воскресенье, 27 декабря 2015 г.

299. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - 17. SECTION TWO - THE FIRE OF MIND - SOLAR FIRE - INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS - Part 1 - A. BAILEY

SECTION TWO - THE FIRE OF MIND - SOLAR FIRE
INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS - Part 1

1. What is the relation of the Son to the Sun?
2. What is evolution, and how does it proceed?
3. Why is the solar system evolving along the lines of duality?
4. What is consciousness and what is its place in the scheme?
5. Is there a direct analogy between a system, a planet, man and an atom?
6. What is the mind aspect? Who are the Manasaputras?
7. Why is the progress of evolution cyclic?
8. Why is knowledge both exoteric and esoteric?
9. What is the relation between—
a. The ten schemes,
b. The seven sacred planets,
c. The seven chains in a scheme,
d. The seven globes in a chain,
e. The seven rounds of a chain,
f. The seven rootraces and subraces?
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]
a. The science of objectivity.
b. The manifestation of the Son through the Sun and its attendant spheres, or the solar system in its entirety.
c. 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
a. The ten planetary schemes?
b. The seven sacred planets?
c. The seven globes in a chain?
d. The seven rounds in a globe?
e. 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 far-seeing 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 realises wherein consists the work immediately to be undertaken in this gradual process of attaining full consciousness.
[226]

I. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SON TO THE SUN?

This question brings us primarily to a consideration as to Who is the Son, and what is His function. Two [227] factors are universally recognised 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 realised that prior to manifestation, or to the birth of a solar system, it is more correct to utilise the words, Spirit and matter. When these two are inter-related 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 utilise. 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 (energised 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 individualised 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 individualised 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 individualised 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, characterised 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 characterised by a "blaze of refulgent glory," and by a radiation that will link it up with its cosmic centre, 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 centre 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
a. Gaining experience.
b. Making contact.
c. Developing full self-knowledge.
d. Achieving full mastery or control.
e. 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. [xcvi]93
f. 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.

II. WHAT IS EVOLUTION AND HOW DOES IT PROCEED?

1. Life Cycles.
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 ante-natal period wherein the Self overshadows 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 realisation 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 utilised 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 individualised 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 the opposite cosmic pole, that constellation which is our system's magnetic opposite.
2. The objective of the units of consciousness.
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
a. Radiate occult heat beyond their own individualised ring-pass-not.
b. Occultly blaze forth and demonstrate light or fiery objectivity.
c. Expand so as to include that which lies beyond their own immediate spheres.
d. Fuse and blend the two fires so as to produce perfectly the central fire, solar fire.
e. Blend Spirit and matter so that a body is produced that will adequately express Spirit.
f. Merge the essence within the form, which is occultly [233] qualified during evolution, with the essence in all form—humanly, in a planetary sense, and cosmically.
g. Attain human, systemic and cosmic manhood.
h. Achieve mastery on three planes of the solar system, humanly speaking.
i. Achieve mastery on five planes of the solar system, when speaking of a Heavenly Man.
j. Achieve mastery on three cosmic planes when speaking of the cosmic Christ, the Son, or the Logos manifesting objectively.
3. The Manifesting Units of Consciousness[xcvii]94
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?
a. 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.
b. 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.
c. 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
a. Expansion, vibratory stimulation, magnetic interaction, or the law of attraction and repulsion.
b. Cyclic progress, rotary repetition, coupled to spiralling ascension, and developing
a. The quality of love-wisdom, through the utilization of form by the means of active intelligence.
b. Full self-consciousness.
c. 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 concealed)[236] 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 synthesised. 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). [xcviii]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 synthesising 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. [xcix]96

III. WHY IS THIS SOLAR SYSTEM EVOLVING ALONG THE LINES OF DUALITY?

1. The Problem of Existence.
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 civilisation 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 endeavour 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 geometrises, 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 geometrising [238] identity may be. So the problems persist, and all the many lines of approach (in the endeavour 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 recognise 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, [c]97
aThe Boundless Immutable Principle and
bThe periodicity of the Universe.
cThe identity of all souls with the Oversoul.
When scientists recognise 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 recognised as dependent upon the following factors:
a. Existence itself.
b. Time and space.
c. The quality of desire or necessity.
d. 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.
2. Its Nature and Duality.
In terms of quality what have we? Active intelligence at one with will or power produces that "Son of necessity" [ci]98 (as H. P. B. expresses it) 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 individualised 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 battle-ground 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 individualised 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] a. Objectivity, or the manifested Son or Sun.
b. Evolution itself.
c. The development of quality.
d. 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.

IV. WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS? WHAT IS ITS PLACE IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS?

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 ofobjectivity. [cii]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 visualisation:
[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
Realisation
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 realisation, 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 utilisation 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.

V. IS THERE A DIRECT ANALOGY BETWEEN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SYSTEM, A PLANET, A MAN AND AN ATOM?

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:
An Atom. [ciii]1
a. An atom consists of a spheroidal form containing within itself a nucleus of life.
b. 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.
c. An atom is distinguished by activity, and shows forth the qualities of:
a. Rotary motion.
b. Discriminative power.
c. Ability to develop.
d. An atom, we are told, contains within itself three major spirals and seven lesser [civ]2. which ten are in process[247] of vitalisation, but have not yet attained full activity. Only four are functioning at this stage, and the fifth is in process of development.
e. An 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.
f. An atom finds its place within all forms; it is the aggregation of atoms that produces form.
g. 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.

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