Then, later, we shall have, through the influence of Mercury in the second decanate, the pouring in of light, of mental and spiritual illumination, and a truer interpretation of the teaching of the Lodge of Messengers. The work of the first decanate will enable many to make those choices and efforts which will enable them to raise the lower energies into the higher centers, and to transfer the focus of their attention from below to above the diaphragm. The work of the second decanate will enable those who are thus ready to fuse the personality and the soul, and thus, as I earlier [293] pointed out, the light will shine forth and Christ will be born within them.

In no department of life will these coming great changes show more potently than in the attitude of man towards sex, and in the readjustment of the marriage relationship. This new attitude will gradually come about as the slowly developing science of psychology comes into its own. As man comes to understand his own threefold nature, and as the nature of consciousness and the depth of his own subconscious life are more truly grasped, there will take place, gradually and automatically, a change in the attitude of men towards women and of women towards their destiny. This needed change will not be the result of legal measures, or of decisions by the people's representatives to meet the disasters of the hour; these changes will come slowly, as the result of the intelligent interest of the next three generations. The young people now coming into incarnation, and those who will come during the next century, will prove themselves well equipped to handle this problem of sex, because they can see more clearly than the older generation, and will think in wider and larger terms than is common today. They will be more group-conscious and less individualistic and selfish; they will be more interested in new ideas than in the ancient theologies, and will be freer from prejudice and less intolerant than are the bulk of the well-meaning people of today. Psychology is only just come into its own, and only now is its function beginning to be understood; in one hundred years time, however, it will be the dominating science [294] and the newer educational systems, based on scientific psychology, will have completely superseded our modern methods. The emphasis in the future will be laid upon the determining of a man's life purpose. This will be brought about through an understanding of his ray, through an analysis of his equipment (and of this, vocational psychology is the faint first beginning), through a study of his horoscope, and through giving him a sound grounding in mind control, as well as training his memory to the impartation of information. The processes by which he can integrate his personality and raise and purify his living qualities will receive careful attention, and all to the end of making him group-conscious and useful to his group. This is the factor of importance. Synthesis, physical purity, decentralization and group good will be the keynotes of the teaching imparted. Emotional control and right-thinking will be inculcated, and where these are present a knowledge of spiritual realities will be automatically acquired and the life subordinated to the group purpose. Man's relations to others will then be intelligently directed, and his relation to the other sex will be guided not only by love and desire, but by an ordered intellectual appreciation of the true significance of marriage. The above applies to the intelligent, well-intentioned majority whose standards will have developed as the decades pass, so that they will embody the dreams and ideals of the most advanced visionaries of today. The unthinking, the idle and the stupid will still be found, but evolution proceeds apace and order is on its way.

What laws will be enacted for the control of the people on this difficult subject of sex I cannot say; what the marriage laws will be it is no part of my purpose to foretell; how the legislatures of the nations will deal with the problem remains to be seen. I am not interested in speculation. [295]

As the creative urge is turned upwards from the sacral center to the throat, man will live less potently in his physical sexual urges, and more consistently in his creative expression. His physical plane life will proceed along normal lines, but it is necessary for men to realize that the manner in which man today satisfies his sexual nature is abnormal and unregulated, [296] and that we are on our way to a wise normality. The craving for selfish pleasure and for the satisfaction of an animal urge, which is instinctually right when regulated and devastatingly wrong when prostituted purely to enjoyment, will give place to a mutual decision by both of the parties concerned. The decision will meet a natural need in a right and suitable and regulated manner. Today one party or other is usually sacrificed, either to an undue abstinence or to an unseemly profligacy.

2. The second rule is based upon the point of evolution, and for its right fulfilment necessitates the true integration of the personality. This rule might be expressed as follows: True marriage and right sexual relation should involve the marriage of all three aspects of man's nature; there should be a meeting on all three levels of consciousness at once - the physical, the emotional and the mental. A man and a woman, to be truly and happily married, must be complements to each other in all the three departments of their nature, and there should be a simultaneous union of all three. How seldom is this the case, and how rare it is to find! There is no need for me to elaborate in this direction, for this truth is obvious and has oft been voiced. Later, but not for a long while yet, we shall see marriages which will be based upon the point of development of the integrated personality, and only those will meet each other in the sacred marriage ritual who have reached the same point in the work of transmuting the lower into the higher centers; a marriage will be regarded as undesirable and the parties ill-mated where one is living the life of the purified personality above the diaphragm, and the other the life of the intelligent animal below the diaphragm. Finally some few will choose their mates from amongst those in whom the Christ has been born again, and [297] who are giving expression to the Christ life. But the time is not yet, except for the rare and the few.

When these three motives are carefully studied, and when men and women mould their physical plane relationship to each other upon their group responsibilities, upon their union with each other on all three planes simultaneously, and upon the offering of opportunity for incoming souls, then we shall indeed see a restoration of the spiritual aspect of marriage. We shall see the coming in of that era when good will will be the outstanding characteristic, and wherein selfish purpose and animal instinct will fade into the background.