THE HIDDEN SIDE OF THINGS/PART 17

 

CHAPTER XVII

 

BY OUR AMUSEMENTS

 

CHILDREN' S GAMES

 

THERE is a hidden side even to a thing usually considered so unimportant as the games of children. If the parents think of these at all, it is probably chiefly from the physical point of view. They either disapprove of games in a general way as causing destruction of clothes or enticing the boy away from his school work, or they grant them a qualified approval as at any rate keeping the boy out of their way for a certain number of hours, or as affording him physical exercise which they recognise as a necessity for the development of his body. Sometimes also they are particular as to his associations from a social point of view, and occasionally also from a religious or moral standpoint; but it is probable that most parents regard play as a sort of necessary evil.

 

They do not in the least realise that a game, if played as all games ought to be, is a lesson whose value can hardly be overestimated, for it inculcates as nothing else can the virtues of honour, unselfishness and chivalry. Honour first, because of the necessity of abiding with uttermost loyalty by the rules of the game, because of the realisation that a seeming success gained by an infringement of them, no matter how slight, would be dishonestly gained, and so would be no success at all, but the deepest disgrace, whether the delinquency were known to others or only seared into the memory of the culprit himself. Unselfishness, because for success in many games it is absolutely necessary that the unit shall be subordinated to the whole, and that each player shall seek not his own glorification, but the benefit of the side upon which he plays. No one who watches the instant, unhesitating obedience so willingly given in any good school to the captain of an eleven at cricket, or to the coach of a boat' s crew, can fail to perceive that this is a most valuable discipline, teaching each to accept loyally and to perform thoroughly the duty assigned to him, looking to the good of the club rather than to his personal desires. Chivalry, because of the rule, invariable among all gentlemanly boys, of giving the opponent the benefit of any doubtful point, and of declining to profit by an accidental advantage. Evil indeed is it for a country when such honour, such unselfishness, such chivalry are not to be found among its children, for the child is father to the man, and as the twig is bent so the tree inclines.

 

The great thing to impress upon the child is that though he must always do his best for his own side, in reality it does not matter who wins, as the exercise obtained and the pleasure of the game are the same in any case. It should be explained to him that he must act not only fairly, but also graciously and hospitably in his play; that he must always be ready to applaud good play on the other side, that he must never exult over those who are defeated, but must always endeavour to find excuses for them and minimise the disappointment which they will naturally feel.

 

True, others will not always do this for him, but he need not be in any way disturbed or annoyed by that, since it simply shows that they have not yet reached the level at which they can put themselves mentally in the place of their opponents. It is natural that a boy should take pleasure in the victory of his school or his side, but he must learn not so to show that pleasure as to hurt in any way the feelings of another.

 

Never for a moment must he find pleasure or amusement in anything that hurts or annoys another living creature, whether it be a school-fellow or an animal. The tendency which some ill-taught children show to tease an animal or another child is a manifestation of cruelty, and it must be explained to the child that cruelty of any sort is one of the worst of crimes. The child must remember always to put himself in thought in the place of the other, and so to manifest the uttermost brotherhood, kindliness and love, to be willing always to put aside what he wants in order to give pleasure to other children, and to do what they like.

 

I noticed an interesting example of chivalry some time ago when attending the College boat-races at one of our great Universities. A certain College had held unquestioned for some years the chief place in aquatic affairs, but on this occasion another College succeeded in gaining several places and finally attained the coveted position of Head of the River, defeating its previous holders. Naturally there was great rejoicing, and a triumphal procession was formed in which not only the banner of the winning boat, but also its oars and rudder were carried home in exultant ovation. In their jubilant march the crowd of undergraduates of the victorious College had to pass along the river and in front of the long line of boat-houses, and suddenly I observed that the cheering mob fell silent, furled its flag and lowered its oars and obviously endeavoured to efface itself and hastily assume as unobtrusive a demeanour as possible. Asking what was the matter, I was told that they were approaching the boat-house of the College which had so long held supremacy, and that it would of course be in bad taste to seem to glory over them by parading the conquest before them. Therefore our victors for the time tried to look as much as possible like ordinary students going quietly home; but their magnanimous attempt was at least partially defeated, for before they could steal past they were observed by the defeated crew and their fellow-members, who immediately rushed out from their boat-house to cheer them lustily, while the captain of the defeated boat ran to the great flagstaff of the boat-house and hauled down his College flag in token of cheerful submission to fate. As a spontaneous expression of good feeling on the part of these young fellows just fresh from school, this pleased me greatly, and I could not but see that the public opinion among them was a healthy and enviable one.

 

SPORT

 

Unfortunately the amusements of adults are not always as harmless and wholesome as those of children. There is nothing to be said against cricket or golf; and rowing and swimming are always admirable, as bringing the etheric, astral and mental bodies into closer contact with the nature-spirits of the water and their influences, which make an agreeable contrast with those to be found upon land. Still more is this true if the swimming is done in the sea, for the variety there is greater. Such change of impressions is always good, as it sets in vibration new parts of the various bodies, and so adds greatly to their general health.

 

But it is impossible to reprobate too strongly the revolting cruelty that is sometimes misnamed sport. Needless to say, the crime connected with the murder of defenceless animals far outweighs any benefit that may be incidentally derived from fresh air and exercise. The whole thing is horrible beyond words, and it is difficult to understand how it is possible for civilised and otherwise kind-hearted people to take part in such abomination-- and not only to take part in them, but even apparently to enjoy the bloodshed and the cruelty, and to vie with one another in the diabolical work of destruction. No country in which such things happen can claim to be really civilised, and we cannot doubt that when our descendants look back on this period they will find it incredible that we actually indulged in such wholesale and gratuitous barbarities.

 

All forms of hunting incur similar reprobation. Even apart from the pain, misery and death inflicted upon the fox, the deer, the hare, or the otter, there is the whole question of the wickedness incurred in the training of dogs for such purposes. The dog is one of the domestic animals which are given into man' s care in order that he may advance their evolution. He does not help it, but fatally hinders it, when he trains the animal to be more ferocious than the wolf or the tiger-- when he teaches it to kill not for food, as do the wild beasts, but for the mere lust and pleasure of killing. This wanton destruction of the wonderful gift of life, “which all can take but none can give,” will surely bring a heavy retribution on the individuals who take part in it, and on the country whose public opinion permits it.

 

One terrible thing connected with this is that our children imitate our thoughtless cruelty, and so young souls who would naturally be kind and helpful are led into the commission of these crimes. We can hardly wonder that a boy fishes or hunts, or sets his dog to kill some living creature, when he constantly sees his father doing the same thing. We so engrain cruelty into the young that even after their death it persists in the astral world, and we find the same tendency in the dead boy as in the living-- to hunt something about, and to cause it pain and terror. True, unless the shameful example set before him has made him thoroughly wicked, it is easier in the astral world to invoke the boy' s good feelings than it is on the physical, because there we can show him in a moment exactly what is the real sensation of the hunted creature, for it is apparent in changings and flashings of colour. So we can appeal directly to the boy' s better nature by showing him precisely what he has been doing. In the astral world we have also the advantage that we can deflect the cruel hunting instinct and the passion for destruction into the safe and useful channel of breaking up horrible thought-forms, such as those of devils, which are made by the unfortunate people who suffer under the curse of Calvinistic or similarly blasphemous religious teaching. These thought-forms, though not dangerous when understood, are often a source of great terror to the ignorant, and as they have no real evolving life in them, there is no sin involved in destroying them. Such work develops both chivalry and courage in the boy, inducing him to go about as a knight-errant, helping and protecting the weak, and facing for their sake what appear to him the most formidable odds.

 

FISHING

 

Fishing is another manifestation of the lust for slaughter, and many people indulge in this who would recoil from other forms of enjoyment in which the bloodshed is more obvious, for here, instead of killing or crippling a bird by a shot, they only take the creature out of its element and leave it to die slowly by suffocation. Difficult though it is to understand how it can be so, I really believe that most of this atrocious cruelty is simple thoughtlessness, and the baneful effect of the collective thought-forms clustering round a custom which has come down to us from the barbarous times of the Dark Ages.

 

HORSE-RACING

 

Horse-racing, again, is another so-called sport for which there can be nothing but condemnation. The mere running of horses against one another, if they are not struck or otherwise ill-treated, is no more objectionable than a race between boys, or men; but as matters stand now, the whole mass of ideas which cluster round the turf is objectionable to the highest degree, and from the occult point of view the atmosphere of a race-course is a veritable hell. All the cheating and trickery, all the mad anxiety and avarice, all the hatred and deliberate falsehood, make the whole scene an indescribable nightmare of horrors. Yet decent men will show themselves in such a place and, even worse still, will subject their wives and daughters to its appallingly evil magnetism. Ignorance again, of course, and thoughtlessness; in intention nothing worse than that; but the results are serious nevertheless.

 

GAMBLING

 

Everyone who takes part in horse-racing has his share of the responsibility of all the wickedness of the gambling connected with it, and of the ruin to thousands which it brings in its train. Even on the physical level the evils of gambling and of betting are surely obvious enough; but with the added sight of higher worlds they are a hundred times more objectionable. Men plunge into this foolishness presumably for excitement; but this is a form of excitement which arouses all the worst passions of men, and can do nothing but harm to them, for the moral effect on the man who wins is usually at least as evil as upon him who loses.

 

Readers of Thought-Forms will remember the awful pictures there given of the thought-forms of the winner and of the loser; those who can see such things for themselves will need no one to inform them of the evils of gambling. It can never be anything but evil in any of its forms; but, if one must pronounce between them, the kind which is pursued at the notorious Casino of Monte Carlo is decidedly the less objectionable of the two, for there the gambling is at least fair, and the victim knows his chances beforehand; also, he wins or loses to an impersonal entity-- the bank, and, so does not obviously and intentionally ruin his fellow-men.

 

From the occult point of view, betting, alcohol-drinking, corpse-eating and the slaughter of living creatures in sport, are the great blots upon the fair fame of the English nation. If those could be removed we should have made several long steps on the way towards civilisation.

 

Although occultism has nothing but unequivocal condemnation for all forms of so-called sport, which in any way whatever injure any living creature, it has not a vestige of the puritan point of view that everything which gives pleasure is necessarily wrong. On the contrary, the promotion of pleasure ranks in the mind of the occultist next to the promotion of progress. It is good to give pleasure to anyone; it is far better still to help him on the path of progress; but it is best of all when it is possible to combine the two. So the occultist welcomes harmless amusement; his only proviso is that it shall be harmless-- that it shall not involve pain or suffering or even discomfort or ridicule for any living being.

 

THE THEATRE

 

The hidden side of a performance at the theatre depends entirely upon the nature of the performance. The passions portrayed by the actors, not being in any sense real, produce practically no effect on higher matter, but unfortunately there seems to be not infrequently a great deal of conceit connected with acting, and a great deal of jealousy of other actors. So far as these exist they represent undesirable influences. The principal effect to be seen at a theatre is the result of the feelings excited in the audience, and these again depend upon the character of the play.

 

There seems almost always to be an undercurrent of sensuality directed towards the principal actresses, but the people who make-up the majority of the audience usually follow the plot of the play and feel a mild amount of hatred for the villain and a sort of gentle pleasure when the hero succeeds in over-throwing his machinations. There are some ingenuous people who really throw themselves heart and soul into the play-- to whom it is for the time exactly like real life. These send out strong emotions of various kinds as the play progresses, but usually their number is not sufficient to count for much in the general aura of the theatre. There are unfortunately many modern plays which are in themselves of a highly objectionable nature, and the thought-forms of those who patronise them are naturally unpleasant in character.

 

One may sum up the matter by saying that to many people a visit to the theatre is like the reading of a novel, but it presents the different characters to them in a manner which makes them more real to them. There are others, on the other hand (perhaps more imaginative people), who when they read a story make for themselves thought-forms of all the characters, and these forms seem to them far more vivid and suitable than any representation in the theatre can be. Such people are always disappointed when they go to see a dramatised representation of one of their favourite stories.

 

Others who have not the power of imagination to clothe the characters with definite forms for themselves are very glad to have this done for them by the dramatist' s art. For these-- and they are the majority of theatre-goers-- a visit to the theatre is no more harmful than the reading of a novel, except for the necessary unpleasant surroundings-- the tinge of sensuality in the audience, and of conceit and jealousy in the actors, to which I have previously referred, and the spending of a couple of hours in a vitiated atmosphere and in the midst of a more or less excited crowd. From the occult point of view these latter considerations usually rather outweigh the advantage of any possible enjoyment that may be obtained from the performance.

CHAPTER XVIII