A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

by Alice A Bailey

  The Laws in the Three Worlds.—We will now take up and briefly study the three most important laws affecting the evolving human being, as he lives his life in the three worlds. These laws are:

  1. The Law of Fixation.

  2. The Law of Love.

  3. The Law of Sacrifice and Death.

  These laws are all dominated and controlled eventually by the three higher laws in the system—the Laws of Magnetic Control, of Disintegration, and of Cohesion. There is a direct connection between these seven laws and the seven Rays or Vibrations, and if we study the correspondence we shall recognise the fact that the first law, that of Vibration, is the controlling law of the six, demonstrating through the second law, that of Cohesion, just as the solar Logos is at this time manifesting Himself through His second aspect in this the second solar system.

  The first Ray of Will or Power is the first aspect of the All-self, and in the third outpouring, (183) came [587] down to the fifth plane, along with the other monads. A subtle correspondence exists between the monads of Will on the fifth plane, the fifth law, and the fifth Ray.

  The second Ray or the Love-Wisdom aspect wields a control on the fourth and sixth planes, and dominates the Laws of Cohesion and Magnetic Control, and the astral Law of Love. There is a direct interlinking between the abstract Rays and the laws of the planes where they specially control.

  The third Ray which is the Activity aspect, controls the Laws of Disintegration and of Death, on the third and seventh planes.

  Therefore, it will be apparent to the careful student of the wisdom that:

  1. The Power Aspect—Ray 1, Planes 1 and 5, and the Laws of Fixation and Vibration, form one interlocking whole.

  2. The Love Aspect—Ray 2, Planes 2, 4, 6, and the Laws of Cohesion, Magnetic Control, and of Love, form another unit.

  3. The Activity Aspect—Ray 3, Planes 3 and 7, and the Laws of Disintegration, Sacrifice and Death, make still another group.

  It is logical for the first Ray only to have control, as yet, on two planes, for the Power Aspect waits for another system in order to demonstrate in full development. Ray two, the synthetic Ray for our system, controls [588] on three planes; it has the preponderance, for paramountly we are the Monads of Love, and Love is our synthesis. Ray three, the dominant Ray of the system which is past, its synthetic Ray, controls on two planes, and on one that is little understood, for, just as the physical body is not considered a principle, so there is a sphere of activity that is not included in our enumeration, it is past and gone. Some explanation of this lies hid in the occult words, “The Eighth Sphere.”

  In regard to the four minor Rays of Harmony, Concrete Science, Devotion and Ceremonial Order, their control exists in degrees on all the planes, but they have their particular emphasis in the evolution of the reincarnating ego in the three worlds at this time. These four Rays control, in a subtle and peculiar manner, the four kingdoms of nature—mineral, vegetable, animal and human—and at their merging into the three Rays of Aspect (the Activity Ray of the Mahachohan being the synthesiser of the lower four in our planetary scheme) have a correspondence with the merging of man (the product of the three kingdoms and the fourth) into the superman kingdom, the spiritual. The fourth Ray and the fourth Kingdom form a point of harmony for the lower three, and all four then pass into the major or upper three. This is worthy of our serious thought, and the analogy of the fourth plane will also be apparent. For this system, the buddhic plane, the human kingdom, and the fourth Ray of Harmony or Beauty or Synthesis, have a point of correspondence, just as the fourth rootrace is the one in which the synthesis is first observed—the door into the fifth kingdom of Spirit being then opened; the fourth rootrace also developed the astral capacity that made contact with the fourth or buddhic level possible.

  In a subtle way too (I use the word subtle for lack of a better, meaning a statement of actuality that seems an [589] illusion), the three minor Rays, Concrete Science, Devotion and Ceremonial Law, have each a connection with the three kingdoms of nature below the human, and with the three laws of the three lower worlds.

  The Ray of Ceremonial Order has special significance at this time; it controls life in the mineral world, and in the final stages of involutionary life at the point where the upward turn of evolution is made. Through Ceremonial Order comes the control of the lesser builders, the elemental forces, the point of synthesis in the lowest plane of all, the period of transition. In all such periods the seventh Ray comes in (as now) the Ray of Law and Order, of accurate arrangement and formation. It is the reflection on the physical plane of the Power and Activity Aspects working in synthesis. Rays 1, 3, 7, have an interplay, as we know. Ray seven is the appearance in combination of the forces of evolution. It is the manifestation of Power and Activity on the lowest plane of all. It is allied to the laws of the third and seventh planes, Disintegration and Death, for all periods of transition are periods of the destruction and building of forms, and the shattering of the old in order that newer and better chalices of life may be constructed.

  The Ray of Devotion has a definite though little known connection with the vegetable kingdom. We must remember that it is linked to a subsidiary law of the cosmic Law of Attraction. It is in the vegetable kingdom that we find one of the first and temporary approximations between the evolving human Monad, and the evolving deva Monad. The two parallel evolutions touch in that kingdom, and then again follow their own paths, finding their next point of contact on the fourth or buddhic level, and a final merging on the second.

  The concrete Rays have an especial effect on the negative evolution of the devas, who form the feminine aspect of the divine hermaphroditic Man, working along [590] the lines of more positive development. The abstract Rays do a similar work on the positive human hierarchy, tending towards a more receptive attitude. This hierarchy forms the masculine aspect of the divine Hermaphrodite. But at three points on the path of evolution the Monads of Love, working on the abstract qualities, touch the devas of activity working on concrete faculty. The perfection of the two evolutions marks the point of attainment of the divine Heavenly Man; it is the perfecting of the two major centres, creative activity and love, of the Logos. In their lower aspect these centres are known as the centres of generation and the solar plexus, but are transmuted, as evolution proceeds, into the throat and heart centres. Then, in a dual synthesis, they will pass on into the third system, that in which the Power aspect is developed, and the head centres will be complete. This achieved, our Logos has triumphed, and measured up to the sixth cosmic Initiation, just as He should measure up in this system to the fourth.

  The Ray of Concrete Science has a peculiar relationship to the animal kingdom, in that it is the Ray that governs the merging of that kingdom into the human. The planet, Venus, in her fifth round, gave the impetus which produced the spark of mind in animal man—a fact well known. It is also the fifth Ray, and has an interesting connection with the fifth Law of Fixation. We might study, too, with profit, the analogy that can be seen between these factors and the fifth root-race, the race of peculiarly strong development of the concrete mind. The Law of Analogy always holds good.

  With this as a basis, the three laws of the personality become replete with life, and can be summed up in the well-known term, “The Law of Rebirth and Death in the three worlds.” The fifth law governs a fixed point in the personality, that of the fifth principle.

  [591] The Law of Love in the astral body also has its points for consideration. There is a direct link between the astral body (love in the personality), the buddhic vehicle (love in the Triad), and the Monads of Love. Later on, this will be understood more fully, but it is the main channel for the basic law of the system, Love. These three points mark periods of completion, and likewise starting-points for fresh endeavour in the life of the evolving Monad—from the personality to the Triad, from the Triad to the Monad, from the Monad back again to its source.

  5. The Law of Fixation.—This is the governing law of the men
tal plane, finding its greater correspondence in the Law of Karma on cosmic mental levels. “As a man thinks, so is he;” according to his thoughts are his desires and acts, and so results the future. He fixes for himself the resultant karma. The word “Fixation” is chosen for two purposes: First, because the word implies the capacity of the thinker to shape his own destiny, and secondly because the word implies a stabilising idea, for as evolution progresses, the Ego evolves the faculty of forming definite concrete thought-forms, and, through these stable products, of subduing the fluctuations of the astral body.

  This law of the fifth, or mental plane is one of the most important laws with which we have to do at any time, and it will find its most complete demonstration in the next, or fifth round. In relation to this fourth round the following facts may be gathered about its working:

  It is the law under which the evolving personality builds up, during the course of many lives, the causal body; it fixes the matter inhering in that body, placed there by the man as the ages slip away, and crystallises it. Before the fourth Initiation the crystallisation is complete, and the inevitable shattering that is the result of crystallisation in all forms, takes place, setting the [592] indwelling life free for further progress. All forms are but hindrances and limitations, and ultimately must go, but they have their needed place in the development of the race. Eventually the causal body of the entire race itself disintegrates.

  This law governs the crystallisation of all forms prior to their shattering in the process of evolution.

  It governs the time of rebirth, being one of the subsidiary branches of the Law of Karma. Each of the seven subsidiary laws is linked to one of the cosmic laws, or with the Sirian Law of Karma. We need always to remember that the consciousness of the cosmic mental plane is the logoic goal of attainment, and that the Sirian Logos is to our solar Logos what the human Ego is to the personality. The Law of Karma, or cosmic Fixation, is the law of the cosmic mental plane, and controls the corresponding law in our system.

  In the fifth round this law will act as the divider, temporarily crystallising and fixing into two great classes the human Monads, as they evolve. One group then (containing those who will reach the goal), will pass gradually out from under the domination of this law, and will come under the Law of Magnetic Control. The other will remain under the law in a static condition, until in a later period a fresh opportunity will come; old forms will break, and in another mahamanvantara, and in its fifth period, will come the chance for which they will have waited, when they can again swing into the current of evolution and the imprisoned spirits may mount again towards their source.

  In an occult sense this law is for us the one with which we are the most intimately concerned. It plays an important part in the hands of the Lords of Flame, and is one of Their main factors in controlling the three worlds. Note here an interesting fact, that Venus is the sixth planet (esoterically the second), and is in her [593] fifth round, and hence is ahead of us along every line.

  This law demonstrates the static quality of love, static temporarily, but necessarily so when viewed from the standpoint of time, the great deluder. On the path of involution this law again works with the permanent atoms in the three worlds, with the building in of material around those atoms, in connection with the building devas and the reincarnating Egos. The devas are the mother aspect, the builders of the body, and the reincarnating Jivas are the son aspect; yet the two are but one, and the result is the divine hermaphroditic man. (See page 512)

  6. The Law of Love.—It is not easy, in this brief digest, to approach the tremendous problem of the place love plays in the evolving scheme of things as understood by three-dimensional man. A treatise could be written on the subject, and yet leave it unexhausted. Much light comes if we can ponder deeply on the three expressions of Love: Love in the Personality, Love in the Ego, and Love in the Monad. Love in the Personality gradually develops through the stages of love of self, pure and simple and entirely selfish, to love of family and friends, to love of men and women, until it arrives at the stage of love of humanity or group love consciousness which is the predominant characteristic of the Ego. A Master of Compassion loves, suffers with, and remains with His kind and with His kin. Love in the Ego gradually develops from love of humanity into love universal—a love that expresses not only love of humanity, but also love of the deva evolutions in their totality, and of all forms of divine manifestation. Love in the Personality is love in the three worlds; love in the Ego is love in the solar system, and all that it contains; whilst love in the Monad demonstrates a measure of cosmic love, and embraces much that is outside the solar system altogether.

  [594] This term “The Law of Love,” is after all too generic a term to apply to one law governing one plane, but will have to suffice for the present, as it conveys the type of idea that is needed, to our minds. The Law of Love is in reality but the law of the system in demonstration on all the planes. Love was the impelling motive for manifestation, and love it is that keeps all in ordered sequence; love bears all on the path of return to the Father’s bosom, and love eventually perfects all that is. It is love that builds the forms that cradle temporarily the inner hidden life, and love is the cause of the disruption of those forms, and their utter shattering, so that the life may further progress. Love manifests on each plane as the urge that drives the evolving Monad onwards to its goal, and love is the key to the deva kingdom, and the reason of the blending of the two kingdoms eventually into the divine Hermaphrodite. Love works through the concrete rays in the building of the system, and in the rearing of the structure that shelters the Spirit, and love works through the abstract rays for the full and potent development of that inherent divinity. Love demonstrates, through the concrete rays, the aspects of divinity, forming the persona that hides the one Self; love demonstrates through the abstract rays in developing the attributes of divinity, in evolving to fullest measure the kingdom of God within. Love in the concrete rays leads to the path of occultism; love in the abstract rays leads to that of the mystic. Love forms the sheath and inspires the life; love causes the logoic vibration to surge forward, carrying all on its way, and bringing all to perfected manifestation.

  In System I, Activity, Desire for Expression, and the Impulse to Move was the basic note. That activity produced certain results, certain permanent effects, and thus formed the nucleus for the present system. Ordered Activity is the foundation of this system of ordered [595] Love, and leads to system three, wherein ordered Activity, with ordered Love for its impulse, results in ordered loving Power.

  The sixth Ray of devotion and the sixth law of love have a close alliance, and on the sixth plane comes the powerful working out in the lower Triad, the Personality, of the Law of Love. On the astral plane, the home of the desires, originate those feelings which we call personal love; in the lowest type of human being this shows itself as animal passion; as evolution proceeds it shows itself as a gradual expansion of the love faculty, passing through the stages of love of mate, love of family, love of surrounding associates, to love of one’s entire environment; patriotism gives place later to love of humanity, often humanity as exemplified in one of the Great Ones. The astral plane is, at the present time, the most important for us, for in desire—not corrected or transmuted—lies the difference between the personal consciousness and that of the Ego. (185)

  In the sixth Scheme, that of Venus, this can be seen clearly; it is the scheme of love. Viewed from one angle, the Venusian Scheme is the second, and from another it is the sixth. It depends upon whether we reason from the circumference to the centre or the reverse.

  It is the home of the planetary Logos of the sixth Ray. This may sound like a contradiction, but it is not so really; we must remember the interlocking, the gradual shifting and changing, that takes place in time on all [596] the Rays. In the same way the Earth chain is the third if viewed from one aspect and the fifth viewed from another.

  In the sixth chain of each scheme, this sixth law and
the sixth Ray have a very important significance, whilst the seventh chain of each scheme is always synthetic—Love and Activity in a perfect balance. The same effect can be demonstrated in the sixth Round. In the sixth Round of the present chain of the Earth scheme, the sixth law will demonstrate with great clarity and force, as love shown in brotherhood, love translated or transmuted from the astral to the buddhic. So in the sixth rootrace and the sixth subrace a similar analogy will be seen. Out of the shattered form of the fifth subrace of the fifth root race, built up under the fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge, with the aid of the fifth Law of Fixation, will emerge the sixth subrace of brotherly love—love shown in the realisation of the one life latent in each Son of God.

  7. The Law of Sacrifice and Death. This law links itself to the third law, that of Disintegration following the connection that always exists between the atmic and the physical plane. The Law of Disintegration controls the fivefold destruction of forms in the five lower worlds, and the Law of Death controls similarly in the three worlds. It is subsidiary to the third law. The Law of Sacrifice is the Law of Death in the subtle bodies, whilst what we call death is the analogous thing in the physical body. This law governs the gradual disintegration of concrete forms and their sacrifice to the evolving life, and is closely linked in its manifestation with the seventh Ray. This Ray is the one that largely controls, that manipulates, that geometrises and that holds sway over the form side, governing the elemental forces of nature. The physical plane is the most concrete exemplification of the form side; it holds the divine life imprisoned or [597] enmeshed at its densest point, and it works at this time in line with the seventh law. In a mysterious way this law is the reverse side of the first, or the Law of Vibration. It is Vulcan and Neptune in opposition, which is as yet an almost incomprehensible thing for us. The densest form of expression on the physical plane is after all but a form of synthesis; just as the rarest form of expression on the highest plane is but unity or synthesis of a finer kind. One is the synthesis of matter, and the other the synthesis of life.