A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
Page 91
3. Attractive.
III. Results of its Activity.
1. The Law of Expansion.
2. The Law of Monadic Return.
3. The Law of Solar Evolution.
4. The Law of Radiation.
a. The cause of radiation.
b. Radiation in the five kingdoms,
c. Radiation and cyclic law.
IV. The Turning of the Wheel.
1. The solar wheel.
2. The planetary wheel.
3. The human wheel.
V. Motion and the Form-Building Aspect.
1. In the mental sheath.
2. In the causal body.
VI. Effects of Synthetic Motion.
1. Introductory remarks.
2. It produces periodic manifestation.
3. Causes triangular linking.
4. Produces a relation between three centres.
I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
We have now concluded our consideration of thought forms, having viewed the whole universe (including man) as an embodied thought, and having dealt with the ability [1028] of man himself to create forms for the clothing of his ideas.
We now return once more to the realm of technicalities, and to the more scientific part of our thesis. I use the word “scientific,” for that which will be said concerns that which is proven and known to occultists, and deals with facts. The modern fact of the modern scientist is his approximation of a part, and often an infinitesimal part, of some greater whole, and even then it concerns only the most objective part of manifestation, for that which is the essence is not regarded as a reality at all by them as it is by the real occult knower. That which we see and can touch is but an effect of inner underlying causes. The occultist does not concern himself with effects, but only with their originating cause. The modern scientist, therefore, is not as yet occupying himself with causes, and during the past only approached the realm of these initiatory impulses when he began to comprehend the energy aspect of matter, and to consider the nature of the atom. When he can pass more directly in his thoughts to the discussion and consideration of the etheric substratum which underlies the tangible, then and only then will he be entering the domain of causes, and even in this case, only those physical causes which underlie the grossly objective; he will not really have ascertained the vital impulses which produce Being. Yet a great step will have been made for, under the Law of Analogy, he will then be in a position to comprehend some of the major secrets of solar manifestation; for the planes of our solar system constitute, as we know, and as this Treatise seeks to demonstrate, the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane.
It is apparent to all careful students of this Treatise on Fire that in this section we are concerned with:
First, that mode of activity which distinguishes the Vishnu aspect of Deity, or the motion of the Divine Manasaputras. [1029] This involves, therefore, a consideration of the effects of this motion:
a. Within the planetary schemes, Their bodies.
b. Upon the atoms or “Points” in those bodies, the human and deva Monads.
Second, that impulse which is the basis of the Law of Periodicity, and which results in the cyclic incarnation of all Beings. This impulse manifests in three cycles or in three turns of the wheel of Being.
a. The activity which produces involution, or the submergence in matter of Life or Spirit.
b. The activity which produces the equilibrium of these two forces, matter and Spirit, or manifestation, or the processes of evolution.
c. The activity which withdraws the central energy from out of the responsive form and produces obscuration.
Third, that activity which causes the interplay—attraction and consequent repulsion—between all atoms, from the great cosmic atom, a solar system, to the tiny atom of the chemist or the physicist. This activity, therefore, may be viewed as:
a. Inter-cosmic, or affecting constellations.
b. Inter-planetary, or affecting the schemes.
c. Inter-chain, or affecting the chains.
d. Inter-globular, or producing an interchange of force between the globes of the chains.
e. Inter-sectional, or affecting the transference of force between the five kingdoms of nature.
f. Inter-human, or relating to the interplay between the various human units.
g. Inter-atomic, or the passage of force from one atom to another atom.
Students need here to remember that we are concerned with the energy or activity which produces forms, and, [1030] therefore, with the forces which tend to coherence, to concretion, and to the stabilisation of the work of the builders. If they but realised it, the key to much that is connected with the production of forms, or of the Son, the second aspect, is contained in the above tabulation, for all nature holds together, and the life of any scheme, globe, kingdom, or atom, becomes in turn the animating principle of another scheme, globe, kingdom, or atom. Everything in the solar system is in a state of flux, as is everything in the universe, and the vital energy circulates, as the blood or the nervous energy of the body circulates, throughout the entire system. This is the basis of the occult fact that all in nature, for instance, will be, is, or has been, through the human kingdom. ( S. D., I, 215, 242, 295.) Under this type of solar activity, the ultimate good is attained by the method of interplay, interchange, and in mutual attraction and repulsion.
It would be advisable here if students would study that which was communicated in the early part of this treatise upon motion upon the physical and astral planes. Under the Law of Analogy, much will be noted as necessarily translated on to the higher plane, and to be transmuted into the energy of the form-building impulse. We will consider what we have to say in this section under the following heads:
1. The nature of this motion . . . . spiral cycling
2. The results of its activity. These results can be viewed as four subsidiary laws or adjuncts to the major law of Attraction, and may be called:
The Law of Expansion.
The Law of Monadic Return.
The Law of Solar Evolution.
The Law of Radiation.
[1031] It will, therefore, be apparent that, as we consider these laws, we are dealing with matters that concern:
The process of initiation.
The life of the divine pilgrims upon the upward arc.
The impulse which produces the Son, and which drives Him to gain experience through the medium of the solar system.
Magnetism, or Divine Alchemy.
3. The turning of the wheel,
a. The solar wheel,
b. The planetary wheel,
c. The human wheel.
This will involve our taking up the consideration of the orbital paths of these various spheres, their centres, inter-play and intercommunication, and of force transference, and will bring out the concept that all spiral-cyclic activity is not the result of the rotary action of matter itself, but of an impulse emanating from without any particular atom, and therefore extraneous to it.
4. Motion, or the form-building impulse latent in:
a. The mental sheath itself, both cosmically and humanly considered.
b. The causal body of the macrocosm and the microcosm.
c. The centres, divine and human.
5. The effects of the united activity of the sheath, the centres, and the causal body as it produces:
a. Periodic manifestation.
b. The linking of the triangles.
c. The relation between the throat centre, the alta major centre, and the mental centre, macrocosmically and microcosmically considered. [1032]
II. THE NATURE OF THIS MOTION
As we well know, the nature of the motion on the plane of matter is rotary. Each atom of matter rotates on its own axis, and each larger atom, from the purely physical standpoint, likewise does the same; a cosmic atom, a solar system, a planetary atom, and a human atom, man, can be seen equally rotating at differing degrees of velocity upon their own axis or around
their own pole. When we arrive at the plane of mind, and have to consider the activity of the second aspect of divinity, that which builds and holds the forms in coherent form, and which is the basis of the phenomenon we call time (literally, the awareness of the form), a different type of force or motion becomes apparent. This type of energy in no way negates or renders useless the atomic rotary type, but involves it, and yet at the same time it brings the atoms of all degrees under the influence of its own activity, so that in every form which is in manifestation, the two types are manifested. I would here remind the student that we are primarily considering the force of the second aspect as it concerns the human and superhuman kingdoms, or as the Manasaputras and their various groups are concerned. On the involutionary arc, the Vishnu force is likewise felt, but until the nature of the group soul is more apprehended, and the quality of the Life who informs each of the subhuman kingdoms of nature is known with greater accuracy, it will profit us more to deal with force as it affects the human being, the planet on which he may be found, and the system in which that planet is playing its part.
The activity of the second aspect has been called spiral-cyclic, which in itself involves the concept of duality. This activity is the cause of all cyclic evolution, and has been called in the occult phraseology “the activity of Brahma’s year.” It is that which brings about the [1033] periodical appearing and disappearing of all existences, great or small. It is intimately linked with the will aspect of Divinity, and with the Lipika Lords of the highest degree and its origin is, therefore, difficult for us to comprehend. Perhaps all that can be said about it is that it is largely due to certain impulses which (as far as our solar system is concerned) can be traced to the sun Sirius. These impulses find their analogy in the impulses emanating in cyclic fashion from the causal body of man, which impulses bring about his appearance upon the plane of maya for a temporary period. A hint may here be given to the earnest student; in the threefold Ego (the lives who form the central bud, the lives of the petals, and the triple group of lives who form the three permanent atoms) is seen a correspondence to the three groups of Lipika Lords who are the karmic cause of solar manifestation, and who control its periodic manifestation. These three groups are related to Their guiding Intelligences on Sirius.
The Law of Periodicity is the effect produced by the amalgamation of these two types of force with a third. The two types of force or energy are the activity of the first Aspect, the logoic will or purpose, and the energy of the second aspect. This purpose is hidden in foreknowledge of the Logos and is completely hidden even from the Adept of the fifth Initiation. The Adept has achieved a comprehension of the purpose of the Son, and for Him there remains the problem to recognise the purpose of the Father. The one is the impulse behind the forward movement of all life, and the other the impulse behind its cyclic activity, and this is called spiral-cyclic. When this blended dual force is brought in touch with the rotary activity of matter itself, we have the triple activity of the Ego, for instance, which is rotary-spiral-cyclic, and that which results in the stimulation of the self-contained atom, in the periodical emergence of form, and in the [1034] steady, though slow, progress towards a goal. We might, for the sake of clarity, differentiate the effects thus:
1. Rotary activity The internal activity of every atom viewed as a unity, the activity of Brahma or the Holy Spirit, perfected in the first solar system. It is unified individual consciousness... “I am.”
2. Cyclic activity The activity of all forms, viewing them from the aspect of consciousness, and of time. It is unified group consciousness... “I am That,” the activity of Vishnu in process of being perfected in this the second solar system.
3. Spiral activity The influence which impresses all forms, which emanates from their greater centre, and which merges itself a little, a very little, with the two other modes of motion, being practically lost sight of in the stronger vibration. It is the activity which will be perfected in the third solar system, and is the Shiva form of motion, and the unified consciousness of all groups. It is the consciousness which proclaims “I am That I am.”
One of the primary things the occult student should remember when considering the nature of spiral-cyclic activity, is that it has two effects.
First, it is an attractive force, gathering the rotating atoms of matter into definite types and forms, and holding them there as long as necessity demands.
Secondly, it is itself gradually dominated by another and higher vibration, and through its spiralling progress through matter it sweeps those forms systematically nearer and nearer to another and stronger point of energy.
These effects are to be seen clearly demonstrated in man’s evolution in the approach he makes uniformly through the cycles to the centre of the spiral-cyclic energy, [1035] and subsequently to the still more impressive point, that of his “Father in Heaven.” The Angel first attracts animal man; cyclically He actuates the material sheaths, thus giving them coherence, and ever swings them into closer relation to himself. Later, as the momentum is increased, the man is swung more definitely into relation with the monadic aspect, until that higher rhythm is imposed upon him. This is equally true of a planetary Logos, and of a solar Logos.
The spiral-cyclic force demonstrates, as might be expected, in seven ways; of these, the three major methods of demonstration are symbolised in the Rod of Initiation of Sanat Kumara. The Rod most frequently recognised by men is that of the Hierophant, the Bodhisattva, which consists of the straight central serpent with the two others entwined around it, thus picturing, among other things:
a. The three outpourings,
b. The three worlds,
c. The spinal column and its channels,
or those main factors with which the initiate concerns himself. He has to understand somewhat the nature of matter and what is occultly involved in that expression, his own triple constitution, the three worlds in which he has to play his part, and the instrument which he has to use. This rod of the Bodhisattva is surmounted by a diamond which is not as great a diamond as the “Flaming Diamond” of the first Kumara, but is of rare beauty. At the time of initiation when the electrical forces are tapped, this diamond revolves on its axis, picturing the rotary nature of atomic matter.
The Rod of Sanat Kumara is far more intricate, and instead of the central Rod, or Serpent, standing on the tip of its tail, all the three serpents are interwoven in a spiral fashion, and the Flaming Diamond which surmounts [1036] it is of such radiance that the effect is produced of a spheroidal aura, cast around the interlaced serpents, typifying the form-building nature of the Vishnu activity.
According to the initiation taken, a reflection will be seen from a part of the interlaced serpents, and the illusion will be created that the diamond is cycling up and down between the summit, and the irradiated portion.
At the same time, each serpent revolves upon itself, and likewise cycles around its neighbor, producing an effect of extraordinary brilliance and beauty, and typifying rotary-spiral-cyclic force.
The seven types of spiral-cyclic energy are suggestive of the nature of the planetary Logoi which they represent, and produce, therefore, the distinctions which exist between men; they are accountable for the nature of cycles, and this is a point oft overlooked. Students discuss the periods of the emergence of the Rays, setting arbitrary dates, such as 2500 years, for the manifestation of any particular ray. One ray does pass through its cycle in that length of time, but only one, the others being either longer or shorter. The difference has a great effect upon the egoic cycles, and is responsible for the length of time between incarnations. Some Egos cycle through their incarnations and their pralayas very rapidly; others spend untold aeons, and hence it is impossible to say that there are even “averages” connected with the appearance of Egos on the astral plane, for instance. This fact has bearing upon the statement of H. P. B. anent the Lodge effort each one hundred years. Under the particular type of cyclic force emanating from the Lodge, the high water ma
rk of its activity is to be found once in every seven cycles. All that originates on that Ray is controlled by spiral-cyclic efforts based upon the number 10 and its multiples, and finding its highest cyclic vibration, as it happens, during the last [1037] quarter of each century. What our more modern students are apt to forget in this connection is that this activity is but the demonstration of one type of force out of seven possible and that it concerns primarily that group of adepts who are on that particular line of energy, and will necessarily affect greatly all disciples and people on a similar line. At the same time, the work it initiates is endorsed by the Lodge as a whole, for it is part of the force emanation of the planetary Logos. It is naturally of great importance owing to the fact that this ray-energy is that of one of the three major Rays; but it will be, in the equilibrising process, balanced by analogous cyclic emanatory activity from the two other major Rays.
It might be added here that when this is recognised it will become apparent that the revolutionising scientific discoveries which can be traced down the centuries, such as the formulation of the Law of Gravitation, the circulation of the blood, the ascertainment of the nature of steam, the discovery by man of that form of electrical phenomena which he has harnessed, and the more recent discovery of radium, are in their own department (that of the Mahachohan), analogous to the effort made during the last quarter of each century to stimulate the evolution of men through a further revelation of some part of the Secret Doctrine. Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Harvey, and the Curies are, on their own line of force, lightbringers of equal rank with H. P. B. All revolutionised the thought of their time; all gave a great impulse to the ability of man to interpret the laws of nature, and to understand the cosmic process, and only those of circumscribed vision will fail to recognise the unity of the many force impulses emanating from the one Lodge.