AUTOMATIC WRITINGS, c. 1914 (SECOND SET)

[1]

My dear friends,

I am eager to join you, but I am terribly opposed by all sorts of obstacles. Pray send me your strength—

—————

He is gone—I am willing to talk about Agrippa or anything you like—I don't know Agrippa, but I know about him. He was a man grave, stern, sombre, full of retained force, a great lover of Augustus, but yet they did not always get on very well together from want of sufficient intellectual comprehension of each other—Horace—No—it was a private friendship—To found the empire? Agrippa, Maecenas,—at first Antony, though they quarrelled afterwards—You see, that was a dream & dreams very often distort things. You must understand them generally without pressing the details. He meant that the first step was a petty success which assured the chain of actions that followed. As for the exact step, it is difficult to say—perhaps he meant that he took possession of the Senate, the august monument of Republican Rome, in order to have a sure base for his empire. Caesar & Antony after him neglected these little powerful details about which Augustus who had always a practical intuition was always very careful.—When did you have it? In coming or going—Where? But where, near what country?—Near Egypt then—Well, then, the dream had obviously a close connection with the hidden object of your voyage,—hidden from yourself, of course. Augustus was the organiser of a new era in civilisation, though Caesar was the founder,—a civilisation which gave a firm base for a new development of the world. You have the same idea of a new civilisation—but what is missing is the organising power—It is that you waked in the dream. Since it was near Egypt you were probably Antony who attempted blindly  

1405

a union of East & West typified by his connection with Cleopatra. As for the great toe of the foot, that is difficult. I will try to consider.

Not at all—They [Antony and Augustus] were greatly attracted to each other, but their interests clashed & their prana clashed & the attempts they made to link themselves closely like the marriage with Octavia drove them apart. They were complementary to each other, but could not understand each other. Of course I don't know that you were Antony—I only try to interpret the dream—Yes—he has much of the prana of Agrippa, only it is now illumined & purified & there is the effect of other lives—Whose? Yes, that is why I said you might be Antony—No, you have progressed much—If so, she has much altered—Why not? One can change out of recognition—Never—Yes, probably—Very little—No, I don't see anything—No—I don't say that, but I can trace nothing—Whose—He has, I understand, been identified with Virgil, & at any rate he has the Virgilean soul. . He is French, also, but a little of the Celtic Italian type—The Celtic type is dreaming artistic impulsive delicate intuitional a little formless; the Italian has the sense of form & mastery over the materials of life or of art—He is a Bengali, but no man belongs only to his present nation to the exclusion of his soul's past history—He is of the practical, formative type—Which? No—but I must try to get into touch with the past formations & I want an indication. It is not easy. These things don't remain in the nervous mind with any precision—Yes, but it is difficult—If you ask me about things Egyptian, I shall have to run away—What language? No—I don't think—More possible—You are going back very near Egypt—Oh, horribly symbolic, mystic, hieroglyphic—I think not—I don't accept your authority—You authorise yourself to authorise for her. Cleopatra is not Egypt—that is Greek easternised—Certainly not—She had none—She was all prana & imagination given up to the impulses of the prana—Charming—Yes—I can't say precisely just now; I only feel that they have come often together. Possibly; but more often united—I don't see him—Also—That is a thing which most of us don't like to reveal—Not on earth—Yes—Rather, the sign of a constant connection with earth, a persistence in the life of the earth—Sometimes a great, sometimes little according  

1406

to the particular case—¹ It is difficult to say; the mentality is sometimes strongly reproduced, the nervous part a little; sometimes the contrary—I don't see why—I don't think so, but it depends perhaps on the spirit in which it is done

Much worse than the other—I am afraid you must ask others who have a greater power of mentality than myself.—He is more modern, but he may well have been there. How do you know she was Cleopatra?—Possibly you were not; I only saw a certain connection & therefore some probability—Yes, probably your own—I accept it as probable.—Yes—It's a way of saying—I regret not—I came in answer to your past desire—There is something opposing the writing, but that does not matter—only there is a distracting force somewhere which prevents the nervous part of the medium from concentrating.

[2]

My writing will be of another kind. I am here to speak of the things that interest myself and my friends—In the heavens of the second mind there are those who view the world through the symbols of the nervous mind and that distorts the vision. I hope to dissipate the mists that distort with your help. If you prefer, I will wait your own time, but absolutely you must help us, for then you will help yourself—To the writer—I have indicated what I am. As to who I am, how will that help you. From the world I am speaking of. On the whole I think I will wait. The time does not seem propitious.

What else do you expect? If there are communications, it is either when light spirits come to amuse themselves or those who have passed seek to reestablish communication or else the spirits of other worlds come to aid or to seek aid. Attend there—

No. Ask him—

¹ At this point in the MS the following incomplete sentence was written and then cancelled: It is great as far as concerns Agrippe &  

1407

Many wish to be present, but the dissipation of force is not favourable. Concentration is necessary. No, you have got a nice little spirit there, give him a chance—I should like to know what he means by the absence of love & suppleness. If he refers to us, we shall be very glad to know our defects. Is he. Well, perhaps. What does it matter, provided we help. We are interested in thought, not in love. In any case we think we are preparing for greater powers than ourselves to manifest. As for the writing we use it, but there are other & better means—You think so? To what? Does he think he comes from the highest heights—If there are such great powers on earth in man, what is this they have done with the earth? Do they think the horrible gâchis they have made is a credit to the greatest powers in the world? Then we speak a different language when we speak of greatness & height. He means height in love, I mean height in wisdom. At bottom, yes, but not in their way of manifesting. I am glad he added that; & his great want now is the right knowledge to direct his love. Love without knowledge is often a terrible thing. Granted—There I cannot follow him. Love infinitely; it is easy to say—How many among men can do it or have done it; & even among those who have done it to a large extent, there have been tracts of themselves where clarity was absent. These things in men more often exclude each other than admit each other's completeness. Do not fix on one thing, however great & high. Open yourselves to the light, to the power, to the love & do not exaggerate the importance of the one above all the others. If I say man needs knowledge most, I speak of the present need. Love without it will not help him in the great struggles that are before him.

I admit that I am more akin in my mind to light & power than to love, but I recognise the importance of love. I will admit that it is even the most important, but there are times & seasons for things. That is interesting—but there are different ways of service. And I as friend.—All do that—Seek on the mountains where the foot of man has not yet trod, when the moon is full, when the spring is at its height after meditation & prayer—But not now. When the hour comes, you will know. Not he who works for that, but for another cause. He must not be there at the search—There are reasons which  

1408

it would be premature to reveal—That I know not, you may meet there, but you are not likely to go there together. Perhaps he who desires it most. For the other a stage must come in the work before he goes. Everything is fixed by the law of his nature & the law which governs that law. What do you mean by the reason? Again a doubtful expression; everything is rational from one point of view, absurd & arbitrary from another. The ultimate Law is beyond expression by the mind. Imperfectly & from a limited point of view. For man's convenience, yes. I don't say how. Yes, limit not the knowledge at any point, that is the essential—No—Yes—I do not think it will take long—Forty three² years for the work is my calculation, but Rama must manifest soon if it is to be done so quickly. For the changing of the world—For it to be completed. In 1956 ­ 7. Complete!! Who knows? That is a very impersonal answer. What of man's satisfaction? The work & the man; the man because of the work & the work also because of the man. Work is not in the void nor exists for its own sake but because of that which works. Why must the world be saved? That does not enlighten me—The salvation, if you like to use the word, of man which necessarily means the fulfilment of the present world in something more complete & divine. Eternity? what is that? I know nothing of eternity. There is time & that which is beyond time. Then what is meant by constructing something eternal for eternity. You touch on a problem which is perhaps the most difficult of all & you treat it very summarily. It is not born. Yes—Yes but then you construct for Time. Something which begins but does not end—Then why construct?—To that I agree. I must have known him, if he was in the world of light—But he said, I think, he knows me? That is why I waited. In his present form & name I do not know him. No—From my own. Approaching that? I can, if I try but I do not know whether I shall be permitted to speak. By that which governs my knowledge. I see three forms of light; one is white with a blue radiance around it & out of it fierce red lustres occasionally pour, another is white. No another day—

² "Forty two" was altered by writing "three" over "two".—Ed.  

1409

It is a force of Rudra who destroys—I find a difficulty in writing—I should not begin it apparently at least not now. If he can speak let him do so—Which is which? How, you have seen, it is you who must say—Is there any symbolism in your variations of writing? That is why I called him a nice little spirit. I got an impression of the child in him—O it is only an impression & probably a wrong one. But what was the name he gave me? Was it a name, what function?

What was it you asked? I was listening to him. How the same family? Yes, very close, but you have a brilliance; mine is a different kind of light. Mine is more subdued, less fertile. Less intense, more quietly spread, perhaps a little wider, but not so forceful & productive. No, there is an immense difference. . His is a light I cannot describe. No, that was a form. It is the mentality—Who the devil can describe it—Don't ask me to do impossible things. At the centre—In that from which the light comes; also to a certain extent in the process, but not in its forms. The union he speaks of will be perfect when you all three reach there. No, not in the way I mean. . To each his time & his work. I seek, not precisely that, but a connection enabling me to work. No, not at all—It is a different spirit—Yes, but there must also be a point of contact. I am willing if you are. Good—Not with all three. She would [not] open [to] me in her present condition: the element of mentality in which I am strongest, is in her half asleep. Yes, but others can do that better than I can. No, but if he is as you say, ask him to come soon. Who? In defining the higher knowledge so as to make it useful for life—Precisely, the light is too high as it is; I can help him as it descends to define it more practically. No, that is your affair—In managing the way of the earthly world in which you are. Not in the way most men call practical. By matter, I seek to be.———————————