Version: October 10, 2004
Love is a white light of beauty.
It is closing upon the souls.
It is constantly building friendship.
It is shining deeper and deeper understanding, comradeship.
The Avataric Conception is upon us.
It is above us, glory in the heavens;
It is beneath us, embryonic powers;
It is about us, beauty of perception;
It is within us, growth, wisdom's growth.
Out over the universe its marvels spread vastnesses,
Wings of beauty upon each one.
In through creation it impels love, ever increasing love.
Over the earth it is flowering wisdom, fructifying that seed.
Within the hearts of men it is the blessing of true love,
high growth, faithfulness.
- John Varian
These words speak to our hearts about the up-welling forces of the Universe so noticeable at this time of year. As the trees begin to swell with buds of new leaves and fruit, seedlings in the ground beneath are putting forth their first leaves. The rains are warmer and the breezes gentler. It is a gift of Spirit to be able to see these creations in terms of Love, the white light of beauty, and to know that we are a part of that Love. We are not only a part, but active participants, using the creative process to further the growth of all living things.
It is increasingly important that all of us tune into our responsibility in the growth cycle. Each one stands in a position that cannot be held by another. It is too easy to dismiss our assignment with the thought, "Someone else can do it. No one will notice if I do or don't." Each unit is connected with all others. As we come into the consciousness of this connectedness, as we grow in wisdom born of experience, we come into our real divine heritage, the blessing of true love, high growth, faithfulness.
May this Love surround you.
- Eleanor L. Shumway
Guardian in Chief
With this issue we begin the celebration of the Temple's Centennial Year. To share some of the rich material from early years, we will be including articles printed in the Temple Artisan of years past. We are also expanding the "Temple Activities and Notices" department to include more information about visitors and activities from around the world as they touch the Center in Halcyon.
From the Editorial Mirror, Temple Artisan of May, 1902:
To the most casual observer it should be apparent that we are entering upon an era in the history of the world in which the force of synthesis is to play the leading role. This force, which may be called the White Light, is pouring into the earth sphere from higher cosmic centers, and is primarily responsible for many tendencies manifesting in the life of humanity at the present time. In its last analysis, this force is a saving or regenerating power, and at this time, due to cyclic law, is specially concerned with the evolution of the earth and its humanity.
Like the diamond, the Temple has many faces and reflects many colors. Many members get a glimpse of one aspect and think that they have grasped the whole plan. The scope and purpose of the Temple, both as to its teachings and the practical work that it will do in the world, are essentially of a synthetic nature. It will point out the fundamental truths underlying all philosophies and religions, and, as time goes on, indicate the common basis in the teachings of the great sages who have appeared on the world's stage from time to time. Members and friends must not expect that all can be accomplished in a year or two; and in the meantime, the evidences of high spiritual power back of the work - and which is directing all to a successful issue - may be discerned by the exercise of intuition and common sense.
-- William H. Dower
1998 is a momentous year for the Temple, marking the 100th anniversary of its founding in Syracuse. Even though the actual day comes on November 15, this anniversary is important enough to mark the Centennial all this year. As an organization, we will do this with various events: special meetings, lectures, guests, dinners, open house days, and exhibits. However, unless we, individually and collectively, also mark this consciously on inner planes, the days are apt to slide by in familiar patterns without ruffling the surface, let alone the depths, of our beings.
I am not advocating a year of judging ourselves or others up against the measure of our aspirations, with a corresponding range of reactions from smug self-satisfaction to self-flagellation and depression over our perceived faults. I am suggesting that birthdays of all kinds present us with the opportunity to check into where we have come from, where we are now, and the possibilities of directions for the future. I see this as a time of peace and joy, of clear eyes honestly evaluating strengths we already possess to be used for shoring up places in our inner structure that need some attention. Evaluation is a never-ending process. It is complex in many ways because our lower self tends to rationalize, justify, and indulge in busy-ness in other directions.
It seems to be human nature for us to say, "Yes, life is a never-ending process, a journey, not a destination," while at the same time having unconscious expectations that "If I do thus and such, this problem will be solved and I won't have to address it again." The more we can think of life as time in a spiral pattern, the clearer our lives can become. On the spiral, we move into a problem area, deal with it, move on, and then often it comes back around for more work. It is more subtle, but we have more skill with which to work. My mother used to say, "It's the same darned brat in a different dress!"
As I work with the historical records of letters, journals, notes and magazines in the Temple files, I am struck anew with this cyclic nature of life. So many of the problems of Temple beginnings, those of personality conflicts, treachery, sacrifice, fear of the unknown, trying things, succeeding and moving on, failing and trying again, are the problems of today. The strengths of our beginnings are also here today: loyalty, service, devotion, sacrifice, faith, trust, love, compassion and cooperation. There are different names and faces, different addresses, different geography, but we have the same underlying challenges of putting into daily practice as much of our aspirations as we can possibly encompass at any one time. With our aspirations automatically come testing forces to develop the strength we need to move onward on the path of discipleship. As long as we move in small steps, doing the things that come to us to do, the strength we need will unfold naturally. It is only when we try shortcuts, like a child who tries running before walking, that we get into difficulty. Of course, in this compassionate universe, even our difficulties are turned into learning experiences.
During this year I will be sharing things from our past, writings that have inspired, comforted, and clarified the teachings with which we have been so richly endowed. Each year on the anniversary of the founding of the Temple, we are reminded of the Master's coming to Francia LaDue, Blue Star, to ask her to begin the Temple work. We have read of her finally accepting the work, despite her feelings of inadequacy, and of the sacrifice she made so willingly.
I found one interesting anecdote telling of the Master's appearance to Blue Star in a physical form. This was one of the first of his appearances. In September of 1898, He came to her asking that she accompany him to a city further west in New York state, to meet with the sister of a man that Blue Star had nursed when he was dying. Early that evening he called for her with a carriage and secured a stateroom on the train. During the entire ride of several hours' duration Blue Star did not venture a single word beyond the timid question, "Are you a Theosophist?" The Master smiled and answered, "Not in the sense you mean." He gave her many high and noble thoughts, which were so indelibly impressed upon her memory that she afterwards wrote them down. Some of them are included in the little book of Beacon Fires. I wonder just what would one talk about with the Master?
From the state of sitting inarticulate in the presence of the Master, Blue Star advanced rapidly to write about The Masters in these very articulate words from The Artisan, July, 1900: "The concept of the Lodge of Masters, the pivotal point on which rests much of the Eastern philosophy now rapidly obtaining recognition in the Western world, is in reality but little understood by Western students. In its entirety, it rests upon the unity of all life and a perfectly graduated scale of evolutionary development. It makes no more allowance for gaps or gulfs between races than natural law allows between stone, plant, animal and man. All ancient philosophies are based on the hypothesis of the Lodge of Masters, for the Master is a geometrical necessity in the evolving of planes, worlds, and races."
She goes on to speak of the evolutionary path of these great teachers or Elder Brothers, how they can travel either up or down the evolutionary ladder, how their power comes from the Central Spiritual Sun and how they step it down for use by all the planes under their direction. She ends by saying, "In short, a Master of the White Brotherhood is one who, by perfect service and obedience to the Law, has become one with the Law and who works in perfect unison with all its action and reaction, and consequently is able to wield nature's great inner forces for the benefit of mankind; working 'in the silence' to a great extent, both for his own protection and the sake of the humanity which is not yet able to manipulate consciously, or safely bear, the unmodified effects of the powerful forces he is compelled to use and control. Through their unity with all life, the Masters are able to function at will on all the planes of being."
These, the Masters, are the great teachers, the Elder Brothers, who are directing the unfolding of this Lodge Center, The Temple of the People. Did They promise to make things comfortable, to put each of us on a slightly higher place in the scheme of things just because They called us in tones our Higher Selves could hear and respond to? Hardly! Are we held clearly responsible for every one of our thoughts, words, and deeds every day? Absolutely! Do we have to continue on this path? Yes, but we can do it with grace, insight and understanding, or we can do it painfully!
The power of grace, insight, and understanding comes with the dawning recognition that we are always in the right place, doing and saying the right things at the right time. We can get caught between the outer manifestation of the Temple work, which might be changing in ways we don't like, and the inner certainty, the inner radiance, the inner glory of the real Temple. Our challenge is to reconcile the inner and outer world, and to find our own inner Temple.
In 1900, Dr. Franz Hartmann wrote this article entitled "A Visit to the Temple." "I dreamed that I were a luminous soul and dwelling in a delightful place, so beautiful that I cannot describe it. It was somewhere in space and all was full of a celestial light, and I and my companions often wondered where the Creator of all this beauty round us had his dwelling. One day a radiant spirit of an angelic appearance approached me and said: 'Behold yonder planet which is called the Earth. There is a Temple called Humanity, and in it dwelleth the spirit of the Creator.' And he showed me a little glowing ball, whirling with great velocity through space, and turning continually around its own center, as if it were desirous of bathing all of its parts in the sunlight that shone upon it, and which it loved so much; but the ball itself was surrounded by a cloud of fiery vapors.
"Being desirous of visiting the Temple, I enveloped myself in a body of flesh to protect myself against those fiery vapors, and descended to Earth, but my search was in vain. Many times I descended and wandered about the hills and the lowlands; I found the forests swarming with insects and the lowlands infested with snakes, but the Temple of the Creator was not to be seen.
"Once, however, during one of my wanderings, and after having for many days searched in vain, and growing weary, I rested myself upon a stone and entered within my own interior being. At first everything appeared to be dark; but as I penetrated deeper into my inner self, it grew suddenly clear, and all at once I found myself in the Temple, for which I had been seeking so long, and in the center of it was the sanctuary from which issued the creative light.
-- Linda Rollison
"Then I looked around and saw that the Temple had no walls, and although it was within my own heart, nevertheless its space was without limit, and contained the whole of the Universe with all of its creatures, and I realized that the light of the Temple was my own and that I had never been separated from it."
This dichotomy between the inner and outer Temple makes it very difficult to write a history of the Temple. Others besides myself have tried to do this, and all have run into the problems of weaving the two stories together into a coherent whole. On the one hand there is the simple historical recounting of who went where and when, with wonderful anecdotes of rich living over the past 100 years. But it is only a very flat picture if the philosophy behind those 100 years is not also woven into the tapestry. Indeed, the charge the Master gave us early in the work is the tapestry of clarity, depth, and purpose that binds us together:
"You must never lose sight of one fact. The higher purpose, the aim of all those who are true Templars, was and still is the preparation of a place where it might become possible for the overshadowing Christ to enter and send forth the message which the world has waited for so long.
"It would be truly impossible for such an overshadowing of the spiritual forces to enter and dwell with a number of disaffected, treacherous, inhuman elements. It could not do the work for which it came, even if it were possible to come.
"Such a place requires quiet, concentration, aspiration, unified endeavor, and faith in each other and in the common purpose.
"These are essentials; all else is non-essential."
This is the charge. How that charge has been, and is being, put into everyday expression through our human vehicles is the thing that makes for such a rich story. For instance, Herman Volz gave us a glimpse into those middle years of the Temple group in the 1940s through his diary: "Jan. 1, 1942: Had quite a New Year's reception at the Sanitarium. 50 present. Ate 9 cakes, cookies, sandwiches. All visited 2:30 to 5:30. Harold showed his pictures of the four winds. Made quite a hit. Lots of talk about the war." February 15: "A fine spring day, makes you want to work. Gave a talk in the Temple, subject God's Hospital. Fred Whitney called it splendid. Heard Prime Minister Churchill speak from England. A grave talk, looks bad for England. He announced Singapore has fallen. That was hard for him to say." Herman's diary speaks of ordinary acts of kindness, of working in Pearl Dower's garden, cleaning her house, bathing Otto Westfall, who was ill, hauling fertilizer for town gardens, and a growing realization of the war not going well, of possible air raids over California, of shortages, of mobilization of resources. The draft was organized; life went on, with his focus on the garden and the community. On August 3 the entry is, "Went to Arroyo Grande and took a physical examination for the US Army -OK -they sure are after me for army service." He was classified 1-A. The last entry is on September 10, a Thursday, "Off to Camp for an examination. Physical exam maybe, I am a soldier maybe." He was, for sure. Through the events in Herman's life shine the aspiration, unified endeavor, and faith in each other and in the common purpose.
We can multiply those memories a thousandfold by tapping into the common pool of memory of all who have come here to this Center, even briefly. Our memories of recent times continue to add to that rich record of living in a home center of commitment to Brother/Sisterhood, of Love, sacrifice, and dedication. During this Centennial year we will be exploring these memories through displays of pictures, artifacts, maps, and furniture. We will be re-ensouling our traditions of ceremony, ritual, music, and gatherings with the memories of all who have passed before, as well as with the energy of renewed commitment to the ideals we live by. Each month of this Centennial year will carry the vibration of the twelve principles: January: Love; February: Will; March: Wisdom; April: Knowledge; May: Faith; June: Hope; July: Truth; August: Justice; September: Loyalty; October: Honesty; November: Service; December: Obedience.
On our 100th birthday, what better time can we have to focus on the process spoken of by the Master when he told us that we are all involved in a world condition and we must pay attention? There is a world housecleaning going on, a most thorough one indeed. Every room, closet, corner, crevice, and shelf in every department of Life on all planes is being overhauled.
The very vessels and articles for carrying on the process must be cleansed themselves before the work can fully go on. He tells us that care and wisdom must be brought to bear. Certain skills born of interest, concentration, and devotion to higher principles must be used rather than anything gained by outer skill and discipline. In other words, the Key must be turned that opens up the current of interior observation and situations, thereby tuning us into real solutions to the problems at hand. We must jerk ourselves into spiritual activity. We can feed our own souls as well as the souls of the many others standing on every side through our knowledge that Light will come, that the darkness will be vanquished, and that power, possibilities, and opportunities will be present. Failure in effort is only temporary. We must listen to the voice of the One Reality and carry on the work.
Dr. Dower, second Guardian in Chief, wrote, "There is but one life that thrills through every atom in the universe, and but one humanity constantly striving to utter that life. Each great wave of civilization is a message from heaven to earth, sent through the minds and hearts of humanity, calling it to draw closer to the great divine ideal of the order and government of the White City, the city that 'lieth four square' of Revelation. Each and every civilization strikes the keynote of some particular and different aspect of truth, of the One Reality. All science, all philosophy, all art, music, and poetry that the world has ever evolved is but the 'still small Voice' of the one synthetic truth, the crown of all truth and life, the Christ, the same in star, molecule or man, seeking ever to utter itself through the human heart; and each great evolutionary wave which must always include the force of all preceding waves makes that utterance fuller, more complete, more easily heard, and permits more and more of the glory of the divine ideal to be revealed."
During this Centennial year we have the opportunity to see the Temple story, to feel the Temple story, and to be the Temple story - our story. We are powered by the force of all the preceding waves of Templars. It makes our voices fuller, more complete, and more easily heard. It is our task to raise those voices loud and clear, with open minds, mouths, and hearts.
On the 50th Anniversary of the Temple, Pearl Dower, third Guardian in Chief, summed it up in this way, as vitally true today as it was in 1948:
"The Temple is a synthetic movement in that it includes all life and shows the unity of all life. All are One in Essence, each and every one a part of the great whole, divine emanations of the Godhead dipping into matter to partake of the evolutionary law of experience and growth. The Temple stands for group consciousness, working as one, holding the line as one. We have been told that the Temple group has been drawn together into One Hierarchical Line by karmic law and close association during many lives and centuries. The Ruling Entity of that Hierarchical Line by divine right demands allegiance of his followers on that line, which is a sacred charge and privilege. As a result of this irrevocable law of holding true to the one line, the progress, growth and evolution of these selected ones are taken care of, guided and protected on that line.
"It took deep abiding faith and love in this Great Cause, undaunted courage, steady endurance and determination of will to launch the Temple movement; and the co-founders had those inner qualities to withstand the many onslaughts of the opposing forces that tried in every way to block the work. All Temple members coming in later had the way paved for them, and each and every one entering the Temple ranks can only have the deepest gratitude and appreciation for those valiant and courageous servants of the Master who served loyally and faithfully until the end.
"As we go forward into the future, the same divine laws operating on all planes will demand the same rules of conduct - devotion, loyalty and service - in even greater measure. Having been chosen from out of the multitude to love, serve and light the torch with the fires of aspiration, righteousness, truth and justice, great is our responsibility and much is expected of us; and if one would reach the heights and win the Crown of Immortality and Selfless Love, everything will depend on the sincere efforts put forth by us in this great Lodge work. The higher laws govern every step of our journey, and the course must be chosen with wisdom and love in our hearts for all creatures.
"All Humanity comes under the daily experiences of life in its myriad phases, and in an occult center more is expected of the group because more is given for their help, protection and spiritual growth. As a Group under the Great White Lodge, and a vehicle or distributing center for the Lodge forces, it must keep the inner channels open for the Master's use when and wherever most needed.
"As we enter the New Cycle, let us rededicate ourselves to continue to hold high the Banner of the Lodge and to work in every increasing measure with the Avataric forces of Love, Harmony and Unity."
Whether it be the first, fiftieth, or 100th Anniversary, the New Cycle calls us to this rededication. Let us begin now.
- Eleanor L. Shumway
Why are we here? You might answer my question with more questions. "What do you mean by here? Do you mean here in the Temple, or here in Halcyon, or this country, or the really ultimate question, why are we here on Earth?" We would have many interesting and different answers and lots of food for thought.
We're here to learn. And if so, how do we learn? Well, by doing, listening, seeing, and communicating. We learn alone and we learn together.
Communication is important: expressing our thoughts and feelings; feeling safe in so doing; having someone who is willing to listen to our hurts and pains as well as our joys and pleasures. I have a book marker I really enjoy. I'm sure you've all heard the poem that is printed on it: "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all" (by Cecil Frances Alexander).
The words of this poem flow so beautifully. But what about all the muck and mire we experience in our Earthly lives? It's really hard to find the bright and beautiful while wading hip-deep through the smelly, rotting debris that, at times, obstructs our pathway, when the only way for us to go on is to go through it. Sometimes there are deep chasms where we grope around in darkness and despair, alone and weary, hoping to find light, even a small glimpse, a tiny spot of bright twinkle. These are times in our lives when we cling to Hope, reaching out and grasping only the air, feeling exposed, with no protection from the pain and sorrow.
When we can remember that the rotting, outcast, leftover decay is the basic foundation of all the wonderful gardens around the world, we can learn that many treasures of life have humble beginnings. The diamond begins as carbon, the pearl from an irritating grain of sand in the oyster. Why do we find it so difficult to allow someone to be our grain of sand, to allow them to say the things they need to say and to feel safe in so doing? Why do we find it so difficult to accept that our words or actions may have caused another hurt and pain? We need to listen and extend our compassion. We need to express our sorrow for having caused another pain.
We each serve as best we can. A good mother, father, brother, or sister cares enough to be as aware as they can of the needs of each other. In doing this, a family functions as it should in unity. As we try, we make mistakes at times, yet we do learn to do it better.
The ultimate "Why are we here?" is far deeper than I can comprehend. For why here, why this planet of all the planets in all the galaxies? Why is there you and why is there me? And why are we here? It's a great mystery.
-- Derené Darrah
Theosophy is not a creed,
It is the Grace of God in one's life
It is the Power of God in one's work
It isthe Joy of God in one's play
It is the Peace of God in one's rest
It is the Wisdom of God in one's thought
It is the Love of God in one's heart
It is the Beauty of God
in one's dealings with others.
-- William Quan Judge
-- Linda Rollison
How to surround my words with silence
So that they convey the fruit, the fire of a time so dense, nonetheless more than light?
How to let the invisible, the unperceivable resound in the reunited hearts through time and space and beyond to create the future in the present?
How to open the doors of life more abundant
Where each group, each culture weaves a part of the planetary time-space for all?
How to recognize the purpose wrought
In the divine silence of the spheres
Where each little self is always
In infinite resonance?
In trust: hear, feel, see, taste
Beyond space and beyond time:
Love
-- Claire Fleurant
Editorial Note: The first 25 paragraphs of the following article actually appeared in the fourth (final) 1997 issue of the Temple Artisan. They are included here as a courtesy to readers who otherwise might not have access to this material.
It is sixty years now since Doctor Dower, known as Red Star, left this earth plane on October 9, 1937, and this paper is dedicated to his memory.
William Henry Dower was born right after the Civil War in the year 1866, on March 22, in Syracuse, New York. His father was Heinrich [or Henry] Dauer, a native of Germany. His mother was Wilhelmina Bierhardt Dauer. She was also German, just like their family name, which was originally spelled D-A-U-E-R. Interestingly, "Dauer" is a word that is much used in the German language, which translates into English with the meaning of "duration" or "permanency." Later, [FOOTNOTE: As we can read in a sworn testimony signed and dated March 2, 1916, Syracuse, New York, by Doctor Dower's father, Henry Dauer.] young William Henry and his brother Charles [FOOTNOTE: So Doctor Dower had a brother named Charles. Interestingly, he was also connected to the Temple and initiated into the Order of the 36 as soon as it was established on the outer plane.] changed the spelling to make it easier to read by English speakers. So this is how "D-a-u-e-r," which we may not even have heard about, came to be the "D-o-w-e-r" that we know. Pronunciation, however, never changed.
Doctor Dower never permitted ostentatious aggrandizement of the Temple, so let us keep this eulogy simple, and let us not attempt to put anyone on any pedestal. There are already enough sickening hosannas and disgusting alleluias for poor H.P.B., and there is really no need to invent another "Theosophical saint," or canonize a mortal who simply tried to do the best he could. So let us simply enumerate some less known, anecdotal facts of his life, and then see if perhaps the Red Star himself may tell us something that will make us forever remember that the Temple has a live and functioning connection with the Great White Brotherhood, the Lodge of Masters, since its foundation in 1898; that this connection never broke and is as live as ever; and that the Lodge Agent is now the fifth Guardian in Chief, the Green Star.
We have said that Doctor Dower was of German descent, and in an Interview we were told, "It won't be easy for him [i.e., Doctor] to get rid of the karma of his German ancestry." Part of this heritage may have been that in the year of his birth, in the Church of Assumption in Syracuse, he was baptized a Roman Catholic. But he also seems to have inherited some of the German philosophical mind, and not only because, already at a very young age, he became a Freemason and a Theosophist. One hundred ten years ago, on January 1, 1887, he wrote into his diary:
"Time waits for no one. What truth is more potent than that? Another year gone. It seems but a day." [FOOTNOTE: Talk given by Pearl Frances Dower (Gold Star), third Guardian in Chief of The Temple of the People, in Blue Star Memorial Temple, March 20, 1938.]
The idea that every second counts and we should have order in our lives speaks from another of his diary entries of the same year:
"It behooves us to have care in order to fulfill life's requirements. What can be more dreadful than to look back in old age at a wasted, ill-spent life. Every minute is precious. When it is beyond recall, 'Let not the golden moments, like the sunshine, pass us by,' is a most beautiful sentiment. If practically applied in our life, what wonders would we not accomplish." [Ibid.]
-- Jurgen Scheutzow
Young William Dower was also scientifically inclined, another traditionally favorite domain of Germans. His wife Pearl wrote about him, "As a boy and later, he was much interested in electricity and did a great deal of experimenting in his home." [Ibid.]
Perhaps not surprisingly for someone related to the people who gave the world Beethoven, Red Star was also a musician and composer. Edgar Cheetham writes under the heading of "Dr. Dower, Creator of Musical Mantrams":
"Most temple members possess or have heard the 'Great Unifier' and the Temple Salutation, 'Warriors of Light,' which were typical musical mantrams and were composed by Dr. Dower. They have been adapted to our Western ears by the addition of that mathematical coordination which we call harmonic setting. The musical accompaniment is not a real part of a mantram, but it must express, or be attuned to, the inner force of the mantram, and not clash.
"In the series of outdoor plays given at Halcyon during the years 1913 to 1916 and later, there was a great deal of this mantramic music, mostly written by Dr. Dower. He was a real musician and composer. He had the ability to coordinate vocal expression with the inner meaning of an idea. It was through him that the writer, who himself has made a life-long study of musical compositions, got the deep understanding of mantramic music which is quite different from ordinary musical expression, because the musical mantram must invoke high spiritual forces on inner planes.
"The Temple owns a great treasure of unpublished original Temple music, plays, etc., in which Dr. Dower had his part, not only in writing the words and music, but also enacting them in the open air during the early years of the Temple. All this music is written in the Temple key - creative, vital, powerful, majestic." [FOOTNOTE: Edgar Cheetham, in The Temple Artisan, Vol. XXXVII, October-November, 1937, p. 41.]
This interesting and (in sixty years) perhaps forgotten fact about Red Star was recorded by the Temple's professional musician-composer, Edgar Cheetham.
Keeping in mind that in occultism, Germany is symbolised by the Ox, which is a very obstinate animal and cannot be diverted from a course once taken, it is both interesting and amusing to hear how Ernest Harrison, a Temple Scribe, remembers his old friend, Red Star:
"My memory harks back almost forty years, to a time shortly after my first meeting with Doctor. We were both young men, in our early thirties, and it was long before the day of the automobile. Doctor asked me to join him on a bicycle ride to the Onondaga Indian reservation, which is a few miles outside Syracuse. He had been initiated as a member of the tribe and was to take part in a festival. Just before we started, the rain began to descend heavily, and as the roads were already very muddy and rough it seemed to me that it might be a good idea to call off the trip. But not to Doctor. He had planned to go to the reservation, and he was going to the reservation. - I shall never forget that trip. We plowed through mud and over stones and ruts and what not, in the beating rain - but the point is, we got there.
-- Jurgen Scheutzow
"Many times since then it has seemed to many that the road was too rough and the going too hard - but this same dauntless quality of forgetting everything except that he knew where he was going and overlooked all the impossibilities, has carried things along over every imaginable obstacle. He was indomitable." [FOOTNOTE: Ernest Harrison, ibid., p.42.]
As stated earlier, the purpose of this paper is neither to make of Red Star a god, nor to faithfully record events of his life which are known to, or can be found out by, most of us anyway. And should the world forget Red Star, co-founder of the Temple of the People and from 1922Ä1937 its second Guardian in Chief, that does not matter either. Harking back to, and constantly living in, the past would incapacitate us for the work we have to do today, and divert our attention from the fact that the present moment is more sacred and important than all our yesterdays and tomorrows combined.
Let us, therefore, not misunderstand occult experiences that happened (as we are told) only a couple of years back, with the usual outcry of longing for the times of the Bible, of Krishna, or Buddha, "Oh, how extraordinary. I wish I could have met him and seen all those miracles of the mighty past, and what a pity that we do not have him any more. Those were the days. Now we have nothing!" Well, nothing could be more wrong than such a reaction - and if such is the effect of learning bits from Temple history, then perhaps the memory of personalities should be wiped out altogether.
So let the following quotes stand as a tribute to the greatness and sacredness of the present moment, and in honor of the great gift from God we have now in the Temple, which is the Green Star. Let it be known that all we are going to hear now, does have a strong bearing on our NOW in Halcyon, Riverside, New York, London, Berlin, Hamburg, K”ln, Ghana in Africa, Lneburg, Oberursel, and Munich. What is all the interesting stuff of the past worth, if we do not utilize it in this very moment? "This moment/ Is different/From any one/Before it/This moment/Is different/It's Now," the British folk-ballad group Incredible String Band once sang, and truly, let us listen to what we are going to hear now, in the context of the Presence of the Avatar. Let us bear in mind that during the last sixty years He, the Avatar, came ever closer, even a lot closer to the physical plane, or rather that subplane of the sevenfold physical plane which we are capable of perceiving with our senses, and that He is really a reality. Let us look around at all this awakening everywhere in the ranks of Humanity, all this incredible advancement barely within one hundred years, all this turmoil, and many other things which are only conceivable, as the Temple predicted, in the light of a very mighty force the Avatar - reshuffling our entire planet and all human, animal and plant life on it. We can and will receive more of this Almighty Light Right Now Here With Us, by listening to this story experienced by ourselves, by one of us we loved.
This paper I begin to quote from is directly from Red Star. He wrote and delivered it in the Temple 66 years ago (July 19, 1931), which was the ninth anniversary of the passing of Blue Star. It is entitled, "The Masters or Elder Brothers of the Great White Lodge and Contacts With Them on This Planet." [FOOTNOTE: Address given in the Memorial Temple, July 19, 1931, By William H. Dower, Guardian in Chief.]
In this paper, Red Star speaks about the very thing many of us would be most eager to find out: "Where and how do I find the Masters?" Red Star recalls his own search:
"When I first heard of the Masters away back in 1888 I naturally desired to contact Them and wondered, as so many thousands have done, how to do it. I went to New York City and joined the Theosophical Society, and in my youthful enthusiasm even wrote to the Master Morya at Rajputana, but of course received no answer. Some of my Theosophical acquaintances in New York City said they were going to Asia and would find a Master or leave their bones to bleach on the plains of Asia.
In my quest for contact with the Masters of the White Lodge while living in Syracuse I again went to New York City and called upon Mr. W. Q. Judge. I found him not very busy that day, only one assistant being in his office. I said to him, "Tell me, Mr. Judge, how can I contact the Masters?"
He replied, "Doctor, tell me what is your concept of the nature of the Higher Ego?"
I gave him my concept, something based on the real and higher, and he made some comments in regard to this, and then he said: "You want to contact the Masters. You may go out into the streets of this city and meet a beggar or an idiot who will tell you or show you what you want to know." Then he took a piece of paper and drew a circle and said: "Now, here you stand where this circle is, and in the center on inner planes you want to know something; and your mental hands or the rays of your mind go out perhaps a thousand miles away to find out what you want to know, contacting the mind of another or the aura of another. If they do not find it, they return and go out in another direction, and finally among the millions of people on the earth there is somebody who has stored up in his auric consciousness that which you wish to know, and you receive it from him, and he does not know that he has given it to you, and you do not know its source. This is the way the Masters work. Now," he said, "when you go back home and have this aspiration, think of this. Think of the Masters and think of me." And when he said "me," a remarkable force passed between us invisibly. [Ibid.]
-- Roselma Quinn
Let us insert here that he who takes the trouble to read the letters of W. Q. Judge he wrote to Doctor Dower around the time when he appointed Doctor to head the Syracuse branch of the Theosophical Society, may be surprised that W. Q. J. sounds pretty direct, almost as a military commander.
Now we all know that Red Star loved Etidorhpa, and even went down to Cincinnati to meet John Uri Lloyd, author of that celebrated occult novel. But we learn from his talk that he became interested in caves also for another reason:
Then I read some of the works of H. P. B., and it came to me that the Masters lived not on the surface of the earth but in caves and subterranean places. So I explored many of the places both in New York State and adjoining states in search of a Master. This will amuse you as it amuses me now, because when I was searching on the outer plane the Master was at hand all the time and I knew it not.
Suddenly when I gave up this very search on the outer plane for the Master, the Master Morya appeared to me, first interiorly and later on, after the formation of the Temple in 1899, appeared to the Executive Council of the Temple in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York, at high noon, visible to all of us, and spoke to us as we expected Morya might speak to us collectively. There were at least twelve or fifteen people present, and they all heard and saw the same thing at the same time.
Previous to this visit of the Master Morya at Syracuse, my colleague and co-agent B. S. had information that He was on the Atlantic coast at a certain city, and He would come to Syracuse during the convention there and meet the Executive Council with several others. This communication came in the ordinary mail, giving not the name of Morya but another name. And without saying anything to my colleague B. S. I took the pains to write directly to the name and address of Master Morya, but did not receive a reply on the outer plane. But my letter had not gone more than twenty-four hours when B. S. said to me at the then headquarters of the Temple, "Master Morya was here and said something I do not understand. It was to this effect, 'Tell William that he will find his answer in a certain book and certain page and paragraph.' Here was an instance where I wrote on the physical plane and the Master Morya replied through my co-Agent on the psychical plane.
"Similar things happened to the speaker today in regard to H. P. B. and W. Q. Judge in the earlier years of our work, also in regard to Master K. H. But of course the most active Master back of the Temple was and is Hilarion.
"As the subject is the contact of the Masters on this planet I will take the liberty of briefly referring to our contacts with Him, realizing that what is said here can only be accepted from the experiences gained and could not be proved absolutely to any other person." Ibid.
What would Doctor Dower - Red Star - tell us today about the history of the Temple? Here are his own words, again from the same talk:
"The Master Hilarion is the Regent of the Red Hierarchical Ray. He contacted B. S. and myself and various others in 1898 and gave the spiritual impulse to organize the Temple work, saying that it was a continuation of that work started by their messenger H. P. Blavatsky, and that we should work with Theosophical students because they were the best prepared to receive what was to come.
"B. S. saw the vision of Hilarion in His Nirmanakaya Robe on the wings of the Great Bird spanning the gulf, the picture of which hangs in this Temple. This was symbolic of the fact that His cycle of the work for the world had begun. The Great Bird is Hamsa, the Bird of Wisdom, and Master stands there with the rod of power.
"He outlined the work and directed us to come to California in 1903. We were and are in constant communication with Him, and the book Teachings of the Temple was published a few years ago, which contains fundamental teachings given to us and which were first published in the Temple Artisan." Ibid.
The communication of the Temple Agent with the Master Hilarion and other Masters never stopped. It is as much a reality today as it was in 1898, and there is much more to the story than the yearly Master's Message to the Temple Convention which we keep receiving as ever. But let us continue Doctor Dower's 1931 talk, "The Masters Or Elder Brothers Of The Great White Lodge And Contacts With Them On This Planet," right there where we paused. "Have you really ever seen Master Hilarion in person? What is he like?" - this unspoken question is being answered by Red Star with a real story of beauty and magic:
"Before the definite inauguration of the work in 1898, I had many interior experiences in which a certain man, who seemed to be a very close relative of mine, came to me, but I did not recognize him until this had occurred several times. Then finally (remember, this was all interior) I seemed to go through a very severe test on an inner plane and passed it successfully. The moment I made my decision somebody on the lower floor called up, 'Doctor, somebody from the lodge wants to see you.' As I was examining physician for several fraternal organizations called lodges, I thought it was a patient. But I hurried down and saw a man of indescribable beauty and nobility standing there, and I knew Him at once for the Master Hilarion. I threw my arms about Him and said, 'Father, I have just been through a terrible test,' and He said, 'I know all about it, my son.' Then I looked in His face, and the feeling I had was that He was a person who could make or unmake a world, solar system, or a universe. On his face, especially round the mouth and chin, appeared an ineffable light that could not be described, indicating power. Then I want to say there was some other talk, and He said, 'My son, I have charged your aura with plans for the work for many, many years to come, but do not do today what should be done tomorrow. Remember, there is a sequence.' There was some other talk, but the feeling of that powerful spiritual sweetness remained with me for weeks and is with me yet." Ibid.
What exactly do Masters look like? How do Masters use us, their disciples, for some purpose? Here again are Red Star's answers:
"To show also how the Masters have no particular form or features or face, I will say that I saw the Master afterward many times, and this no doubt was a demonstration of certain truths. I would see the color of His eyes change while I was looking into them. I would see the color of his hair change, his features change, and yet it was the same Hilarion.
"I wish also to call attention to the great mystic truth of identification of the chela with the Master, which is sometimes called the seventh initiation, which means the astral body of the chela is merged with that of the Master and they are as one. Without desiring it or wishing it or thinking about it this experience was mine, and I found myself suddenly identified with a Master and then another and then another. I was that Master, but I also was myself.
"In addition to this experience, to show you how the Lodge works, I wish to relate in all humility another experience that came to me after I came to California. Interiorly I was back in my bedroom of my boyhood days, and I seemed to be a boy again. I had gone to bed in that little room and seemed to be wakened by a sort of scratching or tapping on the window-pane, which opened out on a roof like a dormer window. I looked out, and it seemed to be light enough for me to see, and there was the face of a man peering into my bedroom, a face mean and cruel like a thief or robber or even a murderer. A wave of terror swept over me, and in that terror I pulled the covers over my head, and I seemed to lie there trembling with horror of what was going to happen. Then another force came into my being, and I said, 'Nothing can hurt me because I am one with the Christos,' and immediately a blinding flash of light came into that room, so dazzling and white that it was almost overpowering, and it came from this person who had been peering in, and I exclaimed, 'It is the light of the Christos. This is not a thief or robber.' This illustrates how contacts may be made, and of course they come differently with different individuals according to karma and correlations made between the mental and spiritual selves.
"There was only one occasion in the history of my occult aspirations, so to speak, when the Great Master, the Christos or Godhead, appeared to me out of the atmosphere with such a dazzling light that I was unable to bear it and swooned. At the first opportunity I asked our beloved Master the meaning of that experience, and He said, 'It is the beginning of an experience that will go on, and finally you will retain your consciousness, and it means the union of the creature with the Creator when accomplished.' " Ibid.
Why is it that the White Lodge, the Angelic Hosts of Light, would not save the world - although it could easily do so by using occult force - from misery, oppression, exploitation, war, and us individually from sorrow, suffering, illness, death, or of being incarnated on this planet at all, which is a punishment in itself - the earth being the only true hell (according to H. P. B.)? The Red Star speaks:
"All of these experiences and contacts simply illustrate how the Lodge works. Much more could be said on this subject, but I will close with a statement made by the Master Hilarion in response to a question. He said, 'My son, you have no idea of the numbers composing the Great White Brotherhood, hosts upon hosts who have attained to mastery, and we could change the world in the twinkling of an eye, were it not that humanity must win its own crown.'
"Bear in mind there are twelve great divisions of the Lodge, which take in all the churches, all true occult bodies - all divisions or sections of the Lodge under the Masters; and there are seven great Masters who administer these, and of course They have Their chelas, initiates, and helpers.
"You will pardon the use of the personal pronoun, but in such a paper as this it must necessarily become autobiographical to a certain extent in order to make fundamental truths understood. I do not like to do this, as it is not my practice, but if I put it in a more impersonal way and in figures of speech I do not feel that it would register as well as a sincere account of personal and inner experiences. Therefore I hope that all who heard or will read this paper will make due allowances in accordance with the subject.
"But I wish to say that scores of our members have contacted Master Hilarion, Master Morya and Koot Humi and other Masters, including Master R.; and those who stand attuned to the Lodge and the Temple section of the Lodge work will sooner or later see, hear, or feel these cosmic impulses inspiring, sustaining, and uplifting them as they bear in mind the great injunction given to us in the beginning of the work: 'Be true to yourself, be true to us.' " Ibid.
-- Istvan Balogh
Beauty, strength, purity, courage, all the qualities that inspire love, are but symbols of the realities of the indwelling soul; the merely sensuous or emotional recognition of them, the cold intellectual appreciation accorded them, is but idolatry. Whoever aspires to know their meaning must read with the eyes of the imagination. We are more apt to be misled by the glamour of outer appearances, the semblance of the Real, than by those we often regard with distrust as imaginary, as unreal phantoms called into being by the image-making faculty of the soul. Love may seem but a glamour; yet while love may be esteemed blind in this world, it is itself the light that illumines all worlds, making all things clear to the inner sight.
- Beacon Fires
While memory is an inestimable blessing in some respects, it is a curse past telling in others. If forgiveness is one of the essentials of a Godlike life, that quality is impossible of attainment while memory persists in pointing the finger of indebtedness at the one to be forgiven. You have not fully forgiven an offense as long as you willingly retain memory of that offense, if it be against you personally, for every time memory brings a picture of it before your mental eyes - consciously or unconsciously you begin to draw comparisons, forget your own liability to the same or a like offense and bring the offender before the judgment bar of your own lower nature. Over and over the details of the offense trail through your own mind, adding mental energy to the same, giving more and more life to the mental picture first formed, making it more and more possible for that picture of wrongdoing to impress itself on other minds in the same vibration, and so tempt others to the commission of a like offense.
- Blue Star
The Law of Brotherhood can be summed up in one phrase from the Bible: "If ye love not your brother whom ye have seen, how can you love God whom ye have not seen?"
Brotherhood - Love - Unity are practically synonymous as qualities and attributes, without which there can be neither manifestation nor perfection of life.
Such phrases as "Man does not live to himself alone," "I am my brother's keeper," "Where is Abel, thy brother?" and similar expressions represent the unity of all life as conveyed through teachings and forces imparted by the Elder Brothers of the Human Race through countless races and ages. Such forces and teachings come from higher planes where unity and harmony are the keynote, to strike which it is necessary in order to raise up, i.e., redeem, the outer physical, lower astral, and mental-intellectual planes.
Brotherhood is a force, a quality, a law, an entity: one might say it is the Christos in operation. The Temple was founded not as a Brotherhood, but as a nucleus for one. There is a big difference. On the outer planes a brotherhood has to be built up by continued persistent sacrifice through many ages. As such, The Temple is an important and integral section of the Great White Brotherhood in its work of lifting humanity to higher and higher levels of unified consciousness.
In these times of conflicting ideologies and consequent cross-currents, it behooves all disciples to carry high the banner of Brotherhood and to refuse to be swayed either toward the right or toward the left, no matter how much either side may prate of brotherhood. Real brotherhood is of the heart and not of the head (i.e., creeds, whether political or religious), and back of real brotherhood is the Christos himself - the coming Avatar, the Architect of the New Race and Age, around whom all the races and nations of the earth will finally cluster.
- Bernard Lentz
I will endeavor to realize the Presence
of the Avatar as a living Power in my life.
-- Avataric Mantram
The Temple office: We have joined the electronic age in the office. In addition to our regular telephone number: (805) 489-2282, we have a fax: (805) 481-9446, and now email:
For members and friends around the world who have heard the weather reports of El Niño's effects on California: We have had a lot of rain, and strong winds. There has been a great deal of flooding in other parts of California, but here in Halcyon there have been only a few problems with downed trees or leaky roofs. We have been very fortunate.
Temple groups: Several Temple members and friends in New York City meet every other week to study and discuss the Temple Teachings. There are also groups that meet regularly in London, England, and in several locations in Germany. Anyone wishing more information about these groups can call the Temple office in Halcyon.
A voice from the past: August 1900: On the 17th of July the members of the Staff at Headquarters (the Temple was still in Syracuse, New York), with several members of the Local Square, and a few friends, making a party of twenty-seven, made a very pleasant trip to the village of Baldwinsville, via trolley car, and from thence by the little steamer "Gladys," six miles up the historic Seneca River to a cottage and grounds known as "Camp Louise," where a very enjoyable day was passed by all.
William Quan Judge Library has almost 15,000 volumes, classified by the Dewey decimal system. Among these are a large collection of works on Theosophy, philosophy and religion. Our special sections include 1,000 tapes of old radio broadcasts, and over 100 books of radio history; a collection of Halcyon authors of poetry, fiction and non-fiction; and a collection of books with references to The Temple and Halcyon. Currently on exhibit in the Library are copies of many of the paintings of Nicholas Roerich.
Most of the books, tapes, videos, and magazines have been donated throughout the years, and current publications are added regularly. The library serves Temple members, residents of Halcyon, and friends with an interest in Theosophy, or who are doing research involving some of our special collections. Our library is staffed by volunteers; hours are Mondays, 9-11 a.m. and 6-8 p.m., and Fridays, 9 a.m.-12 noon. Other hours are by appointment through the Temple office.
The University Center Gallery is open by appointment. Please call the Temple office at (805) 489-2822 for information. This year the exhibition consists of paintings by Harold E. Forgostein, fourth Guardian in Chief of the Temple. This exhibit, "The Song of Hiawatha," features 12 of the series of 24 four by four-foot oils depicting the life and legends of Hiawatha and the League of Six Nations, along with their working watercolor sketches. The sketches give the viewers a glimpse of the creative process Forgostein experienced as he developed the final compositions for the larger paintings. Also on display are many interesting articles and artifacts accumulated throughout Temple history.
The Temple Healing Service is held at 12:00 Noon each day in the Temple. All are welcome to attend.
Sunday evenings, a Meditation Meeting is held in the Temple from 7 to 7:30.
Study Classes under the auspices of various Temple Orders are held regularly in the University Center on Tuesdays and Fridays at 5:30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Sunday Services are held at 10:30 a.m. in the Temple. The Feast of Fulfillment (the Communion Service of the Temple) is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month. The last Sunday of each month is a prayer and meditation meeting. All other Sundays are Speakers' Meetings. The public is cordially invited to all services.
Speakers in the Sunday services were: November 23, Nashoma Carlson: The Kabalah; December 14, Eleanor Shumway: The Avataric Coming; January 11, Eleanor Shumway: Looking at This Centennial Year; January 15, Chris Thyrring: Love; February 8, Eleanor Shumway: The Power of God; February 15, Willy Gommel: Will.
ginc templeofthepeople.org -- Send e-mail to the Temple directly