A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

by Alice A Bailey

  As H. P. B. has pointed out, (S. D., Section X, Vol. I, 384, 435; II, 306.) birds and serpents are closely connected with wisdom, and therefore with the psychic nature of God, of men, and of devas. The study of mythology should reveal certain stages and relationships which will make this matter clearer.

  The Elementals and Lesser Devas of Liquid Matter. A very interesting illustration of the interpenetration of all the living matter of creation can be seen in connection with the atmosphere surrounding our planet. In it is to be found:

  a. Moisture, or those living essences which are the liquid elementals.

  b. Gaseous substance, or those lives which are linked to all fiery essences, being volatile and the result of heat.

  c. Etheric matter, or the lowest orders of the devas of the ethers.

  This major triplicity, when in conjunction, produces that which we breathe, and that in which we live and move and have our being. To the thoughtful student the air is full of symbology, for it is a synthesis, and that which bridges the higher and the lower strata of manifestation.

  We must centre our attention first upon those lives which constitute the sumtotal of all that is watery, and liquid throughout manifestation, and in dealing with this we must remember that we are concerned with the most occult of investigations, and with matters which are very closely connected with man’s evolution.

  The many groups of the water devas of the manipulatory class have been roughly grouped by mythological writers, under the terms undines, mermaids, and other [897] expressions, but their diversity is great, and this will be necessarily apparent when it is remembered that the sumtotal of water upon the earth (oceans, seas, rivers, lakes and streams), far exceeds the dry portion, or land, and every drop of moisture is in itself a tiny life, fulfilling its function and running its cycle. The mythic forms above referred to are but those myriad lives built into a form through which an evolutionary deva is seeking expression.

  The extreme interest of this subject might be expressed under certain statements which will give the student some idea of the close attention which should, and eventually will be paid to this subject of the deva lives of watery manifestation. As said above, the aggregate of these lives is greater than the aggregate of those lives which form the sum total of solid earth as we understand the term, even though they do not exceed the number of lives which form the gaseous portion of manifestation; this gaseous portion is found in the atmosphere, interpenetrating dense matter, and filling in a large degree the interior caverns of the planet. The microcosmic resemblance to the great Life of the planet is seen in the fact that both forms are but outer sheaths or frameworks, sheltering an inner “vault”; both forms are hollow, both have their negative and positive extremities, their poles, so to speak, and internally much proceeds affecting the outer evolutions.

  One of the most occult of the planets, Neptune, presides over the “devas of the waters”; their presiding deva Lord, Varuna, the Raja of the astral plane, being an emanation from that planet. Students will find it of profound interest to study the close interaction therefore between:

  1. The sixth plane, the astral plane, and the sixth subplane of the physical plane, the liquid subplane. [898]

  2. The sixth subplane of each plane in the solar system, and their relation to each other.

  Herein will be found one reason why men of a relatively low type of physical body, and having an astral body with some sixth subplane matter in it are responsive to higher things and have a spiritual aspiration. The influence emanating from the sixth subplane of the buddhic plane calls out a reciprocal response from the sixth subplane matter in other bodies, and the sixth principle of buddhi under the Law of Correspondences intensifies that vibration.

  The name Neptune is one under which the planetary Logos of one of the major three schemes is known upon our planet. Certain of His influences and energies affect paramountly the deva essence of this sixth subplane matter, reaching them via the Raja Lord Varuna. This knowledge is of practical value astrologically, for it will enable men to understand the nature of their own physical bodies, and above all of their astral bodies. It is an occult fact that the type of astral matter in a man’s body decides the quality of the watery substance of his physical body. There is, in occultism, no dissociating the physico-psychic natures, for the latter determines the former. The planet Neptune therefore has a profound effect and a close connection under the Law of Correspondences with the sixth, or astral plane, which is the plane of the liquid portion of the logoic physical body, with the sixth subplane of the physical plane, or with the liquid portion of the human physical body and of the planetary physical body, also with the sixth type of energy or force, or the sixth ray.

  The major scheme over which Neptune presides forms a systemic triangle of great interest for esoteric astrologers with the sixth scheme and one other. This is symbolised in the three pronged trident which the god Neptune [899] is always portrayed as holding, the prongs being literally the symbolic triangles connected with each other by three lines of force.

  This planet has also a vital relation to the sixth logoic principle, or Buddhi, and therefore the sixth principle of man. No man begins to co-ordinate the buddhic vehicles until he comes under Neptunian influence in some life or another. When this is the case, his personality horoscope will show Neptunian influence dominating somewhere.

  The Neptunian scheme governs one of the three paths of return, and gathers to itself eventually all those Egos who attain primarily through the manipulation of the sixth type of energy usually called devotion. It is Neptunian influence likewise which presides over and makes possible the second Initiation, wherein the initiate produces results in the astral body, and wherein his astral centres are the object of the Hierophant’s attention. This particular type of energy flows through three centres:

  a. That particular head centre which is linked to the heart centre.

  b. The heart centre.

  c. The solar plexus.

  The planet Neptune, along with the planetary Logos of the sixth ray controls the astral centres in man. This statement involves much esoteric macrocosmic significance. When it is remembered that all centres—human and divine—are composed of deva essence, the connection between this influence and the devas, and their reflex effect upon man, will immediately become apparent.

  In the mystery of the sea and the secret of its occult “drying up” or absorption, will be revealed eventually the significance underlying: [900]

  a. The sex impulse, macrocosmically and microcosmically interpreted.

  b. The cessation of desire.

  c. The direction of fire to the throat centre instead of to the generative organs.

  d. Pralaya and obscuration.

  e. The meaning of the words “There shall be no more sea” found in the Christian Bible.

  When meditating upon these thoughts, students will find it well to bear in mind the fact that Neptune is one of the major or synthesising planets, that it is an “absorbing” or “abstracting” planet, and that it is connected with the process whereby eventual perfection is demonstrated. The Son is made perfect, and the cosmic incarnation is brought to a close.

  There is again a very close esoteric connection between the fact lying behind the Biblical words “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” (Bible. Gen., 1:2.) and the ordered lawful activity of the Great Mother as she performs her work of body-building under the impulse of desire. The true relation between the astral plane and the physical plane will only become apparent as students carefully bear in mind that the astral plane of the solar system is the sixth subplane of the cosmic physical plane, and constitutes the sumtotal of the liquid substance of the logoic physical body. When this is realised, the work of the deva essence takes due place; the factor of desire, or of astral motion, and its reflex action upon the physical body via the sixth subplane will become apparent, and the Great Mother will be seen actively engaged, under the influence of desire, in the work of building, n
ourishing, and producing that warmth and moisture which make manifestation possible. The Mother is the greatest of the devas, and closely linked [901] with the devas of the waters, for moisture of some kind or another is an essential to all life.

  The sixth principle, therefore, or the love aspect (the Christ principle), and the sixth plane, are connected; there is an interplay of energy between the fourth cosmic ether, or buddhic energy, and the sixth plane, or astral energy. The devas on both these planes belong essentially to groups over which Neptunian influence presides, hence the astral plane can, and eventually will, directly reflect the buddhic.

  The greater building devas on the second plane of the solar system, the monadic plane or the second cosmic ether, direct the energies of the manipulating devas of the fourth cosmic ether, the buddhic plane.

  The manipulating devas of the fourth cosmic ether will, in due course of evolution, work out the plan in objective perfection through the medium of the living substance of the lesser devas of the liquid or astral plane. When they have done this two results will be seen: first, the astral plane will perfectly reflect the buddhic plane and, secondly, the result of that will be that the physical plane will produce the exact vehicle needed for microcosmic or macrocosmic expression through the force of water, or desire.

  All this is revealed to esotericists in the symbology of the circulatory system in man. As the blood system, with its two types of channels (arteries and veins) and its two types of builders (the red and the white corpuscles), is studied from the occult standpoint, much will be ascertained of a revolutionary nature. The laws of the path of outgoing, and of the path of return, with the two groups of deva lives therein concerned, will be apprehended by man. A further hint may here be given. In the physical body of man in connection with the circulatory system, we find, in the three factors—the heart, the arteries, and the veins—the clue to the three types [902] of devas, and also to the systemic triangle which they represent, and further, to the three modes of divine expression. There is a planetary as well as a systemic circulation, and it is carried on through the medium of deva substance everywhere, macrocosmically as well as microcosmically.

  The devas of the sixth physical subplane can be divided into three groups, and these again into seven and into forty-nine, thus corresponding with all groups in the solar system. These groups (in their essential nature) respond to that “which lies above more than that which lies below,” which is only an occult way of expressing a relationship of an intimate nature between the devas of fire and the devas of water, and a negation of a close connection between the water devas and the earth. Occultly expressed, through the action of the fire devas, the water devas find liberation.

  The devas of water find for themselves the path of service in their great work of nourishing all the vegetable and animal life upon the planet; the goal for them is to enter into that higher group of devas which we call the gaseous or fire devas. These, through the action of their fire upon the waters, produce that sequence of evaporation, condensation, and eventual precipitation which—through its constant activity—nourishes all life upon the earth. Thus again can the psychic laws of love be seen at work in the deva kingdom as in the human; first, the withdrawal or segregation of the unit from the group (called individualisation in man, and evaporation in the water realm). Next, condensation, or the amalgamation of the unit with a newer or higher group, this we call condensation for the devas of the waters, and initiation in man; finally, the sacrifice of the group of human or deva atoms to the good of the whole. So does the law of service and sacrifice govern all the second aspect divine in all its departments great [903] or small. Such is the law. But in the human kingdom, though love is the fulfilling of the law, it is arrived at along the path of pain and sorrow, and every true lover and server of humanity is stretched upon the cross until for them the sixth principle dominates, and the sixth type of matter in their bodies is completely subjected to the higher energy. (282) In the case of the devas, love is the fulfilling of the law without pain or sorrow. It is for them the line of least resistance, for they are the mother aspect, the feminine side of manifestation, and the easy path for them is to give, to nourish, and to tend. Therefore, the devas of the waters pour themselves out in service to the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and in the transmutative fires all that holds them on the sixth subplane will eventually be overcome, and through occult “distillation and evaporation” these devas will eventually form part of the gaseous fiery group and become those fires which are the basis of the divine alchemy.

  Speaking generally, it must be remembered that the earth devas of densest matter become, in the course of evolution, the devas of the waters, and find their way eventually on to the astral plane, the cosmic liquid; the devas of the waters of the physical plane find their way, through service, on to the gaseous subplane, and then to the cosmic gaseous, becoming the devas of the mental plane. This literally and occultly constitutes the transmutation of desire into thought.

  The gaseous devas become eventually the devas of the fourth ether, and from thence in long aeons, find their way to the cosmic fourth ether, the buddhic plane. These three groups are therefore cosmically connected with: [904]

  1. The cosmic astral plane and the constellation whence emotional and desire energy originates.

  2. The cosmic mental plane, and therefore with the constellation Sirius.

  3. The cosmic buddhic plane, and the constellation of the Pleiades.

  Thus can the whole process be worked out, if man carefully studies his own nature, and the law of analogy.

  The Devas of the Gaseous Subplane. In dealing with the elementals, or lesser devas, under the manipulatory devas of this extensive group, we are dealing with the devas of fire, and with the fiery essences of substantial nature which can be seen manifesting in myriads of forms. Certain of the subdivisions of this group are known to students, such as:

  The Salamanders, or the fiery lives which can be seen by clairvoyants leaping in the flames of a furnace or of a volcano; this group can be subdivided into four groups according to color—red, orange, yellow, and violet—the last of which approximate very closely to the devas of the fourth ether.

  The Agnichaitans; this is a term applied to the fiery lives, which are the sumtotal of the plane substance, as seen in the first part of our treatise, and also to the tiny essences which compose the fires of manifestation. As the nature of physical plane electricity is understood and studied, and its true condition realised, the reality of the existence of these agnichaitans will stand revealed.

  As the race becomes clairvoyant, as it surely will in a great degree before the close of this rootrace, these gaseous devas will stand revealed, and men will realise that they are working with fiery lives, and that they are themselves closely allied to these lives through the fires of their own bodies. The clairvoyance which is in process [905] of developing in this rootrace is entirely physical, and, under the law, its development is to be anticipated, for the Aryan rootrace is that one wherein man—in this fourth round—comes to full self-consciousness. This involves complete physical vision, and the use in perfection of the three physical plane senses of hearing, touch, and sight. In the next rootrace, astral clairvoyance will be prevalent, though not universal, and thus contact with the buddhic plane will be more easily achieved. In the earlier rootraces of the next round, the fifth, there will be a recapitulation of the activities of this round, until, in the fifth rootrace, the sumtotal of that achieved in this round will be seen. Men will then begin to demonstrate mental clairvoyance. Thus the cycles mingle and overlap, in order that no unit of life, however small and unimportant, may fail in opportunity.

  These agnichaitans of the third subplane come particularly under the influence of Saturnian energy. They are the great fusers of substance, and it is in connection with them that the transmutation of metals becomes possible. They have a relationship to the mineral kingdom analogous to that which the watery devas have to the vegetable and animal. Th
ey are, as will be apparent, connected with the throat centre of a planetary Logos and of a solar Logos, and it is through their activity that the transmission of sound through the air becomes possible. It might surprise students and inventors could they but realise that the present rapid growth of wireless communication everywhere is due to the swinging into contact with the human vibration of a group of fiery deva lives hitherto uncontacted.

  Just as each plane has its seven subplanes, so likewise each subplane can be subdivided, thus making forty-nine fires on every plane, or the three hundred and forty-three fires of the solar system. Herein can be found the clue to the mystery of the “fourth between the three” [906] which has at times bewildered students of the occult records. There are several ways of reading these figures, 3 4 3, but the only occult method which can be hinted at here, lies in the recognition of the three higher planes, the three lower planes, the fourth plane of meeting between them. This fourth plane has occultly been called “the meeting place.” When it is remembered that the goal for these gaseous devas is the fourth cosmic ether, or the buddhic plane and that they (in their major and minor groups) are the internal macrocosmic and microcosmic fires, some idea may be gained as to the true significance of the eventual at-one-ment between the two lines of evolution for the goal for man likewise is the buddhic plane.

  On the third subplane, therefore, in its fifth division of deva essences, certain groups are now being contacted in this, the fifth rootrace; the result of this contact can be seen in the stimulation of responsive vibration, which is demonstrated already in the discovery of wireless intercourse and of radium.