Marguerite ^ iUNTER OK THK University of California. rl / Received J^^^r-i.^i,,^z.^i,,.e> • ^^9^ Accession no.I^ 0^'<~-0 . Class No\ EDUC. PSYCH. LIBRARY 4 MARGUERITE HUNTER A NARRATIVE DESCRIPTIVE OF LIFE IN THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL SPHERES AS TRANSCRIBED BY A CO-OPERATIVE SPIRIT BAND THROUGH THE MEDIUMSHIP OF LIZZIE S. BANGS, INDEPENDENT SLATE WRITING PSYCHE INSPIRATIONAL VERSE OFFERINGS AS GIVEN THROUGH THE MEDIA OF "W^HITE ROSE" ART PRODUCTIONS OBTAINED THROUGH "AZUR" AND THE MEDIUMSHIP OF A. CAMPBELL PUBLISHED FOR MARGUERITE HUNTER OUQl EDUC. PSVCH. LIBRARY Copyright, 1894, By C. H. Horine. Right of Translation Reserved. INTRODUCTIOlSf. In presenting this book to the public an expla- nation is hardly necessary, and, were it not for the fact that the contents of the book were obtained by extraordinary processes, though uniformly nat- ural and spiritual, but for reasons which need not be mentioned, seemingly beyond the present reach, methods and understanding of the material scien- tist, and hence needed a few brief words of expla- nation to the uninitiated reader, even what now shall be said might well have been omitted. The contents of the book, most simple in diction, straightforward in purpose and pure in character, need no interpreter, but are their own exponent; but their origin and the marvelous manner of their translation from the spirit world to our earth plane, which form an essential groundwork and feature of the book — for were the book at all or but of human origin, the teachings and facts therein con- tained might be regarded as preposterous, fictitious, or possibly absurd — need the explanation which we shall give. 4 INTRODUCTION It is needless to say that strange occurrences and mysterious phenomena have ever been in the world since the birth of man and that they have been relative to and always associated with the conduct and history of every race. The more religious, spiritual and receptive the people were, notwithstanding the grade of their culture and civ- ilization, the more numerous and pronounced wxre these occult demonstrations, and on the other hand, the more material and beastly they were the less would these signs of the spirit be. Some said in ignorance that these strange things were super- natural in their origin and were the direct inter- position of Deity, either to avenge Himself upon His children for their untoward wickedness or to justify the lives of His saints and prophets and thus warn their enemies, the hard-hearted, or worshipers of idols. Others still said that they were the work of the devil, and those that could not account for them by natural law and causes traced them to credulity, imagination or ignorance. Yet, every bible or religious book which purports to have come from the skies by or through inspired writers or media, contained its quota of these wonderful and seemingly mysterious phenomena. The Christian Bible is one long narrative of such INTRODUCTION 5 phenomena from Genesis to Revelation, and the works of the prophets, not excepting those of the woman of Endor, together with the alleged mira- cles of Jesus and the marvelous acts of the apos- tles, show how plenteous had been the outpouring of the spirit in those early days. The soul cycles in and through periods of spir- itual waves. The world is seemingly favored at such times, for then the angelic hosts draw near to the earth and do a mighty spiritual work. This was peculiarly the case at the close of the old dis- pensation when the minor prophets, crowd- ing the threshold of the new age, voiced the new inspirations of the spirit of truth which, then and later, under John and Jesus more abundantly bore fruit and blest the world. And we find that in the new Messianic order the phenomena and teachings of the Christ became so overpowering and exalted, so irresistible and eloquent, that they worked a rev- olution among the masses and classes that over- threw the priestly Jewish hierarchy and degenerate but imperial Rome. These cycles mark unfold- ments as well as revolutions and bespeak progress as well as destruction and decay. In all old or- ders of social, political and religious life the new order, like the rose in the bush, is concealed. It 6 INTRODUCTION but really needs the transformation or the decay of the external form or vestment to let out the new apocalypse. Then the new order moves on in its progress until a new inbreathing calls for a new outbreathing and the advanced age of light that colors the rising morn is born. Thus the chain lengthens link on link through the years and the prophesy comes literally true daily, "I came not to destroy but to fulfill." And so modern Spiritualism, since its advent in 1848 and yet farther back by twenty years, came with the old yet ever new message of life and im- mortality, of truth and love. It, consistent with all true revelations of the spirit, aimed to free man from the domination of materialism and conse- quent atheism, infidelity and sin that thrived un- der its sway, and to teach him of the facts and reality of spirit, his own deathlessness and spirit- ual power and the soul benefits to be gained by such revelation. Thus began the harmonial phi- losophy, science and religion of Spirituahsm as modernly conceived and received. From that day to this the old and new world have felt the power of the spirit and slowly but surely its peaceful and imperial encroachments have been watched and studied by science and the Church. Now, amid INTRODUCTION 7 the many tokens of the spirit as given or revealed through the diversified phenomena and phases of medial and spirit power, this humble work of the spirit, this book, is sent to the world to mark a new step and unfoldment of the soul along the line of angelic ministry and human well-being. The book is sent for a purpose and the intelligences who sent it know that it will fulfill that purpose. The circumstances that led to its translation from the spiritual spheres are of themselves a won- derful demonstration of the book's intrinsic worth and its heavenly origin. The author of this intro- duction, whose guide dictated for the author of the narrative the present form of the book, was im- pressed a year ago, March, 1893, to write a short protest against the Meyer's bill, a bill which was then pending in the Illinois state legislature and which was a stab at mediumship, Spiritualism and the exercise of the rights of a citizen of his consti- tutional, religious freedom; and having written it, he sent it to a Chicago newspaper, in which it shortly appeared. It was read by the hero of this narrative, Mr. C. H. Horine, and was so thor- oughly appreciated and approved of by him, he being a Spiritualist and the writer a Unitarian cler- gyman, that he sent a congratulatory letter to hirn. 8 INTRODUCTION Strange to say, this one letter led to a steady cor- respondence and friendship between them, which, by a series of collateral, both material and spirit- ual events, of which they were not aware but which seemed to come as the evolution and product of the friendly union, brought about the outworking in material form of the design of the spirit intelli- gences who, it was afterward learned, first inspired the writing of the protest and the letter of congrat- ulation that followed, and secondly, brought to- gether by such means the forces and affected the organization of the spirit bands and co-workers on both sides for the work and completion of the translation of the book. That such combination of forces and intelligences was necessary to the successful unfoldment of the work, the guides of the media who assisted the author of the book spiritually, and the mediums themselves through whom the book in all of its parts came, do attest. This was not done in the dark but openly and in the daylight. The guide of "White Rose," who dictated materially and inspirationally the form of the book for the author in spirit life, together with the guides of Lizzie S. Bangs who assisted the spirit band who transcribed the book in material writing and who call themselves "Everlasting INTRODUCTION 9 Unity," also "Azur," the guide of A. Campbell, who precipitated the paintings on porcelain, and Mr. C. H. Horine, his spirit friends and she who is his real co-partner, the heroine of the narrative, all had to be brought together and their forces combined before one word or symbol of the narra- tive could be received. All this elaboration of the program of work was so silently planned and un- folded, as a whole unconsciously to the earth me- dia, that each one of the mediums employed knew of the book but not of the part he or she should play or take until the first instructions, which were 'given in November, 1893, had been received. Then the earth instruments looked back over the past months and saw and realized the purpose and design in all that had transpired. Thus the book was begun and thus it was ended by "Everlasting Unity" through their earth media, chosen and brought together to one place for this one noble work. It can be said finally that the paintings that are herewith presented as lucid illustrations of por- tions of the narrative, in half-tone reproductions, were given in oil on porcelain, enclosed within sealed slates, and each one was given through the mediumship of A, Campbell by his guide Azur; concerning the order and character of the subjects, 10 INTRODUCTION neither A. Campbell nor Mr. Horine, who sat with him, were informed and hence they knew nothing. The spirit band gave the earth subjects and the character of their drawings as tests, and they were indeed tests, inasmuch as Mr. Horine on looking at them found them to be exact reproductions of the scenes in the old Kentucky home. The other drawings were scenes from the author's spiritual sphere, her home and surroundings. These paint- ings were finished, each one separately, in less than one hour at two sittings each^ the longer time being used for exactness of detail. Concerning the material or independent writing, it was received by the independent process, familiar to all spirit- ualists, in the form and character as is illustrated by the photographs of slates given on separate sheets in the book. Mr. Horine sat through the entire series of sittings and has elsewhere testified to their receipt and genuineness. The psyche, Lizzie S Bangs, received from six to eight full written slates at each of the sittings, Mr. Horine holding the slates with the medium, and these sittings were held three times a week and were be- gun in November, 1 893, and were ended April 28th, 1894. It was the writer's pleasure to attend at least forty of them and he can testify and here INTRODUCTION 11 testifies to the absolute genuineness of the slnte writing as received through the psyche, Lizzie S. Bangs. The book, spiritual in its origin and lofty in its teachings, pervaded by a sweet and overpowering spirit of love, bearing its lessons of spirituality home to all, will be as a voice crying in the wilder- ness, but the writer writes under the influence and inspiration of his beloved guide, this prophecy to the reader, "Blessed are the eyes that shall see and the ears that shall hear what is enfolded in the thought of these pages." And she adds, "Dear reader, approach the' open pages as you would the delicate bloom of a flower, not to mar nor to destroy, but the more reverently to appre- ciate a heavenly work. Accept of its teachings and, by the more sensitively imbibing the fra- grance of its inspiration and its love, thus come more closely into oneness with the Divine." White Rose. A SUPPLEMENTARY WORD. I endorse in full the statements made by "White Rose" in the Introduction. He begins, however, his sketch of the history of the plan of the book, so far as its translation is concerned, with March, 1893. The roots and branches of the theme ram- ify an earlier period. So far as my own personal life is associated with the book, I must take the reader to a period of my youth. In memory let me lift the veil and take the reader to those early days. In January of the year 1844, my only brother and I became orphans and were tenderly cared for by our grandparents, who resided at the time near the Sulphur Well Village in Jessamine County, Kentucky. Here in the neighborhood there was a log school-house where the heroine of this narra- tive and I first met. The regularly employed teacher, a gentleman of attainments, being some- what overworked, I was asked to assist him by taking charge of a class of young girls. My branch was arithmetic. There I became acquainted, 13 14 A SUPPLEMENTARY IVORD as a teacher, with a pupil named Maggie Hun- ter, and that acquaintance ripened into an admira- tion, if not a reciprocal incipient attachment for each other. Here the seeds of the narrative were really first planted, and from this verdant soil and humble condition, through the whole length of the intervening years they, in the silent way which Marguerite Hunter herself has so truly and mas- terly described, ripened into after fruitage. Disproportionate circumstances soon led me to take a tangent course, and in 1846 I resigned my post as teacher. Pupil and teacher then parted as though they had never met — parted as lovers, but never then dreaming of the reunion which the fu- ture veiled from but nevertheless had in store for them. I went west and literally grew up with the country. Scenes change, the past recedes into memory, the later years bring changes and tragedies. Twelve years glided away, when in the year 1858 the sad death of my former pupil refreshed my mind with the blissful scenes and delicious experiences of the days of my youth, and the awful woe which terminated them. This flash of light upon the past also soon melted away, and life again renewed the uniform progress. A SUPPLEMEhlTARY WORD 15 In 1890, located then in Chicago, a seeker after truth, I became a convert to Spirituahsm. Four of my children were then in the great beyond. Though I had passed the period of three score years these early events of my life never grew dim, and I often thought of them. In that same year and during my investiga- tions, my children in the spirit world first came to their parents in various ways through the phenomena. And in the month of Decem- ber of the same year the author, Marguerite Hunter, manifested herself with them. Since then the whole past has been revived and re- hearsed by us. In December, 1892, in a lengthy slate writmg communication, she expressed the desire, when conditions should become favorable, to form a book of her life in the material and spiritual spheres, writing, among other things at that time, this which I subjoin: "My Dear Friend: "I don't know but that you will think me selfish for monopolizing so much of your personal vital force on these occasions, but I flatter myself that you come here on my account and for my person- al advancement and indeed such is a blessing be- stowed as I fear I can never repay. However, I 16 A SUPPLEMENTARY IVORD am acquiring much strength by these interviews so that I may help both you and myself in attain- ing higher spiritual light and understanding. Do you know, my friend, that I should like to write a book of my experiences in earth and spirit life, and the book would be a light to many who know nothing of the conditions and laws of spirit life." All other and subsequent communications and interviews led to the consummation of her purpose, which was brought to an issue as has elsewhere been stated. Concerning the receipt of the slate writings I wish to say that they were absolutely genuine and the whole narrative, transcribed literally from them, is herewith repeated in substance as trans- lated. As the guide cf "White Rose" dictated the form and thought of the narrative for Marguerite Hunter through a co-operative spirit band and the chosen media, so through her inspirations through him, he being an inspirational speaker and me- dium, the manuscript has been carefully and ex- actly arranged and revised as the author and spirit band designed. C. H. HORINE. / t />v^-^^^ .-•2. C?{<--^^' 7^-^^6.--^^' £_^ -W^^ ^?>^^ 7/f-v> "S.-:^- ^'^£^ 'L /i^ /^^^7<^/ ^^, ^ c:X^t^T^ ■^?'' / f^ : I 'L^J^t^-^<'- '^^-•/^--'A^ CP'L^^ e^-cx^ 02-^C.-'/ ^^-/-c ^-/C^ ^-^^ -lu-wL- , ^L^y ...^C^y-'c^^ ^^f-^ ./ i:^^-'^- W ^'^ ^^w. -^' ^^^' J^A ^. r/L^u/ 1/ ^e v^- *t^^ ^^ ^t^ui^-C n-r^-^' i-^'-J^ ^.-^t. ^^^-^ r9^L^^ ^^^ji^ ^^-^^ ^ -^^"^^^ ,,^^i}c%— >->^-6i-'i-\'- ^''^^'^■t^ / <'y i/^ -^^-^^^ ^>^, ^Lyu^^. ^^J^.-^:- ^:2^:^ .XI><-^ U-'^n^ - -^ ru^^ ' ' ' C^u-i / (^^^l^^l^L^-M? ^fS-^-^^-l aJy^^^^^^: OL-t'^^ ^.-^^^-^ .J'^.^i.-W^-^ '/yv^^^ '"'" ^5>d^I_ Ay '^^C-t.^ /:l^^.^-^^L.Ji-^ A^^' yyr^eJi. }^^ n-r^.U^ ^.^^l^U ^ .^^^.^-i^ ''t^ny^.-^ 4/ X/a^j^ yr/^ui '^^t/ .^u-^wi 0i^^M^ ^^ywA. -l-::^ • ^S^^^ — t 'i' ^t-^'. .c-i^^C- t - '^4(1^ t- - j.yU.^ ]fO'-n^-« .^ <;-(...'^^^C'L^-<_^ <^^- -•^^. <-^^^-e,^t C> >i -. ^/a.^a,M^ ./^.^-v-^'^^ -Ax-/ Oic 'twC ytyC^%^^ ^O.^-^t-.^'^ ^ >^t..^- X-^ >/^ X^^ .^.^^.t^-X^. 'yX^-'^-'^'^'^*'^^' '-h-^'T^-i - JA-C '^"^''Jy T^^^O ^i^.^-^ — • -^-*>^ ;.-U^/L_ 0<^^ /' • .--i^? .-f / ^^^Tj? yS.-^^^c^wu^^'O-v/ '*• J 'i-^>-v-^.^'-< MARGUERITE HUNTER 101 a guardian angel, or a messenger of light, who watches every opportunity to benefit and please. Now, among these dear ones there were three from one family, two of whom had entered spirit- life in early infancy; the conditions of the material form being too severe, they had gently drifted into the Summerland. They were recognized as those coming from the home of him who had previously been mentioned as the teacher and friend, in earth-life, of the heroine of this narrative. They had been tenderly cared for and guided in spirit-life by the grandparents on the father's side through infancy into youth, and now, in the process of time, had sufficiently advanced to enter higher spheres. Here they were, by some divinely pre- conceived arrangement, placed under the tutelage of Marguerite, who had preceded them to this higher realm. It was a pheasant task for her to act as teacher to the children of one who had, in her early girlhood, acted in like capacity for her, and it touchingly revived in her heart the old-time friendship for him that had never forsaken her. As she instructed them, and in every possible man- ner interested herself in their welfare, she was not unmindful of her own sweet babes, who now had grown up, and whose progress she had watched and guided as conditions permitted. 102 MARGUERITE HUNTER She instilled into the minds of her pupils a gentle spirit, taught them to cultivate a firm will that knows neither failure nor defeat, and to listen to the voice of reason and the higher inspirations. Her whole soul was engaged in her work — it was truly a labor of love. Her past experience had enlarged her sympathies and brought her into affec- tionate relations with all mankind; her courage, patience and gentleness, had won for her a vic- tory over all. There now came the time that she could return to earth at will, and visit the old scenes of her childhood. Her children had reached the period of active, useful life. They had been tenderly in- structed by her sisters, M and N , yet Marguerite saw in them great room for improve- ment. She continued to perform her duties in spirit-life, while returning to earth daily, and as a silent messenger of light and peace she threw around her dear ones an influence of love, often soothing the sad heart and bestowing upon them her blessing. Could her sisters ar^ brothers have seen her, they would not have recognized her as the sorrowful sister, who had once been one of their number. Through tribulation and anguish, through joy and success, she had mastered herself MARGUERITE HUNTER 103 and had entered upon a new state of exis- tence. Her mission to earth was not confined to her own family. As guardian in her sphere, it was her duty to assist others in gaining disciphne and knowledge through their varied impulses and ex- periences. Often she directed them to some special one with whom a soul unity could be formed, that through their presence grander spiritual results might be obtained. She visited many strange places, the abode of sorrow and suffering, and here, with other ministering spirits, found arduous but pleasant work among the unhappy inmates, in dis- pelling ignorance and vice by inspiring their minds with noble ideals, and thus transforming their thoughts, and hence controlling and leading them unconsciously into a higher mode of being. Silent- ly, like the sunlight, did she and her spirit com- panions exert their benign influence. Into the home of her early friend whose children in spirit life she now had charge of, she frequently came, seeking to impress kindly thoughts upon the mind of him whose life she now began to regard as in- dissolubly linked with her own. She could clearly read his thoughts. How often through her pres- ence, unconscious of the cause, his memory is re- 104 MARGUERITE HUNTER freshed with the scenes of the past! He had not yet been convinced of the fact of mortal inter- communication with the higher world, nor did he 3'et realize that the loved one whom he mourned as gone from him forever still lived, and that in the family circle his dear little ones were daily gaining the earth experiences, by which they should advance to higher scenes in the spiritual realms. His thoughts were on and of the material plane, his time was occupied in obtaining earth's worldly goods, or in such moral and benevolent work as humanity demanded. For higher spirit- ual ideas and revelations he was content to wait the developments of time. He disbelieved past, he could tind no reason for present revelation. In her daily work for others, Marguerite contin- ued to labor, devising something new for the amelioration of the suffering, ever moving from her castle in spirit life to the humbler abodes of her own dear ones on earth, silently performing a noble work, directing them in thought to avenues of greater joy and success, instilling into their hearts the principles of benevolence, urging them to overcome the grosser impulses and purposes of life, and live for the higher and diviner spheres. Day after day she continued to bless them, MARGUERITE HUNTER, 105 though they were not aware of her presence. Her motherly heart yearned toward these objects of her tenderest affection, and she prayed that the time might come when she could reach them in a way that they, too, could know of the realities of the after life. She had been in spirit life twelve years, and yet she continually reached out in thought to them, while diligently performing the special duties as- signed her. She understood thoroughly material and spiritual laws, and was laboring for the con- summation of the one great attainment, communion with her friends on earth. Day after day she visited their homes, throwing around her loved ones an influence of receptivity of thought. With some, she at first succeeded better than with others. Many times the mind of him who had been her early intructor reverted to Marguerite and their associations in life. He often wondered why these pleasant memories of an old-time friendship, when least expected, would come and go, flitting before his mind like a bird of song. He had not yet be- come acquainted with the spiritual science and philosophy, and so did not suspect that it was the sweet influence of an invisible friend whose lOG M.4RGUERITE HUNTER thoughts were affectionately intertwined with his own. When she sought to inspire him with the thought of investigating spiritual realities through gifted mediums, his feelings kindly, though uncon- sciously responded, but such effort, on his part, had no practical result, as his mind was so wholly engrossed with the cares of material things that he could not easily comprehend this new, dim spiritual horizon. But Marguerite did not weary of her labors. Five years had passed and she had not been able to impress him so that it resulted with favor to him. Assisted by the three children of his home circle who were now under her guardianship, all having been removed from the earth-sphere in tender years, she persistently threw an awakening influence around him. Their minds were growing stronger every day. With them she could combine and exert a more penetrating magnetic power. The memory of their parents had been revived and strengthened and their interest in them had greatly increased. Under the instruction of their guardian all joined her in forming a co-operative band that she knew would, in time, bring light to them. Thus they continued, as opportunity seemed most fa- vorable, to exert their benign, awakening influence upon him. MARGUERITE HUNTER lO"? In the year 1875 another cloud swept over the parental home. The pride of the parents' heart, a daughter and sister, was stricken, and after a time of illness, her mortal frame became exhausted. Marguerite, with her mother and Star of Hope was in attendance by the bedside to re- lease her spirit from the earth-form and bear her to sublimer realms, where she was cared for, and through the kindly ministrations of Marguerite, enabled to grow stronger day by day, more un- folded in spirit, until the time came when she, too, joined the other dear ones, in their efforts to reach earth friends and bring light into the home. She had learned to know her brother and sister who had passed from earth many years before. Through Marguerite's unceasing influence, she readily learned the lessons of spirit-life, and was made happy in her new home. Marguerite had witnessed the deep grief occasioned by this great loss, with those in the home, and together they sought to alleviate their sorrow, throwing their influence of sympathy around them; but for a long time they refused to be comforted. Years did not erase the memory of the dear ones, but worldly affairs and the various duties of life diverted their minds, but time brought its balm and they ceased to grieve. 108 MARGUERITE HUNTER Silently the influence of this faithful spirit band was brought to bear upon them, until it happened one day, in the fall of 1882, through curiosity rather than a deep interest, the father visited a medium, and later on, in the same year, while greatly ab- sorbed in business matters, he became interested in spiritual literature. Occasionally, in the so- cial circle, conversation turned on immortality or the continuity of life after physical dissolution, a subject which was attracting considerable atten- tion at this time in various parts of the country by what were commonly known as "spirit manifesta- tions." On all such opportune occasions Margue- rite and her spirit band tried to awaken in him a desire to radically investigate these new facts, knowing that if he could be convinced of the actu- ality of spirit communion, he would, in the face of all opposition, firmly adhere to what his judgment accepted as true. She constantly sought to throw about him an influence of receptivity, so that those of his own household who were in attendance with her might find conditions favorable to communica- tion. Unconsciously to himself, he drifted more and more each day into the divine light. New thoughts and aspirations arose, leading into new fields of investigation and into a vast realm of in- MARGUERITE HUNTER 109 quiry and knowledge. So forcibly at times did these new ideas present themselves that they ex- cited in him wonder as to their source. The old themes of religion taught him by his parents in his childhood he never fully accepted; now they seemed ridiculously absurd and his reason rejected them as the crudities of a superstitious and bar- barous age. There were also times when he would feel inclined to seek quiet and seclusion. He could attribute this feeling to no particular source. He did not realize that it had its origin in spiritual forces. Such a thought was foreign to all of his ideas. After repeated efforts on the part of both spirits and mortals to interest him in spiritual phenomena, he deliberately made up his mind to quietly and fearlessly investigate. This resolution was in itself born of a high inspiration, and it im- parted new strength to him unlike anything he had ever known before. Formerly curiosity prompted him, but now he was actuated by a seri- ous, irrepressible desire to know the truth of the after life, and prompted by this earnest motive, availing himself of whatever information others of like mind could impart, he gladly and thoroughly investigated the phenomena, as presented through different mediums, thus finding the first evidences 110 MARGUERITE HUNTER of a new revelation. His children who, so many years ago, had passed into what seemed to him to be the unknown and the unknowable, returned in the sweet simplicity of their childhood, assuming the form and age so familiar to him, that by this very naturalness of manifestation they might readily be recognized. Through advanced intelligences associ- ated with them in their sphere. Marguerite and her spirit band were enabled to inspire and depict such thoughts as would further unfold his spiritual be- ing, as a preparation for a still more comprehensive study of spiritual science. Through them he was made acquainted with his dear parents, who had departed earth-life when he was but a child, yet who had ever been interested in and watchful of his spiritual and material progress. Through con- stant and long study, they had gained perfect knowledge of the laws governing spiritual manifes- tations, and were able to reach him in such a way as to secure unqualified recognition. Carefully they guarded his thoughts against the intrusions of fanaticism on the one hand, and the positive con- dition of unbelief on the other, while enthusiastic- ally studying the evidences that might establish the fact and unfold the mystery of inter-soul-com- munion between the two worlds. Many opposed MARGUERITE HUNTER 111 him, some even ridiculed him, but nothing daunted his courage or defeated his purpose. Conscious, inthehght of reason, of the rectitude of his course, true to his honest convictions, and following the higher inspirations, we find him, in the decline of the year 1890, firmly established in the doctrine of a future life and the possibility of spirit return. In the same year, near the approach of the hol- iday season, Marguerite made her first material appearance to her former teacher and friend, an- nouncing her return to the mortal sphere by a sharp sound, like that of a pistol-shot. She as- sumed this manner of manifestation to impress her presence upon him more vividly and sensibly. Somewhat startled at such phenomena, and being told by the guide of the medium at whose session he sat that it was intended for his recognition, he walked to the cabinet in which she had appeared in materialization, and exclaimed, "In the name of all that is good, who are you.?" The response came, as they cordially greeted each other, "I am Marguerite, your friend, Maggie Hunter, as I was more commonly known." Overcome with intense emotion, it was with some difficulty that they could, at first, give full expres- sion to their thoughts. Though the conversation 112 MARGUERITE HUNTER at this meeting was very brief, there was mutual recognition of the long existing attachment which had been blighted in its spring-time, but glorified now in a reunion, the crowning happiness of their life, so unexpected and undreamed of when last they parted on earth. They had frequent and similar interviews. Long and interesting conversations took place at these meetings, in which all their past life was rehearsed. Thoughts were freely exchanged, and both now understood more perfectly, in this union of two souls, how essential each was to the happiness of the other. Satisfactory explanation was given as to why she had not appeared before. She had been patiently waiting for his new desire for higher truth and the investigation as well as full accept- ance of the fact of spirit return, and her own more perfect understanding of the laws which govern spirit communication with mortals. It is not necessary to enter into detail of the results which arose from the repeated meetings. She had now succeeded in accomplishing what she had long desired. The unity of true soul-love was permanently established. Through him she would now labor and complete her mission to earth. Through every manner of medial communication MARGUERITE HUNTER 113 and manifestation known to the world she contin- ued to come to him, ever presenting some new and interesting lesson in life, until he had so grown in capacity of spirit that he could enter into co-oper- ation with her for the future unfoldment of her de- sires and in the presentation of this narrative. At this time, he was quietly and comfortably situated in his home, with his aged and feeble wife, grad- ually nearing the boundary of earth-life. Still vigorous and energetic, he entered open-heartedly into the inviting work of the spiritual field, scat- tering broadcast the seeds of progress and of angel ministry, bringing light and comfort to many sor- rowing souls. Like all new truth that confronts human preju- dice, and bears the brand of unpopularity, his per- sonal work and avowed Spiritualism excited more or less bitter opposition Even in his home circle, the unfashionable philosophy did not receive a cor- dial welcome. In time, however, reason prevailed, and right at length conquered! Ever seeking the most advanced thought, he cheerfully imparted knowledge to others, though the time and labor re- quired for the new duties materially added to his already arduous secular labors. His interviews with Marguerite, through media, were frequent, their 114 MARGUERITE HUNTER greetings were very cordial, the influences of each were both genial and commanding, all restraint was removed and a new charm was added as a gem to life. Language cannot express their supreme happiness in having acquired sufficient knowledge of the laws of nature to be able to communicate to each other their thoughts and feelings. The telepathy, the personal, face to face con- versations at seances for materializations and the written and mental communications through writ- ing and trance media became a profound and in- teresting study. In course of time, Marguerite expressed to him her desire to reach her children, all of whom were still in the earth-form. She knew their thoughts and realized that they were not in harmony with the new revelation which Spiritualism gave, and that, in their ignorance and doubt, it would be useless to try to communicate with them through other avenues. She had left them when in their infancy, and though they had not entirely forgot- ten their mother, their memory of her was vague and indistinct. Still residing in the vicinity of her parental home, surrounded by those of the most rigid orthodox faith, she realized the great difficulty and opposition that would encircle her efforts of MARGUERITE HUNTER 115 interesting them in a science and philosophy new to them and against which they had conceived a strong and bitter prejudice. It would be next to impossi- ble to satisfy them that their mother, she who had so tenderly cared for them in their youth, was pres- ent with them in spirit form and could talk or de- sired to talk with them. Nor is it strange that such should be the case — it would be stranger had it been otherwise! As there were no developed medial qualities within those of the home circle, she knew that through other avenues than those of her own kindred she must approach them and gradually bring the light to them, even in a manner as she had made to reach and communicate with her former teacher, whose co-operation she now de- sired in these her efforts to reach her children. Business matters and opposition in his home cir- cle, prevented his assisting her at this time. Re- garding this obstacle as temporary, she continued quietly to throw around them, as she had around him, an influence of receptivity, until the way should open for the accomplishment of this deep desire of her heart. His aged and feeble wife meanwhile was gradually failing physically, and re- quired his constant watchfulness and care. Meeting at different times with his family circle, Mar- 116 MARGUERITE HUNTER guerite lifted the veil of doubt from her mind con- cerning spirit return and life as she brought to her through her husband and media in the form of manifestations and communications many messages from her children, thus seeking to convince her that they still lived and could and did return to her. She thus imparted lessons, so full of tender- ness and light, that they appealed both to her un- derstanding and her heart. She became finally a firm believer, and it was a source of great consola- tion to her as she was descending life's rugged pathway that the rough places in the dark valley had been made smooth, and the darkness itself had become light with the presence of the angels. She felt fully prepared for the change which was soon to come. These rich treasures of absolute knowl- edge were given through the combined influences of parents, children, and Marguerite. Her journey into spirit life was planned by them, and hourly they watched and waited for her transition, that they might translate her to her heavenly rest. As her physical strength failed and the hours of her mortal life gently ebbed away, her children and friends from the spirit side of life drew nearer her, seeking to soothe her condition and illuminate her spiritual understanding. She seemed conscious of MARGUERITE HUNTER 117 the presence of her loved ones and silently she communed with them. Cheerfully she resigned herself to the change of worlds, which she now fully realized was at hand. She conversed with her husband and friends freely upon the subject. Her vital force gradually ebbed, the death angel silently drew his cold mask over her face, but through the colorless clay her soul, aglow with the light of spiritual truth and love, shone resplen- dently. Her family life had been one of sunshine. With her children and husband she had lived in perfect harmony. She could now look back over all and offer thanksgiving. The surhmer had given place to the autumn, the harvest had been garnered and for her there w^as no winter — she was about to depart to the land of eternal sunshine. As she was slowly losing her hold on the phys- ical form and the tender thread of magnetic light was about to break, in nature's vanishing glory, she occasionally caught clairvoyant glimpses of the Summerland. She talked joyously with her friends about her departure, and naturally, as one would talk about going to a distant but heavenly country. All were deeply affected, but she was calm through all, only awaiting the ministering angels to bear her home to the eternal spheres. ^., lis MARGUERITE HUNTER On Sunday morning, the 24th day of Septem- ber, 1893, Sarah M. Horine peacefully passed to the higher life. There was sadness among all, the veil of gloom fell over the home, but sunshine lifted the shadow. The transition of a soul from the mortal to the spiritual plane bequeaths more or less sadness to remaining friends, even though hope has had its full fruition. Her husband was not without con- solation and joy in his deep sorrow, knowing, as he so thoroughly did, from the laws of spiritual science and the fact of personal spirit identity and return, that she would await him in a brighter world, and in a more perfect life, and with the dear ones gone before, return to those that remain. All that was mortal of his beloved wife having been quietly laid to rest beneath the evergreens of earth, his attention, with that of her immediate family, was naturally more intently directed to the land of the unseen, whose foliage suffers no blight, and whose buds and blossoms ripen into perennial fruitage and where sacred memories are wreathed in living green. He was not left to wan- der alone in his trials. Marguerite and his chil- dren in spirit life were in constant attendance, in- spiring him with courage and hope. Busy during MARGUERITE HUNTER 119 the day with his worldly affairs, his evening hours were devoted to thoughtful inquiry and spiritual communion. In about three weeks after the funeral services, the departed spirit, under the superintendence of Marguerite, assisted by the band of children who had preceded their mother to the beautiful spirit world, having learned the laws and conditions of spirit return, made her appearance at a seance at- tended by Mr. Horine, to whom she revealed her identity and by whom she was fully recognized. From time to time, as occasion offered, she con- tinued to manifest materially, becoming more suc- cessful each time, showing a marked progress in a knowledge of the laws of life as related to this phase of spirit return, and, in a comparatively short time, reached a high degree of perfection in her ability to communicate with mortals. Though not yet a member of the same sphere as Marguerite and her children, she is gradually ascending to the higher realm of their divine companionship. From the time of Marguerite's first communica- tion with her old-time friend and tutor she had in- dulged the hope that when circumstances fully favored, through changes and developments which she knew in the order of nature were destined to 120 MARGUERITE HUNTER occur, she would, through the assistance of the higher intelligences in the spheres of light, and the harmonious combination of chosen media of earth, give, in detail, her experiences both in mor- tal and spiritual life. In this way, she hoped to give absolute knowledge of her identity and all that is involved in it, to the dear ones, especially of her own family, whose hearts had been doubly sad- dened as the tragic incidents of her life were re- called from time to time. So marked and unusual had been her experien- ces in some respects, so entirely different from the ordinary life-line, that she desired to impart to her friends in earth, the lessons which these higher schools of discipline and knowledge had so impres- sively taught her, in hope that they might profit thereby, and, perhaps, not only escape many of the impediments to progress, both on the material and spiritual side of life, but much added suffering. Though she has been many years in the spirit world, her love for her children has not diminished but increased. They too had enjoyed their pleas- ures, and had had their full share of the sorrows of life. Marguerite had taken cognizance of all, having no regrets, as she had now acquired the knowledge that gave her an insight into the laws MARGUERITE HUNTER 121 of life's unfoldments and she understood how all their experiences, however severe and trying, how- ever much they might imbitter the springs of life, were elements of growth, unfolding the soul into a harvest of perennial good. Having failed by her individual efforts, to make any conscious, awakening impression on the minds of those of her family, opposed as they still were to the spiritual science and philosophy, she sought to lead them into a knowledge of the truth through other channels. During the year of 1893, through a favorable combination of circumstances, it happened that Marguerite's eldest child, L , visited in the neighborhood of the home of Mr. C. H. Horine.her mother's teacher, who had, about three years pre- vious, received a communication from her mother in spirit life, and who had ever since been deeply interested in aiding Marguerite to accomplish her desire of communicating with her children. They had some conversation on the subject of spirit re- turn, and finding that she was not adverse to re- ceiving it, he presented her with some literature on the spiritual science and philosophy. Later on, during a visit of Mr. Horine to the old Kentucky home, in a conversation with L the 122 MARGUERITE HUNTER mere mention of the sad occurrences of their early life in connection with her mother's sad history, revived so many heart-rending memories as to almost distract her. Doubtless this feeling of sad- ness had much to do with creating an aversion to the investigation of the phenomena of Spiritual- ism. But knowing, if the soul-inspiring truth of spirit communion could once be fully established in their minds, and the children once realized that they were conversing with their mother in spirit life, that they could feel the warm pulsation of her motherly affection, that the reaction would be so great that joy would supplant sorrow, and the sun- shine of heaven dispel all sad memories, Mr. Hor- ine was not discouraged in any of his efforts, but he persistently and unselfishly endeavored, even at the risk of his own sense of pride and his repu- tation, to faithfully present the facts herein recorded for their good, and the advancement of all seekers after truth who may become interested in the perusal of the narrative. Marguerite communicated through different me- diums for the purpose of finding those through whose mediumship she and the higher spirit guides, acting as a controlling and co-operating agency, could best present these her experiences to the MARGUERITE HUNTER 123 world. Intelligences from the spirit side with her were also perfecting conditions for the consumma- tion of this end. Late in the fall of 1893, after the spirit of Mrs. Horine had passed beyond and had acquired the power of manifesting her pres- ence to her friends on earth, and had joined the band of her spirit children, all together, in blessed unity and harmony under the guidance of Margue- rite, combined their forces and through the aid of those media chosen of earth have presented the facts of this narrative of life in the material and spiritual spheres. CHAPTER IV. All souls flow out to meet a boundless love, And through all forms and modes outwork the pattern fair; Even to God will they below, above, Aspire, and seek for Him through progress everywhere. And love will lead them as a little child, Until each soul the true and perfect mate has won, And then in peace forever sweet and undefiled, They will abide with the Eternal One. To the reader of this volume, it will perhaps ap- pear strange and confusing that Marguerite, after displaying such an amiable, angelic character in earth-life, should, upon her entering into spirit- life, seemingly degenerate. There is a deep philos- ophy underlying this condition of soul, that does not appear on the surface. The seemingly pri- mary cause is to be found in her abrupt, forced separation from her children, who, ever uppermost in her thoughts, seemed a part of her own being and as dear to her as her own life. And when all means of communication with them were cut off, in her gj^at anxiety she naturally reverted to the 124 MARGUERITE HUNTER 125 real cause of her trouble. At first, every avenue of access to those who needed her sympathy and providence seemed to be closed; a source of trouble too great for her sensitive nature, which, in earth life had been strained to its utmost tension by the cruel treatment of one whom she could kindly forgive while the treasures of her heart were not torn from her. And this apparently unchange- able condition, so far as her relation to her help- less ones was concerned, overpowered her reason, chilled and for the time perverted her gracious nature. Besides, her spiritual perceptions and life had not yet been fully or sufficiently estab- lished and developed. To be able to withstand or overcome one set of trials and temptations is not always a surety of a nature able to overcome the yet more difficult ones. The real test of spiritual life lies in the personal power, so grounded in spirituality as to make the soul arise victorious over the greatest as well as the least obstacle in the pathway of life. Superficial life or conformity to moral rules, an agreeable and accepted exterior display of piety, are often specious forms of self- righteousness or hints of slight spiritual unfold- ments, a veritable pitfall into which many are en- snared; but spiritual hfe is real and radical. Had 126 MARGUERITE HUNTER Marguerite truly studied the laws of communication with mortals, or heeded the admonition and teach- ings of her guardian, or had she acquired in earth or in spirit life an all-conquering love unfoldment, she would have saved herself many weary years of baffled and baffling toil. Yet the plan of destiny as unrolled in her life denied her so easy an ascent to the spheres of light or victory over the evil of the world. Certain divine qualities of her being, like sparks of fire that reveal themselves only in the darkness of night, must manifest themselves to her through a course that lay amid the shadows of revenge and materiality. So that in the uni- versal, righteous but mysterious process of evolu- tion, the mistake of Marguerite resulted in a dis- cipline that contributed to higher unfoldment of character, since she, having tried every relative way but the absolutely right one, ultimately dis- covered her error, and triumphed over her own passion and folly. She learned, most thoroughly learned, that revenge was not an element of prog- ress, and hence she naturally and right royally sought to overcome this strong adverse feeling, by trying to uplift and lead into a pure life, the soul of him whose cruelty to her and her children, had made him an object of hatred. There opened up MARGUERITE HUNTER 127 to her at once and glowed as a light all about her visions of a new and larger field of missionary work. What had seemed hard and repulsive became now congenial labor, for Marguerite had truly experi- enced a change of heart. She found many others in the lower spheres of the spirit world, in various states of degradation, and she sought to elevate them by leading them into the right path. To forgive her most bitter enemies was to her no longer a work of self denial; it was a source of enjoyment. The lower spheres of the spirit world are largely filled with undeveloped spirits, but with all, even the lowest, there are provisions made and oppor- tunities given for advancement; and as new light and moral courage come and they ascend the di- vine scale of harmony, they also, according to their .ability, become missionaries and good Samaritans to the benighted kindred. During the eight years that Marguerite was earth-bound, she was not idle. She was too ac- tive a soul even in earth life to accustom herself to inertia, and though it may not be necessary here to narrate all the minor details of her busy career, suffice it to say that all of her energies found a natural channel of expression. She had the impulses of one in a new country, and grew as 128 MARGUERITE HUNTER knowledge increased, but was ceaselessly working at the problem dearest of all others to her heart, as has already been revealed, of finding a way to and providing a means for the care of her children. From them her thoughts were never turned. She rested from her labors, as mind finds rest in the world of mortals. She fed on the aliment which her sphere afforded, for spirits have the means of assimilating elements of sustenance from the atmosphere, and when her ability for this was not sufficient, the heavenly ravens fed her. It is not to be understood that after Marguerite's return to spirit life from her eight years of earth- bound condition, and until she had progressed to the condition where she could, at will, return and communicate with her friends, — that she had not at any time visited or heard from her dear ones. There are intermediate spirits who act as messen- gers for inter-communication between spirits, or spirits and mortals, when some natural disparity or inability exists between them, the result of im- perfect development, which is an effectual bar to their communication. There are different classes of missionary spirits, who make it their special work to find those in this unfortunate condition, and teach them by example, the great law of life MARGUERITE HUNTER 129 that love seeks to unfold. By this natural method, amply provided for in the divine economy of the spiritual kingdom, Marguerite frequently heard from her children, although sometimes unable herself to approach very near them. The lessons to be learned in spirit life are many and various, and, as in earth life, they are suggest- ed and mastered gradually by the need and un- foldment of the soul. So naturally does the spirit make progress in the spirit world, whose boundary is very near to earth, that it does not take cognizance of any special lapse of time, and though commenc- ing life in the next world at the point where it ceased it in this, and proceeding according to ac- quired spiritual strength and collateral environ- ments, it moves through the spheres with no thought of time: first, to complete all the unfinished les- sons of earth, and this implies a knowledge of all the facts and the various kinds of discipline needed to round out a perfect character, and then to push on toward ultimate perfection. There are special methods of instruction all superior to those of earth, and, though analogous, they cannot, in many respects, be compared to them. Mortals can comprehend a change only by comparison. There are laws and conditions in spirit life that 130 MARGUERITE HUNTER can be realized only through experience — words utterly fail to elucidate them. All have one thought language, which is a great advantage, though, for a time, their mother tongue, in part, is used. All sufficiently illuminated spirits can read each other's thoughts. Thus it is that with the spirit there is no deceit. All see themselves and others as they really are. Life is one. It is in all worlds the same. Its nature cannot be changed by passing from one world to another, but the spirit (the real man or the real woman) having divested itself of the cumbrous material form, and having now a different environment, the true laws of life can as- sert themselves to better advantage. The senses, appetites, passions and thoughts become as it were transparent, and natural, spiritual laws are more thoroughly realized and understood. Death is not a mystery, but a natural event in life. And hence spirits readily p erceive that it is an element in prog- ress, affording the opportunity for the unfoldment of life into a higher expression. Everywhere there is life, everywhere advancement, everywhere the fulfillment of the higher law of destiny. There was a period of eight years after Margue- rite's entrance into the spirit-world during which time she does not refer to having met or thought MARGUERITE HUNTER 131 of her former friend and teacher, C. H. Horine. This was not due to his having passed entirely out of her memory, but first because of her perturbed condition and then because of her deeper interest in her children. Her state of mind was so entirely different from what it had been in her school days, when she spent so many pleasant hours in his company, that it tended to repel her from rather than attract her to him. He would not have rec- ognized in the revengeful woman the sweet tem- pered Marguerite, the ideal of his youthful acquaintance. She knew of his patriotic service in the cause of his country, and a few times, in her more lucid moments, she impressed him with her presence, but her perverse mental and moral con- dition during this time kept her from tarnishing a friendship that had been to her most sacred. He did not specially need her assistance, but her chil- dren, she firmly beheved, did; for them she had a mother's strong devotion that overcame all obsta- cles, real or apparent. It was not until after she had' met his spirit mother, in her progress in the higher sphere, that Marguerite expressed any thought or desire about him. His mother's great interest in her, naturally awakened a desire, after she had fully recovered from the passion of re- 132 MARGUERITE HUNTER venge, to renew the old-time friendship with her son. The time had not come until then. There is a natural, wisely ordained method in the realm of soul, embracing and providing for every necessary event and activity in social and spiritual evolution, as there is in the physical uni- verse. It may seem perplexing and unthinkable that if spirits know that the dearest objects of their love, who are in deep distress or who need special care, will, in time, recover from all their troubles, and advance to supreme happiness, that Marguerite should have been so anxious about her orphan babes. This anxiety is one of the elemen- tary laws of progress. The mother who clearly foresees that her child, in the full enjoyment of educational privileges, with a naturally bright mind, will, in the course of a certain number of years, by a close application to study, acquire a fair education, does not, on this account, relax her interest in him or fail to urge him on in his school duties, but these hopeful prospects rather increase her zeal and foster her devotion to her child. These varying elements incident to life adhere to conditions in both worlds. As Marguerite advanced in spirit life, and be- came acquainted with its different laws and their MARGUERITE HUNTER 133 applications and effects, she gradually developed a more earnest spirit of investigation. She became anxious to learn of all the friends and members of her family. For some time, until she had over- come the effect of earth's attractions, she did not communicate with her brother and sister, whom she had seen in her vision, upon her first entering spirit life. Through her mother and guardian Star of Hope, she often learned of their condition, and through intermediate messengers, she received words of wisdom and cheer. Two sisters and two brothers had preceded her into spirit life, and advanced to far higher spheres. Her mother, who took up the new lessons more readily than herself, was also in advance. A few years after her own transition, she was joined by another sister and two other brothers, and in the year 1875, by her own dear father. Each one had endured and over- come the earth-bound condition, a result growing out of earl}' training and differing soul expressions and character, and had grown into the higher un- derstanding of the spiritual law of progression. All had their family ties as had Marguerite. Part of these dear ones have joined them, and are to- gether as in one band, and others still remain in the form. Those in the earth are religiously in- 134 MARGUERITE HUNTER clined, but they do not believe that any friends in heaven can communicate with friends on earth. Some are far from the old homestead, but the greater number remain in the neighborhood of the old Kentucky home. Spirits have no need of the system of counting dates, corresponding to earth's calendar time. Life there is on too grand a scale to be measured by hours, years or centuries! Events and degrees of advancement, as the occasion of entering a higher sphere, or progressing to a higher degree in the circle of each sphere, become points or correspond- ing dates in the history of each soul, and mark special periods of unfoldment. In referring, for mortals' convenience, to their calendar time, spir- its sometimes find much difficulty in fixing exact dates, except through a medium whose sensitive organization, as is the case with a very few, is peculiarly adapted to this specialty, and then such sometimes fail in giving exact dates. Nor is any mental impression ever wholly obliterated. The mind, for reasons which here would consume too much space to explain, cannot always avail itself of its storehouse of treasures, but the jewels are all there, sometimes tarnished, it may be, and in- capable of emitting their light. Spirits do not for- Marguerite's Home in the Fifth Sphere in Spirit Life. '>^ Of TL 0»" ni MARGUERITE HUNTER 135 get any events. Especially do the ties of affec- tion and relationship adhere in the heart's mem- ory; the incidents inwoven in their subtle tissues are well fixed in the mind, but the time of their occurrence is with more difficulty recalled. This is due to the fact that a date is not an actual event, but simply a point marking an event in time which is regarded as one eternal here. We have not deemed it necessary to give, in detail, but only in perspective, the higher advan- tages and truths acquired by Marguerite since her sojourn in spirit life. She extended her investi- gations and experiments in all directions, con- quered many difficulties and acquired vast knowl- edge, the full account of which cannot be here nar- rated, nor would it, were it told, be comprehended in the impoverished language of rudimental ex- istence. There are facts and laws of being that the spirit, in its free condition, can understand, but which science, as understood by mortals, has not yet explained, nor is it in all cases able to ex- plain. At the present time, she inhabits the fifth con- dition in advance of the earth plane, and in ad- vance of rudimental spirituality and existence, known to mortals as the fifth sphere. To the 136 M/1RGUERITE HUNTER spirit, this sphere has a far greater signification. Mortals may receive some idea of it from the grades of educational advancement in their plane, yet so far greater are these spiritual spheres as illustrat- ing soul unfoldments that they may be properly likened to so many separate v^^orlds or exact peri- ods of a lifetime. Yet these spheres comprehend both soul states and environments. The process of growth, intellectual, moral and spiritual, is not unlike that of earth, but more active and extensive. Spirits free from the mate- rial form and advanced in the conditions can pene- trate substance, move rapidly through space; and, being more sensitive to vibrations, they have there- fore greater mental freedom and activity, are more receptive to the inspirations of higher intelligences, and can progress more rapidly. They compre- hend the simplicity of nature, and faithfully fol- low her teachings. Nature's laws are their Bible, the higher spiritual inspirations their guide, and life the great problem for all time. Throughout the realm of spirit life, the higher intelligences, through messengers of special har- mony and adaptability, known among mortals as mediums, transmit thought to those on lower planes. In this way inspiration comes to all in the MARGUERITE HUNTER. IS*? Spheres, and thus knowledge is disseminated and culture encouraged. Through this beneficent law of mental telepathy, Marguerite had conversed with her brothers and sisters who had preceded her in the higher realms. After the third sphere had been reached, Marguerite, who was still the guardian of the children of her former friend and tutor, through intermediate messengers, continued to lead them, and, also, to guide the dear ones of her own family and others, who joined her later in the spirit world; and from her present position she is able to communicate in thought with her broth- ers and sisters far in advance of her. She is now especially laboring to reach those who are dear to her, yet who still are in the earth form, to impart to them such knowledge as will be practically available for growth and a staff on which to lean in the hour of physical dissolution, a source of strength and light at all times, and a certain rev- elation of life beyond the grave, in short, a knowl- edge which will serve as the foundation of happi- ness in this and the next world. The question might arise in the minds of some, why Marguerite should be especially appointed the guardian of her former tutor's children; why them any more than other little ones, who had 138 MARGUERITE HUNTER passed to the higher life before their parents. The explanation is found in the relation and magnetic attractions cf the souls to and for each other. Naturally one acquainted with and deeply interested in another will be attracted to those having a like interest, and to those whose subtle soul relations are especially sacred, and therefore they will be ready to co-operate with each other in all good work. With purity of purpose this harmonious action produces the highest results. But inher- ently in the soul there are indestructible and in- effaceable affinities which spiritually are potent throughout the endless spheres. One soul gravi- tates by this law to another, and in the unity har- mony obtains. This law is without variation even in earth, and the fact of human love, marriage and brotherhood, is established upon and fixed by it. Marguerite's mother was constantly attracted in guardianship to her children, as are all true par- ents to their own. Star of Hope, who had left her children in even more tender years, was constantly reaching out to them in guidance and care. She was cognizant of the harmony existing between her son and Marguerite. From her experiences in spirit life, attained by a deep study and observa- tion of soul law and states of unfoldment and the MARGUERITE HUNTER 139 soul's attractions, she recognized the affinity of their relation to each other to be one of natural harmony, and she sought to bring about a consum- ation of this spiritual union. She regarded it as a part of her mission to aid in giving expression and practical issue to this divine principle. As into darkness light is born, or out of evil good comes, so out of all human imperfections and misunder- standings, through a method of divine govern- ment, the spirit will fully understand the adjust- ment and unity of all harmonious elements. Sur- roundings full of embarrassing features, in time, often facilitate the unfoldment of this divine plan. The path of Marguerite and her early tutor was not always strewn with flowers. Their environ- ments were, in some respects, quite dissimilar and conflicting. Hereditary pride, timidity, the time- honored customs of society, and the various per- plexing forces that solemnly intrude their presence when least expected in the court of the heart's af- fections, prevented the consummation of their early attachment. However, all events foreshadowed the horoscope of their ultimate oneness. There is an exceedingly fine combination of power and principle in all the program of life fully understood by the spirit world. The elements of 140 MARGUERITE HUNTER harmony potent in earth life are not destroyed, but they re-assert their quality amid like harmo- nious conditions in the higher life. The prepa- ration for a more perfect understanding and unity goes on through all eternity, and each soul, like the magnet, draws nearer in its course, until it attracts its own. Star of Hope had fully studied these heavenly, penetrating laws existing through- out the universe, and understood their nature and effect. From such high spiritual motives and understanding, she assisted in arranging conditions for spiritual communion, and in bringing about such atmospheres and states of harmony as each would welcome as incident to and outlining a companionship gradually growing through the an- nals of time into true soul-union. It is well to explain here that, owing to igno- rance and false methods, people most imcompati- ble in nature most frequently associate as companions in mortal life. The true soul-unions or marriages are rare, and only are possible with those of higher spiritual adaptability. Many, indeed, are not really conscious of their mistake until they enter the higher life; so veiled is the mind to this delicate but seemingly omnipotent law. Here, in this world of light where no masks can deceive MARGUERITE HUNTER 141 or pleasure corrupt, through a more perfect knowl- edge of natural law, souls are drawn into closer spiritual relations, old marital bonds are severed and the really united move in the v/ay of the an- gels, who in the material sense neither marry nor are given in marriage. And such affinity or mar- riage is indeed the perfection often of that super- ficial union begun or consummated on earth; it is the w^hite rose of eternal love. Spirits witness the demoralizing effect of incompatibility in the married lives of mortals, and, in the interest of the highest morality, of that true progress the radical principles of which lay the only foundation for supreme happiness here or hereafter, seek to point out a divine and universal spiritual law, that should, as early as consistent with the highest interests of all concerned, be embodied in practical form. The time has come when mortals should awaken to the true philosophy of marriage, and stand on the solid rock of truth. That which is interior and spiritual is being brought to the surface each day, and affecting the marriage vows and relations, and through spirit agency the truth is reforming the world by gradual social evolution in which the soul is becoming more and more refined and adapting it to the heavenly and angelic union. 142 MARGUERITE HUNTER Conscience is not fully born in some until after the change called death. Marguerite did not be- come fully cognizant of this important law under- lying all true domestic happiness until she had been in spirit life a long time and had made a careful study and practice of its principles. Since then she has been interested not only in her own development in regard to this law, but has impart- ed a knowledge of its benign influence to others on the earth sphere who, after mutual misunder- standings and long separation, have as a conse- quence renewed their attachments, and by a true soul affinity have won the pearl of great price. This important question, the leading one in fun- damental existence and the solution of which is found in the philosophy of the soul's unfoldment and destiny, the question which is the characteristic feature of social science, though somewhat mooted and unpopular among mortals, for the reason that it is not fully comprehended in all of its natural, delicate, prenatal and home relations and bear- ings, or because, owing to the erratic conduct of some, marriage is associated with immorality, has been here freely and frankly discussed, hoping that the suggestions made may lead to higher methods, more heavenly purposes and real soul MARGUERITE HUNTER 143 Unions among all. By subjecting the physical to the control of the spiritual nature, marriage be- comes indeed the institution of God and the adage that all true marriages are made in heaven be- comes no longer a travesty or rhapsody of words. Child birth will be looked upon as a holy event — the birth into earth life of an angel blossom sent from the courts of the Most High, and the home as one of the delightful centers about which all celes • tial spheres ever revolve. For let it not be forgot- ten that marriage projects its happy or baleful state beyond the grave — into the endless future and there the divine law of marriage must be recog- nized and obeyed. Progress among mortals and immortals is established upon the underlying law of this relation and each one's destiny is condi- tioned and outworked by his present conduct. May the time speedily come when humanity will discharge its duty in this respect, according to the divine principles of the spiritual nature and spir- itual universe, and, rejoicing in an innate or un- folded purity, make the marriage state the mirror of heaven's harmony and bliss, and, in company with the angels, gladly and wisely co-operating with them, promote the higher civilization on earth which is the preparation for the grand and perfect life hereafter. CHAPTER V. Roll on, O mighty universe, forever more, And sail like ships of light from shore to shore; Thy limpid seas bathe worlds on worlds unceasingly; Thy rhythm sings of heaven unendingly. One sun is but a taper in the night of space; From smile to smile we pass — where is thy face? One planetary system is a gleam of thee; Where is the end? Unroll thy mystery. Yet lead us, Father, till we lose all self in Thee O, lead us till we all shall perfect be. Still ever lead us till we shine with Thy pure light, God all in all, and all in glory bright. Mortals often wonder whether the four seasons which furnish a climatic cycle annually to the in- habitants of the planet earth, exist in the spirit world. Seasons of planetary conditions, of sun- shine and shade, alternate in all material and spir- itually corresponding worlds alike, but they differ in the latter from those of the former in that they are purely psychic effluxes— that is, the peculiar atmospheric condition that surrounds a spirit, or perhaps a spiritual sphere, responds and corresponds 144 MARGUERITE HUNTER 145 invariably to the interior spiritual state of the indi- vidual soul or family of souls. In the spheres, ex- ternal and internal conditions harmonize, the soul being the center of the ratio of cause and effect, and making, not creating, shaping rather than pro- ducing all environments which encompass it. Thus, the spheres and the inhabitants of them, allow- ing somewhat for degrees of variation in each sphere and each spirit in the sphere, are harmo- niously blended, a unity in combination that out- flows from the soul forming the law and designing the ordination of all reflections of the soul. As in the earth plane all atmospheres follow and cor- respond to the perihelion and aphelion of the earth, the solar orb being the center and cause of all terrestrial conditions that blend into and with the hem and circumference of the sun's aura or photosphere, thus bringing about the variation in seasons and the stages of vegetable and organic life development, so, but in a yet more subtle and refin- ing manner and corresponding spiritually to this material condition, the soul emits a personal aura or photosphere, which affects corresponding ethers and produces among them the actual reflections of the soul's life and thought; and, as when look- ing in a mirror you see the image of whatever is 14G M/IRGUERITE HUNTER reflected but first inflected, so environments mirror in celestial ethers only what the soul throws into or upon them. Thus the spirit world among the higher and exalted intelligences in the spiritual har- monial spheres, is called "Summerland," the fact being literally true that the soul and the sphere of the soul correspond in quality or state, Suinincr being the state of the soul or souls in any given sphere beyond the third degree that encircles the earth plane, the concomitant environment or laud being the affected ethers and becoming the Snminerland. Ethers are ductile and so pliant that they uniformly follow the soul's attractions and spheres, and these ethers themselves refined and refining by a process of law, ever are assimi- lated by souls in the manner we have described. The soul, by its own states, may center about it or attract the atmospheres of earth and live in these material ethers that reflect its thought im- ages and states, or, it may ascend into higher fixed spheres where one delightful, serene, uniform con- dition of summer prevails. These states and spheres are within the reach of all. And the bow- ers wherein grow the flowers, trees, and spread the fields, hills and streams, all aglow with the soul's reflected light, — they too belong to the sphere which MARGUERITE HUNTER 147 the pure soul inhabits and, by a spiritual law, the counterpart of the material law, they furnish the conditions for the soul's interior harmonies and needs. We would have none think that the soul creates these environments — they are as eternal, in one sense, though but relative to the soul, as the soul itself, though but reflective of the soul's states and unfoldments — they belong to the spheres and degree of the spheres which the spirit inhabits, as might be said the present earth, its environments of land, water, air, and all that there is in them be- long to mortal man, but they are on a grander, more ethereal scale, yet tangible, fixed, real! And as the spirit unfolds, these glorious scenes come as visions of the reflected soul state, and you have but to aspire for and merit these Eden bowers, these real gardens of life, the soul being the central wand of pov^er or the causal oasis, and at once the desert ether unfolds the beauteous rose of the soul's attractions. For the Infinite Intelligence has thus provided here in the planetary spiritual spheres as on the planet earth for the endless unfoldment of the spirit, by luring it, in the love sense, from gran- deur to grandeur until the apocalypse of the soul's apotheosis is attained. And the eternal pilgrim- age is through a Summerland graded in beauty, to 148 M.^RGUERITE HUNTER be sure, ever growing mora inviting, entrancing, joyous, ever appealing more perfectly and har- moniously to the soul's elevation and attractions, ever unfolding new splendors, as the soul becomes more divine, until the time arrives or the condi- tion is reached when the soul cares only for the Father and that which is His will, thus becoming fixed in all good and truth, where there is and can be no infringement of law or violence or a fall or descent from the deific and blessed state. Eden everywhere perfect within and without, the serpent of materiality, the tree of knowledge and the two- edged sword, the symbols of sensuous being, be- coming allegorical of the final conquest and victory. So that all worlds, and all souls in those worlds, according to this principle which we have eluci- dated, are analogous. Differently constituted and unfolded souls attract a corresponding condition of light and darkness, the interior flame being dull or bright, the emanations or auras thereof being also tinged or luminous, and these conditions pro- duce sorrow and unrest or peace and harmony. But these states are relative and only mark de- grees. There are souls so constituted, not having attained the degree of experience necessary to afford the spiritual luminosity, that were all the MARGUERITE HUNTER 119 joy and beauty of their natural sphere revealed to them, they should still dwell in the conditions of darkness and sorrow. In their undeveloped state they can find no pleasure in the purer elements of life, nor can they realize the enjoyment of those who, through spiritual culture, find joy in perform- ing the humblest and most exacting work and du- ties. In the spiritual world, when through travail and discipline the unfolded intuitions are awakened and the higher motives are quickened into activity, then the spirit by the effect of its superior surround- ings is led on to the realms of greater advance- ment. The seasons, then, in spirit world are ever in har- m.ony, as we have shown, with the soul's highest conception and realization of darkness and light, sorrow and joy. Scientifically and exactly speak- ing, there are no atmospheres of either extreme such as surround the earth and which are governed by physical, astronomical changes. The spirit-world as the abode of disembodied spirits is not far from the earth's atmosphere, yet at such a distance as to preclude the effect of earth's climatic changes, as experienced by mortals. Spir- its may dwell in the boundless ethers, yet attract to themselves opposite conditions — one may find 150 MARGUERITE HUNTER only glory, another only sorrow, just as with mor- tals in the earth's atmosphere. The different atmospheric conditions, then, as understood by spirits, are the effect of conditions and causes existing in the soul. Exalted spirits find pleasure in the discharge of their duty under all circumstances, however undesirable their spheric surroundings may seem to them while toiling for higher ones, and the warmth generated by the magnetic forces of an active, spiritual nature en- velops them in an aura of genial sunshine. Those spirits who are disposed to remain in ignorance of these broader conceptions of duty and life and thus obscure their own nature by reacting the wrong or morbidly dwelling on the gloom of the past or some present magnified disappointment, draw around themselves or reflect a darkened condition, the discordant counterpart of their own thoughts, just as did Marguerite as a spirit during her earth- bound life. She experienced darkness and chilli- ness in all nature, and, as she came in contact with the various principles of life to which she did not conform, she felt a contrasting effect. The different celestial spheres that are compre- hended broadly by the phrase, spirit world, throughout all space and in all solar systems, are MARGUERITE HUNTER in constantly in motion, as is the earth, each one obeying the general law that governs the solar systems. Spirits experience all the magnetic and electric attractions that are imparted by and that surround each sphere, in the general order of univer- sal attraction or vibration, forming a law of grav- itation that sustains them and holds them to their sphere, and makes them a unit with material spheres on the planets, as mortals are held to their own plane by the samiC law; but as they become more spiritualized they are able to advance to other galaxies and planets, and, through understanding of cosmic law and their adaptability to finer ethers and elementary afftnities, they can obtain a more thorough knowledge of the planetary systems and the life that thrives on each one of them. The science thus possessed through patient study and broader experience in the realms of universal soul- life and affinities, and the mental vision they re- ceiv^e of the vastness of the universe, showing the unlimited resources of the Infinite Being, places them upon a higher plane for the solution of the great problem of life. The inhabitants of the spirit world, but only those who have advanced to the eleventh condi- tion in celestial life, can visit the different planets 152 MARGUERITE HUNTER and float forth on magnetic seas or highways into the higher reahns of refined elements. This power can be attained only as they become learned in all the laws pertaining to each planet and their spheres. Through a knowledge of spiritual but natural laws spirits can gather facts concerning the planetary systems and their inhabitants. The surrounding celestial or ethereal belts that mark the divisions of the spheres in the spiiit world are more refined as they relate to finer ethers and environ the spheres of the higher intelli- gences — that is, they grow more uniformly bright as they move in finer ethers and spirit auras, in short, as they recede from each planet, There are planets in the universe where, by the interblending and interpenetration of material and spiritual ethers, spirits mingle with the inhabitants on the physical plane as freely as with those of their own sphere, and where such inharmonies as are expe- rienced by mortals on the planet earth never exist. There, inter-communion with the spirit world is readily carried on, free from all the conflicting and discordant elements that produce unfavorable con- ditions for communication with spirits and mortals of the planet earth. Only those who have advanced to the eleventh MARGUERITE HUNTER - 15S condition in celestial life, as we have said, visit the different planets. These spirits, angelic in wisdom, seldom return to earth but they communicate through intermediary messengers. Centuries sometimes pass before the spirits di- vested of mortality and the crude, inherent states and ethers of earth life and environments, are able to advance to this high condition, during which time the friends whom they left on earth have entered spirit life, and passing through the different grades of progression, have either joined them in their special realm, or have grown to be within range of communication. The spirit spheres, with their exhilarating at- mospheres and their different degrees of magnetic and electric forces, move around their particular solar center in each galaxy, as the earth and the planets move around the center of their own solar attraction, and always in conjunction with them. As their atmosphere grows more refined, this ro- tation is more uniform and spirit life partly as a consequence becomes a season of perpetual sum- mer, a feature corresponding to soul states and auras. * The planets throughout all solar systems are permeated by two great forces, the positive and 154 MARGUERITE HUNTER the negative, which affect and embrace all the attractive and repellent modifications. Most of these planets are inhabited by intelli- gent beings having and obeying these two different and inherent qualities of life, each kingdom of nat- ure, and all contained therein, the mineral, veg- etable and animal creation, being affinitized in like manner. Life as embodied and expressed on the planet earth has corresponding creations; modified to suit local planetary conditions, the same is so on all planets and in all the solar systems. The planets farthest from their solar center experience, in a less degree, the various powerful perturbations that produce in the life-forms disease, vice and sorrow, which uniforml}^ multiply in and fasten to the worlds in closer proximity to their magnetic or solar centers. All such by their proximity naturally at- tract the grosser and less refined elements. These innumerable worlds, many having the finer forms of vegetable, animal and spirit life, are peopled with souls who ever follow the inspirations of the angels, until yet higher spiritual conditions are reached. These worlds possess wonderful unfold- ments of life, too glorious in their significance and evolution for the comprehension of even those who, in the spirit world, are far in advance of the MARGUERITE HUNTER 155 Wisest on earth; and yet these heights of spiritual unfoldments can be attained by all souls by grad- ual, patient, faithful effort. Throughout all time do great and fruitful changes incessantly proceed out of all life, every- where elevating the thought of the spirit, enno- bling the character, and giving a fullness of spiritual enjoyment, unknown to any who have not expe- rienced it through these evolutionary transforma- tions. Herein consists the happiness of heaven. In spirit life night is unknown, except as spirits attract to and about them dark conditions, as the counterpart of spiritual states, through vacillating and impure thoughts. These conditions, as those who reflect them, grow refined through intellectual and spiritual unfoldment. The soul becoming lii- miniferous, the darkness which it reflected and the conditions which it attracted become changed and the aura and ethers partake of the light of the soul. To the inhabitants of the spiritual world, sub- stance is not an obstacle in the way of progress or unfoldments. Spirit can penetrate, permeate and mould it as ethers to the power and purpose of thought and life. Rest is found, as in earth life, in quiet and repose at needful and given periods. 156 MARGUERITE HUNTER The various languages used by mortals, as we have elsewhere stated, continue in a measure, as the medium for thought transference by spirits in spirit life. The members of different nations give expression to their ideas through the vernacular used by them when in the form, but in a symbol- ical way not appreciated nor understood by mor- tals, until they grow into a far more spiritual atmosphere and condition, where soul thought, divested of the crudities of material symbolism, the highest mode of thought expression, is the only language employed. There is an established method, akin to mun- dane international law, but freer and more nat- ural, an interchange established on spiritual prin- ciples, by which representative souls from the various spheres of the planets meet in a parliament of universal brotherhood for grand spiritual achievements, to compare, discuss, and learn of the laws and systems of government which exist throughout the cosmic spirit spheres. This con- gress grows out of the necessity for providing means of growth in and understanding of the unity and operations of uniform universal law, and which aid all, especially pioneer spirits, in their onward march. For here it is learned by practical dem- MARGUERITE HUhlTER 157 onstrations that one universal law of progress ob- tains among all planetary spheres. Mortals have personal peculiarities that cannot be overcome or utilized spiritually immediately upon entering spirit life, but by means of existing laws everywhere Uniform in degree and quality to which they learn to conform, they gradually gain a victory over all obstacles. Earth languages are unified, idealized and per- fected by spirit agency by the potent but subtle inspirations of thought from the higher spheres of intelligences— a work of love that will eventually effect a universal language or system of communi- cation, one of the greatest boons to both worlds in the further progress and civilization of the human races- Mortals imagine that the spirit world is located far away from earth, that it is in some remote place, because astronomical science has not been able to peer into its depths or expose it to view through physical or telescopic agencies. This is a false idea. The spirit world is not far away, but enfolds the earth and moves in the same orbit through space as does the earth, attracting to and convey- ing with it its own peculiar elements and atmos- phere. And so with all the spiritual Jcingdoms en- 158 /IRGUERITF HUNTER folding the different planets throughout the universe. Earth and the spiritual world move in conjunction with each other, and through the same general course, yet each keeps within its own lim- ited radius and circle. This grand spirit kingdom, objectively speaking, is a combination of elements peculiar in their adaptability to their inhabit- ants, as we have shown, and far superior in their intrinsic, refined character to earth. These king- doms revolve with their own planet to which they affine, the spiritual spheres in each case having a beauty, harmony and light corresponding to the unfolded genius, spirituality and purity of its in- habitants. Throughout this spiritual zone that environs each planet, there are found all the vari- ous appliances needed for the comfort and effect- iveness of the life of the spirit. Not only are there rivers, lakes, landscapes, cascades, mountains, ravines and valleys, flowers, fruit trees, animals and birds, all of surpassing beauty, but there are places fitted up with special care for study, recreation and enjoyment, known among mortals as art museums, parks, gardens, music halls, theaters, cathedrals, and all are used for the higher spiritual purpose of unfoldment or education. The beautiful and the true of soul, throughout the spheres, find here ade- MARGUERITE HUNTER 159 quale expression in all lines of thought. Nature puts on her garment of refinement and leads with gentle hand the earnest spirit, seeking higher at- tainments, through her various avenues. A telepathetic system of the most perfect ch9.r- acter exists throughout the spirit world. Its bat- teries are located in the mind of each intelligence communicating, and thought is transmitted and answered correctly and as rapidly and freely as mortals can transfer themselves in thought to any distant part of the earth. It is free to all who have acquired the proper strength, science and quality of intellectual force to use it. The spirit world is the world of cause; all the important inventions of earth have their origin here. There are no monopolies in this land of love and light; all souls and work are co-operative. The only real plutocrats are those who have acquired a wealth of manhood and womanhood through virtuous efforts. Those who come into this land of equal rights, loaded with the ill-gotten gain of earth, are poor indeed. Like miserable paupers, they wander around in the desolate waste of the lowest sphere, and may not, for centuries, ascend to the higher. Verily, "it is easier for a camel to 160 MARGUERITE HUNTER pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Riches, when generously and thoughtfully used, are a great bless- ing to mankind; but the acquisition of great wealth by the few, to the detriment of the masses, is the prolific cause of most of the poverty and wicked- ness on earth. Spirits understand this, and are seeking to bring about a better condition of things by opening up and quickening the springs of fra- ternal love. Those who would be perfect in the spiritual sense, must give of their abundance to the poor, and must give wisely and from an un- selfish motive. Idleness and prodigality must not be encouraged, but the opportunity for existence must be given to all equally. All should be free to acquire the necessaries and comforts of life, that they may the more surely lay up treasure in heaven. This is the voice of the angel world to mortals. Everywhere in spirit life exists, but only in a degree in the lower spheres, a spirit of equal- ity and harmony. It is a democracy based on natural and acquired equal rights. The highest wisdom rules. The soul that sees and hears and speaks, makes character transparent and gives a lucidity and unity to the expression of thought. Deception and hypocrisy are written in the atmos- MARGUERITE HUNTER IGl phere of each one who practices them, and evil imprints its negative on the aura that environs and emanates from the spirit. Spirits not only understand the chemical nature of the earth's substance, the astronomical effect of one planet on another and on each soul, but they can fathom and unveil the more intricate character of the relations of trivial things, penetrate the law of greater things, broadly discerning the principle of cause and effect among all entities, both physical and mental. This is an eternal quality of spirit, but must be unfolded. The most minute particle of every element and essence, material and spiritual, has its proper place and purpose in the divine economy, and is an essential ingredi- ent in every progressive movement, preposterous as this may seem, and a factor in the government of the universe. From the humblest and most ob- scure, as well as from the most prominent and universal entity, may be derived lessons of wisdom. Spirits avail themselves of and profit by their knowledge of the many diversified modes of the principles of psychic and life unfoldments. They take into account all the conflicting influences in life, and by a knowledge acquired of the purpose of these inharmonies, they thus, by applying that 1G2 MARGUERITE HUNTER knowledge to the life, rapidly develop character rounded out in all harmonious activities. In the elementary conditions the spirit, after entering spirit life, does not visit nor communicate with distant planets. It is not until the eleventh condition of advancement on any planet has been reached that any spirit can pass beyond the con- fines of its own planetary atmosphere and mingle with those who inhabit the spiritual realm of an- other planet. The farther the distance from the central or solar orb, as the spiritual spheres recede inwardly from the positive effects of the photo- sphere of that particular sun and escape from its material luminiferous power, the more the invo- luted soul unfoldsits veils by expression and shines by a light all its own, — and we here speak of the spiritual spheres in contrast to like spheres among mortals on the planets, — like Ezekiel's wheel, the more delicate becomes the interior states and the more spiritual and refined the soul, acquiring by such etherealization of the spirit form and spirit- ualization of the soul, the ability to make these wonderful journeys through the celestial spheres of all planetary worlds. Spheres are uniformly one among all planets, we do not mean in parallel circles, but in degrees, MARGUERITE HUNTER 1G3 conditions and qualities; numbers one, two, three and so on, of the planet earth, uniformly blending and corresponding to like degrees and spheres of all the planetary bodies. For God is one, soul is one, essence and principles are one, law, process, modes, spheres are correspondingly one in this order of ratios throughout all solar and planetary systems. Thus science and religion as modes of expression of the Divine Will are one in all souls. Now, as spirits advance, the various scenes in these zones or belts that circle the spheres become more celestial, the ethers more refined and congenial. All life in the ascendant scale of harmony has a deeper and finer adaptability to the Divine Will. It inbreathes and outbreathes a diviner and more musical expression. This appeals so forcibly to the imagination and is so vague to the average mentality that the prin- ciple is not easily grasped or elucidated. The to- tal environments blend with the thought life of the soul. Throughout the spheres all life comes under the general influence and order of the Great- est Teacher and a gradually unfolding rhythm of expression outworks into the divine oneness. As souls advance they find a subtle essence, uniform in all life, and they discern a grand purpose which hitherto they had overlooked or denied or which 1G4 MARGUERITE HUNTER liad been veiled from them. Design ramifies and pulsates among the life essences and in the soul, and outworks a beautiful outline and order among all ethers. The law of progress unfolds more grandly and apparently to their view as they rise in the heavenly ascent, the potency of an all-per- vading attraction and harmony grows more irre- sistible and commanding and as they proceed on- ward through the finer ethers and the most lumi- nous spheres, the interior glory assumes a magni- tude and splendor truly God-like, and they feel and float into thought currents that irresistibly draw them to the one Infinite Divine Principle of all life which we call God. When spirits refer to their spheres in spirit- world, it is not that they wish to convey the im- pression that they are in form like the earth, a globe. Yet spirit-land is as substantial to those who live in it as is the earth to its inhabitants. The proportions and adaptations which are spirit- ual counterparts of the earth are the same, and, as far as surrounding stellar immensity and conti- nental outline are concerned. But spheres must be given a spiritual reading or definition. The spirit-world is bounded on all sides by aerial seas that have the appearance of immense bodies of water, and all above is sky. MARGUERITE HUNTER 165 The planets which appear to mortals as stars, are larger and more brilliant to those inhabiting spirit-life, because of their spiritual discernment, and their quickened intellectual perceptions, awak- ened and developed through the freedom of spirit and the power of penetration. These aerial wa- ters, formed from rivulets as on the continents of earth, flow onward like a broad belt, with cease- less rhythm through space, on to the different planets, ever mingling with other planetary seas, and on to infinity. Over their rippling, sparkling vibrations spirits are conveyed through their spheres and the different atmospheric conditions of all spheres and planets. Will is the motor power. The natural and highest impulse of mortals is to unfold the spiritual part, but such impulse is most often undermined, subverted or abused by habits formed in infancy and adolescence, and through various agencies growing out of environment. The inner impulse is ever good, but the outer influence very often predominates and masters. By the ele- mentary surroundings the outer material form is moulded, and so to material conditions the spirit adapts itself in the conduct of its expression until a time of change and victory comes. Yet with man, after physical maturity has been reached, the 166 MARGUERITE HUNTER physical being can be rounded out into symmetrical beauty by the application of beneficent experiences and principles to the uses and practices of life, as is done on another plane in the spirit world, but by a similar will force. Those who have lived a life of degradation, who have been false to the principles of spiritual harmony^ must remain in like inharmonious environments, until they awaken to or cultivate the purer impulses of the soul. Once fully awakened to the higher principles of life, there can be no more faltering or receding. Slowly the soul becomes established; step by step it ascends perfect evolution and spirituality. The ethereal surroundings in spirit-life tend to up- lift and impel the spirit to higher conditions of good and light. Environments with soul states interact. Mortals who can be made, through some kind nature or favorable circumstance, to see or walk in the true way, while still of earth, and be led to act in true accord with their highest con- science, can, in a great measure, redeem the past and thus, upon entering spirit-life, they can advance more rapidly than could they have done had they remained in their low condition and entered spirit- life with a character marred or tinged with the baser and baleful influences of earth-life environ- MARGUERITE HUNTER 107 ments. All life is at heart good, is a true inspira- tion of the Divine, and must sometime claim its own. Though ages may pass, each soul retains the germ that will eventually lead it to some har- monious sphere. Good will win the soul, because Divine Love is its essence. As the law of gravity tends to bring material objects to the center of at- traction, the inspirations of the Almighty per- sistently and inevitably draw every life to the bosom of infinite love. In spirit-life, as in the earth-world, there are locations whose spiritual atmosphere is so dense that the light cannot permeate it. It shines all around from angelic intelligences, seeking admit- tance, but the light inflows only when the evolu- tionary forces within the soul that creates the dark- ness prepares the way for it. These atmospheric conditions intervene between the earth atmosphere and the spiritual and form a veritable sheol. In- spiration as breathed forth by the higher intelli- gences carries with it an aura of light that ever surrounds these spirits, whose light dispels dark- ness. Gross natures emit an aura of darkness that repels the light. The aura of light glows from within the soul and belongs to the soul and serves to lead all spiuts treed from the body into tne d- 168 hdARGUERITE HUNTER mosphere of the higher spiritual spheres, while those who enter the spirit world or who already inhabit it and who are surrounded by darkness remain in the intervening space between the earth and the spheres of graduated light. Thus it is that the two extremes of character, with the infinite states between them, exist in spirit-life. In spirit-life the different localities and spheres are given names unlike those of the earth sphere, each having a meaning that indicates or symbolizes the grade or the nature and advancement of those occupying them. Spirits, also, assume spiritual names that represent the nature and ambition of their thought and aim; no two possess precisely the same qualities, though a similarity may exist, differing as human faces differ, and therefore they assume special titles or emblems to indicate special traits of character, and a purpose and scope rad- ically or slightly diverse. The important events that occur in earth life are never obliterated from the memory, veiled they may be, but never eradicated. They have legitimate and ineffaceable effects, and hence they exercise an important power on the character and life. The spirit, divested of mortality, more clearly perceives and deeply realizes the influence of MARGUERITE HUNTER 160 former mental and moral activity in moulding char- acter and shaping the soul's destiny. The action of the will in dealing with and determining the various events of earth-life of whatever nature, is in spirit life more fully understood in all its bearing on the future happiness and environment of the spirit. If its decisions have been just and generous, they brighten and intensify its state and enjoyment, and, if selfish and narrow, they retard the spirit's progress, but the gain, in either event, is the prog- ress that can be achieved by overcoming evil by good. Freedom to mingle in each other's society de- pends in the spiritual spheres upon harmonious natures, in the interblending of soul auras. The good can ever go to the degraded, but the degraded cannot soar as such to spheres of light. Progressive spirits, while aspiring to greater achievements and grander destiny, find enjoyment in outworking the plan or the aim of life as it regularly presents it- self, conceding to others who are less favored the divine right to command ail the facilities necessary for their highest development. This may, to mortals, seem strange or as gotten at the cost or the hu- miliation of personal pride, the sacrifice of private opinion, or selfish ambition, but to spirits who 170 MARGUERITE HUNTER have conquered self and thus gained the real or first victory, conquest ever after becomes easy along any and all lines. Thus they triumphantly plant their banner of love on the successive battle- fields of the slain by the power of love. To be progressive implies broad charity and a love un- foldment that exalts and purifies the soul. The divine law of progress ever inspires the spirit to adoration of the Divine. This disinterested be- nevolence, this appreciation of the undeveloped good and the veiled divinity in others, this willing sacrifice of self for the true apotheosis, brings an elevating influence to spirits who, ministering to the spiritual needs of those whose higher nature is debased by self find, contentment and promo- tion in all good works. These same principles of advancement, so universal throughout the spirit world, apply with equal force to the developm.ent of the soul's higher capacity while yet on earth. To aid mortals through such avenues as exist to comprehend them in their fullness, and early ap- ply them to the life, is the ennobling mission of exalted spirits who preach the gospel of progress to both worlds. CHAPTER VI. All life, all soul, obey a central power, One wisdom guides the universe; Pure love sustains the circling laws each hour, There never was a primal curse! The soul has gateways leading to the skies, Through which all inspirations flow, And ever in those mystic skies there lies The remedy for every woe. All life must realize the dark and light, Must bud and bloom in space and time, Push ever upward through the deepest night. And dower heaven with fruit divine. When, lo! the soul shall recognize its own. And liv« within the perfect spheres. Shall dwell in peace in an eternal home. Where God shall wipe away all tears. In the early part of the narrative mention was made of the earth-bound condition of Marguerite. Some spirits remain earth-bound for a number of years, for causes similar to those that influenced her. They may or may not seek to gain various 171 173 MARGUERITE HUNTER experiences which they failed to receive while in earth-life, though ordinarily they profit even in this condition and in this respect, but some return for this very purpose or rather remain in the earth's atmosphere solely because of the necessity of gain- ing such experiences. In accordance with spiritual law, founded in the beneficence of nature, spirits who have, through some imperfection of the physical organism or other causes, been denied the unfoldment that earth-life was designed to give, or who in their life development, owing to mental and organic im- perfections, have not been able to treasure up their earth-experiences sufficiently to utilize them in attaining the higher lessons of spirit-life, return and seek an embodied soul with whom they can sympathize and harmonize, one capable of assist- ing them in unfolding their dormant energies, and should the one selected meanwhile become a dis- embodied spirit, they attach themselves to an- other of similar organism and character, and so on, following each through his or her earth-life, until they have gained the necessary knowledge for which they sought such soul companionship. Some of these spirits are so dull of comprehension, so gradual in their spiritual growth, that it requires MARGUERITE HUNTER 173 a long time for them to reach a condition where they are able to take up and understand the higher lessons and laws of spirit-life. Sometimes spirits are for many years, even for generations and often centuries, bound to earth through imperfections of various kinds, but, in time, all such are and will be led by sympathizing teachers into the light of love and a higher understanding of their own being. To be earth-bound is not the normal condition of spirits whose earth-life has been one of sym- metrical development. With Marguerite a grand aim was outwrought by it. In her case it was both a choice and necessity. Spirits of fine mould and broad culture often return to earth to better the conditions of others, but while engaged in this missionary work, by an inevitable law of life, they are, also, themselves benefited. They who give, likewise receive. The disuse of an organ or facul- ty enfeebles its power. The refusal to exercise a gift invites its temporary forfeiture. For "he that hath, to him shall be given, and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath," is true when spiritually interpreted. The spirit is not perfect on entering spirit-life, nor does it, in any case, have the infallibility 174 MARGUERITE HUNTER usually attributed to it, by the uninformed, sim- ply because it has been released from its mortal habitation. The knowledge of an intelligent, pure- minded man or woman is superior in spirit-life to that of one of the same culture in mortal life, for the reason that, being on a higher plane and free from the limitations of mortality, the spirit can more accurately discern causes, and, hence, with greater certainty can perceive future results and thus qualify their life thereby; but some law, at the time unknown to the spirit, may intervene, and lead the soul into grander and still more be- neficent achievements. "Whether there be prophe- cies, they shall fail," is true of all utterances that are not based on spiritual science. Spirits, es- pecially those on the lower planes, are limited in their knowledge of causes and the operations of divine law, and some know considerably less than the highly intelligent people on earth. But this is due to the fact that they knew less when in the mortal form. By what law of nature, let it be asked, could they, through the mere act of their transition, suddenly become possessed of superior knowledge? There are no miracles in the universe, nor its spirit worlds, nothing supernatural; all things are natural and obey divine laws. To hold MARGUERITE HUNTER 175 and keep an undeveloped spirit earth-bound as a means of preparation for a higher condition, is one of nature's inevitable yet beneficent laws. Spirits, however, are not thus held and drawn to earth to act as fortune tellers to mortals through media. The realities of spirit-life, so far as its sphere and relative spheres are concerned, may be accurately communicated by any spirit, as these are facts of which it can take immediate cognizance. When there is any discrepancy between the statements of spirits of different or even the same spheres, it is easily accounted for on the ground that they communicate from different points of observation. Two correspondents writing from the United States to London, one from Chicago, the other from San Francisco, might each write quite different but equally truthful accounts of a great Fair, giving the correct topography of the country and describ- ing the climate of the city in which the Fair was located. Each flavors the letter with the spirit and character of his personality. There is great variety of points of observation in the spirit-world. Highly advanced intelligences who comprehend a wide range of causes, may, and often do, predict with certainty the future, for years, even centuries in advance. From these come the high inspira- 176 MARGUERITE HUNTER tions which proceed originally from the source of all knowledge, through the graduated medial ave- nues. These are the higher ministering spirits to mortals. Only the Infinite One is infallible, but truth may be perceived absolutely by all. Little children, who pass out of the material form with a limited amount of earth's experience are generally attracted to the parental home, and through their mingling with the other members of the family as time advances, they secure the nec- essary unfoldment, the spiritual growth along the line of that expression that would have been theirs had they remained in the mortal form. To some, it may seem unnatural for little children and those yet in the bloom of youth, to be summoned from the mortal state, but, if such will remember that "heaven," as they conceive of it, is not far removed from earth, and that the higher spirit birth is as natural as the birth into the earth-life, they will readily understand that death is but the awaken- ing into real life; and thus they may be able to comprehend the early summons, and know that it is brought about directly by the angel of love, whatever may have severed the vital cord and re- leased the spirit; for let it be known by pseudo science and religion that death is the issue of life MARGUERITE HUNTER 177 in the interest of humanity, by wisdom inscrutable. What is more beautiful to behold than little chil- dren in heaven? These heart treasures, born into the higher life are yet in the innocency of child- hood. True, they must gather their quota of the experiences of earth-life, but they are ever under wise guidance, and unfold in accordance with spiritual law. In purity of spirit, freed from con- tact with the false standards and grosser elements of earth, they, in that degree of freedom, are able to see and walk in the true and the better way. And who can measure the good these little ones unconsciously bring to those with whom they in- visibly associate on earth? As little children make the spirit-world a paradise, so they bring comfort and joy to mortals. As they are indispensable to the happiness of mortals on earth, so heaven would not be perfect without them. All the different ex- pressions of life found on earth and known to mor- tals, are essential to the spiritual spheres; the law of God in material and spiritual spheres compre- hends equal justice to the soul in all of its expres- sions. The entire universe is filled with life. Nothing is lost. Matter is moulded by the incarnated spirit and changes form as the soul unfolds itself. There 178 MARGUERITE HUNTER is continual unfoldment throughout time and eter- nity. When any avenue for expression is closed, another source for development is opened; when death cuts down the young or advanced life the spirit seeks unfoldment in the eternal spheres. To undeistand different problems of the soul's life and destiny necessitates a variety of experiences. We can but hint at the facts or law here. Those cumbered with mortality find it difficult to discern the interior spirit. They only compre- hend the thought as it is embodied in material sub- stance or as it is reflected as an image in the subtle essence of consciousness. The universe is pervaded with soul. Mortals ordinarily do not take cognizance of it ; earth-bound spirits do not. It requires finely developed spiritual perceptions to comprehend the soul of things. This condition lies at the basis of the law holding undeveloped spirits to the earth for further discipline. There are etherealized substances, infinite in number and variety, throughout the universe, and forming an essential part of it, of whose existence mortals are entirely ignorant, because of their veiled perception. They comprehend them only as they are revealed through immut- able laws in external manifestation. For example, MARGUERITE HUNTER 170 there are colors invisible and sounds inaudible to mortal mind above and below the scale which scientists, by means of most delicately con- structed instruments, have shown to exist. They are known, also, by their effects, yet they do not ap- peal to the senses, though clairvoyant eyes and clairaudient ears sense them. They become actual only to those capable of discerning them. An idea is a concept of the image of a thought fashioned by the spirit in the mind, whether sensate or spir- itual. It inheres in the spirit which gives to it, through the different faculties, ideal expression in created forms. Ideas, though purely of spiritual origin and intangible, are fully realized and ex- pressed when they become factors in human con- duct, when they are incorporated in the inventions, conduct and laws of mankind, imparting an in- fluence for good or evil in shaping the destiny of men and nations. It is true that there are some things in nature, notably spiritual realities, so ex- ceedingly fine and ethereal in essence that they can be comprehended, and to immature minds known, only as they are embodied in or developed through the forms of matter. A spirit whose power of perception or whose spiritual sense was not sufficiently unfolded in 180 MARGUERITE HUNTER the mortal form to prepare it for the higher studies of life, its facts and principles, needs on an entrance to spirit life to remain in the earth's atmosphere, and so is firmly held there by the law of its own attraction, until it ob- tains the necessary development and discipline which earth experiences alone can give. For only through such unfoldment can it obtain the incip- ient spiritual perception and knowledge which are fundamental to higher unfoldment in the spir- itual realms. It is for this reason that a desire to live on earth as long as possible has been so deeply implanted in the human heart, even when there is absolute knowledge of the more glorious ex- pressions of life that come through transition. Soul, or spirit, having the attributes of the Infinite, is possessed of a wondrous amount of resources and a variety of power that eternity cannot ex- haust. Few mortals attain a full knowledge of the disciplinary character of their sphere while on the earth side of life. Often nature's laws are violated before any high degree of mental and spiritual de- velopment is attained. Meanwhile the spirit, through the disintegration of the mortal elements, takes its flight. After a period of waiting, having learned the principles of life, it returns to the earth, MARGUERITE HUNTER ISl and through attractions gathers a knowledge that might have been earlier learned. All spirits do not return at once or immediately after leaving the form to earth's inhabitants. The inhabitants of the spiritual spheres so outnumber those of the mor- tal plane that many must wait a suitable opportu- nity until they can lind expression in harmonious adaptations, through which they can return and successfully fulfill this part of their destiny. There are numberless grades of spirituality and spheres^ of progress, but spirits must first attain a full knowledge and experience of their own given sphere, be it ever so rudimental, before they can pass to and through the higher, and ascend in spiritual life and knowledge. Throughout the universe there is the material and the spiritual expression in all things, even in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. By cultivat- ing the spiritual or the essential part, one may be- come exalted and spiritually individualized, even while inhabiting the material form, thus obtaining an intuitive or acquired insight into spiritual sci- ence, unknown to the purely materialistic thinker. * The word sphere is used in this narrative to designate location, but it implies mental and spiritual condition, and these may exist in any locality; it is not infrequently used by some writers ex- pressly to indicate these physical conditions. 182 MARGUERITE HUNTER In every degree or grade of advancement in hu- man life, both in the material and spiritual world, the principles or laws, though manifold in their office and application, are the same, being ex- pressed with more or less intensity and variety ac- cording to individual spiritual development; the environment, as the soul progresses from each grade of evolution, having served its purpose, is outgrown and is lost in the sweep of time; but the experiences gained, the character formed, in- heres in the soul, giving it a higher spiritual capac- ity and endowment. Life in the spheres contin- ues to unfold and bear fruit in accordance with the same law that defines and governs its existence in the mortal form. Nature as law and purpose is man- ifest in the spiritual spheres just as really as in the material world, and while the changes are greater, the vision is clearer, and all principles are under- stood on a more harmonious scale, yet the soul never escapes its God. For this reason it is not possible for those imbued with a selfish, degraded nature to continue long in that condition. Those who, when in the earth-form,, were engaged in some special line of labor that deeply absorbed them, realize that, while they retain on the spirit side of life a certain interest therein, yet they can- MARGUERITE HUNTER 183 not long have a voice or take part in material mat- ters, though they still delight to mingle with earth friends and in earth scenes of interest. For a time in such intermingling they are as sanguine as of old, expressing pleasure or disappointment, as if they really inhabited the form, and were active participants; nor can they be persuaded or forced to abandon their course, until through an evolu- tionary work, they are impelled to change their minds. Sometimes these excarnate spirits exercise their persuasive power for good, sometimes for evil, owing to their degree of development. It is not generally known and yet it is true that individuals are often influenced to do some good act, contrary to their natural inclinations, and when, after re- flecting, they seem to have excelled themselves in meritorious conduct, they attribute it to a sudden outburst of a latent, generous impulse, though in reality they acted on the suggestion of some good disembodied spirit. On the other hand, some per- sons of highly sensitive, receptive minds, but of weak will power, otherwise of good character, fre- quently find themselves doing what their moral sense condemns as wrong, and these act on the suggestion of some impure earth-bound spirits whg 181 MARGUERITE HUNTER find pleasure only in earth-experiences, and a cer- tain kind of delight in the misdemeanor of mortals. This law holds good also in the lower spiritual spheres, especially with religious natures that were strongly creed-bound on earth. Some of the more unprogressive minds retain their false religious views for years after entering spirit-life. The different creeds on earth have their representa- tives and illustrations in spirit-life among spirits, who sometimes communicate their old beliefs to mortals, announcing them as truth, and only after high spiritual development learning that "the let- ter killeth but the spirit giveth life." In time, each soul finds the good there is in the other's creed. All, indeed, learn in time to abandon the false which they ignorantly but often honestly advocated, and as they advance into the divine light they learn to love only the truth and to build upon the broad and eternal foundation — the thought of the Infi- nite Love. When an undeveloped, earth-bound spirit exer- cises a dominant influence over one of perverse mind, one "who is drawn away of his own lust and enticed," such influence is, indeed, baneful in a high degree; but it does not relieve the tempted one from responsibility. Evil must be resisted MARGUERITE HUNTER 185 only by overcoming it with good. The true and the false are ever presenting themselves to the de- veloping mind for acceptance; man must exercise the will and give the soul its imperious power. Aided by the higher inspirations of truth, his vic- tory is not uncertain, but assured and permanent. As in earth so in spirit life, there are different organizations and societies for the diffusion of knowledge. Comparatively few become administer- ing spirits to mortals, and not until they have reached a degree of mental culture and spirituality that fit them for the work of instructors in their own sphere. These spirits are not always attracted in their guidance to their own relatives and friends, but often to individuals whom they did not know in the form. There are laws of attraction in the spirit-life that affine souls and that extend beyond the circle of immediate friends, yet are closely cor- related to those that relate to communion with kindred and friends, and ties of consanguinity. Such higher spiritual ties, foreign as they may seem to those of a family, for instance, are some- times the only available means through which spir- its may reach their relatives and those dear to them on earth. The attraction leads to an affinity which forms a oneness of soul where the characters ]8G MARGUERITE HUNTER blend in harmony as do certain elements in nature. Thus they find their own through others whom they can the more easily approach. There is a re- sponsive and correlative soul for each and all ab- solutely; they realize their adaptability as they grow into spiritual harmony, sometimes on earth, more commonly in spirit life, as they then more fully understand the law of unity that attracts its own in guardianship and love. This law of spiritual attraction is and must be at the basis cf all true social reform. Marriage in spirit-life is a duality of soul, and is a profound and sacred blending of mutual reason, understanding and affection. The two as one are harmoniously united. True soul companions may differ in genius, but naturally they are beautiful and essential contrasts, not duplicates. One offsets and supplements the other at a center of equilib- rium., making a contrast of two parts that form the whole. True union is always spiritual and in- tellectual, never carnal. Marriage, as entered into upon the material plane, is unknown in spirit-life. "In spirit-life they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven." Love is the law essential to soul and is the source of promotion throughout the universe. It is potent MARGUERITE HUNTER 187 in each atom and element. Yet it is misunderstood and but faintly put into practice by mortals. Soul- union is of the good, true, noble and divine, and never fails ultimately to effect a heavenly peace. In the spiritual kingdom there are institutions for the diffusion of light as imparted through lessons and communications from the intelli- gences of the higher spheres. At their suggestion and under their guidance, spirits of harmony unite and form bands to visit special localities in earth- life and perfect good results. Throughout the differ- ent spheres, inspiration or knowledge is imparted through the avenue or law of magnetic and electric currents. Through this same law, highly intellec- tual spirits become guides; they do not always re- turn to earth's elements in spirit, but through the transmission of thought by intervening messen- gers, they become guides to those known as medi- ums, both on the material and spirit-side of life. Through this great law of spiritual science, the two worlds harmoniously interblend in the acquisi- tion and diffusion of knowledge. There are various laws and conditions governing spirit communication with mortals. It is natural for those who have just passed beyond the veil of mortality to desire to return to the old conditions 188 MARGUERITE HUNTER and friends, even when realizing the beauty and pleasure of their surroundings. In the newness of Hfe they experience an awakening interest in those left behind, and a desire to impart to them a knowledge of their condition and joy. There is a continual yearning, until through some kind, administering spirit, they are led back to the scenes of earth. Not all spirits understand the transmission of thought. Only those who have reached a high degree of spiritual expansion and receptivity are competent to act as administering guides. They have entirely overcome earth's ele- ments, and are ordained by virtue of their qualifi- cations to hold such office. The administering spirits act as intermediates and carry communica- tions from sphere to sphere until they reach their destination on earth, where the messages are transmitted through kindly efforts of guiding spirit influence. It is not possible for all spirits to re- turn to earth and communicate individually. In such cases, when there is a desire of inter-com- munion on the part of mortals, some messenger of light is present and bears the thought of the indi- vidual to the mind of the spirit, and in the same way, bears the answer back, inconceivably more perfectly, rapidly and directly than the telegraphic MARGUERITE HUNTER 189 system of earth conveys a message, because the thought is penetrative, and is transmitted as quickly as it is expressed in the individual mind. Spirits have their stated times for study, devo- tion and rest as do mortals, yet dways in compli- ance with the laws of harmony. Among all the various forms of life there are no two whose characters are precisely alike; there may be a similarity, but in some phase and quality they differ and have different attractions. There is perfect adaptability in all callings. Some select one line of thought and, by a development in that direction, attract a higher inspiration through which a higher expression of work and a grander achievement are given. In the different callings in the material world, there is the natural genius, whose stroke, word or movement is like unto na- ture. Others, however, are not so ingenious, their hands are not so dextrous, they cannot adapt them- selves to any special line, owing to imperfect qual- ifications. Yet all can accomplish something. A few are evenly balanced and may succeed in al- most any undertaking. With the majority there is some one thing, even though it may not rank among the higher forms of thought, in which each can attain perfection, if, fortunately, he ascertain 190 M^RGUFRITH HUNTER what this specialty is, and receive through train- ing in early youth, when the mind is susceptible to educational influences, the primary impetus. Many do not awaken to a true knowledge of their true involution, on which is based their true evolu- tion, until they pass out of the form. These, as has been shown, return to earth to gather experi- ence. Those somewhat advanced, when suffi- ciently receptive, can unfold their dormant pov/ers on the spirit side of life. The universe presents conditions which, if mor- tals fully understood them, they could so mould as to obviate contention and failure. Progressive spirits make this principle one of the first studies after entering spirit life; therefore the spiritual spheres, as we have elsewhere taught, are in true accord, even in extreme conditions, with the spirit. The right and the wrong way lie, respectively, in the light and in the darkness. Life ever unfolds, and beneficent changes are effected only through eternal, immutable laws. Throughout the uni- verse these uniform principles or laws securing reg- ular and harmonious conditions, are enforced with a unity of purpose and diversity of unfoldment that makes life not only a continuous, glorious reality, but receptive of the Divine. MARGUERITE HUNTER 191 From what has been said in regard to the desire of undeveloped spirits to learn through those yet in the earth-form, and of the kind treatment ren- dered to human beings by the more advanced spir- its, the duty of mortals to the earth-bound may be readily inferred. The golden rule is of universal application. It touches all grades and all worlds. Mortals should remember that their responsibility extends beyond the visible horizon. You are "compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses." The unseen are more than the seen. Christ preached to the spirits in prison. All should gladly follow his example, all should have a kindly feel- ing towards the weak, whether embodied or dis- embodied. While firmly overcoming evil influences from all sources, each one should earnestly desire the advancement of his fellowman in all conditions of life, and in all worlds; then none will be troubled with "evil spirits." The so-called evil spirits may be undeveloped, but they embody the grand pos- sibilities of eternal life; the duty of each one is to love such and help them onward. x^s the law of evolution continues to effect benefi- cent changes in the states of the soul, civilization in the material world will advance, and with the unfoldment of the soul will come increased pros- peri ty and happiness among mankind. 192 M/1RGUERITE HUNTER A great spiritual awakening awaits the world of mortals. When this millennium fully dawns, spir- its in the form will recognize in spirit messengers from the higher, spheres their kindred, they will realize that all are the children of the same Heav- enly Father, and they will welcome the fruitful changes of progress which they suggest and en- courage as fundamental to universal human fel- lowship and felicity. Great strides have been made during the last two centuries, nay, during the last two or three decades, and still greater progress will unfold in the coming century. Then will Ezekiel's prophecy be fulfilled, and the mechanism of the inner wheels be revealed. There will be a generous shaking up of all the dry bones, and Spiritualism will rise en- throned, imperial and absolute in truth. Theol- ogy, sociology, medicine, law, science and govern- ment will all respond to the voice of the spirit. Symbolically speaking, bone shall come to bone, and all shall be clothed with the sinews and flesh of the undying soul. From the four winds shall come the breath of life. Every nation will con- tribute its quota of love and genius to the new or- der of humanity. Universal brotherhood will be the world's spiritual badge. And in "the open val- MARGUERITE HUNTER t93 ley where once were many dry bones, "the temple of the hving God, redeemed by the Spirit, shall arise where full-grown men and women, "an ex- ceeding great army," shall worship the Eternal One in spirit and in truth. The gates of the spirit world are ajar, the angels flood the outer atmos- phere with their effulgent light, and the river of love flows out to every wilderness and desert until the rose of Sharon shall bloom and peace fill the world forever and ever. Mortals may wish to know the view which the advanced spirits take of the Bible, the Atonement and the Resurrection, and hence we subjoin their teaching, more especially for the perusal and edi- fication of those who may not have considered these questions in the light of spiritual science. Spirits do not interpret the Bible as many mor- tals do. The Bible is a book containing many val- uable precepts and much inspiration, but it was written by human beings and in an age when in- telligence was not on as high a plane as it is in mod- ern times, and hence there is incorporated in it many errors of an ignorant and superstitious na- tion. It should be interpreted spiritually, not ma- terially or literally, and as other books. No one should allow himself to become a slave to the 194 MARGUERITE HUNTER teachings of any book. It is necessary to exercise the reason, illuminated by the highest inspiration, on all subjects. It is the highest faculty, and by its supreme authority the Bible or any part of it is decided to be or not to be the word of God. Much evil has resulted by interpreting the Bible too literally, and by holding as sacred and obliga- tory the sentiments which it contains, irrespective of their truth, and which a higher philosophy has rejected. The world cannot advance in shackles. The spiritual world is anxious that the truth only shall be held as sacred, and it is the truth that maketh free. The spirit world regards Jesus as a great inspirational teacher, and not divine other than as all men are divine. Buddha and Confucius were also great moral teachers; each became a savior to his followers. Jesus lifted mankind to a higher spiritual plane and brought "life and im- mortality to light." He lived his doctrine, and this made him a good and great example. Jesus prayed to his Father in heaven, and was in constant com- munication with the angels, as were also his apos- tles, and the prophets of the old dispensation. The Bible has been subjected to many revisions, to keep it in touch with the progress of the age, which is a lamentable mistake. Let it be correctly tran- MARGUERITE HUNTER 105 scribed but not altered. Spirits value the Bible for only the good that it contains, not for the er- rors. As to the atonement, it is natural for barbarous, semi-civilized people to try to escape the penalty of their sins by seeking to attribute them to others ; and hence, when a vicarious atonement was offered in the "plan of salvation" by theologians, it found ready acceptance, even among people of high civilization. The idea that Christ had suffered in their stead, was a relief to conscience-stricken sinners. It was an Old Testament idea that sac- rifices, or the shedding of blood, was necessary for the remission of sins, and some passages in the New Testament favor this theory. Isaiah arose to a higher inspiration, however, and denounced burnt and blood offerings, substituting in their stead the doctrine of reason, good works and a pure life. But, notwithstanding the high inspira- tion of some of the Hebrew prophets, the ancient temples of the Jews would, in modern times, be regarded as slaughter houses. Christianity was, in its ceremonials, an advance on such barbarous customs and worship, especially in doing away with the frequent shedding of the blood of bulls and goats and substituting the sac- 196 MARGUERITE HUNTER rifice of Jesus on the cross once for all. It was morally worse, however, in that it substituted an innocent human being for the guilty. If Christ is, as some claim, God, the very Creator, it does not help the matter any but makes it worse, as his innocence is in that case absolute. That the just should suffer for the unjust is immoral, and this immorality is the foundation of the theological doctrine of the atonement. The fact is, Jesus suffered and died as a martyr; he went about do- ing good, healing the sick, teaching spiritual doc- trines. He was an ardent reformer, and the Jews, fearing lest he would establish an earthly king- dom, precipitated his martyrdom. They could not comprehend the spiritual kingdom he was trying to establish, and they put him to death. He taught the true doctrine of the atonement by his practical life, a sublime unity of the finite with the Infinite soul in love. Atonement (at-one-ment), stripped of its technical, theological meaning implies recon- ciliation to God; and as God is love, justice and truth, the true atonement (if mankind need use such a technical term) consists in bringing one's self into harmony with truth, justice and divine love. This can only be done by living a pure life — one of good works. The old theological doctrine MARGUERITE HUNTER 197 of the atonement, that men can sin, no matter how much or how long, and have their sins all washed out by the blood of Christ, is a most per- nicious doctrine, as it simply offers a premium on and license for sin. The doctrine is contrary to reason, and to all that is revealed in the laws of the natural and the spirit-world. Each one must suffer the natural penalty of his wrong-doing, and be judged in the court of his own conscience. As transgressors, the violators of natural and spirit- ual law realize their sin and experience the discom- fiture and evil arising therefrom. They may, by making amends as far as possible for an injury done another, by seeking a regeneration of their own natures, and a heavenly inspiration to sustain them and guide them to higher living, effect the only and real atonement possible for sin. It is the Christ in each heart who makes this atonement, that saves the soul from sin. As to the resurrection, it must be said that Paul had a true inspiration when he taught, "There is a spiritual and there is a natural body." At the dissolution of the natural, or physical body, the spiritual body is formed. This is the true and only resurrection, so far as the form of the spirit is con- cerned. The elements in the mortal body return 19S MARGUERITE HUNTER to dust. They enter into other bodies and con- tinue for all time, and thus they serve the purpose of physical growth in vegetable and animal life. At the event called death, the spirit "arises into newness of life." The angel world is present in every death-chamber to aid the spirit in its effort to throw off the cumbrous material covering that holds it to earth. Clairvoyants have in many cases seen the spiritual body arise in its beauteous fash- ion out of its perishing house of clay. The spir- itual body is not, at once, strong enough to give expression to that which is within. When the spirit becomes weary from long suffering in the physical form, rest and quiet are sought, and from the natural elements of the spiritual atmosphere, strength and a new force to life are given. Many times, spirits freed from the body cannot, at once, use the spiritual organism and converse with those around them. They are taught by those of advanced spheres, the same as a child of mortality is taught to walk and talk, and gradually they ac- quire freedom of spirit and expression. How beau- tiful is the resurrection of the spirit! How loath- some and horrible the idea of the resurrection of the mortal remains! The latter doctrine is scien- tifically absurd and has no place in science, nor is MARGUERITE HUNTER. 199 it recognized by spirit intelligences. As spiritual ideas prevail more and more on earth, these crude ideas of the carnal mind will vanish. Let science reign and superstition and ignorance perish in their own grave-clothes. The spirit has no need of the old material covering which it has outgrown, being renewed by the Divine Parent who giveth it a freer habitation, one not made with hands eternal in the heavens, never unclothed but ever clothed upon in the endless cycles of eternity. CHAPTER VII. Scorn not a gift, however rare it be; God gave it and He loveth thee; He knew what each should do to grow the tree Of life for time, eternity. The sibyl forming words into a rhyme, Or seer who sees what sense cannot. Each vestal virgin who in trance divine Gives utterance to spirit thought,— All these serve man and God in duty's path; The medium is the instrument Who voiceth truth and good that spirit hath Inspired, and God in heaven sent. Attend the shrine where angels hover near, Accept their inspirations pure, Listen to thought of teacher, savior, seer — For truth alone can live, endure. Among the different human callings and adap- tations to natural lines of thought in life, each soul having its own peculiar surroundings and elements of attraction, there are those whose aura and con- stitutional qualities characterize them as mediums. 200 MARGUERITE HUNTER 201 The aura, this subtle, invisible fluid, radiates from all bodies and all things, from persons and ani- mals, from planets, stars, and all forms of life, and designates to the psychometrist the hidden thought, nature and aim of each. It is the sign or symbol of the interior nature, visible in materiality only to clairvoyant mortals, but readily perceived by spirits. The term medium has a wide signifi- cation and is applied to persons of various degrees and unfoldment of medial power. A medium is one who is exceedingly sensitive or impressionable, and naturally passive or capable of becoming so at will. He need not necessarily be positive nor extremely negative or receptive, but he must be more than ordinarily receptive and sensitive by nature. And yet he may also, when occasion de- mands, be decidedly positive. The best basic or- ganism for mediumship, all other qualities being equal, is one of great vitality where the magnetic and electrical forces are harmoniously fused and divided. Such are extremely sensitive, naturally or unusually receptive to influences, or capable of becoming so at will, reasonable and patient, ordi- narily positive and with a large reserve of latent will force. With these necessary and fundamental qualifications, the greater the intellect and the 202 MARGUERITE HUNTER finer the culture and the purer the spirituality the greater the mediumship or the office thereof, especially when of the inspirational phase. All spiritual phenomena are natural, that is, they belong to the order of the universe. There are occurrences that are effected by invisible agen- cies, spiritual in their source, though phenomenal in character, through a harmony of being and a uni- formity of spirit. These phenomena are a part of life and as natural as the law of gravitation and physical vibration. Mediums possess a varied and graduated amount of mental qualifications. All are not saints or philosophers. All have medial qualities. With most of them these qualities or forces lie dormant for want of unfoldment. When maturity of earth-life is reached, there is some- times an awakening of the spiritual perceptions, and a consciousness of medial power, but such mediums cannot easily be developed into any par- ticular phase. There are laws which regulate me- dial gifts and unfoldment. There are two general phases; the first is the in- tellectual or inspirational, the other is the phys- ical or phenomenal. Some psychic organisms pos- sess an adaptation to either or to both. The latter is characterized by an equilibrium of the spiritual MARGUERITE HUNTER 203 and physical forces, while the former prevails among those in whom a highly sensitive, sympathetic men- tality predominates, Both classes of mediums, when fully developed, are readily susceptible to spiritual influences. Mediumship is of divine appointment and has existed through all ages, and not being understood, has been generally ridiculed and rejected. Only the elect or spiritually awakened have accepted it. There is a deep, silent conviction among the more intelligent, honest thinkers that a great truth underlies the sublime doctrines of Spiritualism, but they are patiently waiting for time and evolution to crown their manhood with sufficient moraJ cour- age to seek the truth for its sake. It is not possible to enter into a minute mention of the elements and qualifications possessed by those of medial power. There are many subtle laws and conditions which permeate spiritual manifes- tations of which material science takes no cogni- zance, nor does it know or care to know of them. True, they transcend its scope, but since they are within the realm of spiritual science, they can be gotten at if the scientist would wish to know them. Spirits understand them and make them available in the diversified work of mediumship. 204 MARGUERITE HUNTER Each individual carries about him or ner an in- fluence or aura, which is analagous in quality to the spirit, having its cause or center in the soul, and by which he or she is attracted to places or purposes; and hence through this subtle agency existing throughout the universe of spiritual be- ings, progress is made in all humanitarian spiritual work. In medial development magnetic and electric forces are generated and manipulated through the law of vibration by spirits, and in the production of spiritual and phenomenal manifestations. As chemists analyze the different elements and com- pounds in the material world, so spirits are able to detect and refine the atmospheric waves, known in solution as hydrogen, oxygen and the like, and through the nerve force of the medium, manipu- late and utilize them as the chemist forms new compounds from various affinitizing elements in his laboratory. As the photographer subjects the negative to chemical solution to bring out the im- age, so spirits subject their work to sensitive and receptive conditions, and hence, sometimes, dark- ness is used. Darkness in such cases is as neces- sary to the success of the work of the spirit chemist, as is the darkened chamber in the camera or the laboratory essential to the production of a picture. MARGUERITE HUNTER 205 The various forms or manifestations of electric- ity as understood in the material world, become more refined and ethereal in their nature as they extend into the spiritual realm. Now spirit return, including its diversified man- ifestations, is as much a part of the infinite pur- pose as are the different systems of laws and pro- cesses throughout the material universe. As new unfoldments in material, social and spiritual evo- lution constantly arise, the law of spirit intercom- munication gradually reveals itself, and, as naturally as an effect legitimately and certainly follows a cause, intercommunication becomes more general and accepted. Ultimately, it will be universally acknowledged and the divine mission of spirit messengers understood. Mediums are of such peculiarly sensitive nature that they become psychological and in a sense mesmeric subjects to the spirit, and, for the time, realize as much the life of others as they do their own individual experience. When available as per- fect subjects they are constantly kept in a nega- tive condition, because of the frequent control of their organism by spirits. Therefore, they often silently suffer the mental and physical happenings of those into whose atmosphere they enter. 206 MARGUERITE HUNTER Thoughts to them are realizations. With medi- ums the spiritual sight, hearing, feeling and sensi- bility become refined and spiritualized, as they continually unfold, especially as they study and practice the laws pertaining to their own powers and nature. Thoughts and desires, whether of a kindly or wounding nature, projected through space by spirits or mortals, cause a vibration through the atmosphere, extending in the direction intended, and affects the truly sensitive nature in the way designed. Spirits, in coming into communication with their friends on earth through some sensitive subjects, manipulate the atmospheric forces so that they will vibrate and play in harmony with the spiritual elements and forces of the medium, and through this combined condition and the auric solution they affect their messages. They produce the thought by playing upon the different organs of the brain. This pertains to the mental phase alone, and exhausts the vital force and drains the mental aura to a greater degree than were the individual undergoing some long and tedious study. This is significant of the inspirational phase. The trance condition which we classify under the mental, is, of itself, a distinct phase. The spirit hl/tRGUERITE hlUNTEk 20? Cotitrol throws an influence of rest or sleep over the medium's spirit, and takes possession of the organism, giving voice to identical character and often changing the facial expression. This con- dition is affected by the spirit control, the medium becoming the subject of physical influence. The conditions and forces necessary to physical manifestation are more intricate than those of the other phases. They comprise the manipulation and combining of various forces in nature. The successful work is accomplished by an application of the principles of both material and spiritual sci- ence. There are a number of phases pertaining to physical mediumship, yet, in their order of change, each one requires a different quality of elements. The materializing phase has within it- self three different classes of manifestation, the independent, the personation, and the etherealiza- tion. All are equally exhaustive of the medium's vital force. In independent materialization, the medium's spirit is suspended for a time, while the life action of the physical organism, is kept up or sustained by the magnetic currents, manipulated by the controlling spirit. Independent materiali- zation comprises the extraction of portions of all the elements and principles within and surround- 208 MARGUERITE HUNTER ing the sensitive subject, but within a limited ra- dius or degree of the auric essence, together with the magnetic and electric forces and other neces- sary elements gathered from the circle. All such is utilized for the one grand purpose. This pro- cess results in the temporary forming of the body through which the spirit manifesting may give ut- terance to thought and even similarity of form and feature for identification. The forces or ele- ments are extracted from the circle and centered through the medium. The temporary form must necessarily partake not only of the composite char- acteristics of the form of the members of the circle and medium, but likewise have, in a sense, the semblance of voice, more especially of the medium who serves as the battery. So closely and sensi- tively harmonized and outwrought are the condi- tions of this phase that the intrusion of a foreign thought will ruffle and mar the expression, chang- ing almost instantaneously the countenance and outward vision of form; and at such times should the electric chain of the circle be broken or any disturbance arise, the elements that were used to form the temporary body then immediately sepa- rate and return to their source, back to each center and medium by the chemical law of attraction. MARGUERITE HUNTER 209 Mediums are subjects of the spiritual world in all phases. They cannot command any form of man- ifestation. Now the spirit, in order to give mate- rial form and manifestation, must employ the elements known to earth spheres and weave from them the material garment. The spirit thus for com- parison moulds the form to resemble it; the me- dium, being the sensitive or polar center, must necessarily become a party to the phenomenon. Great harm is sometimes done by ignorant, dis- trustful investigators in creating disturbance dur- ing a seance for materialization. This phase is difficult to produce, and often unsatisfactory, chiefly because not understood. The medial qualities essential to the phase of independent materializa- tion are in the nerve-fluids of the body and can be generated by proper elements and forces known to spiritual science. Under these condi- tions, with surroundings of harmony and uniform- ity of thought, materialization can be wonderfully demonstrated. The spirit, during the interval of manifesting, can be easily disturbed by a thought that may vibrate through the air to the spirit thus engaged and in an instant retard and dispel all ex- pression, if not impair and dissolve the form, for spirit is sensitive and easily repelled by conditions of inharmony. 210 MARGUERITE HUNTER The nerve force or fluid gathered from the me- dium is a part of the physical organism, but bor- rowed by the operating guides, and must be returned to sustain the spirit in its office while em- bodied. If left to the controlling spirit, a reflex or reaction through natural laws will never prove in- jurious to either the medium or the sitters, whereas a sudden disturbance fsuch as seizing the form or otherwise destroying conditions of harmony), returns the forces and elements so suddenly that they tend to stun and paralyze the nerve tissues, sometimes causing long illness and suffering. In- vestigators should bear this fact ever in mind. The second phase of materialization is that known as personation or transfiguration. This is the weaker phase. The medium for such phenomena is possessed of that peculiar electrical combination which spirits can easily control and thus by such control change the form, the facial expression and the voice of the instrument to represent the spirit presented, and can do this as easily as mortals can mould a ball of clay at will. The spirit identity of the medium is subject to a condition of rest and sleep, the same as in an independent material- ization. The spirit immortal then takes possession of the organism, assuming individual identity. MARGUERITE HUNTER 21 1 sometimes as it is in its home in spirit life, but more often and for recognition of the friends of earth, as it was when in the form. This phase should be as satisfactory as independent material- ization, but it is not so regarded. The border-lines are so closely interblended that there is scarcely any distinction. Oftentimes a medium possessing materializing qualities, is used by spirits who find it necessary, either from lack of nerve-force or the proper elements of harmony in their subject through which to combine the conditions required for the building of the form, in personation to represent the spirit. Great care should be taken in stating these facts to the investigator, so as to avoid general misunderstanding and contention. Honest medi- ums often suffer in reputation because, since per- sonation is not understood by the members of the circle, or is not explained to them by the medium or some one qualified to speak, they detect the personality of the medium, and at once regard the manifestation as a fraudulent materialization. The first impulse of the skeptical mind in investi- gating the phenomena of materialization, is to suddenly seize the form, which can easily be done under the ordinary conditions of a mixed audience. Where there is harmony of purpose and confidence 212 MARGUERITE HUNTER among the sitters, with proper atmospheric condi- tions, the spirit can be materialized and dematerial- ized at will, even while within the grasp of mortal hands, but when such experiment is to be tried there should be previous arrangement and under- standing to this effect between the investigator and the guide, so that no harm may follow the experi- ment. When two or more forms appear simulta- neously in the presence of the medium and the sitters, there is, in each case, a personality unmis- takable, but in such a combination and distribu- tion there is a division of the vital forces, and therefore, to affect such a multiple of forms, great harmony should prevail, as the requirements of the law of concentration for such additions are greater than for a single materialization, and con- sequently more taxing to the sensitive. Etherealization is the third and finest phase of materialization. It consists of the concentration of the most spiritualized elements into the vapor form; back of it are combined electrical forces sufBcient to illuminate the shadow. In this phase, the voice can be assimulated only through the vocal organs of the medium and guide. The ele- ments required are unlike those of independent materialization, being formed more from the elec- MARGUERITE HUNTER 213 trical forces of the personal atmosphere, centered in the medium and brought into compass and action by the magnetic currents as gathered from the stars. In each instance, the medium serves as the battery or magnet. In all these phases of spirit manifestation, the condition of darkness is, in a degree, required. Comment and adverse criticism often arise from this fact, but if mortals will but think, they will perceive that all growth is generated in the dark, all life is subjected to darkness in the matrix. Darkness is negative, and the generative processes of nature are, at certain and earlier stages, more easily estabHshed, unfolded and perfected under such conditions. In the negative state of darkness the magnetic and electric forces are even, while under the influence of light and heat, the vibrations of these forces are more positive and irregular and the elements used for such phenomena more read- ily exhausted. The same principles invariably apply to the spiritual universe in all activities as to the material kingdom. There are many phases pertaining to physical phenomena as demonstrated through spirit power. Similarly but specially organized individuals have an aura that favors these manifestations, all of 214 MARGUERITE HUNTER which are produced under and through the differ- entiated condition of darkness. Any manifestation of the material form or character comes under the head of physical phenomena. The process or modus operandi for their production is in concentrating the forces in some special form in obedience to law, and further, by forming a battery by the join- ing of hands of the sitters in a partial or complete circle. The nerve and auric forces are drawn from the members of the circle and focused in the sensi- tive, whence proceed the outward expressions which must necessarily, so far as quality and character are concerned, partake of the predominant char- acteristics of the circle. If any of the sitters be of a gross and rough nature, the physical manifesta- tions will be of the same character, while, if the members who convene are of an earnest mind and have an honest purpose, only desirous for spiritual truth, the vibrations of force will accord with their mental state and be even, quiet and harmonious, and hence the results of the spirit in manifestations will be of the same nature. In our teaching we have tried to be brief, and hence it is not necessary to elaborate more exten- sively upon the subject of conditions and forces re- quired for spiritual manifestation. MARGUERITE HUNTER 215 In the production of all kinds of physical phe- nomena the laws and principles are the same as in materialization. Some mediums are entranced during the giving of such phenomena, but rarely is this done outside of materialization. The independent slate-writing phase comes nat- urally under the head of physical phenomena, but is involved in more intricate laws and conditions, because both mental and physical forces are used, and are used independently of the will of the me- dium. The writing is usually, but not necessarily, obtained under the adverse physical surrounding of light. It is not possible to explain in full all the processes and laws pertaining to this phase, as science in the material world has no recognition or understanding of them. Slate-writing mediums possess and furnish the quota of nerve force nec- essary for the manipulation of the pencil by the spirit, or, as is sometimes the case, the reproduc- tion on slates of the photographic reflection of the thought impressed on the brain of the medium. In the independent slate-writing phase, the me- dium must possess a large amount of physical, magnetic and electric energy, which is extracted, combined and independently used by the spirit in obedience to spiritual laws pertaining to the science 21G MARGUERITE HUNTER of penetration. Darkness in a degree is needed, as is noticed, when the pencil is placed between two slates. When a pencil is used, it is manipulated by spirit forces through material and spiritual laws, the forces being concentrated at a center or point within the compass of the writing, in most cases the medium not being cognizant of the thought transmitted. Through other mediums who are differently con- stituted, or who sometimes, when conditions are imperfect, cannot receive the writing, as we have shown, it is necessary to impress the mind of the medium with the theme or thought, before it can be transmitted by means of the pencil to the slate. In neither case does the medium do the writing. Should the forces become exhausted, as is usually the case in long communications, before the thought is expressed, the thought may be imperfectly ex- pressed, because the writing had to be hurried. The numerous laws that have a bearing on this one phase cause great diversity of form and char- acter in the writing, and make it difficult to sepa- rate and define each variation or shade of difference even in one message. This phase is most delicate in its operation. Its conditions are most easily destroyed; and hence it is most difficult to obtain, MARGUERITE HUNTER 31 7 because of its intricate spiritual laws and medial requirements. The vibrations are so fine that a contrary thought can mar or destroy them. Yet it is the phase that is so convincing to the skeptic because of its outward and free demonstration, thus enabling the investigator to fully test its gen- uine character openly. All spirits do not under- stand this branch of spiritual science, and cannot comply with the law of direct communication through this particular phase, and hence most often the operating spirit writes the message from dic- tation of the spirit communicating. There is a natural law for the communication of thought of which spirits, in their free condition and atmosphere, avail themselves, understanding and using it as naturally as do the children of earth, who, through a law of mental association, learn to give outward expression to their thought which appeals to the mind through the senses. Spirits, free of the material form, readily enter into soul-thought and understanding. They converse by thought transference, and in returning, in order to communicate with their friends on earth, they sometimes find difficulty in again taking up the symbols or language of mortals. More especially difficult is it when a long time has intervened or 218 MARGUERITE HUNTER elapsed before they are called upon to do so. They find it difficult to give identical expression. As mortals grow in understanding, they change their thought and expressions of their thought; so also do spirits, as they pass on to the higher grades of individuality and spheres of light, making it difficult to again resume the habits of earth-life. There are also other difficulties that occasion this variance and retrogression. There are occasions when the communications are carried down through messengers to the guide of the medium, and hence there must necessarily be, in part, a similarity of expression common to all, or even an interblending into one form, as in the mixing of several colors there is a seeming semblance of each without exactness. Sometimes there is free and independent expres- sion, but more often the form of the thought par- takes of the medium or sitter or both, because the forces used in the translation of the thought are drawn from either or both; and, besides, there is a condition of harmony of thought which, like blended waters, affects the reflected image of thought. To produce direct, unblemished communication, there should b^ a pure spiritual atmosphere and an ear- nest desire for the truth. The investigator should MARGUERITE HUNTER 219 first be honest with himself and with the medium. Mediums are sensitive. They are subjects through whom all influences can, in a sense, communicate. Such thought or results as you seek you will re- ceive, as like attracts like. Some spirits who, when in the body, delighted to take part in decep- tion, often delight in so returning, thus deceiving the skeptic who is self-conceited and arrogant, for all have not outgrown their former environments and character, and by opening the way with thoughts of dishonesty and infidelity or immorality, these spirits step in and take part, more especially among those where the medium or such an one's special phase of mediumship is undeveloped, or the guid- ing influences or controls are not permanently es- tablished. The next phases in order are clairvoyance and clairaudience, and psychometry. Often the first two, and occasionally the latter accompany the physical phase. They are gifts or qualities that belong to every organism, and though latent, can, in special cases, be developed to some and often to a full extent. They are more practical and serviceable to some than to others, but are prom- inent in all the higher phases of mediumship. With some, each one is a distinct phase, that is, one is /> ^ oar 220 MARGUERITE HUNTER developed clairvoyantly or along the other lines. The spirit operating on such subjects manipulates the different faculties of the mind and organs of the brain simultaneously, making the spiritual sense more clear, either in respect to sight, hearing or touch, with some it being a conscious and with others an unconscious condition. In psychometry, the spiritual sense and vision become so sensitive that the medium, by coming in contact with individuals or objects, can read their history, by the various vibrations or aura surround- ing each, for causes may be traced from their effects. In further explanation of this one phase it can be said that as one condition brings about a result, so does that result, in time, cause some other condition to follow. In each case, the effect of a preceding cause becomes the cause of a subse- quent effect, thus forming lines and links in history that reveal their secrets to the touch of the highly sensitive psychometrist. Spirits are, also, able to trace these conditions from the aura or emanations of things closely connected and affinitized. All rel- ative circumstances loom up before them, as do also the events in the lives of those who are closely associated with them. Each aura having, in some way, an individual reflection, nothing is lost and MARGUERITE HUNTER 221 life is an open, transparent book. Spirits can always give to mortals all that is perfectly clear to them, but as there is a limit to material expression, also to the capacity of human faculties, for this reason communications are often given in symbols. Psy- chometry interprets the action and force of life. It is a spiritual science of soul-force, peculiar to and complete in itself. Its estimates or measurements are based on soul perceptions which are quickened or awakened as they are brought into the mag- netic aura of persons and objects. The conditions leading to or affecting spirit com- munication, in all phases where mediumship of course is involved, are that of harmony and uni- formity of purpose. Spirits, while more sensitive than mortals, yet cannot, of themselves, perceive beyond the boundary of their own sphere. Good thoughts and lofty aspirations aid and strengthen the spirit, but gross thoughts and evil purposes are baleful, and tend to dispel direct, unblemished communications between the two worlds. The different laws pertaining to the concentra- tion of the spiritual and material forces, though uni- form, are, in each case, adapted and applied to the organism of the medium, and the different pha- ses through which phenomena are demonstrated. 223 MARGUERITE HUNTER The operating spirit or guide is able to define the application of these laws or dictate their use in this respect by studying the genius underlying each particular case. The use of music at seances is for the purpose of forming a serene, unalloyed condition of mental harmony that assists in perfecting the highest spir- itual results. Intuition, like perception or consciousness, is direct or immediate knowledge of the soul and inde- pendent of any reasoning process. It is the oppo- site of tuition. It is direct and divine inspiration. The impressional phase of mediumship is as much a gift of mediumship as the inspirational, similar in character, though less marked, spirit impres- sions being received suddenly and without formal thought. Spirits often impress mortals at night, by dreams, because when in the more positive, wakeful state there is a lack of receptivity, through which condition they cannot reach them effectually. This phase is not always reliable, as much depends upon the physical condition of those upon whose mind the spirit would impress its thought. It is not necessary for an individual to believe in spiritual phenomena to receive spirit communi- cations or other manifestations of spirit power. M/iRGUERlTE HUNTER 223 If the person be medial and there is a strong de- termination on his part to be positive, the nervous system then becomes secretive, and withholds that peculiar aura, or electrical fluid which is contin- ually thrown off, and which is necessary to the forming of material conditions for spiritual results, and so closes absolutely for the time the avenues to spirit power. This accounts for many failures of those seeking spirit demonstrations. Magnet- ism is one of the agents employed by spirits to ac- complish the outward expression of whatever char- acter, and mortals have the power of withholding this, since by exerting the will power for or against, the magnetism is generated or suppressed by a process conveying with it a characteristic force, rendering communication impossible. There are fixed laws through which all spiritual phenomena occur. These laws are uniform and common to all the different spheres and planets in the universe. By the same law that Moses, Sam- uel and Jesus held converse with the saints, com- munications are had to-day with those who have passed beyond the scenes of earth. There is a continual interblending of the two worlds, that is not apparent to the uninitiated mortal. Those who seek the truth fearlessly reap their reward; 224. MARGUERITE HUNTER their own ambition and thoughts governing the result for the good. Those who seek not for truth nor care for light, have also their reward, the re- ward of the sluggard, of him who hid his talent in the earth. You can draw or repel the dear ones. Blood ties, social caste, wealth, count for nothing. Where there are pure designs, none but pure spir- its or those seeking purity will be attracted. To the pure the Divine is revealed. As you aspire, so will you receive and grow spiritually. Whenever or wherever a false communication is received, there will invariably be found false conditions, sometimes created by false intentions in the sit- ters or a mercenary spirit in the medium. All mediumship has the one and the same origin, and is a gift as natural and real as that of music and is as essential to soul in outworking human destiny as is life itself or the brain of man. It unfolds in quality and diversity with each genera- tion. Co-operative societies from the spirit side of life are constantly exerting an influence over those of earth who possess psychic power, that they may develop the qualities necessary to the unfoldment of mediumship. The spiritual world has need of more mediums, true laborers in the service of humanity. The harvest is ready. Their MARGUERITE HUNTER 225 assistant or co-operative societies are constantly in search for such, and there are those whose office it is to select, and form bands for the guidance of individuals of even the slightest degree of medial power. Mediumship is more easily, more generally de- veloped in youth; then, the qualities can be more easily moulded into their characteristic and or- dained phases. There have been, however, some noted cases of mediumship developed late in life. In many homes, unknown to the world, there are those of medial power who are constantly being utilized by the spirits, in the private home-circle, for the good of humanity. This silent influence is so far-reaching in its results, growing stronger each day, that the time will yet come when it will not be an uncommon thing to clearly see and con- verse with friends from the spirit side of life. I^Iay each and every one help to hasten that glorious time. Gradually prejudice and opposition are being re- moved from the minds of mortals, and from those of like character in spirit life, who, through early teaching and a false faith, refuse to accept of the truth. The unfoldment of thought in the spiritual spheres is in touch and harmony with that of 226 MARGUERITE HUNTER earth sphere, and as. both become enh'ghtened, the spiritual growth of the denizens of both worlds will become more intense, free and perfect soul- converse and spiritual vision will become a daily and universal experience, while the earth sphere will practically become almost a part of the spir- itual; so united will be the two worlds. Material environments will become less oppressive, because etherealized, and mortals will move on in perfect harmony with the spiritual and natural design. What is more convincing, solacing and beautiful than a knowledge of everlasting life? To know that earth's experience is not all that there is of life; to feel and realize that those whom we loved and cherished in the form, still live, and have grown to a higher understanding; to realize that they became administering spirits, returning to the humble home, encouraging the loved ones, impart- ing knowledge to them and inspiring them with hope and "the power of an endless life," is indeed an inspiration. Silently in divine light they enter the home, patiently, quietly waiting and watching for a favorable time for communication, making greater effort day by day than words can express. Who would not welcome them back to the fireside? Mortals cannot fully appreciate these silent, spiritual MARGUERITE HUNTER 227 influences that constantly guide them through the devious pathway of their earthly pilgrimage, infus- ing light into the shadows, tempering the too bril- liant sunshine, awakening the mind to all that is beautiful and good, in the present life drying the tears and sharing the griefs and burdens, educat- ing the heart and the will of the weak that they may triumph over the baser worldly desires and pleasures which so quickly perish, and elevating the thought to a conception of celestial grandeur and ideality of soul that reveals the true knowledge of life and prepares man for the home of eternal progress in the realm of the heavenly mansions. And yet how many open the locked door at their loving call or knock and receive their garlands of roses? CHAPTER VIII. O light, O love, O power forever near, O angels, truth and God the Good, May perfect love that casteth out all fear Be unto us our daily food. May we perceive within, the blessed shrine Where souls are made completely Thine; And there with Thee may we in glory shine, The White Rose of the Love Divine. From the character of the soul, as we understand the spiritual law of its unfoldment, we derive a science of duty and living. The teaching which we have heretofore given but foreshadowed through- out the pages the thought of the soul's character and destiny, and if, in what has been said, the trend of our teaching has been missed or overlooked, we shall here in a more practical and compact way set forth what we in part have hinted. Marguerite may have differed in her experiences and life line from the mass of humanity, although each mortal unfolds the life according to his or her peculiar needs and adaptations to environments. Yet her 228 MARGUERITE HUNTER 229 character was uniform with all mankind in the law and destiny of soul. She, according to the law of the soul, reached her elevation step by step and through conditions as natural as the outflowing laws of na- ture. The gravity of her case was exceptional, but none the less a feature of her development, and as the shadow is associated with the light, nay, is the product of it, so the gloom through which she passed in earth-life and afterward while earth- bound in spirit-life related to the exceeding glory that should ultimately pierce the gloom, rend its veil and radiate her being. The direction of the shadow is ever established by the light, and moves with it. Here in materiality, the domain of shad- ows, where the real light, that of the soul, is not visible except as it sometimes shines out through the human face when under high and penetrative inspiration, as is often witnessed among the me- dia, sometimes among poets and great reformers, and rarely among men in the ordinary walks of life, the contrasts are those of material light and shadow, where in the kaleidoscope of nature they vibrate in forms beautiful and divine. In this vale, the light of the soul, from its own radiant height, is seen only by the clairvoyant eye or as the spir- itual perceptions are quickened and awakened, 230 MARGUERITE HUNTER and so fine and pure is it essentially and so will it at last be when the veil of materiality and all that inheres in the soul by virtue of its experience while in the earth are utilized, that words cannot paint nor thoughts convey its superior and divine glory. Yet it is so ordained that as hope re- mained in Pandora's box after all the ills and dis- ease of life had taken their flight and filled the earth with their piercing thorns, so this light should be the gift of God that should at last reveal itself. More than this, the Greek allegory or myth teaches that ever underneath the devastating, disintegrat- ing and refining process of sin and disease, for the two are correlated, hope for this very possession of light should be found, as the evidence of things unseen but to be received. And the myth, like all allegories, had its origin in spiritual science; and root, stock and branches of the tree of mythology, in whatever land it thrived, sprung out of this science of which we speak, though conveying the lesson only in a crude form and a vague language. This spiritual light, the very subject of all its ob- jective forms which we see in materiality, the thesis of every antithesis in shadows or reflections, is the source of all material light, the fountain hidden in the soul; by which, as from the Over MARGUERITE HUNTER 231 Soul, the various suns that expel light to all worlds, as from gateways into the outer kingdom, are fed. Could you as spirit penetrate the swirl of this mighty electrical orb, the sun, that is throned in a corona of light and which guides the planetary system unerring on its course — and all suns are alike in composition, quality and office — you would enter a mystic flame of piercing, blinding light, spark- ling like a mighty diamond from one central focus yet radiating forth a myriad of rainbows, inter- secting each other so as to form a circle of glory inconceivably brilliant and luminous, yet making a perfect white sheen without variation, and, this nucleus, a spark, in itself a vanishing point that inflows to the very center of the heart of the Over- Soul. And as this light, first spiritual, pure and white, outflows from its one center to the fixed point of solar existence and radiation, it becomes dimmed and veiled, until as it is seen in material form, even majestic in its glory in that state, it divides itself into the shadows of its own produc- tion. So all light that proceeds outwardly, that recedes from a center to a given circumference, first issued from a spiritual fountain of pure spiritual light. In this analogy we find a key to the evils and 232 MARGUERITE HUNTER sins of the world, all of which may be designated, from the standpoint of birth into existence or ma- terial life, the shadows which cloud the spirit and hover about its sphere because of it. This light, however, of which we speak, the light of the soul, brings in material life not only its shadows but its laws that will, if understood and applied, give the spirit the power to overcome or dissipate them. We do not wish to become too metaphysical or abstruse, and yet, as naught that passes for conduct has any mterpretation outside of conscience, so naught that is of this life, its sorrows and joys, trials and labors, its evil and good, has an inter- pretation outside of this light of the soul. As you go to a spring for the source of the river or as you go to the skies for the laws that solve the chemical construction of the dewdrop, so we take you for the understanding of the problem of life, up the strem of life to the source which is in the soul. And as man, the epitome of God in finite expression, with his mind, spirit, soul, can be explained and understood organically and his office and duty here in the earth perceived and realized, only in the light of his origin and being, we affirm that spiritual science which truly delineates man, has, and should have, the precedence over material science. The MARGUERITE HUNTER 233 one deals with essence, being, soul and all that pro- ceeds therefrom, while the other deals exclusively and only with matter and organic man in matter. A philosophy of life that is established upon ma- terial science, will be both hopeless and helpless save as it is upheld and endorsed, nay, given its superscription and authority from spiritual science. Conscience and reason, the entire mental estab- lishment of the soul, which cannot and will not be subjected to either chemical or microscopical an- alysis, fall to the ground, if man cannot prove that he as spirit survives death, has a deathless and indestructible intelligence and power within him- self, which he can assert and demonstrate when- ever called upon to do so, either in or out of the form through mediumship. And though the pseudo- scientist, the skeptic and scoffer may laugh at this assertion, we firmly say that he has no argument for or against the immortality of the soul in the whole range of his agnostic science and philosophy. And for any one to deny this in the face of the facts which Spiritualism as a science affords of man's inherent spiritual origin, nature and being, is to prove himself an egotist and a foe to progress. We do not reject evolution as an organic process of life, nor say that when given 234 M/IRGUERITE HUNTER its spiritual interpretation it is not the process of the soul's unfoldment, but we reject it in the light of spiritual science when it wildly and without reason premises protoplasm as the basis of life. Protoplasm is the basis of organic forms — that which vivifies protoplasm is at the basis of organic life, but spirit is the breath of life that issues from the soul ; and the mission of Spiritualism is not only, in the light of its demonstrable revelations through the spiritual phenomena, to set science right, re- ligion right, philosophy right, but to give to every man, woman and child, the proofs of their real im- mortal being. For upon this proof which Spirit- ualism alone can give, and alone has given through - out its history, under whatever name it may have been received by its ignorant but loyal advocates, rests the entire superstructure of all true living. In- deed conscience, duty, mind, the virtues, the habits which lead to individual and national wellbeing, whatever of civilization in the form of the me- chanical and industrial arts, all that holds man- kind together, have their root in man's spiritual being, and could the atheist and infidel prove their claims the civilization that we rightly enjoy would be dissipated as a bauble and all enlightened na- tions would at once sink into the sty that sent MARGUERITE HUNTER 235 Babylon and Sybaris to oblivion. Upon spiritual science that alone can demonstrate spirit, the hope of the world rests, and the time is speedily drawing near when the world will no longer be blinded to its own highest interests. We said that the light of the soul produces what appears to be its own shadows, and so we add in lieu of this fact that this light brings to the soul its personal responsibility. The injunction of the good book is "to let our light so shine" and this word "so" not only defines but qualifies man's ac- tion. How and when and where to let the light shine are all comprehended by the word "so," and this little word is really a synonym of "ought" or duty. The object of man, that is, the end or des- tiny of his life, is to let the soul shine in the light in which it was conceived, and so the great medi- um, Jesus of Nazareth, qualified the "so" by say- ing, "that men seeing your good works may glorify your Father who is in heaven." What more sublime presentation and exposition of duty, in harmony with all true teachings of spiritual sci- ence, could be uttered than this one of the despised prophet of Israel, and where shall we go for a deeper penetration of the office of light? Now not only does the soul per se emit light, which is its aura. 236 MARGUERITE HUNTER and is the exact ratio and product of its unfold- ment, but the various elements of the soul and the many faculties send forth according to this same law of unfoldment a light that makes the quality of the whole light or aura of the soul. If it be true, as physicists allow, that light travels in rays, which we call vibrations, and each vibration is a ray or a delicate, indivisible thread of light that breaks into a prism of rainbows, perfect as the circle of the sun's aura to which we have referred, that not an atom spins in space but bears an in- tegral and organic relation to the universe, how much more should not the soul and all that is of it, emit in part and whole this spiritual light which comes from within? Hence, to develop man, to unfold the soul in any one or all of its expressions in embodiments, means to exercise, educate, per- fect every power and faculty of being, that the light of the soul may stream forth in perfect glory. Each power and function of the mind has its part to do to unfold this light, and should be a vibration or ray of the perfect glory on whose horizon and in whose sphere no mist or cloud, no darkness as the lack of culture, should be seen. And the outline of duty, the very extreme ends of the threads of this light, which is extenuated into the darkness of the MARGUERITE HUNTER 237 circumference of the outward being, is, by birth, presented in the degree of light in which the spirit comes in embodiment. The duty of each one is to work inwardly toward the perfect light. And the way to do this is by giving the real light of the soul freedom of expression through the various avenues which we term faculties for the transmis- sion of this light. Faculties, whether imagination, reason, memory or sensation, are really but ave- nues for the outflowing of this light, the mind itself as an instrument, reflecting it as a mirror or re- fracting it as a lens. And the seeming variations in the offices and qualities of these faculties, are due entirely to the vibrations of the light as they proceed or recede in the soul' unfoldment. The soul is an entity, is entire, acts not in and by the use of one faculty but by the light of all; indeed, each one, while serving the soul, goes to make such light as we perceive or realize. In ordinary men- tal science the different faculties are assigned their peculiar office and quality. It is said that percep- tion is not reason, nor is either one imagination or memory or vice versa, and yet, the truth is that man is the whole consciousness and thinks as such. Memory does not do the memorizing, per- ception does not do the perceiving, imagination the 238 MARGUERITE HUNTER imagining, nor reason the reasoning; the real man or ego, the soul, does all that has been or is im- puted to any one faculty. A faculty, really, is a mode of thought vibration, and so allied is thought to light that we have used them synonomously, although the light is truly the symbol of thought as we have employed it. An organ is literally the channel through which in the body the soul ex- presses this or that faculty or mode of thought. The mind is the reflex of the spiritual conscious- ness and is the mental function of the soul in spirit embodiment. The spirit is the breath of God, or as it is related to each soul, it is the consciousness of soul, its theme and object. The soul is the entity and has but one, unchangeable, eternal identity. The body is the material form of the spirit, and the form that the disembodied spirit has is com- posed of etherealized substances and varies accord- ing to the refinement and unfoldment of the soul. Now, all that we have said, though seemingly ir- relevant to the point which we make concerning the character of the soul, we mean so far as its conduct is concerned, yet has a special application. The character of man denotes and measures the degree of light he has unfolded or attained. If that character be evil or good as these words are com- MARGUERITE HUNTER 239 monly employed, that evil designates crude, murky light and hence an imperfect mental and spiritual unfoldment, in short, a lack of soul symmetry in expression, as on the other hand, the good be- speaks the rhythm that produces the aura of light, fair to behold and shining as the sun. And hu- man responsibility is discovered and enforced ac- cording to the light that one has. Though the light that a man has be darkness and that dark- ness be ever so profound, the man is responsible only for that light and the use he makes of it. And such responsibility cannot be shirked. Light alone is permanent, eternal, absolute, because of the soul; darkness is transient, material, relative, and the direction of the soul is ever from darkness into the light. So that, if one is unfolding, dark- ness is fading away and light is growing in bril- liancy^ and the sphere of light or darkness in which one dwells determines his responsibility and duty. New unfoldments of soul bring new relations and responsibilities, as climbing up a mountain peak widens the view and affords a purer, serener at- mosphere. Yet man is one and ever the same as an entity, in darkness or light, in the shadows of the valley or the effulgent sunlight of the mountain peak. Though his duty is one what- 210 M.4RGUERITE HUNTER ever may be the state of the soul, though he cannot add to his real, innate, eternal, immutable responsibilities, yet the growth, the mental and spiritual evolution brings with it a greater empha- sis of what he dimly perceived as duty and vaguely comprehended as responsibility when seemingly under the bondage of darkness or materiality. And so character unfolds and becomes the expres- sion of love, of course in degree we mean, as man aspires for the perfect light, which we here sym- bolize by the truth; having some light, the human quality attaining step by step the quality of the divine, the soul blossoming into its own white light, the very image in which it was made. And none will accuse the soul, save the soul, all along its pilgrimage in the garden of the earth or through- out the eternal spheres. The soul is its own arbi- ter and judge. The scales it holds forever in its own hands and measures by the light of its own perception of truth its foul or worthy deeds. No blind justice with outstretched scales is conscience, when freed from the entanglements and seductions of the flesh, but open-eyed, pure-visioned, serene in divinity and blind only to public opinion and false standards, she weighs all unerringly, righteously, truly, and her verdict the soul never reverses. And MARGUERITE HUNTER 241 all must meet conscience and confess their guilt, and ere they go one step forward or attain a higher sphere, they must undo their wrongs, make repa- ration and amends as did the husband of Margue- rite. No other white throne or tribunal save this one, walled up in the precincts of each soul, where before the world of light, out in the open air of all, under the piercing gaze of spirit, the soul must meet its God and effect the only real and effica- cious atonement. Not one of blood, or propitiation, nor salvation through the meritorious acts of a martyred saint and savior, not a confession to priest, friar or pope, not an absolution by penance, but an atonement which is a compensation for every deed done, exact and unfailing, at the bar of each one's conscience. Conscience is not an aveng- ing angel, but the angel of mercy and love that rebukes only to bless, that puts the thorn about the rose to protect it from evil in its blessed and divine unfoldments. This has been the teaching of all true seers who received the tuition and in- spiration of the spirit, and Paul who, with Jesus, shared a mediumship that gave their words and works an authority above those of the scribes and Pharisees, taught, that whatever a man sows that will he also reap, here and hereafter. And the 242 MARGUERITE HUNTER Christian's Bible, yea all sacred books, are literally tilled with inspired teaching, though mixed with much that is mortal, objectionable and false, which, in consonance with the standard ethics of the world, fulfill and confirm what we here maintain. Thus, as in accord with the law of organic life, effect follows cause and harvests result from seed- sowing or cycles of evolutionary changes, so, in the spirit, it is likewise true that he that soweth to the flesh reaps destruction, but he that soweth to the spirit reaps life everlasting. That which is of the material is like the cloud, evanescent, temporary, but that which is spiritual alone is abiding. And if any one desires light he must unfold it, he must aspire unto the truth and the good and apply such light as he has unto all good works; so will he now here in the earth and when he changes by death his material habitation, reap the fruition of the Spirit, which is light and peace forevermore. We have in the natural life, then, the mere shad- ows and prototypes of what is real ; there is a heav- enly light toward which we should ever aspire until life is swallowed up in victory, death in life, all shadows in the light of the soul, which in the spirit world is the real light of sun, moon and stars. Concerning spiritual phenomena, all their diver- MARGUERITE HUNTER 243 sified and interesting phases through medial in- strumentality, so far as their antiquity is concerned, and especially in reference to the miracles of the Bible, need we say that they are from one source and have been in the world since the birth of man? Their evolution dates back to a period beyond the remotest history of man, when Egypt was in her infancy, thousands of years before the dawn of Christianity and even as many thousands of years before Moses. Hermes, who is an Egyptian, a man of arts and letters and sciences, who lived about 1800 B. C, just two centuries later than Moses, informs us that not only among his own people at that time, but among the Jews, mediumship so- called and the various phenomena of Spiritualism known in modern times flourished and that what was then known as magic, virtually man's power of controlling the ancient four elements, earth, air, water and fire, together with the higher phases of medial and spiritual gifts, existed and was universally practiced among those who had made profound studies of the laws of nature and soul, Astrology had reached a high degree of penetration, and those who practiced it associated it reverently with religion and God Astronomy, though sup- posed to be the oldest physical science, yet was 244 MARGUERITE HUNTER preceded by both astrological and psychological science. Man in the period of mental adolescence looked in as well as out and associated the soul and its states, pain and pleasure, and the map and line of its orbit and destiny with astrological ob- servations and castings of the heavenly bodies; and as late as Ptolemy, yet earlier than his time, horo- scopes of human destinies were cast that were said to be of unerring accuracy. Inspiration ever flowed into the soul and knowledge from within its won- drous sphere came and threw light upon the occult problems of life. Slate writing was known then, and Moses, the law-giver of the Jews, received on tables of stone on Mount Sinai his first impres- sions of the Ten Commandments, afterward re- vised by him under the guidance of his band of spirits. This moral code of the Jews, ever received by them as a revelation from God, was but a prac- tical experiment in the spiritual science of inde- pendent slate writing and proved the regnancy of the gift of that phase of medial power among those early Jews. Has the world yet outgrown it, or has it as yet attained in life the grandeur of those spirit impressions.? Their antiquity but flavors more richly and sweetly their divine quality, and in line with them even material ethics and science. MARGUERITE HUNTER 245 to say nothing of subsequent inspirations and teachings of the Spirit, have ever kept pace, nay, they have unfolded in accord with and as a proof of their inerrancy. The Bible of the Jews is itself a powerful wit- ness to the facts of Spiritualism. Rationalism has repeatedly sought to destroy the Bible and under- mine its authority as a work of inspiration. Yet, while we submit that the Bible contains blemishes, fables, errors, inaccuracies, it has a divine and spiritual origin that neither reason nor science can destroy. And Spiritualism, as modernly inter- preted, gives to the receptive and fair-minded student an insight into its hitherto occult and seemingly mysterious, if not miraculous or super- natural character, that which historical and textual criticism cannot and never could give. The pages open up in the light of recent spiritual phenomena, which have a counterpart in the Bible correspond- ing even in their details, and reveal the old but ever new workings of the Spirit. Spiritualism as a word is not even new, having roots in all languages and referring to the same sub- ject or class of phenomena. The word is as old as Spirit. The evolution of man, along the line of inspira- 246 MARGUERITE HUNTER tional teaching and as affected by spiritual phenom- ena, has been and is real, aggressive, permanent. The Bible itself, were there no other and alleged secular proof, is a positive and clear demonstration of this slow but inevitable growth, for it is a record, not of the psychic experiences of one manor one class of men, but of many men and many classes of men of one nation, in their relation to adjoin- ing or distant peoples, and much foreign evidence is given incidentally of the practice of the misno- mers, the so-called arts of divination, sorcery and witchcraft among other races than the chosen race of God, which set forth unmistakable signs and proofs of the universality of medial gifts among mankind. But these gifts were exercised among many ignorantly and among others violently, and among others for morally subversive or mercenary purposes; yet, the gifts themselves existed and led to the achievement of the end for which they were given to man. As social, political, moral and educational evolution unfolded, these gifts among seers and saviors became beacon lights on the highway of rational progress, through the ex- ercise of which nations were warned of their sins and dangers and the higher knowledge, the only true and plain path, was outspoken and outlined MARGUERITE HUNTER 247 Inspiration through chosen media, in all ages throughout the world, has ever directed and led the fate of humanity. That nation that stoned and killed its prophets and mediums paid the penalty ^ for such crime by speedy decay and destruction. Wherever the voice of prophecy was scorned or hushed and the nation turned a deaf ear to the pleadings of heaven, God has inevitably visited upon it, through the natural law of its own folly and disobedience, the woeful penalty of retribu- tion. History is filled with proof of what we here affirm. But so has it been, in the wise ordina- tion and dispensation of Divine Providence, that the law of the soul's unfoldment, among the few as well as the many, ever fulfilled itself, and true to the letter of the spoken word of the Spirit through its media, each age and generation in spite of the persecutions, martyrdoms and deaths of mediums, opened with and even produced greater and a larger number of workers in the spiritual vineyard. We could show how this evolution of "the plan of sal- vation of mankind," as w^e interpret this phrase, proceeded from springs that bubbled forth frcm many hidden centers on the planet earth, how the natives of India, Arabia, China, Atlantis, Greece, indeed every remote or relatively remote 248 MARGUERITE HUNTBR people, followed the inspirations of the Spirit and were affected in their conduct, government and destiny in about the same way and for the same good end as those of the earth who assisted in the translation and composition of this book and by the Spirit. Mortals are acted upon in this manner more than they ever think, and what has been in this respect is and will ever be, until earth and heaven are one, until one brotherhood at one with God, the Over-soul, is established. The end is divinely possible, the achievement is but a ques- tion and matter of soul unfoldment. When, however, it is recalled that Jesus of Naz- areth prophesied, the spirit controlling, that greater things than he had ever done would be possible among his immediate followers, his dis- ciples, and some of these greater things were ac- complished shortly after his transition, as is re- corded in the Acts of the Apostles, why should the church ignorantly affirm that Spiritualism is a type of anti-Christ? Were the works which were done by the apostles, by Peter when entranced, by Paul and the hosts who talked with strange tongues on the day of Pentecost, were they the works of the devil and should man expunge their testimony, the narrative of the Apostles, from true ivlARGUERITE HUNTER 249 Chri: tian teaching as apocryphal ? Nay, not so, nor should the church, if consistent, allege that the same law of prophetic and inspirational teaching which Jesus, by his own testimony, said that he came to fulfill. Spiritualism destroys. Either the phenomena of Spiritualism are genuine and in accord with the laws of God, one in character and uniform in process throughout all time and all worlds, the facts of which are attested to by millions of rational beings, or the miracles of Christianity and Bible history are frauds. The two can and must stand together; divided, they both fall. One Spirit of truth inspired and operated them — and that Spirit was not the devil, but the intelligences of the Spirit world, and they inspired and operated them through chosen media for the good of man- kind. It remains to be said that recent archaeological and antiquarian investigations of excavated ruins of old empires, outstanding monuments as the pyramids of Egypt, have thrown much light upon the hitherto occult sciences, which were under- stood by these ancient people. As all religion dates back to antiquity, as masonry threads its way into the lore of the Egyptian magi, as there is naught of science in any or all of her branches that had 250 MARGUERITE HUNTER not a beginning among the earliest people who inhabited the earth, as the day that now glorifies the world had a dawn in the East, so Spiritualism, old as nature, ancient as God, the exponent and corollary of all progress, light, truth, love, is to be and must be the solvent of life's deepest and most occult problems. But when we say this we do not refer to or designate any past or present form of it, but we mean Spiritualism, which, as the religion, science and philosophy of the soul, the very book of life in which we have read and taught but the introductory pages, ever unfolding truth and leading through inspired media capable of receiv- ing the higher lessons and laws of life, shall become the guide of humanity to the height of truth, to the light which is the light of the world. Man has within himself the gifts and powers, which, if unfolded and perfected, can make Spir- itualism just what we here proclaim. It is this, it cannot be less than it, and all other "isms" are but side lights of this all-glorious source of light. And the deeper lesson of this book is found in the teaching whicTi everywhere at this hour on the spiritual rostrum and from lips of inspired medi- ums, emphasizes, above all creeds, all theologies, philosophies and sciences, above all pride, preju- MARGUERITE HUNTER 251 dice, selfishness and self-righteousness, above power, fame, riches, above empires, nations and principalities, yea, above pleasure, culture and in- dividualism, the positive need and the saving pow- er of spirituality. And spirituality is the love life. Spiritualism as religion, science, philosophy shapes everything to it. The attainment of it is the ob- ject of all spiritual phenomena. And he who once learns through spiritual phenomena that he is immortal, eternal, that he is in the earth to unfold the soul into the God image, and then goes asleep spiritually, is bringing reproach upon a sacred cause and is missing the very object for which Spiritualism stands. We reiterate the lesson of this book in one sub- lime trinity of truth which is ever one, first. Life eternal, second. Spiritualism, the key that opens the mystic door to the truth, and third. Spirit- uality , the fruition of love, in the life of the soul — ■ making the blessed one which is peace. And spirit Marguerite, with a garland of white blossoms in her hand, gathered from the garden of her own life experiences, imparts to each one who reads under- standingly and lovingly the lessons of this book and, after reading, seeks to put them as a leaven into the life, she imparts to these who alone can 252 MARGUERITE HUNTER receive, the inspiration of that love and truth that led her to the light and gave her the victory over self. May all follow the mystic white flame of love that burns from out the soul, and this light will lead all such to peace. For this is the light that lighteth every one that cometh into the world, and as many as perceive and receive it to them it giveth the power to become one with God. Lead on, O purest flame, lead on to victory, The love of God, divine, glows in thy light, Lead truly on until we feel the ecstasy Of life and live, nor shrink from Thee affright. We love thy light and swim wit^jin its aureole Of glory. We sigh for the effulgent day Wherein the sun of love shines purely, wholly; O keep us, Father, in thy perfect way. As angels radiant in a sheen of beauty. We would receive the true and fadeless smile Of thine eternal love, that true to duty, We may possess Thee fully all the while. APOTHEOSIS. The lily seed, transplanted well within the darkest soil, Ts symbol rare of soul immured within the mortal coil; The outward sun that shines abroad a radiance bright and fair, And gently draws the lily life into the upper air, Prefigures thus the heavenly plan that destinates the soul, And in the lily vine and leaf sublimely hints the goal. The tender shoot of lily vine, the leaf and blossom green Move ever upward in the thought of the diviner scene; The throbbing life within the plant breathes through and through the thrill That truly prophesies the bloom and shows the Father's will; And ever does the music sweet of wave and light and sound The lily touch on every side until the tiower is found. 253 254 /IPOTHEOSIS And, O divine, as from the mire and water in the lake. The flower sweet in purest white its sunny gar- ments take; And, O divine, to know indeed that work should lead to this. And bring to light the aim of life in one apocalypse; And, O divine, to realize that somewhere flowers white Will prove the law of lily bud, that darkness leads to light. And surely man at last shall rise, adorned in lily white, And from the mortal seed reveal the soul all pure and bright, The trials, toil, and passions base shall teach the end in view, And give man thought to use and make the life forever true. And, O divine, shall be the end when souls to an- gels rise, In glory white, in life divine, the lily of the skies. v»>"o* '^^^ "^^' CX) r3 r^ K c a t-> '" o u- t-l HH y OJ ^ S >^ a ^_ ^ O! c: rt >^ ^ l~~^ C M-i ;^ t/? i) ^ :j c o iC o .- CJ .- —I — .5 ^ ^ r> CJ ^ o = b£ - - '" - I I 1 >, biO o ::^ o 3 •- CJ o u. c: o t: <-3 o >■>" o o •-» •— -- CJ - ^ Oh O 4-1 o o O -jJ 3 '■J C ^^ . — < 5 z ■^ I "m i ;r "5 2 jz o ^ ,§ _: - o ^ a o ,/ C — O 7- c •p u •f !•= ■;? '^ ^ p y. S o W ■f be ^ 'C U 3 I o i; •■= 2 ^ ' ,y g . : bo — -- fT r ,— P .^ S. ,.,,, '3 •254 An' Th Ar Ai Ai A 1 T*^ 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORKOWED IDUCATION-PSYCHOIOGY LIBRARY This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 7 DAY USE DURING ^wtmn SESSIONS JAN IS 1964 jftN20REC0 ' 1 -fcl\ilt^]lkt' "-/'^£og"-- U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES CD3Db7E3M5