Much has been written lately about the seven-year cycles in men’s lives, so we will go over into nature and consult the devas regarding this subject.
In nature there are periods of activity in the growth of trees and plants, and periods when the earth lies fallow. There are both progression and retrogression like the tides of the sea. As we observe men, we notice that there are moments of activity of mind, body, and soul.
The true character of a man’s note is that vibration which builds up positive energy in his character. Man is the builder and should always progress in harmony with his true note of expression. Every man born is intended to ascend to a higher place and position.
To reach a higher or Golden Age of expression, from within and from without, is his natural inheritance, so that he can harmonize himself with the finer forces which go to make up nature’s highest expression. Man was intended to become a commanding principle in nature. He has powers at his disposal of which he has never dreamed. The urge of his note or vibration has developed character which has assumed a monumental expression in nature, and has glorified the earth upon which he stands. Man is the master of his own destiny; yet he fails to realize that uncontrolled thoughts, passions and desires, speech without thought, envy, hatred, and malice cause movements which do not harmonize him with the keynote within. This disorganizes the harmony of the whole plan within and without, and thus brings about a retrograde movement. It does not mean that he is stopped in his evolution, but it withholds him from assuming positiveness, and it stops him from relating himself to the urge which nature’s consciousness would give him. The pull from his “natural man” is withdrawn, for he has acted contrary to the wisdom of the Lord God of Truth within. Through lack of harmony with his central note he is not able to achieve the monumental objective for which he incarnated. Therefore, according to the cyclic law of being, he misses opportunities for this finer expression.
There is much of truth in the theory of the seven years interval, which the ancients had noticed in the development of man. There are also minor cycles, within the seven year cycles, which scientists will in time observe in nature. Nature reaches the crest of her development in fourteen years. This is the moment in nature when there is a greater abundance of rain, and when climatic change takes place over the earth. New elements are infused into the rain to take the place of those used up. Great electrical disturbances take place, for it is a time when the Titans of the earth manifest and grow strong in their power and energy, and infuse all nature with elements similar to an electric discharge, so that all nature undergoes a change at this time.
There is history preserved today in the akashic records written by an Egyptian priest many centuries before Jesus, which contains a description of these changes in nature. The title could best be translated as “The Divinity which lies beneath the Water, and under the Earth.” The instruction is in the form of aphorisms, and can be tapped by any student of Yoga who searches for knowledge in this direction.
This ancient document tells of a past race of humanity which was destroyed, when the waters receded from the earth, and predicts that at some future period monuments and metal receptacles containing inscriptions which deal with the measurements of time and laws relating to climatic movements in nature, will appear out of the sea near the habitations of men. When these deposits are uncovered, historical evidence and curious instruments will be found which will stimulate the minds of many people. Humanity will discover they have acquired but little knowledge compared with that which will be found in these copper cylinders. They will realize that humanity has retrograded rather than progressed, and that the fist and hand of brass must crumble into dust. Man little realizes the marvels and wonders of science which have existed before his day and time.
When this historical evidence is found, the world will be longing for knowledge and truth. Much knowledge and strength for those who are poor and humble will be found on the ocean bed, and the great words of the prophet will be echoed into our world and time.
Man has been ignorant of the creative energy which these documents will disclose and will continue blind to this greater energy until he receives this knowledge. This ancient history has been preserved for the day when man shall become worthy to receive the greater knowledge.
In the beginning every man possessed his own light, but as he started to build himself castles and cities he pillaged the fields and burned and destroyed the habitations of others. He took upon himself to devise gods of his own, enriching them and covering them with jewels, until he slowly became ignorant of his own light and no longer followed the counsels of the elders. He cunningly devised engines and machinery and used them for ravishing nature, and enriching himself with spoils from the habitations of other men. He locked and barred his door to the elders who followed the direction of the light.
With his powers and cunning, he sought to subdue nature, and with his engines of warfare he has enslaved nature’s elements to carry out his tortures and destruction. But the elders were not given to such devices. They taught their followers to bring the light of truth to the people. But, through the ignorance of the masses, the light diminished until the “beloved” lived alone in a secret place where they built temples and worshipped the light of Truth.
In time the common people were enfeebled by the destroyers, and the lawgivers of nature exterminated them with volcanic ash and eruption and flood. The door to the sea opened and these people sank into the slime of the ocean. But the “holy ones” who brooded in the silence and gave thanks to the light were left. They took up habitation in other lands where they taught the ignorant to become worthy of the light, teaching them agriculture and the fashioning of utensils, so that nature was pleased, and the land poured forth its abundance. It was written of old that “the trees brought forth fruit, and the rocks poured forth rivers of oil.”
The seers of today divide the world of nature into three divisions. Nature, as we see it with our human eyes—the middle world, the world of fairies, seen by those in whom the third eye is beginning to function, and the world seen by the seer and the Yogi—the higher world of the deva, whose costume is generally opalescent in color, becoming more dense at the foot of the garment.
The beings of the middle world, having power over mind stuff matter, show themselves as shining beings, in any costume which pleases their fancy. A friend of mine, a sylph, using our language, said that he had three suits of clothes. He taught me how to call him in a beautiful garden in the Highlands of Scotland, and if I sought to purify my mind and aspire for truth, he always appeared behind a copper beech in a shining robe of amber, which he would sometimes change to a costume of iridescent blue, sometimes in a headdress like some flower, such as a bluebell; ofttimes bringing a troupe of semi-human fairy children. He showed me the habitations which he could create with mind stuff matter for the pleasure of these multitudes of children fluttering in the air and on the ground. He called my attention to the work that the “little people of the fields” were doing, and showed me their nests of gossamer besprinkled with dew, sometimes hung behind a little waterfall.
This sylph was very learned in the ancient philosophies of the Renaissance Period, and sometimes he would show himself in his amber costume, which shone like the sun, and with a shepherd’s crook. If he had appeared in this way to ordinary individuals, they would have thought themselves in the presence of Jesus.
The type of elemental being that appears to you is generally determined by your character of thought and aspiration, for it is said that you will always get your own reflection in nature. If you desire real knowledge, you must constantly aspire for Truth, for you can only attract the real nature of your own expression. If you have been depressed, or have been in the company of those who are ill in mind and body, you pick up their elemental conditions—the counterpart of your environment. Sometimes in one’s travels, or through circumstances, one finds oneself in a room or place where the inhabitants are evil and licentious, and distrust in others abounds. To the sensitive, it seems as though he could cut the atmosphere with a knife. You find this condition mostly in old Continental cities and in old hotels, magnetized by mental and physical entities of the worst kind.
A friend of mine had a little room which was his place of retreat into the Presence. It was a place of aspiration and meditation, a cheerful clean room, with a chair, table and some flowers, also the symbol of his order. Before entering this room, he would stop a moment and seek to purify himself when he was not able to take a bath. Then he would enter as if going into the Presence. A doctor friend in a fit of anger and temper wished to see him, and not finding him in his usual room and knowing of his retreat, rushed in. He was thrown back by invisible hands and received the shock of his life, and he has never yet solved the problem of just what happened to him. He was thoroughly unnerved, and when my friend helped him to his feet and explained what his room was for, the doctor said, “I am beginning to see that there is something in occultism after all.”
In out-of-the-way places, we often find little churches and chapels of different creeds and religions which are places of peace, magnetized by the aspiring thoughts of those who seek help and light. Elemental Nature is herself a church or cathedral, where, if you enter properly with aspiration, you can in time become conscious of the Presence. In the same way this can be done in the deeper states of Yoga, but the key to this church or cathedral is love, and when you have entered you will be given the instruction best suited for your development.
The student is at first surprised at the reverence which the gnomes, salamanders, sylphs and undines have for their Creator, and what is so pathetic with the gnomes is their childlike questioning to know more about God, for the Early Church impressed upon them that they were denied immortality until it came to deny and scout their very existence. They are conscious of the law of which they speak and of those guardians and sentinels in nature who watch over the development of the kingdoms of fire, earth, water and air.
Now nature, unknown to many, can have a startling influence upon the lives of old people. Her pressure lines upon man are to keep him from growing old, to keep him simple, enthusiastic, and childlike, for nature’s consciousness1 gives to humanity all that is beautiful and noble of the arts and sciences. The man who is touched by nature, pixilated is the modern phrase I think, will be always a child or genius, for he will be the instrument of the gods, who use him to bring inspiration to the human mind. The woman of any age who still loves to play with dolls and dollhouses, and who loves beautiful toys and china, will never grow old. There is always hope for the man or woman who never forgets to play; it is a mark of the genius. The wise man never grows up.
