Sympathies and Antipathies

OSUPPOSE that no one will be so hardy as to
deny that a given environment affects different people in markedly different ways.
Most of us know those who become chilled and so devitalized that their lips begin to
turn blue after a few hours on the seashore. And we know other people who find no
better tonic than the cold salt sea wind. Those who suffer asthma here along the coast
are advised to move to the high, dry desert of Arizona, and those of the desert region
suffering from the same complaint frequently get relief by a journey to the coast. A
Colorado rheumatism, likewise, sometimes disappears when the patient gets to sea
level, and a sea level rheumatism sometimes vanishes in the high mountains of
Colorado. People are different in the makeup of their astral bodies, and consequently
do not offer the same response to identical external conditions.

Many of your own responses to conditions are so easily noted that they require no
more than mention. You know it if wearing a wool garment next the skin causes the
appearance of a rash, and you probably have learned, long before now, that certain
articles of diet that other people eat with impunity, do not agree with you. But there
are numerous other subtle surrounding conditions that are well worth some attention.

And of quite as much importance as knowing that they should be given some
attention, is to determine just how much attention their importance warrants. To
burden ourselves needlessly with a multitude of observances is so to expend our
energies upon unessentials that we have none left with which to meet the real and
vital issues of life.

The most important of all imponderable forces to influence our lives are our own
thoughts. But because in other courses I have discussed their use and influence in
great detail, here I shall consider only their employment to recondition discordant
thought-cells. Next to our own thoughts as having great power to influence us I
consider astrological forces. As third in power to affect our lives I should place the
thoughts of other people, our acquaintances and immediate associates in particular.
Fourth in importance, I believe, are the objects, animate and inanimate, of our
environment. And finally, as the fifth, and under ordinary circumstances the least
important power in most persons lives, are to be considered entities and intelligences
of the astral world.

Relative Importance of Imponderable Forces

–This means, in its practical application, that the person with a limited amount of
energy to devote to such things should use about one-half of it learning intelligently
to direct his own thoughts. If he neglects this, the aid he gets from other imponderable
forces will be correspondingly small; but if he gives time in full measure to
cultivating proper mental attitudes, the aid he gets from other imponderable forces
will be very great.

Of the energy at his command to devote to occult pursuits, he will do well to devote
about one-fourth of the total to learning about himself astrologically. One-eighth of
the total can advantageously be devoted to a consideration of other people’s thoughts
as influencing agents. Ordinarily he is warranted in devoting perhaps but
one-sixteenth of the energy set aside for occult pursuits in reference to selecting
suitable objects, or situations, for his environment. And there is then left to him, of
the total devoted to occult pursuits, another one-sixteenth which he can use in the
study of, and adjustments to, all other imponderable forces, including the spirits of
the dead, and various denizens of the astral world.

Now I am well aware that this ratio of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/16 is quite arbitrary, and
certainly would not be applicable in all instances. But it seems to me better to have
even such an arbitrary scale, open as it is to controversy, than to have no gauge at all.
New thought enthusiasts and metaphysicians will deem that 1/2 is far too small a
portion to allow for the development of proper thinking. The astrological fan will be
sure that astrology should receive even more attention than thought. And the
spiritualist will feel slighted to note that the influences from the next life are allocated
an importance in our everyday affairs that warrants only 1/16 of our energy spent in
occult pursuits being devoted to understanding and using them.

I shall find no fault with anyone who thinks I have underrated or overrated the
importance of some particular type of imponderable force. But human time and
energy are limited, and there is great need of some standard of values, so that they
will not, in ignorance, be frittered away. As a practical occultist, interested in all
imponderable forces, and somewhat familiar with the various types, I have attempted
to give a ratio based upon my experience of the relative importance of each in the
average run of people’s lives.

Some may be surprised that I advocate so much energy spent in learning about
thoughts and emotions and in directing them. But the object of the study of
imponderable forces is to learn how to take advantage of such of them as coincide
with our ambitions, and how to escape the obstructing influence of those which
oppose us. In some few instances this object can be attained through knowledge
alone. But mostly, in spite of mere knowledge of their existence and just what they
are doing, imponderable forces reach and influence us.

To prevent them reaching us we must be able to tune in on some other
wave-frequency; and we can only do this through properly directed thoughts and
emotions. And there are others, such as astrological forces, which, due to responsive
thought-cells within our finer body, we cannot tune off and break the connection.
They reach us, wherever we are, and in spite of ourselves. Yet even so, we can
prevent them, in large measure, from influencing us in adverse ways. We can do this
in a minor extent through intelligent control of our environment. But really to control
them and make them serve our purpose, we must be able to change the desires of the
thought-cells they reach so that these will use the energies thus acquired in activities
which are beneficial. This we can do only by cultivating proper mental and emotional
attitudes.

Even where planetary influences are concerned, while not being able completely to
tune off the energies from birth-chart or major progressed aspects, we can tune the
nervous system, through intense feeling of a selected type to pick up, radio fashion,
other more harmonious planetary energies in great volume; and these will then be fed
to all the thought-cells reached by any major progressed aspect then operative. Even
as Rallying Forces not consciously selected often change the desires of the
thought-cells and cause them to bring events into the life of a fortune or misfortune
not indicated by the progressed aspect directly reaching them, so Rallying Forces
also can be deliberately utilized to change thought-cell desires, and the consequent
event attracted, in the direction selected.

But in addition to tuning in on some more harmonious energy, the desires of the
thought-cells may also be altered in the direction selected through either Conversion
or the use of a proper Mental Antidote.

As the feeling of pleasure or pain at the time these thought-cells were formed is
entirely responsible for their desires before they are given unusual activity through
the energy fed into them by a progressed aspect or by the character vibrations of an
object or some other person’s thoughts, their desires can be altered in the direction of
harmony by adding pleasant feeling energy to them in as much intensity and volume
as possible. This process does not add thought-elements of a different planetary
family to the thought-cells, but it does rearrange in a more harmonious compound the
thought-elements of which they already are composed.

Rallying Forces change the desires of the thought cells by delivering to them
energies of a selected type. Conversion changes the desires of the thought-cells by a
rearrangement of the thought-elements in the compound of which they are formed. A
third way of changing thought-cell desires is through the use of Mental Antidotes.

When the two planets which are mental antidotes do not heavily afflict each other in
the chart of birth, it is usually easier to substitute thoughts and feelings ruled by the
antidote planet, than merely to think constructive thoughts and have constructive
feelings ruled by the planet whose thought-cells are to be made more harmonious.
When thinking and experiences of the nature of the antidote are substituted for the
old type of habitual thinking and feeling, there is apt to be less resistance to

developing pleasant thoughts. If Mars is heavily afflicted at birth, for instance, it may
be difficult to think of the departments of life it rules in terms of initiative and
constructive endeavor without at the same time thinking of the irritation, anger and
antagonism which has been experienced in the past relative to the events and
conditions of these departments of life. It may be easier, in reconditioning the Mars
thought-cells more harmoniously, to substitute for belligerent and destructive
thoughts their mental antidote, constructive thoughts and feelings about domestic
life and assisting the weak and helpless, ruled by the Moon.

Unseen energies ruled by the Sun need no mental antidote, and any constructive
thoughts of the other planetary families added to Sun thought-cells are beneficial to
them.

Constructive thoughts ruled by the Moon or Pluto are the mental antidote for Mars
energies, and constructive Mars thoughts are the mental antidote for Moon or Pluto
energies.

Constructive thoughts ruled by Jupiter are the mental antidote for Mercury or Uranus
energies, and constructive Mercury thoughts are the mental antidote for Jupiter
energies.

Constructive thoughts ruled by Venus or Neptune are the mental antidote for Saturn
energies, and constructive Saturn thoughts are the mental antidote for Venus or
Neptune energies.

In applying mental antidotes, only the constructive thoughts and feelings of the
antidote should be used. They should be substituted for thoughts which arise
belonging to the planetary family of the thought-cells to be reconditioned, and used
whenever there is close association with the thoughts of others, or with an
environment, belonging to this planetary family, and whenever there is a progressed
aspect involving the indicated planet.

The most important factor in employing either conversion or mental antidotes is to
give the thoughts substituted for those undesirable as high a harmonious emotional
content as possible. And at first to make them thus highly pleasurable it may be
necessary to associate them with as many other pleasant desires as possible. Thus at
first artificially conditioned by association, in not too long a time these new thoughts
will develop a highly pleasant content of their own.

I place so much stress upon the cultivation of thoughts and emotions because they are
the most effective agents for the control of all the other types of imponderable forces.

Charting Our Thoughts

–Let us understand that a thought radiates from the thinker’s mind, and that a given
thought has a definite vibratory rate. The nature of the thought determines its rate.
Thought-vibrations may sound either on a higher or a lower decave (an interval of
ten), just as a tone may be sounded on a higher or a lower octave (an interval of eight).
Did we but perceive the thoughts of any individual as completely as we hear the tones
of his voice, the vibratory rates of the thoughts could be charted with the aid of a staff
similar to that used in the notation of music. Each distinct thought has its own
vibratory-tone within the decave; but those of the next decave just above the staff,
because of a responsiveness somewhat similar to overtone effects in music, up to and
including note 22, have individual qualities that are repeated in still higher decaves.

This is not the place to enter into a technical discussion of how the lower decaves of
thought are repeated in higher decaves, so that the same key can be sounded on upper
or on lower frequency-levels. But it will assist in understanding imponderable forces
if you realize that a train of thoughts is just so many thought-tones.

If we could discern them properly we could set them down on a piece of paper, and
the chart so formed would look not so dissimilar to a musical composition. Each
separate thought would have its own place on, or above, the staff, and it would be
related to other thoughts that came before and that followed after, according to
sequence.

Such a train of thoughts, if it were clear cut, would have its own dominant key. We
might designate this key after the name of the thought-note corresponding to it. If the
thought-train, or composition, revolves about accountancy, we know its key is 1,
corresponding to the planet Mercury. If the thought-train revolves about war and
strife, we know its key is 16, corresponding to the planet Mars. If the dominant note is
despondency and discouragement, we know the key is 15, corresponding to Saturn.
If hope and faith are the controlling elements, we know the key is 17, corresponding
to the zodiacal sign Gemini.

Someday, I believe, an apparatus will be constructed delicate enough to record
thought-waves. With such a device it will be possible to tabulate the vibratory
frequency of each thought as it is radiated from the thinker’s mind. But at the present
time there is no such machine. Consequently, to chart the tones of a complex series of
thoughts so that each shall occupy its proper place in a charted thought-composition
is as yet beyond us. But at least we can, through a quick analysis of the feeling and
desires associated with it, determine the key of any clear cut thought composition of
our own.

Other people about us also are having thoughts and these thoughts often are radiated
to us. And because we devote attention to our own thoughts, and to the thoughts of
others, as imponderable forces capable of influencing us, the question next arises as
to which are the more important and deserving of attention and energy. In many
connections this same problem will arise. And while there are unusual circumstances
that alter this, and while there are plenty of exceptions to it, under normal
circumstances the thoughts of the individual about himself are far more powerful in
affecting his life than those coming to him from without. Even the thoughts of others
more frequently influence him markedly through causing him to change his own
thoughts and opinions than through those more direct alterations of his finer body
that thought-impacts tend undoubtedly to produce.

We all entertain ideas about ourselves. We all habitually entertain certain types of
thought, and habitually experience certain kinds of emotional states. At the same
time our associates may hold quite different opinions, and more or less constantly
bombard us with the emotional quality they feel thus thinking of us. But unless we are
unduly negative, their influence thus exerted is far less important in molding our
destiny than what we ourselves think and feel.

Of the thoughts with which we are associated, abstractions, such as names and
numbers, are the least apt to arouse emotions in those thinking them. Their effect,
therefore, upon the individual with whom associated is more often than not entirely
determined by their own essential vibratory rate, uninfluenced by incidental
polarities.

Thoughts which are less abstract usually have added to them the feeling of pleasure
or pain that arises from past experience with similar objects or situations. And some
people who think of a person by name, also may experience a feeling of attraction or
of dislike due to previous encounters with the person to whom the name belongs.
This is due to the incidental association of the name, and not to its own vibratory rate.
But perhaps the majority who think of the same name will feel no emotional response
whatever.

This incidental polarity of a thought, the feeling of pleasure or pain associated with it,
determines the manner in which it unites into combination with other thought
elements within the finer form. But it does not change the essential key of the
thought. The key, or essential vibratory rate of the thought, determines what group of
thought-cells within the finer body will be given greater activity by the thought, and
therefore what type of external conditions will be attracted.

Vibratory Influence of a Name

–When people think of us by a name, whether that name is spoken, whether it is a
matter of reading our signature at the bottom of a letter, or merely that our name
flashes into their minds, they usually, at least vaguely, visualize us. Or if they do not
know what we look like, the reading of a letter from us serves the similar purpose of
focusing their minds so that their thoughts travel directly to us. While speaking or
reading our name, they think about us, either clearly or vaguely, and the vibratory
rate of the name is radiated from their minds to our own. Thus we receive a
thought-wave, coming directly, because at the moment their minds are trained on us.
And whatever the vibratory rate of the name thus wafted in our direction, the impact
of it stirs up within our finer body those thought-cells having a similar vibratory key.

But of even more importance than the name others know us by, is the name by which
we think of ourselves. Under ordinary circumstances the thought-treatments we give
ourselves, although we may never have considered them thought-treatments, are
more important than any thought-treatments from others. Therefore, the name by
which we think of ourselves is usually more important than the name used for us by
someone else. And while some may consistently think of themselves by the
designation applied to them by familiar associates, one who is called upon to sign his
name to letters, checks, and such papers, frequently tends to acquire the habit of
thinking of himself by this signature. And those who read this signature, at the time
they read it certainly think of him by this name. Under such circumstances it would
seem, then, that the name as thus signed probably would be more powerful as
influencing him than any other designation. It would be more powerful because more
thought energy of the vibratory rate of this particular signature would reach him than
that of the rate of any other name.

Yet other names also would have some effect. If he is a boy going to school and his
schoolmates always call him Dan, and perhaps few ever think of the balance of his
name, and some who call him Dan do not even know all his name, he is bombarded,
by the thoughts of these schoolmates, with the vibratory rate of Dan, which happens
to be 19, corresponding to the zodiacal sign Leo.

But his mother may always think of him as Danny. Thus she gives him another
vibratory rate. And his father may call him, and consider him only as Daniel. This
gives him still another rate to absorb or contend with. Yet, because the people who
think of him by these different names are not equal in the power with which they
project their thoughts, nor do they think of him with equal frequency, these names
have different importance as influences in his life. Nor do I think the name with
which he was christened has much influence over him, unless he continues to use it
and be known by it.

Nicknames, pen names and such other designations as we may be known by have a
certain amount of influence. How much influence can be approximated by an
estimate of how often each is used and whom the people are who think them. But how
much energy we are warranted in spending getting others to call us by a name that is
keyed to the vibration that within ourselves we know to be harmoniously organized
and attractive to the things we want, is an open question. I do believe, however, that it
is well worth whatever trouble is involved to select a signature, which usually can be
done by using initials for the middle name or making some slight alteration in the
given name, that has a key-vibration corresponding to fortunate influences in the life.

This opens the whole subject of sympathies and antipathies. And much confusion
may readily arise in connection with this subject unless we carefully distinguish
between vibratory affinity and our own likes, and between the sympathetic vibration
of some external energy toward some particular group of thought-cells within
ourselves, and the vibration of that energy as affecting our welfare.

Birth-Stones

–We will come back to names and numbers; but to make this matter clear, for the
moment let us consider birthstones. A birthstone, according to the prevalent opinion
is a stone or gem ruled by the same zodiacal sign occupied by the Sun in the
birth-chart. Wearing such a gem, because it has the same vibratory rate as the
sun-sign, has considerable influence. A live gem has a rather potent vibratory rate,
and because of the law of affinity, it vibrates in sympathy with the thought-cells in
our astral body ruled by the same zodiacal sign. That is, wearing a birthstone adds
activity to the section of our astral body in which the Sun was located at our birth.

Let us suppose now that a birth-chart has the Sun in the 2nd house. The 2nd house
rules money, and the chief influence of increasing the energy of the thought-cells in
the astral body ruled by the sign in which the Sun is located, in this case, is upon
finances. Furthermore, whether by associating with a name, a number, animate
object, inanimate object, human acquaintance, or thoughts, the activity of the
sun-sign is accentuated and increased; by just so much as it is thus accentuated does it
increase the power of the money thought-cells in the life. It does so because the astral
radiation’s of the birthstone or other object or a thought ruled by the birth-sign adds
energy to, and increases the activity of, the thought-cells in the finer form whose
desires relate to money.

The Important Factor

–It will be seen, therefore, that the common idea of birthstones is really founded
upon the law of affinity. Yet the most important factor has so far been omitted from
consideration. That factor is whether or not increasing the sun-sign vibration will
benefit or injure the particular individual.

Suppose, for instance, in the birth-chart both Mars and Saturn are in the same sign
with the Sun, and not only conjunction the Sun, but all are square Uranus. To
accentuate the thought-cells in the astral body occupied by the Sun means also to
accentuate Saturn thought-cells and Mars thought-cells, and to bring out the
influence of the conjunction and the discord of the aspect from Uranus. For if you
accentuate in the astral body the vibration of a sign, you at the same time accentuate
the activity of all the thought-cells mapped by the sign; even as when you agitate a
certain pool of water you at the same time agitate every boat or stick floating on its
surface.

In this case the money section of the astral body would be given much added activity;
but that activity would all be discordant. Increasing the activity of its thought-cells
would attract the loss of money. In fact, in this case, the birthstone, or friends,
thoughts, names, numbers, locations, or any other things that would increase the
activity of the thought-cells ruled by the birth-sign would be the very worst possible
vibratory influence that could be selected.

But suppose, in this same birth-chart, the Moon made a trine aspect to the Sun, Mars
and Saturn, and was unafflicted. Because there is a harmonious aerial leading from it
to the section of the astral body that influence money, the vibratory rate of the Moon,
then, becomes the best influence in the life for money.

Its energy can be increased in either of two ways: If there are no afflicted planets in
the sign it occupies, and if the ruler of this sign is not heavily afflicted, the energy of
the Moon vibration may be increased by a gem, thoughts, friends, names, numbers,
etc., ruled by this sign. Whatever increases the thought-cell activity of the sign,
however, increases the thought-cell activity mapped by every planet in the sign; and
also, to a lesser degree, increases the influence of the planet ruling the sign. But
increasing the activity of that part of the astral body ruled by the sign does not change
the harmony or discord of the thought-cells located there. It merely gives whatever
thought-cells are there located additional power to attract things and events of a
corresponding quality into the life.

Consequently, in this case, if there are other and afflicted planets in the sign occupied
by the Moon, it is better to wear a Moonstone, and to associate with other things
directly ruled by the Moon than with the things ruled by the sign occupied by the
Moon.

Usually there is felt quite a strong attraction toward gems, people, locations, etc.,
ruled by the sign rising in the birth-chart. This also is a matter of affinity. We have
certain thought-cells quite active, and when we contact other things with the same
vibratory rate we experience a distinct, and often quite pleasant response. But
whether or not the association with things ruled by the rising sign will prove
beneficial depends entirely upon whether planets in this sign, and the ruler of this
sign, in the birth-chart, are harmonious or discordant. If there is a severe affliction in
the first house of the birth-chart, it is best to associate as little as possible with the
things ruled by that sign.

The point I am trying to make here is that all twelve departments of life, which
embrace every kind of endeavor and activity, correspond to the sections of the astral
body mapped by the positions of the zodiacal signs on the mundane houses of the
birth-chart. Therefore, the thought-cells of any particular department of life can be
given added activity by associating with the things ruled by the sign corresponding to
them in the birth-chart, or by associating with the things governed by the planets in
the appropriate house of the chart. But whether this added activity of the
thought-cells will prove beneficial or not is determined by the harmony or discord of
such sign and planets in the birth-chart.

However, in any birth-chart it is possible to select some influence that is more
favorable to any department of life, and some influence that is more adverse to such
department of life. Consequently, no matter in what direction one desires to have
more success, it is possible to increase that success by proper vibratory association.

But any such selection must be made with a view to individual requirements, and not
because in a general way certain things are lucky and other things are unlucky. And
not simply because the individual happens to like some association very much. We
can say that strawberries are very good food. Yet if some persons eat strawberries
they break out with hives. Yet these people that break out in hives when they eat
strawberries are sure to like them quite as much as other people do who suffer no
inconveniences from them.

As a matter of observation, people usually like, and almost invariably are drawn into,
activities of the type indicated by the strongest influences in their charts of birth. This
is a valid operation of the law of affinities. The more active a group of thought-cells is
the more power it has, working from the inner plane, to bring events such as it desires
into the life. If the group desires events which are beneficial to the individual, well
and good. But, as is the case when the group is mapped by a heavily afflicted planet, if
the thought-cells desire and work for events which are inimical to the individual,
activities of the type indicated by them afford special facilities for them to bring into
the life disastrous events. The very people, for instance, who should avoid danger,
often take the keenest delight in wild hazards, and thus early meet a violent end.

There are things, of course, and people, whose vibrations are of such a nature that we
feel uncomfortable in their presence. These discords are obvious, and should be
avoided. But more people suffer loss through friends, acquaintances, and
confidence-men whom they really have liked than through the influence of those
toward whom there is a strong magnetic antipathy.

How Important Are Numbers

–Now coming back to the vibratory influence of abstract ideas, just how much
energy are we warranted expending in the selection of proper numbers? The number
of the house on the street, or the number of the room in an office building, or the
number of a post office box, usually stands out in the mind quite apart from the name
of the street, building, or post office. As commonly visioned, I believe, the number is
the important element of such an address. And when many people think of this
number each day in association with the person using it, that person receives quite a
bombardment of thoughts of the particular vibratory key of the number. Also, he
becomes accustomed to think of himself as associated with this number. And in this
case the number has quite an appreciable affect on him.

Then when an individual is called by telephone many times a day, those calling him
think of him while calling the number. In our cities it is customary to have a name as a
prefix for the telephone number. If it is a dial telephone, only the two first letters of
the prefix are dialed. Nevertheless, in answering the call, in listing it in the directory,
and usually, I believe, in thinking about it when giving the call, the prefix in full is
considered as a part of the number. Consequently, in determining the vibratory key of
such a telephone number, the prefix part and the number part should be added
together as a single vibratory unit. And if the person is called over the telephone
frequently, this vibratory rate, so often projected by thought to him has considerable
influence. How it will affect him, of course, depends upon the corresponding
thought-cell harmony or discord in his own astral organization.

But how often do people think of an individual in association with the license plate
number of his car? When I am called upon to write the license plate number of my
car, I usually have to pause a moment to remember it. When I go into an auto park
after the car, even though the park is full of other cars, I seldom glance at the license
plate. I recognize the car as I would a horse or a cow, by its familiar features. Of
course, some people may recognize their car only by looking at the license plate, and
should I be in doubt, I also look for the number. But ordinarily I do not often think of
the number, and therefore, in so far as my thinking is concerned, it has little power to
influence me.

As to the influence of others thinking this number in connection with me, I do not
think I have half-a-dozen friends who remember the license plate number of my car.
And although I see the license plates that approach and pass me on the road, and those
of cars going ahead of me in the same direction I am going, I do not read these
numbers. The common extent of my observation is to notice when the color of the
plate denotes it was issued elsewhere, and when this is the case to notice the state in
which it was issued.

I am aware there may be others who always read the license plate numbers. In so
doing they may also think of the occupants of the car, and waft to them thus the
vibration of the number thought about. But I am inclined to believe that if attention
enough is given to the number of a passing car to fix it in the mind, that the car will be
gone before there is any very clear picture also in the mind of its occupants. Or if
attention is given to the occupants, that the number on the license plate will undergo
at best but a faint recognition.

I do not wish to imply that under certain circumstances the number on the license
plate may not be so frequently and clearly associated with the occupants of the car, or
its owner, that it produces a quite discernible affect. But under ordinary
circumstances I am inclined to believe that the influence thus exerted is rather small.

Yet people will go to unusual extremes sometimes to get a number for their license
plate that vibrates to some particular rate. I grant that it is better to have a number that
is harmonious to one than a number that is discordant. But to fear to ride in a car
because it has a certain license plate number, or to insist that a garment shall have just
a certain lucky number of buttons, is very close to the excessive fear or reverence
which may be termed superstition.

In the attention we pay to imponderable forces we must learn to use discrimination.
We must learn to gauge the comparative power of these influences, so that we may
not spend much energy on those which are inconsequential. The power of names and
numbers resides in the thought energy of those who think them. Consequently, in
gauging their importance, the frequency with which they are thought, the
thought-power of the individuals thinking them, and the directness with which,
through association, they are sent to the individual, all must enter into the
calculations.

Character Vibrations

–But in our contacts with people, we have both the characteristic vibration of the
individual and the thought attitude toward us to consider. That is, like localities,
plants, gems and domestic pets, people have a vibratory keynote. And in addition
they have within their astral forms various thought-cell groups which radiate
characteristic energy strongly. Furthermore, people think, and the thoughts they
radiate each has its own vibratory rate. Unlike a name or a number, the thought
radiation of a person is capable of quickly changing from one rate to another.

Thus a person whose astral organization is quite harmoniously attuned to our own,
and from whom commonly only such radiation’s are received as are highly
beneficial, might for some cause become highly critical of our conduct, or even have
a strong thought of enmity. And so long as such a thought was strongly projected
against us, we should be bombarded with energies that would have a destructive
effect upon us.

There are limits within which we can select our human companions. Had we the
power to choose it would be better to associate closely only with people whose
strongest vibratory rates were of the same key as harmonious thought-cells within
ourselves. From a vibratory standpoint, how one person will influence another, and
which departments of life will be most affected, can be learned from a comparison of
birth-charts. But the birth-charts of our close associates are not always accessible;
nor even so, is it always possible to choose whether or not we will associate with
some person.

Not infrequently those of the same family are not altogether harmonious, yet have
obligations that do not permit them to live apart. Sometimes, in the business world,
people are compelled to work in the same office or shop with others toward whom
they can feel only something of antipathy. And also, those who commonly are quite
harmonious toward an individual may be subject to periods during which their
thoughts are violently destructive.

We should, of course, choose our associates with considerable care, whenever this is
practicable. But when such choice is impossible, or can only be made at too great a
sacrifice, we should know how to prevent being unduly influenced through such
contacts. A life of usefulness does not permit us to be too egocentric. The
advancement of society requires the friendly cooperation of many rather closely
associated individuals. To become too sensitive to the character vibrations, or to the
more temporary thought vibrations, of others is to suffer; and to withdraw from close
cooperative effort is to prove selfish. Consequently, in the home, in the business, or
in more public contacts, it is very desirable to get along with people toward whom no
natural sympathy is felt, without undue friction.

In protecting ourselves from any sort of thought influence, we can do so very
effectively by assuming a cold, unbending, firm attitude of mind, and resolutely
turning the attention to something else of interest. In this manner we break the
connection, and the thought impulse recoils from our astral body without setting up
changes in it. So long as we are in the presence of some person, object, or even
astrological energy, if we were to hold this cold, unbending, inflexible attitude
toward it, we could deflect its influence. But to continue in such an attitude would
also shut out other energies which are beneficial.

If we must enter some obnoxious place temporarily, or if we are brought into contact
with some inharmonious object temporarily, we can shut its vibratory influence out,
just as on entering a place filled with smoke we can shut the smoke from our lungs by
holding our breath. But holding our breath has its limit of usefulness, and assuming
so chilly an attitude toward our immediate environment is also quite undesirable.
People will cooperate with us only when they feel that we are friendly, and if we are
coldly aloof and reticent they are sure to feel that we are unsympathetic.

Best Technique for a Disagreeable Environment

–But there is another technique that we can apply quite effectively during the time
we must remain in the company of those toward whom there is some antipathy, in the
company of those who for the time being are angry, critical, fearful, despondent or
otherwise radiate destructive thoughts, or while we remain in any environment, or in
the presence of any thing that we have reason to believe, either from a knowledge of
its astrological signature, or because we sense it, is detrimental to us.

Under such circumstances we are not warranted in severing the vibratory connection
completely. We cannot, for instance, act with cold and calculated indifference
toward our employer. Even though the locality where we are employed has a
vibration inharmonious to us, it may be quite necessary for us to work in it. If
husband or wife periodically flies into a temper, or grows morose and despondent, it
is neither expedient nor good policy usually to go elsewhere until the storm blows
over.

There is, however, a Jupiterian technique that can be used in such situations. Many a
wife and many a husband have learned this technique without other instructions than
the necessity of getting along with the matrimonial partner. And many a partner and
many a subordinate in business have learned, not only how to get on with the partner
or chief, but also how to do so with least inconvenience to themselves.

This mental attitude, which can be cultivated and held indefinitely without shutting
entirely out the character vibrations or the thought vibrations of others, is neither
negative nor submissive. It is rather jovial and cheerful; an attitude that expresses
itself in a smile and in kindness. It refuses, however, to take any notice whatever of
unpleasantness. It refuses to argue or complain. It looks upon life as good. If others
display a nasty disposition, or if the environment is discordant, they are tolerated
pleasantly and kindly. But no attention is paid to discord.

This sweetness and pleasantness is not to be just on the surface, it must be felt. And it
must be maintained with some positiveness. The object is so to saturate the astral
body with cheerful, kindly, optimistic thought-vibrations that every
thought-vibration reaching it from the outside will be given an incidental polarity
that is harmonious. The basic rate of the vibration received is not thus changed.

A Mars vibration still remains a No. 16 vibration; and a Saturn vibration still remains
a No. 15 vibration. But because the attitude of the person receiving these vibrations is
calmly, cheerfully and radiantly positive to them, whatever discord they were
originally endowed with by the one who sent them forth, or that they
characteristically had, has its incidental polarity changed as it comes in contact with
this pleasing thought-energy that suffuses the astral form. Therefore, this energy,
while it adds to the activity of certain thought-cells within the astral form, at the same
time, through the Rallying Force induced, increases their harmony and gives them
additional power to attract conditions that are beneficial.

Now the imponderable forces that have some influence over us are of three distinct
categories: 1. Character vibrations; which are the radiations of people, objects, and
energies, due to the organization of their finer bodies. 2. Astrological vibrations,
which reach us directly from the planets and zodiacal signs. 3. Thought vibrations.

A person radiates energy of the vibratory quality of the thought-cells already
organized by states of consciousness in his astral form, whether he is engaged in
active thought or not. This is his character vibration. But in addition to this, if he is
thinking intently about some specific thing he is radiating a thought-vibration of a
definite key, which is something separate from his character vibration.

Mechanical objects, localities, and colors all have character vibrations, but
practically no thought-vibrations. Their affect upon a given individual can be
determined as to kind by noting their astrological ruler-ship, or vibratory key, and
how it stimulates his thought-cells, as pictured by his birth-chart. The amount and
importance of their influence on the individual requires careful discrimination to
determine.

Other things, however, in addition to character-vibrations have thought-vibrations
due to the temporary activity of either their conscious or their unconscious minds.
Among minerals, gems have the most intense thought-vibrations; and these are
directed toward benefiting the wearer if the stone feels the sympathy which is
aroused by harmonious thought-cells of its own key within the astral form of the
wearer.

Domestic pets, such as cats, dogs, birds, and even horses have a thought-vibration,
aside from their character vibration that, while of the unconscious mind, nevertheless
may send energies of devotion and good will with much power to the one they love.

The flowers and shrubs of the garden, also, if tended with loving care, respond with
quite potent thought-vibrations. Few people realize the benefits they derive from the
thought-treatments of the various lower-than-human forms of life which they love,
and which respond by sending them inarticulate, but nevertheless very potent
treatments of love and well-wishing. The one who ministers sympathetically to make
the lives of plants and animals happy, commonly receives full value of benefit for
energy thus expended.