Hair

Occult i)hil()sophy considers the hair iwliethii- human or animal) as the natural receptacle and rrtaimr of the vital es.scnce which often escapes with other emaiuitions from the body. It is closely connected with many of the hrain functions — for instance memory. With the ancient Israelites the euttinp of the hair and beard was a sifrn of dcHlement, and "the Lord said unto Mo.ses. . . . They shall not make baldness upon their head", etc. (Lev. xxi., 1-5.) "Baldness", whether natural or artificial, was a sijrn of calamity, punishment, or <rrief. as when Isaiah (iii., 24) enuincrates, "instead of well- .set hair l)aldness". amon«x the evils that are ready to befall the chosen people. And aj;ain. "On all their heads baldness and every beard cut" {Ibid. XV.. 2). The Nazarite was ordered to let his hair and beard •rrow. and never to permit a razor to touch them. With the Egyptians and Buddhists it was only the initiated priest or ascetic to wliom life is a burden, who shaved. The Epryptian priest was supposed to have become master of his body, and lience shaved his head for cleanliness; yet the Hierophants wore their hair long. The Buddhist still shaves his head to this day — as a sig:n of scorn for life and healtli. Yet Buddha, after shaviufj his hair when he first became a mendicant, let it prow ajrain and is always n-prcsented with the top-knot of a Yogi. The Hindu priests and Brahmins, and almost all the ca.stes, shave the rest of the head but leave a long lock to grow from the center of the crown. The ascetics of Lidia wear their hair long, and so do the warlike Sikhs, and almost all of the Mongolian peoples. At Byzantium and Rhodes the shaving of the beard was prohibited by law. and in Sparta the cutting of the beard was a mark of slavery and servitude. Among tiie Scandinavians, we are told, it was considered a disgrace, "a mark of infamy", to cut oif the hair. The whole population of the island of Ceylon (the Buddhist Singhalese) wear their hair long. So do the Russian. Greek and Armenian clergy, and monks. Jesus and the Apostles are always represented with their hair long, but fashion in Christendom proved stronger than Christianity, tiie old ecclesiastical rules (Const it. Ajwst. lib. I. c. 3) cnjoitiing tiic clergy "to wear their hair and beards long". (See Riddle's Ecclesiastical Antiquities.) The Templars were commanded to wear their beards long. Samson wore his hair long, and the biblical allegory shows that health and strength and the very life a