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THE N.Z.L. QUARTERLY MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 1923
AN ASTRAL JOURNEY
by
In the year 1910 I was living in a small village in Lancashire, England, about midway between Manchester and Liverpool.
For many years I had passed a great portion of my spare time in the study of the Occult, and of the ancient mysteries. I had a room to myself where I spent every evening in study.
One night in the month of December I had retired to my room where a bright fire was burning. I was seated at a table on which was placed a reading-lamp.
Its light, thrown on my book, being shaded in other directions, only partially illuminated the room, yet the fire and the lamp gave sufficient light to let everything be seen with sufficient distinctness.
I had been reading for some considerable time when I began to feel that there was another presence in the room. This had occurred before, but then I had had only the feeling, I had never seen anything. I continued to read, nut the sense of presence became stronger and stronger and I noticed a peculiar fragrance, as though a large bunch of wallflowers were being held to my nostrils.
I had so definite a sensation that I was not alone, that at length I turned round, and saw, standing beside a large chesterfield, a man of commanding appearance—over six feet in height, with the frame of a trained athlete.
He stood resting his left hand lightly on the back of the chair, his right hand was carelessly placed on a belt or girdle which encircled his waist. This belt looked like pure gold, but it was soft as leather, for it bent with the pressure of the thumb that rested inside it.
He was dressed in a long robe of white, and round his magnificently shaped head was a strip of gold with a bright, square disc in the centre of the forehead. His beard, which just touched his broad chest, was dark grey, like his hair, the texture of his skin was as fine, as pure and bright, as that of a young child; his eyes were brown and piercing, with a glint of fire in them.
All this I took in at a glance, as I turned and beheld the beautiful visitant who was smiling now at my astonishment, and his smile dispelled any fear that I might have had otherwise.
I asked: 'Whence come you and for what purpose?' and he replied that he was one of those four watchers who keep watch on the watchtowers of the Universe—and that he had come because he had seen a certain light for which the watchers were always waiting. He said that all the people on the earth give out a light, which changes as they evolve, and a distinctive purple glow in any of the lights showed that that person from whom the light emanated was evolving towards perfection—he had come in answer to the call of that light. I said:—
'That cannot be, for no such light could come from this place; I myself am a very poor seeker after truth and in no wise understand what truth really is.'
He answered: 'Every man and every woman is a star that shines out in the Universe with the force of the inner light, a light which is always seen in darkness, though the darkness understands it not. When any of these stars begin to realize the light, they understand that they themselves are related to the Universal light, and this knowledge makes the light in the individual star change to purple.'
'This,' he said, 'is what I have come to show you; come with me, and I will reveal the mystery of being.'
He came over to where I was sitting, and laid his left hand on my shoulder and with his right hand he took my right hand, and without effort on my part, but with perfect confidence I began, as it were to float at great speed through space, and almost at once I was looking down on multitudes of small lights moving slowly beneath.
My companion said: 'We are now above the great city of London, and the lights you see are the people who live in London. You will notice that the lights differ somewhat, both in size and colour. Look at those silvery earth stars the smallest of all; they never change: they go on from generation to generation the same because they are taught as Christians, to believe that the Light will come to them sometime from somewhere outside themselves, and this faith keeps the light bright, yet it never grows because the light must be fanned into a flame from within by the energy exerted to overcome the darkness.'
'Many times have we seen this silvery light grow whiter and whiter in its intensity, so that it seemed almost ready to enlighten the whole world with its brilliance but it has never changed its colour: it remains silvery-white.'
'The true equilibrium must show three colours, gold, blue, and red, these mingling together to form purple. Without the purple light the true perspective of life cannot be known.'
'We have held great hope in the past that this silvery white would mingle with the other colours and thus bring about the true unity, but that which was originally a beautiful golden hue has diminished until it is now silvery-grey, and unless it can combine with the other colours it can never become the perfect, penetrating, all-seeing light.'
'Now look at others. Take this one which has the pure golden hue; such is the radiance emanating from those persons on earth who call themselves occultists and mystics, their light is growing very rapidly, and you will notice that the colour ranges from gold to orange, and some by names that imply the true knowledge of God, some by names meaning that mind is God.'
'The brightest shining of these people are those who call themselves knowers of God, yet even these cannot fully grasp the idea of the God within, they are looking for some great teacher who will come and give them that which they already possess. They have seen the Star in the East, yet are awaiting its manifestation.'
'O Thou Star in the East that did conduct the Magi, Thou are still the same omnipresent in Heaven and in Hell. Thou that vibratest between light and darkness, rising, descending, changing, yet art Thou ever the same. Thou Who are the Father of all and in all—without this Star man is nothing—but with it he is divine.'
'Fear is the only thing that prevents people from attaining greatness; they fear to act, except passively, for they believe that whatever they do must inevitably come back to them. They forget that whatever they have the power to put into motion, they have the power also to stop or overcome. If they could but realize that the light of the Star within themselves is the Light that they are looking and waiting for, they would arise and do all things.'
'Look now at these bright red stars, shining so distinctly and in such abundance. These red stars are the business men—the men of Commerce who, although they think lightly of those things that make the golden stars shine yet have an inward prompting that some truth is there. Their individuality is strong to overcome and conquer all the obstacles in the world, to make themselves independent beings; to their ranks belong also scientific researchers and all people in whatever walk of life who strive to overcome and command nature. We look to these to become the supermen—the God-men of the future. They will see, eventually, that they must follow the light within, which will bring them to that point which will develop the God-conscious individual.'
'Now regard the Blue light, which shows very indistinctly. Blue signifies intellect, and intellect is now being mingled with the enterprising and conquering qualities of the Red Light, which produces a dull shade of purple. When these men recognize the world of matter; that the Starlight in every individual is capable of expanding by its own internal force, that it can find means and ways of its own to overcome all things, then will they begin to look inward for power, and within they will find all they require.'
'Those dull, vague shades between the distinct colours are, I need hardly say to you, all those people who turn from one thing to another, and are never satisfied, these are loosening their hold on the light, but the brilliance lost to them can never be absolutely lost, it will go to the strongest Star that can attract it, and hold it.'
'Every man and every woman is a Star, and when they have synthesized and established within themselves those qualities they call bad as well as those they call good, understanding that all are ultimately one force; then, and only then will the light become pure purple. The Blue, which can scarcely be seen as blue, is so because blue signifies the intellectual faculty, and intellect cannot exist apart from passion and ambition which will give a tinge of colour other than blue.'
'All the Stars which you see representing the peoples of earth must at some time become purple, after they have recognized that the qualities of all forces in the Universe are complimentary to each other; some can be dispensed with but each must be taken at its true value. Man cannot be satisfied with any of them, either the good or the evil, he must rise superior to all, and identify himself with the source of all. Then the purple becomes of a fiery nature, and at this point in his evolution man begins to identify himself with that Star in the Universe to which he has an affinity; which is in fact, his Star; this then becomes his world, and he the God of it.'
'This condition may appear to the mind of man in his present state as an impossibility, but let me point out to you that the light in each of those Earth-Stars at which you are looking is a force in itself. It can create from itself all that is necessary, as in the case of Radium, which gives out light and heat without losing anything from itself. So with the Inner Light: it does not depend on man, man depends on it: it interpenetrates all space and matter. Man is even now using such a force, the force of Thought. The power to think is creative in a small degree, and like this inner force it has no position in space.'
'Now you must see somewhat whither evolution is tending. I bid you farewell, and return to my sphere, but I will visit you again.'
With that I found myself alone in my room seated at my reading-table, fire and lamp still burning, and the perfume of wallflowers still in the air.
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