The Message of Aquaria:
The Significance and Mission of the Aquarian Age
by F. Homer Curtiss and Harriette Curtiss
F. Homer Curtiss and Harriette Curtiss
Harriette Augusta Curtiss, co-founder of The Order of Christian Mystics and later the Universal Religious Foundation, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1856. Her parents were John Horace Brown, organizer of the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Association and Emma Brightly Brown. Curtiss received a cultured education and developed into a talented musician and actress. After starring in a number of amateur theatrical productions she had the opportunity to become a professional, but her mother dissuaded her from doing so. She therefore put her writing talents to use for many years, authoring a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer under the pen name "The Bachelor Girl."
As the years passed, Curtiss found herself to be a gifted clairvoyant, developing a direct contact with that ascended teacher known as Madame Blavatsky and eventually launched a career in the realm of mysticism.
In 1907 she married Dr Frank Homer Curtiss, and together they began working as occult teachers and writers. In the year of their marriage they founded The Order of the 15, which in 1908 became known as The Order of Christian Mystics. Harriette, who became known within the order as Rahmea, assumed the role of teacher, and her husband took the position of secretary (and was known by his order name of Pyrahmos). They worked together to prepare material for publication, though Harriette was the primary author. Throughout the rest of her life, she issued monthly lessons for students.
The Curtisses produced more than 27 books and publications.
The Message of Aquaria. The Significance and Mission of the Aquarian Age
“Truth is eternal and everlasting. That which was, is, and forever shall be; manifest variously as it may. “
Not a sequel to The Voice of Isis, but rather a response to the urgent call for further and more advanced instruction concerning the great unrest in world conditions, and their solution. Also contains a reasonable and scientific explanation of how and when and to whom the Son of Man will appear at the Second Coming.
The only satisfactory exposition of this subject. As the new Aquarian Age, so long foretold, dawns for humanity, the outbreathing of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, again speaks, and in no uncertain tones, to all children who recognize Her, and proclaims to them:
"Behold, it is I. Be not afraid!" at the ushering in of this Aquarian Age She comes under the name of Aquaria.
And, true to the promise of Jesus, She brings to our remembrance all that He has told us concerning the New Dispensation when there "Shall appear the sign of the Son of Man (the sign of Aquarius) in heaven."
“One of the mightiest of truths is the mystical meaning of that which is inculcated in the universal teachings as to the Divine Mother.”
In this article I cover PARTS in THE CURTISS BOOK THE MESSAGE OF AQUARIA
- CHAPTER 1 / THE MYSTIC LIFE
- CHAPTER 2 / THE SIGN OF AQUARIUS
- CHAPTER 3 / ARE THESE THE LAST DAYS?
CHAPTER 3 / ARE THESE THE LAST DAYS?
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” —St. Matthew, xxiv, 6-8.
“We must not accept a general principle from logic only, but must prove its application to each fact; for it is in facts that we must seek general principles, and these must always accord with facts.” —History of Animals, Aristotle, i, 6.
“Coming events cast their shadows before” is an age-old saying which, like all such sayings or “wise saws” that have survived the ages, has an occult basis in fact.
In this case the saying is based upon the fact that all events take place first in the higher realms and later descend into physical manifestation, as the great naturalist, Agassiz, recognized when he stated that
“All things had their origin in spirit— evolution having originally begun from above and proceeding downward, instead of the reverse.”
"In the Realms of the Eternal there is neither past nor future, all is one everlasting now.”
Hence, at the moment of creation a composite picture of the event and its working out through its positive and constructive, also its negative and destructive, aspects is instantaneously photographed upon what is called the Akashic Records or more commonly the Screen of Time.
While the necessity for the manifestation of the event on Earth is a destiny that must necessarily be fulfilled, it is not fate; for by its power of free-will choice humanity determines in which way the destiny shall be fulfilled, either positively and constructively, in peace and harmony through correlating with the Law, or negatively in sorrow and suffering through opposition to the Law because of the refusal to follow the principles of its spiritual teachings.
The Seers who reach up in consciousness to the plane of eternal verities (in the fourth dimension) usually see first only the negative phase of the event that is to be, for that is the densest and closest to the Earth, and thus fail to penetrate to the positive expression which is in a higher state of vibration.
They thus see the event as a moving picture of which both the past events leading up to it and also the ultimate working out or fulfillment are cognized by the inner spiritual consciousness.
But since the majority of Seers see only one side of the picture, according to their affinitization to any one phase, they report the ultimate fulfillment of either the positive or negative aspect of the event, which would seem to them absolutely predestined.
In the case of one affinitized only to the lower negative aspect or one with a pessimistic attitude of mind, he would probably enlarge upon the many failures, sorrows and evils which must be overcome ere the complete fulfillment was possible.
Another, affinitized to the higher positive aspect would report only the glory of the ends to be attained and entirely over- look the necessary conditions which humanity must prepare if the positive aspect is to receive expression.
Thus each would give but half truths.
Therefore, in considering prophecies we must always make allowance for this natural human tendency in their transmitters.
For instance, the destiny of the present sub-race is that the Earth and its humanity must be purified and take an advanced step, both in consciousness and in physical affairs, to prepare conditions necessary for the coming of the more spiritual sixth sub-race.
Naturally, its past creations of selfishness, greed, impurity, injustice and unbrotherliness must be faced and redeemed ere it can enter into the new cycle. This redemption could have been accomplished by the majority of the sub-race sending out great streams of love, harmony, tolerance and brotherhood to manifest in the actions of individuals and nations in such power that they would neutralize and transmute the accumulated evil.
Then there would have been no world war.
But since this was not done, in spite of the many teachers sent to arouse the people to the necessity of higher ideals, the adjustment had to be precipitated physically in the negative and destructive aspect of physical warfare.
Most comments on the prophecies of the Bible are based upon a literal interpretation of the symbols given.
Altho there is generally an actual historical incident, place or personage upon which the symbol is based, and while the prophecy will also have some form of physical fulfillment, the vital point to understand is the spiritual meaning of the symbol rather than the physical, i. e., the spiritual event which is to manifest either positively and constructively or negatively and destructively.
For only as we learn the lesson intended by the symbol can we profit by the experience.
Merely to hear that certain events are to transpire either fills us with fear or elates us with joy, and we quite forget that all de- pends upon our reaction to the lesson intended.
Modern interpretations are usually calculated from some such period as the Babylonian captivity.
From the known astronomical observations of seven great eclipses left by the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy, the date of Nebuchadnezzar's accession has been accurately calculated as having taken place in 604–3 B.C.
This is commonly believed to mark the times when “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
Computing the “seven times,” which Daniel says must elapse, as seven cycles of 360 years each we have a total of 7x360=2520 years, and this added to 603 B.C. (2520 minus 603 equals 1917) gives us 1917 as the year when the rule of the Gentiles shall end and a new dispensation begin.
And 1917 saw Jerusalem freed from the rule of the Gentiles (Turks) and under the rule of the Christian King of England.
Dr. Grattan Guinness, who is looked upon by many as an orthodox authority on biblical calculations, makes his reckoning from the beginning of “the abomination that maketh desolate,” which he considers began with the Turkish occupation of Jerusalem, and which he is quoted as placing at 622 A.D., altho the Encyclopedia Britannica gives the date of the entry into Jerusalem by the Caliph Omar as 637 A.D.
By a similarly obscure method of his own he calculates the “thousand three hundred and five and thirty days” ”—or lunar years, according to the lunar measurements used in the Hebrew—of Daniel as equaling 1295 solar years, and from this concludes that the “time of abomination” ended in 1917 (1295 plus 622 equals 1917).
But no matter how historically inaccurate the dates assumed above may be, the occult addition of the number given by Daniel gives 12 (1+3+3+5=12) or the number of a complete solar cycle, showing that the end of a cycle is clearly indicated, even tho the orthodox method of calculating the exact date is unreliable.
“According to Mr. Norris, the period of 1917-1918 is the termination of three great prophetic periods.
It is the termination of the 1260-1260–75 lunar years from 602-1 B.C., when Judah became tributary to Babylon; secondly, it is the termination of the 2520 solar years from 604–3 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar saw the vision of the great image, and thirdly, the termination of the 1335 lunar years from 622 A.D., the commencement of Mohammedanism. . . .
Again, adding the 70 years Captivity period to the year 1847-48, the date of the second downfall of the temporal power of the Papacy, we read the downfall of all evil (altho we still have evil with us).
Further, if we add the 40 years of probation experienced by the children of Israel, to 1877 A.D., the year of the defeat and dismemberment of Turkey through the Russo-Turkish War, we reach 1917, the final destruction of all desolation of abomination. . . .
If we take the end of a cycle of fifty years, we come to what Pastor Russell speaks of as a Jubilee of Jubilees, Earth's Great Jubilee, or Times of Restitution (Acts, iii, 21). . . .
Reckoning from the beginning of the 70 years desolation under Babylon (Jer. xxv, 11), the Great Cycle ends with the year 1875.
Six cycles of seven years each from 1875 brings the date up to 1917, the commencement of the seventh cycle. . . . Pastor Russell and his many followers are daily expecting the great world change. This the prophecies of the Bible show (so he claims) is coming in 1917.
They think that at any moment Christ may appear, and then the thousand years' millennium will start.
An anonymous author writing in 1895 and using the Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid to symbolize the Christian dispensation says: “The termination of the Grand Gallery, 1910 inches, gives the third of December, 1910, as the end of the present era. . . .
The total length, including the height of the great step at the end, is 1917.7 inches, which would bring us to the 12th of November, 1917. The top of the great step is much worn.
Probably it originally indicated Tuesday, the 4th of December, 1917, as the theoretical date of the end.”
"Thus do many modern prophets, having been duly impressed with the idea of the near ending of certain cycles, laboriously seek to pin the events down to certain specific dates, even tho they are forced to distort history to make their theories figure out as they think they should.
But as a rule the methods by which such calculations are made will not bear mathematical and astronomical investigation, even tho the cycle may end at approximately the date given.
But how are we, who require some scientific basis for our belief, to regard these various calculations, even tho we prefer to consider the symbolic rather than the historical interpretation of the symbols?
Since all creation as manifested in Nature and in the history of nations follows a parallel course, these prophecies point unmistakably to the close of some great period; not the “end of the world,” as many think, but the end of a dispensation, the end of a great cycle, in this case the end of a sub-race.
One peculiarity of racial manifestation is that every sub-race foreshadows in a manner that which will be more fully and completely ex- pressed and manifested by the succeeding Great Race of the same number.
For instance, the coming sixth sub-race into whose beginnings humanity is now entering will not usher in the millennium referred to in the biblical prophecies, but will fore- shadow and prepare for it, sow the seed, as it were.
That is, there will be such a tremendous uplift and advance over previous conditions as they existed before the World War— spiritually, mentally and physically—that to many it will seem to be the dawn of the millennium.
It will in truth be but the dawn of the seed-time of that which can be fully manifested only at the close of the Sixth Great Race; for the true millennium can come only during the period of the Seventh Great Race, or the great Sabbath Day of rest of this World Period, altho there will be a minor millennium in the seventh sub-race.
As to when we may expect the millennium to be ushered in, since we demand facts rather than theories, let us refer to the well-known astronomical calculations of the Eastern Sages.
It is known that the Assyrians preserved astronomical records covering a period of 270,000 years which have been confirmed by our modern astronomers as far back as 48,000 years before the Greek era.
The far more ancient.
Hindu calculations are based upon the following table of cycles or yugas, 1,000 Maha Yugas (4,320,000 years) making one Kalpa or Day of Brahm.
Each of these Maha Yugas is composed of four cycles as follows:
The Krita Yuga, or Golden Age. . . . . . . 1,728,000 years
The Treta Yuga, or Silver Age. . . . . . . . 1,296,000 years
The Dvapara Yuga, or Bronze Age. . . .864,000 years
The Kali Yuga, or Iron Age. . . . . . . . . . .432,000 years
We are now living in the early part of the Kali or Iron Age of this Maha Kalpa, concerning which the Vishnu Purana prophesies:
“Property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the only bond of union between sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation . . . dishonesty will be the universal means of subsistence, weakness the cause of dependence; menace and presumption will be substituted for learning; liberality will be devotion; a man if rich will be reputed pure; mutual assent will be marriage; fine clothes will be dignity. . . . He who is the strongest will reign.”
The figures given above are not the calculations of biblical students, who have had no training in the philosophy of world cycles, who have only theories, mere estimates which they think plausible. Neither are they the result of revelation or psychic information.
They are the mathematical results of astronomical calculations capable of verification in any age, and therefore irrefutable. They have been proven correct to within 1 degree in 4,883 years! According to these calculations, the Kali Yuga or Iron Age—in which there are, of course, innumerable lesser cycles and sub-cycles —began with the reputed death of Krishna.
Astronomically this was when Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter were in conjunction in the 6th degree of Aquarius.
This conjunction occurred between February 17 and 18, 3102 B.C., at a time when the four great stars which form the points of the 7 Heavenly Cross were in balance, Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull, and Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion, being exactly at the equinoctial points, while Regulus, the Heart of the Lion, and Formalhaut, the Southern Fish, were near the solstitial points.
We are therefore only in the beginning of this Iron Age of 432,000 years, the first 5,000 years of which ended in January, 1898 (5000—3102 equals 1898).
We therefore have 427,000 years left before the close of this Iron Age! Hence no one need worry about “the end of the world” coming at all soon!
For the sixth and seventh sub- races of our present Fifth or Aryan Race, and then the en- tire Sixth and Seventh Great Races, with their seven sub- races, each with its many family races, each composed of many nations, must all have their evolution before the close of this Kalpa.
To gain some conception of such vast periods let us consider the cycle of our present Fifth Great Race, the Aryan.
This began about 1,000,000 years ago, before the complete sinking of the ancient continent of Atlantis, at the beginning of the Glacial or Ice Age. The Secret Doctrine” tells us that the first sub-race saw the doom of the Giants of those days, also the flood, while the fourth saw the disappearance, 11,000 years ago, of the last islands left by the sinking of Atlantis.
Each sub-race endures for approximately 210,000 years, its seven family divisions extending over some 30,000 years each, and the many national divisions from 3,000 to 4,000 years.
We are now just entering upon the beginning of the 210,000-year period of the sixth sub-race, altho the period will be considerably shortened owing to the shortening of all periods as a great cycle draws to a close.
Then will follow the even shorter cycle of the seventh sub-race.
Then the Sixth Great Race will have to have its evolution of nearly 1,000,000 years before the Seventh Great Race, when the great Kalki Avatar or the Christ will descend to reign upon Earth “forever and ever,” that is, until the end of this great Day Period or Round.
Nevertheless we are at the end of a sub-race cycle when its old accounts must be balanced, a minor Iron Age preparatory to the minor Golden Age of this sub-race cycle, for each race, sub-race and family race has its Iron and other ages.
The “end of the world” will therefore not come suddenly, nor as long as there are forces and materials in the Earth which are undeveloped and unutilized for the benefit of all.
Only when the very earth itself and the forces now existing within it have been raised up to a higher expression can we have a new heaven and a new Earth in which these advanced materials and forces will be incorporated as fundamental essences, just as our advances in one life are built into our bodies in the next incarnation, and as our faculties are expanded as we enter the astral world.
Man must become the “Lord of Creation,” the ruler of the Earth and all its forces. But this will not be attained through a miracle.
We must first conceive the idea of what is intended, then gradually bring it into manifestation.
For instance, we must learn true efficiency, not that all things may work together for success merely in war or business, but for the best good of all humanity. All waste must be eliminated and all resources utilized for the good of all.
Great strides are now being made in guarding the health and conserving the man-power of the nations, also in reducing infant mortality. But greater strides must be made in protecting humanity from the burden of the defective and unfit.
They are the less evolved Souls who will strive to incarnate for a time in the advanced conditions now being ushered in, altho they are not far enough advanced to correlate with those conditions and take their places as co- workers, and hence would have to be taken care of by the more advanced, as they are today.
In the New Age those who are sufficiently advanced to correlate with the new conditions must be permitted to advance in this new cycle without the handicap of carrying the less evolved, or the rapid advance necessitated by the new era and the wisdom needed for their proper care could never be attained, the Race being already nearly 5,000 years behind the development it should have reached.
- The less evolved will have their opportunity later on in the minor cycles of a succeeding sub-race, at which time humanity will have advanced to a point where it can wisely and understandingly care for and help on their evolution far more efficiently and quickly than now, while still struggling for advance itself.
The compensation the undeveloped will receive for waiting certain cycles, as the animals are now waiting for entrance into the human kingdom—no animals having been admitted into the human kingdom after the beginning of the fifth sub-race of the Third Race”—will be the tremendously increased and far easier advance to be made then than now.
Therefore the great importance of arousing all who will listen to a recognition of the necessity of taking advantage of the great opportunities now offered for rapid progress and setting out in earnest on the Path or striving to live the Mystic Life.
For this is truly “the end of the world” (cycle) for those who utterly refuse to respond to the higher ideals that are now being set forth for humanity's standard and attainment.
All such will live out the natural life of this incarnation and will have every opportunity given them to contact, if they will, the truths of the higher life, i. e., to hear lectures, read books and meet with those whose lives are manifesting the higher ideals.
But if they refuse to listen or pay attention, after the close of this present life-period they will remain out of incarnation until the end of this racial cycle.
They will then incarnate only when the great mass of humanity which has continued to advance has progressed to the point where it can carry such laggards; where their ignorance, indifference, ridicule and even active opposition can no longer retard the progress of those who are striving to live up to their highest ideals. In short, when such backward ones next incarnate they will find themselves in a hopeless minority and will have to be classed among the laggards and unfit.
Therefore it is most important that each earnest student sow the seed wherever the soil seems propitious—not forcing it upon others—and leave the harvest to the Great Law.
Let no one say he lacks opportunity.
The seed can be sown in whatever environment we find ourselves if we carefully pre- pare the soil.
Just as disease is rapidly being abolished by the intelligent application of our resources, vibratory, physical, mental, psychic and spiritual, so must poverty be gradually abolished, not by the confiscation of the wealth of others, but by abolishing the power and prestige now given to the possession of wealth, increasing the intelligence and efficiency of the masses, and utilizing the resources of Nature more fully and under a just and efficient governmental control for the benefit of the people as a whole.
The fetus of the New Humanity is already stirring in the Womb of Time, and, like the human mother, humanity must learn to eliminate its waste materials and poisons and give the fetus proper nourishment or the life of both the child and mother will be endangered, as in cases of eclampsia.
This is the work of the present transitory conditions, and it is a waste of time and energy, hence will delay the fulfillment, to speculate on the details of that which is to come only after many hundreds of thousands of years in the future.
The entire thought and aim of today should be to meet present day conditions as they confront us, but meet them with an intelligent conception of the advanced conditions in humanity and its organization toward which the present day events are tending and which may be attained the more quickly by taking wise advantage of the opportunities now offered.