A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

by Alice A Bailey

  On the fourth subplane of the astral plane, a similar activity will be noted as in process. The inflowing force will cause an astral stimulation in the bodies of many of the human family who are still on that subplane, and will bring about an awakening of the desire for harmony in a new manner. This will work out relatively well in the sixth subrace. It should be remembered that numbers of the old Atlanteans (fourth rootrace men) will respond to [431] the stimulation and will find their way into incarnation at that time, for the four and the six are always closely allied. We have another suggestive analogy in the fact that the devas of the fourth ether will be soon swinging into recognised utility and that in the sixth subrace the deva evolution will be exceedingly prominent. The fourth plane is the plane of at-one-ment for certain deva and human units, and certain groups (the fourth Creative Hierarchy and the sixth Deva Hierarchy) have a pronounced karma to work out together. One can now see the supreme importance of the human Hierarchy, the fourth in this sequence of planes and ideas.

  Second Cosmic Plane Seven Cosmic Logoi.

  Fourth Cosmic Plane Seven Rishis of the Great Bear.

  Second Solar Plane Seven Heavenly Men.

  Fourth Solar Plane Seven centres of the seven Heavenly Men in the fourth cosmic ether.

  Fourth subplane of the solar physical Seven centres of the human unit in ether of the fourth order.

  The beauty of the interlocking system will be apparent, even though it may not be so immediately understandable wherein lies the relation between these complexities of entities. We must ever remember that we are considering the force or life-energy of these entities as it pours into, and works through definite, material, substantial forms.

  On the fourth subplane of the mental plane there will be, in the immediate future, a period of intensified evolution for the units of the fifth rootrace, prior to their passing out of and into another race, globe, chain, or scheme. We have on the fourth subplane of the fifth plane the centre of interest for the present race and the day of its opportunity. Here can be seen the awakening of the higher consciousness, and the first ripple of perception of, and vibratory response to, the causal body. In this [432] connection, we must ever remember that the periphery of the causal body encloses the permanent atoms. It is the plane of testing, of the major initiations of the Threshold; it is the battleground in man, and from this plane he must secure the right to enter the Path, and procure that control over his lower bodies which will make him a master, and not a slave.

  Thus one could progress the idea and fill many books with suggestions as to that which may be expected during the next few centuries but it does not serve any useful purpose to enlarge further. I might, in summing up these ideas, point out that the immediate future achievement consists in the utilisation of force and of electrical energy for the more harmonious adjustment of the life of man.

  One or two more suggestions might be made anent the influence of this fourth Ray of mind, and primarily it might be pointed out that more time has been given to the consideration of this Ray than will be possible with most of the others on account of its holding a place of such importance in this fourth chain of the earth scheme, and on the fourth globe, our earthly planet. Each planetary Logos pours forth His influence in different rounds, planes, chains, globes, races, and subraces according to their numerical relationship to the scheme of which He is the vitalising Life. Temporarily, and as the cycle progresses, these forms become receptive and negative, and are thus responsive to the positive influence of the planetary Logos.

  One further point I would make, and as it is of an esoteric and occult nature, it can be but hinted at. At the fourth Initiation, the force of the Logos of the fourth Ray is a vital factor in the initiation. It is through the application of the Rod of Initiation that His Life energy is applied to the initiate, or the electrical force that emanates from Him is geometrically circulated through certain [433] centres, producing the necessitated stimulation. At the fifth Initiation similarly the force of the third Logos may be felt, and at the sixth that of the second Logos, while at the seventh the dynamic fire of the first Logos circulates through the body of the Chohan.

  It might be tabulated thus:

  1. The magical force of the seventh Logos is felt at the first Initiation.

  2. The aggressive fire of the sixth Logos is felt at the second Initiation.

  3. The illuminating light of the fifth Logos is felt at the third Initiation.

  4. The harmonising life of the fourth Logos is felt at the fourth Initiation.

  5. The blending power of the third Logos is felt at the fifth Initiation.

  6. The unifying heat of the second Logos is felt at the sixth Initiation.

  7. The dynamic electricity of the first Logos is felt at the seventh Initiation.

  Let us now pass on to the brief consideration of the future influence of the third manasic ray of “Concrete Knowledge or Science.” As I have elsewhere pointed out this ray concerns itself with the building of form, with the utilisation of matter, with the embodying of ideas, or of entities, whether cosmic, systemic, lunar, or subhuman. The planetary Logos of this fifth systemic Ray holds a peculiar position in the scheme of things. He is the embodiment of the fifth logoic principle of manas. His is the synthesising scheme for the five schemes of the five Kumaras Who are Brahma, when viewed as the sum total of the third logoic aspect, though He is not the synthesising factor for the seven schemes which are the sum total of logoic manifestation considered as the union of the second and third aspects. This is a point of prime importance to bear in mind. His is the influence that leads to the scientific adaptation of matter to form, [434] and His is the life that unifies ever the three and the five. Let us see if, by illustration, we can make this idea more simple. He is, as we know, the embodiment of the fifth principle. His influence, therefore, may ever be felt in His numerical correspondences, for He is the Lord of the fifth Ray in the system, and Ruler of the third Manasic Ray when considering only the third aspect. At individualisation, or at the coming into incarnation of the self-conscious units, the fifth principle linked the higher three and the lower four. This took place in the third rootrace and produced a form wherein dwelt Spirit on the third subplane of the fifth plane. All these analogies will bear pondering upon and the numerical relationship is not by chance. His was the power that acted via certain schemes, chains, and globes, and produced results in the cells and groups of cells in the body of our particular planetary Logos. This is given by way of elucidation, and by way of indicating the relative importance of the influence of a planetary Logos upon another planetary Logos during different stages of evolution.

  This influence has waxed and waned since that time, dying down during the fourth rootrace, and waxing steadily greater during this fifth or Aryan. The planetary Logos Whose influence it is has not yet reached the zenith of His power, in this race. For a period immediately ahead His electrical energising force will pour on to our planet, and will bring about fresh discoveries anent matter and form, and fresh revelations concerning energy in matter.

  During the coming subraces His cycle will begin to pass out, and the influence of His Brother, the fourth Logos of Harmony, will reach its zenith for this round. During the fifth round the power or electrical radiation of the fifth Logos will again be strongly felt, for it is His round, and just as He was largely responsible for the manasic stimulation of animal man in the third rootrace, so in [435] the fifth round will he be instrumental in causing that great separation which we call the “Judgment.” Remember in this connection that these Logoi—when pouring Their influence through a scheme or other septenary—work through Their numerical correspondence in the chains and globes. In the fifth round, for instance, the fifth chain (a centre in the body of the Heavenly Man) will be the recipient of this fifth type of force and will transmit and circulate it to the other chains via their fifth globe. Until the race has further evolved the mystery lies securely hid, and the inability of man to find out the enumeration of the s
chemes, chains, and globes, or to discover whether they are counted from within outwards, or vice versa, conceals that which must be hid.

  The influence of this fifth Logos will be felt very considerably now on the fifth subplane of all the planes, specially in the three worlds of human endeavour, and as we are here dealing with man we can count from what is erroneously termed “the bottom up.” Therefore, the mental unit of men in this fifth subrace will receive increased stimulation, enabling man to vibrate on the fifth subplane which literally is the third subplane on the abstract level of the mental plane, on which the causal body is found. The fifth spirilla will, consequently, become active and the electrical force, or the fohatic current, will pour through it, and enable those men who are at the right stage to utilise this force in order to take the first initiation.

  As this fifth influence becomes more and more felt, its effects will be seen on the astral plane in an intelligent conscious control which will be based not so much on the desire for harmony as on a desire for a scientific, intelligent manipulation of astral matter. When this is the case, the higher psychism will begin to make itself felt. On the physical plane a great deal of interesting electrical phenomena will be seen, and the opportunity of the [436] Manu to separate races, to segregate types, and to submerge and detach continents will be great. This is the ray of separative force, and its place, as a factor in the erection and destruction of forms, is very interesting.

  It may be asked wherein this can all be interpreted in terms of fire, and thus the integrity of the thought-form of this book be preserved. Whenever the words influence, radiation, or the power of a ray, are used, we are dealing inferentially with electrical phenomena, or with energy of some kind. This energy, or electrical manifestation, this “mystery of electricity” to which H. P. B. refers, (S.D., I, 107) is the foundation of all manifestations, and lies back of all evolution. It produces light in ever-growing brilliancy; it builds and moulds the form to the need of the indwelling Entity; it brings about coherence and group activity; it is the warmth that causes all growth, and that fosters not only the manifestations of the vegetable and animal kingdoms but induces interaction between the human units, and lies behind all human relationships. It is magnetism, radiation, attraction and repulsion, life, death, and all things; it is conscious purpose and essential will in objective manifestation, and he who has solved what lies back of electrical phenomena has solved not only the secret of his own Being, but knows his place within his greater sphere, a planetary Logos, is conscious of the Identity of that cosmic Existence we call a solar Logos, and realises somewhat the place of our system and its electrical relationship with the seven constellations.

  We have now to deal with the influence of a force that is waning and passing out of dominance, that of the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism. It will not be possible to predicate much anent it, beyond pointing out certain general ideas which may be of value in the contemplation of Ray cycles in general.

  [437] These Ray influences work through their focal points in all cases (macrocosmic and microcosmic) and these are the etheric centres. The centres, in the case of all Beings, are ever seven in number, and are composed of deva and human units in group activity, or of force vortices which contain in latency, and hold in ordered activity, cells with the potentiality of human manifestation. Forget not the occult truism that all forms of existence pass at one stage of their career through the human kingdom.

  Cosmic, or extra-systemic rays, impinge upon or circulate via centres found on the second cosmic ether, but which, at the present stage of objectivity, become systemically visible in the fourth cosmic ether, the buddhic.

  One permanent cosmic Ray is the ray of our Logos Himself, and the subrays of this ray permeate His entire system. Six other cosmic Rays, animating other systems, influence ours, finding their reflections in the subrays of our logoic Ray. To these six cosmic influences our Heavenly Men respond. They absorb the influence, being centres in the body logoic, pass it through Their schemes, circulate it through Their own centres (chains), and transmit it on to other schemes, coloring it with Their Own peculiar shade and qualifying it by Their own peculiar tone or note. The whole system of ray influence, or radiatory warmth, considered both physically and psychically, is one of an intricate circulation and interaction. The radiation or vibration passes in ordered cycles from its originating source, the One Ray, or systemic Logos, to the different centres in His body. Viewed from the physical standpoint this ray force is the energising factor in matter. Viewed from the psychical point of view it is the qualitative faculty. From scheme to scheme, from chain to chain, and from globe to globe, this force or quality passes and circulates, both adding, and at the same time abstracting, and returns to its focal point with two noticeable differences: [438]

  a. The radiatory heat is intensified.

  b. The qualitative character or colour is increased.

  The effect on the form side is equally noticeable, and the warmth or quality of a Ray not only affects the psyche of a man, a planetary Logos, and a solar Logos, but has a definite effect on material substance itself.

  Ray influences work equally on the deva and human Hierarchies, as they function in a planetary or logoic body. Clarity of thought might eventuate if we ever bear in mind that all forms are dual, both in evolution and in essential nature. They are the product of the work of the Builders (deva forces) and of active intelligence (the human units) and the two are indivisible in the Divine Hermaphrodite, or Heavenly Man. They are stimulated in both aspects of their Being by the ray influence.

  Let us now tabulate these ideas somewhat:

  Entity Force Centres Psychical Manifestation Physical Manifestation

  1. Solar Logos Heavenly Men . Deva Builders A solar system

  They energise and are active life They work in matter and hold the life.

  2. Planetary

  Logos Human group

  units Deva Builders A Scheme.

  3. A Man Seven etheric

  centres Elemental

  builders Bodies.

  Each of these divisions can be studied separately and in due course of time (when it may be safe to transmit information more freely anent the devas) it will be seen that a deva Lord of a plane, for instance, works through force centres, manifests objectively through the colour which is His psychical display, and ensouls the matter of [439] a plane just as a Heavenly Man ensouls His scheme. The idea can be extended likewise to chains, globes, races, and rounds. Duality always will be seen,—human and deva manifestation forming the sumtotal, and always will energy and quality progress in parallel lines.

  As the ray influence passes away from a race or a planet, a scheme or a solar system, it must not be supposed that it is completely abrogated; it has simply passed beyond the periphery of whatever ring-pass-not it was energising, and the force of its influence is being focussed elsewhere. The original recipient becomes a channel, or transmitting agent, and not so much an absorber or container. Words again are handicapping us, and proving their inadequacy to express an idea. What the student should recognise is that during a cycle of ray influence, the object of its immediate attention receives and absorbs it, and transmutes it according to its need, and not so much therefore is available for transmission. When the cycle is drawing to a close more and more of the ray influence or magnetism will be felt elsewhere, until practically all of it will be passed on unabsorbed.

  This is what is beginning to happen in relation to this sixth Ray of Devotion. Egos who are on that particular Ray will take form elsewhere on other globes, and in other chains, and not so much on our planet. The vibrations of that Ray will quiet down as far as we are concerned, and find increased activity elsewhere. To phrase it otherwise, our planet and all thereon will become positive and non-receptive, and will temporarily repulse this particular type of force. A psychical manifestation of this can be seen in the dying down of what is called Christian enthusiasm. This Ray, on which the Chohan Jesus may be found, will no longer po
ur its force to the same extent into the form He built, and it will necessarily slowly but surely disintegrate, having served its purpose [440] for close on two thousand years. Later again the same force will be felt returning, and a new form will be found slowly coming into being, but along more adequate lines.

  It will consequently be apparent how the knowledge of these cycles, and of the force manifestation or obscuration of a Ray will eventually lead to a working with the Law, and to an intelligent co-operation with the plan of evolution. It might here be stated that the seven Kumaras (the four exoteric and the three esoteric) cooperate with this Law, and work exoterically, or esoterically according to the Ray in power, with the exception of the first Kumara, the Logos of our scheme, Who—being the synthesizing point for all—remains ever in objective activity.

  It is this Ray activity which governs the obscuration or manifestation of a system, and a scheme with all that is included in these manifestations. Hence the emphasis laid in all occult books on the study of cycles, and on the differentiation of the one hundred years of Brahma into its component parts. In this knowledge lies hid the mystery of Being itself, of electrical force, and of fohatic synthesis.

  I will make no more comments on the future effects of the Ray which is passing into temporary obscuration as far as we are concerned. We shall later take up at greater length than has been possible with the other Rays, the subject of the seventh type of force now coming into power, and which is therefore a vital factor in the immediate evolution of man.

  The fifth principle of manas is at this time beginning to demonstrate mainly through the seventh type of force (or the fifth when considering only the Brahma aspect of manifestation). It will be immediately apparent, therefore, that this incoming Ray is peculiarly situated at this time, and that its influence will be manifested under very favorable conditions. It is pouring its force out upon the [441] seventh plane, the physical, during the fifth rootrace and the fifth subrace, and consequently the opportunity is great. In all that has been said anent the Rays it will be apparent that from the present standpoint two are paramountly concerned with the evolution of man: the fourth Ray of Harmony, which is the dominant ray of the greater cycle which includes the fourth round and globe, and the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Magic, which is one of the foremost influences concerned in all objective manifestations. These two Rays, or the force of these two planetary Logoi, are largely instrumental in bringing about coherency in our chain, the fourth of the fourth scheme, and on our physical globe, the Earth. The fourth and the seventh interact, one acting temporarily as a negative force and the other as a positive.