• Registered: 2007-07-06

Topic: 42 Principles

I came across this when reading about the seven Globes of Earth.  They have actually mentioned that there are ten, or twelve, and referrence was also made to fourteen.  They mainly direct the discussion to only seven, I suppose it is because in doing only that, the level of difficulty to comprehend it is still immense.

When I seen the allusion to the 42 Principles in the context below, I kind of understood it, but don't feel like I grasped it completely.

Perhaps somebody will add something that will illuminate it further.  This is what I hope for.

Merry Christmas.  I was bad this Christmas, stayed a hermit and didn't answer phone.  I'm likely going to pay for that.

"We have passed briefly under consideration, in other studies, the three elemental kingdoms as regards their work in forming globe A of our chain. Let us now return to that. The elemental kingdom no. 1 has finished its work, let us say, on what is now the first foundation of globe A. That globe, therefore, has begun to take form. It is one-seventh (or one-tenth) formed, formed to the extent of the range of the first elemental kingdom. That first elemental kingdom has now passed through its seven periods of work, of evolution, and then goes into obscuration -- one of Mr. Sinnett's words. A far better word would have been dormancy or sleep, because this word obscuration actually rather obscures the sense. A man is not obscured when he sleeps. The body may be so, in a sense; but it is better actually to state in more appropriate words just what the real condition is. It is that of sleep, or latency -- of dormancy, rather.

But what happens now? Instantly that elemental kingdom no. 1 goes into dormancy, elemental kingdom no. 2 begins its work on the foundation just laid for it by elemental kingdom no. 1. Meanwhile, the surplus of life of elemental kingdom no. 1 passes on to globe B, and lays there the first foundation of globe B as it did for globe A. Now what do we mean by the "surplus of life," and what, furthermore, is it that is left behind as the sishta or remainder, of the elemental kingdom no. 1 now dormant on globe A? (Nevertheless, the active life of the life-waves, a part of it, passes on and forms the beginning of globe B.) What is the surplus of life, then? Surplus of life, as here used, is that to which we alluded a few moments ago, when we spoke of the unfolding or unrolling of the elements which, before manifestation, are involved in each other. This surplus of life contained or involved in the elemental kingdom no. 1, on globe A, is the 42 principles of all the other six globes of the manifest seven, as regards the first elemental kingdom, enwrapped, enfolded, involved and dormant therein, so to say, and not yet ready to manifest, because of not being appropriate and fit for globe A, and therefore spoken of as sleeping, resting in the bosom of elemental kingdom no. 1, but more truthfully overshadowing it and infilling it with life, with the 42 "fires." As this surplus of life is unfolded, or evolved, sleeping spheres, sleeping forces or potencies -- which are really the overshadowing 42 fires -- pass down to the plane below as surplus of life, the passing "down" being due to the gravitational attraction or pull of the lower plane, as felt by their inferior swabhava or inherent characteristic. Hence, as soon as they touch their own realms, so to say, the sleeping fires of the life-waves belonging by nature to those realms begin to awaken, the life-waves appropriate and belonging to that plane begin to work, and the elemental kingdom no. 1 on globe B begins its life cycle.

Let us go back to globe A. When the elemental kingdom no. 2 has finished its work on globe A, i.e., when it has run through its seven stock-races on globe A, then elemental kingdom no. 3 steps in as did no. 2, after no. 1. Immediately thereupon the gravitational pull on no. 2, after that elemental kingdom no. 2 on globe A has gone into dormancy, draws that surplus of life in elemental kingdom no. 2 down to globe B, where immediately no. 2 on globe B begins to awaken and to work, and to gather in the life-atoms belonging to it on that plane. Thus, on globe A we have elemental kingdoms 1 and 2 in dormancy, and no. 3 working out its life cycle on globe A. Elemental kingdom no. 1, when it has finished its sevenfold course of work on globe B, passes similarly on to globe C and begins to form it; while no. 2 coincidently is entering on its work on globe B; and no. 3 is on globe A, as said.

"Science" in our days is a word to swear by. Call a thing scientific and people will swallow it without much pretense of close analysis. It does not matter much to the average man whether the scientific allegation be true or not per se. He rarely examines it. It may be a "scientific fact" today; and then tomorrow it is replaced by some other "scientific fact." No men in the world, I venture to say, have more real reverence for true science, i.e., for classified and coordinated knowledge, than have ourselves; but for the theories and hypotheses of scientific researchers we have no more respect than those hypotheses are intrinsically worth. The day when science begins to dogmatize through its representatives, it becomes nothing more than a peculiar kind of church. I know of nothing that kills dogmatism more quickly and easily and naturally than these studies in our ancient wisdom; for the simple reason that no sooner do we understand one thing, and think that we have seized a final truth, than we learn from the expansion of our faculties and our knowledge, the very wholesome lesson that it is but a baby's introduction to a truth still more sublime. We learn that lesson very, very quickly; and if we have any tendency to dogmatize or to worship mental idols of any kind, that tendency is quickly killed in us by further study.

Here is our point: ask any scientist for proof of one of the established theorems of his science; let us put it even more forcibly, for proof of one of the more recondite facts of nature, and he will probably say to you: "When you come to me, after having pursued an adequate course of study, and your mind has been disciplined to understand what you are asking about, then I may be able better to aid you, for then you will be able to understand what I shall have to say." And the man would be absolutely right in giving such an answer, which is exactly in substance what our Teachers tell us. That answer comprises the basis of the argument in proof. When the questioner or aspirant is willing to discipline himself and to study, not merely to read, but to give adequate thought and study to the subject -- mental study and mental and moral discipline, including physical care for the body, and above all else showing deep spiritual aspiration -- when he has thus truly disciplined himself, because "discipline precedes the Mysteries"; when his nature is thus opened up and trained, all exactly in principle as the scientist tells the inquirer to do, then he shall know, for, as the Masters tell us: "Live the life, and ye shall know the doctrine, because knowledge will come to you naturally." And this living the life, let us say in passing, means not merely one thing, it does not mean merely morality of sex alone, however important that truly is; it means, if anything, far more than that. It means the full training of the interior man to be true, right, clean, aspiring; in other words, the good old-fashioned word righteousness, acting rightly because you are thinking rightly; because such training opens wide the doors within to the light. The man -- and woman, too, of course -- who has envy or jealousy or hatred or selfish ambition corroding his soul, or who nourishes revenge in his heart, or any other and all others of these denizens of the inner infernal regions, these hellions of the inner man, is utterly unfit to understand the doctrine; and for a very simple reason. His intellect is befuddled and beclouded. His psychic nature is thickened and rendered gross. His inner nature is cut off from its spiritual sun and its inspiration; and his very brain-mind becomes opaque to the millions of rays of the higher nature."


I was going to say this is from an old lesson I did in, "The Esoteric Tradition" volumes.  But I remember now that I saw it in another of Purucker's volumes, "Fundamentals of the Esoteric Tradition" I'm not sure I got the title right.  Oh well.

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
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You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.
  • Registered: 2007-07-06

Re: 42 Principles

This is probably very uninteresting text, in that the author is from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.  Its hard to follow the way they put words together.  I've kind of gotten used to it, even so, when I'm tired its really hard to follow every sentence.  And it is important not to skip text when reading.  Now-adays we write in a manner in that we hurry up and get to the point.  Whereas, the people from that time period were more intent on being precisely understood, and took their good 'ole sweet time doing it. 

When he mentions the seven manifest globes, in reality six of them are only so in that they at least can be described to some extent.  The existence of this Globe D is evident to us.  Globes A, B, and C are precedent to us, and Globe E, F, and G succeed this Globe.  Globe A and G are on the same plane, as is B and F, as Globe C and Globe E.   That is the extent of their similarities however, as the humanity on Globe E will possess all the experience and knowledge and understanding acquired from living out cycles of lives on all the Globes precedent to it.  So, humanity on Globe E is very much more advanced than the humanity on Globe C.  Also, a point is reached where each Globe has humanity on it, but they are not contemporaneous to each other, although at some point in the future, we will all come together as one closely knit family of living beings evolving together. 

I don't know yet, in what manner we transfer to Globe E.  I suspect we have to die first, but I really am not sure.  I'm still learning as a student myself.  I don't know of any great leaps in evolution as some speak of, I think it is one of the immutable laws that we evolve in a certain rate.  There are some who operate outside of this rule, but they usually know it, as they have reached the ability of easily being able to look back on any of all the previous lives they have lived. 

I'm not locked in on any belief, however I have found that in studying Theosophy, that whenever I take a look upon any other esoteric knowledge, the foundation I've gained through my present study helps me understand these other paths that people are following.

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
----------------------------------------------------------
You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.
  • Registered: 2007-07-06

Re: 42 Principles

1. Atman, the essential Self:

Pure Consciousness per se. The essential or radical principle or element or faculty in us which gives to us, and indeed to every other being or entity, our knowledge or sentient consciousness of pure Selfhood. This, it is to be carefully noted, is not the Ego. (416)
2. Buddhi:

The faculty or spiritual organ in Man which manifests or self-expresses itself as intuition, understanding, judgment, discrimination, etc. It is the inseparable veil or garment of the Atman.
3. Manas:

This is the center or organ of the ego-consciousness in man and in any other quasi-self-conscious entity; and is therefore the seat or producing cause of the 'I am I.'
4. Kama:

The organ or seat of the vital psycho-electric impulses, desires, aspirations, considered in their energic aspects, etc., and therefore the elemental or driving force in the human constitution. As every one of the seven principles or substances in man's constitution is itself septenary on analogical lines of structure, therefore there is a divine and spiritual kama as well as a merely grossly emotional kama, with all intermediate stages or steps.
5. Prana:

This is usually translated in modern Theosophical works as 'Life'; but it is more accurately said to be the electro-magnetic veil or 'electrical field' manifesting in the human individual as vitality.
6. Linga-sarira:

The astral model-body; popularly called 'astral body' because it is but slightly more ethereal than the physical body, and is, in fact, the astral model or astral framework around which the physical body is builded, atom for atom, molecule for molecule, cell for cell, and from which, in a sense, the physical body flows forth, or from and out of which the physical body develops as growth proceeds.
7. Sthula-sarira:

The physical body, 'gross body' or material body; the body of material or physical substance. This, strictly speaking, is no real 'principle' or elemental substance at all, but functions as the common 'carrier' of all the inner constitution of the human being during any lifetime on Earth.
The words in the left-hand column of the above list are all Sanskrit words, and would seem to require no especial elaboration as regards their various or individual meanings, except what has just been stated in the right-hand column opposite to each term.

Since Man, inclusive of all the various parts of his constitution, is a microcosm of the Macrocosm, and therefore a copy or mirroring in the small of what the
Parabrahman-Mulaprakriti or
Amulamula (Rootless Root) or
The Boundless or
Eyn Suph ('without bounds') or
The Infinitude of Space and Time
1. Paramatman, Brahman-Pradhana, Cosmic Monad:

The Monas Monadum of Pythagoras and the ancient philosophers. The Supreme Monadic Self of any Cosmic Hierarchy -- ours in this instance. The Root from which flows forth in descending serial order and progression all the other six Principles or Elements of the Universe, each evolving or unfolding or unwrapping from the one preceding. The First or Unmanifest Logos.
2. Alaya. Adi-Buddhi, or Maha-Buddhi, or Cosmic Buddhi. Akasa or Pradhana. The Root or Essence of Mahat. Anima Mundi, Cosmic Aether:

The seat or origin of the Cosmic Soul; the source of all intelligent order, regularity, and 'laws' in the Universe or Hierarchy. The Second or quasi-manifest Logos.
3. Mahat or Cosmic Mind, Intelligence, Consciousness:

The source or center of all Monadic Individualities in the Hierarchy; Individualized Intelligence, Mind, Consciousness, as contrasted with the Universal as in No. 2 above. The Third or so-called 'Creative' Logos. The Manifest Purusha-Prakriti.
4. Cosmic Kama:

The 'Desire' of the Rig-Veda, which Desire is pure impersonal universal compassion and sympathy; the source of the cosmic driving or impelling energies of the Universe involving the living intelligently electric impulses thereof. The womb of Fohat, considered as the motive yet intelligently guided Force or Forces of the Hierarchical Universe.
5. Cosmic Jiva or Cosmic Vitality:

The cosmical psycho-electro-magnetic field; the fountain and source of the Cosmic vitality permeating all beings and things in the Hierarchy and from which all these individuals derive their respective Pranas.
6. 'Astral Light': Cosmic Ether:

This is, in the Cosmical Hierarchy, the lowest actively or positively functioning aspect of the Anima Mundi of No. 2 above. It is to the Cosmical Hierarchy what the Model-Body, or Linga-sarira, is to the human body. There are great mysteries connected with the Astral Light which it would be truly impossible to elaborate in this list. It may, however, briefly be stated that it is, as H. P. Blavatsky graphically phrases it in her Theosophical Glossary, p. 38: "The invisible region that surrounds our globe, as it does every other, and corresponding as the second Principle of the Kosmos (the third being Life, of which it is the vehicle) to the Linga-sharira or the Astral Double in man. A subtle Essence visible only to a clairvoyant eye, and lowest but one (viz., the earth), of the Seven Akasic or Kosmic Principles."
The Astral Light is the great reservoir, receptacle, as well as crucible, in which all the effluxes and emanations of the Earth, whether psychical, moral, or physical, are received, and after undergoing therein a myriad of ethereal alchemical changes are reflected or radiated back to the Earth, or to any other globe in the Hierarchy, thus producing epidemic troubles or diseases, whether these latter be physical, psychic, or moral. It is likewise the seat or 'place,' as is seen from the words immediately preceding, of all the horrible and vile emanations which the Earth radiates. It is likewise and in consequence in the Astral Light that are found the various degrees or stages of the Kama-loka -- or more accurately speaking the lower degrees or stages of the Kama-loka.
7. Sthura-sarira (Sthula-sarira):

The physical universe -- the outward shell or body or integument or garment or veil of the six more ethereal Element-Principles preceding it in the above list.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPPER DUAD = Atma-Buddhi = 'Spirit'

The essential or Spiritual Self. This, which is the perpetual Root of man's constitution, lasts in uninterrupted activity on its own plane throughout the entire and vast length of the Kosmic Period or Galactic Mahamanvantara. This, then, is the real divine-spiritual Monad, unconditionally immortal for the Galactic period, and is the source whence flows forth in serial degrees or stages, all the lower portions of man's constitution, each portion unrolling or unwrapping, i. e., evolving, from its immediate predecessor, such unfolding or emanating of the constitution continuing throughout the Galactic Period in the form of recurring 'events' at and preceding each new reimbodiment.
INTERMEDIATE DUAD = Manas-Kama = 'Soul'

This Duad is the seat of the Human Ego, which is dual. The duality is composed of, first, the higher portion which aspires constantly upwards and which in its essence is the Reimbodying Ego; and, second, a lower portion, attracted downwards to the realms of material existence, which is the lower or ordinary human ego. This Duad falls apart invariably at the death or shortly after the death following each reincarnation. The Reincarnating Ego is then attracted upwards to the Upper Duad, and thus partakes of the latter's immortality; and the lower portion, after giving up to the Reincarnating Ego whatever of spirituality it may contain, after death, falls apart or is decomposed into its constituent life-atoms, which life-atoms immediately seek their proper and appropriate natural reservoir or plane. Thus the lower part of the Intermediate Duad is mortal.
LOWER TRIAD = Prana Linga-sarira Sthula-sarira = 'Body'

This Lower Triad is mortal throughout; not however in the constituent life-atoms thereof, but as a triadic vehicle or sheath or veil. It is, in other words, the physical human frame with its invisible forces and substances of both vital-astral and physical type.

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
----------------------------------------------------------
You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.
  • Registered: 2007-07-06

Re: 42 Principles

The number seven represents physical completion; the number forty-nine is seven groups of seven.  The number fifty, therefore, represents a departure from the physical realm into the spiritual one, just as does the number eight.

As is evident from the above, man -- or indeed any other being or entity in the Universe -- is builded of elements drawn from the cosmic reservoir. Yet man, from another point of view, may be considered to be something other than a mere 'bundle of cosmic energies' -- although of course whatever he is is derivative from the Universe of which he is an offspring, and an inseparable and integral part. He is, in fact, in his constitution, a series of consciousness-centers or Monads. There is, for instance, in the human constitution, a divine monad, also a spiritual monad, also an intellectual monad or Agnishwatta; there is likewise a psychical monad, which is Man as man at present is; similarly a beast-monad; and even the lowest triad or three elements of the human constitution -- that is to say, Prana, Linga-sarira, and Sthula-sarira, imbody what one might very truly and justly call an astral-physical monad.

As just stated, Monad means a center of consciousness -- let that center of consciousness be evolving on whatever plane. In other words, the Monad is an Individual. The heart of this center of consciousness or Monad we may call an Inner God, the center of consciousness of the Monadic consciousness, which inner god is the essential or intrinsic Higher Self.

A simple illustration drawn from Nature's material sphere may perhaps aid in making this thought clearer. As the student of Esotericism knows, the mystic or inmost 'heart' of our Sun is a Divinity manifesting through various inner ethereal vehicles all working together through their common 'carrier' the solar physical vehicle -- which is an immense body or aggregate of many kinds of forces -- which we commonly call the Sun. The sun emits rays, rays of many kinds including vital rays. Let us single out one of these rays for our illustration. A ray of light enters a darkened room which we may call the material world. It has its source in its Inner God, which is Father Sun. In a darkened room it appears as a beam of light. Pass this light through a prism and you get the seven prismatic rays. Each one of these rays actually is a light of its own color; yet the seven unite to form the constitution of the solar beam. Each one of these prismatic colored rays has its origin in its own solar monad, just as in man's constitution, as above said, there are the various monads -- the divine, the spiritual, the intellectual, etc. -- all working together to make the constitution of man, just as the seven prismatic rays work together or combine to make the solar beam. The origin or heart of the beam is the Inner God or Solar Divinity sending forth from itself the seven children-monads or seven party-rays or prismatic rays combining to form the constitution of the radiation, which thus becomes the manifested radiated individual beam. Let us say that one of these seven rays of the beam is the highest. We will call that the efflux of its Divine Monad. Another of these seven rays of the beam let us call the ray flowing forth from its Spiritual Monad. Another of the seven prismatic rays we will say is a ray flowing forth from its Intellectual Monad; and so forth down the scale.(418)

Here then we see that we have seven monads combining to form on this plane a manifested being and all seven nevertheless issuing forth from the heart of their common Father-Monad, the 'god in heaven,' or the beam's Inner God. Yet, wonderful mystery! the 'heart' of each one of these children-monads, although united to form the constitution of the beam and although flowing forth from the bosom of the Father-Monad, is nevertheless itself on its own plane a divinity and therefore itself a Father-Monad. No wonder is it that the ancients spoke of man as a composite being, a microcosm containing in himself a duplication or replica of the vast Universe!

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
----------------------------------------------------------
You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.
  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2005-07-11

Re: 42 Principles

Hey Antaeus
All that stuff seems a bit over me. Have you studied Hermetic philosophy?

"The universe is on fire with wonder, beauty, and ecstasy." - From the Undines to Humanity

6 Reply by Antaeus (edited by Antaeus 2007-12-25 20:27:03)

  • Registered: 2007-07-06

Re: 42 Principles

Hildegarde wrote:

Hey Antaeus
All that stuff seems a bit over me. Have you studied Hermetic philosophy?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Darn!  I didn't think of that.  I figured it would be understandable.  I did read and do a lot of lessons on the topic before getting to this level.  On the Hermetic philosophy I would be saying the exact same thing you just did.  I've made attempts at studying it, but have never gone into it in-depth.  I always equate Hermetic philosophy with alchemy, is that what you mean?

There was a brief tv series on the Sci-fi channel, I think it was called "Dresdon-wizard for hire" or something like that.  I loved it!  From what I've seen of Hermetics, it seems very difficult to learn.  I suspect a lot of time each day with a teacher is necessary.  Theosophy, I can manage through the mail with a teacher, or online with a teacher as I'm now doing it. 

Also, I suspect some people who study Hermetic philosophy, as well as Thelema, have a deep seated greed driving them.  Yes, I feel that greed is a strong driving force for many people who study esoteric paths. 

I want to make a quick disclaimer by saying it is only a very tiny little suspicion of mine, and I'm probably way off base.

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
----------------------------------------------------------
You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.
  • From: East Coast
  • Registered: 2006-08-06

Re: 42 Principles

Antaeus:
Thanks for the post
I'm Diggin it!
This struck me as the heart of some of threads drift:

Antaeus wrote:

That answer comprises the basis of the argument in proof. When the questioner or aspirant is willing to discipline himself and to study, not merely to read, but to give adequate thought and study to the subject -- mental study and mental and moral discipline, including physical care for the body, and above all else showing deep spiritual aspiration -- when he has thus truly disciplined himself, because "discipline precedes the Mysteries"; when his nature is thus opened up and trained, all exactly in principle as the scientist tells the inquirer to do, then he shall know, for, as the Masters tell us: "Live the life, and ye shall know the doctrine, because knowledge will come to you naturally.

I would only add that "opened up" is enough...
"trained" suggests another kind of conditioning that we lack (?) but
awareness is it's own truth and is awareness because is it not conditioned or the direct result of any specific discipline~
It simply is... when we are not
when the internal dialogue/intellect/self concern is silent...in obeyance...
consumed by observation,
the entire brain works more clearly, quietly and efficiently. Things that seemed beyond you previously, suddenly appear plain and simple in front of you.

Discipline is not a heroic ideal!
it is just the result of interest
root word: disciple
One who is interested and committed to achieve understanding

I find that listening can happen during during almost any activity except hypnotic things like Television commercials and blockbuster action-movies.

feedbaxlow's Website

  • Registered: 2007-07-06

Re: 42 Principles

Thanks feedbaxlow.  Trained is probably appropriate.  There are two ways.  I've read once that a person can simply live a good life all his days, and I'm being very crummy in the way I'm putting this, but without going back to where I read it, I'm depending on my memory.  The first way is simply living a good life.  The second way is a quickening of evolution and a person can not do this alone.  So, yes, he probably meant the word training. 

I think arguement can be presented which might suggest that we don't require a master/disciple venue any longer.  I don't know how successful it would be.

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
----------------------------------------------------------
You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.
  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2005-07-11

Re: 42 Principles

Antaeus
I sent you a PM.

"The universe is on fire with wonder, beauty, and ecstasy." - From the Undines to Humanity
  • Registered: 2007-07-06

Re: 42 Principles

Eighth Sphere or Planet of Death
A term used in the more esoteric or inner part of the teachings about which little can be said, for over this part of the doctrine there has always been drawn a thick veil of secrecy and silence.

Frequently the term is confused with avichi, but this is incorrect, because the two, while closely connected, are nevertheless quite distinct. While avichi is a state where very evil human beings "die and are reborn without interruption," yet not without hope of final redemption -- something which can actually take place even on our physical plane in the cases of very evil or soulless men -- the Eighth Sphere represents a degree of psychomental degeneration still more advanced. As just hinted, even in avichi there is a possibility of reinsoulment by the ray of the spiritual monad; whereas in the Eighth Sphere or Planet of Death such possibility finally vanishes, and the entity which has sunk to the Planet of Death is what is technically called in the esoteric philosophy a "lost soul." In the Eighth Sphere the lost souls are ground over and over in nature's laboratory, and are finally dissipated into their component psycho-astral elements or life-atoms. The Eighth Sphere or Planet of Death is an actual globe. It is also of course a state or condition of being; whereas the avichi is almost exclusively a state or condition in which an entity may find itself, although obviously this entity must have position or place and therefore locality in space -- on our earth or elsewhere.

Elemental(s)
Nature-spirits or sprites. The theosophical usage, however, means beings who are beginning a course of evolutionary growth, and who thus are in the elemental states of their growth. It is a generalizing term for purposes of convenient expression for all beings evolutionally below the minerals. Nevertheless, the minerals themselves are expressions of one family or host or hierarchy of elemental beings of a more evolved type. The vegetable kingdom likewise manifests merely one family or host of elemental beings happening to be in the vegetable phase of their evolution on this earth. Just so likewise is it as regards the beasts. The beasts are highly evolved elemental beings, relatively speaking. Men in far distant aeons of the kosmic past were elemental beings also. We have evolved from that elemental stage into becoming men, expressing with more or less ease, mostly very feebly, the innate divine powers and faculties locked up in the core of the core of each one of us.

An elemental is a being who has entered our universe on the lowest plane or in the lowest world, degree, or step on the rising stairway of life; and this stairway of life begins in any universe at its lowest stage, and ends for that universe in its highest stage -- the universal kosmic spirit. Thus the elemental passes from the elemental stage through all the realms of being as it rises along the stairway of life, passing through the human stage, becoming superhuman, quasi-divine -- a quasi-god -- then becoming a god. Thus did we humans first enter this present universe.

Every race of men on earth has believed in these hosts of elemental entities -- some visible, like men, like the beasts, like the animate plants; and others invisible. The invisible entities have been called by various names: fairies, sprites, hobgoblins, elves, brownies, pixies, nixies, leprechauns, trolls, kobolds, goblins, banshees, fawns, devs, jinn, satyrs, and so forth. The medieval mystics taught that these elemental beings were of four general kinds: those arising in and frequenting the element of fire -- salamanders; those arising in and frequenting the element air -- sylphs; those arising in and frequenting the element water -- undines; those arising in and frequenting the element earth -- gnomes.

Elementaries
"Properly, the disembodied souls of the depraved; these souls having at some time prior to death separated from themselves their divine spirits, and so lost their chance for immortality" (Theosophical Glossary, H. P. Blavatsky).

Strictly speaking, the word "elementaries" should be used as H. P. Blavatsky defines it in this quotation from her. But in modern theosophical literature the word has come to signify more particularly the phantoms or eidola of disembodied persons, these phantoms or eidola really being the kama-rupic shades, with especial application to the cases of grossly materialistic ex-humans whose evil impulses and appetites still inhering in the kama-rupic phantom draw these phantoms to physical spheres congenial to them. They are a real danger to psychical health and sanity, and literally haunt living human beings possessing tendencies akin to their own. They are soulless shells, but still filled with energies of a depraved and ignoble type. Their destiny of course is like that of all other pretas or bhutas -- ultimate disintegration; for the gross astral atoms composing them slowly dissolve through the years after the manner of a dissolving column of smoke or a wisp of dark cloud on a mountainside.

Avichi
(Sanskrit) A word, the general meaning of which is "waveless," having no waves or movement, suggesting the stagnation of life and being in immobility; it also means "without happiness" or "without repose." A generalized term for places of evil realizations, but not of punishment in the Christian sense; where the will for evil, and the unsatisfied evil longings for pure selfishness, find their chance for expansion -- and final extinction of the entity itself. Avichi has many degrees or grades. Nature has all things in her; if she has heavens where good and true men find rest and peace and bliss, so has she other spheres and states where gravitate those who must find an outlet for the evil passions burning within. They, at the end of their avichi, go to pieces and are ground over and over, and vanish away finally like a shadow before the sunlight in the air -- ground over in nature's laboratory. (See also Eighth Sphere)

Soulless Beings
"We elbow soulless men in the streets at every turn," wrote H. P. Blavatsky. This is an actual fact. The statement does not mean that those whom we thus elbow have no soul. The significance is that the spiritual part of these human beings is sleeping, not awake. They are animate humans with an animate working brain-mind, an animal mind, but otherwise "soulless" in the sense that the soul is inactive, sleeping; and this is also just what Pythagoras meant when he spoke of the "living dead." They are everywhere, these people. We elbow them, just as H. P. Blavatsky says, at every turn. The eyes may be physically bright, and filled with the vital physical fire, but they lack soul; they lack tenderness, the fervid yet gentle warmth of the living flame of inspiration within. Sometimes impersonal love will awaken the soul in a man or in a woman; sometimes it will kill it if the love become selfish and gross. The streets are filled with such "soulless" people; but the phrase soulless people does not mean "lost souls." The latter is again something else. The term soulless people therefore is a technical term. It means men and women who are still connected, but usually quite unconsciously, with the monad, the spiritual essence within them, but who are not self-consciously so connected. They live very largely in the brain-mind and in the fields of sensuous consciousness. They turn with pleasure to the frivolities of life. They have the ordinary feelings of honor, etc., because it is conventional and good breeding so to have them; but the deep inner fire of yearning, the living warmth that comes from being more or less at one with the god within, they know not. Hence, they are "soulless," because the soul is not working with fiery energy in and through them.

A lost soul, on the other hand, means an entity who through various rebirths, it may be a dozen, or more or less, has been slowly following the "easy descent to Avernus," and in whom the threads of communication with the spirit within have been snapped one after the other. Vice will do this, continuous vice. Hate snaps these spiritual threads more quickly than anything else perhaps. Selfishness, the parent of hate, is the root of all human evil; and therefore a lost soul is one who is not merely soulless in the ordinary theosophical usage of the word, but is one who has lost the last link, the last delicate thread of consciousness, connecting him with his inner god. He will continue "the easy descent," passing from human birth to an inferior human birth, and then to one still more inferior, until finally the degenerate astral monad -- all that remains of the human being that once was -- may even enter the body of some beast to which it feels attracted (and this is one side of the teaching of transmigration, which has been so badly misunderstood in the Occident); some finally go even to plants perhaps, at the last, and will ultimately vanish. The astral monad will then have faded out. Such lost souls are exceedingly rare, fortunately; but they are not what we call soulless people.

If the student will remember the fact that when a human being is filled with the living spiritual and intellectual fiery energies flowing into his brain-mind from his inner god, he is then an insouled being, he will readily understand that when these fiery energies can no longer reach the brain-mind and manifest in a man's life, there is thus produced what is called a soulless being. A good man, honorable, loyal, compassionate, aspiring, gentle, and true-hearted, and a student of wisdom, is an "insouled" man; a buddha is one who is fully, completely insouled; and there are all the intermediate grades between.

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One may suppose that there is not a particle of physical matter on our earth which has not been through our bodies in this and in other incarnations, and many times so. Through air, through water, through food, and on each taking of a meal, the body is nourished only by those portions which are native to it; in other words, its own atomic children, so to say, its own offspring, which are the 'souls,' the atomic souls, which originally came forth from the vital center which man is, and which are now drawn back to him and which he takes again temporarily into his being. It is they which build him up, nourish him; and in doing so, they re-enter into their parent, abide for a while within the sphere of his ethereal or electro-magnetic nature, reissue forth again on peregrinations particular to themselves, and again return to him, only to repeat the same cycle endlessly, although as individuals they are steadily growing because evolving, which means unfolding. The same rule applies with equal accuracy to the invisible sheaths or bodies of man's composite constitution.

Again, the same rule of peregrination, or of migrating and transmigrating or circumrotating and transrotating beings and entities, applies throughout the Universe, so that every being or entity which is, is in a continuous and unending series of revolvings through the various worlds or ranges or spheres which form our solar system, whether these worlds and spheres be visible or invisible. Yet these revolvings through the spheres invisible or visible are not in any sense working at hap or hazard, nor by chance or fortuity, but strictly according to natural laws, among which some of the most important are the spiritual, intellectual, psychic, astral, and physical, magnetic attractions or repulsions which direct the 'revolving souls' hither or thither at all times and everywhere. Yet each such peregrinating and evolving and revolving Monad, is a 'child' or offspring of some one of the countless Hierarchies which infill the Universe in the manner hereinbefore sketched.

In precisely the same manner is man a child of the hierarchical Home-Universe or Galaxy in which he lives: in his highest nature, a spiritual offspring or child or emanation of the Divine Hierarch that is the Self-conscious Divine Heart of our Universe.

All this may seem very mystical and abstruse to those who are unaccustomed to the philosophy of the Esoteric Tradition, but even a modicum of serious investigation will show the earnest student how fascinatingly coherent and logical and therefore satisfactory these teachings are.

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Re: 42 Principles

...It may be just as well for the sake of clarity, and in order to round out even this brief presentation of this aspect of the teaching of the Esoteric Tradition, to define with somewhat greater particularity just what it is that is called an Elemental in our Cosmic Philosophy. First and foremost, then, and as a statement of first importance, an Elemental should be considered to be an evolving and revolving 'soul' in its earliest or elemental stages -- a life-center in its appearance in this material sphere; and attention should be drawn away from any ideas about form or 'shape' that the elemental may or may not have. The form or shape is a matter of no importance whatsoever, at least in this definition, because, as a matter of fact, the elementals or elemental lives, as being the nature-sprites of the elements, change their presentations of form or shape with a rapidity which can only be likened, and truly likened, to the rapidity with which the 'forms' or 'shapes' of forces manifest themselves.

Indeed, the elemental is just that: an elemental force or energy which is ensouled by a jiva...

Elementals are simply nature-spirits or nature-sprites, in all-various degrees of evolutionary unfolding. A stroke of lightning is a cosmic elemental at work, in action. What Occidentals, translating the word Maruts of the East-Indian Vedas, quaintly call 'wind-gods' or 'storm-gods,' are cosmic elementals but of exceedingly high class; indeed these Maruts, it may be said in passing, are really elementals evolved or unfolded to so high a degree that they may verily with truth be called self-conscious spirits of Nature.

Man was himself an elemental which through evolution or unfolding inner capacities has grown from un-individuality to monadic individualization -- at least so grown in part, because there is no end to the same growth before him. Man is at the same time a mass of elementals subordinate to him, just as he himself is subordinate to the gods, who also formerly in far past Cosmic Periods were then elementals, but who now have evolved and revolved through the stages of 'evolving souls' into being gods. This bare and brief statement is true indeed, but it is only a microscopic fraction of the truth about the subject.

The elementals, therefore, are the great and semi-automatic communistic workers or quasi-conscious agents in Nature, imbodying not only their relative proportions of mind and consciousness, but likewise the hierarchical ranges of the higher minds and consciousnesses who use them in this manner, and thus bring about the multi-myriad forms of work in the Universe. Consequently, these ever active and, from the human standpoint, incessantly 'industrious' nature-sprites, are everywhere, and are the instrumental means or causes for bringing about the doing of whatever is done anywhere, and this is the case equally with works of high intelligence or in works of low. A man writing a book does so by and with the aid of elementals that he temporarily enslaves to the mandates of his mind and will; the same man lounging in a chair or swimming in the sea, or riding a horse, or a bicycle, or driving an automobile, or sitting in church or in a meeting, or in the seance-room studying the so-called 'phenomena' that are present there -- all these actions are performed by and with and through the aid of elementals.

When certain mediumistic humans are present in these seance-rooms, it happens that at times the elementals go out of control, as it were, and then they show their presence by twitching things or jerking things, or making strange and unusual noises. A house where such things happen is a house containing what the Germans call a Poltergeist, or what is sometimes called a spook, or what other peoples call a bhuta, or a jinni, or what not; and most people then would say that the house is 'haunted.' In the presence of certain mediums whose human principles are so poorly co-ordinated and controlled that these principles are, as it were, loose and do not function properly -- in other words, when the human principles do not automatically obey the higher mind and will of these individuals -- the elementals sometimes go 'out of hand,' and occasionally so much so, that the most astonishing things may happen, such as raising or tipping of tables, or throwing down crockery in a closet if the 'medium' be near, or tripping him up and making him fall, or making his bed shake or rise on a leg -- indeed it is possible for them to work all kinds of pranks in such cases. It is all a matter of nature-forces flowing from the 'medium' in unregulated and quasi-anarchic fashion. Once that the rationale and nature and cause of these phenomena are understood, it is at once seen that there is nothing at all 'weird' or 'uncanny' about them, no more so than is an attack of hysterics, or an attack of rheumatism, or a bad stumble when walking -- all of which events are instances of the facts just outlined.

The word 'elementals' is simply a generalizing term meaning 'nature-forces,' whether cosmic or infinitesimal in magnitude; and it is most important to remember that all elementals are undeveloped, i. e., unevolved, entities because arising in the Cosmic Elements. As said above, the gods are self-conscious beings who in past Cosmic Periods were elementals, but who now have passed out of that stage into the divine stage, and at present are the powers of Light and the typical relatively fully evolved exemplars of self-conscious beings in the universe. A human, also relatively evolved as he is but in a lower degree than the gods are, in far past time was also a nature-sprite or Cosmic Elemental. (108) What else could he have been? He is a part of Nature; he is a spiritually and intellectually individualized nature-force; he has gained a certain degree of self-consciousness; in other words, he has brought forth from within his Monad, out of his Monadic Essence, into manifestation, some of the divine and quasi-divine powers for ever living there.

Yet every time when a man is overcome with either a human or a beastly passion, for that series of moments he is more or less in the grip of, under the sway of the dominating power of, an elemental or group of elementals which normally belong and function in the lower parts of his constitution and which he uses when in full control of himself as forces automatically following the mandates of his mind and will for higher purposes.

So, taking into account the ensouling elemental, the life-atom may properly be called an embryo-soul, because it is an individualized vital force, each one a center of consciousness of its own specific type and quality, having a cohering individual form, yet withal linked with the mightiest as well as with the feeblest by innumerable tendrils of vital cohesion in the Boundless All. For universal Nature in all her divisions or hierarchical ranges is by them interlocked and interlinked in every way and in every 'direction' and in every 'dimension,' by unbreakable bonds of Cosmic Vital Essence.

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Re: 42 Principles

Section III
Buddhism has always been greatly misunderstood in the Occident, and this misunderstanding has arisen almost wholly because Occidental scholars themselves have misapprehended a large number of the most important teachings of the religio-philosophy of Gautama; and because these Occidental scholars imbodied their misapprehensions in their studies in and of Buddhism, and because such studies were printed and published, the reading Occidental public followed suit as was only to be expected; and thus it is that there is perhaps no single world-religion known today which has suffered so greatly in this respect as Buddhism has.

It has at times been called a religion of pessimism, simply because Occidentals have not understood its profound intellectual reaches nor its proper placing of the values of the material side of life. In the Occidental view, to teach that a man is an impermanent composite of elements of varying ethereality, and that when he dies this composite is dissolved, and that its component parts then enter into their respective realms or kingdoms or spheres of Nature: all this signifies to the Occidental mind that such a doctrine teaches utter annihilation of the compounded entity as an entity; for, consciously or unconsciously, such Occidental critics ignore the unifying and binding root of being of every such entity which brings at periodical intervals this compound together again out of the identic life-atoms that composed it in former existences.

Occidental scholars so think, or they think that they so think, because they do not understand that this very 'root,' or element, or subtil bond -- call it what you like -- i. e., the individualizing energy which brought these samskaras (40) or compounds or composites together, is, when all is said and done in argument, a unifying and therefore individualizing force; and that this unifying or individualizing force, no matter what we may call it, remains after the dissolution of the compound, and likewise has its own cosmic reservoir or kingdom or realm to which it returns; nor do they understand that this unifying or individualizing force the Lord Gautama in his great wisdom called the 'Buddha,' the inner originant, for which an equivalent term in the Mahayana of Northern Asia is Dhyani-Buddha.

It is quite true that from certain Occidental philosophical standpoints, the teaching of Gautama the Buddha may formally be considered 'pessimistic'; but only so if one judge it by Occidental philosophical standards alone, and ignore the intrinsic meaning of the Buddha himself; and is this either wise or fair? Ignoring a factor in a problem is not solving the problem properly. Can it, one asks, then be rightly done? How can we judge something which arose in the Orient and became the Law of the more civilized Oriental world for its own time-period, and successfully passed the examination of the keenest minds and the most astute intellects of ages, by the changing and therefore biased standards of Occidental scientific speculations, with a vague background of European philosophy, which speculations themselves are only some three hundred or more years old in their origin, and probably not more than seventy-five years old, or less, in their present form?

There was a time, not so long ago, when one teaching of the Buddha, that of the Nirvana, was considered by Occidental scholars to mean that the Lord Gautama taught that annihilation, utter, complete, was the end of every living conscious being, when that being had attained unto the stage of inner growth where it entered into this nirvanic state; and they pointed, naturally enough, to the Sanskrit meaning of this compound word: nir, 'out' or 'off,' and vana, the past participle passive of the root va, 'to blow': hence 'to blow out.' As they sagely and logically enough said: "Nirvana means 'blown out,' as a candle-flame is 'blown out' by the breath!" Ay, so it does. But what is it that is 'blown out'? What is it that ceases to exist? Is it the unifying spiritual force which brings this compound entity into being anew in a serial line of succession which has no known beginning, and which the Buddhist teaching itself shows to be something which reproduces itself in this series of illusory, because compounded, vehicles? This is impossible, because if this individualizing or unifying energy were 'blown out,' i. e., annihilated, it obviously could not continue to reproduce itself as the inspiriting energy of newly compounded bodies due to its own working. Therefore obviously enough what is blown out is the samskaras, the compounds, resulting from, i.e., born or produced by, the karman of the individual. This karman, therefore, and speaking with strict logical sequence of thought, which the doctrine imbodies, is the individual himself or itself; because the Buddhist teaching is that what is reproduced is the karman of the preceding individual, i. e., that any composite entity changes from instant to instant, and that at each new instant, the change is the resultant or effect or consequence of the preceding instant of change. Thus, then, the individual is his own karman at any instant in time, because that karman is the totality of what he is himself. When a man's composite parts are 'blown out,' i. e., 'enter Nirvana,' i. e., are 'extinguished,' rendered extinct, as the just previously existing compound, then all the rest of the being, that deathless center of unifying and individualizing spiritual force around which these composites or samskaras periodically gather -- lives as a Buddha.

This is exactly and as far as it goes (because there is much more that might be said), the teaching of Esoteric Theosophy, of the Esoteric Tradition. All the evil and lower part of us must be wiped out, extinguished, 'annihilated' if you like; in other words the karman that produced these illusory composites must be caused to cease; and new composites, nobler ones -- the products or effects or resultants of the preceding composites -- those henceforth joined to the Buddhic essence of the being, that spiritual force which is the inner Buddha, will then continue and on its own high plane live, because no longer controlled by the veils of the world of Maya, Illusion -- the worlds of impermanent structural composites. The being thus become a Buddha because of its delivery from enshrouding veils, has now reached the state and condition of passing out of the impermanence of all manifested existence into the utter permanence of cosmic Reality.

The matter of the real meaning of the Nirvana has thus been elaborated, albeit in somewhat sketchy fashion, in order to show that the supposition of many Westerners that the teaching of the Nirvana is a pessimistic doctrine because meaning utter extinction into the abyss of non-entity, is baseless. Hence, far from being pessimistic, the doctrine of the Nirvana is one of extraordinary hope. The word 'optimism' is not here used, because it is as subject to adverse critical comment as is its antonym 'pessimism.'

Far from being a religion of pessimism, when properly understood the religion of the Buddha is a religion -- not of optimism indeed, but of wisdom. These words are used advisedly, because it is certain that unthinking optimism is as foolish in its way as is unthinking pessimism. Neither is wise, because each is an extreme. The teaching of the Buddha was so wisely given by that Great Sage that it showed to men a pathway which went neither to the right -- to one extreme -- nor to the left -- to the other extreme; but chose the Middle Way, the way of Truth, avoiding the falling into the extremes of either side. All extremes are unreal, no matter what they may be, because unphilosophical; and it is the great subtilty of the Tathagata's teaching which has rendered it so difficult for Occidentals to understand. One often reads essays printed in the Occident by Westerners who have become Buddhists; and one may admire them for the courage with which they work in their new field; but, with no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, it is difficult to avoid being grieved by their usual lack of understanding of what is after all the heart, the core, of the great Buddha's teaching. The letter indeed of the Buddhist scriptures has been grasped -- more or less; but the spirit, i. e., the Buddha's 'heart,' is rarely or never understood. The Eye-Doctrine, in other words, is comprehended to a certain extent; but the Heart-Doctrine, the hid part, the esoteric part, is not seized, or only grasped intuitively and to a certain extent only at the rarest intervals.

Section IV
Ay, there is such a thing as esoteric Buddhism (41), despite the denials of this fact by very eminent Occidental Buddhist scholars. After all, what value is there in

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Re: 42 Principles

G. de P. -- I am now ready to answer questions.

Student -- One of the members of this group in reading one of Robert Browning's poems gave a unique interpretation of it, and I would like to ask you if such a thing would be possible. There is a king, who in the mind of this member was somewhat of an initiate or teacher, and he had a very dear disciple or chela who was devoted and faithful. The teacher was going through a struggle with some evil forces, which perhaps he had attracted to himself in some former incarnation, and the pupil through his utter selflessness and impersonal love was able to draw away these evil forces, and the teacher thus came out of the struggle successfully.

It seemed such an interesting and unusual situation I wondered if such a thing could ever be possible.

G. de P. -- It is indeed a most unusual -- or would be rather -- a most unusual thing. Usually, of course, it is the teacher who watches over his pupils, guides their steps, and saves them from danger. But at the same time the devoted love and watchfulness of the chelas for their teacher is a very real force of protection thrown around the teacher. The chelas can at least free the teacher's attention, to a certain extent, from guarding -- if I may so phrase the matter -- his own atmosphere, his own individuality.

I don't think that the power that a chela could ordinarily have would be strong enough to interfere with the teacher's karma. Karma always must come, and the teacher would be the last person in the world to prevent its coming, to impede its coming. With the wisdom and insight and spiritual strength that a real teacher has, or is supposed to have, he would be able to lead such an evil karma falling upon him into rivulets, or small runlets, of exhaustion, so that the entirety of the burden might not fall upon him as a crushing blow. Such cases occasionally happen. Disease, for instance, along the lines of the explanation that I have tried to give on other occasions, is frequently treated in this way. I do not know what else I could answer. Is the answer at all responsive to your thought?

Student -- Yes, thank you. It is just what I thought.

Student -- Four weeks ago you told us that only one globe of any septenary chain on the same planes of the kosmos as our earth's planetary chain, can be seen by the men who live in this fourth round of the earth's planetary chain. In other words, the fourth globe of any chain, the lowest globe of any chain, is that globe which can be sensed by the inhabitants of this fourth globe of the earth-chain, because all such visible globes are all on the same plane of material existence on which we are in this our fourth globe of the earth-chain.

G. de P. -- That is right.

Student -- That was quoted from the corrected stenographic report of four weeks ago. Question: I believe, if I understand correctly, that each one of the planets that we see is part, or rather is only one globe, of each respective planetary chain. Is then this globe that we see the fourth globe of each respective chain?

G. de P. -- Yes, it is; and we see these fourth globes of the other planetary chains only because we are on the same cosmic plane. There is one reservation that perhaps I should have made in the quotation that you have read from me, and it is this: that those who have passed the fourth degree of initiation can see other globes than the fourth one of the several planetary chains. Do you understand?

Student -- Yes, thank you. May I lead up to my next question with this remark? I understand that there are seven planes with a globe on each corresponding plane -- in the large sense -- and that also there is a moon connected with each globe of the earth-chain. Is that correct?

G. de P. -- The latter part is correct. Each globe of the earth-chain has a corresponding globe of the lunar chain which is its own parent. But the seven globes of the earth's planetary chain do not exist on seven different cosmic planes. All the seven globes of the planetary chain of the earth exist only on the four lower cosmic planes. On the fourth cosmic plane there exist two globes of our planetary chain, the first and the last, globe A and globe G. On the fifth cosmic plane counting downwards there exist likewise two globes of our planetary chain, globe B and globe F. On the sixth cosmic plane counting downwards there likewise exist two globes of our planetary chain, globe C and globe E. And on the seventh and last or lowest of the cosmic planes, there exists one globe, our earth, it being the turning point of all the rounds. Have you the picture in your mind?

Student -- Yes, thank you. I think that it also answers my next question. Then that is why you speak of two moon-globes and the two earth-globes existing on the same next solar plane?

G. de P. -- Correct. That is quite right.

Student -- Referring to this question about the poem that Browning wrote about Saul: in order to make any sense out of it, it seems that we have to interpret the Bible story theosophically, in order to face the characters where they have a meaning; and would it be correct to assign the name Saul to the human soul, and David to the divinity?

G. de P. -- Well now, there is a mystical thought which is not so wide of the truth; but I do not think that the two Jewish Biblical characters of David and Saul refer specifically to the two human principles of which you speak. There is, however, a mystical allusion, or rather a forced one, if you like.

David, I understand, was "a man after God's own heart," was he not?

Many Voices -- Yes.

G. de P. -- Well, in our own times, I am afraid that the police would have jailed him for bigamy among other things, or trigamy, or some other kind of "igamy." You see, I would not like to say that the application that you have made is an exact one, though your thought runs along the true line. Do you understand me?

Student -- The picture that the poet paints of David seems to be very beautiful.

G. de P. -- Well, David has been given a coat of whitewash, like so many others of the biblical characters. He was perhaps no worse than other folk of his times, or of our times for the matter of that.

Student -- What is the relation, if any, between the globe D of the earth-chain and the humanity of globe D of the earth-chain, and the three superior globes during earth-life, or at any other time? What is the relation between this globe D and the three ascending or superior globes of the chain?

G. de P. -- The three ascending globes of the chain? There is a very close relation indeed. I may perhaps say this, following the ancient rule that when an intuitive question is asked, some answer must be forthcoming.

Physically speaking, human beings are the children of the earth. The moon is also very closely involved in the production of our physical form. The three ascending globes of the earth-chain have practically nothing at all to do with the physical body of man, but a very great deal to do with the interior part of man's constitution, and especially after death. I will also say this, that the monad after the death of a physical body on earth passes through these three globes on the ascending arc of the earth's planetary chain, before the monad goes on to destinies still more wonderful.

Do you get a hint from what I have answered?

Student -- Yes, thank you.

Student -- Who created the animals and vegetables and the mineral kingdom of the first round if man came after them? Were they the result of what we did on the moon?

G. de P. -- Are you speaking of the first round?

Student -- Yes, Professor. Because we understand that the animals came from man, and indeed that all the lower kingdoms came from man. I am puzzled.

G. de P. -- It is quite true that the animals and the lower kingdoms came from "man," and yet man, as we know him, came later than the minerals and vegetables, but not the animals. Now this is a puzzle, worthy of Oedipus, is it not? Well, here is the idea. You are speaking of the first round. That was the formative period during which the seven globes of the earth's planetary chain were formed -- were in formation. There were no men when the earth first began to form. There were the three elemental kingdoms which did their work around the laya-center, helping to build up this aeriform, luciform, translucent body which the earth then was. Are you referring only to our fourth globe?

Student -- No, I was referring to globe A.

G. de P. -- Very well, then, globe A. In that case the same remark applies exactly. When the three elemental kingdoms had done their work on globe A, they went into obscuration, and then the surplusage of their life passed downwards into a more material region and began the elemental work of forming the succeeding globe B. But meanwhile on globe A, the mineral kingdom had begun to come into existence, and the mineral kingdom at this early time was the product of the monads which in the fourth round were destined to become men, or rather, destined to manifest as men. Do you understand?

Student -- Yes, Professor.

G. de P. -- When the mineral kingdom had finished its work on globe A, it in its turn then went into obscuration, and its surplusage of life passed to form the mineral kingdom on globe B; while the three elemental kingdoms which had preceded it on the downward arc during round one, moved forward, each one, a step to globe C, D, and E, beginning the elemental forms on these three globes. Meanwhile, going back to globe A which the surplusage of life in the mineral kingdom had left and which partly remained in obscuration on globe A as the mineral kingdom there, the vegetable kingdom then began to put in an appearance on globe A, a still further manifestation of the seven classes of the monads which were to produce men, the monads which were to express themselves as humans on globe D, our earth, in the fourth round. When the vegetable kingdom had run through its seven root-races, or had finished its work on globe A, then just exactly as the preceding kingdoms had done, a part remained on globe A as the sishtas, the seeds, in obscuration; and the surplusage of the life forces of the vegetable kingdom passed on to globe B, the second globe on the downward arc, in order to form the vegetable kingdom there. And with its incoming into globe B, or the second globe, each one of the kingdoms which had preceded it and which were then existent on different globes, moved forward each one a globe or a step in evolution. Returning again to globe A. Almost immediately coincident with the entering into obscuration of the vegetable kingdom on globe A, the animal kingdom began to put in an appearance on globe A, these animal monads being one of the classes of monads which later on, and during the fourth round, would become human beings, men. Do you follow the scheme thus far?

Student -- Yes, Professor.

G. de P. -- When the beasts, if you may call them that, on globe A in the first round had run through their seven root-races on that globe -- or seven rings, or seven cycles, call them what you will -- and had finished their racial evolution, a part of them went into obscuration as the sishtas or seeds for the next planetary manvantara, and the surplusage or remaining life-forces of the animal kingdom passed in their turn down into globe B which was then ready for the incoming animal kingdom, because on globe B the preceding or vegetable kingdom had finished its work. When this occurred each one of the kingdoms already in the procession forwards, took still another step forwards, that is, each one of the kingdoms went to another globe.

Returning again to globe A: now comes the time for the primary human beings to appear on globe A in the first round. They came -- sketches of a humanity, so to speak. And this embryo humanity went through its seven root-races on globe A producing in the seventh root-race beings very closely akin to what we would call men; but beings appropriate in every way, physically, psychologically, spiritually and otherwise, to globe A during the first round. When the seven root-races of the human kingdom on globe A during the first round were ended, then globe A as a globe went into obscuration, because the human kingdom passed on to the next globe B; and just as before each one of the preceding classes of monads, the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal, moved each one a step ahead.

Thus then the auric eggs -- and I am changing the figure of explanation now -- the auric eggs which began the building up of globe A as the three elemental kingdoms are the same auric eggs which in the fourth round enshrine human beings. Do you see the picture?

Student -- Of the elemental kingdoms, yes.

G. de P. -- Man is a microcosm. He has in his composition the three elemental kingdoms, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the beast kingdom, and the human kingdom, and in addition is overshadowed or over-lightened by a god -- his own inner god.

The time periods of the respective appearances of the beasts and men on earth are puzzling because in certain of our teachings it is taught that man preceded the beasts, and in other parts it is stated that man came after the beasts. As a matter of fact, both statements are true, but depending upon the time periods one has in mind. So far as the globes are concerned and the rounds, the beasts preceded man as man now is, but man outran the higher orders of the beasts; so that when in the fourth round on this fourth globe man appeared, he appeared before the mammals, and this word mammals is the important word to recollect. The lower animals evolutionally beneath the mammals appeared on earth, this earth, this fourth globe in this fourth round, before man did, being sishtas and products from the preceding third round; but the mammalian beasts came after man, and as a matter of fact directly from him in the early third root-race and after. Do you understand it a little better now, perhaps?

Recollect this also, Companions, that everything on globe D, earth, and throughout the entire planetary chain of earth, ultimately or rather originally came from man. The three elemental kingdoms, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the beast kingdom, and of course his own kingdom; and when the word man is used in this way it does not mean man as he now is, but that particular stream of astral monadic essences who inform man even at the present time. I repeat: during previous rounds the leading family of monads, which now is the human family, threw off from itself during those different rounds first the elemental kingdoms, then the mineral kingdom, then the vegetable kingdom, and then the beasts beneath the mammals, and man as we now know him came afterwards. But in the fourth round on this fourth globe, man had outrun in his evolutionary course those higher classes of beasts called the mammalian astral monads, and therefore man as a family appeared before they did. Do you understand it better?

Many Voices -- Yes, thank you, Professor.

G. de P. -- As a final comment, I might also add that as mammals signifies beings with breasts, sexual beings, man must have separated from his former androgynous or hermaphroditic state before the mammalian beasts appeared. Of course non-mammalian sex appeared before the mammals, but here we are discussing that form of sex which we call the mammalian. Man himself is a mammal, physically speaking, remember. Recollect also in this connection that the original appearances of the first and second root-races appeared far back in geologic time -- in fact in what is now called the Primary Age by geologists, and even as far back in the Primary Age possibly as the Devonian and Permian Periods. It was probably in the Triassic Period of the Secondary Age that man first "separated" into the two sexes, and this was about the fifth subrace of the third root-race. The small mammals of marsupial type, which the geologic record of the rocks shows as appearing in the early Secondary, prove by the esoteric records that man himself must then have separated into the two sexes from his former androgynous state.

When I used the word outran in my preceding observations this evening, I was referring to the fact that the higher classes of monads run more rapidly up the ascending arc than do the lower classes, because it is here that the law of retardation weighs upon the lower classes; and the law of acceleration aids the higher classes of monads such as the human, because these higher classes are more spiritual. Also in a general way it may be stated that the highest classes lead in the van and the lower classes come trailing afterwards. Nor is this contradictory of the other fact that, merely regarding the geologic evolutionary record, we find that the lowest classes of monads, as living physical entities, came first, then the next higher, then the next higher, and then the next higher up to man. This is a paradoxical statement, but it would require an hour's explanation for complete elucidation, and I must let the statement go as it is for your thoughtful study. Even in an army, although the scouts and the privates come first, the general and his staff are guiding the campaign and lay out the routes, and often actually physically may be found in the van themselves. The idea is an imperfect illustration, but it may help.

[ The sounding of the gong. Silence.]

Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.
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You have to believe in the impossible in order to become.