130 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
ticket, with initial choice of route. After he has chosen and
begun his journey it is not sure that he can change to another
route during the trip. He may stop over in as many places as
he wishes, within his time limit, but he cannot go back. Thus
as he proceeds on his journey, he becomes more and more
limited by his past choice. If he had chosen a steam road,
using soft coal, he must expect to be soiled and dusty. Had
he chosen a road burning anthracite or using electricity he
would have been cleaner. So it is with the man in a new life.
He may have to live a hard life, but he is free to choose
whether he will live it cleanly or wallow in the mire. Other
conditions are also within his control, subject to limits of his
past choices and acts.
The pictures in the panorama of the coming life, of
which we have just spoken, begin at the cradle and end at
the grave. This is the opposite direction to that in which they
travel in the after-death panorama, already explained, which
passes before the vision of the spirit immediately following
its release from the dense body. The reason for this radical
difference in the two panoramas is that in the before-birth
panorama the object is to show the reincarnating Ego how
certaincauses or acts alwaysproduce certaineffects. In the
case of the after-death panorama the object is the reverse,
i.e., to show how eachevent in the past life was theeffect of
somecause further back in the life. Nature, or God, does
nothing without a logical reason, and the further we search
the more apparent it becomes to us that Nature is a wise
mother, always using the best means to accomplish her ends.
But it may be asked, Why should we reincarnate? Why
must we return to this limited and miserable earth existence?
Why can we not get experience in those higher realms
without coming to Earth? We are tired of this dreary, weary