The ‘Wilderness’ is wide, — and within it we all find ourselves, — some wandering far astray — some crouching listlessly among shadows, too weary to move at all — others, sauntering along in idle indifference, now and then vaguely questioning how soon and where the journey will end, — and few ever discovering that it is not a ‘Wilderness’ at all, but a garden of sweet sights and sounds, where every day should be a glory and every night a benediction. For when the veil of mere Appearances has been lifted we are no longer deceived into accepting what Seems for what Is. The Reality of Life is Happiness; — the Delusion of Life, which we ourselves create by improper balance and imperfect comprehension of our own powers, must needs cause Sorrow, because in such self-deception we only dimly see the truth, just as a person born blind may vaguely guess at the beauty of bright day. But for the Soul that has found Itself, there are no more misleading lights or shadows between its own everlastingness and the everlastingness of God.
All the world over there are religions of various kinds, more or less suited to the various types and races of humanity. Most of these forms of faith have been evolved from the brooding brain of Man himself, and have nothing ‘divine,’ in them. In the very early ages nearly all the religious creeds were mere methods for terrorising the ignorant and the weak — and some of them were so revolting, so bloodthirsty and brutal, that one cannot now read of them without a shudder of repulsion. Nevertheless, from the very first dawn of his intelligence, man appears always to have felt the necessity of believing in something stronger and more lasting than himself, — and his first gropings for truth led him to evolve desperate notions of something more cruel, more relentless, and more wicked than himself, rather than ideals of something more beautiful, more just, more faithful and more loving than he could be. The dawn of Christianity brought the first glimmering suggestion that a gospel of love and pity might be more serviceable in the end to the needs of the world, than a ruthless code of slaughter and vengeance — though history shows us that the annals of Christianity itself are stained with crime and shamed by the shedding of innocent blood. Only in these latter days has the world become faintly conscious of the real Force working behind and through all things — the soul of the Divine, or the Psychic element, animating and inspiring all visible and invisible Nature. This soul of the Divine — this Psychic element, however, is almost entirely absent from the teaching of the Christian creed to-day, with the result that the creed itself is losing its power. I venture to say that a very small majority of the millions of persons worshipping in the various forms of the Christian Church really and truly believe what they publicly profess. Clergy and laity alike are tainted with this worst of all hypocrisies — that of calling God to witness their faith when they know they are faithless. It may be asked how I dare to make such an assertion? I dare, because I know! It would be impossible to the people of this or any other country to honestly believe the Christian creed, and yet continue to live as they do. Their lives give the lie to their avowed religion, and it is this daily spectacle of the daily life of governments, trades, professions and society which causes me to feel that the general aspect of Christendom at the present day, with all its Churches and solemn observances, is one of the most painful and profound hypocrisy. You who read this page, — (possibly with indignation) you call yourself a Christian, no doubt. But ARE you? Do you truly think that when death shall come to you it is really NOT death, but the simple transition into another and better life? Do you believe in the actual immortality of your soul, and do you realise what it means? You do? You are quite sure? Then, do you live as one convinced of it? Are you quite indifferent to the riches and purely material advantages of this world? — are you as happy in poverty as in wealth, and are you independent of social esteem? Are you bent on the very highest and most unselfish ideals of life and conduct? I do not say you are not; I merely ask if you ARE. If your answer is in the affirmative, do not give the lie to your creed by your daily habits, conversation and manners; for this is what thousands of professing Christians do, and the clergy are by no means exempt.
I know very well, of course, that I must not expect your appreciation, or even your attention, in matters purely spiritual. The world is too much with you, and you become obstinate of opinion and rooted in prejudice. Nevertheless, as I said before, this is not my concern. Your moods are not mine, and with your prejudices I have nothing to do. My creed is drawn from Nature — Nature, just, invincible, yet tender — Nature, who shows us that Life, as we know it now, at this very time and in this very world, is a blessing so rich in its as yet unused powers and possibilities, that it may be truly said of the greater majority of human beings that scarce one of them has ever begun to learn HOW to live.
Shakespeare, the greatest human exponent of human nature at its best and worst, — the profound Thinker and Artist who dealt boldly with the facts of good and evil as they truly are, — and did not hesitate to contrast them forcibly, without any of the deceptive ‘half-tones’ of vice and virtue which are the chief stock-in-trade of such modern authors as we may call ‘degenerates,’ — makes his Hamlet exclaim: —
“What a piece of work is man! — how noble in reason! — how infinite in faculty! — in form and moving how express and admirable! — in action how like an angel! — in apprehension how like a god!”
Let us consider two of these designations in particular: ‘How infinite in faculty!’ — and ‘In apprehension how like a god!’ The sentences are prophetic, like so many of Shakespeare’s utterances. They foretell the true condition of the Soul of Man when it shall have discovered its capabilities. ‘Infinite in faculty’ — that is to say — Able to do all it shall WILL to do. There is no end to this power, — no hindrance in either earth or heaven to its resolute working — no stint to the life-supplies on which it may draw unceasingly. And— ‘in apprehension how like a god!’ Here the word ‘apprehension’ is used in the sense of attaining knowledge, — to learn, or to ‘apprehend’ wisdom. It means, of course, that if the Soul’s capability of ‘apprehending’ or learning the true meaning and use of every fact and circumstance which environs its existence, were properly perceived and applied, then the ‘Image of God’ in which the Creator made humanity, would become the veritable likeness of the Divine.
But, as this powerful and infinite faculty of apprehension is seldom if ever rightly understood, and as Man generally concentrates his whole effort upon ministering to his purely material needs, utterly ignoring and wilfully refusing to realise those larger claims which are purely spiritual, he presents the appearance of a maimed and imperfect object, — a creature who, having strong limbs, declines to use the same, or who, possessing incalculable wealth, crazily considers himself a pauper. Jesus Christ, whom we may look upon as a human Incarnation of Divine Thought, an outcome and expression of the ‘Word’ or Law of God, came to teach us our true position in the scale of the great Creative and Progressive Purpose, — but in the days of His coming men would not listen, — nor will they listen even now. They say with their mouths, but they do not believe with their hearts, that He rose from the dead, — and they cannot understand that, as a matter of fact, He never died, seeing that death for Him (as for all who have mastered the inward constitution and commingling of the elements) was impossible. His real LIFE was not injured or affected by the agony on the Cross, or by His three days’ entombment; the one was a torture to His physical frame, which to the limited perception of those who watched Him ‘die,’ as they thought, appeared like a dissolution of the whole Man, — the other was the mere rest and silence necessary for what is called the ‘miracle’ of the Resurrection, but which was simply the natural rising of the same Body, the atoms of which were re-invested and made immortal by the imperishable Spirit which owned and held them in being. The whole life and so-called ‘death’ of Christ was and is a great symbolic lesson to mankind of the infinite power of THAT within us which we call SOUL, — but which we may perhaps in these scientific days term an eternal radio-a
ctivity, — capable of exhaustless energy and of readjustment to varying conditions. Life is all Life. There is no such thing as Death in its composition, — and the intelligent comprehension of its endless ways and methods of change and expression, is the Secret of the Universe.
It appears to be generally accepted that we are not to know this Secret, — that it is too vast and deep for our limited capacities, — and that even if we did know it, it would be of no use to us, as we are bound hard and fast by certain natural and elemental laws over which we have no control. Old truisms are re-stated and violently asserted — namely, that our business is merely to be born, to live, breed and arrange things as well as we can for those who come after us, and then to die, and there an end, — a stupid round of existence not one whit higher than that of the silkworm. Is it for such a monotonous, commonplace way of life and purpose as this, that humanity has been endowed with ‘infinite faculty’? Is it for such poor aims and ends as these that we are told in the legended account of the beginning of things, to ‘Replenish the earth and subdue it’? There is great meaning in that command— ‘Subdue it!’ The business of each one of us who has come into the knowledge and possession of his or her own Soul, is to ‘subdue’ the earth, — that is, to hold it and all it contains under subjection, — not to allow Its forces, whether interior or exterior, to subdue the Soul. But it may perhaps be said:— “We do not yet understand all the forces with which we have to contend, and in this way they master us.” That may be so, — but if it is so with any of you, it is quite your own fault. Your own fault, I say, — for there is no power, human or divine, that compels you to remain in ignorance. Each one of you has a master — talisman and key to all locked doors. No State education can do for you what you might do for yourselves, if you only had the WILL. It is your own choice entirely if you elect to live in subjection to the earth, instead of placing the earth under subjection to your dominance.
Then, again, you have been told to ‘Replenish the earth’ — as well as to subdue it. In these latter days, through a cupidity as amazing as criminal, you are not ‘replenishing’ so much as impoverishing the earth, and think you that no interest will be exacted for your reckless plunder? You mistake! You complain of the high taxes imposed upon you by your merely material and ephemeral Governments, — but you forget that the Everlasting Government of all Worlds demands an even higher rate of compensation for such wrong or injurious uses as you make of this world, which was and is intended to serve as a place of training for the development and perfection of the whole human race, but which, owing to personal greed and selfishness, is too often turned into a mere grave for the interment of faulty civilisations.
In studying the psychic side of life it should be well and distinctly understood that THERE IS AN EVER LIVING SPIRIT WITHIN EACH ONE OF US; — a Spirit for which there is no limited capacity and no unfavourable surroundings. Its capacity is infinite as God, — and its surroundings are always made by Itself. It is its own Heaven, — and once established within that everlasting centre, it radiates from the Inward to the Outward, thus making its own environment, not only now but for ever. It is its own Life, — and in the active work of perpetually re-generating and re-creating itself, knows nothing of Death.
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I must now claim the indulgence of those among my readers who possess the rare gift of patience, for anything that may seem too personal in the following statement which I feel it almost necessary to make on the subject of my own “psychic” creed. I am so often asked if I believe this or that, if I am “orthodox,” if I am a sceptic, materialist or agnostic, that I should like, if possible, to make things clear between myself and these enquirers. Therefore I may say at once that my belief in God and the immortality of the Soul is absolute, — but that I did not attain to the faith I hold without hard training and bitter suffering. This need not be dwelt upon, being past. I began to write when I was too young to know anything of the world’s worldly ways, and when I was too enthusiastic and too much carried away by the splendour and beauty of the spiritual ideal to realise the inevitable derision and scorn which are bound to fall upon untried explorers into the mysteries of the unseen; yet it was solely on account of a strange psychical experience which chanced to myself when I stood upon the threshold of what is called ‘life’ that I found myself producing my first book, “A Romance of Two Worlds.” It was a rash experiment, but it was the direct result of an initiation into some few of the truths behind the veil of the Seeming Real. I did not then know why I was selected for such an ‘initiation’ — and I do not know even now. It arose quite naturally out of a series of ordinary events which might happen to anyone. I was not compelled or persuaded into it, for, being alone in the world and more or less friendless, I had no opportunity to seek advice or assistance from any person as to the course of life or learning I should pursue. And I learned what I did learn because of my own unwavering intention and WILL to be instructed.
I should here perhaps explain the tenor of the instruction which was gradually imparted to me in just such measures of proportion as I was found to be receptive. The first thing I was taught was how to bring every feeling and sense into close union with the spirit of Nature. Nature, I was told, is the reflection of the working-mind of the Creator — and any opposition to that working-mind on the part of any living organism It has created cannot but result in disaster. Pursuing this line of study, a wonderful vista of perpetual revealment was opened to me. I saw how humanity, moved by gross egoism, has in every age of the world ordained laws and morals for itself which are the very reverse of Nature’s teaching — I saw how, instead of helping the wheel of progress and wisdom onward, man reverses it by his obstinacy and turns it backward even on the very point of great attainment — and I was able to perceive how the sorrows and despairs of the world are caused by this one simple fact — Man working AGAINST Nature — while Nature, ever divine and invincible, pursues her God-appointed course, sweeping her puny opponents aside and inflexibly carrying out her will to the end. And I learned how true it is that if Man went WITH her instead of AGAINST her, there would be no more misunderstanding of the laws of the Universe, and that where there is now nothing but discord, all would be divinest harmony.
My first book, “A Romance of Two Worlds,” was an eager, though crude, attempt to explain and express something of what I myself had studied on some of these subjects, though, as I have already said, my mind was unformed and immature, and, therefore, I was not permitted to disclose more than a glimmering of the light I was beginning to perceive. My own probation — destined to be a severe one — had only just been entered upon; and hard and fast limits were imposed on me for a certain time. I was forbidden, for example, to write of radium, that wonderful ‘discovery’ of the immediate hour, though it was then, and had been for a long period, perfectly well known to my instructors, who possessed all the means of extracting it from substances as yet undreamed of by latter-day scientists. I was only permitted to hint at it under the guise of the word ‘Electricity’ — which, after all, was not so much of a misnomer, seeing that electric force displays itself in countless millions of forms. My “Electric Theory of the Universe” in the “Romance of Two Worlds” foreran the utterance of the scientist who in the “Hibbert Journal” for January, 1905, wrote as follows:— “The last years have seen the dawn of a revolution in science as great as that which in the sphere of religion overthrew the many gods and crowned the One. Matter, as we have understood it, there is none, nor probably anywhere the individual atom. The so-called atoms are systems of ELECTRONIC corpuscles, bound together by their mutual forces too firmly for any human contrivance completely to sunder them, — alike in their electric composition, differing only in the rhythms of their motion. ELECTRICITY is all things, and all things are ELECTRIC.”
THIS WAS PRECISELY MY TEACHING IN THE FIRST BOOK I EVER WROTE. I was ridiculed for it, of course, — and I was told that there was no ‘spiritual’ for
ce in electricity. I differ from this view; but ‘radio-activity’ is perhaps the better, because the truer term to employ in seeking to describe the Germ or Embryo of the Soul, for — as scientists have proved— “Radium is capable of absorbing from surrounding bodies SOME UNKNOWN FORM OF ENERGY which it can render evident as heat and light.” This is precisely what the radio-activity in each individual soul of each individual human being is ordained to do, — to absorb an ‘unknown form of energy which it can render evident as heat and light.’ Heat and Light are the composition of Life; — and the Life which this radio-activity of Soul generates IN itself and OF itself, can never die. Or, as I wrote in “A Romance of Two Worlds “— “Like all flames, this electric (or radiant) spark can either be fanned into a fire, or allowed to escape in air, — IT CAN NEVER BE DESTROYED.” And again, from the same book: “All the wonders of Nature are the result of LIGHT AND HEAT ALONE.” Paracelsus, as early as about 1526, made guarded mention of the same substance or quality, describing it thus:— “The more of the humour of life it has, the more of the spirit of life abounds in that life.” Though truly this vital radio-active force lacks all fitting name. To material science radium, or radium chloride, is a minute salt crystal, so rare and costly to obtain that it may be counted as about three thousand times the price of gold in the market. But of the action of PURE radium, the knowledge of ordinary scientific students is nil. They know that an infinitely small spark of radium salt will emit heat and light continuously without any combustion or change in its own structure. And I would here quote a passage from a lecture delivered by one of our prominent scientists in 1904. “Details concerning the behaviour of several radio-active bodies were detected, as, for example, their activity was not constant; it gradually grew in strength, BUT THE GROWN PORTION OF THE ACTIVITY COULD BE BLOWN AWAY, AND THE BLOWN AWAY PART RETAINED ITS ACTIVITY ONLY FOR A TIME. It decayed in a few days or weeks, — WHEREAS THE RADIUM ROSE IN STRENGTH AGAIN AT THE SAME RATE THAT THE OTHER DECAYED. And so on constantly. It was as if a NEW FORM of matter was constantly being produced, and AS IF THE RADIO-ACTIVITY WAS A CONCOMITANT OF THE CHANGE OF FORM. It was also found that radium kept on producing heat de novo so as to keep itself always a fraction of a degree ABOVE THE SURROUNDING TEMPERATURE; also that it spontaneously PRODUCED ELECTRICITY.”
Delphi Collected Works of Marie Corelli (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Eight Book 22) Page 755