Cathedral Contacts[From The Rosicrucian Digest April 1935]
| The
"Cathedral of the Soul" is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of the
most advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and
thought waves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace,
happiness, and inner awakening. Various periods of the day are set
aside when many thousands of minds are attuned with the Cathedral of
the Soul, and others attuning with the Cathedral at this time will
receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those who are not members of the
organization may share in the unusual benefit as well as those who are
members. The book called "Liber 777" describes the periods for various
contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons who are not
members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C.,
care of AMORC Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in
postage stamps. (Please state whether member or not--this is important.) |
OUR TENDENCY TO WORSHIP
THE desire on the part of man
to worship that which is greater and more holy than himself is not essentially
a religious emotion. The desire to worship and the uncontrollable emotion to
adore the invisible divinities of life were not the results of religious
propaganda nor did they find their origin in the systematic services conducted
by churches, cathedrals, or synagogues. Every temple of worship was created by
man because of this inherent desire to have a place set aside or apart for the
expression of those emotions which he felt were a natural element of his
consciousness.
The most primitive men of
ancient times and those living in the most primitive parts of the world today,
out of contact with anything resembling civilization, found it necessary to
yield to this inherent urge. It is natural, from every point of view, for man
to feel and intuitively sense or believe that there is some intelligence, some
power, some divinity, greater, more magnificent, more wise, more merciful, or
more just than himself.
Fear of the unknown is
another natural instinct, and it is not surprising, therefore, that
accompanying primitive man's instinctive belief in the existence of some
unknown power or intelligence greater than his own, there should have been the
emotion of awe or fear and that along with this reverential attitude there should
have been an attitude of marvel, surprise, and fearfulness.
This tendency on the part of
human beings to want to worship that which is idealistic or more powerful, or
more intelligent or masterful than oneself is expressed in modern times by the
tendency on the part of civilized peoples to create heroes out of those who
appear to be supermen or superwomen through their outstanding achievements and
attainments. It has been said by psychoanalysts and philosophers alike that in
our modern civilized lands we love to hunt for and find national and local
heroes whom we worship for a day, a week, or a month until we supplant them
with others. We must have our George Washingtons, our Lincolns, our Roosevelts,
and our Lindbergs here in the United States, and this is true in every other
country, even in the lands of semi-civilized tribes.
But our adoration for
supermen and superwomen does not satisfy the longing within us to worship that
which is a part of ourselves and yet above and beyond our human natures. It has
been said by some mystics, philosophers, and deep students, that if no divine
revelations had ever brought to our consciousness the existence of a God, a
true and everliving God, and that if the universe had not been created and
ruled by an omnipotent, merciful, just and loving God, man, through his
essential tendency to love and adore, worship and reverence such a God, would
have created one. In fact, this is what the pagans did. While they had no
definite revelations of the existence of God, they believed that it was
necessary to have one and they felt lost, alone, unguided, unprotected, without
a God. Therefore, they proceeded to create one god, then another, and then a
multiplicity of them. But out of this search for a real God came the
revelations of the True Being.
Man's natural desires in this
direction are a thing apart from systematized religion or from dogmatic creeds.
All forms of religion, all decalogues, all commandments, and all dogmatic
postulations are creations on the part of man's mind in an attempt to interpret
that which he feels inwardly. They are like unto the pictures that the artist
paints on the canvas in an attempt to paint nature as he sees it and feels it.
But just as no picture that the greatest artist has ever painted satisfies his
desire to express what he comprehends inwardly, so no religious creed and no
system of worship has ever thoroughly satisfied human beings in their craving
to attune themselves divinely with the omnipotent consciousness that they sense
as the Divine Father and Ruler of the universe.
The man or woman who claims
that he or she has no instinctive desire for sacred worship is a fool; he
deceives no one, least of all himself. Those who are mentally or
psychologically incapable of any form of divine worship are worse than morons,
for they are incapable of any human interpretation or of any conscious
contemplation of their own emotions.
Millions of human beings are
adverse to adopting or organizing the systematized forms of religion, while
inwardly and outwardly they express a reverence and respect and even an adoration
for that which is holy and sacred and that which is above and beyond the human
plane of consciousness. It is for this reason that there are millions of
intelligent, cultured, and right-living human beings who are not affiliated
with any church and who do not associate themselves with any religious
movement. Very often these persons are most sincere in their adherence to
certain religious principles and it is one of the problems of systematic
religion and of churchanity to try and interest these good individuals in
church organization and church activities.
We know from our
correspondence and interviews with many thousands of individuals throughout
North America and parts of Europe that millions of persons have listened to
religious and sacred music and discourses on Sunday mornings, afternoons, or
evenings while assembled reverentially and devotedly in little groups in their
homes before the radio. We know that in the United States many thousands
listened with the utmost devotion and respect to the services of Seth Parker
with his simple religious eloquence and his sincere, sacred programs. They have
shed tears with him and joined in singing the songs with him while they felt
themselves attuned with the spirit of his work via the radio. We know that
these have been benefited, inspired, and led to better deeds and to a better
understanding of God's laws and principles through these radio programs and yet
these persons were not inclined to attend any church or give any support to
what they called organized religion.
It is because of this desire
on the part of mankind to worship privately, silently, peacefully, and
reverentially that the Cathedral of the Soul has met with such great success
and has been so universally adopted as a true non-sectarian, non-systematized
form of religious worship.
The Cathedral of the Soul
meets the desires of men and women who want to lift up their consciousness to a
plane that is above and beyond the physical and mundane and the human. It meets
a desire of those who visualize and sense through inner revelations that the
kingdom of God is within and is above and beyond the material things of this
life. It meets the contemplations of those who conceive of religion as being
something above creeds or sectarian distinctions. It satisfies those who are
convinced that it is the soul within man that must approach the Holy of Holies
and not the physical part of man alone, and that it is far better for the
divine part of man within him to enter into the sacred Cathedral and worship in
a spiritual sense than for his physical body to enter a worldly edifice and
dwell there physically as a matter of form and with no spiritual sympathy with
the systematic services limited by sectarian differences.
If you have not acceded to
the surging unrest in your soul to want to worship God and the divine
principles, be brave and express yourself. It is not a weakness to permit a
spiritual emotion to manifest itself in your being and in your thoughts and in
your acts. It is a real weakness to restrain these things and to battle against
the higher principles and seek consolation in the material world alone. He is
the greatest who permits himself to worship the ideals of life and to give
credence to the spiritual values. He is strongest who humbles himself in
adoration at the divinity of his consciousness and he is truly a master who
lifts himself up to the presence of God and dwells in sublime ecstasy for
periods of time.
If you do not know the
spiritual beauties and the magnificent blessings that come through worship in
any other form, enter into the Cathedral of the Soul with us and with many
thousands of others throughout the world. Send for the book, Liber 777,
as explained above, and unite with those who lift up their hearts and minds and
attune their souls and spirits to this great sacred consciousness in the Cosmic
and there find the mind of God, the love and the life, health, and beautiful
blessings of the God and Father of all beings.
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