Aw i j) I I ) yy r\, vJK L €a$p Cessons In Pspcbometrp, Clairuopance And Inspiration. »? 3. C. f. Grumbinc. EASY LESSONS FOR THE UNFOLDMENT AND REALIZATION OF PSYCHOMETRY, CLAIRVOYANCE, and INSPIRATION, BY J. C. F. GRUMBINE, President of “The College of Psychical Sciences and Unfoldment,” Author of “Clairvoyance,” “Psychome- try,” “Auras and Colors,” etc. published bp tbe Order of tfte White Rose. 1900. two Copies received, Mbpfiry of Gf tbQ lid fE" 3 - mo ghUr ° f c« Pr «i Kku 54871 Entered according: to Act of Congress, in the year 1900, By J. 0. F. Grumbinc, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress ut Washington, D. C. Right of Translation Reserved. 6*v oop f. % ^ J V S5 cl o, PART 1. PS Y CHOMETR Y. Lesson I. In esoteric lore psychometry is a new name for an old science. As clairvoyance is the science of seeing and perceiving, psychometry is the science of feeling. heeling deals with and comprehends the sensations and emotions of the soul; and as nothing is lost, but everything is preserved in consciousness, the feeling, however inert, can be revived and reproduced by a series of experiences and experiments. As perfect har¬ mony finds an expression in an instrument however crude and can be evoked through a maze of or in asso¬ ciation with discord, so thought through and by feel¬ ing offers forever its own lessons and inspirations. The seer realizes this and associates the past and future in an omnipresence. The object of psychometry is primarily to substitute, so far as it is possible and feasible, the intuition for feel¬ ing and reason, or guided by reason to allow intuition to penetrate the divine effluence or aura of life, and thus to avoid the law and limitations of matter and reap the benefits of Divinity. It is is to learn to trust 4 rather to such guidance as is self directing and lumin¬ ous and from within the spirit, than to popular and standard criteria of the world, established and main¬ tained by alleged scientific researches and experiments. It is to open the spirit to its own sphere of divinity and the voice of voices affirmed by intuition and by con¬ science. It is to be, not to seem and to be awake or conscious, not asleep or hypnotized amid the phan¬ tasmagoria and illusions of the world. It is to rely ever upon God in or of rather than out of spirit, upon di¬ vination rather than upon necromancy, upon the All Seeing Eye, rather than upon functional adeptship or the one eye which allegory fabled as belonging to the three blind men. It is to rise to the sphere of divine freedom and sovereignty and become a,s God. 5 PSYCHIC Experiments for Spiritual Lucidity. No. i. In this experiment take a name written on paper or any article and hold it in the left hand; if writing, with writing toward the palm. Cleanse the hand before attempting the experiment and settle into a blissful passivity or mental repose. If all the conditions are what they should be the receptive v “ 'or subjective mind will open up or reveal what is im- » pressed upon it by the delicate workings of the thought alive or immanent in the writing or article. Follow' the subjoined formula and jot down the impressions you receive according to the questions. 6 FORMULA FOR WRITING. 1. Is this one young or old and why do you feel that she or he is so? 2. Is this one sensitive and if so about what per¬ centage? 3. Give a brief phreniscope, that is mental delinea¬ tion. 4. How about the temperament, the occupation or adaptability to business? 5. How about social, literary, domestic, or other capabilities? 6. Name weaknesses and points of strength. 7. What features of the past life show themselves and how about the future? 8. Look into the health and life line. 9. What persons, names, faces and things show themselves? 10. Write whatever else you receive. 7 FORMULA FOR ARTICLE. 1. What is the history? 2. How about associations and environments. 3. Do you detect anything peculiar or unique about it? 4. Describe some of the people who have come in touch with it. 5. If a mineral ore, state all that you perceive in connection with it. 6. State other matters of a general interest. 1 8 PSY CHOMETR Y. Lesson II. As a science psychometry offers its own law of analy¬ sis, synthesis and demonstration. Its facts demand an interpretation consistent with their plane and sphere of causality; by this we mean, as physics has its own method and science of revealment and that method or science is designated natural causation, so psychome¬ try traces in the noumema of spirit, such as telepathy, suggestion, clairvoyance, hypnotism, inspiration, the spiritual causation of the universe. Psychometry ap¬ peals to man in his duality of consciousness and expres¬ sion as both a natural and spiritual entity and, there¬ fore, it is fascinating and absorbing because while ap¬ parently both occult and mystic it can offer supersen- tient and sentient proofs of its law, operations and real¬ ity. Clairvoyance is altogether an a priori system of philosophy and while its data are provable, yet it deals with the subjective and spiritual consciousness as ob¬ jectified by visions. Its phenomena can be demon¬ strated, but as a philosophy it comes under the head of spiritual science.. It has to do with the spiritual side of man as that side objectifies itself or is projected within the natural. Psychometry, however, is a branch of metaphysics and deals with life in the objective as well as the subjective planes of expression. True its researches are in and through the sphere of intuition, yet such researches can be intelligently rationalized. 9 Reason, in other words, can ratify what intuition re¬ veals. This is true not only of its phenomena but its law. Not so with clairvoyance. It is purely esoteric and while its facts may belong to the exoteric plane, while they may be a compound of experience and inner promptings or prescience, yet its method of arriving at results is not inductive but deductive, from Spirit to mind, rather than the reverse. This should be per¬ ceived by all students of Psychometry. More than this, while psychometry is concerned chiefly with the exter¬ nal life and explains how mind is free to act independ¬ ently of material environments and organism, it does so, not through the law or function of mediumship, but through the independent consciousness of the spirit. It T is, therefore, a science as truly as physics, chemistry or £ psychology. Illumination and power to penetrate na¬ ture belong to man. It is by means of this power which we designate prescience or intuition that man realizes his spiritual nature and eternality While in the practical business of life he is instinctively led. The more fully this power is unfolded and expressed the more susceptible is one to divine wisdom and leading. 10 EXPERIMENT II. In this experiment, take any letter that you receive and after removing the envelope, hold it as directed in previous experiment (without reading it or observing the character of the writing) and note on paper the re¬ sults. Try this often until you succeed or acquire a facility for sensitizing influences. Use this formula in noting your impressions. 1. General impression. 2. Sex, stature, age, appearance. 3. Object of letter. 4. Recollections or reminiscences. 11 PS Y CHOMETR Y* LESSON III. In the natural evolution of man, as the spirit rises above and out of the soil of earthliness into which it is born, the transcendent character of its di¬ vinity becomes more and more a revelation. The lily in its blossoming must needs pass through a multiform series of expressions and transformations before it reaches the material apotheosis; so is it with mankind. Each step in the awakening is a fulfillment of the law of consciousness and in that fulfillment lies the method of thiis a priori system of teachings. Nature fixes for¬ ever her own law of expression. If there is change or differentiation, it is not because the law is set at naught or that its absoluteness is violated, but rather because each phase of existence outworks the universal and un¬ changing system. 'Nature is truth as it is science; no caprice is conceivable or possible. Hence such a science of the spirit and cosmos as un¬ covers mystery and shows the occult operations and leadings of nature, while exact in methods as mathe¬ matics, although incapable at present of scientific demonstration, must appeal to every awakening con¬ sciousness. Such a science is psychometry. It lays hold of data which are psychical, rather than material, spiritual rather than phenomenal, and data too 12 which while of spirit, are seemingly illusive and fleeting when viewed from this stage of existence. Like a fairy the visions of the spirit, (compositions of thought in¬ duced by inspiration and experience), are airv-like and ethereal, dreamlike and unreal in character, yet tangible and tentative to the illuminated consciousness. They do not rap on tables; they do not materialize on islates; they do not come into the order of the phenomenal life at all save as visions, evoked by a vitascopic sugges¬ tion or environment. They are recollected, as memory recalls past events; but they cannot be handled as things. They are in ishort, real but not material, per¬ ceived, but not palpable, felt but not a matter of objec¬ tivity. They belong to the curriculum of the soul’ di- vinest life, are mind stuff, but lodge in an ocean whose shores touch infinitude and infinity. The point to realize in all this is that, when you do not succeed in your experiments or deductions, when visions are not tentative and clear, when the impres¬ sions that flit before or into the mind are illusive, know that the psychic vitascope needs adjustment or that the conditions are not normal or natural. Results can never be forced, they will come of themselves or not at all. Forced results are hybrids in the sphere of psy- chometry. Were the data with which the psychometrist deals altogether palpable and susceptible to physical methods, then the science would at once be recognized and taught in the universities of the world. But if its admittance into these schools muist depend upon such demonstration these occult sciences will never find a tutor or an elucidator in the universities. This will of course be a calamity. 13 The aim of the student of as well as the adept in these sciences should be to appeal to, as well as prepare the way for the higher consciousness and humbly confess¬ ing all errors that creep into or result from his experi¬ ments, dignity his office by a loyal and honorable consecration. Let him at once become an hierophant and a larger measure of success will await him. The end is not yet. The agnostic and materialist will ques¬ tion or scoff at his victories—but he can afford to work and wait. Knowing that truth iis his inspiration he will reach the open sea of her light and wisdom by following the springs that well up in the soul and flow merrily through the world’s mental tanglewood. The vision of apocalyptic enchantment of which he dreams and which he sees approaching, is not far away; let him love it so well that he will dare martyrdom for the ecstacy of its possession. Let the world babble. It can only “crucify him.” The light is unquenchable, the truth indestructible and the spirit must cycle on to Nirvana Take the vow of the Sphinx, look to the stars, obey the whisperings of angels and follow the light of the spirit eastward. 14 EXPERIMENT III. What is your experience of the ephemeral and illu- isive character of the data which comes to you in visions and impressions as you experiment with the soul in psychometry? 15 PSYCHOMETRY. LESSON IV. 1 lie question of questions in this mystic science which baffles both the novitiate and the initiated is the one which interrogates the causes as well as reason for the facts or data of psychometry; why, in short, the science is a matter of demonstration at all, appealing to the reason through both the sense or objective realm and the realm of perception and intuition. It is necessary to explain the organic struc¬ ture and nervo-psychic functions of the human spirit before any clear and perfect under¬ standing of the sphere and office of psychom¬ etry may be had. The material, etheric essences and forces with which the spirit continually deals or with which it works and co-ordinates its multiform relations and modes of manifestation or expression are very little understood by the physicist and psychologist. Few in¬ deed of the reputed scientists of the world accept the 'Spiritual part of nature or life; all are more or less ag¬ nostic of and silent concerning the occult or involved divinity of nature; and, it is only here and there among the very aggressively progressive experimentalists like Professor Hare in his age and Professor Crookes in these latter years, who venture to set at naught the dic¬ tum of historical science and the critical standards of the 16 schools, and boldly announce a spiritual, if not a divine immanency in matter. However, the very recent and marvelous discoveries of psychical researchers and ex¬ perimentalists have made the most conservative scien¬ tists tremble, lest, the alleged historical scientific sys¬ tems which have established the rationale of modern scientific thought and philosophy, be proven altogether untenable and futile. We maintain that consistent with the researches of Dr. Babbitt** the etheric forces and substances inter-reach and inter-play upon the in¬ terstices of matter. Indeed spirit permeates every point of matter with a radiant and perfect immanency, and thus makes possible the facts of which we speak. Into the microcosm (material world) as into the macrocosm (spiritual world) the divine Spirit vibrates unceasingly. The atom rolls and revolves in its sphere of luminous force which lights suns and controls worlds \Vhile sus¬ taining the physical life of the universe. As a circle in which every point of the circumference is at one with and related to the center to which it owes its origin and form; so spirit suffuses matter. Thus matter is akin sympathetically with the finer forces which influx and permeate matter and which impress their law, nature and phenomena upon it. In this connection it will be well to notice, how, in perfect order the so called physi¬ cal organism and all that belongs to it, is related to its prototype or correspondent in the psychic order of be¬ ing. The unity and synthesis are perfect. The grosser or cruder material forces and substances when in the as¬ cendent dominate the finer or so mar their effects and **The Philosophy of Light and Color. 17 phenomena as to make a correct psychisope well nigh impossible. As well expect a reflection of a lily in a pond when the water is fetid or ruffled by external and internal conditions of unrest and activity. The office of the psychometrist is to secure such results as are natural, not unnatural or supernatural and to make possible a psychiscope which is a true de¬ lineation, so far as can be had, all other conditions be¬ ing equal. And the one who can do such work is do¬ ing the best work. In a sense one thought contains the law or essence of all thought and thus one may have a key to Divinity; but as a phenomenon it is limited, and it limits con¬ sciousness and to that extent, the sphere of Divinity. Hence even the adept will have difficulty, unaided by divinity, to correlate and elaborate all the multiplied ramifications of the spirit. Indeed he is an adept be¬ cause he never ignores divinity. Let all things, therefore, be done in order but see to it that order is first perceived in the impressions that reach you tangibly and immediately. Higher percep¬ tion, keener analysis, more penetrative discernment and the most delicate pencillings of occult happenings will flow before you in visions as real and palpable as the things which you physically see, touch or sense. Learn to solve one mystery before dissolving all mysteries in a final or exhaustive psychiscope. Apply the law of spirit to the least and lowest in the order of phenomena 18 and the greatest and highest will follow sequentially. Take the science which will uncover and reveal the na¬ ture of one impression and the door of the Temple will open to your power and reveal to you God who fills all things with spirit. 19 EXPERIMENT IV. Proceed to apply this teaching and thus perceive its truth. i 20 PART II. CLAIRVOYANCE. LESSON V. As psychometry is generic, clairvoyance is*special. As one relates to consciousness and all that belongs to it, the other is subordinate and functional. To see in a material sense in the use of the organ of sight is the physical application of a function which is spiritual as well as material in its nature and isphere of action. Clairvoyance is both perceiving and seeing, and while the one is limited by the intuition which is akin to the All Seeing Eye, ’ the other is circumvented by the organ of sight. Both are functional and as such have their respective offices to discharge. The spirit through the ego, controls and operates both. It is very possi¬ ble, nay it is true that one may use his or her clairvoy¬ ance in this two fold sense and yet give to the process a materialistic significance and interpretation; or, one may become aware of such an interior seeing and per¬ ceiving and yet for years not to have recognized it as suich, nor to have been aware of iit. The fact is that just as immor¬ tality is an inherent, indestructible and eternal quality of spirit and not the effect of either time, environment, expression of the arbitrary fiat of nature,so clairvoyance 21 is the inalienable endowment, like instinct or any men¬ tal faculty, of spirit. We should say of “Spirit” that the definite article “the” might in no sense be perverted as thus employed. The ego or spirit resides altogether in the spiritual universe or in a universe which is spirit¬ ual, although functioning in the material, and not as is popularly supposed or inferred,through mistaken analo¬ gies and correspondences, in the material and then in the spiritual universe. The universe is spiritual alto¬ gether and not dual or altogether material as is alleged; that phase of it which belongs to the sense realm or to which the sense world relates itself, being the reflex of the universe, but not in reality it. So that the celestial vision should be primal and surely as potential and natural as the terrestrial. The reason why so few per¬ ceive this is due to the fact that it has not commonly so been recognized nor taught, except perhaps, dimly or vaguely by occultists and then by implication or clothed in mystic symbolisms. The spiritual gifts were not es¬ teemed nor sought after nor even unfolded, because they were adjudged to be deific and supernatural and not human possessions and were isaid to be possible only among the seers or those who were especiallv en¬ dowed or blest with supernatural gifts. Hence they were allowed to lie dormant or were exercised by those who being called or calling themselves magicians, ne¬ cromancers, sibyls, seers, sorcerers, or those who pass as mediums or sensitives and are possessed with famil¬ iar spirits, gave expression to clairvoyance without un¬ derstanding it either as a function or a possession. To recognize and declare the function is of course funda¬ mental to any rational use and unfoldment. Each one 22 has a potential clairvoyance which can and should be or¬ derly and rationally unfolded. First, that the spirit may have intelligent access to causality as well as na¬ ture, the soul of the universe as well as the laws, ele¬ ments, phenomena and the dynamic and chemical forces which further elaborate them; and, secondly, that spirit may perceive and enjoy spirit and not through any media or vicarious representation such as organism or functional processes imply. If psychometry and tele¬ pathy will ever become popular, as we are certain that they will at no distant time, if metaphysics will at last and forever receive precedence over physics, if the spirit and its divinity will be enthroned in the world’s thought and life, if education will work its marvels from within and not as is current and popular in the schools and universities by a system of cramming and mental absorption, if the innateness or immanency of inspiration or thought as Socrates and Jesus taught and realized it, will be perceived by all, then these progres¬ sive and real spheres of developement must come by a permanent establishment of the issues of life upon the only and absolute basis of spiritual life, being, unfold- ment—Which is divinity. Therefore, to realize these di¬ vine powers look within, see and perceive psychically and enjoy the luminous Parnassus to which the spirit ever invites. FIFTH EXPERIMENT. Distinguish between intuition and clairvoyance as thus set forth and note how one sees clairvoyance. 24 CLAIRVOYANCE. LESSON VI. The ispecialization of clairvoyance in the medial or¬ ganism or psychic apparatus is for practical purposes. There is in fact no such function but what seems to be such is the phenomenon of its operation and law. The eye is an organ but the vision, sense and percention are the means by which it functions. The vision is not at all to be confused with the so-called sense of sight or the organ of the eye through which the sense operates. To (See admits of a psychic process quite inexplicable to the physicist but fully illustrative by the sensory and its mechanism. The organ of the eye is impotent to gather up, collect and synthesize the rays or images of rays cast upon the eye. It in no way is responsible for seeing or the subjective process which accompanies and is co-ordinated with it. Clairvoyance like the con¬ sciousness is a mode of the ego by which it displays both intelligence and divinity and by which it assists the ego to become aware of itself. It may be compared but only crudely and analogically with the nervous sys¬ tem which is sensitive to all that plays upon and through it, yet is in itself not the ego, but a delicate function which the ego uses. Thus clairvoyance refers to that which while seemingly functional is yet akin to divinity, we mean that which is essentially and eternally 25 intelligent and of Spirit. It works through a two-fold expression of light, it itself being the conductor of all material and spiritual expression of light. Clairvoyance does not belong wholly nor is it realized only in the sphere of what Emanuel Swedenborg terms the celes¬ tial man, although it originates in spirit, but it radiates all being and all forms of being and is the light of the world. By it one receives a lucid and spiritual defini¬ tion of karma or the thoughts and acts of life, because it is by clairvoyance, which may be termed clear or psychic seeing, or seeing without functions, that spirit penetrates essence and all forms and expressions of it. How to utilize this power of spirit is a mystery only to those who have not yet awakened to the law of Divin¬ ity or who have not cultivated the higher self for ideal or divine purposes and ends. It resides in all essence and can be evoked at will. All other things being pre¬ pared and harmonious, it becomes to the adept or hiero¬ phant the key to nature’s finer forces and the “pearl of great price.” It gives one, if he choose to be guided by it, prescience, prevision and second isight. Because it is so clear in its penetration, so definite in its con¬ cepts, so lucid in all that it manifests and reveals, it iiS superlatively useful. To unfold it fully is to reverse the natural order and permit it to have a larger sphere of expression. One should reispect its light and allow it to shine into the material life and world. One should form conditions first for its recognition and perception, then for its culture and by rationally trusting and obey¬ ing it, one will realize its power and utility. 26 EXPERIMENT VI. Note the Teachings of Jesus as recorded by John, Chapter I, where he speaks of this light. Try to real¬ ize this light. Consult book on “Clairvoyance,” by au¬ thor for “Rules to Observe.” CLAIRVOYANCE. LESSON VII. The seer alone knows how to use clairvoyance, be¬ cause the seer divinely led, impresses the celestial vision only upon humanity and never subordinates it to paltry and personal ends. He does not debase it by forcing or extemporizing prenatally or prematurely the issues of spirit. There is reason in the distrust the public has of the work of professional clairvoyantes. It may be asked what distinguishes such from those who exercise the power of natural or psychic clairvoyance. We shall try to make this distinction clear. Clairvoyance is one and the same, however it is ex¬ pressed. All expressions of clairvoyance are of the order which we teach ;the only difference between the various forms of it is in the use to which it is and can be put. One may use genius for unholy and unlawful purposes, yet genius is ever one and the same; and as the light of day is the means which enables the righteous and un¬ righteous to live their life, both using the light to de¬ fine their path and career, so the light of the spirit can be subserved for an end good in itself or perverted and made to multiply the vices. The morale or motive in 28 the law of nature and her functions is unchangingly the same and eternally good. But when applied to conduct is translated into an ethical term or quality which gives rise to such antithetical words as evil and good; error and truth. One may be ignorant of the divinity of Spirit and consciously or unconsciously use this super¬ ior and clairvoyant sight. The power to see as well as to perceive inheres in Spirit and cannot be atrophied or destroyed, although it can be organically or functionally silenced and abused. The practices of clairvoyance by the magician, sorcerer, necromancer, fortune-teller, clairvoyante, palmist, has bewildered the ignorant, while at the same time, it has added nothing of real service or scientific value to growth of occult science or to the eternal good of the world. A human being may allow such phe¬ nomena as the signs and wonders, generically termed supernatural, to play through their nervous and mental organism, just as one may organically function or physi¬ cally vegetate, without adding one tiny thread of truth to the spindles or shuttles in the loom of knowledge; but those only are beneficient experimentalists and dis¬ coverers of truth who intelligently and wisely set to work to enrich and bless the world by their researches and experiments. It has been the bane of occultism and magic, indeed, it has brought ethnic relig¬ ions, to say naught of universal religion into more or less disrepute, because a few of its advocates, as prac¬ titioners of black art or magic, made preposterous, and unprovable claims for their performances and works. 29 Not that a Jesus or a Zoroaster were frauds, or claimed for their works more than they could prove, but those who like Cagliostro, the arch imposter, and those who looked on and witnessed their performances of legerdemain, those who in after years ignorantly un¬ derstood and as ignorantly interpreted their work and history, such workers and witnesses with uncultivated spiritual vision have by their ignorant and ^superstitious interpretations, placed a false meaning upon bibles and all occult phenomena and by so doing set the world back a few thousand years and plunged the spiritual movement into almost hopeless disaster. The effort is here made to impress upon the student the value of luminous discrimination, and to emphasize the necessity of placing clairvoyance and the clairvoy- ante, not where either will continue to be ridiculed into oblivion, or where either one will be contemptuously slighted and ignored, but Where the real office, value and end may be exalted and their services command the recognition and applause of the world. Let its philosophy be clearly defined that man may make no mistakes when investigating its phenomena or seeking for true guidance. The work of the educator in this sphere alone is one of martyrdom, but however ignom¬ inious or futile such a consecrated life and work may be in the estimation of the world its efforts will not be in vain. To rescue universal religion and spiritual science from disgrace and a dishonorable name, to put both where the mercenaries of the world may not bargain over its price, to restore to humanity a civilization which was pre-eminently spiritual and mystical and 30 fostered by the wise men of Egypt, Asia, India and Greece and to place around Jesus, Krishna, Socrates, Buddha, Zoroaster and their co-laborers in the colleges of Divinity that halo wlhich is the effluence and radia¬ tion of their spirituality and thus make science and re¬ ligion truly interpret history and civilization, is an hon¬ orable career and its triumph the unspeakably brilliant and immortal achievement of the seer and his com¬ pany of humble disciples. So was it said of old and so is it repeated, “Let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works will glorify your Father in heaven.” 81 SEVENTH EXPERIMENT. Show how one should discriminate between the mo¬ tive and work of the seer and those of the artificer and sorcerer. 32 PART III. INSPIRATION. LESSON VIII. In these brief lessons we declare no new Teaching • concerning the law of the Soul's unfoldment and spirit¬ ual realization, nor have we suggested any strange or novel methods for experimentation. The students will de well if in a reminiscent way the fundamental prin¬ ciples of this System Of Philosophy Concerning Divin¬ ity are kept in mind and ever reasserted and elaborated. Many will no doubt read these lessons and yet not per¬ ceive and realize their value or significance. Swayed by the “ipse dixit” of Mother Grundy, or the thought and influence of humanity, they forget or neglect the power of Divinity and hence are continually misled and always in doubt as to the reality and issuance of Spirit, to say nothing of the calm grandeur and the perfect guidance of one who is conscious of celestial Imman¬ ency and Divine Providence. If nature is a palimpsest containing as the snowy white tablets of the soul a rec¬ ord of the Divine rulings and workings, quite impossi¬ ble of realization by the mortal and unilluminated con¬ sciousness, surely the aim of the student should be to interpret its writings and if possible, its secret and di- 33 vine causality. Having succeeded in mastering the System of Philosophy concerning Psychometry and Clairvoyance, that of Inspiration follows. As climbing a mountain range to stand upon the summit of its high¬ est peak suggests collateral and fundamental steps Which lead to the end in view, so in the perfection of spiritual unfoldment, it is as if one swept through spheres of mental and spiritual auras until at last the sublime light of the spirit shone in eternal and perfect glory. The ambient, pervasive, enfolding light on the heights is a smybol of inspiration. Now the very first condition of success in mastering this special philosophy is the perception of the a priori origin, nature and expression of thought. All thought is divine; it is natural only because spiritual; it is human only because deific. It, in no sense, is causal but se¬ quential to spirit; Spirit is ever causal to it. It has its own light and resultant aura, radiance, magnetic and electrical sphere and spectum of manifestation and dif¬ ferentiation. It infills and permeates matter by a rare, indefinable, ineffable spiritual immanence. Its phenom¬ ena. however variable and multiform have one source and are governed by one law. The realization of this is perceived in the synthesis of the various sub-laws and principles of nature and viewing them in the sphere of an illuminated consciousness. To acquire this illumin¬ ation one must become receptive of celestial or divine rays of thought or light and not limit the mind by ma¬ terial iscience, philosophy and religion. To perceive^ the light of the spirit is simply to become consciously aware of its presence. It requires no miracle of regen- 34 eration or spiritual transformation. This inspiration of which we speak ever is and is in all souls and there shines eternally. It is not sporadic, exotic, capri¬ cious, now here or there like a will-o’-the-wisp; it is abiding and unchanging and awaits recognition and realization. The measure of its hallowed light depends upon the degree of spirituality one has unfolded, and not upon the ability to cast spirit noumena and phe¬ nomena. The idea is abroad and it is a mistaken one that mediumship or the dynamic expression of adept- ship intensifies and objectifies this light or makes it possible. This might be so were the ligfit of inspira¬ tion material in quality, inductive in nature, and did it operate functionally; but, inasmuch as it is spiritual it truly can never be on land or sea. It must be per¬ ceived, if perceived at all, from within spirit. It cannot be materialized, externalized or objectified. Hence do not seek for it as you do for the physical or electrical rays of the sun; seek for it spiritually travelling as the mystics travelled eastward from the west or follow the magic star of the East in pursuit of the holy grail; which means reverse the natural order and seek for it within spirit by following its tides which ebb and flow by the law of breathing and inbreathing within con¬ sciousness, touching faintly the shores of psychic vision and the mind. Know well the significance of John’s gospel and interpret his symbology esoterically. Read mystically the parable and lesson of the Foolish Virgins, the Transfiguration and the Treasure hid in the Field. And above all do not seek to critically rat¬ ionalize all intuitions and inspirations, but learn to discriminate between human and divine thought and 35 leading, seeing to it that conditions are prepared where¬ by the intuition may perceive and spiritual conscious¬ ness receive divine direction. Keep the mind moist with (Spirit. Then all doubtful problems will be solved. 36 EIGHTH EXPERIMENT. How does thought bring light and how is the light of inspiration realized? Perceive that there is no con¬ sciousness without this spiritual radiation or divine illumination. All a priori thought finds its definition and interpretation in this light. 37 INSPIRATION* LESSON IX. The student of inspiration should be able to distin¬ guish between the different forms of inspiration which have been common to every people of every age. The process or law through and by wihich inspiration is per¬ ceived and realized must not be confused with its three¬ fold forms, viz:—illumination, divine inspiration or in¬ tuitive wisdom, direct and indirect inspiration through suggestion and receptivity and tuition or experience. The first form is really not a form at all, but is the very essence of thought and may be termed the thought of the Divine mind and as such is invariably infallible. It is the principle of all culture and civilization and shapes the spiritual apotheosis. It is realized through spirit absolute as divine inspiration is perceived through the oracle or the vehicle known in metaphysics as in¬ tuition, and as the same is often confounded with the thing, one should be precise in not identifying the in¬ tuition with illumination. Intuition must, in the final analysis be conceded to be the oracle through which di¬ vine inspiration flows and as the intuition is not a func¬ tion or a mental faculty, but must here be accorded a spiritual sphere or residence as is admitted by psycholo¬ gists such as Sir William Hamilton, Plato Liebnitz and 38 Spinoza, it is the unfailing- source or reservoir of indi¬ vidual, divine guidance. Illumination alone affords per¬ fect understanding. Concerning both the direct and indirect forms of in¬ spiration by suggestion and receptivity we should add nothing to what has already been said in the Teachings. The form commonly shown and experienced by sensi¬ tives and media is that produced under hypnotic or trance and suggestive or telepathic influence, when the normal mind is made susceptible to another’s will. In¬ spiration whether from excarnate or incarnate spirit intelligences is never infallible, but it may be of truth; but what must here be insisted upon is that as such it contains the human and fallible element, it is truth re¬ flected and refracted from the spheres of inner corre¬ spondences and is under the law of reason. Intuition, however, is the law of reason and is its inspiration. By tuition we mean normal thought or experience whidh is induced in the evolution of the material and sensuous consciousness. By accurate perception and knowledge of these forms one will be able to place precedence upon human in contradistinction to divine guidance, while the au¬ thority and value of the highest form both for material and spiritual ends will remain unquestioned. 39 NINTH EXPERIMENT. Give personal evidences of these forms of inspiration? 40 INSPIRATION. LESSON X. When the neophyte is unfolded sufficiently to define as well as realize the different kinds of inspiration, much yet remains before he can perfect the highest form of illumination or realization known to the planet. When once he perceives the futility lof striving for a vicarious inspiration, an inspiration by proxy or through media and hypnosis or obsessing influences, he will have re¬ moved a colossal stumbling block from his pathway. So few understand the object or office of what is popularly termed mediumship, and hence abuse it or expect im¬ possible results from it. No controlling or obsessing influence can give anyone an inspiration beyond the normal expression or capacity of that one’s intelli¬ gence. What is thus received through such a channel, in plain words, can be perceived intuitively. For any one whose physical or mental functions are thus used has in himself, could he become aware of it, the ability to per¬ ceive as well as realize the purest and truest forms of truth, which could be manifested or expressed through him. It has been an error of Spiritualists to insist that mediuimship is both a function or condition and a state 41 of illumination; whereas, mediumship is the function or condition only. It is ignorance to maintain that the mental and spiritual capacity and expression of a me¬ dium does not fix and shape the sphere of receptivity of inspiring influences and illumination, for by the law of affinity and correspondency contrasts and similars blend in a unity of harmonious expression. Every even numjber has its odd and every positive force its negative aspect. One note as one color is distinguished from another by tone vibration. So each thought has its dual expression in one sphere or many united and uni¬ form spheres. Ideality and its realization must here be explained. Both Idealty and intuition are of equal capacity in all; but under the normal or psychological law of mind and its expression may be but imperfectly and faintly mani¬ fested. A master may express through a medium in¬ spirations quite beyond and inexplicable by the me¬ dium’s own state or unfoldment, causing such an one to appear to be a prodigy or a freak. It, in no sense, logically follows that where such expression is possible the capacity of the medium should or must be defined by the normal ability of the master; yet, it is here con¬ tended that what is here explained as the result of in¬ spiration through mediumship can be attained nor¬ mally were the person who is capable of such super¬ normal phenomena of thought resolute upon attaining it. It is a mistaken notion, current among those who are uniformed or unfolded or who have not had wide or personal psychic experiences or who have given the highest self but casual and shallow meditation, to infer 42 that all such who are of the order of the Illuminati or who are mediums, are supernatural beings and, hence specially and divinely led. Ontology uncovers the error and “The System of Philosophy, Concerning Divin¬ ity”* reveals the facts. Inspiration is possible where vocal or material ex¬ pression is crude or impossible. One can be illumina¬ ted though blind, dumb or deaf. The senses may be dulled, inoperative or atrophied and yet the spirit free to receive and perceive the sphere of inspiration and il¬ lumination. And the student is cautioned against a cultus or practise of development which sets at naught the spiritual life and consciousness. To become an in¬ spirational speaker as the phrase goes or one who can speak with tongues or one who need take no thought as to what he will say, is to be qualified with those psy¬ chic and spiritual elements fundamental to its present realization and expression, but such as are denied this high office in their present embodiments should not cease aspiring for the best. All are called, but few are chosen is literally true of those who, possessing potentially the divinest powers are not used as hierophants or evangels. They are used and are useful but are not qualified to become public or field workers. *By J. C. F. Grumbine (five volume's). These books can be read only when a student of “The College of Psychical Sciences And Unfoldment.” 43 Another error which hinders the realization of the in¬ spirational harmonies of spirit is the aggresstive and selfish seeking after spiritual illumination. To reach a spiritual height one must furnish a physically mental and spiritual condition. Ignorance and selfishness are material for Babel, but wisdom and lore are the condition for illumination. No one can know too much of wisdom and truth or be too pure or spiritual in thought and life. The divine life means that one can attain added inspiration and larger capacity of truth and a more perfect sphere of divinty. To meditate to attain added inspiration and larger capacity of truth and a more perfect sphere of divinity. To meditate upon the divine, applying the same to spiritual uses and ends is making the path which leads heavenward and opening gateways into celestial fountains of never end¬ ing inspirations. And we, therefore, commend to the student all such teachers and teaching as will help him to lose himself that he may find God. 44 General Rationale of Psychical Development. LESSON XI. There are fundamental and axiomatic propositions in spiritual science wdiich like geometrical theorems can be demonstrated, and yet to a materialist they wouid be regarded as a priori, and in their very nature mere af¬ firmations; and, yet they are the postulates of the Re- tionale of Psychical development and all Yoga prac¬ tices. The first is, Spirit is and is divine. The second is, Spirit is absolue and absolute in the sphere of its divin¬ ity. The third is Spirit is susceptible to manifestation and expression; and (the fourth is, Spirit is the oracle and source of illumination, direction, realization, adept- ship. These are theorems which any metaphysical system of philosophy can substantiate in its own field of empiri¬ cism. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon them collectively and individually as they hold the arcana of all mysticism. All seers and adepts, whatever may be the character of their work or whatever may have been or may be their leading, illustrate these axioms as set forth in their life and works. Recognizing the phenomena and functional phases of adeptship as part of the divine order of being, it is % P 45 quite clear that their office, sphere and law should be perceived before any philosophy of psychic unfoldment can be originated or defined. And it is necessary as a corollary of such a philosophy, to observe that spiritual unfoldment or the realization of divinity as here set forth is not to be confused with necromantic practises. Let the student seek to explore the spiritual sphere of causality, and trace, in the outward pencillings of spirit in the phenomena, the law and intelligence which work within at the very center of being. By so doing results of the highest order will be attained. By personal ex¬ periments or by applying these theorems to the spiritual life a new sphere of realization will be enjoyed. And by living what is here set forth as the soul’s preroga¬ tives failures in psychic unfoldment are impossible. Having successfully mastered the rudiments and con¬ ditions of this System of Divinity he is ready to unfold or apply adeptship. The divine sovereignty must be declared and maintained at all times. Each one must realize it and he cannot do this any more than the blind can declare the existence of the light unless the Spirit and its immanency have become in him a conscious and abiding Presence. The realization of the Presence will at times be foreshown in dim and wavering outlines of reality or flickerings of power, like the reflected light of moonlight or starlight in a brook, but the faintest def¬ inition suggests receptivity, hallowed medita¬ tion and consecrated aspiration. In all psychical devel¬ opment planes of elevation will obscure rather than re¬ veal the supernal and surpassing light; the steps to the light are less, not more in number, are closer to the 46 end, not farther removed from it. Let each one re¬ member that figuratively speaking experiences try the patience and the trust of the most faithful but only to make such as are thus tested and proven worthy the everlasting victors. The .spirit is not unjust nor ca- pracious. No crown is given except in exchange for a crucifixion. Sacrifice of one order of thought to ob¬ tain another and .higher, always entails the loss of the one and a consequent suffering, if the loss is premature, before the higher order is extended or born or appre- siated. The question is never why should I not receive psychical benefits but rather why am I not worthy of receiving them. No 'Spiritual elevation or success is granted indiscriminately or nominally. Do not deceive yourself by thinking that by any sort of magic or talismanic power the omnipotence can be possessed. Violence may take an earthly throne or a crown, but it cannot rend the veil between the seen and the unseen world. Nor is it possible to ensphere by any other than the most gracious and holy behavior, the angels. Angels have their attractions but not de¬ flections. An angel can never be drawn to earth by a talisman, even a wish is unavailing. The Teachings should be unmistakable on this point and adeptship should not lead to the apostacy of necromancy and sor¬ cery. Unfoldment of spirit means as applied—Divinity as well as a realizing and evidencing power of it. Adept- ship is supreme power through Divinity. Such adept- 47 ship begins when Divinity makes itself felt and it is con¬ tinually unfolding. Its action is normal and uninter¬ rupted, if the spirit is ever open and sensitive to its or¬ acle and leading. To imply it is to apply it. Sit calm¬ ly but understandingly upon the tripod and receive the message of the Divine. 3. concerning Divinity. the Series—/llbail Course, First.— PSYCHOMETRY. Sixteen lessons. Ten special test ex¬ periments. Advanced teachings. Three months’ course. Price for series, $12.75. Second. —CLAIRVOYANCE. Twelve lessons. Ten Experiments. Advanced teachings. Two months’ course. Price for series,$3.00. Third. —INSPIRATION. Twelve lessons. Ten Experiments. Advanced teachings. Three months’ course. Price for series, $12.75. Fourth.— PSYCHOPATHY. Twelve lessons. Ten experiments. Advance teachings. Three months’ course. Price for series, $12.75. Fifth. —ILLUMINATION. Ten lessons. Three months’ course. Final series and on Adeptship. Price for series, $12.75. N. B.—The student who passes final examinations successfully is given a diploma and becomes a member of the Order of White Rose. The unfoldment is in the regular order of the Teachings and there is and can be no variation from the rule. P. S.—The entire series can be had now for $50. (payable at once or monthly in advance). This fee includes all text books. ©pedal Bottce. This School of Correspondence is the only one of its kind in the world, is conducted by J. C. F. GRUMBINE, the author and lecturer. It is conducted through the mails, is devoted to the system of Philoso¬ phy, concerning Divinity, and is connected with the Order of the White Rose, branch of the Rosicrucians. The secrets and mysteries of Magic and Occultism are revealed; the mystic and potential powers of Divin¬ ity such as Clairvoyance, Psychometry, Inspiration, Psychopathy, On¬ tology, Hypnotism, Telepathy and Illumination are made operative and practical. Teachings are arranged for out of town students and belong to the College Extension Department. Realization is thus assured in the stu¬ dent’s home. _ For booklet and circulars, Percentage of Psychical Power, send a stamped, addressed envelope to J. C. F. Grumbine, 1718 West Genesee Street, Syracuse, N. Y. r LIBRARY OF CONOR ESS 0 033 321 582 2