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The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception
by
Max
Heindel
Revised
Version (2007)
Chapter
I
The
Visible and Invisible Worlds
The
first step in Occultism is the study of the invisible Worlds. These Worlds are
invisible to the majority of people because of the dormancy of the finer and
higher senses whereby they may be perceived, in the same way that the Physical
World about us is perceived through the physical senses. The majority of people
are on a similar footing in regard to the super-physical Worlds as the man who
is born blind is to our world of sense; although light and color are all about
him, he is unable to see them. To him they are non-existent and
incomprehensible, simply because he lacks the sense of sight wherewith to
perceive them. Objects he can feel; they seem real; but light and color are
beyond his ken.
So with the greater part of humanity. They feel, and see objects
and hear sounds in the Physical World, but the other realms, which the
clairvoyant calls the higher Worlds, are as incomprehensible to them as light
and color are to the blind man. Because the blind man cannot see color and
light, however, is no argument against their existence and reality. Neither is
it an argument, that because most people cannot see the super-physical Worlds
no one can do so. If the blind man obtains his sight, he will see light and
color. If the higher senses of those blind to the super-physical Worlds are
awakened by proper methods, they also will be able to behold the Worlds which
are now hidden from them.
While many people make the mistake of being incredulous
concerning the existence or reality of the super-sensuous Worlds, there are
also many who go to the other extreme, and, having become convinced of the
verity of invisible Worlds, think that when a person is clairvoyant all truth is
at once open to him; that when one can "see," he at once "knows
all about" these higher Worlds.
This is a great mistake. We readily recognize the fallacy of such
a contention in matters of everyday life. We do not think that a man who was
born blind, but has obtained his sight, at once "knows all about" the
Physical World. Nay, more; we know that even those of us who have been able to
see the things about us all our lives are far from having a universal knowledge
of them. We know that it requires arduous study and years of application to
know about even that infinitesimal part of things that we handle in our daily
lives, and reversing the Hermetic aphorism, "as above, so below," we
gather at once that it must be the same in the other Worlds. At the same time
it is also true that there are much greater facilities for acquiring knowledge
in the super-physical Worlds than in our present dense physical condition, but
not so great as to eliminate the necessity for close study and the possibility
of making a mistake in observation. In fact, all the testimony of reliable and
qualified observers prove that much more care in observation is needed there
than here.
Clairvoyants must first be trained before their observations are of
any real value, and the more proficient they become the more modest they are
about telling of what they see; the more they defer to the versions of others,
knowing how much there is to learn and realizing how little the single
investigator can grasp of all the detail incident to his investigations.
This also accounts for the varied versions, which superficial
people think are an argument against the existence of the higher Worlds. They
contend that if these Worlds exist, investigators must necessarily bring back
identical descriptions. If we take an illustration from everyday life, the
fallacy of this becomes apparent.
Suppose a newspaper sends twenty reporters to a city with orders
to "write it up." Reporters are, or ought to be, trained observers.
It is their business to see everything and they should be able to give as good
descriptions as can be expected from any source. Yet it is certain that of the
twenty reports, no two would be exactly alike. It is much more likely that they
would be totally different. Although some of them might contain leading
features in common, others might be unique in quality and quantity of
description.
Is it an argument against the existence of the city that these
reports differ? Certainly not! It is easily accounted for by the fact that each
saw the city from his own particular point of view and instead of these varying
reports being confusing and detrimental, it is safe to say that a perusal of
them all would give a fuller, better understanding and description of the city
than if only one were read and the others were thrown in the wastebasket. Each
report would round out and complement the others.
The same is true regarding accounts made by investigators of the
higher Worlds. Each has his own peculiar way of looking at things and can
describe only what he sees from his particular point of view. The account he
gives may differ from those of others, yet all be equally truthful from each
individual observer's viewpoint.
It is sometimes asked, Why investigate these Worlds? Why is it
not best to take one World at a time; to be content for the present time with
the lessons to be learned in the Physical World, and, if there are invisible
Worlds why not wait until we reach them before investigating? "Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof!" Why borrow more?
If we knew without doubt that at some time, sooner or later,
each one of us must be transported to a far country where, under new and
strange conditions, we must live for many years, is it not reasonable to
believe that if we had an opportunity to learn of that country in advance of
our removal to it we would gladly do so? Knowledge would render it much easier
for us to accommodate ourselves to new conditions.
There is only one certainty in life and that is--Death! As we
pass into the beyond and are confronted by new conditions, knowledge of them is
sure to be of the greatest help.
But that is not all. To understand the Physical World, which is
the world of effects, it is necessary to understand the super-physical World,
which is the world of causes. We see street cars in motion and we hear the
clicking of telegraph instruments, but the mysterious force which causes
phenomena remains invisible to us. We say it is electricity, but the name gives
us no explanation. We learn nothing of the force itself; we see and hear only
its effects.
If a dish of cold water be placed in an atmosphere of a
sufficiently low temperature ice crystals immediately begin to form and we can
see the process of their formation. The lines along which the water
crystallizes were in it all the time as lines of force but they were invisible
until the water congealed. The beautiful "frost flowers" on a
windowpane are visible manifestations of currents of the higher Worlds which
operate upon us all the time, unrecognized by most of us, but none the less
potent.
The higher Worlds are thus the worlds of causes, of forces; and
we cannot really understand this lower World unless we know the others and
realize the forces and causes of which all material things are but the effects.
As to the reality of these higher Worlds compared with that of
the Physical World, strange as it may seem, these higher Worlds, which to the
majority appear as mirages, or even less substantial, are, in truth, much more
real and the objects in them more lasting and indestructible than the objects
in the Physical World. If we take an example we shall readily see this. An
architect does not start to build a house by procuring the material and setting
the workmen to laying stone upon stone in a haphazard way, without thought or
plan. He "thinks the house out." Gradually it takes form in his mind
and finally there stands a clear idea of the house that is to be--a
thought-form of a house.
This house is yet invisible to all but the architect. He makes
it objective on paper. He draws the plans and from this objective image of the
thought-form the workmen construct the house of wood, iron, or stone,
accurately corresponding to the thought-form originated by the architect.
Thus the thought-form becomes a material reality. The
materialist would assert that it is much more real, lasting and substantial
that the image in the architect's mind. But let us see. The house could not
have been constructed without the thought-form. The material object can be
destroyed by dynamite, earthquake, fire, or decay, but the thought-form will
remain. It will exist as long as the architect lives and from it any number of
houses similar to the one destroyed may be constructed. Not even the architect
himself can destroy it. Even after his death this thought-form can be recovered
by those who are qualified to read the memory of nature, which will be dealt
with later.
Having thus seen the reasonableness of such Worlds existing around
and about us, and having satisfied ourselves of their reality, their
permanency, and of the utility of a knowledge concerning them, we shall now
examine them severally and singly, commencing with the Physical World.
Chemical Region of the Physical World
In the Rosicrucian teaching the universe is divided into seven
different Worlds, or states of matter, as follows:
- World of God.
- World of Virgin Spirits.
- World of Divine Spirit.
- World of Life Spirit.
- World of Thought.
- Desire World.
- Physical World.
The division is not arbitrary but necessary, because the
substance of each of these Worlds is amenable to laws which are practically
inoperative in others. For instance, in the Physical World, matter is subject
to gravity, contraction and expansion. In the Desire World there is neither
heat nor cold, and forms levitate as easily as they gravitate. Distance and
time are also governing factors of existence in the Physical World, but are
almost non-existent in the Desire World.
The matter of these worlds also varies in density, the Physical
World being the densest of the seven.
Each World is subdivided into seven Regions or subdivisions of
matter. In the Physical World, the solids, liquids and gases form the three denser
subdivisions, the remaining four being ethers of varying densities. In the
other Worlds similar subdivisions are necessary, because the matter of which
they are composed is not of uniform density.
There are still two further distinctions to be made. The three
dense subdivisions of the Physical World--the solids, liquids and
gases--constitute what is termed the Chemical Region. The substance in this
Region is the basis of all dense Form.
The Ether is also physical matter. It is not homogeneous, as
material science alleges, but exists in four different states. It is the medium
of ingress for the quickening spirit which imparts vitality to the Forms
in the Chemical Region. The four finer or etheric subdivisions of the Physical
World constitute what is known as the Etheric Region.
In the World of Thought the three higher subdivisions are the
basis of abstract thought, hence they, collectively, are called the Region of
Abstract Thought. The four denser subdivisions supply the mind-stuff in which
we embody and concrete our ideas and are therefore termed the Region of
Concrete Thought.
The careful consideration given by the occultist to the
characteristics of the Physical World might seem superfluous were it not that
he regards all things from a view point differing widely from that of the
materialist. The latter recognizes three states of matter--solids, liquids, and
gases. These are all chemical, because derived from the chemical constituents
of Earth. From this chemical matter all the forms of mineral, plant,
animal, and man have been built, hence they are as truly chemical as the
substances which are commonly so termed. Thus whether we consider the mountain
or the cloud that envelops its top, the juice of the plant or the blood of the
animal, the spider's thread, the wing of the butterfly or the bones of the
elephant, the air we breathe or the water we drink--all are composed of the
same chemical substance.
What is it then which determines the conformation of this basic
substance into the multiplex variety of Forms which we see about us? It is the
One Universal Spirit, expressing Itself in the visible world as four great
streams of Life, at varying stages of development. This fourfold spiritual
impulse molds the chemical matter of the Earth into variegated forms of the
four Kingdoms--mineral, plant, animal, and man. When a form has served its
purpose as a vehicle of expression for the three higher streams of life, the
chemical forces disintegrate that form so that the matter may be returned to
its primordial state, and thus made available for the building of new forms.
The spirit or life which molds the form into an expression of itself is,
therefore, as extraneous to the matter it uses as a carpenter is apart from and
personally independent of the house he builds for his own occupancy.
As all the forms of mineral, plant, animal, and man are
chemical, they must logically be as dead and devoid of feeling as chemical
matter in it primitive state, and the Rosicrucian asserts that they are.
Some scientists contend that there is feeling in all tissue,
living or dead, to whatever kingdom it belongs. They include even the
substances ordinarily classed as mineral in their category of objects having
feeling, and to prove their contentions they submit diagrams with curves of
energy obtained from tests. Another class of investigators teach that there is
no feeling even in the human body, except in the brain, which is the seat
of feeling. They say it is the brain and not the finger which feels the pain
when the latter is injured. Thus is the house of Science divided against itself
on this as on most other points. The position taken by each is partly right. It
depends upon what we mean by "feeling." If we mean simply response to
impacts, such as the rebound of a rubber ball that is dropped to the ground, of
course it is correct to attribute feeling to mineral, plant, and animal tissue;
but if we mean pleasure and pain, love and hate, joy and sorrow, it would be
absurd to attribute them to the lower forms of life, to detached tissue, to
minerals in their native state, or even to the brain, because such feelings are
expressions of the self-conscious immortal spirit, and the brain is only the
keyboard of the wonderful instrument upon which the human spirit plays its
symphony of life, just as the musician expresses himself upon his violin.
As there are people who are quite unable to understand that
there must be and are higher Worlds, so there are some who, having become
slightly acquainted with the higher realms, acquire the habit of undervaluing
this Physical World. Such an attitude is as incorrect as that of the
materialist. The great and wise Beings who carry out the will and design of God
placed us in this physical environment to learn great and important lessons
which could not be learned under other conditions, and it is our duty to use
our knowledge of the higher Worlds in learning to the best of our ability the
lessons which this material world has to teach us.
In one sense the Physical World is a sort of model school or
experiment station to teach us to work correctly in the others. It does this
whether or not we know of the existence of those other worlds, thereby proving
the great wisdom of the originators of the plan. If we had knowledge of none
but the higher Worlds, we would make many mistakes which would become apparent
only when physical conditions are brought to bear as criterion. To illustrate:
Let us imagine the case of an inventor working out his idea of a machine. First
he builds the machine in thought, and in his mind he sees it complete and in
operation, performing most beautifully the work it is designed to do. He next
makes a drawing of the design, and in doing so perhaps finds that modifications
in his first conception are necessary. When, from the drawings, he has become
satisfied that the plan is feasible, he proceeds to build the actual machine
from suitable material.
Now it is almost certain that still further modifications will
be found necessary before the machine will work as intended. It may be found
that it must be entirely remodeled, or even that it is altogether useless in
its present form, must be discarded and a new plan evolved. But mark this, for
here is the point: the new idea or plan will be formulated for the purpose of
eliminating the defects in the useless machine. Had there been no material
machine constructed, thereby making evident the faults of the first idea, a
second and correct idea would not have been formed.
This applies equally to all conditions of life--social,
mercantile, and philanthropic. Many plans appear excellent to those conceiving
them, and may even look well on paper, but when brought down in the actual test
of utility they often fail. That however, should not discourage us. It is true
that "we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes," and
the proper light in which to regard this Physical World is as a school of
valuable experience, in which we learn lessons of the utmost importance.
The Etheric Region of the Physical World.
As soon as we enter this realm of nature we are in the
invisible, intangible World, where our ordinary senses fail us, hence this part
of the Physical World is practically unexplored by material science.
Air is invisible, yet modern science knows that it exists. By
means of instruments its velocity as wind can be measured; by compression it
can be made visible as liquid air. With either, however, that is not so easy.
Material science finds that it is necessary to account in some way for the transmission
of electricity, with or without wires. It is forced to postulate some substance
of a finer kind that it knows, and it calls that substance "ether."
It does not really know that ether exists, as the ingenuity of the scientist
has not, as yet, been able to devise a vessel in which it is possible to
confine this substance, which is altogether too elusive for the comfort of the
"wizard of the laboratory." He cannot measure, weigh, nor analyze it
by any apparatus now at his disposal.
Truly, the achievements of modern science are marvelous. The
best way to learn the secrets of nature, however, is not by inventing
instruments, but by improving the investigator himself. Man has within himself
faculties which eliminate distance and compensate for lack of size to a degree
as much greater than the power of telescope and microscope as theirs exceeds
that of the naked eye. These senses or faculties are the means of investigation
used by occultists. They are their "open sesame" in searching for
truth.
To the trained clairvoyant ether is as tangible as are the
solids, liquids, and gases of the Chemical Region to ordinary beings. He sees
that the vital forces which give life to the mineral forms of plant, animal and
man flow into these forms, by means of the four states of ether. The names and
specific functions of these four ethers are as follows.
This ether is both positive and negative in
manifestation. The forces which cause assimilation and excretion work through
it. Assimilation is the process whereby the different nutritive elements of
food are incorporated into the body of plant, animal and man. This is carried
on by forces with which we shall become acquainted later. They work along the
positive pole of the chemical ether and attract the needed elements, building
them into the forms concerned. These forces do not act blindly nor
mechanically, but in a selective way (well-known to scientists by its effects)
thereby accomplishing their purpose, which is the growth and maintenance of the
body.
Excretion is carried on by forces of the same kind, but
working along the negative pole of the chemical ether. By means of this pole
they expel from the body the materials in the food which are unfit for use, or
those which have outlived their usefulness in the body and should be expurgated
from the system. This, like all other processes independent of man's volition,
is also wide, selective, and not merely mechanical in its operation, as seen,
for instance, in the case of the action of the kidneys, where only the urine is
filtered through when the organs are in health; but it is known that when the
organs are not in health, the valuable albumen is allowed to escape with the
urine, the proper selection not being made because of an abnormal condition.
As the chemical ether is the avenue for the operation
of the forces the object of which is the maintenance of the individual form, so
the life ether is the avenue for the operation of the forces which have for
their object the maintenance of the species--the forces of propagation.
Like the chemical ether, the life ether also has its positive
and negative pole. The forces which work along the positive pole are those
which work in the female during gestation. They enable her to do the positive,
active work of bringing forth a new being. On the other hand the forces which
work along the negative pole of the life ether enable the male to produce
semen.
In the work on the impregnated ovum of the animal and man, or
upon the seed of the plant, the forces working along the positive pole of the
life ether produce male plants, animals and men; while the forces which express
themselves through the negative pole generate females.
This ether is both positive and negative, and the forces
which play along its positive pole are the forces which generate that blood
heat in the higher species of animal and in man, which makes them individual
sources of heat. The forces which work along the negative pole of the light
ether are those which operate through the senses, manifesting as the passive
functions of sight, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. They also build
and nourish the eye.
In the cold-blooded animals the positive pole of the light
ether is the avenue of the forces which circulate the blood, and the negative
forces have the same functions in regard to the eye as in the case of the
higher animals and man. Where eyes are lacking, the forces working in the
negative pole of the light ether are perhaps building or nourishing other sense
organs, as they do in all that have sense organs.
In plants the forces which work along the positive pole of
the light ether cause the circulation of the juices of the plant. Thus in
winter, when the light ether is not charged with sunlight as in summer, the sap
ceases to flow until the summer sun again invests the light ether with its
force. The forces which work along the negative pole of the light ether deposit
the chlorophyll, the green substance of the plant and also color the flowers.
In fact, all color, in all kingdoms is deposited by means of the negative pole
of the light ether. Therefore animals have the deepest color on the back and
flowers are deepest colored on the side turned towards the light. In the polar
regions of the earth, where the rays of the sun are weak, all color is lighter
and in some cases is so sparingly deposited that in winter it is withdrawn
altogether and the animals become white.
It has heretofore been stated that the idea of the
house which has existed in the mind can be recovered from the memory of nature,
even after the death of the architect. Everything that has ever happened has
left behind it an ineffaceable picture in this reflecting ether. As the giant
ferns of the childhood of the Earth have left their pictures in the coal beds,
and as the progress of the glacier of a bygone day may be traced by means of
the trail it has left upon the rocks along its path, even so are the thoughts
and acts of men ineffaceably recorded by nature in this reflecting ether, where
the trained seer may read their story with an accuracy commensurate with his
ability.
The reflecting ether deserves its name for more than one
reason, for the pictures in it are but reflections of the memory of
nature. The real memory of nature is found in a much higher realm. In this
reflecting ether no thoroughly trained clairvoyant cares to read, as the
pictures are blurred and vague compared to those found in the higher realm. Those
who read in the reflecting ether are generally those who have no choice, who,
in fact, do not know what they are reading. As a rule ordinary psychometrists
and mediums obtain their knowledge through the reflecting ether. To some slight
extent the pupil of the occult school in the first stages of his training also
reads in the reflecting ether, but he is warned by his teacher of the
insufficiencies of this ether as a means of acquiring accurate information, so
that he does not easily draw wrong conclusions.
This ether is also the medium through which thought makes an
impression upon the human brain. It is most intimately connected with the
fourth subdivision of the World of Thought. This is the highest of the four
subdivisions contained in the Region of Concrete Thought and the homeworld of
the human mind. There a much clearer version of the memory of nature is found
than in the reflecting ether.
The Desire World
Like the Physical World, and every other realm of nature, the
Desire World has the seven subdivisions called "Regions," but unlike
the Physical World, it does not have the great divisions corresponding to the
Chemical and Etheric Regions. Desire stuff in the Desire World persists through
its seven subdivisions or regions as material for the embodiment of desire. As
the Chemical Region is the realm of form and as the Etheric Region is the home
of the forces carrying on life activities in those forms, enabling them to
live, move and propagate, so the forces in the Desire World, working in the quickened
dense body, impel it to move in this or that direction.
If there were only the activities of the Chemical and Etheric
Regions of the Physical World, there would be forms having life, able to move,
but with no incentive for so doing. This incentive is supplied by the
cosmic forces active in the Desire World and without this activity playing
through every fibre of the vitalized body, urging action in this direction or
that, there would be no experience and no moral growth. The functions of the different
ethers would take care of the growth of the form, but moral growth would
entirely lacking. Evolution would be an impossibility, both as to form and
life, for it is only in response to the requirements of spiritual growth that
forms evolve to higher states. Thus we at once see the great importance of this
realm of nature.
Desires, wishes, passions, and feelings express themselves in
the matter of the different regions of the Desire World as form and feature
express themselves in the Chemical Region of the Physical World. They take
forms which last for a longer or shorter time, according to the intensity of
the desire, wish, or feeling embodied in them. In the Desire World the
distinction between the forces and the matter is not so definite and apparent
as in the Physical World. One might almost say that here the ideas of force and
matter are identical or interchangeable. It is not quite so, but we may say
that to a certain extent the Desire World consists of force-matter.
When speaking of the matter of the Desire World, it is true that
it is one degree less dense that the matter of the Physical World, but we
entertain an entirely wrong idea if we imaging it is finer physical
matter. That idea, though held by many who have studied occult philosophies, is
entirely erroneous. The wrong impression is caused principally by the
difficulty of giving the full and accurate description necessary for a thorough
understanding of the higher worlds. Unfortunately, our language is descriptive
of material things and therefore entirely inadequate to describe the conditions
of the super-physical realms, hence all that is said about these realms must be
taken tentatively, as similes, rather than as accurate descriptions.
Though the mountain and the daisy, the man, the horse, and a
piece of iron, are composed of one ultimate atomic substance, we do not say
that the daisy is a finer form of iron. Similarly it is impossible to explain
in words the change or difference in physical matter when it is broken up into desire-stuff.
If there were no difference it would be amenable to the laws of the Physical
World, which it is not.
The law of matter of the Chemical Region is inertia-the tendency
to remain in statu quo. It takes a certain amount of force to overcome
this inertia and cause a body which is at rest to move, or to stop a body in
motion. Not so with the matter of the Desire World. That matter itself is
almost living. It is in unceasing motion, fluid, taking all imaginable and
unimaginable forms with inconceivable facility and rapidity, at the same time
coruscating and scintillating in a thousand ever-changing shades of color,
incomparable to anything we know in this physical state of consciousness.
Something very faintly resembling the action and appearance of this matter will
be seen in the play of colors on an abalone shell when held in the sunlight and
moved to and fro.
That is what the Desire World is--ever-changing light and
color--in which the forces of animal and man intermingle with the forces of innumerable
Hierarchies of spiritual beings which do not appear in our Physical World, but
are as active in the Desire World as we are here. Some of them will be dealt
with later and their connection with man's evolution described.
The forces sent out by this vast and varied hose of Beings mold
the ever-changing matter of the Desire World into innumerable and differing
forms of more or less durability, according to the kinetic energy of the
impulse which gave them birth.
From this slight description it may be understood how difficult
it is for a neophyte who has just had his inner eyes opened to find his balance
in the World of Desire. The trained clairvoyant soon ceases to wonder at the
impossible descriptions sometimes brought through by mediums. They may be
perfectly honest, but the possibilities of parallax, and of getting out of
focus are legion, and of the subtlest nature, and the real wonder is that they
ever communicate anything correctly. All of us had to learn to see, in the days
of our infancy, as we may readily find by watching a young babe. It will be
found that the little one will reach for objects on the other side of the room
or the street, or for the Moon. He is entirely unable to gauge distances. The
blind man who has been made to see will, at first, often close his eyes to walk
from one place to another, declaring, until he has learned to use his eyes,
that it is easier to walk by feeling than by sight. So the one whose inner
organs of perception have been vivified must also be trained in the use of his
newly acquired faculty. At first the neophyte will try to apply to the Desire
World the knowledge derived from his experience in the Physical World, because
he has not yet learned the laws of the world into which he is entering. This is
the source of a vast amount of trouble and perplexity. Before he can
understand, he must become as a little child, which imbibed knowledge without
reference to any previous experience.
To arrive at a correct understanding of the Desire World it is
necessary to realize that it is the world of feeling, desires, and emotions.
These are all under the domination of two great forces--Attraction and
Repulsion, which act in a different way in the three denser Regions of the
Desire World from that in which they act in the three finer or upper Regions,
while the central Region may be called neutral ground.
This central Region is the Region of feeling. Here interest in
or indifference to an object or an idea sways the balance in favor of one of
the two previously mentioned forces, thereby relegating the object or idea to
the three higher or the three lower Regions of the Desire World, or else they
will expel it. We shall see presently how this is accomplished.
In the finest and rarest substance of the three higher Regions
of the Desire World the force of Attraction alone holds sway, but it is also
present in some degree in the denser matter of the three lower Regions, where
it works against the force of Repulsion, which is dominant there. The
disintegrating force of Repulsion would soon destroy every form coming into
these three lower Regions were it not that it is thus counteracted. In the
densest or lowest Region, where it is strongest, it tears and shatters the
forms built there in a way dreadful to see, yet it is not a fatalistic force.
Nothing in nature is vandalistic. All that appears so is but working towards
good. So with this force in its work in the lowest Region of the Desire World.
The forms here are demoniac creations, built by the coarsest passions and
desires of man and beast.
The tendency of every form in the Desire World is to attract
itself all it can of a like nature and grow thereby. If this tendency to
attraction were predominate in the lowest Regions, evil would grow like a weed.
There would be anarchy instead of order in the Cosmos. This prevented by the
preponderating power of the force of Repulsion in this Region. When a coarse
desire form is being attracted to another of the same nature, there is a
disharmony in their vibrations, whereby one has a disintegrating effect upon
the other. Thus, instead of uniting and amalgamating evil with evil, they act
with mutual destructiveness and in that way the evil in the world is kept
within reasonable bounds. When we understand the working of the twin forces in
this respect we are in a position to understand the occult maxim, "A lie
is both murder and suicide in the Desire World."
Anything happening in the Physical World is reflected in all the
other realms of nature and, as we have seen, builds its appropriate form in the
Desire World. When a true account of the occurrence is given, another form is
built, exactly like the first. They are then drawn together and coalesce,
strengthening each other. If, however, an untrue is given, a form different
from and antagonistic to the first, or true one, is created. As they deal with
the same occurrence, they are drawn together, but as their vibrations are
different they act upon each other with mutual destructiveness. Therefore, evil
and malicious lies can kill anything that is good, if they are strong enough
and repeated often enough. But, conversely, seeking for the good in evil will,
in time, transmute the evil into good. If the form that is built to minimize
the evil is weak, it will have no effect and will be destroyed by the evil
form, but if it is strong and frequently repeated it will have the effect of
disintegrating the evil and substituting the good. That effect, be it
distinctly understood, it not brought about by lying, nor denying the evil, but
by looking for the good. The occult scientist practices very rigidly this
principle of looking for good in all things, because he knows what a power it
possesses in keeping down evil.
There is a story of Christ which illustrates this point. Once
when walking with His disciples they passed the decaying and ill-smelling
carcass of a dog. The disciples turned in disgust, commenting upon the
nauseating nature of this sight; but Christ looked at the dead body and said
"Pearls are not whiter than its teeth." He was determined to find the
good, because He knew the beneficial effect which would result in the Desire
World from giving it expression.
The lowest Region of the Desire World is called "the Region
of Passion and Sensual Desire." The second subdivision is best described
by the name of "Region of Impressionability." Here the effect of the
twin forces of Attraction and Repulsion is evenly balanced. This is a neutral
Region, hence all our impressions which are built of the matter of this Region
are neutral. Only when the twin feelings, which we shall meet in the fourth
Region, are brought to bear, do the twin forces come into play. The mere
impression of anything, however, in and of itself, is entirely separate from
the feeling it engenders. The impression is neutral and is an activity of the
second Region of the Desire World, where pictures are formed by the forces of
sense-perception in the vital body of man.
In the third Region of the Desire World, the force of
Attraction, the integrating, upbuilding force, has already gained the upper
hand over the force of Repulsion, with its destructive tendency. When we
understand that the mainspring in this force of Repulsion is self-assertion, a
pushing away of all others that it may have room, we shall understand that it
gives way most easily to a desire for other things, so that the substance of
the third Region of the Desire World is principally dominated by the force of
Attraction towards other things, but in a selfish way, and therefore this is
the Region of Wishes.
The Region of Coarse Desires may be likened to the solids in the
Physical World; the Region of Impressionability to the fluids; and the
fluctuating, evanescent nature of the Region of Wishes will make that compare with
the gaseous portion of the Physical World. These three Regions give the
substance for the forms which make for experience, soul-growth and evolution,
purging the altogether destructive and retaining the materials which may be
used for progress.
The fourth Region of the Desire World is the "Region of
Feeling." From it comes the feeling concerning the already described forms
and upon the feeling engendered by them depends the life which they have for us
and also their effect upon us. Whether the objects and ideas presented are good
or bad in themselves is not important this stage. It is our feeling, whether of
Interest or Indifference that is the determining factor as to the fate of the
object or idea.
If the feeling with which we meet an impression of an object or
an idea is Interest, it has the same effect upon that impression as sunlight
and air have upon a plant. That idea will grow and flourish in our lives. If,
on the other hand, we meet an impression or idea with Indifference, it withers
as does a plant when put in a dark cellar.
Thus from this central Region of the Desire World come the
incentive to action, or the decision to refrain therefrom (though the latter is
also action in the eyes of the occult scientist), for at the present stage of
our development the twin feelings, Interest and Indifference furnish the
incentive to action and are the springs that move the world. At a later stage
these feelings will cease to have any weight. Then the determining factor will
be duty.
Interest starts the forces of Attraction or Repulsion.
Indifference simply withers the object or idea against which it
is directed, so far as our connection with it is concerned.
If our interest in an object or an idea generates Repulsion,
that naturally causes us to expurgate from our lives any connection with the
object or idea which roused it; but there is a great difference between the
action of the force of Repulsion and the mere feeling of Indifference. Perhaps
an illustration will make more clear the operation of the twin Feelings and the
twin Forces.
Three men are walking along a road. They see a sick dog; it is
covered with sores and is evidently suffering intensely from pain and thirst.
This much is evident to all three men-their senses tell them that. Now Feeling
comes. Two of them take an "interest" in the animal, but in the third
there is a feeling of "indifference." He passes on, leaving the dog
to its fate. The others remain; they are both interested, but each manifests it
in a quite different way. The interest of one man is sympathetic and helpful,
impelling him to care for the poor beast, to assuage pains and nurse it back to
health. In him the feeling of interest has aroused the force of Attraction. The
other man's interest is of a different kind. He sees only a loathsome sight
which is revolting to him and wishes to rid himself and the world of it as
quickly as possible. He advises killing the animal outright and burying it. In
him the feeling of interest generates the destructive force of Repulsion.
When the feeling of Interest arouses the force of Attraction and
it is directed toward low objects and desires, these work themselves out in the
lower Regions of the Desire World, where the counteracting force of Repulsion
operates, as previously described. From the battle of the twin
forces--Attraction and Repulsion--results all the pain and suffering incident
to wrongdoing or misdirected effort, whether intentional or otherwise.
Thus we may see how very important Feeling we have concerning
anything, for upon that depends the nature of the atmosphere we create for
ourselves. If we love the good, we shall keep and nourish as guardian angels
all that is good about us; if the reverse, we shall people our path with demons
and our own breeding.
The names of the three upper Regions of the Desire World are
"Region of Soul-Life," "Region of Soul-Light," and
"Region of Soul-Power." In these abide Art, Altruism, Philanthropy,
and all the activities of the higher soul-life. When we think of these Regions
as radiating the qualities indicated by their names, into the forms of the
three lower Regions, we shall understand correctly the higher and lower
activities. Soul-power, however, may for a time be used for evil purposes as
well as for good, but eventually the force of Repulsion destroys vice and the
force of Attraction builds virtue upon its shattered ruins. All things, in the
ultimate, work together for good.
The Physical and the Desire Worlds are not separated from each
other by space. They are "closer than hands and feet." It is not
necessary to move to get from one to the other, nor from one Region to the
next. Just as solids, liquids, and gases are all together in our bodies,
inter-penetrating one another, so are the different Regions of the Desire World
within us also. We may again compare the lines of force along which
ice-crystals form in water to the invisible causes originating in the Desire
World, which appear in the Physical World and give us the incentive to action,
in whatever direction it may be.
The Desire World, with it innumerable inhabitants, permeates the
Physical World, as the lines of force do the water--invisible, but everywhere
present and potent as the cause of everything in the Physical World.
The World of Thought
The World of Thought also consists of seven Regions of varying
qualities and densities, and, like the Physical World, the World of Thought is
divided into two main divisions--the Region of Concrete Thought, comprising the
four densest Regions; and the Region of Abstract Thought, comprising the three
Regions of finest substance. This World of Thought is the central one of the
five Worlds from which man obtains his vehicles. Here spirit and body meet. It
is also the highest of the three Worlds in which man's evolution is being
carried forward at the present time, the two higher Worlds being practically in
abeyance as yet, so far as man is concerned.
We know that the materials of the Chemical Region are used in
building all physical forms. These are forms are given life and the power of
motion by the forces at work in the Etheric Region, and some of these living
forms are stirred into activity by means of the twin Feelings of the Desire
World. The Region of Concrete Thought furnishes the mind-stuff in which ideas
generated in the Region of Abstract Thought clothe themselves as thought-forms,
to act as regulators and balance wheels upon the impulses engendered in the
Desire World by impacts from the phenomenal World.
Thus we see how the three Worlds, in which man is at present
evolving, complement one another, making a whole that shows forth the Supreme
Wisdom of the Great Architect of the system to which we belong, and Whom we
reverence by the holy name of God.
Taking a more detailed view of the several divisions of the
Region of Concrete Thought we find that the archetypes of physical form
no matter to what kingdom they may belong, are found in its lowest subdivision,
or the "Continental Region." In this Continental Region are also the
archetypes of the continents and the isles of the world, and corresponding to
these archetypes are they fashioned. Modifications in the crust of the Earth
must first be wrought in the Continental Region. Not until the archetypal model
has been changed can the Intelligences which we (to hide our ignorance
concerning them) call the "Laws of Nature," bring about the physical
conditions which alter the physical features of the Earth according to the
modifications designed by the Hierarchies in charge of evolution. They plan
changes as an architect plans the alteration of a building before the workmen
give it concrete expression. In like manner are changes in the flora and
fauna due to metamorphoses in their respective archetypes.
When we speak of the archetypes of all the different forms in
the dense world it must not be thought that these archetypes are merely models
in the same sense in which we speak of an object constructed in miniature, or
in some material other than that appropriate for its proper and final use. They
are not merely likenesses nor models of the forms we see about us, but are creative
archetypes; that is, they fashion the forms of the Physical World in their own
likeness or likenesses, for often many work together to form one certain
species, each archetype giving part of itself to build the required form
The second subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought is
called the "Oceanic Region." It is best described as flowing,
pulsating vitality. All the forces that work through the four ethers which
constitute the Etheric Region are there seen as archetypes. It is a stream of
flowing life, pulsating through all forms, as blood pulsates through the body,
the same life in all forms. Here the trained clairvoyant sees how true it is
that "all life is one."
The "Aerial Region" is the third division of the
Region of Concrete Thought. Here we find the archetype of desires, passions,
wishes, feelings, and emotions such as we experience in the Desire World. Here
all the activities of the Desire World appear as atmospheric conditions. Like
the kiss of summer breeze come the feelings of pleasure and joy to the
clairvoyant sense; as the sighing of the wind in the tree-tops seem the
longings of the soul and like flashes of lighting the passions of warring nations.
In this atmosphere of the Region of Concrete Thought are also pictures of the
emotions of man and beast.
The "Region of Archetypal Forces" is the fourth
division of the Region of Concrete Thought. It is the central and most
important region in the five Worlds wherein man's entire evolution is carried
on. On the one side of this Region are the three higher Regions of the World of
Thought, the World of Life Spirit and the World of Divine Spirit. On the other
side of this Region of Archetypal Forces are the three lower Regions of the
World of Thought, the Desire and the Physical Worlds. Thus this Region becomes
a sort of "crux," bounded on one side by the Realms of Spirit, on the
other by the Worlds of Form. It is a focusing point, where Spirit reflects
itself in matter.
As the name implies, this Region is the home of the Archetypal
Forces which direct the activity of the archetypes in the Region of Concrete
Thought. From this Region Spirit works on matter in a formative manner. Diagram 1 shows the idea in a schematic way the forms
in the lower World being reflections of the Spirit in the higher Worlds. The
fifth Region, which is the one nearest to the focusing point on the Spirit
side, reflects itself in the third Region, which is nearest the focusing point
on the Form side. The sixth Region reflects itself in the second and the
seventh reflects itself in the first.
The whole of the Region of Abstract thought is reflected in the
World of Desire; the World of Life Spirit in the Etheric Region of the Physical
World; and the World of Divine Spirit in the Chemical Region of the Physical
World.
Diagram 2 will give a comprehensive
idea of the seven Worlds which are the sphere of our development, but we must
carefully keep in mind that these Worlds are not placed one above another, as
shown in the diagram. They interpenetrate--that is to say, that as in the case
where the relation of the Physical World and the Desire World was compared,
where we likened the Desire World to the lines for force in freezing water and
the water itself to the Physical World, in the same way we may think of the
lines of force as being any of the seven Worlds, and the water, as in our
illustration, would correspond to the next denser World in the scale. Another
illustration may perhaps make the subject clearer.
Let us use a spherical sponge to represent the dense earth--the
Chemical Region. Imagine that sand permeates every part of the sponge and also
forms a layer outside the sponge. Let the sand represent the Etheric Region,
which in a similar manner permeates the dense earth and extends beyond its
atmosphere.
Let us further imagine this sponge and sand immersed in a
spherical glass vessel filled with clear water, and a little larger than the
sponge and sand. We place the sponge and sand in the center of the vessel as
the yolk is place in the center of an egg. We have now a space of clear water
between the sand and the vessel. The water as a whole will represent the Desire
World, for just as the water percolates between the grains of sand, through
very pore of the sponge, and forms that clear layer, so the Desire World
permeates both the dense Earth and the ether and extends beyond both of these
substances.
We know there is air in water, and if we think of the air in the
water (in our illustration), as representing the World of Thought, we shall
have a firm mental picture of the way in which the World of Thought, being
finer and more subtle, inter-penetrates the two denser Worlds.
Finally, imagine that the vessel containing the sponge, sand and
water is placed in the center of a large spherical vessel; then the air in the
space between the two vessels would represent that part of the World of Thought
which extends beyond the Desire World.
Each of the planets in our solar system has three such
inter-penetrating Worlds, and if we think of each of the planets consisting of
three Worlds as being individual sponges, and of the fourth World, the World of
Life Spirit, as being the water in a large vessel where these three cold
separate sponges swim, we shall understand that as the water in the vessel
fills the space between the sponges and percolates through them, so the World
of Life Spirit pervades inter-planetary space and inter-penetrates the
individual planets. It forms a common bond between them, so that as it is
necessary to have a boat and be able to control it, if we wish to sail from
America to Africa, so it is necessary to have a vehicle correlated to the World
of Life Spirit under our conscious control in order to be able to travel from
one planet to another.
In a manner similar to that in which the World of Life Spirit
correlates us to the other planets in our own solar system does the World
Divine Spirit correlate us to the other solar systems. We may regard the solar
systems as separate sponges, swimming in a World of Divine Spirit, and thus it
will be apparent that in order to travel from one solar system to another it
would be necessary to be able to function consciously in the highest vehicle of
man, the Divine Spirit.
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