Cathedral Contacts[From The Rosicrucian Digest April 1938]
| The
"Cathedral of the Soul" is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and
thought waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace,
happiness, and inner awakening. Various periods of the day are set
aside when many thousands of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of
the Soul, and others attuning with the Cathedral at this time will
receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who are not members of the
organization may share in the unusual benefits as well as those who are
members. The book called "Liber 777" describes the periods for various
contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who are not
members if they address their requests for this book to Friar S. P. C.,
care of AMORC Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in
postage stamps. (Please state whether member or not--this is important.) |
MAN'S
INVENTION OF GOD
IT HAS been truly said by many ancient philosophers that
if the God of the Universe had not revealed Himself through many miracles and
many inspirations in the consciousness of man, and if God had not sent to earth
various messengers at various times to explain His omnipotence and omnipresence
and great works, man would have naturally invented a God that would have been
much like the God that Holy Scriptures reveal to us.
From the earliest days of civilization we find phases
of man's determined and persistent and logical attempts to discover and learn
something about a God that he felt sure created the universe and still ruled
it. The most primitive type of man in ancient times and in the modern times who
has never heard or read anything of Holy Scripture, nor been taught any
religious principles, has always felt that there was some ruler, some mind,
some consciousness, guiding and directing everything in this universe, who was
greater than himself.
Psychologically, we might say that there has always
been a tendency on the part of man to worship some great hero, known or
unknown, seen or unseen. We know that children at a very early age have a
tendency to select either a father, mother, or older sister or brother as their
hero, and they try to emulate that person and imitate his ways of talking,
acting, thinking and so forth. According to the education of the child does he
adopt a character or personality or type of individual as his hero. There are
children in the slum districts of every large country who see much quarrelling
and fighting, and have to witness and take part in many street brawls and
constantly be on the defensive, who gradually select some eminent prizefighter
or war hero or strong-arm individual as their hero. They love to read about
him, talk about him, see pictures of him and try to imitate his mannerisms and
his personality. Little girls are given to worshipping their mothers as great
ladies and try to imitate their ways in many things. This is so fundamentally
true that it places a grave responsibility upon parents and makes it necessary
for parents to be very careful of their conduct and language, and of their
principles in their home life and social life, especially any conduct or language
that can be observed or heard by their children. If their children once become
convinced that their parents are just common persons whose feet are of earthly clay
and whose characters are vacillating and unreliable or sordid and mean, they
turn their hero worship toward others outside of the family, and sometimes they
select persons who are outwardly brave and formidable or attractive, but who
nevertheless have habits that are mean and sordid, unclean and unworthy.
But primitive man as well as modern man always sought
to find some standard, some form of consciousness or intelligence, greater,
better and larger, more pure, more clean, and more noble than himself, and has
tried to emulate that invisible or visible character. Man was first impressed
with the fact that he did not make himself, nor did other human beings like
himself create him, and that other human beings like himself did not have the
power to create man and woman or to create the universe or maintain and control
it. The regular and systematic way in which the seasons come and go, and the
way in which the planets move through their courses, and the intelligent manner
in which seeds planted in the ground respond to some unknown law, yet obey that
law and become fruitful, convinced early man as it convinces many men today,
that the universe was created and is directed, controlled and intelligently
operated by a superior consciousness, a superior mind. This conviction, and the
inborn tendency to worship, emulate or idolize something that is greater than
himself, and to which he can turn for protection or help, for strength, for
power, has always led the primitive type of mind to invent an imaginary God and
to try and hold that God in reverence and deep respect.
It was because of this that primitive man--and many
illiterate and uneducated men of foreign lands today--created stone and metal
statues that represented their mental idols and which gave some concrete or
definite form to the vague ideas they had regarding an unknown and invisible
God. That this should have led gradually to idol worship and to reverence
definitely expressed to these statues, or replicas of a mysterious character,
is logical and reasonable. In fact, we would be surprised today if history did
not reveal and show to us that primitive man had created such idols and
worshipped them. And we would be surprised today if we went into primitive
nations in the South Sea Islands and in parts of Africa and Asia if we did not
find them still designing and constructing in stone, metal or wood, grotesque
figures, startling figures, surprising figures that represented in some way the
mysterious and unhuman qualities of their created God. And so we can understand
why in foreign lands today and in parts of Europe, for instance, we see great Cathedrals
or places of worship of modern construction which still decorate their chapels
and roofs and porticoes with statues of ancient saints or with representative
characters of holy power, in order that the worshippers may have something
tangible, something definite, to which they can pin their faith.
It is only when we find modern minds still believing
that these stone, wood, or metal statues have a potency or have a power
resident within them or connected with them that we realize that with all of
our advancement of civilization we have not progressed very far beyond the
period of idol worship.
And it is surprising to think that despite all that
the divine messengers of God have revealed to us in sacred writings, and
despite what Jesus taught as a special messenger of God, millions still believe
that the only place to commune with or pray to God is within the naves and
alcoves of a huge material structure set apart from other buildings as a
special place for divine worship. We can understand why the Jews in their
ancient religious rites believed, and still believe, that in a certain place
within their synagogues or within the Holy of Holies there was resident at
times the presence of God. But even these Jews did not believe, nor do the
orthodox Jews of today believe, that God is never resident in any other place
but in that Holy of Holies. Yet there are Jews and Christians, Mohammedans,
Buddhists and others, who still believe in these modern times that the only
place God can be worshipped or thanked or praised or appealed to is in a
definite and consecrated edifice at certain hours of the day or on certain days
of the week.
The mystic knows that it is true that God resides
within us and that the Kingdom of Heaven is as much within each of us as it is
in any spiritual plane or place beyond this earth. And the mystic knows that he
can stop in his daily tasks at home or in business, at any hour of the day or
night, and lift his thoughts and consciousness to a higher mental and spiritual
plane and contact God instantly through inner communion and outer expression
and enjoy all the privileges of prayer and worship no matter where he may be,
how he may be dressed, or what the occasion may be.
It is because of this belief that thousands of
mystics and students of mysticism in America today are enjoying the privileges
of the Cathedral of the Soul, and if you do not know what this means, or have
not learned of this great and important spiritual privilege, write today for
our free booklet, Liber 777, and join the multitudes who are deriving
great good from such non-sectarian, non-creedal worship and communion.
* * *
So to
conduct one's life as to realize oneself--this seems to me the highest
attainment possible to a human being. It is the task of one and all of us, but
most of us bungle it.--Ibsen.
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