Formidable are the attractions for some of the souls seeking rebirth: for example, the families of the alcoholics, the debauched, and the demented. How can we conciliate the idea of justice with beings in such environment! We have seen that the law of affinity brings similar beings together: an entire culpable past leads a delayed soul toward a group which presents analogies with its mental and etheric state - a state created by its thoughts and actions. There is no place in these problems for despotism or chance. It is the soul’s own prolonged evil use of its liberty, the constant pursuit of selfish and unworthy aims, which leads it to progenitors like itself. They furnish the materials in harmony with its etheric organism impregnate it with the same gross tendencies appropriate to the manifestation of the same appetites and desires. A new existence opens a new path toward vice and crime. It is the descent toward the abyss. Master of its own destiny, the soul must submit to the state of things which it has willed and prepared. Each time, after having made for its conscience a dark cave, the soul, to repair the evil, should transform it into a temple of light. For faults accumulate will but increase the suffering later: a circle of iron will bind the soul, and whirled on the wheel of causes and effects created by itself, it will comprehend the necessity to react against its tendencies, and to conquer its evil passions. As soon as the first emotion of repentance touches the soul, it feels born in it new forces and impulsions which carry it toward a purer center. It attracts forms and elements more appropriate to its work of renovation. Step by step, progress is accomplished, and into a repentant soul rays of unknown aspirations penetrate - of desires for useful action - of awakening devotion. The law of attraction which pushed it toward the underworld now returns, and becomes the instrument of its regeneration. However, the upliftment will not come without pain, the ascension will not be made without difficulty. The faults and errors of the past will send on their obstructions to future lives. The effort must be the more energetic and prolonged, for the responsibilities will become heavier and the resistance more extended with each life. Along the rude ascent the past dominates; the present and its burdens will be heavy on the shoulders of the traveler. But from on high helping hands will be stretched forth to aid him to cross the more difficult passages of his journey; for there is indeed joy in Heaven over the sinner who repents. Our future is in our hands, and our facilities for good increase in the same ratio with our efforts to realize it. Every noble and pure life, every superior mission is the result of an immense past of strife and self-conquest - the crown of long, patient labors, the accumulation of fruits of science and charity, gathered one by one through the ages. The fields of intelligence, painfully cultivated, gave at first but meager harvests; then, little by little, came the more abundant and rich reaping. With each return to space is established the balance of losses and benefits. Progress is measured and established: the soul examines and judges itself. It scrutinises minutely its recent history, written by itself; it passes in review the fruits of wisdom and experience that its last life has procured to more profoundly assimilate the substance. The life in space for the evolved soul is the period of examination and interrogation of the conscience - of a rigorous inventory of what is within itself of ugliness or beauty. The life in space is the life of equilibrium, where the forces are reconstructed, the energies fortified, and the enthusiasm is animated for future tasks. It is repose after effort, calm after torment, peaceful and serene concentration after active expansion and ardent conflict. According to some theosophists the return of the soul to flesh is effected usually each fifteen hundred years. But our own testimony, gained from great spirits, does not confirm this. Interrogated in great number, and from various centers, they reply that reincarnation is much more rapid than that. The soul eager for progress dwells a brief time in space; they demand a return to this world to acquire new merits. We possess information regarding past lives of certain persons, gathered from the lips of mediums who knew nothing of this people, yet which was in perfect accordance with facts and intuitions of the interested parties. These statements indicated that ten, twenty, thirty years only separated the terrestrial lives of some individuals, but there was no precise rule. The incarnations were separated widely or followed closely, according to the state of the souls, their desire for work and advancement, and the favorable occasions offered them. In the case of premature death reincarnation was often immediate. We know that the etheric body often materializes or refines, following the nature of the thought and actions of the soul. The vicious by their tendency attract to themselves impure fluids, which thicken their envelope and reduce their radiations. At death they cannot lift themselves above our regions, and remain confined in our atmosphere and near human beings. If they persist in evil thoughts, planetary attraction becomes so powerful that it precipitates their reincarnation. The more gross and material a soul the more the 68
law of gravitation influences him. The inverse phenomenon takes place with pure spirits, and they vibrate with all the sensations of the Infinite, and find in the ethereal regions centers appropriate to their nature and their state of progression. Arrived at a high degree, these spirits prolong more and more their sojourn in space, and planetary lives become for them the exception, soul freedom the rule, until they attain to the perfection which frees them for ever from the servitude of rebirth. 69
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