HPB-SB-3-184: Difference between revisions
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<center>From the Odd Fellows’ Banner</center> | |||
{{HPB-SB-item | {{HPB-SB-item | ||
| volume = 3 | | volume = 3 | ||
| page = 184 | | page = 184 | ||
| item =1 | | item = 1 | ||
| type = article | | type = article | ||
| status = | | status = proofread | ||
| continues = | | continues = | ||
| author = | | author = | ||
| title =Thoughts | | title = Thoughts | ||
| subtitle = | | subtitle = | ||
| untitled = | | untitled = | ||
| source title = | | source title = Spiritual Scientist | ||
| source details = | | source details = v. 5, No. 6, October 12, 1876, p. 64 | ||
| publication date = | | publication date = 12-10-1876 | ||
| original date = | | original date = | ||
| notes = | | notes = | ||
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... | The day was closing in, as I sat watching the scarcely moving foliage of a neighboring elm, my mind gradually sank into a state of luxurious repose amounting to total unconsciousness of the busy sights and sounds of earth. | ||
It seemed to me as if I were seated by a calm, deep lake, surrounded by graceful and breezy shrubbery, and listening to most delicious music. The landscape different from anything I had ever seen. Light seemed to be in everything, and emanate from everything, like a glory. Yet I felt at home; and could I see a painting of it, I should know it as readily as the scene of my childhood. | |||
And so it is with a multitude of thoughts that come suddenly into the soul, new as visitants from farthest Saturn, yet familiar as a mother’s voice. Whence more than poetry? Have we indeed formerly lived in a Inminous and shadowless world, where all things wear like garments? Are our bright and beautiful thoughts but casual glimpses of that former state? Are all our hopes and aspirations nothing but recollections? Is it to the fragments of memory's broken mirror we owe the thousand fantastic forms of grandeur and loveliness which fancy calls her own? | |||
And the gifted ones who now and then blaze upon the world, and “darken nations when they die,” do they differ from other mortals in more cloudless reminiscences of their heavenly home? | |||
Or are we living separate existences at one and the same time? Are not our souls wandering in the spirit land, while our bodies are on earth?'' ''And when in slumber, or deep quietude of thought, we cast off this “mortal coil,” do we not gather up images of reality, that seem to us like poetry?'' ''Might not the restless spirit of Byron have indeed learned of “archangels ruined,” those potent words, which, like infernal magic, arouse every sleeping demon in the human heart? | |||
Are dreams merely visits to our spirit home; and in sleep are we really talking with the soul oi those whose voice we seem to hear! | |||
As death approaches and earth recedes, do we not more clearly see that spiritual world in which we have all along been living, though we knew it not? The dying man tells as of attendant angels hovering round him. Perchance it is no vision. They might have been with him, but hit inward eye was dim, and he saw them not What is that mysterious expression, so holy and so strange, so beautiful, yet fearful, on the countenance of one whose lout had just departed?'' ''Is it the glorious light of attendant seraphs, the luminous shadow of which rests awhile on the face of the dead? Does infancy owe to this angel host its peculiar power to purify and bless? | |||
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| volume = 3 | | volume = 3 | ||
| page = 184 | | page = 184 | ||
| item =2 | | item = 2 | ||
| type = article | | type = article | ||
| status = | | status = proofread | ||
| continues = | | continues = | ||
| author = | | author = | ||
| title =A Message from Luxor | | title = A Message from Luxor | ||
| subtitle = | | subtitle = | ||
| untitled = | | untitled = | ||
| source title = | | source title = Spiritual Scientist | ||
| source details = | | source details = v. 2, No. 8, April 29, 1875, p. 90 | ||
| publication date = | | publication date = 29-04-1875 | ||
| original date = | | original date = | ||
| notes = | | notes = | ||
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. | The readers of the Scientist will be no more surprised to read the circular which appears on our first page than we were to receive the same by post, since the appearance of our last number. Who may be our unknown friends of the “Committee of Seven,” we do not know, nor who the “Brotherhood of Luxor,” but we do know that we are most thankful for this proof of their interest, and shall try to deserve its continuance. | ||
And what Luxor is meant? {{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|*}} .. | Can anyone tell us anything of such a fraternity as the above? And what Luxor is meant?{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|*}} Is it the ancient city of that name, whose majestic ruins, afford but a faint idea of the splendor of its prime? Once a metropolis whose smallest public building must have eclipsed in size any of modern times, it is now a desolate waste, guarded only by a handful of Arabs, whose flocks graze the avenues that in past ages glittered with wealth, and who dare not enter it by night for fear of the ''Afrites, ''or unprogressed spirits; who flit with noiseless footsteps through the deserted passages and chambers, underground. Travellers tell us of grand rooms in the temples the walls of which are ablaze with frescoes of quaint device which looks as fresh as if the paint were laid on but yesterday. Can it be that the shades of the departed Magi, banded together into a Council, meet there to rule the spiritual destinies of mankind? | ||
... | It is time that some Power, terrestrial or supernal, came to our aid, for, after twenty-seven years of spiritual manifestations, we know next to nothing about the laws of their occurrence. Have we learnt aught concerning mediumship, its cause, its perils, its possibilities, its advantages? Have we examples of the cooperation of spirits with mortals upon equal terms, or the subserviency of the latter to the former, as in some cases is meet and proper? Mediumship in our day seems to be synonymous with Slavery, and it really appears as if the medium class had no rights that their invisible masters were bound to respect. | ||
We cannot help regarding this as an evil of magnitude, and if we could only be satisfied that the appearance of this mysterious circular is an' indication that the Eastern spiritualistic fraternity is about to lift the veil that has so long hid the Temple from our view, we, in common with all other friends of the cause; would hail the event with joy. It will be a blessed day for us when the order shall be, '''Sit Lux.''' | |||
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| volume = 3 | | volume = 3 | ||
| page = 184 | | page = 184 | ||
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| type = article | | type = article | ||
| status = | | status = proofread | ||
| continues =185 | | continues = 185 | ||
| author = | | author = | ||
| title =A Remarkable Picture | | title = A Remarkable Picture | ||
| subtitle = | | subtitle = | ||
| untitled = | | untitled = | ||
| source title = Spiritual Scientist | | source title = Spiritual Scientist | ||
| source details = | | source details = v. 2, No. 8, April 29, 1875, pp. 90-1 | ||
| publication date = | | publication date = 29-04-1875 | ||
| original date = | | original date = | ||
| notes = | | notes = | ||
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}} | }} | ||
... | ''To the Editor of The Spiritual Scientist'': | ||
{{Style S-Small capitals| Our}} friends in the other world seem to be using even method they can devise to demonstrate to us the scriptural truth that besides the natural body “there is a spiritual body.” The manifestations are thus daily taking on new phases. One of the newest is the painting of pictures directly by disembodied spirits. A most beautiful one has just been painted expressly for me by the spirit known as “John King,” and which has been forwarded to me from Philadelphia. | |||
I will briefly state the evidence that has satisfied me that | |||
{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |3-185}} | <center>THE PAINTER</center> | ||
{{Style P-No indent|was a disembodied spirit.}} | |||
I. The positive testimony of Madame Helen P. Blavatsky, by whom the picture was sent to me, a Russian lady of rank and of high intelligence, now residing in Philadelphia; who, not only has no conceivable motive for deception in the matter, but is known by her friends to be the very soul of sincerity and honor. I know from her own lips that the spirit calling himself “John King” has been manifesting his presence to her in a variety of ways for a number of years; that she has had frequent communications from him, many of them by writings executed in her presence independently of all human agency; and that he has also repeatedly painted pictures for her, and performed various other acts obviously beyond the power of human beings in the flesh. | |||
II. This testimony of Madame Blavatsky has been corroborated to me by the statements of Col. Henry S. Olcott and of Mr. M. C. Betanelly, an intelligent and honorable gentleman from Caucasian Georgia, who have been personally present when some of the most marvelous of these facts have occurred. Of one of them, moreover, I was myself a witness last Jan-{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |3-185}} | |||
{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}} | {{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}} | ||
{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}} | |||
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px> | |||
spiritual_scientist_v.05_n.06_1876-10-12.pdf|page=4|Spiritual Scientist, v. 5, No. 6, October 12, 1876, p. 64 | |||
spiritual_scientist_v.02_n.08_1875-04-29.pdf|page=6|Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 8, April 29, 1875, p. 90 | |||
</gallery> | |||
Revision as of 11:09, 15 December 2023
Thoughts
The day was closing in, as I sat watching the scarcely moving foliage of a neighboring elm, my mind gradually sank into a state of luxurious repose amounting to total unconsciousness of the busy sights and sounds of earth.
It seemed to me as if I were seated by a calm, deep lake, surrounded by graceful and breezy shrubbery, and listening to most delicious music. The landscape different from anything I had ever seen. Light seemed to be in everything, and emanate from everything, like a glory. Yet I felt at home; and could I see a painting of it, I should know it as readily as the scene of my childhood.
And so it is with a multitude of thoughts that come suddenly into the soul, new as visitants from farthest Saturn, yet familiar as a mother’s voice. Whence more than poetry? Have we indeed formerly lived in a Inminous and shadowless world, where all things wear like garments? Are our bright and beautiful thoughts but casual glimpses of that former state? Are all our hopes and aspirations nothing but recollections? Is it to the fragments of memory's broken mirror we owe the thousand fantastic forms of grandeur and loveliness which fancy calls her own?
And the gifted ones who now and then blaze upon the world, and “darken nations when they die,” do they differ from other mortals in more cloudless reminiscences of their heavenly home?
Or are we living separate existences at one and the same time? Are not our souls wandering in the spirit land, while our bodies are on earth? And when in slumber, or deep quietude of thought, we cast off this “mortal coil,” do we not gather up images of reality, that seem to us like poetry? Might not the restless spirit of Byron have indeed learned of “archangels ruined,” those potent words, which, like infernal magic, arouse every sleeping demon in the human heart?
Are dreams merely visits to our spirit home; and in sleep are we really talking with the soul oi those whose voice we seem to hear!
As death approaches and earth recedes, do we not more clearly see that spiritual world in which we have all along been living, though we knew it not? The dying man tells as of attendant angels hovering round him. Perchance it is no vision. They might have been with him, but hit inward eye was dim, and he saw them not What is that mysterious expression, so holy and so strange, so beautiful, yet fearful, on the countenance of one whose lout had just departed? Is it the glorious light of attendant seraphs, the luminous shadow of which rests awhile on the face of the dead? Does infancy owe to this angel host its peculiar power to purify and bless?
A Message from Luxor
The readers of the Scientist will be no more surprised to read the circular which appears on our first page than we were to receive the same by post, since the appearance of our last number. Who may be our unknown friends of the “Committee of Seven,” we do not know, nor who the “Brotherhood of Luxor,” but we do know that we are most thankful for this proof of their interest, and shall try to deserve its continuance.
Can anyone tell us anything of such a fraternity as the above? And what Luxor is meant?* Is it the ancient city of that name, whose majestic ruins, afford but a faint idea of the splendor of its prime? Once a metropolis whose smallest public building must have eclipsed in size any of modern times, it is now a desolate waste, guarded only by a handful of Arabs, whose flocks graze the avenues that in past ages glittered with wealth, and who dare not enter it by night for fear of the Afrites, or unprogressed spirits; who flit with noiseless footsteps through the deserted passages and chambers, underground. Travellers tell us of grand rooms in the temples the walls of which are ablaze with frescoes of quaint device which looks as fresh as if the paint were laid on but yesterday. Can it be that the shades of the departed Magi, banded together into a Council, meet there to rule the spiritual destinies of mankind?
It is time that some Power, terrestrial or supernal, came to our aid, for, after twenty-seven years of spiritual manifestations, we know next to nothing about the laws of their occurrence. Have we learnt aught concerning mediumship, its cause, its perils, its possibilities, its advantages? Have we examples of the cooperation of spirits with mortals upon equal terms, or the subserviency of the latter to the former, as in some cases is meet and proper? Mediumship in our day seems to be synonymous with Slavery, and it really appears as if the medium class had no rights that their invisible masters were bound to respect.
We cannot help regarding this as an evil of magnitude, and if we could only be satisfied that the appearance of this mysterious circular is an' indication that the Eastern spiritualistic fraternity is about to lift the veil that has so long hid the Temple from our view, we, in common with all other friends of the cause; would hail the event with joy. It will be a blessed day for us when the order shall be, Sit Lux.
* ... Cyclopedia, p. 461.
A Remarkable Picture
To the Editor of The Spiritual Scientist:
Our friends in the other world seem to be using even method they can devise to demonstrate to us the scriptural truth that besides the natural body “there is a spiritual body.” The manifestations are thus daily taking on new phases. One of the newest is the painting of pictures directly by disembodied spirits. A most beautiful one has just been painted expressly for me by the spirit known as “John King,” and which has been forwarded to me from Philadelphia.
I will briefly state the evidence that has satisfied me that
was a disembodied spirit.
I. The positive testimony of Madame Helen P. Blavatsky, by whom the picture was sent to me, a Russian lady of rank and of high intelligence, now residing in Philadelphia; who, not only has no conceivable motive for deception in the matter, but is known by her friends to be the very soul of sincerity and honor. I know from her own lips that the spirit calling himself “John King” has been manifesting his presence to her in a variety of ways for a number of years; that she has had frequent communications from him, many of them by writings executed in her presence independently of all human agency; and that he has also repeatedly painted pictures for her, and performed various other acts obviously beyond the power of human beings in the flesh.
II. This testimony of Madame Blavatsky has been corroborated to me by the statements of Col. Henry S. Olcott and of Mr. M. C. Betanelly, an intelligent and honorable gentleman from Caucasian Georgia, who have been personally present when some of the most marvelous of these facts have occurred. Of one of them, moreover, I was myself a witness last Jan-<... continues on page 3-185 >
Editor's notes
Sources
-
Spiritual Scientist, v. 5, No. 6, October 12, 1876, p. 64
-
Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 8, April 29, 1875, p. 90