122 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
It is sometimes even a very hard matter to get them to
believe that they are really “dead.” They realize that
something is different, but they are not able to understand
what it is.
Not so, however, when the change is made from the first
heaven, which is in the Desire World, to the second heaven,
which is in the Region of Concrete Thought. Then the man
leaves his desir e body. He is perfectly conscious. He passes
into a great stillness. For the time being everything seems to
fade away. He cannot think. No faculty is alive, yet he
knows that heis. He has a feeling of standing in “The Great
Forever;” of standing utterly alone, yet unafraid; and his
soul is filled with a wonderful peace, “which passeth all
understanding.”
In occult science this is called “The Great Silence.”
Then comes the awakening. The spirit is now in its
home-World—heaven. Here the first awakening brings to
the spirit the sound of “the music of the spheres.” In our
Earth life we are so immersed in the little noises and sounds
of our limited environment that we are incapable of hearing
the music of the marching orbs, but the occult scientist hears
it. He knows that the twelve signs of the Zodiac and the
seven planets form the sounding-board and strings of
“Apollo's seven-stringed lyre.” He knows that were a single
discord to mar the celestial harmony from that grand
Instrument there would be “a wreck of matter and a crash of
worlds.”
The power of rhythmic vibration is well known to all
who have given the subject even the least study. For
instance, soldiers are commanded to break step when
crossing a bridge, otherwise their rhythmic tramp would
shatter the strongest structure. The Bible story of the