Section One – The Internal Fires – Fire by Friction
Division B – The Personality Ray and Fire by Friction
B.I. The Work of the Three Rays
We here touch upon a matter of wide general interest yet
which is withal very little comprehended. I refer to the
subject of the permanent atoms.
26 Each body or
form wherein Spirit functions has, for its focal point on
each plane, an atom composed of matter of the atomic
subplane of each plane. This serves as a nucleus for the
distribution of force, for the conservation of faculty, for
the assimilation of experience, and for the preservation
[70] of memory. These atoms are in direct connection with
one or other of the three great rays in connection with the
microcosm:
- The Monadic Ray, the synthetic ray of the
microcosm.
- The Egoic Ray.
- The Personality Ray.
26 Permanent Atom. An appropriated point
of atomic matter. A tiny center of force which forms the
central factor and the attractive agency around which the
sheaths of the incarnating Monad are built. These are
strung like pearls upon the sutratma, or thread.
Ray. A stream of force or an emanation. The solar
Logos, or the Macrocosm, manifests through three major rays
and four minor rays. The Monad or microcosm likewise
manifests through three rays as mentioned in the text
above. All rays express a peculiar and specialized type of
force.
Triad. This is literally Atma-buddhi-manas, the
expression of the Monad, just as the personality is the
expression of the Ego. The Monad expresses itself through
the Triad, and in its lowest or third Aspect forms the
Egoic or Causal body, the infant or germinal Ego.
Similarly, the Ego expresses itself through the threefold
lower man, mental, emotional, and etheric (these being the
reflection of the higher Triad) and these three give rise
to the dense physical manifestation.
27 Spirilla. "In order to examine the
construction of the atom, a space is artificially made,
then, if an opening be made in the wall thus constructed,
the surrounding force flows in, and three whorls
immediately appear, surrounding the "hole" with their
triple spiral of two and a half coils, and returning to
their origin by a spiral within the atom; these are at once
followed by seven finer whorls, which following the spiral
of the first three on the outer surface and returning to
their origin by a spiral within that, flowing in the
opposite direction – form a caduceus with the first three.
Each of the three coarser whorls, flattened out, makes a
closed circle; each of the seven finer ones, similarly
flattened out, makes a closed circle. The forces which flow
in them, again, come from "outside," from a
fourth-dimensional space. Each of the finer whorls is
formed of seven yet finer ones, set successively at right
angles to each other, each finer than its predecessor;
these we call spirillae.
- "Each spirilla is animated by the life-force of a
plane, and four are at present normally active, one for
each round. Their activity in an individual may be
prematurely forced by yoga practice."
- Occult Chemistry, p. 28.
Each of these rays has a connection with one or other of
the permanent atoms in the lower threefold man, and has a
direct action upon the spirillae27 found within
the atom. We have noted in "Letters on Occult
Meditation" that the atoms of the lower threefold man
underwent a twofold process:
They were first vivified in rotation, and each held the
light in ordered sequence until the lower triangle was
entirely illumined.
Eventually transmutation took place, or (to word it
otherwise) the polarization eventually shifted into the
three permanent atoms of the Triad, and out of the three
permanent atoms of the lower triangle. The physical
permanent atom is transcended and the polarization becomes
manasic or mental, the astral permanent atom is transcended
and the polarization becomes buddhic, while the mental unit
is superseded by the permanent [71] atom, of the fifth
plane, the atmic. This is all brought about by the action
of the three rays upon the atoms and upon the life within
each atom. The relationship between these three rays and
the permanent atoms might be summarized as follows:
- The Personality Ray has direct action upon the
physical permanent atom.
- The Egoic Ray has a similar action upon the
astral permanent atom.
- The Monadic Ray has a close connection with
the mental unit.
The effect which they have is threefold, but is not
simultaneous; they work ever, as do all things in Nature,
in ordered cycles. The stimulation, for instance, that is
the result of the action of the monadic Ray upon the mental
unit is only felt when the aspirant treads the Path, or
after he has taken the first Initiation. The action of the
egoic Ray upon the astral permanent atom is felt as soon as
the Ego can make good connection with the physical brain;
when this is so the egoic ray is beginning to affect the
atom powerfully and continuously; this occurs when a man is
highly evolved and is nearing the Path. This threefold
force is felt in the following way:
- First. It plays upon the wall of the atom as an
external force and affects its rotary and vibratory
action.
- Second. It stimulates the inner fire of the atom and
causes its light to shine with increasing
brilliancy.
- Third. It works upon the spirillae, and brings them
all gradually into play.
B.II. The Personality Ray and the Permanent Atom
The Personality Ray deals with the first four
spirillae, and is the source of their stimulation. Note
here the [72] correspondence to the lower quaternary and
its stimulation by the ego. The Egoic Ray concerns
itself with the fifth spirillae and with the sixth, and is
the cause of their emerging from latency and potentiality
into power and activity. The Monadic Ray is the
source of the stimulation of the seventh spirillae. There
is great interest attached to this subject and wide reaches
of thought and vast fields for investigation open up before
the earnest student. This threefold action varies in point
of time and sequence according to the ray itself upon which
the Monad may be found; but the subject is too vast to be
handled at this time. In looking at the matter from the
standpoint of fire the idea may be grasped a little through
the realization that the latent fire of matter in the atom
is brought into brilliance and usefulness by the action of
the personality Ray which merges with this fire and stands
in the same position to the permanent atom in the microcosm
as Fohat does on the cosmic plane. The fire is there hidden
within the sphere (whether the sphere systemic or the
sphere atomic) and the personality Ray in the one case, and
Fohat in the other, acts as the force which brings latency
into activity and potentiality into demonstrated power.
This correspondence should be thought out with care and
judgment. Just as Fohat has to do with active manifestation
or objectivity, so the personality Ray has to do with the
third, or activity aspect in the microcosm. The work of the
third aspect logoic was the arranging of the matter of the
system so that eventually it could be built into form
through the power of the second aspect. Thus the
correspondence works out. By life upon the physical plane
(that life wherein the physical permanent atom has its full
demonstration) the matter is arranged and separated that
must eventually be built into the Temple of Solomon, the
egoic body, through the agency of the egoic life, the
second [73] aspect. In the quarry of the personal life are
the stones prepared for the great Temple. In existence upon
the physical plane and in the objective personal life is
that experience gained which demonstrates as faculty in the
Ego. What is here suggested would richly repay our closest
attention, and open up before us reaches of ideas, which
should eventuate in a wiser comprehension, a sounder
judgment, and a greater encouragement to action.
B.III. The Personality Ray and Karma
It might be wise here to recapitulate a little so that in
the refreshing of the memory may come the basis of further
knowledge. We dealt first with the three fires of the
system, macrocosmic and microcosmic, and having laid down
certain hypotheses we passed to the consideration of the
first of the fires, that which is inherent in matter.
Having studied it somewhat in its threefold manifestation
in the various parts of the system, including man, we took
up the matter of the personality Ray and its relationship
to this third fire. We must recall here that all that has
been dealt with has been in relation to matter, and for the
whole of this first section this thought must be borne
carefully in mind. In our second section we will consider
all from the standpoint of mind, and in the final from the
standpoint of the Divine Ray. Here we are dealing with what
H.P.B calls the primordial ray and its manifestations in
matter (see S. D., I, 108; II, 596). All these Rays of
Cosmic Mind, Primordial Activity, and Divine Love-Wisdom
are but essential quality demonstrating through the agency
of some one factor.
- The Primordial Ray is the quality of motion,
demonstrating through matter. [74]
- The Ray of Mind is the quality of intelligent
organization, demonstrating through forms, which are the
product of motion and matter.
- The Ray of Love-Wisdom is the quality of basic motive
that utilizes the intelligent organization of matter in
motion to demonstrate in one synthetic whole the great
Love aspect of the Logos (S. D., I, 99, 108; II,
596).
This line of thought can be worked out also
correspondingly in the Microcosm, and will show how
individual man is engaged in the same type of work on a
lesser scale as the solar Logos.
At this point in the treatise we are confining our
attention to the Ray of Active Matter, or to that latent
heat in substance which underlies its activity and is the
cause of its motion. If we think with sincerity and with
clarity we will see how closely therefore the Lipika Lords
or the Lords of Karma are associated with this work. Three
of Them are closely connected with Karma as it concerns one
or other of the three great Rays, or the three fires, while
the fourth Lipika Lord synthesizes the work of his three
Brothers and attends to the uniform blending and merging of
the three fires. On our planet, the Earth, They find Their
points of contact through the three "Buddhas of Activity,"
30 (the correspondence should be noted here) and
the fourth Kumara, the Lord of the World. Therefore, we
arrive at the realization that the personality Ray, in its
relation to the fire of matter, is directly influenced and
adjusted in its working by one of the Buddhas of Activity.
[75]
30 "Buddhas of Activity." The 'Pratyeka
Buddhas.' This is a degree which belongs exclusively to the
Yogacharya School, yet it is only one of high intellectual
development with no true spirituality... It is one of the
three paths to Nirvana, and the lowest, in which a yogi –
"without teacher and without saving others" – by the mere
force of will and technical observances, attains to a kind
of nominal Buddhahood individually."
-
Theosophical Glossary.
31 "From the view taken of Karma as I have
done it, you will see that no plane of the highest
spirituality, be that the plane of the nirvanees, is
outside the karmic wheel and when it is said in the
Sanskrit writings and even in the Bhagavad Gita that men
cross the karmic ocean, it must be understood with some
allowance. The entities that have now succeeded in going
outside the karmic wheel, have done so, only if that wheel
be taken as the one that turns now. The cosmos is not going
in one groove all the days of Brahma, but it is going on a
higher and higher status as it fulfils its mission. Those
who have attained unto a rest in a state of spirituality
not reachable now, will therefore in a future day come
within the action of the wheel, with perhaps a punishment
for the great duties neglected for long ages."
- Some Thoughts on the Gita, p. 40.
32 The Lipika are the Spirits of the
Universe. They are connected with the Law of Cause and
Effect (Karma) and its recorders. Lipika comes from "Lipi"
writing. For information concerning the Lipika Lords see S.
D., I, pp. 152, 153.
- The Buddhas of Activity, are the Triad Who
stands closest to Sanat Kumara, The Lord of the World.
They are the planetary correspondences to the three
Aspects of the logoic third Aspect and are concerned with
the force behind planetary manifestation.
- Monadic Essence, the matter of the atomic (or
highest) subplane of each plane.
- Elemental Essence, the matter of the six
subplanes which are non atomic. It is molecular
matter.
33 "Karma may be defined to be the force
generated by a human center to act on the exterior world,
and the reactionary influence that is in turn generated
from the exterior world to act on him may be called karmic
influence and the visible result that is produced by this
influence under proper conditions may be called karmic
fruit."
-
Some thoughts on the Gita, p. 53.
The karma
31, 32, 33 of matter itself is an
abstruse subject and has as yet scarcely been hinted at. It
is nevertheless indissoluble mixed up with the karma of the
individual. It involves a control of the evolution of the
monadic essence, the elemental essence and of the atomic
matter of the plane; it is concerned with the development
of the four spirillae, with their activity, with their
attachment to forms when atomic, and with the development
of the inner latent heat and its gradual fiery increase
until we have within the atom a repetition of what is seen
within the causal body: the destruction of the periphery of
the atom by the means of burning. It deals with the subject
of the building of matter into form by the interaction of
the two rays, the Divine and the Primordial, producing
thereby that fire by friction which tends to life and
fusing.
The karma of form is likewise a vast subject, too [76]
involved for average comprehension but a factor of real
importance which should not be overlooked in connection
with the evolution of a world, a synthesis of worlds, or of
a system when viewed from higher levels. Every thing is, in
its totality, the result of action taken by cosmic Essences
and Entities in earlier solar systems which is working out
through the individual atoms, and through those congeries
of atoms which we call forms The effect of the personality
Ray upon the internal fires is therefore, in effect, the
result of the influence of the planetary Logos of whatever
ray is implicated, as He works out that portion of Karma
which falls to His share in any one cycle, greater or
lesser. He thus brings about and eventually transmutes, the
effects of causes which He set in motion earlier in
relation to His six Brothers, the other planetary Logoi. We
get an illustrative parallel in the effect which one
individual will have upon another in worldly contact, in
molding and influencing, in stimulating or retarding. We
have to remember that all fundamental influence and effects
are felt on the astral plane and work thence through the
etheric to the dense physical thereby bringing matter under
its sphere of influence, yet not itself originating on the
physical plane. [77]