For instance, the fourth ether (which is even now being what we might call “discovered”), is at this stage characterised by certain things. I might enumerate a few of these facts with exceeding brevity, as follows:
a. It is the ether which the violet ray uses as a medium.
b. The fourth ether is that whereof the majority of the etheric bodies of men are made.
c. The fourth ether is largely the principal sphere of influence of the “devas of the shadows,” or those violet devas which are closely concerned with the physical evolution of man.
d. It is the etheric sphere within which, at a little later date, the human and the deva evolutions will touch.
e. From this fourth etheric sphere the dense physical bodies are created.
f. It is the sphere of physical individualisation. Only when the animal to be individualised was fully conscious on that subplane of the physical plane was it possible to co-ordinate the corresponding spheres on the astral and mental planes and by means of this triple co-ordination to effect the necessary steps which enabled the quaternary to succeed in its effort to approximate the Triad. [327]
g. This fourth ether in this fourth round and on this fourth chain has to be completely mastered and controlled by the Human Hierarchy, the fourth creative. Every unit of the human family has to attain this mastery before the end of this round.
h. It is the sphere wherein the initiations of the threshold are undergone, and the fivefold initiations of the physical plane are entered upon.
Much more might be further added to this list, but I have sought only to point out those which can be easily realised as having a correspondence on the buddhic plane, the fourth cosmic ether. It should be borne in mind that our physical plane in its subplanes has its analogy likewise to the entire cosmic physical plane.
COSMIC PHYSICAL PLANE
1. Adi First cosmic ether. 1. Atomic subplane First ether.
2. Monadic Second cosmic ether. 2. Sub-atomic Second ether.
3. Atmic Third cosmic ether. 3. Super-etheric Third ether.
4. Buddhic Fourth cosmic ether. 4. Etheric Fourth ether.
5. Mental Cosmic liquid. 5. Gaseous.
6. Astral Cosmic liquid. 6. Liquid.
7. Physical Cosmic dense. 7. Dense physical.
The solar physical plane might also be expressed accurately as follows, working out the anaIogy to the major planes:
SOLAR PHYSICAL PLANE
First subplane atomic first ether physical adi.
Second subplane sub-atomic second ether physical anupadaka.
Third subplane super-etheric third ether physical atmic.
Fourth subplane etheric fourth ether physical buddhic.
Fifth subplane gaseous physical mental.
Sixth subplane liquid physical astral.
Seventh subplane dense physical dense.
[328] In both the cosmic and solar physical planes, the plane of buddhi is ever the plane of at-one-ment, or the meeting ground of diversities, and of their blending—not into a fundamental unity—but into group unity. This is owing to the fact that the buddhic plane is pre-eminently the plane most concerned with the evolution of the Heavenly Men. What I have therefore predicated anent the fourth physical ether can likewise be extended to the fourth cosmic ether, and find its analogy on the buddhic plane. The place, for instance, of violet in the spectrum is of prime importance in connection with the greater cycles, and marks the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. The buddhic plane is peculiarly the plane of violet, even though all the colours find their place there; the Lord of the Ray of Ceremonial Magic, Who embodies the violet ray or hierarchy, has a special relationship to the buddhic plane. It must be borne in mind that each planetary Logos works primarily on one of the seven planes; from this we can infer that His influence finds its line of least resistance on some one plane, even though it be exerted on all planes.
Again, extend the second statement anent the etheric composition of the bodies of men to Those of the Heavenly Men, and it will be found that just as the majority of human etheric bodies are built of matter of the fourth ether, so it may also be said that four of the Heavenly Men have Their etheric vehicles composed of this fourth cosmic ether (buddhic matter).
Further, the two great evolutions (human and deva) find their group unity on the buddhic plane, and portions of both hierarchies blend and merge so as to form the body of the divine Hermaphrodite. (124, 125) Earlier, at certain fixed points, they may temporarily approximate each [329] other. On the buddhic plane definite and permanent alliance may be seen. On this plane also the “devas of the shadows” who are concerned in the building of the planetary scheme, pursue their work, and thus parallel the work done in the three worlds by the lesser builders who work with the etheric body of man. So can the analogies be worked out, for ever this Law of Resemblance holds good; yet ever must it be remembered that the analogy is of a psychic nature, and demonstrates in work, activity, and quality, and not in literal identity of form.
As time elapses the work of the Heavenly Men in the cosmic etheric spheres will be better comprehended, and assisted intelligently by those lesser intelligences who—by the study of the physical ethers—will eventually hold the key of the greater manifestation. Science is the handmaiden of wisdom, and opens the door to those infinite reaches and to those cosmic expanses, where stand Those vaster Intelligences, Who manipulate the matter of the higher planes, and bend it to the desired form, causing the vibrations thus set up to be felt at the furthest bounds of the solar ring-pass-not. Automatically then all lesser lives and all the denser materials are swept and carried into the needed channels and forms. Vibration, or initial activity, light, or activity taking form and animating form, sound the basis of differentiation and the source of the evolutionary process, and colour the sevenfold differentiation—thus is the work carried on. We have been dealing with these four in connection with a solar Logos, and equally with the work of a Heavenly Man and of Man, of the human monad.
Students should also bear in mind another point that is often forgotten, which is that every plane can be studied and divided in two ways:
First. The seven subplanes can be divided into the [330] higher three planes or the abstract planes, and the lower four or the concrete planes. This division is the best and most purely metaphysical, for it embodies the entire idea of the Self, the Not-Self, and the Intelligence, with their synthesis, which produces the objective universe, whether solar system, planetary scheme, or human incarnation. In connection with the Logos it is fully discussed and illuminatingly considered in the first volume of the Secret Doctrine, where the work of the Father and the Mother in producing the Son through conscious intelligent co-operation is handled by H. P. B. in a masterly manner.
In connection with man the point can be grasped more easily if the causal body on the abstract levels of the mental plane is considered in connection with the lower four or concrete levels from whence manifestation emanates.
Second. Dividing the seven subplanes into the same higher three but making the fourth plane the plane of meeting or of at-one-ment, and regarding the lower three as the planes of endeavour. This division primarily concerns man.
Both these divisions will be seen later as existing on every plane in the system and as having their origin in electrical force which shows itself differently on each plane but acts on all under three laws: Attraction or Repulsion, Economy, and Synthesis. The lower three planes or subplanes act under the Law of Economy primarily; the plane of meeting or of union acts under a phase of the Law of Attraction. Paralleling them, of course, during evolution are their opposites, showing as Dispersion, Repulsion, and Differentiation.
The question of the electrical manifestation of the akasha on the seven planes has therefore to be studied in its three main divisions, then plane by plane or the sevenfold consideration, and finally as the forty-nine [331] fires. Throughout it must be recollected that the subject is still further complicated by the factor of time
which brings these forty-nine fires at different stages under different spheres of influence and under the three laws of the cosmos. Thus the same fire at different periods will show itself forth as constructive light, or again bring about combustion and eventual obscuration as the result of burning out.
In connection with the manifestation of electricity on the mental, astral and physical planes. We will not enlarge upon the subject, as it will later be discussed as fully as may be possible. Suffice it to say that the law holds good and that what is laid down as fact anent a Heavenly Man on His Own planes is equally true of man on the four lower planes. Thus:
A SOLAR LOGOS
1. Electrical vibration the plane logoic or adi.
2. Electrical light the plane monadic or anupadaka.
3. Electrical sound the plane of atma.
4. Electrical colour the plane of buddhi.
A HEAVENLY MAN
1. Electrical vibration the plane monadic.
2. Electrical light the plane of atma.
3. Electrical sound the plane of buddhi.
4. Electrical colour the mental plane
MAN
1. Electrical vibration buddhic plane.
2. Electrical light the mental plane.
3. Electrical sound the astral plane.
4. Electrical colour the physical plane
We need to remember here that we were earlier dealing with the Logos, and with the Heavenly Men as incorporate parts of His body of manifestation. In the tabulation above given we are dealing with each separately, [332] and it should be observed that the manifestation of the groups of causal bodies on the mental plane is the colour manifestation of a Heavenly Man and His lowest point of objectivity. In man his lowest point of objectivity is the fifth subplane of the physical plane, as the liquid and the dense subplanes are not counted as principles any more than the cosmic liquid and dense (the astral and the systemic physical planes) count with a Heavenly Man.
We have seen that manas or mind is the fifth principle, or the basic vibration of the cosmic mental plane, the fifth plane; it was therefore impulse originating from the causal levels of the cosmic mental plane, which drove our solar Logos into manifestation, in the same way that the force which brings man into incarnation emanates from his causal body on the mental plane of the solar system. We have seen also that manas is that discriminative faculty which animates all substance, and which is also the electrical fire of the system showing forth as attraction and repulsion, with all that is involved in those two words. In the widest sense of the idea the Laws of Economy and of Synthesis are only divisions of that same cosmic law of which Attraction and Repulsion are also manifestations. This cosmic law, demonstrating thus in a threefold manner, might (for lack of a better term) be called the Law of Being, and is of a nature so incomprehensible to the finite mind of man that he can only sense it partially through the aforesaid three branches.
3. MANAS IS THAT WHICH PRODUCES COHESION
We come now to our third definition: The manasic principle is above all else that cohesive something which enables an Entity (whether Logos, Heavenly Man, or man) to work:
a. Through form, and thus exist. [333]
b. By means of progressive development or cyclic evolution.
c. On certain planes, that are, for the entity concerned, the battleground of life, and the field of experience.
d. By the method of manifestation, which is a gradual growth from a dim and distant dawn through an ever increasing splendour of light to a blaze of effulgent glory; then through a steadily dimming twilight to final obscuration. Dawn, day, midday, twilight, night—thus is the order for the Logos, for a planetary Logos, and for man.
If the above four points are carefully studied, it will be found that they are fairly comprehensive, and embody the four points that are as yet the only ones available for man in this fourth round.
Man regards himself as a synthesised aggregate of physical body, emotional nature, and mentality, yet knows himself as more than these three, and recognises himself as the utiliser of form, of emotion, and of mentality, holding them all together coherently so that he is a unit. A planetary Logos similarly does the same, with the difference that manas is not the medium whereby he is a coherent whole. Owing to his more advanced stage of development, wisdom is for Him the dominant factor. A solar logos achieves through Will what a planetary Logos does through wisdom or buddhi, and man (on his tiny scale) through manas. Yet, as both planetary Logos and man are but parts of their greater whole, the electric fire of will permeates them also, merging with the solar fire of buddhi, and fanning the fires of matter. In all these distinctions and differentiations it must be remembered that they do not exist from the logoic standpoint, but are only to be predicated in relation [334] to the lesser bodies which are included in the solar ring-pass-not.
A man is a coherent unit in objective manifestation for very brief periods on the physical plane simply because as yet he works only through manas and not through wisdom. His cycles are consequently soon run, and gone like a flash in the night. A planetary Logos, Who is perfected manas and works through wisdom, has longer cycles, and from the angle of vision of man endures for aeons; His life is the basis of the comparative permanence of the egoic cycles of man. The cycle of objectivity of a solar Logos persists for the greater mahamanvantara or solar cycle because it is based on will as well as on wisdom and manas. Therefore, it will be apparent that:
a. Manas or intelligence is the basis of the separative manifestation of man.
b. Wisdom or buddhi is the basis of the group manifestation of a Heavenly Man.
c. Will is the basis of the One Life which synthesises all groups.
Therefore again, in studying this Fire of Mind, we must remember that it is that which man is developing and with which he is learning to work, but that it is also that which a Heavenly Man has developed in an earlier system; it is to Him as automatic in its action as is the subconscious activity of a man’s physical organs.
4. MANAS IS THE KEY TO THE FIFTH KINGDOM IN NATURE
We might also define manas as the key to the door through which entrance is made into the fifth kingdom of nature, the spiritual kingdom. Each of the five kingdoms is entered by some one key, and in connection the first two kingdoms—the mineral and vegetable—the key or method whereby the life escapes into the higher kingdom is so inexplicable to man as his present stage [335] of intelligent apprehension that we will not pause to consider it. In relation to the animal kingdom it might be said that the key whereby entrance is effected into the human kingdom is that of instinct. This instinct, towards the final stages of the animal’s evolution, and as it becomes more and more detached from the group soul, (126) becomes transmuted into mentality, or into that embryo mind which is latent in animal-man, and which simply needed the stimulating vibration which emanated from the Earth’s Primary to be fanned into something definitely human. We must always bear in mind that the method of individualisation on this globe was not the one followed on others, and that many of the present advanced units of humanity individualised normally, and through the driving force of evolution itself. They found (to express it as far as possible in terms of fire), their opposite electrical pole through the activity of animal instinct, and by the blending of the two a human being was produced,—the union of the three fires in the causal vehicle.
Man passes into the fifth kingdom through the transmutation of the discriminative faculty of mind, which—as in the animal’s individualisation—brings about at a certain stage a spiritual individualisation which is the correspondence on higher levels to what transpired in Lemurian days. Therefore, we have:
Instinct The key from the animal into the human kingdom or from the third into the fourth kingdom.
Manas The key from the human into the spiritual kingdom, or from the fourth kingdom into the fifth kingdom.
[336] Higher we need not go, for the transmutation of manas proceeds, and much as yet remains to be done.
5. MANAS IS THE SYNTHESIS OF FIVE RAYS
One other definition might be given even though its abstruseness may prove but a bewilderment to the student.
Manas is the united faculty of four of the Heavenly Men, synthesised through a fifth Heavenly Man on the third plane of the system. These five Heavenly Men were the logoic embodiment in an earlier system and achieved the fullness of manasic life. Their synthetic life is that which is primarily understood when we speak of Brahma, that cosmic Entity Who is the sum-total of logoic active intelligence. For lack of better terms we call Them the Lords of the four minor Rays, Who find Their synthesis through the third Ray of Activity. They have been called in an endeavour to express the principles which They embody:
1. The Lord of Ceremonial Magic.
2. The Lord of Abstract Idealism, or Devotion.
3. The Lord of Concrete Science.
4. The Lord of Harmony and Art.
These four function through the fourth cosmic ether, and have vehicles of buddhic matter. They merge into the greater life of the Lord of the third Ray of Aspect on atmic levels, and these four (with the one synthetic Ray), are the totality of manasic energy. They are the life of the five lower planes. They are the five Kumaras, and two remain, making the seven Kumaras or Builders of the universe; these five have been called the five Mind-born Sons of Brahma. (S. D., I, 119, 493; II, 111, 112.) Manas, therefore, is the psychic effect of Their united group work, and shows forth in different ways according to the units involved, the forms [337] animated, and the planes concerned. They demonstrate predominantly on the five lower subplanes of each plane, and this factor should be remembered in connection with the major initiations of manas. Nevertheless—as They are the sumtotal of the third or Brahma aspect—Their main sphere of influence is on the lowest or third division of the manifested universe or on the mental, astral, and physical planes.
I would here suggest a third division of the major planes of the system which will hold much of interest for the real student of occultism.
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire Page 28