overcome the black shadow of man's imagining as will the risen Sun dispel the darkness of night. As the world is today, we might compare evil to a great corporation whose chief asset is the devil and all his works. Every one in the corporation will receive his share of the assets in exact ratio to that which he has put into it or the stock he holds in it. Hence, if we refuse to take stock or pay premiums in the corporation, we do not receive dividends. So why waste time fighting or resisting it? We should use our powers to make the idea unpopular. To do this we must spread the idea of Light and freedom, hold up the banner of the Christ, and through concentrated thought add to the power of the Light. While we cannot help but recognize the presence of evil in the world-else why any effort to reform?-we should avoid talking of or dwelling upon it in thought, but should create its opposite every time it is presented to our consciousness and thus hasten the dawning of the new day. Number 15 is above all other numbers the one which either makes or destroys the devil and all his works, among which is black magic. Magic is that which is produced by invisible means or by thought-power and concentrated Will. Hence, if the devil is the entitized force of man's evil thinking and willing, black magic might well be described as the almost unbelievable lengths to which man, while professing to be a Christian, can still carry hatred, cruelty, persecution and unbrotherliness toward his fellow men. And this monster thrives on autocracy in religious matters as well as on war, famine and pestilence, lust, greed and avarice. All these things are facing the world today as the Race is passing the period comparable to 15. And it is only the completion of this number in 6, i. e., 15=1+5=6, or the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, that can awaken man to see things in their true light. Today the world stands aghast at the blackness and chill of the long night and asks with blanched lips: "Is this the darkest hour before the dawn?" Who shall say? The world is now turning longing eyes toward the East and by the very suffering and horror resulting from the negative expression of 15 is expecting to see the Sun of a new day arise, and the Christ of number 6 rejuvenate and recreate the world. Repentance means turning round and facing the other way, and 15 is such a turning point in the life of individuals and the Race. Let us pray that the dawn shall break ere these lines are read. When Belshazzar, the King of Babylon (confusion), was at the height of his insolence, debauchery and vileness in the midst of his festivities, his enemies, the Medes and Persians led by Cyrus, took from him the city by turning the waters of the river Euphrates into a new channel, thus leaving a passageway under the gates of the city. When the city of Babylon was built, the river Euphrates was deflected to the left from its original channel so that the river would flow through the city and supply it with water. It was so arranged that the entire river flowed under the principal gate of the city so that when the gate was shut down, the river formed an important factor in the defense of the city. When Cyrus took the city, he restored the river to its original channel and marched his army under the gate where the river once flowed. The meaning of the name Cyrus is "The Sun," thus symbolizing that it is the Sun of Righteousness alone which can capture the City of Confusion by turning its river (life-stream) into its original and normal channel. The Bible story of Belshazzar and his feast does not agree with the facts of history-as it was designed to teach a mystical truth-but it is an excellent symbolic story of how we can conquer the devil and take his kingdom from him even at the height of his power and feasting, namely, by digging a new channel for the rivers of thought-force to flow through that they shall no longer flow into the City of Confusion and water it with festive life, but shall leave it dry and at the mercy of the Conqueror. The thing to do is to mobilize a great army of our thoughts and set this army to work to patiently dig a new channel that the river of the world's thought may no longer flow into the City of Confusion, but shall water the land as originally intended and bring forth love, purity and unselfishness for all mankind. So shall the King of this World (the Devil) be destroyed and his kingdom be taken from him. For "it is not by might nor by force, but by my Spirit saith the Lord." Hence, the true meaning or power of 15 is the power to Dare and Do. Again, number 15 is the number which gives man the power to use his senses in the Astral World, much in the same way as he has entered the Mental World in number 14 by the control of thought. Here again he can either create or destroy the devil, according as he uses the experiences there found to further his personal ends or learns their lessons and uses them to help humanity. Here, too, must he dig a new channel for the river of astral force that it may no longer water the land of delusion and desire, i. e., he must withdraw the life-force from all deluding and misleading thought-forms that are emissaries of the devil to deceive and mislead the seeker after Truth. According to Apollonius, 15 is the sixth hour of Initiation, and he calls it "Typhon" (the electric whirlwind). "Here one must remain quiet, immovable through fear." While we do not altogether endorse this precept, yet we understand what it refers to, for at this step the Neophyte has reached and is facing a most formidable test. It is here that he must meet the dread Dweller on the Threshold so graphically described by Bulwer Lytton in his novel Zanoni. This dweller is an entity built up by the synthesis of all our faults and failings, hence because it is the evil in, ourselves it is horrible to the last degree and most difficult to face, recognize as our own and conquer. It also inspires a feeling of terror and almost hopelessness, for in its evil eyes we see the things in ourselves we have refused to admit heretofore, the creatures of our outer darkness. We meet a lesser expression of the Dweller at every minor step in a particular manifestation of the especial thing we must conquer at that step. But when the Neophyte reaches this sixth hour (the Christ-hour made up of 1+5) he must once for all face his lower self and must recognize all its hideousness. It now stands revealed and ready to fight for continued life. No longer is it but one fault that is shown to him, but every hidden vileness; that which he never suspected, yet which at that moment he can no longer say is not his own lower self. Well might he stand immovable with fear, for because it is his own creation he alone and unassisted must face and conquer it. If he hesitates he is lost, for even as he watches it it grows, until what at first appeared but a hideous dwarf now becomes a menacing giant. Although he is seemingly so unprotected, yet he has the power of the Guardian of the Threshold, the synthesis of his higher thoughts and better nature, which although unseen stands close beside him. This is the threshold of a new day of at-one-ment; the day when he leaves behind forever the old life interests and enters into a life of interests engendered by his awakened powers. The world today is facing the monstrous Dweller on the Threshold of its sixth hour. The great world war with its attendant horrors was a manifestation of this Dweller. And only as we unite our forces, not in anger and hate, but in love for truth, justice and humanity, to strangle this terrible thing, knowing full well that no matter how hideous its mien, it is our own-belonging not to any one nation alone, but to the Race-will we have the power to conquer. We each individually through all the ages of the old day just past have poured into it our thoughts of cruelty, unbrotherliness, greed and avarice which have coalesced into the thing we now face. The one who is its earthly leader is but one who has opened his mind and heart to the world's evil thought-forces and has dared to express them.2 Therefore since all are responsible all must help to overcome this Dweller that a victorious and purified humanity may cross the Threshold and enter into the new day now dawning. 2 See The Philosophy of War, Curtiss. CHAPTER XXVI. The Order of the 15. "The Fifteenth Path is the Constituting Intelligence, so called because it constitutes the substance of creation in pure darkness, and men have spoken of these contemplations; it is that darkness spoken of in Scripture, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it.' "-Sepher Yetzirah, 30. "Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for the darkness, where is the place thereof?"-Job, XXXVIII, 19. The Order of Christian Mystics was originally put forth under the name of The Order of the 15, this being its cosmic and numerical designation. But this name caused so much misunderstanding that it was considered better to use the name of the philosophy which it teaches. Hence the name now used is The Order of Christian Mystics, although The Order of the 15 is still retained as a sub-title. When the Order was first put forth in this cycle it was planned primarily to meet the demands of advanced students only who, having been associated with it in past lives, knew something of its symbology, hence could appreciate the deep significance of its numerical designation at this period of the world's advance. But with the rapid expansion of the work the field of its appeal has steadily grown and widened until now while it still amply satisfies the same class of advanced occult students, yet there are many less advanced who need its help. The monthly lessons sent out by the Order are in some ways so plain that "He who runs may read," yet they also contain so much deep underlying and occult lore that the most advanced students' find much that is new and much that while very old, old as humanity itself and familiar in principle to all occult students, is nevertheless put in a new light, i. e., the light of the new day. For that which is based upon Eternal Truth is fitted for all time and can therefore be studied from |