Cosmic symbolism

by Sepharial

CHAPTER IV
THERAPY—ANCIENT AND MODERN

In old times, when the teachings of Hippocrates were more in vogue than at this date, when Aristotle and Galen and Ibn Sina and Paracelsus made their contributions to contemporary medical science, it was the custom to regard man in terms of the cosmos. They classified all disorders in a comprehensive manner as accidental or incidental, as acute or chronic, as functional or organic. The functional powers were governed by the Moon, the organic constitution by the Sun. Accidental and acute ailments were ascribed to the action of Mars, incidental and chronic disorders to Saturn. Mars was responsible for all inflammatory action and fevers, while Saturn was the cause of all morbid diseases and loss of vitality. It was only a question of the distribution of the vital principle in man, and this, originating in the Sun and regulated by the Moon, induced fevers when in excess and morbid disease when deficient in any organ of the body. Jupiter was the great healer and arbiter of destiny, and it was his aid that the physician invoked when at the head of his prescription he wrote the symbol ℞—Help, O Jupiter!

This ancient custom, together with many of the terms of ancient usage, is retained by modern physicians, many of whom see no more in it than the letter R, the initial of the word Recipe. But we still speak of chronic diseases, while tracing nothing to the action of Kronos (Saturn). We own to a solar plexus and a semilunar ganglion, and there are many other terms which have survived the practice of putting new names to old facts when some new function or structural peculiarity comes under modern observation. Had the ancients known of the existence of Uranus they would have had a potent cause for paralysis, nervous lesion and similar disturbances of the organism, while in Neptune they would have found the cause of anæmia, consumption and wasting decline, and possibly of neurasthenia and the various effects of nervous depletion.

But who shall say, without making trial of the matter, that the ancients were at fault in regarding man as embodied cosmos, a compound of the free elements in the universe about him, or wrong in interpreting his various disorders in terms of the stellar ambient? It is, at all events, just worth notice that at the birth of Miss Dorothy Kerin, on the 28th November, 1890, the Sun, Venus and Mercury were in quadrature to Saturn and in opposition to Neptune, while on the 18th February, 1912, Jupiter was in the 13th degree of Sagittarius, the very degree of the zodiac that was rising at her birth. The odds against this coincidence are 4,319 to 1. If it were a solitary example of what is said to be the beneficent influence of Jupiter in the saving of life it would not be so significant, but from the array of evidence accumulated by modern observations and retrogressive calculation, it is quite clear that the ancients were justified in their ascriptions in the case of Jupiter. Possibly it is not to the planetary orb itself but to the cosmic synthesis represented by it in our physical and mental constitution that appeal is made. Be that as it may, and while asserting the fact of planetary influence in human life without fear of contradiction I am not in a position to dogmatize as to the modus operandi, it is yet evident that there is a concert of action between the various cosmic centres and their corresponding principles in ourselves, such as to uphold the theosophic concept of man as Microcosmos.

I have just been speaking of cancer as a morbid disease. It was known to the ancients and by them named after that sign of the zodiac which responds to the zone most frequently affected by the disease, namely, the breast and stomach. It has already been shown that Saturn was accounted the chief cause of disease. Napoleon Buonaparte died of cancer, and at his birth we find Saturn in the sign Cancer in opposition to the Moon. On the principle that one swallow does not make a summer, I leave the observation for what it may be worth, but it is satisfactory if we can recognize a swallow when we see it. We are on the way to distinguish between martins and swifts, and between house and sand martins, and thus forefended from building our house upon the sand. For although Occultism deals with an order of facts outside the normal range of orthodox science its methods are equally scientific, both analytical and constructive. If we take the horoscopes of a number of persons whose fatal illness was of the same nature and compare them, we shall find a factor that is common to them all. The existence of this factor in the horoscope of a living person is a presumptive argument for “tendency” to the same disease. If in event that person develops the particular malady indicated by the horoscope, we have at once a scientific basis for a system of astro-therapy and a valid means of prognosis.

Assuming that the astrologers have been as busy in their special department of research as have the representatives of other branches of learning in theirs, it may reasonably be expected that with an equal body of tradition behind them and an equal field of experimental research before them, they have arrived at conclusions of which they are as sure as any scientific man can be in regard to any matter. To ignore their statements or to disparage them without test appears to me to be wholly prejudicial to the interests of truth and most likely to reflect upon the scientific integrity of those who pursue either course, for as the old philosopher says: “Where confidence is lacking it is not met by trust.”

In regard to the faculty of auto-suggestion in connection with psychotherapy; it has been suggested that this faculty depends on the activity of the subconscious sphere of the mind. It is seen that all action is either purposive or automatic. All purposive action tends to become habitual, and to the extent that it becomes so, it passes from the region of mind-control into the subconscious region where it is capable of itself controlling the mind. We then recognize what is called the “force of habit.” But it is further suggested that the activity of the subconscious part of the mind-sphere is at its maximum when we are asleep, whether natural or hypnotic. Certainly it is a fact that at a particular stage in hypnosis the subject passes out of the power of the hypnotist to control and assumes an activity of mental function which is remarkable both as to range and precision. But the facts seem to suggest something more than mere automatism, for while the patient remains subject to suggestion there is evidence of something more than the discharge of accumulated impressions. The subject is not found to be blundering about in the lumber-room of the mind, searching for odd bits of stuff that will answer the purpose in view, but is seen to exhibit direct perception of things as they are, the power to traverse space and to annihilate time, and to come into voluntary and conscious relations with the past and the future as if they coexisted and had a present reality. Many cases are on record. A single well-attested case would have sufficed.

These facts have given us grounds for establishing a theory of psychism very closely akin to the teaching of the Occultists. It is that the mind-sphere or soul is divided into two hemispheres, one of which is on the level of normal consciousness and the other below it. The nous or mind is then seen to be energized from above by the pneuma through inspiration, and from below by the psyche through instinct. Intuition and instinct, or inspiration and passion, are thus at opposite poles of the mind-sphere, and appeal can be made to either by suggestion through the sphere of the mind. We trace these opposite aspects of the mind in the Oversoul and the animal soul of the mystical schools, the augoeides and antinous of the earlier teaching. In the Yoga system they are the Buddhic and Kamic principles, the centres of spiritual knowledge and of animal desires respectively, the process of Yoga being to bring these opposite poles of our nature into active accord.

There are on record a fairly large number of instances in which it appears that either one’s subliminal consciousness or an extraneous intelligence affords prescience of things in which one is not particularly interested and for which there is no special call. Persons have thus been given the winning numbers in lotteries without, at the same time, being given the means of participating in the benefits attaching thereto. An instance quite pertinent to the general accusation of futility lodged against this class of intelligence came to my notice on the 2nd of April, 1912. A lady, on awaking that morning, exclaimed, “Number twenty-nine will win!” Asked as to whether it was a number in a lottery she at once replied: “No, it’s a horse.” Some cudgelling of brains failed to suggest any means by which the information could be applied. The problem was, however, successfully solved by a twelve-year-old girl who took the morning paper in hand, counted from the first name of the opening event in the programme for the day, exhausted the names in that event and continued into the second event until she arrived at number 29, against which was the name “Primrose Morn.” Obviously it had no connection with the 2nd of April, but on reflection it was remembered that the lady was born, on the 29th of the month and was engaged to be married on Primrose Morn. Immediately below this name in the list of competitors was “Marie’s Choice,” and the lady’s name is Marie. The coincidence was completed by the winning of the Bestwood Park Plate by “Primrose Morn.” Reference to the morning papers of the 2nd of April last will enable the reader to check this statement. The rising and bursting of these bubbles of subconscious activity appear to be quite automatic and in most instances without purpose or utility. They serve, however, to demonstrate the fact that there is such a source of inspiration, a submerged selfhood in touch with the anima mundi or world-soul, upon which we can at all times call for information and aid. The purpose of Occultism is to put us in the way of doing this when and as we please. From the point of view of the world-soul, the future and the past are coexistent. Every race is already run, every event is historical. This gives a new and a higher meaning to the old saying: The future is only the past unfolded. As the old Philosopher says: Tsae yin jo fang—all truth is paradoxical.

Another interesting feature of the psychic principle in us is that of the projection of the ethereal double or wraith. It is recorded of Goethe that he had a vision of himself, or rather of his double, on more than one occasion. It is well known that he had the faculty of exteriorization of thought, the projecting of visible thought-forms, in a remarkable degree. This faculty of Kriyas’akti is cultivated by the yogis of India, and forms an important feature in all occult training. The poet Shelley frequently effected “exteriorization” and was seen by Byron and Trelawney and by his wife on more than one occasion to be visibly present when it was certain that he was some distance away from the scene. Many such cases are on record and will be found included in Real Ghost Stories, and More Ghost Stories, published by the late William T. Stead. I know a yogi in India who has been certified to be visibly present in four places at the same time. Even allowing for slight errors of observation in regard to time, the fact is remarkable, especially as there had been no suggestion of pre-arrangement. The theory of “expectancy” would not therefore cover the ground.