320. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - 38. DIVISION D - II. THOUGHT ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS. - 1. THE RULER OF FIRE—AGNI. - A. BAILEY

DIVISION D - THOUGHT ELEMENTALS AND FIRE ELEMENTALS

II. THOUGHT ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS.

1. THE RULER OF FIRE—AGNI.

a. Agni and the Solar Logos.

Thus far in this treatise we have considered the first section of the book which has dealt somewhat with the internal fires of the system, both macrocosmic and microcosmic.  In this the second section we are dealing with the fire of mind.  This section, together with the nine introductory questions, constitutes the main part of the treatise.  In it we have dealt with the nature and function of mind and with the egoic ray.  We have dealt also, somewhat, with the form side of thought, with its material manifestation and with its substance.

We proceed now to take up the consideration of the Ruler of Fire, AGNI, and are brought to the study of the vitality that energises and the Life that animates; to the contemplation of the Fire that drives, propels, and produces the activity and organisation of all forms.  The realisation of this will reveal the fact that what we are dealing with is the "Life and the lives,"  as it is called in the Secret Doctrine; with Agni, the Lord of Fire, the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer; and with the forty-nine fires through which He manifests.  We are dealing with solar fire per se, with the essence of thought, with the coherent life of all forms, with the consciousness in its evolving aspect, or with Agni, the sumtotal of the Gods.  He is Vishnu and the Sun in His glory; He is the fire of matter and the fire of mind blended and fused; He is the intelligence which throbs in every atom; He is the Mind that actuates the system; He is the fire of substance and the substance of the fire; He is the Flame and that which the Flame destroys.

Students of the Secret Doctrine when they read carelessly are apt to consider Him only as the fire of matter and omit to note that He is Himself the sumtotal—and this is especially the case when they find that Agni is the Lord of the mental plane.  He is the animating life of the solar system, and that life is the life of [603] God, the energy of the Logos, and the manifestation of the radiance which veils the Central Sun.  Only as He is recognised as Fohat, the energy of matter, as Wisdom, the nature of the Ego and its motivation, and as essential unity, can any due conception be arrived at as to His nature or being.  He is not the solar Logos on the cosmic mental plane, for the egoic consciousness of the Logos is more than His physical manifestation, but Agni is the sumtotal of that portion of the logoic Ego which is reflected down into His physical vehicle; He is the life of the logoic Personality, with all that is included in that expression.  He is to the solar Logos on His own plane what the coherent personality of a human being is to his Ego in the causal body.  This is a very important point to be grasped, and if meditated upon will bring to the student much enlightenment.  His is the life that fuses and blends the threefold nature of the Logos when in physical incarnation; His is the coherent force that makes a unity of the triple logoic Personality, but man can only arrive at His essential nature by the study of the logoic physical vehicle—hence the difficulty; he can only understand by a consideration of His psychic emanation as it can be sensed and viewed by passing the history of the races in retrospect.  Man's personality reveals his nature as his life progresses; his psychic quality unfolds as the years slip away, and when he passes out of incarnation he is spoken of in terms of quality, good or bad, selfish or unselfish; the effect of his "emanation" during life is that which remains in men's minds.  Thus only can the logoic personality express itself, and our knowledge of His nature is consequently limited by our close perspective, and handicapped by the fact that we are participants in His life, and integral parts of His manifestation.

It is only as we begin to function upon the buddhic plane that we can in any way "live in the subjective" side of nature, and it is only as our knowledge of the spiritual life increases, and as we pass definitely through the portal of initiation into the fifth kingdom that we can appreciate the distinction between the dense physical, and the vital body.  Only as we become polarised in the cosmic etheric body and are no longer held prisoner by a dense material sheath (for the three lower planes are but the dense body of the Logos) do we come to a fuller understanding of the psychic nature of the Logos, for we stand then in the body which bridges the gulf between the dense physical, and the astral body of the Logos.  Only when this is the case do we understand the function of the Lord Agni as the vital life of the cosmic etheric, as the vitality of the Heavenly Men and the activity of Their sheaths.

b. Agni and the Mental Plane.

I seek to deal with a very important point here, emphasising the close connection between Agni, the sumtotal of the life force of the logoic threefold personality, as He is seen at work on the mental plane (which closely concerns man), and that manifesting driving force or intelligent will which emanates from the cosmic mental plane.  There is a very interesting series of correspondences to be worked out here and we might briefly indicate the lines to be followed in this connection by the ensuing tabulation:

The 5th cosmic plane	The cosmic mental.
The 5th systemic plane	The mental plane.
The 5th subplane of the physical	The gaseous.
The 5th principle	Manas.
The 5th Law	Fixation, the Law of Concretion.
The 5th Ray	Concrete knowledge.
The 5th round	The round of manasic attainment.

The 5th root-race	The Aryan.  Mental development.
The 5th sub-race	The Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon.  Concrete mind.
The 5th group of Devas	Fire Devas of the mental plane.
The 5th Manvantara	Three-fifths of the manasaputras achieve.
The 5th scheme	The Lord of concrete science.
The 5th Mahamanvantara (or
solar system)	The solar Logos achieves His fifth major Initiation.
The 5th chain	Principal evolution—fire devas.
The 5th Hierarchy	The greater Builders.
Vibrations of fifth order	Manasic.

It will, therefore, be apparent that when the system is viewed in reverse order and the physical plane is counted as the first (as it often is when considering it as the field of strictly human evolution), that the third plane—the mental plane—comes under the same group of correspondences and Agni, as the energising factor of the dense physical body of the Logos, or as the fire of His most concrete manifestation, vitalising, warming and holding all together, has to be considered.

Three hierarchies are, in this mahamanvantara, of profound significance, the fourth or human Creative Hierarchy, and the two deva hierarchies, the fifth and sixth.

The fourth Hierarchy in the larger scheme is literally the ninth, for five hierarchies have earlier passed on and are considered as pure abstractions.  In this system concretion concerns us, and the blending of form and of energy into one coherent whole.  In the ninth, tenth and eleventh Hierarchies lie the clue to the nature of Agni, the Lord of fire, the sumtotal of systemic vitality.  He who understands the significance of these figures, and their relation to each other as the triple division of a Unity in time and space will have discovered [606] one of the keys which will unlock a door hitherto fast closed.  They are the numbers of achievement, of potentiality brought into full activity and of innate capacity demonstrating in perfect fruition.  All potentiality lies in the vitalising, energising power of Agni, and in His ability to stimulate.  He is life itself, and the driving force of evolution, of psychic development and of consciousness.  This fact is hidden in these figures, and not the evolution of substance, which is but a result, emanating from psychic causes.  These three numbers are the basis of the cyclic calculations which concern the egoic cycles, and the cycles of Vishnu, as distinguished from the cycles dealing with the third aspect.  Occult students have not sufficiently grasped the fact that objectivity is an inevitable result of an inner conscious subjective life.  When this is better apprehended, bodies on the physical plane, for instance, will be purified, developed and beautified through a scientific attention paid to the development of the psyche, to the unfoldment of the Ego, and to the stimulation of the egoic vibration.  The cause will be dealt with and not the effect, and hence the growing appreciation by the human family of the study of psychology, even though as yet they are but studying the kama-manasic body, and have not reached back to the egoic consciousness.  The lunar Lords have had their day; now Agni, as the solar Lord of life and energy, will assume due importance in human life.

c. Agni and the Three Fires.

In studying the manifestation of Agni in the solar system it should be remembered that we are considering here His essential nature as actuating fire.  We have seen that He is the threefold logoic personality, but He is the threefold Logos in a subjective sense, and the form aspect is only subsidiary. Perhaps a tabulation may make this point clearer.

TABULATION V AGNI—LORD OF FIRE
Aspect	Fire	Result	Subjective	Origin	Objective
			Manifestation	of Energy	Manifestation
First,	Electric Fire	Activity of	The One Life.	Central	The solar system
Will		Spirit	Unity.	Spiritual Sun	(etheric and dense)
			Spiritual.
			Dynamic.
			Coherence.
			Synthesis.
Second,	Solar Fire	Activity of	The seven	The Heart of the	The seven Rays
Love-Wisdom		Consciousness.	Heavenly Men.	Sun	manifesting
		Egoism.	The seven Rays.		through the seven
		Vitality.	The seven types of		planetary schemes
		Magnetism.	Mind.
Third,	Fire by Friction	Activity in	The seven fires.	The physical Sun	The seven planes
Activity		Matter.	The akasha.
		Atomic vitality.
		Energy.

Each of these three aspects of the One Fire, showing as the Creative Fire, Preserving Fire, and Destroying Fire, must be studied as electrical phenomena, and this under the aspects of light, flame, and heat, of electricity, radiance and motion, of will, desire and action.  Only thus will the true nature of Agni be apprehended.  As the logoic personality He is demonstrating through a triplicity of sheaths forming a unity, and only thus will it become apparent why at this stage in evolution the material aspect is the most considered.

The entire system is the physical sheath of the Logos and consequently the most easily cognised, for the Logos is as yet centred in His cosmic sheaths and can only reveal Himself through their medium.

Man's just apprehension of this mystery of electricity will only come about as he studies himself, and knows himself to be a triple fire, manifesting in many aspects.

MAN, A FIRE
Monadic fire	Electric fire	Spirit Will	The Central
			Spiritual Sun.
Egoic fire	Solar fire	Consciousness	The Heart
		Love-Wisdom	of the Sun.
Personality fire	Fire by friction	Physical man	Physical Sun.

Each of these fires can also be studied in a threefold manner and under three aspects.

THE MONAD
Will aspect	Electric fire	Flame	Spiritual Will.
Love-wisdom	Solar fire	Light	Spiritual Love.
Active	Fire by friction	Heat	Spiritual
Intelligence			Intelligence.

THE EGO
Will	Atma   Electric fire	The spark  The Jewel   in the Lotus	Conscious  Will
Love-  Wisdom	Buddhi  Solar fire	The rays  The twelve-  petalled lotus	Conscious    Love
Active  Intelligence	Manas  Fire by friction	Substance  The perma-   nent atoms.	Conscious . Activity

THE PERSONALITY
Will	Mental body	Electric fire	Lower mind	Thought
Love	Astral body	Solar fire	Kama		Desire
Activity	Physical body	Fire by friction	Prana	Activity

I seek to emphasise here the fact that in this threefold manifestation there is a ninefold unfoldment.  It should ever be borne in mind that seven is the number which governs the evolution of substance and of form building in the solar system, but that nine is the number governing the development of the consciousness within that form of the psyche.  This is seen in the sevenfold display of logoic life through the planetary scheme, and the ninefold nature of egoic unfoldment.

If the student here substitutes for the words, Monad, Ego and personality, the three aspects of the Logos, and will bear in mind that as yet all that he can ascertain or cognise is the lowest of the logoic manifestations—the personality—it will be apparent why so much must remain mysterious to even the higher grades of initiates, and why even the perfected Dhyan Chohan cannot penetrate the secrets of the Logos outside His system.  They [610] can cognise much concerning Agni, the Lord of Fire, but until They can contact that of which He is an emanation, a reflection or a ray, there is a limit to what may be known.

Agni is Fohat, the threefold Energy (emanating from the logoic Ego) which produces the solar system, the physical vehicle of the Logos, and animates the atoms of substance.  He is the basis of the evolutionary process, or the cause of the psychic unfoldment of the Logos, and He is that vitality which ultimately brings about a divine synthesis in which the form approximates subjective demand, and after being consciously directed, and manipulated, is finally discarded.  This is the goal for the Logos as it is for man; this marks the final liberation of a human being, of a Heavenly Man and of a solar Logos.

We could divide the process into three periods:

First.  The period wherein the fire of matter (the heat of mother) hides, nourishes and brings to birth the infant Ego.  This is the period of purely personality life, when the third aspect dominates, and man is in the veil of illusion.

Second.  The period wherein the Ego, or subjective life within the form, passes through certain stages of unfoldment, and comes to an ever fuller consciousness.  This is the period of egoic development, and is produced by the gradual merging and blending of the two fires.  It is the life of service and of the Path.

Third.  The period wherein the egoic consciousness itself is superseded by spiritual realisation, and the fire of Spirit blends with the other two.

At first the personality acts the part of mother, or of material aspect, to the germ of the inner life.  Then [611] the Ego manifests its life within the personal life, and produces a shining forth which "groweth ever more and more until the perfect day."  At that perfect day of revelation it is seen what man in essence is, and the Spirit within is revealed.  This can be studied from the Christian angle, and Paul was but voicing an occult truth when he enunciated the facts concerning the birth of the Christ within the heart, and the growth of the higher life at the expense of the lower.  Thus also can it be taught along occult, and not mystic, lines in the recognition (by science) of the vitalisation of the permanent atoms (the force centres of the sheaths or substance), of the unfoldment of the egoic lotus, and the awakening of its petals, and in the final revelation of the jewel in the lotus.

All that can be said of man can be predicated of the Logos on an inconceivably greater scale.  As man discovers the laws of his own material sheaths—the laws of substance—he is ascertaining the nature of the fires of the outer man or Fohat, as he vitalises the logoic vehicle; the fires of his own sheaths are aspects of Agni as the fire of matter.  As he ascertains the nature of consciousness, and the laws of psychical unfoldment he is studying the nature of the vitality of the subjective man, and the laws of conscious being, thus studying Agni as He manifests as Light and Cool Radiance, shining through the vehicle.  Later (for the time is not yet) as he comes to comprehend the nature of his Monad, the spiritual or essential life which is developing consciousness by means of the sheaths, he will discover the nature of Agni as He shews forth as pure electricity.  Even though this is not yet possible, nevertheless the statement as to the lines of investigation which can be pursued, and the realisation of that which may eventually[612] be achieved, may cause men's minds to turn to the study of the real and of the true.