Section One – The Internal Fires – Fire by Friction
Division A – The Internal Fires of the Sheaths
A.I. The Three Channels for the Fire
From the very use of the term "sheath" it will be noted
that we are considering those fires which manifest through
the medium of those externalities, of those veils of
substance which hide and conceal the inner Reality. We
shall not here take up the subject of the sheaths on the
higher planes, but simply deal with the fires that animate
the three lower vehicles – the physical body in its two
divisions (etheric and dense), the emotional or astral
body, and the mental sheath. It is frequently overlooked by
the casual student that both the astral and the mental
bodies are material, and just as material in their own way,
as is the dense physical body, and also that the substance
of which they are composed is animated by a triple fire, as
is the physical.
In the physical body we have the fires of the lower
nature (the animal plane) centralized at the base of the
spine. They are situated at a spot which stands in relation
to the physical body as the physical sun to the solar
system. This central point of heat radiates in all
directions, using the spinal column as its main artery, but
working in close connection with certain central ganglia,
wherever located, and having a special association with the
spleen. [56]
In the etheric body, which is an exact replica of
its denser counterpart, we have the organ of active or
radiatory fire, and, as is well known, the vehicle of
prana. Its function is to store up the rays of radiatory
light and heat which are secured from the sun, and to
transmit them, via the spleen, to all parts of the physical
body. Hence in the future it will come to be recognized
that the spine and the spleen are of the utmost importance
to the physical well-being of man, and that when the spinal
column is duly adjusted and aligned, and when the spleen is
freed from congestion and in a healthy condition, there
will be little trouble in the dense physical body. When the
physical furnace burns brightly and when the fuel of the
body (pranic rays) is adequately assimilated, the human
frame will function as desired.
The subject of the blending of these two fires, which is
complete in a normal and healthy person, should engross the
attention of the modern physician. He will then concern
himself with the removal of nerve congestion or material
congestion, so as to leave a free channel for the inner
warmth. This blending, which is now a natural and usual
growth in every human being, was one of the signs of
attainment or of initiation in an earlier solar system.
Just as initiation and liberation are marked in this solar
system by the blending of the fires of the body, of the
mind and of the Spirit, so in an earlier cycle attainment
was marked by the blending of the latent fires of matter
with the radiatory or active fires, and then their union
with the fires of mind. In the earlier period the effects
in manifestation of the divine Flame were so remote and
deeply hidden as to be scarcely recognizable, though dimly
there. Its correspondence can be seen in the animal
kingdom, in which instinct holds the intuition in latency,
[58] and the Spirit dimly over-shadows. Yet all is part of
a divine whole.
The subject of the radiatory heat of the macrocosmic and
microcosmic systems will be dealt with in detail in a later
subdivision. Here we will only deal with the latent
interior fire of the
17 "The divine essence that, pervading the
entire universe of millions of solar systems, is caught up
by our sun and passed out in a manifested form to the
utmost boundaries of our solar system, so that this
manifested essence may be the basic soil of the growth,
preservation and destruction of our worlds, that divine
essence is simple Nadam of our yogic philosophy and that
Nadam or OM subsequently manifests itself as seven streams.
The unmanifested is manifested by or borne by the
subsequent ramifications. These streams are the seven
vowels or seven notes. These seven vowels and notes must
have special correlations with the seven vedic metres,
since in the Vishnu Purana, Parasara describes the vedic
metres as the coursers of the solar essence." – Some
Thoughts on the Gita, p. 74.
We must remember that in both the astral and the mental
sheaths there exist the counterparts of the centers as
found in the physical body. These centers concern matter
and its evolution. One fundamental statement can be laid
down anent the internal fires of all these four (sun,
planet, man, and atom):
- There exists in the Sun, in the planet, in man, and
in the atom, a central point of heat, or (if I might use
so limiting and inappropriate a term) a central cavern of
fire, or nucleus of heat, and this central nucleus
reaches the bounds of its sphere of influence, its
ring-pass-not by means of a threefold
channel.17
a. The Sun. Within the sun, right at its very heart,
is a sea of fire or heat, but not a sea of flame. Herein
may lie a distinction that perhaps will convey no meaning
to some. It is the center of the sphere, and the point of
fiercest internal burning, but has little relation to the
flames or burning gases (whatever terms you care [59] to
use) that are generally understood to exist whenever the
sun is considered. It is the point of fiercest
incandescence, and the objective sphere of fire is but the
manifestation of that internal combustion. This central
heat radiates its warmth to all parts of the system by
means of a triple channel, or through its "Rays of
Approach" which in their totality express to us the idea of
"the heat of the sun."
- The akasha, itself vitalized matter, or
substance animated by latent heat.
- Electricity, substance of one polarity, and
energized by one of the three aspects logoic. To express
it more occultly, substance showing forth, the quality of
the cosmic Lord Whose energy it is.
- Light Rays of pranic aspect, some of which are
being now recognized by the modern scientist. They are
but aspects of the latent heat of the sun as it
approaches the Earth by a particular line of least
resistance.
When the term "channel or ray of approach" is used, it
means approach from the center of solar radiation to the
periphery. What is encountered during that approach – such
as planetary bodies, for instance – will be affected by the
akashic current, the electrical current, or the pranic
current in some way, but all of these currents are only the
internal fires of the system when viewed from some other
point in universal, though not solar, space. It is,
therefore, obvious that this matter of fire is as complex
as that of the rays. The internal fires of the solar system
become external and radiatory when considered from the
standpoint of a planet, while the internal fires of the
planet will affect a human being as radiation in exactly
the same way as the pranic emanations of his etheric body
affect another physical body as radiatory. The point to be
grasped in all these [60] aspects is that one and all have
to do with matter or substance, and not with mind or
Spirit.
b. The Planet. Deep in the heart of the planet –
such a planet as the Earth, for instance – are the internal
fires that occupy the central sphere, or the caverns which
– filled with incandescent burning – make life upon the
globe possible at all. The internal fires of the moon are
practically burnt out, and, therefore, she does not shine
save through reflection, having no inner fire to blend and
merge with light external. These inner fires of the earth
can be seen functioning, as in the sun, through three main
channels:
- Productive substance, or the matter of the
planet vitalized by heat. This heat and matter together
act as the mother of all that germinates, and as the
protector of all that dwells therein and thereon. This
corresponds to the akasha, the active vitalized matter of
the solar system, that nourishes all as does a
mother.
- Electrical fluid, a fluid which is latent in
the planet though as yet but little recognized. It is
perhaps better expressed by the term "animal magnetism."
It is the distinctive quality of the atmosphere of a
planet, or its electrical ring-pass-not. It is the
opposite pole to the solar electrical fluid, and the
contact of the two and their correct manipulation is the
aim – perhaps unrealized – of all scientific endeavor at
this time.
- That emanation of the planet which we might term
Planetary Prana. It is that which is referred to
when one speaks of the health-giving qualities of Mother
Nature, and which is back of the cry of the modern
physician, when he wisely says "Back to the Earth." It is
the fluidic emanation of this prana which acts upon the
physical body, though in this case not via the etheric
body. It is [61] absorbed through the skin purely and the
pores are its line of least resistance.
c. The Man. At the base of the spine lie hid the
fires of the human system, or the internal fires of the
Microcosm. The center is located there, and from it the
radiations go forth along the three channels, recognizable
in the spine.
- Bodily warmth, the channel along which the
heat radiates and which finds the goal of its attention
to be the heating of the corporeal frame. This
vitalization of the dense matter of the body finds its
correspondence in the systemic akasha, and in planetary
productive substance.
- Nervous response. This is the vitalizing
tenuous fluid which applies itself to the stimulation of
the nervous centers, and which creates electrical
response to contact between the nerves and the brain. It
should now be more closely studied. It corresponds to
systemic electricity, and to planetary electricity.
- Pranic emanation. The emanation, via the
etheric body, which corresponds in man to solar prana and
to planetary prana. This demonstrates principally in the
health aura and has naught to do with magnetic qualities,
as generally interpreted when considering a personality,
or man as a unit. I make this repetition as it is very
necessary that no mental confusion exists between that
magnetism which is a spiritual emanation and that which
is purely animal.
18 T. Subba Rao says on page 20, of Esoteric
Writings: 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 colored rays in the solar ray are evolved out of
three primary colored rays; and the three primary colors
coexist with the four secondary colors 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."
In Christian terminology these are the three Persons of
the Trinity, and the seven Spirits which are before the
Throne. Compare "Our God is a consuming fire."
Heb:12.29.
19 "I have already said in speaking of this
Logos, that it was quite possible that it was the Logos
that appeared in the shape of the first Dhyan Chohan, or
planetary Spirit, when the evolution of man was recommenced
after the last period of inactivity on this planet, as
stated in Mr. Sinnett's book, Esoteric Buddhism, and after
having set the evolutionary current in motion, retired to
the spiritual plane congenial to its own nature, and has
been watching since over the interests of humanity, and now
and then appearing in connection with a human individuality
for the good of mankind. Or you may look upon the Logos
represented by Krishna as one belonging to the same class
as the Logos which so appeared. In speaking of himself
Krishna says, (chap. x, verse 6):
- "The seven great Rishis, the four preceding Manus,
partaking of my nature were born from my mind: from them
sprang, was (born) the human race and the world."
He speaks of the sapta Rishis and of the Manus as his
manasaputras, or mind-born sons, which they would be if he
was the so-called Prajapati, who appeared on this planet
and commenced the work of evolution." – The Theosophist,
Vol. VIII, p. 443.
2O The following tabulation should be borne
in mind:
- Seven branch races make one subrace
- Seven subraces make one root-race
- Seven root-races make one world period
- Seven world periods make one round
- Seven rounds make one chain period
- Seven chain periods make one planetary scheme
- Ten planetary schemes make one solar system
It might be wise here to point out that this triple
manifestation of fire demonstrates in the astral and mental
bodies likewise, having to do with the substance of those
bodies. We might express this fire in its triple
manifestation as the sumtotal of the essential fire, or
life activity of the third Logos. It should be carefully
borne [62] in mind that the manifestation of the work of
the three Logoi is the expression of the mind of some
cosmic Entity. In the same way, the seven planetary
Entities, the seven Heavenly Men, are seven Logoi (likewise
cosmic Beings) Who in Their totality form the Body of the
threefold Logos. We have, therefore:
- The undifferentiated Logos – a cosmic Entity.
- The Logos, threefold in manifestation:
- The cosmic Lord of Will Power.
- The cosmic Lord of Love and Wisdom.
- The cosmic Lord of Active Intelligence.
- The triple Logos, sevenfold in manifestation., i.e.
The seven planetary Logoi. 18, 19, 20
[63] Each of there cosmic Entities is, in His
essential essence, Fire; each manifests as fire in a
threefold manner. In point of time the cosmic Lord of
active Intelligence, considered from the standpoint of
cosmic evolution, is more evolved than His two Brothers. He
is the life of matter, its latent internal Fire. His is the
fire essence that lies at the heart of the Sun, of the
planet, and of man's material forms. He is the sumtotal of
the Past.
The Lord of Cosmic Love now seeks union with His Brother,
and, in point of time, embodies all the Present. He is the
sumtotal of all that is embodied; He is conscious
Existence. He is the Son divine and His life and nature
evolve through every existent form. The Lord of Cosmic Will
holds hid the future within His plans and consciousness.
They are all three the Sons of one Father, all three the
aspects of the One God, all three are Spirit, all three are
Soul, and all three are Rays emanating from one cosmic
center. All three are substance, but in the past one Lord
was the elder Son, in the present another Lord comes to the
fore, and in the future still another. But this is so only
in Time. From the standpoint of the Eternal Now, none is
greater nor less than another, for the last shall be first,
and the first last. Out of manifestation time is not, and
freed from objectivity states of consciousness are not.
The fire of Spirit is the essential fire of the first Lord
of Will plus the fire of the second Logos of Love. These
two cosmic Entities blend, merge, and demonstrate as Soul,
utilizing for purposes of manifestation the aid of the
third Logos. The three fires blend and merge. In this
fourth round and on this fourth globe of our planetary
scheme, the fires of the third Logos of intelligent matter
are fusing somewhat with the fires of cosmic [64] mind,
showing as will or power, and animating the Thinker on all
planes. The object of Their cooperation is the perfected
manifestation of the cosmic Lord of Love. This should be
pondered upon for it reveals a mystery. The blending of the
three fires, the merging of the three Rays, and the
cooperation of the three Logoi have in view (at this time
and within this solar system) the development of the
Essence of the cosmic Lord of Love, the second Person in
the logoic trinity. Earlier it was not so, later it will
not be, but now it is. When viewed from the cosmic mental
plane these Three constitute the PERSONALITY OF THE LOGOS,
and are seen functioning as one. Hence the secret
(well recognized as fact, though not understood) of the
excessive heat, occultly expressed, of the astral or
central body of the triple personality. It animates and
controls the physical body, and its desires hold sway in
the majority of cases; it demonstrates in time and
space the correspondence of the temporary union of
spirit and matter, the fires of cosmic love and the fires
of matter blended. A similar analogy is found in the heat
apparent in this second solar system.
21 "It should be remembered that the mere scale
does not matter, for greatness and smallness are
essentially relative. The destiny of each atom is to create
a brahmanda. Brahmandas like or smaller or larger than
ours, held together by a sun, are present in every atom.
Vishvas, great world-systems, exist in an atom, and atoms
again exist in these vishvas. This is the significance of
'many from one'; wherever we see the one we should
recognize the many also, and conversely. After securing the
ability of, and then actually, creating a brahmanda, the
next step is the creation of a jagat, then a vishva, then a
mahavishva and so on, till the status of mahavishnu is
reached."
- Bhagavan Das in the Pranava Vada, p. 94.
d. The Atom. The inner fires of the atom can
likewise be seen functioning along similar lines, their
demonstration being already somewhat recognized by science.
This being so there exists no necessity for further
elaboration. 21 [65]
A.II. Fire Elementals and Devas
We might now briefly consider the subject of the fire
elementals and devas, and then deal with the relation of
the Personality Ray to this internal fire of the system in
its threefold manifestation.
Certain facts are known in connection with the fire spirits
(if so they may be termed). The fundamental fact that
should here be emphasized is that AGNI, the Lord of Fire,
rules over all the fire elementals and devas on the three
planes of human evolution, the physical, the astral, and
the mental, and rules over them not only on this planet,
called the Earth, but on the three planes in all parts of
the system. He is one of the seven Brothers (to use an
expression familiar to students of the Secret Doctrine) Who
each embody one of the seven principles, or Who are in
Themselves the seven centers in the body of the cosmic Lord
of Fire, called by H. P. B. "Fohat." He is that active
fiery Intelligence, Who is the basis of the internal fires
of the solar system. On each plane one of these Brothers
holds sway, and the three elder Brothers (for always the
three will be seen, and later the seven, who eventually
merge into the primary three) rule on the first, third and
the fifth planes, or on the plane of adi, of atma 22 and of
manas. It is urgent that we here remember that They are
fire viewed [66] in its third aspect, the fire of matter.
In Their totality these seven Lords form the essence of the
cosmic Lord, called in the occult books,
Fohat.23
23 Atma means as you all know the self or the
ego or an individualized center of consciousness around
which all worldly experiences in their dual aspect of
subjective and objective cluster and arrange themselves. It
is as it were one of the foci from which emerge rays of
light to illumine the cosmic waters and in which also
converge the rays sent back by those waters. In
Theosophical writings, it is called the self-conscious
individuality or the Higher Manas. From this point of view,
you will see that the Higher Manas is the most important
principle or the central pivot of the human constitution or
the true soul. It is the thread which ought to be caught
hold of by one who wants to know the truth and lift himself
out of this conditioned existence. To this it may be
objected that Atma represents the seventh principle of the
theosophical septenary and that the Manas is far lower in
the scale. But the plain answer is that the seventh
principle is the ultimate state attainable by the self
after crossing the ocean of conditioned existence or
samsara."
-
Some Thoughts on the Gita, p. 26.
Fohat, or electricity, is an Entity.
- He is the primordial electric Entity S. D., 1,
105.
- He is Will S. D., 1, 136.
- He is Love-Wisdom S. D, 1, 100, 144, 155.
- He is Active Intelligence S. D., 1, 136.
- Therefore He is God S. D., 1, 167.
- He is the sumtotal of the energy of the seven
Spirits, Who are the sumtotal of the Logos. S. D., 1,
169.
24 Chohan (Tibetan). A Lord or Master. A
high Adept. An initiate who has taken more Initiations than
the five major Initiations which make man a "Master of the
Wisdom."
25 The seven Brothers. See S. D., 1, 105.
These seven are the seven differentiations of primordial
electric energy.
Plane. As used in occultism, the term denotes the
range or extent of some state of consciousness or of the
perceptive power of a particular set of senses or the
action of a particular force, or the state of matter
corresponding to any of the above.
This is so in the same sense as the seven Chohans,
24 with Their affiliated groups of pupils, form
the essence or centers in the body of one of the Heavenly
Men, one of the planetary Logoi. These seven again in Their
turn form the essence of the Logos.
Each of the seven Lords of Fire 25 are
differentiated into numerous groups of fire entities, from
the Deva-Lords of a plane down to the little salamanders of
the internal furnaces. We are not dealing with the fiery
essences of the higher planes at this stage in our
discussion. We will only enumerate somewhat briefly some of
the better known groups, as contacted in the three worlds.
1. Physical Plane
Salamanders, those little fire elementals who can be
seen dancing in every flame, tending the fires of the
hearth and the home, and of the factory. They are of the
same group as the fire spirits who can be contacted deep in
the fiery bowels of the planet.
Fire spirits, latent in all focal points of heat,
who are themselves the essence of warmth, and can be
contacted [67] in the heat of the bodily frame, whether
human or animal, and who are likewise the warmth
terrestrial.
The Agnichaitans, a higher grade of fire spirit, who
form a vortex of fire when viewed on a large scale, such as
in volcanoes and large destructive burnings. They are
closely allied to a still more important group of devas,
who form the fiery envelope of the sun.
The pranic elementals, those minute fiery essences
who have the ability to permeate the texture of the human
body, of a tree, or of all that may be found in the human,
vegetable and animal kingdoms, and who blend with the fires
of the microcosmic systems.
Certain of the deva kingdom who may be described as
ensouling certain of the great light rays, and Who are in
Themselves the essence of those rays. Other forms of such
elemental lives and of deva groups might be enumerated, but
the above tabulation will suffice for our present purpose.
2. The Astral Plane
The fiery essences of this plane are more difficult for us
to comprehend, having not, as yet, the seeing eye upon that
plane. They are in themselves the warmth and heat of the
emotional body, and of the body of feeling. They are of a
low order when upon the path of desire, and of a high order
when upon the path of aspiration, for the elemental is then
transmuted into the deva.
Their grades and ranks are many, but their names matter not
save in one instance. It may be of interest to know the
appellation applied to the devas of fire whose part it is
to tend the fires that will later destroy the causal body.
We need to remember that it is the upspringing of the
latent fire of matter and its merging with two other fires
that causes destruction. These elementals and devas are
called the Agnisuryans, and in [68] their totality
are the fiery essences of buddhi, hence their lowest
manifestation is on the sixth plane, the astral.
Further information concerning these deva lives will be
found further on in the Treatise, where they are dealt with
at some length. [69]