er Mysteries are taught.
Those who have advanced through the lesser Mysteries and have become
pupils of the Greater Mysteries are called Adepts, but even they have not
reached the exalted standpoint of the twelve Brothers of the Rosicrucian
Order or the Hierophants of any other lesser Mystery School any more than
the freshman at college has attained to the knowledge and position of a
teacher in the High school from which he has just graduated.
A later work will deal with initiation, but we may say here that the door
of a genuine Mystery School is not unlocked by a golden key, but is only
opened as a reward for meritorious service to humanity and any one who
advertises himself as a Rosicrucian or makes a charge for tuition, by
either of those acts shows himself to be a charlatan. The true pupil of
any Mystery School is far too modest to advertise the fact, he will scorn
all titles or honors from men, he will have no regard for riches save the
riches of love given to him by those whom it becomes his privilege to help
and teach.
In the centuries that have gone by since the Rosicrucian Order was first
formed they have worked quietly and secretly, aiming to mould the thought
of Western Europe through the works of Paracelsus, Boehme, Bacon,
Shakespeare, Fludd and others. Each night at midnight when the physical
activities of the day are at their lowest ebb, and the spiritual impulse
at its highest flood tide, they have sent out from their temple
soul-stirring vibrations to counteract materialism and to further the
development of soul powers. To their activities we owe the gradual
spiritualization of our once so materialistic science.
With the commencement of the twentieth century a further step was taken.
It was realized that something must be done to make religion scientific as
well as to make science religious, in order that they may ultimately
blend; for at the present time heart and intellect are divorced. The heart
instinctively feels the truth of religious teachings concerning such
wonderful mysteries as the Immaculate Conception (the Mystic Birth), the
Crucifixion (the Mystic Death), the cleansing blood, the atonement, and
other doctrines of the Church, which the intellect refuses to believe, as
they are incapable of demonstration, and seemingly at war with natural
law. Material advancement may be furthered when intellect is dominant and
the longings of the heart unsatisfied, but soul growth will be retarded
until
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