285. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - 03. INTRODUCTORY POSTULATES - A. BAILEY

INTRODUCTORY POSTULATES

The teaching which is given in this Treatise on Cosmic Fire might be formulated in the following terms. These postulates are simply extensions of the three fundamentals to be found in the Proem in the first volume of theSecret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky. 

Students are recommended to study them carefully; in this way their understanding of the Treatise will be greatly aided.

I. There is one Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which, antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression.

The manifested Universe is contained within this Absolute Reality and is a conditioned symbol of it.

In the totality of this manifested Universe, three aspects are to be conceived.

1. The First Cosmic Logos, impersonal and unmanifested, the precursor of the Manifested.

2. The Second Cosmic Logos, Spirit-Matter, Life, the Spirit of the Universe.

3. The Third Cosmic Logos, Cosmic Ideation, the Universal World-Soul.

From these basic creative principles, in successive gradations there issue in ordered sequence the numberless Universes comprising countless Manifesting Stars and Solar Systems.

Each Solar System is the manifestation of the energy and life of a great Cosmic Existence, Whom we call, for lack of a better term, a Solar Logos.

This Solar Logos incarnates, or comes into manifestation, through the medium of a solar system.

This solar system is the body, or form, of this cosmic Life, and is itself triple.

This triple solar system can be described in terms of three aspects, or (as the Christian theology puts it) in terms of three Persons.

ELECTRIC FIRE, or SPIRIT.
1st Person	Father. Life. Will. Purpose. Positive energy.
SOLAR FIRE, OR SOUL.
2nd Person	Son. Consciousness. Love-Wisdom. Equilibrised energy.
FIRE BY FRICTION, or Body, or Matter.
3rd Person	Holy Spirit. Form. Active Intelligence. Negative energy.

Each of these three is also triple in manifestation, making therefore

a. The nine Potencies or Emanations.

b. The nine Sephiroth.

c. The nine Causes of Initiation.

These, with the totality of manifestation or the Whole, produce the ten (10) of perfect manifestation of the perfect MAN.

These three aspects of the Whole are present in every form.

a. The solar system is triple, manifesting through the three above mentioned.

b. A human being is equally triple, manifesting as Spirit, Soul and Body, or Monad, Ego and Personality.

c. The atom of the scientist is also triple, being composed of a positive nucleus, the negative electrons, and the totality of the outer manifestation, the result of the relation of the other two.

The three aspects of every form are inter-related and susceptible of intercourse, because

a. Energy is in motion and circulates.

b. All forms in the solar system form part of the Whole, and are not isolated units.

c. This is the basis of brotherhood, of the communion of saints, and of astrology.

These three aspects of God, the solar Logos, and the Central Energy or Force (for the terms are occultly synonymous) demonstrate through seven centres of force,—three major centres and four minor. These seven centres of logoic Force are themselves so constituted that they form corporate Entities. They are known as

a. The seven planetary Logoi.

b. The seven Spirits before the Throne.

c. The seven Rays.

d. The seven Heavenly Men.

The Seven Logoi embody seven types of differentiated force, and in this Treatise are known under the names of Lords of the Rays. The names of the Rays are

Ray I	Ray of Will or Power	1st Aspect
Ray II	Ray of Love-Wisdom	2nd Aspect
Ray III	Ray of Active Intelligence	3rd Aspect

These are the major Rays.

Ray IV	Ray of Harmony, Beauty and Art.
Ray V	Ray of Concrete Knowledge or Science.
Ray V	Ray of Devotion or of Abstract Idealism.
Ray VII	Ray of Ceremonial Magic or Order.

II. There is a basic law called the Law of Periodicity.

1. This law governs all manifestation, whether it is the manifestation of a solar Logos through the medium of a solar system, or the manifestation of a human being through the medium of a form. This law controls likewise in all the kingdoms of nature.

2. There are certain other laws in the system which are linked with this one; some of them are as follows:

a. The Law of Economy......the law governing matter, the third aspect.

b. The Law of Attraction...the law governing soul, the second aspect.

c. The Law of Synthesis....the law governing spirit, or the first aspect.

3. These three are cosmic laws. There are seven systemic laws, which govern the manifestation of our solar Logos:

a. The Law of Vibration.

b. The Law of Cohesion.

c. The Law of Disintegration.

d. The Law of Magnetic Control.

e. The Law of Fixation.

f. The Law of Love.

g. The Law of Sacrifice and Death.

4. Each of these Laws manifests primarily on one or other of the seven planes of the solar system.

5. Each law sweeps periodically into power and each plane has its period of manifestation and its period of obscuration.

6. Every manifested life has its three great cycles:

Birth	Life	Death.
Appearance	growth	disappearance.

Involution	evolution	obscuration.
Inert motion	activity	rhythmic motion.
Tamasic life	rajasic life	sattvic life.

7. Knowledge of the cycles involves knowledge of number, sound and colour.

8. Full knowledge of the mystery of the cycles is the possession only of the perfected adept.

III. All souls are identical with the Oversoul.

1. The Logos of the solar system is the Macrocosm. Man is the Microcosm.

2. Soul is an aspect of every form of life from a Logos to an atom.

3. This relationship between all souls and the Oversoul constitutes the basis for the scientific belief in Brotherhood. Brotherhood is a fact in nature, not an ideal.

4. The Law of Correspondences will explain the details of this relationship. This Law of Correspondences or of Analogy is the interpretive law of the system, and explains God to man.

5. Just as God is the Macrocosm for all the kingdoms in Nature, so man is the Macrocosm for all the sub-human kingdoms.

6. The goal for the evolution of the atom is self-consciousness as exemplified in the human kingdom.

The goal for the evolution of man is group consciousness, as exemplified by a planetary Logos. 

The goal for the planetary Logos is God consciousness, as exemplified by the solar Logos.

7. The solar Logos is the sum-total of all the states of consciousness within the solar system.