When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater." But I say unto you, they are inseparable. -- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

It is with unfathomable sorrow we must share with our visitors that AAET's founder, Patricia Cronin Hardin, a Life Professional Member and current President of the American Federation of Astrologers, passed away on August 2, 2007, in the presence of her devoted children and grandson.

Yet, it is with great joy that we celebrate the transition of Patricia's spirit at the conclusion of a long, happy, and loving life experience.

Theosophy teaches that Patricia "is now living in her subtler body, the body of feeling, and is therefore highly sensitive to the forces of thought and emotion. Calmly and with self-control, our thoughts should rightly be turned in love towards her, and in blessing and aspiration for her progress inwards to the inner worlds. In Theosophy we are taught to dwell not so much upon our own great loss as upon his transcendent gain; and transcendent gain it is to be freed from the physical body and its limitations when once its valuable work is done and not before."

The Rosicrucians remind us, "At every birth, what appears to be a new life comes into the world. Slowly the little form grows, it lives and moves among us, it becomes a factor in our lives; but at last there comes a time when the form ceases to move and decays. The love that came, whence we know not, has again passed to the invisible beyond. Then, in sorrow and perplexity we ask ourselves the three great questions concerning our existence: Whence have we come? Why are we here? Whither are we going?"

The Bible says, "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl [the etheric double] be broken, or the pitcher [the physical body] be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes, XII. 6, 7.).

Kahlil Gibran writes "On Death" in The Prophet

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.