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Having
become acquainted with the Worlds, the Globes and the Revolutions which
constitute the path of evolution during the seven Periods, we are now in a
position to consider the work which is done in each Period, as well as the
methods employed to accomplish it.
The "Ariadne's thread" which will guide us through the
maze of Globes, Worlds, Revolutions and Periods will be found when it is
remembered and kept steadily in mind that the virgin spirits which constitute
the evolving life wave became entirely unconscious when they commenced
their evolutionary pilgrimage through the five Worlds of substance denser than
the World of Virgin Spirits. The purpose of evolution is to make them fully
conscious and able to master the matter of all the Worlds, therefore the
conditions embodied in Globes, Worlds, Revolutions and Periods are ordered with
that end in view.
During the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods and the past half of the
present Earth Period, the virgin spirits have unconsciously built their
different vehicles under the direction of exalted Beings who guided their
progress, and have gradually awakened until they have attained the present
state of waking consciousness. This period is called "Involution".
From the present time to the end of the Vulcan Period, the virgin
spirits, who are now our humanity, will perfect their vehicles and expand their
consciousness in the five Worlds by their own efforts and genius. This period
is called "Evolution."
The above is the key to the understanding of what follows.
A thorough comprehension of the scheme of planetary evolution
which has been outlines in the preceding pages is of immense value to the
student. Although some believers in the laws of Consequence and Rebirth seem to
think that the possession of such knowledge is quite non-essential and of
little use, it is nevertheless of very great importance to the earnest student
of these two laws. It trains the mind in abstract thought and elevates it above
the sordid things of concrete existence, helping the imagination to soar beyond
the hampering toils of self-interest. As stated in our study of the Desire
World, Interest is the mainspring to action, yet at our present stage of
progress, Interest is generally aroused by selfishness. It is sometimes of a
very subtle nature, but it spurs to action of various kinds. All action
inspired by Interest generates certain effects which act on us, and in
consequence we are bound by action having to do with the concrete Worlds. But,
if our minds are occupied with such subjects as mathematics or study of the
planetary phases of evolution, we are in the Region of purely Abstract Thought,
beyond the influence of Feeling, and the mind is directed upward towards the
spiritual realism and liberation. When we are extracting cube root, or
multiplying figures, or thinking of Periods, Revolutions, etc., we have no
Feeling about it. We do not quarrel about twice two being four. If our feelings
were involved we should perhaps try to make it five and quarrel with the one
who, for personal reasons, said it was but three, but in mathematics Truth is
most clearly apparent and Feeling is eliminated. Therefore, to the average man,
desiring to live in the feelings, mathematics is dry and uninteresting.
Pythagoras taught his pupils to live in the World of Eternal Spirit and he
demanded that those who desired instruction from him should first study
mathematics. A mind capable of understanding mathematics is above the average
and is capable of rising into the World of Spirit, because it is not fettered
in the World of Feeling and Desire. The more we accustom ourselves to think in
terms of the Spiritual Worlds, the better we shall be able to rise above the
illusions which surround us in this concrete existence, where the twin
feelings, Interest and Indifference, obscure the Truth and bias us, as the
reflection of the light rays through the Earth's atmosphere gives us incorrect
ideas of the position of the luminary emitting them.
Therefore the student who wishes to know Truth; to enter and
investigate the realms of Spirit; to free himself from the toils of the flesh,
as rapidly as is consistent with safety and proper growth, is earnestly advised
to study what follows as thoroughly as possible; to assimilate it and draw
mental conceptions of these Worlds, Globes and Periods. If he wishes to
progress in this way, the study of mathematics and of Hinton's "The Fourth
Dimension" are also admirable exercises in abstract thought. This work of
Hinton's (though basically incorrect, because the four-dimensional Desire World
cannot be actually found by three-dimensional methods), has opened the eyes of
several persons who have studied it, and made them clairvoyant. Moreover,
remembering that logic is the best teacher in any world, it is certain that the
individual who succeeds in entering into the superphysical World by means of
such studies in abstract thought, will not become confused but will be able to
give a good account of himself under all circumstances.
A stupendous scheme is here unfolded, and as more and more detail
is filled in, its complexity becomes almost inconceivable. Anyone capable of
comprehending it will be well rewarded for taking the utmost pains to do so.
Therefore, the student should read slowly, repeat often, think deeply and much.
This book, particularly this chapter, cannot be read in a casual
manner. Every sentence has weight and bearing upon what follows, and
presupposes a knowledge of what precedes it. If the books is not studied
thoroughly and systematically, it will grown more and more incomprehensible and
confusing with every page. On the other hand, if it is studied and well thought
out as the student proceeds, it will be found that each page is illuminated by
the increased knowledge gained by study of what went before.
No work of this kind, dealing with the deepest phases of the
Great World Mystery that the human mind, at its present stage of development,
is capable of grasping, can be written in such a manner that it will be light
reading. Yet the deepest phases now comprehensible to use are but the A B C of
the scheme as it will be revealed to us when our minds have become capable of
understanding more, in later stages of our development as Supermen.
The Globes of the Saturn Period consisted of much rarer and
finer substances than our Earth, as will be evident from a study of diagram 7 and diagram 8,
which the student is advised to keep close at hand for frequent reference while
studying this subject. The densest Globe of that Period was located in the same
portion of the World of Thought occupied by the rarest of Globes of the present
Period--the Region of Concrete Thought. These Globes had no consistency such as
we can sense. "Warmth" is the only word that approximates the idea of
the ancient Saturn Period. It was dark; and if a person could have entered into
the space it occupied, he would have seen nothing. All about him would have
been darkness, but he would have felt its warmth.
To the materialist it will, of course, seem insanity to call
such a condition a "Globe", and to assert that it was the field of
evolution of Form and Life. Yet, when we consider the Nebular Theory, we can
realize that the nebula must have been dark before it glowed with light, and
that it must have been hot before it could become fiery. This heat must have
been brought about by motion, and motion is life.
We may say that the virgin spirits who were to evolve
consciousness and form were embedded in this Globe, or perhaps better, that the
whole Globe was composed of virgin spirits, as a raspberry is made of a great
number of small raspberries. They were incorporated in the Globe, as the life
ensouling the mineral is in our Earth. Therefore it is said among occult
scientists that in the Saturn Period man went through the mineral stage.
Outside this "warmth-Globe"--in its atmosphere, we
might say--were the great creative Hierarchies, who were to help the evolving
virgin spirits to develop form and consciousness. There were many Hierarchies,
but for the present we shall concern ourselves with the principal ones
only--those which did the most important work of the Saturn Period.
In the Rosicrucian terminology these are called "Lords of
the Flame," because of the brilliant luminosity of their bodies and their
great spiritual powers. They are called "Thrones" in the Bible, and
worked on man of their own free will. They were so far advanced that this
evolutionary manifestation could give them no new experiences, and therefore no
added wisdom, and the same may be said of two still higher order of
Hierarchies, to be named later. The rest of the creative Hierarchies, in order
to complete their own evolutions, were compelled to work on, in and with man.
These Lords of the Flame were outside the dark Saturn Globe and
their bodies emitted a strong light. They, so to say, projected their pictures
upon the surface of that ancient Saturn Globe, which was so impressionable that
it reflected, in a multiple or echo-like manner, everything that came in
contact with it, giving back the images manifolded. (This is told in the Greek
myth wherein it is said that Saturn destroyed his children.)
However, by repeated efforts during the first Revolution, the
Lords of the Flame succeeded in implanting in the evolving life the germ which
has developed our present dense body. This germ was somewhat developed during
the remainder of the first six Revolutions, being given the capacity for
developing the senses organs, particularly the ear. Therefore, the ear is the
most highly developed organ we possess. It is the instrument which carries with
the greatest accuracy the impressions of outside conditions to the
consciousness. It is less subject to the illusions of the Physical World than
the other sense organs.
The consciousness of the evolving life of that Period was like
that of the mineral of today--a state of unconsciousness similar to that
attained by mediums in the deepest trance--yet during the first six
Revolutions, the evolving life worked on the germ of the dense body under the
direction and with the help of the different creative Hierarchies. In the
middle of the seventh Revolution the Lords of the Flame, Who had been inactive
since They gave the germ of the dense body in the first Revolution, again
become active, this time to awaken the highest spiritual principle. They
aroused the initial activity of the divine spirit in man.
Thus, man owes his highest and lowest vehicles--the divine
spirit and the dense body, to the evolution of the Saturn Period. These, the
Lords of the Flame of their own free will helped him to manifest, not being
under the slightest compulsion to do so.
The work of the various creative Hierarchies is not started on
Globe A, at the commencement of a Period or a Revolution. It commences in the
middle of one Revolution, growing in strength and reaching its highest efficiency
in the middle of the Cosmic Night--which is between Revolutions, as well as
between Periods. Then it gradually declines, as the life wave sweeps on to the
middle of the next Revolution.
Thus the work of the Lords of the Flame in awakening the
germinal consciousness, was most active and efficient during the rest Period
between the Saturn and Sun Periods.
We reiterate that a Cosmic Night is not to be regarded as a time
of inactivity. It is not inert existence, as we saw in the case of the individual
passing from death to a new birth. So with the great death of all the Globes of
a Period. It is a cessation of active manifestation, that a proportionately
keener subjective activity may be unfolded.
Perhaps the best idea of the nature of this subjective activity
may be gained by observing what happens when a ripe fruit is buried in the
ground. Fermentation and decay of the flesh sets in, but out of that chaos
comes the new plant, sprouting forth into the air and sunshine. So, when a
Period is past, all is resolved into conglomerate chaos, apparently incapable
of being reduced to order. At the proper time, however, the Globes of a new
period are formed and made ready for occupancy as man-bearing Worlds. Hither
the evolving life is transferred from five dark Globes which it traverses
during the Cosmic Night, to commence the activities of a new creative day in an
altered environment, prepared and externalized during the activities of the
Cosmic Night. As the forces of fermentation in the fruit stimulate the seed and
fertilize the soil in which it grows, so the Lords of the Flame stimulated the
germ of divine spirit, particularly during the Cosmic Night between the Saturn
and Sun Periods, continuing their activities until the middle of the first Revolution
of the Sun Period.
Before the activity in any Period can be started, there is a
recapitulation of all that has been gone through before. Owing to the spiral
path of evolution, this activity takes place each time on a higher scale that
the stage in progression which it rehearses. The necessity will become apparent
when the actual work in recapitulation is described.
The first Revolution of any Period is a recapitulation of the
work upon the dense body in the Saturn Period, and is spoken of among
Rosicrucians as the "Saturn Revolution."
The Second Period is the Sun Period, and therefore the second
Revolution of any Period subsequent to the Sun Period would be the "Sun
Revolution."
The third Period is the Moon Period, therefore the third
Revolution of any subsequent Period will be a recapitulation of the work done
in the Moon Period, and is called the "Moon Revolution."
Not until after the recapitulatory Revolutions does the proper
work of a Period begin. For instance, in the present Earth Period, we have
passed through three and one-half Revolutions. That means that in the first, or
Saturn Revolution of the Earth Period, the work done in the Saturn Period was
repeated, but on an advanced scale. In the second, or Sun Revolution, the work
of the Sun Period was gone through again. In the third, or Moon Revolution, the
work of the Moon Period was repeated; and it was only in the fourth--the
present Revolution--that the real work of the Earth Period commenced.
In the last of the seven Periods--the Vulcan Period--only the
last Revolution will be concerned with real Vulcan work. In the preceding six
Revolutions the work of the preceding six Periods will have been recapitulated.
Moreover (and this will particularly help the student to
remember), a Saturn Revolution in any Period has always to do with the
development of some new feature of the dense body, because that was started in
a first Revolution; and any seventh, or Vulcan Revolution, has for its
particular work some activity in connection with the divine spirit, because
that was started in a seventh Revolution. In the same way, we shall see that
there is a connection between the different Revolutions and all the vehicles of
man.
Conditions during the Sun Period differed radically from those
of the Saturn Period. Instead of the "warmth-Globes" of the latter,
the Sun Period Globes were glowing light-balls, of the consistency of gas.
These great gasballs contained all that had been evolved in the Saturn Period,
and similarly, in the atmosphere were the creative Hierarchies.
Instead of the echo-like, reflecting quality of the Saturn
Period, these Globes, to some extent, had the quality of absorbing and working
over sight or sound projected against their surfaces. They, as it were,
"sensed" things. The Earth does not seem to do this, and a
materialist would scoff at the idea, yet the occultist knows that the Earth
feels everything on and in it. This lighter Globe was much more sensitive that
the Earth, because it was not limited and bound in such hard and fast
conditions of materiality as is our present habitat.
The life, of course, was different, because no forms such as we
know could have existed there. But life can express itself in forms of fiery
gas as well as--in fact better than--in forms of hard chemical matter such as
the present dense forms of mineral, plant, animal and man.
Asthe evolving life appeared upon Globe A in the first or Saturn
Revolution of the Sun Period, it was still in charge of the Lords of the Flame
who, in the middle of the last Revolution of the Saturn Period, awakened in man
the germ of the divine spirit.
They had previously given the germ of the dense body and, in the
first half of the Saturn Revolution of the Sun Period, were concerned with
certain improvements to be made upon it.
In the Sun Period the formation of the vital body was to be
commenced, with all thereby implied of capability for assimilation, growth,
propagation, glands, etc.
The Lords of the Flame incorporated in the germ of the dense
body only the capability of evolving sense organs. At the time now under
consideration it became necessary to change the germ in such a way as to allow
of interpenetration by a vital body, also capability of evolving glands and an
alimentary canal. This was done by the joint action of the Lords of the Flame,
who gave the original germ, and the Lords of Wisdom, who took charge of
material evolution in the Sun Period.
The Lords of Wisdom, who were not so highly evolved as the Lords
of the Flame, worked to complete their own evolution; therefore they received
the assistance of an order of exalted Beings who, like the Lords of the Flame,
acted of their own free will. In esoteric parlance they are called the Cherubim.
These exalted Beings did not, however, become active in the work until it was
necessary to awaken the germ of the second spiritual principle of our
man-in-the-making, as the Lords of Wisdom were quite capable of doing the work
connected with the vital body which was to be added to the constitution of man
in the Sun Period, but not of awakening the second spiritual principle.
When the Lords of the Flame and the Lords of Wisdom had, in the
Saturn Revolution of the Sun Period, conjointly reconstructed the germinal
dense body, the Lords of Wisdom, in the second Revolution, started the proper
work of the Sun Period, by radiating from their own bodies the germ of the
vital body, making it capable of inter-penetrating the dense body and giving to
the germ the capability of furthering growth and propagation and of exciting
the sense centers of the dense body and causing it to move. In short, they
gave, germinally, to the vital body all the faculties which it is now unfolding
to become a perfect and pliable instrument for the use of the spirit.
This work occupied the second, third, fourth and fifth
Revolutions of the Sun Period. In the sixth Revolution the Cherubim entered and
awakened the germ of the second aspect of the threefold spirit in man--the life
spirit. In the seventh and last Revolution the newly awakened germ of the life
spirit was linked to the germinal divine spirit, and this was still further
worked upon.
We remember that in the Saturn Period our consciousness was
similar to the trace condition. By the activity of the Sun Period this was
modified until it became like the consciousness of dreamless sleep.
Evolution in the Sun Period added to the constitution of the
evolving embryonic man, the next highest and the next lowest of his present
vehicles. As the result of the Saturn Period he possessed a germinal dense body
and divine spirit. At the end of the Sun Period he possessed a germinal dense
body, vital body, divine spirit and life spirit, i.e., a twofold spirit and a
twofold body.
We also note that, as the first, or Saturn Revolution, of any
Period is concerned with work in the dense body (because that was started in a
first Revolution), so the second, or Sun Revolution, of any Period is concerned
with improvements on the vital body, because it was started in a second
Revolution. In like manner, the sixth Revolution of any Period is dedicated to
some work on the life spirit, and any seventh Revolution is particularly
concerned with matters connected with the divine spirit.
In the Saturn Period man-in-the-making went through a mineral
stage of existence. That is to say, he had a dense body only in the sense as
had the mineral. His consciousness was also similar to that of the present
mineral.
In the same way, and for analogous reasons, it may be said that
in the Sun Period man went through the plant existence. He had a dense body and
a vital body, as plants have, and his consciousness, like theirs, was that of
dreamless sleep. The student will fully grasp this analogy by referring to diagram 4 in the chapter on the four kingdoms, where
the vehicles of consciousness possessed by mineral, plant, animal and man are
schematically shown, with the particular consciousness resulting from their
possession in each case.
When the Sun Period was past there came another Cosmic Night of
assimilation, together with the subjective activity necessary before the
opening of the Moon Period. This was equal in length to the preceding Period of
objective manifestation.
As the chief characteristic feature of the dark Saturn Globes
was described by the term "warmth," and that of the Sun Period Globes
as "light" or glowing heat, so the chief characteristic feature of
the Globes of the Moon Period may be best described by the term
"moisture." There was no air such as we know. In the center was the
hot fiery core. Next to that, and consequent upon contact with the cold of
outside space, there was dense moisture. By contact with the fiery central core
the dense moisture was changed into hot steam, which rushed outward to cool,
and sink again toward the center. Therefore the occult scientist calls the
Globes of the Moon Period "water" and describes the atmosphere of
that time as "fire-fog." That was the scene of the next forward step
of the evolving life.
The Moon Period work was that of acquiring the germ of a desire
body and starting the germinal activity of the third aspect of the threefold
spirit in man--the human spirit--the Ego.
In the middle of the seventh Revolution of the Sun Period, the
Lords of Wisdom took charge of the germinal life spirit given by the Cherubim
in the sixth Revolution of the Sun Period. They did this for the purpose of
linking it to the divine spirit. Their greatest activity in this work was
reached in the Cosmic Night intervening between the Sun and Moon Periods. In
the first dawn of the Moon Period, as the life wave started upon its new
pilgrimage, the Lords of Wisdom reappeared, bearing with them the germinal
vehicles of the evolving man. In the first or Saturn Revolution of the Moon
Period, they co-operated with the "Lords of Individuality," who had
special charge of the material evolution of the Moon Period. Together they
reconstructed the germ of the dense body, brought over from the Sun Period.
This germ had unfolded embryonic sense organs, digestive organs, glands, etc.,
and was inter-penetrated by a budding vital body which diffused a certain
degree of life into the embryonic dense body. Of course, it was not solid and
visible as it is now, yet in a crude sort of way it was somewhat organized and
is perfectly distinguishable to the trained clairvoyant sight of the competent
investigator who searches the memory of nature for scenes in that far-off past.
In the Moon Period it was necessary to reconstruct the dense
body to make it capable of being inter-penetrated by a desire body, and also
capable of evolving a nervous system, muscle, cartilage and a rudimentary
skeleton. This reconstruction was the work of the Saturn Revolution of the Moon
Period.
In the second, or Sun Revolution, the vital body was also
modified to render it capable of being inter-penetrated by a desire body, also
of accommodating itself to the nervous system, muscle, skeleton, etc. The Lords
of Wisdom, who were the originators of the vital body, also helped the Lords of
Individuality with this work.
In the third Revolution the proper Moon work commenced. The
Lords of Individuality radiated from themselves the substance which they helped
the unconscious, evolving man to appropriate and build into a germinal desire
body. They also helped him to incorporate this germinal desire body in the
compound vital body and dense body which he already possessed. This work was
carried on all through the third and fourth Revolutions of the Moon Period.
As with the Lords of Wisdom, so with the Lords of Individuality;
though exalted far above man, they worked on and in him to complete their own
evolution. While they were capable of dealing with the lower vehicle, they were
powerless in regard to the higher. They could not give the spiritual impulse
necessary to the awakening of the third aspect of the threefold spirit in man.
Therefore another class of Beings who were beyond the necessity of evolving in
such an evolution as we are passing through--who also worked of their own free
will, as did the Lords of the Flame and the Cherubim--came in during the fifth
Revolution of the Moon Period, to help man. They are called "Seraphim."
They awakened the germ of the third aspect of the spirit--the human spirit.
In the sixth Revolution of the Moon Period the Cherubim
reappeared and co-operated with the Lords of Individuality to link the newly
acquired germ of the human spirit to life spirit.
In the seventh Revolution of the Moon Period the Lords of the
Flame again came to the aid of man, helping the Lords of Individuality to link
the human spirit to the divine spirit. Thus the separate Ego--the threefold
spirit--came into existence.
Before the beginning of the Saturn Period the virgin spirits who
are now man, were in the World of Virgin Spirits, and were
"All-conscious" as God in who (not from whom), they were
differentiated. They were not "self" conscious however. The
attainment of that faculty is partly the object of evolution which plunges the
virgin spirits into a sea of matter of gradually increasing density which
eventually shuts it from the All-consciousness.
Thus, in the Saturn Period the virgin spirits were immersed in
the World of Divine Spirit and encased in the tiniest film of that substance
which they partially penetrated by the help of the Lords of Flame.
In the Sun Period the virgin spirit was plunged into the denser
World of Life Spirit and more effectively blinded to the All-consciousness by a
second veil of the substance of the World of Life Spirit. Still, by the help of
the Cherubim it partially penetrated this second veil also. The feeling of the
Oneness of All was not lost either, for the World of Life Spirit is still a
universal World common to and inter-penetrating all the planets of a Solar
System.
In the Moon Period, however, the virgin spirits take a further
dip into the still denser matter of the Region of Abstract Thought and here the
most opaque of its veils, the human spirit, is added. Henceforth the
All-consciousness of the virgin spirit is lost. It can no longer penetrate its
veils, look outwards and perceive others, so it is forced to turn
its consciousness inwards and there it finds its self, as the
Ego, separated and apart from all others.
Thus the virgin spirit is encased in a threefold veil, and as
its outermost veil, the human spirit, effectively blinds it to the oneness of
Life, it becomes the Ego by entertaining the illusion of separateness
contracted during involution. Evolution will gradually dissolve the illusion,
bring back the All-consciousness, and Self-consciousness will have been added.
Thus we see that at the close of the Moon Period man possessed a
threefold body in varying stages of development; and also the germ of the
threefold spirit. He had dense, vital, and desire bodies, and divine, life and
human spirit. All he lacked was the link to connect them.
It has been stated that man passed through the mineral stage in
the Saturn Period; through the plant stage in the Sun Period, and his
pilgrimage through the conditions of the Moon Period corresponds to the phase
of animal existence, for the same reason that the two other similes are
applicable--he had the dense, vital, and desire bodies, as have our present
animals, and his consciousness was an internal picture-consciousness, such as
the lower animals have today. This resembles the dream consciousness of man,
save that it is perfectly rational, being directed by the group-spirit of the
animals. The student is again referred to diagram 4
in the chapter on the four kingdoms, where this is shown.
These Moon beings were not so purely germinal as in the previous
Periods. To the trained clairvoyant they appear suspended by strings in the
atmosphere of the fire-fog, as the embryo hangs from the placenta by the
umbilical cord. Currents (common to all of them), which provided some sort of
nourishment flowed in and out from the atmosphere, through those cords. These
currents were thus, to some extent, similar in their function to the blood of
the present day. The name "blood" as applied to these currents,
however, is used merely to suggest an analogy, because the Being of the Moon
Period possessed nothing like our present red blood, which is one of the very
latest acquisitions of man.
Towards the end of the Moon Period there was a division of the
Globe which was the field of our and other evolutions, which, for the sake of
greater simplicity, we have not heretofore mentioned, but with which we shall
presently become acquainted.
Part of that great Globe was crystallized by man on account of
his inability to keep the part which he inhabited in the high state of
vibration maintained by the other beings there, and as this part became more
inert the centrifugal force of the revolving Globe sent it spinning into space,
where it began to circle around the glowing fiery central portion.
The spiritual reason for the throwing off of such
crystallizations is that the highest beings on such a Globe require for their
evolution the exceedingly rapid vibrations of fire. They are hampered by
condensation, although such a condition is necessary to the evolution of other
and less advanced beings required lower rates of vibration. Therefore, when
part of any Globe has been consolidated by a group of evolving beings to the
detriment of others, that part is thrown off to exactly the proper distance
from the central mass, so that it circles as a satellite around its primary.
The heat vibrations which strike it are of the rate and strength suitable to
the peculiar needs of the beings evolving upon that satellite. Of course the
law of gravitation accounts quite satisfactorily for the phenomenon from a physical
viewpoint. But there is always a deeper cause, that yields a more complete
explanation and which we will find if we consider the spiritual side of things.
As a physical action is but the visible manifestation of the invisible thought
which must precede it, so is the throwing off of a planet from a central Sun
simply the visible and unavoidable effect of invisible spiritual conditions.
The smaller planet which was thrown off in the Moon Period,
condensed with comparative rapidity and remained the field of our evolution
until the end of that Period. It was a moon to the parent planet, circling
around it as our Moon circles around the Earth, but it did not show phases as
our Moon does. It revolved in such a manner that one-half was always light and
the other always dark, as is the case with Venus. One of its poles was pointed
directly towards the large fiery Globe, as one of the poles of Venus points
directly towards the Sun.
On this satellite of the Moon Period there were currents which
encircled it, as the group-spirit currents encircle the Earth. The Moon beings
followed those currents instinctively from the light to the dark side of this
old Moon. At certain times of the year, when they were on the light side, a
sort of propagation took place. We have the atavistic residue of those moon
travels for propagation in the migrations of the birds of passage which, to the
present day, follow the group-spirit currents around the Earth at certain
seasons of the year, for identical purposes. Even the (honey)moon trips of human
beings show that man himself has not yet outgrown the migratory impulse in
connection with mating.
The Moon beings at this last stage were also capable of giving
utterance to sounds, or cries. These were Cosmic sounds--not expressions of
individual joy or sorrow, for as yet there was no individual. The development
of the individual came later--in the Earth Period.
At the end of the Moon Period once more came the interval of
rest, the Cosmic Night. The divided parts were dissolved and merged in the
general Chaos which preceded the reorganization of the Globe for the Earth
Period.
The Lords of Wisdom had now evolved so far, that they were
capable of taking charge as the highest creative Hierarchy. They were given
special charge of the divine spirit in man during the Earth Period.
The Lords of Individuality were also sufficiently advanced to
work upon the spirit in man and the life spirit was therefore put under their
charge.
Another creative Hierarchy had special care of the three germs
of the dense, vital, and desire bodies as they were evolving. They were the
ones who, under the direction of the higher orders, actually did the principal
work on these bodies, using the evolving life as a kind of instrument. This
Hierarchy is called the "Lords of Form." They were now evolved so far
that they were given charge of the third aspect of the spirit in man--the human
spirit--in the coming Earth Period.
There were twelve great Creative Hierarchies active in the work
of evolution at the commencement of the Saturn Period. Two of these Hierarchies
did some work to help at the very beginning. No information has been given as
to what they did, nor anything about them, except that they helped of their own
free will, and then withdrew from limited existence into liberation.
Three more of the Creative Hierarchies followed them at the
beginning of the Earth Period, the Lords of the Flame, the Cherubim and the
Seraphim, leaving seven Hierarchies in active service when the Earth Period
began. ( Diagram 9 will give a clear idea of the
twelve Creative Hierarchies and their status).
The Lords of Mind became experts at building bodies of
"mind-stuff" as we are becoming experts at building bodies of
chemical matter, and for a similar reason: The Region of Concrete Thought was
the densest condition of matter reached during the Saturn Period where they
were human and the Chemical Region is the densest state to be contacted by our
humanity.
In the Earth Period the Lords of Mind reached the Creator-stage,
and radiated from themselves into our being the nucleus of material from which
we are now seeking to build an organized mind. They are called "Powers of
Darkness" by Paul because they came from the dark Saturn Period, and are
considered evil on account of the separative tendency appertaining to the plane
of Reason as contrasted with the unifying forces of the World of Life Spirit;
the realm of Love. The Lords of Mind work with humanity; but not with the three
lower Kingdoms.
The Archangels became experts at building a body of
desire-stuff: the densest matter of the Sun Period. Therefore they are able to
teach and guide such less evolved beings as man and animal how to mold and use
a desire-body.
The Angels are thoroughly experienced in building a vital body for
in the Moon period when they were human the ether was the densest condition of
matter. On account of this ability they are properly the teachers of man,
animal and plant with regard to the vital functions: propagation, nutrition,
etc.
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