TCF-1 division E
Section One – The Internal Fires – Fire by Friction
Section E – Motion on the Physical and Astral Planes
E.I. Introductory Remarks
I would point out primarily and emphasize the fact that the motion we are considering is that due to the fire latent in matter itself, a motion that is the prime characteristic and basic quality of the Primordial Ray of Active Intelligence. To express it otherwise: it is the outstanding faculty of the third Logos, of Brahma [142] viewed as the Creator, and this faculty is the product or result of an earlier manifestation. Each of the three Logoi, when in manifestation and thus personified, is exemplifying some one quality which predominates over the others. Each, more or less, exemplifies all, but each demonstrates one of the three aspects so profoundly as to be recognized as that aspect itself. In much the same way, for instance, the different incarnating jivas carry a vibration which is their main measure, though they may also have lesser vibrations that are subsidiary to them. Let us get this clear, for the truth embodied is fundamental.
  1. The threefold goal,
  2. The threefold function,
  3. The threefold mode of activity.
The Third Logos. The third Logos, or Brahma, is characterized by active intelligence; His mode of action is that which we call rotary, or that measured revolution of the matter of the system, first as a grand totality, setting in movement the material circumscribed by the entire ring-pass-not, and secondly differentiating it, according to seven vibratory rates or measures into the seven planes. On each of these planes the process is pursued, and the matter of any plane within the plane ring-pass-not shows first as a totality and then as a sevenfold differentiation. This differentiation of matter is brought about by rotary motion, and is controlled by the Law of Economy (one of the cosmic laws) with which we will deal later, only pausing here to say that this Law of Economy might be considered as the controlling factor in the life of the third Logos. Therefore:
  1. His goal is the perfect blending of Spirit and matter.
  2. His function is the manipulation of prakriti, or matter, so as to make it fit, or equal to, the demands and needs of the Spirit. [143]
  3. His mode of action is rotary, or, by the revolution of matter, to increase activity and thereby make the material more pliable.
All these three concepts are governed by the Law of Economy, which is the Law of Adaptation in time and space, or the line of least resistance. This line of least resistance is that which is sought for and followed on the matter side of existence. Incidentally, Brahma manifests Will, because He is purpose, and Love because in this solar system Love is the line of least resistance. While this is an occult statement worthy of consideration, yet it must be remembered that He is primarily activity and intelligence with the aim of adaptability, and that this is His main characteristic.
The Second Logos. The second Logos, Vishnu, the divine Wisdom Ray, the great principle of Buddhi seeking to blend with the principle of Intelligence, is characterized by Love. His motion is that which we might term spiral cyclic. Availing Himself of the rotary motion of all atoms, He adds to that His own form of motion or of spiraling periodical movement, and by circulation along an orbit or spheroidal path (which circles around a central focal point in an ever ascending spiral) two results are brought about:
  1. He gathers the atoms into forms.
  2. By means of these forms He gains the needed contact, and develops full consciousness on the five planes of human development, gradually rarefying and refining the forms as the Spirit of Love or the Flame Divine spirals ever onward towards its goal, that goal which is also the source from which it came.
These forms are the sumtotal of all spheres or atoms within the solar system, or within the solar ring-pass-not, and in their seven major differentiations they are the [144] spheres of the seven Spirits, or the seven planetary Logoi.
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.
All lesser spheres ranging downward from these major spheres, include all grades of manifestation down to the elemental essence on the arc of involution.64 We need to remember that on the Path of Involution, the action of Brahma is primarily felt, seeking the line of least resistance. On the Path of Evolution the work of the second Logos is felt, beginning at a point in time and space which hides the mystery of the second chain, but finding its point of accelerated vibration or the unification of the two modes of manifestation – rotary-spiral-cyclic – in the middle part of what we call the third chain. This is after all the blending of the activity of Brahma with the onward progress of Vishnu. We have the correspondence to this in the sumtotal of the effects brought about in the second and third root races.
The activity of the second Logos is carried on under the cosmic Law of Attraction. The Law of Economy has for one of its branches a subsidiary Law of marked development called the Law of Repulsion. The cosmic Laws of Attraction and Economy are therefore the raison d'être (viewed from one angle) of the eternal repulsion that goes on as Spirit seeks ever to liberate itself from form. The matter aspect always follows the line of least resistance, and repulses all tendency to group formation, while Spirit, governed by the Law of Attraction, seeks ever to separate itself from matter by the method of attracting an ever more adequate type of matter in the process of distinguishing the real from the unreal, and passing from one illusion to another until the resources of matter are fully utilized. [145]
Eventually the Indweller of the form feels the urge, or attractive pull, of its Own Self. The reincarnating jiva, for instance, lost in the maze of illusion, begins in course of time to recognize (under the Law of Attraction) the vibration of its own Ego, which stands to it as the Logos of its own system, its deity in the three worlds of experience. Later, when the body egoic itself is seen as illusion, the vibration of the Monad is felt, and the jiva, working under the same law, works its way back through the matter of the two planes of superhuman evolution, till it is merged in its own essence.
Therefore:
  1. The goal of the second Logos is consciousness, to be achieved in cooperation with the third Logos.
  2. His function is the building of forms to be His instruments of experience.
  3. His mode of action is cyclic and spiral, the revolution of the wheel of existence in ordered cycles for a specific purpose, and the progression of these spheres of matter around a fixed center, within the solar periphery.
These three concepts are governed by the Law of Attraction, or the law governing the interplay or the action and reaction.
  1. Between the Sun and its six brothers.
  2. Between the circling whirling seven planes of the solar system.
  3. Between everything in the matter of all forms, the spheres of matter themselves and the aggregate of those spheres that are embodied in the forms of still others.
The First Logos. The first Logos is the Ray of Cosmic Will. His mode of action is a literal driving forward of the solar ring-pass-not through space, and until the end of this mahamanvantara or day of Brahma (the logoic cycle) [146] we shall not be able to conceive of the first aspect of will or power as it really is. We know it now as will to exist, manifesting through the matter of the forms, (the Primordial Ray and the Divine Ray), and we know it as that which in some occult manner links the system up with its cosmic center. In a manner inconceivable to us the first Logos brings in the influence of other constellations. When this first aspect is better understood (in the next mahamanvantara) the work of the seven Rishis of the Great Bear,65 and the supreme influence o Sirius will be comprehended; in this present manifestation of the Son, or of the Vishnu aspect, we are concerned more closely with the Pleiades and their influence via the Sun, and, in relation to our planet, via Venus.
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.

66 S. D., I, 100-108.

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 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." Read also S. D., I, 190, 191.

68 "See S. D., I, 100, 108. Also Stanza III, 7A.

This subject of the first Logos, manifesting only in connection with the other two in the system, is a profound mystery, which is not fully understood by even those who have taken the sixth Initiation.
The first Logos embodies the "will to live" and it was through His instrumentality that the Manasaputras came into objective existence in relation to the human and deva hierarchies. In this system, the blending of the Divine Ray of Wisdom and the Primordial Ray of intelligent matter forms the great dual evolution; back of both these cosmic Entities stands another Entity Who is the embodiment of Will, and Who is the utilizer of forms – though not the forms of any other than the Greater Building devas and the human hierarchies in time and space. He is the animating principle; the will-to-live aspect of the seven Hierarchies. Nevertheless these seven Hierarchies are (as says H. P. B.) the sevenfold ray of wisdom, the dragon in its seven forms.66, 67, 68
This is a [147] deep mystery, and only a clue to it all can be found at this time by man in the contemplation of his own nature in the three worlds of his manifestation. Just as our Logos is seeking objectivity through His solar system in its threefold form of which the present is the second, so man seeks objectivity through his three bodies – physical, astral and mental. At this time he is polarized in his astral body, or in his second aspect in like manner as the undifferentiated Logos is polarized in His second aspect. In time and space as we now conceive it, the sum total of jivas are governed by feeling, emotion, and desire, and not by the will, yet at the same time the will aspect governs manifestation, for the Ego who is the source of personality shows in manifestation the will to love.
The difficulty lies in the inability of the finite mind to grasp the significance of this threefold manifestation, but by thoughtful brooding over the Personality and its relation to the Ego, who is the love aspect and who nevertheless in relation to manifestation in the three worlds is the will aspect likewise, will come some faint light upon the same problems raised to Deity, or expanded from microcosmic to macrocosmic spheres.
The Mahadeva, aspect or the first Logos (who embodies cosmic will) is controlled by the Law of Synthesis, the cosmic law governing the tendency to unification; only in this case, it is not the unification of matter and Spirit, but the unification of the seven into the three, and into the one. These three figures primarily stand for Spirit, [148] for quality, for principle, and not so primarily for matter, although matter, being inspired by spirit, conforms. The Law of Synthesis has a direct connection with One Who is still higher than our Logos, and is the law of control exercised by Him upon the Logos of our system. This is a spiritual relationship that tends to abstraction or to that synthesis of the spiritual elements that will result in their conscious return (the whole point lying in that word "conscious") to their cosmic point of synthesis, or of unification with their source. Their source is the ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID, as we have earlier seen.
Therefore, in connection with the first Logos, we can sum up as we did with the other Logoi:
  1. His goal is the synthesis of the Spirits who are gaining consciousness through manifestation, and who, by means of experience in matter, are gaining in quality.
  2. His function is, by means of will, to hold them in manifestation for the desired period, and later to abstract them, and blend them again with their spiritual source. Hence the necessity of remembering that fundamentally, the first Logos controls the cosmic entities or extra-systemic beings; the second Logos controls the solar entities; the third Logos controls the lunar entities and their correspondences elsewhere in the system.

    This rule must not be carried too far in detail as long as man's mind is of its present caliber. The mystery lies in the realization that all is carried on in a divine cooperation that has its base outside the system. Hence too the fact that the first Logos is called the Destroyer, because He is abstraction, if viewed from below upwards. His work is the synthesis of Spirit with Spirit, their [149] eventual abstraction from matter, and their unification with their cosmic source. Hence also He is the one who brings about pralaya or the disintegration of form, – the form from which the Spirit has been abstracted.

    If we carry the analogy down to the microcosm a glimpse can be gained of the same idea and hence ability to comprehend with greater facility. The Ego (being to the man on the physical plane what the Logos is to His system) is likewise the animating will, the destroyer of forms, the producer of pralaya and the One Who withdraws the inner spiritual man from out of his threefold body; he draws them to himself the center of his little system. The Ego is extra-cosmic as far as the human being on the physical plane is concerned, and in the realization of this fact may come elucidation of the true cosmic problem involving the Logos and "the spirits in prison," as the Christian puts it.

  3. His mode of action is a driving forward; the will that lies back of evolutionary development is His, and He it is who drives Spirit onward through matter till it eventually emerges from matter, having achieved two things:

    First, Added quality to quality, and therefore emerging plus the gained faculty that experience has engendered.

    Second, Increased the vibration of matter itself by means of its own energy, so that matter at the moment of pralaya and obscuration will have two main characteristics, – activity, the result of the Law of Economy, and a dual magnetism which will be the result of the Law of Attraction.

All of these three concepts are governed by the Law of Synthesis, which is the law of a coherent will-to-be, persisting [150] not only in time and space, but within a still vaster cycle.
These preliminary statements have been laid down in an endeavor to show the synthesis of the whole. In the use of words comes limitation, and a clouding of the idea; words literally veil or hide thoughts, detract from their clarity, and confuse them by expression. The work of the second and third Logoi (being the production of the objectivity of the essential Spirit) is more easy to grasp in broad outline than the more esoteric work of the first Logos, which is that of the animating will.
In terms of fire another angle of expression may perhaps elucidate.
The third Logos is fire in matter. He burns by friction, and gains speed and added vibration by the rotation of the spheres, their interplay thus producing friction with each other.
The second Logos is solar fire. He is the fire of matter and the electric fire of Spirit blended, producing, in time and space, that fire which we call solar. He is the quality of the flame, or the essential flame, produced by this merging. A correspondence to this may be seen in the radiatory fire of matter, and in the emanation, for instance, from the central sun, from a planet, or from a human being, – which latter emanation we call magnetism. A man's emanation, or characteristic vibration, is the result of the blending of Spirit and matter, and the relative adequacy of the matter, or the form, to the life within. The objective solar system, or the sun in manifestation, is the result of the blending of Spirit (electric fire) with matter (fire by friction), and the emanations of the Son, in time and space, are dependent upon the adequacy of the matter, and of the form to the life within.
The first Logos is electric fire, the fire of pure Spirit. Yet in manifestation He is the Son, for by union with matter (the mother) the Son is produced by Whom He is [151] known. "I and my Father are One" (John, 10:30) is the most occult statement in the Christian Bible, for it not only refers to the union of a man with his source, the monad, via the ego, but to the union of all life e with its source, the will aspect, the first Logos.
We will now endeavor to confine ourselves strictly to the subject of fire in matter, and its active effect upon the sheaths of which it is the animating factor, and upon the centers which come primarily under its control.
As we have been told, and as is generally recognized, the effect of heat in matter is to produce that activity which we call rotary, or the revolution of the spheres. Some of the ancient books, and among them a few that are not yet accessible in the occident, have taught that the entire vault of heaven is a vast sphere, revolving slowly like a stupendous wheel, and carrying with it, in its revolution, the entire number of constellations and of universes contained within it. This is a statement unverifiable by the finite mind of man at his present stage, and with his present scientific accessories, but (like all occult statements) it contains within it the seed of thought, the germ of truths, and the clue to the mystery of the universe. Suffice it here to say, that the rotation of the spheres within the solar periphery is a recognized occult fact, and indications are available to prove that science itself likewise formulates the hypothesis that the solar ring-pass-not similarly rotates in its appointed place among the constellations. But at this juncture we will not deal with this angle of the subject, but will study the rotary action of the spheres of the system, and of its content – all the lesser spheres of every degree – remembering ever to keep the distinction clearly in mind that we are dealing now simply with the inherent characteristic of matter itself, and not with matter in cooperation with [152] its opposite, Spirit, which cooperation brings about spiral-cyclic movement.
E.II. The Effects of Rotary Motion
Every sphere in the body macrocosmic rotates. This rotation produces certain effects, which effects might be enumerated as follows:
1. Separation is produced by rotary movement. By means of this action, all the spheres became differentiated, and form, as we know, the following atomic units:
  1. The solar system, recognized as a cosmic atom, all the so-called atoms within its periphery being regarded as molecular.
  2. The seven planes, regarded as seven vast spheres, rotating latitudinally within the solar periphery.
  3. The seven rays, regarded as the seven veiling forms of the Spirits, themselves spheroidal bands of color, rotating longitudinally, and forming (in connection with the seven planes) a vast interlacing network. These two sets of spheres (planes and rays) form the totality of the solar system, and produce its form spheroidal.
Let us withdraw our thought at this juncture from the informing Consciousness of these three types of spheres, and concentrate our attention upon the realization that each plane is a vast sphere of matter, actuated by latent heat and progressing or rotating in one particular direction. Each ray of light, no matter of what color, is likewise a sphere of matter of the utmost tenuity, rotating in a direction opposite to that of the planes. These rays produce by their mutual interaction a radiatory effect upon each other. Thus by the approximation of the latent heat in matter, and the interplay of that heat upon other spheres that totality is produced which we call "fire by friction." [153]
In connection with these two types of spheres we might, by way of illustration and for the sake of clarity, say that:
  1. The planes rotate from east to west.
  2. The rays rotate from north to south.
Students should here bear carefully in mind that we are not referring here to points in space; we are simply making this distinction and employing words in order to make an abstruse idea more comprehensible. From the point of view of the totality of the rays and planes there is no north, south, east nor west. But at this point comes a correspondence and a point of real interest, though also of complexity. By means of this very interaction, the work of the four Maharajahs or Lords of Karma, is made possible; the quaternary and all sumtotals of four can be seen as one of the basic combinations of matter, produced by the dual revolutions of planes and rays.
The seven planes, likewise atoms, rotate on their own axis, and conform to that which is required of all atomic lives.
The seven spheres of any one plane, which we call subplanes, equally correspond to the system; each has its seven revolving wheels or planes that rotate through their own innate ability, due to latent heat – the heat of the matter of which they are formed.
The spheres or atoms of any form whatsoever, from the form logoic, which we have somewhat dealt with, down to the ultimate physical atom and the molecular matter that goes to the construction of the physical body, show similar correspondences and analogies.
All these spheres conform to certain rules, fulfil certain conditions and are characterized by the same fundamental qualifications. Later we will consider these [154] conditions, but must now continue with the effect of rotary action.
2. Momentum, resulting therefore in repulsion, was produced by the rotary movement. We have referred to the Law of Repulsion as one of the subsidiary branches of the great Law of Economy, which governs matter. Repulsion is brought about by rotary action, and is the basis of that separation which prevents the contact of any atom with any other atom, which keeps the planets at fixed points in space and separated stably from each other; which keeps them at a certain distance from their systemic center, and which likewise keeps the planes and subplanes from losing their material identity. Here we can see the beginning of that agelong duel between Spirit and matter, which is characteristic of manifestation, one aspect working under the Law of Attraction, and the other governed by the Law of Repulsion. From aeon to aeon the conflict goes on, with matter becoming less potent. Gradually (so gradually as to seem negated when viewed from the physical plane) the attractive power of Spirit is weakening the resistance of matter till, at the close of the greater solar cycles, destruction (as it is called) will ensue, and the Law of Repulsion be overcome by the Law of Attraction. It is a destruction of form and not of matter itself, for matter is indestructible. This can be seen even now in the microcosmic life, and is the cause of the disintegration of form, which holds itself as a separated unit by the very method of repulsing all other forms. It can be seen working out gradually and inappreciably in connection with the Moon, which no longer is repulsive to the earth, and is giving of her very substance to this planet. H. P. B. hints at this in the Secret Doctrine, and I have here suggested the law under which this is so.70,71 [155]
70 "The moon (our satellite) pouring forth into the lowest globe of our planetary chain (Globe D. "Earth"), all its energy and powers; and having transferred them to a new center, becoming virtually a dead planet in which, since the birth of our globe, rotation has ceased."
– S. D., I, 179.

71 S. D., I, 179.

3. Frictional effect on all other bodies atomic, producing:
  1. Vitality of the atom,
  2. Coherence of the atom,
  3. Ability to function.
  4. Heat supplied to the composite form of which it may form a fragmentary part, whether it is the heat supplied by the rotation of a planet within the form macrocosmic, or the rotation of a cell in the physical body within the form microcosmic.
  5. Final combustion or disintegration, when the fires latent and radiatory have achieved a specific stage. This is the secret of final obscuration and of pralaya, but cannot be dissociated from the two other factors of solar and electric fire.
4. Absorption, through that depression which is seen in all whirling spheres of atomic matter at whichever surface in the sphere corresponds to the point called in a planet the North Pole. Some idea of the intention that I seek to convey may be grasped by a study of the atom as portrayed in Babbitt's "Principles of Light and Color," and later in Mrs. Besant's "Occult Chemistry." This depression is produced by radiations which proceed counter to the rotations of the sphere and pass down from the north southwards to a midway point. From there they tend to increase the latent heat, to produce added momentum and to give specific quality according to the source from which the radiation comes. This absorption of extra-spheroidal emanation is the secret of the dependence of one sphere upon another, and has its correspondence in the cycling of a ray through any plane sphere. Every atom, though termed spheroidal, is more accurately a sphere slightly depressed at one location, [156] that location being the place through which flows the force which animates the matter of the sphere. This is true of all spheres, from the solar down to the atom of matter that we call the cell in the body physical. Through the depression in the physical atom flows the vitalizing force from without. Every atom is both positive and negative; it is receptive or negative where the inflowing force is concerned, and positive or radiatory where its own emanations are concerned, and in connection with its effect upon its environment.
This can be predicated likewise of the entire ring-pass-not of the solar system in relation to its cosmic environment. Force flows into the solar system from three directions via three channels:
  1. The sun Sirius,
  2. The Pleiades,
  3. The Great Bear.
I would here point out the connection or correspondence in this statement to an earlier one made when speaking of solar radiation, and the channels through which it can be felt. These currents or radiations we call
  1. Akashic.
  2. Electrical.
  3. Pranic.
In considering the occult meaning of what is here suggested, one point in elucidation may be imparted, leaving the working out of the other two relationships to the student. The Pleiades are to the solar system, the source of electrical energy, and just as our sun is the embodiment of the heart, or love aspect, of the Logos (Who is Himself the heart of ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID) so the Pleiades are the feminine opposite of Brahma. Think this out, for much is contained in this statement.
Certain broad statements have been laid down here concerning the rotation of matter, and the results [157] produced in diverse spheres by that rotation. What is predicated of any one sphere or atom can be predicated of all, if it is in any way an occult statement of fact and we should be able to work out these four effects:
  1. Separation, or the repulsive effect,
  2. Momentum, or the interior effect,
  3. Frictional, environal effect,
  4. Absorption, the receptive or attractive effect,
in every grade and type of atom – a solar system, a sun, a planet, a plane, a ray, the body of the Ego, or a cell in the physical body.
E.III. The Qualities of Rotary Motion
Every rotating sphere of matter is characterized by the three qualities, of inertia, mobility and rhythm.
1. Inertia. This characterizes every atom at the dawn of manifestation, at the beginning of a solar cycle or mahamanvantara (or one hundred years of Brahma), at the commencement of a chain, of a globe, or of any spheroidal form whatsoever without exception. This statement, therefore, includes the totality of manifesting forms within the solar system.
Let us keep clearly in our minds that we are simply considering the three qualities of matter itself and are not considering consciousness. Inertia is the result of lack of activity and the relative quiescence of the fires of matter. These fires, during obscuration or Pralaya, though latent, are free from the stimulation that comes from the aggregation of atoms into form, and the consequent interplay of the forms upon each other. Where form exists and the Laws of Repulsion and Attraction are coming into force, making radiation therefore possible, then comes stimulation, emanative effect, and a gradual speeding up which eventually, from within the atom itself, by its own rotary movement produces the next quality. [158]
2. Mobility. The inherent fires of matter produce rotary movement. Eventually this rotation results in radiation. The radiation of matter, the result of its dual heat, produces necessarily an effect upon other atoms in its environment (it matters not whether that environment is cosmic space, systemic space, or the periphery of the physical body of a man), and this interaction and interplay causes repulsion and attraction according to the polarity of the cosmic, systemic or physical atom. Eventually this produces coherence of form; bodies, or aggregates of atoms come into being or manifestation, and persist for the length of their greater or lesser cycle until the third quality is brought into definite recognition.
3. Rhythm, or the attainment of the point of perfect balance and of equilibrium. This point of perfect balance then produces certain specific effects which might be enumerated and pondered upon, even if to our finite minds they may seem paradoxical and contradictory.
The limitation lies with us and with the use of words and not in any real inaccuracy. These effects are:
  1. The disintegration of form,
  2. The liberation of the essence which the form confines,
  3. The separations of Spirit and matter.
  4. The end of a cycle, whether planetary, human or solar,
  5. The production of obscuration, and the end of objectivity or manifestation,
  6. The reabsorption of the essence, and the merging again of differentiated matter with the root of matter,
  7. The end of time and space as we understand it,
  8. The unification of the three Fires and the bringing about of spontaneous combustion, if one might so express it, [159]
  9. The synthetic activity of matter in the three types of movement, – rotary, spiraling-cyclic and onward progression, – which unified movement will be produced by the interaction of the fires of matter, of mind and of Spirit upon each other.
When the point of rhythm or balance is reached in a solar system, in a plane, in a ray, in a causal body, and in the physical body, then the occupier of the form is loosed from prison; he can withdraw to his originating source, and is liberated from the sheath which has hitherto acted as a prison; and he can escape from an environment which he has utilized for the gaining of experience and as a battle ground between the pairs of opposites. The sheath or form of whatever kind then automatically disintegrates.
E.IV. Rotary Motion and Symbolism
Every rotating sphere of matter can be pictured by using the same general cosmic symbols as are used f or the portrayal of evolution.
  1. The circle. This stands for the ring-pass-not of undifferentiated matter. It stands for a solar system or the body logoic, viewed etherically; it stands for a planet or the body of a Heavenly Man viewed etherically; it stands for a human body, viewed likewise, etherically and it stands for them all at the prime or earliest epoch of manifestation. It stands finally for a single cell within the human vehicle, and for the atom of the chemist or physicist.
  2. The circle with the point in the center. This signifies the production of heat in the heart of matter; the Point of fire, the moment of the first rotary activity, the first straining of the atom, motivated by latent heat, into the sphere of influence of another atom. This produced the first radiation, the first pull of attraction, and the [160] consequent setting up of a repulsion and therefore producing
  3. The circle divided into two. This marks the active rotation and the beginning of the mobility of the atom of matter, and produces the subsequent extension of the influence of the positive point within the atom of matter till its sphere of influence extends from the center to the periphery. At the point where it touches the periphery it contacts the influence of the atoms in its environment; radiation is set up and the point of depression makes its appearance, marking the inflow and outflow of force or heat.

    We are here only showing the application of cosmic symbols to matter, and are not dealing with manifestation from any other angle than that of the purely material. For instance, we are applying the symbol of the point within the circle to the sphere of matter, and the point of latent heat. We are not handling at this point matter as informed by an entity who is to matter, when so informing, a point of conscious life.

    We are dealing only with matter and latent heat, with the result produced by rotary movement of radiatory heat and the consequent interplay of bodies atomic. We are therefore dealing with the point we set out to consider while studying our fifth division, motion in the sheaths.

  4. The Circle divided into four. This is the true circle of matter, the equal armed cross of the Holy Spirit, Who is the personification of active intelligent matter. This shows the fourth dimensional quality of matter and the penetration of the fire in four directions, its threefold radiation being symbolized by the triangles formed by the fourfold cross. This portrays the fourfold revolution of any atom. By this is not meant the ability of any atom to make four revolutions, but the fourth dimensional quality of the revolution which is the goal aimed at, and which is even now becoming known in matter during this [161] fourth round, and in this fourth chain. As the fifth spirillae or fifth stream of force in an atom becomes developed and man can conceive of a fourth-dimensional rotary movement, the accuracy of this symbol will be recognized. It will then be seen that all sheaths in their progress from inertia to rhythm, via mobility, pass through all stages, whether they are logoic sheaths, the rays in which the Heavenly Men veil Themselves, the planes which form the bodies of certain solar entities, the causal body (or the sheath of the Ego on the mental plane), the human physical body in its etheric constitution, or a cell in that body etheric. All these material forms (existent in etheric matter which is the true matter of all forms) are primarily undifferentiated ovoids; they then become actively rotating or manifest latent heat; next they manifest duality or latent and radiatory fire; the expression of these two results in fourth dimensional action or the wheel or rotary form turning upon itself.
  5. The swastika, or the fire extending not only from the periphery to the center in four directions, but gradually circulating and radiating from and around the entire periphery. This signifies completed activity in every department of matter until finally we have a blazing, fiery wheel, turning every way, with radiant channels of fire from the center to the ring-pass-not – fire within, without and around until the wheel is consumed and there is naught remaining but perfected fire.
E.V. Motion and the Centers
We can take up this matter of the centers along three lines. Much has been written and discussed anent the centers, and much mystery exists which has aroused the curiosity of the ignorant, and has tempted many to meddle with that which does not concern them. I seek to elucidate somewhat and to give a new angle of vision to [162] the study of these abstruse matters. I do not in any way intend to take up the subject from such an angle as to convey rules and information that will enable a man to vivify these centers and bring them into play. I sound here a solemn word of warning. Let a man apply himself to a life of high altruism, to a discipline that will refine and bring his lower vehicles into subjection, and to a strenuous endeavor to purify and control his sheaths. When he has done this and has both raised and stabilized his vibration, he will find that the development and functioning of the centers has pursued a parallel course, and that (apart from his active participation) the work has proceeded along the desired lines. Much danger and dire calamity attends the man who arouses these centers by unlawful methods, and who experiments with the fires of his body without the needed technical knowledge. He may, by his efforts, succeed in arousing the fires and in intensifying the action of the centers, but he will pay the price of ignorance in the destruction of matter, in the burning of bodily or brain tissue, in the development of insanity, and in opening the door to currents and forces, undesirable and destructive. It is not the part of a coward, in these matters concerning the subjective life, to move with caution and with care; it is the part of discretion. The aspirant, therefore, has three things to do:
  1. Purify, discipline and transmute his threefold lower nature.
  2. Develop knowledge of himself, and equip his mental body; build the causal body by good deeds and thoughts,
  3. Serve his race in utter self-abnegation. In doing this he fulfils the law, he puts himself in the right condition for training, fits himself for the ultimate application of the Rod of Initiation, and thus minimizes the danger that attends the awakening of the fire. [163]
All that is intended to do in this treatise, is to cast some further light upon these centers, to show their interrelation, and to trace the effects produced by their rightful development. To do this, as before stated, the subject will be divided into the following divisions:
  1. The nature of the centers.
  2. The centers and the rays.
  3. The centers and kundalini.
  4. The centers and the senses.
  5. The centers and initiation.
As can be seen from the above tabulation, the subject is not only vast but abstruse. This is principally owing to the fact that until the race is normally clairvoyant, it is not in a position to verify what is said, and has to accept the statements of those who profess to know. Later when man can see and prove for himself, it will be possible to check up these statements; the time is not yet, except for the few.
E.V.1 The Nature of the Centers
Let us take the first point: I wish to enumerate the centers to be dealt with in this treatise, keeping the enumeration very closely to that laid down earlier, and dealing not with all the centers, but simply with those closely concerned with man's fivefold evolution.
As before stated, man, at the close of his long pilgrimage, will have passed through the five kingdoms of nature on his way back to his source:
  1. The mineral kingdom,
  2. The vegetable kingdom,
  3. The animal kingdom,
  4. The human kingdom,
  5. The superhuman, or the spiritual kingdom, and will have developed full consciousness on the five planes: [164]
  1. The physical plane,
  2. The emotional or astral plane,
  3. The mental plane,
  4. The intuitional, or the buddhic plane,
  5. The spiritual, atmic, or nirvanic plane, by means of the five senses and their correspondences on all the five planes:
  1. Hearing,
  2. Touch,
  3. Sight,
  4. Taste,
  5. Smell.
By the time the fifth round is reached, three-fifths of the human family will have attained this point and will have their five senses fully functioning on the three planes in the three worlds, leaving the two other planes to be subjugated during the remaining two rounds. I would here point out a fact that is little realized, that in this fivefold evolution of man and in this solar system, the two remaining rounds in any planetary cycle, and the sixth and seventh root-races in those cycles are always synthetic; their function is to gather up and synthesize that which has been achieved in the earlier five. For instance, in this root-race, the sixth and seventh subraces will synthesize and blend that which the earlier five have wrought out. The analogy lies in the fact that in this solar system the two higher planes (the logoic and the monadic) are synthetic. One is the synthesizing plane for the Logos from whence He abstracts the essence in manifestation; the other for the Monad, from whence the Monad abstracts and garners the fruits of objectivity.
We will therefore only concern ourselves here with those centers which relate to the evolution of the subtler bodies, the evolution of the psyche, and not with those connected with the evolution and propagation of the dense physical body. These centers are five in number: [165]
  1. That at the base of the spine, the only one dealt with that has a physical effect.
  2. That situated at the solar plexus, the most important one in the body from the standpoint of the astral plane.
  3. That found at the throat, the most important from the standpoint of the mental plane.
  4. That in the region of the heart, which has an occult link with the buddhic plane.
  5. That above the top of the head, which is the crown, and has relation with the atmic plane.
We do not deal with the lower centers of generation, nor with the spleen which has a direct connection with the etheric, and is the transmitter of prana; they have been dealt with earlier.
The centers in the human being deal fundamentally with the FIRE aspect in man, or with his divine spirit. They are definitely connected with the Monad, with the will aspect, with immortality, with existence, with the will to live, and with the inherent powers of Spirit. They are not connected with objectivity and manifestation, but with force, or the powers of the divine life. The correspondence in the Macrocosm can be found in the force which manipulates the cosmic nebulae and which by its whirling rotary motion eventually builds them into planets or spheroidal bodies. These planets are each of them an expression of the "will to live" of some cosmic entity, and the force that swirled, that rotated, that built, that solidified, and that continues to hold in form coherent, is the force of some cosmic Being.
This force originates on cosmic mental levels, from certain great foci there, descends to the cosmic astral, forming corresponding cosmic focal points, and on the fourth cosmic etheric level (the buddhic plane of our solar system) finds its outlet in certain great centers. These [166] centers are again reflected or reproduced in the three worlds of human endeavor. The Heavenly Men, therefore, have centers on three solar planes, a fact to be remembered.
  1. On the monadic plane, the plane of the seven Rays.
  2. On the buddhic plane, where the Masters and their disciples form the forty-nine centers in the bodies of the seven Heavenly Men.
  3. On the fourth etheric physical plane, where the sacred planets, the dense bodies in etheric matter of the Heavenly Men, are to be found.
Here again we can trace the microcosmic correspondence: In the human being the centers are found on the mental plane from which originates the impulse for physical plane existence, or the will to incarnate; from thence they can be traced to the astral level, and eventually to the etheric levels, to the fourth ether, where they practically go through the same evolution that the planetary centers went through, and are instrumental in bringing about objectivity, – being the force centers.
The centers are formed entirely of streams of force, pouring down from the Ego, who transmits it from the Monad. In this we have the secret of the gradual vibratory quickening of the centers as the Ego first comes into control, or activity, and later (after initiation) the Monad, thus bringing about changes and increased vitality within these spheres of fire or of pure life force.
The centers, therefore, when functioning properly, form the "body of fire" which eventually is all that is left, first to man in the three worlds, and later to the Monad. This body of fire is "the body incorruptible" (Bible, I Cor., XV, 53.) or indestructible, spoken of by St. Paul, and is the product of evolution, of the perfect blending of the three fires, which ultimately destroy the form. When the form is [167] destroyed there is left this intangible spiritual body of fire, one pure flame, distinguished by seven brilliant centers of intenser burning. This electric fire is the result of the bringing together of the two poles and demonstrates at the moment of complete at-one-ment, the occult truth of the words "Our God is a consuming Fire." (Bible, Deut. IV, 24; Hebrews XII, 29.)
Three of these centers are called major centers, as they embody the three aspects of the threefold Monad – Will, Love and Intelligence:
  1. The Head center – The Monad – Will or Power.
  2. The Heart center – The Ego – Love and Wisdom.
  3. The Throat center – The Personality – Activity or Intelligence.
The other two centers have to do primarily with the etheric body and with the astral plane. The throat center synthesizes the entire personality life, and is definitely connected with the mental plane, – the three planes, and the two higher planes, and the three centers with the two other centers, the heart and head. Yet, we must not forget that the center at the base of the spine is also a synthesizer, as would normally be expected, if it is recognized that the lowest plane of all manifestation is the point of deepest reflection. This lowest center, by synthesizing the fire of kundalini and the pranic fires, eventually blends and merges with the fire of mind, and later with the fire of Spirit, producing thus consummation.
We must disabuse our minds of the idea that these centers are physical things. They are whirlpools of force that swirl etheric, astral and mental matter into activity of some kind. Because the action is rotary, the result produced in matter is a circular effect that can be seen by the clairvoyant as fiery wheels situated:
  1. In the region of the spine, the lowest part.
  2. Between the ribs, just below the diaphragm. [168]
  3. In the region of the left breast.
  4. In the center of the throat.
  5. Just above the top of the head.
I would like to describe these centers in greater detail, dealing with them as seen in etheric matter, and basing what I say upon a similar statement by Mr. C. W. Leadbeater in "Inner Life," Vol. I, page 447-460. We will note the colors and petals: The base of the spine, four petals. These petals are in the shape of a cross, and radiate with orange fire.
  1. The solar plexus, ten petals rosy color with admixture of green.
  2. The heart center, twelve petals glowing golden.
  3. The throat center, sixteen petals of a silvery blue, with blue predominating.
  4. The head center in its twofold divisions:
    1. Between the eyebrows, consisting of ninety-six petals, one-half of the lotus being rose and yellow, and the other half blue and purple.
    2. The very top of the head. A center consisting of twelve major petals of white and gold, and nine hundred and sixty secondary petals arranged around the central twelve. This makes a total of ten hundred and sixty-eight petals in the two head centers (making the one center) or three hundred and fifty-six triplicities. All these figures have an occult significance.
Just as the Monad is the sumtotal of all the three aspects, and of the seven principles of man, so is the head center a replica of this, and has within its sphere of influence seven other centers with itself for synthesis. These seven centers are likewise divided into the three major and the four minor centers, with their union and consummation seen in the gorgeous center surmounting and enveloping them all. There are also three physical centers, called [169]
  1. The alta major center,
  2. The pineal gland,
  3. The pituitary body,
with four lesser centers. These four lesser centers are blended in that center which we call the alta major center and need not concern us. I would here also point out that there is a close connection:
  1. Between the alta major center and the throat center.
  2. Between the heart center and the pituitary body.
  3. Between the head center and the pineal gland.
It would repay the student to contemplate the interesting succession of triangles that are to be found and the way in which they must be linked by the progression of the fire before that fire can perfectly vivify them, and thence pass on to other transmutations. We might enumerate some of these triangles, bearing always in mind that according to the ray so will proceed the geometric rising of the fire, and according to the ray so will the points be touched in ordered sequence. Herein lies one of the secrets of initiation, and herein is found some of the dangers entailed in a too quick publication of information concerning the rays.
  1. The pranic triangle.
    1. The shoulder center.
    2. The center near the diaphragm.
    3. The spleen.
  2. Man controlled from the astral plane.
    1. The base of the spine.
    2. The solar plexus.
    3. The heart.
  3. Man controlled from the mental plane.
    1. The base of the spine.
    2. The heart.
    3. The throat. [170]
  4. Man partially controlled by the Ego, advanced man.
    1. The heart.
    2. The throat.
    3. The head, i.e., the four lesser centers and their synthesis, the alta center.
  5. Spiritual man to the third Initiation.
    1. The heart.
    2. The throat.
    3. The seven head centers.
  6. Spiritual man to the fifth Initiation.
    1. The heart.
    2. The seven head centers.
    3. The two many-petalled lotuses.
All these different periods show different triangular radiances. We must not infer from this that when the fire is centered in one triangle it is not demonstrating in others. Once the fire has free passage along any triangle it flames continuously, but always there is one triangle more radiant and luminous than the others, and it is from these glowing triangles of light, issuing from wheel and vortices of fire that the clairvoyant and the teacher of the race can appraise a man's position in the scheme of things, and judge of his attainment. At the culmination of life experience, and when man has reached his goal, each triangle is a radiant path of fire, and each center a wheel of living fiery force rotating at terrific speed; the center at this stage not only rotates in specific direction, but literally turns upon itself, forming a living flaming iridescent globe of pure fire, and holding within it a certain geometrical shape, yet withal vibrating so rapidly that the eye can scarcely follow it. Above all, at the top of the head will be seen a fiery display that seems to put all the other centers into insignificance; from the heart of this many-petalled lotus issues a flame of fire with the basic hue of a man's ray. This flame [171] mounts upward and seems to attract downward a sheet of electric light, which is the downflow from the spirit on the highest plane. This marks the blending of the fires and the deliverance of man from the trammels of matter.
We might now note that the evolution of these centers of force can be portrayed, not only in words, but under the same five symbols that have so often a cosmic interpretation.
1. The circle. At this stage the center is seen simply as a saucer-like depression (as Mr. C. W. Leadbeater expresses it) of dimly glowing fire, a fire diffused throughout but of no real intensity. The wheel rotates slowly, but so slowly as to be almost inappreciable. This corresponds to the little developed stage, and to the early Lemurian root-race, and to that period wherein man was simply animal; all that was being formed was a field for the appearance of the spark of mind.
2. The circle with the point in the center. The center is here seen with a point of glowing fire in the middle of the saucer-like depression, and the rotation becomes more rapid. This corresponds to the stage wherein mind is beginning to be felt and thus to later Lemurian days.
3. The divided circle. At this stage the point of light in the center of the vortex of fire is becoming more active; rotary motion causes it to burn more brightly, and to cast off rays of fire in two directions, which appear to split the vortex into two; the motion is much accelerated, and the dividing flame in the vortex shoots back and forth, stimulating the glow of the center itself, till a much greater point of radiance is achieved. This corresponds to Atlantean days.
4. The circle divided into four. We come now to the point where the center is exceedingly active, with the cross within its periphery rotating as well as the wheel itself, and causing an effect of great beauty and activity. The man has reached a stage of very high development [172] mentally, corresponding to the fifth root-race, or to the fifth round in the larger cycle; he is conscious of two activities within himself, symbolized by the rotating wheel and the inner rotating cross. He is sensing the spiritual, though actively functioning in the personal life and the development has reached a point wherein he is nearing the Probationary Path.
5. The swastika. At this stage the center becomes fourth-dimensional; the inner rotating cross begins to turn upon its axis, and to drive the flaming periphery to all sides so that the center is better described as a sphere of fire than as a wheel. It marks the stage of the Path in its two divisions, for the process of producing the effect described covers the whole period of the Path. At the close, the centers are seen as globes of radiant fire with the spokes of the wheel (or the evolution of the cross from the point in the center) merging and blending into a "fire that burneth up the whole."
A brief sentence has its place here owing to its relation to this subject. Another sentence is also added here which, if meditated upon, will prove of real value and will have a definite effect upon one of the centers, which center it is for the student himself to find out.
These two sentences are as follows:
"The secret of the Fire lies hid in the second letter of the Sacred Word. The mystery of life is concealed within the heart. When the lower point vibrates, when the Sacred Triangle glows, when the point, the middle center, and the apex likewise burn, then the two triangles – the greater and the lesser – merge with one flame which burneth up the whole."
"The fire within the lesser fire findeth its progress much impelled when the circle of the moving and the unmoving, of the lesser wheel within the greater wheel that moveth not in Time, findeth a twofold outlet; it then shineth with the glory of the twofold One and of His sixfold brother. Fohat rusheth through space. He searcheth for his complement. [173] The breath of the unmoving one, and the fire of the One Who seeth the whole from the beginning rush to meet each other, and the unmoving becomes the sphere of activity."
We take up our second point in the consideration of the centers:
E.V.2. The Centers in connection with the Rays
This will give us a large range of subject to be dealt with, and much food for thought, surmise and wise conjecture. All that is here stated is given simply as basic or foundation facts, upon which may be erected a structure of conjecture, and of logical reasoning, employing the imagination, and thereby effecting two things:
These are an ability to expand our mental concept and to build the antahkarana, or that bridge which all who seek to function in the buddhic vehicle must build between higher and lower mind; hence the necessity for the use of the imagination (which is the astral equivalent to mental discrimination), and its ultimate transmutation into intuition.
All teachers, who have taken pupils in hand for training, and who seek to use them in world service, follow the method of imparting a fact (oft veiled in words and blinded by symbol) and then of leaving the pupil to follow his own deductions. Discrimination is thereby developed, and discrimination is the main method whereby the Spirit effects its liberation from the trammels of matter, and discerns between illusion and that which is veiled by it.
Not much can be here imparted, as the subject, if dealt with at all fully, would convey too much information to those liable to misuse it. As we know, the evolution of the centers is a slow and gradual thing, and proceeds in ordered cycles varying according to the ray of a man's Monad. [174]
The life of the Pilgrim can be, for purposes of discussion, divided into three main periods:
  1. That period wherein he is under the influence of the Personality Ray.
  2. That wherein he comes under the Ray of the Ego.
  3. That wherein the Monadic Ray holds sway.
74 "When the last cycle of man-bearing has been completed by that last fecund earth; and humanity has reached in a mass the stage of Buddhahood and passed out of the objective existence into the mystery of Nirvana – then "strikes the hour"; the seen becomes the unseen, the concrete resumes its precyclic state of atomic distribution.

But the dead worlds left behind the onsweeping impulse do not continue dead. Motion is the eternal order of things and affinity or attraction its handmaid of all works. The thrill of life will again reunite the atom, and it will stir again in the inert planet when the time comes. Though all its forces have remained status quo and are now asleep, yet little by little it will – when the hour restrikes – gather for a new cycle of man-bearing maternity, and give birth to something still higher as moral and physical types than during the preceding manvantara. And its "cosmic atoms already in a differentiated state" (differing – in the producing force in the mechanical sense of motions and effects) remain statu quo as well as globes and everything else in the process of formation." Such is the "hypothesis fully in accordance with (your) (my) note." For, as planetary development is as progressive as human or race evolution, the hour of the Pralaya's coming catches the series of worlds at successive stages of evolution; (i.e.) each has attained to some one of the periods of evolutionary progress – each stops there, until the outward impulse of the next manvantara sets it going from that very point – like a stopped time-piece rewound. Therefore, I have used the word "differentiated."

At the coming of the Pralaya no human, animal, or even vegetable entity will be alive to see it, but there will be the earths or globes with their mineral kingdoms; and all these planets will be physically disintegrated in the pralaya, yet not destroyed; for they have their places in the sequence of evolution and their "privations" coming again out of the subjective, they will find the exact point from which they have to move on around the chain of "manifested forms." This, as you know, is repeated endlessly throughout Eternity. Each man of us has gone this ceaseless round, and will repeat it forever and ever. The deviation of each one's course, and his rate of progress from Nirvana to Nirvana is governed by causes which he himself creates out of the exigencies in which he finds himself entangled."
- From The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, p. 67.

The first period is by far the longest, and covers the vast progression of the centuries wherein the activity aspect of the threefold self is being developed. Life after life slips away during which the aspect of manas or mind is being slowly wrought out, and the human being comes more and more under the control of his intellect, operating through his physical brain. This might be looked upon as corresponding to the period of the first solar system, wherein the third aspect logoic, that of Brahma, Mind, or Intelligence, was being brought to the point of achievement.74 Then the second aspect began in [175] this present solar system to be blended with, and wrought out through it. Centuries go by and the man becomes ever more actively intelligent, and the field of his life more suitable for the coming in of this second aspect. The correspondence lies in similitude and not in detail as seen in time and space. It covers the period of the first three triangles dealt with earlier. We must not forget that, for the sake of clarity, we are here differentiating between the different aspects, and considering their separated development, a thing only permissible in time and space or during the evolutionary process, but not permissible from the standpoint of the Eternal Now, and from the Unity of the All-Self. The Vishnu or the Love-Wisdom aspect is latent in the Self, and is part of the monadic content, but the Brahma aspect, the Activity-Intelligence aspect precedes its manifestation in time. The Tabernacle in the Wilderness preceded the building of the Temple of Solomon; the kernel of wheat has to lie in the darkness of mother Earth before the golden perfected ear can be seen, and the Lotus has to cast its roots down into the mud before the beauty of the blossom can be produced.
The second period, wherein the egoic ray holds sway, is not so long comparatively; it covers the period wherein the fourth and fifth triangles are being vivified, and marks the lives wherein the man throws his forces on the side of evolution, disciplines his life, steps upon the Probationary Path, and continues up to the third Initiation. Under the régime of the Personality Ray, the man proceeds upon the five Rays to work consciously with Mind, the sixth sense, passing first upon the four minor Rays and eventually upon the third. He works [176] upon the third Ray, or that of active Intelligence, an from thence proceeds to one of the subrays of the two other major Rays, if the third is not his egoic Ray.
Enquiry might naturally arise as to whether the egoic ray is necessarily one of the three major rays, and in Initiates and Masters are not to be found upon some of the rays of mind, the minor four.
The answer lies here: The egoic ray can always be one of the seven, but we need to remember that, in this astral-buddhic solar system, wherein love and wisdom are being brought into objectivity, the bulk of the monads are on the love-wisdom ray. The fact, therefore, of its being the synthetic ray has a vast significance. This is the system of the SON, whose name is Love. This is the divine incarnation of Vishnu. The Dragon of Wisdom is in manifestation, and He brings into incarnation those cosmic Entities who are in essence identical with Himself. After the third Initiation all human beings find themselves on their monadic ray, on one of the three major rays, and the fact that Masters and Initiates are found on all the rays is due to the following two factors:
First. Each major ray has its subrays, which correspond to all the seven.
Second. Many of the guides of the race transfer from one ray to another as They are needed, and as the work may require. When one of the Masters or Initiates is transferred it causes a complete readjustment.
When a Master likewise leaves the hierarchy of our Planet to take up work elsewhere, it frequently necessitates a complete reorganization, and a fresh admission of members into the great White Lodge. These facts have been but little realized. We might here also take the opportunity to point out that we are not dealing with earth conditions when we consider the Rays, nor are we only concerned with the evolution of the Monads upon this planet, but are equally concerned with the solar [177] system in which our earth holds a necessary but not supreme place. The earth is an organism within a greater one, and this fact needs wider recognition. The sons of men upon this planet so often view the whole system as if the earth were in the position of the sun, the center of the solar organism.
Under the régime of the Ego, the ray upon which the ego can be found holds sway. This ray is simply a direct reflection of the monad, and is dependent upon that aspect of the spiritual triad which for the man is at any particular time the line of least resistance. By that we must understand that sometimes the ray will have for its center of force the atmic aspect, sometimes the buddhic, and at other times the manasic aspect. Though the triad is threefold, yet its egoic outposts (if one may so express it) will be either definitely atmic, or predominantly buddhic or manasic. Here again I would draw attention to the fact that this triple demonstration can be seen under three forms, making in all a ninefold choice of rays for the Ego:
Atmic aspect.
  1. atmic – atmic
  2. atmic – buddhic
  3. atmic – manasic.
Buddhic aspect.
  1. buddhic – atmic
  2. buddhic – buddhic
  3. buddhic – manasic.
Manasic aspect.
  1. manasic – atmic
  2. manasic – buddhic
  3. manasic – manasic.
This literally means that the three major rays can each be subdivided (in connection with the Ego) into three divisions. This fact is also little appreciated. [178]
The third period, wherein the monadic ray makes itself felt on the physical plane, is by far the shortest, and covers the period in which the sixth triangle holds sway. It marks the period of achievement, of liberation, and therefore, although it is the shortest period when viewed from below upward, it is the period of comparative permanence when viewed from the plane of the Monad. It covers the totality of time remaining in the one hundred years of Brahma, or the remainder of the process of manifestation.
When we study, therefore, the sets of triangles earlier referred to and the periods of ray dominance, we will find much room for thought. Let me here point out, however, that the six groups of triangles are in all but five if we eliminate the pranic triangle which has to do with matter itself and is not counted any more than the dense physical is counted a principle. Therefore we have:
  1. Two triangles brought to vivification by the personality ray.
  2. Two triangles brought to vivification by the egoic ray.
  3. The synthesizing triangle of the Monad.
We must, nevertheless, recollect that the complexity is increased by the fact that the personality triangles will be brought to full activity according to the ray of the Monad or Spirit. Therefore, no hard or fast rule can be laid down about development. The egoic triangles are dependent largely upon the reflection in the personality of the spiritual life force. They are the midway point, just as the causal or egoic body is the transmitting point (when sufficiently equipped and built) between the higher and the lower.
The permanent atoms are enclosed within the periphery of the causal body, yet that relatively permanent body is built and enlarged, expanded and wrought into [179] a central receiving and transmitting station (using inadequate words to convey an occult idea) by the direct action of the centers, and of the centers above all. Just as it was spiritual force, or the will aspect, that built the solar system, so it is the same force in the man that builds the causal body. By the bringing together of spirit and matter (Father-Mother) in the macrocosm, and their union through the action of the will, the objective solar system, or the Son, was produced – that Son of desire, Whose characteristic is love, and Whose nature is buddhi or spiritual wisdom. By the bringing together (in microcosm) of Spirit and matter, and their coherence by means of force (or the spiritual will) that objective system, the causal body, is being produced; it is the product of transmuted desire, whose characteristic (when fully demonstrated) will be love, the expression eventually on the physical plane of buddhi. The causal body is but the sheath of the Ego. The solar system is but the sheath of the Son. In both the greater and the lesser systems, force centers exist which are productive of objectivity. The centers in the human being are reflections in the three worlds of those higher force centers.
Before taking up the subject of kundalini and the centers, it would be well to extend the information given above, from its prime significance for man, as that which concerns himself, to the solar system, the macrocosm, and to the cosmos. What can be predicated of the microcosm is naturally true of the macrocosm and of the cosmos. It will not be possible to give the systemic triangles, for the information would have to be so blinded that, except for those who have occult knowledge and the intuition developed, it would be practically useless intellectually, but certain things may be pointed out in this connection that may be of interest.
The Solar System. We might briefly look at this from [180] the standpoint of the centers of the Heavenly Men and of the Grand Man of the Heavens, the Logos.
a. The Heavenly Men. The Heavenly Men, in Themselves, embody centers just as does a human being, and on Their Own plane these centers of force can be found. Again we need to recollect that these centers of force on cosmic levels, and in manifestation in the objective system, demonstrate as the great force centers of which any particular group of adepts and Their pupils are the exponents. Every group of Masters and all the human beings incarnate or discarnate – who are held within the periphery of Their consciousness – are centers of force of some particular kind or quality. This is a fact generally recognized, but students should be urged to link up this fact with the information imparted on the centers of the human being, and see if much is not thereby learnt. These centers of force will demonstrate on etheric levels and on the subtler planes just as they do in a man, and they will be vivified as are the human centers by planetary kundalini, progressing in the desired triangles.
Two hints can here be given for thoughtful consideration. In connection with one of the Heavenly Men (which one cannot at this juncture be pointed out) we have one triangle of force to be seen in the following three centers:
  1. The force center of which the Manu, and His group, are the expression.
  2. The center of which the Bodhisattva or the Christ and His adherents are the focal point.
  3. The center of which the Mahachohan and his followers are the exponents.
These three groups form the three centers in one great triangle – a triangle which is not yet in complete vivification at this stage of evolutionary development. [181]
Another triangle in connection with our own planetary Logos is that formed by the seven Kumaras – the four exoteric Kumaras corresponding to the four minor head centers, and the three esoteric Kumaras corresponding to the three major head centers.75, 76
75 There are seven Kumaras connected with our planetary evolution, of Whom four are exoteric; the four exoteric have vehicles in etheric matter; three Kumaras are esoteric and have their vehicles in subtler matters still.

Sanat Kumara, The Lord of the world, is the representative on earth of the specialized force of the planetary Logos; the other six Kumaras transmit energy from the other six planetary schemes. 76 S. D., I, 186-189.

The second hint I seek to give, lies in the triangle formed by the Earth, Mars and Mercury. In connection with this triangle, the analogy lies in the fact that Mercury and the center at the base of the spine in the human being are closely allied. Mercury demonstrates kundalini in intelligent activity, while Mars demonstrates kundalini latent. The truth lies hid in their two astrological symbols. In transmutation and planetary geometrizing, the secret may be revealed.
b. The Grand Man of the Heavens. The seven Heavenly Men are the seven centers in the body of the Logos, bearing to Him a relationship identical with that borne by the Masters and Their affiliated groups, to some planetary Logos. Systemic kundalini goes forward to the vivification of these centers, and at this stage of development certain centers are more closely allied than others. Just as in connection with our planetary Logos, the three etheric planets of our chain – Earth, Mercury and Mars77 – form a triangle of rare importance, so it may be here said that at the present point in evolution of the logoic centers, Venus, Earth and Saturn form one triangle of great interest. It is a triangle that is at this time undergoing vivification [182] through the action of kundalini; it is consequently increasing the vibratory capacity of the centers, which are becoming slowly fourth-dimensional. It is not yet permissible to point out others of the great triangles, but as regards the centers, we may here give two hints:
  • First. Venus corresponds to the heart center in the body logoic, and has an interrelationship therefore with all the other centers in the solar system wherein the heart aspect is the one of greater prominence.
  • Second. Saturn corresponds to the throat center, or to the creative activity of the third aspect.
As evolution proceeds, the other centers attain a more pronounced vibration and the fire (circulating triangularly) will bring them into greater prominence; the two above mentioned, however, are of prime importance at this time. These two, with the lesser triangle of our chain, constitute the focal point of energy viewed from our planetary standpoint.
77 The chains of any planetary scheme are frequently called by the names of the seven sacred planets, making the study of the Law of Correspondences easier; similarly, the globes Of any chain are called by planetary names, as is the case here. There are planetary schemes called Mars and Mercury.

78 S. D., I, 545, 726; II, 581, 582, 654.

In addition to these some hints in connection with the microcosmic and macrocosmic centers, we might here give the cosmic correspondences at which it is possible to hint.
The Cosmos. Our solar system, with the Pleiades and one of the stars of the Great Bear, form a cosmic triangle, or an aggregation of three centers in the Body of HIM OF WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID. The seven stars in the constellation of the Great Bear are the correspondences to the seven head centers in the body of that Being, greater than our Logos. Again, two other systems, when allied with the solar system and the Pleiades, make a lower quaternary which are eventually synthesized into the seven head centers in much the same way as in the human being after the fourth initiation. [183]
  1. The base of the spine.
  2. The solar plexus.
  3. The heart.
  4. The throat.
The sevenfold head center in its turn finds ultimate expression in the gorgeous twofold center above the top of the head and surrounding it. Equally so, beyond the above named constellations is still another cosmic center. The name of this center is one of the secrets of the final initiation, the seventh. These are the only correspondences that may as yet be imparted. What lies beyond the solar ring-pass-not may be of intellectual interest,78 but, for the purposes of microcosmic evolution it is a matter of no vast import.
E.V.3 The Centers and Kundalini
As stated, it is not possible to impart much about kundalini, or the serpent fire. It might be of value, however, briefly to enumerate what has been said:
  1. Kundalini lies at the base of the spine, and, in the normal average man, its main function is the vitalization of the body.
  2. Kundalini makes three at-one-ments during the period of evolution:
  3. With the radiatory fires of the body or prana at a point between the shoulder blades.
    1. With the fires of mind at a point at the very top of the spine, in the center of the back part of the throat.
    2. With the fire of Spirit at the point where these two united fires of matter and of mind issue from the top of the head.
    3. Each of the three channels within the spinal column have for specific purpose the blending of these threefold fires. We need to bear in mind that the [184] fires circulate, and that, at the moment of achievement, every triangle in the body is vivified, every center is fully functioning, and a threefold path of fire can be seen extending the entire length of the backbone.
    4. When kundalini has blended with the pranic fire, the centers become three-dimensional. When it blends with mind or solar fire and the two fires are perfectly united, the centers become fourth-dimensional. When it blends with the electric fire of pure Spirit after the third Initiation, they take on two more dimensions.
    5. Kundalini, as it is aroused, steadily increases the vibratory action, not only of the centers, but of every atom of matter in all the bodies – etheric, astral and mental. This quickening of activity has a dual effect of great interest:
      1. It causes the elimination of all matter that is coarse and unsuitable, and casts it off in exactly the same way as a rapidly rotating wheel casts off or rejects from its surface.
      2. It sweeps into its sphere of influence matter that is keyed to its own vibration, and builds it into its vibratory content. This is but a reflection of the action of the Logos in sweeping into differentiation the matter of the solar system. Kundalini is likewise the fire or force of matter, and therefore the life of the third Logos.
    6. Kundalini has two effects upon the etheric web, as it is called.
      1. By its gradually increasing action it purifies that etheric form and cleanses it from "dross," as the Christian expresses it.
      2. Eventually, after the two fires of matter and the fire of mind have begun to blend (a slow and gradual process), the web itself is [185] destroyed, and by the time the third Initiation is reached, the man should have continuity of consciousness. This is so unless for certain work and for certain specific ends, the man consciously and willingly foregoes the burning of the web, a thing which can be brought about by the conscious action of the will.
E.V.4. The Centers and the Senses, Normal and Supernormal
Before at all dealing with the centers and their relationship to the senses, it will be necessary first of all to point out certain facts of interest in connection with those senses,79 and so clear the ground for further information. [186]
79 The seven senses or the avenues of perception. – S. D., I, 489, 490, The third or Indriya Creation. – S. D., III, 567.

Indriya – The control of the senses in yoga practice. These are the 10 external agents; the 5 senses which are used for perception are called 'Jnana-indriya' and the 5 used for action 'karma-indriya' – Theosophical Glossary.

"Jnana-indriyas" – literally knowledge-senses... by which knowledge is obtained... They are the avenues inward.

"Karma-indriyas" – literally action senses... those producing action. They are the avenues outwards. – Study in Consciousness, pp. 166-167.

  1. Sensation is latent in every atom of substance. – S. D., II, 710.
  2. The Sun is the heart of the system and sensation emanates from there. It is due to solar radiation – S. D., I, 590, 662.
  3. Knowledge is the end of sense. – S. D., I, 300.
  4. There is a double set of senses, spiritual and material. – S. D., I, 582; S. D., II, 307, 308.
  5. This finds its reflection in the double set of physical senses noted in defining the indriyas.
  6. The senses might be enumerated as follows: S. D., I, 583 and note 123; S. D., II, 600, 674, 675, 676.
  7. The elements are the progenitors of the senses. – S. D., II, 112, 113.
    1. Aether – Hearing – Sound – Atmic plane.
    2. Air – Touch – Sound, touch – Buddhic plane.
    3. Fire – Sight – Sound, touch, sight – Mental plane.
    4. Water – Taste – Sound, touch, sight, taste – Astral plane.
    5. Earth – Smell – Sound, touch, sight, taste, smell – Physical plane.
  8. Every sense pervades every other sense... – S. D., III, 569.
    There is no universal order.
    All are on all planes. – S. D., III, 550.
  9. The senses correspond with every other septenate in nature.
    See S. D., III, 448. Compare S. D., III, 497.
    Practical reading... – S. D., I, 288
What are the senses? How many are there? And what is their connection with the indwelling Man, the Thinker, the Divine Manasaputra? These are questions of vital moment, and in their due comprehension comes the ability wisely to follow the path of knowledge.
The senses might be defined as those organs whereby man becomes aware of his surroundings. We should perhaps express them not so much as organs (for after all, an organ is a material form, existent for a purpose) but as media whereby the Thinker comes in contact with his environment. They are the means whereby he makes investigation on the plane of the gross physical, for instance; the means whereby he buys his experience, whereby he discovers that which he requires to know, whereby he becomes aware, and whereby he expands his consciousness. We are dealing here with the five senses as used by the human being. In the animal these five senses exist but, as the thinking correlating faculty is lacking, as the "relation between" the self and the not-self is but little developed, we will not concern ourselves with them at this juncture. The senses in the animal kingdom are group faculty and demonstrate as racial instinct. The senses in man are his individual asset, and demonstrate:
  1. As the separate realization of self-consciousness.
  2. As ability to assert that individualism.
  3. As a valuable means to self-conscious evolution.
  4. As a source of knowledge.
  5. As the transmuting faculty towards the close of life in the three worlds.
As we know, the senses are five in number and in order of development are as follows:
  1. Hearing.
  2. Touch.
  3. Sight.
  4. Taste.
  5. Smell. [187]
Each of these five senses has a definite connection with one or other plane, and has also a correspondence on all planes.
Let us first take up each of these senses, point out some interesting facts in connection with them, and suggest their subplane correspondence.
  • PLANE – SENSE
  1. Physical – Hearing.
  2. Astral – Touch or feeling.
  3. Mental – Sight.
  4. Buddhic – Taste.
  5. Atmic – Smell.
In the two lower planes in the three worlds – the astral and the physical – the five subplanes of human endeavor are the five highest. The two lowest subplanes, the sixth and seventh, are what we might express as "below the threshold," and concern forms of life beneath the human altogether. We have a corroborating analogy in the fact that the two earliest root-races in this round are not definitely human, and that it is the third root-race which is really human for the first time. Counting, therefore, from the bottom upwards it is only the third subplane on the physical and the astral planes which mark the commencement of human effort, leaving five subplanes to be subdued. On the mental plane the five lower subplanes have to be subjugated during purely human evolution. When the consciousness is centered on the fifth subplane (counting from below upwards) then the planes of abstraction – from the standpoint of man in the three worlds – supervene the two subplanes of synthesis, demonstrating through the synthesis of the five senses. in the evolution of the Heavenly Man we have exactly the same thing: the five planes of endeavor, the five lower planes of the solar system, and the two higher planes of abstraction, the spiritual or monadic and the divine, or logoic. [188]
Microcosmic Sensory Evolution
Physical plane
  1. Hearing
5th – gaseous
  1. Touch, feeling
4th – first etheric
  1. Sight
3rd – super-etheric
  1. Taste
2nd – subatomic
  1. Smell
1st – atomic
Astral plane
  1. Clairaudience
5th
  1. Psychometry
4th
  1. Clairvoyance
3rd
  1. Imagination
2nd
  1. Emotional idealism
1st
Mental plane
  1. Higher clairaudience
7th (form)
  1. Planetary psychometry
6th (form)
  1. Higher clairvoyance
5th (form)
  1. Discrimination
4th (form)
  1. Spiritual discernment
3rd (formless)
  • Response to group vibration
2nd (formless)
  • Spiritual telepathy
1st (formless)
Buddhic plane
  1. Comprehension
7th
  1. Healing
6th
  1. Divine vision
5th
  1. Intuition
4th
  1. Idealism
3rd
Atmic plane
  1. Beatitude
5th
  1. Active service
6th
  1. Realization
5th
  1. Perfection
4th
  1. All knowledge
3rd
It can be noted that we have not summed up the two planes of abstraction on the atmic and the buddhic planes, the reason being that they mark a degree of realization which is the property of initiates of higher degree [189] than that of the adept, and which is beyond the concept of the evolving human unit, for whom this treatise is written.
We might here, for the sake of clarity, tabulate the five different aspects of the five senses on the five planes, so that their correspondences may be readily visualized, using the above table as the basis:
  1. The First Sense – Hearing.
    1. Physical hearing.
    2. Clairaudience.
    3. Higher clairaudience.
    4. Comprehension (of four sounds)
    5. Beatitude.
  2. The Second Sense – Touch or feeling.
    1. Physical touch.
    2. Psychometry.
    3. Planetary psychometry.
    4. Healing.
    5. Active service.
  3. The Third Sense – Sight.
    1. Physical sight.
    2. Clairvoyance.
    3. Higher clairvoyance.
    4. Divine vision.
    5. Realization.
  4. The Fourth Sense – Taste.
    1. Physical taste.
    2. Imagination.
    3. Discrimination.
    4. Intuition.
    5. Perfection.
  5. The Fifth Sense – Smell.
    1. Physical smell.
    2. Emotional idealism.
    3. Spiritual discernment.
    4. Idealism.
    5. All knowledge. [190]
Let us now proceed to take up each of these senses in detail:
a. Hearing. This, very appropriately, is the first sense to be manifested; the first aspect of manifestation is that of sound, and necessarily therefore we would expect sound to be the first thing noticed by man on the physical plane, the plane of densest manifestation, and of the most marked effects of sound, regarding it as a creating factor. Pre-eminently the physical plane is the plane of hearing and hence the sense ascribed to the lowest plane of evolution, and of each of the five planes. On this seventh or lowest plane man has to come to full cognizance of the effect of the Sacred Word as it is in process of sounding forth. As it reverberates throughout the system, it drives matter into its appointed place, and on the physical plane finds its point of deepest materiality and of most concrete demonstration. The key for man to discover and turn, concerns itself with the revealing of the mystery of:
  1. His own sound.
  2. His brother's sound.
  3. His group sound.
  4. The sound of that one of the Heavenly Men with whom he is connected.
  5. The sound of the Logos, or the sound of nature; of the solar system, of the Grand Man of the Heavens.
Therefore, we note that on the physical plane a man has to find his own note, finding it in spite of the density of the form.
  1. On the physical plane he finds his own note.
  2. On the astral plane he finds his brothers note; through identity of emotion he comes to the recognition of his brother's identity. [191]
  3. On the mental plane he begins to find his group note.
  4. On the buddhic plane, or the plane of wisdom, he begins to find the note of his planetary Logos.
  5. On the atmic, or spiritual plane the note logoic begins to sound within his consciousness.
I am differentiating thus for the sake of clarity. In evolution itself, due to the parallelism of nature, the distinctions are not so sharply made, and a man's ray, point of development, the work earlier accomplished, his temporary limitations, and other causes create a seeming confusion, but in the great scheme as seen from above downwards, the work proceeds as described.
Hearing on the astral plane is commonly called clairaudience, and means the ability to hear the sounds of the astral plane. It is a faculty that demonstrates throughout the entire astral body, and a man hears all over his vehicle and not only through the specialized organs, the ears, the product of physical plane action and reaction. This would necessarily be so, owing to the fluidic nature of the astral body. Man on the physical plane hears at the same time a certain range of sounds, and only a small and particular gamut of vibrations impinges upon his ears. There are many of the lesser sounds of nature which entirely escape him, while the major group sounds are not differentiated at all. As evolution proceeds and the inner sense of hearing becomes acute, these other physical plane sounds will likewise swing into his ken, and he will be acutely conscious of all sounds on the astral, and the physical plane – a thing, which if possible now, would result in the shattering of the body. If the note of nature, for instance, were to strike but once upon the ear of a man (a note made up of the totality of vibrations produced by all dense material forms) his physical body would be completely disrupted. [192] He is not ready yet for such a happening; the inner ear is not duly prepared. Only when the threefold hearing is consummated will completed hearing on the physical plane be likewise permitted.
Hearing on the mental plane is simply an extension of the faculty of differentiating sound. The hearing dealt with on all these planes is the hearing that has to do with the form, that concerns the vibration of matter, and that is occupied with the not-self. It has not to do with the psyche, or the telepathic communication that proceeds from mind to mind, but with the sound of the form or that power whereby one separated unit of consciousness is aware of another unit who is not himself. Bear this carefully in mind. When the extension of hearing becomes such that it concerns the psyche, then we call it telepathy or that wordless communication that is the synthesis of hearing on all the three lower planes and which is known by the Ego in the causal body on the formless levels of the mental plane.
On the buddhic plane, hearing (now of the synthetic quality called telepathy) demonstrates as complete comprehension, for it has involved two things:
  1. A knowledge and recognition of individual sound,
  2. A similar knowledge of group sound,
and their complete unification. This causes the most perfect comprehension, and is the secret of the Master's power.
On the atmic plane this perfected hearing is seen as beatitude. Sound, the basis of existence; sound, the method of being; sound, the final unifier; sound therefore realized as the raison d'être, as the method of evolution, and therefore as beatitude.80 [193]
80 ..."the chief agency by which Nature's wheel is moved in a phenomenal direction is sound. Sound is the first aspect of the manifested pentagon since it is a property of ether called Akas and as I already said Vedic recitation is the highest Yagnam containing in itself all minor Yagnams and tending to preserve the manifested pentagon in the proper order. In the opinion of our old philosophers sound or speech is next to thought the highest karmic agent used by man.

Of the various karmic agencies wielded by man in the way of molding himself and surroundings, sound or speech is the most important, for, to speak is to work in ether which of course rules the lower quaternary of elements, air, fire, water and earth. Human sound or language contains therefore all the elements required to move the different classes of Devas and those elements are of course the vowels and the consonants. The details of the philosophy of sound in its relation to the devas who preside over the subtle world, belong to the domain of true Mantra Sastra which of course is in the hands of the knowers.
Some Thoughts on the Gita, p. 72.

81 Astral-buddhic consciousness is the term applied to the basic consciousness in our solar system. It is characterized by emotion, by feeling, sensation, which have eventually to be transmuted into intuition, spiritual perception and unity.

82 Sensations aroused by sense objects are experienced by means of the outer instruments of the Lord of the Body or senses (Indriya) which are the pathways through which the Jiva receives worldly experience. These are ten in number, and are of two classes:

  1. The five organs of sensation – Jnanendriya
    1. The Ear – Hearing.
    2. Skin – Feeling by touch.
    3. Eye – Sight.
    4. Tongue – Taste.
    5. Nose – Smell.
  2. The five organs of action – Karmendriya
    1. Mouth – Speaking.
    2. Hands – Grasping.
    3. Legs – Walking.
    4. Anus – Excretion.
    5. Genitals – Procreation.
The organs of sensation are the reactive response which the Self makes to sensation. The organs of action are those through which effect is given to the Jiva's desires.

"The Indriya or sense is not the physical organ, but the faculty of mind operating through that organ as its instrument. The outward sense organs are the usual means whereby on the physical plane the functions of hearing and so forth are accomplished. But, as they are mere instruments and their power is derived from the mind, a Yogi may accomplish by the mind only all that may be done by means of these physical organs without the use of the latter...

"The three functions of attention, selection and synthesizing the discreet manifold of the senses, are those belonging to that aspect of the mental body, the internal agent, called Manas. Just as manas is necessary to the senses, the latter are necessary for manas... Manas is thus the leading indriya, of which the senses are powers.
- Serpent Power, by Arthur Avalon

b. Touch. In taking up the subject of the second sense, that of touch, we must note that this sense is pre-eminently the sense of very great importance in this, the second, solar system – a system of astral-buddhic consciousness.81 Each of these senses, after having reached a certain point, begins to synthesize with the others in such a way that it is almost impossible to know where one begins and the other ends. Touch is that innate recognition of contact through the exercise of manas or mind in a threefold manner:
  • As recognition.
  • As memory.
  • As anticipation.
Each of the five senses, when coupled with manas, develops within the subject a concept embodying the past, the present and the future. Therefore when a man is very highly evolved, has transcended time (as known in the three worlds), and can therefore look at the three lower planes from the standpoint of the Eternal Now, he has superseded the senses by full active consciousness. He knows, and needs not the senses to guide him any longer to knowledge. But in time, and in the three worlds, each sense on each plane is employed to convey to the Thinker some aspect of the not-self, and by the aid [194] of mind, the Thinker can then adjust his relationship thereto.
  • Hearing gives him an idea of relative direction, and enables a man to fix his place in the scheme, and to locate himself.
  • Touch gives him an idea of relative quantity and enables him to fix his relative value as regards other bodies, extraneous to himself.
  • Sight gives him an idea of proportion, and enables him to adjust his movements to the movements of others.
  • Taste gives him an idea of value, and enables him to fix upon that which to him appears best.
  • Smell gives him an idea of innate quality, and enables him to find that which appeals to him as of the same quality or essence as himself.
In all these definitions it is necessary to bear in mind that the whole object of the senses is to reveal the not-self, and to enable the Self therefore, to differentiate between the real and the unreal. 82 [195]
In the evolution of the senses, hearing is the first vague something which calls the attention of the apparently blind self
  1. To another vibration.
  2. To something originating outside of itself.
  3. To the concept of externality. When sound is first contacted the consciousness for the first time becomes aware of that which is without.
But all that is grasped by the dormant consciousness (by means of this one sense of hearing) is the fact of something extraneous to itself, and of the direction in which that something lies. This apprehension, in course of time, calls into being another sense, that of touch. The Law of Attraction works, the consciousness moves slowly outwards towards that which is heard; and when contact is made with the not-self it is called touch. This touch conveys other ideas to the groping consciousness, ideas of size, of external texture, and of surface differences; the concept of the Thinker is thus slowly enlarged. He can hear and feel, but as yet knows not enough to correlate nor name. When he succeeds in naming, he has made a big stride forward. We might note here, therefore, that the earliest cosmic symbols are applicable to the senses as well as elsewhere:
  • The point in the center – consciousness and the not-self at a stage where sound alone is descriptive.
  • The divided circle – consciousness aware of the not-self, through a dual recognition. [196]
Sight follows on this, the third sense, and the one definitely marking the correlation of ideas, or the relation between; it parallels the coming of Mind, both in time and function. We have hearing, touch or feeling, and then sight. In connection with the correspondence it is to be noted that sight came in with the third root-race in this round, and that the third race saw also the coming in of Mind. The Self and the not-self were immediately correlated, and coordinated. Their close partnership became an accomplished fact, and evolution hastened forward with renewed impetus. These three major senses (if I might so describe them) are very definitely allied, each with one of the three Logoi:
  • Hearing - The recognition of the fourfold word, the activity of matter, the third Logos.
  • Touch - The recognition of the sevenfold Form Builder, the gathering together of forms, their approximation and interrelation, the second Logos. The Law of Attraction between the Self and the not-self begins to work.
  • Sight - The recognition of totality, the synthesis of all, the realization of the One in Many, the first Logos. The Law of Synthesis, operating between all forms which the self occupies, and the recognition of the essential unity of all manifestation by the means of sight.
As regards taste and smell, we might call them minor senses, for they are closely allied to the important sense of touch. They are practically subsidiary to that sense. This second sense, and its connection with this second solar system, should be carefully pondered over. It is predominantly the sense most closely connected with the second Logos. This conveys a hint of much value if duly considered. It is of value to study the extensions of physical plane touch on other planes and to see whither we are led. It is the faculty which enables us to arrive [197] at the essence by due recognition of the veiling sheath. It enables the Thinker who fully utilizes it to put himself en rapport with the essence of all selves at all stages, and thereby to aid in the due evolution of the sheath and actively to serve. A Lord of Compassion is one who (by means of touch) feels with, fully comprehends, and realizes the manner in which to heal and correct the inadequacies of the not-self and thus actively to serve the plan of evolution. We should study likewise in this connection the value of touch as demonstrated by the healers of the race (those on the Bodhisattva line)83 and the effect of the Law of Attraction and Repulsion as thus manipulated by them. Students of etymology will have noted that the origin of the word touch is somewhat obscure, but probably means to "draw with quick motion". Herein lies the whole secret of this objective solar system, and herein will be demonstrated the quickening of vibration by means of touch. Inertia, mobility, rhythm, are the qualities manifested by the not-self. Rhythm, balance, and stable vibration are achieved by means of this very faculty of touch or feeling. Let me illustrate briefly so as to make the problem somewhat clearer. What results in meditation? By dint of strenuous effort and due attention to rules laid down, the aspirant succeeds in touching matter of a quality rarer than is his usual custom. He contacts his causal body, in time he contacts the matter of the buddhic plane. By means of this touch his own vibration is temporarily and briefly quickened. Fundamentally we are brought back to the subject that we deal with in this treatise. The latent fire of matter attracts to itself that fire, latent in other forms. They touch, and recognition and awareness ensues. The fire of manas burns continuously and is fed by that which is attracted and repulsed. When the two [198] blend, the stimulation is greatly increased and the ability to touch intensified. The Law of Attraction persists in its work until another fire is attracted and touched, and the threefold merging is completed. Forget not in this connection the mystery of the Rod of Initiation.84 Later when we consider the subject of the centers and Initiation it must be remembered that we are definitely studying one aspect of this mysterious faculty of touch, the faculty of the second Logos, wielding the law of Attraction.
83 The line of the Bodhisattva is that of Love-wisdom, and of the detailed science of the soul; it is the teaching line and the path upon which an must eventually pass.

84 The Initiations spoken of in this Treatise are the major Initiations which bring about those expansions of consciousness which lead to liberation; these are taken in the causal body and from thence reflected into the physical; the Initiate never proclaims his initiation.

85 Manasaputras: These are the Sons of Mind, the individual principle in man, the Ego, the solar Angel, in his own body on the abstract levels of the mental plane.

Let us now finish what may be imparted on the remaining three senses – sight, taste, smell – and then briefly sum up their relationship to the centers, and their mutual action and interaction. That will then leave two more points to be dealt with in this first division of the Treatise on Cosmic Fire, and a summing up. We shall then be in a position to take up that portion of the treatise that deals with the fire of manas and with the development of the manasaputras, 85 both in their totality and likewise individually. This topic is of the most imperative importance as it deals entirely with man, the Ego, the thinker, and shows the cosmic blending of the fires of matter and of mind, and their utilization by the indwelling Flame.
c. Sight. This sense, as said before, is the paramount correlating sense of the solar system.
Under the Law of Economy man hears. Sound permeates matter and is the basis of its subsequent heterogeneity.
Under the Law of Attraction, man touches and makes contact with that which is brought to his attention [199] through sound waves of activity. This leads to a condition of mutual repulsion and attraction between the one who apprehends and that which is apprehended.
Having apprehended and then contacted his eyes are opened and he recognizes his place in the whole order under the Law of Synthesis.
  • Hearing – Unity
  • Touch – Duality
  • Sight – Triplicity.
In these three senses the present is summed up for us. The work of evolution is to recognize, utilize, coordinate, and dominate the whole till the Self, by means of these three, becomes actively aware of every form, of every vibration, and of every pulsation of the not-self; then, through the arranging power of mind, the objective of the self will be to find the truth, or that center in the circle of manifestation which is, for the Self, the center of equilibrium, and the one point where the coordination is perfected; then the Self can dissociate itself from every veil, every contact, and every sense. This leads in every manifestation to three types of separation:
  • Involution. The separation of matter, or the one becoming the many. The senses are developed, and the apparatus is perfected by the Self for the utilization of matter. This is under the Law of Economy.
  • Evolution up to the time of the Probationary Path. The merging of Spirit and matter, and the utilization of the senses in a progressing identification of the Self with all forms from the lowest to those relatively refined. This is under the Law of Attraction.
  • Evolution on the Path. Again the separation of spirit from matter, its identification with the One, and the ultimate rejection of form. The senses then are synthesized into acquired faculty, and the Self has no [200] further use for the not-self. It blends with the All-Self. This is under the Law of Synthesis.
If this is borne in mind it leads to a realization that the separation of the Spirit from the material vehicle involves two aspects of the One great All; herein is seen the work of the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer.
In the final perfection of this third sense of sight, the term used is the wholly inadequate one of realization. Let the student study carefully the lowest and highest demonstration of the senses as laid down in the tabulation earlier imparted, and note the occult significance of the expressions used in the summation.
  • Hearing – Beatitude.
    This is realized through the not-self.
  • Touch – Service.
    The summation of the work of the Self for the not-self.
  • Sight – Realization.
    Recognition of the triplicity needed in manifestation, or the reflex action of the Self and the not-self.
  • Taste – Perfection.
    Evolution completed through the utilization of the not-self and its realized adequacy.
  • Smell – Perfected Knowledge.
    The principle of manas in its discriminating activity, perfecting the interrelation between the Self and the not-self.
This all concerns the perfected, realized Personality.
In all these perfections is seen the awareness of the Self, and the graded process of identification, utilization, manipulation and final rejection of the not-self by that Self who is now consciously aware. He hears the note of nature and that of his monad; he recognizes their identity, utilizes their vibration, and passes rapidly through the three stages of Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. [201]
He touches or feels the vibration of the form or not-self in all its various grades, recognizes his identity in time and space, and for purposes of existence or being and by means of the three Laws of Economy, Attraction and Synthesis utilizes, blends and eventually dissociates himself. He sees the threefold evolutionary process and by means of the development of the inner vision, sees within the heart of the system macrocosmic and microcosmic, the ONE SELF in many forms, and finally identifies himself with that one Self by the conscious rejection of the not-self after its complete subjugation and utilization.
d. Tasting. He tastes then finally and discriminates, for taste is the great sense that begins to hold sway during the discriminating process that takes place when the illusory nature of matter is in process of realization. Discrimination is the educatory process to which the Self subjects itself in the process of developing intuition – that faculty whereby the Self recognizes its own essence in and under all forms. Discrimination concerns the duality of nature, the Self and the not-self, and is the means of their differentiation in the process of abstraction; the intuition concerns unity and is the capacity of the Self to contact other selves, and is not a faculty whereby the not-self is contacted. Hence, its rarity these days owing to the intense individualization of the Ego, and its identification with the form – a necessary identification at this particular time. As the sense of taste on the higher planes is developed, it leads one to ever finer distinctions till one is finally led through the form, right to the heart of one's nature.
e. Smelling. is the faculty of keen perception that eventually brings a man back to the source from whence he came, the archetypal plane, the plane where his true home is to be found. A perception of difference has been cultivated that has caused a divine discontent within the [202] heart of the Pilgrim in the far country; the prodigal son draws comparisons; he has developed the other four senses, and he utilizes them. Now comes in the faculty of vibratory recognition of the home vibration, if it might be so expressed. It is the spiritual counterpart of that sense which in the animal, the pigeon and other birds, leads them back unerringly to the familiar spot from whence they originally came. It is the apprehension of the vibration of the Self, and a swift return by means of that instinct to the originating source.
The consideration of this subject awakens the realization of the vastness of the region of thought concerned – the region of the whole evolutionary development of the human being. Yet all that is possible here, as elsewhere, is to indicate lines of thought for careful pondering, and to emphasize certain ideas which may serve as the foundation thoughts for the future mental activity of the immediate generation. The following facts must also be borne in mind when considering the matter:
  1. That the senses have been dealt with in this division of our Treatise on Cosmic Fire because they concern the material form. Strictly speaking the five senses, as we know them, are the means of contact built up by the Thinker (polarized in his etheric body) and find their expression in the physical form in those nerve centers, brain cells, ganglia and plexus which exoteric science recognizes.
  2. That these senses for all purposes of present manifestation, have their focal point on the astral plane and are therefore largely under the stimulating action of the solar plexus – that great focal point in the center of the body which is the stimulating agent for most of the human family at this time.
  3. That as the higher triangle comes into play and the polarization steps up to the higher centers, the senses begin to make themselves felt on the mental level and [203] man becomes aware on that plane. We have in the human body an interesting reflection of the transference of the polarization from the Personality to the Ego, or into the causal body, in the division that exists between the higher and the lower mental planes, and the dividing line of the diaphragm between the higher and the lower portions of the body. Below the diaphragm we have the four lower centers:
  1. The solar plexus.
  2. The spleen.
  3. Organs of generation.
  4. Base of the spine.
Above are the three higher:
  1. Heart.
  2. Throat.
  3. Head.
In the microcosm we have the lower quaternary separated from the Triad in a similar manner, and this analogy will bear pondering upon. By careful thought we can therefore work out the reflex action of the centers and the senses from the standpoint of the different planes, remembering that as the centers are awakened the process will be threefold:
  • First. The awakening on the physical plane, and the gradually increasing activity of the centers, until the Probationary Path is reached. This is paralleled by the increasing use of the senses, and their constant utilization for the identification of the self and its sheaths.
  • Second. The awakening on the astral plane, and the gradually increasing activity of the centers, until the first Initiation is reached. This is paralleled by the tremendously keen use of the senses for the purposes of discriminating between the Self and the not-self. [204]
  • Third. The awakening upon the mental plane, and the gradually increasing activity of the centers and the senses. The effect in both cases tends to identification of the Self with its own essence in all groups and the rejection of the sheaths and the forms.
This development is paralleled on the two higher planes simultaneously as in the lower, and as the astral senses come into perfected activity, the corresponding centers of force on the buddhic plane begin to function until the vibratory interplay between the two is consummated, and the force of the Triad can be felt definitely in the Personality via the astral.
Again the corresponding vortices on the atmic level come into active vibration as the mental centers become fourth dimensional, till we have a wonderful fiery activity demonstrating on all the three planes.
86 The Fire of the manifested cosmos is Septenary. The Threefold God manifests through the seven Fires:
  1. Electric fire – The seven Heavenly Men.
  2. Solar fire – Evolution of the seven Entities through their vehicles developing the seven principles.
  3. Fire by friction – The seven chains. They are the seven centers of the Logos.
A Heavenly Man manifests through a chain.
  1. He is electric fire – The seven solar entities who inform each globe.
  2. He is solar fire – Evolution of the life through the forms, developing the seven principles.
  3. He is fire by friction – The seven globes.
Each Heavenly Man has seven principles.

A Man, the Microcosm, manifests through his vehicles:

  1. He is electric fire – The monad, a solar entity.
  2. He is solar fire – Evolution of the life through the vehicles in order to develop the seven principles.
  3. He is fire by friction – The seven sheaths:
    1. Atmic.
    2. Buddhic.
    3. Causal.
    4. Mental body.
    5. Astral body.
    6. Etheric body.
    7. Physical body.
Physical Plane man manifests in the three worlds:
  1. Electric fire – The higher self.
  2. Solar fire – The seven centers.
  3. Fire by friction – The sheaths.
87 The Planetary Chains: The seven Heavenly Men – Form, the sun and the seven sacred planets. – S. D., I, 100, 155.

Some of their names and qualities.

  1. The seven planetary Logoi, or the seven Spirits before the throne.
  2. The seven Kumaras – S. D., III, 59, 327.
  3. Seven solar deities – S. D., I, 114; I, 228; II, 92, 257.
  4. The primordial seven – S. D., I, 116.
  5. The seven Builders – S. D., I, 152, 153.
  6. Seven intellectual Breaths – S. D., II, 332, note.
  7. The seven Manus – S. D., I, 488.
  8. The Flames – S. D., II, 258.
    They came from previous kalpas. – S. D., II, 99.
    Their nature is knowledge and love. – S. D., II, 275; S. D., II, 619.
The seven sacred planets are:
  1. Saturn
  2. Jupiter.
  3. Mars
  4. Sun (substitute for another).
  5. Venus
  6. Mercury.
  7. Moon (substitute for another).
Neptune and Uranus are not here enumerated, nor Vulcan. The orbit of Neptune includes apparently the entire ring-pass-not. Vulcan is within the orbit of Mercury. Each one of the Heavenly Men manifests through a chain of seven globes.

All the seven Logoi influence a chain, but one of Them is the incarnating Entity. They influence:

  1. Some globe in chain.
  2. Some plane.
  3. Some round.
  4. Some world period.
  5. Some root-race.
  6. Some subrace.
  7. Some branch race.
  8. Some group.
  9. Some human unit.

88 In the Secret Doctrine, the Sons of Mind are spoken of as flames. In Stanza VII, 4, "These are the three-tongued flame of the four wicks. The wicks are the sparks, that draw from the three-tongued flame shot out by the seven flames. The spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of Fohat."

From the point of view of fire,86 leaving the aura and [205] its colors out of temporary consideration, the evolutionary development marks an equally definite process.
  1. The vivification of the inner heat of the sheaths, or the tiny point of fire latent in every individual atom of matter. This process proceeds in all three bodies, at first slowly, then more rapidly, and finally simultaneously and synthetically.
  2. The bringing into activity from latency of the seven centers on all planes, beginning from the bottom upwards, until the centers (according to ray and type) are interrelated and coordinated. There are manifest thirty-five vortices of fire in the perfected adept, – all of radiant activity and all interacting.
  3. The vortices or wheels of lambent flame become interlinked by triangles of fire which pass and circulate from one to another, till we have a web of fiery lines, uniting centers of living fire, and giving truth to the statement that the Sons of Mind are FLAMES.
  4. These centers reach this condition of perfection as the Spirit or Will aspect takes ever fuller control. The unifying triangles are produced by the action of the fire of mind, while the fire of matter holds the form together in ordered sequence. So the interdependence of matter, mind and Spirit can be seen and demonstrates to the eye of the clairvoyant as the coordination of the three fires.
  5. In the Heavenly Man and His body, a chain of globes87 likewise can be seen and we need here to [206] remember very carefully that the seven chains of a scheme are the expression of a planetary Logos. The Heavenly Men are expressing Themselves through a scheme of seven chains and the emphasis has been laid unduly, perhaps, upon the dense physical planet in any particular chain. This has caused the fact of the chain importance to be somewhat overlooked. Each of the seven chains might be looked upon as picturing the seven centers of one of the Heavenly Men. The idea of groups of Egos forming centers in the Heavenly Men is nevertheless correct, but in this connection the reference is to the centers of force on buddhic and monadic levels.88 [207]
In connection with this there is a fundamental point that must never be forgotten: these seven Heavenly Men might be considered as being in physical incarnation through the medium of a physical planet, and herein lies the mystery of planetary evolution. Herein lies the mystery of our planet, the most mysterious of all the planets. Just as the karma of individuals differs, so differs the karma of the various Logoi, and the karma of our planetary Logos has been a heavy one, and veiled in the mystery of personality at this time.
Again, according as the centers are active or inactive, so the manifestation differs likewise, and the study which opens up is of vast and abstruse interest in connection with the solar system.
E.V.5. The Centers and Initiation
We have dealt briefly with the evolution of the centers, with their function, their organization and their gradually increasing activity from a point of comparative inertia until they are consummated motion. Then they become living wheels of flame, distinguished by a dual motion of the periphery and the inner revolving wheels, and by a fourth-dimensional effect, due primarily to the alignment of the inner subtler vortices with the comparatively exoteric etheric centers. This alignment is brought about eventually at initiation. At the time that initiation is taken, the centers are all active and the lower four (which correspond to the Personality) are beginning the process of translating the fire into the three higher. The dual revolution in the lower centers is clearly to be seen and the three higher are commencing to be similarly active. By the application of the Rod of Initiation at the time of the initiation ceremony, certain results are achieved in connection with the centers which might be enumerated as follows:
  1. The fire at the base of the spine is definitely [208] directed to whichever center is the object of special attention. This varies according to the Ray, or the specialized work of the initiate.
  2. The center has its activity intensified, its rate of evolution increased, and certain of the central spokes of the wheel brought into more active radiance. These spokes which are also called by some students lotus-petals, have a close connection with the different spirillae in the permanent atoms. Through their stimulation there comes into play one or more of the corresponding spirillae in the permanent atoms on the three lower planes. After the third Initiation, a corresponding stimulation takes place in the permanent atoms of the Triad, leading to the coordination of the buddhic vehicle, and the transference of the lower polarization into the higher.
  3. By the application of the Rod of Initiation the downflow of force from the Ego to the personality is tripled, the direction of that force being dependent upon whether the centers receiving attention are the etheric, or the astral at the first and second Initiations, or whether the initiate is standing before the LORD OF THE WORLD. In the latter case, his mental centers or their corresponding force vortices on higher levels, will receive stimulation. When the World Teacher initiates at the first and second Initiations, the direction of the Triadal force is turned to the vivification of the heart, and throat centers, and the ability to synthesize the force of the lower centers is greatly increased. When the One Initiator applies the Rod of His Power, the downflow is from the Monad, and though the throat and heart intensify vibration as a response, the main direction of the force is to the seven head centers, and finally (at liberation) to the radiant head center above, and synthesizing the lesser seven head centers.
  4. The centers at initiation receive a fresh access of [209] vibratory capacity and of power, and this results, in the exoteric life, as:
    • First. A sensitiveness and refinement of the vehicles which may result, at first, in much suffering to the initiate, but which produces a capacity to respond to contacts that far outweighs the incidental pain.
    • Second. A development of psychic faculty that again may lead to temporary distress, but which eventually causes a recognition of the one Self in all selves, which is the goal of endeavor.
    • Third. A burning away, through a gradual arousing of kundalini, and its correct geometrical progression through the etheric web. This produces a resultant continuity of consciousness which enables the initiate consciously to utilize time as a factor in the plans of evolution.
    • Fourth. A gradual grasp of the Law of Vibration as an aspect of the basic law of building; the initiate learns consciously to build, to manipulate thought matter for the perfecting of the plans of the Logos, to work in mental essence, and to apply the law on mental levels and thereby affect the physical plane. Motion originates cosmically on cosmic mental levels, and in the microcosm the same order will be seen. There is an occult hint here that will reveal much if pondered upon. At initiation, at the moment of the application of the Rod, the initiate consciously realizes the meaning of the Law of Attraction in form building, and in the synthesis of the three fires. Upon his ability to retain that realization and himself to apply the law, will depend his power and progress.
  5. By the application of the Rod, the fire of kundalini is aroused, and its upward progress directed. The fire at the base of the spine, and the fire of mind are [210] directed along certain routes, or triangles, by the action of the Rod as it moves in a specified manner. There is a definite occult reason, under the Laws of Electricity, behind the known fact that every initiate, presented to the Initiator, is accompanied by two of the Masters, who stand one on either side of him. The three of them together form a triangle which makes the work possible.
The force of the Rod is twofold, and its power terrific. Apart and alone the initiate could not receive the voltage from the Rod without serious hurt, but in triangular formation transmission comes safely. The two Masters Who thus sponsor the initiate, represent two polarities of the electric All; part of Their work is therefore to stand with all applicants for initiation when they come before the Great Lord.
When the Rods of Initiation are held in the hands of the Initiator in His position of power, and at the stated seasons, they act as transmitters of electric force from very high levels, – so high indeed that the "Flaming Diamond" at certain of the final initiations (the sixth and seventh) transmits force, via the Logos, from outside the system altogether. We need to remember that this major Rod is the one used on this planet, but that within the system there are several such Rods of Power, and that they are to be found in three grades, if it may be so expressed.
First. The Rod of Initiation used for the first two initiations and wielded by the Great Lord, the Christ, the World Teacher. It is magnetized by application of the "Flaming Diamond" – the magnetization being repeated when each new world Teacher takes office. There is a wonderful ceremony performed at the time that a new World Teacher takes up His work. During the ceremony He receives His Rod of Power – the same Rod as used since the foundation of our planetary Hierarchy – and holds it forth to the Lord of the World, Who touches it [211] with His own mighty Rod, causing a fresh recharging of its electric capacity. This ceremony takes place at Shamballa89, 90.
89 Shamballa - The Sacred Island in the Gobi desert. The center in central Asia where the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, has His Headquarters. H. P. B. says it is "a very mysterious locality on account of its future associations." – S. D., II, 413.

90 The World Teacher - takes office cyclically. His cycles do not coincide with those of the Manu as the Manu holds office for the entire root-race. The World Teacher gives out the keynote for the various religions and is the emanating source for periodical religious impulses. The duration of his cycles are not given out. The Buddha held office prior to the present World Teacher and upon his Illumination His place was taken by the Lord Maitreya whom the Occidentals call the Christ.

Second. The Rod of Initiation known as the "Flaming Diamond" and used by Sanat Kumara, the One Initiator, called in the Bible, the Ancient of Days. This Rod lies hidden "in the East" and holds the fire latent which irradiates the Wisdom Religion. This Rod was brought by the Lord of the World when He took form and came to our planet eighteen million years ago.
Once in every world period it is subjected to a similar process as that of the lesser Rod, only this time it is recharged by the direct action of the Logos Himself, – the Logos of the solar system. The location of this Rod is known only to the Lord of the World, and to the Chohans of the Rays, and (being the talisman of this evolution) the Chohan of the second Ray is – under the Lord of the World – its main guardian, aided by the deva Lord of the second plane. The Buddhas of activity are responsible for its custody, and under them the Chohan of the Ray. It is produced only at stated times when specific work has to be done. It is used not only at the initiating of men, but at certain planetary functions, of which nothing as yet has been given out. It has its place and function in certain ceremonies connected with the inner round91 and the triangle formed by the Earth Mars [212] and Mercury. But more about this is not at this time permissible.
91 The inner round is a mysterious cycle of which little can be told. It is not concerned with manifestation through the seven schemes or globes, but has to do with certain aspects of the subjective Life or the soul.
Third. The Rod of Initiation, wielded by the Logos of the solar system, is called among other things, the "Sevenfold Flaming Fire." It was confided to our Logos by the Lord of Sirius and sent to our system from that radiant sun. One of its purposes is for use in emergencies. This great talisman has never yet been employed in this particular manner, though twice it was nearly thus used, – once in Atlantean days, and once in the third year of the late war. This Rod of Power is used at the initiation of the seven Heavenly Men on cosmic levels. It is used also in the initiation of groups, a thing almost incomprehensible to us. It is applied to the centers of the seven Heavenly Men in the same general way as the lesser Rods are applied to the human centers, and the effects are the same, only on a vaster scale. This, needless to say, is a vast and abstruse subject, and concerns not the sons of men. It is but touched upon, as an enumeration of the Rods of Initiation would be incomplete without some reference to it, and it serves to show the wondrous synthesis of the whole, and the place of the system within an even greater scheme. In all things cosmic, perfect law and order are found, and the ramifications of the plan can be seen on all planes and all subplanes. This greatest Rod is in the care of the first great group of karmic Lords. It might be described as the Rod which carries a voltage of pure fohatic force from cosmic levels. The two lesser Rods carry differentiated fohatic force. This logoic Rod of Power is kept within the Sun, and is only recharged at the beginning of every one hundred years of Brahma.
The reason why the Rods of Power are here discussed is that they have definitely to do with the centers which are force vortices in matter and which (though channels [213] for spiritual force, or centers wherein the 'will to be' finds expression) demonstrate as activity matter. They are the centers of existence, and just as one cannot, in manifestation, dissociate the two poles of Spirit and matter, so one cannot, in initiation apply the Rod without bringing about definite effects between the two. The Rods are charged with Fohat which is fire of matter plus electric fire, hence their effect. The mystery cannot be explained in greater detail as the secrets of initiation are not transmissible. More has been here imparted on this matter than hitherto, though there are those who have heard these things. [214]