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The THOUGHT OF THE MONTH THE OPEN DOOR By THE IMPERATOR [H. Spencer Lewis] [From The Rosicrucian Digest January 1933] THE beginning of the new year is like the opening of a great portal that has been closed and sealed for many ages. None of us knows completely what lies beyond this portal and much that there may be in its chamber of twelve months will be as strange and new to us as are the things we discover beyond the closed and sealed portals of an ancient tomb in Egypt. Standing upon the threshold of this portal, however, we are sure of one thing and that is that the door will be open to us in order that we may freely enter; and all of the experiences of life that fill the twelve alcoves of the chamber of mysteries will reveal their startling surprises and marvelous benefits to us as we pass each of them in succession. Even those who may pass through transition on the very eve of entering the portal will find the portal is still open to them in the higher kingdom and that in a more perfect way than we, will they pass through this next chamber of life. One other thing we may be sure of also. As complete as may be this new chamber with surprises and startling revelations, new lessons to learn and trials and tribulations, it is also filled with opportunities. The opportunities which a new year offers to each individual are things that are free to all and are not limited by political influences, religious censorship, financial or social restrictions. The poorest of poor men and the wealthiest of the wealthy, will find their opportunities awaiting them. The only requirement is that the one who walks through the portal of the coming year be keenly alive to the subtle appeals, and whispered beckonings, and the quiet calls that may come from each corner, each alcove, each little part and point of the great chamber, so that no opportunity will be missed and no advantage passed by. If this portal of the coming year were likened unto a great museum in which the opportunities, lessons, and experiences of life were on display for each to see and understand, I would say that the most necessary prerequisite for those who would enter through the portal into the museum of 1933, is preparation. Preparation to see and understand, preparation to hear and realize, preparation to sense and inwardly apprehend. Here at headquarters we maintain a museum of Oriental exhibits open to the public daily. It is our contribution to the cultural development of the Rosicrucian work, and the very foundation of this Oriental museum is dedicated to the future membership of AMORC that it may have somewhere in North America a building devoted to the preservation of the ancient and present-day relics of human activity and spiritual development. Many rare and costly things from all parts of the world have been purchased or secured by voluntary donation or gift, and great means have been taken to display these things to their best advantage and to describe them and offer them for examination. Hundreds of visitors come to this museum every month from all parts of America and, in fact, the guest book signed by each visitor at the entrance to the museum, reveals each month the names of persons living in foreign lands, for we have had visitors from England, France, Germany, Turkey, Russia, Australia, and elsewhere. Artists and musicians come, stay a while, and go. Business men, home workers, employed persons, and persons who are young and old come here at odd hours in the evening or holidays to improve their minds. Writers who are anxious to secure descriptions of articles and things of antiquity, come to gain information. Scientists and others come for various reasons. Whole classes of pupils from the public schools, high schools, and colleges come here in a body in connection with their literary studies or their studies in history, art, architecture, etc. But, we have observed that occasionally comes one who wanders around through the museum for a while and then goes out without any comment of interest or even of appreciation. Some of these persons have been questioned later by our members and they have frankly admitted that they did not see some of the very things they had hoped to see. Yet these things were there for them to see. They had eyes and saw not. We have been astonished at times when talking with someone who has told us he has visited our museum, to find that he had not noticed the interior of King Tut's tomb that is displayed in the form of a large miniature model in a separate glass case. We have been surprised to find that others have missed seeing the beautiful silk and gold collar worn by Napoleon. Others have overlooked some rare jewels in a special case. Such persons have been surprised at their own experience in this regard for they were anxious to see the very things they had missed. Is this not typical of human experience generally? So many of us go through life and miss the most beautiful things and the most important things that are of benefit and helpfulness to us! How many will pass into life's museum of 1933 and exit again next December without having learned all of the lessons and derived all of the benefits that are possible! We hope that we have assisted our members in training their eyes to see and their ears to hear and their consciousness to comprehend. If you have been trained properly, you will be astonished at what this new chamber of the new year will offer to you. In many ways the new year is fraught with possibilities that have not been so completely offered to mankind for many centuries. New opportunities unheard of in the past, new methods, new standards of living, new ways of doing business and directing the affairs of human life will be shown to the careful observer during the next twelve months and will afford him the long-sought for way to happiness and prosperity. Freely we may enter this new chamber and cross over the threshold of the open portal, and freely we may leave it when the year is done; but while we are within the portal everything that it has to offer is ours for the asking if we but know how to ask and know how to appreciate what is offered. The First Alcove The ancients had a way of making each month of the year of particular interest to them through studying the lives of the Saints or the great and learned persons associated with each month. As each month came its special purposes were studied and the persons of prominence connected with that month by tradition, were studied and examined closely in order that the keys to success for each month of the year might be discovered. For the benefit of our members I am going to undertake to tell you from month to month in this department what each of the twelve alcoves of the great chamber of 1933 represents. I will give you the names of the great persons who have been associated with each month and if you have the opportunity to look into any encyclopedia or set of reference books and read a little about the lives of these persons, you may discover a key to the fortunate things of each month of the year. Taking the month of January, therefore, as the first of these twelve alcoves, we find that January was called the month of statesmen. It was anciently represented by Moses and in more recent times by Queen Elizabeth. On the other hand, those eminent characters of the past who typify the month are Confucius, Manu, Sargon, Menes, Solon, Justinian, Charles V, Phillip II, Louis XIV, Henry VIII, Pope Innocent III, Richelieu, Savanarola, Garibaldi, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, and President Wilson. If you were born during January you will certainly want to read about the lives of these persons, not that you will be the same as they because you were born in January, but because the January influence will awaken and quicken in you some interesting facts hidden in your consciousness and thus you and all who will make of January a month to read about the lives of these persons, will turn this alcove of the museum into the first of a number of intellectual benefits. This has nothing to do with astrology but with the psychic side of life. Therefore, enter into this first alcove of the museum and awaken the statesmanship qualities within your consciousness in preparation for your visit to the second alcove in February. In this way, from month to month, you will make your journey through the chamber of 1933 a complete course of preparation for the recognition of the opportunities it has to offer. And may peace and happiness abide with you continually as you journey through the great chamber that now is opened before you, welcoming you into contact with the new mysteries of life. | ||
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