This compilation © Phoenix E-Books UK TEMPLE LECTURES OF » THE ORDER OF THE MAGI delivered before the Grand Temple of the Order, at various times, :: BY. :: OLNEY H. RICHMOND, Grand Magea and Master of the Inner Temple. 1910 WASHINGTON BOULEVARD, CHICAGO, 1892. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, by Olney H. Richmond, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D, C. [All rights reserved]. Chicago: a. l. fvfe, printer, 334 dearborn street. 1692. t«trodiictioti> The lectures in this book have been printed together thus, in order to bring the whole into a compact and readable form for general use. Each lecture was delivered separately in the Grand Temple of the Magi before the classes of advancement in the lower degrees. They cover a period of some sixteen months or more and each being complete in itself, no attempt is made to make them consecutive here. If repetitions of some points are noticed the reader will understand the reason, by the above explanation. The Temple Lectures are delivered extem- poraniously and without notes and make no I pretentions to scholarly finish or rhetoric. ask my readers to criticise and consider the thoughts expressed in them, rather than the style or manner of expression. It was at first proposed to embody my work " " " on the Sacred Tarot and the Astral Test " I Book herein; but found that it was not possible at present and would make too costly a work, so those subjects are left for a future publication, which will be duly announced in time. Fraternally yours, OLNEY H. RICHMOND. 0o tents. it LECTURES BY OLNEY H. RICHMOND, G. M. OF THE ORDER OF THE MAGI. No. Page. 1. Religiok of the Stars, - - 5 2. Looking Backward, - - 14 Governing 3. Forces, 23 4. Astral Magnetism, - - 49 Vibrations, - 5. 66 6. The Astral Body, - - 86 Soul of Man, - 7. 102 ... Differentiation, - - - 8. 116 Evolution of Matter, - - 9. 132 Evolution in General, - - 10. 144 11. Life Beginnings, 152 Infinity, - 12. 163 Study of Infinity - 13. 177 14. Order of the Magi, - - 186 15. W hat the Magi Teach, - - 199 16. Needs of Mankind, - - 208 PART II. INTERVIEWS, ARTICLES AND POEMS. No. Page. 1. A Mysterious Tale, - - 220 2. Magnetism of Stars, - - 234 3. A Mystic Temple, - - - 240 4. Magical Wonders, - - 254 5. To Our Readers, - 265 6. Tribute to the Word, - 268 - 7. Recognition, 269 8. Drop Your Bucket, - - 270 LECTURE I. tieftaton of tfte Stars* MAN AS A CITIZEN OF THE UNIVERSE. Grandeur of the Heavens—On the Threshold of Nature's Storehouse — Infinite Myster ies— Wonderful Science— Grand Vibratory Forces in Play— Fair Luna and Her Effect— The Sun's Vast Magnetic Power—Tremendous Convulsions — Imagination set at Defiance— A Message from the Stars — The next Gigan tic Intellectual Stride — The Golden Path of Light. "Behold, 1 Show you a New Heaven and a New Earth." 3E vast and wonderful strides made by Science during this past quarter of a century, has made possible what would not have been possible a few years ago, that the re-introduction upon the " planet Terra," of the old, and yet " ever new, Religion of the Stars." The time has arrived when man must real ize that he is not simply a citizen of this little 6 RELIGION OF THE STARS. earth, over which the Omnipotant is sup posed, by theologians, to exercise oonstant care, as if it was the only inhabitable world in all the vast universe of space. When men first began to observe the king dom of nature, outside of their immediate surroundings, they very naturally concluded, in their ignorance of the multitude of facts that have since been learned, that the earth was the great all in all, the center of the en tire universe; the one inhabited globe, around which all else revolved. We cannot blame the men of those times for believing that they were the particular objects of the Divine care and that the rest of the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon and "the stars also," were made for their par ticular benefit. Nor can we blame them that they, in their ignorance of the facts, should invent or conceive of a system of religion, fitted out with gods, devils, angels and other supernatural personages in accordance there with. But we are not bound longer by these crude conceptions of early men, therefore we must regard man not alone as a citizen of the RELIGION OF THE STARS. 7 world, but rather a citizen of the Solar System, of the Sidereal System, of the vast Universe of suns and worlds that constitute the milky way, yea, of the majestic universe of universes itself, infinite and almighty in duration and extent. How little can we realize the grand and wonderful facts of astronomical science, with out the aid of knowledge. We gaze upward to the sparkling vault of heaven and in its calm and quiet majesty, who could conceive that the shining stars there seen, in the same relative positions, week after week, month after month, year after year, and century after cen tury, were everyone instinct with LIFE and motion. " " That those apparently fixed orbs are in reality rushing through space, at almost in conceivable velocities; drawing after them and about them their respective families of inhab itable and barren worlds, satelites, comets and meteoric streams of matter, upon great orbits of such length, and requiring such gigantic reaches of eternity to accomplish, that our periods of time sink into absolute insignifi cance in comparison. But, when all this is