ater it
with its own life. So in a "magic" way a new world is formed whose laws
are those of the ideal. The formation of the new world (new earth and new
heaven, new Jerusalem, etc.) occurs frequently in the symbolic language of
mysticism.

The laws of the ideal and consequently of the new world are determined by
the nature of the ideal. Not every one is proved everlastingly suitable.

"Those that dedicate themselves to the gods and fathers, pass over
to the gods and fathers,
Spirit worshipers to the spirits, whoever honors me, comes to me."

says the Highest Being to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita (IX, 25). The mystic
is in the position from the moment of regeneration, to create in himself a
new world with laws that he may, to a certain extent, himself select.
Fortunate is he who makes a good selection. Every one is the architect of
his own fortune. This is most true when after introversion the power of
self determining one's own destiny is directed toward the most intensive
living. The formation and cultivation of the new earth is a beginning that
is rich with significant consequences. The alchemists speak of a maidenly
earth or a flaky white earth (i.e., crystalline) as a certain stage in the
work. This is probably the stage that we are examining now, the stage of
the new, still undeveloped earth that is now to be organized (according to
the conceived ideal). The soil is crystalline because the old earth was
dissolved and has been freshly formed from the solution. The
crystallization corresponds to regeneration. The "white earth" probably
corresponds to the "white stone," which is the first stage of completion
after the blacks (first mystical death, putrefaction, trituration, or
contrition). In the white earth a seed is sown. We shall hear of it later.

If the work is not to make men unserviceable and is not again to bring
them into conflict with the demands of life, so that all the effort would
have been fruitless, the new world must be organized in such a way that it
is compatible with the demands of real life. In other words, the ideal
that regulates the new world must be an ethical one. The mystic who wishes
to be freed from contradictions will have to follow his conscience as a
guide, and not the unexplored but the explored conscience. He cannot
escape it in the long run (the magicians that defy it are, as the legend
informs us, finally torn to pieces by the devil); it is better for hi