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The THOUGHT OF THE MONTH Angels on Earth By THE IMPERATOR [H. Spencer Lewis] [From The Rosicrucian Digest October 1930] IT IS quite common for us to think that angels are an essential part of the heavenly kingdom that exists far beyond the sight of man and that reside exclusively in some spiritual world beyond our present ken. It is also almost universally believed that only men become angels. Wherever one may go in Europe or foreign lands to see the magnificent statues supposed to represent the angels of heaven, it is found that these are always masculine, and even the Latin word for angel is always associated with the masculine gender. The early church fathers, especially those of the Christian religion, did not believe that women had souls and could become spiritualized sufficiently to permit them of ever being angels. A great many persons seem to feel that St. Paul is responsible for this early attitude on the part of the Christian Church, because St. Paul seemed to have unpleasant experiences in the human incidents of his life in connection with women, and there are pages in his writings which plainly indicate his antipathy toward women. However, he did not deny the possibility of a female becoming highly spiritualized, for in a spiritual sense he recognized neither male nor female gender, and in his writings he distinctly states that in heaven there will be found neither male nor female. In other words, he believed in the universality of the soul. We cannot, therefore, trace this attitude of the early Christians to anything that St. Paul wrote, but rather to an early pagan belief regarding women. It is notable that the mystics of the Orient did not have this pagan attitude regarding women, for in the earliest mystery schools of Egypt and other lands, women were permitted to enter into the spiritual work on the same basis as the men. We have always been happy in the knowledge that the earliest foundation of the Rosicrucian work guaranteed the women members the same equal standing as the men and permitted them to hold the same high offices as the men held. In fact, there were certain branches of the work in these early schools that were assigned exclusively to the women because of their high spiritual development, and in our organization today there are official duties of a spiritual nature assigned exclusively to the female sex. The truth of the matter is that if we are honest and unprejudiced, we will admit that the real angels of the universe today are the highly spiritual souls of women, and that there is no higher degree of spiritual development attainable than that achieved by the average woman who seeks such attainment. The nature of woman is essentially that of the spiritual, protective tenderness that more easily attunes itself with the Cosmic principles, and therefore, is more easily developed into a highly spiritualized expression. In all of the ancient writings of the mystery schools the quality of God's nature is often and variously treated upon. It is only in the Occidental world and in the Christian religion, especially, that we find this duality of God's nature overlooked in the attempt to express God as a part of the trinity. Most of the Oriental religions speak of God as the father-mother Creator of the universe. It is true that in the pagan religion of Egypt, God was symbolized by the word "Ra," but it is also true that among the mystics of that land the word "Ma" represented the mother element of the dual nature of God and by combining the two, we have the word, "Rama." It may be interesting to note in passing that the word "Ma," or the sound of "M" followed by almost any vowel sound represents the vibrations of the female, mother, protective, maturing nature of the Cosmic vibrations, and it is interesting to note also that in nearly all of the languages, the word for mother begins with the "M" sound. Our attention is also called to the fact that in all countries and among all races of beings, the first sound produced by a child in an attempt to express itself with words is generally of the "Ma" combination of sounds. It is surprising sometimes to be among children in foreign lands where no word of English is known, especially to young children, and to find the infants crying the words ma, ma, etc. There is something highly specialized in the nature of woman that makes her especially fitted to be a more refined expression of the highest spiritual vibrations. Not only are her natural intuitive faculties more highly developed than in man, but many other faculties and functionings of her objective inner self are spiritualized to a very high degree. Her sympathy and understanding, her quick and complete attunement with the mental and spiritual thoughts of others, her abundant and quick flowing magnetism, which is soothing to those who are suffering, her warmth of affection unassociated with any sex nature, and her stronger and greater inclination toward the pure and higher things of life, easily show the high degree of spiritual development which she has attained throughout the past generations. We are very apt to look upon the Adam and Eve story in the Christian Bible as a unique story of creation and, when casually read, it tends to give the Christian the impression that the creation of Eve or the creation of a female partner for man was a secondary or afterthought. If we take the fact that Eve was created after Adam as an indication that it was only as an afterthought and, therefore, of less importance, we should take the same attitude regarding the soul in man. The physical part of man was created first and the soul breathed into his body afterward. This, however, should not indicate that the soul is of secondary importance for, as a matter of fact, it is of primary importance, as we find by carefully analyzing the entire processes of creation. In many other sacred writings, however, we find the story of Adam and Eve presented in a manner that illuminates our spiritual understanding, for in its story there has been no wilful or accidental misrepresentation of the words as we find in the Christian Bible in order to give undue importance to the creation of the male side of the race of man. Most of the ancient stories depict the creation of the first man as being the crude, material side of the human race, and the creation of Eve as the spiritual, refining element that was necessary to make man, as a race, a perfect expression of the Divine Image. In these stories, God is pictured as both male and female, or as a dual expression of Cosmic creation. From this primary creation came forth love and out of this love there was evolved first the body of man with the strength and power to supply the material forms of creation, and then the woman to supply the spiritual and protective forces for the human race. In such a story we see at once that woman is elevated to a higher spiritual basis than man, while man is distinctly a creature of force and material power necessary on the earth plane in order that the spiritual nature of woman may have the material foundation with which to mature a race of healthy beings. It has always been the tendency of the real mystics of the Orient and all lands to continuously pay homage to the beauty, tenderness, spiritual sympathy, love and understanding of women. To the mystic, woman is God's highest and most beautiful creation and he never loses either his respect or his adoration for womankind. If any of you ever have an opportunity to read the writings of Elbert Hubbard of Roycroft fame, who was one of the early associates with us in the establishment of the Rosicrucian work in this country, you will be pleased to read in his book entitled "Hyacinth" the adoration of womankind and the homage he paid to his wonderful wife. You will see in his beautiful words and thoughts the typical mystical appreciation of womankind. It is a fact also that in some of the early religious movements originated at or right after the Christian era, woman was greatly feared because of her spiritual power and higher spiritual understanding, and for this reason there were any number of new religious sects organized in which woman was forbidden to take part. It is a strange coincidence that this peculiar attitude toward women developed in the Jewish religion just before the Christian era and reached a high state of distinction wherein women were considered less important in a spiritual sense than men, although in the heart of every Jewish man there is an immutable and greatly enlarged adoration and respect for womankind. It is a notable fact that Jewish men are ever anxious and wholeheartedly expressive in their desire to pay homage to their mothers and female relatives. But every religion that thus excludes women to some degree represents the attitude of fear of woman's high spiritual development. And, just as we noticed the inconsistency of this attitude in the Jewish religion, we notice in the Christian religion that while it went so far as to even deny the possibility of woman having a soul that might become sufficiently spiritualized to ever become an angel, the most holy of its saints are female, and the Virgin Mother has a high place in the early Christian religion, which is still carried out in the Roman Catholic Church. While the average man of today, especially in the Occidental world, shows a higher degree of respect toward womankind than we find in many Oriental countries, he does not have the prejudice that they have in regard to woman's place in the activities of our worldly affairs. In the Orient, where the spiritual nature of woman is recognized, she is considered incapable of assuming any material responsibilities solely because of her spiritual nature. Here in the Occident the average man gives little thought indeed to the spiritual nature of woman, but does recognize in her the possibilities of worldly development coequal with men. On the other hand, the more intelligent and discerning man of the Western world, and especially here in America, has come to realize that woman's highly developed intuition and keen analytical mind are valuable business assets, and he is not only ready and willing to allow her to hold a place in business, but where she is not engaged in business of her own, he consults her in connection with his home affairs in regard to those matters in which he will not trust his own judgment or intuition. Without the influence of woman in the world today, the world would be a sorry place and conditions would be a sorry mess. Woman's higher nature, her tenderness, her natural desire for wholesomeness and cleanliness, and her appreciation of the finer things in life have not acted as a restraining influence upon man's naturally broad nature, but have tempted him or inspired him to create the more beautiful and attractive things in life in order to please the nature of woman. In every great crisis or disaster, in every great wave of suffering or perplexity, it is the influence of woman and her natural powers that come to the rescue and restore peace and patience. In any community absolutely free from the influence of woman there is a marked evidence of the fact and the future evidence of deterioration. In every such community where a woman has entered it to become a part of it, there is an immediate change for the better. In this regard we cannot help but look upon woman as the angels on earth and, if their influence can be such as that here in this material world, we feel sure that if there are any angels in the future spiritual kingdom, to maintain peace, beauty, sweetness, elegance, love, happiness, and adoration toward all that is good and godly, it must be because the woman are the angels there. | ||
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