Ida Craddock

“ When I read the Scriptures my whole 'spiritual body' can feel the touch and power of the Living Divine that flows through its words and sentences, just as plainly and unmistakably as my natural body can feel the touch and force of the wind. And at time^ the 'Spirit of Truth' flows all through me, and all over me, so forcibly that I feel as if I were literally 'in the Truth/ At these times the Eternal Word shines through the Written Word with such illuminating power that various human theories and speculations are scattered to the four winds. ”

“ But if any one in the world is entitled to the joys of true Borderland wedlock, it is surely a priest who has kept his vows of asceticism, and who is really pure-minded. If any one in the world needs it, it is surely the priest who is supposed to stand midway as a bridge-builder, between earthly sinners and celestial beings of the unseen world beyond the grave, since it is pretty generally acknowledged that well ordered sex life is necesary to the development of a symmetrical character. ”

“ No wonder then, that, on the plane of sentiment, she should prefor this ghostly spouse to "anie mortall man." And on the plane of physiological relations, I think I have already shown that the husband who is an initiate in the third degree, who has trained his wife therein, can assure her of connubial bliss which is perpetual. The Borderland bridegroom has this advantage, too, over the earthly bridegroom; being able to read his partners thoughts, he can adapt himself to her most delicate fluctuations of sentiment at a moment's warning, and so never fail to be truly her companion. ”

“ At times I am consciously alone with the Lord. At other times I am consciously in the presence of angels. Since these touches of the Lord are infinite in variety, I can never tell one minute what will occur the next. As I now sit writing I am so literally full that every particle of flesh in my body feels as if it were alive and moving. This extreme fullness in the day time does not occur every day. ”

“ When single-heartedly, and in all sincerity and benevolent feeling toward God we invite him to become the third partner in the marital union, then, indeed, do we understand what it is to love and to be loved. We enter thus into a personal relation with God in which, Impersonal Force though He be, we realize vividly that we are one with Him, and with Him one with all the universe. ”

“ The angels are so thoroughly honest, so perfectly free from all false modesty and pretended humility, and are so free from all formality and human ceremonies, that the presence of an angel is always elevating and refreshing. ”

“ At times, when love seems to predominate over truth, the divine proceeding that streams forth upon me appears to my spiritual vision like the golden beams of an autumn sunset, but when truth predominates over love, they appear like streams of white light reflected from burnished silver. ”

“ Especially you must have high and clean thoughts about sex that you can think about, read about it, talk about all the details without agitation, without grossness of thought, and with as impersonal a state of mind as if you were discussing the circulation of the blood. And you must learn to recognize the educational value of sex attraction in the evolution of humanity from savagery into civilization. Chiefest of all, learn that sex is holy before God and the angels. ”

“ I have said that I regard psychometry as the key to the development, on rational lines, of the sixth sense. Psychometry itself seems to be a development on the psychic side of that physical sense, which is at once the finest, the most subtle, the most comprehensive, and the most neglected of all the five senses the sense of touch. While distributed over the whole surface of the body, through the nervous system, this sense is more delicate and sensitive in some parts than in others. ”

“ They might, however, become sharers in man's immortality if they could inspire one of that race with the passion of towards them. Hence it was the constant endeavor of the female spirits to captivate the admiration of men, and of the male gnomes, sylphs, salamanders and undines to be beloved by a woman. The object of this passion, in returning their love, imparted a portion of that celestial fire, the soul; and from that time forth the beloved became equals to the lover, and both when their allotted course was run, entered together into the mansions of felicity. ”

“ As I go about my work, ofttimes, His Presence so fills me—or I hear the sweet wooing of His Voice, until I am constrained to step aside, where I may—to be alone with my Love, and fall at His feet in adoring worship. ”

“ Where the earthly partner in these unions was a woman, and a nun at that, pledged to unfaltering obedience to her official superiors, it was probably an easy matter for her confessor to lump all her experiences veridical as well as illusory under one heading, that of subjective. A virgin is usually by reason of her environment as a woman, so ignorant of the physiology of marriage that it is difficult for her as a psychic to distinguish what is real from what is unreal until she has been a Borderland wife for sometime. ”

“ He showed me that it meant that this precious truth of the marriage relation between us was, 'that which was in me was of the Holy Ghost.' Praise the Lord! He has made me willing to do to bear to suffer anything for Him. He is making me fearless and filling me with His own desire for the spread of all His truth—though I feel more especially the desire to win souls for Him. I am assured that this, His most glorious and satisfying revelation of Himself must be acknowledged as He shall call upon us to do so, or we shall come into darkness indeed, and distress. ”

“ Need I suggest the importance of remembering, in this connection, how much in our modern life is conveyed by the hand clasp, or the deep delight that comes to lovers in caressing touches, when impelled to pat the hands or cheek of the beloved one, or to stroke her hair? It is through the emotional life that our sensitiveness is led from the physical to the psychic plane of sensation. ”

“ The principle of Alpha-ism must be mastered by those who aspire to the second degree, whether on the Borderland or the Earthly plane. The second and the third degrees have this principle for their corner stone. In none of the three degrees is it allowable to sow the seed except for the distinct purpose of begetting a child who has been reverently and prudently planned for at just at that time. Nor is it ever allowable to waste the seed by throwing it away (and with it the psychic energy) . The second degree launches the initiate upon the perilous water of sense-gratification. ”

“ If it be asked how a misty, vaporous being, such as a ghost is popularly supposed to be, can sustain an objective marital union on the Borderland, I reply that the ghost is not mist-like in reality, but only appears so because he is in a new world of matter, with a more extended scale of vibrations per second for the various forces of sound, heat, light, and electricity than obtain upon our earthly plane. ”

“ It is through the nerves of touch that Borderland wedlock becomes objective. The lover may remain forever invisible, as in the fairy stories, materializing only at night, and then only to the touch of those nerves most capable of sensing his tangibility. But, ghost though he be, it was the testimony of Reginald Scot in his "Discourse of Witchcraft" that the Witch "hath more pleasure that way, they say, than with anie mortall man." The angelic bridegroom, as well as this earthly partner, must live a correct moral life and think clearly ”

“ Occasionally at night the Lord touches me all over alike for a few seconds. At such times I seem to be literally resting in and on the Divine. Sometimes He touches only a few fibres in some very small muscle, and through these He fills and thrills my whole being with unutterable divine glory. ”

“ If our inferiors in the animal Kingdom reveal such marked superiority—to ourselves in sensitiveness to vibrations is it unlikely that our former equal and our superior, the deceased human being who has passed out of earth life into a wider realm, shall also acquire sensitiveness to a wider range of vibrations? The ghost probably senses all things on our plane,, plus a great many more things on his own. Our sensations are included in his, but his extend far on each side of our own. ”

“ During this preliminary training, all sex union must be refrained from absolutely. The nervous energy which has hitherto been evoked for expenditure in this direction must no longer be expended, but, by continual self-mastery, be returned to the system for its upbuilding. Gradually, as the neophyte who has habituated himself to a pure-minded and idealistic conception of sex becomes accustomed to thus maintaining selfpoise, no matter what the temptation, there will spring up in him a joy in his own power which will amply repay him for all his struggles. ”

“ During these eleven months I have been daily and almost hourly conscious of His positive and holy touch in some part of my natural body. But during these recent morning experiences His touch has been more sweet and more powerful than usual. These heavenly experiences when viewed from a human standpoint seem remarkable. But when viewed from a heavenly standpoint they seem perfectly natural. They have come to me very gradually. In every way they have been orderly and helpful. They seem just what might be expected to come to any devout Christian. For the Lord is no respecter of persons. ”

“ In religion theories have their uses, but the school of experience is the only school that can be relied upon for instruction in the mysteries and deep things of God. It often seems to me as if the Christian world, ministers included, were looking more to their creeds, and to one another, for their theology, than to the Word and the Spirit. ”

“ But, it may be asked, are these unions with a heavenly spouse mere marital unions with angels, and does God (or Christ, as His human manifestation) play the part in them? By no means. God is a party to Borderland wedlock in its highest aspect, whether that wedlock be an objective marriage union as in earthly wedlock or subjective and mystical blending with a divine invisible intelligence. Mme. de Guyon was right in saying that her love toward God and God's love toward her was the blissful feature in Borderland experience. ”

“ But even the tried and staunch initiate of the first and second degree, unless he holds grace as he enters upon this third degree, unless he holds fast to the teaching: "Aspire to the highest." Only in reverent and earnest aspiration to the Divine, to the Source of all things, to the Eternal Energy of the Universe, may this third degree be entered upon, either in Borderland or earthly wedlock. The more intense the emotion, the more absolute the necessity for aspiring with all one's faculties to union with the Divine. Every element of selfish desire must be eliminated ”

“ When we enter into this union, He is, as never before, the Life within us, and how shall we seek to suppress the Life that has entered in to displace our own old self-life, and to manifest Himself in and through us, in whatever way He wills. ”

“ Before any one can become personally acquainted with the Lord, and with the true meaning of His written Word, he must necessarily forsake every known sin and he must know what it means to live up to every known requirement and privilege of the Gospel. He must also ask for and receive a tender conscience, an enlightened reason, and a sanctified common sense. Then he will no longer be afraid to use his own reason and his own good sense. ”

“ The Hindus have the theory that God can enjoy food, drink and in fact all sense-pleasures but only through the offering of an earthly devotee. Therefore, the devout Hindi offers God a share in all his gratifications of appetite—thus living out, indeed, the Christian Apostle's admonition of "whether we eat or drink, do all to the glory of God." ”

“ One of the most successful devices of Satan has been his attempt to divorce our bodies from our souls in their relation to God. 'Your soul is the Lord's of course, but your body is your own. You must serve the Lord with your soul, but /enjoy yourself with your body.' Such is his counsel to those whose tendency is gross and carnal, such as easily become drunkards, fornicators, or prostitutes, and form the large class of fallen men and fallen women in our midst. ”

“ I think from the testimonies in which I have adduced from church writings an angelic bridegroom is not impossible. And it is quite conceivable that, where a nun believes that Christ is the only Borderland Spouse, her prejudice may result in her lover's appearing to her as Christ, just as the mediaeval witch who believed that her Borderland spouse could only be the Devil was pretty sure to see him with horns and hoofs and to be whisked away (subjectively) to a Witch's Sabbath of diablerie. ”

“ But before enlarging this, it may be well to begin with the preliminary training necessary to render one the Borderland wife or husband of an angel, and to set forth the three degrees in order with such detail as may be allowable in a work like this, which is intended for the general public. The readers hope to profit by these instructions for personal development, inasmuch if one can persuade one's earthly partner to try, with one's self, to live the life which is obligatory for Borderland wedlock, it brings the Kingdom of heaven into earthly relations. ”

“ Madam de Guyon, indeed, admits that "the vision is never of God himself nor scarcely ever of Jesus Christ, as those who have it picture it to themselves: it is an Angel of light, who, according to the power which is given to him by God for this purpose, causes the soul to see his representation, which it takes for himself." (That is, the vision is subjective, probably an hypnotic suggestion induced by the angel.)
The following stories of saintly Catholic women who became espoused to a Borderland bridegroom, show that they were untrained in distinguishing subjective from objective phenomena. ”

“ This way lies the path of liberty and life, and joy, and they who have once trodden it in the perfect fullness, of magnetic union with a dearly loved spouse will never care to stumble along the old paths. The Oneida Community despite its social mistake of promiscuity, has made the human race its everlasting debtor, in that it has left a thirty years scientific experiment on record detailing the methods and attesting the value of this second degree. ”