For some moments the Hierophant regarded the young Vestal in silence, but Sarthia was conscious that he was reading her inmost thought and motive like an open book, even down to her vision of the Astrologer and his fatal announcement regarding her life.

“My child,” he said at length, “are you ready for the great change now already at hand?”

“No, Father, not ready but resigned to what seems to be the inevitable decrees of the planets that rule my physical destiny.”

“Thou hast well said thou art not ready.  Your life has yet but only begun for you.  Its experiences, its many lessons and duties, are all unlearnt and you would pass to the spirit world immatured.  Your young soul, like fruit plucked from the tree too soon, would ripen slowly, losing many of its flavors and never attaining certain of its best and highest qualities, for as you well know, progress in the next stage of existence depends upon the attainments in this.

“Thou art not ready, yet say you are willing to bow to the inevitable.  This is wise, still have you not heard it said many times that man is the arbiter of his own destiny and that the soul was the inheritor of God-like powers by which it could rise to the plane whereby it ruled, instead of obeying the blind or planetary forces of Nature?”

“True, O Venerated Father, I have indeed heard all this, but I am very ignorant.  Are there such possibilities for my soul?” and somehow imperceptibly hope began to dawn within her heart and quicken the life forces.

“Ruling the blind forces of Nature is very like ruling the wild beast, although the beast is much stronger than man and capable of tearing him to pieces, yet man, by forethought, can evade or trap and chain or otherwise overcome him.  So my child, there are ways wherein man, assisted by his own knowledge, and by the instruction of departed spirits; aye, by the immortal Gods themselves, can evade even the malefic planets in their devastating course.

“To my clairvoyant vision, as I now at this moment look at you, every minute atom of your physical organism is in the subtle process of depolarization from unity toward chaos and disintegration.  You are not yourself conscious of this condition only as it has been revealed to you, for your soul is so alive that it has become almost unconscious of its physical expression and for this very reason the shock of dissolution would be all the greater when it did come; for example, witness your unexpected collapse yesterday morning.  Ah! sudden death is a most deplorable calamity, and your pitiable state of mind was but a foretaste of what would be the state of your soul for many long years, if you had died then, and will yet be, to a less extent now, unless this swift-coming blow can be evaded.

“However, in case the worst comes to worst, you have about ten days more of this external life and under our special care and preparation you can live years of experience in hours of physical time, and your soul thus equipped may courageously enter upon its journey to the spirit world.  Rest assured, my child, everything possible shall be done for you.”