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Esoteric Healing - Chapter V - The Process of Restitution
CHAPTER V

The Process of Restitution

The theme of death, which we are now considering, must be approached by us with as much of the spirit of normalcy and of scientific investigation as we can manage. The fear complex of humanity finds its point of entrance into man's consciousness through the act of dying; failure to survive is the basic fear; and yet it is the commonest phenomenon upon the planet. Bear that in mind. The act of dying is the great universal ritual which governs our entire planetary life, but only in the human family and faintly, very faintly, in the animal kingdom is the reaction to fear found. Could you but see the etheric world as Those on the inner side of life experience and see it, you would see (going on ceaselessly and without any pause) the great planetary act of restitution. You would see a great activity proceeding within the etheric world in which the anima mundi, the animal soul and the human soul are constantly restoring the substance of all physical forms to the great reservoir of essential substance. This essential substance is as much a vital, directed unity as the world soul of which one hears so much. This interplay of the principle of death with the principle of life produces the basic activity of creation. The impulsive, directive force is the mind of God, of the planetary Logos, as He pursues His divine purposes, carrying [425] with Him in this process all the media through which He manifests.

The human fear of death is primarily caused because the orientation of the kingdom of souls, the fifth kingdom in nature, has been (until relatively late in the world's cycle) towards form expression and towards the necessity of seeking experience through matter, in order eventually freely to control it. The percentage of the souls of those who are oriented away from expression in the three worlds is relatively so small, in proportion to the total number of souls demanding experience in the three worlds, that, until the cycle or era which we call the Christian, it might be stated that death reigned triumphant. Today, however, we are on the eve of seeing a complete change in this condition, owing to the fact that humanity - on a much larger scale than ever known before - is achieving a needed reorientation; the higher values and the life of the soul, as entered upon through the insistence of the mind in its higher and lower aspects, is beginning to control. This will perforce bring in a new attitude towards death; it will be regarded as a natural and desirable process, cyclically undergone. Men will eventually understand the significance of Christ's words when He said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." In the incident where those words occur He was referring to the great act of restitution which we call death. Ponder that story and see the symbolism of the soul, contained within the universal soul, as the fish within the water, and holding a coin of metal, the symbol of matter.

In one of the ancient writings the following symbolic words occur:

Said the Father to the son: Go forth and take unto thyself that which is not thyself, and that which [426] is not thine own, but which is Mine. Regard it as thine own and seek the cause of its appearance. Let it appear to be thyself. Discover thus the world of glamor, the world of deep illusion, the world of falsity. Then learn that thou hast taken that which is not the goal of soul endeavor.

And when that moment comes in each cycle and appearance of deception and of theft, a voice will then be heard. Obey that voice. It is the voice of that within thyself which hears My voice, a voice unheard by those who love to thieve. The order will go forth again and yet again: "Make restitution of the stolen goods. Learn they are not for thee." At greater intervals will come that voice again: "Make restitution of the borrowed goods; pay back thy debt."

And then, when all the lessons have been learnt, the voice once more will speak: "Restore with joy that which was Mine, was thine and now again is ours. Thou hast no longer need of form. Stand free."

The implication of the above words is clear.

Two major thoughts will serve to clarify the issue of death with which we are now concerned:

First: the great dualism ever present in manifestation. Each of the dualities has its own expression, is governed by its own laws, and seeks its own objectives. But - in time and space - they merge their interests for the benefit of both, and together produce the appearance of a unity. Spirit-matter, life-appearance, energy-force - each have their own emanating aspect; they each have a relation to each other; each have a mutual temporary objective, and thus in unison produce the eternal flux, the cyclic ebb and flow of life in manifestation. [427]

In this process of relationship between Father-Spirit and Mother-Matter the son comes into being, and during the child stage carries on his life processes within the aura of the mother, identified with her yet forever seeking to escape from her domination. As maturity is reached, the problem intensifies, and the "pull" of the Father begins slowly to offset the possessive attitude of the mother, until finally the hold of matter, or of the mother, over her son (the soul) is finally broken. The son, the Christ-child, released from the guardianship and clinging hands of the mother, comes to know the Father. I am talking to you in symbols.

Second: All the processes of incarnation, of life in form and of restitution (by the activity of the principle of death), of matter to matter, and soul to soul, are carried forward under the great universal Law of Attraction. Can you picture the time when the process of death, clearly recognized and welcomed by the man, could be described by him in the simple phrase, "The time has come when my soul's attractive force requires that I relinquish and restore my body to the place from whence it came"? Imagine the change in the human consciousness when death comes to be regarded as an act of simple and conscious relinquishing of form, temporarily taken for two specific objectives:

  1. To gain control in the three worlds.
  2. To give opportunity to the substance of the forms thus "stolen or borrowed or rightly appropriated," according to the stage of evolution, to reach a higher point of perfection through the impact upon it of life, via the soul.

These are significant thoughts. They have been expressed before, but have been discarded as symbolic, as comforting or as wishful thinking. I present them to you as factual in nature, as unavoidable in practice, and as familiar a [428] technique and process as those activities, (rhythmic and cyclic in nature) which govern the average man's life - rising and retiring, eating and drinking, and all the periodic affairs which he is accustomed to pursue.
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