Question: We are taught that in plants the light ether
is partially dormant and the reflecting ether is lack-
ing. Thus, it is reasoned, sense perception and mem-
ory, which are the qualities of these ethers, cannot be
expressed by the plant kingdom. How is this to be
reconciled with recent scientific findings showing
that plants do respond “emotionally” to stimuli and
do seem to have a sensitive nervous system?
Answer: In Letters to Students, Max Heindel
wrote that “plant life is growing more sentient. The
lateral limbs of trees produce more abundantly
than do vertical branches because in plants, as in
us, consciousness results from the antagonistic
activities of the desire and vital currents. Lateral
limbs axe swept through their entire length by the
desire currents which circle our planet and which
act so powerfully in the horizontal animal spines.
The desire currents rouse the sleeping plant life in
the lateral limbs to a higher degree of conscious-
ness than is the case with the vertical branches,
which are traversed lengthwise by vital currents
radiating from the center of the Earth. Thus, in
time, the plants will also become too sensitive to
serve as food and another source must be sought.”
Occult science agrees that response to stimuli
among plants certainly does exist. The primary dif-
ference between occult and material science in the
interpretation of this phenomenon appears to be
concerning the source of the response. Occult sci-
ence teaches that the different life-waves have dif-
ferent levels of consciousness. The consciousness
of plants resembles that of dreamless sleep. Occult
science also teaches that the source of response to
outside stimuli is not actually the plant itself, but a
higher Being, a Group Spirit, who helps the plant
to function and through whom, in a sense, the plant
is evolving.
This may be hard to accept in the light of what
modern science has to say, but that does not nulli-
fy the validity of the occult teachings. The
occultist uses faculties which he has developed
within himself, and the material scientist uses an
inanimate instrument. It would be a great mistake
to think that this mineral device can perceive more
than a spiritually developed individual. Material
science has only recently become aware of things
that occultists have been saying for years.
T
Question: Much is being said these days about
spiritual Initiation. Who is the Initiator? Is it
Christ?
Answer: The various spiritual Initiations which
the aspirant undergoes as he proves himself ready
represent steps in the life of Christ. Christ is the
Wayshower for all humanity—both for those who
are endeavoring to take the straight upward path of
evolution and those many who are proceeding
along the slow, steady, spiral path.
The Initiator of any individual Ego is a
Teacher—a highly advanced human being who has
become a Hierophant of the lesser Mysteries
appropriate to the country in which the candidate
resides. In the case of the preparatory school for
the Rosicrucian Order, the Initiator is one of the
Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross, who has been
aware of the candidate’s strivings and appears to
him at the appropriate time.
Although the Teacher assists the candidate as
necessary, it must be stressed that spiritual Initiation
into a truly occult Brotherhood is an inner experi-
ence which can come to the candidate only after he
has proven himself worthy. Such Initiation can