Previously, nothing has been
said about our Solar System, and of the different planets which compose it,
because it was not until the Earth Period was reached that the present
differentiation was made. The Earth Period is the acme of diversification,
and although we have been speaking of only one class of virgin spirits —
those who, in the strictest and most limited sense, are concerned with the
Earth evolution — there are in reality seven "Rays" or streams of life, all
pursuing different evolutions, yet all belonging to the original class of
virgin spirits to which our humanity belongs.
In the previous Periods all of these different sub-classes or Rays found a
suitable environment for their evolution on the same planet. But, in the
Earth Period, conditions became such that in order to provide for each class
the degree of heat and the vibration necessary for its particular phase of
evolution, they were segregated on different planets, at varying distances
from the Sun — the central source of life. This is the raison d'etre
of our System and all other Solar Systems in the Universe.
Before proceeding with the description of evolution of our humanity on
the Earth after its separation from the central Sun, it is necessary for the
maintenance of sequential order in the description to explain the
differentiation which scattered the planets of our System in space.
Active manifestation — particularly in the Physical World — depends upon
separateness; upon the limitation of life by form. But during the interim
between Periods and Revolutions the marked distinction between form and life
ceases. This applies not only to man and the lower kingdoms, but to the
Worlds and Globes which are the basis of form for the evolving life. Only
the seed-atoms and the nuclei or centers of the World-Globes remain — all
else is one homogeneous substance. There is but one Spirit pervading space.
Life and Form, its positive and negative poles, are one.
This state of things was what Greek mythology described as "Chaos." The
ancient Norsemen and the Teutonic mythology call it "Ginnungagap," which was
bounded upon the northern side by the cold and foggy "Niflheim" — the land of
mist and fog — and upon the south side by the fire "Muspelheim." When heat
and cold entered into space which was occupied by Chaos or Ginnungagap, they
caused the crystallization of the visible universe.
The Bible also gives one the idea of infinite space preceding the activity of the Spirit.
In our present materialistic period we have unfortunately lost the idea of
all that lies behind that word Space. We are so accustomed to speaking of
"empty" space, that we have entirely lost the grand and holy significance of
the word, and are thus incapable of feeling the reverence that this idea of
Space and Chaos should inspire in our breasts.
To the Rosicrucians, as to any esoteric school, there is no such thing as
empty or void space. To them space is Spirit in its attenuated form;
while matter is crystallized space or Spirit. Spirit in
manifestation is dual, that which we see as Form is the negative manifestation
of Spirit — crystallized and inert. The positive pole of Spirit manifests as
Life, galvanizing the negative Form into action, but both Life and Form
originated in Spirit, Space, Chaos!
To get an idea from everyday life which will illustrate, we may take the
hatching of an egg. The egg is filled with a moderately viscous fluid.
This fluid, or moisture, is subjected to heat, and out of the soft, fluidic
substance comes a living chick, with hard bones and comparatively hard
flesh, and with down that has a comparatively hard quill, etc.
When a living chick can come out of the inert fluid of an egg without the
addition of any hardening substance from outside, is it a far-fetched idea to
claim that the universe is crystallized Space or Spirit? There is no doubt
that the claim will seem foolish to many; but this book is not for the purpose
of convincing the world at large that these things are. It is
intended to aid those who inherently feel that these things must be and to help
them to see the light upon this great World-mystery, which the writer has been
permitted to behold. The special object at present is to show that Spirit is
active all the time — in one way during Manifestation, and in another during
Chaos.
Modern science would sneer at the idea that life could exist upon a Globe
which is in the process of formation. That is because science cannot
dissociate Life and Form and cannot conceive of Form except as solid and
tangible — cognizable by one of our five physical senses.
The esoteric scientist, in accordance with the above definitions of Life
and Form, holds that life may exist independently of Concrete Form; may have
Forms not perceptible to our present limited senses, and amenable to
none of the laws which apply to this present concrete state of matter.
It is true that the Nebular Theory holds that all existence (which is to
say all Form, the Worlds in Space and whatever Forms there may be upon them)
has come from the fiery nebula; but it does not recognize the further fact
insisted upon by esoteric science — that the fiery nebula is Spirit. It does not
admit that the whole atmosphere around us, the space between the worlds, is
Spirit and that there is a constant interchange going on all the time — Form
dissolving into Space, and Space crystallizing into Form.
Chaos is not a state which has existed in the past and has now entirely
disappeared. It is all around us at the present moment. Were it not that
old forms — having outlived their usefulness — are constantly being resolved
back into that Chaos, which is also as constantly giving birth to new forms,
there could be no progress; the work of evolution would cease and stagnation
would prevent the possibility of advancement.
It is axiomatic that "The oftener we die, the better we live." The Poet-Initiate, Goethe says:
Who has not this —
Ever dying and bringing to birth —
Will aye remain a sorry guest
Upon this dismal earth.
Therefore, as students of esoteric science, it is necessary to realize that
even during active manifestation, it is Chaos that is the basis of all
progress. Our life during Chaos is based upon our life in active
manifestation, and vice versa, i.e., what we are able to achieve
during active manifestation, and the ability to progress at all, is the result
of the existence in Chaos. The interim between Periods and Revolutions is in
reality much more important to the growth of the soul that concrete existence,
though the latter is the basis of the former and therefore cannot be dispensed
with. The importance of the Chaotic interim lives in the fact that during that
period the evolving entities of all classes are so closely united that they are
really one; consequently those which are of lower development during
manifestation are in closest contact with the more highly evolved, thus
experiencing and benefiting by a much higher vibration that their own. This
enables them to live over and assimilate their past experiences in a manner
impossible when hampered by Form.
We have seen the benefit to the spirit in man from the interim between
death and a new birth. There the form still exists, though much more
attenuated that the dense body; but in the Cosmic Night and intervals of rest
between Periods and Revolutions, when there is perfect freedom from form,
the beneficial results of past experiences can be much more effectively
assimilated.
We have a word which was originally coined to convey the idea of the
state of things between manifestations. This word, however, has been used in
a material sense to such an extent that it has lost its primal significance. That word is Gas.
It may be thought that this is a very old word, which has nearly always
existed as a synonym for a state of matter lighter than liquids, but such is
not the case. The word was first used in "Physica," a work which appeared in
1633, the author of it being Helmont, a Rosicrucian.
Helmont did not call himself a Rosicrucian; no true Brother does so
publicly. Only the Rosicrucian knows the brother Rosicrucian. Not even the
most intimate friends or relatives know of a man's connection with the order.
Those only who are Initiates themselves know the writers of the past who
were Rosicrucians, because ever through their works shine the unmistakable
words, phrases and signs indicative of the deep meaning that remains hidden
from the non-Initiate. The teachings of the Rosicrucian Order are now given publicly, because the
world's intelligence is growing to the necessary point of comprehension.
This work is one of the first few fragments of the Rosicrucian knowledge being
publicly given out. All that has been printed as such, previous to the last
few years, has been the work of either charlatans or traitors.
Rosicrucians such as Paracelsus, Comenius, Bacon, Helmont and others gave
hints in their works and influenced others. The great controversy concerning
the authorship of Shakespeare (which has to no avail blunted so many
goose-quills and wasted so much good ink that might have served useful ends)
would never have arisen had it been known that the similarity in Shakespeare
and Bacon is due to the fact that both were influenced by the same Initiate,
who also influenced Jacob Boehme and a pastor of Ingolstadt, Jacobus Baldus,
who lived subsequent to the death of the Bard of Avon, and wrote Latin lyric
verse. If the first poem of Jacob Baldus is read with a certain key, it
will be found that by reading down and up the lines, the following sentence
will appear: "Hitherto I have spoken from across the sea by means of the
drama; now I will express myself in lyrics."
In his "Physica," Helmont, the Rosicrucian wrote: "Ad huc spiritum
incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further
on in the same work he says. "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far
removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."
We must learn to think of Chaos as the Spirit of God, which pervades every
part of infinity; it will then be seen in its true light, as the esoteric maxim
puts it: "Chaos is the seed-ground of the Cosmos," and we shall no longer
wonder how "something can come out of nothing," because Space is not
synonymous with "nothing." It holds within itself the germs of all that exists
during a physical manifestation, yet not quite all; for by the wedding of
Chaos with Cosmos there is something new brought forth each time, which did
not exist before; something that was not foreshown and latent. The name of
that something is Genius — the cause of Epigenesis.
It appears in all kingdoms. It is the expression of progressive spirit in
man, animal and plant. Chaos is therefore a holy name; a name that signifies
the Cause of all we see in Nature and inspires a feeling of devotion in every
tried, true and trained esotericist. He regards the visible sense world as a
revelation of the hidden potentialities of the Chaos.
The Birth of
the Planets
To express himself in the dense physical world, it was necessary for man to
evolve a suitable dense body. In a world like this he must have a body with
limbs, organs, a muscular system by means of which to move about; also a brain
to direct and co-ordinate his movements. If the conditions had been different
the body would have been modified accordingly.
It is necessary for all beings, high or low in the scale of existence, to
possess vehicles for expression in any particular world in which they may
wish to manifest. Even the Seven Spirits before The Throne must possess
these necessary vehicles, which of course are differently conditioned for
each of Them. Collectively, They are God, and make up the Triune Godhead,
and He manifests in a different way through each of Them.
There is no contradiction in ascribing different numbers to God. We do
not sin against the "oneness" of light because we distinguish three primary
colors into which it divides itself. The white light of the Sun contains
the seven colors of the spectrum. The esotericists sees even twelve colors,
there being five between red and violet — going one way around the circle — in
addition to the red, orange, yellow, green, etc., of the visible spectrum.
Four of these colors are quite indescribable, but the fifth — the middle one of
the five — is similar to the tint of a new blown peach blossom. It is in fact
the color of the vital body. Trained clairvoyants who describe it as
"bluish-grey," or "reddish-grey," etc., are trying to describe a color that
has no equivalent in the physical world; and they are therefore compelled to
use the nearest descriptive terms afforded by our language.
Perhaps Color will enable us to realize the oneness of God with the Seven
Spirits before The Throne better than anything else. We will therefore turn to
diagram 11.
We see here a white triangle looming up from a dark background. White is
synthetic, containing all colors within itself, as God contains within Himself
all things in the Solar System.
Within the white triangle are a blue, a red and a yellow circle. All
other colors are simply combinations of these three primary colors. These
circles correspond to the three aspects of God, which are without beginning,
and end in God; though externalized only during active manifestation.
When these three colors are interblended, as shown in the diagram, there
appear four additional colors, the three secondary colors — each due to the
blending of two primary colors — and one color (indigo) which contains the
entire gamut of colors, making it in all the seven colors of the spectrum.
These colors represent the Seven Spirits before the Throne. The colors are
different, as are also the Seven Spirits, each having a different mission in
the Kingdom of God — our Solar System.
The seven planets circling around the Sun are the dense bodies of the
Seven Planetary Genii. Their names are: Uranus with one satellite, Saturn
with eight moons, Jupiter with four moons, Mars with two moons, the Earth
and its moon, Venus and Mercury.*
*Astronomical discoveries since the writing of this book attribute 4
satellites to Uranus, 9 to Saturn, and 11 to Jupiter.
Bodies are always found to suit the purpose they are made to serve, hence
the dense bodies of the Seven Planetary Spirits are spherical, that form being
best adapted to the enormous velocity with which they travel through space.
The Earth, for instance, travels about 66,000 miles per hour in its orbit.
Man's body had a different shape in the past from that of the present,
and from that which it will have in the future. During involution it was
approximately spherical, as it still is during ante-natal life, because the
intra-uterine development is a recapitulation of past stages of evolution. At
that stage the organism developed the sphere, because during involution
man's energies were directed inward, upon the building of its own vehicles, as
the embryo develops within the sphere of the uterus.
Man's dense and vital bodies have straightened , but his higher vehicles
still retain their ovoid form. In the dense body, the co-ordinating and
governing brain is situated at one extremity. This is the most unfavorable
position for such an organ. Too long a time is required for impulses to
travel from one extremity to the other — from the brain to the feet, or for
impacts on the feet to reach the brain. In cases of burns, for instance,
science has demonstrated that valuable time is lost, the skin being
blistered before a message can be carried from the injured place to the
brain and back again.
This inefficiency would be greatly lessened if the brain were in the center
of the body. Sensations and the responses thereto could be more quickly
received and transmitted. In the spherical planets the Planetary Spirit
directs from the center the movements of its vehicle. In future man
will bend over, as shown in
Diagram 12. He will become a sphere, directing his energies outward because a spherical form affords the greatest facility for motion in all directions, and indeed, for
combination of simultaneous motions.
When the beings upon a planet have evolved to a sufficient degree, the
planet becomes a Sun — the fixed center of a Solar System. When the beings
upon it have evolved to a still greater degree, and consequently it has
reached its maximum brilliancy, it breaks up into a Zodiac, becoming, so to
speak, the womb for a new Solar System.
Thus the great hosts of Divine Beings who, until then, were confined
within that Sun, gain freedom of action upon a great number of stars, whence
they can affect in different ways the system which grows up within their
sphere of influence. The planets, or man-bearing worlds, within the Zodiac
are constantly being worked upon by these forces, but in various
ways, according to the stage they have reached in evolution.
Our Sun could not become a Sun until it had sent out from itself all the
beings who were not sufficiently evolved to endure the high rate of vibration
and the great luminosity of the beings who were qualified for that
evolution. All the beings upon the different planets would have been
consumed had they remained in the Sun.
This visible Sun, however, though it is the place of evolution for Beings
vastly above man, is not by many means the Father of the other planets, as
material science supposes. On the contrary, it is itself an emanation from
the Central Sun, which is the invisible source of all that is in our Solar
System. Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which are reflected the rays of
energy from the Spiritual Sun. The real Sun is as invisible as the real Man.
Uranus was the first planet to be thrown off from the nebula when its
differentiation began in Chaos, at the dawn of the Earth Period. There was no
light but the dim light of the Zodiac. The life that left with Uranus is of a
rather backward strain and is said to evolve very, very slowly.
Saturn was next differentiated. It is the field of action for the life
which is at the stage of evolution corresponding to the Saturn Period. This
planet was differentiated before the ignition of the nebula and (like all
nebulae when passing through their Saturn Period of evolution) was not a
source of light, but a reflector.
Jupiter was differentiated shortly afterwards, when the nebula had become
ignited. The heat of Jupiter is not so great as that of the Sun, Venus or
Mercury, but on account of its immense bulk, it is capable of retaining its
heat and thus remains a suitable field of evolution for very advanced
beings. It corresponds to the stage which will be reached by the Earth itself
in the Jupiter Period.
Mars is a mystery, and only a limited amount of information may be given
out. We may say, however, that the life on Mars is of a very backward nature
and that the so-called "canals" are not excavations in the surface of the
planet. They are currents such as, during the Atlantean Epoch, spread over
our planet, and the remains of which can still be observed in the Aurora
Borealis and the Aurora Australis. The shifting of the Martian "canals"
noted by astronomers, is thus accounted for. If they were really canals, they
could not possibly shift, but currents emanating from the Poles of Mars may do
so.
The Earth, including the Moon, was next set out from the Sun, and later
Venus and Mercury. These and Mars will be referred to later, in connection
with the evolution of man on the earth, and need not be further considered at
this time.
When a planet has Moons it indicates that there are some beings in the
life wave evolving on that planet who are too backward to share in the
evolution of the main life wave, and they have therefore been set out from
the planet to prevent them from hindering the progress of the pioneers.
Such is the case with the beings inhabiting our Moon. In the case of Jupiter
it is thought probable that the inhabitants of three of its moons will
eventually be able to rejoin the life on the parent planet, but it is
thought that at least one of the others is an eighth sphere, like our own
Moon, where retrogression and disintegration of the already acquired vehicle
will result from too close adherence to material existence upon the part of
the evolving beings who have brought themselves to that deplorable end.
Neptune and its satellites do not properly belong to our Solar System. The other planets — or rather their Spirits — exercise an influence over the whole of humanity, but the influence of Neptune is largely restricted to one
particular class, the astrologers. The writer, for instance, has several
times felt its compelling influence in a marked way.
When laggards inhabiting a Moon have retrieved their position and
returned to the parent planet; or, when continued retrogression has caused
complete disintegration of their vehicles, the abandoned Moon also commences to
dissolve. The momentum of a spiritual impulse which propelled it in a fixed
orbit for aeons, may endure for aeons after the Moon has been vacated, and
from the physical point of view it may still seem to be a satellite of the
planet in encircles. As the time goes on, however, and the power of attraction
exercised by the parent planet diminishes, its orbit widens, until it reaches
the limit of our solar system. It is then expelled into interstellar
space; dissolved in Chaos. The expulsion of these cinder-like dead worlds is
analogous to the manner in which hard and foreign bodies embedded in the
human system make their way through the flesh to the skin. The Asteroids
illustrate this point. They are fragments of Moons which once encircled Venus
and Mercury. The beings once confined upon them are known in esotericism as
"The Lords from Venus" and "The Lords from Mercury;" they retrieved their
lost estate in a large measure by service to our humanity, as will be later
described, and are now safe on their present planet, while the Moons they
inhabited have partly disintegrated, and are already far outside the earth's
orbit. There are other "seeming" moons in our system, but the Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception does not notice them, as they are outside the pale of
evolution.
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