318. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - 36. DIVISION D - I. THOUGHT FORMS - Part 2 - A. BAILEY

DIVISION D - THOUGHT ELEMENTALS AND FIRE ELEMENTALS

I. THOUGHT FORMS - Part 2

As we do this, we shall gradually get a broad general idea of how this system of ours (the thought-form of the Logos), was gradually built up, how it is controlled and held together, and how numerous and intricate are the interrelations.  Certain fundamental hypotheses are assumed, which must form the background for all we would say.  We must assume first that a Builder, or some Creative Mind, is working to bring about an ordered production, and is seeking to manifest through a demonstrable objective.  The objective universe is but the product of some subjective mind.  Next we must posit that the material for the building of this universe lay ready to the hand of the Builder, and that this material itself is the fruit of some previous system, all that is left of some past consummated product.  Given, therefore, the Builder and the material, we must next accede [573] to the proposition that this Builder proceeds with His building under some definite laws that guide His choice of material, that control the form that He erects, and that indicate to Him the process to be followed in the consummating of His idea.  We must not forget that three great symbols stand, in the mind of the Logos, for each of His three systems, that the whole exists for Him as a concrete thought-form, for He is learning to manipulate the matter of the cosmic mental plane on concrete levels, in the same way that man is working on the laws of thought, and on the building of thought-forms.

It is impossible to do more than sense the symbols of the systems past and present.  Perhaps if we could visualise a swastika of ten arms revolving at right angles, of a radiant green colour, all the ten arms emanating from a central blazing sun, we might have some idea of the thought-form that formed the basis of System I, the activity system.  The basic thought-form for the second system embodies the green swastika of the first manifestation, and adds to it concentric and interlaced circles in blue, in groups of three, linked by one large circle.  Both symbols are, of course, in the higher dimensions.  The symbol for the next system is unknown.  After grasping and conceding these three basic ideas, we can now proceed to the working out of the laws of the system on the seven planes, remembering always that these seven laws hold good on the numerically corresponding subplane on each plane.  Let me briefly illustrate:

The fourth law, Magnetic Control, for instance, holds sway on the fourth subplane of each plane, in the fourth round, and in the fourth root-race specially.  We shall then have the correspondence as follows:

4th Law	Magnetic Control.
4th Ray	Harmony or beauty.
4th Plane	The buddhic.

[574]

4th Subplane	Buddhic Magnetic Control.
4th Round	Dense Physical Magnetism, controlling sex manifestation on the physical plane, and inspired by astral desire, the reflection of the buddhic.
4th Root-Race	The Atlantean, in which the above qualities specially demonstrated.

1. The Law of Vibration.--This is the law of the first plane, and it governs all the atomic subplanes of each plane.  It marks the beginning of the work of the Logos, the first setting in motion of mulaprakriti.  On each plane the vibration of the atomic subplane sets in motion the matter of that plane.  It is the key measure.  We might sum up the significance of this law in the words, "light" or "fire."  It is the law of fire; it governs the transmutation of differentiated colours back to their synthesis.  It controls the breaking up of the One into the seven, and then the reabsorption back into the One.  It is really the basic law of evolution, which necessitates involution.  It is analogous to the first movement the Logos made to express Himself through this solar system.  He uttered the Sound, a threefold Sound, one sound for each of His three systems, and started a ripple on the ocean of space.  The Sound grows in volume as time progresses, and when it has reached its full volume, when it is fully completed, it forms one of the notes in the major cosmic chord.  Each note has six subtones, which, with the first, make the seven; the Law of Vibration, therefore, comprises eighteen lesser vibrations and three major, making the twenty-one of our three systems.  Two multiplied by nine (2x9), makes the necessary eighteen, which is the key number of our love system.  Twenty-seven holds hid the mystery of the third system.

On the path of involution, the seven great Breaths or Sounds drove to the atomic subplane of each plane, and [575]there the basic vibration repeated in its own little world the method of logoic vibration, giving rise itself to six subsidiary breaths.  We get the same correspondence here as we did in the matter of the Rays, for we shall find that the lines of vibration are 1-2-4-6.  Logically this would be so, for involution is negative, receptive, and corresponds to the feminine pole, just as the abstract rays were 2-4-6.  This truth requires meditation, and an attempt to think abstractly; it is linked to the fact that the whole second system is receptive and feminine; it concerns the evolution of consciousness of the psyche.

On the path of evolution this law controls the positive aspect of the process.  All is rhythm and movement, and when all that evolves on each plane attains the vibration of the atomic subplane, then the goal is reached.  When, therefore, we have achieved the first main vibrations, and have perfected vehicles for all evolutions (not merely the human), of fivefold atomic subplane matter, then we have completed the round of evolution for this system.  In the coming system we shall add the next two vibrations that complete the scale, and our Logos will then have completed His building.

The fourth Creative Hierarchy, that of the human Monads, has to learn to vibrate positively, but the devas proceed along the line of least resistance; they remain negative, taking the line of acquiescence, of falling in with the law.  Only the human Monads, and only in the three worlds, follow the positive line, and by resistance, struggle, battle and strife learn the lesson of divine acquiescence.  Yet, owing to the increase of friction through that very struggle, they progress with a relatively greater rapidity than the devas.  They have need to do this, for they have lost ground to make up.

The Law of Vibration is the law of progress, of movement and of rotation.  On the seventh or lowest plane, the vibration is slow, clogged and lethargic from the [576] standpoint of the first, and it is in learning to vibrate or to rotate more rapidly, that we mount the path of return.  It involves, therefore necessarily, the building in of finer matter into the vehicles, both deva and human.  In this second system, on the five planes of human evolution, we have the five vehicles—physical, astral, mental, buddhic and atmic—which have all to be purified, rarefied, intensified and refined.  In the two lowest, the physical and the astral, only matter of the five higher subplanes, of their respective planes, is to be found, for the two lowest subplanes are too low for deva or human bodies; they were dominated in the first system.  The mental body is the first in which we find matter of all the subplanes.  The aim of evolution for us is love dominated by intelligence—or intelligence dominated by love, for the interaction will be complete.  The human race came into the chain at a point where it naturally took bodies of the fifth astral and physical subplanes, and we can see here an analogy to the coming into the fourth root-race of the more advanced Egos.

2. The Law of Cohesion.—This is one of the branch laws of the cosmic Law of Attraction.  It is interesting to notice how this law demonstrates in this Love-System in a threefold manner:

On the plane of the Monad, as the law of cohesion, the law of birth, if we might use that term, resulting in the appearance of the Monads in their seven groups.  Love the source, and the Monad of love, the result.

On the plane of buddhi, as the law of magnetic control.  It shows itself as the love-wisdom aspect, irradiating the ego, and eventually gathering to itself the essence of all experience, garnered, via the Ego, through the personality lives, and controlled throughout from the plane of buddhi.  Magnetism, and the capacity to show love, are occultly synonymous.

On the astral plane, as love demonstrating through the [577] personality.  All branches of the law of attraction, demonstrating in this system, show themselves as a force that ingathers, that tends to coherence, that results in adhesion, and leads to absorption.  All these terms are needed to give a general idea of the basic quality of this law.

This law is one of the most important of the systemic laws, if it is permissible to differentiate at all; we might term it the law of coalescence.

On the path of involution it controls the primal gathering together of molecular matter, beneath the atomic subplane.  It is the basis of the attractive quality that sets in motion the molecules and draws them into the needed aggregations.  It is the measure of the subplanes.  The atomic subplane sets the rate of vibration; the Law of Cohesion might be said to fix the colouring of each plane.  It is the same thing in other words.  We need always to remember in discussing these abstract fundamentals that words but dim the meaning, and serve but as suggestions and not as elucidations.

In manifestation the cosmic Law of Attraction controls all these subsidiary laws, just as the Law of Synthesis governs pralaya and obscuration, and the law of Economy deals with the general working out, along the line of least resistance, of the logoic scheme.  During manifestation we have most to do with the Law of Attraction, and it will be found, on study, that each subsidiary law is but a differentiation of that law.

This second law of the system governs specially the second plane, and the second subplane on each plane.  It might be interesting to work this out and trace the underlying correspondence, bearing in mind always that all that can be done is to point out certain things, and indicate lines of thought that may lead, if pursued, to illumination.

Ray Two and Law Two are closely allied, and it is [578] interesting to realise that it is on the second subplane of the monadic plane that the majority of the Monads have their habitat; there are a few Monads of power or will on the atomic subplane, but their numbers are not many, and they simply form a nucleus in evolutionary preparation for System III, the power system.  The majority of the Monads are on the second subplane and they are the Monads of love; on the third subplane can be found quite a number of the Monads of activity, but numerically not as many as the Monads of love.  They are the failures of System I.

There is a direct channel, as we know, between the atomic subplane on each plane.  This is more or less true of each subplane and its corresponding higher subplane numerically, and there is, therefore, a direct and quite expansive channel between the second subplane on all planes, enabling the Monads of love to link up with peculiar facility with all their vehicles when composed of second subplane matter.  After initiation, the causal body is found on the second subplane of the mental plane, and monadic control then commences.

The Monads of love return (after life in the three worlds and the attainment of the goal) to their originating second subplane, that being also the goal for the monads of activity who have to develop the love aspect.  In the five worlds of human evolution both groups of Monads have to control atomic and molecular matter as well and this is done by the utilisation to the full (as full as may be possible in this second system), of the will or power aspect.

The "Kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force," or by Will or power.  It is not Will, as we shall know it in the final system but it is Will as known in this system, and it has to be utilised to the uttermost by the evolving Monad in his struggle to control each atomic subplane.  The Monads of power have [579] a much greater struggle, and hence the fact so often apparent that people on what we term the power Ray, have so often a hard time, and are so frequently unlovable.  They have to build in on all the six planes the love aspect, which is not prominent in their development.

A hint has been given us as to the approximate figures governing the Monads:

35 Thousand million Monads of love

20 Thousand million Monads of activity

5 Thousand million Monads of power

making a total of sixty thousand million human Monads.  The Monads of power, though in manifestation, are as yet very rare in incarnation.  They came in, in large numbers, at the close of the moon chain, and will come in again in full numerical strength in the last two rounds of the present chain.

We might now briefly trace the correspondence in the second round and the second root-race, showing how the Law of Cohesion was specially active at these periods.  A condition of nebulosity of a pronouncedly volatile condition, marked the first round and race.  Movement, and the accompaniment of heat, is their distinguishing quality, much as in System I, but in the second round, and also in the second race, a definite cohesion is noticeable, and form is more clearly recognisable in outline.  Cohesion is also plainly to be seen as the distinguishing feature of our present system, the second.  It is the aim of all things to unite; approximation, unification, a simultaneous attraction between two or more is ever to be seen as a governing principle, whether we look at the sex problem, or whether it demonstrates in business organisation, in scientific development, in manufacture, or in politics.  Well might we say that the At-one-ment of the many separated is the keynote of our system.

One more suggestion may be given:  On the path of [580] involution this law governs the gathering together and the segregation of matter; on the evolutionary path it controls the building of forms.  It has been stated that the matter of the lowest subplane forms the basis of a new plane; therefore we have on the atomic subplane a point where merging takes place, which makes it a plane of synthesis, just as in the same way the first or logoic plane is the plane of synthesis for this system.  There takes place the merging of evolution into an inconceivably higher state.

3. The Law of Disintegration.—This is the law that governs the destruction of the form in order that the indwelling life may shine forth in fullness.  It is another aspect of the Law of Cohesion—the reverse side (if one might so express it), and is just as much a part of the divine plan as that of attraction.  It is one of the laws that ends with the solar system, for the great laws of attraction, cohesion and love last on into that which is to come.  The Law of Disintegration has its correspondence in cosmic law, but it is almost incomprehensible to us.  The Law of Economy holds the key to this law.  When the Monad has circled through all disintegrating forms, and has achieved the sixth Initiation, it is resolved into its primal monadic source, and the five lesser sheaths are destroyed.  Later on the Monads themselves are synthesised, not disintegrated.  This law controls only from the third plane, and ceases action in this particular fashion when the third plane is transcended.

This law is one of the most difficult for the race to understand.  Some of its workings (those on the path of evolution), can be seen and somewhat comprehended, but on the path of involution, or of construction, the working out of the law is not so apparent to the superficial observer.

On the path of involution it controls the process of the [581] breaking up of group souls; it governs the periods when the permanent triads are transferred from one form to another; it works through the great world cataclysms, and we need to remember that it governs, not only the physical plane catastrophes (as we erroneously term them), but the corresponding cataclysms on the astral plane, and the lower levels of the mental plane.  It governs physical plane disruptions, especially those affecting the mineral world; it controls the disintegration, on the astral plane, of thought-forms; it dissolves the astral vehicle when left behind, and the mental likewise.  The dissipation of the etheric double is the result of its working.

Again we can correlate this law with that of Attraction, for the two interact upon each other.  This law breaks up the forms, and the Law of Attraction draws back to primal sources the material of those forms, prior to rebuilding them anew.

On the path of evolution the effects of this law are well known, not only in the destruction of the discarded vehicles touched upon above, but in the breaking up of the forms in which great ideals are embodied,—the forms of political control, the forms in which nature itself evolves, apart from those in which individual consciousness manifests, the great religious thought-forms, the philanthropic concepts and all the forms which science, art, and religion take at any one particular time.  All eventually break under the working of this law.

Its workings are more apparent to the average human mind in its manifestations at this time on the physical plane.  We can trace the connection between the atmic and the physical plane (demonstrating on the lower plane as the law of sacrifice and death), but its effect can be seen on all the five planes as well.  It is the law that destroys the final sheath that separates the perfected Jiva.  It has not yet been fully brought out [582] (for the law of correspondences has been little studied, nor is it readily apparent) that on the third subplane of each plane this law works in a special manner, causing a very definite breaking-up of something that is tending to separation.  Like all that works in the system, the process is slow; the work of disintegration begins on the third subplane, and is finished on the second, when the Law of Disintegration comes under the influence of the Law of Cohesion, the disintegration having effected that which makes cohesion possible.  We can see an illustration of this on the mental plane.  The causal body of the average man is on the third subplane, and as a man becomes fit for the merging into the Triad, that causal body has to be discarded and done away with.  Under the Law of Sacrifice and Death, the disintegration is begun on the third level and is consummated on the second, when the man merges with the Triad, preparatory to the final merging with the Monad.

Another illustration of the same thing can be found on the physical plane.  When a man has reached the point where he can sense and see the fourth ether, he is ready for the burning away of the etheric web, which has its location midway between the third and second subplane matter which composes his physical body.  When this disintegration is effected, the man merges with his astral vehicle, establishing a consequent continuity of consciousness.  This correspondence, and this disintegration, can be traced on each plane, till finally on the atmic level on its third subplane comes the final disintegration, which results in a merging with the monadic consciousness.

The third Ray, that of adaptability or activity, has a close connection with this law.  It is through activity (or the adaptation of matter to need), that the form comes into being; through activity it is employed, and through that very adaptation it becomes a perfect form, [583] and at the moment of perfection loses its usefulness; it crystallises, breaks, and the evolving life escapes to find for itself new forms of greater capacity and adequacy.  It is so in the life of the reincarnating Ego; it is so in the rounds and races of humanity; it is so in the solar system; it is so in all cosmic processes.

In the third chain, the moon chain, we have an interesting related fact.  On the moon chain the point of attainment for the individual was the arhat or fourth Initiation,—the initiation which marks the final breaking with the three worlds, and the disintegration of the egoic body.

At the end of the third root-race came the first of the great cataclysms that broke the race form, and inaugurated a new one, for it was the first definitely human race as we now know it.  The analogy will be found to hold good no matter from what angle the subject may be studied.  In the third subrace a correspondence can be traced, though it is not yet apparent to the circumscribed vision which characterises most of us.  Close proximity to an effect often veils a cause.

4. The law of Magnetic Control. —This law is the basic law controlling the Spiritual Triad.  Through this law, the force of evolution drives the Ego to progress through the cycle of reincarnation back to union with his kind.  Through separation he finds himself, and then—driven by the indwelling buddhic or Christ principle—transcends himself, and finds himself again in all selves.  This law holds the evolving lower self in a coherent form.  It controls the Ego in the causal body, in the same way that the Logos controls the Monad on the second plane.  It is the law of the buddhic plane; the [584] Master is one Who can function on the buddhic levels, and Who has magnetic control in the three worlds.  The lower is always controlled from above, and the effect the buddhic levels have on the three lower is paramount, though that is scarcely yet conceded by our thinkers.  It is the Law of Love, in the three worlds, that holds all together, and that draws all upward.  It is the demonstration, in the Triad, of the Law of Attraction.

On the path of involution this law works with the permanent atoms in the causal body.  It is the buddhic principle, and its relation with the lower permanent atom of the Triad is the mainspring of the life of the Ego.  On the path of descent it has much to do with the placing of the permanent atoms, but this matter is very abstruse, and the time has not yet come for further elucidation.  At the third outpouring, (in which the fourth kingdom, the human, was formed), it was this Law of Magnetic Control that effected the juncture of astro-animal man, and the descending Monad, using the spark of mind as the method of at-one-ment.  Again we can see how it works.  The monadic plane, the buddhic plane, and the astral plane are all three closely allied, and we find there the line of least resistance.  Hence the facility with which the mystic contacts the buddhic and even higher planes.  The lines of least resistance in the three systems are:

System I.  Physical, mental, and atmic.  The atmic was the highest point of achievement in that system.

II. Astral, buddhic and monadic.

III. Mental, atmic and logoic.

Note the correspondence therefore to be seen between the fourth kingdom and the working of this, the fourth law.  It is of vital moment in this fourth chain.

As regards human evolution, this fourth law is of prime importance at this time.  The aim of human endeavour [585]is both to be controlled by this law, and likewise to wield it in service.  It is the law whereby sex expression, as we know it, is transmuted and elevated; sex is only the physical plane demonstration of the Law of Attraction; it is the working out of that law in the human kingdom, and in all the lower kingdoms, too.  The love of all that breathes, and the attraction that works out in service, is the same thing as demonstrated in the Triad.  Sex expression, the coming together of two, becomes transmuted into the coming together of many for acts of service, which will give birth to new ideals, and to a new race—the spiritual.

Here I might point out a numerical fact that may be of interest in connection with the fourth hierarchy.  This human hierarchy is the fourth, as we know, yet if we count the five hierarchies that have passed on, it is in reality the ninth.  Nine is the number of initiation, the number of the adept, and of the man who functions in his buddhic vehicle.

The fourth Ray also operates in close connection with the fourth Law.  It is the Ray of Harmony or Beauty—Harmony through control, that control entailing the knowledge of wisdom.  It is the harmony of similarity; it is the equilibrising of all through the realisation of the laws of magnetism that produce the co-ordination of the many diverse into the one homogeneous; magnetism governs the synthesis of the many aspects into a form of unity.  This harmony is reached through the fifth plane, and the fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge acts as a step to the fourth, for many who work on the fifth Ray pass eventually to the fourth.  In this system the fifth Ray is of paramount importance in the development of all egos.  Each must pass some time on it before definitely remaining on his monadic Ray.  In many incarnations much time is spent on the fifth subplane of each plane, which is governed principally by the fifth Ray.  All pass [586] then on the fourth subplane governed by the fourth Ray, and in this particular period of the fourth round in the fourth chain, more time is spent on the fourth subplane by evolving Egos than on any other.  Many come into incarnation directly on to this plane, and it is here that they begin to think harmoniously.

The Laws in the Three Worlds.—We will now take up and briefly study the three most important laws affecting the evolving human being, as he lives his life in the three worlds.  These laws are:

1. The Law of Fixation.

2. The Law of Love.

3. The Law of Sacrifice and Death.

These laws are all dominated and controlled eventually by the three higher laws in the system—the Laws of Magnetic Control, of Disintegration, and of Cohesion.  There is a direct connection between these seven laws and the seven Rays or Vibrations, and if we study the correspondence we shall recognise the fact that the first law, that of Vibration, is the controlling law of the six, demonstrating through the second law, that of Cohesion, just as the solar Logos is at this time manifesting Himself through His second aspect in this the second solar system.

The first Ray of Will or Power is the first aspect of the All-self, and in the third outpouring, came [587]down to the fifth plane, along with the other monads.  A subtle correspondence exists between the monads of Will on the fifth plane, the fifth law, and the fifth Ray.

The second Ray or the Love-Wisdom aspect wields a control on the fourth and sixth planes, and dominates the Laws of Cohesion and Magnetic Control, and the astral Law of Love.  There is a direct interlinking between the abstract Rays and the laws of the planes where they specially control.

The third Ray which is the Activity aspect, controls the Laws of Disintegration and of Death, on the third and seventh planes.

Therefore, it will be apparent to the careful student of the wisdom that:

1. The Power Aspect—Ray 1, Planes 1 and 5, and the Laws of Fixation and Vibration, form one interlocking whole.

2. The Love Aspect—Ray 2, Planes 2, 4, 6, and the Laws of Cohesion, Magnetic Control, and of Love, form another unit.

3. The Activity Aspect—Ray 3, Planes 3 and 7, and the Laws of Disintegration, Sacrifice and Death, make still another group.

It is logical for the first Ray only to have control, as yet, on two planes, for the Power Aspect waits for another system in order to demonstrate in full development.  Ray two, the synthetic Ray for our system, controls [588] on three planes; it has the preponderance, for paramountly we are the Monads of Love, and Love is our synthesis.  Ray three, the dominant Ray of the system which is past, its synthetic Ray, controls on two planes, and on one that is little understood, for, just as the physical body is not considered a principle, so there is a sphere of activity that is not included in our enumeration, it is past and gone.  Some explanation of this lies hid in the occult words, "The Eighth Sphere."

In regard to the four minor Rays of Harmony, Concrete Science, Devotion and Ceremonial Order, their control exists in degrees on all the planes, but they have their particular emphasis in the evolution of the reincarnating ego in the three worlds at this time.  These four Rays control, in a subtle and peculiar manner, the four kingdoms of nature—mineral, vegetable, animal and human—and at their merging into the three Rays of Aspect (the Activity Ray of the Mahachohan being the synthesiser of the lower four in our planetary scheme) have a correspondence with the merging of man (the product of the three kingdoms and the fourth) into the superman kingdom, the spiritual.  The fourth Ray and the fourth Kingdom form a point of harmony for the lower three, and all four then pass into the major or upper three.  This is worthy of our serious thought, and the analogy of the fourth plane will also be apparent.  For this system, the buddhic plane, the human kingdom, and the fourth Ray of Harmony or Beauty or Synthesis, have a point of correspondence, just as the fourth rootrace is the one in which the synthesis is first observed—the door into the fifth kingdom of Spirit being then opened; the fourth rootrace also developed the astral capacity that made contact with the fourth or buddhic level possible.

In a subtle way too (I use the word subtle for lack of a better, meaning a statement of actuality that seems an [589]illusion), the three minor Rays, Concrete Science, Devotion and Ceremonial Law, have each a connection with the three kingdoms of nature below the human, and with the three laws of the three lower worlds.

The Ray of Ceremonial Order has special significance at this time; it controls life in the mineral world, and in the final stages of involutionary life at the point where the upward turn of evolution is made.  Through Ceremonial Order comes the control of the lesser builders, the elemental forces, the point of synthesis in the lowest plane of all, the period of transition.  In all such periods the seventh Ray comes in (as now) the Ray of Law and Order, of accurate arrangement and formation.  It is the reflection on the physical plane of the Power and Activity Aspects working in synthesis.  Rays 1, 3, 7, have an interplay, as we know.  Ray seven is the appearance in combination of the forces of evolution.  It is the manifestation of Power and Activity on the lowest plane of all.  It is allied to the laws of the third and seventh planes, Disintegration and Death, for all periods of transition are periods of the destruction and building of forms, and the shattering of the old in order that newer and better chalices of life may be constructed.

The Ray of Devotion has a definite though little known connection with the vegetable kingdom.  We must remember that it is linked to a subsidiary law of the cosmic Law of Attraction.  It is in the vegetable kingdom that we find one of the first and temporary approximations between the evolving human Monad, and the evolving deva Monad.  The two parallel evolutions touch in that kingdom, and then again follow their own paths, finding their next point of contact on the fourth or buddhic level, and a final merging on the second.

The concrete Rays have an especial effect on the negative evolution of the devas, who form the feminine aspect of the divine hermaphroditic Man, working along [590] the lines of more positive development.  The abstract Rays do a similar work on the positive human hierarchy, tending towards a more receptive attitude.  This hierarchy forms the masculine aspect of the divine Hermaphrodite.  But at three points on the path of evolution the Monads of Love, working on the abstract qualities, touch the devas of activity working on concrete faculty.  The perfection of the two evolutions marks the point of attainment of the divine Heavenly Man; it is the perfecting of the two major centres, creative activity and love, of the Logos.  In their lower aspect these centres are known as the centres of generation and the solar plexus, but are transmuted, as evolution proceeds, into the throat and heart centres.  Then, in a dual synthesis, they will pass on into the third system, that in which the Power aspect is developed, and the head centres will be complete.  This achieved, our Logos has triumphed, and measured up to the sixth cosmic Initiation, just as He should measure up in this system to the fourth.

The Ray of Concrete Science has a peculiar relationship to the animal kingdom, in that it is the Ray that governs the merging of that kingdom into the human.  The planet, Venus, in her fifth round, gave the impetus which produced the spark of mind in animal man—a fact well known.  It is also the fifth Ray, and has an interesting connection with the fifth Law of Fixation.  We might study, too, with profit, the analogy that can be seen between these factors and the fifth root-race, the race of peculiarly strong development of the concrete mind.  The Law of Analogy always holds good.

With this as a basis, the three laws of the personality become replete with life, and can be summed up in the well-known term, "The Law of Rebirth and Death in the three worlds."  The fifth law governs a fixed point in the personality, that of the fifth principle.

[591]

The Law of Love in the astral body also has its points for consideration.  There is a direct link between the astral body (love in the personality), the buddhic vehicle (love in the Triad), and the Monads of Love.  Later on, this will be understood more fully, but it is the main channel for the basic law of the system, Love.  These three points mark periods of completion, and likewise starting-points for fresh endeavour in the life of the evolving Monad—from the personality to the Triad, from the Triad to the Monad, from the Monad back again to its source.

5. The Law of Fixation.—This is the governing law of the mental plane, finding its greater correspondence in the Law of Karma on cosmic mental levels.  "As a man thinks, so is he;" according to his thoughts are his desires and acts, and so results the future.  He fixes for himself the resultant karma.  The word "Fixation" is chosen for two purposes:  First, because the word implies the capacity of the thinker to shape his own destiny, and secondly because the word implies a stabilising idea, for as evolution progresses, the Ego evolves the faculty of forming definite concrete thought-forms, and, through these stable products, of subduing the fluctuations of the astral body.

This law of the fifth, or mental plane is one of the most important laws with which we have to do at any time, and it will find its most complete demonstration in the next, or fifth round.  In relation to this fourth round the following facts may be gathered about its working:

It is the law under which the evolving personality builds up, during the course of many lives, the causal body; it fixes the matter inhering in that body, placed there by the man as the ages slip away, and crystallises it.  Before the fourth Initiation the crystallisation is complete, and the inevitable shattering that is the result of crystallisation in all forms, takes place, setting the [592] indwelling life free for further progress.  All forms are but hindrances and limitations, and ultimately must go, but they have their needed place in the development of the race.  Eventually the causal body of the entire race itself disintegrates.

This law governs the crystallisation of all forms prior to their shattering in the process of evolution.

It governs the time of rebirth, being one of the subsidiary branches of the Law of Karma.  Each of the seven subsidiary laws is linked to one of the cosmic laws, or with the Sirian Law of Karma.  We need always to remember that the consciousness of the cosmic mental plane is the logoic goal of attainment, and that the Sirian Logos is to our solar Logos what the human Ego is to the personality.  The Law of Karma, or cosmic Fixation, is the law of the cosmic mental plane, and controls the corresponding law in our system.

In the fifth round this law will act as the divider, temporarily crystallising and fixing into two great classes the human Monads, as they evolve.  One group then (containing those who will reach the goal), will pass gradually out from under the domination of this law, and will come under the Law of Magnetic Control.  The other will remain under the law in a static condition, until in a later period a fresh opportunity will come; old forms will break, and in another mahamanvantara, and in its fifth period, will come the chance for which they will have waited, when they can again swing into the current of evolution and the imprisoned spirits may mount again towards their source.

In an occult sense this law is for us the one with which we are the most intimately concerned.  It plays an important part in the hands of the Lords of Flame, and is one of Their main factors in controlling the three worlds.  Note here an interesting fact, that Venus is the sixth planet (esoterically the second), and is in her [593] fifth round, and hence is ahead of us along every line.

This law demonstrates the static quality of love, static temporarily, but necessarily so when viewed from the standpoint of time, the great deluder.  On the path of involution this law again works with the permanent atoms in the three worlds, with the building in of material around those atoms, in connection with the building devas and the reincarnating Egos.  The devas are the mother aspect, the builders of the body, and the reincarnating Jivas are the son aspect; yet the two are but one, and the result is the divine hermaphroditic man. 

6. The Law of Love.—It is not easy, in this brief digest, to approach the tremendous problem of the place love plays in the evolving scheme of things as understood by three-dimensional man.  A treatise could be written on the subject, and yet leave it unexhausted.  Much light comes if we can ponder deeply on the three expressions of Love:  Love in the Personality, Love in the Ego, and Love in the Monad.  Love in the Personality gradually develops through the stages of love of self, pure and simple and entirely selfish, to love of family and friends, to love of men and women, until it arrives at the stage of love of humanity or group love consciousness which is the predominant characteristic of the Ego.  A Master of Compassion loves, suffers with, and remains with His kind and with His kin.  Love in the Ego gradually develops from love of humanity into love universal—a love that expresses not only love of humanity, but also love of the deva evolutions in their totality, and of all forms of divine manifestation.  Love in the Personality is love in the three worlds; love in the Ego is love in the solar system, and all that it contains; whilst love in the Monad demonstrates a measure of cosmic love, and embraces much that is outside the solar system altogether.

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This term "The Law of Love," is after all too generic a term to apply to one law governing one plane, but will have to suffice for the present, as it conveys the type of idea that is needed, to our minds.  The Law of Love is in reality but the law of the system in demonstration on all the planes.  Love was the impelling motive for manifestation, and love it is that keeps all in ordered sequence; love bears all on the path of return to the Father's bosom, and love eventually perfects all that is.  It is love that builds the forms that cradle temporarily the inner hidden life, and love is the cause of the disruption of those forms, and their utter shattering, so that the life may further progress.  Love manifests on each plane as the urge that drives the evolving Monad onwards to its goal, and love is the key to the deva kingdom, and the reason of the blending of the two kingdoms eventually into the divine Hermaphrodite.  Love works through the concrete rays in the building of the system, and in the rearing of the structure that shelters the Spirit, and love works through the abstract rays for the full and potent development of that inherent divinity.  Love demonstrates, through the concrete rays, the aspects of divinity, forming the persona that hides the one Self; love demonstrates through the abstract rays in developing the attributes of divinity, in evolving to fullest measure the kingdom of God within.  Love in the concrete rays leads to the path of occultism; love in the abstract rays leads to that of the mystic.  Love forms the sheath and inspires the life; love causes the logoic vibration to surge forward, carrying all on its way, and bringing all to perfected manifestation.

In System I, Activity, Desire for Expression, and the Impulse to Move was the basic note.  That activity produced certain results, certain permanent effects, and thus formed the nucleus for the present system.  Ordered Activity is the foundation of this system of ordered Love, and leads to system three, wherein ordered Activity, with ordered Love for its impulse, results in ordered loving Power.

The sixth Ray of devotion and the sixth law of love have a close alliance, and on the sixth plane comes the powerful working out in the lower Triad, the Personality, of the Law of Love.  On the astral plane, the home of the desires, originate those feelings which we call personal love; in the lowest type of human being this shows itself as animal passion; as evolution proceeds it shows itself as a gradual expansion of the love faculty, passing through the stages of love of mate, love of family, love of surrounding associates, to love of one's entire environment; patriotism gives place later to love of humanity, often humanity as exemplified in one of the Great Ones.  The astral plane is, at the present time, the most important for us, for in desire—not corrected or transmuted—lies the difference between the personal consciousness and that of the Ego. 

In the sixth Scheme, that of Venus, this can be seen clearly; it is the scheme of love.  Viewed from one angle, the Venusian Scheme is the second, and from another it is the sixth.  It depends upon whether we reason from the circumference to the centre or the reverse.

It is the home of the planetary Logos of the sixth Ray.  This may sound like a contradiction, but it is not so really; we must remember the interlocking, the gradual shifting and changing, that takes place in time on all [596] the Rays.  In the same way the Earth chain is the third if viewed from one aspect and the fifth viewed from another.

In the sixth chain of each scheme, this sixth law and the sixth Ray have a very important significance, whilst the seventh chain of each scheme is always synthetic—Love and Activity in a perfect balance.  The same effect can be demonstrated in the sixth Round.  In the sixth Round of the present chain of the Earth scheme, the sixth law will demonstrate with great clarity and force, as love shown in brotherhood, love translated or transmuted from the astral to the buddhic.  So in the sixth rootrace and the sixth subrace a similar analogy will be seen.  Out of the shattered form of the fifth subrace of the fifth root race, built up under the fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge, with the aid of the fifth Law of Fixation, will emerge the sixth subrace of brotherly love—love shown in the realisation of the one life latent in each Son of God.

7. The Law of Sacrifice and Death.  This law links itself to the third law, that of Disintegration following the connection that always exists between the atmic and the physical plane.  The Law of Disintegration controls the fivefold destruction of forms in the five lower worlds, and the Law of Death controls similarly in the three worlds.  It is subsidiary to the third law.  The Law of Sacrifice is the Law of Death in the subtle bodies, whilst what we call death is the analogous thing in the physical body.  This law governs the gradual disintegration of concrete forms and their sacrifice to the evolving life, and is closely linked in its manifestation with the seventh Ray.  This Ray is the one that largely controls, that manipulates, that geometrises and that holds sway over the form side, governing the elemental forces of nature.  The physical plane is the most concrete exemplification of the form side; it holds the divine life imprisoned or [597] enmeshed at its densest point, and it works at this time in line with the seventh law. In a mysterious way this law is the reverse side of the first, or the Law of Vibration.  It is Vulcan and Neptune in opposition, which is as yet an almost incomprehensible thing for us.  The densest form of expression on the physical plane is after all but a form of synthesis; just as the rarest form of expression on the highest plane is but unity or synthesis of a finer kind.  One is the synthesis of matter, and the other the synthesis of life.

This law governs the seventh chain in each scheme; each chain having achieved the fullest expression possible in the scheme, comes under the Law of Death, and obscuration and disintegration supervenes.  In a cosmic sense and analogy, it is the law that governs the coming in of pralaya at the end of a system.  It is the law that shatters the cross of the cosmic Christ, and places the form of the Christ within the tomb for a period of time.