d to what seems to be the
inevitable decrees of the planets that rule my physical destiny."

"Thou hast well said thou art not ready. Your life has yet but only
begun for you. Its experiences, its many lessons and duties, are all
unlearnt and you would pass to the spirit world immatured. Your
young soul, like fruit plucked from the tree too soon, would ripen
slowly, losing many of its flavors and never attaining certain of
its best and highest qualities, for as you well know, progress in
the next stage of existence depends upon the attainments in this.

"Thou art not ready, yet say you are willing to bow to the
inevitable. This is wise, still have you not heard it said many
times that man is the arbiter of his own destiny and that the soul
was the inheritor of God-like powers by which it could rise to the
plane whereby it ruled, instead of obeying the blind or planetary
forces of Nature?"

"True, O Venerated Father, I have indeed heard all this, but I am
very ignorant. Are there such possibilities for my soul?" and
somehow imperceptibly hope began to dawn within her heart and
quicken the life forces.

"Ruling the blind forces of Nature is very like ruling the wild
beast, although the beast is much stronger than man and capable of
tearing him to pieces, yet man, by forethought, can evade or trap
and chain or otherwise overcome him. So my child, there are ways
wherein man, assisted by his own knowledge, and by the instruction
of departed spirits; aye, by the immortal Gods themselves, can
evade even the malefic planets in their devastating course.

"To my clairvoyant vision, as I now at this moment look at you,
every minute atom of your physical organism is in the subtle process
of depolarization from unity toward chaos and disintegration. You
are not yourself conscious of this condition only as it has been
revealed to you, for your soul is so alive that it has become almost
unconscious of its physical expression and for this very reason the
shock of dissolution would be all the greater when it did come; for
example, witness your unexpected collapse yesterday morning. Ah!
sudden death is a most deplorable calamity, and your pitiable state
of mind was but a foretaste of what would be the state of your soul
for many long years, if you had died then, and will yet be, to a
less extent now, unless this swift-coming blow can be evaded.

"However, in case the worst comes to worst, you have about ten days
more of this exte