State of Confusion

Have you ever been confused, disoriented?

Confusion results from failure to behave predictably, a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought, an act causing a disorderly combination of elements with identities lost and distinctions blended, a mistake that results from taking one thing to be another. Lastly, not seeing or understanding the true nature of mind and the suffering in conditioned existence that results from it.


As I roam about this earth I have encountered individuals running around in a state of confusion.

Do you know what you are? Do you know your meaning here upon this earth? If not, are you pursuing the answer? Or are you running blind thinking you are in the right state of mind, when in actuality you are not.....

Many assume they know their path but when I look, I see only prey for I am a predator in every sense of the word. I smell the putrid confusion dripping off of these lost beings.

What happened to the lost sheep in the woods?

It was slayed by the wolf....


- Oculus Crepuscul

The Elements of Life

In the Goddess tradition, as in many other earth-based traditions, the elements that sustain life are sacred. The four elements of life - air, fire, water, and earth form a circle, with the fifthe element, spirit, as its center. Each of the first four elements of life represents one of the four directions. For us, air is the east, fire is the south, water is the west, and earth is the north. In your circles, you must work with the correspondences that feel right to you. The elements teach us about ourselves. Air, fire, water and earth represent our minds, our energy, our emotions, and our bodies. When we face a problem or a challenge, we can ask ourselves whether we've looked at it from the point of view of each element. What do we think? What energies do we notice? What feelings do we have? How are our bodies affected? What does our inner spirit tell us? The circle of the elements of life helps us to remember to consider the whole, not merely one part, of any question or decision.


When these four elements of life are present and in harmony, the fifthe element, spirit, or center, is created. Spirit is what we call conscience, character, intuition, or the small voice inside. In Goddess tradition, this is the place where aquired knowledge and our innate wisdom meet and are touched by the Goddess to form an inner spirit, a sense of direction that steers us away from harm and toward our life's purpose.


In the task of raising children in Goddess tradition, we find that just as the four eleemnts earth, air, fire, and water connect to make the sacred circle, these elements, when translated into human attributes, make the child a whole vibrant person. Our goal, as people who are rooted in the world view of the Goddess traditions, is to rais echildren who are empowered. Empowerment is that combination of self confidence, independent thought, intuition, and egagement with the world that enables us to live by our princicples and stand up for what we believe in. By creating an environment that empowers our children and ourselves, we strive to create a culture based on concern and compassion, rather than apathy and indifference.


In the following sections we discuss each of the five elements and their primary associated qualities as they relate to child rearing and self-development. We focus on realistic goals and common sense strategies that we can all draw from, regardless of our personal preferences on a number of issues.


Fire


All life on earth depends on the energy of the sun. Plants use that energy directly to live and grow. Animals must eat plants or other animals. But directly or indirectly, we are all sustained by the sun.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is brightest and hottest when it shines at high noon from the south. Therefore south is the direction we associate with fire.


Fire is also the element that warms our houses and cooks out food. the hearth fire is sacred in every earth-based tradtion, for fire is the living heart of the home. Before, television, people would gather before a fire to tell tales and sing songs during the long nights of winter, We still love to sing around a campfire or chant over a ritual fire in the center of our circles.


Fire is also dangerous. Like all thing of power, fire demands respect. A curtain wafting across a candle can burn down a home. The summers are dry where we live, and a careless match or stray spark can ignite a wildfire that may burn thousands of acres and hundreds of homes. Learning to knowfire means learning how to use fire safely and how to put a fire out. Fire reminds us that we are all responsible for each other's safety.
Fire is the symbol of human energy as well as the sun's energy. Health, strength, enthusiasm, and passion are qualities of fire. When we direct our energies, when we focus on a goal, we use our will, one of the powers we find in this eleement. Fire is connected to all forms of magic that direct energy, especially healing and protection.


The time of day connected to fire is, of course, high noon, just as the season is high summer. The colors of fire are red, orange, and bright golden yellow. The lion, because of its bright golden color and wild, dangerous power is often seen as a symbol of fire. So is the dragon, with its fiery breath. Legends tell us that salamanders could live in fire - but don't test the myth with any of the ones you may find!


Brigit, of course, is the Goddess of the sacred flame of poetry, healing and the forge. Pele is the Hawaiian Goddess of the volcano. Hestia is the Greek Goddess of the hearth. Lugh is the Celtic sun God. Wayland Smith is the ancient God of the forge. Set is the anceint Egyptian God of the hot desert sun. There are many more Gods and Goddesses of fire. On our altars, a candle flame brings the presence of fire to our rituals. The tool of fire in our tradition is the wand, which is used to direct energy, and wands are oftenmade of wood, which burns. You can make a wand of your own by cutting (with adult help if working with a wee one) a small branch from you favorite tree. Be sure to ask the tree's permission, and leave an offering.


Water


Life began in water, in the currents of the primeval ocean, and living things need water to survive. Our bodies are mostly water, and our blood is similar to seawater in its chemistry. Water carries nutrients to all the cells of our bodies and cleanses our wastes. Clean, sweet water is sacred to all people who honor life.


Water moves in a great cycle around the globe. Rain falls on the earth, bringing life to plants, soaking the soil or collecting in streams and rivers that flow to the sea. The great tides and currents of the ocean sustain sea life from the tiny plankton tot he great whales, influencing the weather, wearing away the shore. Water evaporates from the surface of the waves, forming clouds that bring the rain, and so the cycle begins again.


The summers are very dry where I live, so the first rains of winter are especially sacred. Suddenly new life appears. Seeds sprout, and grasses begin to grow. Our winters are often very wet, and rain comes down for days and days. Dry streams spring to life and rivers widen their flow. In flood years, we see the imense power of water to break through obstacles and carry away anything that blocks its flow. In drought years, water becomes extremely precious to us, and we learn to guard every drop carefully.


Water also represents our feelings and emotions. After all, our feelings flow and change like wtaer. We can bathe eah other in love and appreciation, but we can also rage and storm like the ocean waves crashing against the shore. When we honor all our feelings, the ones we think of as positive and those we think of as negative, we can choose how to act so that our emotions feed life. When we know our anger, we can choose to act peacefully. When we admit our fear, we can choose to act with courage.
For us, water is in the west, the direction of the ocean and the rain. Its time of day os the gray twilight, and its season is autumn, when the rains return. The colors of water are blue, blue- green, and gray. All water animals ~ all fish and sea creatures, including dolphins, whales, and the wise salmon ~ are symbols of water.


Tiamat, the ancient Babylonian sea seropent goddess, was mother of all the Gods. Aphrodite, Greek Goddess of love, is also Goddess of the sea. Brigit carries the power of the holy well along with the sacred flame. Oshun is the Yoruba Goddess of the river and of love, art, and culture. Yemaya is the Mother Goddess of the ocean. Ba'al is the Canaanite God of storms and the returning rains of winter. Tlaloc is the Toltec God of rain. Mananan mac Lir is the Welsh God of the sea, while Poseidon is the Greek ocean God, whose horses are the wild waves.


On the altar, the symbol of water and traditional tool is the cup or chalice. Seashells, water-smoothed stones, and images of water creatures can also be used.


Spirit


We have gone around the wheel of the elements and visited all four directions. Now we come to the center, the place of that mysterious fifth element we call "spirit," although we could just as well call it "mystery." The center is the place of change and transformation, and this element is not so much of a physical presence but the sense of connection that puts us in touch with the great powers of life and death. Spirit might also be called "relationship," as the center is the place where we connect with the Goddess and God, with our traditions, and with prayer, blessing, meditations, and personal practice. Another name for this section might be "core values," for here we contemplate ethics, right and wrong, and our responsibility to be healers, peacemakers, and protectors of the earth and her peoples.


Spirit is timeless. It corresponds to the whole cycle of the day and night, the whole wheel of the year, and the realm beyond time. Its color is clear ~ or the rainbow, which contains all colors. All the Goddesses and Gods can be considered as aspects of the center.


The traditional tool of the center is the cauldron, the magic soup pot that combines the earth/metal of the container, the fire below and the air to feed it, and the water within to bring about transformation. The drum, which holds the heartbeat of a circle and keeps a large group unified, is also a tool of center. Many symbols can be used on the alter to represent spirit. One of our favorites is a mirror, for our connection to the sacred must be found inside each one of us.


Earth


The Earth ~ Rocks, minerals, and the living soil beneath our feet. Plants draw energy from the sun, but they are nourished by the earth. Seeds are planted beneath the ground to begin their lives. The dead bodies of animals and plants are taken back to the soil to feed new life.


We think of earth as a solid thing, but soil is amazingly complex. A square foot of good garden soil is like an underground city full of space, caverns, crystalline arches, and mineral bridges, all teeming with life. Soil contains air, so that life within can breathe, and carries water to sustain billions of soil creatures and feed the roots of plants. When we truly understand the marvelous world below us, we can protect the soil from erosion by wind and water, and learn to help build new, rich soil where plants can grow. Gardening, tending trees and plants, and caring for animals are all ways to honor and protect the sacred earth.


The earth is the element that stands for our bodies. Our physical bodies are sacred, and we must take care of ourselves as we take care of the earth. All the food we eat, all the things we make and do and use, are part of this element. Because good soil is often dark, the color of the earth is black and its time is midnight. The green of living plants and growing things is also a good earth color. Its direction is north, the one quarter of the sky where in the Northern Hemisphere the sun never travels, and its season is winter, the time of darkness when seeds sleep beneath the ground. Plants, trees, and all land animals, especially big ones such as bulls and bears, are symbols of earth.


Gaia (GUY-yuh) is the ancient Greek Goddess whose name means "earth." Demeter was the Goddess of grain and agriculture. Eriu was the Irish Goddess who gave her name to the land itself. In many Native American stories, Corn Mother is the sacred being whose body feeds the people. Cernunnos is the Celtic Horned God, the God of animals. The Green Man in all his aspects is the God of plants and trees. Ogun is the Yoruba Lord of the forest. Robin Hood is an old English forest God. There are many, many more Goddesses and Gods of earth, of particular plants and animals, and of sacred places.


Symbols of earth for the altar can be stones, crystals, rocks, or living plants. Leaves, grain, fruits, flowers, and vegetables can also be used. The traditional tool of earth is the pentacle, a five- pointed star in a circle, often inscribed on a plate or made of metal. Its five points stand for the four elements, plus the fifth, spirit. They also stand for the five senses, for our five fingers and toes, and for the human body with legs apart and arms uplifted to invoke the Goddess. The circle around it stands for the wheel of life. For us, the pentacle is a symbol of wholeness and balance, and of the ancient mysteries of our tradition.


Air


Every Moment of our lives, we must breathe in order to survive. Air carries sounds and scents, and its clarity allows light to pass through so that we can see. Air is invisible, except when other things move in response to its motion, when the wind makes branches dance and leaves fly, or bends the grasses down as it passes.


We share breath with all life. Like other re-blooded creatures, we breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide,which is used by plants and trees to transform the pure energy of the sun into food for all living things. Plants and trees give off oxygen, which we breathe in, and so a balance is sustained. We honor air as the breath of the Goddess and the gift of our most ancient fellow living creatures.


In our tradition, we associate air with the east, the direction of dawn or sunrise. Because air is invisible, we identify it with the parts of ourselves that are important but cannot be seen: our mind, our vision, our thoughts, and our dreams. Air represents knowledge and understanding, which we gain by looking closely at what is around us. Air is connected with springtime, the dawn of the year. The animals of air are, of course, birds and all flying insects,such as dragonflies and butterflies. Air's colors are pale pinks, yellows, and whites.


Some of the Goddesses of air are Iris, the Greek Goddess of sunrise and the rainbow, and Oya, Yoruba Goddess of the whirlwind and sudden changes. Boreas is the Greek God of the wind; Hermes is the power of thought and communication. Elegba, th Yoruba trickster, translates human language into that of the Orishas, the great powers of the universe. All could be invoked for the gifts connected with air.


Symbols of air to place on your altar might be feathers, incense or other good-smelling things, fans, pinwheels, or kites. In our tradition the tool of air is the athame, the Witch's knife. It stands for thepower of the mind to seperate things, to say: "I am me and you are you and we are not the same." Clearly, a knife is an inappropriate tool for young children. Substitutes might be a pair of scissors or a pen (the pen is mightier than the sword).

How To Easily Tap Into Your Subconscious Mind Power

The subconscious mind is the source of emotion as well as the depository of memories. The conscious mind is the command center of the will as well as the facility of receptiveness. The subconscious mind is utterly submissive to the conscious mind. The conscious mind is the leads, loves and protects while the subconscious follows, respects and trusts. Therefore, the subconscious mind is the assistant of the conscious mind.

When the conscious and subconscious minds are in harmony, the entire mind is whole in its functioning. A fully functioning whole mind is productive, creative and healthy in its endeavors. However, when the harmony is unbalanced within the two minds it dysfunctions and consequently there is a destructive collapse.

Personal reality is created by the beliefs of the subconscious mind. While the conscious mind transmits, a thought into the subconscious mind to create a belief that is then manifested into reality.

When you consciously assume that something is true, your subconscious mind accepts it as truth. When the subconscious mind believes something to be true it goes about drawing the conditions needed to indeed make it truth.

The power of the subconscious mind is stimulated or tarnished in accord to the thoughts of the conscious mind. If the conscious mind distinguishes prosperity, the subconscious mind produces prosperity. The reverse can also be stated concerning the aspects of the conscious and subconscious mind.

How and what you think about yourself dominates your outcome of events. That is to say, the energy you put into thought returns to you in a like way, if the energy that you project to the universe is positive, by nature positive is returned to you.

Recognize the essential value of consciously choosing the thoughts you maintain each day. Keep your thoughts and actions focused on what you really want to create in your life reality, for thoughts as well as actions are indeed living energy.

You can tap into power of your subconscious mind by acknowledging quanta energy. Quanta are a plural form of Quantum. Quantum physics is a study of the universe's building blocks, or the frame of its structure. In the world of quantum physics, every single particle, which are considered quanta, is a form of concentrated energy. All the particles of energy are basically the same type of associated particles.

The difference is found in the way which particles are together grouped into even larger frame structures. Learning how they operate is key in understanding how to create yourself and the world around you. The secret is that your recurring emotions and thoughts can and will revise your life's path. The process of creating your reality by the use of both the conscious and subconscious mind is called manifestation.

So basically, you own thoughts manifest themselves into your own reality. How you make use of this information of bringing about a change of reality determines the results, whether they are positive or negative.

When you take time out to create the life or reality you want to draw to you, you are in fact influencing the Quantum Field. As energy is attracted to its own like energy, and the associated energy produces a physical effect.

Your emotional state is a central influence of your physical state. Your reality is fundamental to your choice of thoughts and intentions. You must take charge of your thoughts to take charge of your reality, as the outside and inside are reflections of each other.

Changing the negative things you think by replacing them with positive thoughts gives you the power to tap into your subconscious mind power. Once you have taken positive charge of your circumstances, everything positive will follow suit. Remember like attracts like.

Once you have taken charge of your subconscious thoughts and beliefs, you are able to draw to you the things you seek by putting the law of attraction to work.

When you choose what you wish to perceive, that which you choose to perceive should be chosen with conviction and single-mindedness, this will cause the quantum field of energy to manifest over time the reality that you seek, and it all depends upon your clarity of focus and confidence that your reality will be manifested.

It takes an intense desire to cause reality to change, all that is needed is knowing the possibility of manifestation can be accomplished with a change of attitude and intentions, putting effort into creating your day, your reality causes quanta energy to arrange the things you truly wish for to come to you.

Magickal Arts :)

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Chaosphere Experience

PASCHAL BEVERLY RANDOLPH

Physician, Philosopher, world traveler, Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis; Hierarch of Eulis and the Ansaireh; member of L’Ordre du Lis of France; the Double Eagle of Prussia, and Order of the Rose of England, was born in the city of New York, October 8, 1825.
His father was William Beverly Randolph, a nephew of John Randolph of Virginia; his mother, Flora Beverly, a native of Vermont, was of mixed East Indian, French, English, German and Madagascan blood.

Randolph’s mother died when he was but five years of age. A half-sister took him into her house, without, however, making a home for him, or in the least endeavoring to educate him, or in any way guiding or instructing him. In order to exist he had to lead the life of a beggar-child, minus schooling or moral-spiritual training, with the sole exception of one winter in a public school.

At the age of fifteen his life at the home became unbearable. He ran away and became a sailor, a life led by him until he was twenty. During this time he visited almost every part of the world and being keen of nature, gathered knowledge and experience, which he put to good use in later life.

Of his birth, Randolph himself wrote—and the analysis is keen and deep—and accounts, at least in greater part, for his extraordinary life:
“I was born in love, of a loving mother, and what she felt, that I lived. I am the exact living counterpart of her feelings, intense passions, volcanic, fiery; her love, like high heaven, deeper than death; her agony, terrible as a thousand racks; her hope and trust fervent, enduring, solid as steel; unbreakable as the lightning, which blazes in the sky.

“Her loneliness, I have been a hermit all my days, even in the midst of men; in a word, I am the exact expression of that woman’s state of body, mind, emotion, Soul, longings, spirit, aspirations, when she took in charge the incarnation of the soul of him who now is penning these lines.”

This view of Paschal Beverly Randolph is a high resolution scan of a rare photograph found in the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis archives located on the grounds of Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
Another writer who was acquainted with the parents of Randolph and had watched Randolph’s later career, said:
“It has long been brought against the Randolph that he is angular and eccentric. When was real trueborn genius otherwise? Flora, his mother, was a woman of extraordinary mental activity and great physical beauty, nervous, ‘high strung,’ and willful; a native of Vermont, of mingled Indian, French, English, German and [Royal] Madagascan blood. She had not a drop of Negro blood in her veins, nor consequently has her son. The tawny complexion of both mother and son came from her grandmother, a born Queen of the Island of Madagascar, of whom she was extraordinarily proud. The father of Randolph was William Beverly Randolph, of the proud family of that name of Virginia. His mother died in 1830, leaving her son practically an orphan. The so-called ‘angularity’, and genius of her son, had its origin in the fact that in his veins ran no less than seven distinct varieties, or strains of blood, but no Negroid; though there were no shame in this, were it true; but he is not a mulatto, quadroon or octoroon, as so frequently stated by his enemies, but is probably the most perfect specimen of the composite, or concrete man now living.

“It is unquestionably this mingling of various nationalities in him—and the accumulated Karma, both good and bad of the many lives—that constitute the source of his peculiar mental, psychic (Soul) power and almost marvelous versatility. It also accounts for his singular cerebral conformation.

“Given: a mother, herself a composite of conflicting bloods, very nervous, somewhat superstitious as all Orientals are; deeply poetical, vain as all beauty is; imaginative as are great Souls; aspiring as old Souls who have suffered much; deeply religious inborn as in advanced Souls; confiding and utterly trustful, stormy as are all who love deeply; intuitive and spiritual, due to much Karmic experience; imperative as are all of Royal birth; ambitious, physically and mentally active; quick as the lightning from heaven; exacting to a high degree; gay and gloomy by turns; now hopeful, then despondent; highly sensitive; innately refined due to past births; passionate and passional, tempestuous; now stubborn and headstrong, cold as ice, then Vesuvian, volcanic, loving, yielding, soft, tender, gentle, proud, generous, warm-hearted and voluptuous; and what must be the child of such a mother; but that which he is, a genius! Now in heaven, then in hell! comprehending, because suffering, both.

“Thus the mother—a mother while becoming so, which all too few are—Willed her child to be all she was, all its father was—whom she loved with all her heart—and yet more!—and the father willful, egotistic, boastful, haughty, vain, proud, conceited, sensuous, ambitious, dictatorial, intellectual, prodigal, unstable, variable, imperative; all these as a result of birth in an old and proud family; all these crystallized and condensed, mingled and mixed in their son; it will readily be understood that he came fairly by his angularities, eccentricities, personal appearance, talent, psychic and spiritual powers, his charm and ability to direct and fit into position, among all manner of men, kings as readily as beggars. Add to this the fact that while bearing him, his mother was in deep trouble; had been ill-treated by those she trusted as friends; was thrown back upon herself, forced to eat her own heart, as it were, and as a result, sought sympathy, guidance and peace among those who had attained and gone before, and no knowing ones will wonder that he was, like Saint Germain and Cagliostro, born a seer.”

This same writer who had watched the development of the run-away boy until he had become a worldwide recognized author and a power in the world, taking up the thread beginning with Randolph’s leave by ship from New York, wrote:

“After his mother’s death, he was literally cast adrift on the world; educating himself, never attending school above a year or two at the most. Incessant study, in part due to an inborn loneliness, made him probably one of the best read men in the country. From his twelfth to his twentieth year he was a sailor, and during this time he experienced even more than the usual amount of abuse and savage treatment.
“A severe accident—from which he never wholly recovered—that befell him while chopping wood, caused him to abandon the sea, and to learn the dyer’s and barber’s trades, at both of which he worked while pursuing his varied and extensive reading, especially on medicine, a profession he later followed with marvelous success, until the breaking out of the war for slavery, during the first two years of which he visited California, Mexico, Central and South America, England, Ireland, Scotland, France (the fourth time), Turkey, Greece, Syria (the second time), Egypt and Arabia.

“Returning at the hour of the nation’s greatest peril, he offered his services to the Government, raised and sent into the field a great many of the then despised colored soldiers destined for the ‘Fremont Legion,’ but later became part of other corps.

“In conjunction with these herculean labors he published his work on human antiquity, Pre-Adamite Man, ran it through three large editions, and then, at the President’s personal request, he went to Louisiana and for nearly three years, in addition to his duties as Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas, did noble duty as an educator of the freed people.”

Randolph had a clear understanding of his own nature. During the great trials and tribulations brought upon him by those whom he had fully trusted he wrote, and therein voiced an eternal truth:

“Perhaps people who understand ethnology will understand why I am what I am. From birth I breathed a rich, voluptuous atmosphere, because I breathed my mother’s sphere, and drank in love from her bosom—her very Soul.

“Is it any marvel then that my entire Soul was given up to studies of the master passion of human kind; or that I wrote book after book on love, life’s grandest theme? I myself think not, for I solemnly believe I was born [destined] for the purpose of talking and writing upon this eternal theme; for I began to love nearly a year before I was born, and have kept it up to this very hour.

“I do not feel that I ever was low in my taste, nor debased in the consummation; on the contrary, I have been inspired by a lofty love inherited from my mother, and this love has been with me since the hour she left me for heaven.

“My great trouble, a part of my nature, has been ready credulity. On that rock I have often stuck. When a man said he was my friend, or a woman—hundreds of both—told me they loved me, I unquestioningly believed both, and never yet failed to suffer for my too ready acceptance on my faith.

“This trait of my character has been the cause of nearly all my suffering, yet I could not help believing others, cannot even now, in this my most bitter hour [imprisoned because I so unquestioningly trusted], for my heart is full of love for all mankind, nor lurks therein any revengefulness toward any, even those who left my side when the storms came down, or the dark phalanx, who blindly cried havoc, and bitterly assailed me.

“I will not be a hypocrite either, and profess I love my foes, for I do not, nor do I believe any one else does, say what they may. On the contrary, I desire to see the wrong-doers punished —that is the Law—to see others suffer even as they made me suffer, until their Souls shall cry, ‘Hold, we have been wrong, the penalty is paid.’

“How curious a thing is fate or destiny! I firmly believe my lot was cast when for a time I should be entirely surrounded by cyprians, rogues, and hypocrites, as for the six months prior to April 16, 1872, that I might learn, and be ripened, as the sun shines in the sky and ripens the fruit upon which it shines. I do not hate nor accurse my enemies, nor yet turn the other cheek to be smitten again; I wish all of them a place in heaven, and the sooner they shall arrive there the quicker will I know that they have paid their debts of evil and wrong-doing. And yet, according to the eternal law all men should understand, the question arises: Can any of these men [or of any one] who have so deeply betrayed my faith and wronged me, ever be actually happy, whether dead or alive, so long as my Soul—Immortal as the eternal’s—be unable to free itself of the bitter memory [impression made upon it]; my life blasted by their inordinate love of gold and slander? I think not, and shall devote the next ten centuries of super-moral life to the solution of this very tremendous problem.

“Certain it is that, knowing something of the laws of mind, soul, justice, and of my own enduring and vehement nature, I cannot think they will enjoy heaven when I or anyone else continues to suffer as the result of their machinations. I believe this to be an eternal principle, imminent, positive, founded in mind and soul. When the world finally understands this Law, and governs itself accordingly, the good time coming will be close at hand! God speed the day when it shall be so understood and abided by!

“Every man who advocates ideas that the masses have not yet grown up to accept is denounced as a visionary; his sentiments misrepresented, his motives misjudged, his character traduced. He who designs to labor for the enlightenment and elevation of mankind must take it for granted that he will be denounced and derided, and must be prepared to forgive his oppressors and forget the ill, for they truly know not what they do.

“The ignorance of the multitude is great, and the majority of mankind are not prepared to understand or appreciate many of the most simple and evident truths. He who is unable to bear patiently all abuse, scorn and indifference, should not dare to enter the field of reform. But he who has prepared himself to accept poverty, deprivation, suffering and the disdain of those of his day; to labor on whether his contemporaries hear or refuse to listen, he shall do a work whose issue shall be everlasting, and whose memory shall not perish, but be resurrected after all of his time has passed on and is forgotten.”

Prior to 1854, Randolph had already become thoroughly familiar with the teachings of the Magnetists of France; with the precepts of Saint Germain and Cagliostro on Magnetic vision. These he compared with the inculcations of the Oriental seers and the writings of Paracelsus, Lane, Cuila Vilmara, Jennings, Lytton and others and was engaged in writing what later became his work—Seership. However, the work of Seership was temporarily delayed by his preparation to become, first: Supreme Grand Master of the Supreme Dome of the Rosy Cross of France and, second: Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas for the western world.

On his return to America, after his second trip to the Orient, Dr. Randolph was made acquainted with two members of the Council of Three of the Fraternitas, Drs. Fontaine and Bergevin of New York, who in turn gave him a letter of introduction to W. G. Palgrave of London, one of the members of the Inner Council of the Fraternitas of England, who in turn introduced Dr. Randolph to Hargrave Jennings. General Ethan Hitchcock introduced Dr. Randolph to the German Inner Council, and also sponsored him in France.

During the period between 1854 and 1856, it was decided by Count Guinotti and the World Council then sitting in Paris, that the time had come for a division of authority; the establishment of a Supreme Grand Master for Europe [England not included] and one for the Western World. This was finally consummated in 1858, as already mentioned.

In 1858 the Supreme Grand Dome met in Paris. The Conclave was opened by the Supreme Grand Master Levi. After the opening of the meeting in solemn form, Levi turned over the Wand to the Supreme World Hierarch, Count Guinotti, who, in ancient form, closed the Supreme Grand Dome and opened under the grand ceremonial of L’Ordre du Lis. Levi, in due order, at the behest of the Supreme Hierarch, gave up his seat as Supreme Grand Master of the Supreme Grand Dome, and Randolph was inducted before the Altar of the Three Fleur de Lis, and took the oath of both L’Ordre du Lis and as a Supreme Grand Master of the Supreme Grand Dome. After taking his seat, the Grand Ritual was performed, he stepped down from the chair, handed the Wand to Count Guinotti, who proceeded to recall Supreme Grand Master Levi to his seat and the proper officers proceeded to Initiate Dr. Randolph into his office as Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis for the Western World [North, Central and South America] and the Isles of the Sea.

On his return to America, Randolph occupied himself first of all in the formation of the Supreme Grand Dome for the Fraternitas, which up to that time was governed by the Secret Councils of Three and Seven, and to the preparation of texts. This was accomplished by 1860. Randolph then decided on a world tour for two specific purposes: (a) to cement his fellowship with all the members of the various Councils of the world; to contact as many as possible of the active Rose Cross or Philosophic Initiates, and (b) to collect material for several books he had in mind.

In the summer of 1861 he left for a ten-week series of lectures in San Francisco, and to establish the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis of the Western World on the shores of the Pacific.

After concluding this engagement, he visited Europe and the Orient to gather information respecting human antiquity and ontology, treading the spots made sacred because of their association and connection with the Nazarene, Mohammed, Plato and other great reformers, who for their particular age, gave the world a workable exposition of the Divine Law governing human behavior.

He successfully visited England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Malta, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Turkey and Greece. The first result of these travels was his celebrated book, Pre-Adamite Man, a work dedicated by direct request to President Lincoln, then a member of the Council of Three of the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis. This work concluded, Dr. Randolph, also at the President’s request, went to New Orleans to establish schools for the education of the freed children, a work somewhat marred by the wholly selfish interest of those who were against almost everything that both Lincoln and Randolph held dear.

During his visit to Syria, Randolph was permitted to finish his study of the Ansaireh secret teachings and was made a priest of the Ansaireh, something theretofore unknown. The result of these studies among the Ansaireh of Syria and his Initiation into their cult, was the interpretation of their teachings suitable to the western mind, as contained in his master text Eulis, a work for which evil minds persecuted and prosecuted him, but for which he was finally vindicated.

Alexander Dumas became a firm friend of Randolph during his various visits to France and declared that his life and adventures in various directions would easily afford the groundwork for a score of D’Artagnans, Monte Christos and “Admiral” Crichtons, in everything but wealth.

This more more frequently seen view of Paschal Beverly Randolph is also from a high resolution scan of a rare photograph found in the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis archives located on the grounds of Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
Another author of the period who knew Dr. Randolph well, wrote most truthfully:
“The pebbles [small annoying things] in our pathway make us more footsore than the huge rocks we stoutly climb. And it was the small annoyances, born of petty spite and envy that mostly grieved the subject of this sketch; but believing, with Lord Brougham, that ‘the word impossible is the mother-tongue of little Souls,’ Dr. Randolph never uttered or even thought it. ‘When I wrote my works,’ he said, ‘I meant [felt] every word I penned, hence decreed their immortality in advance.’ He spoke the truth. During the past twenty-five years, at least a score of thousands of new writers have tried their wings, and most of them, books and writers, have fallen into the deep sea of forgetfulness. Not so with those sent forth by the lone toiler in a garret. Take up and read nine hundred works out of nine hundred and ten, and when you finish their perusal, that’s the last of them for you. True, many of them may so impress themselves upon you that your memory of them will never wholly fade away; but take up any one of Randolph’s books, and the memory will so haunt you as to compel a rereading again and again, and every time you do so, fresh new thoughts will continually flash out upon you from their magic pages. The great mass of works are the labor of skilled talent, but Randolph’s are the bold, untrained utterances of Genius.

“If greatness consists partly in doing and producing much with means which, in the hands of the others, would have been insufficient, then Randolph possesses that constituent of greatness. If greatness means power and ingeniousness to concentrate the gifts and talents of many on one point, to inspire others with sympathy and enthusiasm for the same end, and to make them gladly contribute toward it, then he was great. If it is great to see from the earliest manhood the main end of one’s individual life, steadily pursuing it to the very end with the highest gifts of nature, then he was great. If greatness means to soar high in the one selected sphere; to be trivial or puerile in none—on the contrary, to retain a vivid sympathy with all that is noble, beautiful, true and just, then he was great. If it is a characteristic of greatness to be original and strike out on new paths; indeed, even to prophetic anticipations, then he was great. If greatness requires marked individuality, which yet takes up all the main threads that give distinctness to the times we live in, then he was great. If greatness means an inventive and interleaguing imagination that gathers what is scattered, and, grandly simplifies and unites the details, and rears a temple, then he was great, for his mind and Soul possessed greatness. Truly great men are not jealous and are void of envy. They are full of inspiring ambition, but free from a desire to keep competitors down. Randolph showed no envy, or anything else that destroys true greatness.

“No one ever heard from his lips any indication from which it might be surmised that he shared in that superciliousness with which modern philosophers and thinkers frequently look upon other sciences and branches of knowledge. On the contrary, he took the deepest interest in human society, and all the branches that treat of men and social beings. He never fell into the grievous error of considering matter, space, force and time of higher importance than mind, society, right and goodness.”

After the trial and vindication, Randolph wrote in soliloquy:

“Every genius is ticketed for misery in this life; for theirs is but an angular, one-sided, painful development. A few advantages are purchased at an enormous cost. A short, brilliant, erratic career, more kicks than praises; more flattering leeches than fast friends; rich and joyous today, houseless and suffering the pangs of hell tomorrow; understood by God alone; seldom loved till dead; the victims of viciously minded men, and the solitary pillars of life. Genius is a bright bauble, but a dangerous possession; invariably open to two worlds. They are assaulted, coaxed, flattered, led captive on all sides through their affectionate nature. Rest comes to them only with death; and peace comes only through the knowledge of having done their best. They are compelled to train all their previously neglected facilities to something like harmony with those few wherewith they startled the world. As an example: A man who is a great architect, musician, physiologist, painter, sculptor, poet, or reasoner, must cultivate all his other faculties until he becomes rounded out. He thus outgrows his special angularities, and develops into a different man altogether. As he does this, he is most apt to lose his genius and be no more than a common man. It is a blessed thing to be able, as I am, to tell all such, and all the other tearful, unknown, sad-hearted, weary Souls, the unpitied, unappreciated wives; the struggling, honest man who goes to the wall because he cannot pollute his Soul by chicanery and low knavery, whereby coarser men find thrift; I repeat, it is a joy to me this night to be able to pen these lines of assurance that in very truth there is rest, and peace, and sweet sleep, and comfort, and sympathy and appreciation; and there are warmly loving hearts waiting for them in the beyond; and how some of us will rest, when our year of jubilee shall come, and death sets us free.”

How weary and heavy the heart must be to pen such lines after hard-earned victory has been won!

One of Randolph’s Acolytes, after the conflict between justice and injustice, penned these lines of him in which he found immortal truths and the exposition of the Arcane laws affecting human existence.

“The heart alone can write of and for the heart…. The heart that has throbbed to the music of its own and others’ anguish—that has sickened at the greed and ingratitude, the unfeeling rush and scramble, the trampling down of other torn and bleeding hearts—until it has turned away from the world, all forgetful of the greatest benefactors, and in solitude showers upon its enemies thoughts such as only the great and good are capable of thinking.

“This greatest thought—that which the world will yet build monuments to—is not so much the corruption and abuse of society, as it is the remedy for the gigantic evils which stare civilization and heaven out of countenance.

“Religion has yet to learn the fact which science is slowly demonstrating, and which Dr. Randolph so well understood; that salvation must be physical and mental as well as spiritual [This is Levi’s law of the Duad, the holy trinity, which is part of all that exists.] There can be no half-way work about it. We are as much—in very truth, much more—physical as spiritual, and so long as we remain so, we must have a body and a mind in addition to spirit.

“Love has its physical moods and modes as well as its spiritual inclinations. The basis of a full love is health, and the basis of health is harmony, or a well-balanced union of the body, mind and spirit—the equilibrium all Philosophic Initiates have taught. From palpable facts we reach the hidden. Through the body we reach the mind, and through its crystal walls the spirit. Spirit [the life of the Soul] is God. It rules the world, and in us, our own mind, and through this the body. The power of our spiritual self rules our world; but this power depends upon purity. How can there be purity of the spiritual being within, and how can it use the body if that body be loaded down with the filth and rubbish of false conditions; false conditions that are the result of our own follies and acts, likewise with diseases of the body? I am very well aware of the great hue and cry about “prenatal” conditions; but I have yet to learn that the child in embryo is not the cause of the peculiarities of the mother while enceinte. In either case, we who love and loathe cannot shirk the responsibilities and penalties of our acts, no matter what the cause. The measure of humanity is love—not the bastard thing accepted by society as love; but the heart’s love based on physical health and mental purity. How many of those bearing the human form have actually reached the status of being truly human? The measure of Godhood in man is his power of self-control. How many are there not blown hither and yon, like dry leaves in an autumn wind, by trifles beneath the notice of a great mind? Many are tormented to distraction for a new dress, or for the want of something a more fortunate neighbor has, and making a hell of what is called a home; where heaven, all smiles and joy, should sit all the year ‘round. How devoid of manhood to vend one’s way homeward, nervous and sour of disposition because, forsooth, some one has overreached or thwarted him in his business?

“All there is in us worth Immortalizing, worth preserving and presenting to the Infinite is our love nature and our Will power; which must begin at home [as does charity], if at all. By virtue of our Will we control ourselves, and when we are perfect masters of ourselves—our passions, thoughts, desires, etc., we will be Masters of God’s universe of lesser Nature. How many are there who can truly say in the face of adverse storms, and feel what they say: ‘Let the winds blow high or low, the thunders of evil roll, and the lightning’s glare, I am above it all. Do your worst—I was here first!’

“Disease and Purity are antagonists; strangers! Do you foolishly believe that death is going to do for you that which you failed to do for yourself and that death will eliminate the evils which you should have eliminated yourself? Foolish thought! We make our summer and winter ourselves, and you and I will be tomorrow what we make of ourselves today. Eternity! Today is eternity. A truly healthy [normal] mind in an impure or diseased body is an impossibility.”

Dr. Randolph, like Saint Germain and Cagliostro, both Initiates of the Orient, in all his writings had very little to say of the Fraternity over which he had the honor to preside. Perhaps the most lucid and revealing statement made by him was during the trial in 1872, when it was necessary to make some mention of it:

“This Order of men [over which I preside] is divided into three parts [the Trinity, or Duad of Levi], corresponding to the universal and multiform trinity. The first division is known as Volantia, because its main object is the culture of the human Will. The Division upon which this is based is thousands of years old, and in Oriental lands is known as ‘Merek el Gebel’ or the Gate of Light.

“The second division is known as Rosicrucia, and in the East is known as the Door of the Dawn, in the West as The Door. It is of Ansairetic origin. The distinctive degree of this division is Decretism, or the culture of the Triple Will. It is mystic, profound; has as its object the development of all inherent and but-little-dreamed-of human energies and powers, not with reference to things of the fleeting moment, but of stable and eternal principles, having their rise on earth, their culmination in the eternal beyond.

“The third division of the Order is known as the Dome, is Chaldaic in origin; Pythagoric in essence and philosophy, and in the Orient is known among its members as The Mountain. Its distinctive degree is Posism, the practical use of Knowledge, Will and Agape [not carnal, unbridled passion, but celestial love, nonphysical, hypersensuous, and therefore transcendental].”

This is an exoteric statement of the teachings and the training of the Arcane Fraternity. No one can form even a conception of their nature who has not attained to at least the second division, that of Rosicrucia.

RESUMÉ

Due to the importance of Dr. Randolph’s position as the first Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis of the Western World, a resumé of his activities is not out of order:

Born October 8, 1825, in New York City.

His mother left him an orphan at the age of five.

Enlisted as a sailor boy at the age of fifteen.

Travelled in many countries until he was twenty years old, i.e., 1845.

Between the years of 1845 and 1850 he studied medicine and the Arcane science.

In 1850 he was in Germany and was admitted to the meeting held by the Fraternitas Rose Crucis at Frankfort on Main as a member of the First degree. There he met General Hitchcock, who quickly recognized in him the person to become Supreme Grand Master of the Western World. He was there introduced to Charles Trinius and Count Guinotti.

In Paris during 1854 he finished his studies in the practice of skrying by means of water, ink and the magic Mirrors, as followed by Count Cagliostro and Saint Germain, and laid plans for the publication of his work on Seership.

In England, then in France in 1856, in preparation for induction as Supreme Grand Master of the Western World of the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis.

In Paris 1858, inducted as Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis of the Western World and the Isles of the Sea, and created a Knight of L’Ordre du Lis.

In London 1861, where he was made a member of the Order of the Rose and received with honors by the Supreme Grand Master Hargrave Jennings of England. Thence to the Orient, where he received final Initiation into the Ansaireh of Syria and was inducted as Hierarch of the Ansaireh; then traveled through other countries of the Orient and back to America, via France, in 1863, as Hierarch of the Ansaireh or Imperial Eulis.

Dr. Randolph was the author of many books, among them:

Pre-Adamite Man, seven editions.

After Death, or, Disembodied Man, six editions.

The New Mola, a treatise of Magnetism.

Love, Woman, Marriage, eight editions.

Love; Its Hidden Mysteries, eight editions. Companion to above.

Seership; the Mysteries of the Magnetic Universe, seven editions.

Ravalette; the story of Initiation, five editions.

Soul, the Soul World; the experience of the Soul in the Beyond.

The Rosicrucian’s Story.

Hermes Mercurius Tnismegistus, his Divine Pymander.

Paschal Beverly Randolph, Supreme Grand Master of the Fratennitas Rosæ Crucis; Brotherhood, Order, Temple and Fraternity of the Rosy Cross and Hierarch of Imperial Eulis, died July 29, 1875, and was succeeded in office by Freeman B. Dowd, who had been trained, and directed by Randolph and selected as his successor in 1871.