The ROSICRUCIAN FORUMApril, 1935, Vol. V. No. 5.
H. Spencer Lewis, Imperator
The Rosicrucian ForumAugust, 1937, Vol. VIII. No. 1
H. Spencer Lewis, Imperator
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H. Spencer Lewis, Imperator
from YamaguchyForums Website
Contents
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Birth Control
Our good Frater Albersheim of New York now rises before the Forum to present his important question. You will note that he has introduced the subject of birth control but from a slightly new angle. He has just said that early in the beginning of this year a meeting was held in the East composed of physicians associated with the Roman Catholic Church and that they adopted a resolution strongly condemning birth control as contrary to religion and morals.
Our good Frater Albersheim of New York now rises before the Forum to present his important question. You will note that he has introduced the subject of birth control but from a slightly new angle. He has just said that early in the beginning of this year a meeting was held in the East composed of physicians associated with the Roman Catholic Church and that they adopted a resolution strongly condemning birth control as contrary to religion and morals.
He wonders whether we as Rosicrucians would take a more generous position in this matter. He argues in the first place that Rosicrucians do not regard reproductive processes as sinful and that we have a different point of view in regard to the entering of the soul into the unborn child.
Now I do not think that the Rosicrucian Order should take any definite stand one way or the other in regard to birth control except upon purely ethical grounds. I think that I have touched upon this subject heretofore, but will say again that we agree with the view of Mr. Hitler, for instance, in Germany, who is expressing only the view-point that the ancient Greeks had and which all students of present-day social problems agree upon and which scientists have indorsed; namely, that there is too little restriction being placed upon who should marry and who should propagate the future generations of mankind.
In other words, I believe that the doctrine of eugenics should be made universal and enforced if possible and that in addition to the securing of a legal license for marriage in order that there may be no violation of legal laws in connection with marriage, there should be no violation of natural laws either. If we find it necessary to inquire into the past legal history of a man or woman to determine whether he or she is free to marry and are doing no legal injustice to anyone by getting married, we certainly should see to it that they are mentally and physically qualified to marry and that they are doing no physical injustice to the future race.
From the social point of view it is beyond questioning that something must be done to prevent the rapid increase of birth or the unnecessary increase of birth among the poor and unqualified. This alone would argue in favor of some method of birth control. Whether that control should begin with a proper examination of the individuals before marriage or thereafter, is a matter to be determined by those who make the closest study of the subject and not something to be determined by us through passing some impotent resolution. Certainly the resolution passed by the physicians in their assembly will have little or no effect upon the matter.
The individuals concerned will probably determine whether the physicians are right or wrong. The tendency today seems to be toward some method of birth control that is rational and reasonable and when a large majority of the human race decides upon something and has the support of scientific investigations and social experts, the chances are that the majority will follow its inclination despite the dictates of either the physicians or the church they represent.
The Rosicrucian ForumAugust, 1937, Vol. VIII. No. 1
H. Spencer Lewis, Imperator
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Manly Hall and Rosicrucianism
Because of the many questions that have been submitted to the Forum in the past month regarding the lectures and claims set forth in the advertising and circular matter issued by Mr. Manly P. Hall of Los Angeles, we feel that it is only fair to our readers to privately make this following statement and answer their specific questions.
Because of the many questions that have been submitted to the Forum in the past month regarding the lectures and claims set forth in the advertising and circular matter issued by Mr. Manly P. Hall of Los Angeles, we feel that it is only fair to our readers to privately make this following statement and answer their specific questions.
Mr. Hall for many years has been touring the United States as a public lecturer, sometimes following his public free appearance on the platform with private classes at very high tuitional fees. It is not what he is doing or what he pretends to teach that interests us, for such lecturers and self-appointed teachers have come and gone by the score in the past twenty years. Nearly every one of them has taken opportunity, as has Mr. Hall, to make derogatory remarks regarding the integrity, the stability, the honesty and the authenticity of AMORC. Yet nearly all of them have passed by the way and have gone into oblivion, and their highly featured programs and plans have completely failed, while AMORC has continued to exist and to grow.
Sometimes we think that the deliberate and exuberant criticisms of AMORC made by these traveling lecturers have done much to make AMORC better known and to redound to our credit inasmuch as persons in the audience, hearing an unknown organization belittled and besmattered with mud during lecture after lecture, decide that perhaps a little investigation should be made, or that perhaps they are unacquainted with something they should know about. And so much of this criticism has resulted in individuals making inquiries about AMORC and finally discovering that bias and prejudice alone were responsible for the unfair and untrue remarks that had been made. In such cases, of course, the individuals lose all faith in everything that is claimed and said by the lecturer, and their confidence and trust is directed toward our organization instead.
However, all of that is beside the question. We are not accusing Mr. Hall of being a serious or an important enemy of AMORC, and most certainly we cannot classify him as a friend.
But when Mr. Hall advertises widely that he is going to lecture on “The Secret Rites, Rituals and Teachings of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons,” or “The Mystical Elements of Freemasonry,” or “The Secret Brotherhood of the Rosicrucians,” and on Bacon and Shakespeare and similar subjects, thousands of our members and many more thousands of friends of our members and still more thousands of sincere seekers begin to ask a few pertinent questions. First of all, they ask, “Is Mr. Hall a member of the recognized Rosicrucian Brotherhood and a member of the Freemasonic Fraternity, and is he a recognized authority on the lives of Bacon and Shakespeare ?”
So far as the authentic and recognized Rosicrucian Order is concerned, we can definitely say that he is not known in Europe or in America as a member of the AMORC or any other branch of the recognized Rosicrucian activities throughout the world, nor has he ever been such a member. As to whether or not he is a Freemason, I am not qualified to say, although it is seriously questioned by those who are capable of making certain tests. But that is entirely beside the point of my present argument. As for my knowledge about the lives of Bacon and Shakespeare, from things I have read that he has written, he evidently knows less about Bacon than anyone I have ever known who claimed to be ready and prepared to speak or lecture on the subject.
Mr. Hall has written some books with titles which lead the reader to think that he is going to find many secrets revealed. Mr. Hall still has the old-fashioned and strange idea that “Christian Rosenkreutz” founded, established, invented or created the Rosicrucian Fraternity and first introduced it into Germany. And he has many other ideas about Rosicrucianism that are just as strange as that. He presents an interesting program in his circular matter and he certainly awakens the interest of a sincere seeker who has never heard of him before, and all are agreed that during the course of his lectures he expresses some ideas in such superlative and flowery language that one is not quite sure what he means; but as for revealing any secrets or telling the average seeker anything he does not know that will lead him to a real path of development and unfoldment, I have yet to hear of any real investigator who would endorse him as either a lecturer or a teacher.
Now I trust that none of our members are going to think that Mr. Hall is injuring the AMORC organization and that that is why we are making these remarks of a critical nature. Our members have asked what we knew of him and what we thought of him and I am trying to be frank and yet conservative. We have never lifted a finger of protest against the many erroneous statements Mr. Hall has made, although on occasions some of our members who could not remain reticent and silent during his unfair diatribes against AMORC have listened to his speeches and protested.
Mr. Hall and a hundred more like him making the same statements across the country could not do any real serious injury to AMORC unless they went far enough to indulge in incriminating charges which they happily evade doing. But we do not like to have our members and their friends go to the Manly Hall lectures and spend even a small admission fee or the carfare or gasoline to journey to the lecture and get a seat inside, if they are expecting any real knowledge or any real help. If they are seeking some form of entertainment, or want to study a man who is volubly lecturing on a subject of which he knows nothing, then Manly Hall proves quite satisfying and perhaps not at all disappointing.
Remember that when a public lecturer cannot identify himself with an authentic and recognized organization that is promoting the subjects upon which he lectures, you may look with suspicion upon the authoritativeness of his discourse. Freelance speakers do not go out and lecture in behalf of the teachings or postulations or activities of some philosophical or other school and do so freely and of their own accord, unless they have books for sale or some means of commercializing their activities, and that is precisely what Mr. Hall is doing, and I hope that no persons will be deceived into thinking that they are receiving any help in their studies with AMORC by attending his lectures. Otherwise Mr. Hall has our complete permission to continue his talks on Bacon, Shakespeare, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and what not.
One of his subjects is claimed to be a revelation that black magic still exists in the modern world. When any individual pretends to lecture on such a theme with sincerity, he must be either self-deceived or is attempting to deceive his audience. Furthermore, by claiming that black magic ever existed, let alone existing in the present day, he is contributing to the fear complexes, the sufferings, the anguish, and the heartaches of many individuals who do not understand. It is this phase of the work of Mr. Hall that we greatly regret and wholly condemn.
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In recent months members of our Order who have reached the highest degrees and have therefore developed very strong and energetic auras, and have also developed a strong and powerful quality of healing power throughout their bodies, have written to me that in repeating the experiment—contained in one of the lower degrees—of magnetizing a glass of water, they have had some most remarkable results. During our Rosicrucian tour I had a number of members of various ages and degrees of study in our Order experiment with me or in front of me with the magnetizing of a glass of water.
I found that what had been reported to me by the most advanced members or members in the highest degrees and what I had learned from my own work with the glass of water is a logical result of the inner development. In the cases where the aura has greatly developed and the healing power has become intensified through continued practice of the experiments in the various degrees, and through proper thinking and encouragement of the psychic development, the radiating power from the finger tips, the palms of the hands, while holding the glass of water, causes a very thin glass to crack and crumble in many pieces.
Quite a few members have said that they were very fortunate indeed in not cutting their fingers or having the water spill on their clothing. But all of them say that when this unusual power manifested itself, the thin glass which we recommended seemed to crumble and crack in many pieces.
Of course the members in lower degrees, and especially those who receive the instructions in their regular monographs regarding this experiment and try it for the first time need have no fear of the glass cracking because it takes many months of development and progress before the psychic power in the body reaches a degree of intensity that would affect the glass. It is preferable for the beginner and those experimenting with the magnetizing of water for the first time to use a thin glass like an ordinary table glass. But those members in the higher degrees, and those who have developed a great degree of psychic power and who find the thin glass becoming very brittle and cracking, may use a thicker glass because the energy from their hands will reach the water through a thicker glass and will produce a magnetic quality in the water just as readily as when a thinner glass is used.
Of course, members who have not had the proper instructions regarding the magnetizing of water, or who have not reached this point in their regular lessons and monographs should not attempt to experiment with magnetizing water because it is not the simple process that it appears to be, and failure to magnetize the water will only bring discouragement. The remarks I am making here about the breaking of the glass or the magnetizing of the water are intended for those who have received the monographs containing this experiment and are practicing the instructions in the proper way as part of their weekly experiments.
Throughout our recent cruise, and in contacting members in many cities where we visited, I found that remarkable cures have been made from drinking this magnetized water. Certain it is that it has a remarkable effect upon the kidneys, the bladder, and even the bowels. It strengthens the tissues and walls of these parts of the body. It acts as an excellent cleansing medium, purifying and making the system hygienically correct. In most cases it acts as an excellent germicidal or prophylactic agent. But it also has a very fine effect upon the blood and seems to be a general tonic to the entire system.
The drinking of the magnetized water just before going to sleep at night seems to produce sound sleep and a very peaceful sensation during relaxation. Of course, we all know that it helps to bring about a high degree of esoteric or Cosmic attunement.
A great many have reported that the drinking of a glass of magnetized water during the day or evening when a person has a headache or is tired or weary seems to produce a feeling of rest, or renewed energy, in ten or fifteen minutes, causing the headache and tired feeling to disappear.
Of course, if the magnetized water is drunk too frequently, that is, once or twice a week, the system may become so accustomed to it that the surprising effects or perhaps even the beneficial effects may become minimized. So the magnetized water should really be used only when the physical and mental systems are tired or depleted, or when the entire physical system needs a tonic. This should not be more than once or twice a month.
Of course, if there is a tendency toward any disease developing in the body, the drinking of one glass of the magnetized water will have an excellent protective effect, causing the blood and the other energizing powers of the body to bring back normal health. But again it must be remembered that too frequent use of this magnetized water will minimize its greatest effectiveness. On the other hand, there can be no harm in the use of the magnetized water even if used too frequently.
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Because of the recent civil war activities reaching into northern Spain, there has been much in the newspapers regarding the strange people living in the foothills of the Pyrenees and known as the Basques. The name has seemed rather new to a great many, and even newspaper editors and magazine writers have turned to encyclopedias and other sources of information trying to find some facts about the Basque people. The more one searches into their history or their origin, the more mysterious they become. A great many of our members have written to us about them and we are glad to give whatever information we have.
For many centuries they have been known in our records and other similar records as a very mystical class of persons, or deriving from a very early mystical race or group of individuals. The information available to us does not throw any light upon their real origin, but we have some facts regarding their present day and immediately past activities, customs and habits.
Most of the telegraphic news coming to our Western World at the present time regarding the war activities comes from the city of St. Jean de Luz. This name, literally interpreted as St. John of the Light, always arouses some interest in the minds of mystics because the name is quite symbolical. To see such an old and mystically named city mixed up in war affairs seems so incongruous and so sacrilegious that many of our members want to know more about the city itself.
Some years ago my wife accompanied me on a special tour into the Basque country, and naturally we made St. Jean de Luz our headquarters for an extensive investigation. We found it one of the coast towns in the foothills of the Pyrenees right at the mouth of the river Nivelle. At the time we visited it, it had a population of about six thousand. It is a very ancient port of considerable importance, and a home for mariners and fishermen. In fact, it was from this city that vessels first set out for Newfoundland back in 1519 and 1520. A number of great national conventions or congresses have been held in the city, and in 1660 the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in this city. Strange to say, at that time the population was fifteen thousand or more.
One of the interesting things which we especially wanted to see in the city was a Thirteenth Century church believed to have been built around 1210, according to some old mystical records, or around the time of the Crusades in France, and it was built as a principal secret meeting place for Knights of the Temple and the Rosicrucian Knights, both of which organizations were united, and of which Columbus was a member; and even his father had been associated with these knighthoods. In this old church, which has a large gallery around it that distinguishes it from other strictly Roman Catholic cathedrals, there is a wonderful organ, one that is larger in many respects than any other organ in Europe, and which rises from the ground floor high up above and beyond the gallery.
We were fortunate in securing the cooperation of an organist connected with the church who was a descendant of the old mystical brotherhood, and he played the organ for us and its tones were simply marvelous. We found carvings and markings and symbolical inscriptions in this old cathedral showing that it had been used very seriously and regularly by the knighthood, and was originally not intended to be a Roman Catholic cathedral but, we might almost say, a non-sectarian cathedral.
We found many other mystical things about the city, showing that it had been really a headquarters of the knighthoods for a number of years, and that they had taken rare records to the place and had a secret archive in the crypts or cellars beneath the cathedral and in the fortified building in another part of the city, of which only a few ruins remain. But there are a number of sacred shrines in the city still standing which are truly sacred to Rosicrucians and mystics of all kinds. Descendants of these knighthoods still live in St. Jean and hold secret meetings there.
We found the natives in the city and around the countryside typical of the Basque people, very friendly and intelligent, rather religious and certainly very spiritual and mystical, with distinct costumes and many original and distinctive customs and habits. They were happy, more or less carefree, very musical indeed, and we enjoyed a musical performance in one of their own strange kind of theaters where we found their costume dancing, their singing, and forms of entertainment very enjoyable but quite different from anything else we had ever seen or heard.
The Basque people have always had a very wonderful reputation as mystics and as pious people without hypocrisy or insincerity. Fundamentally, they are an unusually honest race of people devoting themselves mostly to agriculture, although they manufacture some artistic types of unique clothing or dresswear. The Basque hats have become quite well known throughout the world and are imported by many countries and especially France and England. They are typical of the beret type of headwear. The women are charming in their appearance and complexion, in their magnetic personalities, sweet voices, pleasant mannerisms, and extreme cleanliness. The men, of course, are very industrious, and as a race the Basque people have fought very hard to maintain their own provinces as independent and neutral in all worldly affairs.
Many nations have respected their independence and contributed toward a protection for them against the inroad of other nations, politically and socially. Today they are victims of circumstance and victims of warring conditions around them, much as Belgium was in the great World War. It is horrifying to think, however, that these people are losing their homes, their lands and everything that has been dear to them for centuries through no attitude of their own. Undoubtedly it is a Karmic condition which they earned sometime way in the past, and we hope that when the present Karma is paid or adjusted the Basque people will again arise to the same glorious—though certainly not materialistically wealthy—status in which they have existed during the past centuries.
To think of these sacred shrines and cathedrals and other things in their city being bombarded or razed through warfare is discouraging indeed.
Because of their method of living and their mystical qualities, there was a popular idea for many years that the so-called gypsies who tour around the world were from the Basque country and were really members of the Basque people. Some investigation has shown, however, that while many of these so-called gypsies did depart from the Basque countries on their tours throughout Europe and even to America, they did not originate in the Basque country, but passed through it and remained there for a time because they found the Basque customs and habits, and even style of clothing, easily adaptable. The socalled gypsy whom we see in musical comedies, plays, paintings, and of whom we read in stories, does appear in dress costume and personal adornment much like the people of the Basque country.
Undoubtedly the gypsies of the past fifty or a hundred years have purchased and used the costumes and clothing of the Basque people because they found them so colorful, so ornamental and distinctive, that the wearing of them helped to identify them in their journeys throughout the world. But the so-called and reputed bad habits of many of these wandering gypsies, especially the reputed or alleged dishonesty and unreliability, would prove that the gypsies were not really descendants of the Basque people and had not adopted the Basque habits along with the Basque clothing. Probably the gypsies also learned or acquired their wonderful singing and dancing abilities and love for music from the Basque people.
St. Jean de Luz is near the city of Biarritz, the famous Southern France fall and winter beach resort, but it is also near that very wonderful city of Pau, which is situated up on a high plateau of the foothills of the Pyrenees. Pau was the location of the wonderful chateau of Henry IV, King of Navarre. He later became leader of the Huguenots, and was one of the representatives at an international Rosicrucian convention. He was a very great leader of the Rosicrucian Knights and the Knights of the Temple, and it was unfortunate that his non-Roman Catholic position led him eventually into the religious wars, which was not typical of the Rosicrucian spirit.
Strange to say, when the various castles and chateaus of eminent lords and kings of Prance were seized because of their participation in the protection of the heretics or the non-Catholics, the wonderful castle of Henry IV at Pau was overlooked. It was not taken over by the church. It therefore remains intact today and, being upon a high plateau, the view from its gardens overlooks the nearby Pyrenees and is one of the most scenic places in Southern France. My wife and I have spent many days in the shadows of that chateau and have been through every one of its rooms, and have taken photographs in it. The old original furniture, including the original beds, chairs, tables, dining room and kitchen equipment, rugs, ornaments, pictures, and armor remain intact.
The whole section of Southern France between Pau and St. Jean de Luz is spotted with Basque influence and Rosicrucian mysticism and Rosicrucian ideas. Any of our members ever visiting Southern France should certainly visit Pau and St. Jean. The best way to reach it is by train from Paris to the city of Bordeaux where a few hours or a day or night can be spent, then taking the train for a very short ride either to Pau and then St. Jean, or St. Jean and then to Pau. The climate is very warm in the summertime but the months of September, October, and April and May are delightful, and even the winter months are comfortable.
