The Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception
by Max Heindel
(Part 10)
X. The Earth Period
The Globes of the Earth Period are
located in the four densest states of matter — the Region of Concrete
Thought, the Desire World, the Etheric, and the Chemical Regions (See
Diagram 8). The densest Globe (Globe D) is our present Earth.
When we speak of "the densest Worlds" or "the densest
states of matter," the term must be taken in a relative sense. Otherwise it
would imply a limitation in the absolute, and that is absurd. Dense and
attenuated, up and down, east and west, are applicable only relatively to
our own status and position. As there are higher, finer Worlds than those
touched by our life wave, so there are also denser states of matter which are
the field of evolution for other classes of beings. Nor must it be thought
that these denser worlds are elsewhere in space; they are interpenetrated by
our worlds in a manner similar to that in which the higher Worlds
interpenetrate this Earth. The fancied solidity of the Earth and the
forms we see are no bar to the passage of a denser body any more than our solid
dense walls bar the passage of a human being clothed in his desire body.
Neither is solidity synonymous with density, as may be illustrated by
aluminum, a solid which is less dense than the fluidic mercury; nevertheless
the latter, in spite of its density, will evaporate or exude through many
solids.
This being the fourth Period, we have at present four elements. In the
Saturn Period there was but one element, Fire — i.e., there was warmth, or
heat, which is incipient fire. In the second, or Sun Period, there were to
elements, Fire and Air. In the third, or Moon Period, there were three
elements, Water being added; and in the fourth, or Earth Period, was added
the fourth element, Earth. Thus it will be seen that a new element was
added for each Period.
In the Jupiter Period an element of a spiritual nature will be added,
which will unite with the speech so that words will invariable carry with
them understanding — not misunderstanding, as is frequently the case now.
For instance, when one says "house," he may mean a cottage, while the hearer
may get the idea of a tenement flat building.
To this environment of the four elements, as specified above, the different classes were brought over by the Hierarchies in charge of them. We remember that in the Moon Period these classes formed three kingdoms — animal, animal-plant and
plant-mineral. Here on Earth, however, the conditions are such that there can
be no large half-way classes. There must be four distinctly different
kingdoms. In this crystallized phase of existence the lines between them
must be more sharply drawn than was the case in former Periods, where one
kingdom gradually merged into the next. Therefore some of the classes advanced one-half step, while others went back a half a step.
Some of the mineral-plants advanced completely into the plant kingdom and became the verdure of the fields. Others went down and became the purely mineral soil in which the plants grew. Of the plant-animals some advanced
into the animal kingdom, ahead of time, and those species have yet the
colorless plant-blood and some, like star-fishes, have even the five points
like the petals of flowers.
All of the class whose desire bodies could be divided into two parts were fitted to become human vehicles and were therefore advanced into the human group.
We must carefully remember that in the above paragraphs we are dealing with Form, not with the Life which dwells in the Form. The instrument is
graded to suit the life that is to dwell in it. Those of class in whose
vehicles the above mentioned division could be made were raised to the human
kingdom, but were given the indwelling spirit at a point in time later than
the other class.
Those whose desire bodies were incapable of division were put into another division. They are our present anthropoids. They
may yet overtake our evolution if they reach a sufficient degree of advancement
before the critical point already mentioned, which will come in the middle
of the fifth Revolution. If they do not overtake us by that time, they will
have lost touch with our evolution.
It was said that man had built his threefold body by the help of others
higher than he, but in the previous Period there was no co-ordinating power;
the threefold spirit, the Ego, was separate and apart from its vehicles.
Now the time had come to unit the spirit and the body.
Where the desire body separated, the higher part become somewhat master over
the lower part and over the dense and vital bodies. It formed a sort of
animal-soul with which the spirit could unite by means of the link of mind.
Where there was no division of the desire body, the vehicle was given over to
desires and passions without any check, and could therefore not be used as a
vehicle within which the spirit could dwell. So it was put under the
control of a group-spirit which ruled if from without. It became an
animal body, and that kind has now degenerated into the body of the anthropoid.
Where there was a division of the desire body, the dense body gradually
assumed a vertical position, thus taking the spine out of the horizontal
currents of the Desire World in which the group-spirit acts upon the animal
through the horizontal spine. The Ego could then enter, work in and express
itself through the vertical spine and build the vertical larynx and brain
for its adequate expression in the dense body. A horizontal larynx is also
under the domination of the group-spirit. While it is true that some
animals, as the starling, raven, parrot, etc., previously mentioned, are
able, because of the possession of a vertical larynx, to utter words,
they cannot use them understandingly. The use of words to express thought
is the highest human privilege and can be exercised only by a reasoning,
thinking entity like man. If the student will keep this in mind, it will be
easier to follow the different steps which lead up to this result.
The Saturn Revolution
of the Earth Period
This is the Revolution during which, in each Period. the dense body is
reconstructed. This time it was given the ability to form a brain and become
a vehicle for the germ of mind which was to be added later. This addition
constituted the final reconstruction of the dense body, rendering it capable
of attaining the highest degree of efficiency possible to such a vehicle.
Unspeakable Wisdom has been employed in its construction. It is a
marvel. It can never be sufficiently impressed upon the mind of the student
what immeasurable facilities for the gaining of knowledge are contained in
this instrument, and what a great boon it is to man; how much he should
prize it and how thankful he should be to have it.
Some examples of the perfection of construction and intelligent
adaptability displayed in this instrument have previously been given, but in
order to further impress this great truth upon the mind of the student, it
might not be out of place to illustrate more fully this Wisdom, also the work
of the Ego in the blood.
It is generally known, in a vague kind of way, that the gastric juice
acts upon the food to promote assimilation; but only a very few people, outside
of the medical profession, are aware that there are many different gastric
juices, each appropriate to the treatment of a certain kind of food. The
researches of Pavloff, however, have established the fact beyond doubt, that
there is one kind of juice for the digestion of meat, another for milk, another
for acid fruit, etc. That fact, by the way, is the reason why all foods do
not mix well. Milk, for instance, requires a gastric juice that is widely
different from almost any other kind except that required for the digestion of
starchy foods, and is not readily digested with any food other than cereals.
This alone would show marvelous wisdom; that the Ego working subconsciously is
able to select the different juices which are appropriate to the different
kinds of food taken into the stomach, making each of just the right strength
and quantity to digest the food. What makes the matter still more wonderful,
however, is the fact that the gastric juice is poured into the stomach in
advance of the food.
We do not consciously direct the process of mixing this fluid. The great
majority of people know nothing of metabolism or any other phrase of chemistry.
So it is not enough to say that, as we taste what is coming, we direct the
process by means of signals through the nervous system.
When this fact of the selection of juices was first proven, scientists
were sorely puzzled trying to learn how the right kind of juice was selected
and caused to enter the stomach before the food. They thought the
signal was given along the nervous system. But it was demonstrated beyond
doubt that the proper juice was poured into to the stomach even though the
nervous system was blocked.
At last Starling and Bayliss, in a series of experiments of brilliant
ingenuity, proved that infinitesimal parts of the food are taken up by the
blood as soon as the food enters the mouth, go in advance to the digestive
glands and cause a flow of the proper juice.
This again, is only the physical side of the phenomena. To understand
the whole wonderful connection, we must turn to esoteric science. That alone
explains why the signal is carried by the blood.
The blood is one of the highest expressions of the vital body. The Ego
guides and controls its dense instrument by means of the blood, therefore
the blood is also the means used to act on the nervous system. During some of
the time that digestion is going on, it acts partially through the nervous
system, but (especially at the commencement of the digestive process) it acts
directly upon the stomach. When, during scientific experiments, the nerves
were blocked, the direct way through the blood was still open and the Ego
derived the necessary information in that way.
It will also be seen that the blood is driven to wherever the Ego
unfolds the greatest activity at any time. If a situation requires sudden
though and action, the blood is promptly driven to the head. If a heavy
meal is to be digested the greater portion of the blood leaves the head,
centering around the digestive organs. The Ego concentrates its efforts on
ridding the body of the useless food. Therefore a man cannot think well after
a heavy meal. He is sleepy because so much blood has left the brain that
the residue is insufficient to carry on the functions necessary to full waking
consciousness, besides, nearly all the vital fluid or solar energy
specialized by the spleen is absorbed by the blood rushing through that organ
after a meal in greater volume than between meals. Thus the rest of the system
is also deprived of the vital fluid in a large measure during digestion. It
is the Ego that drives the blood into the brain. Whenever the body goes to
sleep, the table will invariably tip towards the feet, raising the head.
During coition the blood is centered in the sex organs, etc. All these
examples tend to prove that during the waking hours, the Ego works in and
controls the dense body by means of the blood. The larger portion of the
total amount goes to that part of the body where at any given time, the Ego
unfolds any particular activity.
The reconstruction of the dense body in the Saturn Revolution of the
Earth Period was for the purpose of rendering it capable of
inter-penetration by the mind. It gave the first impulse to the building of
the frontal part of the brain; also the incipient division in the nervous
system which has since become apparent in its subdivisions — the voluntary
and the sympathetic. The latter was the only one provided for in the Moon
Period. The voluntary nervous system (which has transformed the dense body
from a mere automation acting under stimuli from without, to an extraordinary
adaptable instrument capable of being guided and controlled by an Ego from
within) was not added until the present Earth Period.
The principal art of the reconstructive work was done by the Lords of Form. They are the Creative Hierarchy which is most active in the Earth
Period, as were the Lords of Flame in the Saturn Period, the Lords of Wisdom
in the Sun Period, and the Lords of Individuality in the Moon Period.
The Earth Period is pre-eminently the Period of Form, for there the form or matter side of evolution reaches its greatest and most pronounced state. Here
spirit is more helpless and suppressed and Form is the most dominant
factor — hence the prominence of the Lords of Form.
The Sun Revolution
of the Earth Period
During this Revolution the vital body was reconstructed to accommodate the germinal mind. The vital body was fashioned more in the likeness of the dense body, so that it could become fitted for use as the densest vehicle
during the Jupiter Period, when the dense body will have become
spiritualized.
The Angels, the humanity of the Moon Period, were aided by the Lords of Form in reconstruction. The organization of the vital body is now next in
efficiency to the dense body. Some writers on this subject call the former a
link, and contend that it is simply a mold of the dense body, and not a
separate vehicle.
While not desiring to criticize, and admitting that this contention is
justified by the fact that man, at his present stage of evolution, cannot
ordinarily use the vital body as a separate vehicle — because it
always remains with the dense body and to extract it in toto would
cause death of the dense body — yet there was a time when it was not so firmly
incorporated with the latter, as we shall presently see.
During those epochs of our Earth's history which have already been
mentioned as the Lemurian and the Atlantean, man was involuntarily clairvoyant,
and it was precisely this looseness of connection between the dense and the
vital bodies that made him so. (The Initiators of that time helped the
candidate to loosen the connection still further, as in the voluntary
clairvoyant.)
Since then the vital body has become much more firmly interwoven with the
dense body in the majority of people, but in all sensitives it is loose. It is
that looseness which constitutes the difference between the psychic and the
ordinary person who is unconscious of all but the vibrations contacted by
means of the five senses. All human beings have to pass through this period
of close connection of the vehicles and experience the consequent
limitation of consciousness. There are, therefore, two classes of
sensitives, those who have not become firmly enmeshed in matter, such as those who possess a certain low grade of
clairvoyance, or are sensitive to the sounds of nature, and those who are in
the vanguard of evolution. The latter are emerging from the acme of
materiality, and are again divisible into two kinds, one of which develops in
a passive, weak-willed manner. By the help of others they re-awaken the solar
plexus or other organs in connection with the involuntary nervous system.
These are therefore involuntary clairvoyants, mediums who have no control of
their faculty. They have retrograded. The other kind is made up of those
who by their own wills unfold the vibratory powers of the organs now
connected with the voluntary nervous system and thus become trained esotericists,
controlling their own bodies and exercising the clairvoyant faculty as they
will to do. They are called voluntary or trained clairvoyants.
In the Jupiter Period man will function in his vital body as he now does in
his dense body; and as no development in nature is sudden, the process of
separating the two bodies has already commenced. The vital body will then
attain a much higher degree of efficiency than the dense body of today. As it
is a much more pliable vehicle, the spirit will then be able to use it in a
manner impossible of realization in the case of the present dense vehicle.
The Moon Revolution
of the Earth Period
Here the Moon Period was recapitulated, and much the same conditions
prevailed (on an advanced scale) as obtained on Globe D of that Period. There
was the same kind of fire-fog atmosphere; the same fiery core; the same
division of the Globe into two parts, in order to allow the more highly evolved
beings a chance to progress at the proper rate and pace, which it would be
impossible for beings such as our humanity to equal.
In that Revolution the Archangels (humanity of the Sun Period) and the
Lords of Form took charge of the reconstruction of the desire body, but they
were not alone in that work. When the separation of the Globe into two
parts occurred, there was a similar division in the desire bodies of some of
the evolving beings. We have already noted that where this division took
place, the form was ready to become the vehicle of an indwelling
spirit, and in order to further this purpose the Lords of Mind (humanity of
the Saturn Period) took possession of the higher part of the desire body and
implanted in it the separate selfhood, without which the present man with all
his glorious possibilities, could never have existed.
Thus in the latter part of the Moon Revolution the first germ of separate personality was implanted in the higher part of the desire body by the Lords of
Mind.
The Archangels were active in the lower part of the desire body, giving it the purely animal desires. They also worked in the desire bodies where there
was no division. Some of these were to become the vehicles of the animal
group-spirits, which work on them from without, but do not enter wholly
into the animal forms, as the individual spirit does into the human body.
The desire body was reconstructed to render it capable of being
interpenetrated by the germinal mind which, during the Earth Period, will be
implanted in all those desire bodies in which it was possible to make the
before-mentioned division.
As has been previously explained, the desire body is an unorganized
ovoid, holding the dense body as a dark spot within its center, as the white of
an egg surrounds the yolk. There are a number of sense centers in the ovoid,
which have appeared since the beginning of the Earth Period. In the average
human being these centers appear merely as eddies in a current and are not now
awake, hence his desire body is of no use to him as a separate
vehicle of consciousness; but when the sense centers are awakened they look
like whirling vortices.
Rest Periods
Between Revolutions
Hitherto we have noted only the Cosmic Nights between Periods. We saw
that there was an interval of rest and assimilation between the Saturn and
the Sun Periods; another Cosmic Night between the Sun and the Moon Periods,
etc. But in addition to these, there are also rests between the
Revolutions.
We might liken the Periods to the different incarnations of man; the Cosmic
Nights between them to the intervals between deaths and new births; and the
rest between Revolutions would then be analogous to the rest of sleep between
two days.
When a Cosmic Night sets in, all manifested things are resolved into a homogeneous mass — the Cosmos again becomes Chaos.
This periodical return of matter to primordial substance is what makes it
possible for the spirit to evolve. Were the crystallizing process of active
manifestation to continue indefinitely it would offer an insurmountable barrier
to the progress of Spirit. Every time matter has crystallized to such a degree
that it becomes too hard for the spirit to work in, the latter withdraws to
recuperate its exhausted energy, on the same principle that a power-drill
which has stopped when boring in hard metals, is withdrawn to regain its
momentum. It is then able to bore its way further into the metal.
Freed from the crystallizing energy of the evolving spirits, the chemical
forces in matter turn Cosmos to Chaos by restoring matter to its primordial
state, that a new start may be made by the regenerated virgin spirits at the
dawn of a new Day of Manifestation. The experience gained in former Periods
and Revolutions enables the Spirit to build up to the point last reached,
with comparative celerity, also to facilitate further progress by making
such alterations as its cumulative experience dictates.
Thus at the end of the Moon Revolution of the Earth Period, all the Globes and all life returned to Chaos, re-emerging therefrom at the
beginning of the fourth Revolution.
The Fourth Revolution
of the Earth Period
In the exceeding complexity of the scheme of evolution, there are always
spirals within spirals, ad infinitum. So it will not be surprising to
learn that in every Revolution the work of recapitulation and rest is applied
to the different Globes. When the life wave reappeared on Globe A in this
Revolution, it went though the development of the Saturn Period; then after a
rest which, however did not involve the complete destruction of the Globe; but
only an alteration, it appeared on Globe B, where the work of the Sun Period
was recapitulated. Then after a rest, the life wave passed on to Globe C,
and the work of the Moon Period was repeated. Finally, the life wave arrived
on Globe D, which is our Earth, and not until then did the proper work of
the Earth Period begin.
Even then, the spiral within the spiral precluded its beginning
immediately on the arrival of the life wave from Globe C, for the bestowal of
the germ of mind did not actually take place until the fourth Epoch, the
first three Epochs being still further recapitulations of the Saturn, Sun and
Moon Periods, but always on a higher scale.
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