A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

by Alice A Bailey

  Third, those which, when sounded, produce two results: the sending forth of the perfected creation, so that it may take to itself a physical body, and next, the dispersal of the building forces, now that their work is completed.

  This last set of formulas is of exceeding interest, and were they not so powerful the magician might find himself cumbered with the produce of his thought, and the prey of a vital form, and of certain “devas of the waters” who would never leave him until they had completely drained from him all the “waters of his nature,” absorbing it into their own nature, and producing his astral death. The curious phenomenon would then be seen of the Ego or solar Angel being incarnated in the mental sheath, yet separated from the physical body, owing to the occult “drowning” of the magician. There is nothing left for the Ego to do then but to snap the sutratma [1017] or thread, and sever all connection with the lowest sheath. This lowest sheath then may persist for a short time, according to the strength of the animal life, but more probably death would immediately ensue. (304) Several magicians have perished thus.

  RULE IX. Condensation next ensues. The fire and waters meet, the form swells and grows. Let the magician set his form upon the proper path.

  This rule is very briefly summed up in the injunction: Let desire and mind be so pure and so equally apportioned and the created form so justly balanced that it cannot be attracted towards the destructive or “left-hand” path.

  RULE X. As the waters bathe the form created, they are absorbed and used. The form increases in its strength; let the magician thus continue until the work suffices. Let the outer builders cease their labors then, and let the inner workers enter on their cycle.

  One of the fundamental concepts which is grasped by all magical workers, is that both will and desire are force emanations. They differ in quality and vibration, but are essentially currents of energy, one forming an initial vortex or centre of activity, being centrifugal, and the other being centripetal, and the main factor in the accretion of matter into a form around the central vortex. This can be seen demonstrating in an interesting way in the case of the egoic lotus, where we have the will aspect forming the “jewel in the lotus,” or the inner [1018] centre of electrical energy, and the desire or love aspect forming the egoic lotus itself, or the form which hides the centre. The analogy in all form building holds good for gods, men and atoms. The solar system is (from the higher cosmic planes), seen as a vast blue lotus, and so on down the scale; even the tiny atom of substance can be so considered. The distinction between these various lotuses exists in the number and arrangement of the petals. The solar system is literally a twelve-petalled lotus, each petal being formed of forty-nine lesser petals. The planetary lotuses differ in each scheme, and one of the secrets of initiation is revealed when the number of the petals of

  a. Our earth planet,

  b. Our planetary polar opposite,

  c. Our complementary or equilibrising planet,

  is committed to the initiate. Armed with this knowledge, he can then work out certain formulas of magic which enable him to create in the three spheres. It is the same basic concept which governs thought form building, and which enables a magician of white magic to produce objective phenomena on the physical plane. He works with the two types of energy, will and desire, and their equilibrising is what leads to the balancing of the pairs of opposites, and the subsequent release of energy-substance in the formation of the physical plane structure. The magician has to know the following facts:

  The formulas for the two aspects of logoic energy, will and desire. This is literally apprehension of the note and formula of the Brahma or substance aspect, and the note and formula of the Vishnu, or building aspect. One he ascertains because he has mastered matter; the other is revealed to him when he has achieved group consciousness.

  [1019] The formula for the particular type of energy substance which he is seeking to employ. This will have relation to that particular petal in the solar lotus from which the desired force emanates.

  The formula for the particular type of energy which is transmitted to him via one or other of the three circles of petals in his own egoic lotus.

  The formula for the particular petal in a circle of petals with which he may choose to work. All these concern primarily the will aspect, as far as the thought form to be produced is concerned, for the magician is the will, or purpose, or spirit behind the objective phenomenon which he is in process of producing.

  The formula which sweeps into activity (and thus produces a form), those Agnisuryans who are energised by any particular aspect of solar force. Where the two forces are brought into contact, the form is produced, or the third energy centre appears or manifests:

  a. The energy of the will aspect.

  b. The energy of the desire or love aspect.

  c. The energy of the consequent thought form.

  There is no contradiction here to the occult teaching that Father and Mother, or Spirit and Matter, when brought into contact, produce the Son. The difficulty which students have to surmount consists in the true interpretation of the three terms: Mother—Matter—Moisture (or the waters).

  In creation, the three vibratory spheres:

  1. The dense physical Mother Matter,

  2. The etheric Matter Holy Spirit,

  3. The astral Moisture Water,

  work as a unit, and in the occult teaching, during the earlier stages of creation, must not be separated or distinguished apart. On the path of involution, if the subject may be approached from a different angle, and thus [1020] somewhat clarify, distinctions are made, and on the path of evolution, or of return, they are, as we well know, surmounted; on the middle point of equilibrium, as on our globe, for instance, confusion ensues in the mind of the student owing to the occult fact that the various formulas are being employed simultaneously, the thought-forms are at all stages of construction, and the ensuing chaos is terrible.

  The rule which we are commenting upon may be interpreted as stating that in the magical work, the energy of the waters becomes paramount, and desire for the form and the fulfilment of its objective increases. This takes place after the will energy has formed the central nucleus by being brought into contact with the desire force. The magician, through desire (or strong motive), increases the vitality of the form until it is so powerful and intense in its own separated life that it is ready to go forth on its mission upon the physical plane. The building devas who have been impelled to construct the form out of the myriads of elemental lives available, have completed their work, and now cease from constructing; this particular type of energy no longer drives the lesser lives in any specific direction, and the final cycle of work upon the astral plane is entered upon. This is summed up in the next rule.

  RULE XI. Three things the worker with the law must now accomplish. First, ascertain the formula which will confine the lives within the ensphering wall; next, pronounce the words which will tell them what to do and where to carry that which has been made; and finally, to utter forth the mystic phrase which will save him from their work.

  The embodied idea has now form and shape upon the astral plane; but all is as yet in a state of flux, and the lives are only held in place through the fixed attention [1021] of the magician, working through the greater builders. He must, through knowledge of certain magical phrases, make the work more permanent and independent and fix the place of the vitalising elements within the form, and give them an impetus that will result in more settled concretion. Having accomplished that, he becomes, if it might so be expressed, an agent of Karma, and sends forth the dual thought form (clothed in mental and astral matter), to fulfil its mission, whatever that may be. Finally, he has to take steps to protect himself from the attractive forces of his own nature, which might eventuate in his holding the thought form so closely within the radius of his own influence that it would be rendered useless, its own inherent energy neutralised, and its purpose negated.

  They might also produce such a powerful, attrac
tive force that he would draw the form so closely to himself that he would be forced to absorb it. This can be harmlessly accomplished by the man who knows how, but results, nevertheless, in a waste of energy which is forbidden under the Law of Economy. With the majority of men, who are oft unconscious magicians, many thought forms are malicious or destructive, and react back upon their creators in a disastrous manner.

  c. Four Rules for the Physical Plane. In the magical work of form creation, we have carried the thought form down from the mental plane where the solar Angel initiated the work, through the astral, where the equilibrising work was done, to the physical plane, or to the etheric levels. Here the work of producing objectivity is carried forward, and here the worker in magic is in critical danger of failure should he not be cognisant of the forms and mantrams by which the new group of builders can be reached, and the gap between the astral plane and the gaseous subplane of the physical be bridged. It might be useful here to remember that in the work of creation [1022] the white magician avails himself of the current Ray influence. When the third, fifth and seventh rays are in power, either coming in, at full meridian, or passing out, the work is much easier than when the second, sixth or fourth are dominant. At the present time, the seventh Ray, as we know, is rapidly dominating, and it is one of the easiest of the forces with which man has to work. Under this Ray it will be possible to build a new structure for the rapidly decaying civilisation, and to erect the new temple desired for the religious impulse. Under its influence the work of the numerous unconscious magicians will be much facilitated. This will eventuate in the rapid growth of unconscious psychic phenomena, in the spread of mental science, and the consequent ability of thinkers to acquire and to create those tangible benefits they desire. Nevertheless, this magic of the unconscious or selfish kind leads to karmic results of a deplorable nature, for only those who work with the law and who control the lesser lives through knowledge, love and will, evade the consequences entailed on those who manipulate living matter for selfish ends.

  The white magician utilises solar forces. As the planet passes around the sun different types of solar energy are contacted, and expert knowledge is required to utilise the influences in due time, and to have the form so constituted that it can respond at the needed hour to the differentiated energy.

  He manipulates planetary force of a triple nature:

  a. That which is the product of his own planet, and the most easily available.

  b. That which emanates from the polar opposite of our planet.

  c. That which can be felt originating from that planet which forms, with our earth and its opposite, the esoteric triangle.

  [1023] Students need here to remember that we are now dealing with etheric matter and vital energy, and are therefore concerning ourselves with the physical plane and all that is included in that term. They need likewise to remember that the magician (as he is working on the plane of objectivity) is in a position to use his own vital forces in the work of thought form creation, but this is only possible and permissible when he has reached the point in evolution where he is a channel for force and knows how to draw it within himself, transmute it, or combine it with the forces of his own body, and then transmit it to the thought form which he is in process of constructing. Much of interest will open up before the thinker who extends this idea to the planetary Logos and His work of form creating.

  With these few preliminary remarks, we can now continue with the Rules of Magic for the physical plane.

  RULE XII. The web pulsates. It contracts and expands. Let the magician seize the midway point and thus release those “prisoners of the planet” whose note is right and justly tuned to that which must be made.

  It is necessary for the magician here to remember that all that takes place upon the earth is to be found within the planetary etheric web. The worker in white magic, being an occultist, deals in universals, and starts his magical work on the confines of the physical etheric sphere. His problem is to locate those lesser lives, within the web, who are of the right order to be built into the proposed thought vehicle. Such work can necessarily only be done by the man who, through the severance of the confining web of his own etheric web, can reach out to that which is consciously recognised by him as the planetary vital body. Only he who is free can control and utilise those who are prisoners. This is an occult axiom [1024] of real moment, and much of the failure undergone by would-be workers in magic is to be traced to the fact that they themselves are not free. The “prisoners of the planet” are those myriads of deva lives who form the planetary pranic body, and are swept in on the floods of vital force emanating from the physical sun.

  RULE XIII. The magician must recognise the four; note in his work the shade of violet which they evidence, and thus construct the shadow. When this is so, the shadow clothes itself, and the four become the seven.

  This means literally that the magician must be in a position to discriminate between the different ethers, and to note the special hue of the different levels, thereby ensuring a balanced building of the “shadow.” He “recognises” them in the occult sense; that is, he knows their note and key, and is aware of the particular type of energy they embody. Enough emphasis has not been laid upon the fact that the three higher levels of the etheric planes are in vibratory communication with the three higher planes of the cosmic physical plane, and they (with their ensphering fourth level) have been called in the occult books “the inverted Tetraktys.” It is this knowledge which puts the magician in possession of the three types of planetary force and their combination, or the fourth type, and thus releases for him that vital energy which will drive this idea into objectivity. As the different types of forces meet and coalesce, a dim shadowy form clothes itself upon the vibrating astral and mental sheath, and the idea of the solar Angel is attaining definite concretion.

  RULE XIV. The sound swells out. The hour of danger to the soul courageous draweth near. The waters have not hurt the white creator and naught could drown nor drench him. Danger from fire and flame [1025] menaces now, and dimly yet the rising smoke is seen. Let him again, after the cycle of peace, call on the solar Angel.

  The work of creation assumes now serious proportions, and for the final time the body of the magician is menaced by destruction. The “shadow” having been formed, it is now ready to take to itself a “fiery” or gaseous body, and it is these fire builders who menace the life of the magician, and this for the following reasons.

  Firstly, because the fires of the human body are closely allied to the fires with which the magician seeks to work, and should these latent fires of the body and the latent fires of the planet be brought into too close juxtaposition, the creator is in danger of burning and destruction.

  Secondly, the Agnichaitans, being allied to the “fire devas” of the mental plane, have much power, and can only be controlled properly by the solar Angel Himself.

  Thirdly, on this planet the planetary fires are not as yet dominated by solar fire, and are very easily driven into the work of destruction.

  The solar Angel must, therefore, now again be invoked. This means that the magician (when his “shadow” is completed, and prior to the final stages of concretion) must see to it that his alignment with the Ego is just and unimpeded, and the communicating currents in full play. He must literally “renew his meditation,” and make direct contact afresh before proceeding with the work. Otherwise, the fires of his own body may get out of control, and his etheric body suffer in consequence. He, therefore, fights fire with fire, and draws down solar fire for his protection. This was not necessary on the astral plane. For the magician, the moments of the greatest danger in the work of creating are at certain junctures on the astral plane, where he is in danger of occult drowning, and at the transition from etheric levels [1026] to the planes of tangible concretion, when he is menaced by “occult burning.” In the one case, he does not call on the Ego, but stems the tide by love and the equilibrising powers of his own nature. In the latter case, h
e must call in that which represents the will aspect in the three worlds, the impulsive, dynamic thinker or solar Angel. He accomplishes this by means of a mantram. No clue can be given to this, owing to the powers it confers.

  RULE XV. The fires approach the shadow, yet burn it not. The fire sheath is completed. Let the magician chant the words that blend the fire and water.

  Little can here be said in interpretation of these words, beyond a reference to the general sense. The gaseous sheath is created, and the hour for the formation of the sheath for the sixth subplane, the liquid, is near. The two must blend. This is the moment of the greatest danger, as far as the thought form itself is concerned. Earlier dangers have menaced the magician. Now the form he is creating must be protected. The nature of the danger is hinted at in the words: “Where fire and water meet apart from chanted sound, all dissipates in steam. The fire ceases to be.” This danger is hid in the karmic enmity existing between the two great groups of devas. These groups can only be united by the mediator, man.

  It might be asked of what use the fifteen rules for magic communicated above may be. Naught, as yet, as far as practical work is concerned, but much where inner intellectual development is desired. He who meditates and broods over these rules in the light of what has been earlier communicated anent the devas and building forces, will arrive at an understanding of the Laws of Construction in the macrocosm, which will avail him much, and save him much time when the magical work and formulas are put in his hands.

  DIVISION E - MOTION ON THE PLANE OF MIND

  [1027]I. Introductory Remarks.

  II. The Nature of this Motion.

  1. Spiral-cyclic.

  2. Triple.