Article on Mysticism Basics by Richard McNeill

Mysticism Basics

For: The Fraters of MSRICF – April 30, 2005

Paper Presented at Chandler Lodge, Chandler, Arizona

By: Dr. Richard G. McNeill, Jr.

I am not a Mystic, but on occasions I have had experiences that seem to carry the attributes of what has been described as a Mystical experience.

In the mid-1980s, I happened to be on a solitary one week hiking trip into the Superstition Mountain wilderness west on Phoenix, Arizona. This landmass rising out of the desert floor carries its own legends and casts a dominant shadow over the winter snowbird town of Apache Junction. After a few days of no conversation with another human being, strenuous physical exertion, and an immersion into the pristine natural desert, I stopped for rest at the top of a ridge.

The silence was palpable. The wind was alive – not violent, but a steady flowing presence. It surged up from the valley floor following the contours of the upward rising slope to where I sat. It spoke to me as it feathered across my face. “I am eternal, powerful, and you are part of me.” Somehow the memory of this brief experience has stayed with me now for over 20 years. Somehow it was significant albeit ever so brief.

First Love. You have to go back to your childhood and remember what it was like when you first fell in love. Can you remember the days at school when this indefinable thrill for the first time got hold of you? There you were, all of a sudden you had fallen in love with a girl that was in your eyes the favorite of the gods. She was so touched by divine grace that the picture of her could not leave your mind for a second. How smooth her skin and how beautiful her hair! What a gorgeous face! How delicate the rounding of her forearms! Her beautiful girlish hands, with the tender and fragile fingers, kept coming back to your mind all day.

And if this mental picture - which you had chained to your soul with all the Gordian knots in the world - left your memory and the image of her went blank, then you felt a great loss, a tremendous pain of being bereft by something so precious that you would give up everything you owned to get it back.

You remembered everything she said, what she did, the way she walked, the charm of her conversation. Especially on moments when you were alone this feeling was cherished. You wanted to be by yourself with this feeling and you locked yourself up in your room to think about her. It made your favorite music sound like it was played on Mount Parnassus by Apollo himself.

Athletics and In-the-Zone. Have you ever won in sports a competition that offered at the start no possibilities of ever winning the game? You had trained for months and you had done everything you could to prepare yourself for the games. But the first rounds were a total failure. You thought already of going home. It was a total mess up. All competitors were better, faster and stronger.

But as you already had given up all idea of winning, suddenly your muscles began to feel as if they would do everything you wanted them to do. Suddenly running became so natural and easy. The last innings, quarters, or sets were totally yours. The victory was the more breathtaking - since it was unexpected. You have never felt a victory like that in your whole life. It was as if you were lifted up by something far stronger than yourself - as if something external had taken over control. The euphoria was indescribable. Tears were rolling down your cheeks out of sheer joy. Your knees trembled as you climbed upon the platform of victory.

These are two examples of moments in life that will always be remembered. Somehow these moments are the milestones of your life, because you will always relate to them. In times of crisis you will always recall these moments. They will give you the strength to go on. For everyone knows in his heart that feelings like these are the real content of life. There is even in the deepest crisis always a small corner in everyone's heart where this content is cherished. This content gives cause for hope. This hope is very substantial because it is not only a remembrance of former happiness but also a foresight on good times to come.

Mysticism is about these feelings –these peak experiences. Mystics are people who have - all in different times and all in different degrees - experienced one way or another these feelings and were very sensitive to them.

William James (1842 – 1910) U.S. psychologist and pragmatist philosopher, spoke of mysticism as based on an experience having four distinguishing marks:

Random Mystics. Most people have peak experiential moments only rarely in their lives. And, these experiences and feelings engendered show them what Mysticism is like. But, most people never seem to be able to turn these experiences into a permanent state of being –they are in the author’s (McNeill) terms, Random Mystics.

This randomness results from the fact that most people are easily distracted by massive amounts of external stimuli continuously flowing into their senses – they focus on events from the outside world. And, they remain chained to the outside world. Peak experiences or Mystic-like experiences come from the inside the person. For the person to find them they must internally trace the source of these experiences. Deliberate Mystics (another McNeill term) work very hard and systematically at attaining peak experiences.

Deliberate Mystics. These are people who actively strive for the maximum effect and frequency of attaining peak experiences and attendant feelings: (a) They want these feelings all the time, (b) they make a deep and thorough study of the human soul, by turning inwards, (c) they close their eyes and meditate and pray, and (d) in the depth of their soul they find a stillness that generates these peak experiences, the very feelings you experienced when you fell in love or when you won your victory. This stillness is for them a source of great bliss.

This paper focuses upon Deliberate Mystics in all of their varieties. The primary distinguishing characteristic in these many varieties of Mystics is the language and symbols that they use to relate the Peak Experience that they attain. This Peak Experience is usually described as either sensing the Ultimate Reality or individually merging into the Ultimate Reality

This paper does not purport to examine the topic of Mysticism to the exhaustion of more profundity. It, rather attempts to provide the reader an elementary introduction into Mysticism – thus its title, Mysticism Basics. It is primarily aimed at the Fraters of Masonic Societas Rosicruciana In Civitatibus Foederatis (MSRICF) to provide a definitional foundation as explicated in the mission statement of MSRICF:

The aim of the Society is to afford mutual aid and encouragement in working out the great problems of Life; and in searching out the secrets of Nature; to facilitate the study of the system of Philosophy founded upon the Kabalah and the doctrine of Hermes Trismegitus, which was inculcated by the original Fratres Rosae Crucis, A.D. 1450; and to investigate the meaning and symbolism of all that now remains of the wisdom, art and literature of the ancient world.(North Carolina MSRICF College, 2005).

The aim of MSRIC is: (a) searching out the secrets of Nature, (b) studying Kabalistic philosophy, (c) studying the doctrine of Hermes Tismegitus, and (d) investigating symbolic meanings of the wisdom, art, and literature of the ancient world. This charge or aim falls under the general definition of Mysticism. So let us now define and explore and discuss Mysticism in more depth.

In the introduction, above, I delineated between Random Mysticism and Deliberate Mysticism. Both are found in all ages and in various cultural settings.

Random Mystics are ordinary people who sometimes have peak experiences and resulting feelings of significance about these feelings. Like all Mystics, these feelings usually cannot be articulately verbalized – with language used limited by and shaped by that particular person’s particular religious orientation and general cultural limitations.

Deliberate Mystics do not want to leave the peak experiences to random chance. They actively work to induce the mystical experience. These Mystics are also constrained by and use the language common to their culture and historical time. We generally find two broad classifications of Mystics: (a) Religious Mystics and (b) Nature Mystics or non-religious mystics.

Religious Mystics tend to express their Peak Experiences in terms of their own professed Religious language and symbolism or religious philosophical language. All formal religions, past and present, have had a special group of people within that practice Mysticism expressing their Peak Experience in idiosyncratic religious terms.

James Bisset Pratt (1921), in The Religious Consciousness - perceives three great elements of religion working together: (a) the traditional, (b) rational, and (c) volitional or mystical. The mystical element embraces the emotional and felling faculties. This mystical element, Pratt says, is either a sense of the presence of a being or a reality attained through means other than the ordinary perception processes or the reason. Mysticism refers to the sense or felling of this presence, not just to intellectual belief in it (Ellwood, 1980).

Nature Mystics often rely on their language of their particular religious upbringing or substitute language with quasi-religious overtones or physical experiences that serve as metaphors for the ecstasy experienced. Nature Mystics are to be found in all cultures and historical time periods and both experience and express their Peak Experience in non-religious context – the natural world itself or in natural processes.

W. R. Inge (1933), in his study of Christian mysticism at the end of the nineteenth century perceived mysticism as, “the attempt to realize, in thought or felling, the immanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the temporal.” While Inge studied Religious Mysticism, he also related it to Nature Mysticism. He saw the mystical experience as. “seeing or experiencing the timeless within the context of life bounded by time, or seeing all things in their ultimate environment, the infinite and eternal.” His definitions of mysticism and perspective were, therefore, similar to Nature Mystics – poets such as William Wordsworth and Robert Browning, who saw flashes of the transcendent in the midst of the ordinary (Ellwood, 1980).

All Mystics, Religious and Nature, often have difficulty translating their peak experiences to others. They are limited by constraints of language to convey a deeply experiential event to those who have not had the same experience.

Mystical experience is the direct, unmediated experience of what Bede Griffiths [1906 – 1993] describes as, “the presence of an almost unfathomable mystery…which seems to be drawing me to itself.” This mystery is beyond name and beyond form; no name or form, no dogma, philosophy, or set of rituals can every express it full. It always transcends anything that can be said of it and remains always unstained by any of our human attempts to limit or exploit it. Every mystic of every time and traditions has awakened in wonder and rapture to the signs of this eternal Presence and known its mystery as one of relation and love, for in every tradition the Presence is represented as hungry to reveal itself and to enter into ecstatic and intimate communion with its own creation. The awe and adoration that such an experience of love brings is the hidden foundation of all authentic religion, and to deepen and re-create more and more profoundly that awe and adoration, the wisdom they awaken, and the initiation into reality that they make possible is the goal of all authentic mystical discipline (Harvey, 1996, p. x).

Mysticism – Defined. The word derived from ancient Greek mysticon meaning secret, is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. In the context of epistemology (dealing with the nature of knowledge), Mysticism can refer to using any kind of non-rational means, such as feeling or faith, in attempt to arrive at any kind of knowledge or belief (Wikipedia, 2005).

Let’s examine the Wikipedia (2005) definition in more depth by exploring the key italicized words in the definitional paragraph above. We will see that these key concepts are tools (to reach and explain the Mystical experience) useful to both Religious and Nature (non-religious) Mystics.

1. Meditation usually refers to a state of extreme relaxation and concentration, in which the body is generally at rest and the mind quieted of surface thoughts. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin.

2. Prayer is an effort to communicate with a God, or to some deity or deities, either to offer praise to the deity, to make a request of the deity, or simply to express one's thoughts and emotions to the deity.There are a variety approaches to understanding prayer:

b. The belief that prayer is intended to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, rather than to influence a god;

c. The belief that prayer is intended to train a person to focus on a god through philosophy and intellectual contemplation;

d. The belief that prayer is intended to enable a person to gain a direct experience of a god;

e. The belief that prayer is intended to affect the very fabric of reality itself.

3. Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, "God", + λογος, logos, "rational discourse"). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics.

4. Divinity is seen as the existence of some entity or entities which are greater than humankind.

There are many forms of divinity, based upon the religious beliefs of the person or persons viewing the divine. In Christianity the concept of divinity is held in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other forms of religion (such as Norse mythology) the divine may be a pantheon of divine beings, each possessing or exemplifying a virtue of daily life or emotion. In animist traditions, everything in the universe has a divine aspect.

5. God is a term referring to the concept of a supreme being, generally believed to be ruler or creator of, and/or immanent within, the universe. The concept of a singular God is characteristic of monotheism, but it is not always possible to draw a sharp distinction between some forms of monotheism and some forms of polytheism - for example henotheism, worshiping a specific tribal god while accepting the existence of other gods for other tribes.

Some concepts of God may include anthropomorphic attributes, while others hold it impossible or blasphemous to imagine God in any physical form. Some hold that God is necessarily morally good. Others feel that God is beyond the understanding of human morality. Negative theology argues that no true statements about attributes of God may be made at all, and some hold God to be beyond the understanding of humanity altogether. Some mystical traditions ascribe limits to God's powers, arguing that God's supreme nature leaves no room for spontaneity.

A singular God is necessarily unique, but some see complexity in the singular God - Trinity and Dualism for example. Still, different traditions and understandings of the concept may cause disagreement among believers regarding the God revered by others. Belief in a single God may give rise to concepts of absolute morality, and also to a claim of exclusivity - Chosen people conceptions for example.

Some espouse an exclusionist view, seeing the God venerated by others with different beliefs as inferior or nonexistent. Others hold an inclusionist view, assuming the God venerated by others to be the same God under a different name. Many people hold personal, sometimes even secular interpretations of God, typically in agreement with a concept of an "Absolute Infinite".

5. Ultimate Reality - Reality in everyday usage means "everything that exists." The term Reality, in its most liberal sense, includes everything that is, whether or not it is observable, accessible or understandable by science, philosophy, theology or any other system of analysis. Reality in this sense may include both being and nothingness, whereas word existence is often restricted to being alone.

In philosophy, Ultimate Reality is the absolute nature of all things. It is different from ordinary reality, which is considered a product [generated internally in the individual] of the individual conscious mind. ultimate reality is independent of observation – Empirical science cannot, it is believed, grasp ultimate reality.

Both Religious and Nature Mystics speak of the ineffable but in different terms. An Ultimate Reality is generally alluded to by non-theistic religions – thus, Nature Mystics tend to use this term and language when describing their experience. Religious Mystics, practicing theistic religions, would speak of Divinity.

Context, is the broad view or perspective that many scholars of Mysticism have used to understand the many variations in reports of their peak or mystical experiences.

Frits Staal (1975), in Exploring Mysticism: A Methodological Essay, argued that mysticism and reason are not incompatible, but come together when mysticism is not merely studied, but actually practiced.

Gershom Scholem (1946), in his classic work, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, developed contextual qualifications concerning mysticism:

(a) Mysticism historically comprises much more than the experience, even though this experience lies at its root,

(b) No such thing as mysticism in the abstract exists, only mystics of particular traditions: Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, and so forth,; each Mystic can be only be understood in context of his or her religious system – for example some mysticism is unitive while Jewish mysticism is not, and

(c) Mysticism emerges as a definite stage in religious history. It appears in its classic forms with the transition from naïve archaic belief in anthropomorphic gods to a more sophisticated religion. Mysticism, Scholem says, “seeks to transform the God whom it encounters in its own social environment from an object of dogmatic knowledge into a novel and living experience and intuition.”

Agehananda Bharati, in The Light at the Center, illustrates the importance of context for the mystical experience. He insists that the mystical experience is always the same: a bare experience of oneness- he calls the “zero experience.” This experience, he says is “like distilled water, tasteless.” Since there is little to say about this zero experience, when mystics talk about it they really talk about the “ramifying events, euphoric or visionary” associated in the mystic’s consciousness about this experience. The way they talk about it or describe it, Bharati says, derive from context and personality. Thus, their accounts of the experience may be compared to the personal “style” of different artistic performers.

Let’s look at some classic definitions of mysticism to see how some giants in the study of mysticism have dealt with the subject:

1. Thomas Aquinas (1225? – 1274) the medieval Italian scholastic philosopher and thologian, spoke of mysticism as, “the knowledge of God through experience.”

2. Rufus Jones (1909), the American Quaker, wrote that mysticism is, “the type of religion which puts the emphasis on immediate awareness of relation with God, on direct and intimate consciousness of the Divine Presence. It is religion in its most acute and living stage.”

3. Evelyn Underhill (1902), in her very influential book, Mysticism, quoted Coventry Patmore that Mysticism is, “the science of ultimates…the science of self-evident Reality, which cannot be ‘reasoned about,’ because it is the object of pure reason or perception.”

4. Walter T. Stace (1960), the distinguished philosopher of mysticism, states that mysticism is, “an ultimate non-sensuous unity in all things – the One”

5. Geoffrey Parrinder (1976), quoting Ben-Ami Scharfstein, claims, “mysticism is a name for our infinite appetites. Less broadly, it is the assurance these appetites can be satisfied.”

1. Marghanita Laski (1961), called mysticism and experience of “transcendent ecstasy.”

2. Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) Austrian founder of psychoanalysis, saw mystical states as, oceanic consciousness, in which the distinction of subject and object [individual and what is outside] is washed away into a limitless unity.”

3. James H. Leuba (1925), the psychoanalyst, defined mysticism as, “any experience taken by the experiencer to be a contact (not through the senses, but immediate, and intuitive) of union of the self with a larger-than-self, be it called the World-Spirit, God, the Absolute, or otherwise.”

4. Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) German economist, philosopher, and socialist, contended that mystical movements are essentially reactions to political exploitation in which people of certain classes have no means of self-fulfillment and vehicles for protest except in religion.

5. Ernst Troeltsch (1931), the great sociologist of religion, saw mysticism as, “simply the insistence upon a direct and present religious experience.”

Alchemy: Alchemy, as often as not, assumes a Hermetic world view. Most people know alchemy as the search for the principle of transmutation of baser metals into higher (e.g., lead into gold). It is really broader, and represents the attempt to understand the connections in the world. Paracelsus practiced a medical alchemy, in which the body was a collection of balancing principles, and illness meant that the balance was off. If you take away the spiritual assumptions behind the alchemical forces, you have something remarkably close to Newtonian physics.

Beghards: male counterparts to the Beguines. Fewer, and less of an issue for the church at the time.

Beguines: group of female contemplatives, some of whom were mystics. They were condemned as heretics because they represented a challenge to the church's authority. Many important female mystics were associated with the Beguines, although the group was not necessarily mystical (some thought that mystical visions got in the way of practical life).

Gnosticism: Derived from Greek gnosis, knowledge. The Gnostic is one who claims esoteric knowledge about God and the metaphysical structure of the universe. There is a strong distinction between spirit and matter, God and the world. This position sometimes resulted in asceticism (the spirit must be liberated from the bonds of the flesh), and sometimes antinomianism (the material world is inconsequential, so there is no point in resisting carnal impulses). Some later mysticism (e.g. quietism) has the world-denying aspects of gnosticism.

Hermeticism: Followers of the legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus, or thrice-great Hermes, reputed to be an Egyptian writer. Much nature mysticism of the Renaissance found hermetic thought useful, because both understood the world to be intrinsically interconnected, and only understandable once those connections were understood. Hermes mixed with Pseudo-Dionysius was common fare in Renaissance Italy, until Isaac Casaubon showed that Hermes was not who he said he was.

Kabbalah: Jewish mysticism that has its roots earlier than Christianity, but which flourishes in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Kabbalah struggles with the problem of how the human person can relate to a God who is totally other, and how that God relates to creation.

Monasticism: Although the tendency to live apart for spiritual devotion has a long history, it is closely tied to mysticism in the Middle Ages. The disciplines associated with mysticism have their most rigorous application there. The most famous orders are the Franciscans (St. Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure), the Dominicans (Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart), the Carmelites (Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross), the Benedictines (St. Benedict), and the Jesuits (St. Ignatius of Loyola). The orders exist to this day, and continue to be places that encourage mysticism and contemplation (Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, for instance).

Rhineland Mysticism: The Rhineland mystics were German mystics that follow the influence of Meister Eckhart. They tend to emphasize the search for the inner ground of the soul.

Sufism: The mystical bent in Islam is supported by passages from the Koran (or Qur'an) and is represented by the Sufis. Because there is a dominant emphasis on prophetic activism and legalism in Islam, Muslim tradition may be misunderstood as entirely inhospitable to mysticism. But the Sufi way, mainly transmitted through "lay orders" that trace their origin to some influential spiritual teacher, preserve a distinctively Islamic mysticism. Among these Sufi sub-traditions are the Naqshbandi and the Nimatullahi, but there are several others. A few modern organizations (such as the International Sufi Movement led by Hidayat Inayat Khan) claim descent from traditional Sufis but do not require their followers to be Muslims. And recently the great Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi has been rediscovered as a source of inspiration by poets Robert Bly and Coleman Barks. However, most practicing Sufis affirm that they are Muslims.

The following is presented as an example of standards by which Mystics are expected to live. Interestingly, as Mysticism is an individual and completely idiosyncratic practice these Codes should be read as indications of what a Mystic might do in his/her everyday practice. Again, true Mystics do not practice any prescribed dogma.

The Rosicrucian Code according to Dr. Lewis (Founder of the For-Profit AMORC) was purported to be taken from old and modern manuscripts for the guidance of Rosicrucians. It was first published in the Rosicrucian Manual. It is adapted as, Code of Life For Mystics , and put forward as relevant to all mystics of all persuasions (UnKnown author, 2005), http://salemos.tripod.com/index-51.html)

Aspiring, Deliberate Mystics, are admonished: It will profit you greatly to try to adopt as many of these rules, as soon as possible, on your Spiritual Mystical Path:

1 Upon arising in the morning start the day with a prayer of thankfulness to God for the return of consciousness, because of the opportunities it affords to continue the Great Work and Mission of your life. Face the geographical East, inhale fresh air with seven deep breaths, exhale then slowly with mind concentrated upon the vitality going to each part of the body to awaken the psychic centers. Then bathe, and drink a glass of cold water before eating.

2 Upon retiring, and after conducting all psychic experiments scheduled for the night, or attending to any special psychic or Mystical work contained in your studies. Give thanks to God for the day and its fruits; ask the Cosmic Hosts to accept your psychic services while you sleep, to use your consciousness as they desire, and, if it pleases God and the Masters to have you live another day on earth, So Mote It Be! Then with thoughts of love for all living beings, and a sense of Peace and Harmony with all the universe, close your eyes and fall asleep, visualizing your inner self in the consciousness of God.

3 Before each meal wash your hands clean and hold them, palms downward, over the plate of food for a fraction of a minute, then mentally pray that the benediction of God be granted to the food you eat that it may be magnetized with the spiritual radiations from your hands, and thus greatly supply the needs of the body. then, before eating the first morsel, say, mentally: "May all who need food share with me what I enjoy, and may God show me how I may share with others what they have not."

4 Before accepting any blessing from the material world (whether purchased by money, labor, or exchange, or whether received as a gift), say, mentally: "By the privilege of God I receive this and pray that it may help me better to fulfill my mission in life." This applies even to such things as clothing, personal requisites, periods of pleasure at the theater, church, musicals, etc., or even to such small things as books, helpful reading matter, etc., and of course includes the receipt of money as salary, commission, gifts, or otherwise.

5 Whenever any special blessing is received, such as long desired things from the material world of any nature, or a small or large luxury, or an unexpected piece of goodness, do not use or apply it to your personal use in any way until you have retired to the silence somewhere for a few minutes to meditate and ask this question: "Have I truly deserved this blessing and is there any way in which I can share the benefit of it--directly or indirectly--with others or for the benefit of man?" Then wait for an answer from the Cosmic. If you receive no word that it is undeserved or should be shared, or passed on to another, then say: "I thank God, the Cosmic, and the Masters for this blessing: May I use it to the glory of my Soul."

6 If any special honor--military, governmental, political, social, or otherwise--is being conferred upon you, always act with the utmost humility, proclaim your unworthiness (for who is truly worthy of all things?) and with a mental resolution that it must not make you proud or selfish, accept the blessing with a prayer of thankfulness and assert that, in the name of those whom you can serve better such blessing, you receive it.

7 If, in giving testimony, in court or elsewhere, you are asked to take an oath, or swear or promise upon some sacred book or emblem, bear in mind that you can select the book or emblem you prefer. (In most courts of the world individual selection of such sacred symbol for such purpose is permissible.) Then say as a Mystic you prefer to make your statement over another symbol or book that is sacred to you. Remember that if an untruth is knowingly stated at such time it will create a Karmic condition that can never be set aside except by the fullest compensation, according to te Law of Compensation.

8 Never permit yourself to enter discussions of other persons' religious beliefs, except to point out the soundness, goodness, or possible benefits of certain doctrines and thereby show them the good that exists in all religions. Hold not your religious thoughts as superior. Speak well of them if need be, point out how they serve you, but do not create in the minds of others the thought that they are in sin or error because of their beliefs. That religion is best for each which enables one to understand God and God's mysterious ways.

9 Be tolerant on all subjects and bear in mind that destructive criticism creates naught but sorrow. Unless you can constructively comment on matters, refrain from speaking.

10 Attempt no direct reforms in the lives of others. Discover in yourself what needs correction and improve yourself, that by the Light of your Life you may point the way to others.

11 Flaunt not your attainments, nor boast of your Mystical knowledge. You may be a Mystic, but as a Mystic in knowledge and power, the greatest and highest among us is but a child of the studies and unworthy of Mystical recognition. Proclaim yourself, not as a Master, but as Mystic student--ever a student--eternally.

12 Seek to share what you can spare, daily, even if in small ways and meager amounts. Go out of your way to find where that which you can give or do will be a blessing to someone or many, and while performing this duty shun all personal glory and let it be known that you are simply "about the Masters' work."

13 Accept no personal thanks for any blessing you bestow, any gift, or any help you render. When "thanks" are expressed it is customary to say: "Please thank me not, for it is I who am grateful. I seek, and must seek, to serve and labor for the Masters; you have afforded me an opportunity. But now the obligation to pass it on rests with you; may you, too, find an opportunity to serve someone else,"--or any other words indicative of this spirit.

14 Accept no gifts of a material nature for any good you do unless you agree with yourself in the moment of accepting it, and so state to the giver, that you will divide the blessing with someone where it will continue to carry on its mission of relief and help. This is essentially necessary when the material gift is of such a nature--like money, food, clothing, etc.--that it can be divided and is a common necessity on the part of many.

15 Bear in mind that through your Path in Mysticism you always have an open portal to help many, and that by sharing with them any blessings you pass on to others, who are Brothers and Sisters of your Spiritual Path in Mysticism who may need the blessings which come to you, perhaps as a trustee of the Cosmic

16 As you give so shall you receive! As each opportunity to give is seized upon with the utmost impulsiveness, so will future blessings, sought or required, be granted to you by the Cosmic. The greater the impulsiveness--with little thought as to personal sacrifice--the greater will be the compensation credited in the Cosmic.

17 Let not a day pass by without speaking to someone of the work of the Masters through the portal of your path in Mysticism. Each day make someone more familiar with its Great Work, not always by soliciting, not by preachments, but by simple statements of facts, simple demonstrations, and the kind word of recommendation.

18 Respect all women, honor thy father and mother; be sympathetic to the sinful, helping to the afflicted, and of service to the Masters. He is greatest among you who is the greatest servant unto all.

19 Provide now, while consciousness can assist you, to take care of those who may be dependent after transition; and if you have no one who will require a share of your earthly possessions after your transition--or you have sufficient to more than do for them--be certain that you grant, in proper and legal manner, a disposition of some of your worldly blessings to the a worthwhile charity of your choice, preferably a Spiritual non-profit organization.

20 Go to the assistance of any living being, regardless of race, creed, or color, when you can render direct or indirect aid in any emergency; if you cannot give aid in person, but can call or solicit aid, this, too, is imperative; in quiet and peace perform your work, render your service, and retire with as little recognition as possible.

21 Maintain one place in your home that is sacred to you. In it find Peace and time for meditation daily. Profane it not with pleasures of the flesh, but sanctify it with your higher thoughts.

22 Give your support, moral or physical, to some church in your community, that it may have your help in carrying on the great work in the Light.

23 Assume no political office without properly and duly notifying all who may sponsor or support your attainment of your definite views and principles toward humanity at large, that they may not expect or depend upon your submission of a lesser degree.

24 Judge not, unless you are so placed that those to be judged come legally and formally before you as a accredited servant of the multitude; then in sympathy understand, in mercy comprehend, in leniency estimate, and with love be fair. For the Law of Compensation will make adequate demands, and the God of all is alone a truly competent Judge of all facts.

25 Repeat no slander, tell no tales, and support no reports that injure or condemn unless accompanied by more than the same degree of constructive criticism and comment, and you have completely investigated and learned all the facts.

26 Seek the good in all things and give public praise to what you find. Look not upon the changing character of the outer self, but discover the real self within. Learn to know all beings and love them.

27 Gamble not with the lot of another who in ignorance may lose and suffer what you gain.

28 Avoid all extremes in thought and act; be moderate in all desires, and subdue your passions in all directions.

29 Attempt no radical or sudden change in the natural scheme of things; remember the Mystical injunction: Not by revolution, but through evolution, are all things accomplished in permanency.

30 Hold sacred and above all criticism the ideals of Mysticism; permit no slander to affect the good name of our practice; live that life which will prove the goodness of your principles; and be ready to defend the emblems of the Hermetic Rosy Cross and other Sacred symbols, with the might of your life and the light of your being.

At the end of his life, Thomas Aquinas, the great scholastic theologian of the thirteenth century, gave up work on the third and final part of his Summa Theologica – the greatest work and most enduring legacy of medieval philosophy – telling his secretary that all his writing had come to an end, because, “al I have written seems to me like so much straw compared with what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.” His thinking and his writing had been the focus of his working life so that whatever he had experienced caused everything else to pale into insignificance. But what was it?

Clearly what had happened to him was both overwhelming and transcendent. It completely changed his way of life- but not his faith – and it could not be described. Neither his state of being nor the Reality that revealed itself was amenable to description; he couldn’t reveal it to others either by the words of sense experience or through his philosophy. He could only state that something unique had happened to him – and make a value judgment upon it. But what had happened? The only immediate answer we can give is that he had undergone a mystical experience (Gilbert, 1991, p. 1).

So, what is Mysticism? Webster’s (1996, p.1272) defines mysticism as: (1) the beliefs, ideas or mode of thought of mystics, (2) a doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding or of a direct, intimate union of the [individual] soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy, and (3) obscure thought or speculation.

This definition is good as far as it goes, but does not fully recognize the mystical standpoint. Mysticism is the intimate and direct awareness of the Cosmic. The study of Cosmic laws and principles brings man into closer consciousness of his divine power. The tools of the Mystic are attunement, contemplation and meditation. Mysticism is not mystery or religion. It is a realization of a universal force or energy which could be called the Cosmic or God.

While Random Mystics sometimes have a glimpse of this Peak Experience, it is the Deliberate Mystic, whether Religious Mystic or Nature Mystic, who actively and systematically seeks these experiences. The Mystic of today does not wear distinctive garb or robes, he is a regular member of society and also a member of a trade or profession, and might even live next door - many scientists today are also Mystics.

In the general study and preparation of Mysticism, offers each man is offered an opportunity to, in Masonic terms, Seek Light. Simultaneously, it imposes upon these seekers a moral obligation to utilize this knowledge for the welfare of mankind. Albert Einstein said it well; Mysticism is the Sower of discovery, whether we know it or not.

Ellwood, Robert S., Jr. (1980). Mysticism and Religion. Englewood Cliffs, JNJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Gilbert, R.A. (1991). The Elements of Mysticism. Great Britain: Element Books, Ltd.

Harvey, Andrew. (1996). The Essential Mystics: The Soul’s Journey into Truth. Edison, NJ: Castle Books.

Janz, Bruce, B. (2005, March). Philosophy of Western Mysticism: A Course at the University of Central Florida. Edited by: Gene R. Thursby, Online: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/mys/whoswho.htm

Robertson, Brian. (2003). The Varieties of Mysticism. Online: http://www.christianmystics.com/contemporary/varieties1.shtml

Webster’s. , (1996) Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary. NY: Gramercy Books.

Ellwood, Robert S., Jr. (1980). Mysticism and Religion. Englewood Cliffs, JNJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Gilbert, R.A. (1991). The Elements of Mysticism. Great Britain: Element Books, Ltd.

Harvey, Andrew. (1996). The Essential Mystics: The Soul’s Journey into Truth. Edison, NJ: Castle Books.

Janz, Bruce, B. (2005, March). Philosophy of Western Mysticism: A Course at the University of Central Florida. Edited by: Gene R. Thursby, Online: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/mys/whoswho.htm