The ancient Egyptians knew of these animal group spirits and sketched many of them, in a crude way, upon their temples and tombs. Such figures with a human body and an animal head actually live in the desire world. They may be spoken to, and will be [pg 083] found much more intelligent than the average human being.
That statement brings up another peculiarity of conditions in the Desire World in respect of language. Here in this World human speech is so diversified that there are countries where people who live only a few miles apart speak a dialect so different that they understand each other with great difficulty, and each nation has its own language that varies altogether from the speech of other peoples.
In the lower Regions of the Desire World, there is the same diversity of tongues as on earth, and the so-called “dead” of one nation find it impossible to converse with those who lived in another country. Hence linguistic accomplishments are of great value to the “Invisible Helpers”, of whom we shall hear later, as their sphere of usefulness is enormously extended by that ability.
Even apart from difference of language our mode of speech is exceedingly productive of misunderstandings. The same words often convey most opposite ideas to different minds. If we speak of a “body of water”, one person may think we mean a lake of small dimensions, the thoughts of another may be [pg 084] directed to the great American Lakes and a third person's thoughts may be turned towards the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. If we speak of a “light”, one may think of a gas-light, another of an electric Arc-lamp, or if we say “red”, one person may think we mean a delicate shade of pink and another gets the idea of crimson. The misunderstandings of what words mean goes even farther, as illustrated in the following.
The writer once opened a reading room in a large city where he lectured, and invited his audience to make use thereof. Among those who availed themselves of the opportunity was a gentleman who had for many years been a veritable “metaphysical tramp,” roaming from lecture to lecture, hearing the teachings of everybody and practicing nothing. Like the Athenians on Mars' Hill, he was always looking for something “new,” particularly in the line of phenomena, and his mind was in that seething chaotic state which is one of the most prominent symptoms of “mental indigestion.”
Having attended a number of our lectures he knew from the program that: “The lecturer does not give readings, or cast horoscopes for pay.” But seeing on the door of [pg 085] the newly opened reading room, the legend: “Free Reading Room,” his erratic mind at once jumped to the conclusion that although we were opposed to telling fortunes for pay, we were now going to give free readings of the future in the Free Reading Room. He was much disappointed that we did not intend to tell fortunes, either gratis or for a consideration, and we changed our sign to “Free Library” in order to obviate a repetition of the error.
In the higher Regions of the Desire World the confusion of tongues gives place to a universal mode of expression which absolutely prevents misunderstandings of our meaning. There each of our thoughts takes a definite form and color perceptible to all, and this thought-symbol emits a certain tone, which is not a word, but it conveys our meaning to the one we address no matter what language he spoke on earth.
To arrive at an understanding of how such a universal language becomes possible and is at once comprehended by all, without preparation, we may take as an illustration the manner in which a musician reads music. A German or a Polish composer may write an opera. Each has his own peculiar terminology [pg 086] and expresses it in his own language. When that opera is to be played by an Italian band master, or by a Spanish or American musician, it need not be translated, the notes and symbols upon the page are a universally understood language of symbols which is intelligible to musicians of no matter what nationality. Similarly with figures, the German counts: ein, zwei, drei; the Frenchman says: un, deux, trois, and in English we use the words: one, two, three, but the figures: 1, 2, 3, though differently spoken, are intelligible to all and mean the same. There is no possibility of misunderstanding in the cases of either music or figures. Thus it is also with the universal language peculiar to the higher Regions of the Desire World and the still more subtile realms in nature, it is intelligible to all, an exact mode of expression.
Returning to our description of the entities commonly met with in the lower Desire World, we may note that other systems of religion than the Egyptian, already mentioned, have spoken of various classes of beings native to these realms. The Zoroastrian Religion, for instance, mentions Seven Ameshaspends and the Izzards as having dominion over certain days in the month and certain months in [pg 087] the year. The Christian religion speaks of Seven Spirits before the Throne, which are the same beings the Persians called Ameshaspends. Each of them rules over two months in the year while the seventh: Michael, the highest, is their leader, for he is ambassador from the sun to the earth, the others are ambassadors from the planets. The Catholic religion with its abundant occult information takes most notice of these “star-angels” and knows considerable about their influence upon the affairs of the earth.
The Ameshaspends, however, do not inhabit the lower Regions of the Desire World but influence the Izzards. According to the old Persian legend these beings are divisible into one group of twenty-eight classes, and another group of three classes. Each of these classes has dominion over, or takes the lead of all the other classes on one certain day of the month. They regulate the weather conditions on that day and work with animal and man in particular. At least the twenty-eight classes do that, the other group of three classes has nothing to do with animals, because they have only twenty-eight pair of spinal nerves, while human beings have thirty-one. Thus animals are attuned to the lunar month of [pg 088] twenty-eight days, while man is correlated to the solar month of thirty or thirty-one days. The ancient Persians were astronomers but not physiologists, they had no means of knowing the different nervous constitution of animal and man, but they saw clairvoyantly these superphysical beings, they noted and recorded their work with animal and men and our own anatomical investigations may show us the reason for these divisions of the classes of Izzards recorded in that ancient system of philosophy.