[PAGE 163]                               REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE

    There  is  no question in the writer's mind that this was  a  piece  of
"ripe"  fate,  impossible to escape,  which was accurately foreshown by the
stars.

    The stars may therefore be called the "Clock of Destiny."   The  twelve
signs of the Zodiac correspond to the dial;  the Sun and the planets to the
hour hand, indicating the month of the year when the different items in the
score of ripe fate allotted to each life are due to work themselves out.

    It  cannot be sufficiently emphasized, however,  that though there  are
some things that cannot be escaped, man has a certain scope of free will in
modifying causes already set going.  A poet puts it thus:

    One ship sails east and another sails west
          With the self-same winds that blow.
    'Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
          Which determines the way they go.

    As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate
          As we voyage along through life,
    'Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal,
          And not the calm or the strife.

    The  great point to grasp is that our present actions determine  future
conditions.

    Orthodox  religionists and even those who profess no religion  at  all,
often bring forward as one of their strongest objections to the law of  Re-
birth that it is taught in India to the "ignorant heathen,"  who believe in
it.   If it is a natural law, however,  there is no objection strong enough
to invalidate it or make it inoperative.  Before we speak of "ignorant hea-
then,"  or  send  missionaries to them, it might be well to examine our own



[PAGE 164]                                 THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

knowledge a little.  Educators everywhere complain of superficiality on the
part of our students.  Professor Wilbur L. Cross,  of Yale,  mentions among
other startling cases of ignorance,  the fact that in a class of forty stu-
dents, NOT ONE COULD "PLACE" JUDAS ISCARIOT!

    It would seem as though the labors of missionaries could profitably  be
diverted  from  "heathen"  countries and from slum work  to  enlighten  the
college-bred individuals of our own country, on the principle that "charity
begins at home,"  and "as God will not let the ignorant heathen perish"  it
would  seem  better to leave him in ignorance where he is sure  of  heaven,
than  to enlighten him and so render his chances of going to  hell  legion.
Surely, this is a case of "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise."
We would be doing ourselves and the heathen a signal service by letting him
alone and looking after the ignorant Christian nearer home.

    Moreover,  to call this heathen doctrine does not disprove it.  Its as-
sumed priority in the East is not more an argument against it that the  ac-
curacy of the solution of a mathematical problem is invalidated because  we
do  not happen to like the person who first solved it.   The only  question
is:  Is it correct?  If so, it is absolutely immaterial whence the solution
first came.

    All other religions have been but leading up to the Christian religion.
They  were Race Religions and contain only in part that which  Christianity
has  in fuller  measure.   The real Esoteric Christianity has not yet  been
taught publicly, not will it be so taught until humanity has passed the ma-
terialistic  stage and becomes fitted to receive it.   The laws of  Rebirth
and Consequence have been secretly taught all the time, but, BY THE  DIRECT



[PAGE 165]                               REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE

COMMAND OF CHRIST HIMSELF,  as we shall see,  these two laws have not  been
PUBLICLY taught in the Western world for the past two thousand years.

                       WINE AS A FACTOR IN EVOLUTION

    To  understand the reason for this omission and the means  employed  to
obscure these teachings,  we must go back to the beginning of man's history
and see how,  for his good,  he has been led by the Great Teacher of human-
ity.

    In  the  teaching of occult science the stages of  development  on  the
earth  are divided into periods called "Epochs."   There have been four  of
these Epochs, which are designated as follows, respectively:  The Polarian,
the Hyperborean,  the Lemurian, the Atlantean.  The present Epoch is called
the Aryan Epoch.

    In the First or Polarian Epoch,  what is now humanity had only a  dense
body, as the minerals have now, hence he was mineral-like.

    In  the  Second  or  Hyperborean Epoch, a  vital  body  was  added  and
man-in-the-making possesses a body constituted as are those of plants.   He
was not a plant, but was plantlike.

    In the Third or Lemurian Epoch,  he obtained his desire body and became
constituted like the animal--an animal-man.

    In the Fourth or Atlantean Epoch, mind was unfolded and now,  so far as
his principles are concerned,  he steps upon the stage of physical life  as
MAN.

    In the present,  the Fifth or Aryan Epoch,  man will in some degree un-
fold the third or lowest aspect of his threefold spirit--the Ego.




[PAGE 166]                                 THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

    The student is requested to strongly impress upon his mind the emphatic
statement  that in the process of evolution up to the time when man  gained
self-consciousness, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WAS LEFT TO CHANCE.

    After  self-consciusness there is a certain scope for the  exercise  of
man's own individual will to enable him to unfold his Divine spiritual pow-
ers.

    The  great Leaders of mankind take everything into  consideration,  the
food  of man included.   This has a great deal to do with his  development.
"Tell  me  what  you  eat  and I will tell you  what  you  are"  is  not  a
far-fetched idea, but a great truth in nature.

    The man of the first Epoch was ethereal.   That does not contradict the
statement that he was mineral-like,  for all gases are mineral.   The Earth
was still soft, not yet having solidified.  In the Bible man is called Adam
and it is said that he was made of earth.

    Cain  is described as an agriculturist.  He symbolizes the man  of  the
Second Epoch.  He had a vital body like the plants which sustained him.

    In the Third Epoch food was obtained from living animals to  supplement
the  former plant food.   Milk was the means used for evolving  the  desire
body,  which made the mankind of that time animal-like.   This is  what  is
meant  by the Bible statement that "Abel was a shepherd."   It  is  nowhere
stated that he killed animals.

    In  the  Fourth  Epoch  man had evolved  beyond  animals--he had  mind.
Thought breaks down nerve cells:  kills, destroys and causes decay.  There-
fore the food of the Atlantean was,  by analogy,  carcasses.   He killed to
eat  and  that is why the Bible states that "Nimrod was a  mighty  hunter."
Nimrod represents the man of the Fourth Epoch.



[PAGE 167]                               REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE

    In the meanwhile, man had descended deeper and deeper into matter.  His
former  ethereal body formed the skeleton within and had become solid.   He
had  also lost be degrees the spiritual perception which was  possessed  by
him in the earlier Epochs.  Thus it was designed.  He is destined to get it
back at a higher stage,  plus the self-consciousness which he did not  then
possess.   He had, however, during the first four Epochs,  a greater knowl-
edge of the spiritual world.  He knew he did not die and that when one body
wasted  away  it  was  like  the drying of a leaf  from  the  tree  in  the
autumn--another body would grow to take its place. Therefore he had no real
appreciation of the opportunities and advantages of this Earth life of con-
crete existence.

    But  it  was necessary that he should become thoroughly  awake  to  the
great importance of this concrete existence, so that he might learn from it
all that could be learned.  So long as he felt that he was a citizen of the
higher  Worlds and knew for a certainty that physical life is but  a  small
part  of real existence he did not take it  seriously enough.   He did  not
apply himself to the cultivation of the opportunities for growth which  are
found  only in the present phase of existence.   He dallied his  time  away
without  developing the resources of the world,  as do the people of  India
today, for the same reason.

    The  only way in which an appreciation of concrete  physical  existence
could  be aroused in man was by depriving him of the memory of his  higher,
spiritual existence for a few lives.  Thus, during his Earth life,  he came
to  hold no positive knowledge of any other than the one  present  physical
life, and was in this way impelled to earnestly apply himself to living it.

    There had been religions previous to Christianity which had taught  Re-
birth and the law of Consequence,  but the time had now come when it was no




[PAGE 168]                                 THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

longer  conducive to man's advancement that he should know  this  doctrine,
and  ignorance  concerning it came to be regarded as a  sign  of  progress.
This one single life was to be made paramount.   Therefore we find that the
Christian Religion,  as publicly taught, does not embody the laws of Conse-
quence and Rebirth.   Nevertheless,  as Christianity is the religion of the
most advanced Race,  it must be the most advanced Religion,  and because of
the elimination of this doctrine from its PUBLIC teachings, the conquest of
the world of matter is being made by the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races, in
which this phase has been carried furthest.

    As  some new addition to or change in the food of man has been made  in
every Epoch to meet its conditions and accomplish its purposes, we now find
added  to  the food of the previous Epochs a  new  article--WINE.   It  was
needed  on account of its benumbing effect upon the spiritual principle  in
man,  because no religion, in and of itself, could have made man forget his
nature  as a spirit and have caused him to think of himself as "a  worm  of
the dust," or made him believe that "we walk with the same force with which
we think"--indeed,  it was never intended that he should go so far as that.

    Hitherto  only water had been used as a drink and in the ceremonies  of
the  Temple service,  but after the submergence  of  Atlantis--a  continent
which once existed between Europe and America, where the Atlantic Ocean now
lies--those  who  escaped destruction began to cultivate the vine and  make
wine,  as we find narrated in the Bible story of Noah.  Noah symbolizes the
remnant of the Atlantean Epoch,  which became the nucleus of the Fifth Race
--therefore our progenitors.




[PAGE 169]                               REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE

    The  active principle of alcohol is a "spirit"  and as the humanity  of
the earlier Epochs used the articles of food best suited to their vehicles,
so this spirit was,  in the Fifth Epoch, added to the foods previously used
by evolving humanity.  It acts upon the spirit of the Fifth Epoch man, tem-
porarily paralyzing it,  that it may know,  esteem and conquer the physical
world and value it at its proper worth.  Thus man forgets, for the time be-
ing,  his spiritual home, clinging to this form of existence,  which he has
previously despised,  with all the tenacity born of a feeling that this  is
all there is--or  at least,  preferring the certainty of this world to tak-
ing chances on a heaven which,  in his present muddled state,  he does  not
understand.

    Water  only  had been used in the Temples,  but now  this  is  altered.
"Bacchus,"  a god of wine, appears and under his sway the most advanced na-
tions  forget that there is a higher life.   None who offer tribute to  the
COUNTERFEIT spirit of wine or any alcoholic liquor (the product of  fermen-
tation  and  decay) can ever know anything of  the  higher  Self--the  TRUE
Spirit which is the very source of life.

    All  this  was preparatory to the coming of Christ,  and it is  of  the
highest  significance that HIS FIRST ACT was to change "water  into  wine."
(John ii:11.)

    In private He taught Rebirth to his His disciples.   He not only taught
them in words, but He took them "into the mountain."  This is a mystic term
meaning  a place of Initiation.   In the course of Initiation they see  for
themselves  that Rebirth is a fact, for there Elijah appeared before  them,
who,  they  are told,  is also John the Baptist.   Christ,  in  unequivocal
terms,  had previously told them, when speaking of John the Baptist,  "this
is Elijah who was for to come."  He reiterates  this at the transfiguration




[PAGE 170]                                 THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

scene,  saying,  "Elijah has come already and they knew him not,  but  have
done to him whatsoever they listed."   And following this,  it is said that
"they understood He spake of John the Baptist."   (Matt.  xvii:12-13).   On
this occasion,  and also at the time when Rebirth was discussed between Him
and His disciples, they told Him that some thought He was Elijah and others
that He was one of the prophets who had been reborn.   He commanded them to
"tell no man."  (Matt. xvii:9; Like ix:21).  This was to be,  for thousands
of years, an esoteric teaching, to be known only among the few pioneers who
fitted themselves for the knowledge, pushing ahead to the stage of develop-
ment when these truths will again be known to man.

    That  Christ taught Rebirth and also the law of Consequence is  perhaps
shows in not other place as clearly as in the case of the man who had  been
born blind,  where His disciples asked, "Who did sin,  this man or his par-
ents, that he was born blind?"  (John ix:2).

    Had Christ not taught Rebirth and the law of Consequence,  the  natural
answer would have been,  "Nonsense!   How could a man have sinned BEFORE HE
WAS BORN, and have brought blindness upon himself as a result?   But Christ
does not answer in that way.  He is not surprised at the question, nor does
He treat it as being at all unusual,  showing that it was quite in  harmony
with His teachings.   He explains,  "Neither hath this man sinned,  nor his
parents; but that the works of (the) God should be made manifest in him."

    The  orthodox  interpretation is that the man was born blind  in  order
that Christ might have the opportunity of performing a miracle to show  His
power.  It  would  have  been  a  strange way for a God to  obtain  glory--




[PAGE 171]                               REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE

capriciously  condemning  a  man to many years of blindness and misery that
He might "show off" at a future time!  We would consider a man who acted in
such a manner a monster of cruelty.

    How  much more logical to think that there may be another  explanation.
To impute to God conduct which, in a human being,  we would denounce in the
strongest terms, in surely unreasonable.

    Christ differentiates between the physically blind body of the man  and
the God within, which is the Higher Self.

    The dense body has committed no sin.  The God within has done some deed
which  manifests in the particular affliction from which he  is  suffering.
It is not stretching a point to call a man a God.  Paul says,  "know ye not
that ye are Gods?  and he refers to the human body as the "temple of  God,"
the indwelling spirit.

    Finally,  although most people do not remember their past lives,  there
are some who do,  and all may know if they will live the life necessary  to
attain the knowledge.   This requires great strength of character,  because
such knowledge will carry with it a knowledge of impending fate that may be
hanging black and sinister over one, which will manifest in dire  disaster.
Nature has graciously hidden the past and the future from us,  that we  may
not be robbed of peace of mind by suffering in anticipation of the paid  in
store for us.   As we attain greater development we shall learn to  welcome
all things with equanimity,  seeing in all troubles the result of past evil
and  feeling thankful that the obligations incurred thereby are  being  an-
nulled,  knowing  that so much less stands between us and the day  of  lib-
eration from the wheel of birth and death.





[PAGE 172]                                 THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

    When a person dies in childhood in one life, he or she not infrequently
remembers  that life in the next body,  because children under 14 years  do
not journey around the entire life cycle,  which necessitates the  building
of a complete set of new vehicles.  They simply pass into the upper Regions
of  the  Desire World and there wait for a new  embodiment,  which  usually
takes place in from one to twenty years after death.   When they return  to
birth,  they bring with them the old mind and desire body,  and if we  lis-
tened to the prattle of children,  we should often able to discover and re-
construct such stories as the following

                            A REMARKABLE STORY.

    One day in Santa Barbara,  Cal., a man by the name of Roberts came to a
trained clairvoyant who is also a lecturer on Theosophy and asked for  help
in a perplexing case.   Mr. Roberts had been walking in the street the pre-
vious day when a little three-year old girl came up to him and put her arms
around his knees,  calling him papa.  Mr.  Roberts was indignant,  thinking
that someone was trying to father the child on him.   But the mother of the
child, who came up directly, was equally put out and tried to get the child
away.   The child,  however, kept on clinging to Mr. R.,  insisting that he
was her father.  On account of circumstances to be told later Mr. R.  could
not put it out of his mind, and sought out the clairvoyant, who accompanied
him to the house of the child's parents.  Where the girl at once ran up  to
Mr.  R.  and again called him papa.  The clairvoyant, whom I call X,  first
took the child over to the window to note whether the iris of the eye would
expand and contract when he turned her to and from the light,  in order  to
see  whether  another  entity  than  the  rightful  owner was in possession




[PAGE 173]                               REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE

of the child's body,  for the eye is the window of the soul and no "obsess-
ing"  entity can secure control of that part.  Mr. X.  found however,  that
the  child was normal and next proceeded to question the little  one  care-
fully.   After patient work carried on intermittently during the afternoon,
so as not to tire the child, this is the story she told:

    She had lived with her papa, Mr. Roberts, and another mamma in a little
house that stood all alone, where no other house could be seen; there was a
little  brook close to the house where some flowers grew (and here she  ran
out  and brought in some "pussy-willows") and there was a plank across  the
brook  which she was cautioned against crossing,  for fear she  might  fall
into the brook.   One day her papa had left her mother and herself and  had
not returned.   When their supply of food was exhausted her mamma lay  down
on the bed and became so still.   At last she said quaintly,  "then I  also
died, but I didn't die.  I came here."

    Mr.  Roberts  next told his story.  Eighteen years before he  lived  in
London,  where his father was brewer.   He fell in love with their  servant
girl.   His father objected,  so he eloped with her to Australia after they
had  first  been married.   Here he went out into the bush  and  cleared  a
little farm,  where he erected a small cabin by a brook,  just as described
by the little girl.   A daughter was born to them there,  and when she  was
about  two years old he left the house one morning and went to  a  clearing
some distance from the house, and while there a man with a rifle came up to
him,  saying that he arrested him in the name of the law for a bank robbery
committed on the night Mr.  R.  had left England.   The officer had tracked
him here, thinking him the criminal.  Mr. R. begged  to be allowed to go to



[PAGE 174]                                 THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

his wife and child,  but, thinking this a ruse to entrap him into the hands
of  confederates,  the officer refused and drove him to the  coast  at  the
point  of  the gun.   He was taken to England and tried and  his  innocence
proven.

    First then did the authorities take heed of his constant ravings  about
his wife and child,  whom he knew must starve in that wild and lonely coun-
try.   An expedition was sent out to the cabin, when it was found that only
the skeletons of the wife and child remained.  Mr. Roberts' father had died
in the meantime, and though he had disinherited Mr. R. his brothers divided
with him and he came to America a broken man.

    He then produced photographs of himself and his wife,  and at the  sug-
gestion of Mr.  X.  they were mixed with a number of other photographs  and
shown to the little girl,  who unhesitatingly picked out the photographs of
both her alleged parents,  although the photograph shown was very different
from the present appearance of Mr. Roberts.





[PAGE 175]                                        THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD






                                PART II.


                    COSMOGENESIS AND ANTHROPOGENESIS






[PAGE 177]                                        THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD

                                 CHAPTER V

             
                        THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD

    In  the preceding chapters we have been considering man in  relation  to
three  of  the five Worlds which form the field of his evolution.   We  have
partly described these Worlds and noted the different vehicles of conscious-
ness by means of which he is correlated to them.   We have studied his rela-
tion  to the other three  Kingdoms--mineral,  plant and  animal--noting  the
difference in vehicles, and consequent difference in consciousness,  between
man and each of these Kingdoms.  We have followed man through one life cycle
in the three Worlds and have examined the operation of the twin laws of Con-
sequence and Rebirth in their bearing upon the evolution of man.

    In order to understand further details as to the progress of man, it now
becomes  necessary  to  study his relation to the  Grand  Architect  of  the
Universe--to God and to the Hierarchies of Celestial Beings which stand upon
the many different rungs of the Jacob's ladder of attainment that  stretches
from man to God and beyond.

    This is a task of the utmost difficulty,  rendered still more so by  the
indefinite  conceptions of God which exist in the minds of the  majority  of
the readers of literature dealing with this subject.  It is true that names,
in and of themselves, are not important, but it matters greatly that we know
what  we  mean  by  a  name;  other  wise  misunderstanding will result, and


[PAGE 178]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION


                        DIAGRAM 6: THE COSMIC PLANES



[PAGE 179]                                        THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD

if  a  common nomenclature is not agreed upon by writers and  teachers,  the
present confusion will be worse confounded.  When the name "God"  is used it
is  always uncertain whether The Absolute, the One Existence,  is meant;  or
The Supreme Being, Who is the Great Architect of the Universe;  or God,  Who
is the Architect of our Solar system.

    The  division of the Godhead into "Father,"  "Son"  and "Holy Ghost"  is
also confusing.  Although the Beings designated by these names are immeasur-
ably above man and worthy of all the reverence and worship he is capable  of
rendering  to his highest conceptions of Divinity,  yet They  are  different
from one another in actual fact.

    Diagrams 6 and 11 will perhaps make the subject clear.   It must be kept
in  mind  that  the Worlds and Cosmic Planes are not one  above  another  in
space,  but that the seven Cosmic Planes inter-penetrate each other and  all
the seven Worlds.  They are states of spirit-matter, permeating one another,
so that God and the other great Beings who are mentioned are not far away in
space.   They pervade every part of their own realms and realms  of  greater
density than their own.   They are all present in our world and are actually
and  DE FACTO "nearer than hands and feet."   It is a literal truth when  we
say " in Him we live and move and have our being."  For none of us could ex-
ist outside these great Intelligences Who pervade and sustain our world with
Their  Life.
    It has been shown that the Etheric Region extends beyond  the atmosphere
of our dense Earth;  that the Desire World extends out  into  space  further
than the Etheric Region; also that the World of Thought extends further into
inter-planetary Space than either of the others.   Of course,  the Worlds of
rarer  substance  occupy  a  larger  space  than  the  denser  World,  which


[PAGE 180]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

has crystallized and condensed, thus occupying less space.

    The  same principle is operative in the Cosmic Planes.   The densest  of
them is the seventh (counting from the top downward).   It is represented in
the  diagram as larger than any of the others,  the reason being that it  is
the plane with which we are most intimately concerned, and it was desired to
indicate its principle subdivisions.  In reality, however,  it occupies less
space than any of the other Cosmic Planes, although it must be borne in mind
that,  even with this comparatively restrictive qualification as to its  ex-
tent,  it is still immeasurably vast, far beyond the utmost power of the hu-
man mind to conceive, comprising within its limits millions of Solar Systems
similar to our own, which are the fields for the evolution of many grades of
beings of approximately our own status.

    Of the six Cosmic Planes above our own we know nothing, save that we are
told they are the fields of activity of great Hierarchies of Beings of inde-
scribable splendor.

    Proceeding from our Physical World to the inner and finer worlds and  up
through the Cosmic Planes, we find that God, the Architect of our Solar Sys-
tem,  the Source and goal of our existence, is found in the highest division
of the seventh Cosmic Plane.  This is His World.

    His  realm  includes the systems of evolution carried on  in  the  other
planets which belong to our system--Uranus, Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Earth,
Venus, Mercury, and their satellites.

    The  great Spiritual Intelligences designated as the Planetary  Spirits,
which  guide  these evolutions,  are called the "Seven  Spirits  before  the
Throne."   They are His Ministers,  each presiding over a certain department
of the Kingdom of God--which is our  solar  System.  The  Sun  is  also  the


[PAGE 181]                                        THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD

field of evolution of the most exalted Beings in our Cosmos.  They alone can
endure  and advance by means of the terrific solar vibrations.   The Sun  is
the  nearest approach we have to a visible symbol.   What That is cannot  be
uttered publicly.

    When we try to discover the origin of the Architect of our Solar System,
we find that we must pass to the highest of the seven Cosmic Planes.  We are
then in the Realm of the supreme Being, Who emanated from the Absolute.

    The Absolute is beyond comprehension.  No expression convey any adequate
idea.   Manifestation implies limitation.  Therefore, we may at best charac-
terize the Absolute as boundless Being; as the Root of Existence.

    From the root of Existence--The Absolute--proceeds the Supreme Being, at
the dawn of manifestation.  This is THE ONE.

    In the first chapter of John this Great Being is called God.   From this
Supreme  Being emanates The Word,  the Creative Fiat "without whom  was  not
anything made,"  and this Word is the alone-begotten Son, born of His father
(the Supreme Being) before all worlds--but positively NOT Christ.  Grand and
glorious as is Christ, towering high above mere human nature, He is not this
Exalted  Being.   Truly "the Word was made flesh,"  but not in  the  limited
sense of the flesh of one body,  but the flesh of all that is,  in this  and
millions of other solar Systems.

    The  first  Aspect of the Supreme Being may be characterized  as  POWER.
From this proceeds the Second Aspect, THE WORD;  and from both of these pro-
ceeds the Third, Aspect, MOTION.

    From this threefold Supreme Being proceed  the  seven  Great Logoi. They


[PAGE 182]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

contain within Themselves all the great Hierarchies which differentiate more
and  more as they diffuse through the various Cosmic Planes.   (See  diagram
6).   There  are forty-nine Hierarchies on the second Cosmic Plane;  on  the
third there are 343 Hierarchies.   Each of these is capable of septenary di-
visions and subdivisions, so that in the lowest Cosmic Plane,  where the So-
lar System manifest,  the number of divisions and subdivisions is almost in-
finite.

    In  the Highest World of the seventh Cosmic Plane dwells the God of  our
Solar  Systems in the Universe.   These great Beings are also  threefold  in
manifestation, like The Supreme Being.  Their three aspects are Will, Wisdom
and Activity.

    Each  of  the seven Planetary Spirits which proceeds from  God  and  has
charge of the evolution of life on one of the seven planets,  is also three-
fold and differentiates within itself Creative Hierarchies which go  through
a  septenary evolution.   The evolution carried on by one  Planetary  Spirit
differs from the methods of development inaugurated by each of the others.

    It  may  be further stated that, at least in  the  particular  planetary
scheme  to which we belong,  the entities farthest evolved in  the  earliest
stages,  who had reached a high stage of perfection in previous  evolutions,
assume  the  functions  of the original Planetary Spirit  and  continue  the
evolution,  the original Planetary Spirit withdrawing from active participa-
tion, but guiding its Regents.

    The  foregoing  is the teaching relative to all the Solar  Systems,  but
coming  down to the particular System to which we belong,  the following  is
the  teaching which the sufficiently trained Seer can obtain for himself  by
personal investigation of the memory of nature.


[PAGE 183]                                           THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION

                                CHAPTER VI.

                          THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION.

                               THE BEGINNING.

    In harmony with the Hermetic axiom "As above, so below"  and VICE VERSA,
Solar Systems are born, die and come to birth anew in cycles of activity and
rest, as does man.

    There is a constant flaming out and dying down of activity in every  de-
partment of nature,  corresponding to the alternations of ebb and flow,  day
and night, summer and winter, life and death.

    In  the beginning of a Day of Manifestation it is taught that a  certain
Great  Being  (designated in the Western World by the name of  God,  but  by
other names in other parts of the earth) limits Himself to a certain portion
of space,  in which He elects to create a Solar System for the evolution  of
added self-consciousness.  (See diagram 6).

    He  includes in His own Being hosts of glorious Hierarchies of,  to  us,
immeasurable  spiritual power and splendor.   They are the fruitage of  past
manifestations of this same Being and also other Intelligences,  in descend-
ing degrees of development down to such as have not reached a stage of  con-
sciousness as high as our present humanity,  and therefore these latter will
not be able to finish their evolution in this  System.  In  God--this  great


[PAGE 184]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

collective Being--there are contained lesser beings of every grade of intel-
ligence  and stage of consciousness, from omniscience to an  unconsciousness
deeper than that of the deepest trance condition.

    During  the period of manifestation with which we are  concerned,  these
various  grades of beings are working to acquire more experience  than  they
possessed at the beginning of this period of existence.  Those who,  in pre-
vious  manifestations,  have attained to the highest degree  of  development
work  on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness.   They induce  in
them  a  stage  of  self-consciousness.   They induce in  them  a  stage  of
self-consciousness  from  which they can take up  further  work  themselves.
Those who had started their evolution in a former Day of Manifestation,  but
had not progressed far at the close,  now take up their task again,  just as
we  take  up our daily work in the morning where we left  off  the  previous
night.

    All the different Beings, however, do not take up their evolution at the
early stages of a new manifestation.  Some must wait until those who precede
them have made the conditions which are necessary for their further develop-
ment.   There are no instantaneous processes in nature.   All is an  exceed-
ingly slow unfolding,  a development which,  though so exceedingly slow,  is
yet  absolutely certain to attain ultimate perfection.   Just as  there  are
progressive stages in the human life--childhood,  youth,  manhood or  woman-
hood,  and  old age--so in the macrocosm there are different  stages  corre-
sponding to these various periods of the microcosmic life.

    A child cannot take up the duties of fatherhood or motherhood.   Its un-
developed  mental and physical condition render it incapable of  doing  such
work.  The same is true of the  less  evolved beings  in  the  beginning  of


[PAGE 185]                                           THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION

manifestation.  They must wait until the higher evolved have made the proper
conditions for them.   The lower the grade of the intelligence of the evolv-
ing being, the more it is dependent upon outside help.

    At the Beginning,  then,  the highest Beings--those who are the farthest
evolved--work  upon those who have the greatest degree  of  unconsciousness.
Later,  they  turn them over to some of the less evolved entities,  who  are
then able to carry the work a little further.   At least  self-consciousness
is awakened.  The evolving life has become Man.

    From the point where the self-conscious individual Ego has come into be-
ing he must go on and expand his consciousness without outside help.   Expe-
rience  and thought are then to take the place of outside teachers  and  the
glory, power and splendor he may attain are limitless.

    The  period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness  and
to  the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man  manifests,
is called "Involution."

    The  subsequent period of existence, during which the  individual  human
being develops self-consciousness into divine omniscience, is called "Evolu-
tion."

    The Force within the evolving being which makes evolution what it is and
not  a  mere unfoldment of latent germinal possibilities;  which  makes  the
evolution of each individual differ from that of every other; which provides
the element of originality and gives scope to the creative ability which the
evolving  being  is  to cultivate that he may become a  God--that  Force  is
called  "Genius,"   and  as  previously  explained,   its  manifestation  is
"Epigenesis."

    Many  of the advanced philosophies of modern times recognize  involution
and  evolution.   Science recognizes only the latter,  because it  (Science)
deals only with  the  Form  side of  manifestation.  Involution  belongs  to


[PAGE 186]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

the Life side;  but the most advanced scientists regard Epigenesis as a  de-
monstrable  fact.   The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception combines all  three  as
necessary to full understanding of the past,  present and future development
of the System to which we belong.

                                THE WORLDS.

    We  might use a homely instance to illustrate the building of a  Cosmos.
Suppose a man wants to establish a home in which to live.   He first selects
a  suitable location and then proceeds to build a house,  dividing  it  into
various  rooms to serve certain purpose.   He makes a  kitchen,  dining-room
bedrooms  and bathroom,  and furnishes them all to suit the special  purpose
they are intended to serve.

    When God desires to create,  He seeks out an appropriate place in space,
which  He  fills  with  His  aura,  permeating  every  atom  of  the  cosmic
root-substance of that particular portion of space with His Life, thus awak-
ening the activity latent within every INseparate atom.

    This Cosmic Root-substance is an expression of the negative pole of  the
Universal Spirit, while the great Creative Being we call God (of whom we, as
spirits,  are part) is an expression of the positive energy of the same Uni-
versal Absolute Spirit.   From the work of one upon the other,  all that  we
see about us in the Physical World has resulted.  The oceans,  the Earth ev-
erything  we see manifesting as mineral,  plant animal and human  forms--all
are CRYSTALLIZED SPACE, emanated from this negative Spirit-substance,  which
alone existed at the dawn of Being.   As surely as the hard and flinty house
of the snail is the solidified juices of its soft body,  so surely all FORMS
are crystallizations around the negative pole of Spirit.


[PAGE 187]                                           THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION

    God  draws from the Cosmic Root-substance outside His immediate  sphere;
thus  the substance within the nascent cosmos becomes denser than it  is  in
Universal space, between Solar Systems.

    When God has thus prepared the material for His Habitation, He next sets
it in order.  Every part of the system is pervaded by His consciousness, but
different modification of that consciousness in each part of division.   The
Cosmic Root-substance is set in varying rates of vibration and is  therefore
differently constituted in its various divisions, or regions.

    The above is the manner in which the Worlds come into being and are fit-
ted to serve different purposes in the evolutionary scheme,  the same as the
various rooms in the house are fitted to serve the purpose of everyday  life
in the Physical World.

    We  have already seen that there are seven Worlds.   These  Worlds  have
each a different "measure" and rate of vibration.  In the densest World (the
Physical) the measure of vibration, though in the case of light-waves reach-
ing a rate of hundreds of millions per second, is nevertheless infinitesimal
when compared to the rapidity of the vibration in the Desire World, which is
next to the Physical.  To get some conception of the meaning and rapidity of
vibration,  perhaps the easiest way is to watch the heat  vibrations  rising
from a very hot stove, or from a steam radiator near a window.

    It must be borne constantly in mind that these Worlds are not  separated
by  space  or distance,  as is the earth from the other planets.   They  are
states of matter, of varying density and vibration, as are the solids,  liq-
uids and gases of our Physical World.   These Worlds are not instantaneously
created at the beginning of a day of Manifestation, nor do they  last  until


[PAGE 188]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

the end;  but as a spider spins its web thread by thread, so god differenti-
ates one after another of the worlds within Himself, as the necessity arises
for new conditions in the scheme of evolution in which He is engaged.   Thus
have  all  the  seven Worlds been gradually differentiated as  they  are  at
present.

    The  highest  Worlds are created first, and as involution is  to  slowly
carry the life into denser and denser matter for the building of forms,  the
finer Worlds gradually condense and new Worlds are differentiated within God
to  furnish  the necessary links between Himself and the Worlds  which  have
consolidated.  In due time the point of greatest density, the nadir of mate-
riality,  is reached.  From that point the life begins to ascend into higher
Worlds,  as evolution proceeds.   That leaves the denser Worlds depopulated,
one by one.   When the purpose has been served for which a particular  World
was created, God ends its existence, which has become superfluous,  by ceas-
ing within Himself the particular activity which brought into being and sus-
tained that World.

    The highest (finest, rarest, most ethereal) Worlds are the first created
and  the  last  eliminated,  while the three densest Worlds,  in  which  our
present phase of evolution is carried on,  are but comparatively  evanescent
phenomena incident to the spirit's dip into matter.

                             THE SEVEN PERIODS.

    The  evolutionary scheme is carried through these five Worlds  in  seven
great Periods of Manifestation, during which the virgin spirit,  or evolving
life, becomes first, man--then, a God.

    At the beginning of Manifestation God differentiates  within  (not FROM)


[PAGE 189]                                           THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION

Himself these virgin spirits,  as sparks from a Flame,  of the same  nature,
capable  of being fanned into Flames themselves.   Evolution is the  fanning
process which is to accomplish that end.  In the virgin spirits are enfolded
all the possibilities of their Divine Father, including the germ of indepen-
dent Will, which makes them capable of originating new phases, not latent in
them.   The  latent possibilities are transformed into  dynamic  powers  and
available faculties during evolution,  while the independent Will institutes
new and original departures--or Epigenesis.

    Prior  to  the  beginning of the pilgrimage through  matter  the  virgin
spirit  is in the World of Virgin Spirits,  the next to the highest  of  the
seven  Worlds.   It has Divine Consciousness,  but  NOT  SELF-consciousness.
That, Soul-power, and the Creative Mind, are faculties or powers attained to
by evolution.

    When the virgin spirit is immersed in the World of Divine Spirit,  it is
blinded and rendered utterly unconscious by that matter.  It is as oblivious
to outside conditions as is man when in the deepest trance.   This state  of
unconsciousness prevails during the first period.

    In the Second Period it rises to the dreamless sleep state; in the third
Period it reaches the dream stage,  and in the middle of the Fourth  Period,
at  which we have now arrived,  the full waking consciousness of man is  at-
tained.   This  is a consciousness pertaining to only the lowest one of  the
seven  Worlds.   During the remaining half of this Period,  and  the  entire
three remaining Periods,  man must expand his consciousness so as to include
all of the six Worlds above this Physical World.

    When  man passed through these Worlds in his descent his  energies  were
directed by higher Beings, who  assisted  him  to  turn  unconscious  energy


[PAGE 190]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

INWARD for the building of proper vehicles.  At last, when he was far enough
advanced  and  equipped with the threefold body as a  necessary  instrument,
these higher Beings "opened his eyes"  and turned his gaze OUTWARD upon  the
Chemical Region of the Physical World, that his energies might conquer it.

    When he has fitted himself by his work in the Chemical Region,  his next
step in progress will be toward an expansion in consciousness that will  in-
clude the Etheric Region; then the Desire World, etc., etc.

    In  the Rosicrucian terminology,  the names of the seven Periods are  as
follows:

1.  The Saturn Period
2.  The Sun Period
3.  the Moon Period           These periods are successive Rebirths
4.  The Earth Period          of our Earth.
5.  The Jupiter Period
6.  The Venus Period
7.  The Vulcan Period

    It must not be thought that the above mentioned Periods have anything to
do  with  the planets which move in their orbits around the sun  in  company
with the earth.  In fact, it cannot be too emphatically stated that there is
no connection whatever between these planets and the periods.   The  Periods
are simply past,  present or future incarnations of our Earth,  "conditions"
through which it has passed, is now passing, or will pass in the future.

    The  three first mentioned Periods (the Saturn,  Sun and  Moon  Periods)
have been passed through.  We are now in the fourth, or Earth Period.   When
this Earth Period of our Globe has been completed,  we and it shall pass in,
turn  through  the Jupiter,  Venus and Vulcan conditions  before  the  great
septenary Day of Manifestation comes to an end, when all that  now  is  will


[PAGE 191]                                           THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION

once more be merged in the Absolute for a period of rest and assimilation of
the fruits of our evolution, to re-emerge for further and higher development
at the dawn of another Great Day.

    The  three  and one-half Periods already behind us have  been  spent  in
gaining  our  present vehicles and consciousness.  The remaining  three  and
one-half Periods will be devoted to perfecting these different vehicles  and
expanding our consciousness into something akin to omniscience.

    The  journey  made by the virgin spirit from  unconsciousness  to  omni-
science, unfolding its latent possibilities into a kinetic energy, is a pro-
cess  of  marvelous complexity and progress in our present outline  will  at
first be given.  As we progress in our present study, however,  more details
will be filled in,  until the picture is a complete as the writer is capable
of making it.   The attention of the student is called to the definition  of
terms that are given as new ideas are being presented.   He is earnestly im-
portuned  to familiarize himself with them, as the intention is to  simplify
the  matter  by  using  only one familiar English name  for  the  same  idea
throughout  the work.   The name will be as descriptive as possible  of  the
idea  to be conveyed,  in multiplex terminology may be avoided.   By  paying
strict attention to definition of terms,  it should not be too difficult for
any  person of average intelligence to acquire a knowledge of at  least  the
outlines of the scheme of evolution.

    That  such a knowledge is of the utmost importance will,  we  think,  be
conceded by every intelligent individual.   We live in this world,  governed
by the laws of nature.   Under these laws we must live and work,  and we are
powerless to change them.  If we know them and intelligently co-operate with


[PAGE 192]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

with them,  these nature-forces become most valuable servants,  e.g.,  elec-
tricity and the expansive force of steam.  If, on the other hand,  we do not
understand  them and in our ignorance work,  contrary to them,  they  become
most dangerous enemies, capable of terrible destruction.

    Therefore,  the  more we know of the working methods  of  nature,  which
latter  is but the visible symbol of the invisible God,  the better able  we
shall  be  to take advantage of the opportunities it offers for  growth  and
power; for emancipation from bondage and for elevation to mastery.


[PAGE 193]                                           THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION

                        

                              DIAGRAM 7: 


                  REVOLUTIONS OF THE SATURN PERIOD


[PAGE 194]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

                               CHAPTER VII.

                          THE PATH OF EVOLUTION.

   A word of warning in regard to diagrams used for purposes of illustration
may not be out of place.   The student should remember that anything that is
reduced  into  another dimension can never be accurate.   The picture  of  a
house  would mean little or nothing to us if we had never seen a house.   In
that  case  we would see in the picture only lines and blotches.   It  would
convey no meaning to us.  Diagrams used to illustrate super physical matters
are  much less true representations of the reality,  for the  simple  reason
that in the case of the picture, the three-dimensional house is only reduced
to two dimensions, while in the case of diagrams of the Periods,  Worlds and
Globes, the realities possess from four to seven dimension, and the diagrams
of  two dimensions by which it is endeavored to represent them are  thus  so
much further removed from the possibility of correctly portraying them.   We
must  constantly  bear in mind that these Worlds inter-penetrate,  that  the
Globes  inter-penetrate,  and that the way they are shown in the diagram  is
analogous  to taking all the wheels of a watch and laying them side by  side
in order to show how the watch keeps time.   If these diagrams are to be  of
any use to the student they must be spiritually conceived.   Otherwise  they
will be confusing instead of enlightening.


[PAGE 195]                                             THE PATH OF EVOLUTION

                       REVOLUTIONS AND COSMIC NIGHTS

   The  Saturn Period is the first of the seven Periods,  and at this  early
stage the virgin spirits take their first step towards the evolution of Con-
sciousness  and Form.   By reference to diagram 7 it will be seen  that  the
evolutionary impulse travels seven times around the seven Globes, A,  B,  C,
D, E, F and G, the arrows showing the direction.

   First,  a part of the evolution is accomplished on Globe A,  situated  in
the  World of Divine Spirit,  the rarest of the five Worlds which  form  our
field  of evolution.   Then,  gradually the evolving life is transferred  to
Globe B, which is located in the somewhat denser World of Life Spirit.  Here
another stage of evolution is passed through.  In due time the evolving life
is ready to enter the arena on Globe C,  which is situated in and formed  of
the yet denser substance of the Region of Abstract Thought.   After learning
the lessons peculiar to that stage of existence,  the life wave travels  on-
ward to Globe D,  which is located in and formed of the substance of the Re-
gion of Concrete Thought.   This is the densest degree of matter reached  by
the life wave during the Saturn Period.

   From  this point the life wave is carried upward again to Globe E,  which
is situated in the Region of Abstract Thought, as is Globe C, yet the condi-
tions are not the same as on Globe C.  This is the Involutionary stage,  and
the substance of the Worlds is getting denser all the time.  The tendency in
everything is to become denser and more solid as times goes on; also, as the
path of evolution is a spiral, it will be clear that, though the same points
are gone over,  the conditions are never the same,  but are on a higher  and
more advanced plane.

   When the work on Globe E has been completed,  the  next  step is taken on


[PAGE 196]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Globe F, which is situated in the World of Life Spirit, the same as Globe B;
thence it mounts to Globe G.  When the work there is done, the life wave has
traveled once around all the seven Globes; once down and up through the four
respective  Worlds.   This journey of life wave is called a Revolution,  and
seven Revolutions make one Period.   During one Period the life wave travels
seven times down and up through the four Worlds.

   When the life wave has traveled its full complement of seven times around
the seven times around the seven Globes,  completing the seven  Revolutions,
the  first Day of Creation closes and there follows a Cosmic Night  of  rest
and assimilation, after which the Sun Period dawns.

   Like  the night of sleep between two days of human life and the  interval
of rest between two earth lives, this Cosmic Night of rest after the comple-
tion of the Saturn Period is not a time of passive repose,  but a season  of
preparation for the activity to be unfolded in the coming Sun Period,  where
man-in-the-making  is  to take a further dip into  matter.   Therefore,  new
Globes are necessary, the positions of which in the seven Worlds are differ-
ent from those occupied by the Worlds of the Saturn Period.   The  providing
of these new Globes,  and other subjective activities,  occupy the  evolving
spirits during the interval between Periods--the Cosmic Night.   The  manner
of procedure is as follows:

   When  the  life wave has left Globe A in the Saturn Period for  the  last
tine,  the Globe begins to slowly disintegrate.   The forces which built  it
are  transferred from the World of Divine Spirit (where Globe A  is  located
during the Saturn Period) to the World of Life Spirit (where Globe A is  lo-
cated during the Sun Period).  This is shown on diagram 8.


[PAGE 197]                                             THE PATH OF EVOLUTION

                      DIAGRAM 8--THE 777 INCARNATIONS
                                   
                                   OR

                     PILGRIMAGE OF THE VIRGIN SPIRITS

         7 REVOLUTIONS AROUND THE 7 GLOBES OF THE 7 WORLD PERIODS.


[PAGE 198]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   When  the  life wave has left Globe B in the Saturn Period for  the  last
time,  it also commences to disintegrate, and the forces thereof,  like  the
seed-atom of a human vehicle,  are used as a nucleus for Globe B in the  Sun
Period, this Globe being then located in the Region of Abstract Thought.

   In  like  manner the forces of Globe C are transferred to the  Region  of
Concrete Thought and draw upon the substance of that Region for the material
wherewith  to  build a new Globe C for the coming Sun Period.   Globe  D  is
similarly transmuted and placed in the Desire World.  Globes E, F, and G, in
order named,  are analogously transferred.   The result is (as reference  to
diagram  8 will show) that in the Sun Period all the Globes are located  one
step further down into denser matter that they were in the Saturn Period, so
that the life wave,  upon its emergence from the Cosmic Night of Rest inter-
vening between the last activity on Globe G of the Saturn Period and the re-
newed  activity on Globe A of the Sun Period finds a new  environment,  with
the opportunity thus afforded for new experiences.

   The life wave now circles seven times around the seven Globes during  the
Sun Period,  tranversing seven times down and up the four Worlds or  Regions
in  which these Globes are located.   It makes seven Revolutions in the  Sun
Period, as it did in the Saturn Period.

   When  the life wave leaves Globe A in the Sun Period for the  last  time,
that Globe begins to disintegrate.  Its forces are transferred to the denser
Region of Abstract Thought,  where they form a planet to be used during  the
Moon  Period.   In the same way,  the forces of the other Globes are  trans-
ferred  and serve as nuclei for the Globes of the Moon Period,  as shown  in
diagram  8,   the  process  being  exactly  the  same  as  when  the  Globes


[PAGE 199]                                             THE PATH OF EVOLUTION

are removed from their locations in the Saturn Period to the positions  they
occupied  during  the Sun Period.   Thus the Globes of the Moon  Period  are
placed one step further down in matter that they were during the Sun Period,
the  lowest (Globe D) being situated in the Etheric Region of  the  Physical
World.

   After the interim of Cosmic Night between the Sun Period and the Moon Pe-
riod,  the life wave starts its course on Globe A of the latter,  completing
in due time its seven Revolutions, as before.   Then there is another Cosmic
Night,  during which the Globes are again transferred one step further down,
and  this  time the densest Globe is located in the Chemical Region  of  the
Physical World, as reference to diagram 8 will show.

   This,  then,  is the Earth Period and the lowest and densest Globe (Globe
D) is our present Earth.

   The life wave here, as usual, started on Globe A,  after the Cosmic Night
succeeding  the  Moon Period.   In the present Earth Period it  has  circled
three  times around the seven globes and is now on Globe D,  in  its  fourth
Revolution.

   Here on earth and in this present fourth Revolution, the greatest density
of  matter--the nadir of materiality--was reached a few millions years  ago.
The  tendency  henceforth will be upward into rarer substance.   During  the
three  and  one-half Revolutions which remain to complete this  Period,  the
condition of the Earth will gradually become more and more ethereal,  and in
the  next--the Jupiter Period--Globe D will again be located in the  Etheric
Region,  as it was in the Moon Period,  the other Globes being also elevated
correspondingly.

   In the Venus  Period  they will be located in the same Worlds as were the


[PAGE 200]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Globes  of the Sun Period.   The Globes of the Vulcan Period will  have  the
same  density  and be located in the same Worlds as were the Globes  of  the
Saturn Period.  This is all shown on diagram 8.

   When  the  life wave has completed its work in the Earth Period  and  the
Cosmic Night which follows in past, it will go through its seven Revolutions
on the Globes of the Jupiter Period.  Then will come the usual Cosmic Night,
with its subjective activities; after which the seven Revolutions of the Ve-
nus Period;  then another rest,  succeeded by the last of the Periods of the
present  scheme of evolution--the Vulcan Period.   The life wave also  makes
its  seven Revolutions here,  and at the end of the last Revolution all  the
Globes are dissolved and the life wave is reabsorbed by God, for a period of
time  equal in duration to that occupied by all the seven Periods of  activ-
ity.   God Himself then merges into the Absolute during the Universal  Night
of assimilation and preparation for another Great Day.

   Other and grander evolutions will then follow,  but we can deal only with
the seven Periods described.


[PAGE 201]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

                               CHAPTER VIII.

                          THE WORK OF EVOLUTION.

                             ARIADNE'S THREAD.

   Having become acquainted with the Worlds,  the Globes and the Revolutions
which constitute the path of evolution during the seven Periods,  we are now
in a position to consider the work which is done in each Period,  as well as
the methods employed to accomplish it.

   The  "Ariadne's thread"  which will guide us through the maze of  Globes,
Worlds, Revolutions and Periods will be found when it is remembered and kept
steadily in mind that the virgin spirits which constitute the evolving  life
wave become entirely UNCONSCIOUS when they commenced their evolutionary pil-
grimage through the five Worlds of substance denser than the World of Virgin
Spirits.   The purpose of evolution is to make them fully conscious and able
to master the matter of all the Worlds, therefore the conditions embodied in
Globes, Worlds, Revolutions and Periods are ordered with that end in view.

   During the Saturn,  Sun and Moon Periods and the past half of the present
Earth Period,  the virgin spirits have unconsciously built their  difference
vehicles  under the direction of exalted Beings who guided  their  progress,
and  have gradually awakened until they have attained the present  state  of
waking consciousness.  This period is called "Involution".

   From the present time to  the  end  of  the  Vulcan  Period,  the  virgin


[PAGE 202]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

spirits,  who are now our humanity, will perfect their vehicles  and  expand
their  consciousness  in the five Worlds by their own  efforts  and  genius.
This period is called "Evolution."

   The above is the key to the understanding of what follows.

   A  thorough comprehension of the scheme of planetary evolution which  has
been  outlines  in the preceding pages is of immense value to  the  student.
Although some believers in the laws of Consequence and Rebirth seem to think
that  the possession of such knowledge is quite non-essential and of  little
use,  it is nevertheless of very great importance to the earnest student  of
these  two  laws.   It trains the mind in abstract thought and  elevates  it
above  the sordid things of concrete existence,  helping the imagination  to
soar beyond the hampering toils of self-interest.  As stated in our study of
the Desire World,  Interest is the mainspring to action,  yet at our present
stage  of  progress,  Interest is generally aroused by selfishness.   It  is
sometimes of a very subtle nature,  but it spurs to action of various kinds.
All  action inspired by Interest generates certain effects which act on  us,
and  in  consequence we are bound by action having to do with  the  concrete
Worlds.  But, if our minds are occupied with such subjects as mathematics or
study  of the planetary phases of evolution, we are in the Region of  purely
Abstract Thought,  beyond the influence of Feeling, and the mind is directed
upward towards the spiritual realism and liberation.  When we are extracting
cube  root,  or multiplying figures, or thinking  of  Periods,  Revolutions,
etc.,  we have no Feeling about it.  We do not quarrel about twice two being
four.   If our feelings were involved we should perhaps try to make it  five
and quarrel with the one who,  for personal reasons,  said it was but three,


[PAGE 203]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

but in mathematics Truth is most clearly apparent and Feeling is eliminated.
Therefore, to the average man, desiring to live in the feelings, mathematics
is dry and uninteresting.  Pythagoras taught his pupils to live in the World
of  Eternal Spirit and he demanded that those who desired  instruction  from
his  should  first study   A mind capable of  understanding  mathematics  is
above the average and is capable of rising into the World of Spirit, because
it is not fettered in the World of Feeling and Desire.  The more we accustom
ourselves to think in terms of the Spiritual Worlds,  the better we shall be
able  to rise above the illusions which surround us in this concrete  exist-
ence,  where the twin feelings, Interest and Indifference, obscure the Truth
and bias us,  as the reflection of the light rays through the Earth's  atmo-
sphere  gives  us incorrect ideas of the position of the  luminary  emitting
them.

   Therefore the student who wishes to know Truth;  to enter and investigate
the realms of Spirit;  to free himself from the toils of the flesh,  as rap-
idly as is consistent with safety and proper growth, is earnestly advised to
study what follows as throughly as possible;  to assimilate it and draw men-
tal  conceptions  of these Worlds,  Globes and Periods.   If  he  wishes  to
progress in this way,  the study of mathematics and of Hinton's "The  Fourth
Dimension"  are also admirable exercises in abstract thought.   This work of
Hinton's  (though basically incorrect, because the  four-dimensional  Desire
World cannot be actually found by three-dimensional methods), has opened the
eyes  of  several persons who have studied it,  and made  them  clairvoyant.
Moreover,  remembering  that logic is the nest teacher in any world,  it  is
certain that the individual who succeeds in entering into the  superphysical
World by means of such studies in abstract thought, will not become confused


[PAGE 204]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

but will be able to give a good account of himself under all circumstances.

   A  stupendous  scheme is here unfolded,  and as more and more  detail  is
filled in,  its complexity becomes almost inconceivable.   Anyone capable of
comprehending it will be well rewarded for taking the utmost pains to do so.
Therefore,  the student should read slowly,  repeat often,  think deeply and
much.

   This book,  particularly this chapter, cannot be read in a casual manner.
Every sentence has weight and bearing upon what follows,  and presupposes  a
knowledge  of what precedes it.   If the books is not studied throughly  and
systematically,  it will grown more and more incomprehensible and  confusing
with every page.   On the other hand,  if it is studied and well thought out
as the student proceeds,  it will be found that each page is illuminated  by
the increased knowledge gained by study of what went before.

   No work of this kind,  dealing with the deepest phases of the Great World
Mystery that the human mind, at its present stage of development, it capable
of grasping,  can be written in such a manner that it will be light reading.
Yet  the deepest phases now comprehensible to use are but the A B C  of  the
scheme  as it will be revealed to us when our minds have become  capable  of
understanding more, in later stages of our development as Supermen.

                            THE SATURN PERIOD.

   The  Globes of the Saturn Period consisted of much rarer and  finer  sub-
stances than our Earth, as it will be evident from a study of diagrams 7 and
8, which the student is advised to keep close at hand for frequent reference
while studying this subject.  The densest Globe  of  that Period was located


[PAGE 205]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

in the same portion of the World of Thought occupied by the rarest of Globes
of the present Period--the Region of Concrete Thought.   These Globes had no
consistency  such  as we can sense.   "Warmth"  is the only  word  that  ap-
proximates  the idea of the ancient Saturn Period.   It was dark;  and if  a
person  could have entered into the space it occupied,  he would  have  seen
nothing.  All about him would have been darkness, but he would have felt its
warmth.

   To the materialist it will,  of course, seem insanity to call such a con-
dition a "Globe",  and to assert that it was the field of evolution of  Form
and Life.  Yet, when we consider the Nebular Theory, we can realize that the
nebula  must have been dark before it glowed with light,  and that  it  must
have  been  hot  before it could become fiery.   This heat  must  have  been
brought about by motion, and motion is life.

   We  may say that the virgin spirits who were to evolve consciousness  and
form were embedded in this Globe,  or perhaps better,  that the whole  Globe
was composed of virgin spirits,  as a raspberry is made of a great number of
small  raspberries.   They  were  incorporated in the  Globe,  as  the  life
ensouling  the mineral is in our Earth.   Therefore it is said among  occult
scientists that in the Saturn Period man went through the mineral stage.

   Outside  this "warmth-Globe"--in its atmosphere,  we might say--were  the
great creative Hierarchies,  who were to help the evolving virgin spirits to
develop form and consciousness.   There were many Hierarchies,  but for  the
present we shall concern ourselves with the principal ones only--those which
did the most important work of the Saturn Period.

   In the Rosicrucian terminology these are called "Lords of the Flame," be-
cause of the brilliant luminosity of their bodies and their great bodies and


[PAGE 206]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

their great spiritual powers.  They are called "Thrones"  in the Bible,  and
worked on man of their own free will.   They were so far advanced that  this
evolutionary manifestation could give them no new experiences, and therefore
no added wisdom, and the same may be said of two still higher order of Hier-
archies,  to be named later.  The rest of the creative Hierarchies, in order
to complete their own evolutions, were compelled to work  on,  in  and  with
man.

   These  Lords  of the Flame were outside the dark Saturn Globe  and  their
bodies emitted a strong light.   They, so to say,  projected their  pictures
upon the surface of that ancient Saturn Globe,  which was so  impressionable
that it reflected,  in a multiple or echo-like manner,  everything that came
in contact with it, giving back the images manifolded.  (This is told in the
Greek myth wherein it is said that Saturn destroyed his children.)

   However,  by repeated efforts during the first Revolution,  the Lords  of
the  Flame succeeded in implanting in the evolving life the germ  which  has
developed our present dense body.   This germ was somewhat developed  during
the remainder of the first six Revolutions, being given the capacity for de-
veloping the senses organs, particularly the ear.  Therefore, the ear is the
most highly developed organ we possess.  It is the instrument which  carries
with the greatest accuracy the impressions of outside conditions to the con-
sciousness.   It is less subject to the illusions of the Physical World that
the other sense organs.

   The  consciousness of the evolving life of that Period was like  that  of
the mineral of today--a state of unconsciousness similar to that attained by
mediums  in  the deepest trance--yet during the first six  Revolutions,  the
evolving life worked on the germ of the dense body under the  direction  and


[PAGE 207]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

with the help of the different creative Hierarchies.   In the  middle of the
seventh  Revolution  the Lords of the Flame,  Who had  been since  They gave
the germ of the dense  body in the first  Revolution,  again become  active,
this time to awaken the highest spiritual principle.   They aroused the ini-
tial activity of the divine spirit in man.

   Thus, man owes his highest and lowest vehicles--the divine spirit and the
dense body to the evolution of the Saturn Period.   These,  the Lords of the
Flame  of their own free will helped him to manifest,  not being  under  the
slightest compulsion to do so.

   The  work of the various creative Hierarchies is not started on Globe  A,
at the commencement of a Period or a Revolution.  It commences in the middle
of one Revolution,  growing in strength and reaching its highest  efficiency
in the middle of the Cosmic Night--which is between Revolutions,  as well as
between Periods.   Then it gradually declines, as the life wave sweeps on to
the middle of the next Revolution.

   Thus  the work of the Lords of the Flame in awakening the  germinal  con-
sciousness, was most active and efficient during the rest Period between the
Saturn and Sun Periods.

   We reiterate that a Cosmic Night is not to be regarded as a time of inac-
tivity.   It is not inert existence, as we saw in the case of the individual
passing  from  death to a new birth.   So with the great death  of  all  the
Globes of a Period.  It is a cessation of active manifestation,  that a pro-
portionately keener subjective activity may be unfolded.

   Perhaps  the best idea of the nature of this subjective activity  may  be
gained by observing what happens when a ripe fruit is buried  in the ground.


[PAGE 208]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Fermentation and decay of the flesh sets in, but out of that chaos comes the
new plant,  sprouting forth into the air and sunshine.  So, when a Period is
past, all is resolved into conglomerate chaos, apparently incapable of being
reduced to order.   At the proper time, however,  the Globes of a new period
are formed and made ready for occupancy as man-bearing Worlds.   Hither  the
evolving life is transferred from five dark Globes which it traverses during
the Cosmic Night, to commence the activities of a new creative day in an al-
tered  environment,  prepared and externalized during the activities of  the
Cosmic Night.  As the forces of fermentation in the fruit stimulate the seed
and  fertilize  the  soil  in which it grows,  so the  Lords  of  the  Flame
stimulated the germ of divine spirit,  particularly during the Cosmic  Night
between  the Saturn and Sun Periods,  continuing their activities until  the
middle of the first Revolution of the Sun Period.

                              RECAPITULATION.

   Before the activity in any Period can be started,  there is a recapitula-
tion of all that has been gone through before.   Owing to the spiral path of
evolution,  this activity takes place each time on a higher scale  that  the
stage in progression which it rehearses.  The necessity will become apparent
when the actual work in recapitulation is described.

   The  first Revolution of any Period is a recapitulation of the work  upon
the dense body in the Saturn Period, and is spoken of among Rosicrucians  as
the "Saturn Revolution."

   The Second Period is the Sun Period,  and therefore the second Revolution
of any Period subsequent to the Sun Period would be the "Sun Revolution."


[PAGE 209]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

   The  third Period is the Moon Period,  therefore the third Revolution  of
any subsequent Period will be a recapitulation of the work done in the  Moon
Period, and is called the "Moon Revolution."

   Not until after the recapitulatory Revolutions does the proper work of  a
Period begin.   For instance,  in the present Earth Period,  we have  passed
through  three and one-half Revolutions.   That means that in the first,  or
Saturn  Revolution of the Earth Period,  the work done in the Saturn  Period
was repeated,  but on an advanced scale.  In the second,  or Sun Revolution,
the work of the Sun Period was gone through again.   In the third,  or  Moon
Revolution, the work of the Moon Period was repeated; and it was only in the
fourth--the present Revolution--the real work of the Earth Period commenced.

   In  the  last  of the seven Periods--the  Vulcan  Period--only  the  last
Revolution  will be concerned with real Vulcan work.   In the preceding  six
Revolutions  the  work  of the preceding six Periods will  have  been  reca-
pitulated.

   Moreover  (and  this will particularly help the student to  remember),  a
Saturn  Revolution  in any Period has always to do with the  development  of
some  new  feature of the dense body, because that was started  in  a  first
Revolution;  and ANY seventh,  or Vulcan Revolution,  has for its particular
work  some activity in connection with the divine spirit,  because that  was
started in a seventh Revolution.   In the same way,  we shall see that there
is  a  connection  between the different Revolutions and all the vehicles of
man.

                              THE SUN PERIOD.

   Conditions  during  the Sun Period differed radically from those  of  the
Saturn Period.  Instead of  the  "warmth-Globes"  of  the  latter,  the  Sun


[PAGE 210]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Period  Globes were glowing light-balls,  of the consistency of gas.   These
great gasballs contained all that had been evolved in the Saturn Period, and
similarly, in the atmosphere were the creative Hierarchies.

   Instead of the echo-like, reflecting quality of the Saturn Period,  these
Globes,  to some extent, had the quality of absorbing and working over sight
or  sound  projected against their surfaces.   They,  as it  were,  "sensed"
things.   The Earth does not seem to do this,  and a materialist would scoff
at the idea,  yet the occultist knows that the Earth feels everything on and
in it.   This lighter Globe was much more sensitive that the Earth,  because
it was not limited and bound in such hard and fast conditions of materiality
as is our present habitat.

   The  life,  of course,  was different,  because no forms such as we  know
could have existed there.  But life can express itself in forms of fiery gas
as  well as--in fact better than--in forms of hard chemical matter  such  as
the present dense forms of mineral, plant, animal and man.

   As the evolving life appeared upon Globe A in the first or Saturn Revolu-
tion  of the Sun Period,  it was still in charge of the Lords of  the  Flame
who,  in the middle of the last Revolution of the Saturn Period, awakened in
man the germ of the divine spirit.

   They  had previously given the germ of the dense body and,  in the  first
half of the Saturn Revolution of the Sun Period, were concerned with certain
improvements to be made upon it.

   In  the Sun Period the formation of the vital body was to  be  commenced,
with  all thereby implied of capability for assimilation,  growth,  propaga-
tion, glands, etc.

   The Lords of the Flame incorporated in the germ of the  dense  body  only


[PAGE 211]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

the  capability of evolving sense organs.  At the time now  under  consider-
ation  it became necessary to change the germ in such a way as to  allow  of
interpenetration by a vital body,  also capability of evolving glands and an
alimentary  canal.   This was done by the joint action of the Lords  of  the
Flame,  who gave the original germ, and the Lords of Wisdom, who took charge
of material evolution in the Sun Period.

   The Lords of Wisdom,  who were not so highly evolved as the Lords of  the
Flame,  worked to complete their own evolution;  therefore they received the
assistance of an order of exalted Beings who,  like the Lords of the  Flame,
order of exalted Beings who, like the Lords of the Flame, acted of their own
free will.   In esoteric parlance they are called the Cherubim.   These  ex-
alted Beings did not, however, become active in the work until it was neces-
sary  to  awaken  the  germ  of  the  second  spiritual  principle  of   our
man-in-the-making,  as the Lords of Wisdom were quite capable of  doing  the
work connected with the vital body which was to be added to the constitution
of  man in the Sun Period,  but not of awakening the second spiritual  prin-
ciple.

   When  the Lords of the Flame and the Lords of Wisdom had,  in the  Saturn
Revolution  of the Sun Period, conjointly reconstructed the  germinal  dense
body, the Lords of Wisdom, in the second Revolution, started the proper work
of the Sun Period,  by radiating from their own bodies the germ of the vital
body,  making it capable of inter-penetrating the dense body and  giving  to
the germ the capability of furthering growth and propagation and of exciting
the sense centers of the dense body and causing it to move.  In short,  they
gave,  germinally,  to the vital body all the faculties which it is now  un-
folding  to  become  a  perfect  and pliable instrument for  the  use of the
spirit.


[PAGE 212]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   This work occupied the second, third, fourth and fifth Revolutions of the
Sun Period.   In the sixth Revolution the Cherubim entered and awakened  the
germ  of the second aspect of the threefold spirit in man--the life  spirit.
In  the  seventh  and last Revolution the newly awakened germ  of  the  life
spirit was linked to the germinal divine spirit,  and this was still further
worked upon.

   We  remember that in the Saturn Period our consciousness was  similar  to
the  trace condition.   By the activity of the Sun Period this was  modified
until it became like the consciousness of dreamless sleep.

   Evolution in the Sun Period added to the constitution of the evolving em-
bryonic man,  the next highest and the next lowest of his present  vehicles.
As  the result of the Saturn Period he possessed a germinal dense  body  and
divine spirit.   At the end of the Sun Period he possessed a germinal  dense
body,  vital body, divine spirit and life spirit, i.e., a twofold spirit and
a twofold body.

   We also note that,  as the first, or Saturn Revolution,  of any Period is
concerned  with work in the dense body (because that was started in a  first
Revolution),  so the second,  or Sun Revolution,  of any Period is concerned
with  improvements  on the vital body,  because it was started in  a  second
Revolution.  In like manner, the sixth Revolution of any Period is dedicated
to some work on the life spirit,  and any seventh Revolution is particularly
concerned with matters connected with the divine spirit.

   In  the Saturn Period man-in-the-making went through a mineral  stage  of
existence.  That is to say, he had a dense body only in the sense as had the
mineral.  His consciousness was also similar to that of the present mineral.


[PAGE 213]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

   In the same way,  and for analogous reasons,  it may be said that in  the
Sun Period man went through the plant existence.   He had a dense body and a
vital body,  as plants have, and his consciousness, like theirs, was that of
dreamless sleep.   The student will fully grasp this analogy by referring to
diagram  4 in the chapter on the four kingdoms,  where the vehicles of  con-
sciousness  possessed by mineral,  plant, animal and man  are  schematically
shown,  with the particular consciousness resulting from their possession in
each case.

   When the Sun Period was past there came another Cosmic Night of assimila-
tion,  together with the subjective activity necessary before the opening of
the Moon Period.  This was equal in length to the preceding Period of objec-
tive manifestation.

                             THE MOON PERIOD.

   As  the  chief characteristic feature of the dark Saturn Globes  was  de-
scribed by the term "warmth,"  and that of the Sun Period Globes as  "light"
or  glowing heat,  so the chief characteristic feature of the Globes of  the
Moon Period may be best described by the term "moisture."   There was no air
such as we know.  In the center was the hot fiery core.   Next to that,  and
consequent  upon  contact with the cold of outside space,  there  was  dense
moisture.   By  contact with the fiery central core the dense  moisture  was
changed into hot steam, which rushed outward to cool,  and sink again toward
the center.  Therefore the occult scientist calls the Globes of the Moon Pe-
riod "water" and describes the atmosphere of that time as "fire-fog."   That
was the scene of the next forward step of the evolving life.

   The Moon Period work was that of acquiring  the germ of a desire body and


[PAGE 214]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

starting  the germinal activity of the third aspect of the threefold  spirit
in man--the human spirit--the Ego.

   In the middle of the seventh Revolution of the Sun Period,  the Lords  of
Wisdom took charge of the germinal life spirit given by the Cherubim in  the
sixth Revolution of the Sun Period.   They did this for the purpose of link-
ing  it  to the divine spirit.   Their greatest activity in  this  work  was
reached  in the Cosmic Night intervening between the Sun and  Moon  Periods.
In the first dawn of the Moon Period, as the life wave started upon its  new
pilgrimage,  the Lords of Wisdom reappeared,  bearing with them the germinal
vehicles of the evolving man.  In the first or Saturn Revolution of the Moon
Period,  they co-operated with the "Lords of Individuality," who had special
charge of the material evolution of the Moon Period.   Together they  recon-
structed the germ of the dense body, brought over from the Sun Period.  This
germ had unfolded embryonic sense organs,  digestive organs,  glands,  etc.,
and was inter-penetrated of life into the embryonic dense body.   Of course,
it was not solid and visible as it is now, yet in a crude sort of way it was
somewhat organized and is perfectly distinguishable to the trained clairvoy-
ant  sight of the competent investigator who searches the memory  of  nature
for scenes in that far-off past.

   In the Moon Period it was necessary to reconstruct the dense body to make
it capable of being inter-penetrated by a desire body,  and also capable  of
evolving  a nervous system,  muscle, cartilage and a  rudimentary  skeleton.
This  reconstruction was the work of the Saturn Revolution of the  Moon  Pe-
riod.

   In the second, or Sun Revolution, the vital  body  was  also  modified to


[PAGE 215]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

render it capable of being inter-penetrated by a desire body, also of accom-
modating itself to the nervous system, muscle, skeleton, etc.   The Lords of
Wisdom, who were the originators of the vital body, also helped the Lords of
Individuality with this work.

   In the third Revolution the proper Moon work commenced.  The Lords of In-
dividuality radiated from themselves the substance which they helped the un-
conscious,  evolving  man to appropriate and build into  a  germinal  desire
body.   They also helped him to incorporate this germinal desire body in the
compound  vital body and dense body which he already possessed.   This  work
was carried on all through the third and fourth Revolutions of the Moon  Pe-
riod.

   As with the Lords of Wisdom, so with the Lords of Individuality;  through
exalted  far  above man,  they worked on and in him to  complete  their  own
evolution.  While they were capable of dealing with the lower vehicle,  they
were powerless in regard to the higher.   They could not give spiritual  im-
pulse necessary to the awakening of the third aspect of the threefold spirit
in man.   Therefore another class of Beings who were beyond the necessity of
evolving in such an evolution as we are passing through--who also worked  of
their own free will, as did the Lords of the Flame and the Cherubim--came in
during  the  fifth Revolution of the Moon Period,  to help  man.   They  are
called  "Seraphim."   They  awakened the germ of the  third  aspect  of  the
spirit--the human spirit.

   In  the sixth Revolution of the Moon Period the Cherubim  reappeared  and
co-operated with the Lords of Individuality to link the newly acquired  germ
of the human spirit to life spirit.

   In the seventh Revolution of the Moon Period the Lords of the Flame again


[PAGE 216]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

came to the aid of man, helping the Lords of Individuality to link the human
spirit  to  the  divine  spirit.   Thus  the  separate  Ego--the   threefold
spirit--came into existence.

   Before the beginning of the Saturn Period the virgin spirits who are  now
man, were in the World of Virgin Spirits, and were "All-conscious" as God in
who (not from whom),  they were differentiated.   They were not "SELF"  con-
scious  however.   The attainment of that faculty is partly  the  object  of
evolution which plunges the virgin spirits into a sea of matter of gradually
increasing density which eventually shuts it from All-consciousness.

   Thus,  in the Saturn Period the virgin spirits were immersed in the World
of  Divine  Spirit and encased in the tiniest film of that  substance  which
they partially penetrated by the help of the Lords of Flame.

   In the Sun Period the virgin spirit was plunged into the denser World  of
Life Spirit and more effectively blinded to the All-consciousness by a  sec-
ond veil of the substance of the World of Life Spirit.   Still,  by the help
of the Cherubim it partially penetrated this second veil also.   The feeling
of the Oneness of All was not lost either,  for the World of Life Spirit  is
still a universal World common to and inter-penetrating all the planets of a
Solar System.

   In the Moon Period,  however,  the virgin spirits take a further dip into
the still denser matter of the Region of Abstract Thought and here the  most
opaque  of  its  veils,  the  human  spirit,   is  added.    Henceforth  the
All-consciousness of the virgin spirit is lost.   It can no longer penetrate
its  veils,  look OUTWARDS and perceive OTHERS, so it is forced to turn  its
consciousness  INWARDS and there it finds its SELF,  as the  Ego,  separated
apart from all others.

   Thus the virgin spirit is  encased  in  a  threefold  veil,  and  as  its


[PAGE 217]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

outermost veil,  the human spirit,  effectively blinds it to the oneness  of
Life,  it becomes the Ego by entertaining the illusion of separateness  con-
tracted during involution.   Evolution will gradually dissolve the illusion,
bring  back  the All-consciousness,  and Self-consciousness will  have  been
added.

   Thus  we see that at the close of the Moon Period man possessed a  three-
fold body in varying stages of development; and also the germ of the  three-
fold spirit.   He had dense, vital, and desire bodies, and divine,  life and
human spirit.  All he lacked was the link to connect them.

   It has been stated that man passed through the mineral stage in the  Sat-
urn Period;  through the plant stage in the Sun Period,  and his  pilgrimage
through the conditions of the Moon Period corresponds to the phase of animal
existence, for the same reason that the two other similes are applicable--he
had the dense,  vital,  and desire bodies, as have our present animals,  and
his consciousness was an internal picture-consciousness,  such as the  lower
animals  have today.   This resembles the dream consciousness of  man,  save
that  it is perfectly rational,  being directed by the group-spirit  of  the
animals.   The student is again referred to diagram 4 in the chapter on  the
four kingdoms, where this is shown.

   These  Moons beings were not so purely germinal as in the previous  Peri-
ods.  To the trained clairvoyant they appear suspended by strings in the at-
mosphere of the fire-fog,  as the embryo hangs from the placenta by the  um-
bilical cord.  Currents (common to all of them), which provided some sort of
nourishment  flowed  in and out from the atmosphere,  through  those  cords.
These currents were thus,  to some extent,  similar in their function to the
blood of the present day.  The  name  "blood"  as applied to these currents,


[PAGE 218]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

however, is used merely to suggest an analogy, because the Being of the Moon
Period  possessed nothing like our present red blood,  which is one  of  the
very latest acquisitions of man.

   Towards  the  end of the Moon Period there was a division  of  the  Globe
which  was the field of our and other evolutions,  which,  for the  sake  of
greater implicity, we have not heretofore mentioned, but with which we shall
presently become acquainted.

   Part  of that great Globe was crystallized by man on account of  his  in-
ability  to keep the part which he inhabited in the high state of  vibration
maintained by the other beings there, and as this part became more inert the
centrifugal force of the revolving Globe sent is spinning into space,  where
it began to circle around the glowing fiery central portion.

   The  spiritual  reason for the throwing off of such  crystallizations  is
that the highest beings on such a Globe require for their evolution the  ex-
ceedingly rapid vibrations of fire.  They are hampered by condensation,  al-
though such a condition is necessary to the evolution of other and less  ad-
vanced beings required lower rates of vibration.   Therefore,  when part  of
any Globe has been consolidated by a group of evolving beings to the  detri-
ment of others,  that part is thrown off to exactly the proper distance from
the central mass, so that it circles as a satellite around its primary.  The
heat vibrations which strike it are of the rate and strength suitable to the
peculiar  needs of the beings evolving upon that satellite.   Of course  the
law  of gravitation accounts quite satisfactorily for the phenomenon from  a
PHYSICAL viewpoint.   But there is always a deeper cause, that yields a more
complete explanation and which we will find if  we  consider  the  spiritual


[PAGE 219]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION


side  of things.   As a physical action is but the visible manifestation  of
the  invisible  thought which must precede it, so is the throwing off  of  a
planet  from a central Sun simply the visible and unavoidable effect of  in-
visible spiritual conditions.

   The  smaller  planet which was thrown off in the Moon  Period,  condensed
with comparative rapidity and remained the field of our evolution until  the
end of that Period.  It was a moon to the parent planet,  circling around it
as our Moon circles around the Earth, but it did not show phases as our Moon
does.   It revolved in such a manner that one-half was always light and  the
other always dark,  as is the case with Venus.  One of its poles was pointed
directly towards the large fiery Globe,  as one of the poles of Venus points
directly towards the Sun.

   On this satellite of the Moon Period there were currents which  encircled
it,  as the group-spirit currents encircle the Earth.   The Moon beings fol-
lowed  those currents instinctively from the light to the dark side of  this
old Moon.  At certain times of the year, when they were on the light side, a
sort of propagation took place.  We have the atavistic residue of those moon
travels from propagation in the migrations of the birds of passage which, to
the present day,  follow the group-spirit currents around the Earth at  cer-
tain  seasons of the year,  for identical purposes.   Even the (honey)  moon
trips of human beings show that man himself has not yet outgrown the  migra-
tory impulse in connection with mating.

   The Moon beings at this last stage were also capable of giving  utterance
to  sounds,  or cries.   These were Cosmic sounds--not expressions of  indi-
vidual joy or sorrow,  for as yet there was no individual.   The development
of the individual came later--in the Earth Period.


[PAGE 220]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

   At  the end of the Moon Period once more came the interval of  rest,  the
Cosmic  Night.   The divided parts were dissolved and merged in the  general
Chaos which preceded the reorganization of the Globe for the Earth Period.

   The  Lords of Wisdom had now evolved so far,  that they were  capable  of
taking  charge as the highest creative Hierarchy.   They were given  special
charge of the divine spirit in man during the Earth Period.

   The  Lords of Individuality were also sufficiently advanced to work  upon
the spirit in man and the life spirit was therefore put under their charge.

   Another  creative  Hierarchy had special care of the three germs  of  the
dense,  vital,  and desire bodies as they were evolving.  They were the ones
who,  under the direction of the higher orders,  actually did the  principal
work on these bodies, using the evolving life as a kind of instrument.  This
Hierarchy is called the "Lords of Form."  They were now evolved so far  that
they  were given charge of the third aspect of the spirit in man--the  human
spirit--in the coming Earth Period.

   There  were  twelve great Creative Hierarchies  active  in  the  work  of
evolution  at the commencement of the Saturn Period.   Two of these  Hierar-
chies did some work to help at the very beginning.   No information has been
given as to what they did, nor anything about them,  except that they helped
of their own free will,  and then withdrew from limited existence into  lib-
eration.

   Three more of the Creative Hierarchies followed them at the beginning  of
the  Earth Period,  the Lords of the Flame,  the Cherubim and the  Seraphim,
leaving seven Hierarchies in active service when  the  Earth  Period  began.


[PAGE 221]                                             THE WORK OF EVOLUTION

(Diagram  9  will give a clear idea of the twelve Creative  Hierarchies  and
their status).

                                DIAGRAM 9.

                  THE TWELVE GREAT CREATIVE HIERARCHIES.

Zodiacal Sign       Name                    Status

1.   Aries          Nameless                The first and second orders are
2.   Taurus         Nameless                said to have passed beyond the
                                            ken of anyone on Earth.  It is
                                            known that they gave some
                                            assistance at the beginning of
                                            our evolution.
                    The three following orders worked of their own free
                    will to help man during the three periods which
                    preceded the Earth Period.  They have also passed to
                    liberation:
3.   Gemini         Seraphim                who, in the Moon Period,
                                            aroused in man-in-the making
                                            the germ of the human spirit--
                                            the Ego,
4.   Cancer         Cherubim                who, in the Sun Period, aroused
                                            the germ of the life spirit.
5.   Leo            Lords of Flame          who, in the Saturn Period,
                                            aroused the germ of the divine
                                            spirit and gave the germ of the
                                            dense body.
                    The following Seven Creative Hierarchies are active in
                    the Earth Period:
6.   Virgo          Lords of Wisdom         who, in the Sun Period, started
                                            the vital body.
7.   Libra Lords of Individuality           who, in the Moon Period,
                                            started the desire body.
8.   Scorpio        Lords of Form           who have special charge of
                                            human evolution in the Earth
                                            Period.
9.   Sagittarius    Lords of Mind           the humanity of the Saturn
                                            Period.
10.  Capricornus    Archangels              the humanity of the Sun Period.
11.  Aquarius       Angels                  the humanity of the Moon
                                            Period.
12.  Pisces         The Virgin Spirits      who are the humanity of the
                                            present Earth Period.


[PAGE 222]                                      ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

     The Lords of Mind became experts at building bodies of "mind-stuff"  as
we  are becoming experts at building bodies of chemical matter,  and  for  a
similar reason:  The Region of Concrete Thought was the densest condition of
matter  reached  during  the Saturn Period where they  were  human  and  the
Chemical Region is the densest state to be contacted by our humanity.

     In  the Earth Period the Lords of Mind reached the  Creator-stage,  and
radiated  from themselves into our being the nucleus of material from  which
we  are now seeking to build an organized mind.   They are called "Power  of
Darkness"  by  Paul because they came from the dark Saturn Period,  and  are
considered  evil on account of the separative tendency appertaining  to  the
plan  of Reason as contrasted with the unifying forces of the World of  Life
Spirit;  the realm of Love.   The Lords of Mind work with humanity;  but not
with the three lower Kingdoms.

     The  Archangels became experts at building a body of desire-stuff:  the
densest  matter  of the Sun Period.   Therefore they are able to  teach  and
guide  such  less  evolved beings as man and animal how to mold  and  use  a
desire-body.

     The Angels are thoroughly experienced in building a vital body for  the
Moon period when they were human the ether was the densest condition of mat-
ter.   On  account of this ability they are properly the  teachers  of  man,
animal and plant with regard to the vital functions: propagation, nutrition,
etc.


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