The Pan Consciousness

There are some activities of the Pan consciousness, which may prove instructive to the student. In considering them the reader should realize that our thought creations are ensouled by elemental nature and hence all of us are pursued by our own ensouled chimeras.

An officer residing in India caused a Yogi to be hanged for an offense. Later it was discovered that this Yogi was innocent. From that time on the officer’s young wife could not stand sunlight and lived in rooms with drawn blinds. When her child was born it likewise could not stand the sunlight and was happy only in a darkened room. Other symptoms developed and the lady was in a London nursing home, when I was asked, if possible, to diagnose the trouble. The doctor and I were at dinner, when the nurse told the doctor of the recurrence of an attack. We went upstairs and found two attendants holding the girl down on a mattress on the bare floor. I cautioned the attendant about using too much pressure of his knee upon her arm. The girl was snapping and snarling like an enraged dog.

At such times the student, seeking to make himself impersonal and pouring forth all his love, is permitted to call upon his teacher for help. The girl suddenly ceased her attempts to bite the attendants and, in a beautiful voice cried out: “Jesus, hold me in your arms.” I then asked the attendants to leave the room, only the doctor and the matron remaining with me. In my arms she began to sing a little religious song, taught to her when a child by her nurse. The doctor began looking around, trying to trace the origin of a queer noise, a whisking movement which had become noticeable in the room. There in a corner, sitting on its haunches, was a being from the world of Pan, half-human, half-dog, with terror-stricken eyes. The arms and body were covered with long hair and the pedal extremities more human than paw-like.

I told the matron, “This is the best paying guest that you have here, but if you will live up to the highest principles within you regarding this girl, we can cure her. It will mean pecuniary sacrifice on your part. You must give her freely of your love and make no charge for your services, and you are to place her out of doors in the sun at ten o’clock tomorrow morning.” The matron did as she was told, and this was the first time since her attack that the girl was able to bear the sun’s rays on her face.

Another slight seizure came over the girl shortly afterwards and she complained that a black mummified hand passed over her face. It was an Egyptian entity. (Before the execution of the Yogi in India, he had warned the officer that he was innocent, and that a curse would come upon him.) 

Ανοτηερ ϖισιτ ωασ μαδε το δεαλ ωιτη τηε Εγψπτιαν χονδιτιον, ωηιχη ωασ α ϖερψ στρονγ ονε, ανδ τωο ωεεκσ αφτερωαρδσ τηε ματρον βρουγητ τηε ψουνγ γιρλ το μψ ηουσε. Τηε ψουνγ λαδψ ωασ μοστ εντηυσιαστιχ, λικε α ηαππψ χηιλδ, φορ τηατ ωεεκ σηε ηαδ βεεν το σεε τηε Βενσον Πλαψερσ ιν Much Ado About Nothing. This was the first time in her life she had been to a theater, although she had been well educated in Shakespearian literature.

The Pan entity had also to be succored and I did not get into bed until three o’clock one night, for I had to take the poor Pan creature back to his own element. Imagine this stray entity crouching in his corner, or being chased by people actuated by fear and hate. However, it immediately responded to love, just as a starving dog responds to kindness.

The Egyptian, earthbound and personal, was more difficult to deal with, but in time he also responded to love and aid. Elemental nature, when it is recognized, will respond to love, and the fear which elemental nature casts over a person coming through a deep wooded ravine at night, will turn to welcome, if the person will send love, untinged with personality, into that ravine.

Again, there is a beautiful strip of shore in the Highlands of Scotland which, until recently, little children avoided if possible. Living in the district, I had been awakened a number of times by a cool hand placed upon my forehead and, when I looked up, I would see a habited monk saying, “Pray for my soul, I am in hell.” I would often meet him in the evening and he would come up to me gibbering and grimacing like an infuriated ape. I knew then that he was controlled by a master adept in ceremonial black magic. The cause of his earth-bound condition was that his master had made him procure a child for sacrifice. Living in the submerged spheres beneath our feet, this master intermittently possessed a power similar to hypnotism, and when so influenced the earth-bound monk would threaten me with all kinds of disagreeable things. He is now no longer earth-bound.

So we see that the creatures of this lower animal world are ushered into our world through magic and the breaking of the Law. The presence of such entities is often felt, although unseen by the normal eye. The development of one’s clairvoyance is a purely scientific thing, but it is more quickly developed when we aspire to the Lord God of Truth within. We must not forget that our bodies are made up of the elements of air, earth, fire, and water, and that we attract from the elements what we are, thus bringing to our atmosphere our true elemental nature, be it good or evil. Therefore, we must purify our lower elemental nature by right conduct and aspiration towards Truth.

Whatever our mind is placed upon, that we attract, be it the dwellers of heaven or of hell. If we harbor anger, hatred, or malice in our hearts, we attract these elementals of destruction into ourselves. If we concentrate on fear, we are pursued by our own specters. Henri Martin, the painter, once pictured a procession of people crossing a desert, each carrying upon his back his own chimeras, the financier his moneybags, the artist his model, the roue his courtesan, and the others their appropriate burdens. Each creates his own burden, and he must carry it until he finds the path of wisdom and the place of understanding. Such is the Law.