The Nazarene taught us that God is Love, therefore Love must be God.

Love is the foundation of Light; it is the key to all that is eternal, all that survives the Great Change we call death.

Love is the "ferryman" that is entrusted with taking us safely across the chasm.

Love stands guard as we fearfully and tremblingly await the last moment and are conscious that we are closing our eyes for the last time in the present incarnation.

Love unlocks the mysteries for us of all that is not of the material; not of the earth, earthly. The lustful heart does not really know Love; at its best it can only desire satisfaction, then, like a well-fed animal, turn over and fall asleep to awaken to even greater desire.

Love creates the highest vibrations the fourfold nature of man can know. It is of heart and Soul; it is the "truth," the "light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." If there is love in the heart there is peace in the Soul. If there is no love in the heart then all other things count for nothing.

Herein then is the mystery. To be able to develop the fire, and it is a fire, of Æth we must learn to love. There must be love in the heart so that this may awaken the slumbering Fires of the Soul and the Æth be developed. There must be desire in the mind, which harmonizes with the love in the heart, before we can know the Christos and the Æth is aroused.

Man cannot fully understand what love is until he has cleansed the mind (his desires) and set the Soul free from evil.

So long as man lives in a world of matter he cannot escape temptations, strife and sorrows; but he can avoid those evils that would result in degeneration.

Man is possessed of a mind and that mind is capable of reasoning, so that he is able to separate the good from the non-good or evil. He is also endowed with man's greatest blessing: Will. The Will to do things or refuse to do them. By the power of his Will he is able to keep from sinning. Sin is sickness, sickness of body and Soul. The person who commits sin thereby contaminates both the body and the Soul; this manifests in sickness of body and misfortunes that are of the Soul.

By the direction of the Æth, all evil may be consumed. For this reason the Æth Fires are all-potent in eliminating illness from the human body by establishing Love in the Soul and so freeing it from evil.

The Law states: "Know ye not that unrighteousness shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.

"Nor thieves, nor [the] covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

This catalog is rather complete. One might well add another paragraph:

"If ye be any of these seek ye not those who have so lived that they be able to direct the Æth in the healing of thy self-created ills, lest this fire not only consume thy weaknesses and ills, but thy whole being also, it being filled with evil."

With such a list of evils carefully tabulated, man cannot claim to be ignorant or to misunderstand. Is it not almost all-inclusive and do not all other evils spring from those named? Such as these, then, cannot be cured by the Æth fires, they cannot "inherit the kingdom of heaven." They will not be able to find peace (ease) which the "kingdom of heaven" is.

He who provides a place in his Soul for the habitation of one of these evils is thereby contaminated by the evil as certainly as the physical body is poisoned by a local infection from an ulcerated tooth or an infected sore. He is sick of Soul. As the Æth is developed by the transmutation of evils and the medium or intercession of Love, the evil itself is burned up, eliminated; and health is restored.

These named evils are the greater sins and act as a beacon light to us all, because their ill-effects upon mankind are manifest to us. There are countless lesser evils not so readily recognized but most of these follow in the wake of greater evils.

It is our duty to search within the self and, like a good housewife, find the unclean and undesirable and get rid of it.

We must cleanse the Soul and purify it by the fires from "heaven" (the vibrations of love). If that spirit which raised the son of man from the dead dwells in us, then the spirit that raised (developed and gave birth) the Christ in the Nazarene shall also quicken the Immortal within us and as a result, free the body from its weaknesses and ills.

"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the spirit, do modify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

"For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are [may become] the children of God."

If we live after the flesh then we do all those things that the flesh demands as its own. That is to give way to the passions, i.e., as the Nazarene said: " live after the lusts of the flesh," and if we do this then we shall most certainly die because these lusts destroy, use up, the physical energies and they likewise fail to awaken and bring into Consciousness that which alone is Immortal. If we refuse to "fall" for these lusts but, instead, set about to live "after the spirit," then we mortify the deeds of the body; that is, we refuse to "eat of the forbidden fruit" and though the demand is strong, we will not satisfy the lure of the lusts; it is then we shall live.

Only those who are "led by the Spirit," that is, who refuse the lusts of the flesh and, instead, live after the lofty longings of the spirit, the better self within, will live; for these become the "Sons of God" and the spirit (their works) bears witness of their having become the children of God. In these inculcations which have the force of Law there is no qualification. It is not what we believe, but the things we live, that counts. Faith has its place but the works to follow must be of the same substance as the faith expressed.

He who would utilize the Æth in freeing himself from weakness and sickness or employ it in helping others must identify himself by becoming Consciously Individualized with the manifesting Spirit of God - the Cosmic Consciousness. By means of the Æth fires we become fully conscious that the "Spirit of God is witness with our spirit," and we shall know what that spirit is.

The Word of the Scripture which we profess to believe informs, time without number, that He, the Christ, will manifest Himself to us. That we shall see Him as He is. There are those who have so believed and labored accordingly, and who were blessed indeed. Many others, not so sincere or faithful, have seen wondrous deeds made manifest, even if they have not come face to face with the Christ. These believe that they have been made witness, but they do not surely know.

"If your desire is deep enough and you truly wish to see me, then you will come to see me, and see me as I really am."

"You would not be satisfied with seeing another, nor to live uncertainly and in doubt; you would seek communion with me only."

Thus it is with the seeking Soul. Nothing will satisfy it but to come face to face with its God; then, whereas before it believed, now it knoweth.

Men make pretense of seeking the Christ. They profess belief in the promises of a dead past, but they manifest little effort in their search. Many are looking for Him in the desert, others look for Him in the wilderness or the mountains. These seek in an offhand manner. Their minds are not yet sufficiently awakened to understand the often repeated statement in the Biblical texts that: "We may know him and see him as he is"; "You may become like him," and "He is in you and you in him."

When the Nazarene taught these saving truths He sought to bring light into darkness. He pointed out the way for men to travel. If humanity will not accept His inculcations, His definitions of the Law, and seek for themselves, are unwilling to so live that they may manifest and, as a result, come to know the Christos, the living Soul, then His mission, as that of other great teachers before Him, will have been in vain.

John said: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth [manifests] that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh [the Christos awakened and become Conscious] is of God."

The Nazarene did not teach the debasement of the flesh; He inculcated its purification and sanctification. The material, earthly man can be purified and made holy and acceptable to the Father. Were the body of no value and to be considered as so much refuse, then the Soul would never have sought its habitation.

It is man's duty to preserve, protect and guard the body as carefully as he should the Soul. If we once truly awaken from our sleep of ignorance, then we will aspire to lift up the Soul, free it from its bondage and give it the same attention we devote to the body, the house it inhabits. The fact is that it must be purified and exalted. It then becomes a thing holy (whole); in itself. It becomes the Temple we have all been instructed to build. The Soul awakened is like a neat, tidy, thrifty housewife who refuses to dwell in a dirty, unkempt, neglected house.

Men judge the housekeeper by the appearance of her home. The Soul must be judged by the appearance of the body it inhabits.

It is necessary for the Aspirant to master the housekeeping of his own body. He must free the mind of all carnal, debasing and destructive thoughts; substituting exalting, creative desires; thereby lighting the fires of the Soul so as to consume all that is base and ignoble and create the Æth.

It is written: "The sun of righteousness shall arise with healing on its wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves in the stall."

The sun of righteousness, the "fires of the Soul," will be aroused into a living fire when we begin to transmute all that is base within us. It is this fire, this Æth energy, which has "healing on its wings." The Illuminated Soul is symbolized by the Winged Globe of the true Rosicrucian. The Illuminated Globe is a sphere of Fire; the wings are the forces that permit its flight; the fires are the Light which saves "unto salvation."

The Æth cannot fail in its mission to relieve and help the distressed if the medium to receive it reflects the "proper spirit." This Æth fire cannot be misused or misdirected. To attempt this is to destroy the self. It cannot be abused, because he who will not "go and sin no more" (give up evil) cannot thereby be healed.

He who seeks to employ the Æth fire must not be guilty of making the mistake in thinking he can direct it before he has developed it within himself. It cannot be obtained or directed from any outside source. "Ye are the temples of the living God." This Fire is God as He Himself has said.

The Æth is a Light. It is the Soul's Fire. It contains within itself all the elements to save, that is, to heal or to make "free" from the ills that flesh is heir to. In it are all the potential forces of life.

The mind creates and solidifies the thoughts into electrical energy. This energy is directed and controlled by the mind. It is received by the Soul and a Fire is created. The Soul retains and stores these fiery, healing forces until there is need for their use. In an instant these vibrations of healing may be sent throughout the self-body, or directed over the nervous system of another.

The healer does not concentrate on the patient.

He draws these constructive vibrations from the reservoir within himself and transfers them to that which is evil or "unhealthy" in the patient. The fires consume all that is evil and fill the cells with life.

To be truly healed and not merely helped, the sufferer must begin to think correctly and constructively, to desire ideally and to begin living a clean life. "Old vessels must not be filled with new wine"; that is against the Law. Demoralized bodies are the result of degraded minds and cannot be made new unless the substance thereof is changed.

In the direction of the Æth there is no such thing as malicious animal magnetism, this being solely of body and mind, nor is there danger of black magic which is of the mind and Will. The Æth is the true Christic, Soul or spiritual healing; it cannot be imitated by pretenders because they cannot have knowledge of it.

This Æth Fire or power is not to be had as the result of reading books or studying manuscripts however good or desirable they may be. At best, the Master-Teacher can only instruct, guide, guard and direct the Aspirant. The Aspirant must then proceed to so live and practice that the Soul is slowly aroused and the Æth fires kindled therein. The Æth healer becomes. He must raise the vibrations within himself. He must distill the Essence of Life from the leaves of the Tree of Death. The Elixir of Youth must be manufactured in his own inner laboratory.

It has been, and continues to be, a most debasing idea that, centuries past, one man, or twelve men, were able to so live as to be able to cast out devils and heal diseases and that, after their demise, this knowledge and power were lost.

The Light of the world never sets unless the world itself should be destroyed.

The vibrations that "bring healing on their wings" likewise contain within themselves the essence of love, happiness, youth and Immortality.

God and all that He created is the same today as in the days of the first creation. Man has changed and man changes but "God goes on forever." He is the unchangeable. Man has permitted himself to fall into error and become ignorant of God's Law and foolishly thinks that God has hidden His face when, in fact, man has hidden himself (in shame because of his degradation) from God.

Men make use of beautiful phrases to tell us that God is Life.

Can they tell us where God is? If God is Life, then why do men suffer and die?

God must be found within ourselves. If we fail to do so, then we are God-less and sorrow and illness and finally death are our portion of what might be life abundant.

The all-knowing, loving, unchangeable God is part of us, is within us. He is the life of us. He is the breath, the sight and the harmony within us. The more we find of Him the more of life do we possess. Our GREAT WORK - to seek for and find Him.

Man is unable to feel, know or realize God's presence unless he first mentally awakens, and then makes an effort to arouse and awaken the Divine Spark of the Soul within. When finally he has succeeded in this GREAT WORK, he no longer need believe, he will know that "God is in His heaven," that He is within, that the degraded and despised body, the "worm of the dust," has at last become the temple, a temple "not built with nails or sound of hammer." This is the new birth. The stone of the tomb which held buried the Christos has been rolled away at last and the newly risen Christ has come forth.

Who is there to tell us so? "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away [are changed]; behold all things are become new, and all things are of God."

Remember, this speaks of man's becoming, and that when he has finally become, then is "he in, or of, God."

The Æth is the fire of the Soul. In this fire is consumed all that is gross, earthly and evil. As a result of this "burning up," or transmutation, the old must give way to the new (become changed), and man thereby becomes a living Soul.

"He breathed on them; and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost.

"And they were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance."

The Neophyte entering the Path is taught how to think and desire. He is instructed how to breathe and become filled with life. He is told how to transmute all things of a lesser order into the Æth Fire. When this has been brought to a successful issue, he is indeed filled with the Holy Ghost - the Christic or Holy Fire.

Men so filled with Fire, those having become Soul Conscious, indeed speak with "other" tongues. They have solved the mystery of life. That which they teach is something new and seldom understood by others. Their concepts are new. Their philosophy is beyond the comprehension of the mass and they are looked upon askance; they are a strange people and many are they who fear them.

It is written that the disciples could heal the sick only after they had been "breathed upon" with the spirit of the Holy Ghost. To be "breathed upon" means to receive, or to have received. Not until they had seen the spirit of the Holy Ghost, or of Fire, "descend from heaven" were they possessed of the power to heal or do the works of the Master.

Many of the healers of the past and even the present look upon this work as a business or profession. To them it is a material, compensatory, service. They have given no thought to the spiritual work, to the awakening of the Soul and its powers. They have awakened no more than to recognize that the mind is possessed of great power if properly directed; and that something still "greater was to come."

This "greater" is that which belongs to the Christos, the Soul. It is the result of the purification of the mind and the awakening of the Soul. It is the healing power developed by the union of mind power and Soul energy. This wedding of mind and Soul creates a new life, develops or brings into manifestation the Æth.

"He was in the world and the world was made by him, and [yet] the world knew him not."

We were made by Him. He is in you and yet you know Him not.

"He came to his own, and his own received him not."

He has approached you time and again, but you refused to receive Him. You have failed to lift the veil that hides Him from your vision; you have failed to seek, and seeking not, He passed you by.

All but a very few still fail to realize the importance of the awakening and development of the Soul. This is in part due to false philosophies and dogmatic religious inculcations, and in part to the fact that almost all men are satisfied if the physical being is abundantly fed and the demands of the mind satisfied by the pleasures indulged in by the body. Only the few have as yet become aware that the Soul is the Throne of God, the "Temple not made with hands." As long as man continues to sleep the sleep of Death, he cannot attain to Immortalization. To such as these "He came but they knew him not."

On the contrary, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God."

A greater promise was never made. They who "receive" Him are those who are awakening from their sleep; who begin to think, desire and work in accordance to the light they are given. These build the Soul. They make every effort to arouse the sleeping giant within themselves. They will experience the time when the Soul will have become a heaven-reaching Flame. They are created (become) the Sons of God.

The Sons of God are born of God in the sense that this God is the Soul made Conscious (being born) in man.

As a result of this Soul coming into Consciousness and the concurrent development of the Æth creative Fires, the Aspirant attains to the knowledge and understanding of all the planes of the Hierarchies, those who had become Initiates, or "as gods."

It cannot be denied that the Neophyte often finds the Path before him difficult and strewn with thorns, a Path that inevitably leads him by way of the Cross, because without the Cross there can be no resurrection.

After the resurrection the wonders of the heavens open to him; the "woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve signs," will appear and the great mystery is unveiled to him, understood and of many wonders. Herein is the Arcanum of the Conscious Soul.

The "woman clothed with the sun." The Soul is feminine; it is receptive. The sun is the light by which the Soul is clothed after the stone is rolled away from the tomb and it comes forth.

The moon, the passions that belong to the body and the thoughts and desires of the mind, are now "under her feet"; they have been brought under control of the Christic self, the Soul.

"Upon her head a crown of twelve signs." She is now the queen of all ideals. Love is her watchword, service her pleasure, and righteousness the rule that governs all her actions. "This is my beloved in whom I am well pleased." Well may it be so.

The Neophyte must willingly take upon himself the Cross and follow. He should be prepared to suffer, to strive and to be patient. The hour of victory will come and with it will come compensation for all that was accepted as a part of life. The "laborer is worthy of his hire," and all these things are a part of the "labor" of those who seek to gain the victory.

It is well worth the struggle, to meet all the difficulties that lead to Soul development, so as to be able to see behind the veil and find that the "woman clothed with the sun" is not a stranger to us, though we knew her not.

Men marvel today, as did even the disciples of long ago; "while they looked steadfastly toward heaven [outwardly] as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white [as purified, transmuted] apparel.

"Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven [outside of yourself]? The same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

Men gaze into space seeking for that which is within themselves. They foolishly believe that someone will come and "lift them up" despite themselves and save their selfish, unworthy, unprepared, unregenerated Souls. They are always seeking for someone to redeem them, ignoring the fact that they must "work out their own salvation in fear and trembling." Like the Jews of old, they continue to expect the coming of a King who will not only rule them, but will give them all the good things in life with little or no effort of their own.

It is written: "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

"And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost."

Here we have just one more reference that the Holy Ghost and the Fire are one and the same thing; that God, the Son and the Holy Ghost, all three symbolized by Fire, and that none of the three can appear to man expect in the form of Fire. This is in truth the baptism of fire. It is the completion of the transmutation in the Soul and the reception of the Holy Ghost (fire) from heaven. It is the final concentration of the Æth in the consummation of Conscious Individualization. This must be experienced by all who would be "saved" - Immortalized.

It is also written: "We shall all [those who think, desire and Work accordingly] be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last [the finish of the Great Work]: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead [carnal desires being transmuted] shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

"So when the corruptible [flesh] shall have put on incorruption [purification], and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. "

The awakened Soul cannot die. When the mortal, born-to-die, sin-loving man changes, when he begins to think thoughts that will give birth to the desire to free his being of evil passions, and puts forth the effort to raise his lower self, he is putting on Immortality. This accomplished, he cannot die; the Conscious Soul knows only Life. There is nothing to be changed at death. The fire-purified Soul is Æth filled. Death is swallowed up in victory.

Through the Æth Arcanum the evil in man reveals itself. Man stands face to face with himself and judges himself impartially and without excuse. All the evils and weaknesses within are revealed and can be read as one does the pages of an open book. Subterfuges are no longer sought. No excuses made. Man sees himself as he is. His life's history is written as in letters of fire; for the "Holy Ghost is also a witness to us," and "this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."

Both the mind and the heart are essential in the Great Work. The mind conceives, plans and creates. The Soul receives. The base metals are transmuted into the pure and shining gold of the Alchemist.

Egotism, selfishness, conceit, self-absorption and other destructive passions are not a good foundation upon which to build. There is but one rock; it is the Soul that has become Cosmic Fire; the "light that is on neither land nor water."

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

"If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

"If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet as by fire."

What have you built?

What are you now building?

Is it built upon the rock, or upon the sands?

If your Soul is purified by the Fires of the Holy Ghost you are among those saved. You have attained to Conscious Individualization. You were saved because of a willingness to transmute all that was ignoble so that you might attain Initiation, come into companionship with the Masters, and finally into Sonship with the Father.
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