AE in the Irish TheosophistRussell, George William
Religion
AE in the Irish Theosophist
Russell, George William
Theosophy
On the motions of an inner sphere, we are told, all things here depend;
on spheres of the less evanescent which, in their turn, are enclosed
in spheres of the real, whose solemn chariot movements again are
guided by the inflexible will of Fire. In all of these we have part.
This dim consciousness which burns in my brain is not all of myself.
Behind me it widens out and upward into God. I feel in some other
world it shines with purer light: in some sphere more divine than
this it has a larger day and a deeper rest. That day of the inner
self illuminates many of our mortal days; its night leaves many
of them dark. And so the One Ray expanding lives in many vestures.
It is last of all the King-Self who wakes at the dawn of ages,
whose day is the day of Brahma, whose rest is his rest. Here is
the clue to cyclic change, to the individual feebleness and power,
the gloom of one epoch and the glory of another. The Bright Fortnight,
the Northern Sun, Light and Flame name the days of other spheres,
and wandering on from day to day man may at last reach the end of
his journey. You would pass from rapidly revolving day and night
to where the mystical sunlight streams. The way lies through
yourself and the portals open as the inner day expands. Who is
there who has not felt in some way or other the rhythmic recurrence
of light within? We were weary of life, baffled, ready to forswear
endeavor, when half insensibly a change comes over us; we doubt
no more but do joyfully our work; we renew the sweet magical
affinities with nature: out of a heart more laden with love we
think and act; our meditations prolong themselves into the shining
wonderful life of soul; we tremble on the verge of the vast halls
of the gods where their mighty speech may be heard, their message
of radiant will be seen. They speak a universal language not for
themselves only but for all. What is poetry but a mingling of
some tone of theirs with the sounds that below we utter? What is
love but a breath of their very being? Their every mood has colors
beyond the rainbow; every thought rings in far-heard melody. So
the gods speak to each other across the expanses of ethereal light,
breaking the divine silences with words which are deeds. So, too,
they speak to the soul. Mystics of all time have tried to express
it, likening it to peals of faery bells, the singing of enchanted
birds, the clanging of silver cymbals, the organ voices of wind
and water bent together--but in vain, in vain. Perhaps in this
there is a danger, for the true is realized in being and not in
perception. The gods are ourselves beyond the changes of time
which harass and vex us here. They do not demand adoration but an
equal will to bind us consciously in unity with themselves. The
heresy of separateness cuts us asunder in these enraptured moments;
but when thrilled by the deepest breath, when the silent, unseen,
uncomprehended takes possession of thee, think "Thou art That,"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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