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INTRODUCTION
Astrology was one of the seven sacred sciences cultivated by the
initiates of the ancient world. It was studied and practiced by all the
great nations of antiquity. The origins of astrological speculation are
entirely obscured by the night of time which preceded the dawn of history.
There are traditions to
the effect that the astrological science was perfected by
magician-philosophers of the Atlantean Period. One thing is evident,
Astrology descends to this late day adorned with the discoveries and
embellishments of a thousand cultures. The history of Astrology is indeed
a history of human thought and aspiration. The readings for the planets as
given in the cuneiform tablets of Sargon are still used by the astrologers
of this generation. Only such modifications and changes have been made as
the shifting foundations of cultural standards necessitated.
Two distinctive schools of Astrology have been recognized from the
beginning of the historical period. With thedecline of the late Atlantean
and early Aryan preisthoods and the profaning of their mysteries, what are
now called the sciences were separated from the parent body of religious
tradition. Astrology and medicine were the first to establish independent
institutions. The priests of the state religions no longer exercised a
monopoly over the prophetic and medicinal arts. Beginning with Hippocrates
new orders of soothsayers and healers arose who were entirely ignorant of
the fundamental unity, yes, identity of the spiritual and physical
sciences.
The division of essential learning into competitive, or at least
non-cooperative, fragments destroyed the synthesis of knowledge.
Frustrated by division and discord, the whole structure of education broke
into innumerable discordant parts. The science of medicine divided from
its spiritual source
deteriorated into the quackery and leechcraft of the Dark Ages, a
condition of affairs so sorry that the Hermetic physican Paracelsus was
moved to say, "Fortunate is the man whose physician does not kill him."
Astrology was likewise corrupted into horoscope mongering. Divorced from
its divine purpose
it dreifted along, performing a halfhearted and pointless work which
consisted for the most part of the bleating forth of dire predictions and
the compounding of planetary salves against the itch.
A small group of enlightened and educated men preserved the esoteric
secrets of medicine and astrology through those superstition ridden
centuries we now call the Middle Ages. Of such mental stature were the
Rosicrucians who honored Paracelsus as one of the chief of their "mind."
Through Paracelsus and the Rosie Cross the spiritual secrets of nature
were restored to the chief place among the ends of learning. Knowledge was
interpreted mystically and the profane sciences were reflected as merely
the outward forms of inward mysteries. The secrets of mystical
interpretation were concealed from the vulgar and given only to those who
yearned after things which are of the spirit. THE MYSTCIAL DIVINITY of
Dionysius the Arepagite became the textbook of an ever increasing number
of devout and God-loving men and women who saw in all outer forms and
institutions the shadows and sembalnces of inner truth.
The modern world which sacrificed so much for the right to think has
grown wise in its own conceit. Educators have ignored those spiritual
values which constitute the priceless ingredients in the chemical compound
we call civilization. Material science has become a proud institution--an
assemblage of pedagogues and demagogues. There is no place for mysticism
in the canons of the overschooled. Hypnotized by the strange fascination
which matter exercised over the materialist, modern savants ignored the
soul, that invisible reality upon which the illusions of the whole world
hang.
It was Lord Bacon who said, "A little knowledge in clineth men's minds
towards atheism, but greatness of knowledge bringeth men's minds back
again to God." This wonderful quotation expresses the tempo of the modern
age. A disillusioned world saddened over the failure of material things is
crying out again for those mystical truths which alone explain and
satisfy. The return of
mysticism brings with it a new interest in astrology and healing.
Mysticism brings with it a new standard of interpretation. To live up to
the exacting demands of a mystical interpretation all branches of learning
must be purified and restated. To the mystic, astrology is not merely
prediciton or even giving of advice, it is a key to spiritual truths to be
approached philosophically, to be studied for its own sake.
Although science has classified, tabulated, and named all the parts and
functions of the body, it cannot describe or explain what man is, where he
came from, why he is here, or where he is going. In the presence of
ignorance concerning these vital subjects, it is difficult to appreciate
an elaborate
learning in secondary matters.
The initiates of antiquity were concerned primarily with man in his
universal or cosmic aspect. Before a person can live well he must orient
himself, he must know in part at least the plan of living. With this
knowledge he can then cooperate with "the plan," and the philosophic life
recommended by Pythagoras is merely to know the truth and to live it.
Scientists looking for the cause of those energies which motivate and
sustain the world have decided by a process of elimination that these
causes must lie in a subjective structure of the universe, the invisible
sphere of vibrations. So the modern fancy is to ascribe to vibration all
that cannot be
explained in any other way. The moment we acknowledge the universe to be
sustained by an invisible energy which manifests through the law of
vibration, physics becomes superphysics, physiology becomes psychology,
and astronomy becomes astrology. Astrology is nothing more nor less than
the study of the heavenly bodies in the terms of the energies which
radiate from them rather than merely an examination of their appearance
and construction.
The original Rosicrucians held to a theory generally discarded by men of
science and now known as the microcosmic theory. Paracelsus was the most
prominent exponent of this concept of universal order and relationship. He
said, "As there are stars in the heavnes, so there are stars within man,
for
there is nothing in the universe which has not its equivalent in the
microcosm." (the human body). In another place Paraclesus says, "Man
derives his spirit from the constellations (fixed stars), his soul from
the planets, and his body from the elements."
It is quite impossible for the most highly trained scientist to examine
with any adequate appreciation of values the whole infinite diffusion of
the cosmos with its island galaxies and incomprehensible vistas of
immeasurable space. Yet the whole of the pageantry of worlds is evidently
dominated by all-
sufficient laws. Man himself is more compact though possibly in other ways
hardly less difficult to analyze. The cells in the body of man are as
countless as the stars of heaven. Countless races of living things,
species, types, and genera are evolving in the flesh, muscle, bone and
sinew of man's corporeal constitution. The dignity of the microcosm gives
the scientist some sense of the sublimity of the macrocosm. By the use of
astrology it is possible to discover the interplay of celestial forces
between the macrocosm and the microcosm. The centers in the physical body
through which the sidereal
energies enter were discovered and classified by the ancient Greeks,
Egyptians, Hindus, and Chinese. There is great opportunity for work in
examining not only the physical body itself but the auras which extand
from the body forming a splendid garment of cosmic light.
The last few years have witnessed exceptional progress in that branch of
medical science which is called endocrinology or the study of the
structure and function of the ductless glands with research into
therapeutic methods of treating derangements thereof. These glands are now
accepted as the regulators of the physical function, the governors and
directors of bodily strucutre, profoundly significant not only in their
physical reactions, but also their effect upon mentality, emotion, sensory
reflexes, and the so-called spiritual or metaphysical functions. Nearly
all endocrinologists admit that the pineal gland is the most difficult to
underatdn and the most difficult to treat. It can now generally be reached
only by treating the other glands over which it acts in the capacity of
generalissimo. The physical functions of the glands are now fairly well
classified but there will unquestionably be much revision of the present
opinions. Physicians are willing to admit that the function of the glands
does not end merely with their effect upon the body but scientists are not
prepared to make any pronouncements beyond the field of material reaction.
It is especially significant therefore that through a combination of
clairvoyance and astrology it is possible to examine the ductless glands
and discover the metaphysical elements in their functioning. The modern
clairvoyant uses the same method for his work as was used by the initiate
priests of the ancient world, and like those older adepts he makes
contributions to the sum of knowledge which are only discoverable to the
materialist after centuries of ponderous experimentation.
The work which follows is a spiritual record of the function of the
pituitary body and pineal gland. I feel that the researches carried on by
Mrs. Max Heindel are a definite contribution to the subject of
endocrinology that should be preserved for the use of all students of
medicine and the occult sciences.
--Manly P.
Hall
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