LETTER VII - THE USE OF COLOUR AND SOUND - Part 1
1. Enumeration of the colours and some comments.
2. Colours and the law of correspondences.
3. Effects of colours.
4. Application of colours and their future use.
LETTER VII
THE USE OF COLOUR AND SOUND.
August 27th, 1920.
There is no question that those who break the law perish by the law, whilst those who keep it live by it. The true study of occultism is the study of the why and how of phenomena. It is the finding out of the method whereby results are achieved, and it involves close analysis of events and circumstances in order to discover their governing laws. I have been led to make these preliminary remarks today because I saw with clarity the questions that are controlling your mind. These questions are of great value, if you continue to apply yourself to the search for the right answer. Certain definite laws govern the life of the disciple. They are the same laws that control all life. The difference consists in the partial realisation—on the part of the disciple—of the purpose of those laws, their raison d'etre, and their conscious judicious application to the circumstances met in daily living. By conformance to the law is the personal life transmuted...Take for instance the Law of Substance. This law puts the disciple in the position of wisely utilising the universal storehouse. It is the manipulation of matter, and its adaptation to the interacting forces of supply and demand...Blind faith is right for the mystic. It is one of the means whereby the Divine storehouse is entered, but to understand the method whereby that storehouse is kept replenished, and to comprehend the means whereby the bounteous supply of the All Father is brought in contact with the children's need is better still. One of those maxims I can here give anent supply and demand. It is only as a skilful [205] use is made of the supply for the needs of the worker and the work (I choose these words each one with deliberation) that that supply continues to pour in. The secret is: use, demand, take. Only as the door is unlocked by the law of demand is another and higher door unlocked permitting supply. The law of gravitation holds hid the secret. Think this out.
SOME REMARKS ON COLOUR.
Now we must go to work. The subject for our consideration this evening is of profound and complicated interest. This seventh letter of mine has to do with the use of colour and sound in meditation.
We have, as you know, dealt a good deal with the subject of sound in our earlier letters, both in studying the use of the Sacred Word, and in the study of forms and mantrams. It is a truism to say that sound is colour and colour is sound, yet so it is, and the topic I really seek to bring to your attention is not so much sound as sound, but the colour effects of sound. I seek to emphasise especially the colour aspect in this letter, begging you to remember always that all sounds express themselves in colour.
When the Logos uttered the great cosmic Word for this solar system, three major streams of colour issued forth, breaking almost simultaneously into another four, so giving us the seven streams of colour by which manifestation becomes possible. These colours are:—
1. Blue.
2. Indigo.
3. Green.
4. Yellow.
5. Orange.
6. Red.
7. Violet.
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Not unwittingly have I placed them in this order but the exact significance is left for you to discover.
I want to emphasise a second thought:—These seven streams of colour were the product of logoic meditation. The Logos meditated, brooded, conceived mentally, formed an ideal world, and built it up in thought matter. Then our objective universe flashed into being, radiant with the seven colours, with the deep blue or indigo for synthetic undertone. Therefore certain things can be posited about colour:
1. It has to do with objective meditation, therefore it has to do with form.
2. It is the result of sound uttered as the culmination of meditation.
3. In these seven colours, and their wise comprehension, lies the capacity of man to do as does the Logos and build.
4. Colours have certain effects on the different vehicles, and on the planes on which those vehicles function. When it is known by the occultist which colour is applicable to which plane, and which colour therefore is the basic hue for that plane, he has grasped the fundamental secret of microcosmic development, and can build his body of manifestation by means of the same laws that that Logos employed in building His objective solar system. This is the secret that ray meditation will eventually yield up to the wise student. These four points lay the foundation for all that follows.
I would here seek to put your mind at rest on the point as to whether the colours enumerated by me conflict with those enumerated by H. P. B. You will not find they [207] do, but both of us use blinds, and both of us use the same blinds as those who have eyes can see. A blind is not a blind when recognised, and I offer not the key. One or two hints however I may give:—
Complementary colours may be spoken of in occult books in terms of each other. Red may be called green and orange may be called blue. The key to the accurate interpretation of the term employed lies in the point of attainment of the unit under discussion. If speaking of the Ego one term may be used; if of the Personality, another; whilst the Monad or higher auric sphere may be described synthetically or in terms of the monadic ray.
The colours of higher or lower mind are at times spoken of in terms of the plane and not in terms of the ray involved.
Blue-indigo, being cosmically related, and not simply analogous, may be used interchangeably for purposes of blinding. Let me illustrate:—
The Lords of the Flame, in their work in connection with this planet, may be spoken of in terms of four colours:—
a. Indigo, as They are in the line of the Bodhisattva in connection with the Love or Wisdom Ray. The Lord of the World is a direct reflection of the second Aspect.
b. Blue, because of its alliance with indigo and its relationship to the auric egg; just as the Solar Logos is spoken of as the "Blue Logos" (literally indigo), so the colour of the perfected man, and of the auric envelope through which he manifests, will be predominantly blue.
c. Orange, which is the complementary to blue and which has direct connection with man as an intelligence. He is the custodian of the fifth principle [208] of manas in its relation to the totality of the personality.
d. Yellow, being the complement of indigo, and also the colour of buddhi, and on the direct line of the second Aspect.
I give the above illustration to demonstrate to you the great complexity involved by the use of blinds, yet also to show you that for those who have the seeing eye even the choice of these blinds is not arbitrary, but subject to rule and law.
It is therefore obvious to you why it is so often emphasised that in dealing with esoteric matters lower manas helps not. Only he who has the higher vision in process of development can hope to attain any measure of accurate discrimination. Just as the green of the activity of Nature forms the basis of the love aspect, or the indigo vibration of this love system, so will it be found upon the mental plane. More may not be said, but food for thought lies here. Orange also holds the secret for the Sons of Mind, and in the study of flame (which even exoterically blends all the colours) comes illumination.
In studying this question of colour and sound in meditation how best shall we divide our vast subject? Let us consider it under the following heads:
1. Enumeration of the colours and certain comment thereon.
2. Colours and the Law of Correspondences.
3. The effects of colours:—
a. On the bodies of the pupil.
b. On groups and on group work.
c. On the environment.
4. The application of colour:—
a. In meditation.
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b. For healing in meditation.
c. In constructive work.
5. The future use of colour.
Under these five heads we should be able to sum up all that has to be said at present. Perhaps little that I may say will be fundamentally new, for I give not aught which may not he found in that foundation book of H. P. B.'s. But in a newer presentation, and in the aggregation of material under one head may come enlightenment, and a further wise adjustment of knowledge. We will take up these five divisions later. Tonight I will only add a few further points to those already given.
Colours as manifested on the physical plane show at their crudest and harshest. Even the most exquisite of shades as seen by the physical eye is hard and harsh compared to those on the emotional plane, and as the finer matter of the other planes is contacted, the beauty, the softness and the exquisite quality of the different hues grow with each transition. When the ultimate and synthetic colour is reached the beauty transcends all conception.
Colours—such as we have now to do with in evolution—are the colours of light. Certain colours, which are the left-overs from the previous solar system, have been seized upon as modes of expression by that mysterious something which we call "cosmic evil" (in our ignorance so we term it). They are involutionary colours, and are media for the force of the Dark Brotherhood. With them the aspirant to the Path of Light has naught to do. They are such hues as brown, grey, the loathsome purple, and the lurid greens that are contacted in the dark places of the earth, on the emotional plane, and on the lower level of the mental plane. They are negations. Their tone is lower than the note of Nature. They are the offspring [210] of night, esoterically understood. They are the basis of glamour, of despair, and of corruption, and must be neutralised by the pupil of the Great Ones by the admission of the colours connected with light.
6. The synthesis of all the colours, as aforesaid, is the synthetic ray of indigo. This underlies all and absorbs all. But in the three worlds of human evolution the orange of flame irradiates all. This orange emanates from the fifth plane, underlies the fifth principle, and is the effect produced by the esoteric sounding of the occult words "Our God is a consuming Fire." These words apply to the manasic principle, that fire of intelligence or reason which the Lords of the Flame imparted, and which stimulates and guides the life of the active personality. It is that light of reason which guides a man through the Hall of Learning on into the Hall of Wisdom. In the latter hall its limitations are discovered, and that structure which knowledge has built (the causal body or the Temple of Solomon) is itself destroyed by the consuming fire. This fire consumes the gorgeous prison house which man has erected through many incarnations, and lets loose the inner light divine. Then the two fires merge, mount upwards and are lost in the Triadal Light.
Certain colours belong more exclusively to the human Hierarchy, others to the deva. In their ultimate blending and intermingling comes eventual perfection....
August 29th, 1920.
1. ENUMERATION OF THE COLOURS.
Tonight we must continue our study on colour and take up our first point.
In doing this I will make certain comments and give you certain data, impressing upon you nevertheless again the fact that I use the exoteric terms, and that the discussion [211] is but for suggestive purposes. The very use of the word "Colour" shews the intention, for, as you know, the definition of the word conveys the idea of concealment. Colour is therefore "that which does conceal." It is simply the objective medium by means of which the inner force transmits itself; it is the reflection upon matter of the type of influence that is emanating from the Logos, and which has penetrated to the densest part of His solar system. We recognise it as colour. The adept knows it as differentiated force, and the initiate of the higher degrees knows it as ultimate light, undifferentiated and undivided.
We enumerated the colours yesterday and in a certain order. I seek again to enumerate them thus, only this time reminding you that the one Ray of which all the others are but sub-rays, might be regarded as a circle of sevenfold light. Too apt is the student to picture seven bands, striking down athwart the five lower planes till they contact the earth plane and are absorbed into dense matter. Not so is it in fact. The seven colours may be regarded as a band of seven colours circling and continuously shifting and moving through the planes back to their originating source......These seven bands of colour emanate from the synthetic Ray. The indigo sub-ray of the indigo Ray forms the path of least resistance from the heart of densest matter back again to the source. The bands of colour form a circulating ring which, moving at different rates of vibration, passes through all the planes, circling down and up again. What I seek to bring out specially here is that these seven bands do not all move at the same rate, and herein lies hid the key to the complexity of the matter. Some move at a swifter rate of vibration than do some of the others. Hence—as they carry their corresponding monads with them—you have here [212] the answer to the question as to why some egos seem to make more rapid progress than do some others.
These coloured rings do not follow a straight unimpeded course, but interweave in a most curious manner, blending with each other, absorbing each other in stated cycles, and grouping themselves in groups of threes or fives, yet ever moving onwards. This is the real foundation to the diamond pattern upon the back of the serpent of wisdom. Three major lines of colour should be portrayed as forming the lattice work on the serpent's skin, with the four other colours interweaving. Some day some student of colour and of the Divine Wisdom should compile a large chart of the seven planes, and superimposed upon those planes should be placed a seven-coloured serpent of wisdom. If correctly drawn to scale some interesting geometrical patterns will be found as the circles cut across the planes, and some impression will be conveyed occularly of the complexity of the matter of the seven rays......
Certain brief statements seem to be in place:—
The true indigo is the blue of the vault of heaven on a moonless night. It is the culmination, and at the attainment by all of synthesis, the solar night will supervene. Hence the colour corresponds to what the sky nightly proclaims. Indigo absorbs.
Green is the basis of the activity of Nature. It was the synthetic colour for system 1, and is the foundation for the present manifested system. The note of Nature is green, and each time a man reviews the robe in which the earth is clad he is contacting some of the force that reached its consummation in system 1. Green stimulates and heals.
I seek to call your attention here to the fact that it is not yet permissible to give out the esoteric significance of [213]these colours, nor exact information as to their order and application. The dangers are too great, for in the right understanding of the laws of colour and in the knowledge (for instance) of which colour stands for a particular ray lies the power the adept wields.
COMMENTS ON THE COLOURS.
Certain colours are known and it might be well if we here enumerated them. The synthetic ray is indigo, or a deep hue. It is the Ray of Love and Wisdom, the great fundamental ray of this present solar system, and is one of the cosmic rays. This cosmic ray divides itself, for purposes of manifestation, into seven sub-rays, as follows:
1. Indigo...............and a colour not disclosed.
2. Indigo-indigo...The second sub-ray of Love and Wisdom. It finds its great expression on the second monadic plane, and its major manifestation in the monads of love.
3. Indigo-green.......The third sub-ray, the third major Ray of Activity or Adaptability. It is the basic ray of the second system. It is the great ray for the deva evolution.
4. Indigo-yellow...............The Harmony Ray.
5. Indigo-orange..The Ray of Concrete Knowledge.
6. Indigo...and a colour not disclosed. The Ray of Devotion.
7. Indigo-violet.....The Ray of Ceremonial Order.
Now you will note that I do not name the two colours, indigo-red and indigo-blue, nor do I apportion them to [214]certain rays or planes. It is not that it is not possible to do so, but it is the withholding of this information that creates the puzzle. Certain things you must always remember in dealing with these colours:
That I have given their exoteric names and application, and that of all I have given only two correspond with their esoteric application,—indigo and green. The Synthetic Ray and the Activity Ray are at this stage the only two of which you can be absolutely assured. One is the goal of endeavour, and the other is the foundation colour of Nature.
That the other five colours with which our fivefold evolution is concerned, change, intermingle, blend, and are not esoterically understood in the same sense as you might imagine from the use of the words, red, yellow, orange, blue and violet. Esoterically they scarcely resemble their names, and the names themselves are intended to blind and mislead.
That each of these three colours and the other two are only understood as yet through four of their lesser sub-rays. This is the fourth round and only four sub-rays of these colours have as yet been glimpsed. By remembering these three points undue emphasis will not be laid upon apparent information, and the student will wisely reserve his opinion.
Yellow is another of the colours that have come to us from system 1. The blending of blue and of yellow in that system had much to do with the production of activity. Yellow harmonises, it marks completion and fruition. Note how in autumn, when the processes of Nature have run their course and the cycle is complete, the yellow of the autumn is spread upon the landscape. Note also that when the sun pours unimpeded down the yellow of the harvest is also to be seen. So it is in the [215] life of the spirit. When the fourth plane of harmony or of buddhi is achieved, then is consummation. When the work of the personality is completed, and when the sun of the microcosm, the Ego, pours unimpeded down into the personal life, then comes fruition and harvest. The at-one-ment, or the harmonising has been made, and the goal has been reached. Blue and yellow blended result in green, and the synthetic blue or indigo (the love and wisdom aspect) dominates when the plane of harmony is reached. It leads then to the third plane of atma whereon the green of activity predominates......
August 3lst, 1920.
In continuing our study of colour and meditation, and our particular division in that study, I would—for your encouragement—point out that the part that falls to you is the reception and publication of these letters and of the imparted data, whereas the responsibility for that data rests with me. Even if you understand them not, and even if it seems to you that some of the data may be contradictory, I would suggest for your consideration that in the esoteric interpretation lies hid half the mystery, and the other half is concealed by the fact that all interpretation depends upon the standpoint of the interpreter, and the plane whereon his consciousness is working. The value of what I impart now consists in this:—that in the study of colour (which is one form of the study of vibration) comes the ability to understand personal vibration, to attune that vibration to the egoic one, and to synchronise it later with that of the Master. One of the main methods of effecting this synchronisation is meditation. When the intelligence grasps the scientific facts anent this subject, then comes the utilisation of these facts for the advancement of vibration, and the wise development of the colours necessitated.
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We dealt in my last letter with the four colours—blue, indigo, green, and yellow,—and in this primary grouping lies much of interest. We now come to a different group of colours, and one that falls naturally together, orange, red, and violet.
Orange. This colour is for our purpose the colour of the mental plane, the colour that marks burning; it is the symbol of flame, and curiously enough the colour that epitomises separation. But I would have you note that the occult orange is not exactly the colour that you understand by the term. Exoteric orange is a blend of yellow and red; esoteric orange is a purer yellow, and the red scarcely is seen at all. This orange comes in as a vibration set up by a cosmic ray, for you have to remember that this fifth ray (just as the fifth plane and the fifth principle) is closely allied to the cosmic ray of the intelligence, or to that activity aspect that found its great expression in the first solar system. The synthetic ray of that time was the green ray, and it found one of its closest alliances in the ray of orange, or mind or intelligence demonstrating through form. You get a correspondence in this solar system in the synthetic Ray of Love and Wisdom, and its close relationship to the fourth Ray of Harmony. It finds a demonstration in the triangle formed by their interaction, as follows:
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FIRST SOLAR SYSTEM
Green Ray
Third Aspect
Activity or Intelligence
Third sub-ray Fifth sub-ray
Activity Manas, mind
Green-green Green-orange
SECOND SOLAR SYSTEM
Indigo Ray
Second Aspect
Love and Wisdom
Second sub-ray Fourth sub-ray
Love and Wisdom Harmony
Indigo-indigo Indigo-yellow
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In the activity system you have the third aspect of universal mind or activity, demonstrating through the orange of the concrete sub-ray......adaptability through form—form which perfectly expresses that latent activity. Similarly in the second system of love, you have the love aspect demonstrating through the yellow of the ray of harmony or beauty—love expressing itself perfectly through unity, harmony or beauty. Note here the fact that I again use terms that are dependent for their correctness upon their exoteric or esoteric interpretation.
Therefore to return to what I earlier said, this orange comes in as a vibration set up by the earlier cosmic ray of activity in the earlier solar system; the force of orange (which is scientific apprehension by the intelligence) comes in to perfect the link between spirit and form, between life and the vehicles through which it is seeking expression.
We might apportion the great basic colours between the various terms that we use to express the totality of the manifested universe:
1.Life Aspect 2. Form Aspect 3. Intelligence Aspect
Spirit....................................... Matter.................................... Mind
Consciousness........................ Vehicle................................... Vitality
Self......................................... Not- Self................................. Relation between
Ray Ray Ray
2. Love and Wisdom............. 1. Power or Will..................... 3. Activity or Adaptability
4. Harmony............................ 7. Ceremonial Law................. 5. Concrete Knowledge
6. Devotion............................ 5. Concrete Knowledge
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This is but one of the ways in which the rays may be apportioned and considered as influences having direct effect upon the evolving life, or upon the form in which it evolves by means of that third factor, the intelligence. These three divisions make the three points of a cosmic triangle:—
and the current of the rays playing macrocosmically between the three has its microcosmic correspondence in the fire of kundalini (awakened through meditation) playing in accurate geometrical form between the three major centres:—
All the seven rays interact between the life, the form and the inner mind, and are in their essence themselves those three. They are life, they are form, they are intelligence, and their totality is the manifested universe. All seven at different times play on the different aspects.
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The most important interaction exists between:—
a. The Love-Wisdom Ray and the Harmony Ray, as it does between the monadic plane and the buddhic.
b. The Power Ray and that of Ceremonial Law, just as it does between the first and the seventh planes.
c. The Activity or Adaptability Ray and that of Concrete Knowledge or Science, just as it does between the third plane of atma and the fifth plane of mind. Green and orange were allied in the first solar system, and continue their alliance here. I have opened up for all true students vast realms of thought.
In the relationship between indigo, blue and yellow lies hid a secret.
In the relationship between green, orange and red another is revealed.
In the relationship between blue, red, and violet lies still another mystery.
The student, who, by using his intuition, apprehends these three mysteries has found the key to the greater cycle and holds the key to evolutionary development. Remember, therefore, when studying the microcosm that the same relationship will be found, and will open the portal to the "Kingdom of God within."
Red is for all apparent purposes one of the most difficult colours to consider. It ranks as undesirable. Why? Because it has been considered as the colour of kama, or evil desire, and the picture of the dark and lurid reds in the emotional body of the undeveloped man rises ever to one's vision. Yet—at some distant time—red will be the basis of a solar system, and in the perfect merging of red, green and blue will come eventually the completed [221]work of the Logos and the consummation of the pure white light.
The activity system was green.
The love system is blue.
The power system will be red.
The result of merging red, blue, and green is—as you know—white, and the Logos will then have esoterically "washed His robes and made them white in the blood," just as the microcosm, in a lesser sense, does in process of evolution.
Violet. In a curious way the violet Ray of Ceremonial Law or Order is a synthetic ray when manifested in the three worlds. Just as the synthetic Ray of Love and Wisdom is the synthesis of all the life forces, so in the three worlds the seventh ray synthesises all that has to do with form. On the first plane, life in its purest, highest, undifferentiated synthetic aspect; on the seventh plane, form in its densest, grossest, most differentiated aspect; one is summed up in the synthetic Ray of Love, whilst the other is worked upon by the seventh.
A synthesis too is found in the fact that through the medium of violet the deva and human kingdoms can find a place of contact. Esoterically violet is white. In the blending of these two kingdoms the seven Heavenly Men attain perfection and completeness, and are esoterically considered to be white, the synonym of perfection.
Another point of synthesis is the fact that through the dominance of this seventh ray comes a point of merging between the dense physical and the etheric bodies. This is of paramount importance in the macrocosm, and to the student of meditation. It is necessary to effect this merging and alignment before the transmission of the teaching to the dense physical brain can in any way be [222] considered accurate. It has a close bearing upon the alignment of the centres.
I have sought in the above remarks solely to indicate lines of thought which, if followed closely, may lead to surprising results. By the study of colours and the planes, by the study of colour and its effect and relationship to the life side, and by the study of the form side of the mind, will come much of value to the student of meditation, provided always he does three things:
1. That he seeks to find the esoteric colours and their right application to the planes and centres, to the bodies through which he manifests, and to the bodies through which the Logos manifests (the seven sacred planets); to the rounds and to the races, and to the cycles of his own individual life. When he can do this he holds in his hands the key to all knowledge.
2. That he endeavours to make practical application of all indicated truth to his personal life of service in the three worlds, and that he tries to conform in his methods of work to the methods demonstrated by the Logos through the seven rays or influences. By this I mean that, through meditation, he brings his life systematically and in ordered occult cycles under those seven great influences, and so produces an ordered beauty in his manifestation of the Ego.
3. That he remembers ever that perfection, as we know it, is only partial and not real, and that even perfection itself—as grasped by the mind of man, is but illusion, and that only the next logoic manifestation will reveal the ultimate glory in view. As long as there is differentiated colour there is imperfection. Remember, colour as we know it is the realisation by the man using a fifth root-race body in the fourth round on the fourth chain, of a vibration that contacts the human eye. What then will [223] colour be as visioned by a man of the seventh round in a seventh root-race body? Even then a whole range of colours of wondrous beauty will be outside and beyond his comprehension. The reason being that only two great aspects of logoic life are being thoroughly demonstrated and the third will be but partially revealed, waiting for the still greater "Day be with us" to flash forth in perfect radiance. This word "radiance" has an occult meaning worthy of your consideration.
September 3rd, 1920.
In the steady adherence to the next duty and the planting of the foot firmly on the next step ahead lies the open road to the Master, and the incidental clearing away of all difficulties. In the formulating of high mental concepts, and the expressing of them on the physical plane lies that development of the mental body that permits of an ever greater influx of the life from above. In the stabilising of the emotions, and in the transference of desire from that plane to the buddhic comes the ability to reflect truly the higher point of view. In the disciplined, purified physical body comes the capacity to work out that which the inner man knows. If these three things are attended to, the law can then work and emancipation be hastened. People ask themselves, how does the law work? What is our part in the carrying out of action that sets the law loose in the individual life? Simply adherence, as stated above, to the highest duty and an ordering of the personality life so that that duty may be perfectly achieved.
THE ESOTERIC AND EXOTERIC COLOURS.
Today our subject is the second one in our letter on the use of colour and deals with the law of correspondences[224] and of colour......The esoteric meaning of the exoteric colours is not yet wholly imparted, as I have already told you. Some of these meanings have been given out by H.P.B. but their significance has not been sufficiently apprehended. One hint I give for your wise consideration. Some of the information given in The Secret Doctrine anent colour and sound concerns the first solar system and some concerns a portion of the second solar system. The distinction has naturally not been apprehended, but as a key fact for studying in the newer school, the revelation will be great. In this statement as to the esoteric significance of the colours I would have you now tabulate (even though it can be found in The Secret Doctrine), in order to form the basis of such later communications as I may seek to impart.
Exoteric Esoteric
Purple Blue
Yellow Indigo
Cream Yellow
White Violet
Only four as yet can be communicated, but if rightly understood they hold the key to the present fourth round, and to its history. This being the fourth chain and the fourth round you will note therefore how in the number four lies the history of the present. Especially would I urge you who are the teachers and students of the coming generation to ponder upon the significance of white being esoterically violet. It has special application now in the coming in of the violet ray, the seventh ray being one of the three major rays in this round; it wields power in ratio to the four, on the four and under the four.
The esoteric colours of the exoteric red, green and orange may not yet be imparted to the general public, [225]though students and accepted chelas, whose discrimination can be trusted, can attain the necessary knowledge with effort.
I would here like to point out certain other considerations which can be best dealt with by a brief consideration of the law of analogy and correspondence. We might therefore consider the following points:—
a. Wherein the microcosm and the macrocosm correspond.
b. The basic correspondences.
c. Colour in the microcosm and in the macrocosm.
Let us briefly take up each point, for in the right apprehension of the law lies the ability to think esoterically, and wrest the inner meaning out of the external happenings.
MICROCOSMIC AND MACROCOSMIC CORRESPONDENCE.
The relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm is accurate, and exists not only broadly but likewise in detail. This is a fact to be grasped and worked out. As knowledge increases and progress is made, and as the ability to meditate results in the faculty of transmitting from the higher Triad to the Personality, via the causal, then these facts will be ever more clearly demonstrated in detail, and perfect comprehension will ensue. "As above, so below" is a truism glibly repeated but little realised. What is found above and what will consequently be developing below?
Above will be found Will, Love and Activity, or Power, Wisdom and Intelligence, the terms that we apply to the three aspects of divine manifestation. Below will be found these three in process of appearing:—
a. The Personality expresses active intelligence.
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b. The Ego expresses love or wisdom.
c. The Monad expresses power or will.
You have in the three worlds of the Personality:—
a. The physical, expressing a reflection of the activity aspect.
b. The astral, expressing a reflection of the love or wisdom aspect.
c. The mental, expressing a reflection of the will or power aspect.
What have you for the colours of those three bodies, exoterically described?
a. The violet of the physical as expressed by the etheric.
b. The rose or red of the astral.
c. The orange of the mental.
What have you in the Triad, or the world of the threefold Ego?
a. Higher manas, expressing the activity or intelligence aspect.
b. Buddhi, expressing the love or wisdom aspect.
c. Atma, expressing the will or power aspect.
What again are the colours of those bodies exoterically described?
a. The blue of the higher manasic levels.
b. The yellow of the buddhic level.
c. The green of the atmic level.
They are in the process of transmutation. You have to effect the corresponding change of colour from the lower to the higher. Couple up this information that I have here imparted with that given in an earlier letter on the transference of polarisation.
There is a direct correspondence between:—
a. The violet of the etheric level and the blue of the higher mental.
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b. The rose of the astral and the yellow of the buddhic.
c. The orange of the mental and the green of the atmic.
The secret of it all is to be found in the application of the occult laws of meditation.
Again you can shift the whole range of colour higher, and in the Monad work out the correspondence.
a. The green of the third aspect.
b. The synthetic blue or indigo of the second aspect.
c. The red of the first aspect.
I would point out here that as you return to the centre of systemic evolution the nomenclature of these colours is most misleading. The red, for instance, has no resemblance to that termed red or rose on the lower plane. The red, the green and the indigo of these high levels are to all intents and purposes new colours of a beauty and translucence inconceivable. If justly interpreted, you have here a hint of the correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm.
The colours exoterically have to do with the form. The forces or qualities which those colours conceal and hide have to do with the life, evolving within those forms. By the use of meditation the bridge is formed which connects these two. Meditation is the expression of the intelligence that links life and form, the self and the not-self, and in time and in the three worlds the process of this connection eventuates on the plane of mind which links the higher and the lower. The correspondence will always be found perfect. Therefore through meditation will come that knowledge which will effect three things:—
1. Give the inner significance of the exoteric colour.
2. Build in the qualities that those colours veil.
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3. Effect the necessary transmutation of the colours from the Personality to the Triad, and later from the Triad to the Monad.
The causal body acts as a synthesis of these colours in the life of the reincarnating Ego, just as the synthetic ray blends all the colours in logoic manifestation. Endeavour to keep clear in your own mind......that colours are the expressions of force or quality. They hide or veil the abstract qualities of the Logos, which qualities are reflected in the microcosm in the three worlds as virtues or faculties. Therefore, just as the seven colours hide qualities in the Logos, so these virtues demonstrate in the life of the personality and are brought forward objectively through the practice of meditation; thus each life will be seen as corresponding to a colour. Ponder on this.
THE BASIC CORRESPONDENCES.
It is in the study of these correspondences in the different departments of the manifested universe, and the application of these colours to their adjusted portion that the beauty of the synthetic whole and the illuminating of the microcosmic life ensues. Let us enumerate or tabulate in broad general fashion, leaving the detailed working out to the student of meditation. More at this juncture is not possible.
1. The threefold solar system.
The threefold evolving jiva.
The three aspects of the Logos.
The threefold Monad.
The spiritual Triad, the Ego.
The threefold Personality.
The three worlds of human evolution.
The three persons of the Deity.
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2. The four Lipika Lords.
The four Maharajahs.
The fourfold lower man, the quaternary.
3. The five planes of human evolution.
The five senses.
The fivefold department of the Mahachohan.
The five kingdoms of nature.
a. The mineral kingdom.
b. The vegetable kingdom.
c. The animal kingdom.
d. The human kingdom.
e. The spiritual or superhuman kingdom.
The fifth principle of manas.
4. The seven rays or hierarchies.
The seven colours.
The seven planes of manifestation.
The seven Kumaras.
The seven principles of man.
The seven centres.
The seven sacred planets.
The seven chains.
The seven globes.
The seven rounds.
The seven root-races and subraces.
The seven initiations.
What I seek to emphasise in the above table is that to the adept the correspondence of all these is perfectly known and exists in terms of consciousness, in terms of form, and in terms of intelligence. He knows it,—if I may so express it,—in terms of colour when dealing with form; in terms of sound when dealing with the life side, and in terms of vitality when dealing with intelligence, or the activity aspect. The above statement will repay much [230]earnest thought; it contains a statement of occult fact. According to the three lines of approach as dealt with in our preceding letter, will be the use of the terms as above described.
COLOUR IN THE MICROCOSM AND IN THE MACROCOSM.
Here lies much of difficulty owing to the process of constant mutation. Colour in the microcosm is subject to the following factors:—
1. The factor of the ray of the Ego.
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