378. Esoteric Psychology - Volume I - 21. Section Two - CHAPTER II - The Rays and the Kingdoms in Nature 3. The Animal Kingdom - Part 1 - A. BAILEY

Section Two - CHAPTER  II - The Rays and the Kingdoms in Nature

3. The Animal Kingdom - Part 1

Influences	The third Ray of Active Intelligence or of Adaptability is potent in this kingdom and will express itself increasingly as time goes on, until it can best be described as "animal one-pointedness."  Then, at this point and cyclically, the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism can make its pressure felt as the urge towards a goal, and thus produce a relation to man which makes of him the desired goal.  This is to be seen through the medium of the tamed, the trained and the domestic animals.
Results	In  the one case we find the third ray producing the emergence of instinct, which in its turn creates and uses that marvellous response apparatus we call the nervous system, the brain, and the five senses which lie behind and which are responsible for them as a whole.  It should be noted that, wide as we may regard the difference between man and the animals, it is really a much closer relation than that existing between the animal and the vegetable.  In the case of the sixth ray, we have the appearance of the power to be domesticated and trained, which is, in the last analysis, the power to love, to serve and to emerge from the herd into the [252]group.  Ponder on the words of this last paradoxical statement.
Process	This is called concretisation.  In this kingdom we have for the first time a true organisation of the etheric body into what are called by the esotericist "the true nerves and the sensory centres."  Plants also have nerves, but they have in them nothing of the same intricacy of relation and of plexus as we find in the human being and in the animal.  Both kingdoms share the same general grouping of nerves, of force centres and channels, with a spinal column and a brain. This organisation of a sensitive response apparatus constitutes, in reality, the densification of the subtle etheric body.
Secret	This is called transfusion, which is a very inadequate word to express the early blending, in the animal, of the psychological factors which lead to the process of individualisation.  It is a process of lifegiving, of intelligent integration and of psychological unfoldment, to meet emergency.
Purpose	This is called experimentation.  Here we come to a great mystery, and one that is peculiar to our planet.  In many esoteric books it has been stated and hinted that there has been a mistake, or a serious error, on the part of God Himself, of our planetary Logos, and that this mistake has involved our planet and all that it contains in the visible misery, chaos and suffering.  Shall we say that there has been no mistake, but simply a great experiment, of the success or failure of which it is not yet possible to judge?  The objective of the experiment might be stated as follows: It is the intent of the planetary Logos to bring about a psychological[253] condition which can best be described as one of "divine lucidity". The work of the psyche, and the goal of the true psychology, is to see life clearly, as it is, and with all that is involved.  This does not mean conditions and environment, but Life.  This process was begun in the animal kingdom, and will be consummated in the human.  These are described in the OldCommentary as "the two eyes of Deity, both blind at first, but which later see, though the right eye sees more clearly than the left".  The first dim indication of this tendency towards lucidity is seen in the faculty of the plant to turn towards the sun.  It is practically non-existent in the mineral kingdom.
Divisions	First, the higher animals and the domestic animals, such as the dog, the horse and the elephant.
	Secondly, the so-called wild animals, such as the lion, the tiger, and the other carnivorous and dangerous wild animals.
	Thirdly, the mass of lesser animals that seem to meet no particular need nor to fill any special purpose, such as the harmless yet multitudinous lives found in our forests, our jungles and the fields of our planet. Instances of these in the West are the rabbits and other rodents.  This is a wide and general specification of no scientific import at all; but it covers adequately the karmic divisions and the general conformation into which these groupings of lives fall in this kingdom.
Objective agency	Fire and Water,—fierce desire and incipient mind.  These are symbolised in the animal power to eat and drink.
Subjective agency	Smell or Scent,—the instinctual discovery of that which is needed, from the activity of ranging forth for food and the use of [254] the power to scent that food, to the identification of the smell of a beloved master and friend.
Quality	Tamas or Inertia,—but in this case it is the tamasic nature of mind and not that of matter, as usually understood.  The chitta or mind-stuff can be equally tamasic.

The two problems which are of immediate concern to mankind in relation to the animal kingdom are:

The problem of human relations and responsibility. The problem of animal individualisation.

A. Human Relations to Animals

Only a few hints can as yet be given, and those must be along the line of information anent the rays at work in both kingdoms.  The two problems, particularly the second one, are of vast intricacy, and would require many volumes to be properly elucidated.  Right exegesis is not yet possible, nor could man yet understand.

The first point to be emphasized in connection with human responsibility in relation to the animals is that the animal world embodies two divine aspects, two divine principles, and two major rays are concerned with their expression or manifestation.  These two aspects are found also in man, and it is along these two lines, which man shares in unison with the animals, that man's responsibility and work lie, and through the use of these two aspects of divine energy will he realise his task and carry it to completion.  The same divine activity and the same divine innate intelligence are found in the form aspect of both kingdoms.  They are inherent in matter itself.  But this third Ray of Divine Intelligence functions more potently and influences more powerfully in the animal kingdom than in man.  This is an item of information not hitherto given out.

[255]

The second ray is of course present in its form-building aspect, as herd instinct and as the basis of the sex relation among animal bodies.  It is found performing a similar function among human beings, and along these two lines of energy will the points of contact be found and the opportunity to assume responsibility.  Yet it should be noted that, in the last analysis, animals have more to give men than men have to give animals, where these particular powers and functions are concerned. In the human family another divine aspect is found functioning, which is that of the will, of directed purpose, of planned objective, and of intelligent design or plan.  These qualities are inherent in man, and constitute an aspect of the divine mind not found actively present in the animal, as a rule.  However, as the animal kingdom comes increasingly under human influence and the steady trend towards domesticity makes itself felt, we shall see emerging a measure of purposive objective; and one means towards this end is to be found in the turning of the animal's love and attention towards his master.  In this illustration some of the responsibility of man to the animal world is expressed.  The domestic animals have to be trained to participate in the action of applied will.  This, man seems as yet to interpret as the will of the animal to love his master, but it is something deeper and more fundamental than the satisfying of man's love to be loved.  The true and intelligent training of the wild animals, and their adaptation to the conditions of ordered living, are part of the divine process of integrating the Plan and of producing an ordered and harmonious expression of the divine intent.  It is through the power of thought that man will eventually bridge the gap existing between the animal kingdom and man, and it must be done by man's directed, controlled thought, controlling and directing the animal consciousness.  It is not done through the evocation [256] of love, fear or pain.  It is intended to be a purely mental process and a unique mental stimulation.

The relation of the animals to man has been purely physical in the long past ages.  Animals preyed upon men in the days when animal-man was but little removed from them.  It is oft forgotten that there was a stage in human development when animal-man and the existent forms of animal life lived in a much closer relation than today.  Then, only the fact of individualisation separated them.  It was, however, an individualisation so little realised that the difference between the mindless animal (so-called) and infant humanity was scarcely appreciable.  In those distant aeons, much transpired which has been lost in the dark silence of the past.  The animal world was then far more potent than the human, men were helpless before the onslaughts of the animals, and the devastation wrought by animals upon early animal-men in mid-Lemurian days was terrible and appalling.  Little nomadic groups of human beings would be completely wiped out, age after age, by the powerful animal life of the period, and though instinct taught the animal-men to take certain precautions, it was an instinct but little removed from that found in their enemies. It was only as the millenia of years passed away, and human intelligence and cunning began to assert themselves, that humanity became more powerful than the animals and in its turn devastated the animal kingdom.  Up until two hundred years ago the toll of life exacted by the animal world from the human, in the forests of the western continents, in Africa, in the primeval lands of Australia and in the islands of the tropic seas, was incalculable.  This is a fact often forgotten in the sentimentality of a moment, but it lies at the root of man's cruelty to animals.  It is but the inevitable karma of the animal kingdom working out.  The question must be viewed from a larger scale than has hitherto been the case, and its true historic [257] values must be better understood before man can intelligently decide what constitutes his problem of responsibility and how it should be met and solved.

In Atlantean days the purely physical relation was tempered by an astral or emotional relation, and the time came when some of the animals were swept within the orbit of human life and were tamed and cared for, and when the first of the domestic animals appeared.  A new era began, wherein certain of the animals evoked affection from certain humans, and a new influence was brought to play upon this third kingdom in nature.  This started during a cycle when the second ray and the sixth ray were both functioning simultaneously, and wherein their major and their lesser cycles coincided.  This is a rare occurrence, and when it happens the guardians of the race seize the opportunity to produce major results or to inaugurate new moves whereby the divine Plan may be more rapidly developed.  To offset the fear found in humanity as a whole (as far as the animal world was concerned), the opportunity was offered by the guardians of the race to bring men and animals into a closer relation, and because a cycle was present in which love and devotion were pouring upon, into and through all forms, a good deal of the fear present was offset.  Since that time the number of the domestic animals has steadily increased.  The relation between the two kingdoms is now dual-physical and emotional.

To this there has been added, during the past two hundred years, a third relation, that of the mind.  The mental power of humanity will, in the last analysis, be the controlling factor, and through its means the three subhuman kingdoms will be brought under the control of man.  This has been happening with great rapidity in the mineral kingdom and in the vegetable kingdom.  It is not yet accomplished where the animal kingdom is concerned, but the process is rapidly going forward [258].  Not much progress will be made during the incoming seventh ray cycle, though as law and order and rhythm are imposed upon the planet, and as chaos gives place to organisation, we shall see those areas on the planet wherein the animals still rule increasingly lessened, and certain species will die out unless they are preserved in sanctuaries.

B. Individualisation

It is of course apparent that the effect of the interrelation existing between animals and men is to produce in the former that step forward which is called individualisation.  This event is a consummation of the process of transfusion, and indicates the appearance of the three divine aspects in a unit of life in form.  A son of God, a Lord of dedicated and directed Will, is born, and the third divine principle of purposive energy is fused with the other two and brings about an entire reorganisation within the animal form.  As esotericists have long pointed out, individualisation is a great planetary experiment, and when it was instituted it superseded the earlier method, employed upon the Moon, wherein the urge to reach out and on (called aspiration where man is concerned) was the method employed.  This really means that, when the evolving life within the form had reached a certain stage of growth in sentiency and awareness, and the inner urge was adequately strong, the life forced itself into contact with another stream of divine expression, with another major ray manifestation.  This union of various activities caused a new being to emerge into manifestation.  This is the basic truth lying behind the ideas put out at this time and classified under the general term "emergent evolution."  It governs still in many departments of nature, and used to govern the appearance of human beings upon the planet.  The urge and the development are from within the [259]organism itself, and are the result of growth, of a reaching out and of an expansion.

But the method usually employed at this time is in the nature of a great second ray experiment.  This involves an activity from without, from above, from a higher or from the divine side, if such a use of relatively meaningless words can avail to depict the process.  The urge or push in this case does not originate from the lower two expressions or earlier fusions of divine energies.  It is the higher aspect of divinity which takes the initiative and which, through a stimulation applied from without, causes a response from the life in form. Hence the process is really in the nature of an initiation.

The animals which individualise are, in every case today, the domestic animals, such as the horse, the dog, the elephant and the cat.  These four groups of animals are at this time in the "process of transfusion", as it is occultly called, and one by one the life units are prepared and brought to the door of that peculiar initiatory process which we call—for lack of a better term—individualisation.  They wait in that condition until the word goes forth that that door may be passed which will admit them to

"...the triple way that leads to the dual road, by treading which they stand at last before the golden door.  This final door ushers them upon that Path which is the one, alone and single, and disappears into the Light".

Old Commentary.

The factors which determine individualisation are several in number, and some of them might be enumerated as follows:

1. The response of the instinctive nature of the animal to the mental atmosphere of the human being, or beings, with which it is surrounded.

2. The outgoing love and interest of the people to which [260] the animal is attached by the bonds of affection or of service.

3. The ray impulses which are active at any time.  These are, amongst others:

a. The ray of the animal itself.  Elephants are upon the first ray; dogs are expressions of the second ray; the cat is a third ray life manifestation, and the horse is sixth ray.  Animals upon other rays are not yet ready for individualisation. ^{i}*

b. The ray of the particular person or persons with whom the animal is associated.

c. The ray or rays of a particular periodic cycle.

I could give you the techniques with which the guardians of the races and kingdoms work when seeking to bring about individualisation, but of what purpose would it be and what use would such information serve?  Each ray affects the units found upon it at such a crisis as individualisation in a manner differing from any other ray; each ray finds its point of prime contact through one or other of the centres in the etheric bodies of animals and men.  It must be remembered in this connection that, in the animal, four centres are functioning, and three are present but latent in their effect and use.  The process followed is that each ray works or pours its energy through one or other of the centres in the etheric body of that Entity Who informs an entire kingdom in nature, and then through that particular centre galvanises the individualising unit into the needed activity.  Later, when the ray effects, psychologically speaking, are better understood, and the centres, with their seven ray vibrations, have been more deeply studied, it will be found that through a particular centre and along a particular ray vibration, forms of life and centres of consciousness can be contacted and known.  This [261] applies to all forms in all kingdoms, subhuman or superhuman.  One of the first ways in which man is learning this truth is through the discovery of that vibration—emanating from a particular Master—which produces a reaction in himself, and which calls forth a response.  Thus he is enabled to find out upon which ray his soul is found and to which ray group he should be attracted.  This is of importance to the aspirant, and should be considered more carefully than has hitherto been the case, for by it the aspirant determines the nature and the quality of his soul type, and of the centre through which he (occultly speaking) goes out upon the Path. He discovers likewise the group of forms and of lives with which he is linked, to which he must render service, and by which he can be served.

The relation of the rays to the centres in the average aspirant might be classified as follows:

1. Head centre	Ray of Will or Power	First Ray.
2. The Ajna centre	Ray of Concrete Knowledge	Fifth Ray.
3. The Throat centre	Ray of Active Intelligence	Third Ray.
4. The Heart centre	Ray of Love-Wisdom	Second Ray.
5. The Solar plexus	Ray of Devotion	Sixth Ray.
6. The Sacral centre	Ray of Ceremonial Magic	Seventh Ray.
7. Base of Spine	Ray of Harmony	Fourth Ray.

These rays and their corresponding centres warrant most careful study.  They are comprehensive and revealing.  Note, for instance, that at this time the seventh ray governs and expresses itself through the sacral centre, that which controls the sex life and the building of forms of expression. Therefore it swings now into activity and pours through this particular centre in order to organise and produce the appearance of those new forms through which all life in the new cycle (astrologically understood and periodically and cyclically understood) may express itself.  Thus it was necessary for the sex life to be controlled by this type of energy [262] in order to bring about the needed changes, and hence also one of the great results of the influence of the incoming seventh ray has been the increase in the mental interest in sex.  A study also of the ray influences in this present historic period, and their relation to the rays, will reveal the accuracy and suggestiveness of the above ray tabulation.

The relation of man to the animals is, as we have seen, physical, emotional and increasingly mental.  Each race of men, in its turn, and working under the ray influences, produces definite effects upon the three subhuman kingdoms.  Through humanity, when the great experiment of individualisation was initiated, the energies or ray influences from the superhuman kingdoms were focussed and the great function of humanity began, which is the transmitting of the ray forces cyclically.  Though the six-pointed star is, at this time, the symbol of the creative work (viewing the work as a whole), the downward pointing triangle, balanced on an upward pointing triangle, will some day present a truer picture of the creative and preserving function of the fourth kingdom.

C. The Five Points of Contact

There are five points of contact whereby the material world can be occultly "raised" up into life and power, just as there are five centres always to be found in our planet, through which life and energy pour into the natural world. I refer here to certain centres which are active where the physical and material life of the planet are concerned.  There are also, as I told you in my writing anent the development during the next three years, five centres through which a new and energising spiritual force is flowing, and these are the planetary correspondences to the five senses in man, both subjective and objective.  But we find the rays pouring through humanity as a whole, and through the five races of [263] men (our present race, the Aryan, being the third—two are yet to come).  This particular aspect of ray energy is that which stimulates the consciousness aspect, and it will raise and awaken the consciousness hidden in all material forms, both in man and in the three subhuman kingdoms.  These five points, with their fire "elevating" influences, are as follows, omitting the two earlier and intangible races which are not strictly human at all, and beginning with the first of the five races which are human throughout:

1. The Lemurian Race	fifth ray	The coming of the Sons of Fire.
2. The Atlantean Race	sixth ray	The devotion of the Lords of Love.
3. The Aryan Race	third ray	The activity of the Men of Mind.
4. The Coming Race	fourth ray	The vision of the Units of Light.
5. The Final Race	first ray	The will of the Lords of Sacrifice.

The two earlier races were governed by the second and seventh rays, respectively, and embody the activity of the form builder and the constructive energy of the magical organiser.  The reader must bear in mind, as he studies these major ray cycles, that they cover inconceivably long periods of time, and produce two effects which must be considered.

First, the ray energies, five in number, play upon the human kingdom itself, and in the course of the ages raise man from the dead to life; they lift him out of the dark prison of matter into the light of day.  These are the five life-giving forces that raise the human consciousness to heaven, and the form to understanding.  I know no word to express the concept except the word "understanding," and its true sense is seen when divided into its two component parts.

Secondly, these ray energies, working this time through [264] the human kingdom, raise the subhuman kingdoms in nature also (after much effort) to life and conscious understanding.  Through the five points of spiritual contact, in each of the three kingdoms, is life brought to nature itself.  For this "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now".  Herein is found the secret of the resurrection, viewing it in the planetary sense,— a resurrection enacted also individually by each achieving son of God.  This is the great Masonic secret, and the central mystery of the sublime or third degree in Masonry.  It is sometimes occultly referred to as "the relation of death to the five life-giving energies seen working upon the third day of revelation" or, speaking still more symbolically:

"In the chamber of death, the blue light of dawning day reveals the group of workers who seek to raise the dead.  Naught avail their efforts until they blend the five great forces of the Lord of Magic.  When thus they work as one, in unity complete the work is done they fuse the life-giving force; the dead are raised, and the work of building can proceed.  The temple can be glorified and the Word be uttered forth within a chamber of life-giving force and not of death.  Through death to life, from struggle in the dark to building in the light!  Such is the Plan.  Thus do we enter into life that is a death; pass onward through the door whose pillars twain stand there forever as a sign of strength and truth divine; thus do we enter quick within the tomb and die.  Thus are we raised again upon a Word divine, upon a fivefold sign, and—springing forth—we live'

Then in relation to humanity, the Old Commentary says:

"The Lords of the fifth great ray of mind have sent us on our way.  The Lords of the sixth great ray forced us to suffer in the cause, yet love it too, and through our deep devotion learn.  The Lords of the third great ray bring us, through mind, unto the funeral pyre, to the stage wherein we die, yet rise again.  In the third room, and on the third dark day, the Master disappears.  He dies; is lost to sight.  But the five great [265] Lords unite their forces.  In fellowship sublime, they work to raise the dead.  Only thus can that Word be spoken which brings the dead to life.  Such is the work of man for God, of God for man."

D. Cyclic Manifestation

So the work proceeds.  The rays stream forth in:

1. A solar cycle, such as the present one, in which the second Ray of Love-Wisdom is the major ray, and all the others are but subsidiary to it.

2. A planetary cycle, such as those we have just considered in connection with the races,—the five above enumerated and their five controlling rays.

3. Cycles connected with the twelve signs of the zodiac.

These are primarily two in number:

a. Those which are connected with a complete zodiacal round, about 25,000 years.

b. Those which are connected with each of the twelve signs, and which come in and out of manifestation approximately every 2,100 years.

4. Those cycles when certain rays are in power for a period of racial evolution, such as the five major racial periods to which we have referred.

5. The lesser cycling in and out of manifestation, as referred to earlier in this treatise.

6. Cycles of ray activity which are determined by their numerical figures.

The first ray, for instance, governs all cycles such as those of one million years, one hundred thousand years, one thousand years, one hundred years and one year.  The seventh ray controls such similar cycles as seven thousand years and seven million years.  The interchange and interplay of these ray cycles is so intricate and so great that it would serve only [266] to confuse should I further elaborate.  Remember, however, that all of the seven rays are forever functioning, and functioning simultaneously, but that cyclically and under the directed plan of the Minds (who are embodied by the rays), certain of these influences and forces are more dominant at one time than at another, and certain lines of activity and certain results of this activity are demonstrated under one ray influence more than under another.  These influences pour through all forms in all kingdoms, producing specific effects, definite and different forms of life, peculiar types of realisation, and particular expressions of consciousness in form which are, for that period, the product of the united and concerted plan of the building forces, working in complete harmony, but temporarily under one or another of their number.  They enter into constructive activity; they pass through that particular cycle; they then pass out, or die to that activity, and are then "raised into heaven," until such time as their cycle again comes round.  This process they constantly enact and re-enact, repeating the drama of birth, death and resurrection.

In this ray activity will be found the true significance of the Law of Rebirth, and it lies behind the process of incarnation and of reincarnation.  Upon this I may not here dwell, beyond pointing out that men's ideas and teaching anent reincarnation are as yet childish and inaccurate.  Much readjustment must be made, and much re-arrangement of ideas is necessitated, before a true understanding of this basic cyclic law will be possible.

Cyclic appearance, therefore, governs the rays as well as the Kingdoms in nature and the forms contained therein.  It determines the activity of God Himself.  Races incarnate, disappear and reincarnate, and so do all lives in form.  Reincarnation or cyclic activity lies behind all phenomenal activity and appearance.  It is an aspect of the pulsating life [267] of Deity. It is the breathing out and the breathing in of the process of divine existence and manifestation.  It is that which lies behind the science of chemical affinity, of the relation of the polar opposites, and of the marriage relation, whether that of men and women or of the soul and its expression, the personality.  It is the cause of the sex relation in the world, which works under the great Law of Attraction and Repulsion.  Perhaps as we are considering the work of one kingdom with another and the relation between positive and negative groups of lives (such as that of the fourth kingdom in nature to the third), it might be apposite next to deal briefly with this subject of sex, which is to be so deeply and widely considered, and more wisely understood, through the influence of the incoming seventh ray.

I have little more to add to this teaching anent the animal kingdom and the rays, for—as said before—it profits not.  Man's work is to raise the dead to life, to bring brotherhood into expression on the physical plane, and to transmit divine energy to a waiting world of forms.  As the rays play their part with humanity and bring man forth into manifestation as he is in essence and reality, his work with the animal kingdom and with the other kingdoms will proceed steadily and inevitably.  Scarcely knowing how or why, humanity will play its part in the work of building.  The creative work will proceed and the Plan materialise.  Man's work for the animal kingdom is to stimulate instinct until individualisation is possible.  His work for the vegetable kingdom is to foster the perfume-producing faculty, and to adapt plant life to the myriad uses of man and of animals.  Man's work with the mineral kingdom is to work alchemically and magically.  With that process of transmutation and of subsequent revelation I cannot here deal.

[268]

E. The Problem of Sex

I have stated that the incoming seventh ray plays through the planetary sacral centre, and then through the sacral centre of every human being.  Because of this, we can look for the anticipated developments in that human function which we designate the sex function.  We shall see consequent changes in the attitude of man towards this most difficult problem.  In speaking on the subject of sex, and in outlining what it is possible to say at this time, I seek to be as simple as I can, and to express my thoughts in such a way that something constructive may eventuate, and a note may be struck which will sound forth clearly in the present welter of discordant sounds, of conflicting views, and of varying ideas.

It is obvious that the matter is a difficult one to approach. So why is it so difficult?  In the last analysis, we shall find that the difficulty is based on the prejudices in men's minds, and upon their inner assurance that their particular point of view is necessarily the right one because they themselves live and act in accordance with it, and it suffices for them; it is based on the fact that sex is one of the fundamental primeval urges, one of the substantial instincts, and is consequently the dominating factor in the animal side of man's nature; it is based upon the excessive intimacy of the subject,—an intimacy which was transmuted into an indecent secret during the periods wherein the race succumbed to an excessive puritanism and prostituted a natural function into a prurient mystery.  This intimacy relating to the subject of sex caused it to be regarded as an unmentionable episode, and as a topic to be shunned by decent people, instead of being regarded as an instinctual and natural process,—as instinctual and as necessary as the functions of eating and drinking.  It is a function, however, which has not been reduced to rhythm in the [269] daily life and regarded as one to be followed and satisfied only when need arises and right demands.  Herein lies a great distinction and a clue is offered to the problem.

Again, the difficulty of the problem can be found in the widely diverse attitudes of men's minds to the subject.  These attitudes range all the way from an ill-regulated promiscuity to a monogamy which has worked out into a cruel imposition and restraint upon women, and an unbridled license on the part of men.  Attendant upon these difficulties, and growing out of these wrong attitudes, the legalities and the illegalities, the license and the restraints, have produced points of infection (if I may so call them) in our civilisation.  Because of them, we find a lax morality which is based on bewilderment, "red light" districts which are but an unhappy compromise with vicious tendencies and unsatisfied desires, divorce courts which devastate the life of the family and in time undermine the national life (of which each family unit should be a wholesome part), and the steady growth of disease as the result of the prevalent promiscuity and the many illicit relations.  There is also a psychological factor to be found, of real importance.  This fact is the militancy expressed by the many groups of people who are seeking to impose their own ideas and their peculiar solution of the problem upon their fellowmen.

Behind all these results of an age-long wrong attitude to the sex function lie two major evils, or rather two major effects of man's actions, mental and physical.  These are of dire significance.  There is, first of all, the development within man's consciousness of those complexes, those psychoses and psychological disruptions and inhibitions, which have so seriously undermined the health and the serenity of hundreds and thousands of men.  There is, secondly, the threatening of the very life of humanity itself, as it is embodied in the family [270] unit and family life.  On the one hand, you have promiscuity and over-indulgence in sex relations, which are resulting (and have always resulted) in over-population and an over-production of human beings.  On the other hand, you have an enforced sterility which—though in many ways the lesser of the two evils—is eventually dangerous.  This sterility is rapidly on the increase.  It leads finally to physical conditions which are undesirable.  Nevertheless, at this time, it is the lesser of the two evils.  Two points might incidentally be noted here.  Out of the first of these evils, and as a result of over-production, we have brought about an economic situation of such a drastic and serious nature that the very peace and stability of the world are threatened; out of the second, we should have a gradual disappearance of humanity itself, if enforced sterility should become a universal practice.  This would lead to the consequent dominance of the animal world and an immense increase of animal life, and we should have a period of retrogression and not of progress.

In dealing with this subject of sex I shall have to generalise, and the exceptions to the rules laid down and to the suggested classifications will, of course, be many.  I am dealing with the subject as a whole, and my topic therefore is the menace of the present attitude, the need for a fuller understanding, and the importance of a re-arrangement of men's ideas on this vital matter.  The attitude of the unthinking savage to the sex life, and the attitude of the mentally polarised and spiritually oriented initiate to the same subject, may seem so widely dissimilar that on the surface there may appear no point of resemblance; yet basically both of these attitudes are nearer to each other and to the reality than is that of the average man today.  The one is controlled by the rhythm of his animal nature, and knows no more of the evil side and of the vile promiscuity of the civilised man than does the [271] animal in its wild state; the other lives his life in a controlled fashion, governing through the power of the mind, and animated by desire for the good of humanity.  In between these two approaching extremes, we have the many points of view, the many dissimilar ideas, the many customs, the many types of relation (legitimate and illegitimate), the many animal and psychological reactions, the many forms of marriage, and the many perversions of a natural process which distinguish modern man in all parts of the world.  These again vary in the different civilisations and under the influence of the differing climatic conditions.

It is therefore obvious—is it not?—that it is no part of my service to the readers of this book to enter into a detailed analysis of the marriage customs of the ages, past and present.  It is not my work to enlarge in detail upon the mistakes, the evil consequences, the many types of perversion, and the sadistic cruelties which have grown out of man's misuse of the natural processes and of his mate, nor to elucidate his foolish misunderstanding of the Law of Attraction and Repulsion.  It would serve no useful purpose if I put forth, in this brief discussion of an immense subject, any of the theories which men have formulated in their search for a solution.  Their name is legion.  All have in them a measure of the truth.  Most of them express the depths of man's ignorance, and they can be studied at any time by any student who has the time to read, the intelligence to see clearly and without prejudice, and the money to purchase the needed literature.

I cannot and I will not touch upon the medical and physiological aspect of vice, whether it be the vice of promiscuity or the vice of an unhappy marriage.  I can best serve you at this time by pointing out the laws which should govern the life of man, particularly where sex is concerned, and by [272] indicating—as far as I can and dare—why and how the present peculiar and unique conditions have been brought about.  I may also be able to make certain suggestions which, when duly considered, may help to clear from the mind those false and illusory views which prevent man from seeing truly, and I may thus help him to find the golden thread of light which will lead him to his solution in due time.

One thing I will say, sad though it may seem to you to be. There is no immediate solution of the problem of sex with which we are at this time confronted.  For ages men have misused and wrongly employed a God-given function; they have prostituted their birthright, and through their laxity and license, and through their lack of control, they have inaugurated an era of disease, both mental and physical, of wrong attitudes and illusory relations which it will take several centuries to eradicate; they have also brought too rapidly into incarnation myriads of human beings who were not yet ready for the experience of this incarnation, and who needed longer interludes between births wherein to assimilate experience.  Those souls who are unevolved come into incarnation with rapidity; but older souls need longer periods wherein to garner the fruits of experience.  They are however open to the magnetic attractive power of those who are alive on the physical plane, and it is these souls who can be brought prematurely into incarnation.  The process is under law, but the unevolved progress under group law as do the animals, whilst the more evolved are susceptible to the pull of human units, and the evolved come into incarnation under the Law of Service, and through the deliberate choice of their conscious souls.

I shall divide what I have to say into four parts, for the sake of clarity and rapid reference:

[273]

1. Definitions of sex, of virtue and of vice.

2. Sex in the New Age.

3. Some suggestions for the present moment.

4. Sex and the life of discipleship.