With the changes around the world – from the struggle for self-determination and freedom of thought of the ‘Arab Spring’ revolts to the climatic and geographic upheavals – we perhaps forget that children will make our future as much as we theirs.  On our return we’ll inherit the results of those intervening generations, for better or for worse.

So this quarter’s AQ starts with a review of the plight too many of the world’s children, the possible causes, and gives practical advice on overcoming them… and p 10 finishes with the new French film ‘BABIES’, a documentary about four babies’ lives on four continents – well worth a look at the trailer.

We are pleased to report on the ever-swelling ‘Justice for Judge’ annual letter writing protest, on p 4 – if you aren’t one of those who wrote this year, do think about it – we’ll send out reminders March next.  We remain convinced of the need for mutual recognition of the work of WQJ by all parts of the movement if it is to regain its vitality and coherence.

For those living in the US, researcher Dr Sheldrake has launched a new mobile phone Telepathy Test on p 7 and is looking for volunteers – if you have someone you share a close link with do try it… and you get paid for your work!

There are many other items of interest – happy browsing,

The AQ Editors 

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The Pollution of the Soul & its Cure          p 1
‘Sunshine vitamin’ for cancer patients      p 3
The 2011 Letters to India                                p 4
Alchemy in Agriculture                                    p 5
Water remembers… but only for certain people p 6
Keely’s discovery depended on his ‘ether’   p 6
Mobile Phone Telepathy Test                           p 7
Publishing news from TS Pasadena                p 7
Internet and the Movement                               p 7
Parallels Between Rome and America           p 8
Building Global Democracy?                             p 9
The History of the TS in Canada                      p 9
Theosophy Conference 2011                             p 9
WISDOM IN ACTION                                          p 10
Born to Four Different Worlds                          p 10

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Print of a copy or two – double sided if possible - and pass it around.

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May ’11 AQ: The Pollution of the Soul & its Cure

From a correspondent in Vienna, Austria

“Let us roll back the stone of matter from the door of our own inner sanctuary and resurrect the Spirit crucified in us!”

I have just read the Unicef Report from March 2011 and have been shocked about the information therein. 
*  There are 143 million underweight children under five years old;
*  About 100 million children do not attend the elementary school;

*  About 9 million children are fugitives in their homelands because of armed conflicts;
*  About 2 million children are HIV infected.

 An enormous quantity of goods and medicaments are necessary to provide the children with the most needed things: tablets against water pollution, mosquito nets, pencils, exercise books, blankets, sugar-salt mixtures against diarrhoea, peanut butter for deficiency diseases, vaccine against measles etc. This is only an excerpt from a long list of needed goods.

 It must be done all we can to improve the life conditions of those children and their families. There are many international organizations for emergency aid.  Especially we theosophists are responsible that we hear every cry of help.

In The Voice of Silence, 14, we can read, 

“Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun.”

However, if we want to wipe out the roots of the misery we must try to find out the main causes for it.

Presently autonomy of the man is the mainstream in the Western World.  The life is short and he should have as much as he can in his life. He has to do all he can to reach this goal. Nobody else is allowed to prevent him from satisfying his passions and desires. As long as we have stored such thoughts in our “thinking machine”, nothing can really be changed.
However, we have the power to choose, to make changes, to weed out these selfish ideas and to store ideas in the fields of charity, justice and harmony. In Raja-Yoga or Occultism, 59, we find the following statement,

“This ‹Mind› is manas, or rather its lower reflection, which whenever disconnects itself, for the time being, with kama, becomes the guide of the highest mental faculties, and is the organ of the free-will in physical man.”

Theosophy makes a point of the fact that Kama (Principle of Passions and Desires) is not caused by the body but is a principle in itself. It is the balance principle from which the ways go up or down.

Marriage is one of the cornerstones of the society of the Western World. However, the legislation is treating more and more marriage as equivalent with other forms of living together. Therefore, marriage is increasingly devalued.

To be married is a decision for the whole life.  Many people are not willing to make such a decision today. To have a happy marriage for the whole life is only possible if there is true love between both partners.
Presently we are differentiating between sexuality and reproductive instinct. The sexuality is separated of the soul. The man wishes to satisfy his sexual desires and no one is speaking of true love.  He considers marriage as an obstacle for fulfilling his sexual desires.  To have a child is considered as a reduction of his personal freedom.

Thy striving of the autonomous man is the cause that he is saying, “I do not want to be loved.”  To be loved means to be dependent on somebody.

In the U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 35, Title Page, we find the following words,
“Educate! Educate! The children are our salvation. Just as the student of occult nature can imbue the new atoms of his body which momentarily replace the old ones, with less vicious tendencies, and thus regenerate himself by moral alchemy and attain the  ›Elixir of Life‹, so can a nation work its own regeneration by educating the new atoms of its national body, its children.”

 
In the Western World, we are crusading against the pollution of the environment. This is understandable and we are entitled to do that. However, we do not admit the pollution of the soul. We defend with a completely wrong meaning of liberty everything of our animal nature.

As long as we do not fight against the pollution of the soul the pollution of the environment will go on and on. The man must recognize that he must control the principle of passions and desires with all his power. If he does not understand the importance of the soul’s ecology he will not be able to stop the pollution of the earth.

We are living in a cycle of transition. Everything in religion, philosophy, science and society is changing rapidly. The humanity must learn to manage these changes. Theosophy can help that we do not lose orientation. We only have to apply the Ancient Wisdom in our daily life. The wounds of our souls and Earth can be healed when we are using the Doctrine of Theosophy.

“Theosophy gives a clear and well-defined object, an ideal to live for, to every sincere man or woman belonging to whatever station in Society and whatever Culture and degree of intellect. Practical Theosophy is not one Science, but embraces every science in life, moral and physical.”  (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 1, 7)

 
There is only the importance of the market in the economics of the Western World. The states are spending more and more money but are going systematically bankrupt. We are living in a network of fictions. This process cannot go further on.

If we want to correct this process, it will be necessary to develop the ability of reducing our desires. This ability cannot be prescribed from governments. Each of us has to learn that we cannot have all materials things. Therefore, it will be necessary to reduce our present standard of life.  The material desires will have to stay more and more in the background of our lives.

We have to root out our selfishness.  Charity and universal brotherhood is the only solution for our own future and the future of the humankind.  To realize this goal will be the challenge of the Western World.
In The Key to Theosophy, 229, by H.P.Blavatsky, we can read,

“To seek to achieve political reforms before we have affected a reform in human nature, is like putting new wine into old bottles. Make men feel and recognize in their innermost hearts what is their real, true due to all men, and every old abuse of power, every iniquitous law in the national policy, based on human, social or political selfishness, will disappear of itself.”

 
It is evident in the Western World that many have experienced a return of interest in spiritual knowledge, in studies of the inner nature. The bookshops are full of esoteric literature. This is undoubtedly the return of a cycle of interest that has brought back individuals who in past lives took part in these studies or in the Theosophical Movement or some related work.  This interest should not be ignored, as the “right time” may not come again for a long time.

These are only some of the most important problems we have in the Western World. Worldwide we have the problems of drug trade, prostitution of children and slavery trade in the development countries and especially in Africa we have the use of children for soldiers. How can we help to solve all these problems? Each of us has not to go to one of the development countries. Let us observe the cycles of our own little world, planting and harvesting at the proper time.
In The Esoteric Character of the Gospels, 2, we find the statement,

“Christ – the true esoteric SAVIOUR – is no man, but the DIVINE PRINCIPLE in every human being. He who strives to resurrect the Spirit crucified in him by his own terrestrial passions, and buried deep in the ‹sepulchre› of his sinful flesh; he who has the strength to roll back the stone of matter from the door of his own inner sanctuary, ha has the risen Christ in him.”
“Let us roll back the stone of matter from the door of our own inner sanctuary and resurrect the Spirit crucified in us! Let us start our work helping and teaching our neighbours friends and others Theosophy. Let us try to lead them on the right path. Let us do our duty as we see it and resign all personal interest in results. The motive marks the line between black and white. Good motive and ancient wisdom might go hand in hand.”

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ONE night in the year 407 B.C., Socrates had a dream.

He saw a graceful white swan flying toward him with a melodious song trilling from its throat. The next morning Plato came to him and asked to become his pupil.

Socrates saw before him a handsome youth of twenty years, with the broad shoulders of an athlete, the noble brow of a philosopher and the limpid eyes of a poet. He knew that Plato belonged to one of the most illustrious families of  Greece, being descended, on his mother’s side, from the house of Solon, and with the blood of the ancient Kings of Attica flowing through his veins.

This was the beginning of a tender and intimate relationship which lasted until the day of Socrates’ death. While other pupils formulated one-sided systems which but partially represented the ideas of Socrates, Plato used those ideas as seeds which he planted, nourished and developed in the rich soil of his own superior mind, making the full-blown blossoms a memorial offering to the simple nobility of his teacher.

After the death of Socrates, Plato went to Megara and joined the Socratic School of Euclid (not the famous geometer, who lived in Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy I, but a disciple of Socrates who excelled in logical disputation).
From there he went to Cyrene, where Theodorus instructed him in mathematics. Thence to southern Italy, where he studied the science of numbers under the three most famous Pythagoreans of the day. Then into Egypt, to
receive the instructions of the learned doctors and priests of that ancient land.

Some say that he visited Persia and Babylonia, where he was initiated into the Chaldean Mysteries. Others say that he went as far as India. [... continued]

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