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vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
< Sir,—In The Spiritualist (continued from page 8-316) >
leon? Of course, it will be objected that a prince anglais is specified, but oracles have always been privileged to palter with us in a double sense, and to use words in a way apart from their obvious meaning, and which only becomes clear after fulfilment, often avowedly with the intent of diverting attention from the quarter actually meant. Could the old wizard be questioned he might perhaps say that the hapless prince’s English residence, training, and environments, the way in which he lost his life in the service of England, and the marked manner with which England has taken him to herself sufficiently entitled him, for prophetic purposes at least, to be termed “English” till events should show. Save that word, all else fits.
Sir,—At fifteen minutes past three on the morning of the 16th of March, 1856, in latitude 48° 50′ N., the Imperial Prince, son of Louis Napoleon, Emperor of the French, was born. He recently, as everyone knows, met with a violent death in a distant land.
At the hour of birth 10 degrees of the sign Capricorn were rising, and there is no planet near the ascendant. Persons born within this sign, according to the rules of astrology, are “of a dry constitution, slender make, with a long thin face, thin beard, dark hair, long neck, narrow chin and breast, weak knees, and often deformed. Disposition subtle, witty, but changeable; at times melancholy, capricious as a goat.” As the moon is probably hyleg (or Giver of Life) in this figure, she being posited in the seventh house in the sign Cancer, presumably this planet will have considerable effect in giving the physical and mental conformation of the native. The moon in Cancer shows a person “of middle stature, well-made, and fleshy, fair complexion, round face, rather pale, brown hair; of a sociable, pleasing, courteous disposition, kind to all, harmless and respected.” The “moon has always great influence over the constitution, whether hyleg or not.” The reader is left to form his own conclusions as to which of these two signs most stamped their ideality upon the deceased. There are many interesting points in the figure to which it will not be necessary to allude, but I pass on at once to the particular aspects which declare, in unmistakable terms, what mad folly it was for him to thrust himself into strife; Any astrologer, by a single glance at the figure, could unhesitatingly have affirmed that disaster would follow his military pursuits. Mars, the great astrological factor in war, is posited in the ninth house (long journeys), and is retrograding into the eighth, or house of death, being within six degrees of entering. The moon is just beyond the cusp of the seventh (in the house of his public enemies), and Mars, from his evil position, is squaring both the moon (hyleg) and the ascendant. Be it remembered that the moon is posited in the house of the native’s foes, and that Mars throws the fatal aspect to both the moon and the ascendant. Turning to the rules of the art we note that “the ascendant to the square of Mars is a very evil direction, giving sickness of the nature of Mars, and the sign he is in. Accidents, cuts, burns, stabs, hot diseases, and rarely escaping loss of blood.” . . . The moon to the square of Mars gives “mischief to body and mind, accidents, misfortunes, imprisonment, and loss of property. He has diseases, according to the sign Mars is in. If the moon be hyleg he is in danger of death by fire, cuts, wounds, bites, kicks, or gunshot. He is quarrelsome, inclined to bear arms, or become acquainted with military men, and is addicted to vices according to the sign Mars is in.” The sun in the second house is squared from the sixth (sickness) by Saturn, the greater malefic, and Uranus is on the cusp of the fourth. Noting these aspects of the planets and referring to the rules, again we find “when the ascendant is afflicted, and both the evil planets attack the sun and moon, or only one of them, a remarkable death generally takes place. An evil planet in the eighth house (or retrograding into it) is a testimony of a painful death.”
We leave these facts to speak for themselves, with the simple observation that the Prince Imperial was never destined to thrive in arms. His first “baptism of fire” in Europe was a disastrous one, and that in Africa was fatally so; but the end of all his military exploits was clearly written in his own horoscope, and his decease adds further accumulative testimony to the truth of astrology.
The Upper Windows of the Soul.—Our soul can very well be compared to a tower that has two sets of windows, one opening towards the earth and the other towards Heaven. * * * Allegory apart, our souls are endowed with two orders of faculties; one belonging to the animal part of our nature and the other to the spiritual. By one set we communicate with the world of senses and by the other with things that transcend them. Now there is diversity of opinions about the use and destiny of these faculties of the soul. There are not a few who would have us believe that the lower set were rather a mistake on the part of the Divine architect, that to despise them, ill-treat them, neglect them, to starve them, nay, if it is possible, even to crush them were in themselves acts of great virtue. Whereas others would have us shut up the upper windows altogether. Prayer, they say, is needless and communion immaterial. It is of little consequence whether we pray or not pray, we are neither losers by the one nor gainers by the other. This class of men is to be found not only among materialists, sceptics, and unbelievers; but, what is more strange and more lamentable, even among men who profess a belief in God and Immortality. Devotion they look upon as superflous exercise, consequently mere waste of time. They lay the greatest stress upon work, and almost no importance upon worship as a duty. But those who have ever prayed sincerely and held communion with the infinite spirit have quite other experiences to record. They must have known occasions in their life, high moments of spiritual ecstacy, when through these upper windows of the soul that communion opens, they felt the sweet breath of the celestial spheres creeping over their spirits and mild light of heaven dawning upon their eye-sight; in those moments truths that were often heard and often forgotten received strange confirmation; new truths that had long escaped spiritual perception flashed before their mental gaze and emotions that long slept in the inner chambers of the soul started into sudden life. Call this inspiration, call this the action of divine grace on the soul of man, call it by any other name, it is what it is—it is a fact of devotional experience. It is necessary for our spiritual welfare that we should pay due regard to the culture of this faculty. At first we feel some difficulty in fettering down the pinions of the restless mind and lose ourselves in the contemplation of the Unseen, but habit and continued effort make it comparatively easy, till we enter upon a new sphere of spiritual life and learn to drink deep the joys of the unseen world.—Brahmo Public Opinion.
The following remarks by the Mirror regarding the effects of English Education in Bengal to a great extent hold good of this side of the country and we present them to the reader for his earnest consideration as showing the urgency of religious improvement before all other questions of national regeneration and reform:—
A wonderful ferment is going on everywhere in Native society, and so great is the change daily wrought that a person who was familiar with Bengal a decade ago, is unable to recognise it today. The only thing necessary to give all this ferment a healthy look is religion. If our countrymen recognise the needs of a religion, their progress will be tenfold more rapid than it is now. Reason has done much to destroy the errors of their national creed. We doubt if a really educated man can be a sincere Hindu. Every one among us has eschewed some error, renounced some idols internally bowed to some Sudra as a superior being. But, with so much of real enlightenment within, we are grieved to confess the progress of construction does not keep pace with that of destruction. The fact is that though English education has destroyed many errors, it has not given our countrymen moral courage to enable us to proclaim that it has done so. An educated Native still remains an idolator. He still fasts, still observes caste, still does penance, still sticks to the pernicious customs which superstition has engendered. If he had been religious, he would have boldly renounced his errors, and openly embraced whatever is true, noble, and good. It is religion which purifies society and strengthens the national heart. Not all your intellectual progress, not all your political triumphs, can add an iota to the national greatness, unless the heart is sustained, strengthened and ennobled by higher thoughts and aspirations. We honor the great and good men who are striving to make the nation great. But they should remember that originality, firmness, strength, devotion, patience and heroism all come of God. To attempt to regenerate the fatherland without the help of the great Father of all, is as ineffective as it would be to drive a steam engine without invoking the aid and power of the sublime Agni. We wish our countrymen remembered this on every occasion of their life. Dr. D. B. Smith, at the Hare Anniversary alluded to elsewhere, adverted to the more than race-horse rapidity of the progress through which Bengal is passing, and asked in what spirit should she go on advancing in the future. A very pertinent question, we can assure him—the great question of the hour. “In attempting,” he said, “to answer such a question, I am inclined to think that she cannot very well regulate her progress better than in the spirit of a sentiment, which was, I believe, uttered thousands of years ago by a pious Brahmin. The sentiment I allude to has been translated, as follows, by the learned Ruckert: (Wisdom of the Brahmins):—
“Devoutly look and nought |
Yes, it is this spirit of devotion devotion to truth, to duty and to God, that will save India and enable her to take her proper rank in the scale of nations.
at the Theosophists.
“Punch”—?[4]
Editor's notes
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 363, August 8, 1879, p. 71