Finally, there is the attractive pull of that planetary scheme which is esoterically regarded as our polar opposite. [1191] (What is here said has reference to the other schemes, for the law persists throughout the solar system.)
It will be apparent, therefore, that the real and esoteric astrology will deal with four kinds of force, when it seeks to explain the nature of the Energies which influence any human being:
1. The quality of the solar system.
2. The quality of the Logos of the planet as it pours through the chains and globes and rounds in a sevenfold differentiation.
3. The quality of our earth’s complementary planet.
4. The quality of the attraction of our earth’s polar opposites.
This involves information as yet veiled in deepest mystery, but which will unfold as the true psychology is studied, and which will eventually embody itself in a fourth fundamental of the Secret Doctrine so that later students will have the three as they are now found in the Proem to that book, plus the fourth. (S. D., I, 42-46.) This might be expected in this fourth round. The true astrology will reveal the nature of this fourth proposition at some later date. More attention will eventually be paid to the planetary influences, and not so much to the signs of the zodiac where the nature of an Ego is concerned. The great signs of the zodiac concern the Heavenly Man, and necessarily, therefore, the Monads of every human being. The planetary influences must be studied to find out the quality of a man’s Ray, and this in the above indicated threefold manner. Man is the Monad, therefore, he expresses a small part of his enfolding life. In this solar system he is essentially the Ego.
Astrologers should study the planetary schemes in the light of the Heavenly Man, viewing them as an incarnation [1192] of a planetary Logos, and thus strive to cast the horoscope of the planetary Logos. They cannot succeed in doing so, but in the attempt may learn much and achieve new light upon a most difficult subject.
In considering this question of the adaptation of the form to vibration, or the construction of a vehicle which will be a fitting instrument for spirit, the following factors must be borne in mind:
1. That it is the quality of the indwelling life which decides the type of form.
2. That these qualities are the sumtotal of the attributes of divinity which the indwelling life has succeeded in unfolding.
3. That these qualities—as may well be surmised—fall into the usual septennate.
4. That they fall also into two groups, those which concern the lower principles, and are, therefore, four in number, and those which concern the higher and middle and are, therefore, three.
This is true of all men, of the Heavenly Men and of the solar Logos likewise, and there is a mysterious analogy concerned in the manifestation of the three higher principles in man (which may be considered as demonstrating through the perfected Adept, the Bodhisattva) and the three higher principles of the solar Logos as they demonstrate through the major three aspects. They form but one principle showing forth in three ways. So it is with the unmanifested Monad (unmanifested from the standpoint of the lower man). That Monad can—at a certain very advanced stage in evolution, and one far beyond that of the Adept—have its triple simultaneous manifestation, and show forth as a Master in the three worlds, as a Bodhisattva on His own plane and as the emancipated Dhyani Buddha; yet these Three will be but One, will be [1193] the result of a great spiritual vibration and will perform the triple work which may (from the standpoint of the three worlds) appear as the work of three separate great Existences. They are forms of three monadic “vestures,” worn by the one Monad as a man wears his three bodies simultaneously, and functions in them separately. (330)
One or other of these three can, if so He will, occupy a body on the physical plane which will not be simply a created mayavirupa. This is done in one of two ways: either through the occupancy of a willingly vacated body, as was the case when the Christ occupied the body of Jesus, or by a divine overshadowing of a disciple, as has been and will be the case. The quality of the form occupied or used, and the nature of its work depends upon which of the three higher aspects of the initiating impulse, is manifesting. Very rarely a more mysterious phenomenon occurs and the overshadowing Buddha, Bodhisattva, or Adept each makes His “appearance” [1194] upon earth thus demonstrating the three aspects of knowledge, love and will and all taking form.
This may seem to be a great complexity, but it is not so much stranger after all than the phenomenon of the Monad (in time and space and during evolution) demonstrating forth as the Triad, the Ego and the Personality. This type of triple Avatar only makes its appearance under a peculiar series of cycles concerned with a group of Monads who were the most progressed and advanced at the opening of the mahamanvantara. As yet, there are not many progressed enough to do this triple work; the Buddha and nine others being the only Ones as yet remaining in touch with our particular planet in this particular manner. A few are as Christ is, and have the power to make a dual appearance. This type of monad is only found on Rays two, four, six.
If the student bears in mind that the nature of the form is dependent upon the quality of the incarnating Life, he will have also to bear in mind the distinctions between the various groups of Hierarchies, for the Lives in those groups are of a quality diverse to each other and the forms through which they manifest are equally distinct and diverse. Therefore, we must distinguish between:
1. The involutionary groups.
2. The evolutionary groups.
3. The seven groups of lives which we call the lunar Fathers:
a. Three incorporeal who are the elemental kingdoms.
b. Four material who are the forms of the four kingdoms on the upward arc.
4. The seven hierarchies of Lives.
5. The seven groups of solar Angels.
There must not be confusion as to the distinction between the hierarchies of Beings and the seven Rays, for [1195] though there is close connection, there is no resemblance. The “Rays” are but the primordial forms of certain Lives who “carry in their Hearts” all the Seeds of Form. The Hierarchies are the manifold groups of lives, at all stages of unfoldment and growth who will use the forms. (331) The Rays are vehicles and are, therefore, negative receivers. The Hierarchies are the users of the vehicles, and it is the nature of these lives and the quality of their vibration which under this great Law of Attraction brings to them the needed forms. These are the two primal distinctions, Life and Form, and these two are the “Son of God,” the second Person of the Trinity in His form-building aspect. They are the Builders and equally exist in three groups with their lesser differentiations. It is not necessary here to place these groups on certain planes in the solar system.
These hierarchies of Beings Who come in on the Ray of Light from the centre are the seeds of all that later is and it is only as they pass out into manifestation and the forms which they are to occupy are gradually evolved, that consideration of the planes becomes necessary. The planes are to certain of these hierarchies what the sheaths of the Monad are to it; they are veils for the Life indwelling; they are media of expression, and exponents of force or energy of a specialised kind. The quality of a [1196] Ray is dependent upon the quality of the hierarchy of Beings who use it as a means of expression. These seven hierarchies are veiled by the Rays, but each is found behind the veil of every ray, for in their totality they are the informing lives of every planetary scheme within the system; they are the life of all interplanetary space, and the existences who are expressing themselves through the planetoids, and all forms of lesser independent life than a planet. Let me briefly give certain hints concerning these hierarchies which may serve to elucidate that contained in the Secret Doctrine concerning them.
What is here imparted is not in itself new, but is the synthesising of much already known and its gathering together in the form of brief enunciated facts.
Each of these seven hierarchies of Beings Who are the Builders or the Attractive Agents are (in their degr
ee) intermediaries; all embody one of the types of force emanating from the seven constellations. Their intermediary work, therefore, is dual:
1. They are the mediators between Spirit and matter.
2. They are the transmitters of force from sources extraneous to the solar system to forms within the solar system.
Each of these groups of beings is likewise septenary in nature, and the forty-nine fires of Brahma are the lowest manifestation of their fiery nature. Each group also may be regarded as “fallen” in the cosmic sense, because involved in the building process, or the occupiers of forms of some degree of density or another.
Hierarchy I. The first great Hierarchy is emanated from the Heart of the central Spiritual Sun. (S. D., I, 233-250; III, 565-566.) It is the Son of God Himself, the First Born in a cosmic sense, even as the Christ was the “Eldest in a vast family of [1197] brothers,” and the “first flower on the human plant.” The symbol of this Hierarchy is the Golden Lotus with its twelve petals folded.
It should be remembered that this Hierarchy is literally the sixth, for five hierarchies have passed on, being the product of the earlier system, that wherein Intelligence or Manas was the goal. The five liberated hierarchies are in their totality the sumtotal of manas. It is the Hierarchy which is the fifth in order, and which we are told is in process of achieving final liberation, or taking its fourth Initiation, which is the cause of certain phenomena upon our planet which has merited our planet being called the “Star of Suffering.” There is a karmic link between the animal kingdom and the fifth Creative Hierarchy of the earlier system which makes itself felt in man in the necessary crucifixion of the animal physical nature, particularly along sex lines. We must remember that the hierarchies work under the Law of Attraction; it is the law of the Builders.
This first (sixth) Hierarchy has for its type of energy the first aspect of the sixth type of cosmic electricity, and wields special power, therefore, in conjunction with the lowest fire, or “fire by friction,” as it makes itself felt on the sixth plane. These lives are called “the burning Sons of Desire” and were the Sons of Necessity. It is said of them in the old Commentary:
“They burned to know. They rushed into the spheres. They are the longing of the Father for the Mother. Hence do they suffer, burn, and long through the sixth sphere of sense.”
Hierarchy II. The second Hierarchy is closely allied with the Great Bear. We are told that They entered through the second ventricle within the Sacred Heart, and are (as we are told in the Secret Doctrine) the prototypes of the Monads. They are the source of monadic Life, but They are not the Monads; They are far higher.
[1198] This Hierarchy, which is literally the seventh, is the influx into our system of those Lives who in the first solar system remained on their own plane, being too sinless and holy to find opportunity in that very material and intellectual evolution. Even in this, they will find it impossible to do more than influence the incarnating Jivas, imparting to them ability to realise the nature of group consciousness, the quality of the seven Heavenly Men, but not being able to express themselves fully. Some clue to this mystery will come if the student carefully bears in mind that in our solar system and our seven planes, we have only the physical body of the Logos, and that that physical body is a limitation of the expression of His threefold nature. The first (sixth) Hierarchy might be viewed as endeavouring to express the mental vibration of the solar Logos and the second, His emotional, or cosmic astral, nature.
This second (seventh) Hierarchy has for its type of force the second aspect of the seventh type of force from out of the many. Some idea of the relative point in evolution of the solar Logos may be gained by study of the varying aspects of force which He is demonstrating in this particular incarnation. It is this energy which drives the Monads through into physical incarnation for it makes itself felt on the seventh plane. The energies which are functioning are those which the Logos has unfolded, and are the gain of previous incarnations. Gaps necessarily occur, and certain types of force are lacking, because He has as yet much cosmically to gain.
It is the energy of this Hierarchy (whose numbers are two and seven) which results in the manifestation of the Divine Androgyne, and in the seven centres of force which are the seven Spiritual Energies.
Hierarchy III. The third Creative Hierarchy (or the eighth) is a peculiarly interesting one. They are called “the Triads” for they hold in themselves the potencies [1199] of triple evolution, mental, psychical, and spiritual. These Triads of Life are inherently the three Persons and the flower of the earlier system from a certain angle. From another angle, when studied as the “flower of the earlier Eight,” They are the eightfold points awaiting opportunity to flame forth. They are the devas who are ready for service, which is to give to another hierarchy certain qualities which are lacking. This Hierarchy is regarded as the great donors of immortality whilst themselves “standing aloof from incarnation.” Lords of Sacrifice and Love are They, but They cannot pass out of the logoic etheric body into the dense physical vehicle.
This third Hierarchy wields the third aspect of electric force of the first type of cosmic energy. They stand for a recurrent cycle of that first type symbolised by the number 8. The formulae for these electrical energies are too complicated to be given here, but the student should bear in mind that these hierarchies express:
1. Septenary cosmic energy.
2. Cosmic prana.
3. Solar energy or electric fire, solar fire and fire by friction.
Each hierarchy manifests a triple energy or an aspect of each of the above, and that necessitates a ninefold differentiation, for the two first are triple as is the third. It is the rejection of the Triadal Lives by units in the fourth Hierarchy, that of the human Monads, which precipitates a man eventually into the eighth sphere. He refuses to become a Christ, a Saviour and remains self-centred.
We have dealt with the first three hierarchies which are regarded as ever “seeing the Face of the Ruler of the Deep,” or as being so pure and holy that Their forces are in realised contact with Their emanating source.
We now take up for brief consideration two hierarchies [1200] which closely concern ourselves, the human self-conscious entities. These two groups are literally three, as the fifth Hierarchy is a dual one and it is this which has led to some confusion and is the occult significance behind the ill-omened number thirteen. They are the “Seekers of satisfaction” and the cause of the second fall into generation, the fact behind the taking of a lower nature by the Ego. The fourth and the fifth Hierarchies are the ninth and tenth, or the “Initiates” and the “Perfect Ones.” All human beings, or “Imperishable Jivas,” are those who evolve through a graded series of initiations either self-induced or brought about on our planet with extraneous aid. This they achieve through a “marriage” with the order next to them, the fifth. They are then completed or perfected, and it is owing to this occult fact that the fourth Hierarchy is regarded as masculine and the fifth as feminine.
Hierarchy IV. The fourth Creative Hierarchy is the group wherein the highest aspect of man, his “Father in Heaven” finds place. These lives are the points of fire who must become the flame; this they do through the agency of the fifth Hierarchy and the four wicks, or the two dual lower hierarchies. Thus it can be seen that where man is concerned, the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh hierarchies are, during the cycle of incarnation, his very self. They are the “Lords of Sacrifice” and “Lords of Love,” the flower of Atma-buddhi.
In studying these hierarchies, one of the most valuable lessons to be learned is the place and importance of man in the scheme. The hierarchy, for instance, which is the essence of the intangible Life of Spirit, and principle of Buddhi, is the esoteric cause of the cosmic marriage of spirit and matter, based on the love and desire of the Logos, but each hierarchy also expresses itself through one particular manifestation which comes to be regarded by the finite mind of man as the hierarchy itself. This [1201] is not so, and care must be taken to di
stinguish between these hierarchies.
They are latent germs of force centres and manifest subjectively; they warm and vitalise groups of forms; they flower forth and express themselves through the medium of a form, or another hierarchy. These hierarchies are all interrelated and are negative or positive to each other as the case may be.
As is stated in the Secret Doctrine, this hierarchy is the nursery for the incarnating Jivas; (S. D., I, 238.) and it carried in it the germs of the Lives which achieved the human stage in another solar system, but were not able to proceed beyond that owing to the coming in of pralaya, which projected them into a state of latency. The condition of the hierarchy is similar, only on a cosmic scale, to the condition of the seeds of human life held in a state of obscuration during an interchain period. The three other hierarchies dealt with (first, second, and third) were those who have (in previous kalpas of logoic manifestation) passed beyond the human stage altogether. They are, therefore, the formless groups, as the remaining are the rupa groups or those having forms.
The fourth Creative Hierarchy, or the ninth, must ever be regarded in this solar system as occupying what might be considered as the third place,
First, the Lives or the three Persons of the Trinity.
Second, the Prototypes of man, the seven Spirits.
Third, man or the lowest manifestation of the self-conscious Spirit aspect.
This needs to be carefully considered and has no reference to the form aspect but solely to the nature of the lives expressing themselves through other lives who are also self-conscious, or fully intelligent. This, certain of the hierarchies are not.
[1202] The four lower hierarchies are all concerned with manifestation in the three worlds, or in the dense physical body of the solar Logos. They are those who can discard or pass through the etheric body of the solar Logos and take forms composed of either gaseous, liquid, or dense substance. The others cannot. They cannot fall into physical generation.
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