In AD 553 the Church Council of Constantinople decreed that anyone who supported the `mythical’ doctrine of pre-existence of the soul and believed in the soul’s return to earth after death (reincarnation) should henceforth be anathema (meaning damned. It is a formal condemnation or curse excommunicating someone from the Church). Thus, again by majority vote, the church leaders suppressed a truth of the Ancient Wisdom implicit in the teachings of Jesus and taught in the mystery schools throughout the ancient world. Based on this information, the following indications of the five immutable (unchangeable) laws and their out-working is shared in the hope it will begin to answer some of your questions about life and death, to which we are all accountable:

1. Reincarnation, the Law of Rebirth:  In short, life in the physical body is like a year at school. We come back to the earth with certain lessons to learn, certain gifts to develop, and at the end of the school year we go home again, or withdraw to an inner, or more subtle, state of being in what may be called a `land of light’, for a period of rest and refreshment. During this time, the soul can review what was gained or lost in the life now finished. When it has had a period of rest and refreshment and feels the urge to gain more wisdom, it is shown the next set of lessons to be learned, and drawn into incarnation at the appropriate time and place. This process of work and refreshment continues until the whole earth curriculum is completed.

2.  Karma, the Law of Cause and Effect:  This is the law that we receive back the exact results of our actions. Under precise, inexorable (unalterable) law, and by God’s supreme justice, we are reborn in an environment where we meet again those whom we have wronged or been wronged by, and those whom we have helped or been helped by, in the past. We incarnate with those we have injured until all wrongs have been put right and all hurts forgiven; until all hate or jealousy has been transmuted to love.

We reincarnate also with those whom we have loved and been loved by; and this brings joy into our lives. By God’s mercy we may, if we will (used in this instance as personal will) to do so, turn all that we suffer into strength, and so make creative use of our own `bad karma’ at a higher level of experience. Everyone has frustrations and sorrows, which are due to past mistakes and beyond their power (ability) to alter; but everyone also has the power, today, to shape their future limitations or opportunities by their thoughts and actions now.

3. The Law of Opportunity:  This law is closely linked with the laws of reincarnation and karma.  It makes sure that the reincarnating soul is drawn to the circumstances, which will bring opportunities, to pay off old debts and acquire the knowledge and experience that is sought. This is freewill operating under constraints which the soul CHOOSES and accepts; for although our present life grows out of the past and is limited by past mistakes, we have in us the power (ability) to shape the future out of the very difficulties that confront us. The flame of Christ (love) in the heart of every human being has Christ’s creative powers. If we can learn to bring it into operation, we shall find that it has a magical effect both, on ourselves, and our surroundings. We can learn to control and direct our thoughts and feelings so that they create, instead of destroy, and so that we comfort and heal, rather than thoughtlessly condemn those about us. Indeed, in some incarnations where heavy debts are being paid off, this may be the only plane on which whatever power of freewill we have can work.

It may encourage those who suffer from crippling and apparently incurable diseases, sorrow or frustration to know that there is a positive, hopeful aspect of the situation.  They can either accept the SELF-IMPOSED limitations with patience and fortitude and, rising above self-pity, strive to use thought and creative imagination in such a way as to bring joy and inspiration to others; or they can give up the struggle and sink ever deeper into self-pity and resentment, making life miserable for everyone else in their environment.
If the first course is chosen, not only is the debt more rapidly paid, but the soul gains strength and vision. This is fruitful use of karmic opportunity, opening as it does the prospect of responsible work in a healthy body in a new incarnation.

This Law of Opportunity works also in our natural inclination to develop skill in the arts and sciences. We feel an instinctive interest in subjects we have studied and enjoyed in the past, and according to the measure we have worked and persevered to acquire techniques, we return with an apparently `natural gift’, which we can improve by further application. Conversely, wasted or misused opportunities are withdrawn, meaning talent (or opportunities to do a kindness, to give service to others, or to attempt something for yourself calling for high courage and steadfastness) you don’t use are lost in the next incarnation or even later in life in this one.

Divine law is just, perfect and true in every detail.

The soul receives continual opportunity to obtain divine illumination. During every incarnation, lessons are presented – call them tests- which are actually opportunities for progress and initiation.  Ultimately the soul will undergo the four major initiations as described in Revelation – those of Water, Air, Fire and Earth. Tests of this nature, in lesser degree, are coming to you in almost every detail of your present life, by which tests you can gauge the reaction of your emotions to human events; the reaction of your minds to life in general; the reaction of your hearts tin the love you feel towards your fellow men; and finally, the bringing through your physical nature of the divine attributes, and your ability to direct and control your life by calling upon the supreme love, power, wisdom and intelligence of the Most High – your Creator.

4. The Law of Balance and Equilibrium:  The manifestation of this law is apparent throughout nature in such phenomena as day and night, hot and cold, expansion and contraction, positive and negative currents, the chemical balance between acid and alkali, the swing of the pendulum. It is a fundamental law regarding the human mind and body which acts as a safeguard, making sure that extremism can only be carried so far before reaction sets in and pulls back to normal. This law is especially interesting in connection with the development of the personality in successive incarnations, as it causes the soul to swing between poles, for instance between introvert and extrovert activity, or between genders, until a perfectly balanced expression is reached. It may cause a soul, which has been fanatical in one incarnation to be just as fanatical in the opposite direction in another, in order to adjust the soul’s equilibrium. Joy and sorrow in human experience tend to follow this law, which may also be described as a Law of Compensation. True philosophers are well aware that sorrow always carves deeper channels for joy. And, God often may take away with one hand but simultaneously give something to you with the other.

5. The Law of Correspondences:  This law implies (involves or suggests) a particularly close relationship between man the microcosm (the grain of sand on the beach), and God the macrocosm (the universe which contains the beach). We can only begin to understand this law when we realize that all outer and visible manifestation (proof of form) is the result of an inner and invisible will or creative urge: thought. The whole manifested universe is the result of God’s thought; and man, made in God’s image, possesses in embryo, God’s creative powers. Man is, himself, a god in the making.

The Law of Correspondences is also a law of externalization, whereby the state of our inner consciousness gradually and inevitably externalizes itself in the physical body. When a child is born, deep in the recesses of its inner self, there is a program showing how the life should unfold. This plan is stamped also on various parts of the body, such as the palms of the hands and the bumps on the head. It is implicit in the handwriting, in how the person walks and in every form of expression, so that a trained seer, one who understands how to interpret the signs, can judge fairly accurately the soul’s character and destiny during the present life. Observant doctors can often diagnose, according to physical type and build, the diseases to which patients may be liable.

Similarly, there is a mysterious linking of man’s character and circumstances with the position in the heavens of the sun, moon and planets at the moment of birth. The sacred science of astrology formed a part of the Ancient Wisdom, and is well worth the serious attention of the modern student.

Ancient philosophers expressed the Law of Correspondences in the words: `As above, so below’, or in other words, as in heaven, so on earth; and herein lies a valuable key to the study of spiritual science (astrology, for one) When the full implications of this law are realized one cannot but be overcome with wonder at the majesty of the divine wisdom and love behind every detail of human life.

Copied from a White Eagle Lodge Pamphlet