A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

by Alice A Bailey

  2. Planetary Manas.

  We sought in the foregoing, to understand somewhat the origin of manas—whether cosmic, or otherwise—through the consideration of human individualisation and the method thereof. We saw that individualisation is the conscious apprehension of the Self of its relation to all that constitutes the Not-Self, and that it is evoked in three ways, of which only two as yet are even dimly comprehensible. In each case this awakening of consciousness is preceded by a period of gradual development, is instantaneous at the moment of Self-Realisation for the first time, and is succeeded by another period of gradual evolution. This period of gradual evolution leads up to another crisis which we call initiation. In one we have initiation into conscious existence, in the other initiation into spiritual existence or group identification.

  For a solar Logos individualisation dates back to stages far anterior to the triplicity of solar systems which constitutes for Him the Eternal Now, but which from man’s point of view embody the past, the present, and the future. A planetary Logos individualised in a previous system; a man individualises in this; the planetary entities, now involutionary, will individualise in the next.

  a. Consciousness and Existence. From the wider point of view the terms initiation and individualisation are synonymous; they both express the idea of an expansion of consciousness, or of entrance into a new kingdom of nature. The faculty of acquiring knowledge [351] must be realised as paralleling the development of the sense of sight, or vision, as earlier pointed out. The fire of mind shone forth and illuminated animal man in Lemurian days, during that vast cycle wherein sight opened up for him the physical plane. The relationship between sight and mind is a very close one, and must not be lost from sight. In the first round, and in the first root-race of this round, hearing was the sense developed. In the second round and the second root-race touch was evolved. In the third round and corresponding root-race sight was added to the other two, and the Self which hears, and the Not-self which is touched, or apprehended as tangible, are related and connected by sight,—the correspondence to the intelligence that links. Thus is brought about the blending of the three fires, and illumination is present. But through all this evolutionary development the ONE Who hears, touches, and sees, persists and interprets according to the stage of the development of the manasic principle within Him. This basic Interpreter is the Entity Who is independent of an existence which ever necessitates a form. His is the life that causes matter to vibrate and He is therefore “fire by friction”; His is the life of pure Spirit which wills to be, and which utilises form, and is therefore electrical impulse on the cosmic physical plane or “electric fire”; His is the life that not only animates the atoms and electrifies them by His Own nature, but likewise knows itself to be one with all yet apart from all,—the thinking, discriminating, Self-realising something that we call MIND or Solar Fire. Universal mind or manas permeates all, and is equally that Self-knowing, individualised Entity Whose body contains our solar Logos as well as certain other solar Logoi; Whose fire, heat and radiation embrace certain other solar systems and unify them with our own system so that one complete vital body forms the manifestation of this mighty cosmic Being. [352] Vortices of force on the cosmic etheric plane form the etheric framework of seven solar systems in the same way that the bodies of the seven Heavenly Men are the etheric centres for a solar Logos, and as the seven centres in man (existing in etheric matter), are the animating electrical impulse of his life.

  To express the origin of manas apart from manifestation through a congery of systems, a solar system, or a man is for us impossible. Only as one grasps the fact that each planetary scheme, for instance, serves as the body of a Heavenly Man Who is the directing Mind in that scheme, and the animating principle of manas or the active discriminating faculty which every atom in that scheme evinces; only when it is realised that a solar Logos is similarly the manasic principle of those large atoms we call schemes in their totality; only when it is apprehended that a cosmic Logos is again the instigating mind of the still vaster atoms we call systems; only when it is admitted that man is the animating discriminative faculty of the tiny spheres which form his body of manifestation; and finally, only when all this is meditated upon, and its truth accepted, will this question of the origin of manas assume a less abstruse character, and the difficulty of its comprehension be less appalling.

  Man, the Thinker, the Knower, the manasic principle in the centre of the many spheres which form his bodies, manipulates electrical force in three departments (the physical, astral and mental bodies) through seven centres which are the focal points of force, and of its intelligent dispersal throughout his little system to the myriads of lesser atoms, which are the cells in these spheres.

  A Heavenly Man equally, and in a wider sense, the Thinker and Knower, the manasic or mind principle plus the buddhic or Christ principle, manipulates electrical force through three principal vehicles or globes in atmic, buddhic, and manasic matter, dispersing it from thence [353] to the myriads of cells which correspond to the deva and human units.

  A solar Logos in a still wider sense is the permeating universal Mind, the manasic principle, plus the buddhic and the will principle, working in three major schemes, by means of seven centres of force, and through the myriads of groups which are the cells in His body, in the same way as human beings are the cells in the body of a Heavenly Man.

  The cosmic Logos of our system works similarly through three major systems (of which ours is not one), utilising seven solar systems (of which ours is one), for the distribution of His force and having myriads of sevenfold groups as the cells of His body.

  b. Will and ordered purpose. Thus all that we can really predicate anent the origin of manas is that it is the unified will-activity, or the purposeful expression of the realised Identity of some great Self which colours the life and swings into intelligent co-operation all the lesser units included in its sphere of influence. Each of us, in illustration, is the thinking purposeful Entity who acts as the manasic principle, and the spring of action, to all the units included in our three bodies. Each of us sways them to our will; we act, and by acting, force co-operation as we see fit. The Logos does the same on a larger scale. In this thought lies light on the question of karma, of free-will and of responsibility. Manas is, really WILL working itself out on the physical plane, and the truth of this will be seen when it is realised that all our planes form the cosmic physical plane, whereon an Entity, inconceivably greater than our Logos, is working out a set purpose through the Logos, through us, through all Spirit-substance that is included within His sphere of radiatory activity.

  Certain problems of real interest are prone to enter our minds, but they serve only to develop abstract thought [354] and to expand the consciousness, for they are as yet insoluble and will remain so. Some of them might be enumerated as follows:

  1. Who is the cosmic Entity in Whose scheme our Logos plays his little part?

  2. What is the nature of the great purpose He is working out?

  3. Which centre in His body is represented by our solar system?

  4. What is the nature of the incarnation He is now undergoing?

  5. What are the ten systems—the three and the seven—of which our solar system is one? Must we look for the major three within the seven, or extraneously?

  6. What is the coloring or basic quality of this cosmic Entity?

  7. Is the colouring of the fourth cosmic ether (the buddhic plane), blue, or is it violet to correspond with our fourth physical ether? Why is buddhi exoterically regarded as yellow in color?

  8. Which are the primary three centres in the body of our solar Logos and which the minor four?

  9. What is the karma of the different schemes?

  10. What is the over-balancing karma of the Logos Himself as it affects the ten schemes within His system?

  All these questions, and numbers of others, will arise in the mind of the interested student, but beyond the formulation of them he may not as y
et go, though the fifth round will see the realisation, by men, of the nature of the karma of the Logos of our chain. Words, as oft we have been told, blind and stultify.

  In summing up, this quality of manas may be somewhat apprehended if the student regards it as the intelligent [355] will. the active purpose, and the fixed idea of some Entity which brings about existence, utilises form, and works out effects from causes through discrimination in matter, separation into form, and the driving of all units within His sphere of influence to the fulfilment of that set purpose. Man is the originating source of mind as regards the matter of his vehicles, and their latent manasic impulse. So again with a Heavenly Man and His larger sphere of influence, and so with the solar Logos. Each discriminated, and thus formed His ring-pass-not; each has a purpose in view for every incarnation; each is actively following and intelligently working to effect certain ends, and thus each is the originator of manas to His scheme; each is the animating fire of intelligence to his system; each, through this very manasic principle individualises, expands gradually this self-realisation till it includes the ring-pass-not of the Entity through Whom the fifth principle comes to him; and each attains initiation, and eventually escapes from form.

  3. Human Manas.

  We are now to consider primarily man and the manasic principle, its development in the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human Monads, with special reference to our Earth chain.

  We have seen that, to all intents and purposes, manas is the active will of an Entity working itself out through all the lesser lives who go to the content of the ring-pass-not or sphere of influence of the indwelling Existence. Therefore—as concerning man on this chain—he is but expressing the purpose and the will in action of the planetary Logos in Whose body he is a cell or lesser life.

  Certain mysteries arise consequently for our consideration which are connected with the life cycles of the Heavenly Man of our scheme, and particularly in relation to that special incarnation of His which we call the cycle [356] of manifestation on the dense physical globe, the earth. He wears the planetary body as man wears the robe of the physical body, and by means of this objective form He works His purposes out on the physical plane, through the factor of mind achieving certain goals. Incidentally, the cells in His body conform to that Mind which plays upon them, just as man, the intelligent principle of incarnation on the physical plane, brings into conformity with his purpose the atoms of his body, and stimulates ever more and more the spirillae of those atoms by the force of his mind playing upon them.

  Here comes the opportunity to make clear something that is oft lost sight of in the general fog surrounding this subject. The human and deva units on the upward arc, who are the cells in His body, go to the formation of the centres, and not to the remainder of the cellular vital substance of His vehicles. Man has a body made up of matter which is applied to different uses, yet which forms a unit. In this unit there are certain areas of more vital importance than other areas from the standpoint of energising force. Such an area as the heart may, in this connection, be considered and compared (as regards force value) with such an area as the calf of the leg. The entity, man, utilises both, but the heart centre is of paramount importance. Thus is it also with a Heavenly Man. The two great Hierarchies—deva and human—are force centres in the body of a planetary Logos; the other evolutions of an involutionary nature extant within the scheme, and the remainder of the active substance of the globes, and all contained therein, go to the content of the remainder of His body.

  a. Man and the planetary Logos. With the deva evolution at this point we have nought to do. I seek to concentrate attention on man, as he functions on earth. In order to clarify the idea of manas and its relation to a human being it is necessary to point out certain things [357] in connection with a Heavenly Man which must be borne in mind.

  First, that each Heavenly Man holds the position of a centre in the body of a solar Logos; therefore, the Logos of a scheme will embody some outstanding characteristic. The ten schemes are the seven, and the synthesising three—not the seven and a lower three. The lower centres were vital in the last solar system (from the esoteric standpoint), and are not counted in this; they were synthesised and absorbed during the obscuration process of System I.

  Secondly, each Heavenly Man is consequently the embodiment of a particular kind of electrical force which flows through His scheme as man’s force flows through some one of the etheric centres in his body. Each scheme, as each human centre, will

  a. Vibrate to some one key.

  b. Have its own colouring.

  c. Resemble, when seen from the higher planes, a vast lotus.

  d. Possess, according to its vibratory capacity, a definite number of petals.

  e. Be connected in geometrical formation with certain other centres of Heavenly Men, making systemic triangles. (132)

  f. Be characterised by different stages of activity according to the initiation towards which the Logos may be working. Thus, at one period one centre or Heavenly Man may be the subject of logoic attention, and of specialised stimulation, and at another period a totally different scheme may be the object of vitalisation. For some time the Logos has turned His attention to the Earth Scheme and to Saturn, whilst Uranus is receiving [358] stimulation. Much is therefore accentuated, and increased evolutionary development is the consequence of this divine attention.

  When these facts are borne in mind it will be seen that the interaction, and the complexity, is of vast proportions, and man can do no more than accept the fact, and leave the explanation until his consciousness is of greater scope.

  Third, one of the mysteries revealed at initiation is that of the logoic centre which our scheme represents, and the type of electrical fire which is flowing through it. The “Seven Brothers,” or the seven types of fohatic force, express Themselves through the seven centres, and the One Who is animating our scheme stands revealed at the third Initiation. It is by knowledge of the nature and quality of the electrical force of our centre, and by realisation of the place our centre holds in the body logoic, that the Hierarchy achieves the aims of evolution. It will be obvious that the Heavenly Man Who stands for the kundalini centre, for instance, will work differently, and have a different purpose and method, from His Brother Who stands for the heart centre in the body logoic, or to the Heavenly Man Who embodies the logoic solar plexus. From this it is apparent that:

  a. The type of electrical force

  b. The vibratory action

  c. The purpose

  d. The evolutionary development

  e. The dual and triangular interaction

  of all the Heavenly Men will differ, and so will the evolutions that form the cells in Their Bodies differ likewise. Little has as yet been revealed anent the types of evolutions which are to be found in the other schemes of our system. Suffice it to say that in all the schemes, on some [359] globe in the scheme, human beings or self-conscious units, are to be found. Conditions of life, environment and form may differ, but the human Hierarchy works in all schemes.

  It must also be borne in mind that just as all seven Heavenly Men are found in the body logoic, and are Themselves under the influence of seven solar Logoi (using the word “influence” in its astrological sense), so in a planetary scheme with its seven globes each is astrologically under the influence of all the seven Heavenly Men. A scheme is but a replica of a system. Each of the Heavenly Men pours forth His radiation or influence, and stimulates in some way some other centre or globe. To word it otherwise, His magnetism is felt by His Brothers in a greater or less degree according to the work being undertaken at any one time. At present the Heavenly Men, representing centres at different stages of stimulation, being not all equally developed and being not as yet psychically unified, this magnetic interplay is little realised, and the psychic flow from one scheme to another is little utilised or comprehended. As time elapses this interplay of force will become more evident and the force will be consciously employed. When men, for instanc
e, know

  The quality of the force flowing through their particular scheme;

  The purpose and name of the centre they stand within;

  The centre or Heavenly Man with Whom the Logos of their scheme is allied;

  Which two schemes form, with their own, a triangle for logoic force at a certain stage of evolutionary development;

  The secret of the cycles, or the periods of stimulation or obscuration;

  then will the body logoic begin to achieve its purpose; [360] then will the Logos of our system begin to blend and merge and co-ordinate all His vehicles; then will the force flow through all the centres unimpeded; and then will the glory shine out, and each cell in every body—logoic, planetary, deva and human, blaze forth with perfected glory, vibrate with adjusted accuracy, and a major cosmic initiation be taken.

  b. The Logos of our Scheme. The Heavenly Man or planetary Logos of the Earth scheme can be considered in various ways, and as is our custom we will simply tabulate the statements anent Him which, when considered at length by the individual student, should serve to make the FACT of the essential Personality of this great Entity, the work that He is endeavouring to accomplish, and the relationship of the human Hierarchy to Him, a greater reality. We must bear in mind in studying this matter that it will not be possible to reveal for general publication details as to His specific Identity, His number and His scope of conscious development. Such mysteries, as earlier pointed out, are reserved for those who are pledged to keep silent. But some general idea may be conveyed before we take up specifically this chain and round.

  It might be asked wherein all this information is of use, and what purpose it serves in this hour of the world’s need. Apart from the fact that the cyclic giving out of the truth works under the law, and may not be gain-said, it is suggested for consideration that much advantage will be felt when men in large numbers conceive of the purpose of specific manifestations, when they realise that all forms are but the modes of expression of certain Entities or Beings, Who occupy them for cycles of definite duration in order to attain a purpose, and that each life—great or small—serves its own ends, yet subserves the greater ends of the Being in Whose body it is a corporate part. The details of the plan may not be given. [361] The general outline—solar, planetary, and hierarchical—may be suggested, and by the very suggestion, bring order into the thoughts of men as they view the apparent chaos of the moment. Let us not forget, that when order is brought about, and united thought produced on the mental plane, then order transpires eventually on the physical plane.