The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception
by Max Heindel
(Part 7)
VII. The Path
of Evolution
A word of warning in regard to diagrams
used for purposes of illustration may not be out of place. The student
should remember that anything that is reduced into another dimension can
never be accurate. The picture of a house would mean little or nothing to
us if we had never seen a house. In that case we would see in the picture
only lines and blotches. It would convey no meaning to us. Diagrams used
to illustrate super physical matters are much less true representations of
the reality, for the simple reason that in the case of the picture, the
three-dimensional house is only reduced to two dimensions, while in the case
of diagrams of the Periods, Worlds and Globes, the realities possess from
four to seven dimensions, and the diagrams of two dimensions by which it is
endeavored to represent them are thus so much further removed from the
possibility of correctly portraying them. We must constantly bear in mind
that these Worlds inter-penetrate, that the Globes inter-penetrate, and that
the way they are shown in the diagram is analogous to taking all the wheels
of a watch and laying them side by side in order to show how the watch keeps
time. If these diagrams are to be of any use to the student they must be
spiritually conceived. Otherwise they will be confusing instead of
enlightening.
Revolutions and
Cosmic Nights
The Saturn Period is the first of the seven Periods, and at this early
stage the virgin spirits take their first step towards the evolution of
Consciousness and Form. By reference to
Diagram
7 it will be seen that the evolutionary impulse travels seven times
around the seven Globes, A, B, C, D, E, F and G, the arrows showing the
direction.
First, a part of the evolution is accomplished on Globe A, situated in
the World of Divine Spirit, the rarest of the five Worlds which form our
field of evolution. Then, gradually the evolving life is transferred to
Globe B, which is located in the somewhat denser World of Life Spirit. Here
another stage of evolution is passed through. In due time the evolving life is
ready to enter the arena on Globe C, which is situated in and formed of the
yet denser substance of the Region of Abstract Thought. After learning the
lessons peculiar to that stage of existence, the life wave travels onward to
Globe D, which is located in and formed of the substance of the Region of
Concrete Thought. This is the densest degree of matter reached by the life
wave during the Saturn Period.
From this point the life wave is carried upward again to Globe E, which is
situated in the Region of Abstract Thought, as is Globe C, yet the conditions
are not the same as on Globe C. This is the Involutionary stage, and the
substance of the Worlds is getting denser all the time. The tendency in
everything is to become denser and more solid as times goes on; also, as the
path of evolution is a spiral, it will be clear that, though the same points
are gone over, the conditions are never the same, but are on a higher and
more advanced plane.
When the work on Globe E has been completed, the next step is taken on Globe
F, which is situated in the World of Life Spirit, the same as Globe B; thence
it mounts to Globe G. When the work there is done, the life wave has traveled
once around all the seven Globes; once down and up through the four respective
Worlds. This journey of the life wave is called a Revolution, and seven
Revolutions make one Period. During one Period the life wave travels seven
times down and up through the four Worlds.
When the life wave has traveled its full complement of seven times around
the seven Globes, completing the seven Revolutions, the first Day of Creation
closes and there follows a Cosmic Night of rest and assimilation, after which
the Sun Period dawns.
Like the night of sleep between two days of human life and the interval of
rest between two earth lives, this Cosmic Night of rest after the completion of
the Saturn Period is not a time of passive repose, but a season of
preparation for the activity to be unfolded in the coming Sun Period, where
man-in-the-making is to take a further dip into matter. Therefore, new
Globes are necessary, the positions of which in the seven Worlds are different
from those occupied by the Worlds of the Saturn Period. The providing of
these new Globes, and other subjective activities, occupy the evolving
spirits during the interval between Periods — the Cosmic Night. The manner of
procedure is as follows:
When the life wave has left Globe A in the Saturn Period for the last
tine, the Globe begins to slowly disintegrate. The forces which built it
are transferred from the World of Divine Spirit (where Globe A is located
during the Saturn Period) to the World of Life Spirit (where Globe A is
located during the Sun Period). This is shown on
Diagram 8.
When the life wave has left Globe B in the Saturn Period for the last
time, it also commences to disintegrate, and the forces thereof, like the
seed-atom of a human vehicle, are used as a nucleus for Globe B in the Sun
Period, this Globe being then located in the Region of Abstract Thought.
In like manner the forces of Globe C are transferred to the Region of
Concrete Thought and draw upon the substance of that Region for the material
wherewith to build a new Globe C for the coming Sun Period. Globe D is
similarly transmuted and placed in the Desire World. Globes E, F, and G, in
order named, are analogously transferred. The result is (as reference to
Diagram 8 will show) that in the Sun Period all
the Globes are located one step further down into denser matter that they were
in the Saturn Period, so that the life wave, upon its emergence from the Cosmic
Night of Rest intervening between the last activity on Globe G of the Saturn
Period and the renewed activity on Globe A of the Sun Period finds a new
environment, with the opportunity thus afforded for new experiences.
The life wave now circles seven times around the seven Globes during the
Sun Period, traversing seven times down and up the four Worlds or Regions in
which these Globes are located. It makes seven Revolutions in the Sun
Period, as it did in the Saturn Period.
When the life wave leaves Globe A in the Sun Period for the last time,
that Globe begins to disintegrate. Its forces are transferred to the denser
Region of Abstract Thought, where they form a planet to be used during the
Moon Period. In the same way, the forces of the other Globes are
transferred and serve as nuclei for the Globes of the Moon Period, as shown
in
Diagram 8, the process being exactly
the same as when the Globes are removed from their locations in the Saturn
Period to the positions they occupied during the Sun Period. Thus the
Globes of the Moon Period are placed one step further down in matter that
they were during the Sun Period, the lowest (Globe D) being situated in the
Etheric Region of the Physical World.
After the interim of Cosmic Night between the Sun Period and the Moon
Period, the life wave starts its course on Globe A of the latter, completing
in due time its seven Revolutions, as before. Then there is another Cosmic
Night, during which the Globes are again transferred one step further down,
and this time the densest Globe is located in the Chemical Region of the
Physical World, as reference to
Diagram 8 will show.
This, then, is the Earth Period and the lowest and densest Globe (Globe D)
is our present Earth.
The life wave here, as usual, started on Globe A, after the Cosmic Night
succeeding the Moon Period. In the present Earth Period it has circled
three times around the seven globes and is now on Globe D, in its fourth
Revolution.
Here on earth and in this present fourth Revolution, the greatest density of
matter — the nadir of materiality — was reached a few millions years ago. The
tendency henceforth will be upward into rarer substance. During the three
and one-half Revolutions which remain to complete this Period, the condition
of the Earth will gradually become more and more ethereal, and in the
next — the Jupiter Period — Globe D will again be located in the Etheric Region,
as it was in the Moon Period, the other Globes being also elevated
correspondingly.
In the Venus Period they will be located in the same Worlds as were the
Globes of the Sun Period. The Globes of the Vulcan Period will have the
same density and be located in the same Worlds as were the Globes of the
Saturn Period. This is all shown on
Diagram 8.
When the life wave has completed its work in the Earth Period and the
Cosmic Night which follows is past, it will go through its seven Revolutions on
the Globes of the Jupiter Period. Then will come the usual Cosmic Night, with
its subjective activities; after which the seven Revolutions of the Venus
Period; then another rest, succeeded by the last of the Periods of the
present scheme of evolution — the Vulcan Period. The life wave also makes
its seven Revolutions here, and at the end of the last Revolution all the
Globes are dissolved and the life wave is reabsorbed by God, for a period of
time equal in duration to that occupied by all the seven Periods of activity.
God Himself then merges into the Absolute during the Universal Night of
assimilation and preparation for another Great Day.
Other and grander evolutions will then follow, but we can deal only with
the seven Periods described.
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