"I am not of this world," said the great Master whom the Western world professes to follow. It was the Christos that spoke thus, the spiritual, glorious, ideal being that breathes the air of the higher life. Each of us has—nay, each one in essence is—the Christos, though few have consciously and purposely taken up the great task before us all: to weave the worthy, shining garment that will allow this spiritual being to take actual form in manifested existence. Man is not like the flower, he is self-conscious, and he cannot grow as the flower grows until he freely uses his self-consciousness in full accordance with the laws of life. He cannot hope to burst through the dark soil of material existence that separates him from the air where the spiritual sun sheds its glory until, in every moment of daily life, he feels its influence and adjusts his life accordingly, gathering nourishment from all his duties, from all the opportunities that the threads of his mind may encounter, and pushing upwards all the time.
Trust is the key to it all, the magic power that will bring the human plant to bloom. Compassion is the guiding power for the mental root-threads in their work of gathering nourishment; the giving of the good tidings to all we can reach, the extending of aid to all as we progress. And when the glorious moment arrives when the soil opens above us, there comes redoubled activity in our earthly life, reaching out farther and farther, inspiring and stimulating more and more the hearts of the "hosts of souls" that grope blindly in the dark and finally have come to doubt even the existence of any spiritual life.
We watch the plant in our garden and nurse it even before we see any visible sign of its growth, knowing that it will blossom in due time. Have we ever thought that there may be beings in the spiritual world that watch the humans in like manner and give them the tenderest care? Have we thought of how some already may have reached up into the air of spiritual existence, preparing to bloom, or already blooming, or, in going to rest, scattering all over the earth seeds of potential spiritual growth? How these may be working with all the powers of heart, mind, and body, to give the good tidings to us that still struggle in the dark? How they are to be recognized by that divine Compassion that does not shut out anyone of the blind and faltering human beings, and how they are able to inspire that Trust which acts like a kindling spark, producing light and order in a chaos?
The sun does not enter into the growth of a plant otherwise than spiritually, inspiring and drawing it upwards. It is not of this world; and yet it is the basis of all growth in this world. So even in human life; the Christos stands apart from all nature's activity, and yet it is illuminating every particle therein, living in the heart-life of all. The mind can open to its rays by acting in unison with the heart, by finding its way upward in trust, and by expanding, as compassion makes it embrace ever wider circles of earthly existence. Seen thus, earth-life, dark and confusing as it still often may be, has its great purpose and is felt to be the means of a glorious spiritual blossoming. Every thought and act may then serve the interblending of the spiritual influences with the lives of our fellows, and as purification proceeds and the life-currents more and more easily and normally find their course through our hearts and minds, Joy becomes manifest and comes to stay with us, the Joy of True Living, precursor of the blossoming of the spiritual life.
In this work of bursting through the dark soil of material existence, woman has her predominant position. Being in close contact with nature she can clothe the spiritual rays entering her heart in a thousand forms that make everything she touches radiant in its turn. And she can protect the sanctuary thus brought down to earth. If her trust is sublime, her spiritual will unflinching, none will dare to desecrate it. She can challenge others to leave the false and cheap glitter of life, for the precious jewels of the higher life. How glorious her position as guardian of the home, if she enters into it in the right spirit, trustingly! The seeds of love and unselfishness, scattered over the earth by those who already have blossomed forth in the higher glory, may in such a home find the soil needed for their quickening. And what a reward for a mother to watch over and guide such a soul in acquiring a serviceable instrument for the delivering of its message of Truth, Light, and Liberation!
The most fertile soil is often composed of the most unpleasant and incongruous ingredients, and it is often the darkest. Our age is certainly dark, but just because of the swift vibrations of material life it permits a growth that could not be equaled at any other time. This century has to make a bold step forward towards the realization of a higher life. Let the woman who feels its urge and who longs to help and serve, know that by doing rightly the small duties that lie nearest at hand, her path will gradually widen. The plant blooms where the seed falls. What woman cannot, deep within the heart, feel some hint of the glory and joy of stepping forth as a conscious worker with nature?
One of the most wonderful passages in the pearl of the Eastern scriptures, the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, that poem of the spiritual life, is where Arjuna discovers the majesty of Krishna, whom he had taken for a friend and at times had treated "without respect in sport, in recreation, in repose, in thy chair, and at thy meals, in private and in public"; and where he exclaims: "Forgive, O Lord, as the friend forgives the friend, as the father pardons his son, as the lover the beloved." We will all some day waken to find Krishna, the Christos, at our side. But we must ask ere we can receive, we must call before the inner Christ can show himself in his true form, before he really can help us. We must change our whole attitude, our polarity, and drink in the light from above. We must let Sun-life illuminate Earth-life and draw forth the divine blossoms.
THE SPADE OF THE ARCHAEOLOGIST: THE RESURRECTION OF TRUTH—ERROR'S FUNERAL:
by Ariomardes
THE resurrection of the prehistoric age of Greece, and the disclosure of the astonishing standard of civilization which had been attained on the mainland and in the isles of the Aegean at a period at least 2000 years earlier than that at which Greek history, as hitherto understood, begins, may be reckoned as among the most interesting results of modern research into the relics of the life of past ages....
All preconceived ideas may be upset by the results of a single season's spade work on some ancient site. The work is by no means complete; but already the dark gulf of time that lay behind the Dorian conquest is beginning to yield up the unquestionable evidences of a great and splendid and almost incredibly ancient civilization....
Most surprising of all, in many respects, was the revelation of the amazingly complete system of drainage with which the palace was provided. Indeed the hydraulic science of the Minoan architects is altogether wonderful in the completeness with which it provided for even the smallest details....
Perhaps the most striking and interesting result that has been attained is the remarkable confirmation given to the broad outlines of those traditions about Crete which have survived in the legends and in the narratives of the Greek historians.—The Scientific American, in a review of James Baikie's Sea Kings of Crete.