It is one of the saddest features of earth-life that we
find ourselves unable to express to the fullest the creative
impulse, the artistic urge, the striving of the genius within us
to unfold itself. After passing a certain place in the scale of
life, the evolving soul finds within itself the ever present
urge of the something within which is striving to express and
unfold itself into objective manifestation. It may be the
craving to express in art, music, literature, invention; or it
may be the insistent desire to be at work remodeling the affairs
of the world nearerto the soul's desire. In all of such cases,
it is really the creative impulse at work, striving to gmake
thingsh in objective form, in accordance with the pattern or
model within the soul. And toward such expression, head, heart
and hand is eager to work.
But, alas, very few are able to realize in earth-life one tithe
of what the soul dreams. The artistic instinct is ever hungering
for perfect expression, and yet it is given but the crumbs that
fall from the table. The soul is ever thirsting for progress and
achievement, and yet it is given but the few drops that trickle
from the fountain. If this one life were all.if these longings,
cravings, desires, and hunger and thirst of the soul, depended
only upon the possibilities of the one earth-life - then indeed
would the moaning cry of the pessimists be justified, and the
wail of the discouraged be justified. For, in fact, these
impulses and cravings are but as the urge of the seed
striving to break through its sheaths, that it may put forth
stem, branch, blossom and fruit.
And the seed can scarce expect to reach the blossom and fruit
while it is in the earth.
But, as the advanced occultist knows full well, these seed -
desires are but the promise of the future blossom and fruit. The
very fact of their existence is a proof of the possibility -
nay, the certainty - of their fulfillment. So far from being a
cause of discouragement, they should be regarded as a
prophecy of future achievement and realization. It has been well
said that in every aspiration there dwells the certainty of its
own fulfillment.
These words seem like mockery to many, and, indeed, they would
be mockery were the possibility of realization confined to the
one particular earth-life in which they are manifested. But, to
the soul which has advanced on the Path of Attainment
sufficiently high that it may look back and down upon the planes
of life beneath it, it is seen that these strivings of genius to
express itself are but the labor-pains of the soul, which must
precede the future birth of the fruit of genius.
On the Astral Plane these seeds of genius put forth stem and
branch, and are prepared for the blossom and fruit of the
incarnations ahead of it. In the highly concentrated state of
the mind, in certain phases of the Astral life, the talents and
genius of the individual grow and develop very rapidly, and the
next incarnation finds the individual ready and prepared to
manifest the power which he has generated during his sojourn on
the Astral. The soul may be said to receive and store up energy
while on the Astral, which will enable it to manifest heretofore
undreamed of powers in the next earth-life.
A familiar example is that of the boy who is learning to skate,
and who finds that he makes little progress during the
afternoon. He goes to sleep that night, and forgets all about
the art of skating, but when he returns to the task the next
day, lo! he finds that he has made wonderful progress. The
majority of us have had similar experiences regarding our little
tasks in life.
We find that something happens to us when we are asleep. The
secret of the above-mentioned phenomena is that, during the
sleep of the boy, his sub-conscious or instinctive mind
rehearses the task until it has accomplished much in the
direction of mastering it, and the next day it puts into
practice that which it has learned during the night - but the
conscious mind is not aware of the process of learning. There
are depths of the mind which take up these tasks of ours, and
which while we are asleep and our objective conscious faculties
are resting, straighten out the troublesome kinks of
performance, and practice the tasks to be performed the
coming day.
In the same way, the super-conscious (not the sub-conscious)
faculties of the mind of the soul practice and become proficient
in the tasks of the next earth-life, as indicated by the urge of
desire and the pangs of achievement seeking birth. But, with
this difference, the soul is fully conscious of the workings of
the super-conscious faculties, and, in fact, experiences the
greatest joy in the work of development and achievement. The
heaven-world of those souls which are possessed of the desire to
do things, to create, to perform, to make - is indeed a realm of
bliss. For there the soul finds itself able to manifest the
things which were beyond it during the earth-life, and to
express itself in a measure almost beyond the fondest dreams and
hopes of the soul on earth.
And this expression and manifestation is performed from the very
love of the performance - from the joy of work, the ecstasy of
creative achievement - rather than from the hope of reward. On
the Astral Plane, alone, can the soul find the conditions which
are pictured in Kipling's lines:
And only the Master shall
praise us,
And only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money,
And no one shall work for fame;
But each for the joy of the working,
And each in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees it
For the God of Things as They are.
The same thing is true of the seeker after knowledge - the man
to whom the exercise of the intellect is the greatest joy. Such
a one finds the Books of Knowledge opened for many pages beyond
those at which he was compelled to pause in earth-life. The
philosopher, the scientist, the metaphysician, the naturalist -
these find full exercise for their faculties on the Astral
Plane. The library of the Cosmos - the laboratories of the
universe - are at their disposal, and they are made welcome
there. They find their heartfs desire fulfilled in the
opportunities afforded them on the Astral Plane. And, they go
back to earth-life, when their time comes for reincarnation,
with stimulated intellect and increased reasoning power. What
they have thus learned appears in the next life as intuition.
It is a fact well known to the advanced occultist that great
inventors, like Edison - great philosophers like Hegel, or
Herbert Spencer - great scientists like Darwin or Huxley - who
seemingly manifest intuitive knowledge of their subjects, are
but manifesting on the material plane that which they have
already acquired on the Astral as the fruition of desires and
attempts made in previous incarnations. It is the common
experience of such geniuses, as related in their memoirs, that
the majority of their greatest discoveries have come to them
suddenly as if from a clear sky. But it is a rule of Nature that
there is no blossom or fruit without the preceding seed - and
this is true on the mental as well as on the physical plane.
There is always a cause for the effect in these cases.
The struggling genius - nay, more, the one who feels that he or
she could be a genius if that which is within could only be
expressed - these souls will have their chance in the Astral,
and if the seed be well planted in the rich soil, of the soul,
then in the next incarnation will the blossom and fruit appear.
We may carry this idea with us, a little more clearly, perhaps,
if we will make the following comparison:
I. The earth-life is like the phase of the crawling -
caterpillar,which feels within itself a something which it
cannot express, and which it scarcely understands;
II. The astral-life is like the phase of the chrysalis, in which
the future gorgeous butterfly is being formed, and in which the
colored wings already exist in Astral form;
III. The reincarnated earth-life is like the phase of the
butterfly, in which the ideal felt in the first stage and
mentally experienced in the second stage becomes fully manifest
and active.
The Law of Karma performs much of its work on the Astral Plane,
for there the sole material is plastic and non-resistant, the
coarse sheaths of the body being absent. And this law is exact
and unfailing in its operations - it always brings the seed to
fruition, and each seed brings forth only its own appropriate
fruit:
Karma - all that total of
a soul
Which is the thing it did, the thoughts it had,
The self it wove with woof of viewless time
Crossed on the warp invisible of acts.
Before beginning, and without an end,
As space eternal and as surety sure,
Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good,
Only its laws endure.
That which ye sow, ye reap. See yonder fields
The sesamum was sesamum, the corn
Was corn. The silence and the darkness knew;
So is a man's fate born.
He cometh, reaper of the things he sowed,
Sesamum, corn, so much cast in past birth;
And so much weed and poison stuff, which mar
Him and the aching earth.
If he labor rightly, rooting these,
And planting wholesome seedlings where they grew,
Fruitful and fair and clean the ground shall be,
And rich the harvest due.
