The three Worlds of our planet are at present
the field of evolution for a number of different kingdoms of life, at
various stages of development. Only four of these need concern us at
present, viz.: the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms.
These four kingdoms are related to the three
Worlds in different ways, according to the progress these groups of
evolving life have made in the school of experience. So far as form
is concerned the dense bodies of all the kingdoms are composed of the
same chemical substances — the solids, liquids, and gases of the
Chemical Region. The dense body of a man is as truly a chemical
compound as is the stone, although the latter is ensouled by mineral
life only. But even when speaking from the purely physical
standpoint, and laying aside all other considerations for the time
being, there are several important differences when we compare the
dense body of the human being with the mineral of the Earth. Man
moves, grows, and propagates his species — the mineral, in its native
state, does none of these things.
Comparing man with the forms of the plant
kingdom, we find that both plant and man have a dense body, capable
of growth and propagation. But Man has faculties not possessed by the
plant. He feels, has the power of motion, and the faculty of
perceiving things exterior to himself.
When we compare man with the animal we see
that both have the faculties of feeling, motion, growth, propagation,
and sense-perception. In addition, man has the faculty of speech, a
superior structure of the brain, and also hands — which are a very
great physical advantage. We may note especially the development of
the thumb, which makes the hand much more valuable than even that of
the anthropoid. Man has also evolved a definite language in which to
express his feelings and thoughts, all of which places the dense body
of the human being in a class by itself, beyond the three lower
kingdoms.
To account for these differences in the four
kingdoms we must go to the Invisible Worlds, and seek the causes which give one kingdom that which is denied to another.
To function in any world, and express the
qualities peculiar to it, we must first possess a vehicle made of its
material. In order to function in the dense Physical World it is
necessary to have a dense body, adapted to our environment. Otherwise
we should be ghosts, as they are commonly called, and be invisible to
most physical beings. So we must have a vital body before we can
express life, grow, or externalize the other qualities peculiar to
the Etheric Region.
To show feeling and emotion it is necessary
to have a vehicle composed of the materials of the Desire World, and a mind formed of the substance of the Region of Concrete Thought is necessary to render thinking possible.
When we examine the four kingdoms in relation
to the Etheric Region, we find that the mineral does not possess a
separate vital body, and at once we see the reason why it cannot
grow, propagate, or show sentient life.
As an hypothesis necessary to account for
other known facts, material science holds that in the densest solid,
as in the rarest and most
attenuated gas, no two atoms touch each
other; that there is an envelope of ether around each atom; that the
atoms in the universe float in an ocean of ether.
The Christian Mystic knows this to be true of
the Chemical Region and that the mineral does not possess a separate
vital body of ether. And as it is the planetary ether alone which
envelops the atoms of the mineral, that makes the difference
described. It is necessary, as we have shown, to have a separate,
vital body, desire body, etc., to express the qualities
of a particular realm, because the atoms of the World of Desire, of
the World of Thought and even of the Higher Worlds, interpenetrate
the Mineral as well as the dense human body, and if the
interpenetration of the planetary ether, which is the ether that
envelops the atoms of the mineral, were enough to make it feel and
propagate its interpenetration by the planetary World of Thought
would also be sufficient to make it think. This it cannot do, because
it lacks a separate vehicle. It is penetrated by the planetary
ether only, and is therefore incapable of individual growth. Only the
lowest of the four states of ether — the chemical — is active in the
mineral. The chemical forces in minerals are due to that fact.
When we consider plant, animal, and man in
relation to the Etheric Region we note that each has a separate,
vital body, in addition to being penetrated by the planetary ether
which forms the Etheric Region. There is a difference, however,
between the vital bodies of the plants and the vital bodies of animal
and man. In the vital body of the plant only the chemical and the
Life Ethers are fully active. Hence the plant can grow by the action
of the Chemical Ether and propagate its species through the activity
of the Life Ether of the separate, vital body which it possesses. The
light ether is present, but is partially latent or
dormant and Reflecting Ether is lacking. Therefore it is evident that the faculties of sense-perception and memory, which are the qualities of these ethers, cannot be expressed by the plant kingdom.
Turning our attention to the vital body of
the animal we find that in it the Chemical, Life and Light Ethers are dynamically active. Hence the animal has the faculties of
assimilation and growth, caused by the activities of the Chemical
Ether; and the faculty of propagation by means of the Life
Ether — these being the same as in plants. But in addition, it has the
faculties of generating internal heat and of sense-perception. The
fourth ether, however, is inactive in the animal, hence it has no
thought nor memory. That which appears as such will be shown later to
be of a different nature.
When we analyze the human being, we find that
in him or her all four ethers are dynamically active in the highly organized
vital body. By means of the activities of the chemical he is able to
assimilate food and to grow; the forces at work in the Life Ether
enable him to propagate his species; the forces in the Light Ether
supply the dense body with heat, work on the nervous system and
muscles, thus opening the doors of communication with the outside
world by way of the senses; and the Reflecting Ether enables the spirit to control its vehicle by means of thought. This ether also
stores past experience as memory.
The vital body of plant, animal, and man,
extends beyond the periphery of the dense body as the Etheric Region,
which is the vital body of a planet, extends beyond its dense part,
showing again the truth of the Hermetic axiom "As above, so
below." The distance of this extension of the
vital body of man is about an inch and a
half. The part which is outside the dense body is very luminous and
about the color of a new-blown peach-blossom. It is often seen by
persons having very slight involuntary clairvoyance. The writer has
found, when speaking with such persons, that they frequently are not
aware they see anything unusual and do not know what they see.
The dense body is built into the matrix of
this vital body during antenatal life, and with one exception, it is
an exact copy, molecule for molecule, of the vital body. As the lines
of force in freezing water are the avenues of formation for ice
crystals, so the lines of force in the vital body determine the shape
of the dense body. All through life the vital body is the builder and
restorer of the dense form. Were it not for the etheric heart the
dense heart would break quickly under the constant strain we put upon
it. All the abuses to which we subject the dense body are
counteracted, so far as lies in its power, by the vital body, which
is continually fighting against the death of the dense body.
"Man may have and has as strong emotions as woman, but he is usually able to suppress them without tears, because his negative vital body does not generate more blood than he can comfortably control."
The exception mentioned above is that the
vital body of a man is female or negative, while that of a woman is
male or positive. In that fact we have the key to numerous puzzling
problems of life. That woman gives way to her emotions is due to the
polarity noted, for her positive, vital body generates an excess of
blood and causes her to labor under an enormous internal pressure
that would break the physical casement were not a safety-valve
provided in the periodical flow, and another in the tears which
relieve the pressure on special occasions — for tears are "white
bleeding."
Man may have and has as strong emotions as
woman, but he is usually able to suppress them without tears, because
his negative vital body does not generate more blood than he can
comfortably control.
Unlike the higher vehicles of humanity, the
vital body (except under certain circumstances, to be explained when
the subject of "Initiation" is dealt with) does not
ordinarily leave the dense body until the death of the latter. Then
the chemical forces of the dense body are no longer held in check by
the evolving life. They proceed to restore the matter to its
primordial condition by disintegration so that it may be available
for the formation of other forms in the economy of nature.
Disintegration is thus due to the activity of the planetary forces in
the Chemical Ether.
In texture the vital body may be crudely
compared to one of those picture frames made of hundreds of little
pieces of wood which interlock and present innumerable points to the
observer. These points enter into the hollow centers of the dense
atoms, imbuing them with vital force that sets them vibrating at a
higher rate than that of the mineral of the earth which is not thus
accelerated and ensouled.
When a person is drowning, or falling from a
height, or freezing, the vital body leaves the dense body, the atoms
of which become temporarily inert in consequence, but at
resuscitation it re-enters the dense body and the "points"
are again inserted in the dense atoms. The inertia of the atoms
causes them to resist the resumption of vibration and that is the
cause of the intense prickly pain and the tingling sensation noted at
such times, but not ordinarily, for the same reason that we become
conscious of the starting or stopping of a clock, but are oblivious
to its tick when it is running.
There are certain cases where the vital body
partly leaves the dense body, such as when a hand "goes to
sleep." Then the etheric hand of the vital body may be seen
hanging below the dense arm like a glove and the points cause the
peculiar pricking sensation felt when the etheric hand re-enters the
dense hand. Sometimes in hypnosis the head of the vital body divides
and hangs outside the dense head, one half over each shoulder, or
lies around the neck like the collar of a sweater. The absence of
prickly sensation at awakening in cases like this is because during
the hypnosis part of the hypnotist's vital body had been substituted
for that of the victim.
When anesthetics are used the vital body is
partially driven out, along with the higher vehicles, and if the
application is too strong and the life ether is driven out, death
ensues. This same phenomenon may also be observed in the case of
materializing mediums. In fact the difference between a materializing
medium and an ordinary man or woman is just this: In the ordinary man
or woman the vital body and the dense body are, at the present stage
of evolution, quite firmly interlocked, while in the medium they are
loosely connected. It has not always been so, and the time will come
again when the vital body may normally leave the dense vehicle, but
that is not normally accomplished at present. When a medium allows
his or her vital body to be used by entities from the Desire World
who wish to materialize, the vital body generally oozes from the left
side — through the spleen, which is its particular "gate."
Then the vital forces cannot flow into the body as they do normally,
the medium becomes greatly exhausted, and some of them resort to
stimulants to counteract the effects, in time becoming incurable
drunkards.
The vital force from the sun, which surrounds
us as a colorless fluid, is absorbed by the vital body through the
etheric counterpart of the spleen,
wherein it undergoes a curious transformation
of color. It becomes pale rose-hued and spreads along the nerves all
over the dense body. It is to the nervous system what the force of
electricity is to a telegraph system. Though there be wires,
instruments, and telegraph operators all in order, if the electricity
is lacking, no message can be sent. The Ego, the brain, and the
nervous system may be in seemingly perfect order, but if the vital
force be lacking to carry the message of the Ego through the nerves
to the muscles, the dense body will remain inert. This is exactly
what happens when part of the dense body becomes paralyzed. The vital
body has become diseased and the vital force can no longer flow. In
such cases, as in most sickness, the trouble is with the finer
invisible vehicles. In conscious or unconscious recognition of this
fact, the most successful physicians use suggestion — which works upon
the higher vehicles — as aid to medicine. The more a physician can
imbue his patient with faith and hope, the speedier disease will
vanish and give place to perfect health.
"In cases where parts of the dense body are amputated, only the planetary ether accompanies the separated part. The separate vital body and the dense body disintegrate synchronously after death."
During the health the vital body specializes
a superabundance of vital force, which, after passing through a dense
body, radiates in straight lines in every direction from the
periphery thereof, as the radii of a circle do from the center; but
during ill-health, when the vital body becomes attenuated, it is not
able to draw to itself the same amount of force and in addition the
dense body is feeding upon it. Then the lines of the vital fluid
which pass out from the body are crumpled and bent, showing the lack
of force behind them. In health the great force of these radiations
carries with it germs and microbes which are inimical to the health
of the dense body, but in sickness, when the vital force is weak,
these emanations do not so readily eliminate disease germs. Therefore
the danger of contracting disease is much greater when the vital
forces are low than when one is in robust health.
In cases where parts of the dense body are
amputated, only the planetary ether accompanies the separated part.
The separate vital body and the dense body disintegrate synchronously
after death. So with the etheric counterpart of the amputated limb.
It will gradually disintegrate as the dense member decays, but in the
meantime, the fact that the man still possesses the etheric limb
accounts for his assertion that he can feel his fingers or suffers
pain in them. There is also a connection with a buried member,
irrespective of distance. A case is on record where a man felt severe
pain, as if a nail had been driven into the flesh of an amputated
limb, and he persisted until the limb was exhumed, when it was found
that a nail had been driven into it at the time it was boxed for
burial. The nail was removed and the pain instantly stopped. It is
also in accordance with these facts that people complain of pain in a
limb for perhaps two or three years after the amputation. The pain
will then cease. This is because the disease remains in the still
undetached etheric limb, but as the amputated part disintegrates, the
etheric limb follows suit and thus the pain ceases.
Having noted the relations of the four
kingdoms to the Etheric Region of the Physical World, we will next
turn our attention to their relation to the Desire World.
Here we find that both minerals and plants
lack the separate Desire Body. They are permeated only by the
planetary desire body, the Desire World. Lacking the separate
vehicle, they are incapable of feeling, desire, and emotion, which
are faculties pertaining to the Desire World.
When a stone is broken, it does not feel; but
it would be wrong to infer that there is no feeling connected with
such an action. That is the materialistic view, or the view taken by
the uncomprehending multitude. The Christian Mystic knows that there
is no act, great or small, which is not felt throughout the universe,
and even though the stone, because it has no separate desire body,
cannot feel, the Spirit of the Earth feels because it is Earth's
desire body that permeates the stone. When a man cuts his finger, the
finger, having no separate desire body, does not feel the pain, but
the man does, because it is his desire body which permeates the
finger. If a plant is torn up by the roots, it is felt by the Spirit
of the Earth as a man would feel if a hair were torn from his head.
This Earth is a living, feeling body, and all the forms which are
without separate desire bodies through which their informing spirits
may experience feeling, are included in the desire body of the Earth
and that desire body has feeling. The breaking of a stone and
the breaking off of flowers are productive of pleasure to the Earth,
while the pulling out of plants by the root causes pain. The reason is given in another Core Concepts article, for at this stage of our
study the explanation would be incomprehensible to the general
reader.
The planetary Desire World pulsates through
the dense and vital bodies of animal and man in the same way that it
penetrates the mineral and plant, but in addition to this, animal and
man have separate desire bodies, which enable them to feel desire,
emotion and passion. There is a difference, however. The desire body
of the animal is built entirely of the material of the denser regions
of the Desire World, while in the human, matter of the higher Regions enters into the
composition of the desire body. The feelings
of animals and many humans are almost entirely concerned
with the gratification of the lowest desires and passions which find
their expression in the matter of the lower Regions of the Desire
World. Hence, in order that they may have such emotions to educate
them for something higher, it is necessary that they should have the
corresponding materials in their desire bodies. As a human being progresses in
the school of life, his or her experiences teach him or her, and his or her desires become
purer and better. Thus by degrees the material of his desire body
undergoes a corresponding change. The purer and brighter material of
the higher Regions of the Desire World replaces the murky colors of
the lower part. The desire body also grows in size, so that in a
saint it is truly a glorious object to behold, the purity of its colors and its luminous transparency being beyond adequate simile. It must be seen to be appreciated.
At present the materials of both the lower
and the higher Regions enter into the composition of the desire
bodies of the great majority of mankind. None are so bad that they
have not some good trait. This is expressed in the materials of the
higher Regions which we find in their desire bodies. But, on the
other hand, very, very few are so good that they do not use some of
the materials of the lower Regions.
In the same way that the planetary vital and
desire bodies interpenetrate the dense material of the Earth, as we
saw in the illustration of the sponge, the sand and the water, so the
vital and desire bodies interpenetrate the dense body of plant,
animal, and man. But during the life of man his desire body is not
shaped like his dense and vital bodies. After death it assumes that
shape. During life it has the appearance of a luminous ovoid which, in waking hours,
completely surrounds the dense body, as the albumen does the yolk of
an egg. It extends from twelve to sixteen inches beyond the dense
body. In this desire body there are a number of sense centers, but,
in the great majority of people, they are latent. It is the awakening
of these centers of perception that corresponds to the opening of the
blind man's eyes in our former illustration. The matter in the human
desire body is in incessant motion of inconceivable rapidity. There
is in it no settled place for any particle, as in the dense body. The
matter that is at the head one moment may be at the feet in the next
and back again. There are no organs in the desire body, as in the
dense and vital bodies, but there are centers of perception, which,
when active, appear as vortices, always remaining in the same
relative position to the dense body, most of them about the head. In
the majority of people they are mere eddies and are of no use as
centers of perception. They may be awakened in all, however, but
different methods produce different results.
In the involuntary clairvoyant developed
along improper, negative lines, these vortices turn from right to
left, or in the opposite direction to the hands of a
clock — counterclockwise.
In the desire body of the properly trained
voluntary clairvoyant, they turn in the same direction as the hands
of a clock — clockwise, glowing with exceeding splendor, far
surpassing the brilliant luminosity of the ordinary desire body.
These centers furnish him with means for the perception of things in
the Desire World and he sees, and investigates as he wills, while the
person whose centers turn counter-clockwise is like a mirror, which
reflects what passes before it. Such a person is incapable of
reaching out for information. The reason for this belongs to a later
Core Concepts article, but the above is one of the fundamental differences
between a medium and a properly trained clairvoyant. It is impossible
for most people to distinguish between the two; yet there is one
infallible rule that can be followed by anyone: No genuinely
developed seer will ever exercise this faculty for money or its
equivalent; nor will he use it to gratify curiosity; but only to help
humanity.
No one capable of teaching the proper method
for the development of this faculty will ever charge so much a
lesson. Those demanding money for the exercise of, or for giving
lessons in these things never have anything worth paying for. The
above rule is a safe and sure guide, which all may follow with
absolute confidence.
In a far distant future man's desire body
will become as definitely organized as are the vital and dense
bodies. When that stage is reached we shall all have the power to
function in the desire body as we do know in the dense body, which is
the oldest and best organized of these bodies of man — the desire body
being the youngest.
The desire body is rooted in the liver, as
the vital body is in the spleen.
In all warm-blooded creatures, which are the
highest evolved, and have feelings, passions and emotions, which
reach outward into the world with desire, which may be said to really
live in the fuller meaning of the term and not merely vegetate — in
all such creatures the currents of the desire body flow outward from
the liver. The Desire-stuff is continually welling out in streams or
currents which travel in curved lines to every point of the periphery
of the ovoid and then return to the liver through a number of
vortices, much as boiling water is continually welling outward from
the source of heat and returning to it after completing its cycle.
The plants are devoid of this impelling,
energizing principle, hence they cannot show life and motion as can
the more highly developed organisms.
Where there is vitality and motion, but no
red blood, there is no separate desire body. The creature is
simply in the transition stage from plant to animal and therefore it
moves entirely in the strength of the Group-Spirit.
In the cold-blooded animals which have
a liver and red blood, there is a separate desire body and the
group-spirit directs the currents inward, because in their
case the separate spirit (of the individual fish or reptile for
instance) is entirely outside the dense vehicle.
When the organism has evolved so far that the
separate spirit can commence to draw into its vehicles then it (the
individual spirit) commences to direct the currents outward,
and we see the beginning of passionate existence and warm blood. It
is the warm, red blood in the liver of the organism sufficiently
evolved to have an Indwelling spirit which energizes the outgoing
currents of desire-stuff that cause the animal or the man to display
desire and passion. In the case of the animal the spirit is not yet
entirely indwelling. It does not become so until the points in the vital body and the
dense body come into correspondence, as explained
in the "Evolution on the Earth" article.
For this reason the animal is not a "liver," that
is, he does not live as completely as does man, not being capable of
as fine desires and emotions, because not as fully conscious. The
mammalia of today are on a higher plane than was man at the animal
stage of his evolution, because they have warm, red blood, which man
did not have at that stage. This difference in status is accounted
for by the spiral path of evolution, which also accounts for the fact
that man is a higher type of humanity than the present Angels were
in their human stage. The present mammalia, which have in their
animal stage attained to the possession of warm,
red blood, and are therefore capable of experiencing desire and
emotion to some extent will, in the Jupiter Period, be a purer and
better type of humanity than we are now, while from among our present
humanity there will be some, even in the Jupiter Period, who will be
openly and avowedly wicked. Moreover, they will not then be able to
conceal their passions as is now possible, but will be unabashed
about their evil doing.
In the light of this exposition of the
connection between the liver and the life of the organism, it is
noteworthy that in several European languages (English, German, and
the Scandinavian tongues) the same word signifies the organ of the
body (the liver) and also "one who lives."
When we turn our attention to the four
kingdoms in their relation to the World of Thought we find that
minerals, plants and animals lack a vehicle correlating them to that
World. Yet we know some animals think, but they are the highest
domesticated animals which have come into close touch with man for
generations and have thus developed a faculty not possessed by other
animals, which have not had that advantage. This is on the same
principle that a highly charged wire will "induce" a weaker current
of electricity in a wire brought close to it; or that a man of strong
morals will arouse a like tendency in a weaker nature, while one
morally weak will be overthrown if brought within the influence of
evil characters. All we do, say, or are, reflects itself in our
surroundings. This is why the highest domestic animals think. They
are the highest of their kind, almost on the point of
individualization, and man's thought vibrations have "induced"
in them a similar activity of a lower order. With the exceptions
noted, the animal kingdom has not acquired the faculty of
thought. The are not individualized. This is the great and
cardinal difference between the human and other kingdoms. A human being is an
individual. The animals, plants and minerals are divided into
species. They are not individualized in the same sense that humans are.
It is true that we divide mankind into races,
tribes and nations; we note the difference between the Caucasian, the
African, the Indian, etc.; but that is not to the point. If we wish to
study the characteristics of the lion or the elephant or any other
species of the lower animals, all that is necessary is to take any
member of that species for that purpose. When we learn the
characteristics of one animal, we know the characteristics of the
species to which it belongs. All members of the same animal tribe are
alike. That is the point. A lion, or its father, or its son, all look
alike; there is no difference in the way they will act under like
conditions. All have the same likes and dislikes; one is the same as
another.
Not so with human beings. If we want to know
about the characteristics of an African, it is not enough that we
examine one single individual. It would be necessary to examine each
individually, and even then we will arrive at no knowledge concerning
Africans as a whole, simply because that which was a characteristic of
the single individual does not apply to the race collectively.
If we desire to know the character of Abraham
Lincoln it will avail us nothing to study his father, his
grandfather, or his son, for they would differ entirely. Each would
have his own peculiarities quite distinct from the idiosyncrasies of
Abraham Lincoln.
On the other hand, minerals, plants, and
animals are described if we devote our attention to the description
of one of each species; while there
are as many species among human beings as
there are individuals. Each individual person is a "species,"
a law unto himself, altogether separate and apart from any other
individual, as different from his fellow men as one species in the
lower kingdom is from another. We may write the biography of a man,
but an animal can have no biography. This is because there is in each
man an individual, indwelling spirit which dictates the
thoughts and actions of each individual human being; while there is
one "group-spirit" common to all the different
animals or plants of the same species. The group-spirit works on the
all from the outside. The tiger which roams in the wilds of
the Indian jungle and the tiger penned up in the cage of a menagerie
are both expressions of the same group-spirit. It influences both
alike from the Desire World, distance being almost annihilated in the inner Worlds.
The group-spirits of the three lower kingdoms
are variously located in the higher Worlds, as we shall see when we
investigate the consciousness of the different kingdoms; but to
properly comprehend the positions of these group-spirits in the inner
Worlds it is necessary to remember and to clearly understand what has
been said about all the forms that are in the visible world having
crystallized from models and ideas in the inner Worlds, as
illustrated by the architect's house and the inventor's machine. As
the juices of the soft body of the snail crystallize into the hard
shell which it carries upon its back, so the Spirits in the higher
Worlds have, in a similar manner, crystallized out from themselves
the dense, material bodies of the different kingdoms.
Thus the so-called "higher" bodies,
although so fine and cloudy as to be invisible, are not by any means
"emanations" from the dense body, but the
dense vehicles of all kingdoms correspond to
the shell of the snail, which is crystallized from its juices, the
snail representing the spirit; and the juices of its body in their
progress towards crystallization representing the mind, desire body
and vital body. These various vehicles were emanated by the spirit
from itself for the purpose of gaining experience through them.
It is the spirit that moves the dense body where it will, as the
snail moves its house, and not the body that controls the movements
of the spirit. The more closely the spirit is able to enter into
touch with its vehicle the better can it control and express itself
through that vehicle, and vice versa. That is the key to the
different states of consciousness in the different kingdoms. A study
of Diagrams 3 and 4 below, should
give a clear understanding of the vehicles of each kingdom, the
manner in which they are correlated to the different Worlds and the
resulting state of consciousness.
From Diagram 3
we learn that the separate Ego is definitely segregated within the
Universal Spirit in the Region of Abstract Thought. It shows that
only man possesses the complete chain of vehicles correlating him to
all divisions of the three Worlds. The animal lacks one link of
chain — the mind; the plant lacks two links; the mind and the desire
body; and the mineral lacks three links of the chain of the vehicles
necessary to function in a self-conscious manner in the Physical
World — the mind, the desire and the vital bodies.
The reason for the various deficiencies is
that the Mineral Kingdom is the expression of the latest stream of
evolving life; the Plant Kingdom is ensouled by a life wave that has
been longer upon the path of evolution; the life wave of the animal kingdom has a still
longer past; while Man, that is to say, the life now expressing
itself in the human form, has behind it the longest journey of all
the four kingdoms, and therefore leads. In time, the three life-waves
which now animate the three lower kingdoms will reach the human, and
we shall have passed to higher stages of development.
To understand the degree of consciousness
which results from the possession of the vehicles used by the life
evolving in the four kingdoms, we turn our attention to Diagram
4, which shows that man, the Ego, the Thinker, has
descended into the Chemical Region of the Physical World. Here he has
marshaled all his vehicles, thereby attaining the state of waking
consciousness. He is learning to control his vehicles. The organs of
neither the desire body nor the mind are yet evolved. The latter is
not yet even a body. At present it is simply a link, a sheath for the
use of the Ego as a focusing point. It is the last of the vehicles
that have been built. The spirit works gradually from finer into
coarser substance, the vehicles also being built in finer substance
first, then in coarser and coarser substance. The dense body was
built first and has now come into its fourth stage of density; the
vital body is in its third stage and the desire body in its second,
hence it is still cloud-like, and the sheath of mind is filmier
still. As those vehicles have not, as yet, evolved any organs, it is
clear that they alone would be useless as vehicles of
consciousness. The Ego, however, enters into the dense body
and connects these organless vehicles with the physical sense centers
and thus attains the waking state of consciousness in the Physical
World.
The student should particularly note that it
is because of their connection with the splendidly organized
mechanism of the dense body that these higher vehicles become of value at present.
He will thus avoid a mistake frequently made by people who, when they
come into the knowledge that there are higher bodies, grow to despise
the dense vehicle; to speak of it as "low" and
"vile" — turning their eyes to heaven and wishing that they
might soon be able to leave this earthly lump of clay and fly about
in their "higher vehicles."
These people generally do not realize the
difference between "higher" and "perfect."
Certainly, the dense body is the lowest vehicle in the sense that it
is the most unwieldy, correlating man to the world of sense with all
the limitations thus implied. As stated, it has an enormous period of
evolution back of it; is in its fourth state of development and has
now reached a great and marvelous degree of efficiency. It will, in
time, reach perfection, but even at present it is the best organized
of man's vehicles. The vital body is in its third stage of evolution,
and less completely organized than the dense body. The desire body
and the mind are, as yet, mere clouds — almost entirely unorganized.
The dense body is a wonderfully constructed
instrument and should be recognized as such by everyone pretending to
have any knowledge of the constitution of man. Observe the femur, for
instance. This bone carries the entire weight of the body. On the
outside it is built of a thin layer of compact bone, strengthened on
the inside by beams and cross-beams of cancellated bone, in such a
marvelous manner that the most skilled bridge or construction
engineer could never accomplish the feat of building a pillar of
equal strength with so little weight. The bones of the skull are
built in a similar manner, always the least
possible material is used and the maximum of strength obtained.
Consider the wisdom manifested in the construction of the heart and
then question if this superb mechanism deserves to be despised. The
wise man is grateful for his dense body and takes the best possible
care of it, because he knows that it is the most valuable of his
present instruments.
The animal spirit has in its descent reached
only the Desire World. It has not yet evolved to the point where it
can "enter" a dense body. Therefore the animal has no
individual indwelling spirit, but a group-spirit, which
directs it from without. The animal has the dense body, the
vital body and the desire body, but the group-spirit which directs it
is outside. The vital body and the desire body of an animal are not
entirely within the dense body, especially where the head is
concerned. For instance, the etheric head of a horse projects far
beyond and above the dense physical head. When, as in rare cases it
happens, the etheric head of a horse draws into the head of the dense
body, that horse can learn to read, count and work examples in
elementary arithmetic. To this peculiarity is also due the fact that
horses, dogs, cats and other domesticated animals sense the Desire
World, though not always realizing the difference between it and the
Physical World. A horse will shy at the sight of a figure invisible
to the driver; a cat will go through the motions of rubbing itself
against invisible legs. The cat sees the ghost, however without
realizing that it has no dense legs available for frictional
purposes. The dog, wiser than a cat or horse, will often sense that
there is something he does not understand about the appearance of a
dead master whose hands it cannot lick. It will howl mournfully and
slink into a corner with its tail between its legs. The following
illustration may perhaps be of service to show the difference between
the man with his indwelling spirit and the animal with its
group-spirit.
Let us imagine a room divided by means of a
curtain, one side of the curtain representing the Desire World and
the other the Physical. There are two men in the room, one in each
division; they cannot see each other, nor can they get into the same
division. There are, however, ten holes in the curtain and the man
who is in the division representing the Desire World can put his ten
fingers through these holes into the other division, representing the
Physical World. He now furnishes an excellent representation of the
group-spirit which is in the Desire World. The fingers represent the
animals belonging to one species. He is able to move them as he
wills, but he cannot use them freely nor as intelligently as the man
who is walking about in the Physical division uses his body. The
latter sees the fingers which are thrust through the curtain and he
observes that they all move, but he does not see the connection
between them. To him it appears as if they were all separate and
distinct from one another. He cannot see that they are fingers of the
man behind the veil and are governed in their movements by his
intelligence. If he hurts one of the fingers, it is not only the
finger that he hurts, but chiefly the man on the other side of the
curtain. If an animal is hurt, it suffers, but not to the degree that
the group-spirit does. The finger has no individualized
consciousness; it moves as the man dictates — so do the animals move
as the group-spirit dictates. We hear of "animal instinct"
and "blind instinct." There is no such vague, indefinite
thing as "blind" instinct. There is nothing "blind"
about the way the group-spirit guides its members — there is Wisdom,
spelled with capitals. The trained clairvoyant, when
functioning in the Desire World, can communicate with these spirits
of the animal species and finds them much more intelligent than a
large percent of human beings. He can see the marvelous insight they
display in marshaling the animals which are their physical bodies.
It is the spirit of the group which gathers
its flocks of birds in the fall and compels them to migrate to the
south, neither too early nor too late to escape the winter's chilly
blast; that directs their return in the spring, causing them to fly
at just the proper altitude, which differs for the different species.
The group-spirit of the beaver teaches it to
build its dam across a stream at exactly the proper angle. It
considers the rapidity of the flow, and all the circumstances,
precisely as a skilled engineer would do, showing that it is as
up-to-date in every particular of the craft as the college-bred,
technically-educated man. It is the wisdom of the group-spirit that
directs the building of the hexagon cell of the bee with such
geometrical nicety; that teaches the snail to fashion its house in an
accurate, beautiful spiral; that teaches the ocean mollusk the art of
decorating its iridescent shell. Wisdom, wisdom everywhere! So grand,
so great that one who looks with an observant eye is filled with
amazement and reverence.
At this point the thought will naturally
occur that if the animal group-spirit is so wise, considering the
short period of evolution of the animal as compared with that of man,
why does not the latter display wisdom to a much greater degree and
why must man be taught to build dams and geometrize, all of which the
group-spirit does without being taught?
The answer to that question has to do with
the descent of the Universal Spirit into matter of ever-increasing
density. In the higher Worlds, where its vehicles are fewer and
finer, it is in closer touch with cosmic wisdom which shines out in a
manner inconceivable in the dense Physical World, but as the spirit
descends, the light of wisdom becomes temporarily more and more
dimmed, until in the densest of all the Worlds, it is held almost
entirely in abeyance.
An illustration will make this clearer. The
hand is man's most valuable servant; its dexterity enables it to
respond to his slightest bidding. In some vocations, such as bank
teller, the delicate touch of the hand becomes so sensitive, that it
is able to distinguish a counterfeit coin from a genuine in a way so
marvelous that one would almost think the hand were endowed with
individual intelligence.
Its greatest efficiency is perhaps reached in
the production of music. It is capable of producing the most
beautiful, soul-stirring melodies. The delicate, caressing touch of
the hand elicits the tenderest strains of soul-speech from the
instrument, telling of the sorrows, the joys, the hopes, the fears
and the longings of the soul in a way that nothing but music can do.
It is the language of the heaven world, the spirit's true home, and
comes to the divine spark imprisoned in flesh as a message from its
native land. Music appeals to all, regardless of race, creed, or
other worldly distinction. The higher and more spiritual the
individual the plainer does it speak to him or her.
Let us now imagine a master musician putting
on thin gloves and trying to play his violin. We note at once that
the delicate touch is less subtle; the soul of the music is gone. If
he puts another and a heavier pair of gloves over the first pair, his hand is
hampered to such an extent that he may occasionally create a discord
instead of the former harmony. Should he at last put on, in addition
to the two pairs of gloves already hampering him, a pair of still
heavier mittens, he would, temporarily, be entirely unable to play,
and one who had not heard him play previously to the time he put on
the gloves and the mittens, would naturally think that he had never
been able to do so, especially if ignorant of the hampering of his
hands.
So it is with the Spirit; every step down,
every descent into coarser matter is to it what the putting on of a
pair of gloves would be to the musician. Every step down limits its
power of expression until it has become accustomed to the limitations
and has found its focus, in the same way that the eye must find its
focus after we enter a house on a bright summer day. The pupil of the
eye contracts to its limit in the glare of the sun and on entering
the house all seems dark; but, as the pupil expands, and admits the
light, the man is enabled to see as well in the dimmer light of the
house as he did in the sunlight.
The purpose of man's evolution here is to
enable him to find his focus in the Physical World, where at present
the light of wisdom seems obscured. But when in time we have "found
the light," the wisdom of man will shine forth in his actions,
and far surpass the wisdom expressed by the group-spirit of the
animal.
Besides, a distinction must be made between
the group-spirit and the Virgin Spirits of the life wave now
expressing itself as animals. The group-spirit belongs to a different
evolution and is the guardian of the animal spirits.
The dense body in which we function is
composed of numerous cells, each having separate cell-consciousness,
though of a very low order. While these cells form part of
our body they are subjected to and dominated
by our consciousness. An animal group-spirit functions in a
spiritual body, which is its lowest vehicle. This vehicle
consists of a varying number of Virgin Spirits imbued for the time
being with the consciousness of the group-spirit. The latter directs
the vehicles built by the Virgin Spirits in its charge, caring for
them and helping them to evolve their vehicles. As its wards evolve,
the group-spirit also evolves, undergoing a series of metamorphoses,
in a manner similar to that in which we grow and gain experience by
taking into our bodies the cells of the food we eat, thereby also
raising their consciousness by enduing them with ours for a time.
Thus while a separate, self-conscious Ego is
within each human body and dominates the actions of its particular
vehicle, the spirit of the separate animal is not yet individualized
and self-conscious, but forms part of the vehicle of a self-conscious
entity belonging to a different evolution — the group-spirit.
The group-spirit dominates the actions of the
animals in harmony with cosmic law, until the Virgin Spirits in its
charge shall have gained self-consciousness and become human. Then
they will gradually manifest wills of their own, gaining more and
more freedom from the group-spirit and becoming responsible for their
own actions. The group-spirit will influence them, however (although
in a decreasing degree), as race, tribe, community, or family spirit
until each individual has become capable of acting in full harmony
with cosmic law. Not until that time will the Ego be entirely free
and independent of the group-spirit, which will then enter a higher
phase of evolution.
The position occupied by the group-spirit in
the Desire World gives to the animal a consciousness
different form that of man, who has a clear, definite waking
consciousness. Man sees things outside of himself in sharp,
distinct outlines. Owing to the spiral path of evolution, the higher
domestic animals, particularly the dog, horse, cat and elephant see
objects in somewhat the same way, though perhaps not so clearly
defined. All other animals have an internal "picture
consciousness" similar to the dream-state in man. When such an
animal is confronted by an object, a picture is immediately perceived
within, accompanied by a strong impression that the object is
inimical or beneficial to its welfare. If the feeling is one of fear,
it is associated with a suggestion from the group-spirit how to
escape the threatened danger. This negative state of consciousness
renders it easy for the group-spirit to guide the dense bodies of its
charges by suggestion, as the animals have no will of their own.
Man is not so easily managed from without,
either with or without his consent. As evolution progresses and man's
will develops more and more, he will become non-amenable to outside
suggestion and free to do as he pleases regardless of suggestions
from others. This is the chief difference between man and the other
kingdoms. They act according to law and the dictates of the
group-spirit (which we call instinct), while man is becoming more and
more a law unto himself. We do not ask the mineral whether or not it
will crystallize, nor the flower whether it will or will not bloom,
nor the lion whether it will or will not cease to prey. They are all,
in the smallest as in the greatest matter, under the absolute
domination of the group-spirit, being without free will and
initiative which, in some degree, are possessed by every human being.
All animals of the same species look nearly alike, because they emanate from the same
group-spirit, while among the billions of human beings who people the Earth no two look exactly alike, not even twins when adolescent, because the stamp that is put upon each by the indwelling individual Ego makes the difference in appearance as well
as in character.
That all oxen thrive on grass, and all lions
eat flesh, while "one man's meat is another man's poison"
is another illustration of the all-inclusive influence of the
group-spirit as contrasted with the Ego which makes each human being
require a different proportion of food from every other. Doctors note
with perplexity the same peculiarity in administering medicine. Its
acts differently upon different individuals, while the same medicine
will produce identical effects on two animals of the same species,
owing to the fact that animals all follow the dictates of the
group-spirit and Cosmic Law — always act similarly in identical
circumstances. Man alone is, in some measure, able to follow his own
desires within certain limits. That his mistakes are many and
grievous, is granted, and to many it might seem better if he were
forced into the right way, but if this were done, he would never
learn to do right. Lessons of discrimination between good and evil
cannot be learned unless he is free to choose his own course and has
learned to eschew the wrong as a veritable "womb of pain."
If he did right only because he had no choice, and had no chance to
do otherwise, he would be but an automaton and not an evolving God.
As the builder learns by his mistakes, correcting past errors in
future buildings, so man, by means of his blunders, and the pain they
cause him, is attaining to a higher (because self-conscious) wisdom
than the animal, which acts wisely because it is impelled to action
by the group-spirit. In time the animal will become human, have
liberty of choice and will make mistakes and learn by them as we do
now.
Diagram 4
shows that the group-spirit of the plant kingdom has its lowest vehicle in the
Region of Concrete Thought. It is two steps removed from its dense
vehicle and consequently the plants have a consciousness
corresponding to that of dreamless sleep. The group-spirit
of the mineral has its lowest vehicle in the Region of Abstract Thought and
it is, therefore, three steps removed from its dense vehicle; hence
it is in a state of deep unconsciousness similar to the
trance condition.
We have now shown that man is an individual
indwelling spirit, an Ego separate from all other entities, directing
and working in one set of vehicles from within, and that
plants and animals are directed from without by a group-spirit
having jurisdiction over a number of animals or plants in our
Physical World. They are separate only in appearance.
The relations of plant, animal and man to the
life currents in the Earth's atmosphere are symbolically represented
by the cross. The Mineral Kingdom is not represented, because as we
have seen, it possesses no individual vital body, hence cannot be the
vehicle for currents belonging to the higher realms. Plato, who was
an Initiate, often gave esoteric truths. He said "The World-Soul
is crucified."
The lower limb of the cross indicates the
plant with its root in the chemical mineral soil. The group-spirits
of plants are at the center of the Earth. They are (it will be
remembered) in the Region of Concrete Thought, which interpenetrates
the Earth, as do all the other Worlds. From these group-spirits flow
streams or currents in all directions to the periphery of the Earth,
passing outward through the length of plant or tree.
Man is represented by the upper limb; his is
the inverted plant. The plant takes its food through the root.
Man takes his food through the head. The plant stretches its
generative organs towards the sun. Man, the inverted plant, turns his
towards the center of the earth. The plant is sustained by the
spiritual currents of the group-spirit in the center of the earth,
which enter into it by way of the root. Later it will be shown that
the highest spiritual influence comes to man from the sun, which
sends its rays through man, the inverted plant, from the head
downwards. The plant inhales the poisonous carbon-dioxide exhaled by
man and exhales the life-giving oxygen used by him.
The animal, which is symbolized by the
horizontal limb of the cross, is between the plant and the man. Its
spine is in a horizontal position and through it play the currents of
the animal group-spirit which encircle the Earth. No animal can be
made to remain constantly upright, because in that case the currents
of the group-spirit could not guide it, and if it were not
sufficiently individualized to endure the spiritual currents which
enter the vertical human spine, it would die. It is necessary that a
vehicle for the expression of an individual Ego shall have three
things — an upright walk, that it may come into touch with the
currents just mentioned; an upright larynx, for only such a larynx is
capable of speech (parrots and starlings are examples of this effect
of the upright larynx); and, owing to the solar currents, it must
have warm blood. The latter is of the utmost importance to the Ego,
which will be logically explained and illustrated later. These
requisites are simply mentioned here as the last words on the status
of the four kingdoms in relation to each other and to the Worlds.
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