THE
WORD
Vol. 24 | FEBRUARY 1917 | No. 5 |
Copyright 1917 by H. W. PERCIVAL |
GHOSTS THAT NEVER WERE MEN
(Continued)
Different Kinds of Ghosts
GOOD and bad luck, as it befalls people, is due to the working of certain elementals which are connected with these people. There are several kinds of such luck ghosts; they work in a peculiar way; they are directed and impelled by superior entities.
Luck ghosts are of two kinds, those that are nature ghosts already in existence and belong to one of the four elements, and those that are specially created. Both perform certain work, which then marks them as good luck ghosts or bad luck ghosts.
There are in each of the elements many kinds of ghosts; among them some are maleficent, some indifferent, and some favorable to humans. All these ghosts, however they may be disposed, are always desirous of expressing themselves in such a manner as will give them intense sensation. Human beings, of all creatures, are able to furnish them the sensation which is most intense. The ghosts act on man as his changing moods permit them. Usually no particular ghost attaches itself to any one person. The reason is that people pursue no definite, set line of action. They always change; something always happens to cause them to change. Their thoughts change, their moods change, and that prevents any one particular ghost from attaching itself to a human being. The ghosts crowd in on a human; and one ghost drives out the next, because man gives place to them as they please to come. His sensations, in fact, are these ghosts.
How Man Attracts a Ghost
When a man tries to hold on to a sensation and continues to think about that sensation, he tries to hold on to a ghost. For what is generally called a thought is no thought at all, but is merely a ghost sensation coming into the light of the mind and carrying the effect of that light with it; in other words, what is too readily called a thought is a lit up ghost. That sensation, or ghost lit up by the mind and then called a thought, man tries to hold. But it flees, and in its place leaves an impression upon the mind—which impression is a subject of thought. Such a subject of thought is merely an impression upon the mind, on which plays the light of the mind. When a person holds that subject of thought in his mind, a nature ghost is attracted to the subject of thought and attaches itself to him. This ghost is a good luck ghost or is a bad luck ghost.
As soon as it attaches itself, it influences the events of his life, in material things. It brings about lucky or unlucky events, some of which have been mentioned. A new phase of life begins for him. The more readily he responds to the influence of the promptings and impressions received from the luck ghost, the more directly and quickly will the lucky or unlucky happenings befall him. This is aside from any process of reasoning. If his mind interferes, objects, doubts, then the events will not be brought about in the way in which the ghost would have suggested. Yet the very doubts and objections by the mind will be used as material to bring a similar result about, though it takes more time before they come. Once under the influence of a luck ghost it is difficult for a man to do away with or avoid the luck, be it good or bad.
In the elements then there are in existence ghosts, some benevolent, some malevolent, some indifferent, all eager for sensation. They are attracted to persons who, trying to hold on to a sensation, make of it a subject of continued thought and yearn for it. Once attracted, the ghosts cling to the persons and influence the events of their lives as good luck or bad.
How Man Creates a Luck Ghost
Besides these attracted ghosts, which function as luck ghosts, luck ghosts may be created by man if he broods on such things as luck, fortune, chance, and if he holds a certain mental attitude toward these matters and the entities that bring them about. This attitude is one of homage, deference, entreaty. It is a reaching out in thought toward “luck” and is a desire to be associated with them. When this attitude is held, the mind creates out of the element to which it is turned a form, and stamps it with its impress.
Then this elemental matter assumes body and definiteness, though it is invisible. The form created is either suspended luck or luck which becomes active at once. This form lasts usually through and even beyond one life of the votary. When it becomes active, the person who created it finds that his fortune changes. He has good luck. He sees ways of accomplishing his ends, as never before. He wonders at the ease with which things shape themselves for him. Circumstances convene to aid him in his plans with worldly things: money, lands, property, pleasure, persons, influence, things of the senses generally.
The Condition of Luck
This luck attends him through his life, but on one condition. That condition is that he pays homage to that abstract thing out of which his luck came. If he should cease to pay homage to that thing and should turn what his luck brings him to something else, and pay homage to some other thing, then his luck will desert him and the elemental which was his good luck ghost will be his bane as his bad luck ghost. If he should continue to nurture his good luck ghost and worship the source from which it came, his luck will continue throughout his life and will await him when he comes again in another physical body; it will so attend him from birth on or join him later in life. But he cannot continue forever, because the principles in him will force a change.
Good Luck and Bad Luck
Both the elemental already existing in nature, which is attracted to and attaches itself to a person, as well as the elemental specially created by a man, come from one of the great nature ghosts, which are gods, that is, gods of the elements only, nevertheless great and powerful gods. These gods are the sources of all luck ghosts.
Today these gods are flouted, and the suggestion of their existence is ridiculed. Yet great nations, to mention only the Greeks and Romans, believed in and worshipped them. These gods were known to some. Today men and women of the world who have success in accumulating wealth, gaining influence and to whom the other sex takes a fancy, worship the same gods, but under different forms. Today these gods are unknown to men, except in their remotest and most material states. Today men will subordinate everything to material success, though they know not clearly the source from which it comes. These gods of the world are also the source and rulers of the luck ghosts.
How Man Gets a Ghost
A good luck ghost, whether already existing in one of the elements or specially created by a human, is a being which is furnished by one of the elemental gods to the devotee who pays sincere tribute by worship. In fact, is it not almost impossible to find among the lucky, one who is not a worldly, a material person? He or she may be at the same time good natured, magnetic and well meaning. Often they are bountiful givers to institutions or persons who exist for higher things. Or the lucky may be selfish, crabbed, spiteful, penurious. The main thing is that they pay tribute to the elemental ruler, and this big elemental sends to the votaries or allows them to create, good luck ghosts, no matter what the name, or to what source the good fortune is attributed. Sometimes, people attribute it to the God of their particular religion, and call it a blessing or a gift of God.
Bad luck ghosts are of two kinds. The one kind has been mentioned as those which, already existing as nature ghosts in one of the elements, attach themselves to a person whose attitude of mind constitutes an invitation to the ghost, which then enjoys the sensation of gloom, worry, fear, anxiety, uncertainty, deception, expected misfortune, self-pity and pain. The second kind are luck ghosts which are created. They are never created by the person himself directly, as may be good luck ghosts. These bad luck ghosts were once created by the human as good luck ghosts, and then have turned from good luck ghosts to bad luck ghosts. So a present bad luck ghost of this created kind is always what was formerly the human’s good luck ghost. It is merely a question of time when a good luck ghost will become a bad luck ghost; the change is certain, because of the principles in man.
Why the Ghost Changes from a Good Luck to a Bad Luck Ghost
The cause of the change which makes of one’s good luck ghost a bad luck ghost is that the person eventually uses what the good luck ghost brought, for purposes other than are acceptable to the elemental god which allowed the creation, and that the person ceasing to pay proper worship to the god, turns his or her devotion to another god. In this manner a person who by worship of an earth spirit for money and the power that money brings has created thereby a good luck ghost, and ceases to worship by the display of wealth and the use of power—all of which the god enjoys through him or her—but turns his or her energies toward the other sex and pleasure, will find that the luck changes, because the luck ghost has been converted from a good to a bad luck ghost. The other sex and pleasure are used by the ghost to bring about the downfall and a blight of bad luck. This is so because that god which enjoyed the worship by the display of wealth and the use of power through the human, is not worshipped by the worship paid in the first instance to the god of pleasure, and so becomes angry and turns the good luck ghost into a bad luck ghost. Worship paid to one of the sex gods brings, as history shows, luck to a race and men; but it is the pleasure of sex, the worship paid to the god of pleasure, which is obnoxious, and causes the wrath of the superseded god.
A man who is lucky with women will often lose his luck when he takes to gambling; the reason underlying the turn of the luck is that he has turned his devotion from the great pleasure god to the gambling god. A gambler often loses his luck as a gambler when he falls in love; because the great gambling spirit resents the lack of faithfulness of the former devotee whose devotion it had rewarded with fortune, and whom it now pursues with vengeance.
Luck will soon leave a lover when he becomes too interested in his business.
A business man who was lucky will suddenly find that his luck has left him when he takes to speculating, which is a form of gambling, and is displeasing to his money god. So also will luck often leave a business man with whom it had been, if he follows his artistic tendencies.
Worst of all is the bad luck of one who had been a child of the world and had worshipped successfully at the shrines of the world powers, and then, changing, worships philosophy and the intelligences of the mental and spiritual worlds.
Thus is seen how good luck turns into bad luck. A bad luck ghost, if not one of the ghosts in existence who are attracted to a person of a certain attitude of mind, is always a former good luck ghost, which has become a bane, because the human has ceased to worship the great elemental god through whom the luck came.
Comparatively few people are lucky or unlucky. That is why good fortune and bad luck stand out from the natural and general course of events. These luck ghosts smooth or impede the path of the mundane traveler in exceptional cases only. The various kinds of luck ghosts, those in existence as well as those newly created, are ghosts somewhat different from the ordinary elementals; and their actions differ from those of the ordinary karmic action which of course is always through nature ghosts. The cases are exceptional in the sense that they are rare, but they are no exceptions to the working of a man’s karma, taking one thing with the other.
What the Ghosts See, and How They Lead
The manner in which the good luck ghosts and the bad luck ghosts work is by leading the persons whom they have under their charge. Sometimes more than mere leading has to be done. The ghosts lead the human into the places and to the people where success or failure is, as the case may be. The ghosts see ahead of what humans can see, because thought and desire precede action, and this thought and desire in success or failure are seen by the ghosts. The good luck ghost will lead his charge into success in undertakings with others, or will lead him away from or guide him through danger and accidents. The bad luck ghost likewise, seeing the undertakings and ventures which will be failures, leads his charge into them and into danger, and to such misfortunes as are already marked out in the astral light.
Where the conditions are not yet marked out the luck ghost will create new ones suitable for the luck or misfortune.