Before taking up the subject of the fire of mind under the schedule already outlined, it might be of profit if certain facts are here pointed out, and one or two points clarified. The subject we are undertaking to elucidate is one of profound mystery, and is the basis of all that is now seen and known, both objectively and subjectively. We have somewhat studied that pole of manifestation called matter. The subject we are now entering upon concerns several things which might be considered in general terms as Consciousness, and in specified terms as including the following subjects, – hence its fundamental importance. [224]

1. The science of objectivity.
2. The manifestation of the Son through the Sun and its attendant spheres, or the solar system in its entirety.
3. The evolutionary development of consciousness in time and space, therefore, the evolution of spirit and matter.

If the above three fundamentals are studied, it will be noted that they are very comprehensive, and, therefore, from the immensity of the theme, it will not be possible to do more than attempt to bring a general clarity of conception as to the broad outline of the process, and as to the gradual development of consciousness. For the sake of an intelligent following of this matter, it might be wise first to lay down a number of propositions which – (even if already known and appreciated) – will serve students as the scaffolding on which to erect the intended structure of knowledge. If a student of the Wisdom can grasp the nature of the general theme, he can then more easily and accurately fit the detailed information into its appropriate niche. Perhaps the best plan would be to formulate certain questions, and then proceed to answer them, – the answers to embody therefore the propositions that will be laid down. These questions arise naturally to the student of the Secret Doctrine, when he has reached the point where the big plan is becoming visible to him, but the pile of detailed material to be built in remains, as yet, inchoate. The questions we might ask and study are the following:

1. What is the relationship of the Son to the Sun?
2. What is evolution and how does it proceed?
3. Why is this solar system evolving along the lines of duality?
4. What is consciousness and what is its place in the present scheme of things? [225]
5. Is there a direct analogy between the development of the following factors: a solar system, a planet, a man, and an atom?
6. What is the mind aspect and why is the manasic or mental principle of such importance? Who are the Manasaputras, or the Sons of Mind?
7. Why is the progress of evolution cyclic?
8. Why, as yet, do we consider certain knowledge as esoteric, and other aspects of knowledge as exoteric?
9. What is the relationship between
   1. The ten planetary schemes?
   2. The seven sacred planets?
   3. The seven globes in a chain?
   4. The seven rounds in a globe?
   5. The seven root races and the subraces?

When we have endeavored to answer in brief and concise fashion these nine questions, and have grasped, through their replies, something of the purpose lying behind the evolution of the consciousness of the Son (with all that is included in that expression) we shall be in a position to go more intelligently into a consideration of the plan, and to grasp more accurately the immediate stage ahead to be attained, working from our present standpoint as a basis.

We must ever remember that a curious interest and a farseeing grasp of the plan of the Logos is of no importance to a man unless he correlates the present with that which he believes to lie in the future, unless he ascertains the point achieved, and realizes wherein consists the work immediately to be undertaken in this gradual process of attaining full consciousness.

(Source: Lucifer, May 1890)

First the • (Point), the Monad, Bythus (the Deep), the unknown and unknowable Father. Then the Δ (Triangle), Bythus and the first emanated pair or Duad, Nous (Mind) and its syzygy Aletheia (Truth). Then the (Square), the dual Duad, Tetraktys or Quaternary, two males ||, the Logos (Word) and Anthrôpos (Man), two females, their syzygies, = Zoê (Life) and Ekklesia (the Church or Assembly), Seven in all. The Triangle the Potentiality of Spirit, the Square the Potentiality of Matter; the Vertical Straight Line the Potency of Spirit, and the Horizontal the Potency of Matter. Next comes the Pentagram , the Pentad, the mysterious symbol of the Manasaputras or Sons of Wisdom, which together with their syzygies make 10, or the Decad; and last of all, the Hexalpha or interlaced Triangles the Hexad, which with their syzygies make 12, or the Dodecad. Such are the Contents of the Pleroma or Completion, the Ideas in the Divine Mind, 28 in all, for Bythus or the Father is not reckoned, as it is the Root of all. The two small circles within the Pleroma are the syzygy Christos-Pneuma (Christ and the Holy Spirit); these are after-emanations, and, as such, from one aspect, typify the descent of Spirit to inform and evolve Matter, which essentially proceeds from the same source; and from another, the descent or incarnation of the Kumâras or the Higher Egos of Humanity.

This question brings us primarily to a consideration as to Who is the Son, and what is His function. Two [227] factors are universally recognized in all systems that merit the name of philosophy; they are the two factors of spirit and matter, of purusha and prakriti. There is at times a tendency to confound such terms as "life and form," "consciousness and the vehicle of consciousness" with the terms "Spirit and matter." They are related, but clarity of view would be facilitated if it were realized that prior to manifestation, or to the birth of a solar system, it is more correct to utilize the words, Spirit and matter. When these two are interrelated during manifestation, and after the cessation of the pralayic interval or interlude between two systems, then the terms, life and form, consciousness and its vehicles, are more correct, for during the period of abstraction consciousness is not, form is not, and life, demonstrating as an actual principle, is not. There is Spirit-substance but in a state of quiescence, of utter neutrality, of negativity, and of passivity. In manifestation the two are approximated; they interact upon each other; activity supersedes quiescence; positivity replaces negativity; movement is seen in place of passivity, and the two primordial factors are no longer neutral to each other, but attract and repulse, interact and utilize. Then and only then, can we have form animated by life, and consciousness demonstrated through appropriate vehicles.

How can this be expressed? In terms of fire, when the two electric poles are brought into definite relationship we have demonstrated, along the line of occult sight and of occult feeling, both heat and light. This relationship is brought about and perfected during the evolutionary process. This heat and light are produced by the union of the two poles, or by the occult marriage of male and female, of Spirit (father) and matter (mother). In terms of the physical, this union produces the objective solar system, the Son of the Father and the Mother. In terms of the subjective, it produces the Sun, as the sum total of [228] the qualities of light and heat. In terms of fire, by the union or at-one-ment of electric fire (Spirit) and fire by friction (energized matter) solar fire is produced. This solar fire will be distinguished above all else by its evolutionary development, and by the gradual intensification of the heat to be felt, and of the light to be seen.

For a clearer comprehension of this abstract matter, we might consider the microcosm, or man evolving in the three worlds. Man is the product of the approximation (at present imperfect) of the two poles of Spirit (the Father in Heaven) and of matter (the Mother). The result of this union is an individualized Son of God, or unit of the divine Self, an exact replica in miniature on the lowest plane of the great Son of God, the All-Self, who is in Himself the totality of all the miniature sons, of all the individualized Selves, and of each and every unit. The microcosm, expressed in other terms or from the subjective point of view, is a miniature sun distinguished by the qualities of heat and light. At present that light is "under the bushel," or deeply hidden by a veil of matter, but in due process of evolution it will shine forth to such an extent that the veils will be lost from sight in a blaze of exceeding glory. At present the microcosmic heat is of small degree, or the magnetic radiation between the microcosmic units is but little felt (in the occult significance of the term), but as time proceeds, the emanations of heat, – due to intensification of the inner flame, coupled with the assimilated radiation of other units – will increase, and become of such proportions that the interaction between the individualized Selves will result in the merging to perfection of the flame within each one, and a blending of the heat; this will proceed until there is "one flame with countless sparks" within it, until the heat is general and balanced. When this is the case and each Son of God is a perfected Sun, characterized by perfectly expressed light and heat, [229] then the entire solar system, the greater Son of God, will be the perfected Sun.

The system will then be characterized by a "blaze of refulgent glory," and by a radiation that will link it up with its cosmic center, and thus effect the liberation of the Son, and His return to the far distant source from whence the primal impulse originated. Therefore, bear in mind:

• First, that the Son is the radiant result of the union of Spirit and Matter, and may be considered as the totality of the solar system, the Sun and the seven sacred planets.
• Second, that the Son manifests through his qualities of light and heat, as does the solar Sun.
• Third, that the Son is the product of the electrical union of "fire by friction" and electric fire, and is Himself "solar fire" or the manifestation of the other two, hence that which is seen and that which is felt.
• Finally, that the Son, therefore, is the middle manifestation, and is produced by that which is above, and that which is below, in the occult sense. Therefore, the Son on His own plane (the cosmic mental plane), is the egoic body of the Logos in the same sense as the egoic body of the microcosm is the product of the union of the Monad, or Spirit, and matter. Just as the body egoic of man (that which is called the causal body) is only in process of formation, and is not yet perfected, so we may predicate the same of the solar system, as it expresses the Life of God. It is in process of perfecting. The Son, manifesting through the Sun and its sphere of influence, is yet in a state of gradual development, and not until each cell within His body is fully alive and vibrating to a uniform measure, will He be "full grown" and perfected. Not until His radiation and His display of light is perfectly seen and felt, will His place among the heavenly constellations (the Son of God in a cosmic sense) be fully achieved. [230]

Not until each cell in His body is a sphere of radiant glory – a blaze of fire and light, and a source of magnetic radiation or heat, occultly expressed, will the Son in the Heavens "shine forth." From the cosmic point of view, as we know, our sun is but of the fourth order, and on the lowest cosmic plane. When the Son has, through the Sun, attained full expression (that is, perfected His display of light and heat) then He will shine forth upon another plane, that of the cosmic mental. We have the analogy in the microcosm or man. When a man's light fully shines forth, when his magnetic radiation has reached the stage of vivid interaction or group activity, then he has attained full self-expression, and has included within his sphere of influence and control the mental plane. He is then considered a Master. He also is of the fourth order; he is the quaternary. The etheric plane is the center of his life in the physical sense, just as we are told that the sun and the planets esoterically are considered as existing in etheric matter. As above, so below, is the occult law. Therefore, the relationship of the Son of the Father, and of the Mother, is to the Sun the same as man's relationship to the vehicle through which he functions. It is His mode of enterprise, His vehicle of expression; it is the form which His life animates for the specific purpose of

1. Gaining experience.
2. Making contact.
3. Developing full self-knowledge.
4. Achieving full mastery or control.
5. Attaining "manhood" cosmically. The cosmic Christ must measure up to the stature "of a full grown man," as it is expressed in the Christian Bible (Ep., 4:13).
6. Expanding His consciousness. [231]

All these stages have to be achieved on cosmic levels, in exactly the same sense as the microcosm, on systemic levels, likewise strives for similar ideals.

I do not propose to deal here with the evolutionary process in any other way than briefly to indicate that the whole method of evolution is simply that of adjusting the matter aspect to the Spirit aspect, so that the former proves entirely adequate as a body of expression for the latter. The life cycle of the Son is one hundred years of Brahma in the same sense as man has a life cycle consisting of a certain number of years, dependent upon his karma. During the life cycle of a man, he expresses what is in him at his particular stage, and gradually develops from the stage of the antenatal period wherein the Self over-shadows the matter aspect until the period wherein that Higher Self takes full possession of the prepared form. This stage varies with every individual. From that time on fuller self-consciousness is sought, and the man (if proceeding normally) expresses himself through the form ever more adequately. Each life of lesser cycle in the great cycle of the Ego or Self, sees that expression more complete, brings the form more under control and develops a conscious realization of the Self until there comes a culminating cycle of lives in which the Self within rapidly dominates, and takes full authority. The form becomes wholly adequate; the fusion of the two poles of Spirit and matter is fully brought about; and the light (fire) and heat (radiation) is seen and felt systemically. Then the form is either consciously utilized for specific ends or is vacated, and the man is liberated. Electric fire and fire by friction are fused, and the consequent solar fire blazes forth in radiant glory.

Extend this idea from man, an individualized unit of [232] consciousness, to the great Heavenly Men, in one of Whose bodies a man forms a cell. The body of expression of each Heavenly Man is one of the sacred planets, and They aim at the same goal as man – the attainment, on Their own levels, of full expression, and the development of Their vehicles of consciousness to a point where the Spirit may blaze forth as light divine, and as heat. This heat radiates consciously and with intense magnetic attraction between all the seven systemic groups, or planetary schemes. Their magnetic field of action will include the planetary radius of one and all. Carry this thought still further to include the Son, and the entire solar system which He animates; His attempt is to find full expression therein, so that eventually and consciously His light may be seen and His heat, or magnetic radiation, may be felt beyond His immediate sphere of influence, the logoic ring-pass-not. Both the light of the Son and the heat of the Son must be felt by theopposite cosmic pole, that constellation which is our system's magnetic opposite.

Thus, the thought of union and of fusion underlies the entire scheme of evolution; Man, the Heavenly Men, and the cosmic Man (the Son of the Father and the Mother) have to

1. Radiate occult heat beyond their own individualized ring-pass-not.
2. Occultly blaze forth and demonstrate light or fiery objectivity.
3. Expand so as to include that which lies beyond their own immediate spheres.
4. Fuse and blend the two fires so as to produce perfectly the central fire, solar fire.
5. Blend Spirit and matter so that a body is produced that will adequately express Spirit.
6. Merge the essence within the form, which is occultly [233] qualified during evolution, with the essence in all forms – humanly, in a planetary sense, and cosmically.
7. Attain human, systemic and cosmic manhood.
8. Achieve mastery on three planes of the solar system, humanly speaking.
9. Achieve mastery on five planes of the solar system, when speaking of a Heavenly Man.
10. Achieve mastery on three cosmic planes when speaking of the cosmic Christ, the Son, or the Logos manifesting objectively.

If these stated aims are carefully considered, it will be seen how each has its place within the plan, and how [234] evolution is but a term used to express the gradual development in time and space of the inherent capacity of a human being, of a Heavenly Man, and of the Grand Man of the Heavens. The place and position of one and all to each other must be borne in mind, for no one can develop without the other. What, therefore, have we?

1. The Son, the Grand Man of the Heavens. He manifests through the Sun and the seven sacred planets, each of whom embodies one of His seven principles, just as He in His totality embodies one of the principles of a greater cosmic Entity.
2. A Heavenly Man. He manifests through a planet, and embodies one of the principles of the Son, the Logos. He Himself is likewise developing through seven principles, which are the source of His essential unity with all other Heavenly Men. Cosmically considered, the Son is developing the principle of a greater cosmic Being, that principle which we call love-wisdom. That is the fundamental characteristic He has to develop during His life cycle. Each Heavenly Man, therefore, embodies predominantly a subsidiary principle of the fundamental one. In like manner He Himself has six subsidiary principles, as has the Son.
3. A Human Being, Man. He manifests on the physical [235] plane through form, and has also seven principles; in each life cycle he works at their development. He likewise has His primary coloring, dependent upon the fundamental principle embodied by the Heavenly Man, Who is his originating source. Thus we have:

• THE LOGOS
  Father-Spirit – Mother-Matter.
  producing:
• The Son or the Grand Man of the Heavens, the conscious logoic Ego
  evolving through:
• The Sun and the seven sacred planets
  each embodying a:
• Cosmic principle, in six differentiations
  by method of:

1. Expansion, vibratory stimulation, magnetic interaction, or the law of attraction and repulsion.
2. Cyclic progress, rotary repetition, coupled to spiraling ascension, and developing:
   1. The quality of love-wisdom, through the utilization of form by the means of active intelligence.
   2. Full self-consciousness.
   3. A perfected solar system, or the form, adequate to the needs of the indwelling spirit.

Here a similar tabulation may be worked out to demonstrate the similarity of the process in the case of a Heavenly Man and a human being. If we ask why ten schemes, and in effect ten planets (seven sacred and three [236] concealed) it is because the seven sacred planets are eventually merged into the three, and finally the three are blended into the one. This can be traced along the line of analogy as we consider the seven Rays. These seven Rays, which in manifestation are diverse, are eventually synthesized. The minor four are blended, we are told, into the third major ray, and the three major rays are finally merged into the one synthetic ray, the Love-Wisdom Ray (the Dragon of Wisdom, the occult serpent swallowing its tail).⁹⁵ This has been pointed out by H. P. B. We have, therefore, the three crowning rays, but seven seen during the evolutionary process. In connection with the Heavenly Men, functioning through the planets, there are, therefore, three planets which might be considered as synthesizing planets, and four which are blended eventually, until the three have absorbed the essence of the four; finally the one absorbs the essence of the three, and the work is completed. This process lies many millennia ahead, during the inevitable period of the gradual obscuration of our system. Four of the Heavenly Men find Their magnetic opposites, and fuse and blend. First this takes place between Themselves, the negative and the positive rays merging and fusing, forming then the two from the four. Again the two merge, producing a united whole, and the one thus produced blends with the major third ray, the intelligence aspect, – the ray represented in our planetary Hierarchy by the Mahachohan. So the fusion will proceed until ultimately unity is reached in the system, and the Son has accomplished His purpose. He is perfected love-wisdom; his light shines forth cosmically; His magnetic radius touches the periphery of His cosmic opposite, and the marriage of the Son is effected. The two cosmic units merge.

If we here naturally ask which is the cosmic unit that is our solar opposite, we shall be told that that question [237] lies hid for the present, though it is hinted at in the Secret Doctrine, and in other sacred books. A hint lies concealed in the relationship of the Pleiades to our earth, but not until a further precession of the equinoxes will it be more fully seen what is the exact relationship involved.⁹⁶

The third question involves one of the most difficult problems in metaphysics, and covers in its consideration the whole perplexing mystery of the reason why there is objectivity at all.

It is one that has been asked under different forms by men of every school of thought – by religious people who enquire: – "Why did God create at all? Why is existence forced upon one and all?"; by scientists in their search for the ultimate truth and in their endeavor to find out the motivation of all that is seen, and to account for sensuous life; by philosophers in their equally diligent search for that animating subjectivity that is expressing itself through all the moral and ethical sciences in every civilization and among every people; by the biologist in his persistent application to search for the discovery of the source of life, and in his strenuous endeavor to account for the principle of life that is seen ever to evade his investigations; by the mathematician, who, dealing with the form side of manifestation in all the grades of mathematics, decides that God geometrizes, that law and rule pervade universally, that the one exists by means of the many, and who yet is unable to solve the problem as to who that geometrizing [238] identity may be. So the problems persist, and all the many lines of approach (in the endeavor to find the solution) end in the cul-de-sac of hypothesis, and in the recognition of an ultimate something of such an elusive nature, that men are forced seemingly to predicate a source of energy, of life, of intelligence, and to call it by diverse names according to the trend (religious, scientific or philosophical) of their minds. God, the Universal Mind, Energy, Force, the Absolute, the Unknown, – these terms and many others are forced from the lips of those who, by means of the form side, seek the Dweller within the form, and cannot find Him as yet. This failure to find Him is due to the limitations of the physical brain, and to the lack of development in the mechanism whereby the spiritual may be known, and whereby He may, and eventually will, be contacted.

The problem of duality is the problem of existence itself, and cannot be solved by the man who refuses to recognize the possibility of two occult facts:

1. That the entire solar system embodies the consciousness of an Entity, who originates on planes entirely without the solar ring-pass-not.
2. That manifestation is periodical and that the Law of Rebirth is the method that evolution takes in dealing with a man, a planetary Logos, and a solar Logos. Hence, the emphasis laid in the Proem of the Secret Doctrine on the three fundamentals (S. D., I, 42-44.),
   1. The Boundless Immutable Principle and
   2. The periodicity of the Universe.
   3. The identity of all souls with the Oversoul.

When scientists recognize these two facts then their explanations will take a different line and the truth, as it is, will begin to illuminate their reason. Few men are yet ready for illumination, which is simply the light of the [239] intuition breaking through the barriers that the rational faculty has erected. The duality of the solar system will eventually be recognized as dependent upon the following factors:

1. Existence itself.
2. Time and space.
3. The quality of desire or necessity.
4. The acquisitive faculty inherent in life itself. This faculty, by the means of motion, gathers to itself the material whereby it achieves its desire, whereby it fabricates the form through which expression is sought, and whereby it confines itself within the prison of the sheath in order to gain experience.

The supposition is correct that this theory takes for granted a mighty Intelligence who works thus through an ordered plan, and Who consciously takes shape and incarnates in order to carry out specific purposes of His own. But this hypothesis is but the rock bottom fact underlying the eastern teaching, and is one that is largely accepted, though diversely expressed and viewed by thinkers of all schools of thought throughout the globe. Even this conception is but a partial presentation of the real Idea, but owing to the limitations of man at this stage of evolution, it is sufficient as a working basis on which he may erect his temple of truth.

This Entity, Whom we call the solar Logos, is in no sense the same as the personal God of the Christian, who is no more nor less than man himself, expanded into a being of awful power, and subject to the virtues and vices of man himself. The solar Logos is more than man, for He is the sumtotal of all the evolutions within the entire solar system, including the human, which is an evolution standing at a middle point in relation to the other evolutions. On one side of him are ranged hosts of beings who are more than human, and who, in [240] past kalpas, reached and passed the stage where man now is; on the other side are hosts of the subhuman evolutions who in future kalpas will achieve the stage of humanity. Man stands midway between the two, and is at the point of balance; herein lies his problem. He does not partake wholly of the material side of evolution, nor is he wholly the expression of the third Logos, the Brahma aspect of the Deity, Who is an expression of pure energy or intelligence, motivating that tenuous something which we call substance. He is not wholly Spirit, the expression of the first Logos, the Mahadeva aspect, which is an expression of pure will or necessitous desire, impelling to manifestation. It is the fundamental motive itself or the great will to be. Man is a product of the union of the two; he is the meeting place of matter or active intelligent substance, and of Spirit or the basic will. He is the child born of their marriage or at-one-ment. He assumes objectivity in order to express that which is in each of the two opposites, plus the result of their merging in himself.

In terms of quality what have we? Active intelligence at one with will or power produces that "Son of necessity" (as H. P. B. expresses it – S. D., I, 74) Who embodies intelligence, will or desire, and their united latent demonstration, love-wisdom.

In terms of Fire how might we express an analogous thought? The fire latent in matter – itself a product of an earlier manifestation of the same cosmic Identity, or the relatively perfected quality worked out by Him in a previous cosmic incarnation – is set in motion again by the desire of that same Identity to circle once more the wheel of rebirth. That "fire by friction" produces heat and radiation and calls forth a reaction from its [241] opposite "electric fire" or spirit. Here we have the thought of the Ray striking through matter, for the action of electric fire is ever forward, as earlier suggested. The one Ray "electric fire" drops into matter. This is the systemic marriage of the Father and the Mother. The result is the blending of these two fires, and their united production of that expression of fire which we call "solar fire." Thus is produced the Son. Active Intelligence and Will are united and love-wisdom, when perfected through evolution, will be the outcome.

Electric fire or Spirit, united to fire by friction (heat) produces solar fire or light. Hence, when the cosmic Entity takes form, there is added to the active intelligence which is the product of His earlier incarnation, a further quality, which is inherent and potential, that of love-wisdom. This is the ability to love that which is objective or the not-self, and ultimately to use with wisdom the form. Pure will is as yet an abstraction, and will only be brought into full development in another incarnation of the Logos. Mind or Intelligence is not an abstraction; it is something that IS. Neither is love-wisdom an abstraction. It is in process of development or bringing into manifestation, and is the aspect of the Son.

What is above stated is in no way new, but these thoughts on essential duality are gathered together, in order to convey to our minds the necessity of viewing these things from the standpoint of their place in the cosmic scheme, and not from the point of view of our own planetary evolution and of man himself. Humanity is that evolution through which the Son aspect is to express itself most perfectly in this cosmic incarnation. Man blends the pairs of opposites, and the three fires meet in him. He is the best expression of the manasic principle and might be considered, from one very interesting [242] standpoint, the chef-d'oeuvre of Brahma. He is the sheath for the life of God; he is the individualized consciousness of the Logos, manifesting through the seven divine Manasaputras, or Heavenly Men, in Whose bodies each unit of the human family finds place. He is the Vishnu aspect in process of development through the intelligence of Brahma, impelled by the will of Mahadeva. Therefore, in a peculiar sense man is very important, as he is the place of at-one-ment for all the three aspects; nevertheless, he is very unimportant for he is not the apex of the triangle, but simply the middle point, if we view the triangle thus:

• Spirit – Father.
• The Son or man.
• Matter – Mother.

The evolution of the Son, or the cosmic incarnation of the Christ, is of immense importance in the plans of the Being greater than the solar Logos, HE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID. The animating principles of allied constellations and systems watch the progress of the evolution of the Son with keenest attention.

Just as the planet called the earth is regarded as the turning point or the battleground between Spirit and matter, and is therefore, from that very consideration, of great importance, so our solar system holds an analogous place in the cosmic scheme. The cosmic man, the solar Arjuna, is wrestling for His individualized perfected self-consciousness, and for freedom and liberation from the form, and from the not-self. So man on this planet battles for similar ideals on his tiny scale; so battle in heaven Michael and His Angels, or the divine Heavenly Men, Whose problem is the same on the higher scale.

Duality, and the interplay between the two produces: [243]

1. Objectivity, or the manifested Son or Sun.
2. Evolution itself.
3. The development of quality.
4. Time and space.

The questions we are now engaged in answering embody certain fundamental aspects of manifestation, viewed principally from the subjective or psychic angle.

Consciousness might be defined as the faculty of apprehension, and concerns primarily the relation of the Self to the not-self, of the Knower to the Known, and of the Thinker to that which is thought about. All these definitions involve the acceptance of the idea of duality, of that which is objective and of that which lies back of objectivity.⁹⁹

Consciousness expresses that which might be regarded as the middle point in manifestation. It does not involve entirely the pole of Spirit. It is produced by the union of the two poles, and the process of interplay and of adaptation that necessarily ensues. It might be tabulated as follows, in an effort to clarify by visualization: [244]

First Pole	The Point of Union	Second Pole
First Logos	Second Logos	Third Logos.
Mahadeva	Vishnu	Brahma.
Will	Wisdom-Love	Active Intelligence.
Spirit	Consciousness	Matter.
Father	Son	Mother.
Monad	Ego	Personality.
The Self	The relation between	The Not-Self.
The Knower	Knowledge	The Known.
Life	Realization	Form.

One could go on piling up terms, but the above suffices to demonstrate the relationship between the threefold Logos, during manifestation. Emphasis must be laid upon the above fact: The solar system embodies the above logoic relationship during evolutionary objectivity, and the whole aim of progressive development is to bring the Son of the Father and the Mother, to a point of full realization, of complete self-consciousness, and to full and active knowledge. This Son is objectively the solar system, inherently will or power, and subjectively He is love-wisdom. This latter quality is in process of development through the utilization of active intelligence.

The three manifested Persons of the logoic Triad seek full development by means of each other. The will to be, of the Mahadeva aspect, seeks, with the aid of the intelligence of Brahma, to develop love-wisdom, or the Son aspect, the Vishnu aspect. In the microcosmic system, the reflection of the threefold Logos, the man is endeavoring through the three vehicles to attain the same development on his own plane. On higher planes the Heavenly Men (through atma-buddhi-manas) aim at a similar progression. These two, the Heavenly Men plus the units in Their bodies, which are composed of deva and human monads form, in their totality, the Grand Heavenly Man. When man achieves, then the Heavenly Men likewise achieve; when They reach Their full growth and knowledge, [245] and are self-conscious on all planes, then the Son achieves, and the solar system (His body of manifestation and experience) has served its purpose. The Son is liberated. Extend the idea of this threefold development of consciousness to the Logos in a still larger cycle (to that of the three solar systems of which this is the middle one) and we have repeated on cosmic levels in connection with the Logos, the process of the development of man in the three worlds.

THE MACROCOSM

• The first solar system – embodied – the "I am" principle,
• The second solar system – is embodying – the "I am that" principle.
• The third solar system – will embody – the "I am that I am" principle.

THE MICROCOSM

• The first manifestation, the Personality, embodies the "I am" principle.
• The second manifestation, the Ego, is embodying the "I am that" principle.
• The third manifestation, the Monad, will embody the "I am that I am" principle.

Thus the different factors play their part in the general scheme of things, and all are interrelated, and all are interested parts and members one of the other.

If by this question the desire exists to demonstrate exact similarity, the answer must be: No, the analogy is never exact in detail but only in certain broad basic correspondences. In all the four factors, there will be found unchangeable points of resemblance, but in development the stages of growth may not appear the same in detailed evolution, viewed from the standpoint of a man in the [246] three worlds, handicapped as he is by limited apprehension. The points of resemblance between the four might be summed up as follows, taking the atom on the physical plane as our starting point, and developing the concept from stage to stage:

1. An atom consists of a spheroidal form containing within itself a nucleus of life.
2. An atom contains within itself differentiated molecules, which in their totality form the atom itself. For instance, we are told that the physical atom contains within its periphery fourteen thousand millions of the archetypal atoms, yet these myriads demonstrate as one.
3. An atom is distinguished by activity, and shows forth the qualities of:
   1. Rotary motion.
   2. Discriminative power.
   3. Ability to develop.
4. An atom, we are told, contains within itself three major spirals and seven lesser¹⁰¹ which ten are in process [247] of vitalization, but have not yet attained full activity. Only four are functioning at this stage, and the fifth is in process of development.
5. Am atom is governed by the Law of Economy, is coming slowly under the Law of Attraction, and will eventually come under the Law of Synthesis.
6. An atom finds its place within all forms; it is the aggregation of atoms that produces form.
7. Its responsiveness to outer stimulation:
   • Electrical stimulation, affecting its objective form.
   • Magnetic stimulation, acting upon its subjective life.
   • The united effect of the two stimulations, producing consequent internal growth and development.

An atom therefore is distinguished by:

1. Its spheroidal shape. Its ring-pass-not is definite and seen.
2. Its internal arrangement, which comprises the sphere of influence of any particular atom.
3. Its life-activity, or the extent to which the life at the center animates the atom, a relative thing at this stage.
4. Its sevenfold inner economy in process of evolution.
5. Its eventual synthesis internally from the seven into the three.
6. Its group relation.
7. Its development of consciousness, or responsiveness.

Having predicated the above facts of the atom, we can extend the idea now to man, following the same general outline:

1. A man is spheroidal in form, he can be seen as a circular ring-pass-not, a sphere of matter with a nucleus [248] of life at the center. In predicating this we are considering the true man in his fundamental position as the Ego, with his sphere of manifestation, the causal body, – that body which forms the middle point between Spirit and matter.
2. A man contains within himself differentiated atoms, which in their totality make up the objective form of the man on the planes of his manifestation. All are animated by his life, by his persistent will-to-be; all vibrate according to the point reached by the man in evolution. As seen from the higher planes man demonstrates as a sphere (or spheres) of differentiated matter, vibrating to a certain measure, tinctured by a certain color, and rotating to a fixed key – the key of his life cycle.
3. A man is distinguished by activity on one or more planes in the three worlds, and shows forth the qualities of:
   1. Rotary motion, or his particular cycling on the wheel of life, around his egoic pole.
   2. Discriminative capacity, or the power to choose and gain experience.
   3. Ability to evolve, to increase vibration and to make contact.
4. A man contains within himself three major principles, – will, love-wisdom, active intelligence or adaptability – and their differentiation into the seven principles. These, making the eventual ten of perfected manifestation, are in process of vitalization, but have not yet attained full expression. Only four principles in man are active, and he is in process of developing the fifth, or manasic principle. Note how perfect is the analogy between man, viewed as the lower quaternary developing the principle of mind, and the atom with its four spirillae active, and the fifth in process of stimulation.
5. A man is governed by the Law of Attraction, is [249] evolved through the Law of Economy, and is coming under the Law of Synthesis. Economy governs the material process with which he is not so much consciously concerned; attraction governs his connection with other units or groups, and synthesis is the law of his inner Self, of the life within the form.
6. Man finds his place within the group form. Egoic groups and the Heavenly Men are formed by the aggregate of human and of deva units.
7. His responsiveness to outer stimulation:
   1. Electrical stimulation, affecting the outer form, or pranic response.
   2. Magnetic stimulation, acting upon his subjective life. This emanates from his egoic group, and later from the Heavenly Man, in Whose body he is a cell.
   3. The united effect of these two stimulations, inducing steady growth and development.

A man is distinguished therefore by:

1. His spheroidal shape. His ring-pass-not is definite and seen.
2. His internal arrangement; his entire sphere of influence is in process of development. At present that sphere is limited and his range of activity is small. As the body egoic is developed, the nucleus of life at the center increases its radius of control until the whole is brought under rule and government.
3. His life activity or the extent to which at any given time he demonstrates self-consciousness, or controls his threefold lower nature.
4. His sevenfold inner economy; the development of his seven principles. [250]
5. His eventual internal synthesis under the working of the three laws from the seven into the three and later into the one.
6. His group relation.
7. His development of consciousness, of responsiveness to contact, involving therefore the growth of awareness.

1. Each Heavenly Man is likewise to be seen as spheroidal in shape. He has His ring-pass-not as has the atom and the man. This ring-pass-not comprises the entire planetary scheme; the dense physical globe of any one chain being analogous in His case to the physical body of any man, and to the atom on the physical plane. Each scheme of seven chains is the expression of the life of an Entity, Who occupies it, as does a man his body, for purposes of manifestation and in order to gain experience. [251]
2. A Heavenly Man contains within Himself that which corresponds to the cells within the vehicles of expression of a human being. The atoms or cells in His body are made up of the aggregate of the deva and human units who vibrate to His key note, and who respond to the measure of His life. All are held together and animated by His will to be, and all vibrate according to the point achieved by Him in evolution. From the cosmic standpoint a Heavenly Man can be seen as a sphere of wondrous life, which includes within its radius of influence the vibratory capacity of an entire planetary scheme. He vibrates to a certain measure, which can be estimated by the activity of the life pulsating at the center of the sphere; the entire planetary scheme is tinctured by a certain color, is rotating to a fixed key which is the key of His life cycle within the still greater mahamanvantara or logoic cycle.
3. A Heavenly Man is distinguished by His activity on one or other of the planes which we call the Triadal, or Atma-Buddhi-Manas, in the same way as a man is distinguished by his activity on one of the planes in the three worlds, mental-astral-physical. Eventually a man is self-conscious on all three. Eventually a Heavenly Man is fully self-conscious on the higher three. Every forward movement or increased vitality in the aggregate of men in the three worlds, is paralleled by an analogous activity on the three higher planes. The action and the interaction between the life animating the groups or the Heavenly Men, and the life animating the atoms or men who form the units in groups is both mysterious and wonderful. A Heavenly Man on His own planes likewise shows forth the qualities of:
   1. Rotary motion, or His particular cycling activity around His life wheel, a planetary scheme, and thus around His egoic pole. [252]
   2. Discriminating capacity, or the power to choose and thereby gain experience. They are the embodiments of manas or the intelligent faculty (hence Their title of Divine Manasaputras) which comprehends, chooses and discards, thus attaining knowledge and self-consciousness. This manasic faculty They developed in earlier kalpas or solar systems. Their purpose is now to utilize that which is developed to bring about certain specific effects and to attain certain specific goals.
   3. Ability to evolve, to increase vibration, to gain knowledge, and to make contact. This increased vibration is of a gradual and evolutionary order and proceeds from center to center as it does in man, and as it does in the case of the atomic spirillae. Their aim is to achieve uniformity of contact with each other, and to merge eventually Their separated identities in the One Identity, retaining simultaneously full self-consciousness or individualized self-apprehension.
4. A Heavenly Man contains within Himself three major principles – will, love-wisdom, intelligence, and their manifestation through the seven principles so often discussed in our occult literature. These make the ten of His ultimate perfection, for the seven are resolved into the three, and the three into the one.

   Each Heavenly Man has, of course, His primary coloring or principle as has man and the atom. Man has for his primary coloring or principle that of the Heavenly Man in Whose body he is a unit. He has also the other two major principles (as has the Heavenly Man), and their differentiation into the seven as earlier said. The atom has for primary coloring or principle, that of the egoic ray of the human being for instance in whose body it finds place. This, of course, is in connection with the [253] physical atom in a man's body. This coloring manifests as the vibration setting the measure of the major three spirillae and the minor seven.

   Only four principles in the Heavenly Men are as yet manifesting to any extent, though One of Them is rather in advance of the others, and has the fifth principle vibrating adequately, while certain others are in process of perfecting the fourth. The Heavenly Man of our chain is vibrating somewhat to the fifth principle, or rather is in process of awakening it to life. His fourth vibration or principle in this fourth round or cycle, and on this fourth globe, is awakened, though not functioning as it will in the fifth round. Much of the trouble present in the planet at this time arises from the coming into activity of the higher or fifth vibration, which will be completed and transcended in the next or fifth cycle. The analogy, as in man and the atom, again holds good but not in exact detail.

5. A Heavenly Man is governed by the Law of Attraction, has transcended the Law of Economy, and is rapidly coming under the Law of Synthesis. Note therefore the gradual stepping-up of the control and the fact that:
   • First. The Law of Economy is the primary law of the atom. The Law of Attraction is coming into control of the atom. The Law of Synthesis is but slightly felt by the life of the atom. It is the law of life.
   • Second. The Law of Attraction is the primary law of man. The Law of Economy is a secondary law for man. It governs the matter of his vehicles. The Law of Synthesis is steadily beginning to be felt.
   • Third. The Law of Synthesis is the primary law of a Heavenly Man. The Law of Attraction has full sway. The Law of Economy is transcended.
   The dense physical body is not a principle for a Heavenly Man, hence the Law of Economy is transcended. [254] The Law of Attraction governs the material process of form building. The Law of Synthesis is the law of His Being.
6. A Heavenly Man is finding His place within the logoic groups, and is seeking to realize His position among the seven and by realization to approximate unity.
7. His responsiveness to outer stimulation. This viewed from the limited human standpoint touches on realms unattainable by man's intellect as yet. It deals with:
   • Electrical stimulation, and concerns the response to solar radiation, and to paralleling planetary radiation.
   • Magnetic stimulation, acting upon His subjective life. This radiation emanates from sources outside the system altogether. We might note the following facts:
     • Magnetic stimulation of the physical atom emanates from man on astral levels, and later from buddhic levels.
     • Magnetic stimulation of man emanates from the Heavenly Men on buddhic, and later on monadic levels.
     • Magnetic stimulation of a Heavenly Man emanates extra-systemically, from the cosmic astral, the united effect of these stimulations inducing steady internal development.

A Heavenly Man is distinguished therefore by:

1. His spheroidal shape. His ring-pass-not, during objectivity, is definite and seen.
2. His internal arrangement and His sphere of influence, or that activity animating the planetary chain.
3. His spiritual life control at any given period. It is the power whereby He animates His [255] sevenfold nature. Note the increase of influence as compared to man's threefold radius.
4. His eventual ultimate synthesis from the seven into the three and from thence into one. This covers the obscuration of the globes, and the blending into unity of the seven principles which each globe is evolving.
5. His evolution under Law and consequent development.
6. His group relation.
7. His development of consciousness and of awareness.

Finally, we must extend these ideas to a solar Logos, and see how completely the analogy persists. The paragraphs dealing with stimulation, magnetic and electric, inevitably brings us back to the contemplation of fire, the basis and source of all life.

1. A solar Logos, the Grand Man of the Heavens, is equally spheroidal in shape. His ring-pass-not comprises the entire circumference of the solar system, and all that is included within the sphere of influence of the Sun. The Sun holds a position analogous to the nucleus of life at the center of the atom. This sphere comprises within its periphery the seven planetary chains with the synthesizing three, making the ten of logoic manifestation. The Sun is the physical body of the solar Logos, His body of manifestation, and His life sweeps cycling through the seven schemes in the same sense as the life of a planetary Logos sweeps seven times around His scheme of seven chains. Each chain holds a position analogous to a globe in a planetary chain. Note the beauty of the correspondence, yet withal the lack of detailed analogy. (S.D., I 136.)
2. A solar Logos contains within Himself, as the atoms in His body of manifestation, all groups of every kind, [256] from the involutionary group-soul to the egoic groups on the mental plane. He has (for the animating centers of His body) the seven major groups or the seven Heavenly Men, who ray forth Their influence to all parts of the logoic sphere, and who embody within Themselves all lesser lives, the lesser groups, human and deva units, cells atoms and molecules.

   Seen from cosmic levels, the sphere of the Logos can be visualized as a vibrating ball of fire of supernal glory, containing within its circle of influence, the planetary spheres likewise vibrating balls of fire. The Grand Man of the Heavens vibrates to a steadily increasing measure; the entire system is tinctured by a certain color, – the color of the life of the Logos, the One Divine Ray; and the system rotates to a certain measure, which is the key of the great kalpa or solar cycle, and revolves around its central solar pole.

3. The solar Logos is distinguished by His activity on all the planes of the solar system; He is the sumtotal of all manifestation, from the lowest and densest physical atom up to the most radiant and cosmic ethereal Dhyan Chohan. This sevenfold vibratory measure is the key of the lowest cosmic plane, and its rate of rhythm can be felt on the cosmic astral, with a faint response on the cosmic mental. Thus the life of the logoic existence on cosmic levels, may be seen paralleling the life of a man in the three worlds, the lowest of the systemic planes.

   On His own planes the Logos likewise shows forth:

   • First. Rotary motion. His life as it cycles through a day of Brahma, can be seen spiraling around His greater wheel, the ten schemes of a solar system.
   • Second. Discriminatory capacity. His first act, as we know, was to discriminate or choose the matter he needed for manifestation. That choice was controlled by: [257]
     • Cosmic Karma.
     • Vibratory capacity.
     • Responsive coloring or quality.
     • Numerical factors involved in cosmic mathematics.
     He is the embodiment of cosmic manas, and through the use of this faculty He seeks – by means of animated form – to build into His cosmic causal body, a paralleling quality of love-wisdom.
   • Third. Ability to progress, to increase vibration, and to gain full self-consciousness on cosmic levels.
4. The solar Logos contains within Himself the three major principles or aspects, and their differentiation into seven principles. These make the ten of His ultimate perfection and are eventually synthesized into the one perfected principle of love-wisdom. This ultimate principle is His primary coloring. Each principle is embodied in one of the schemes, and is being worked out through one of the Heavenly Men. Only four principles are as yet manifested to any extent, for the evolution of the Logos parallels that of the Heavenly Men.
5. The solar Logos is governed by the Law of Synthesis. He holds all in synthetic unity or homogeneity. His subjective life is governed by the Law of Attraction; His material form is governed by the Law of Economy. He is coming under another cosmic law as yet incomprehensible to men, which law is but revealed to the highest initiates.
6. The solar Logos is in process of ascertaining His place within the greater system in which He holds a place analogous to that of a Heavenly Man in a solar system. He seeks first to find the secret of His own existence, and to achieve full Self-Consciousness; secondly to ascertain the position and place of His polar opposite; thirdly to [258] merge and blend with that polar opposite. This is the cosmic marriage of the Logos.
7. A solar Logos is distinguished by His responsiveness to outer stimulation. This concerns itself with:
   • Electrical stimulation or His response to electrical fohatic force emanating from other stellar centers, and controlling largely the action of our system and its movements in space in relation to other constellations.
   • Magnetic stimulation, acting upon His subjective Life, and emanating from certain cosmic centers hinted at in the Secret Doctrine. These find their source on cosmic buddhic levels.
   • It is their united effect which induces steady development.

The solar Logos is distinguished

1. By the spheroidicity of His manifesting existence. His solar ring-pass-not is definite and seen. This can only be demonstrated as yet by the endeavor to ascertain the extent of the subjective control, by the measure of the solar sphere of influence, or the magnetic attraction of the Sun to other lesser bodies which it holds in circular motion around itself.
2. By the activity of the life animating the ten schemes.
3. By the extent of the control exerted by the Logos at any given period.
4. By the ultimate synthesis of the seven schemes into three and thence into one. This covers the obscuration of the schemes and the unification of the seven principles which they embody.
5. By His subjection to the Law of His Being.
6. By His group relation.
7. By His unfoldment of Consciousness, the time factor [259] being controlled by the measure of the unfoldment of all the conscious units in His body.

Here we have traced very briefly some of the analogies between the four factors earlier mentioned, and have in a cursory way answered the question. These points, if dwelt upon, will be found of real assistance in developing the mental appreciation of the student, and in increasing his apprehension of the beauty of the entire solar scheme.

We are now to touch upon the profoundest mystery of the whole manifested solar system – the mystery spoken of by H. P. B. as the mystery of electricity. (S. D., I, 439, 221, 107.) It is intimately connected with the life of God as demonstrated through His seven Centers, the seven Heavenly Men, the Divine Manasaputras. This problem is not soluble as yet exoterically and but little can be revealed to the general public. This is for three reasons:

First, the stage reached by man does not permit of his correct apprehension of these abstractions.

Second, the greater part of the possible explanation is only revealed to initiates who have passed the third Initiation, and even to them in a carefully guarded manner.

Third, the revelation of the close connection between mind and fohat or energy, or between thought power and electrical phenomena – the effect of fohatic impulse on matter – is fraught with peril, and the missing link (if so it might be termed) in the chain of reasoning from phenomena to its initiatory impulse, can only be safely imparted when the bridge between higher and lower mind, is adequately constructed. When the lower is under the control of the higher, or when the quaternary is merging into the triad, then man can be trusted with the [260] remaining four fundamentals. Three of these fundamentals are laid down for us in the Proem of the Secret Doctrine, (S. D., I, 42-44.) and with the evolving concept of psychology, make the revealed three and the dawning fourth. The other three are esoteric and must remain so until each man has for himself worked at his spiritual development, built the bridge between the higher and the lower mind, prepared the shrine in the temple of Solomon for the Light of God, and turned his activities into altruistic helping of the evolutionary plans of the Logos.

When these qualities are assuming a foremost place and when man has demonstrated the thoroughness of his will to serve, then the clue will be put into his hands and he will find the method whereby electrical impulse, demonstrating as heat, light and motion, is controlled and utilized – he will discover the source of the initial impulse from extra-systemic centers, and discover the basic rhythm. Then, and only then, will he be a truly intelligent cooperator, and (escaping from the control of the Law in the three worlds) wield the law himself within the lower spheres.

Here are three important questions to be dealt with as one, all bearing on the same subject, and all concerned with the fact of intelligent objectivity itself. Perhaps if we paraphrased the threefold query, and brought it down to microcosmic objectivity, the problem might not appear so complex. We might express it thus: What is the thought aspect of a human being? Why is his mind and mental process of such importance? Who is the Thinker? Man, in essential essence, is the higher triad demonstrating through a gradually evolving form, the egoic or causal body, and utilizing the lower threefold personality [261] as a means to contact the lower three planes. All this has for purpose the development of perfect self-consciousness. Above the triad stands the Monad or the Father in Heaven – a point of abstraction to man as he views the subject from the physical plane. The Monad stands to him in the position of the Absolute, in the same sense as the undifferentiated Logos stands to the threefold Trinity, to the three Persons of logoic manifestation. The parallel is exact.

1. The Monad.
2. The threefold Triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or spiritual will, intuition, and higher mind.
3. The body egoic or the causal body, the shrine for the buddhic principle. This body is to be built by the power of the mind. It is the manifestation of the three.
4. The threefold lower nature, the points of densest objectivity.
5. This threefold lower nature is in essence a quaternary – the etheric vehicle, animating life or prana, kama-manas, and lower mind. Manas or the fifth principle, forms the link between the lower and the higher. (S. D., I, 107.)

We have, therefore, our lower four, our higher three, and the relation between them, the principle of mind. Here we have the seven formed by the union of the three and the four, and another factor, making eight. The ultimate seven will be seen when buddhi and manas are merged. Much has been hinted at in certain of our occult books about the eighth sphere. I would suggest that in this linking factor of intelligent mind, we have a clue to the mystery. When mind becomes unduly developed and ceases to unite the higher and the lower, it forms a sphere of its own. This is the greatest disaster that can overtake the human unit. [262]

Therefore we have:

• Monad, the microcosmic absolute.
  Pure Spirit.
  The one and only.
• The monadic trinity.
  First aspect – Atma or spiritual will.
  Second aspect – Buddhi, the Christ principle.
  Third aspect – Manas, or higher mind.
• The Son aspect in objectivity.
  The body egoic or causal body.
• The lower quaternary.
  1. 1. The mental body.
  2. 2. The astral or emotional body.¹⁰⁸
  3. 3. Prana, or vital energy.
  4. 4. Etheric body.

The microcosm reproduces the solar system in miniature. The above deals with the objective forms, corresponding to the sun and the seven sacred planets. But the exoteric form is paralleled by a psychic development which we call the seven principles. Man develops seven principles, which might be enumerated as follows:

Microcosmic Principles¹⁰⁹

Two higher principles:

1. Active intelligence.
2. Latent love-wisdom. [263]

(The psychic nature of the Monad is twofold.)

1. The principle of atma. Spiritual nature. Will.
2. The principle of buddhi. Love nature. Wisdom.
3. The principle of manas. Intelligence nature, Activity.

Note here that the three principles in terms of the Triad with the two synthesizing principles on the plane of the Monad, make five principles and give the key to H.P.B.'s numbering in certain places. We might express it thus:

I.		The Absolute – The Monad.
II.	1.	Prakriti – Active intelligence. The Divine Manasaputra.
	2.	Purusha – Love-Wisdom. The Vishnu aspect.
On the plane of objectivity – The Triad:
III.	3.	Atma.
	4.	Buddhi.
	5.	Manas.

From the standpoint of evolution we regard the higher two and the highest one as the correspondence to the Absolute as He manifests in duality. This is prior to objectivity, which requires the presence of the three. In manifestation we might regard the principles as follows: [264]

• First Principle – The sphere of manifestation, the monadic egg.
• Second Principle – Atma – Will.
• Third Principle – Buddhi – Pure reason, wisdom.
• Fourth Principle – Manas – Pure mind, higher mind.
• Fifth Principle – Manas – Lower mind.
• Sixth Principle – Kama-manas.
• Seventh Principle – Pure emotion, or feeling.

These are the principles for the microcosm viewed as having transcended the physical bodies altogether, and thus the tabulation deals entirelywith the subjective life, or the development of the psyche or soul.

This should be borne carefully in mind else confusion will ensue. In our enumeration we are here dealing with subjectivity and not with form. We have, therefore, considered:

1. Sevenfold objectivity – the material forms.
2. Sevenfold subjectivity – the psychic evolution.
3. Sevenfold spirituality – the life of the Entity.

We will note also that in the tabulation of the spiritual life of the Monad we considered it as fivefold. This was necessarily so in this fivefold evolution, but the remaining two principles might be considered as:

6. The life of the Heavenly Man in Whose body the human Monad finds a place.
7. The life of the Logos in Whose body the Heavenly Man finds place.

It might be useful here to consider another enumeration of the principles of man¹¹⁰ as he manifests in the [265] three worlds, the planes whereon the subjective and the objective are united. What have we there? Let us begin where man begins, with the lowest:

7. The etheric body.	1. The vital body.
6. Prana.	2. Vital force.
5. Kama-manas.	3. Desire Mind.
4. Lower mind	4. Concrete Mind.
3. Manas	5. Higher or abstract mind.
2. Buddhi	6. Wisdom, Christ force, intuition.
1. Atma	7. Spiritual Will.

This is the lowest enumeration for little evolved man at the present time.

From the standpoint of the Ego what can be seen?

1. The Absolute – Atma. Pure will-to-be.
2. The Duad.
   1. Buddhi – Pure reason, wisdom.
   2. Manas – Pure mind.
3. The Triad.
   1. The causal body.
   2. Lower mind. [266]
   3. Kama-manas.
   4. Prana.
   5. The etheric body.

In these various enumerations of the principles we are dealing with them (as H. P. B. has pointed out they must be dealt with)^{111, 112} from differing standpoints, dependent upon the stage reached and the angle of vision. We have considered them thus in answering question six because we have sought to emphasize and to impress clearly upon our minds that the three lines of development must be remembered when considering the evolution of the Manasaputras.

This is sevenfold in evolution and in time, ninefold during obscuration, and tenfold at dissolution.

Macrocosmic

1. The seven sacred planets of the solar system.
2. The two which are hid, which are the synthesizing planets.
3. The one final synthesizing planet – the Sun. Seven added to two added to one make ten.

There are ten centers in the Grand Heavenly Man.

A Heavenly Man

1. The seven chains of a scheme.
2. The two synthesizing chains.
3. One ultimate chain. [267]

There are ten centers in a planetary Logos.

Microcosm

1. The seven vehicles employed:
   1. The atmic sheath.
   2. The buddhic vehicle.
   3. The causal or egoic body.
   4. The mental body.
   5. The astral body.
   6. The etheric body.
   7. The dense physical.
2. Two synthesizing bodies:
   1. The causal body.
   2. The physical body.
3. One synthesizing body:
   1. The monadic sheath.

There are seven centers in the physical vehicle which correspond to these bodies, with the synthesizing centers at the heart and throat; the head is then the ultimate synthesizer. This tabulation deals entirely with the form side, and with the vehicles indwelt by the Logos, the Manasaputras and by Man.

This is also sevenfold:

1. Astral – pure desire, emotion, feeling.
2. Kama-manas – desire-mind.
3. Manas – lower concrete mind.
4. Higher manas – abstract or pure mind.
5. Buddhi – pure reason, intuition.
6. Atma – pure will, realization.
7. Monadic – Will, love-wisdom, intelligence.

This deals with the sevenfold development of inherent love-wisdom by the aid of mind. This proceeds macrocosmically through the seven Heavenly Men, Who are [268] actively intelligent, inherently love, and are objectively seen through Their forms, the planetary schemes. In Their totality They are the Logos, the Grand Man of the Heavens. In the case of a Heavenly Man the development proceeds through the seven groups of human entities who form Their psychic centers. These groups are on their own plane developing intelligence, are inherently love, and can be objectively contacted on the seven chains of a scheme. In the case of individual man, the development proceeds through his seven centers, which are the key to his psychic evolution. A man is also developing intelligence, is inherently love, and is objectively seen through one or other of his bodies.

What I seek to emphasize is the fact of the psychic development, and also that subjective evolution is the main enterprise of the Logos, of a planetary Logos and of a man. Active intelligent love (the bringing forth from latency of the inherent quality of love by the intelligent application of the mind faculty) will be the result of the evolutionary process. Just as objectivity is dual, life-form, so subjectivity is dual, mind-love, and the blending of the two produces consciousness. Spirit alone is unity, and is undivided; the development of Spirit (or its assumption of the fruits of evolution) is only to be realized and brought about when the dual evolution of the form and the psyche is consummated. Then Spirit garners the fruits of evolution and gathers to itself the qualities nurtured during manifestation, – perfect love and perfect intelligence showing forth then as active intelligent love-wisdom.

We might, therefore, answer the questions: "What is the Mind aspect and why is it so important?" by saying that the mind aspect is in reality the ability or capacity of the logoic Existence to think, to act, to build, and to evolve in order to develop the faculty of active love, When the Logos, Who is active intelligence, has run His [269] lifecycle, He will be also love fully manifested throughout Nature. This can be likewise predicated of a Heavenly Man in His sphere and of a man in his tiny cycle. Thus the importance of manas can be fully seen. It is the means whereby evolution becomes possible, comprehension is achieved, and activity is generated and utilized.

Let us now consider how this question can be expressed in terms of Fire:

Objectively	Subjectively
The sea of fire	Our God is a consuming fire – Energizing will.
The akasha	The Light of God – Form aspect.
The aether	The heat of matter – Activity aspect.
The air	The illumination of the intuition.
Fire	The fire of mind.
The astral light	The heat of the emotions.
Physical plane electricity	Kundalini and prana.

Spiritually

This is hid in a threefold mystery:

1. The mystery of electricity.
2. The mystery of the seven constellations.
3. The mystery of the ONE ABOVE THE LOGOS.

The final part of question six is: Who are the Manasaputras?

This will be dealt with in greater detail in connection with our planet when taking up the subject of the coming of the Lords of Flame. It is desirable now to make certain facts clear which must form the basis of any thought upon this subject. [270] The Divine Manasaputras^{113, 114} Who are known in the Secret Doctrine by diverse names, are the Mind-born Sons of Brahma, the third aspect logoic.

They are the seven planetary Logoi, and are the Lords of the Rays, the seven Heavenly Men. They developed the mind aspect in the first solar system, that in which Brahma was paramount, and in Himself embodied objective existence. This He did in the same sense as that in which the second aspect (the Vishnu or Dragon of Wisdom aspect) is the sumtotal of existence in this the second system.

The cells in Their bodies are made up of the units of the human and deva evolutions in the same manner (only on a higher turn of the spiral) as the bodies of human beings are made up of living organisms, the various animated cells, or the lesser lives. This is a basic fact in occultism, and the relationship between the cells in the human vehicles, and the cells in the bodies of a Heavenly [271] Man, will be productive of illumination if carefully studied.

Just as a human being has an originating source, the Monad, and a semi-permanent vehicle, the causal body, but manifests through his lower principles (of which the dense physical is not one) so a Heavenly Man has an originating source, His Monad, a semi-permanent body on the monadic levels of the solar system, but manifests through three lower sheaths, our atmic, buddhic, and manasic levels. He is extraneous to the astral and physical planes just as a human being is to the physical. Man vitalizes the physical vehicle with his force or heat but he does not occultly count it as a principle. So the Heavenly Man is extraneous to the two lower planes of manifestation though He vitalizes them with His force. The human being realizes his relationship (as a cell in the body) to a Heavenly Man only when he is developing the consciousness of the Ego on its own plane. If it might be so expressed, the groups of causal bodies are the lowest forms through which a Heavenly Man manifests, just as the physical body is the lowest through which a human being manifests, and this in its etheric connotation.

It should be borne in mind that the manifesting Existences embody certain planes, and have Their points of deepest involution on diverse levels:

1. A Man originates on the monadic level, has his main focal point on the fifth level, the mental, but is seeking full conscious development on the three lower planes, the mental, the astral and the physical.
2. A Heavenly Man has His source outside the solar system (as man outside the three worlds of his endeavor), has His main focal point on the second plane of the system, the monadic, and is seeking consciousness on the Planes of the Triad – this in relation to all the cells in His body. He developed consciousness on the three [272] lower planes of the three worlds during the first solar system, again in relation to the cells in His body. Man is repeating His endeavor up to the fifth Initiation which will bring him to a stage of consciousness achieved by a Heavenly Man in a much earlier mahamanvantara. In connection with the initiations this should be carefully borne in mind.
3. A solar Logos has His origin on a still higher cosmic level, has his main focal point on the cosmic mental plane but is expressing Himself through the three lower cosmic planes just as man is seeking self-expression in the three worlds. Therefore, the seven major planes of the solar system are in the same relation to Him cosmically as the physical plane is to a human being. They form His etheric and dense bodies. It might be stated that:
   1. He vitalizes them by His life and heat.
   2. He animates them.
   3. He is fully conscious through them.
   4. The etheric is in time His lowest principle, but the dense physical is not counted. The dense cosmic physical body is composed of matter of the three lower planes of the solar system, the mental, the astral and the physical. The buddhic plane is consequently the fourth cosmic ether.
4. The Heavenly Men form the seven centers in the body of the Logos. Therefore, They are the spheres of fire which animate His body, and each of Them expresses one form of His force manifestation, according to Their place within the body.
5. Human beings, when centered within their groups on causal levels, form one or other of the seven centers in the body of a Heavenly Man.
6. The solar Logos forms one center in the body of a still greater cosmic ENTITY. Human beings therefore [273] find their place within one of the forty-nine centers (not groups, for a center may be made up of many groups, corresponding to the different parts) of the seven Heavenly Men. A Heavenly Man, with His seven centers, forms one center in the body of the solar Logos. I would here point out to you the close connection existing between the seven Rishis of the Great Bear and the seven Heavenly Men. The seven Rishis of the Great Bear are to Them what the Monad is to the evolving human unit.

This question is one which necessarily appalls us and makes us wonder.

Let us, therefore, deal with it as follows: Certain ideas are involved in the thought of cyclic progression, and these ideas it might pay us well to contemplate.

This repetition involves the following factors:

1. Repetition in time: The thought of cyclic activity necessitates periods of time of differing length – greater or lesser cycles – but (according to their length) of uniform degree. A manvantara, or Day of Brahma, is always of a certain length, and so is a mahamanvantara. The cycles wherein an atom of any plane revolves upon its axis are uniform on its own plane.
2. Repetition in fact: This involves the idea of a key measure, or sound of any particular group of atoms that go to the composition of any particular form. This grouping of atoms will tend to the makeup of a particular series of circumstances and will repeat the measure or sound when an animating factor is brought to bear upon them. When the vitalizing force is contacting at stated periods a certain set of atoms, it will call forth from them a specific sound which will demonstrate objectively as environing circumstances. In other words, [274] the interplay of the Self and the not-self is invariably of a cyclic nature. The same quality in tone will be called forth by the Self as it indwells the form, but the key will ascend by gradual degrees. It is similar to the effect produced in striking the same note in different octaves, beginning at the base.
3. Repetition in space: This concept is involved deep in the greater concept of karma, which is really the law that governs the matter of the solar system, and which commenced its work in earlier solar systems. We have, therefore, cycles in order, and repetition in an ever-ascending spiral, under definite law.

The thoughts thus conveyed might be expressed likewise as follows:

1. The solar system repeating its activity – Repetition in Space.
2. A planetary chain repeating its activity – Repetition in Time.
3. The constant consecutive reverberation of a plane note, of a subplane note, and of all that is called into objectivity by that note – Plane Repetition.
4. The tendency of atoms to perpetuate their activity, and thus produce similarity of circumstance, of environment, and of vehicle – Form Repetition.

When we carry these ideas on to every plane in the solar system, and from thence to the cosmic planes, we have opened up for ourselves infinitude.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that it is governed by one law, primarily, and a subsidiary law. This leads [275] to two general types of cycles, and is involved in the very nature of the Self and of the not-self. The interplay of the two by the aid of mind produces that which we call environment or circumstance.

The general law, which produces cyclic effect, is the Law of Attraction and Repulsion, of which the subsidiary law is the Law of Periodicity, and of Rebirth. Cyclic evolution is entirely the result of the activity of matter, and of the Will or Spirit. It is produced by the interaction of active matter and molding Spirit. Every form holds hid a Life. Every life constantly reaches out after the similar life latent in other forms. When Spirit and matter sound the same note evolution will cease. When the note sounded by the form is stronger than that of Spirit, we have attraction between forms. When the note sounded by Spirit is stronger than that of matter and form, we have Spirit repelling form. Here we have the basis for the battlefield of life, and its myriads of intermediate stages, which might be expressed as follows:

1. The period of the domination of the form note is that of involution.
2. The period of the repulsion of form by Spirit is that of the battlefield of the three worlds.
3. The period of the attraction of Spirit and Spirit, and the consequent withdrawal from form is that of the Path.
4. The period of domination of the note of Spirit is that of the higher planes of evolution.

To the synchronization of the notes, or to the lack of synchronization, may be attributed all that occurs in the world cycles. Thus we have the production of harmony; first, the basic note of matter, then the note of Spirit gradually overcoming the lower note and usurping attention [276] till gradually the note of Spirit overpowers all other notes. Yet it must be borne in mind that it is the note of the life that holds the form together. The note of the Sun, for instance, holds in just attraction the circling spheres, the planets. The notes synchronize and harmonize till the stage of adequacy is reached and the period of abstraction. Cyclic evolution proceeds. A human being, similarly, holds (by means of his note) the atoms of the three bodies together, being to them as the central sun to the planets. Primarily, nevertheless, it may be posited that the Law of Attraction is the demonstration of the powers of Spirit, whilst the Law of Repulsion governs the form. Spirit attracts Spirit throughout the greater cycle. In lesser cycles, Spirit temporarily attracts matter. The tendency of Spirit is to merge and blend with Spirit. Form repulses form, and thus brings about separation. But – during the great cycle of evolution – when the third factor of Mind comes in, and when the point of balance is the goal, the cyclic display of the interaction between Spirit and form is seen, and the result is the ordered cycles of the planets, of a human being, and of an atom. Thus, through repetition, is consciousness developed, and responsive faculty induced. When this faculty is of such a nature that it is an inherent part of the Entity's working capital, it has to be exercised on every plane, and again cyclic action is the law, and hence rebirth again and again is the method of exercise. When the innate conscious faculty of every unit of consciousness has become coordinated as part of the equipment of the Logos on every plane of the solar system, then, and only then, will cyclic evolution cease, will rotary movement on every plane of the cosmic physical plane be of such a uniform vibration as to set up action on the next cosmic plane, the astral. [277]

1. Rotation on the axis: This is to be seen whether we are dealing with a minute atom of substance, with a planet revolving on its axis, with the rotation of the causal body, or with the rotation of a solar system.

1. In relation to the human being, this might be considered as the rotation of the various sheaths around the central consciousness during any one incarnation.
2. In relation to a Heavenly Man it might be considered as the rotation of a globe within a chain, or the period of one incarnation.
3. In relation to a solar Logos it might be considered as one complete revolution of the Sun in space, with all that is included within the ring-pass-not.

2. Rotation around an orbit. This is the revolution of a sphere of life, not only on its axis, but along a spheroidal path or orbit around a central point.

1. In connection with man this might be considered as the revolution of the wheel of life, or the passage of an entity through the three lower planes down into incarnation and back again.
2. In connection with a Heavenly Man it might be considered as the cycle which we call a round in which the life of the Heavenly Man cycles through all the seven globes.
3. In connection with the solar Logos it is the complete revolution of the solar system around its cosmic center.

It is to be noted at this point that the ideas dealt with in connection with cyclic evolution cannot be posited apart from the concept of consciousness. The ideas of [278] time, of space, and of activity (from the point of view of the occultist), can only be conceived as relative to some conscious entity, to some Thinker.

Time to the occultist is that cycle, greater or lesser, in which some life runs some specific course, in which some particular period begins, continues, and ends, in connection with the awareness of some Entity, and is recognized only as time when the participating life has reached a considerable stage of awareness. Time has been defined as a succession of states of consciousness,¹¹⁵ and it therefore may be studied from the point of view of [279]

1. Logoic consciousness, or the successive states of divine realization within the solar sphere.
2. Planetary consciousness, or the consciousness of a Heavenly Man as He cycles successively through the scheme.
3. Causal consciousness, or the successive expanding of the intelligent awareness of a human being from life to life.
4. Human consciousness, or the awareness of a man on the physical plane, and progressively on the emotional and the mental planes.
5. Animal, vegetable and mineral consciousness which differs from the human consciousness in many particulars, and primarily in that it does not coordinate, or deduce and recognize separate identity. It resembles human consciousness in that it covers the response to successive contacts of the units involved during their small cycles.
6. Atomic consciousness, demonstrating through successive states of repulsion and attraction. In this last definition lies the key to the other states of consciousness.

An atom revolves upon its axis. In its revolution it comes within the field of activity of other atoms. These it either attracts and swings into its own field of operation, or it repulses and drives them outside its range of activity, causing separation. One thing to be borne in mind in the concept of mutual attraction is the preservation of identity in cohesion.

A human being in objective manifestation likewise revolves upon his axis, or around his central point, his mainspring of animation; this brings him within the range of activity of other men, other human atoms. This similarly either tends to cooperation or cohesion, or to separation or repulsion. Again it must be borne in mind that even in cohesion identity is preserved. [280]

A Heavenly Man, through the form of a planetary chain, similarly revolves upon His axis, and a like phenomenon may be observed. A planet repulses a planet similarly charged, for it is a known law that like particles repel each other, but occultly it is a known law that they will eventually attract each other as the vibration becomes sufficiently strong. A negative planet will be attracted by a positive, and so on through all forms. This is the manifestation of SEX in substance of every kind, from the tiny atom in the body to the vast planetary chains, and this is the basis of activity. Radiatory activity is simply the interplay between male and female, and this can be seen in the physical atom of the scientist, among men and women, and in the vaster atom of a solar system as it vibrates with its cosmic opposite.

We might, therefore, consider time as that process of activity, or that progression in development, wherein the indwelling Consciousness is seeking its opposite, and coming under the Law of Attraction, which leads to atomic, human, planetary, spiritual, solar and cosmic marriage. This idea is comparatively simple in relation to a human being, and can be seen in daily demonstration in his contacts with other men; these contacts are governed, for instance, very largely by his likes and dislikes. All these attractions and repulsions are under law, and their cause exists in form itself. The emotion of like or of dislike is nothing else but the realization by the conscious entity of the swinging into his magnetic radius of an atomic form which he is led, by the very law of his own being, to either attract or repulse. Only when the form is transcended, and Spirit seeks out Spirit, will the phenomena of repulsion cease. This will be the inevitable finale at the cessation of solar evolution, and it will bring about pralaya. The duration of the interplay, the period of the search of Spirit for Spirit, and [281] the vibratory process necessitated by the utilization of the form, this we call Time, whether in connection with a man, a planetary Logos, or the Deity.

Space, again, is included in the idea of consciousness, and its utilization of matter. Space, for the Logos, is literally the form wherein His conscious activities and purposes are worked out – the solar ring-pass-not. The space wherein a planetary Logos works out His plans is similarly as much of solar space as His consciousness is developed enough to use. Man again repeats the process and his ring-pass-not is included in the radius of his consciousness, and may be very circumscribed as in the case of the little evolved, or may be inclusive of a portion of planetary space of great extent, and even in the case of the very highly evolved may begin to touch the periphery of the sphere of influence of the planetary Logos in Whose body he is a cell.

Space for the atom (for instance, the atom in the physical body of man) will be the radius of the form in which is found the greater center of consciousness of which it is a part and it will be both attracted and repulsed – attracted and built into the form of the greater Life, yet repulsed and thereby prevented from moving from a certain point within that form.

We have here dealt a little with time and space in their relation to a specific center of consciousness; we have seen that they are simply forms of ideas to express the cyclic activity of an entity. The subject is exceedingly abstruse, due to the low stage of the human intelligence, which is as yet so occupied with the objective or material side of manifestation that the attraction existing between Spirit and Spirit is little more than a concept. When more of the human family have their center of consciousness in the Ego and hence are busy with the work of repulsing matter, and with the withdrawal of [282] Spirit from form, then only will the transmutative process be comprehended, then only will time (as known in the three worlds) be transcended, and then only will space (as manifested to man through the three lower planes or the eighteen subplanes) be found to be a barrier. This same statement can be predicated of the seven Logoi and of the solar Logos, extending the idea to other planes, solar and cosmic. So also can it be narrowed down to the subhuman, and to the involutionary lives, remembering ever that as the consciousness is more confined and restricted so inertia, lack of response, and limitation of radiation will be seen.

By a close scrutiny of chart V, it will be apparent wherein lies the problem of the Logos, and wherein lies the accuracy of the correspondence between Him and His reflection Man.

• First. Both are in objective manifestation on the physical plane.
• Second. Both are at their point of deepest involution.
• Third. Both are trammeled by matter, and are developing consciousness (egoic consciousness) on the physical plane – man on the solar physical, and the Logos on the cosmic physical plane.
• Fourth. Man has to bring down into conscious full control, the God within. Through that control he must dominate circumstance, make his environment his instrument and manipulate matter. On cosmic levels the Logos does likewise. Both are far from achievement.
• Fifth. Both work in, with, and by, electrical force.
• Sixth. Both come under the laws governing forms and hence both are controlled in time and space by KARMA, which is the Law of forms. It has to do with quality, as force has to do with vibration.
• Seventh. Both work through forms made up of: [283]
  1. Three main types of forms: A mental form, one aspect of manifestation; an astral form, a second aspect; and a physical form, the third aspect. The mental vibration sets the key measure and seeks to utilize and coordinate the physical body at Will. It deals with or links up the consciousness to the three forms in one direction; it repulses and causes separation in another. The astral vibration deals with the quality, with the attractive measure. It is the psychic element. The physical is the meeting ground of consciousness with the material form. This last is the result produced by the union of the key measure and the quality of tone.
  2. Seven centers of force which hold the three forms in one coherent whole, and cause their vitalization and their coordination. They put the triple unit into correlation with their main center of consciousness on the higher planes, whether that center is the causal body of man, of a planetary Logos, or of a solar Logos.
  3. Millions of infinitesimal cells, each embodying a lesser life, each in a condition of constant activity, and each repulsing other cells so as to preserve individuality or identity, yet each held to each by a central attractive force. Thus we have produced the objective form of a crystal, a vegetable, an animal, a man, a planet, a system.
• Finally, both work, therefore, in a dual manner and each demonstrates both attraction and repulsion.

Attraction of matter to Spirit and the building of a form for the use of Spirit is the result of electrical energy in the universe, which in each case brings the lesser lives or spheres into its range of influence. The magnetic force, the life of the Logos gathers together His body of manifestation. The magnetic force of the Heavenly Man, the planetary Logos, gathers out of the solar ring-pass-not that which He needs for each incarnation. [284] The magnetic force of the Ego gathers, at each rebirth, matter within the particular sphere or scheme within which the Ego has place. So on down the scale, we find the lesser pursuing its round ever within the greater.

Therefore we have (during a period of Attraction and Repulsion, or a life cycle) that which we call Time and Space, and this holds equally true in the life cycle of a Logos or an ant, or a crystal. There are cycles of activity in matter, due to some energizing Will, and then Time and space are known. There are cycles of non-being when Time and Space are not, and the energizing Will is withdrawn. But we must not forget that this is purely relative, and only to be considered from the standpoint of the particular life or entity involved, and the special stage of awareness reached. All must be interpreted in terms of consciousness.

The first type of cycle, or the period involved in one entire revolution of a sphere around its own center of consciousness, is to the particular Entity involved (be he God or man) a lesser cycle. The second type of cycle or the period involved in the complete circling of an orbit, or the revolution of a sphere around the center of which it is an integral part, we can consider as a greater cycle. The third type of cycle has not so much to do with the transition of the form through a certain location in space but as the cycle which includes both the greater and the lesser cycles. It has to do with the response of the ENTITY, to Whom our solar Logos is but a center in His Body, to the contacts made on that center and on its cosmic opposite. These two centers, for instance, our solar system and its cosmic opposite, in their interaction create a cycle period which has a relation to the "ONE WHO IS ABOVE OUR LOGOS." This is, of course; beyond human conception, but must be included in our enumeration of cycles if exactitude is to be achieved. [285]

We can now take up the question next in order, which was worded:"Why do we consider certain aspects of knowledge esoteric and other aspects as exoteric?"

The answer to this practically involves the realization that some knowledge deals with the subjective side of life, and the other type of knowledge with the objective side; that one type of knowledge is concerned with energy and force (hence the danger of undue hasty revelation) and another with that which is energized. Therefore it will be apparent that until the faculty of ascertaining subjective information is achieved, whole ranges of facts will remain outside the scope of the consciousness of the majority.

As we have been told, the goal of evolution is the attainment of consciousness on all planes; owing to the small evolutionary attainment of the race only the physical plane is as yet in any way brought under conscious control. The knowledge which deals with that plane, [286] the information which is concerned with densest objectivity, the sumtotal of facts connected with the five lower subplanes of the physical plane are (from the occult standpoint) considered exoteric. During the next two races the other two subplanes will be mastered, and the entire mass of knowledge concerned with physical and etheric matter, with energy, form and experience on the physical plane, will be easily available to man, and concern only his five physical senses.

Information and knowledge of the life evolving through the forms will for a considerably longer time be considered esoteric, as also will the apprehension and comprehension of the matter aspect, and the laws governing energy on the astral and the mental planes. This is stated in connection with average man, the rank and file of humanity. Objective or exoteric information is largely that obtained or ascertained by men in the Hall of Learning by means of the five senses, and by experiment. Experiment in due course of time and after many cycles of incarnation is transmuted into experience, and this produces eventually that which we call instinct, or the habitual reaction of some type of consciousness to a given set of circumstances, or of environment. These two factors of the senses and of experimental contact can be seen working out in the animal and human kingdoms; the difference between the two exists in the ability of the man consciously to remember, apprehend, anticipate, and utilize the fruits of past experience, and thus influence the present and prepare for the future. He employs the physical brain for this purpose. An animal likewise has an instinctual memory, apprehension, and an embryo anticipation, but (lacking mind) he is unable to adjust them to circumstances in the sense of prearrangement, and lacks the capacity consciously to utilize, and thus reap, the benefit of past events, and to learn from experience in the manner which a man does. The [287] animal uses the solar plexus in the same way that a man uses the brain; it is the organ of instinct.

All that can be acquired by instinct and by the use of the concrete mind functioning through the physical brain can be considered as dealing with that which we call exoteric. It is thus evident how the range of fact will differ according to:

1. The age of the soul.
2. Experience developed and used.
3. Condition of the brain and the physical body.
4. Circumstances and environment.

As time progresses and man reaches a fair state of evolution, mind is more rapidly developed, and a new factor comes gradually into play. Little by little the intuition, or the transcendental mind, begins to function, and eventually supersedes the lower or concrete mind. It then utilizes the physical brain as a receiving plate, but at the same time develops certain centers in the head, and thus transfers the zone of its activity from the physical brain to the higher head centers, existing in etheric matter. For the mass of humanity, this will be effected during the opening up of the etheric subplanes during the next two races. This is paralleled in the animal kingdom by the gradual transference of the zone of activity from the solar plexus to the rudimentary brain, and its gradual development by the aid of manas.

As we consider these points, it will become apparent that the esoteric aspects of knowledge are really those zones of consciousness which are not yet conquered, and brought within the radius of control of the indwelling Entity.

The point to be emphasized is that when this is realized the true significance of the esoteric and the occult will be appreciated, and the endeavor of all KNOWERS will be to draw within the zone of their knowledge other [288] units who are ready for a similar expansion of consciousness. In this thought lies the key to the work of the Brotherhood. They attract by Their force into certain fields of realization and endeavor and by that attraction and the response of those human atoms who are ready, the group soul on the upward arc, or a particular center of a Heavenly Man, is coordinated.

In the same way the animal is brought at a certain stage into the zone of influence of the lesser sons of mind – human beings who are the elder brothers of the animals, as the Masters of the Wisdom are the Elder Brothers where humanity is concerned. So the interlocking proceeds and the division of responsibility.

We have in this question a vast quantity of matter to deal with and it will be impossible for us to do more than to get a broad and general idea.

The subject is so vast and the comprehensiveness of the interrelated points is so great that we shall only attain lucidity if we confine our attention to certain broad general conceptions, leaving the subsidiary points for more detailed elucidation at some later period.

Primarily I would suggest that we consider this subject only as it concerns a Heavenly Man, that we omit from our immediate calculations the consideration of the cellular composition of His body (those separated units of consciousness which we call deva and human [289] beings), and that we view the matter from what is to the human being, the group concept, and not the individual.

The entire middle section of this treatise on the Fires has to do with the development of the consciousness of a Heavenly Man, and the application by Him of the knowledge gained (through the aid of manas or mind) in a previous solar system, to the acquisition of wisdom through objectivity, and to the transmutation of the earlier acquired faculty into applied Love. This is His work in the same sense that the work of the cells within His body is to develop the mind principle. When through experience in the three worlds the human units have accomplished this, they can then gain – through the final initiations – something of the group concept, or the conscious realization of place, and of energized activity within the ring-pass-not of their particular planetary Logos., Therefore, we might consider the following points:

First: The work of the units who go to the makeup of a particular planetary Logos. This is of a threefold nature:

1. To attain the consciousness of the realized control of their own individual ring-pass-not, or of their own sphere of activity. This covers the period of evolution up to the first Initiation, or their entrance upon the Path, and thus into the spiritual kingdom. It concerns the awakening of consciousness on the three lower planes.
2. To attain the consciousness of the particular center in the body of one of the planetary Logoi – which center embodies their group activity. This carries them to the fifth Initiation, and covers the period wherein consciousness is awakened on the five planes of evolution.
3. To attain to the consciousness of the center in the Body of the Logos of which any particular planetary [290] Logos is the sumtotal. This carries them to the seventh Initiation and covers the period of the awakening of consciousness on the seven planes of the solar system.

These expansions are attained by the aid of mind, transmuted in due course of time into love-wisdom, and entail the conscious control of the entire seven planes of the solar system, or of the lowest cosmic plane.

Second: The work of the Heavenly Men Who in their totality are the seven centers in the body of the Logos. This work is again threefold:

1. To attain to full self-consciousness, or to individual consciousness on the five planes; to vibrate with conscious activity within Their Own ring-pass-not, a planetary scheme. This covers a period in the scheme of involution, and of that period during the evolutionary stage which is comprised within the first three rounds up to the entrance upon the fourth round.
2. To attain to the consciousness of the solar Logos, within Whose body They form the centers. It entails the attainment by a Heavenly Man of a group consciousness of a sevenfold nature, or the achievement of accurate vibratory relationship with the other Heavenly Men Who form the other centers. It carries with it the capacity to have full conscious control on the seven planes of the solar system, and covers that period of development which is undergone in a planetary chain during the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds. It should be borne in mind that a paralleling recognition should here be given to the fact that the solar Logos holds an analogous position in the body of a cosmic Entity to that held by a Heavenly Man in the body of a solar Logos.
3. To attain to the consciousness of a greater center on cosmic levels. This covers the period of the seventh round, and gives to a Heavenly Man (when these rounds are viewed in the light of the Eternal Now, and not from the standpoint of time and of space) the consciousness of [291] the cosmic astral, or the second lowest plane of the cosmic planes. A great deal of the problem to be seen slowly working out at this time to a solution is due to the fact that the control of the Heavenly Man, Whose body our scheme may be, is as yet but partial, and His cosmic experience is as yet but imperfect. This necessarily affects the cells in His body in the same way that lack of astral control in the case of a human being, affects his vehicle. It might here be pointed out that the evolution of the Heavenly Men is unequal, and that our planetary Logos has not the control, for instance, that the Heavenly Man of the Venus chain has achieved. In each round one subplane of the cosmic astral plane is brought under control, and the consciousness of the Heavenly Man expands to include one subplane more. The planetary Lord of Venus has dominated and controlled the five subplanes and is working on the sixth, Our planetary Logos is engaged in a similar work on the fourth and fifth. The work, as in all cycles, overlaps and it might be explained thus:
   • He is perfecting the control of the fourth subplane on the cosmic astral plane, and has nearly completed it. He is beginning to work at the control of the fifth subplane – a control which will be perfected in the fifth round.
   • He is sensing and responding to the vibration of the sixth subplane, but is not as yet fully conscious on that subplane.
   • We have a corresponding reflection to this in the fourth and fifth root-races on this planet, in which the astral consciousness of the Atlantean cycle is being perfected, the fifth principle is being developed, and the sixth is being gradually sensed. This deserves thoughtful consideration.

Third: The work of a solar Logos is again of a corresponding nature: [292]

1. He has to attain to the full consciousness of His entire ring-pass-not, or of the seven planes of the solar system. This covers a period wherein five of the Heavenly Men, or five of His centers, and therefore, five schemes, reach a stage of accurate response to contact and stimulation.
2. He has to attain to the consciousness of the cosmic Logos within Whose body He is a center. He must find by experience His place within the cosmic group of which He is a part, in much the same way as a planetary Logos pursues a similar course. This is achieved when all the Heavenly Men or each of the seven centers are awakened and functioning consciously and freely, with their systemic interrelation adjusted and controlled by the Law of Action and Reaction. It brings within His control not only the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane (our seven major planes) but necessarily also the cosmic astral plane.
3. To attain to the consciousness of the center in the body of the ONE ABOUT WHOM NOUGHT MAY BE SAID. This center is formed by the sphere of influence of a cosmic Logos. In the body of a cosmic Logos, a solar Logos is a center.

We must bear in mind that this enumeration is given from the standpoint of the present, and from the angle of vision (relatively limited) of the Heavenly Man of our particular scheme, and that it is therefore circumscribed by His peculiar conditions, which govern the intelligence of the cells in His body; it is given from the point of view of differentiation and not of synthesis. A synthetic absorption proceeds eventually in connection with all these Entities, and each undergoes a process, paralleling on His Own level that undergone by the Microcosm; in the case of the Microcosm the causal body or the body of the Ego acts as the synthesizer of the energy of the Quaternary or lower Self, and the spiritual [294] or monadic sheath as the synthesizer of the seven principles, making thus the three, the seven, and the ten.

In closing I would point out that the mind must carefully be kept from reducing all these ideas into a rankly materialistic concept. It must be rigidly borne in mind that we are dealing with the subjective life, and not with the objective form, and that we are considering, for instance, the synthesis of the principles or the qualitating energies and not the synthesis of form.

Entity	Vehicle	Center	Space	Time
The Unknown	7 constellations	cosmic Logos	5 cosmic planes.
A cosmic Logos	7 solar systems	solar Logos	4 cosmic planes.
A solar Logos	7 planetary schemes	Heavenly Man	3 cosmic planes.	Period of 3 solar systems.
A Heavenly Man	7 planetary chains	Chohans and groups	2 cosmic planes.	Period of 1 solar system.
A Man	7 etheric centers	a Principle	1 cosmic plane.	Period of 1 planetary scheme.

• Through each etheric center man is bringing to perfect vibration some one principle or quality through which the subjective life may express itself.
• Through each chain in a scheme a Heavenly Man is endeavoring to do the same.
• Through each scheme in a system, a solar Logos working at the same thing; the goal is synthetic quality and not primarily the perfection of the form. The response of the energized form to the qualitative life is naturally – under the law – equal to the demand, but this is of secondary importance and is not the object in view.

We have seen that the work to be accomplished in all the above cases is necessarily threefold:

• First. The development of individual consciousness.
• Second. The development of group consciousness.
• Third. The development of God consciousness, of that consciousness in each case which represents the highest spiritual Source, and which is recognized as the same in essence as the God within the individual, whether man or solar Logos.

This concept must be meditated upon by all thinkers and its synthesis emphasized. The relation of the cell to the group, of the group to the aggregate of groups, and of them all to the indwelling Entity Who holds them in synthetic correlation by means of the Law of Attraction and Repulsion is of vital moment. Two main ideas must always be borne in mind: [295]

• That the terms "cell, group, or congery of groups" relate entirely to the form of vehicle, and thus to the matter aspect.
• That the idea of an Entity Who synthesizes the groups and is the animating life of the cell has to do with the Spirit aspect.

These two concepts lead necessarily to a third, that of the development of consciousness, which is the gradual expansion of the realization of the Indweller in the form, the apprehension by the Self of the relation of the form to Itself, and of its slow utilization and control. This persists until that Realization includes the cell, the group, and the totality of groups. These ideas can be applied to the three grades of consciousness referred to. As follows:

• Man, the lowest type of coherent consciousness (using the word "consciousness" in its true connotation as the "One who knows") is but a cell, a minute atom within a group.
• A Heavenly Man represents a coherent conscious group.
• A solar Logos on His Own plane holds an analogous place to that of a Heavenly Man in a solar system, and from a still higher standpoint to that of a man within the solar system. When the place of the solar planes within the cosmic scheme is duly apprehended it will be recognized that on cosmic levels of a high order the solar Logos is an Intelligence as relatively low in the order of cosmic consciousness as man is in relation to solar consciousness. He is but a cell in the body of the ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID. His work parallels on cosmic levels the work of man on the solar planes. He has to undergo on the three lower cosmic planes a process of developing an apprehension of His environment of the same nature as man in the three worlds. This fact should be remembered by all students [296] of this central division of our subject; above all the analogy between the cosmic physical planes and the solar physical planes must be pondered upon. It holds hid the fourfold mystery:
  1. The mystery of the Akasha.
  2. The secret of the fifth round.
  3. The esoteric significance of Saturn, the third, planet.
  4. The occult nature of cosmic kundalini, or the electrical force of the system.

One hint on this fourth point may be given for wise consideration. When the electrical interplay between the planets is better ascertained (and by this I mean their negative or positive interplay), then it will be revealed which are related or connected, and which are nearing the point of balance. I would here point out very briefly certain facts, not pausing to elaborate or to elucidate, but simply making various statements which – as the knowledge of man progresses – will assume their rightful place in the ordered scheme. They will then be seen as enlightening and revealing the necessary sequence of development.

1. The seven Heavenly Men, considered in relation to the Entity of Whom the solar Logos is a reflection, are as the seven centers in the physical body of a human being. This will be realized as the correspondence between the cosmic physical plane and the systemic physical plane is studied.
2. Three of these centers, therefore
   • Concern the lower centers of the cosmic Being.
   • Have their analogies on the dense, liquid and gaseous planes.
   • Are at present the object of the attention of cosmic, kundalini. [297]
3. One of these centers corresponds to the solar plexus and is the synthesizer of the lower three, thus making a quaternary.
4. The center which is analogous to that at the base of the spine, or the reservoir of kundalini, has a permanence which is not seen in the other two lower centers. The Heavenly Man Who embodies this principle and is the source of generative heat to His Brothers, must be sought for by the aid of the intuition. Concrete Mind will not here avail.
5. The three higher centers, or the Heavenly Men Who correspond to the head, the heart and the throat of the solar Logos, have Their etheric analogies on the three higher etheric levels of the cosmic physical plane, just as the Heavenly Man Who embodies the logoic solar plexus finds His manifesting source on the fourth etheric.
6. This Heavenly Man, with His etheric vortex or wheel of force on the fourth cosmic ether, is in this fourth round, a vital factor in planetary evolution.
7. When the Heavenly Man, Who is at present demonstrating through the Earth scheme, has succeeded in vitalizing His middle center, or in directing the force of planetary kundalini away from the lower centers to the solar plexus center, a new cycle will be reached, and much of the present distress will be ended. His work is as yet in an embryonic condition, and two and a half more cycles must transpire before He has accomplished the necessary work. When that is done, the result in connection with the human units in incarnation will be threefold:
   • Sex stimulation, as now understood, will be showing a tendency to manifest in creation, not so much on the physical plane, as on the astral and mental, demonstrating in the creations of art and beauty, and the objective work of the scientists.
   • Crime, as now seen, based largely on the sex emotion, [298] will be a thing of the past, and physical plane license, orgy and horror will be reduced seventy-five per cent.
   • The interplay between the three dense physical planets will be perfected and man will pass at will from on to another.

I would here point out the inadvisability of the method whereby the names of the globes in a chain, just as the names of a chain in a scheme, follow the planetary nomenclature. This has led to confusion.

A clue tending towards the correct understanding lies hid in the words: "Venus is the Earth's primary." (S.D., II, 33. I, 323.)

It is not permissible to say much about this mystery, that "Venus is the Earth's alter ego," nor is it advisable, but certain ideas may be suggested which – if brooded on – may result in a wider grasp of the beauty of nature's synthesis, and of the wonderful correlation of all that is in process of evolution.

Perhaps some idea may be gained if we remember that, in an occult sense, Venus is to the Earth what the higher Self is to man.

The coming of the Lords of Flame to the Earth was all under law and not just an accidental and fortunate happening; it was a planetary matter which finds its correspondence in the connection between the mental unit and the manasic permanent atom. Again, as the antahkarana is built by individual man between these two points, so – again in a planetary sense – is a channel being built by collective man on this planet to its primary, Venus.

In connection with these two planets, it must be remembered that Venus is a sacred planet and the Earth is not. This means that certain of the planets are to the Logos what the permanent atoms are to man. They embody principles. Certain planets afford only temporary [299] homes to these principles. Others persist throughout the mahamanvantara. Of these Venus is one.

Three of the sacred planets, it should be remembered, are the home of the three major Rays, of the embodied forms of the three logoic aspects or principles. Other planets are embodiments of the four minor rays. We might consider – from the standpoint of the present – that Venus, Jupiter and Saturn might be considered as the vehicles of the three super-principles at this time. Mercury, the Earth and Mars are closely allied to these three, but a hidden mystery lies here. The evolution of the inner round has a close connection with this problem. Perhaps some light may be thrown upon the obscurity of the matter by the realization that just as the Logos has (in the non-sacred planets) the correspondence to the permanent atoms in the human being, so the middle evolution between these two (God and man) is the Heavenly Man, whose body is made up of human and deva monads, and Who has likewise His permanent atoms. Always the three higher principles can be distinguished in importance from the four lower.

The key is hidden in the fact that between the number of a globe in a chain and its corresponding chain lies a method of communication. The same is true likewise of the correspondence between a chain of globes and a scheme of analogous number. The connection between Venus and the Earth lies hid in number, and it took a moment of mysterious alignment between a globe, its corresponding chain and the scheme of allied number to effect the momentous occurrence known as the coming of the Lords of Flame. It occurred in the third root-race in the fourth round. Here we have an analogy between the quaternary and the Triad, carrying the interpretation up to a Heavenly Man. The chain was the fourth chain and the globe, the fourth. The fourth [300] chain in the Venus scheme and the fourth globe in that chain were closely involved in the transaction.

8. The progress of development of the Heavenly Men is by no means uniform. One point has not been emphasized hitherto, and that is, that the problem before each of Them is dissimilar, and, therefore, it is not possible for man correctly to gauge the work done by Them and Their relative point of attainment. It has been said that as Venus is in the fifth round, the Venusian Lord is further progressed than His brothers. This is not altogether so. Just as in the development of humanity three main lines may be seen with four lesser lines merging into one of the three main lines, so in connection with the Heavenly Men, there are three main lines of which the Venusian is not one. The Lord of Venus holds place in the logoic quaternary, as does the Lord of Earth.

   The main idea underlying the question we have been endeavoring to answer has to do with the relationship between the schemes, chains, rounds, and races, and it should be borne in mind that these manifestations bear the same relationship to a Heavenly Man as incarnations do to a human being. This gives the opportunity here to bring out perhaps a little more clearly the place of cycles in the evolution of all these Entities from a man up to a cosmic Logos, via a Heavenly Man and a solar Logos. (S. D., I, 258.) Just as it is pointed out in the Secret Doctrine that there are greater and lesser cycles in the evolution of a solar system, so it can be predicated equally of a Heavenly Man, of a human being, and of an atom This brings us, therefore, to another statement:

9. The cycles in the evolutionary process of all these Entities may be divided mainly into three groups, though necessarily these groups can be extended into septenates and into an infinity of multiples of seven. [301]

In connection with a solar Logos the cycles might be called:

1. One hundred years of Brahma.
2. A year of Brahma.
3. A day of Brahma.

These periods have been computed by the Hindu students and are the sumtotal of time as we understand it or the duration of a solar system.

In connection with a Heavenly Man we have the corresponding cycles to those of the Logos:

1. The period of a planetary scheme.
2. The period of a planetary chain.
3. The period of a planetary round.

Within these three divisions, which are the differentiations of the three great cycles of incarnation of a planetary Logos, are numerous lesser cycles or incarnations but they all fall within one or other of the three main divisions. Such lesser cycles might be easily comprehended if it were pointed out that they mark such periods as:

1. The period of manifestation on a globe.
2. The period of a root-race.
3. The period of a subrace.
4. The period of a branch race.

In order to apprehend even cursorily the identity of manifestation of a planetary Logos in a root-race, for instance, it must be remembered that the sumtotal of human and deva units upon a planet make the body vital of a planetary Logos, whilst the sumtotal of lesser lives upon a planet (from the material bodies of men or devas down to the other kingdoms of nature) form His body corporeal, and are divisible into two types of such lives:

1. Those on the evolutionary arc, such as in the animal kingdom. [302]
2. Those on the involutionary arc, such as the totality of all elemental material forms within His sphere of influence. All the involutionary lives, as earlier pointed out, form the vehicles for the spirit of the planet, or the planetary entity, who is the sumtotal of the elemental essences in process of involution. He holds a position (in relation to a Heavenly Man) analogous to that held by the different elementals that go to the makeup of man's three bodies, physical, astral and mental, and he is – like all manifesting beings – threefold in his nature, but involutionary. Therefore, man and devas (differentiating the devas from the lesser Builders) form the SOUL of a Heavenly Man. Other lives form his BODY, and it is with body and soul that we are concerned in these two divisions of our thesis ON FIRE. One group manifests the fire of matter, the other group the fire of mind, for the devas are the personification of the active universal mind, even though man is considered manasic in a different sense. Man bridges in essence; the devas bridge in matter.

In connection with Man the cycles are equally threefold:

1. The Monadic cycle, which corresponds in man to the 100 years of Brahma, and to a planetary scheme.
2. The Egoic cycle.
3. The Personality cycle.

In these thoughts on cycles we have opened up a vast range of thought, especially if we link the idea of egoic and personality cycles to the vaster periods in connection with a planetary Logos. The idea is capable of vast expansion, and is governed by certain fundamental ideas that must be carefully considered and contemplated. [303]

The cycles in a man's personality manifestation demonstrate in groups of fours and sevens, and follow the usual evolutionary sequence, as:

1. Differentiation, the involutionary process, or the one becoming the many, the homogeneous becoming the heterogeneous.
2. Balance, or the process of karmic adjustment.
3. Synthesis, or spiritualization, the many again becoming the One.
4. Obscuration, or liberation, the end of the evolutionary process, or the freeing of Spirit from the limitations of matter.

By this we must understand that all incarnations on the physical plane are not of equal importance, but some are of more moment than others; some, from the point of view of the Ego, are practically negligible, others count; some are to the evolving human Spirit of importance analogous to the incarnation of a planetary Logos in a globe, or through a root-race, whilst others are as relatively unimportant to him as the manifestation of a branch-race is to a Heavenly Man.

As yet, owing to the small point of development of the average man, the astral incarnations or cycles count for little, but they are by no means to be discounted, and are oft relatively of more importance than the physical. In due course of time the astral cycles will be better comprehended and their relation to the physical. When it is realized that the physical body is not a principle but that the kama-manasic principle (or desire-mind principle) is one of the most vital to man then the period or cycle in which a man functions on the fifth subplane of the astral (the fundamentally kama-manasic plane) will assume its rightful place. It is so again with the mental cycles and so with the causal. The causal cycles or the egoic cycles, which include all the groups of lesser [304] cycles in the three worlds correspond to a complete round in the cycles of a Heavenly Man. There are seven such cycles, but the number of lesser cycles (included within the seven) is one of the secrets of Initiation.

The egoic cycles proceed in groups of sevens and of threes, and not in groups of fours and sevens as do the personality cycles, and the same ratio must be predicated of the central cycles of a Heavenly Man and of a solar Logos.

The monadic cycles proceed in groups of ones and of threes as do the basic cycles of those great Entities of which man is the microcosmic reflection. If the general concept here laid down is studied in relation to the schemes, and other forms of manifestation to each other and, if the microcosm himself is studied as the clue to the whole, some idea will begin to permeate the mind as to the purpose underlying all these manifestations. It should be borne also in mind that just as the average man in each incarnation achieves three objects:

1. The development of consciousness or the awakening of the faculty of awareness,
2. The achievement of a certain proportion of permanent faculty, or the definite increase of the content of the causal body,
3. The making of karma, or the setting in motion (by action) of causes which necessitate certain unavoidable effects,

so a Heavenly Man at one stage of His evolution does the same. As man progresses and as he enters upon the Probationary Path and the subsequent Path of Initiation, he succeeds in bringing about some further noticeable developments.

1. As before, his consciousness expands, but he begins to work intelligently from above and does not work blindly on the lower planes. [305]
2. The building of the causal body is carried to full completion, and he begins next to shatter what he earlier wrought, and to destroy the Temple so carefully constructed, finding it too to be a limitation.
3. He ceases to make karma in the three worlds, but begins to work it off, or, literally, to "wind up his affairs."

So do the Heavenly Men, for They likewise have a cosmic path to tread, analogous to that trodden by man, as he nears the goal of his endeavor.

Again we can with exactitude carry the concept further still, and predicate action of a similar nature by the solar Logos.

The consideration of this question is nearly concluded and it must be apparent that the relation between the aforementioned manifestations is of a psychic nature (using the word psychic in its true sense, as having reference to the psyche, or soul, or consciousness) and deals with the gradual expansion of Soul-Knowledge in a Heavenly Man. A word of warning should here be sounded. Though all these cosmic Beings find in man a reflection of Their Own Nature, yet the analogy of resemblance must not be pushed to extremity. Man reflects, but he reflects not perfectly; man is evolving, but he is not occupied with the same problems in exact detail as are the perfected Manasaputras.

Man aims at becoming a Divine Manasaputra, or perfected Son of Mind showing forth all the powers inherent in mind, and thus becoming like unto his monadic source, a Heavenly Man. A Heavenly Man has developed Manas, and is occupied with the problem of becoming a Son of Wisdom, not inherently but in full manifestation. A solar Logos is both a Divine Manasaputra and likewise a Dragon of Wisdom, and His problem concerns itself [306] with the development of the principle of cosmic Will which will make Him what has been called a "Lion of Cosmic Will."

Throughout all these graded manifestations the law holds good, and the lesser is included in the greater. Hence the need for the student to preserve with care a due sense of proportion, a discrimination as to time in evolution, and a just appreciation of the place of each unit within its greater sphere. Having sounded this note of warning we can now proceed with the concluding remarks anent this final question.

It has been stated that a mystery lies hid in the 777 incarnations. This figure provides room for much speculation. (S. D., I, 191.) It should be pointed out that it does not hold the number of a stated cycle of incarnations through which a man must pass, but holds the key to the three major cycles previously mentioned. Primarily this number applies to the planetary Logos of our scheme and not so much to other schemes. Each Heavenly Man has His number and the number of our Heavenly Man lies hid in the above three figures, just as 666 and 888 holds the mystery hid of two other Heavenly Men. This number 777 is also the number of transmutation, which is the fundamental work of all the Heavenly Men. The basic work of man is accumulation and acquisition, or the acquiring of that which must later be transmuted. The work of transmutation, or the true cycle of 777 commences on the Probationary Path, and is definitely the activity of a Heavenly Man being realized and responded to by the cells in His Body. Only when His Body has reached a certain vibratory movement can He truly influence the individual cells. This work of transmuting cell activity was begun on this planet during the last root-race, and the divine alchemy proceeds. The progress made is as yet but small, but each transmuted [307] conscious cell increases the speed and the accuracy of the work. Time alone is needed for the completion of the work. In connection with this matter of transmutation comes the legend of the Philosopher's Stone, which is literally the application of the Rod of Initiation in one sense. [308]