Teachings of the Temple: 1

MANIFESTATION OF SUBSTANCE-MATTER—LESSON 1
The Instruction I am about to give you is of infinite importance, and I shall endeavor to render it as simple as possible, in the hope that it will be understood by those students whose opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge have been limited. Upon a complete understanding of this subject depends the full comprehension of many previous Instructions, as well as others that will follow. ...
The visible Universe as a whole, as well as each constituent or organic part of the same, whether it be sun, planet, man, or molecule, is primarily brought into manifestation on the physical plane, as Substance or Matter, from the inner or Spiritual plane of Life, by the energizing, through will (Fohatic) power, of the potential forces contained or confined in certain colors manifesting through a great age or Kalpa in the sphere of Mind. These colors are of a much higher order than their reflections, the colors of the physical plane.
When a new life cycle of manifestation begins, for any separated or individualized portion of the Universal Whole, it first appears as a rapidly vibrating mass of scintillating colors, which, from a definite point in Etheric Space, spread outward into physical space (so termed), by means of a circular mode of motion, in a spiral. The diameter of the last outward sweep of the spiral would be determined by the amount of expansive energy imparted to the mass by the initial impulse.
When this energy reaches its extremity of power in the last spiral sweep, a neutral centre is in process of creation by means of the contact and interaction of the negative forces of contraction peculiar to the physical plane, with those induced by the action of Spiritual, or Positive energy, before mentioned. This neutral centre, which, in the creation of a world, becomes the equatorial belt, manifests in the human and animal kingdoms as the Solar Plexus.
From the centre, the spiral of color decreases in exact ratio to another point, resulting in the formation of a rapidly revolving globe of color, partially flattened at each Pole, and hollow so far as physical substance is concerned ; but in reality containing all the potencies, as well as the Skandas . the stored up good and evil tendencies of preceding manifestations of the incarnating Ego, or entity-and the latent [TT 2] forces which will bring effects into action as causes of subsequent effects, at the right time and in the right place, as determined by the Law of Karma.
In this globe also resides the alchemical power transmuting physical substance into Spiritual energy, and "vice versa", as food is transmuted by the powers of digestion and assimilation ; into flesh and blood, and finally into physical energy. If this spiral globe of color could be seen by physical eyes at the beginning of an era of manifestation, it would seem to enclose a certain portion of clear space.
On the highest Spiritual plane all lines of demarcation would disappear, and it would be indistinguishable, as far as form is concerned, from all the great ocean of Ether, the store-house of all energies and potencies ; but on the higher astral, the plane of soul, it would be visible to Spiritual eyes as an individualized Entity-call it Angel, Or Deva-God, whichever you like-so far transcending in beauty, glory and power any description ever given by human tongue or pen, that it is useless to attempt to convey any impression of it to the human mind ; it must be seen and recognized to be understood. It belongs to the army of archangels which surround the Throne of God, situated in the hearts of every one of that vast throng, and which exists potentially in the heart of every human being.
For illustration, take a piece of paper consider one side of it as the Spiritual, the other' side as the physical plane. Separate one single point, among many others, of white light on the Spiritual plane (or side) of the paper ; then imagine a flash of Light, or Creative Energy, darting from some other point and impinging upon, thus imparting a more rapid vibration, or another mode of motion to, the point under consideration.
This mode of motion (Fohatic energy) imparting a forward movement, would drive the substance contained in the point, through the piece of paper (the fibre of which would correspond to the astral, or middle plane) to the other side (the physical plane) and then proceed to form, by the process of spiral movement, above referred to, a complete globe of color from the point of its appearance on the physical plane as represented on the paper.
There are always forty-eight spiral rings on either side of the middle, or equatorial line, the latter being the forty-ninth from either end. This spiral sheath of color encloses the substance on the plane of action in and through which the energy which passes into it from the first point of manifestation will work in conjunction with the forces of color, for the creation of an individualized life, whether it be a cell, man or world.
The auric correspondence to this hollow globe obtains throughout a whole era of individualized manifestation, however long or short that may be, as its particular [TT 3] sphere of creative energy, as does also the globe of color which constitutes the aura of each cell, man, or world. In the materialization of a world there gradually forms, just within the globe of color (as the result of interaction of interior and exterior forces), first, a rapidly revolving sphere of heat and subsequently, moisture. In the creation of a world the power of attraction which the combined energy and force hold within its mass, draws to this moisture the Cosmic dust which is floating in space.
For long ages of time, great quantities of dust and falling masses from other worlds, in the form of meteors, etc., intercepted by or attracted to it, gradually transform this (so to speak) lining of the color globe into the crust of such a world as the one you are now living upon. But innumerable Kalpas before this occurred, the substance, with which the Spiritual energy manifesting in the point was clothed, had passed through many phases of existence from a molecule to a God. And the Spiritual Entity, or World-builder, visibly represented by that point of Light, has voluntarily and intelligently assumed the labor, responsibility and sacrifice of creating from its own substance, a world, in which other manifesting entities of lower orders may gain the necessary physical experience to fit them also in time for Spiritual existence as Angels or Gods.
A corresponding process to the one outlined above occurs in the birth of every child or animal on the physical plane. The creative emanation of the male contains a definite portion of the substance generated on the Spiritual plane by the interaction of masculine and feminine forces as previously explained between the two points of light, or the creative fires ; and the product, by contact and interaction with the ovum or egg budded from the ovaries of the female sex, results in impregnation.
A certain residue is used by Nature in the formation of a state of matter comparable to the inner lining of the spiral globe of color, within which gestation is accomplished. The Uterus, or outer covering, corresponds to the color globe, but is not the globe ; for the Uterus, as well as every other organic structure, has its own peculiar spiral globe of color, or aura. Despite innumerable explanations and descriptions of the planes of manifestation, students are continually misinterpreting terms and location.
The diagram shown below will aid in many ways. First of all, however, you must charge your mind with the fact that there is in reality no high nor low, no hard nor fast lines ; that all manifestation is from within outward ; that all planes penetrate and interpenetrate each other. [TT 4] The dot on the top indicates the Unmanifested, the Absolute, the positive potencies. The one at the bottom indicates the negative of the above . the reservoir in which had been generated and from which had been projected into space, all potential energies belonging to the physical plane, and into which would be cast all manifested matte that had fulfilled its mission ; as well as all of nature's abortions an seeming abnormal conditions, to be in some future age energized again by the positive forces of life, and so given another opportunity. It is also known as Chaos. Each horizontal line in the diagram indicates the positive and negative aspects of some plane or sphere of consciousness ; that part of each line to the right of the centre representing the positive pole, that to the left the negative. The line through the centre indicates interaction of Spirit and Matter. This diagram must not be confounded with others which illustrate the same truths, or the different planes or forces. In a certain sense this stands alone.

STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS—LESSON 2
Many wrong and much to be regretted conceptions, regarding existence after dissolution of the physical body, exist among members of the Temple. So much emphasis has been placed upon the reincarnation of the Ego upon earth, that the truth concerning the intermediate states [TT 5] between embodiments has suffered by comparison ; and rejection of the fact of reincarnation, in many instances, has resulted from inability to comprehend the conditions upon which the soul enters after leaving the body ; for the ingrained belief of a conscious existence after death is inseparable from many religions, especially from that of the "Christian."
In one sense it was peculiarly necessary that the doctrine of Reincarnation or rebirth in a physical body, should be emphasized more particularly, when H. P. B. undertook her great work, in order to strike a just balance ; for devotees of certain religious sects have zealously inculcated the belief that life on the physical plane is unendurable . "a vale of tears" and of anguish, to be avoided and abhorred-instead of a field for growth, to be cultivated and raised to perfection.
A constant stream of antagonistic thought arising from the minds of multitudes of mistaken human beings, contacting and lowering the vibrations of Nature's purer evolutionary energy, could result in nothing but a depression of the mental sphere of the earth-making evolution more and more difficult for those who through the action of Karmic Law 2 must return here in order to work out some 2 Karmic Law : The law of equilibrium of adjustment.
When equilibrium is disturbed action and reaction take place until perfect unsolved problem. The unhappy use of a word and simile is frequently responsible for a whole train of false doctrines, and after results in the public presentation of an important philosophical truth disguised beyond recognition by its original expounders.
The word "Illusion" used by Eastern Mystics and Theosophists, in reference to life in the "Devachanic" (Heavenly) state is such an instance. Although by some teachers the term has been qualified or made all-inclusive by applying it to life on all other planes as well, yet the true idea veiled by the word has not been sufficiently emphasized. Beyond all controversy there is but one Reality in every sense of the word, whether we name it The Absolute, Eternal Spirit, or God ; all else is "illusion" from that higher standpoint, because all else is reflection or manifestation of some one or more attributes of God or The Absolute.
Matter is "illusion" only from a cosmic point of view ; and as Matter in some form manifests in all states of Life, it follows that Life in "Devachan" or Heaven is as real to the spiritual senses as is Life on earth to the physical senses ; and in fact far more real, for the Spiritual senses are more delicate, refined and of infinitely greater power than the physical. Death, like sleep, is "Nature's [TT 6] great restorer" and must inevitably give back to man the realization of all his higher Ideals. If man is without high ideals, utterly hardened, faithless of all good, the Heavenly Life can hold nothing him-consequently he can have no conscious existence on that plane ; there can only remain consciousness of the eighth plane or sphere.
One great difficulty met with by students lies in trying to reconcile certain statements made by Occultists which seem to be absolutely opposed to each other, without the use of "The Triple Key" of Matter, Force and Consciousness ; for by the use of this "Key" alone, can any one particular state or phase of Life be interpreted. If the Key of Consciousness is used, the subject must be treated from point of consciousness-simply one form of consciousness function' in another form of the same power. The same rule holds good using the Key of Force or of Matter.
It is simply impossible investigate the balance or harmony is again attained. plane of Astral matter with physical eyes ; astral Sight is absolutely necessary ; and this is latent in every human being. There is not a cubit's width of void space in the Universe. The ocean of Aether, the self-luminous imponderable substance which fills and molds all space, is, in a sense, the shield or garment of the Infinite. It is also a double reflector : from within it reflects T Infinite ; from without it reflects every atom of matter on the manifested planes. Consequently, it is "the great Illusion" in which, which in manifestation, we "live and move and have our being."
Among its other attributes, the consciousness, or soul, has the power of penetrating the Aether, and when freed from the physical body, is only limited as to space, by its will ; so it may seek its own Heaven, at its own desire, when freed from the astral body, which, after the dissolution of the physical form, remains for a time in the Astral Light one of the sheaths of Aether, and from which the original idea of "purgatory" arose. The subject is too vast to be well considered in a short article but it is important that an effort be made to change existing opinion. ...

POWER OF AFFIRMATION—LESSON 3
It seldom occurs to the advocates of Modern Mental Science that the exercise of the affirmative power as taught by some of their number, may result disastrously to themselves as well as to such [TT 7] innocent and ignorant pupils as are not content with natural evolutionary methods for the awakening and satisfying of desire and ambition. The quiet, unostentatious movements of the slower processes of normal growth are "a weariness to the flesh" ; consequently, many are on the qui vive for something new-something that shall stimulate more rapidly the development of their psychic centres.
Unquestionably the power of affirmation is almost illimitable when rightly used ; but it is similar to the power of the double-edged sword in the hands of an irresponsible person ; for the opposite pole, the power of denial, must manifest simultaneously with that of affirmation ; and unless the former can be controlled, the latter may be overruled. Only a few are capable of exercising this control, because of the peculiar existent conditions of the present cycle, and the unlawful purposes to which spiritual power has been prostituted.
For example : the use of the words "I am", preceding some expressed desire, or statement relating to possession or control of some form of matter, as for instance, "I am Power", or "I am Wealth", may possibly, under right conditions, bring into action certain latent inner forces or elementals, which may serve to bring about a realization of the expressed desire ; but, as before intimated ; such a positive affirmation invariably awakens the negative aspect of the particular force affirmed, and unless the operator be a trained occultist, perfectly competent to control all force and matter of lower vibrations than those which govern his individual existence, the negative aspect of the force invoked, in striving for equilibrium, may cause him to lose control of the force affirmed.
This is one illustration of the eternal war between matter and spirit. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things" ; and the power of overcoming is the power to control matter, the negative aspect of the eternal positive. Instances are rare indeed where the ordinary nineteenth century man is able consciously to separate the Ego from the physical body and to realize the process of merging his personal consciousness with that of the Absolute ; and he must be able to stand on this altitude ere it is safe or prudent to call into action the unified forces of the "I am" and direct them toward the accomplishment of a personal desire, however high that desire seems to be ; for, sad to say, a pure and undefiled desire is almost an impossibility in this age and among present races, for the element of self enters too largely into every consideration.
Only the Masters of the highest Degrees can accomplish such an herculean task, and even they but relatively. While the individual consciousness is passing through the different planes or states of consciousness, it is subject to the "pairs of opposites", and it cannot awaken any positive phase of its lower nature [TT 8] without awakening the negative also ; and it must succeed in striking a balance, in gaining a neutral position on each plane or phase o life, before it can reach a point of safety or of power upon that plan or within that phase or state.
If, by the exercise of the power of affirmation, a man has succeeded in drawing to himself (for the power of affirmation is also the power of attraction) a large share of the wealth of the world, the positive forces aroused by the amassing of that wealth will bring into action the opposing or negative forces, and these will take fro him something in his nature which is exactly an equivalent to the wealth he has secured ; something in manifestation either on the inner or the outer planes of his life. It may be honor, intellect, health, sight, hearing-but whatever its nature, the balance will be struck exactly, for natural law cannot swerve from exact justice.
If one wins wealth, fame or any other so-called treasure by the method which natural evolutionary law will teach him, that is, by labor, the same forces manifest, but in a far less dangerous manner ; for the manifest normally. The same fight occurs, but his foes are far les powerful, and he is more capable of understanding their method of warfare, and of arming himself against them. But few appreciate the real power contained in the sentence. "Thy Will be done." It embodies one of the deepest Occult mysteries for Will in this case is identical with Law. An act of Infinite Will sets in motion a natural law which must eventually bring about the thing willed.
When an Occultist has reached an advanced stage of mastery, an effort of his will connects his individual power with the power o the Infinite-which must bring about the accomplishment of the desire behind the act of will. He could not will to perform an action out of harmony with the Divine Will. And the fact that he has willed the performance of some act is sufficient to show that he has been acted upon by the Divine Will to serve as an intermediary or converter of the Divine Will to lower forms of force and matter, upon which the Divine potency could not act without danger to the particular grade of matter acted upon, because of the higher vibration of the substance of Divine Will. This is the real secret of all evidences of willpower shown by Masters.
The use of the expression quoted above, by Jesus at the crucifixion, would go far to substantiate His claim that He and the Father were One, were there no other evidence. The same expression has been used for thousands of years at a certain point in a great Initiation and the result is similar in all instances . that is, it precedes a form of crucifixion. [TT 9]
As powerful as is the action of Will, there is another form of force with which you are all more or less familiar, which is equally great, but which has been slighted or neglected in modern Occultism. This force is expressed by the word "gratitude." We will keep the familiar word because it will be easier for you to remember. In striving to set aside a personal God, many attributes which were supposed to be especially connected with such a God, but which are in reality most potent Universal Forces, have been ignored or forgotten.
This particular force is closely allied to the law of supply and demand-the demand being the positive aspect of the great law of assimilation, the negative of which is the law of supply. Without the outpouring or setting free of this force of gratitude-thankfulness, on the accomplishment of an act of will, it is impossible for that act to be fully consummated. It may seem to be so to your limited understanding, but could you see interiorly on the plane of forces, you would learn that just according to the degree of your ingratitude, just so would the real consummation of the act remain unmanifested or the results be nullified by some unexpected turn of the wheel of life.
Some one might ask-who or what are we to thank ? In answer, simply turn your thoughts inward to Omnipotent Love, and cultivate the will and the desire for awakening this force within yourself, which, when cultivated, will flow forth as naturally as does desire for the accomplishment of wish or purpose. The occult meaning of the sentence, "Thy Will be done", may be summed up in the word "Indifference" as used by learned mystics, and one great cause of danger in the exercise of the power of affirmation referred to above, lies in the elimination of this principle, and the putting in. its place of the most intense desire.
While the higher or positive side of the desire principle is good, the lower or animal side is evil, and the lower desire elementals are the class that surround and drag down the neophyte or student who has ignorantly or carelessly invaded their sphere, and who has prematurely awakened the corresponding good elementals o£ the higher side of desire, by forcing them into action ; therefore, it is plain that until one has become perfectly "indifferent" in the true sense of the word, and can say from his heart "Thy Will be done", he should be cautious about awakening that WILL. Far be it from me to attempt to minimize or deny any power or attribute belonging to The Absolute.
The one thing which I am constantly pleading for with you is a "natural life." The individual life of each of you should grow and expand naturally, and so reach fruition without spot or blemish, instead of being distorted by deformity and imperfection. If there were but one life to be lived-if men were never again to be capable of [TT 10] experiencing joy or pain, the present mad rush for the gratification desire would seem more reasonable ; but when one comes to realize that by the premature attainment of any special desire, he must eventually relinquish not only that, but all others of a like nature, he will to say the least, believe it to be a matter of poor policy to risk s much.
When man reaches the understanding and realization of the impossibility of gaining something valuable by means of something valueless, and that the law . "by the sweat of thy brow shall thy brew, be earned", is irrevocable and immutable, and in action on all planes of life and is capable of using this knowledge in all that concerns hid daily life, he will have at last succeeded in placing the entering wedge into the mass of all power. And the ability safely to use his developing faculties to acquire absolute control over higher forms of matter will follow, as surely as day follows night. The expression, "by the sweat of thy brow", is symbolic as well as literal, and means . by the use and control of the heat centres o1 the inner sheaths or bodies, for such correspond to the positive spiritual potencies. The labor which causes sweat corresponds to the travail of soul which yields the water of affliction. The positive energy of Spirit or Fire yields the negative of Spirit which is the Water of Life or Purification. ...

QUALIFICATIONS FOR CHELASHIP—LESSON 4
Despite the instructions given so freely, and the manifest allusions in sacred and profane writ, backed by all the evidence the physical senses are capable of cognizing and comprehending in regard to mental and spiritual qualifications for chela or discipleship, in nine cases out of ten, man still persists in looking for those qualifications almost entirely in the physical man ; his environment, occupation, intellectual pursuits, etc.
You read-"the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God" ; recognize and acquiesce in the unmistakable truth of the statement ; then serenely uphold that wisdom of the world by your actions, the first time you are called upon to make a decision between that and [TT 11] the wisdom of God as expounded by those to whom advanced evolution has given the highest power of discrimination.
At the risk of rendering myself misunderstood, my words open to grave misconstruction, I must once more strive to clarify this subject. If it were not so pitiable, it would often be amusing to us, to witness the list of qualifications, mental and physical, including all things from physical culture, scientific attainment, moral uprightness, up to supposed seership, that are frequently held up to us as a basis for demanded spiritual enlightenment. Understand me . I am by no means underestimating any one of these great cultivated attainments ; all are necessary, but they are only necessary as an antaskarana or bridge between the lower grades of matter and Spirit ; they have nothing whatever to do with spiritual enlightenment or attaining to the use of inner senses. They may or may not be a means to that end, according to the use made of them.
It is frequently stated and often contemptuously by the worldly wise that the Masters never could use such and such a person, for he has been guilty of this, that, or some other great crime against society ; therefore, he is not capable of use by the pure and holy. To say nothing about the unqualified fact that were this true, no single individual in the world could ever be used in such a capacity . for all are equally guilty, it being a mere matter of different incarnations the truth remains that it is only those who through spiritual enlightenment have been brought to a point where they can calmly behold in themselves the heights and depths of life, that are capable of chelaship ; and it matters not whether they have reached this point in this or another incarnation, each human being must be able sometime to stand where two roads meet and look backward and forward intelligently.
And it is here that the true Occultism of Repentance for Sin as put forth in the Gospels appears in part. For until one has beheld and trembled at the hideousness of one pole of Universal life, he is unable to see the other, for he must learn by comparison, by correspondence ; and all possibility of spiritual attainment finally resolves itself into one word-Love. Love of evil or darkness . dead, buried, resurrected and transfigured . becomes Love of God or Good, Love of humanity, Selflessness.
There is no room for self-love in the consciousness of one who has attained to a knowledge of past incarnations unless Pride in his victory over the limitations that have hitherto hampered his development arises and awakens latent ambition, or vice-versa ; for ambition awakens pride. But when, instead of either, true humility is born of the sore travail of the soul, that soul becomes a power for good [TT 12] in the hands of the great Master that it is incapable of reaching by any human means.
We who believe in the perfect operation of Karmic law, cannot conceive of the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus as being due to any thing but corresponding evil in some physical manifestation of the Ego which incarnated as Jesus ; but this does not affect the statement that He died for the sins of the world, for the sins of the world were His sins in a double sense that will be explained more fully when we take up the study of the New Testament from an occult standpoint.
The fact that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene who stand even today as the epitome of all evil in woman, when his resurrection was completed, should teach those who presume to call themselves Christians the truth regarding this subject. A true Occultist is never at a loss to reconcile that statement with what he knows to be the requisite purity of body and mind for an accepted chela. Mary the mother stands for ignorant or passive purity-that state of purity that knows no temptation ; Mary the Magdalene for conscious and active purity ; two poles of one great attribute. What I have here stated must not be taken as advocacy of that great heresy that the end justifies the means, or that one may do evil with the expectation of having good follow ; for Conscious Evil ca never bring forth good-the two are as far apart as the antipodes. What we understand as ignorant evil, sincerely repented of, and atone for, awakens the opposite pole by means of the forces brought into action by repentance and atonement.
Nowhere in literature may the true qualifications for Chelaship be found more clearly defined than in the Sermon on the Mount : The poor in Spirit ; the Sorrowing ones ; the Meek ; the Merciful ; the Peace-makers ; the Persecuted ; the Pure in heart. These are the children of God, the true disciples, the Chelas of the Masters. Without these attributes, all the knowledge in the Universe would not avail. It is what we ARE, our interior character, not what we know or believe, that constitutes the basis for Chelaship in the White Brother a hood. ...

THE CHRISTOS—LESSON 5
There are many to whom these Instructions are sent who are nod able to obtain the books containing our expositions of the Ancient [TT 13] wisdom, and to whom, therefore, many of our allusions are unintelligible. More especially is this true of those who have come out from under the bondage of the modern church, and while still holding the person and character of Jesus in reverence and love, know not just where to place Him in the scale of human life, under their changed convictions, or else who are disposed to put Him on the same level with other men.
Every age has its Christ or Saviour, who may manifest under different conditions and in one or more human bodies ; but by an age we must not be understood as meaning a few hundred years, for many thousand years comprise such an age as is now referred to. In the 1st Vol. of the Secret Doctrine, in the opening stanzas of the third chapter, occur these words : "The three fall into the four." This sentence contains the whole secret of the manifestation of the Saviours of all time.
Whether the trinity of Father, Mother, Son ; Atma, Buddhi, Manas ; Matter, Force and Consciousness ; Desire, Will and Wisdom ; or Body, Soul and Spirit is under consideration, is of no consequence ; for in their last analysis, they are all One, and this One in Three is the Absolute, the life and being of all that is in manifestation on all the planes of the Cosmos, and each must be understood as interchangeable, though complete in itself when separated ; and whichever one of the three aspects (or persons, as the church teaches them to be) manifests in time or eternity, manifests perfectly ; that is, manifests with all the attributes of the other two.
This three-fold manifestation of life and being "is eternal in the Heavens", and always has been, and always will be in that state of consciousness commonly termed Nirvana or Heaven. It is inconceivable to think of It as withdrawing any part of itself, for It is a unit, It is the God. No form of words can adequately describe the descent of this God into Matter, for matter was not in manifestation until the descent was accomplished. The principle of Shadow conveys as nearly as is possible an idea of the process.
The Three, that is, the Three in One . created and became all Substance, all Matter, by a process akin to the casting of a shadow on the physical plane, that is by projecting the creative thought into temporary form and substance ; that substance having all the attributes (in a lesser or more modified degree) of its progenitors. To cast a shadow, a form must pass between the sunlight and the earth ; the sun, the body and the earth are three different grades or [TT 14] rates of vibration of matter, and these constitute the agents by orb through which the shadow is cast, and they correspond to three different agents and attributes of the three great creative fires, represented by the Trinity before mentioned.
Now, in order to assist you, who find it difficult to comprehend Unity in Diversity, we will take one aspect of the Trinity . the Son, which must also be considered as Cosmic Substance or Matter, in the ; trinity of Matter, Force and Consciousness ; as Body, in Body, Soul and Spirit ; as Manas, in Manas, Buddhi and Atma. This aspect of the Son is the Christos, the Saviour, the Angel of Light, that fell from. heaven into manifestation, not because of evil, but to fulfill the Desire, or the Father-principle's Will, which was the creation of matter, its evolution, and final redemption.
Every atom of manifested matter possesses this principle ; consequently, every human being ; but it is dormant until brought out and, developed ; and can only be developed by the highest instincts of the Soul. Consequently, while we are all Saviours in embryo, it is only One in any age that is able to develop the love, the endurance and self-sacrifice necessary for such a high calling, and that One becomes the "Elder Brother" of the race and age to which he belongs. In St. John, 17th chapter and 21st verse, are these words : "That they may be one ; as thou Father art in me and I in thee ; that theyalso may be one in us, that the world may know that thou halt sentme :" This hope as expressed in this most beautiful and occult passage clearly demonstrates the belief held by Jesus of a final involution of matter in the same order that evolution had brought it out and up to the point where involution became a possibility. Much of the controversy between science and religion as well as between different divisions of religious bodies, is due to the unwillingness of one body to fairly consider the disputed points in the philosophy of the other.
The ignorant Christian imagines that Jesus must lose in greatness and power if considered from the common standpoint of an evolutionary monad, such as was the beginning of the earthly life of all mankind, though he is often referred to in ecclesiastical works as "the first-born among many brethren." If he is a brother to all the rest of the human race, surely he was subject to the common laws of evolution. We do not desire to detract from the divinity of Jesus-we only desire to show the common origin of the divinity in all mankind. [TT 15] ...

ILLUSIONS AND IDEALS—LESSON 6
One by one those Ideals and Illusions which serve as the Beacon Lights of life are born and fade away. In the shadowy interim, the hours of utter loneliness, between the disappearance of one ideal and the gestation and birth of another, the soul attains either to patience or falls into rebellion, according to the use made of opportunities and experiences. The glamour surrounding the heroes of our boyhood, the guardian angels of our girlhood, fades away with the passing years, and we behold only the good or brave man ; the natural forces of law and life. The men and women we have idealized and clothed in the garments of the gods-Love-become commonplace human beings as that love gives place to satiety or indifference.
Distant countries long associated in the mind with all that is noble and grand, when visited by us often lose their charm and seem far inferior to the land of our own birth. But most difficult to die and easiest to spring from the ashes of the dead are our great religious ideals. With many the personal God with all the tender attributes of Fatherhood and Motherhood, gradually grows in greatness and power until it becomes Infinity, and an ideal of power and beauty is lost in terms of consciousness too great for comprehension.
The power and influence of one great Saviour or Teacher wanes as the power of another Saviour waxes, and as the latter gains greater command over universal forces, he draws to himself the worship of the masses, until his time, too, has come-and he must give place to the rising Star of still another Saviour.
The most important lesson to be learned from passing ideals and illusions is the impermanence of matter, even that of the highest rates of vibration ; and the impersonal, non-separable aspects of the Eternal Spirit, as well as the necessity for a mould or pattern for every phase of sentient life. Nothing is mine ; nothing is thine ; all things are ours. In the revival of ancient philosophy in the Western world many old terms indicative of personified natural laws, forces, degrees, and stations of life have been brought to the attention, and sunk deep into the minds of many students of life and its mysteries. Among these the term Master or Guru, as applied to those who have reached to Mastery of Nature's laws and forces, and who belong to certain Degrees of the Cosmic Lodge, has become most common to said [TT 16] students and is frequently used in a manner to prejudice the ordinary 19th century investigator against both the philosophy and its expounders. Jesus said, "call no man your master", and he was right.
When you hear any one say my Master, you can depend upon such a one knowing but little of that theme, or else that he is the tool of a designing hypocrite. A true Master of any degree of real life would never countenance the use of the prefix my as applied to the term Master, by a personal chela or student. Although the term is in common use in the Far East, it simply. means "my teacher", and the term Guru has the same signification save that it indicates a teacher of a somewhat lower degree. What good reason have the English-speaking races for being ashamed of their own language, or of such terms as are in common use ; or for using terms of whose real significance they are wholly ignorant?
As before said, the word "Mastery" implies the winning of power over Nature's great forces. One having gained such power is a1 Master, and can be "my" Master to no individual soul without loss of dignity and individualism to that soul which is one in essence with his own ; and when the words nay Master or my Guru issue from ! the lips of one who uses them to enhance his own importance in the eyes of another who is not supposed to have the honor of a special Master, they are usually accompanied by a wave of vainglory so dense as to be almost visible to mortal eyes.
When an individual has arrived at a stage of development which permits of his having special or personal direction, he will never claim any member of the Supreme Lodge as a personal adjunct. If he have occasion to speak of any individual Master it will be as the Master, but this he will never do when his own personal affairs are concerned, especially to the uninitiated ; for he will have learned in the first lesson given him that the words me and mine must be obliterated from his vocabulary. The Masters or Initiates of the Great Lodge are as yet but ideals to the masses of mankind-ideals that like unto all other ideals must fade to a greater or lesser extent as each individual soul approaches the same scale of Being-gains the same Mastery of life and death ; but it is unwise to pull down those ideals by familiar use before they have accomplished their mission as living patterns after which imperfect man may build his life and mould his destiny.
A great fallacy rests in the minds of even some devoted students as to the effect on themselves of coming into contact with an Initiate. [TT 17] The intense longing of the human heart for some one-some thing, above and beyond itself, by or through which it may attain to a more perfect state, is responsible for the belief that such attainment may be realized merely by the imparting of power by the Initiate to the student. Foolish children-do ye yet think that even a God can supply that which can only manifest by process of labor and growth? The law of growth is the primal law of the Universe which none may break or alter. ...

THE ETHERIC UNIVERSE—LESSON 7
So much emphasis is laid upon, and so much importance attached to, psychic vision, by those ignorant of the cosmic modus operandi,and the purely natural law which produces all phenomena under the classification of psychic ; and so many are led astray by that which seems to them only to be accounted for by the intervention of individual "spirits", that it is well such should be undeceived and all interested in the subject enlightened.
Every thought, word and deed of every creature and thing in the manifested Universe is imprinted by Fohatic 3 energy upon the great ocean of etheric substance, which, in one sense, may be likened to the film upon which a photograph is imprinted, because of its power of receiving and retaining impressions.
The study of geometry will have taught you that the three great powers-positive, negative and neutral-manifest in all things, The positive-negative, the Father, or great creative power of the Universe, gives power of thought (principle of Manas) ; the negative-positive pole manifests the thought by bringing it into form, or act. The neutral, or central point of the "line of life", attracts to itself both the power of projector and receiver, and fixes the image of the thought, word or deed, upon or within that Etheric Substance which in Geometry is illustrated by the Square, and in Arithmetic by the number 4.
Here the image remains during the whole cycle of manifestation. It is God's "Book of judgment", and it is by means of the process described that our faults and virtues are recorded and may confront us when we gain access to the Astral Light or Ether. [TT 18] Much confusion appears to exist relative to the above plane sphere of consciousness, owing to the inconsiderate and indiscrimina use of the term "Astral Light" by those commenting on its laws a phenomena. The Astral Light has two aspects or planes of consciousness. I higher aspect is creative and preservative, and from it are reflected, or projected, all inscribed principles of perfect form or order ; a back to it are reflected the same principles, plus what each soul have gained by planetary life. It is the plane of soul manifestation. The lower aspect of the Astral Light is the plane of disorder as disintegration of form. From it we receive the fleeting visions horrible or grotesque forms, and back to it is reflected all we know a Evil-all of nature's abortions.
It is the Soul's first stopping place on its return to 3 Fohat is the essence of cosmic electricity-the DRIVING power of the universe ; the universal propelling Vital Force, at once the propeller and the resultant. Devachan (Heaven). It is also the place of purging where is left the last remnant of what we knew as physical matter Without a comprehension of both aspects, no right understanding o the Astral Light is possible. With the first manifestation of the principle of form, sin (bonds or limitation) came into being, and with it the impulse to be freed from these limitations ; for Spirit in bondage is Spirit in torment.
While the very struggle of the incarnating Spirit to gain its freedom but serves to increase the strength and substance of its bonds, its nature compels it to struggle, and thus bring into manifestation by the power of motion still more of its primal essence. The statement, "there is no remission of sin save by blood", has been the cause of more controversy, more bloodshed, than any other single statement in the Bible, and is as little understood as are other deep occult truths to be found in the pages of that book ; but, as is the case with other esoteric statements, its very simplicity veils its' true meaning from profane eyes-for, while it, like many other similar truths has several keys and is susceptible of many changes or shades of meaning, the most important interpretation demonstrates f the fact that blood in some state is the first form of sentient life on the physical plane. It is held in suspension, as it were, latent, in every molecule of every cell which nature uses in building form and', substance. You often hear the expression-"you cannot draw blood from a stone." But you could get blood from a stone if you knew how to produce that phenomenon, as blood is latent, if not in evidence, as I have said before, in all things. Shedding or destroying the blood of a man or an animal only results in the destruction of form, which [TT 19] form is thereby resolved into its constituent elements, and if the soul which animated that form be on the ascending curve of its cycle of manifestation, its unclothing brings it just that much nearer final disintegration of form and absorption into the Infinite, whence it came, and where alone it can be free from the limitations of Matter.
This exposition is equally true of all forms, whether they be physical, social, religious or political. Every great government, society or religion has been built upon the destruction of some preceding form ; and such destruction has been brought about in every case by bloodshed or its corresponding woe and suffering. The soil of the earth has been drenched in blood from pole to pole in the ages that have passed since it came into being, and will be again ere its mission is ended ; and, when a realization of this truth dawns upon you it will not be difficult to see the hopelessness, the utter impossibility, of the long prayed for "peaceful revolution which is to bring order out of the present social chaos", according to the belief of those who do not sufficiently take into consideration the working out of irrevocable law.
With the end of the reign of the Calf of Gold will come the most terrible revolutions that have shaken the earth-for, according to the power and greatness of the usurper of the prerogatives of God will be the destructive force arrayed against it, and the worship of the Golden Calf is responsible for more evil than all other causes combined. Consequently, its dethronement will be more difficult, and accompanied by more sorrow.
The power back of the operation of the law that requires the shedding of blood for remission of sin, or, in other words, the destruction of form by the disintegration of matter, and consequent release of Soul, is the power of the Christ-the Son. As the Father represents the Spirit, the Son represents Matter ; and Christ redeems Matter at the end of every great Manvantara 4 by sacrificing differentiated (physical) life in form, and returning to life in Spirit-Unity. But not alone at the close of such periods. From its beginning to its end, the manifestation of the Christ life in form (the Universal Soul) is a Perpetual sacrifice, as is the life of all in whom that principle is most active. It is born of its Mother-Love, and with her holds the scales of Justice in the light of self-sacrifice. [TT 20] ...

TRUE BROTHERHOOD—4 Manvantara : a period of manifestation as opposed to Pralaya (dissolution, or rest), applied to various cycles, especially to a Day of Brahma, 4,320,000,000 Solar years. LESSON 8
From the vantage ground gained in battling with like condition to those among which you find yourselves in this dark age, I com to speak with you, and to plead with you to listen, to understand an obey, not what I may direct, but what I, in conjunction with the of and in your own souls, whisper in unspeakable, yearning love.
Brotherhood has become a term of reproach to some- a by-word bandied about from lip to lip with a careless jest, by others, through man's inability to discern the fundamental truth expressed by the, word in all its purity and holiness. As a pearl, when dropped into mire and filth still retains its intrinsic worth, and only requires cleaning to bring out its beautiful spiritual lustre, so the word Brotherhood may once more be made to shed the light of its splendor on a world torn apart by strife and dissension and all unbrotherliness ; and thou, my child (whichever one thou art), hast thine own part to perform in this great work.
That Brotherhood means literally all that is implied by the words, "do unto others as you would that they should do unto you", is beyond controversy ; and no one of you is so situated as to be unable to keep this law ; for it is a universal law, and whoever violates it brings upon himself or herself the karmic action of the law. Further more, it is the law upon which rests all possibility of farther advance a on evolutionary lines ; for, if you cannot give to your Brother or Sister the love, the helping hand, the encouraging word or deed which you do now, or will some other time, desire for yourself, how can you give to the great Master, to whom you are pledged (He who is one with that Brother or Sister as with you), the unselfish love that alone can hold you on the Path you have chosen.
This is no matter of sentiment, as is so frequently imagined, but, as before intimated, it is the law upon which your real life here and hereafter rests. To the violation of this law may be attributed every evil ever manifested ; and again the stars are predicting the overthrow of great continents, because of man's disobedience to this law. Open your eyes, my children, and see how man's inhumanity . unbrotherliness, is loading with chains, binding and sacrificing to his own selfish desires and passions, those other fragments of divinity struggling along the same weary way he also is treading at his side, [TT 21] within sound of his voice, under the very eaves of the palace which shelters him. While one among the so-called higher classes is preparing the ruin of a daughter of some poor mechanic, some other man in the same station of life as himself is preparing dainty luncheons in some secluded corner of a great emporium where his wife or daughters may obtain, sub rosa, the intoxicating wines or liquors which will lead just as surely to their eventual ruin, or is making a rendezvous of apparent safety with other men whose object is the same as his own-the ruin of the poor mechanic's daughter. Great wholesale liquor merchants are storing up barrels upon barrels of vile intoxicating poisons, which finally go to ruin the weak of all classes of their own country as well as of other countries where such beverages have hitherto been unknown.
Only too soon come back the sad stories of murder and rapine, mayhap connected with the only sons of the above-mentioned merchants. If it is only the selfish instincts of man that can, as yet, be appealed to, in the consideration of this great law of Brotherhood, it is better to so appeal to him, through such, than to leave him in ignorance of the karmic retribution which must follow ; but this great beneficent law of Karma has been equally misunderstood and travestied. With many, Karma has become simply an avenging "Nemesis", which holds them in a cruel grasp, and from which they cannot escape instead of the just and tender great Father-love it is in reality. But for this violated law of our eternal Brotherhood, we should have no cause for fear. Every loving word or act of ours to a Brother is rewarded ten-fold ; for on the plane of true Being, Good alone is all-powerful ; evil sinks into insignificance.
Most of us are so wearied by our struggle with the manifested darkness of the physical plane, we would fain stand for a moment where the effulgent light of eternal Good may pour its seven-fold rays into our souls at the end of one span of life, in order that strength, power and endurance may return with us as we once more enter the dark sphere we call our world. My children, throw off the yoke that has so long burdened your shoulders stand erect, and say with those who love you, I am "my Brother's keeper" ; my Brother's wrongs are my wrongs ; my Sister's burdens are my burdens. What matters it if your words find no echo in the hearts of those about you ? [TT 22] ...

THE LAW OF BALANCE—LESSON 9
It is a source of pain to me at times to be compelled to witness your impatience at the ignorance of your brothers and sisters who have not as yet had equal opportunities for accumulating knowledge ; as well as your unwillingness, often, to convey information to them : There are among your number those who are intellectually incapable of grasping intricate problems or technical terms of expression, but who may be far above you in true spiritual progress. Such, through their inability to correlate those lines of thought which lead eventually to the understanding of fundamental laws of life and its phenomena, or to grasp such natural illustrations as lie all around them, without help, would sincerely appreciate any effort toward their enlightenment.
You cannot give a casual glance around any field of nature without resting your eyes upon hundreds of objects which furnish perfect similes for the illustration of any phase of natural law. The fields of motion and of vibration seem the most obscure, and are difficult of exploration to many of our otherwise well advanced students, who are just entering upon the study of universal (that is, natural) phenomena, from the occultist's point of view ; and, in giving you the following simple illustration, I am but doing what any one of the older students is quite competent to undertake, if willing to turn his attention to the needs of his younger brothers.
You have all observed the motion of a perfectly balanced plank, with a person standing upon the middle, having a foot on either side of the balancing point, while imparting an equal amount of force alternately with each foot. The longer the board, the more time is required to lift each end to the highest point it can reach. Each of the ends would be negative to the positive center of balance when horizontally at rest but each end would manifest both positive and negative aspects when in motion, according to its ascent or descent. The entire board would have a certain mode of motion imparted to it by the person representing the generating force, but it would also have its own peculiar mass motion-that is, the motion of its own interior mass ; and each molecule of the board would have its own particular vibration entirely independent of every other molecule. The board would be in one sense dead ; that is, its power of growth would be cut off, but its molecules would be alive.
Now imagine that the board continues in that position, constantly generating force for an indefinite length of time, and that you can see the inner forces that sustain and keep intact [TT 23] the molecules of the board ; you would perceive the molecules contracting and their vibrations rapidly increasing, each drawing into its own centre all the living forces that make it a separate molecule, while its sheaths-its physical forms-would disintegrate gradually, leaving nothing to be seen by even the most powerful microscope.
If your vision could reach to a still higher plane, you would see that all of the individual centres of the various molecules had become part of one substance of a finer grade, for they would have reached the plane of the atom, which is the plane of the indivisible. Space is the result of expansion. Time is the result of the action of the laws of attraction and repulsion-motion per se-and must be taken into account in this illustration. During this hypothetical time (say of one thousand years), the process of disintegration in the body of the person standing on the board would be gradually consummated, the board would decrease in weight and would disintegrate ; and, finally, while the board might retain a semblance of form, there would come a time when its motion would become so rapid as to render the board indistinguishable from the person, or generator of the force ; the person and the board would seem as one object ; and, if it were possible to increase the motion still more, they would disappear from sight altogether, and only be visible on an inner plane. In more than one sense this illustration is a correct correspondence of this age ; of its creative powers, and of motion and vibration in whole and in part. As one end of the board requires an appreciable length of time to fall, and to receive an impulse from the earth which it contacts, thus enabling it to rise again, so every age or cycle requires a corresponding time, and must receive an upward impulse from the negative force of the preceding cycle. While its matter, its humanity, and all its forces are at or near this negative point, all partake of the dark side of life, and can only give the impulse to rise again by united endeavor.
The key-note of motion and vibration is raised while on the upward sweep of the cycle, with every succeeding age. The law of correspondences holds good throughout the universe, and on all planes of Being. The fact of the Group Soul is widely contradicted by those not yet able to understand that all life is a series of groupings. From the animalcule to the man, each organism, each individual organ, is a group of a distinct grade in the universal scale of living substance, subject to and brought into form by its peculiar rate of vibration.
For instance, that which is now, or has been, the heart in every animal form in manifestation, was composed primarily of one form of energy, which, [TT 24] by the laws of chemical affinity united with another or higher form of energy, to produce or evolve a third form of energy which may be termed the universal heart. This form lies latent in every molecule of physical substance ; and, as each molecule of matter is combine with another and still another, this sometime latent energy awakens and is also combined with another form of the same energy, and event eventually manifests as the physical heart of some low form of life. When the matter composing this lower form of heart has been cast off, the energy remains on the astral plane awaiting its next manifestation in higher form. Every organic centre is a god in embryo, a dual manifestation from a nucleolus to a god, one feminine cell must be impregnated b a masculine cell in order to manifest on any of the lower planes, al, though the process of impregnation differs in nearly all planes of life. ...

SHIELDS OF NUCLEOLI—LESSON 10
What I have before intimated concerning the first, or oily envelope of each individual atom of the life principle manifest in human m animal flesh, should indicate the right line of investigation to those interested in physiological problems. Any force or substance which will operate either to melt or solidify that oily substance, which forms one particular grade of matter in a living bodies, can modify or increase the action of the life principle in every cell of that body, to some extent.
Heat and cold apparently have this power, though in reality neither heat nor cold is the primary source of such action. The power lies in the electric energy which increases or decreases the vibrations of such molecules as have been energized for the production of heat or cold. The results of the action of certain chemical elements used in generating Vital Electricity (some of which are obtained from nitrogenous substances, hydrogen, etc.) upon the oily substance are similar to those observed upon the application of heat or cold direct.
Cold is in reality but the absence of heat ; it is not an energy inactu ; and the solidifying of the oily substance by cold is accomplished by paralyzing it temporarily by inhibiting the action of negative [TT 25] electricity between centre and circumference of nucleoli. When the normal action of positive and negative currents is restored, the oily substance will soften and break up again.
The action produced by electric energy direct, or, secondarily, by application of heat or cold, induces most marked changes in any organ of the human body, owing to its effect on that peculiar combination of force and substance known as the life principle, and its oily envelope, which constitutes that grade o£ matter known as Nervous Ether or nervous fluid. The hallucinations of the fever or freezing patient, the visions of the Lower Psychic plane, noticeably in insanity, are primarily caused by excitation (increased or decreased vibration) of the molecules which compose the nervous fluid by means of Vital Electric energy, but the action of this force upon the oily substance could not produce such effects without the interaction which occurs between the negatively charged envelope and the life principle within the nucleolus. The former, combined with the elements of water in close association with it, forms a shield about each nucleolus, which, in one sense, isolates that fiery atom, and keeps it in a state of temporary subjection, by lowering its vibrations, else it could not be bound in matter, as it now is in all healthy organisms.
When the oily substance is changed by disease or chemical action, leading to disintegration of mass, the nucleoli in the nerve centres of, the brain are brought into more direct contact with the inner organs of sense, and the quickened vibrations of the latter open the Lower Astral plane to sense of sight and sound. While different elements may apparently produce advantageous changes in the oily substance by replacing the broken down cells, or restoring them temporarily to normal conditions, it is unsafe to use such until the life principle is better understood ; for, the forces generated by means of these elements may prove to be in excess, and the patient using them be killed by too much life . for, paradoxical as it may seem . it is "too much life that kills" . not too little.
If half the exertion, study and time now used for investigation and experiment along the lower grades of matter were used for the same purpose along the higher lines of life and fire, the greater secrets of life would be more easily approached ; for it is the central point in all manifested bodies, whether it be in a world, universe or organ, which contains the most profound mystery of life, and the central Point is a fiery atom. From the centre to the circumference, in spiral lines, and back again, unceasingly, moves all life, from the molecules of a cell, to the Stars of Heaven ; and, at the centre . of each are generated the Electromagnetic [TT 26] forces that control the stream of the life-currents in each but such an idea as the possibility of controlling gross matter by those higher grades of substance which compose the Will, the Mind and the Emotions, will not be tolerated by the average investigator. In some cases he will concede that they are the effects of force; but he will not for a moment admit that they may be not only causes and effects, but also that the effects constitute certain states of matter, which may be manipulated by the Higher Self, or Soul of Man.
There is a wide difference between the conscious act of the Initiate who sends out and recalls his Astral Body at will, and that of then man or woman who, through weakness, permits his Astral to oscillate, between two planes until he can no longer exert any control over it. The former has absolute control over the substance of the oily envelope of the life principle. The same substance in the body of the latter is diseased or broken down. ...