Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Education
Begins
Before Birth

Izvor Collection – No. 203

 PROSVETA

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Aïvanhov's teaching was exclusively oral. This volume
includes passages from several different lectures all
dealing with the same theme.

Translated from the French

Original title: « UNE ÉDUCATION QUI COM M ENCE

AVANT LA NAISSANCE»

Original edition:
© 1981, Éditions Prosveta S.A., ISBN 2-85566-174-9
©1982, Éditions Prosveta S.A., (Canada), ISBN 1-895978-188-9
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One: The first priority – educating parents
Chapter Two: Education begins before birth
Chapter Three: A blueprint for the future of humankind
Chapter Four: Don’t neglect your children
Chapter Five: A new understanding of a mother’s love
Chapter S ix: The magic word
Chapter S even: Never let your children be idle
Chapter Eight: Prepare your children for adult life
Chapter Nine: Protect your children’s sense of wonder
Chapter Ten: Love without weakness
Chapter Eleven: Education versus instruction
Chapter One: The first priority – educating
parents

It is quite likely that some of you have wondered why, since I

am supposed to be an educator, I so rarely talk about how to bring
up your children. This is the main concern of all other educators,
and I seem to be an exception. Why? The reason is simple: I
believe that it is the parents who stand most in need of instruction.

I have no pet educational theory: I believe only in the

educational value of the parents’ behaviour, both before and after
the birth of their children. This is why I have never said very much
about how to educate your children. If parents do nothing to
educate themselves, how can they expect to educate their children?
People talk to parents about how to bring up their children as
though they themselves already had all the preparation they
needed. If people have children, everybody takes it for granted that
they are capable of bringing them up. But very often this is simply
not the case: it is the parents, first and foremost, who need to be
instructed and taught how to behave so as to be a beneficial
influence on their children.

People who do not know my programme criticize me: ‘An

educator? He’s no educator; he never talks about the education of
children.’ But they say this because they have not understood my
point of view. As long as parents themselves are not up to the
mark it makes no difference how many important educational
theories you explain to them: it will do no good. Just the opposite
in fact, because not only will they not understand, but if they
attempt to apply your theories without understanding them they
will do a lot of harm to their children.

How many people who decide to have children have ever

stopped to ask themselves whether they are fitted to do so? Are
they healthy? Do they have the means to provide for them
properly? And, above all, do they have the qualities they need to
be a constant example and to give their children security and
consolation in all circumstances? They never even talk about it.
They bring children into the world and leave them to bring
themselves up. And the children do what they can on their own,
and then, one day, they too have children in the same deplorable
conditions as their parents.

I am constantly astounded to see how many young men and

women who want to get married have never paused to think about
preparing themselves for their future role as parents. When one
sees some young women who are pregnant, one cannot help
thinking, ‘But she’s a baby herself, and look at her, she’s expecting
another baby!’ It is written on her face: she is still a child. So what
can you expect? It is far better not to have children if you are not
properly prepared to do so; otherwise, I do assure you, it will cost
you dearly.
 You may ask, ‘But what can I do to prepare myself?’ The very
best way is to make sure that your thoughts and feelings, indeed
your whole attitude and way of life, are such as to attract
exceptional beings into your family. Yes: this is possible. Initiatic
Science teaches that children are not born into a particular family
by chance. Whether they realize it or not – and most of the time
they are very far from realizing it – it is the parents who cause
those particular beings to incarnate as their children.1 And this
being so, they should consciously endeavour to attract divine
beings, creatures of genius, into their family. They have this
tremendous power, the power of choosing their own children – and
most of them are totally unaware of it.

So the whole question needs to be re-examined from the

beginning, and the beginning is the conception of a child. It never
occurs to parents that they should prepare themselves for months,
even years, before performing this sacred act. Oh, no! As often as
not, children are conceived after their parents have been out on a
spree, eating and drinking too much. This is the occasion most
parents choose – if one can speak of ‘choosing’ in these conditions!
Why couldn’t they wait for a moment of peace and lucidity, for a
moment of deep and true harmony? But, no. They pick a moment
when they are besotted by alcohol and not fully conscious of what
they are doing. This is the sublime condition of many parents at
the moment of conceiving a child! Have they never stopped to
wonder what elements they introduce into a child conceived under
these conditions? A child that comes into the world burdened with
such elements is the first victim of its own parents. And now, who
do you think most needs to be educated? I will tell you: the
parents, not their children.

If parents quarrel, tell lies and cheat other people in the presence
of their children, how can they possibly hope to educate them? It
has already been ascertained that a baby can fall ill and show signs
of nervous disorders when its parents quarrel. Even if it is not in
the same room at the time, a quarrel creates a discordant
atmosphere which the baby immediately picks up, for it is still
very dependent on its parents. The baby is not consciously aware
of the disharmony but this does not prevent it from being
extremely receptive, and its etheric body feels the shock.

Parents must be more conscious of their responsibilities. They

have no right to invite spiritual entities to incarnate as their
children if they are unfit for their task. Sometimes I see parents
behaving so unbelievably stupidly that I ask them, ‘Tell me... do
you love your child or not?’ Of course, they get very indignant,
‘What? Love him? Of course we love him!’ But I feel obliged to tell
them, ‘I don’t believe it. If you loved him you’d change your
attitude and start trying to correct some of the things that have
such a disastrous effect on him. But you don’t make the slightest
effort. Is that your love?’

I know that the future of the Brotherhood lies with the children,
but it is their parents that I am concerned with. I want to make
them understand that they must not bring children into the world
simply to satisfy an atavistic instinct of procreation. The instinct
continues to exist, of course. But it is time that it was transposed
onto a higher, more spiritual plane: the act of procreation should be
accomplished with the full participation of mind, soul and spirit,
and, in this way, your child will be linked to a world superior to
our own.2 M ost people are content to live like animals: they eat,
drink and procreate like animals. There is no spiritual content to
what they do. Love simply doesn’t come into it. All they’re
interested in is pleasure, and for a few moments of pleasure they
are going to have to pay – and their children are going to have to
pay – for the rest of their lives!

Do you really want me to concern myself with your children?

No. It is you who are my first concern and indirectly, through you,
I am already doing something for the children you have now and
for those you will have in the future.

1 See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor Coll. n° 226, chap. 11-2: ‘ The law of affinity’ .
2 See Cosmic Moral Law, Complete Works, vol. 12, chap. 14: ‘ Through their
thoughts and feelings, humans are creators in the invisible’ .
Chapter Two: Education begins before birth

M ost people, when they decide to have a child, imagine that

their powers are limited to performing the necessary physical act,
but that everything else – the child’s physical constitution and
character, talents, qualities and defects – are a question of chance or
of something they think of vaguely as ‘the will of God’. They have
heard about heredity, of course, so they fully expect their child to
have some physical or psychological likeness to themselves or
their own parents or at least to some member of the family. But
they never imagine that it is within their power to increase or
diminish this likeness or, more generally, to choose what kind of
person their child will be. And this is where they are greatly
mistaken: parents have a large part in determining what kind of
person their future child will be.

But parents who want to give birth to a very highly developed

being have to prepare themselves long before the child is conceived,
because higher beings only consent to incarnate with parents who
have already achieved a certain degree of purity and self-mastery. A
being of very high calibre will not choose a family for its wealth or
renown; in fact it will be more likely to choose a family of modest
means in which it will be less tempted to lead an easy life. What is
important is to find a family capable of providing it with a heredity
which will not be an obstacle to the accomplishment of the
spiritual task for which it has decided to incarnate. Very few men
and women can offer a very highly evolved spiritual being the
conditions it needs to incarnate, and this explains why there are so
few divinities in the world and so many very inferior people, so
many criminals, so many sick people.

The Teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood, therefore,

shows men and women in what frame of mind and state of purity
they must prepare to conceive a child. They can even choose the
best moment for conception in relation to the most favourable
planetary aspects. How did humans sink so low as to leave the
conception of a child, this all-important event, to chance? It is
something for which they should call on heaven, asking the angels
to come and help them to attract a powerful, luminous being into
their family. But it never occurs to them: they look to alcohol for
help, and very often the man behaves like an animal, doing violence
to his wife and arousing feelings of disgust and contempt and
thoughts of revenge in her. In these conditions is it surprising if the
resulting child is a monster?

Let’s take a closer look at the subject of conception. For a child

to be born into the world, the father has to give his seed to the
mother, who nurtures it and brings it to maturity. You could say
that it is the father who creates and the mother who forms their
child. The father’s seed contains a condensation of his
quintessence. All that he has experienced in the past as well as his
present life is expressed in his seed. And this means, therefore, that
a man can give a seed of greater or lesser quality according to the
kind of life he has lived in the past and is living now.

I have often explained how everything we do in life is recorded

within us, in the chromosomes of our cells. Every single cell has its
memory, and however skillfully you may play the part of decent,
honest and charitable people when you are with others, it is what
goes on inside you, what you think and feel in private, that is
recorded and handed down from parent to child, generation after
generation.1 And if your chromosomes record disease or vice, once
they have been handed on to your children, you can consult all the
doctors and specialists, all the professors and schools you like,
you will never find a cure for them. It is too late; the damage has
been done. Everything is transmitted to your children, and if it
does not show up in the first one it will inevitably do so in the
second or third child. You have to understand that nature is always
faithful and true to itself.

It would be a mistake, therefore, to think that what a man gives

to his wife at the moment of conception is always of the same
quality. If he has never made any effort to improve and purify
himself, he can only give his wife the seed of a very commonplace
individual, perhaps even of a criminal.

Let’s take an example: it is not a very poetic one, perhaps, but at

least it has the merit of being perfectly clear. The function of a tap
is to supply water, and that water may be crystal-clear or it may
be clouded and muddy. A man who persistently harbours vicious
thoughts and feelings can supply only dirty water, whereas one
who works constantly for what is right and virtuous, one whose
being is oriented towards the light, will supply crystal-clear, life-
giving water. So, do not be surprised: the quality of the seed a man
gives to his wife at the moment of conception depends on his
degree of evolution.

Just as a seed planted in the soil is programmed to produce a

specific tree or plant, the seed a man plants in a woman is
programmed to produce a child with specific talents and capacities
or, on the other hand, with specific taints and weaknesses. During
the nine months of gestation, the mother supplies all the materials
needed to carry out the programme: here too I can reveal some
extremely interesting and important facts.

Throughout the nine months of pregnancy a woman not only

forms the physical body of her child but, without realizing it, she
influences the seed provided by the father by giving it conditions
that will either help or hinder the development of its various
qualities and characteristics. You may wonder how she does this.
She too has to watch over her thoughts and feelings and the kind of
life she leads. This is what I call spiritual gold-plating or
galvanoplasty.

Let me begin by describing the electrochemical process of

galvanoplasty which is used in gold-plating and which, transposed
onto the spiritual plane, can give results of tremendous importance
for the whole of humanity.

Two electrodes are introduced into a solution of metallic salts:

gold, silver or copper. The anode or positive pole is a sheet of the
same metal as that in the solution, and the cathode, or negative
pole, is a gutta-percha mould coated with graphite and stamped
with the design of a medal or coin. The two electrodes are wired to
the two poles of a battery and when the power is switched on the
electric current causes a film of metal to be deposited on the
cathode and, at the same time, decomposes the anode, thus
providing a constant supply of precious metal into the solution.
Little by little, the cathode is completely covered with the metal
and the results are what you intended: a design coated in gold,
silver or copper.

If you observe what takes place in nature you will see that this
process is not restricted to the man-made techniques of gold-
plating: it exists on all levels. For instance, in the ocean of space,
the planet earth represents the cathode or negative pole, the
feminine principle, whereas the heavens – that is, the sun and other
stars – represent the anode or positive pole, the masculine
principle. There is a constant flow and interchange of currents and
forces between the earth and the sun (and other stars) because they
are both immersed in the cosmic solution: the ether or universal
fluid which embraces and encompasses all the heavenly bodies.
And the battery to which the two poles are connected and which
sets everything in motion is, of course, God himself.

And now, suppose we attach a mould of some kind, a seed for

instance, to the earth: the seed, in close contact with the cathode
(earth), is immersed in the cosmic solution and the current flowing
through the solution from God produces the same results as in
electro-plating. Particles of the materials present in the solution
begin to build up on the seed, while the anode (the sun and the
stars) constantly renews and regenerates the solution as the seed
grows and draws sustenance from it. Every seed planted in the soil,
therefore, draws the elements it needs, according to its specific
nature, from the surrounding ether and welds them to itself in order
to grow and develop.

Exactly the same phenomenon can be seen in the process of

gestation, for a pregnant woman also carries within her the seed,
the electrodes and the solution. The seed, the living sperm
implanted in her womb by the father, represents the cathode and it
bears a design or image which may be the portrait of a drunkard, a
criminal or a perfectly ordinary and uninteresting being, or it may
be the portrait of a saint or a genius. As soon as a woman is
pregnant, a current begins to flow between her brain (the anode)
and the seed. The brain receives energy from the battery – God, the
Fountainhead of cosmic energy, to which it is connected – and this
energy flows from the brain to the embryo. The solution is the
mother’s blood, in which both anode and cathode (the brain and the
uterus) are immersed, for our blood bathes all our organs and cells,
and all the physical elements – gold, silver, copper, etc – exist in
solution in the blood.

The anode, therefore, supplies the precious metal (the mother’s

thoughts), which decomposes in the solution (her bloodstream),
thereby regenerating it. The seed implanted in her womb may be of
very exceptional quality, but if she has ‘leaden’ thoughts in her
head (symbolically speaking), she need not be surprised if, later on,
her child is cast in lead, that is, is vicious, pessimistic or sickly.
You must realize that the seed is only the mould, and although it
may bear the stamp of a magnificent likeness, if it is reproduced in
base metal it will lose all its value.

But, suppose a woman knows how gold-plating is done and

makes up her mind to apply the same rules in preparing to give
birth to her baby: as soon as the seed (cathode) is implanted in her
womb, she places a sheet of gold in her mind (anode), the gold of
pure, lofty thoughts and feelings. The current is switched on and
the blood flowing through her body conveys the precious metal to
the seed. The child grows, clothed, as it were, in gold, and when it
is born it is robust and healthy, beautiful both physically and in
character and capable of overcoming all difficulties and diseases and
all evil influences.

M ost mothers have no inkling of the tremendous influence their

inner state has on the child in their womb. Later, after it is born,
they begin to take care of it and look for people to educate and
instruct it and so on. But by then it is too late. Once a child is born
the die has already been cast. No instructor or educator can
transform a child who has received inferior elements from its
mother while still in the womb.

A tutor or teacher can do a great deal for a child, but only in the
way of instruction. They can never change its innate nature. If the
fundamental nature of a child is defective it will never be anything
else, however excellent its educator may be. Whatever you do to
lead, it will never be anything but lead. You can polish it, file it or
slice a piece off it to make it shine: it will shine for a few minutes
but, in no time at all, will have become as dull and grey as before,
simply because it is lead. You have to make your children of gold,
not of lead, for even if a child of gold has to live in the worst
possible conditions it will never tarnish or be corrupted because
the essence of its nature is pure.

Now you see why it is so vitally important for a pregnant

woman to harbour only luminous thoughts. Thanks to her thoughts
the seed that is growing within her will absorb the pure, precious
materials she gives it, and one day she will bring into the world a
great artist or a brilliant scientist, a saint, a messenger from God. A
mother can accomplish great miracles because she holds the key to
the forces of life.

M y mother told me that when she conceived me and, later, when

she was carrying me, she did so with the idea of consecrating me to
God’s service. And, in fact, on the day of my christening the priest
was so happy that he got drunk for the first time in his life –
normally he never drank! Afterwards he said that he had drunk too
much because I was certainly not like all the other children he
baptized, and he prophesied something about me: but I don’t have
to tell you what it was! Later I became a real rascal: I have already
told you how I used to steal apples from the neighbour’s orchard
and light fires in barns! But that phase did not last very long,
because it is the deeper characteristics that last: the other
manifestations are purely superficial and short-lived.

Not that I claim that, because my mother consecrated me to

God, I am somebody very extraordinary. You can consecrate your
children to God, but you cannot know in advance what level they
have reached in the hierarchy of the servants of God. M others can
certainly not know this, and I do not believe that my own mother
knew. So the fact that she consecrated me to God has no bearing on
my own, personal level. A great many Christians have been
consecrated by their mothers and they spend a lot of time in
church, but they never really improve very much. The only thing
one can say for certain is that their mothers asked that a tiny spark
should burn in them. If someone fans the spark it becomes a blaze,
but a spark amounts to nothing if it is not nourished. If you want it
to grow sand spread you have to keep wood on the fire,
symbolically speaking.

It is well-known that many pregnant women are subject to all

kinds of whims and uncontrolled impulses they never normally
have. But what people do not know is why this happens. I will tell
you: a pregnant woman is often visited by entities who look
forward to having some part in the life of her child later on, and
they try to influence the mother and interfere with the gold-plating
she is doing. They know that if this is not done properly they will
be able to go in and out of the child and feed on it. When this
happens, it is plainly visible in the child’s behaviour quite early on
in life.

Usually the children who come here take to me at once, but on

three or four occasions there has been a child who has tried to
avoid me and no one could understand why. But I knew why! This
kind of phenomenon holds no secrets for me. The parents were
very upset and unhappy about it, and I had to explain to the
child’s mother, ‘You see, while you were pregnant you allowed
yourself to do certain things which attracted these entities to your
little one, and now they ask nothing better than to remain in him
and live off him. They are still waiting for the right moment to
come out into the open, but they know that I am their enemy.
They know that once your child comes under my influence I will
drive them out by my attitude, my willpower and all that emanates
from me. (In point of fact, I do nothing else: I spend my time
driving out certain entities and putting others in their place. This is
my greatest pleasure in life. You see, I have my pleasures too!) So
this is why these entities try to keep your child away from me.’
But I never accept defeat, and as I loved the parents I decided to
help them. I worked on the child, and not long after, although he
had always run away from me before, he rushed up to give me a
hug. In fact you have sometimes seen this happen, haven’t you?

During gestation, the mother must take great care to protect her
child. Consciously, through her thoughts, she must create an
atmosphere of purity and light around it so as to protect it from
attack by harmful entities and,2 in this way, collaborate with the
soul which is preparing to incarnate.

For, contrary to what some people believe, a soul does not enter
a child’s body during the period of gestation. It is perfectly true
that, in its mother’s womb, a child is alive: the heart beats and the
embryo takes nourishment and grows, but the soul has not yet
entered the body. It does this only when the child draws its first
breath after birth. Until then the soul remains by the mother’s side,
collaborating with her in the work of building the child’s different
bodies (physical, astral and mental).3 M ost women are not
sufficiently sensitive or informed to realize that this work is going
on within them. But even if they cannot see the soul of their child,
they can at least talk to it and pray to it, saying, ‘Here you are. I’ll
give you the best possible materials and I’ll help you. But try to
bring such and such a quality or talent with you, so that my child
will be an artist or a philosopher, a scientist or a saint.’

When a mother speaks these words with all her heart they can
be very powerful, truly magic, and she emanates certain particles
that the spirit preparing to incarnate in her child can use as building
materials in the construction of its different bodies. The child has
nothing of its own; it receives everything from its mother. This is
why she must be fully aware of what she is doing and make sure
that she gives it only the most luminous and the purest possible
materials.

All these phenomena which occur on the invisible level are

unknown to most people. This is the importance of the Teaching:
to make you sensitive to and aware of this subtle and intangible but
very real world – the world that is more truly real than reality.
Thanks to the Teaching, you are more aware of and more attentive
to all the currents that influence you and all the entities that
surround you. And it is this awareness that enables you to work
for good.

M en and women must never forget that the children they will
one day bring into the world will reflect their own mental attitudes,
their own behaviour in one way or another. For whatever takes
place in a person’s heart and mind always ends by taking physical
shape. Every thought and every desire in a person’s mind or heart
is a living entity, and your future sons and daughters already exist
in advance, in your minds and hearts. So if your child is perfectly
angelic as they grow up, it is because they began as a splendid idea
in your mind which has now become flesh and blood in them and
which will, through them, continue to help and sustain you. But if
your child brings you nothing but trouble, you should understand
that it is because they are the incarnation of a criminal idea, which
dwelt in you and was nourished by you in the past.

A child who comes into this world is not born out of nowhere.
And if you ask me why your child was born I will tell you, ‘So
that you can see the living proof of what existed in your own
mind.’ This is how men and women get to know themselves:
through their children.4

1 See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor Coll. n° 226, chap. 11-1: ‘ The law of
records’ .
2 See The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Izvor Coll. n° 210, chap. 7: ‘ The
undesirables’ .
3 See Man’s P sychic Life: Elements and Structures, Izvor Coll. n° 222, chap. 3:
‘ Several souls and several bodies’ .
4 See Le grain de sénevé, Complete Works, vol. 4, chap. 12: ‘ Croissez et multipliez’ .
Chapter Three: A blueprint for the future of
humankind

Whenever any special problem arises on the national or

international level, various plans are drawn up to remedy it.
Nowadays there are political, financial, economic and military
plans of such vast scope and brilliant conception – it is quite
amazing! You cannot help but marvel at them. The only trouble is
that these wonderful schemes have never done much good, because
they only touch on the external, material side of things:
technological improvements, increased production, the
construction of more laboratories or universities, the increase or
decrease of armaments, etc. And humankind continues to flounder
along in the same old confusion and the same misfortunes. So
seeing this I decided that I too would present my own plan, my
own blueprint for the future of humanity. You will say: ‘What
conceit! What presumption!’ You may be right of course, but
everyone has the right to draw up a plan, yourselves included, as
long as it is useful and workable. And as you will see my plan is
simplicity itself.

Instead of leaving the state to spend billions on hospitals,

prisons, law-courts and schools, I advise it to concentrate all its
attention on its pregnant mothers. The cost will be far less and the
results infinitely superior. Therefore, I shall ask the state to find
sites to build on, well oriented in relation to the sun and in some of
the most beautiful parts of the country. And then, on these sites, I
shall ask them to build houses in the styles and colours that I shall
indicate. There will also be parks and gardens with trees and
flowers, fountains and ornamental ponds. And all pregnant women
would come and live in this setting for the whole period of
gestation, with room and board paid for by the state.

In this way, their pregnancy would be spent in a beautiful and

poetic atmosphere in which they could read, go for walks and
listen to music. They would also listen to lectures which would
teach them how they should be living this period of gestation: what
they should eat but also, and especially, the mental work they
should be doing, the thoughts and feelings they should be using to
influence and fashion their future babies.1 Their husbands would
come and visit them, of course, and they would be shown how to
behave with their wives so as to help them in their work. And you
would see that in this way, given such conditions of peace, calm
and beauty, women would bring children into the world who would
be worthy channels for the graces and blessings that heaven is
waiting to pour out on humanity.

Whereas now, only very few of the spirits who incarnate in the
present circumstances come from heaven. Where do all the others
come from? The doors are closed to heavenly spirits. It is not
possible for them to incarnate in bodies which are prepared in
impurity, vice and disorder. And this is why humankind is not
getting any better. Of course it will get better, in the long run, but
only after thousands of years, during which it will have to
experience great catastrophes and much suffering. All the changes
that have taken place in recent years on the technical, economic or
medical levels have not managed to improve the human race. It is
still mired in the same passions and vices as before these so-called
improvements. In fact it is even worse than before! And yet it is
possible to improve humankind, but on one condition, and that is
that we begin at the beginning: with the expectant mothers.

If you only knew the conditions in which some expectant

mothers live! They live in dark, confined slums; and it is they who
have to take care of everything and put up with whatever comes
their way. And, on top of it all, their husbands come home drunk
or in a rage, because they can’t find work or because their
workmates have insulted them, and so they take it out on their
wives with abuse and even blows. You can imagine the frame of
mind of women who are preparing to bring children into the world
in such conditions!

Instead of building maternity hospitals for mothers, it would be

far better to give them ideal conditions in which to prepare to bring
their children into the world. Once the babies are born they can go
back to the slums if they have to: later on their children will build
palaces for them! Why, yes! It is their children, with all the talents
and gifts they have received, who will one day extricate their
parents from their squalor.
 No one pays any attention to the conditions in which women
bring children into the world nowadays, and when, as a result,
crime, disease and insanity affect a huge proportion of the
population, the state builds still more hospitals, prisons and
reformatories and increases its police force, its doctors and its
social workers. But none of this can do any good whatever. Even if
billions were spent on so-called improvements in the field of
psychological and educational care, it still would not alter the
quintessence that human beings have received from their mothers
before birth. The only method that holds out any hope is the one I
propose.

No educator, no doctor, will ever change the innate nature of a

child. You can give a child a little superficial varnish, but that is all.
Any attempt to improve their character really boils down to a sort
of taming or breaking in.2 Exactly the same phenomenon has been
observed with primitive tribespeople: you can give them a veneer
of education, teach them to eat politely and dress correctly, but it
will not last. As soon as they get back into their tribal environment
they revert to type. Similarly if someone is a born criminal or a
born saint, no one will ever change them. Oh, superficially,
perhaps, and for a brief while they can be influenced, but
fundamentally they will always be the same.

A lot of people will probably object that my plan is not

scientific, but they have no right to criticize before trying it out. Of
course, it will not solve all the problems of the human race all at
once. Several generations will be needed. Even if parents make a
tremendous effort to purify themselves, they will never totally rid
themselves of the heritage of weakness and corruption they
themselves have received from their parents. But if they are
watchful, in spite of a few bad elements that may manage to slip
into their children, the positive aspects will predominate, even in
the first generation. The second generation will be better and the
third will be better still, and little by little all the defective elements
carried over from the past will disappear. Some intelligent and
responsible people are needed, therefore, who understand the
importance of the work that goes on in a pregnant woman: that
when she knows the laws governing the gold-plating process and is
in a setting of care and affection and sustained by the appropriate
material conditions, she can draw on a vast reserve of truly
superior materials with which to form not only the physical body
of her child but also its astral and mental bodies (emotions and
intellect) as well.

Unfortunately, I know in advance that my plan will be rejected.

No one will ever take the trouble to take a closer look at it, because
the present generation has been so thoroughly trained and shaped
by other philosophies that there is no room in their heads for this
idea. Obviously I am not so blind as not to realize that if a mother
has to leave home for several months it will involve certain
inconveniences, but I do believe that just a little more love,
intelligence and goodwill would soon find solutions to the problem.
 What is essential in the immediate future is that these ideas
should be accepted by orthodox science, and this is not the case,
not by a long chalk! This was proved recently when one of our
sisters went to hospital to have her baby. While talking to her
doctor, she mentioned that she belonged to a spiritual Teaching in
which she had learned that the mental activity of the expectant
mother could greatly influence her baby. And do you know what
the doctor’s reaction was? He burst out laughing and said, ‘Don’t
believe it! All that is utter rubbish. What can a mother’s thoughts
possibly do to her child?’ So you see what the medical profession
thinks of this. And to think that a lot of people expect them to
light the way for humanity!

It is true that some biologists have experimented with mice and

found that fear and anxiety experienced by a pregnant female had
repercussions on its offspring. But they insist on talking only
about mice! They study mice rather than women, although women
have been bringing children into the world for millions of years.
Before we know it, the mice will be teaching human beings what is
true and what is false. Scientists have built laboratories in which to
study their mice and are tremendously proud of them, whereas
they totally ignore the great laboratories of nature, which have
always existed and which are far better equipped than ours. It is
the evidence provided by mice that counts. I tell you: it is mice
that will point the way for humanity! And what about women?
Isn’t it most insulting for them? They should protest indignantly!
 As far as I am concerned I prefer to leave mice alone. I have
observed a certain number of pregnant women at various moments
and then, several years later, I have observed their children, and I
have seen that the problems and worries experienced by the mother
at a particular stage of her pregnancy are reflected in the life of her
child in the corresponding stages of its development. But we are
still waiting for the official, scientific verdict from the mice and, in
the meantime, the world has been peopled by monsters. Even if
biologists have at last understood that what is true for a mother
mouse is even truer for a pregnant woman – and it is by no means
certain that they have understood – they are still far behind,
because their methods are so slow that if they undertook to re-
educate humankind it would take centuries! But don’t delude
yourself into thinking that they will lift a finger to enable women
to benefit from their findings! All they are interested in is their
mice. They are not interested in advising women about what to do
during pregnancy.

And this is why I launch this appeal to women throughout the

world: ‘Stir yourselves. Wake up to the task that God has
entrusted to you. You have untold secrets in your keeping which
could be used to regenerate the human race. But you are still
unaware of these things. The time has come for you to be
conscious of your mission and ask your menfolk to prepare the
best possible conditions for you so that you can accomplish your
great, magical work.’ Of course when they hear that many women
will say, ‘We have shown our love and tenderness for hundreds of
years, but men have never understood us. They have only scoffed.’
Yes, I know. M ost men behave like selfish children, but if they are
like that it is because women have never known how to play their
part as mothers: they have not applied the technique of gold-
plating while they were carrying their children, and now they have
to put up with the consequences.

Nature has given women special powers, but they used them
badly or not at all. It is important that they become aware of these
powers and realize that the future of the human race is in their
hands. If women take the trouble to understand what I am saying
they will become an unheard of force in the world, capable of
sweeping all before it. But to achieve an exalted ideal they must be
united. At the moment they are dispersed and disunited except in
their readiness to seduce men! This is why they are not very
powerful yet. From now on, all the women of the world must unite
for the regeneration of the human race. In spite of all their
intelligence and skill, men cannot do very much in this way. It is
women, mothers, who have been entrusted with this mission, for it
is they who have been given the power of influencing the child in
the womb.

This is why I appeal to you, all the sisters of the Brotherhood,

to become more aware of the immense task to which you are called,
and to awaken this consciousness in all the women in the world
who still know nothing about it. This ideal, the desire to be useful,
will fill your hearts and souls and spirits. Inspiration will never
desert you. Your hearts will know joy, and you will feel rich,
because the ideal of contributing to the happiness of humankind
will sustain and nourish you. Nothing will ever really satisfy you
until this ideal is firmly anchored in your soul. However wealthy
you may be materially, you will always feel empty and
discontented. The only thing capable of making you happy, radiant
and full of light is to do what heaven expects of you and fulfil your
God-given mission.

1 See Creation: Artistic and Spiritual, Izvor Coll. n° 223.

2 See True Alchemy or the Quest for P erfection, Izvor Coll. n° 221, chap. 3:
‘ Character and temperament’ .
Chapter Four: Don’t neglect your children

A certain number of changes have taken place in human society

recently, and they are not all conducive to the education of
children. M ore and more women, for example, are employed
outside the home. They want the same independence as men and,
as a job provides them with this independence, they all want a
profession. But their profession obliges them to neglect their
children, who come home from school and find no one at home;
father and mother are both at work. So the children get along as
best they can, and they get along very well indeed when it comes
to getting up to mischief in the absence of their parents, who
become more and more like strangers to them.

I am not saying that mothers should not work. All I am saying is

that these new social patterns are having certain effects on the
education of children. As an educator I am obliged to recognize
these effects. I am not giving advice to anyone. Everyone has to
sort out their own problem for themselves, but I believe that, for
children, nothing can substitute for the presence of their mother in
the home, providing, of course, that she is really and truly present
and capable of playing her part as educator of her children.

You will say, ‘Yes, but this change of mentality is also due to
industrialization and technical progress.’ Of course. It is always the
same; people always put the blame on external factors. But
technical progress need not necessarily have led to the catastrophic
situation in which human beings find themselves today. M en and
women have got themselves into this situation, by reason of their
ignorance and egoism and their unbridled appetites. Everybody
blames the conditions, but who creates the conditions? They did
not just drop from heaven! Technical progress is a good thing. It
could have lightened the burden for people. Why did they have to
spoil things so that now it absorbs all their energies and has
brought them to the edge of disaster?1

In any case, nothing can justify parents leaving their children to

their own resources or, on the pretext that they are too busy,
leaving them in the care of others; a servant, a neighbour or anyone
else. Why did they bring their children into the world? If they do
not want to look after them, they would have done better to leave
them where they were. Parents who behave like this are going to be
taught a hard lesson, and it will come to them through their own
children. It is the children who will bring suffering on their parents,
for it is the parents who called them into this world and provided
them with their bodies, and the least they can do is to look after
them and not shift the burden on to someone else. The Lord alone
knows what nonsense – or even what filth – other people can put
into the heads of your children! I do not need to spell it out for
you.

Parents are so harebrained! Instead of breast-feeding her baby

herself, a mother will hand it over to any wet-nurse with an
abundant supply of milk, without a thought for the disease or vices
that woman could communicate to the baby along with her milk. A
baby absorbs something of the character of the woman who nurses
it. This is why it is so important for mothers to nurse their own
babies because, while they are nursing them, they can also,
consciously, give them a lot of love. If they do this, their children
will never abandon them or make them suffer, because in absorbing
their mothers’ milk they will also absorb their love.

And now, just reflect for a moment on this; before her baby is
born a mother nourishes it with her blood, but once it is born she
nourishes it with her milk. Blood, which is red, symbolizes life,
strength and activity, whereas milk, which is white, symbolizes
peace and purity. M ilk represents a principle of harmony which
complements and counterbalances the purely biological tendencies
represented by blood. And this is why children who have not been
breast-fed by their own mothers are not capable of manifesting
themselves ideally later on. The milk of another woman, or
animal’s milk, does not contain the same elements as that of the
mother.

Through her milk, a mother gives her baby the love and
tenderness which are vital to its proper development. This is why
she must take care not to give it the breast when she is angry or in
a negative frame of mind. The negative vibrations will poison her
milk, and her baby will receive elements that can make it
physically or psychically ill. Nursing mothers should be very
vigilant and prepare themselves in advance so as to be in the best
possible frame of mind when they feed their children.

A great many mothers, for reasons of ‘aesthetics’ or for other,

purely frivolous reasons, give their babies a bottle – or get someone
else to do so. And they, in the meantime, are free to go dancing or
to a cocktail or dinner party. That is much more fun, and then, too,
their breasts are reserved for the pleasure of a grown man, their
husband or lover! It seems that breast-feeding spoils their beauty.
There are so many deviations and disorders in this area nowadays!
And this is why more and more children are becoming estranged
from their parents: they have never been nourished either with love
or with their mothers’ milk. Believe me, I am not inventing all this.
These are facts which have already been verified.

When a woman nurses her baby, she must do so with conscious

attention, thinking of it and talking to it, giving it in this way
something of her heart and soul, of her own quintessence. An
infant nourished in this way will love its mother for all eternity.
Even if she is ignorant and not very beautiful her child will adore
her. A child must be conceived in love and nourished with love. But
I am afraid that the consciousness of most mothers is still too
narrow and personal. They have not yet understood the
importance of their mission as educators. No one pays any
attention to true education, and this is why everything is going
from bad to worse.
 Look at what happens to children who have been deprived of
their mothers’ and fathers’ love and left to other people to bring
up. In the United States you can see them hanging about on the
streets, waiting for some man to come and pay to sleep with them.
Hundreds of children, eight, ten and twelve years old, have become
street-walkers. Before, it was mostly the girls, but now even very
young boys are doing it too. And if you ask them why they are
willing to go with those men, they will tell you, ‘Because they’re
kind. It’s not so much for the money, but they give us a little
affection, and our parents beat us and threw us out of the house or
abandoned us.’ Of course children need to be loved! And suppose
we began to see the same thing happening here in France? The day
will come, you may be sure. For whatever happens in America
eventually happens, sooner or later, in France too.

Look after your children! Don’t neglect them. I know that a lot
of parents, nowadays, think that education is useless. They are
convinced that children should be left to develop on their own
without outside interference, which would run the risk of
destroying their originality; their qualities will appear quite
naturally if they are left entirely free. This is a very grave mistake!
Heaven and hell both lie dormant in every child, and their future
depends on whether their parents stimulate and develop the one or
the other. I mentioned, one day, the example of a young girl, pure,
innocent and beautifully brought up; she looks as though ‘butter
wouldn’t melt in her mouth’, as we say. But if she gets worked up
and finds herself in a situation where her sexuality is aroused, you
will be dumbfounded to see what that angelic creature is capable
of! All human beings are capable of every evil and of every good. It
all depends on the conditions in which we find ourselves and the
tendencies that have been cultivated in us.

Human nature has two faces, two sides to it; one is celestial,
divine, and the other is hellish, diabolical, and depending on the
method parents use in educating their children, they encourage one
aspect or the other.2 If they are not very careful they will see to
their sorrow that they have brought out the evil aspects of their
children’s characters. Great vigilance and care are needed, especially
while children are still in the formative years. While they are
growing and not yet fully formed, they are full of energies that are
looking for a direction, and this is no time to be blindly trustful and
to think that you have brought a little angel into the world. They
will become angels, certainly, as long as you are vigilant, intelligent
and wise. But if you are careless and ignorant, you will see: they
will become devils!

1 See Truth: Fruit of Wisdom and Love, Izvor Coll. n° 234, chap. 13: ‘ Scientific
progress v. moral progress’ .
2 See Man’s Two Natures, Human and Divine, Izvor Coll. n° 213, chap. 2: ‘ The lower
self is a reflection’ .
Chapter Five: A new understanding of a
mother’s love

I would like to tell you about the case of a young girl for whom
the spiritual life was all that is most important and precious. She
used to spend a lot of time in prayer and meditation, and she was
in the habit of practising various spiritual exercises in order to
come closer and closer to the high ideal she had chosen. And then
one day she married and had a baby, and since then she has given
priority to her married life: her husband and especially her child
absorb her attention and she has abandoned all the rest. And now I
would like to analyse this attitude for you.

Of course, I know that everybody will approve of this young

woman’s behaviour. It is only normal that she sacrifice her spiritual
life in order to take care of her baby: after all, she is its mother.
Every father and mother will be on her side: nothing should take
priority in a mother’s heart over her own child. She should even be
ready to break the laws of God for the sake of her child. And if her
baby falls ill or dies, it would be normal for her to be very angry
with God and accuse him of cruelty and injustice. All of this
corresponds to what people think a mother’s love should be, and
everyone agrees that it is admirable. Everyone except me, that is! I
don’t think it is admirable at all, for if a woman is so attached to
her child as to neglect even the Lord, all it means is that she is
thinking of herself, not of her child.

Oh, yes! This is as clear as daylight to me! If she neglects the

realities of heaven in order to devote herself to her child, what she
is actually doing is depriving it of the divine life, which is the only
true life, and making it impossible for it to benefit from this
immense reservoir of light and peace. In the stupidity of her love
she snatches her baby away from its only sure haven, the only
place where it could find happiness and immortality. She may
believe that she is ‘looking after’ it, keeping it safe from all harm: in
reality she is putting it in danger of hell itself, since she is cutting it
off from all beauty and harmony. Can you see this? Can you see
that there is a basic misconception here that has prevailed in human
society for thousands of years? A mother who loves her child must
never turn it away from heaven, for heaven is our only haven, the
only place in which every one of God’s creatures is destined to
find fulfilment. If she neglects God and thinks only of her child, her
mind will no longer possess all those subtle, imponderable
elements which flow from the realms of Light, from the Godhead,
and consequently whatever she gives her child will be lifeless.

A mother who abandons the habit of constant reference to God

is incapable of radiating the living, glowing particles which her child
needs if it is to become a truly worthwhile human being. If she
starves and impoverishes herself, obviously she will have nothing
to give her child. Her love for it becomes something completely
commonplace, and her child will be commonplace too. It may be
healthy and well-dressed, but if it is cut off from God it will never
become more than a mediocre human being. Whereas a mother who
really understands the teaching of Initiatic Science will constantly
refer to God in her thoughts and prayers, ‘Lord, I turn to you for
light, love, health and all the beauty of heaven for my baby.’ And
when she turns back to her family, she will be in a position to
communicate to her baby a wealth of subtle, nourishing elements
other mothers have never heard of nor imagined, because they have
no time to pray or meditate. They do have the time, but their
egotistical love excludes them from adhering to this philosophy.
This is why the world is peopled with mediocre men and women.

A mother should never do anything for her baby without first

turning to God to receive that which she can then communicate to
her child. Why does she imagine that if she turns her attention
away for a few minutes it might die? No! Even if her baby were in
danger of death while her attention was concentrated on the Lord,
when she gets back to it she will rescue it. But if she neglects God
because she is afraid to leave her baby alone, the day her baby is
really in danger she will be incapable of doing anything for it.

As long as parents are so attached to their children that they

cannot bear to leave them while they go and improve their minds,
they will never be capable of transforming them nor of making
them really happy. It is impossible to transform one’s family if one
is always with them. It is not a question of leaving them
physically, but of leaving them mentally. In other words it is a
question of abandoning one’s mistaken notions of how to love and
understand them. ‘But this is a crusade against our children!’ you
will say. Not at all. In fact it is quite possible that I love your
children more than you do. It might be worth analysing that! If
anyone loves your children it is me: you do not really love them.

I knew a boy once who demanded money from his mother to

pay for his extravagant tastes and threatened to kill himself if she
refused. His mother simply said, ‘Go ahead, my son. The world
doesn’t need people like you. I hoped you’d be a great and noble
human being, but you behave like an utter scoundrel. Go and
commit suicide. That’s the best thing to do. I’ll thank God when
you’re gone!’ Well, thanks to his mother’s courage, the boy began
to take stock of himself and became a truly remarkable man. Years
later he would say, ‘It was my mother who saved me!’ But if she
had panicked and given way, saying, ‘Oh, my poor boy. Don’t do
that. Here’s your money,’ she would have turned him into a
confirmed criminal.

And this is exactly what most parents do; their love is so blind
and they are so weak-minded and flabby that they turn their
children into criminals. ‘But we love them!’ They try to justify
their lack of firmness and psychology in bringing up their children
with that excuse – ‘We love them!’ Instead of saying, ‘How weak
and foolish we’ve been,’ they say, ‘We love them.’ I am the only
one who does not believe them. Behind the cry of ‘We love them,’ I
can hear a little voice, half-hidden, murmuring, ‘How stupid we
were!’ That is what I hear.

Abraham loved Isaac, but he was ready to sacrifice him to show

God that it was him he loved even more than his own son. The
question as to whether one loves God more than one’s own son is
always topical, but it never occurs to mothers and fathers to ask
themselves what their own answer would be. God wanted to put
Abraham to the test, and he asked him to sacrifice his only child.
You say, ‘But why did he do that? Didn’t he know perfectly well
what Abraham would do? Why did he have to test him?’ Of course
the Lord could read Abraham’s mind and heart, and he knew in
advance what he would do; it was Abraham who did not know
which love was stronger in him and needed to know this. That is
why God tried him. The test was not for the Lord’s benefit but for
Abraham’s.

As a matter of fact, all the trials God sends us teach us about

ourselves. We have no idea how much we can endure and how
intelligent, strong, generous and kind, or how weak and stupid we
are. We delude ourselves. We say, ‘I’ve overcome this weakness,
that vice; I love God above all things,’ and then at the first little
trial that comes along, we throw in the sponge! And we never
understand why. Abraham found out that he loved God above all
else. God had given him his son and he knew therefore that God
could take him away.
 Why do mothers not follow the same reasoning? They think
they are acting for the good of their child in abandoning the Lord.
They think that the protection they give it will be enough to keep
dangers away. But what protection can they possibly give their
child if they themselves are not protected? They have turned their
backs on the one, universal Protector. What pride and conceit!

Abraham was an initiate; he did not rebel against the Lord. He

prepared to sacrifice his son, but God is not a blood-thirsty
monster, and at the last minute he provided a ram to replace Isaac
on the altar, because Abraham had found out exactly how far he
was prepared to go in sacrifice and that was all that was needed. If
a mother is not ready to go to the same lengths and accept the same
sacrifice, it shows not only that she is not very intelligent but also
that she is too proud. How can she dare to imagine that she knows
better than God himself whether her child should live or die? With
such a limited conception of love she will never be able to help her
child, because instead of leading it towards the light she will lead it
away from it. In her mind it is her mother-love which takes
priority. It is everything to her. In thinking this she is making a big
mistake and, one way or another, she will have to pay for it
because she will fail to do her duty. Her duty was to stay,
symbolically speaking, in heaven and to lead her child to heaven
with her.

You must never abandon heaven for the sake of anyone, not even
for your child or your husband or wife, because it is only if you are
firmly rooted in heaven that you will be able to do them any good.
If you abandon the light to please another human being, you will
lose both heaven and earth, and those for whom you have given up
so much will never belong to you; you will find yourself alone. You
must seek heaven; then you will also possess the earth, for the
earth is always in attendance on heaven as its faithful subject and
servant.1

If you allow sentimentality and blind attachment to

predominate, not only will you not help others but you yourself
will suffer. To avoid this you must give first place to intelligence
and wisdom; God himself must be foremost in your heart, and
when this is so whatever you love will be yours – even other
people’s children! Yes, for the children you love with a divine love
belong to you far more truly than to their own mother if she loves
them foolishly. You may say, ‘But that’s impossible! They are
united by the ties of blood relationship...’ True, but I assure you
that blood relationships do not necessarily form the strongest ties.
There are others that are more important.

The only beings who will ever belong to you are those you have
learned to love, whether they be children, men or women.
Outwardly, family ties are strongest, but it often happens that
different members of the same family have practically nothing in
common because they belong to different spiritual families. You
can belong physically to a family of peasants, for instance, and
spiritually to a royal family. Or the reverse: you can be physically
a member of a royal family while in reality you belong to a family
of miserable tramps!2

If his family is in dire need, how will a father who truly loves
them react? He will have the courage to leave them for a time and
go and earn money in a foreign country. Whereas another, who is
not motivated by the same kind of love, will not have the courage
to leave his family. The former appears to be abandoning his wife
and children but in fact only leaves them for a time in order to help
them: he goes abroad to earn a lot of money, and when he gets back
they can all be happy together. Whereas a man who doesn’t have
the courage to leave condemns both his family and himself to
permanent poverty. And now let me interpret this for you: a true
father and a true mother will ‘abandon’ their children at intervals
and, by means of prayer and meditation, travel to ‘distant lands’ to
amass a fortune, and when they go home again their whole family
will be better off. Parents who don’t understand this will perhaps
be constantly with their children, but what can they give them?
Nothing but a few odds and ends, a few mouldy crusts of bread!

True fathers and mothers often ‘go abroad’. For how long? It
depends, for half an hour or an hour, sometimes for a day or even a
few months. And when they come home again they share their
wealth with their children. You must admit that I have arguments
that can stand up to all your ‘logical’ objections. And if any of you
who are mothers don’t agree with me, you can come and talk to me
about it! I will tell you, ‘You claim to love your child, but just
analyse your love. If you really love your child, you’ll go ‘abroad’
for at least ten minutes or half an hour every day. If you do that,
then no matter what happens your child will always have an
abundance of what it needs.’

II

A mother may do everything for her child, tirelessly loving and

caring for it night and day, and yet, in spite of all her devotion the
child may never turn out to be anything special. In fact, it may
grow up to be a good-for-nothing or even a criminal. How can this
be? The reason is that she has never learned to project her love out
beyond this world, to the higher spheres where she could find
other, subtler elements to give to her child, elements that would
actively influence it as it is growing up and help it to become
someone really exceptional. How can any mother be so foolish as
to suppose that, in spite of her ignorance and the narrowness of
her mental horizons, in spite of being interested only in the most
prosaic and commonplace pursuits, she can provide a child with
the elements it needs in order to develop into someone capable of
working wonders for humankind and the whole of human society?

As long as mothers make no effort to reach out to the highest

levels and draw down particles of light, purity and eternity,
whatever else they may do, their child will receive only the most
common, ordinary elements from them. It is not quantity that is
important, but quality. And it is this, this superior quality, which
they must reach out for and communicate to their children. Look at
it, if you like, in terms of mathematics: no amount of two-
dimensional figures can produce a three-dimensional figure, and no
amount of three-dimensional bodies can ever build a four-
dimensional body. In other words, no amount of ordinary,
commonplace human beings will ever produce one genius and no
amount of geniuses will ever produce one divinity. To produce a
divinity you have to add other elements from another dimension,
elements which can only be found in the spiritual, divine
dimension. It is essential to understand this.

M others must learn, therefore, how to form and fashion their

children. From time to time, several times a day, even if only for a
few minutes, they should raise their thoughts to the Lord in prayer
and ask him for what they need: ‘Dear Lord, you know that I want
this child you have given me to be your faithful servant. Please!
Give me the sublime elements only you can provide so that I can
pass them on. Without them my child will come to no good and
that wouldn’t be to its advantage, nor to mine nor to yours!’ And
the Lord will scratch his head in perplexity and then send some of
his faithful servants to help that mother.

Does my way of explaining things startle you? Well, that

doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you understand and make
progress, even if my explanations are very unorthodox and
unacademic and not at all literary or philosophical! For my part, I
want to do everything possible for mothers: I have tremendous
admiration for their capacity for sacrifice. But they must open
their mind to much wider horizons and learn to work for their
children with new, spiritual methods. They still think that it is in
their power to give their children the care and sacrifice they need,
but this is not so: it is not enough. In truth it can never be enough:
other forces and energies, other divine particles will always be
necessary. A child who is nourished and impregnated by these
divine elements every single day will grow up to be a source of
wonder to everyone.

You will say that it is not so easy to go and find God; but this is
a figure of speech! Simply by thinking about the heavenly
dimension a mother draws subtle elements to herself and passes
them on to her child. Cases in which a mother’s love was strong
enough to snatch a child from the jaws of death have already been
seen. The mother’s love was so intense that it transformed
something in her child: it generated currents so powerful they were
capable of expelling the negative, harmful elements that had
invaded her child’s body and saved its life. Obviously, cases like
this are exceptional, but even if they can’t always expect such
dramatic results, mothers have a great many opportunities in
everyday life for demonstrating their love for their children.

In the mornings, when we all go up to the Rocher ( * The Rocher is

the large rock at the top of a hill close to the Bonfin, where the Master and his
for
disciples used to gather ( and disciples still gather) to see the sunrise)
instance, I am always very moved to see so many mothers with
their babies, and I would like to tell them how to make their work
more fruitful. Instead of walking about with your babies, to keep
them quiet or put them to sleep, sit down quietly somewhere and
talk to them, ‘M y little darling, my love, my treasure, my own
beautiful baby...’ When you murmur words like this to your child,
you are doing what the sun does: bathing it in light and warming it
with your love. Simply by the power of your love you are calling
all the angels and archangels to come to your child’s aid. Then, too,
you can speak to God, ‘Lord, let this child be your servant. Let
him/her be the most beautiful, the most radiant and luminous, the
most intelligent and the healthiest...’ and in saying these words you
picture your baby bathed in all that splendour.

The imaginative powers of a woman are very strong, and she can
use them to fashion her child,3 and as all her hopes and prayers, all
her feelings for the child, are recorded by its etheric, astral and
mental bodies, when she does this she not only gives great impetus
to its evolution but she also creates a very strong bond between her
child and herself.

One of the main reasons why relations between parents and

children break down so frequently these days is that parents have
become incapable of influencing their children through their own
vibrations. They have become incapable of impregnating them with
their love, wisdom, strength and life. How is it that mothers did
not understand this a long time ago? Oh, it is true that, from time
to time, if her child is ill or cuddles up to her and kisses her, a
mother feels a little love for it, but that kind of love is without
power, for other feelings take its place almost at once. It is so
terribly rare to find someone who knows how to work on their
children with intelligence and in full consciousness.

Well, there you are: this is how mothers should envisage their
work when they go up to the Rocher at sunrise. If they do so, this
way they will be astonished to see that their love makes them
tireless, for it is love that stimulates and nourishes the cells of the
brain.

In a lecture about the power of thought and of the word, I

explained how to influence your child by talking to it while it is
asleep. Even if it neither hears nor understands, there are certain
laws of the universe that will cause the seeds you plant in your
child to germinate and bear fruit when it grows up. You can talk to
it about the moral laws and all that is good and true, and you can be
sure that everything you say will be recorded within it. Besides,
who can be absolutely certain that infants do not understand what
you say? They cannot express themselves yet or show that they
have understood, because their organs are not yet fully formed, but
this does not necessarily mean they have not understood.

The spirit of even a mentally handicapped child is just as

powerful and intelligent as any other, but it cannot manifest itself
because the brain or the physical body is damaged. Take the
greatest virtuoso in the world: if you give them a piano which is
out of tune, will they be able to play? Of course not. But this does
not mean they are not perfectly capable. All it means is that the
piano is in very poor shape. Well, our piano is our brain. This is
the instrument by means of which the spirit manifests itself, and
even if its owner is a genius and a virtuoso, if their piano is out of
tune they will never be able to make beautiful music with it.
Perhaps it is like this with children. They see and understand a
great many things but they cannot express themselves. You hear of
some amazing, totally inexplicable cases. There are a great many
mysteries about babies that are still to be explained in the future.
We still know so little about them! Sometimes, just for a few
moments, you see a fleeting expression of such intelligence on a
baby’s face that it leaves you speechless. And then, the very next
second, the usual baby-expression is there again. I love to watch
children: for me, they are like books, and I read so many things in
them.

And now, let me say just one more word to mothers: do you
really want your children to be a servant of God, a genius, a saint, a
splendid human being, a benefactor of humanity? If so, look after
them with all the love of which you are capable. Love is all-
powerful. Talk to them while they are asleep, caress them gently,
permeate them with light of every colour: red, orange, golden-
yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple.4 But be careful with the
colours. If you want to become familiar with the true colours
contained in the light of the sun you must use a prism, for the only
way to see the full beauty and strength of nature’s colours is with a
crystal. In this way you can contemplate them for a long time and,
later, reproduce them in your imagination. Be sure not to work
with other, impure colours but only with those of the spectrum:
they are the only true colours.

So try to permeate your child with these dazzling rays of

coloured light. Imagine that the vibrations penetrate all the cells of
its body. When you do this you are reproducing the greatest
mystery of creation, in which the Lord himself penetrates and
vivifies all matter.5

Biblical reference
Abraham is ready to sacrifice his son Isaac – Gen. 1-18

1 See Love and Sexuality, Complete Works, vol. 15, chap. 25: ‘ Love God so as to
love your neighbour better’ .
2 See On the Art of Teaching – from the Initiatic P oint of View, Complete Works, vol.
29, chap. 5: ‘ On perfection’ , part IV.
3 See La pédagogie initiatique, Complete Works, vol. 28, chap. 3: ‘ L’ imagination
formatrice’ .
4 See The Splendour of Tiphareth – The Yoga of the Sun, Complete Works, vol. 10,
chap. 11: ‘ The spirits of the seven lights’ .
5 See above, chap. 19: ‘ The sun teaches unity – the power of penetration’ .
Chapter Six: The magic word

It is truly amazing how many deviations you find in parents’

attitudes towards their children. On the pretext that children are
too young to realize what is going on around them, the parents feel
free to do and say all kinds of things and behave abominably in
their presence, without ever imagining that it can have a very
harmful effect on their psychic health. For children are extremely
vulnerable, extremely impressionable, and it often turns out that
certain maladjustments that show up only later in life have been
caused by conversations or events that went on around them while
they were still a baby.

Also, a great many parents do not pay enough attention to the

way they talk to their children. They keep telling them they are
incapable and stupid, and in the end the children are conditioned
into being really incapable and stupid. Parents who do this are
unaware that words are powerful, active forces and that what they
say to their children can have tremendous influence on them. Why
are they always threatening them with monsters? Why do they
have to tell them that a policeman will arrest them if they’re
naughty and disobedient? Why are they always heaping reproaches
on them or even cursing them for the slightest thing they do
wrong? Don’t they realize that the result will be that their children
will go through life feeling threatened and insecure and end up as
neurotics?
 Parents must learn to use the power of words to do only good to
their children, and I can give you a method for this. It is
particularly for mothers with small babies. While her baby is
asleep a mother should go and sit by its cot or pick it up and hold
it in her arms, and talk to it very softly, ‘M y baby, I love you very
much. I want you to be full of radiant light, divine life, intelligence
and strength, purity and loving-kindness...’ She should talk to her
baby in this way concerning all that her heart desires for it. It is
more than likely that some people will think this is nonsense, but I
know that those who are conversant with the laws of the universe
will agree with me, for they know that the Word is all-powerful.
Even if the baby understands nothing, its mother’s words will be
recorded in its subconscious and will influence and guide it towards
the marvellous future she envisages for it.

A mother should do this every day and every evening. She

should talk softly to her baby, gently stroking its head, telling it of
the strength and all the virtues and qualities it already possesses
and which it will learn to develop later on. She should talk to her
baby about its future, about how happy it is going to be and how it
will become a noble, exceptional being. She should murmur only
poetic, wonderful words to it.

Generally speaking, parents wait for their children to reach a

certain level of intellectual understanding before they begin their
education, because then they can explain things to them, and they
think that that is what education is all about: explanations! But this
is not so: explanations have never had much educational value. The
only valid educational method is example, showing children in very
concrete ways what they should do by doing it in front of them,
without explaining anything at all. Show them how to wash and
clean, how to tidy up, how to prepare a meal. Children are little
monkeys: as soon as they see you doing something they will copy
you.

And if some of you say, ‘Well, before doing as you advise, I’d
like to understand exactly what takes place and what processes are
triggered on the etheric plane’, all I can say is that if you never act
until you’ve seen and understood every possible repercussion
beforehand, you will have to wait centuries! And in the meantime
your child will have grown up to be a good-for-nothing. Don’t
wait! Take care of it right away, for you have a very great
responsibility.

What is so wonderful, too, is that when you say those magic

words for your baby, all kinds of colours start to glow and radiate
from you, from your heart and your head, and certain entities of
the invisible world may be attracted by all this beauty and decide
to stay with your child and work on it. So, I beg you, keep your
intellect quiet for a change and believe what I am telling you,
instead of forever voicing objections and questions; it will be to
your advantage and, above all, to the advantage of your children.
Do any of you know all the laws of the psychic and spiritual
world well enough to be in a position to doubt what I am telling
you? As long as you are still ignorant you need to believe and
follow someone who has gone further than you on the path of
knowledge. So, I repeat, ‘M others, talk to your babies even if
they’re asleep, even if they can’t understand.’ Some of you may be
in the habit of talking to your children mentally, without words.
But this is not enough. There is a tremendous difference between a
thought and a word.

One day I was giving a lecture in Amsterdam, and there were

several representatives of different spiritual and esoteric
movements in the audience. Amongst other things I explained that
meditation engenders enormous accumulations of psychic energy,
and that many people who only meditate and never give expression
to their meditation in words end by being disturbed by those
energies, simply because they have given them no other outlet.
When you meditate, therefore, you should always formulate a few
words so that the entities and forces mobilized by your meditation
all converge in the direction indicated by your words. But, you
may wonder, why are words necessary? Is thought alone not
tremendously powerful? It is. But if you restrict yourself to
thoughts without words it is like writing all kinds of promises and
commitments on paper and then not putting your signature to
them. Your promises are valid only when you sign. You can declare
or promise whatever you like, and bequeath your fortune as you
please, but if there is no signature on your will no one will take any
notice of it. In the eyes of the world it is the signature that counts,
and in spiritual work words are a signature.

When I explained this, the President of the Anthroposophical

Society of Holland exclaimed, ‘Oh, but this is something new to
me!’ And he was very pleased to learn it. You see, there are a great
many people who do not know this. Words are very important.
You can think for hours on end if you like, but if you want to
trigger something, to set something in motion so that your thought
takes shape here on the physical level, then you need the
intervention of words. Thought is powerful on the psychic level,
but words are powerful on the physical level. And now, assimilate
this truth and make it your own, and you will see that you will get
excellent results. Just a word of warning, though: do not formulate
any words until a vital, living thought has taken shape in your
mind and is supported by a strong feeling; otherwise, your words
will be hollow and ineffectual and will produce nothing.1

Even the children who are listening to me here today can

assimilate a little of what I am saying. It is being recorded in their
subconscious, and although they cannot understand it today, later
it will come up to the conscious level and they will be in a position
to benefit from it. They will be far better able to use it and to
succeed in life than those who have been excluded on the pretext
that they were too young.

And the same is true for the children who come with their
parents to be present at the sunrise: some people think they would
be better off in their beds. Not at all! Even if they go to sleep on
the Rocher, they will still absorb the ambiance of prayer,
meditation and contemplation all round them and receive the
benefit of the sun’s rays. Never forget, the sun’s rays are
conscious, spiritual entities, which caress and influence the children
and leave their mark in their etheric bodies.

A few years from now, when their playmates try to persuade

them to get up to mischief with them, these children will feel
something holding them back, an inner strength that will keep them
on the path of purity, light and wisdom. Even if they have no idea
where this deep-seated strength comes from, they will continue to
feel its active influence. And in this way a child’s education begins
long before its understanding has developed.

In fact, I will go much further than that: I have already told you
that once a child is born it is too late to begin its education. Yes,
already then a child’s parents no longer have the power to influence
their child decisively. They must begin before birth, even before it
is conceived! True education, the only kind of education which is
really potent, effective, real and indestructible, begins before a child
is conceived.

M y pedagogical ideas are new, I know, and often bizarre. But

they get results. When you give children something to eat, they
have no notion of the different kinds of energy their food gives
them nor how this energy will contribute to their physical, moral
and intellectual development. But nobody in their senses would
wait for a child to understand before giving them something to eat!
In the same way you should not wait before giving them divine,
spiritual food. If we waited for children to be capable of
understanding the spiritual life before giving it to them, they would
soon be dead – spiritually dead. And this is what often happens:
people wait for their children to be old enough to receive a spiritual
education and in the meantime let them get so deeply accustomed
to a mediocre way of life that when they want to correct the
situation it is already too late. Nothing can be done.

1 See The P ath of Silence, Izvor Coll. n° 229, chap. 10: ‘ Speech and the Logos’ .
Chapter Seven: Never let your children be idle

I am sure you must have noticed today how proud the children
were to sing for us. It was a very serious matter for them. Oh, yes!
They have done something really important today and they will
remember it all their lives: they have sung in front of an audience!
Possibly for you it was not noteworthy, but if you were capable of
looking into the hearts of those children you would see that for
them it was a great event. And now it is up to you to encourage
them, tell them that it was a magnificent performance and that they
should learn more songs because we need to hear them sing again.

It is very important to awaken the desire in children to become

as good as possible in some activity. It is the best way of
preventing them from getting up to mischief and wasting their time
aimlessly. A child should never be allowed to be idle. Very often,
when you want a child to keep still, you say, ‘Be good’. But what
has goodness got to do with keeping still? It is not surprising if,
later on, they cannot bear ‘goodness’. In their minds it is associated
with immobility and boredom, and children are dynamic! In fact,
instead of telling them to keep quiet, it is far better to give them
something to keep them busy.

Parents should realize that it is normal for children to have to

work hard to get their homework or other little jobs done. Children
have such immense reserves and such stamina that they soon forget
any pain involved. But with every effort they make they are
forging their character, and this should make their father and mother
happy. Instead of which, very often, the parents say, ‘Poor little
things; they mustn’t tire themselves’, and this attitude simply
helps them to become weak, lazy, incompetent and egotistical.
That is parental love and education for you! The children who
climb up to the Rocher to see the sun rise every morning: are they
to be pitied? Are they unhappy because they are not in bed?
Absolutely not. They are happy – look at them! Parents should
realize that it is often they themselves who keep their children
weak and dependent. They should change their attitude; otherwise,
they will suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives, because
their children will grow up to be capricious and egotistical adults.

I know many parents who made this mistake with their children
and are suffering because of it, and all I can say is, ‘It’s your own
fault. You should have started teaching your children to help you
to wash a few plates and lay the table, or do some other little job
very early on’. Obviously, most jobs in the house are too difficult
for toddlers; they have neither the strength nor the ability, but they
can watch you: you can do something in front of them and tell
them, ‘When you’re bigger you’ll do this or that.’ And, in the
meantime, there are all kinds of little things they can do to help,
only the trouble is that parents do not give them anything to do,
because it is so much quicker and easier to do it oneself than to
show a child what to do and then keep an eye on them while they
are doing it! But this is not a good educational method, for later on
when you want them to do something they have not learned to do
when they were very small, they will not want to. Their faculties
were not trained early enough. And when this happens it is no
good scolding, ‘Lazy bones! Go and do this or that; try to learn’,
for they will not want to. It is too late.

There are a certain number of good habits you should teach your
children while they are still very young, because then they will
never lose them. I once met a man who had been to prison several
times for theft, and he admitted that even in prison he always said
his morning and evening prayer. It was a habit his father had
instilled into him when he was still small and he could never forget
it. So I asked him, ‘You mean that you pray every morning and
evening and yet you go on stealing?’ ‘Ah, yes’, he replied, ‘but
that’s different.’ For him praying and stealing were not
incompatible. Of course, it would have been better if his father had
given him the habit of not stealing!

People do not realize how terribly strong a habit can be. If

children are used to their parents giving in to their slightest whim it
is inevitable that later on, even when they are in the wrong and
know it, they will go on expecting everyone to let them have their
way. By then it will be too late to change them. Children who have
been pampered and spoiled will grow up always demanding the
same treatment. Unfortunately, once they have grown up there will
be only one force capable of educating them and that is life itself,
for life is quite ruthless. So then they will suffer and learn better.
But what a lot of unnecessary suffering parents store up for their
children simply by giving in to all their wishes!

This is why I often tell parents, ‘Take care! Take care! Your
kindness is really weakness and ignorance in disguise. Later on you
will be reduced to tears, because you will be the first victims of
your own misguided kindness.’ So many parents come and
complain to me about their children’s attitude! I am obliged to tell
them that they have brought it on themselves, and of course they
do not understand. You must never be weak with children, because
if you are they will abuse your kindness and it will not be their
fault but yours. If no one shows children that there are certain rules
they must learn to obey, and if while they are still very young they
have the impression that everything can be made to give way to
their every whim, how can you expect them to listen to someone
who tries to remonstrate with them? They will refuse to obey, and
it is normal. They want to defy everyone, to destroy everything,
to destroy themselves even rather than give way. This is what they
have been accustomed to; it has become a habit and it is not their
fault.

So, when parents realize that the mistakes they have made in
bringing up their child have damaged their character, they have only
one recourse and that is to call on heaven and the spirits of wisdom
to teach the child a lesson which will make them think. The child
will cry a little and the parents will console them, but they will
have understood, and in this way, after a few good lessons, they
will be saved. I have often watched parents with their children, and
I have seen that it is kindness, misguided kindness, that encourages
vice. Kindness is wonderful, but only so long as it is subject to
wisdom.1

One day I was with a wealthy and distinguished family. They

were very worried about their only son, who was giving them a lot
of trouble. They spoiled him and gave him a lot of money, and he
obviously neglected his studies and spent all his time amusing
himself. I wanted to be of some help, so I said, ‘Do you want to
save your son? If so, first of all, you must realize that he has no
gift for studies. If I were you I’d apprentice him to a garage with a
very strict boss who would make him work, and I’d stop giving
him all that money. The easy life is bringing out the worst in him.’ I
explained all this to them at great length, but they did not
understand me. In fact they were insulted by my advice because
they felt that it would be humiliating for them if their son became a
mechanic. They were counting on a brilliant career for him! So,
they did not listen to me. They continued to send their boy to the
best schools in France and abroad and to pay for the very best
tutors for him, and above all they continued to spoil him with
money and expensive presents.

A few years later, the situation was so bad that they remembered
my advice. But I had the surprise of my life when I heard what
they had done: instead of sending their boy as an apprentice in a
garage as I had advised, they bought him the biggest, most modern
and most expensive garage they could find! Obviously nothing in
his previous experience had prepared him to run a business like
that, and before long the inevitable happened, he went bankrupt
and his parents lost enormous sums of money. There is no point in
telling you all that happened later. The point is that here is an
example of parents who brought suffering and misfortune on their
son through their weakness and foolish love.

Nowadays, parents no longer have the courage to use

educational methods which forge a child’s character. They say,
‘They musn’t be made to suffer. They must be given everything
they want.’ Well, it is this weakness that spoils their children, and
the day will come when they will be unable to get them to do
anything they ask. In fact they will find themselves faced with
gangsters, who will ride roughshod over them and give them some
very hard lessons, all because of their mistaken notions about
education.

But parents refuse to trust me. They think I am being cruel. I am

not being cruel: it is simply that I know a few rules. And these few
little rules turn out to be major laws! In the past people brought up
their children according to these laws, even kings, for kings always
had wise old men in their palaces to advise them. One of these
sages might for instance have given the king some advice about how
to bring up his child: ‘Your M ajesty, you have a son who is
destined to reign after you. Will he be a just, honest and impartial
ruler? This is what you should do: before he is old enough to
realize that he’s a prince and heir to the throne, send him to live in
a poor family so he can learn how men and women suffer and
struggle to survive and how hard they have to work to earn a crust
of bread. When he comes back and ascends the throne he will rule
his people with justice, clemency and mercy.’ Some kings actually
followed this advice.2

But nowadays wealthy families do not want to send their sons

to learn a trade in hard or painful conditions. They prefer to send
them to the capitals of the world or to Switzerland to the most
expensive and reputable boarding schools where they hobnob with
princes, playing tennis and skiing and swimming. And when they
get back home they are wrapped in cotton-wool. That is how these
very ‘intelligent’ people bring up their children.

Whereas it would be far better if those who were very rich did
not let their children realize it; otherwise, they will never make an
effort to learn how to get on and make their own way in life.
Children who are used to wealth think that all their wishes should
be granted, that they have the right to taste all the pleasures of life,
and they grow up to be indolent and slothful. This is the worst
possible kind of upbringing. So, as far as possible, parents should
keep their children in ignorance of the wealth they will have when
they grow up. Once they have acquired good habits of work and
self-control, their parents can talk to them about the money they
will inherit later, but not before.
 If you think about it, this is what God himself does with his
children. He is the greatest educator, the supreme pedagogue; he
never reveals the heritage he has prepared for us on high. He lets us
believe we are poor and miserable so that we will work and make a
real effort on our own, and when in toil and tears we have become
worthy of our heritage, he reveals all the treasures he has in store
for us. At that point we understand the wisdom of the Father who
reveals none of this to us in advance. Initiates, who endeavour to
work in the same way, also conceal many things from their
disciples so that they will develop and grow strong.

Parents who want their children to assume important

responsibilities in the future must bring them up to experience the
difficulties of life, for otherwise how will they understand the
difficulties of their subordinates, their workers or soldiers, in later
life? Those who start life in very poor environments and pull
themselves up through their own hard work understand and are
compassionate towards others who suffer, because they know
what it is to suffer. Whereas those who are raised in cotton-wool
are like M arie-Antoinette, who said, ‘They have no bread? Let
them eat cake!’ She simply did not understand.

1 See Truth: Fruit of Wisdom and Love, Izvor Coll. n° 234, chap. 3: ‘ Wisdom and
love; light and warmth’ .
2 See Cosmic Balance – The Secret of P olarity, Izvor Coll. n° 237 , chap. 11-1:
‘ Sceptre and orb’ .
Chapter Eight: Prepare your children for adult
life

I know that the philosophical questions which interest the

adults here are not very entertaining for children and adolescents.
They are much more interested in other activities or amusements.
But still, the very fact of being here amongst adults who endeavour
to put the Teaching into practice in their lives means that it is all
being recorded in their subconscious minds, even if they cannot yet
understand the full, deepest significance. Later, when they have a
serious problem to resolve, they will be in a better position than
most to choose the right line of conduct, for they will have received
an orientation and a stimulus towards what is right. It makes no
difference that, at the moment, they are unaware that anything is
going on. All that they have seen and heard will continue to
influence them for the rest of their lives.1 And this is why the
young must take part in our work.

Even if you have the impression that your children are too
young, you should begin to prepare them now for the life they will
lead later on, and they will gain a deeper understanding if they are
in the company of adults and see how they live. Children
themselves feel this need to prepare for adulthood: look at how a
little girl instinctively wants a doll to cuddle and wash and feed.
She is preparing herself for her future role as mother. Something
within her spurs her on to explore the terrain in view of the future.
This is a topic which is worth investigating.

Some children go to church with their parents without

understanding much of what is going on, but the solemnity of the
service and the recollected attitude of the adults make an
impression on their souls which they will be able to understand
more fully later on in life. Others may be taken to the funeral of a
member of the family or of one of their little friends, and they
begin to wonder what happens to people who disappear. Death is
an event they will inevitably come up against at some stage, and it
is useful for them to be prepared at an early age. The same is true
for so many of the events of life. Every child is, to a certain extent,
obliged to face up to events which are still in the future and, in this,
they must be helped by the experience of adults.2

Take another perfectly simple example: chemistry students

begin by learning what has already been discovered in their field up
to the present. Later on, if they are capable of doing so, they will
add their own discoveries to the existing sum of knowledge but, to
begin with, they must study the experiments and discoveries of
other chemists before them. If they decide to ignore them they
might take twenty or thirty years to discover that a molecule of
water is composed of one atom of oxygen and two atoms of
hydrogen, and they may never even get that far. It is wiser to save
time and accept the findings of our forerunners.
 If children are accustomed to living with adults, they will already
be prepared to face certain events when they come along. They
will remember what they saw their parents do and will do the
same. This is why it is very good for young people not to be
restricted to activities devised for their age-group. One day I was
talking to a woman who had two lovely daughters of about fifteen,
and I said, ‘It would do your girls good to come to the Brotherhood
and hear truths that will be of use to them later on in life.’ And do
you know what her reaction was? ‘Oh, no. They’re too young. At
their age they should be having fun. They love dances and surprise
parties. They’ll have plenty of time in the future to think about
serious things!’ Well, there you have a mother who is preparing a
disastrous future for her children.

Of course young people must be allowed to dance. I am not

against dancing! But they must also get into the habit of thinking
about a higher order of things. Human beings are not made only for
work, effort or serious reflection, that is clear enough. In fact, in
the past, it was the initiates who established the days of popular
rejoicing, so that, with their dancing and singing and masquerading,
people could give vent to the energies repressed by constant work
and the cares of everyday life. On the other hand, if someone
thinks that what is essential is to have fun and amuse oneself all
the time, then they have completely missed the point of life!

I have no quarrel with a mother who wants her daughter to have

a good time. I want to have a good time too. I never think of
anything else! But there is more than one kind of ‘good time’, and
you must be aware of the danger of any good times that are not
offset and balanced by reflection. It will not be long before that
young girl whose mother told her to go out and have fun, is soiled
and ‘devoured’ by the first rogue to come along, and as a result not
only will she lose all her freshness and charm but she will also lose
her lucidity. In no time at all she will have gone to swell the ranks
of those women who go through life with no notion of what it is all
about.

Don’t jump to the conclusion that I am narrow-minded. No one

is more broad-minded than I am. I would like all young people,
boys and girls, to be cheerful and to dance and sing. But at the
same time, I would like them to study the science of the initiates
and to learn to forge bonds with the exalted, vivifying forces of
nature. If they do this they will become marvellous men and
women, capable of acting for the good of their family and country
and even for the whole world.

So, there you are: just a few words to explain that one must not
let young people do only what pleases them or is agreeable to them
at their present stage of development. They must always be helped
to aim a little higher, a little further, and to anticipate the future.
Oh, I know. A lot of children anticipate, but not always in the best
way. A lovely, graceful little girl, for instance, may have one
ambition in life: to be like her aunt with her lips and nails painted
bright red and rings on all her fingers. Or a little boy dreams of
being like his grandfather, because he smokes a pipe and has an
enormous walrus mustache! Without knowing it, young people
often anticipate. They are in too much of a hurry to grow older and
look important or blasé. If they only knew! They need not hurry:
it will happen soon enough without any help from them! If there is
anything that is absolutely certain it is this: nothing can prevent
them from growing old!

In fact, young people should try to stay young as long as they

can – in their hearts, I mean: spontaneous, uncomplicated and
smiling.3 Personally, I prefer to stay a child. I do everything in my
power to maintain the spirit of childhood in me. The young want
to grow old, and I want to stay young. Youth vanishes so soon. It
is like spring – all too brief!

1 See Youth: Creators of the Future, Izvor Coll. n° 233, chap. 2: ‘ The foundation
stone of life: faith in a Creator’ and chap. 3: ‘ A sense of the sacred’ .
2 See above , chap. 12: ‘ Benefit from the experience of older people’ and chap. 13:
‘ Compare yourself to those who are greater’ .
3 See New Light on the Gospels, Izvor Coll. n° 217, chap. 2: ‘ Unless you become
like children’ .
Chapter Nine: Protect your children’s sense of
wonder

Look at these children listening to me: if you only knew how

well they understand what I am saying! Their little faces vibrate.
When it is time to laugh, they laugh, and when it is time to think,
they think. They react magnificently. As an audience they are
much more satisfactory than adults! God alone knows what is
going on in their little heads, how they see and understand things.
Perhaps they get at the truth at once, whereas it takes you ages to
get there. In fact I am sure they do perceive truth more quickly and
more accurately than adults.

Children say a lot of things which adults find absurd because

they don’t understand, and I have often been astounded by the
depth of perception revealed by a child’s reflection. They are
natural and uncomplicated and still in touch with the heavenly
regions they have come from. But their families and society in
general inculcate their own logic, their own distorted view of things
into their children, who end up accepting them. Parents often warp
their children’s minds.

Very young children have an innate sense of the marvellous.

They believe that everything is alive and intelligent. They talk to
insects, stones, animals and plants. If they fall and hurt themselves
on a stone, they give it a kick or scold it because they think it hurt
them deliberately. And if you tell them fairy tales full of giants and
fairies and extraordinary beasts, it is wonderful to see how they
believe it all. But only a few years later they will have lost their
sense of wonder, because adults laugh at their credulity, or if they
do not actually laugh at them, their materialistic attitude rubs off
on the children.

Once a child has lost its sense of wonder it has lost its most
precious faculty. For you cannot think that it is any great proof of
superiority for adults to maintain that the universe has no soul and
no intelligence, and that humans are the only living creatures who
have the power of thought. The whole of nature is alive and
intelligent and peopled with living, intelligent creatures, many of
whom are far more intelligent than humans! As soon as someone
rejects and denies that the whole of creation is alive and intelligent,
death begins to get a hold on them. If you believe that everything
around you is endowed with intelligence and life, then both
intelligence and life will grow and increase within you.

Psychologists and educators should take a good look at this

notion for they have not yet really studied the magical power of an
idea. If you think that everyone on earth is evil, depraved, ugly and
criminal-minded, you are putting yourself in great danger, for not
only will it reflect on you but sooner or later you will actually end
by being like that yourself. And if you believe, on the contrary,
that you are surrounded by light, beauty, splendour and nobleness,
this will influence you, and little by little as the days go by you
will become more and more beautiful, expressive and noble of
character.

Never kill children’s sense of the marvellous. In fact you should

cultivate it so that it nourishes them all their life long. Legends and
fairy tales are good because they keep the sense of the invisible
world and all its inhabitants alive in a child’s mind.1

When I was a child there were a few very old people in the
family whose words expressed great wisdom. They were not
educated people, most of them had never been to school (in a tiny
village in rural M acedonia more than a century ago that was not
unusual), but their whole attitude expressed such dignity and self-
control that I admired them enormously. They were models for me.
When they came to see us at home (I was six or seven years old) I
was always delighted to see them and listened to them with rapt
attention. I always asked them to tell me a story, and one of them
in particular – called M ikhaël – made a deep impression on me. He
was very wise. When he talked he would measure his words and
gestures. Like my grandmother, he would tell me fantastic tales of
battles between the forces of good and evil, the powers of light and
darkness, white magicians and sorcerers! Good always triumphed
over evil in the end. Ever since, I have felt that by means of these
tales this old man and my grandmother gave me an impetus
towards good and the light and sowed in my heart a yearning to see
the triumph of light over darkness.
 I can see now that all this was planned: I had to hear those tales
for they left a deep impression on me. Everything I learned later in
books or at the university has been forgotten; the thing I remember
is these tales in which the powers of light always triumphed over
darkness.

Parents and relations influence children a great deal. For this

reason you should be careful never to leave your children with
anyone who might tell them all kinds of bad things. When they are
small, everything they see and hear leaves an imprint on them
which will last all their lives. So, watch over your children, and in
fact, if you can, you should choose their playmates and always
know who they are with. Look back at your own childhood years,
and you will probably find the reasons for your present tastes and
tendencies, your present behaviour.

Childhood determines the whole of one’s life. The impression

received in childhood can never be erased, and this is why adults
have such an immense responsibility. If they damage a child with
their vulgarity and ugliness, that child will bear the mark of it for
the rest of its life. Adults must keep a strict watch over their
behaviour for fear of giving a child an impetus in the wrong
direction.

But you must understand me correctly: you also have to know

certain laws of initiatic psychology. I am not saying that children
should be raised in a dreamlike, poetic, imaginary and unreal
atmosphere. Not at all. That too would be very dangerous. Every
method has its good and its bad side, and you must know how and
when to apply it. Parents and educators must stimulate children’s
intellect and practical intelligence; they must teach them to manage
for themselves on the physical level and prepare them to cope with
the realities they will meet later on in life, but they must never kill
their taste for the marvellous or their sensitivity to unseen realities.
They should talk to them about the nature spirits: the earth-spirits
(gnomes), the water-spirits (nymphs or naiads), the spirits of the
air (sylphs) and the spirits of fire (salamanders), and tell him about
the work these spirits do in the universe.2 But more important
than anything else, they must instil in them a sense of the divine
world, and a good way to begin is to talk about the Tree of Life and
the heavenly hierarchies.

Of course, you have to put yourself on a child’s level. There is

no point in reeling off all the cabbalistic names on the sephirotic
Tree of Life, but it is simple to give them the notion of hierarchy.
You can begin by telling them, ‘You see, men are more intelligent
than animals, that is why they are above them,’ and then you can
explain why. ‘And even amongst men and women, some are above
others because they are better or wiser.’ A child recognizes the
truth of this. Then you can say, ‘So why shouldn’t there be other
beings who are above men and women, even above the best and
wisest?’ Children accept this, and in this way you introduce them
to the notion of the existence of angels and archangels and all the
entities of the spiritual hierarchies. Any child who has been
brought up like this will have a consciousness of a higher world of
light and wisdom and the desire to strive towards it.3

Anyone who denies the existence of worlds beyond our world

and of living beings of a higher order than ours limits themselves
and condemns themselves to remain in darkness. And if so many
people never advance or improve, it is because they do not know,
or refuse to admit, that beyond and above the human race there is a
whole hierarchy of sublime beings, angels and archangels, all the
way to the throne of God. And the result, of course, is that they
have no goal or high ideal to cling to and from which to draw
inspiration and energy of a higher order.

They go on living, of course, but from a spiritual point of view

they never make any progress. They even refuse to accept the idea
of a M aster who could instruct and enlighten them. In fact many
people are dead – spiritually dead. Whereas those who consciously
accept the spiritual hierarchies have a higher goal in life and the
impetus to do far greater things.

1 See The Wellsprings of Eternal Joy, Izvor Coll. n° 242, chap. 16: ‘ Opening the
doors to the dream world’ .
2 See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor Coll. n° 226, chap. 8: ‘ Working with nature
spirits’ .
3 See Angels and other Mysteries of The Tree of Life, Izvor Coll. n° 236, chap. 1:
‘ From man to God, the notion of hierarchy’ .
Chapter Ten: Love without weakness

‘Fathers and mothers should never give way to their children’s

whims. They must be full of tenderness and love but inflexible.
When they tell their children to do something they must be sure
that they obey. Some mothers give way to their children because
they cry and they cannot bear to let them suffer. This is
unintelligent pity because, later on, children who have never
learned to obey will have no respect for their parents. A mother
must remain calm and gentle, never get angry and never hit her
child, but she must not give way either, exactly like M other Nature
who never yields to the whims and wishes of human beings.

‘If a child puts its fingers into a flame or onto a block of ice, the
physical laws of heat and cold will not be changed to spare it.
Nature looks on completely unmoved by what it does, and this is
why it learns to respect her. For a child, its mother represents
nature, and if she fails to do so faithfully the child will never learn
that certain limits must not be overstepped and will be headed for
catastrophe. The mother’s weakness is very often the cause of
children turning into complete scoundrels later on in life.’

Yes, it is very often the unintelligent love of parents that causes

so much distress in families, because they are incapable of teaching
their children that there are certain laws which everyone must
obey, parents and children alike. Children who are always allowed
to do whatever they want will never know the difference between
good and evil, and it will not be their fault: they were badly
brought up. Children have to start learning when they are still very
young that there are laws they must obey, and it is up to their
parents to teach them. ‘But the poor little darlings, what can I do if
they cry?’ Let them cry!

As soon as a child cries, its mother gives way because she

cannot bear to see her little darling unhappy. If she does this she is
finished, she will be a slave and spend the rest of her life giving in.
Her child will browbeat her and cause her great unhappiness, all
because she did not know the difference between love and
weakness. Your child cries? Let it cry, it will do its lungs good, and
it will begin to understand that there are rules that have to be
respected and obeyed. If you relent at the first sign of tears, your
child will learn to use those tears to force you to give it its way.
You must realize that children are more intelligent and far more
cunning than their mother! They very soon learn to use their tears
to get their own way, and once they have got it they become
unbearable. What can you expect? This is how mothers learn!

Parents should not wait before making it quite clear to their

children that they have no intention of obeying their every whim
and fancy, otherwise, by the time they decide to react it will be too
late. Some parents, when they realize that the situation is serious,
suddenly become strict and inflexible, and a terrible battle ensues.
They even beat their children! But it is too late: the damage is
done, and they have become completely intractable because the
parents waited too long. They should have been firm with them
from the beginning. Parents must learn to overcome the weakness
that stems from their desire to give their children pleasure because
they are little: in doing this they arouse very bad tendencies in the
child’s heart and soul. They should do just the opposite, because it
is when children are very young that they will accept restrictions,
orders and rebukes. Later on when they are old enough to
understand, they will love their parents for it and be grateful to
them for sparing them a lot of suffering.

Some parents can never do enough to give their children pleasure

and amuse them, and the result of this exaggerated desire to please
can be catastrophic. Take the question of toys, for instance. What
kind of toys are made nowadays for children to play with?
Revolvers, tanks, guns and arms of all kinds, even miniature
guillotines! And what do parents do? Instead of joining forces to
protest and put a ban on such toys, they buy them! This is how
they prepare their children to turn out badly. What unbelievable
ignorance and stupidity! Has it never occurred to them that these
bloodthirsty games will necessarily have repercussions on the
child’s behaviour and mentality? Some children become monsters,
because they have been wrongly brought up by people with no
knowledge of Initiatic Science.

Yesterday I saw a child making a hideous face and I asked his

mother, ‘Where did he learn to do that?’ ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘his father
did it one day to amuse him so now he copies him.’ Just look at
how people educate their children! To amuse them and make them
laugh they make a horrible grimace, and naturally the children
imitate them. You must never show anything ugly and stupid to
your children just to amuse them! There are other ways of amusing
them.

Parents should never do anything that is not educational and

intelligent, even if it does not please their child. It is the child’s
place to accept and learn to adjust. Nowadays, nobody thinks of
anything but pleasure. Pleasure is the very worst counsellor. It
degrades humans and causes them to sink back to the level of
animals. Parents who are ignorant try to give pleasure to their
children because of what they call their love. But there is more than
one kind of love, and you must choose the love that educates,
refines and strengthens your child so that he or she will become
perfect. Human beings are by nature selfish and ungrateful, and it is
this selfishness and ingratitude which over-indulgent parents
encourage. Because you love your children you want to give them
everything, but if you are wise you will deprive them of certain
things.

I could go on talking all day but I know that parents would still
not agree with me, because my advice goes against their own
methods. But isn’t it obvious that they have problems with their
children? And isn’t it reasonable to think, therefore, that they
would do well to revise those methods?
 In the text I read at the beginning I said that you should never hit
your children. In point of fact, in exceptional cases, a slap or a
good spanking does no harm. But there is one thing you have to be
very careful about if you hit your child and that is your expression,
the way you look at them. Your eyes must not express anger or
hostility or negative feelings towards them, because although they
will quickly forget the spanking, they will never forget it if you
look at them with hostility. They will bear a grudge and sooner or
later try to take revenge. Be very careful of what your eyes express
if you have to hit your child!1

Often parents slap a child because they are exasperated and lose
patience, but this is a very bad reaction. Corporal punishment
should never be the expression of a parent’s exasperation –
exasperation is not educational – but only to make the child
understand that there are certain rules which have to be obeyed.
This is the reason for a method which I know some of you find
bizarre: when mothers have to punish their children they must be
in full control of themselves and show that they hate having to hit
them. They should even let them see them cry and tell them, ‘I
don’t want to beat you, but I have to because you have done
wrong and you have to be punished for it.’ Then they can go ahead
with the spanking! In this way children understand that their
mother is unhappy, that it hurts her to have to beat them and that
it is their own fault if she is obliged to punish them. This will make
them reflect and understand that there are certain laws which must
not be broken.

I insist on this point because I know that many parents do not

pay much attention to the way they punish their children. Never,
never strike them in anger, because it leaves an impression of hatred
and evil, not of justice, and it is essential for their proper education
that children feel that their father and mother are just and that it is
because they are just that they punish them. To strike a child in a
fit of anger is very bad from the point of view of magic. Let me
explain why.

When you strike a child in anger, the negative, disharmonious

vibrations of your feelings are communicated, the anger which goes
out from you in the form of a current of hostility will continue to
work destructively on your child for months and even years, and
this is how, without realizing it, you give your child over to the
control of negative forces. You see how ignorant parents are!
Instead of helping and protecting their children, they destroy
something divine and sacred within them and fill them with the
negative forces lurking in their own hearts. Parents must banish all
angry reflexes from their conduct.

We cannot educate all the mothers and fathers of the earth, but I
hope that at least those who are members of the Brotherhood will
accept the light of this Teaching. Let them punish their children
when necessary, but without the destructive feelings which expose
them to the influence of the powers of darkness. For there is
another point I have not explained, and that is that later on when
they want to guide their children, they will find they cannot: they
have no influence on them. Instead of being docile and obedient to
their parents, the children obey only the spirits of darkness; it is
these that have become their guides. You must give all this a lot of
thought. Punish your children if you have to, but only to make
them aware that there are certain laws which they cannot disobey
without endangering themselves.

This is how nature behaves. Suppose it is win- ter and very cold
and you break a window: unless you mend it you will have to put
up with the consequences and spend your time shivering. If you
appeal to nature, ‘I’m cold! Couldn’t you make it a little warmer?’
it will remain completely unmoved and implacable. It is up to you
to realize that you have been clumsy and repair the damage and not
be so awkward in the future. A mother should treat her child in the
same way as nature treats us: by being unmoved and implacable
and, at the same time, showing that she too obeys the same laws.
In doing so she will inculcate in her child the notion of order and
hierarchy: you can expect wonders from a child who has been
brought up in awareness and respect for the law.

Obviously, children are not all the same. In bringing them up you
have to make allowances for their different degrees of evolution,
their temperament, their health and many other factors besides.
There are so many different cases that one cannot establish a
blanket rule for everyone. It is up to the parents to study their
children and prove themselves sufficiently intelligent and
enlightened to choose the method that best suits each one.

One thing is true and applicable in all cases: parents must

themselves be irreproachable and betray no faults or failings in
front of their children. In the case of young mothers who have
lovers or, during the war for instance, when women made love in
the fields with soldiers of the army of occupation, they could not
leave their small children alone in the house so they took them with
them, and of course they saw everything without understanding.
But a few years later they remembered and understood, and the
devastation caused by the scene they had witnessed became
apparent in their attitude towards their mother. Why do mothers
have to be so stupid and selfish? They do all kinds of negative
things in the presence of their children, thinking that they do not
see what is going on. Ah, but they do see, and everything is
recorded in their subconscious. People can never forget some of the
things they experienced when they were three, four or five years
old. They forget what happened yesterday, but they never forget
something they experienced sixty or eighty years ago.

When parents show their failings, children are troubled and

disorientated; they have nothing to hold onto anymore.
Instinctively, children need to lean on someone who incarnates
justice, nobleness, strength and perfection. They have an inborn
sense of justice and truth, and when they see their parents
behaving immorally, something inside them is deeply affected.
Children know they are little and weak and they need to feel the
protection of an infallible authority. They may be ignorant, but
they know they need protection, and this is why they press up
against their mother to feel her warmth. But the support they need
is not only physical, it is also psychological: when children sense
that their father and mother are not equal to their task, either they
become lost or they rebel. Countless tragedies begin this way.

Children need their parents to show strength, not weakness, and

this is why, once you have given a child an order it is very bad to
allow them to disobey. When parents give their child an order, they
must see to it that they are obeyed; otherwise, the child will realize
that they are not firm and reliable, and the image it has of them will
compromise its education.

While we are on this subject I would like to talk to you about

something very interesting. When adults want to do something,
they start by thinking about it, but children’s brains are not yet
capable of reflection. For them action comes first, and this means
that they should do what adults tell them without discussion.
Their mode of action is the exact opposite of an adult’s. If children
had to understand before acting, they would never get anything
done. They have to act before they understand. Others have
understood before them, and if they trust their understanding, the
development of their own process of understanding will be greatly
facilitated.
 Children can become intelligent by doing what their parents tell
them, because true intelligence is action. Any achievement on the
physical plane implies an intelligence behind its realization, and
when something is well done, we are led to the conclusion that it is
the work of an intelligent being. Whether that intelligent being is
visible or invisible, conscious or unconscious, is quite another
matter.

So, children must do as they are told without explanations.

When a mother takes her little boy out with her, she does not have
to explain exactly where they are going. He trusts her and lets her
take him by the hand, knowing that she will not lead him to where
snakes, bears or wild boars will tear him to pieces – symbolically
speaking – and this is how he develops and makes progress. But a
child who cannot trust its parents or who insists on being free and
independent does not develop its intelligence.

You will start raising all kinds of objections: ‘Yes, but we know
families in which the children are far more intelligent than their
parents. No wonder they refuse to obey them.’ I know that every
now and then there are exceptional children, but they are rare –
very rare. I am speaking generally, and in general I simply do not
believe what so many people would like me to believe: that most
children are little geniuses who are justified in rebelling against their
mediocre parents. It is not true! Children are born into a particular
family for a reason, and since that is where they are, it is too late to
criticize and condemn. If they are such geniuses, why did they
choose to be born into such a family?2 They have been born into
this particular family because they have something to learn from
them, and to do this they must obey their parents. Later on they
will prove themselves, like the princes of royal blood who were
sent into the army as simple soldiers so as to be treated (or rather
ill-treated) like the others.

Children have no business, therefore, to argue and criticize. No

one has asked them to create disorder and anarchy. Since they are
there in that family, they have to begin by living in harmony with
their parents. When they have proved their superiority, they can
do as they like, not before. When children obey their parents and
do as they say, their intelligence begins to develop, and gradually
they will understand the reasons.

Of course, there are cases where the parents’ unbending severity

can be catastrophic. Take the case of a child who wants to do
something on the spiritual level, but whose parents are so gross
and ignorant, or dishonest enough to refuse, because it is
incomprehensible to them. By their unyielding attitude they do
their child a great deal of harm. So, although there is a general rule,
you must also take into account the exceptions and circumstances
that may alter things.

Before making up their minds, before allowing or categorically

refusing permission for something, parents should foresee and
evaluate the circumstances of their decision. How can they do this
if they have no discernment? They must begin by finding out what
is involved before pronouncing judgment, for there are several
factors to consider: whether the child is strong enough, whether it
is the right moment, whether it will be for the child’s good, whether
he or she has a special gift which should be safeguarded, or not. In
the area of food, for instance, parents should take a number of
elements into account and not force their children to eat something
just because they themselves think it’s good.

I repeat, mothers and fathers should not demand absolute

obedience from their children before asking themselves a certain
number of questions, ‘Is what we are asking of them good, just and
divine? Is it what their soul needs or will it be detrimental to their
evolution?’ Once they have all the elements in hand and clearly
understand what is good for their children, then they can make a
categorical and irrevocable decision. And whether it is a permission
or a refusal, their children must accept their verdict.

Children should understand that there are laws which their

parents also must obey. Even initiates obey the great laws of
nature – in fact they are the first to respect and obey them. They
have a little less respect for man-made laws which may not always
be just, but they are always full of respect and submission towards
the eternal, universal laws of God.3 It is this spirit of respect and
submission that the disciples of the Universal White Brotherhood
must cultivate in themselves and hand on to their children.
 I hope you understand me correctly: that you must love your
children deeply goes without saying, but you must also know
when and how to show your love. There are moments when it is
better to show not love but wisdom. And only if you are capable
of doing this can you talk about enlightened and beneficial love.
Weak, foolish love is a disaster for all concerned!

1 See Les deux arbres du P aradis, Œuvres Complètes, t. 3, chap. 4: ‘ La puissance

magique des gestes et du regard’ .
2 See Youth: Creators of the Future, Izvor Coll. n° 233, chap. 11: ‘ Did you choose
your own family? ’
3 See Cosmic Moral Law, Complete Works, vol. 12.
Chapter Eleven: Education versus instruction

I am often asked for advice about how to educate children, and I

reply, ‘As you know, a great deal has been done in recent years
concerning children and adolescents, but if you look at the
improvements in the schools and so on, you will see that they all
concern the external, material side. The schools are bigger and
better and equipped with laboratories, radio, cinema, television,
sports grounds, swimming pools, etc. Yes, but what about the
children? Are they any better? I’m afraid not!’

In the past, people attached less importance to the exterior

aspects. Any old house, even a stable, would do as a school. The
wind whistled through gaps in the windows stuffed with paper. No
wood was provided: each child arrived with their own log for the
fire. Sometimes there were no books for the pupils; the only
person to have one was the teacher. And yet, out of these schools
came exceptional men and women, strong, noble characters, who
could be taken as models. Nowadays the material conditions have
been vastly improved, but what are the schools turning out? A lot
of lying, self-seeking, dishonest, rude rascals! Oh, they are very
well-informed, that is true! They can dazzle you with information,
but beneath the surface, in their characters, you cannot count on
any solid, noble qualities.
 Shall I tell you about the conditions I had when I went to
school? M y father died when I was very young and we were very
poor, so poor that my mother could not afford to buy books. Very
often I went off to school in the morning with no breakfast, and I
was always a bit drowsy in class – sometimes I fell asleep. During
the recreation periods I borrowed my classmates’ books and, in a
great hurry, tried to learn a little of the day’s lesson, and then,
when the teacher called on me, I had to try to remember what I had
read in those few minutes. In retrospect I see that all those
difficulties I had to contend with awoke certain qualities in my
character which stood me in good stead later on. When life is too
comfortable it chloroforms us and puts us to sleep. Those who
have brought great benefits to humanity have never been people
who were comfortably established. Rich people who have
everything they need in life – just look at what they are interested
in, what they talk about: trivialities!

Some of you may object: ‘Yes, but these schools that are so well
equipped nowadays are very useful. Thanks to all that equipment
our children can learn to be technicians and engineers, etc.’ True!
They can learn whatever you like on the technical level. But is
humankind any happier because of technical progress, comfort or
speed? I am certainly not opposed to progress, but you have to be
sure that you’re ‘progressing’ in the right direction! At the
moment, men and women are only interested in improving material
conditions, as though there were no other areas in which they
needed to improve. I am all in favour of progress – but what kind?
In spite of all the technical progress of the last few decades, the
quality of life has not improved. People are no happier than they
were before; they are no less troubled and anxious; they are no
more radiant with inner light than they were in the past; their
health is no better.1

The desire to improve exterior conditions is very praiseworthy,

of course, but at the same time the inner aspects, the characters of
the young, have been forgotten. Teachers, lecturers and parents
thought that all children needed was to have better books and
learning aids, but these have not produced the miraculous results
hoped for. Of course many people are aware of this. They realize
that despite all the recent improvements and no matter how much
the children are reprimanded and punished, they are not getting any
better. On the contrary. Why? Because they have no living
examples before them.

The only way to get good results in education is for teachers and
educators to be models for the children. The first and most
important educators are parents, and if they betray their vocation,
if they fail to practise what they preach, the children will very
soon realize that something is not right. When this happens, not
only do the parents lose all authority but their children begin to
follow their example. They learn that truth is a coin which has two
sides: one for public consumption and one for private use and that
you can do whatever you like as long as you do not lose face. They
all practise deceit and fraud because this is the example they have
before their eyes.

Nowadays, the majority of educators are intellectuals who have

no real vocation for their profession: they have acquired a
smattering of superficial knowledge from all the books they have
read, but on the inside they are not really pedagogues. True
pedagogues are born not made, and their mere presence, the light in
their eyes, the emanations flowing from them are sufficient to
educate children. History holds more than one example of men or
women who were born with that special love, that special moral
quality that has such a profound influence on children. For children
are sensitive. They are like animals, which can sense if someone is
their master or not, even from a distance. Take the case of horses
for instance: if a rider is cowardly the horse senses it and in no time
at all the rider is unhorsed! For anyone else the same horse may be
perfectly docile. And children have the same intuition.

However, more and more teachers and lecturers are beginning to

question their educational methods, and before long they will
understand that the only way to educate young people and have a
good influence on them is to be blameless themselves. Why is this?
Because as I was saying, children have a special sense, like animals,
and generally their judgment is unerring. This is why, although I
never fear the judgment of an adult, I tremble before a child’s
judgment. It is terrifying! The opinion of children is very
important to me, because I know that they have an instinct for
truth.

When I was a college student in Varna during the First World

War, as most of the teachers had been called to the front we had
substitute teachers to take the classes while they were away. One
year we had two different mathematics teachers one after the other.
Whenever the first one came into the schoolroom the whole class
erupted in pandemonium, the pupils began to laugh and play the
fool, and although he did all he could to restore order, shouting and
threatening and gesticulating, it was all to no avail. He would even
go and fetch the principal, but as soon as his back was turned the
uproar began again. And yet that teacher was a very nice man. I
was sorry for him and I could not understand why my classmates
were so cruel. In fact, one day I was so indignant at their attitude
that while he was absent I spoke to the class and told them that
they were being inconsiderate. They agreed to mend their ways and
for a couple of days it was better, but then the bedlam began all
over again. It was as though the teacher’s attitude, or something in
his emanations, triggered the pupils’ reaction and made them
turbulent.

One day he left the school and was replaced by a funny little
man who came quietly into the classroom without even looking at
us. As soon as he appeared, the pupils went to their places
without a word and never stirred during the whole lesson. The
teacher put his register on the desk and in a very quiet voice began
the lesson. He never got angry, never threatened us, never punished
anyone. He knew his subject inside out, he never hesitated, and we
had to work very hard. I was fifteen or sixteen at the time and this
made a great impression on me. I never forgot this little man that
looked so completely insignificant, not because he was so
knowledgeable but because of something in his presence, something
which emanated from him and impressed us all. And this happens
in schools and universities: every now and then you meet teachers
who, without doing anything special to impress their students,
command respect simply by their presence.

There are other cases, for instance, of certain yogis in India who
live in the jungle in the midst of tigers and cobras, and the animals
never harm them: because of their innate purity and virtues the
yogis give off powerful vibrations which the animals can sense and
which keep them at a respectful distance, whereas they would
attack anyone else.

If instruction is so highly rated nowadays it is because everyone

knows that it is the key to the best, most prestigious and most
highly paid positions. In the meantime, the moral education of
children is neglected because it brings none of these advantages. In
fact someone who gives priority to moral values will almost
always be ousted by unscrupulous individuals who have learned to
look out for themselves. Besides, it is much more demanding to
work at improving one’s character than to acquire a university
degree!2
 In any case parents are at fault here, too. Of course they are
delighted to have obedient, sincere, respectful and honest children,
but they are even more delighted if their children come top of their
class or if they can attract attention by reciting a poem or playing
something on the piano. What really matters for parents is the
intellectual capacity of their children, not their moral qualities. I
have seen this with my own eyes and I know that it is so. And
later, when the children become knowledgeable, erudite adults, they
turn against their parents and criticize and blame them. The
unfortunate parents are completely bewildered; they sacrificed so
much to give their children a first-class schooling only to be met
with nothing but criticism.

This is why I always tell parents, ‘If you don’t want all that
instruction you are giving your children to be used against you one
day, you must accept the Teaching of Initiatic Science. If you do,
you yourself will become better in every way, more luminous and
more radiant, and in that way you will impress your children a
hundred times more than all their educators.’

Parents must not think that they are satisfying the essential
needs of their children when they provide them with instruction.
This is an illusion which can only lead to war between the
generations: at school the children learn all kinds of things their
parents never learned, and when they get home, armed with their
diplomas and their so-called superiority, they give their parents a
very hard time! And the parents are unhappy and disappointed to
see that their children are ungrateful, rude and violent. But they
have only themselves to blame! Why have they never done
anything to acquire the inner light and strength that will always
impress the children with their superiority? This should be the goal
of all parents: to become so noble and high-minded, so radiant and
strong that they will be exemplary.

If parents really want to hold on to their children, if they really

want their children to love and admire them and never forsake
them, then they must be an inspiration and example to them. If
parents fail to do this, I warn them, they will lose their children. If
they always look for the easy way out they will only get weaker
and more vulnerable, and when a serious problem arises they will
break down completely. What good will that be to anyone? Never
let yourself reach that stage. Think about these things and do what
you must do to overcome each difficulty as it arises.

M odern society is full of anomalies which are the result of the

exaggerated importance attributed to instruction. Obviously, it is
necessary, indispensable, but it has reached a point where children
and adolescents are being stuffed with a surfeit of useless
knowledge. As soon as they have finished their studies and passed
their exams the first thing they do is forget it all! What is the point
of working so hard and for so long to accumulate a mass of
information which will be forgotten almost at once, without ever
learning what is essential in life? And what exactly is essential in
life? I shall tell you; I will explain how initiates look at this
question of education.

Initiates see the human being as a kingdom in which the cells of

the body are the population and the individual is the king.
Unfortunately, in most instances, the king has been dethroned: his
subjects have deposed him because he did not rule them wisely, he
never instructed his cells how to carry out their appointed tasks,
and instead of taking up the reins of government, he spent all his
time in the pursuit of pleasure and had none left to devote to his
people. Whilst he was engaged in useless, even criminal activities,
his friends and associates saw nothing wrong and even admired
him. But he could not conceal the truth from his subjects, his cells,
who watched and waited until, at last, they decided to overthrow
their unworthy sovereign.

The cells of our bodies are alive and endowed with intelligence;
they watch us. As they are permanently in contact with us we
cannot escape their vigilance, the least little deceit or dishonesty
leaves its imprint on them, and before long they begin to follow the
example we give them. They say to each other, ‘Come on, it’s quite
all right to drink and plunder, the boss does it!’ Nobody realizes
that our cells follow the example we give them.

Before launching into the education of others, each individual

must become the educator of their own cells, in the belief that a
population whose king gives a bad example will imitate him and
end by dethroning him. A king who gives an example of
kindheartedness, nobleness and integrity will be imitated by his
cells; they will sustain him and become so obedient and radiant that
their light will manifest itself externally. It is this inner radiance,
these emanations which influence human beings, animals and even
plant life.

Whatever a person creates within themselves through their

work, their meditation and their purity is reflected first of all on
their own cells; in a second phase it manifests itself outwardly and
influences other people. If you do not know this law you will
never accomplish anything authentic, for everything must first of
all be created and organized inside before taking shape on the
physical level.

Never forget that your example, good or bad, before it influences

others influences your own cells; when they see that your life is
anarchistic they too become anarchistic and refuse to obey you.
Try as you might, when you want to impose your will on them
they will refuse to listen, and you will find that you have no
control over your sensuality, your anger, your greed, etc. Whereas
if you succeed in gaining the respect and trust of your cells you
will have great power over them. If you feel upset for instance,
after a few minutes of concentration you will be able to recover
your inner peace and light.

So, if you have shown a bad example to your cells up to now,

from now on change your inner attitude and your behaviour. Your
cells will register the improvement and will imitate you. Obviously,
to begin with, your new behaviour will feel unnatural, but little by
little it will become more natural, and you will find yourself
constantly helped and stimulated to do even better.

When someone has accomplished this educational work with

their own children – the cells within their own body – then they
can undertake to educate others exterior to themselves, whether
children or adult men and women. Then their words and example
will ring true: instead of being hollow and empty they will be full
of power, vibrant and alive. People will sense that they are a true
pedagogue: their integrity and unity, their authenticity will make
themselves felt. Yes, and this is because their ‘subjects’ within
uphold their authority and give them strength so that there is magic
in their presence. Whatever they say gets results because their
whole being is unified, accustomed to working in one direction.
They are not divided in themselves, pulling one way outwardly
and another way inwardly.

We all have to attain this kind of integrity, this unity: what we

manifest must be the authentic expression of what we are inside.
When we reach this stage we can be extremely effective educators.
True power is when every single cell emanates something
authentic; otherwise only that part of us that speaks expresses a
little light, everything else in us cries out, ‘No, no! It’s not true!’

Real magic exists only where there is truth and unity. M agic
presupposes unification, a mustering of forces and energies; there
can be no magic in the presence of dispersion and dislocation. But
although I am saying this about magic, you must understand that it
is not really magic that interests me. I never read books on magic or
sorcery, although I did glance through some at one time just to have
an idea of what they said, but I have no time to waste on this kind
of reading. No! For me, magic is life; magic is the whole universe.
This is the true treatise on magic, and it is lying open before us,
waiting for us to read it – but we still haven’t learned to read!

In practice there are three categories of educators: those who

demand that their students respect and obey certain rules, although
it is obvious that they themselves have no respect for anything;
those who are careful to give a good example in public but who do
so out of pride or vanity to protect their reputation and don’t mind
breaking the rules in private; and finally, the third category, the
initiates, the true educators, who are not inwardly divided: what
they teach, what they aspire to is an expression of themselves; it is
part of them, their very quintessence. This is the goal we must
reach.

And this is why, for me, the greatest of all teachers is the sun.3
Yes, it is the sun that is my M aster. Do you know what it told me
one day? It said, ‘Believe me, all those so-called teachers know
nothing of true education. They don’t even know that if you want
to warm someone you have to be warm yourself, and if you want
to communicate light and life to someone you have to be luminous
and alive yourself. Educators try to force the young to develop
moral qualities which they themselves don’t possess and which
they are incapable of demonstrating in their own behaviour. How
can you expect the young not to rebel? It’s normal that they should
refuse to obey people like that!’ There – that’s what the sun says!

A true teacher manifests in their behaviour the qualities they

want to instil in others; something contagious, stimulating and
irresistible must flow from them. A true poet or musician
stimulates others to be poets or musicians; someone whose heart
overflows with love inspires others to love; a daring, courageous
officer influences the men under his command: he launches an
attack and they follow him to victory over the enemy. Can an
officer call on his men to follow him into battle if his voice is
shaking with fear? No one would obey him! Educators tell the
young, ‘Be kind; be honest; be this, that or the other’, but what
about them? Do they practise what they preach? How can you
expect young people to obey?

Education today is concerned only with the surface, with trivia,

whereas true education is concerned with the inner centre, the core
of things. If you are inwardly noble, just and honest, then without
having to say one word you will inspire those around you to be
noble, just and honest too.

The magical power of education lies in one thing and one thing
only: example. I cannot repeat this too often. All the rest is
trimmings, stuff and nonsense! Teachers ‘know’ a great deal; they
read, write, explain and expound all kinds of clever theories, but
they are incapable of being living examples. That’s not good
enough! I never read books on education any longer; there are too
many of them and they all contradict each other anyway. If you
asked me about educational programmes in other countries or the
latest educational systems and trends, I would have to admit that I
know nothing about all that. All my energy, all my willpower is
concentrated on one central goal: how to become a model, a living
example. Only that!

II

If teachers and professors are worn out at the end of the school
year, it is not because it is so exhausting to take care of children but
because all too often they work with a mercenary mentality: their
main concern is to earn their living. They are not interested in the
children. They simply try to get through their work as quickly as
possible, never stopping to reflect on the exalted nature of their
calling, which is to look after the souls of all these children that
heaven has entrusted to their care. It goes without saying that
children have failings, but once you embark upon a career as an
educator you assume the obligation to think of the children’s
future, to be attentive and considerate towards them, in fact to love
them. And as all children are responsive to affection and kindness,
after a time they will begin to respond and to change.
 When I was still in Bulgaria, more than fifty years ago, I knew a
very old woman who had never learned to read and write. Towards
the end of her life, when she was seventy years old, she asked to
go to the village school. She lived in a small village and the
schoolmaster agreed to let her join the class. Well, you can just
imagine the children’s reaction when they saw an old lady sitting in
the classroom with them! They did nothing but tease and laugh at
her. And she? Not only did she never get angry with them, but she
would hug and kiss them and bring them little presents. Before long
the children stopped laughing at her. They adored her. And one
day, when she had got a chill and could not go to school, the whole
class trooped off to her house to beg her to get better quickly and
come back to school with them. They did not want to learn their
lessons if she was not there.

Yes, but if you want to have this kind of effect on children you
need a great deal of love and patience. The world has had a few
great educators, such as Pestalozzi for instance, who was not
especially learned but who achieved amazing results with difficult
children because of his great love. But such people are rare. I know
what a tremendous job it is to educate children; if I can talk to you
about this it is because I, too, have been first a teacher and later the
principal of a college in Bulgaria, and I have seen with my own
eyes the effect of love and patience on children. Because of all the
tales my pupils used to tell their parents about me, they would
often come and see me to thank me and bring me presents. In fact I
had so many presents that in the end I did not know what to do
with them or where to put them all! When I left to come to France,
they all came to the station and cried to see me go! I can never
forget that. I often think of all those children who are grandfathers
and grandmothers by now!

If educators and teachers made a conscious effort to introduce

spiritual elements into the hearts and souls of their pupils, they
would never be forgotten, for those elements remain alive and
active in the children’s souls, and they will always remember the
men and women who gave them something so precious. As things
are now, children don’t even remember who their teachers were, or
if they remember it is usually only to laugh at them or even detest
them still, years later. So all their work is wasted and useless,
because there was no Iove or light in it, no awareness of its true
grandeur.

Teachers who really love the children do not get so exhausted,

because their nervous system is not under such strain. But you
must work with love and patience, you must be convinced that
your work will be a success and that it will win you friends who
will never forget you; otherwise, you will be fighting a losing
battle. Love is particularly important when you are dealing with
little children, because the friends you will be making are their
guardian angels. Every child has a guardian angel that takes care of
them, watches over them and does its best to educate them. But its
task is often made extremely difficult because of all the other
influences the child is subject to. The angels watch over their
charges, but they can’t do everything for them, so they are
delighted when they see that someone else is trying to help and
they will see that this person is rewarded. By your good work,
therefore, you win the friendship not only of the children and their
parents – for children always tell their parents all about their
teachers – but also of the children’s guardian angels. Instead of
trying to get rid of your pupils as quickly as you can, isn’t it
worth making an effort and taking some trouble with them? If you
do not think so you would do much better not to be a teacher:
choose another profession!

As you can see there are certain methods you must know about
in order to work with children. You could say that you should not
even think of them, only of yourself. If you do not want to end up
exhausted and in a state of collapse, keep calm, be more patient and
attentive, and you will save a lot of energy. If you are always tense
and irritable you will end up falling ill.4

A lot of teachers spend their time heaping abuse on the children

because they cannot get them to improve. Are they themselves
such shining examples? Are they justified in wanting to change
others? M ost of them are so commonplace and mediocre, how can
they have the nerve to under- take the education of children? It is
not their vocation. They were cut out to be butchers, and now look
at them: educators! It has never occurred to them that their task is
to work on the souls and spirits of their pupils and leave in them
the imprint of something divine. Tell me, where is the university
that reveals the power of love to future educators? Where can
students learn that love is the only way to transform, educate and
improve human beings?

As I have always maintained, the best and most noble of all

professions is that of teacher or educator. Of course, not
everybody shares my opinion. In fact people have no great respect
for this profession nowadays. If you are a physicist, a lawyer or a
doctor – now that’s different! There is prestige attached to those
professions! But schoolmasters and teachers? People are inclined
to look down on them. They don’t think that looking after children
amounts to much! Well, that is where they are very mistaken,
because this is the most meaningful and most important of all
professions. The education of children is divine work!

I hear that people, these days, are focusing more and more
attention on the subject of human nature, psychology and
education. This is because they have begun to realize that there can
be neither success nor lasting happiness for humanity as long as
these questions are not properly understood. Before long people
will be talking of nothing else. The only trouble is that there is a big
difference between the realization that something has to be changed
in this area and the ability to bring about the necessary changes.
Look at politics! Everybody talks about change: this must be
changed and that should be changed... It is easy to talk, but when
you have not prepared yourself to bring about the necessary
changes it is simply grotesque to talk like that!
 So, three or four years at a university is not enough to be ready
to assume the responsibility of an educator. A whole lifetime of
study, in fact several lifetimes, is necessary, for the key to
education lies in Initiatic Science. An educator must have
something special in their heart and soul and spirit: the sacred
flame of the born teacher, which pulses and glows and reaches out
to influence others. In the presence of a true educator, other people
are seized with a desire to imitate them even before they have
opened their mouth. They sense that there is something luminous
and warm, something alive in them, and it is that warmth and light
and life that helps them to understand whatever the teacher
explains to them.

We never influence people much by a great display of

knowledge. Knowledge is, of course, a very useful and potent
instrument: a great many things can be understood if we have good,
clear arguments at our command. But this is not enough, for even
when people understand they are not necessarily moved. The only
forces which stimulate and inspire others are love, faith and
conviction.5 These are living forces. Love and faith combined –
these are true power! When you are faced with difficulties in life, if
you have plenty of intellectual learning and nothing else, you will
remain irresolute, weak and apprehensive, but if you have love and
faith, even if you are not very well-informed, you will never be
defeated. You will continue to advance, to rise to greater heights
and to overcome all the obstacles you meet on your way.
 In the Gospels it says, ‘If you have faith the size of a mustard
seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and
it will move.’ This is symbolic, of course. Jesus did not mean that
human beings should start moving mountains; they are all right
where they are: no need to try to put them somewhere else! Leave
the mountains alone, for nature in her wisdom has placed them
exactly where they should be to transmit certain currents and
forces. The mountains Jesus was talking about are the mountains
of obscurity, selfishness and sloth in our minds and hearts and
wills. We forget about these and want to start attacking the
beautiful, innocent mountains created by the Lord! Did Jesus
remove mountains? He never wasted his time on things like that,
and yet he did move mountains. In fact he moved kingdoms and
whole continents in the hearts and heads of human beings: he
turned the whole world upside down.

Try to understand what I am telling you today: it is not enough

to accumulate knowledge. You must set to work to acquire love,
faith and audacity; otherwise, you will always be weak. You will
be like bookworms, who spend their whole life in libraries, so
absorbed in books that they forget to eat. They read and read and
grow pale, sickly and lifeless, and before long they are forced to
abandon everything, even their beloved books. Of course, if you
prefer book learning, go ahead. But you will become dry and
withered, and neither love nor kindness will emanate from you.
You will be nothing but a cold, dried-up intellect, which discusses,
criticizes and dissects everything, but which is incapable of
escaping from its own inner disorder.

This is one of the greatest dangers for philosophy students. By

the time they finish their studies, they are disorientated by the
jumble of contradictory systems and ideas they have had to study.
Of course it is only to be expected, for in philosophical studies
you will find everything except true philosophy. You learn about
the brainstorms and flights of fancy concocted by human beings
over centuries in all countries of the world, but very often these so-
called philosophers were no more than average people, capable of
seeing things only from their own very limited point of view. With
the exception of those who possessed the true knowledge of the
higher worlds (I mentioned them in my lecture about ancient
Egyptian initiation),6 the thinkers whose works young people are
obliged to study these days end up unsettling them completely and
destroying their faith and their capacity to distinguish truth from
falsehood.

What can one do with young people who believe in nothing any
more and who live in disorder and chaos? Is that the purpose of
philosophy? What good does it do them to know that one imbecile
taught one thing and another taught just the opposite? Young
people need to learn the one true philosophy, that which is found
in the living book of nature. But their professors themselves have
never studied that book, so all they can do is present a hodgepodge
of ideas, some true and some false – and inevitably there is a great
deal of falsehood and very little truth! Let me warn you that by
continuing to use these methods the schools are preparing an
upsurge of anarchy and suicides amongst students.

Understand, therefore, that the only true philosophy is that

which can give you life, love and faith, and you must never, ever
abandon it for the sake of the latest speculations, which,
admittedly, may have the seduction of novelty but have nothing
worthwhile to offer you. The truth of this is so obvious: have
these new philosophies made you stronger and more radiant? No!
And that is because, instead of sinking your teeth into life, instead
of drinking great draughts of light and delving deep into truth, you
have been content to make do with a few superficial details.

Everyone is at liberty to do what they please, but I know in

advance what the results will be, according to whether you nourish
your minds with life or spend all your time immersed in books. So
far you have not really grasped the difference between nourishing
your minds and reading. For my part, I never read books; I have no
time. But I read the book of nature, and I read, too, what is written
on your faces and in your hearts. And, above all, I read the sun; the
sun is my daily reading. Every day it reveals something new to me,
and then I pass its revelations on to you.7 In time, you too will
begin to read fewer books, because you will have learned to read
the book of living nature.8

In the morning, you begin with breakfast to give you the

strength to do all you have to do during the day. If you go to the
library without breakfasting, you will probably be too drowsy to
understand what you are reading. You need strength in order to
work, and to gain strength you must eat. Since this is so, why can’t
you understand that the same law applies on the spiritual level?9

Learn to seek spiritual nourishment that is alive and fresh, and

absorb it as you absorb the sun’s rays at dawn. You need pure food
direct from the source, a pure, simple, potent nourishment to fill
you with light, quench your thirst and restore you to life.10 This is
what you get here. As I often say, this is not a university; it’s a
restaurant!

So, be glad, because even if you learn nothing new here, at least
you receive the impetus of enthusiasm and life – and that is what
matters. Before all else you must be alive. Later you can go and
learn whatever you like!

Biblical reference
‘If you had faith even the size of a mustard seed’ – Matt. 17 :
20

1 See Youth: Creators of the Future, Izvor Coll. n° 233, chap. 6: ‘ Knowledge cannot
give meaning to life’ .
2 See above, chap. 7: ‘ Character counts for more than knowledge’ .
3 See The Splendour of Tiphareth – The Yoga of the Sun, Complete Works, vol. 10,
chap. 20: ‘ The sun teaches by example’ .
4 See Harmony and Health, Izvor Coll. n° 225, chap. 8: ‘ How to become tireless’ .
5 See The Faith That Moves Mountains, Izvor Coll. n° 238, and Love Greater Than
Faith, Izvor Coll. n° 239.
6 See Life and Work in an Initiatic School – Training for the Divine, Complete
Works, vol. 30, chap. 8: ‘ The meaning of initiation’ , part I.
7 See The Splendour of Tiphareth – The Yoga of the Sun, Complete Works, vol. 10.
8 See The Living Book of Nature, Izvor Coll. n° 216.
9 See The Yoga of Nutrition, Izvor Coll. n° 204, chap. 1: ‘ Eating: an act which
concerns the whole person’ and chap. 2: ‘ Hrani yoga’ .
10 See Sunrise Meditations, Brochure n° 323.