by George Vale Owen

This volume (what follows is a short excerpt) contains a series of communications from beyond the veil, received and written down by the Rev. G. Vale Owen, Vicar of Oxford, Lancashire.

It should be clearly understood that these messages, while complete in themselves, deal chiefly with the “Sphere of Light” nearest to the earth in which the Vicar’s mother, who is the principal communicator, states that she dwells, and that her impressions are chiefly individual to herself and are thus those of a newcomer and learner whose experiences are limited to a restricted area. Wider regions and greater heights and depths are explored, the interrelation of this and the afterlife is more fully explained, and both narrative and exposition of aims and principles are more vigorous, clear and comprehensive in succeeding messages, contained in other volumes of the series which follow this. ~ H. W. Engholm

Will you tell me of your experience, and what you learned, when you made your tour among the Creative Hierarchies?

With a company of fellow-students, I essayed into the scenes around us, and at once I found that all had been arranged for our convenience in gathering knowledge such as would be helpful to us. All was planned out orderly. Broad avenues of great length, fading into the distance, were laid between the great orders of Creation. But, inasmuch as none of these were entirely separate one from another, these avenues were not merely divisions, nor roads for traverse, but were in themselves departments blending those on either hand.

As we walked down these we were struck with the fact that certain principles were evident, as observed by all the Creative Princes loyally. And these principles were essentially the same whether they were applied to mineral or vegetable or animal life. This is but reason when you remember that all the glamour of the diversity, so rich in wisdom and ingenuity, as displayed in those departments most evolved, had grown out of the first simple aggregation of elements, through long ages of progress, first in a few apparently trivial departures from the simple into the complex, until at length we have the richness of flamboyant display as we see it today.

Let me take an instance to illustrate my meaning.

We saw, as we went down one avenue, how worlds were made. On the left hand, as we went, we saw how the thought of God, vibrating and pulsing outward, became, by degrees, of denser element, until it issued into what you call ether. Here we were able to notice the nature of the movement, and we saw that it was spiral, but that, as any certain wave reached the top of the spiral, it continued its course by a descent, also of spiral form, but now within the atom of ether. So that the inner spiral, having a more constricted space to work in, the descent was of greater speed than that of the outer spiral. Emerging from the lower end of the atom at a greatly increased velocity the vibrations were able, of their own momentum, to continue again their outer course upward, but at a rate of movement ever a little slower, until the top was reached, and the descent begun anew interiorly, and with ever-gathering velocity.

These atoms were not round, nor were they true oval, but, by reason of the ceaseless movement within themselves, elliptic. The motive power of their self-contained motion was a gravitational pressure exerted from without, and, if we could have chased it to its source, I think that we should have found that the dynamo from which it proceeded was the Mind of God. You will note that I use the words “top” and “bottom,” “up,” “down,” for convenience only. There is no top nor bottom to an atom of ether.

Now I have described this to you in order that it may form a model for you when you pursue the atom of ether into other substances of denser sort. When we came to those atoms which form the gases of your earth atmosphere we found that they also had a like motion. Each circulated upon itself in precisely the same way as the atom of ether. There were minor differences: the spiral was, in some cases, elongated, in others compressed; the movement was of greater speed or less. But all these movements were spiral, both without and within the atom.

When we came to the atom of the mineral we found the same principle to hold.

And what is true in the single atom obtains also in the atom in aggregate. The movement of the atoms of a planet is spiral. But here it is much retarded by reason of the grossness of the matter which goes to form a planet.

The same is also true of the movements of satellites [moons], and of planets about suns, and of suns about their Center.

But both the mass and also the density of a unit affect the rate of velocity. The speed of the movement of their atoms is slower in those planets which have attained to more density than in others. But even in these the rule holds good that the interior movement is quicker than that on their outer surface, which drags after it very slowly, as if reluctant to move at all. But move it does, and that movement is in the form of a spiral about its axis.

Your moon still endeavors to keep the rule in regard to her orbit. She lifts herself, and she sinks again, as if in vain endeavor to perform her onetime spiral course about the earth. So does the earth in his journey about the sun. His orbit is not a true circle, nor a circle laid upon a true plane.

It is erratic and elliptic, both as to pivot and also to level.

And what is true of the atom of ether, and of earth gases, and of earth itself, is also true of the sun and of the constellations. Their movements are in the form of a gigantic spiral about an elliptic formation made up of the suns and their planets.

This we saw on the one side of that broad way. On the other side we saw the spiritual counterpart of these creations: the heavens complementary. And the street between the two took the place of the Borderland which joins the two. You cross a borderland like this when you pass from the earth life into the spirit realms, my son. And so we will leave that Department and come to another, for the street you cross is that between the man of earth and the man of the heavens.

Was there any other principle you observed other than that of the spiral?

Yes. I told you of that because it seemed simple to explain, and also it is fundamental—simple, perhaps, for that reason.

I will try to tell you of another. As the basal stage is left behind, the matter becomes more complex and harder of description; but I will try.

We found that the great Lords of Creation begin their work farther back than the etheric atom, and nearer the origin of all. Still, those who deal with the etheric evolution, and onward, are very great and ancient Lords. We therefore went forward to study these vibrations of thought-power where they were more retarded by the density of the material in which they moved. And we found that one of the most difficult tasks we students had ahead of us was to think and to will in the proper way. For to deal with matter creatively the first thing to master is to think in spirals. I cannot further explain that to you. But it is a most difficult habit to achieve: to think spirally.

But you ask for other principle. Let us come to a sensitive creation—that of plant life.

We went down a great avenue, on the one side of which was displayed the vegetable life of earth and of other planets, and on the other side, that of their complementary heavens. We found that each species of vegetable life had an analogue in the animal world. There is a reason why this is so, and it has to do with the soul of the plant rather than with its outer manifestation in bark, branch and leaf. But not only, for even there you may glimpse, if you examine closely, the relation between the two: the animal and the vegetable.

I am afraid I don’t quite follow you, sir. Could you help me a little farther?

Let us begin away from those two realms, and work back to them again; it is the better way. Here in the heavens we have different orders of beings, differing in authority, differing in power, and in character, and also in ability for one branch of work or another. This also exists on earth.

So you will find it also in the animal kingdom. Animals have different powers, and some have skill in one direction, some in another. They also differ in character. The horse is more apt at friendship with man than is the snake; the parrot than the vulture.

Now, this principle of analogue, of which I have spoken, may be seen, if only dimly for the most part, existing between the vegetable and animal world. We will take the oak tree to represent the vegetable world, and the bird for the animal. The oak tree produces its seed, and lets it fall upon the earth, in order that it may become overlaid and by the warmth of the earth burst its shell and its inner life break forth into outer manifestation. The acorn and the egg are identical in all essentials, both as to their structure and also their manner of incubation. This motion of life—from the inner to the outer—is a universal law, and is never broken. It also has its origin deep down into primordial matter, from whence the present universe came. Remember my words about the etheric atom. For the initial motion of the atom is interior, where its velocity is accelerated, where it accumulates its momentum. Exteriorly both are retarded.

So we found the rule in respect of other departments. There were unifying principles established to which celestial workers were bound. Among these principles was that of protective covering, and its beauty as presented outwardly, so that so much pleasure might be afforded to the beholder as should be consistent with the inner utility; sex, in its two divisions, active and receptive; circulatory system, as of sap and blood; respiratory system by pores, and other principles also.

You cannot continue longer, my son. Cease now.

The Spiral Course Of Progress

Now what principles govern material things—that is, the manifestation of life outwardly in matter—are applicable also to realms spiritual?

First, as to the spiral, which is itself an analogue in matter of principles which are seen in operation in these spiritual realms. That must be so, for all movement of atoms material is the effect of will operative. The Central Will is that of God, Whose active outpouring passes through the spheres in orderly sequence, and finds ultimate expression in matter. What, therefore, is seen in matter is the effect of energy passing onward from these spheres. That energy is seen to issue, in the atom, in spiral activity. This could not be so unless the principle was also found to be active in these spheres through which the life-energy streams. How it is seen here manifest I propose to show you now.

The Crown of palm leaves was a symbol of this spiral principle, for in that form they were woven, and in the Manifestation I have related, the Angels who sat about the Crown were necessarily also arranged spirally. It was a token of their work as they do it, and it was to read us a lesson by our vision that they took their stations so.

Now, as applied to animal life in creation…

The first motion of sensation is seen in the plant, and there you see clearly illustrated the spiral principle. The bean climbs spirally, as do other climbing plants, some more explicitly and others less perfectly. The veins of the trees also tend to incline from the perpendicular as they traverse the trunk in its length. The plants which climb by tendrils support themselves by a spiral hook. Seeds float afield, or fall to the ground, in a similar curve. All these are consequent on the principle, active as the vibrations proceed through the sun and reach the plant life on earth. These reproduce in miniature his motion along the heavens of space, and, in themselves, mimic the orbits of the constellations.

When we come to animal life we find the same principle at work, for birds do neither fly nor swim in a straight line, but incline out of the straight, and, given a course of sufficient extent, the same formation would be apparent. To the animals, both of ocean and land, the same rule applies, but is not always seen so plainly as in the lower orders of life, because it is here modified by the exercise of free will, which produces motions erratic from the central rule. In inverse ratio, the less free will enters into the composition the more apparent does the law become. I need only name, by way of example, the snail’s shell, and many of the shells of the sea-animals, where instinct is in the place of free will.

On the other hand, where man is concerned, the principle is seen operative most in those matters where his individuality is less apparent than is the general guiding Mind of his race. Thus civilization proceeds from cast to west, from time to time encircling the earth. It obeys the lead of earth’s Central Sun. But the sun’s meridian does not travel in a straight line along the equator, but inclines, now to north, now to south, as earth leans one way or other. This motion of earth is a remnant of the ancient rule, and shows earth’s origin from the nebular state, wherein the same spiral movement exists. Even so, the path of civilization, encircling earth, never crosses over the same region twice in succession. By the time the civilizing wave reaches the point of longitude which marks its former revolution earth has inclined itself at its poles, the north southward and the south northward, sonic degrees. As the path of the impact of the sun’s radiation upon earth is thus varied, so also is the path of the onward march of civilization, which, by the way, is but another way of saying “revelation.” If you think of the location of Lemuria and Atlantis and their successors in the progress of human experience, you will see my meaning.

Further, not alone in respect of the path it takes locally, but as to achievement also, the principle holds. This is harder to explain to you. Here it is clearly seen by us, for we see the inner mental working of the race, not alone more vividly, but also over a wider range of time. Thus I am able to tell you that the progress of the human race goes ever upward, but in a gigantic spiral nevertheless. I may best be able to give you a hint of my meaning by reminding you of the saying, “There is naught new under the sun.” That is not true, but it echoes a truth. You hear, from time to time, that new discoveries have been made, but are found to have been anticipated some thousands of years ago. Well, I would not put it quite in that way. I would say, rather, this new discovery has come about during that period when science is traversing the inclined path just above that section of the inclined path below it in the spiral when its antecedent discovery was made. For the spiral is ever ascending, and ever returning above its circuitous course. And these new inventions are new only in the sense of being adaptations of scientific discoveries in the previous cycle of the spiral of civilization.

Could you, please, give me some illustrations?

The utilization of the molecules of ether for the service of mankind is illustrative of this. You will note that the present advanced state of this branch of science was worked up to very gradually. We will start with the process of combustion by which gas was liberated, heat was generated, and, from the heat, steam was produced. This was followed by the application of this same gas, but discarding the intervening medium of steam. Then a finer system of etheric vibrations was pressed into service, and electricity now is fast supplanting steam. But another step forward has been taken, and what you call wireless waves are beginning to be found more potent still.

Now, all this has been done before, in varying degrees of perfection, by scientists of those long-ago civilizations, which have to you become almost a mythical memory. The next step is also seen ahead. It is the substitution of mental waves for the etheric waves. This also some few of the highest and most progressed of those your forerunners compassed in their science. They were not allowed to give forth their knowledge to their fellow-men, who were not progressed enough morally—to use it aright. Nor will it be given to the present race of men to perfect this as an exact science until they have further progressed in spiritual competency. Otherwise harm would accrue to the race, and not benefit.

But the present cycle of progress will, in this matter, go beyond that of the cycle last preceding, for at this point in those days they stopped and went no farther. Their decline set in, and what they had come by gradually became absorbed into the spiritual spheres, to be conserved there until the next race had been prepared and brought to such a state of perfection as should qualify them to receive it back again with added momentum inspired into it by its guardians during the ages in which it has rested quiescent in their charge.

Call the spiritual spheres interior, and the earth sphere external, and you have the same principle of movement reproduced which we have already attached to the atom of ether.

There is much more than this to the matter, but it is not competent in us to put it in words you would understand. Enough to say the principle we have been scheming to show to you holds good, not alone in respect of the dynamics of science, as I may name what I have instanced presently, but also of the sciences of government, of cultivation of vegetable species and of animals, and the science of astronomy and of chemistry.

Were astrology and alchemy the two analogues which corresponded with astronomy and chemistry of the present day?

But no, my son, most surely no. We have been speaking to you tonight in aeons, not in centuries. Astrology and alchemy are the immediate parents of the two modern sciences. They are in the same cycle of this gigantic spiral of which I speak, and but a few inches apart, almost at the same level of ascent on the inclined plane.

No, but chemistry shall serve for a theme for one word more to you ere I say good night.

It is the outermost expression of the activity of those High Ones who guide the stream of vibration proceeding from the One Great Central Mind into diversity and differentiation. From unity all these chemical elements proceeded by way of differentiation of that unity into parts, and then into particles, as the life-stream proceeded outward from God, through spirit, to emerge in matter. Then, having reached its lowest point, that impulse is now turned about, and is proceeding upward inwardly. The analytic chemist is obeying this impulse as to its outward course from unity into diversity. The synthetic chemist already is making stumbling and somewhat clumsy attempts to counter this tendency. His endeavors are set from diversity towards unification of elements again. He has turned the outermost spiral of the cosmic atom, when the inward course will continue that same onward urge, to emerge once again on its outer, but ever spiral, path. Remember our words concerning this which we gave you at our last coming, and cheek our words of tonight by them.

Excerpt from The Battalions of Heaven