A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

by Alice A Bailey

  (36) “This whole solar system being conceived of as one vast mechanism, with an exquisite adjustment of its parts in all major details, is only the physical expression of Vishnu, or the ethereal basic substance, as we may understand the word for the present. All the harmonies observable in the manifested cosmos are only the result of the harmoniously working energies that resolve ether into the expression that we recognise. All planets, worlds, human beings, etc., are only parts of the body, each functioning in subordination to the law which governs the whole. The evolution, preservation and destruction of the world is therefore one vast process called Yagna, which takes place in the body of Yagna Purusha, or the psychical body of nature. Humanity taken collectively is the heart and brain of this Purusha and therefore all the Karma generated by humanity, physical, mental, or spiritual, determines mainly the character of this Yagnic process....Sri Krishna therefore calls the process the Yagnic life that he has been giving out to Arjuna as Yoga (1st Sloka 4th Chr). In fact, Yoga and Yagna are very closely allied and even inseparable, though at the present day people seem to disconnect the two. Yoga derived from the root Yuj to join means an act of joining. Now as the heart is the great centre in man, likewise the Yogee of the heart keeps his central position in the universe and hence his individuality. The individuality or the Higher Manas being the pivot of the human constitution or the centre on which two hemispheres of higher and lower existence turn as I have already said, the Yogee of the heart has a heavenly dome above and earthly abyss below and his yoga becomes twofold as a consequence. He joins himself on to the thing above in dhyana and the thing below in action. The word yagna derived from the root Yaj—to serve also means a twofold service, service done to the thing above through service done unto its expression the thing below.”—Some Thoughts on the Gita, pp. 18, 134. (back)

  (37) Principles, the basic differentiations, essential qualities or types of energy upon which all things are built; they give the distinctive nature of all forms. (back)

  (38) Pralaya....A period of obscuration or repose—planetary, systemic or cosmic. An interlude between two periods of manifestation. (back)

  (39) S. D., I, 232-238.

  The whole cosmos is guided, controlled and animated by an almost endless series of Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a mission to perform.—S. D., I, 295.

  Among these the Hierarchy of human Monads has a place. (back)

  (42) Involutionary Arc is the term applied to the first part of the evolutionary process. It covers the “path of descent,” or the coming down of Spirit into ever denser matter until the lowest point is reached, the point of densest concretion. The latter half of the process is called evolutionary and marks the ascent or return of Spirit to its emanating source, plus the gains of the evolutionary process. (back)

  (43) “The Three Outpourings. In the diagram the “symbols of the three Aspects (of the Logos) are placed outside of time and space, and only the streams of influence from them descend into our system of planes....They represent in due order what are commonly called the three Persons of the Trinity....It will be seen that from each of them an outpouring of life or force is projected into the planes below. The first of these in order is the straight line which descends from the third Aspect; the second is that part of the large oval which lies on our left hand—the stream which descends from the second Aspect until it has touched the lowest point in matter, and then rises again up the side on our right hand until it reaches the lower mental level. It will be noted that in both of these outpourings the divine life becomes darker and more veiled as it descends into matter, until at the lowest point we might almost fail to recognise it as divine life at all; but as it rises again when it has passed its nadir it shows itself somewhat more clearly. The third outpouring which descends from the highest aspect of the Logos differs from the others in that it is in no way clouded by the matter through which it passes, but retains its virgin purity and splendour untarnished. It will be noted that this outpouring descends only to the level of the buddhic plane (the fourth plane) and that the link between the two is formed by a triangle in a circle, representing the individual soul of man—the reincarnating ego. Here the triangle is contributed by the third outpouring and the circle by the second....”—The Christian Creed, by C. W. Leadbeater, pp. 39, 40. (back)

  (43a) See S. D., I, 98, 99, 100, 103.

  1. The root of life was in every drop of the ocean of immortality. Every atom in matter was impregnated with the life of the Logos.

  2. The ocean was radiant light, which was Fire, Heat, Motion. These three are the subjective life manifesting objectively. Fire: The essence of the first Logos. Electric fire. Spirit. Heat: Duality. The essence of the second Logos. Solar fire. The Son aspect. Consciousness. Motion: The essence of the third Logos. Fire by friction. Matter.

  THE MACROCOSM

  First Logos Fire The will to live or to be. Electric.

  Second Logos Heat Duality, or love between two. Solar.

  Third Logos Motion The fire of mind, the relation between. Fire by friction.

  This is the subjective expression.

  The Sun Will or power.

  Venus-Mercury Love and Wisdom.

  Saturn Activity or intelligence.

  This is the objective expression.

  THE MICROCOSM.

  The Monad Electric fire Will or power.

  The Ego Solar fire Love and wisdom.

  The Personality Fire by friction Activity or intelligence.

  This is the subjective expression.

  The mental body Will or power Fire.

  The astral body Love-wisdom Heat.

  The physical body Active intelligence Motion.

  This is the objective expression.

  Physical body.

  The brain Monad Will or power. Electric fire.

  The heart Ego Love-wisdom. Solar fire.

  Lower organs Personality .Active intelligence.

  (back)

  (45) In the Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 473, footnote, the destruction of Lemuria by fire is hinted at, and in the Secret Doctrine, II, 149, footnote, the words occur, “Lemuria was not submerged but was destroyed by volcanic action, and afterward sank.” (back)

  (46) The planetary Spirit is another term for the Logos of our planet, one of the “seven Spirits before the Throne,” and therefore one of the seven Heavenly Men. He is on the evolutionary arc of the universe, and has passed many stages beyond the human.

  The planetary Entity is on the involutionary arc and is a very low grade Entity. He is the sum total of all the elemental lives of the planet. (back)

  (47) The keys to the Secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky. See S. D., I, 343; note; II, 551.

  1. Every symbol and allegory has seven keys.—S. D., II, 567; III, 3.

  2. Only three keys available in the nineteenth century.—S. D., II, 543. Compare II, 617, 842.

  3. There are seven keys to the Entrance door to the Mysteries.—S. D., III, 178. Compare I, 346; II, 330; II, 668, II, 731.

  4. The keys, as hinted by H. P. B., are:

  a. Psychological.—S. D., II, 25, note; I, 389.

  b. Astronomical.—S. D., II, 25, note; I, 389; III, 198.

  c. Physical or physiological.—S. D., II, 25, note; III, 198.

  d. Metaphysical.—S. D., II, 25, note; II, 394.

  e. Anthropological.—S. D., I, 389; III, 198.

  f. Astrological.—S. D., II, 343.

  g. Geometrical.—S. D., II, 494; III, 176.

  h. Mystical.—S. D., I, 401.

  i. Symbolical.—S. D., II, 561.

  j. Numerical.—S. D., II, 198.

  5. Each key must be turned seven times.—S. D., I, 22.

  6. The Jews availed themselves of two keys out of the seven.

  7. The Metaphysical key is available.—S. D., I, 338. Compare III, 198. (back)

  (48) “The seven keys open the mysteries, past and future, of the seven great rootraces and of the seven kalpas.” Every occult book, symbol and all
egory can be subjected to seven interpretations. There are three locks to be opened. Seven keys. Every book can be read exoterically, subjectively and spiritually. All the keys are not yet available. (See Secret Doctrine, I, 330, 343.) There is the physiological key, the psychological, the astrological and the metaphysical. The fifth key is the geometrical. (back)

  (48a) “Ring-pass-not. The circumference of the sphere of influence of any centre of positive life. This includes the fire sphere of magnetic work of the solar orb, viewing it as the body of manifestation of a solar Logos and inclusive of an entire solar system. This term is also applied to the sphere of activity of a planetary Logos or to a planetary scheme and could equally well be applied to the sphere of activity of the human Ego.”—S. D., I, 346. (back)

  (49) The four Lipika Lords stand between the first and second plane.—S. D., I, 155.

  a. They can pass the ring-pass-not.—S. D., I, 157.

  b. They are connected with karma.—S. D., I, 153.

  c. They are concerned with the Hereafter.—S. D., I, 151.

  d. They are in three groups.—S. D., I, 153.

  e. They are the spirits of the Universe.—S. D., I, 153. (back)

  (50) The four rays of mind are the four minor rays which form the logoic Quaternary and which are synthesised eventually into a fifth ray, the third major ray of active intelligence, or adaptability. The names of the rays are as follows:

  The three major rays:

  1. The Ray of Will or Power.

  2. The Ray of Love or Wisdom.

  3. The Ray of Active Intelligence.

  The four minor Rays:

  4. The Ray of Beauty, Harmony, Art or Rhythm.

  5. The Ray of Concrete Knowledge or Science.

  6. The Ray of Abstract Idealism.

  7. The Ray of Ceremonial Order or Organisation. (back)

  (51) Sutratma. The “silver thread” which incarnates from the beginning of a period of manifestation until the end, stringing upon itself the pearls of human existence. It is the line of energy which connects the lower personal man with his Father in Heaven via the ego, the mediating middle principle. Upon it are found those focal points of energy we call the permanent atoms. (back)

  (54) Mulaprakriti. The Parabrahmic root, the abstract deific feminine principle—undifferentiated substance. Akasa. Literally, “the root of Nature” (Prakriti), or matter. (back)

  (55) The monads of the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human Monads, exist in three main groups:

  a. The Monads of Will.

  b. The Monads of Love.

  c. The Monads of Activity.

  Mahachohan. The officer in our planetary Hierarchy who presides over the activities carried on in the four minor rays and their synthesising third ray. He has to do with civilisation, with the intellectual culture of the races, and with intelligent energy. He is the head of all the Adepts.

  Bodhisattva. The exponent of second ray force, the Teacher of the Adepts of men and of Angels. This office was originally held by the Buddha, but His place was taken (after His Illumination) by the Christ. The work of the Bodhisattva is with the religions of the world, and with the spiritual Essence in Man.

  The Manu. The One Who presides over the evolution of the races. He is the ideal man. He has to work with the forms through which Spirit is to manifest; he destroys, and builds up again. These three Individuals preside over the three Departments into which the Hierarchy is divided, and therefore represent in their particular sphere the three Aspects of divine manifestation. (back)

  (56) Rootrace. The Secret Doctrine teaches us that in this evolution or Round on this planet the Jivatma—the human soul—passes through seven main types or “rootraces.” In the case of the two earliest of these, known as the “Adamic” and the “Hyperborean,” the forms ensouled were astral and etheric respectively: “huge and indefinite” they were with a low state or outward-going consciousness exercised through the one sense (hearing) possessed by the first race, or through the two senses (hearing and touch) possessed by the second. But with the third race the Lemurian, a denser and more human type was evolved, this being perfected in the fourth or Atlantean race. The fifth race, the Aryan, is now running its course on this globe concurrently with a large part of the fourth race and a few remnants of the third. For it must be noted that, although each race gives birth to the succeeding race, the two will overlap in time, coexisting for many ages. Of existing peoples the Tartars, Chinese and Mongolians belong to the fourth race, the Australian aborigines and Hottentots to the third. (back)

  (57) In the co-ordination of the Monadic, Atmic and Buddhic vehicles of the Heavenly Man, the vehicles of spiritual life, the higher esoteric correspondence to the prana flowing through the lower reflection, the etheric physical body, the point of synthesis is always on the atomic subplane, and the six merge and become the seventh. In this solar system the plane of synthesis is not included in the evolutionary scheme. It is the plane of gathering in and of pralaya. In the earlier system the fourth aetheric was in this position; it was to the evolving units of that period what the atomic plane is now, the highest point of achievement. The goal for all was the buddhic plane or the fourth cosmic aether. Three other planes are the goal now,—the buddhic, atmic and monadic, each time three planes and their eventual synthesis. In the future solar system the cosmic physical atomic aether (the plane of Adi in the system now) will be the starting point and the three planes to be dominated will be the three lowest cosmic astral planes. Man starts in where he leaves off, with cosmic physical matter perfected. His lowest body, therefore, will be the monadic or the body of the second cosmic aether. This will not be then counted as a principle any more than the threefold lower physical body of present day man is recognised as a principle.

  The present solar system will see the surmounting of the three next cosmic physical planes, the fourth, third, and the second aethers, and the coordination of the cosmic etheric body. (back)

  (58) Lost Souls. See Isis Unveiled, Vol. II, p. 368; also S. D., I, 255, and S. D., III 493, 513-516, 521, 525, 527.cosmic aether. This will not be then counted. (back)

  (59) See S. D., III, 523-529.732. (back)

  (60) “Kundalini, the serpent power or mystic fire; it is called the serpentine or annular power on account of its spiral-like working or progress in the body of the ascetic developing the power in himself. It is an electric fiery occult, or fohatic power, the great pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter.”—H. P. Blavatsky. (back)

  (61) “Kundalini is the static form of the creative energy in bodies which are the source of all energies including Prana....

  “This word comes from the adjective Kundalin or “coiled.” She is spoken of as “coiled” because she is sleeping, lies coiled; and because the nature of her power in spiraline,...

  “In other words, this Kundalini shakti is that which, when it moves to manifest itself, appears as the Universe. To say that it is “coiled” is to say that it is at rest—that is, in the form of static potential energy....Kundalini shakti in individual bodies is power at rest, or the static centre round which every form of existence, as moving power, revolves.”..—The Serpent Power, by Arthur Avalon. (back)

  (62) It is not my intention to lay any stress on the sex side of this subject, for these are organs with which the occultist has nothing to do. I will not therefore enumerate them in detail. I would only point out that in the transference of the fire at the base of the spine and the turning of its attention to the two higher triangles comes the redemption of man. (back)

  (63) 1. “The Master-soul is Alaya, the universal soul or Atma, each man having a ray of it in him and being supposed to be able to identify himself with and to merge himself into it.

  2. Antaskarana is the lower Manas, the path of communication or communion between the personality and the higher Manas or human soul.

  At death it is destroyed as a path or medium of communication, and its remains survive in a form as the Kama-rupa—the shell.�
�—Voice of the Silence, page 71.

  “The antaskarana is the imaginary path between the personal and the impersonal self, and is the highway of sensation; it is the battlefield for mastery over the personal self. It is the path of aspiration, and where one longing for goodness exists the antaskarana persists.”—See Voice of the Silence, pp. 50, 55, 56, 88. (back)

  (64) Elemental Essence is seen to consist of aggregations of matter, on one of the six non-atomic subplanes of the mental and the desire planes—aggregations which do not themselves serve as forms for any entity to inhabit, but as the material out of which such forms may be built. the turning of its attention. (back)

  (65) “The Hindus place their seven primitive Rishis in the Great Bear. The prototypes or the animating source of the seven Heavenly Men, the planetary Logoi, are considered the seven Existences who function through the seven stars of the Bear.”—S. D., II, 668. (back)

  (67) Subba Rao says in Five Years of Theosophy, page 102: “As a general rule, whenever seven entities are mentioned in the ancient occult science of India in any connection whatsoever, you must suppose that those seven entities came into existence from three primary entities; and that these three entities, again, are evolved out of a single entity or monad. To take a familiar example, the seven coloured rays in the solar ray are evolved out of three primary coloured rays; and the three primary colours coexist with the four secondary colours in the solar ray. Similarly the three primary entities which brought man into existence coexist in him with the four secondary entities which arose from different combinations of the three primary entities. Read also S. D., I, 190, 191. (back)