man became a conscious being and responsible to Nature for his thoughts and actions.

   Ans.   The Fourth Root Race, which came into being about 8,000,000 B. C. was the red man. He developed the sense of smell, reproduced his specie in the same way as our modern race. The American Indian, the ancient Egyptian, and similar people of red color are remnants of this race. His religion and ethics can still be traced amidst the pyramids of Yucatan and the Temple Builders of Egypt. His continent sank in a number of cataclysms when the perverted people so disobeyed the laws of Nature that they were beyond redemption. The destruction of the Atlantean environment liberated the Egos to come forward into the Fifth Root Race. The Atlanteans were Sun worshipers; they produced a number of great scientists and philosophers: but the 12,000 years of darkness and suppression of Truth concealed from the modern world all knowledge of these people. They were called the Atlanteans. As a race they divided into seven subdivisions and spread over nearly the then entire known earth.

   Ans.   The Fifth Root Race, of which we are a part, was born in India about 1,000,000 years ago. Parts of it inter-married into the Third and Fourth Root Races, and this caused the confusion of tongues. We are members of the fifth subdivision of the Aryan Race, namely, the Anglo-Saxon Teutonic. The first sub-race of the Fifth Root Race is still represented by the Aryan Hindus.

   Ans.   The most crystallized and materialistic point in the human life wave of the earth was passed through in the fourth sub-Race of Atlantis. This group was called the Turanians. The human race is now evolving out of density.

   Ans.   The farther back you trace man, the more he resembles cell life, only on a larger scale. The primitive man appeared as the gradual growth out of a globular body unconscious over its entire area, but containing within itself the seed of future consciousness.

   Ans.   The ultimate form of the human race will be globular like a sun or planet, capable of projecting organs at will. It will be a radiant body conscious over its entire surface, having equally distributed the seven senses over its entire area as feeling is now distributed over the body.

   Ans.   The Absolute is the unchanging eternal All-Substance, which in its natural state is invisible, intangible to any perception of God or man. It is All-Possibility, and yet Beingless, Uncreated, incapable of creating, and yet the sum total of all-creation. All things are made from IT, yet remain in IT. It is perfect Force in No-Force, perfect Intelligence in No-Intelligence, perfect Consciousness in Unconsciousness. It is subject to neither birth, growth nor decay, for it is the sum of birth, growth and decay. It is subject to neither birth nor death, for it is the sum of living and dying. It is neither all nor nothing, for it is in truth the sum of all existence plus non-existence multiplied by infinite opportunity and possibility. When you subtract all these things, IT remains.

   Ans.   God is the name created by the uninitiated to cover all of the Forces and unmeasured Urges which lie behind and are master of the forms and bodies of created things. God is the sum of the Unknown, and the hypothetical cause of Nature's endless phenomena. The Occultist does not consider God as an individual, but rather a series of graded intelligences, being that great chain of enlightened Ones that stretches between the limited consciousness of man and the limitless consciousness of the Absolute. Occultists call them the gods.

   Ans.   The universe is filled with beings in various stages of unfoldment. In every case the greater, while expanding their own complex organisms, offer fields for the growth and expression of millions of lesser intelligences. This is true of man also, who offers the opportunity for expression to millions of tiny cells within his own body. The God whom we unconsciously worship is the spirit of our solar system. The planets and ethers are his body. On and in these bodies millions of lesser intelligences, including ourselves, live and move and have their being. This great Solar Man is seeking perfection the same as we are. But if he would receive anything in Nature, he must give something; therefore, in order that he may grow, he gives the opportunity of growth to millions of lives within his aura. His consciousness is in them. His consciousness expands as the minute particles of himself expand. Therefore we grow for Him, while He serves and protects us. We call Him God.

   Ans.   Nature has three permanent urges. They are to create, to preserve, and to destroy. Destruction in this case means a process of disintegration that re-integration may take place upon a higher level. Three urges may be called states of consciousness. A Logos or God when objectifying a universe enters these states of consciousness one after another and meditates upon universal substance. Later He evolves within Himself three great intelligences, and these assume the three great states of consciousness. These intelligences are chosen from the fruitage of the various waves of life, which the Divine Meditator ordains.

   Ans.   The step between the unmanifested Absolute and the manifested universe is so great that it cannot be crossed without the presence of a central mediator. This Being, partaking of the created by its form and body and partaking of the Absolute as it stands half concealed by the veils of eternity, is called the Great Mother, and is practically synonymous with the second Creative Principle. The Absolute itself is incapable of creating, but by polarizing itself It creates the eternal Not-self. From this shadow the universe is created. This Shadow of Reality, this emanation from Reality, is called the Great Mother.

   Ans.   The third Logos or aspect of a created intelligence pours from itself seven creative rays called Dhyan Chohans. The sum of these radio-active forces is Fohat. In the superior worlds he is the spiritual ideal of activity. In the lower worlds he is energy and creative force. Fohat is an endless streamer of energy, one of whose manifestations is electricity, which ties all creation together by the continuity of the vital thread.

   Ans.   Every race has two rulers, and each of the sub-races also has its executives. One of these rulers is the lawmaker, who functions to the mental and intellectual pole. He is called the Manu or Lawmaker. The other functions to the heart sentiments and is the great mystic. He is called the Bodhisatwa. He works in love, while his companion directs through force. These two are referred to as the Great Brothers.

   Ans.   They are the fourteen great intelligences who have charge of the seven root races of men. There are seven seed Manus, and seven root Manus. It is stated that when a race is to be born, one of the Manus takes a physical body, comes into the world, and plants his seed in the race. It afterwards becomes his race. He directs it according to his intelligence, that it may unfold sequentially its latent possibilities. The Manu of our race is called Vaivasvata. The Manu differentiates race type, building the bodies of his charges into the likeness of his own type.

   Ans.   Under this heading the ancients placed the various natural impulses and cosmic laws. They said that these were one-eyed because they were neither good nor evil (the two eyes presupposing polarity). The ancients taught that natural law was no respecter of persons, performing its labors intelligently but without partiality or feeling; therefore they named them One-Eyed Giants.

   Ans.   They are the personifications of the seven created breaths or the substance that pours out from the creative Logos as He floats over eternity, impregnating certain areas of eternity with His own rays. These were the Spirit of God that floated over the deep. These creative rays curdled the milk of the divine cow, and the universe was created.

   Ans.   These are the seven strata of the celestial onion, the seven strata of Mt. Nebo, and also the seven layers of the human skin. The term "seven robes" is used to cover the seven emanation bodies of the universal Logos or of a solar Logos. These bodies in the universal Logos become the cosmic planes, and in the solar planes are divided from each other by the rates of vibration of the particles that compose them.

   Ans.   As all things in the universe are composed of One Thing, the difference lies in the rates of vibration by which this one substance is agitated. Things of a certain rate of vibration function to and are aware of other things vibrating at the same rate as themselves. Vibration lies behind all manifestation in Nature as the cause of it and the reason for its individuality.

   Ans.   Forty-nine in the universal system, and seven in the solar system. Each one of these lesser seven are capable of division into seven sub-planes each. These planes are as follows, beginning at the highest and working downward: The Maha Paranirvanic, Paranirvanic, Nirvanic, Buddhic, Rupa and Arupa Mental, Astral, and Physical. The Physical is divided into two parts, the Ethereal and Chemical.

   Ans.   The normal individual during life and after death functions in three worlds, the Physical, Astral, and Rupa and Arupa Mental. Rupa means concrete thought; and Arupa, abstract. The Physical being divided as stated in answer to question 43 gives him five areas of manifestation, the lowest being physical existence and the highest abstract thought. A few great Adepts and Initiates function in the fourth and fifth worlds, namely, the Buddhic and the Nirvanic.

   Ans.   Ether is the hypothetical substance forming the arterial and veinous systems of the Solar System, serving as a medium for universal vitality, bringing vitality to all forms in Nature that have built etheric bodies. There are a number of degrees of ether. The finer the ether, the finer the bodies which it serves. The finer the substance of those bodies, the finer the force with which ether will supply them.

   Ans.   The Occultist has no infernal region to which to consign the souls of the damned. His Purgatory, located in the lower subdivisions of the astral plane, is a place where he is confronted with his own perversions and mistakes. It is a place of correction, but not of torment; nor does it last forever and ever. The average person of a non-criminal temperament remains about twenty-five years in Kama Loka, which is the hell of the SECRET DOCTRINE. Children do not remain there at all. Here man suffers for the mistakes he has made, according to the impressions these mistakes have made upon the subtle substance of the astral body. The fruitage of sin and its subsequent suffering is conscience.

   Ans.   Nirvana is the hope of Eastern sages. It is not a place of extinction, as many believe, but rather a point where their greater diligence has privileged them to remain for indefinite periods out of incarnation, because they are so far ahead of evolution that it will be many millions of years in some cases before environments will be formed wherein they can learn anything they do not already know. In some cases great achievement along spiritual lines permanently liberates the consciousness from the earth evolution. Such a one rests in Nirvana until the universe is dissolved. He then is connected with a higher scheme of evolution.

   Ans.   To the Occultist Heaven is merely a certain part of the invisible universe through which he passes during the period between death and re-birth. It differs with his own intelligence, but as Kama Loka is a place where he adjusts the mistakes of his life, so Heaven is a place where, liberated from the weight of dense bodies, he builds into his consciousness the fruitage of his earth experiences and rests for a period before descending again into the varying degrees of substance which we call physical.

   Ans.   This is an invocation to the jewel in the heart of the Lotus, or the Reality concealed behind and in its unfolding bodies. When properly understood, it has a symbolic correlation between its seven syllables and the seven creative breaths whereby the universe was unfolded and will ultimately reveal a spiritual jewel. This is said to be the greatest of all mantrums, but should never by used by a lay student or he greatly endangers his life and his sanity by occult experimentation.

   Ans.   Occultists teach that the universe is governed by intelligence, love, and law; and the greatest of these is law. Love and intelligence serve law, ornamenting it and beautifying it; and law serves all things impartially. Millions of intelligences make manifest the intricacies of natural law. All things flourish when they abide in law. All things perish when they disregard law or seek to break its eternal power.

   Ans.   The most fundamental natural laws are:

1. Evolution - all things grow and unfold.
2. Cause and Effect - every effect is measured by its cause.
3. Reincarnation - life returns to form again and again in the process of unfoldment.
4. Vibration - everything in Nature is moving.
5. Polarity - all things manifest through positive and negative poles.
6. Equilibrium - perfection is the state of balance with its victory over the opposites.
7. Compensation - action is rewarded by its own reactions.
8. Periodicity - for every period of activity there must follow a period of inactivity.

   Ans.   It was the great Guatama Buddha who likened the life of the average individual to a wheel that goes round and round but arrives nowhere. The wise live in cycles; the foolish, in circles. The only way that man can liberate himself from the endless wheel of incidents is by becoming superior to incidents by attaining mastery over them. By ceasing to be attached to the false, we attain the real. When man has learned well and honestly all the lessons of life, has mastered all the temptations of life, and has gained perfect control over himself, such a one may hope for liberation. There is no release for those who have not lived well, and have not been true to every responsibility of life.

   Ans.   The law of evolution is the first and fundamental law of Nature in every sphere of activity, conscious and unconscious. It rules gods, men and beasts alike. It is the reason for all things, and in itself is the reward for all things.

   Ans.   First, by understanding the law, and then by putting it into application. By living according to Nature and Her plan, he may eliminate nearly all of the inharmony which claims the ignorant. Tomorrow is molded by today. Buddha said, "Effects follow causes as the wheels of a cart follow the feet of the oxen." Next to evolution in importance is the law of Cause and Effect. No law is more just than this last, but none seems as unjust when viewed by an individual who is being forced by Nature to pay old bills.

   Ans.   It is the spinal cord surmounted by the brain. The brain is the vehicle of the mind, and gives to those who use it control over the invisible forces of Nature because the mind of the magician has learned to know and obey the laws which govern all forces in Nature.

   Ans.   St. Paul says, "I die daily." We know that sleep is a form of death, and that consciousness passes into the land of the shadow. The law of Cause and Effect demands that rest shall follow exertion, that life shall follow death, that action shall be succeeded by repose, and then that action shall again follow repose. The Days and Nights of Brahma, which are measured by millions of years, are periods when the great Universal Beings sleep. At this time the universe, the Son of Necessity, returns again into the universal One Being. It does this periodically, as men sleep periodically. The universe is outbreathed, and then breathed in again. Its periods of action and repose, life and death, are called Days and Nights of Brahma.

   Ans.   As the life of man is divided into three epochs—namely, youth, maturity and age—so Nature is divided into three great periods—involution, epigenesis, and ideation or evolution. Man appears from the invisible, remains for a little while, then disappears again into the invisible. His coming, his sojourn here, and his going away are called the three great periods. Whether it be a human life, a cosmic life, a tiny thought form, or a moral temperament, all have their period of growth, maturity and age.

   Ans.   As children in the physical world are irresponsible, so young souls in the day of their cosmic life are also irresponsible. Spiritually age is denoted by depth of thought, depth of understanding, unselfishness, kindliness, and the love of serving others. The old soul is never accumulative; it is going home for eternity, and it realizes that it can take nothing with it but itself. The life of an individual here is an epitome of his cosmic life. You can tell by the way he assumes or shirks responsibility whether he is childish in nature or mature in his spiritual development.

   Ans.   This is a term given by Eastern sages to the Day of man's Wandering. It means literally the periods ruled by the Manus. The idea is used to symbolize those periods of the Days of Brahma that are suitable for the manifestation of conscious life. They are also used by Eastern Adepts as a means of reckoning time.

   Ans.   Time is mental concretion of space. This is a man-made measurement used to measure incidence. The systems which we use are non-existent to all other degrees of intelligence except our own. Periodic activity is used to determine time. In occultism time is measured by growth. The fact that we say that one is an old soul has nothing to do with years. Age is measured by understanding. This fact is very confusing to students.

   Ans.   The SECRET DOCTRINE states that everyone living on the earth today has passed through all the races up to the position which he now occupies. The only exception to this is that a few through degeneracy have retrograded from higher to a lower position. Man is part of Nature. Nature is ever growing and unfolding, and man grows and unfolds with it.

   Ans.   They can prove it to any mind willing honestly to consider man's position in Nature. Nature does not work by miracles, but by slow growth. How did man develop his complex organism? Heredity? If this be the case, why are the sons of great men nearly always failures? If you reject reincarnation, where do you hope to attain the perfection and balance which is the goal of all living? When it takes Nature a thousand years to build a great tree, can man build his own nature or save his own soul in seventy years? Reincarnation is the only hope that all will some time be equal, for there is no visible equality either in Nature or among men. Reincarnation proves itself to be true and to be a law because it is a cosmic necessity.

   Ans.   Man has lived and died hundreds of millions of times in the endless complexity of natural manifestation. The human life wave consists of approximately eight hundred incarnations. About half of these are in a masculine body and the other half in a feminine body.

   Ans.   A normal member of the Aryan race will remain out for from 1,000 to 1,200 years. About twenty-five of these years will be spent in the Purgatorial Regions, and the rest in the higher astral and mental worlds, both ascending and descending. He may decide upon his coming earth body under the direction of those appointed to regulate this work fifteen or twenty-five years and sometimes longer before he takes on the body.

   Ans.   No, it differs with the degree of intelligence of the race and the individual. A South African aborigine a little higher than an animal will remain out of incarnation only from five to twenty-five years, while a great philosopher such as Aristotle or Plato may remain out from ten to twenty thousand years. In the case of the latter, two reasons may be noted: first, the great difficulty in securing proper bodies; second, their higher evolved mental bodies require longer functioning in the substance of the mental worlds.

   Ans.   Only over those elements composing the physical body and the environment. Egos are drawn into certain families by the law of attraction and its sister force repulsion. Hate is equally powerful with love in the matter of bringing people together. Therefore Egos who need experience in disease go where they will secure diseased bodies, in this way fulfilling the law of Karma. This is the real reason why traits and ailments are said to run in families.

   Ans.   The length of its sojourn in the Purgatorial Region depends upon the intensity of its emotions and the strength of these traits which chain it to a rate of vibration, the key-note of which is sensation. Some remain many hundreds of years in hells of their own making. Others remain only a few hours. This latter is true of students and candidates who have been taught by their Masters how to transmute evil Karma while still alive. The average is about twenty-five years.

   Ans.   In the case of suicide, the laws of Nature have been violated. As a result of this, the individual has destroyed a physical body, but is still chained to the physical world. He is forced to remain in a very unhappy condition of both mind and body until that time when he would have naturally died.

   Ans.   A person's last incarnation is very close, and if he will watch very closely his habits and temperaments and study his atomic structure, he can tell, with the aid of a sub-conscious element in his own nature, whether he has brought with him masculine or feminine traits.

   Ans.   It is possible under certain conditions, but not for the average individual. When an Initiate reaches a certain point, he can temporarily materialize a body, hold it together with mind power, function in it for a limited time; but unless the seed atom be placed in the normal way, the body cannot be maintained for any great length of time. Many of the Initiates keep a physical body for use here in a state of suspended animation in some specially prepared place where it is guarded by the Illuminated.

   Ans.   All of the planets are fields for the evolution of varying degrees of spiritual beings. Many of these creatures are far higher than we are; others, lower. Some have bodies of fire-gas; others like moving stones. Some are gigantic; others smaller than the races of the earth. Even the Sun itself is inhabited by a very high wave of creatures composed of the substance of the second Logos.

   Ans.   The earth has in its sub-stratas representatives or ambassadors from all the planets in the Solar System. Each planet has a predominating metal, which was placed in it while the planet was still a part of the Sun nebula. These form poles along which lines of force pass. By this means inter-planetary communication is maintained. All planets are represented by the intelligences on each of the other planets.

   Ans.   The planets are the organic and inorganic structures which form vehicles or bodies for the planetary Logi. Everything in Nature is alive. Each of us will some day be a planetary intelligence; planets will gradually become suns; and thus the endless growth goes on.

   Ans.   Moons are always one of two things—either the disintegrating shell of a former body of a planetary spirit or an over-crystallized area of a planet thrown off because of its density and carrying with it stragglers incapable of keeping up with the life wave of the planet.

   Ans.   This is the hypothesis that the planets were originally part of the Sun, and were thrown into space by the spinning of the central orb; that the planetary bodies first existed as a fire mist, and became solid after millions of years of cooling and crystallization. This theory, with certain reservations, is accepted by all occult students. Occultists claim, however, that the planets were not thrown off, but are still within the body of the Sun, merely having drawn the coarser substances together in various parts of the Solar aura.

   Ans.   Not until he has learned to build a subtle body composed of inter-planetary substance. The auras of certain planets inter-penetrate. A highly developed black magician can visit the planet Mars, because of its polarization. Only very high Initiates are capable of receiving information concerning other planets except as thought pictures impressed on their minds by their teachers.

   Ans.   Not in any way of which we are conscious. We lived on a Moon chain through our animal consciousness, and we will later live on the Jupiter chain, but we can secure very little information concerning this at the present time. We are part of the earth evolution. We have been here for millions of years and will remain here for millions of years more. But we will pass through the experiences of the other planets on the various globes of our own chain.

   Ans.   The Sun is the body of the third Logos, the Shiva of India, and the Jehovah of the Jews. The Sun is not a source of light, but a reflector of light. There are three Suns in our Solar System. Masonry knows them as the three Great Lights. The Sun is the generating system of the Solar Man, being that part of the creative Logos which formed a universe.

   Ans.   The Milky Way is a great mass of cosmic material ready to be individualized into the countless manifestations which we see in Nature. It is ripe substance as distinguished from space, which is unawakened substance. All things come into being through the Milky Way, which is the natural store-house of universes.

   Ans.   All created forms are more solid than space, but less dense. In one of the East Indian classics it is stated that the gods made the universe by gouging out holes in density and calling the openings solid. Physical substance, therefore, has fewer particles to the cubic inch than spiritual substance. It may be more solid because the particles are larger, but it is less dense because there is more space between the atoms.

   Ans.   The greatest of the Initiates that we know of are:

Zoroaster	Hermes	Krishna	Jesus
Budhha	Orpheus	Pythagoras	Odin
Moses	St. Germaine (C.RC.)	Vyasa	Muhammed
Confucius	Plato	Aristotle	Paracelsus

   Ans.    The most important books mentioned are:

The Vedas
The Mahabharata
The Book of Dzyan
The Bible
The Book of the Dead
The Vishnuparana
The Book of Fo
The Pistis Sophia

   Ans.   In the symbolic language, the Masters and the Great Ones are named as follows:

Master M.	Master R.	Master K. H.	Master H.
Master J.	Master J. R.	Master S.	Master (Unknown)
Master B.	Master D. R.	Master V.	Master (Unknown)

   Ans.   The degrees, in their order from the lowest upward are briefly as follows: The student, then the probationer, then the accepted Chela (disciple)—the first initiation. After this first entrance into the Brotherhood, the individual is entitled to the name Initiate. Above this point there are many degrees of initiation—twelve in all. After taking nine of these, the Initiate becomes an Adept. Above that point they are Buddhas and World Saviors.

   Ans.   It is especially suggested that the student study music, astronomy, geometry, and medicine. These are key sciences in things occult.

   Ans.   The name aura is given to the super-physical bodies of man, because being unconfined by physical substance they radiate out in the form of a halo from and around the physical body. The etheric aura is, roughly speaking, the shape of the human body, but streams out like electric fur from the pores of the skin. The astral body is, roughly speaking, egg-shaped, with the larger end downward, and it stands out from ten inches to two feet from the body. In the majority of people the mental aura is merely a hazy globe of light, something like a cloud, around the head and shoulders, but in the more highly developed it becomes an egg-shaped body and more radiant, the larger end being turned upward. The soul aura radiates from the base of the brain in the back as a golden light or halo. In the high Initiates these auric bodies are rainbows of colored lights pierced with streamers of force, some extending hundreds of feet. The auric bodies change their shape and color with every thought, feeling and attitude of the consciousness. To those who can read them, they give a perfect key to the life and actions of the person to whom they belong.

   Ans.   Thought forms and astral creations of a similar nature are the result of lines of mental or emotional force, which clothe themselves in the substances of the mental and astral planes and assume forms, shapes and colors which are visible to the eye of the practiced seer. Occasionally these creatures become so powerful that they interfere with the consciousness or the conscious functioning of the individual who created them. They often destroy him by attaching themselves to his vital centers. Sometimes these thought forms are temporarily used by decarnate human beings.

   Ans.   Black Magic is the use of occult information or power for the aggrandizement of self or the injury of another. As all forces react upon the person who sends them forth, to use Black Magic is to doom oneself, for the black birds will all return home to roost. In future incarnations the black magician pays for his interference with natural law by appearing in a body mentally, spiritually, or physically deformed.

   Ans.   The ethereal worlds are inhabited by elementals consisting entirely of ether and have no consciousness separate from their natural substance. The astral and the mental worlds are inhabited by the so-called dead and also by groups of creatures who never appear in the physical world at all. These are the Devas of East Indian philosophy and the Arch-angels of Christian lore. The Black and the White Masters and their pupils are also met upon the astral world, and the race spirits, group spirits of the animals, and intelligences from other planets and rounds.

   Ans.   When accompanied by the proper spiritual attitude prayer is a magic invocation. There is drawn to those who pray intelligences from the super-physical worlds who assist man according to his needs, if he makes known his needs in the proper way. Prayer is a modern adaption of the ancient incantations and invocations used in the Temple mysteries.

   Ans.   First, he must reach a condition mentally and spiritually that is no longer satisfied to remain in ignorance, but desires to know the reason for life and its mysteries. He must realize that to know the Masters, he must make himself like them. They have consecrated their knowledge to the service of humanity, and in order to secure that knowledge all candidates must consecrate their lives to the intelligent application of the things they gain. Five steps are outlined for the use of the lay student.

   Ans.   The first step is to purify as carefully as possible the physical body that it may become a noble temple and worthy of receiving the light that the student hopes to receive. If he does not purify his body, the higher rates of vibration drawn to him by his studies will destroy him.

   Ans.   The second step is to secure control of all the thoughts and feelings that the animal nature shall not interfere with the higher man in his growth. As the Eastern sages have said, "Only eyes incapable of tears can see the Reality." While there is love or hate, sense of possession or sense of loss, true discernment is impossible.

   Ans.   The third step is to love nothing but Truth. When man loves Truth as he loves gold, when it is the aim of all his strivings, then he is a true aspirant. He must not love Truth for what it will bring him or the power it will give him; he must love it for its own sake. A person who has attained this consciousness is well on the road to attainment.

   Ans.   The fourth step is to learn obedience, for great is the Master who can obey himself, who can obey his Master, and can unquestionably do those things which he is instructed to do. Obedience is to do no more than is asked, and also to do no less. The Master is the servant of all; He is the conscious servant of Nature. The older he is spiritually, the fewer orders he gives, and the more he obeys. One of Nature's grandest products is a mind that can gracefully, cheerfully and efficiently carry out the orders of another.

   Ans.   The fifth step is the control of the mind that it shall think continually in the elements of Reality; that it shall have perfect discrimination between the false and the true; that it shall choose always the eternal over the temporal things; that it shall distinguish always perfect good, and serve this intelligently and eternally; that it shall be kind unto all things, having neither friends nor enemies, kith nor kin, recognizing above all things the fundamental unity of life.

   Ans.   Transmutation is that chemical change which takes place in organisms when the integral parts are vitalized by higher rates of vibration. The alchemist taught that to be wise, man must learn to transmute base metals into gold. This meant that he must acquire the knowledge of how to transmute his lower nature and his lower bodies into vehicles fine enough to respond to the subtle influences of his spiritual nature. He must transmute all of his forces so that they shall serve good instead of evil.

   Ans.   The Lotus Blossoms are centers of force located along the spinal column and in the brain of man. The opening of these Lotus Blossoms is the result of awakening the Goddess Kundalini from her sleep in the solar plexus. Then rising along the spinal canal on her pilgrimage to the brain to open the eye of Dangma, she animates these centers which open and become great whirling vortices of force, which the Hindus called Lotus Blossoms, and the early Jews symbolized as the budding of Aaron's rod.

   Ans.   It is the latent vehicle of sight and cognition in the brain which we know as the Pineal gland. When agitated by the effluvia radiated by the Pituitary body, it is capable of becoming sensitive to vibrations of the mental and spiritual worlds. It is called the Eye of the Gods, and is also referred to as the Third Eye.

   Ans.   This depends largely upon the position occupied by the student or rather Ego in evolution. The first contact of a student with the spiritual worlds as personified by his Master may be called the Great Illumination. The unfolding of the latent organs of sight which have long been asleep and have thus divided him from the worlds from whence he came show him his true place in the cosmic plan. This revelation as to the reason for his being and the work for which he was ordained is called the Great Illumination.