The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE TWO PATHS father and call him “householder”; for man and beast all pity to renounce—tell them their tongue is false. This verse explains that the Adept has no business to break up his domestic circumstances. The Rosicrucian Doc- trine that the Adept should be a man of the world, is much nobler than that of the hermit. If the Ascetic Doctrine is carried to its logical conclusion, a stone is holier than Bud- dha himself. Read, however, Liber CLVI. 22. Thus teach the Tirthikas, the unbelievers. It is a little difficult to justify the epithet “unbeliever”—it seems to me that on the contrary they are the believers. Scepticism is sword and shield to the wise man. But by scepticism one does not mean the sneering infidel- ity of a Bolinbroke, or the gutter-snipe agnosticism of a Harry Boulter, which are crude remedies against a very vulgar colic. 23. If thou art taught that sin is born of action and bliss of absolute inaction, then tell them that they err. Non-per- manence of human action, deliverance of mind from thral- dom by the cessation of sin and faults, are not for “Deva Egos.” Thus saith the “Doctrine of the Heart.” This Doctrine is further developed. The term “Deva Egos” is again obscure. The verse teaches that one should not be afraid to act. Action must be fought by reaction, and tyranny will never be overthrown by slavish submission to it. Cowardice is conquered by a course of exposing oneself unnecessarily to danger. The desire of the flesh has ever grown stronger for ascetics, as they endeavoured to combat it by abstinence, and when with old age their functions are 49