The Word Magazine (1904-1917)

"We create ideals which are based on sensuous perceptions. The ideals become idols and we idolators."

"The desire principle is readily distinguished from the others. It is that which surges as passion, and lusts after objects and gratification with the tyranny of unreasoning force."

"It is well that we cannot solve the mystery. To do so might destroy our shadowland before we can live in the light. Yet we may get an idea of the truth by making use of analogy. We may apprehend "Whither we go?" by taking a glance along the perspective of "Whence we come?""

"What is conscious without the senses is I. THE ZODIAC."

"The first great race is presented by the sign cancer. The beings of that race were breaths. They had no such forms as have our present humanity. They were crystal-like spheres of breath."

"The entity of the third race, the form entity, may be known as distinct from the physical body by the feeling of one's form within the body and similar to the feeling of the hand in a glove as being distinct from the glove, although being the instrument by which the glove is made to move."

"At certain moments in the lives of an individual there wells up from within a conscious expansion of consciousness… In a breath, in a flash, in an instant of time, time ceases and this interior world opens out from within. More brilliant than myriad suns it opens in a blaze of light which does not blind or burn. ...he has seen the light, he has felt the power, he has heard the voice."

"That one who brings on miscarriage or abortion is in turn made the victim of like treatment when his or her time to incarnate comes."

"For every part of the body of man there is a corresponding force and entity in nature, which is the body of God, and the beings who take part in the building of the body are bound to that part which they have built and must respond to the nature of the function which that part is commanded by the incarnated ego to perform."

"The immaculate conception is attended by a great spiritual illumination; then the inner worlds are opened to the spiritual vision, and man not only sees but is impressed with the knowledge of those worlds. Then follows a long period during which this spiritual body is developed through its physical matrix, just as the foetus was developed in the womb. But whereas, during the foetal development the mother feels only and merely senses vague influences, the one who is thus creating a spiritual body knows of all of the universal processes which are represented and called upon in the fashioning of this immortal body. Just as at the time of the physical birth the breath entered the physical body, so now the divine breath, the holy pneuma, enters the spiritual immortal body so created. Immortality is thus attained."

"These elements with their forces are entities, they are not chaotic nothings. They are brought together and unite to produce the body of man with its senses. The senses in the animal are governed and controlled by their corresponding elements, but in man the "I" offers resistance to the entire control by the elements."

"One who is afraid of death and the process of dying should not engage in this practice. He should learn somewhat the nature of death and of his mental processes before thus going in search of I."

"Up to this period, physical humanity was without individual mind. The forms were human in shape, but in all other respects they were animals."

"The fact is that all the early races are not merely things of the distant past, they are actualities of the very present."

"The personality is a form, a costume, a mask, in which the individuality appears and takes its part in the divine tragedy-drama-comedy of the ages now being again played on the stage of the world."

"These are the voices of the personality, and the one which speaks the loudest will usually prevail. But when the heart asks humbly for the truth, that instant a single voice is heard so gentle that it stills dispute. This is the voice of one's inner god - the higher mind, the individuality."

"Man was circular before he came into the physical world."

"The physical world is the arena or stage on which is played the tragedy-comedy or drama of the soul as it battles with the elemental forces and powers of nature through its physical body."

"The paste, the paint, the costume, the footlights and the play cause the soul to forget its being in eternity, and it is immersed in the littleness of the play."

"But the invisible germ, although out of its place in the world of the soul, is not cut off from the world of the soul."

"What was done in the early ages of humanity may be done again in our age. Through all apparent confusion runs a harmonious purpose. Humanity had to become involved in materiality that it might gain strength and wisdom and power by overcoming matter and raising it to a higher degree in the scale of perfection. Humanity is now on the upward evolutionary arc of the cycle, and some may, some must rise to the plane of the immortals if the race is to progress."

"The requirements for immortality are a sound mind in a healthy and adult body, with the idea of immortality as the motive in a life of unselfishness and of living for the good of all."

"There are seven forces, with their corresponding vehicles, seven elements."

"The elements are involuted into bodies and become the senses of the organized body."

"The signs of the zodiac represent so many great classes or orders. At the head of each class or order is an intelligence too sacred to make more than mention of to us. From each such great intelligence there gradually proceed in orderly procession all the forces and elements which make up man's body, and each such has its correspondence in the body of man as stated."

"Losses, poverty, pain, sickness, sorrow, trouble of all kinds, throw the I back on itself and away from their opposites which attract and delude the I. When the I is strong enough it begins to argue with itself about itself. Then it is possible for it to learn the meaning and the real use of the senses. It then learns that it is not of this world, that it is a messenger with a mission in this world. That before it can give its message and perform its mission it must become acquainted with the senses as they really are, and use them as they should be used instead of being deluded and controlled by them."

"This first root-race did not die as did the races which followed; it was and is the ideal race for those to follow."

"The forms absorbed life as the plants do and gave birth to themselves by passing through a metamorphosis analogous to that of the butterfly."

"The human animals into whom mind had thus incarnated, attempted to control the Minds, even as a wild steed might attempt to run away with its rider. But the minds who had incarnated were well experienced, and, being old warriors, they brought the human animal into subjection and educated it until it became a self-conscious entity,"

"Unlike the first class of minds, this second class was unable to control the animal, and so the animal controlled it. At first the Minds who thus partially incarnated, were able to distinguish between themselves and the human animal into which they had incarnated, but gradually they lost this discriminative power, and while incarnate they were unable to distinguish between themselves and the animal."

"As the spider's world is limited to the web of its own spinning, so a man's world is limited to the thoughts of his own weaving."

"He lives in his own universe, the confines of which he builds. And what he believes to be realities are the thought pictures with which he fills it. As the web may be swept away and the spider remains to build another, so in each life the individuality causes to be built for itself a new universe, though most often the personality knows it not."

"The personality is an animal which the individuality, the traveller of the ages, has bred for service and which if nourished, guided and controlled, will carry its rider through desert plains and jungle growths, across dangerous places, through the wilderness of the world to the land of safety and peace."

"Here the alchemist magician consumates the great work, the mystery of the ages - of changing an animal into a man and a man into a god."

"Thus he lives to help others; and so while living, acting, and loving in silence, he overcomes life by thought, form by knowledge, sex by wisdom, desire by will, and, gaining wisdom, he gives up himself in the sacrifice of love and passes from his own life into the life of all humanity."

"After first seeing the light and feeling the power and hearing the voice, one will not at once pass into the realm of soul. He will live many lives on earth, and in each life will walk silently and unknown over the path of forms until his selfless action shall cause the realm of soul again to open out from within when he will again receive the selfless love, the living power, and the silent wisdom. Then he will follow the deathless ones who have travelled before on the deathless path of Consciousness."

"It shows that the progenitors of early humanity have watched the development of early humanity during all the races and their cycles, until finally some have descended and taken up their abode in the dwellings provided."

"Capricorn is the sign of individuality, having attained which the human fulfills his obligations to others and becomes a god."

"After asking the twin questions, "Whence and Whither?" and "How do I come?" and "How do I go?" there comes the soul-awakening question, "Who am I?" When the soul has earnestly asked itself this question, it will never again be content until it knows."

"The visible world stands between two eternities as a great theatre in eternity. The immaterial and the invisible here become material and visible, the intangible and formless take on a tangible form, and the Infinite here appears to be finite as it enters into the play of life."

"Each soul lives in a distinct world of its own, and of its own making, which it relates to or identifies with itself. The soul builds a physical body within and around a portion of itself for a sojourn and experience in the physical world. When the sojourn is at an end it dissipates the physical body by the process called death and decay."

"This was the way when wisdom ruled humanity. Then child birth was attended by no labor pains, and the beings in the world knew of those who were to enter. It is not so now."

"Each part of the body is a talisman to attract or guard against the powers of nature. As the talisman is used the powers will respond. Man is verily the microcosm who may call upon the macrocosm according to his knowledge or faith, his image-making and will."

"The explorer into the new world of immortality must not be less courageous than the adventurer into new fields who risks his life and spends his substance and endures mental and bodily hardship and privation and failure, in the hope of discovery."

"It was easier for humanity to become involved into matter and held in bondage than it is to gain freedom from that bondage, because bondage comes by natural descent, but freedom is gained only through self-conscious effort."

"He who is informed concerning the law of spiritual development and birth, even though he be willing to comply with all requirements, should not rush madly on when wise men stop to ponder."

""I" will awake from his stupor and will arise and throw off the chains of the senses. He will end his term of slavery and claim his divine rights. By the light which he radiates he will dispel the powers of darkness and dissipate the glamour of the senses which had blinded and lulled him into forgetfulness of his divine origin."

"Man thinks and nature responds by marshalling his thoughts in a continuous procession while he looks on with wondering gaze, unmindful of the cause."

"Thought is karma."

"Uniting with all these entities, or principles, yet distinct from them, is the thought entity."