The Theosophical movement was inaugurated by a great outburst
of information relating to the origin and destinies of the human race that
had previously been in the exclusive possession of Those we now think of
as the Masters of Wisdom. This was richly supplemented during the next few
years by teaching coming through the original London Lodge, and published
in its Transactions, and by the publication of "The Secret Doctrine" in
the year 1888. Since that date I have been frequently able to pass on additional
information, and much has come through the writings of Mrs. Besant and Mr.
Leadbeater. Within the last seven or eight years it has been my privilege
to obtain a great deal of still more extended information, expanding and
developing the original sketches, so that I feel now we are in possession
of knowledge that may be regarded as the foundation of a real spiritual science.
The difference between such clearly defined knowledge and the first vague
conclusions we were enabled to form, can hardly be exaggerated.
At the recent Convention of the National Society in Scotland
I endeavoured to pass on as much of this expanded knowledge as time and opportunity
allowed me to deal with, and I wish now to set down in a more permanent form
the detailed information I have been able, within the last seven or eight
years to obtain, in reference to three great departments of the vast infinitude
covered by the vague phrase, "occultism".
First I propose to deal with the great mystery of Consciousness, one which
at the first glance seems the most unfathomable of any we have to study; then
to set forth in fuller detail than has hitherto been [Page
2] found possible, the actual present condition of human life on the planetary
chain to which we belong, and thirdly, to show how our comprehension of the
realm immediately in touch with the physical life, though just beyond its boundaries,
the astral world, has been developed to an extent that we never attempted to
reach when Theosophical study thirty five years ago was mainly directed towards
still wider horizons.
THE NATURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness is recognized by all physiological students as
a mystery they do not attempt to explain. We can trace the activities of
life back through the
muscles and the nerves back to the brain, but whence came the original impulses
in obedience to which the brain set the nerves to work on the muscles? That
question is left aside as relating to a mystery beyond human understanding.
Nor shall I attempt to clear up the mystery in the way we can sometimes accomplish
this when dealing with purely physical phenomena; we must be content to treat
Consciousness as the fundamental Divine Principle of all manifestation, but
the illuminating idea which I want to convey, is that Divine Consciousness,
itself, is, in its nature, identical with any consciousness of which we can
take cognizance; that in a word there is only one kind of Consciousness in
all creation — the Consciousness of God, working through vehicles of
varying capacity. Limited as we feel our own consciousness to be, it is in
its nature identical with that of Infinite Divinity, as in the other direction,
with that of animal and even vegetable life. That which may be thought of
as the efficient value of consciousness depends upon the vehicle in which
it is working. Within the body of a sheep its limitations are narrow indeed,
within that of an enlightened human being they seem enormously widened; but
whether we [Page 3] go down in thought far below
the sheep level, or ascend in imagination far above the human condition,
we shall find that the vehicle of consciousness in all cases determines the
extent to which consciousness itself can range over the infinitude of knowledge.
When Darwin first started the evolutionary theory, some of us were inclined
to regard him as having made the mistake of concerning himself with vehicles
alone, ignoring the concurrent evolution of intellectual and spiritual capacity.
Without perhaps fully realising the magnitude of his own achievement, he
was embracing in his view of nature both the physical and superphysical processes
of evolution. Although by profound study the process can be comprehended
even at the level of its obscure beginnings, the principle is better grasped
if we confine our attention to the development of consciousness in the human
being. By what law is the gradual improvement of the vehicle as time goes
on provided for? Putting the answer in a brief phrase, susceptible of further
development in detail, the law is that when consciousness within any given
vehicle exerts itself to the utmost, or in other words, makes the best use
of the vehicle in which it finds itself at any given time, the law — really
a part of the great aggregation of Karmic laws — proceeds to invest
that volume of consciousness, that Ego, with a better vehicle for its next
physical manifestation.
I must here quote a line or two from Tennyson, whose poetry, as we grow to
appreciate it, is saturated with occult knowledge. He writes in one fragment
to be found in almost the last published volume of his works:—
The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man;
And man said, Am I your debtor? The Lord: 'Not yet; but make it as clean as
you can,
And then I will let you a better. [Page 4]
In these compact lines we have the
whole idea I want to convey suggested, if not elaborately expressed. "Make
it as clean as you can" means,
of course, make the best use of it and establish a karmic claim on an improved
house or vehicle. We see the system working as we study the principles of Reincarnation,
working, of course, like most processes in nature in what seems at the first
glance a lopsided fashion. The lover of music makes the best use of his musical
faculties in the life when that desire first governs him and, while perhaps
neglecting other possibilities of improvement, he obtains in his next life
a vehicle better adapted to the expression of musical thought. So with any
other line of human activity. The lover of physical science finds life after
life his capacity for comprehending the laws of physical nature ever and ever
improving; the philanthropist unconsciously to himself, is imbuing his permanent
atoms with an ever-increasing eagerness to benefit his fellow-creatures. Down
to the minor developments of intellectual capacity the study of mathematics
or philology, the same invariable principle may be discerned. No one can in
one life, clean all the rooms in his house, to follow Tennyson's metaphor;
but by degrees all in turn will be found to have claimed his attention, with
the ultimate result that the Ego acquires a vehicle of consciousness perfected
beyond the needs of commonplace life, and passes into the ranks of Those we
know something of, the Masters of Wisdom.
As one burst of sunshine may illumine a landscape previously obscured by shadow,
this simple idea seems to clear up whole realms of vague speculation concerning
the processes we commonly refer to by the vague term "evolution." And
by the light so shed on the whole subject, we begin to put a scientific face
upon a vast range of cloudy speculation embodied sometimes in the phrase "The
Immanence of God in Nature." Imagination, of course, [Page
5] reaches
out vaguely towards the supreme problem: What is the nature of the vehicle
within which Divine Consciousness works? and in that direction, at present,
at all events, it is useless for us to aspire. But fully appreciated, the present
interpretation of consciousness gives unity and meaning to the whole design
of creation from mineral manifestation upward through organised life to infinitudes
beyond. It will be found to harmonise with every great idea that Theosophical
thought has been endeavoring to deal with. A compact phrase I have often been
fond of quoting, rests in its significance on the principle I have been endeavoring
to define: "Whatever is, is, has been, or will be, human." At the
first glance the value of the phrase seems to reside in the promise it holds
forth that all human creatures may aspire, in thinking of the possibilities
that await them towards absolute infinitudes of glorified existence; and it
does that, but it puts, so to speak, a scientific face upon the magnificent
prospect, and it fits in with every idea we have been taught to work with concerning
the dependence of progress on individual exertion. No one is lifted to a loftier
level of being than that on which he finds himself at any given moment, by
any Power exterior to himself. Helped by suggestion! Yes, we may all welcome
such help as that; we can none of us dispense with it; but the suggestion must
in all cases be a hint pointing to individual exertion. Actual progress in
every case must be the product of individual will and effort, the effort to
make the maximum use of life's opportunities; or, in other words, of the vehicle
in which consciousness for the time being is working.
Hardly any of the misty thoughts in which old-fashioned psychology indulged
will remain clouded by vagueness when the principle I am dealing with gives
them definite shape.
I will venture on a subtle illustration of this idea. [Page
6] Thinkers
who rather resent than aspire to clearly defined knowledge concerning the spiritual
aspect of their own nature, are often fond of treating Christ as a state of
consciousness. "The awakening of the Christ within us", or some such
vague interpretation of the idea, is held preferable to any specific knowledge
concerning the levels in the Divine Hierarchy at which we find definitely in
manifestation a Being from whom the Christ Principle actually emanates. Attached
as many thinkers are to the cloudiness of mysticism, the recognition of such
a specific Being seems to them to degrade the idea, and yet with the knowledge
concerning the Divine Hierarchy that has been in Theosophical possession almost
since the beginning, we know that there is a specific Being at a certain level
within the Divine Hierarchy of the Solar System, to whom we may definitely
look up as the conscious source of all spiritual influence. This clear knowledge,
far from degrading the aspiration in each individual ego to comprehend spirituality,
is just as superior to the state of mind with which the mystic is content,
as the landscape illuminated by sunshine is superior to the dim suggestion
of partial obscurity. Undoubtedly in all research or teaching connected with
spiritual truth, mysteries still lie beyond any that are being by degrees cleared
up — stretching beyond these to all Infinity; but the more our knowledge
is expanded, the better we realise that cloudiness of thought, uncertainty
as we gaze upward, vagueness of expression as we attempt to put aspiration
into words, are merely due to want of further knowledge. As definite and precise
as our knowledge has now become in reference to the simple phenomena of chemistry,
so defined and precise to a higher understanding must the conditions of spiritual
life ultimately become, though to the ordinary human brain they must long remain
incomprehensible. There is no inherent value in cloudiness of thought. That
which we ought all [Page 7] to be aiming at in
dealing with any of the mysteries hitherto embraced by the vague term "occultism," is
clearness and precision of understanding. The Truth, if we could comprehend
it, is as clear and precise as any of those simpler truths of nature within
our grasp, and the task before us is not that of continuing to treat spiritual
research as something too sacred to be cramped by outline or form. There can
be no spiritual truth so exalted and for us at the moment incomprehensible,
which does not have as clear an outline and as defined a mental shape for consciousness
working in appropriate vehicles as the simpler relationships of molecular physics
already have for ourselves.
THE PLANETARY CHAIN
The first idea we had about the progress of life on planetary chains was, looking
back upon it, all we could be expected to understand at the first blush. It
was a huge expansion of the elementary idea that this world was the beginning
of all things, and that its gradual creation could be traced in the familiar
language of scripture.
The very notion of planetary chains was an entirely new one which had to be
assimilated by degrees, and has needed in later years very elaborate explanation.
The planetary chain that we belong to consists, as the early teaching showed,
of seven globes, the first and last on the Manasic level, two others below
these on the Astral level, three on the physical plane. We jumped to the conclusion
in the beginning that all planetary chains were alike, consisting of seven
globes, and the idea has unhappily permeated Theosophical literature to that
extent that it has misled many thinkers. It is really only the middle chain
of a manvantaric series that consists of seven planets; in the previous Manvantara,
a chain had only five; in the one before it, only three; and in the one before
that, only one. I will not stop [Page 8] to work
out this idea in all its scientific beauty. A mere hint will be enough to show
how the whole series of Manvantaras is a harmonious conception beginning with
the Divine Thought — the first manasic globe — culminating in
some supreme results that are beyond our present comprehension in that far
away future when the whole series will be complete. But keeping our attention
fixed for the moment on our present planetary chain of seven globes, the first
idea we have to realise is that when we were told in the beginning about the
great life wave sweeping on from world to world, and for the present occupying
this earth, we were put in possession of a broad idea which is perfectly true
but which requires elaboration. The main part of the human family to
which we belong does occupy this earth at the present time, but during the
various rounds of progress which have been going on for an almost incalculable
past, the family has to a certain extent straggled over the whole series of
worlds constituting the Chain. At present we shall find it impossible to understand
the conditions of life on the super-physical planets, and we may leave them
out of account for the moment; but on the three physical, including Mars behind
us and Mercury in advance of us, the human family is now distributed — part
of it already established on Mercury, part left behind on Mars. The explanation
is simple. While the great majority swept forward to this earth, the laggard
remnant not yet qualified for incarnation here remains on the planet Mars,
a superior vanguard already getting forward to the planet in advance. The retarded
condition of the Martian remnant — counted, of course, by a fairly large
number of millions — consists of those who have (reverting to my former
explanation about consciousness) failed to make the exertions required for
the acquisition of superior vehicles. There is no vehicle of human consciousness
on this earth amongst even the lowest savages that is not [Page
9] definitely superior in some important ways to the vehicles of consciousness
now inhabiting Mars. Strange to say, as often happens on the downward arc,
some capacities are still active amongst them, which enable them to do things
that we ourselves, in spite of our superior development, are unable to accomplish.
The Martian people can handle matter by arts that we to a certain extent have
lost, though the use of such arts does not represent superior intelligence
any more than a spider's capacity to make a web that no human art could imitate,
represents intellectual superiority on the part of the spider. Morally, the
condition of the Martian people is below any level that we can easily comprehend.
Their forms are to our more cultivated taste grotesquely ugly, and they practically
exemplify a saying applied with less appropriateness to some savage races of
our own globe: "manners they have none, and their customs are beastly." The
animal life on Mars is at a low level corresponding to that of the people.
It is purely reptilian in its character, and the development of taste amongst
the people may be imagined from the fact that their food consists of the blood
of the reptiles swarming in the vast inland lakes commonly called canals, with
which the habitable portions of the planet are covered.
Even amongst the Martians the evolutionary law which presses gradually on
the multitude is slowly working. Some Egos — for already the Martians
must be thought of as human — gradually establish claims on a better
vehicle of consciousness than those around them, and then they become qualified
for incarnation on this earth, and are brought over under the guidance of appropriate
emissaries from the White Lodge in batches sometimes of fairly considerable
number. I have heard of a recent case in which within the last year or two,
a batch of about a hundred thousand Martian Egos were imported into this world,
finding incarnation, some of them, in [Page 10] the
aborigines, as they are called, of Australia, some in the lowest types of Central
Africa, the best of them amongst the populations of Central Asia.
The conditions on the other hand involving the premature migration of Egos
from this earth to Mercury are curious and interesting when understood, but
at this step of the explanation it will be more convenient to stop and take
a new departure having to do with the relations of the various planetary systems
or chains of our Solar System with one another.
Even in the first sketches of occult teaching as soon as the notion of the
planetary chain had been established in the mind, it became clear that Egos
evolving around any given planetary chain, granting free will to each, must
work out different destinies. Some Egos would advance more rapidly than others,
so that at a fairly advanced stage in the whole process there would be immense
intervals of conditions between those in the vanguard and those in the rear.
Then it was explained that at a certain stage in the development of any given
planetary chain some would have fallen so far back, as compared with their
more persevering companions, that physical progress for the best would have
advanced to a condition in which the worst would not be qualified to make use
of the forms then in process of development. In other words, and in the rougher
language of our first explanations, a period is inevitable in each planetary
scheme when those who cannot advance further drop off from the main current
of evolution, only those who have made better use of their opportunities reaching
onwards towards the final possibilities of their existence. This period used
to be spoken of as the critical period of the fifth Round, and for a long time
no information reached us as to what would be the final destiny, in the case
of our own planetary scheme, of those who would fall off from evolution at
that remote period far ahead of us, the middle of the Round destined [Page
11]
to succeed that with which we are at present concerned.
Later information filled up this gap in our knowledge, and in so doing threw
a flood of light upon the constitution of the solar system as a whole. Obviously
the senior planetary scheme, of which Venus is the physical world, has long
since passed that critical period, although for us it lies so far still in
the future. Already the course of events must have decided the fate of the
failures of Venus at the critical period, and the answer given me when I was
eventually enabled to put the question, at once showed how various planetary
chains of the Solar System are not to be regarded as entirely independent undertakings.
They are linked together in an extremely intelligible fashion by the fact that
the Egos who become the failures of one planetary scheme pass into the evolution
of the planetary scheme next in order of development; so the simple answer
to the question, "Where are the failures of the Venus scheme?" is
embodied in the one word, "Here!" Certainly in my own experience
no one word ever before threw such light on vast regions of speculation. One
saw the whole seven (or rather ten) planetary schemes, all forming part of
one coherent design ; one saw the reason why they were not all at this moment
in similar stages of progress; one could look forward to the time when, for
example, the planet Jupiter, now an incandescent mass of mineral matter, will
become an inhabitated home of future races, when those which inhabit our earth
will no longer number among them any beings of a less exalted spiritual rank
than those we now think of as the Masters, and when the future Jupiter evolution
will afford opportunities for a new beginning to those who may have dropped
out of the evolutionary course designed in connection with later developments
of this world.
Now we come back to the further details of the [Page 12] process.
The Venus failures are here; more precisely, what does that mean? In truth,
although failures from the present standpoint of Venus attainment they failed
at a period in the evolution of their own race already far in advance of that
reached by the great bulk of our own people. None of them could be content
with such incarnations as are offered to humanity at present, even by the most
civilised races inhabiting this world, or at all events no such offers can
be provided in anything resembling adequate abundance. The problem as thus
stated almost hints at its own solution. I have already said that the planet
Mercury, belonging to our chain, is actually the home of Egos constituting
the vanguard of our humanity. For the moment I am leaving out of account those
who, along the path, attain sublime spiritual conditions which, for that matter,
make them free of all the planets of our chain. But Mercury, inhabitated by
the very best, so to speak, of the human family, became a region in which the
Venus failures could freely incarnate, and at the present moment "Mercury" is
the more precise form of the word "here" which impressed me so much
when I first heard it used in this connection.
And now let us realise more in detail the nature of the life of which Mercury
is the home. In many ways it is so far superior to the conditions we are familiar
with here that only by degrees can we form any conception of it. In some respects
we are helped to do this by a book which, at the first glance, has nothing
whatever to do with scientific occultism, — Bulwer Lytton's delightful
story, "The Coming Race." We do not go far in occult study before
coming into touch with the frequent occurrence of literary inspiration. Masters
taking an interest in that work, and finding sensitive authorship, will constantly
inspire poetry and fiction, while others indeed are inspiring scientific thought;
but that need not be dealt with at this moment. The Master [Page 13] who
inspired Bulwer Lytton with the ideas so prettily set forth in "The
Coming Race" did not, so to speak, give Himself the trouble to invent
an imaginary world of dignity and beauty; He simply drew on His personal knowledge
of the conditions actually prevailing on the planet Mercury — conditions
absolutely familiar not merely to the great Masters, but to many of those of
somewhat lesser rank, who are already able on the Buddhic plane to roam the
Solar System at discretion. Perfect harmony prevails in the delightful Mercurial
community; the Satanic influence which has filled this world with strife and
confusion, whether we contemplate political, industrial, or international relationships,
has never penetrated the peaceful regions of our beautiful sister planet. Intellectual
advancement has far outstripped our own, and for many thinkers amongst us speculating
on the possibilities of future sociology, it will be interesting to know that
in reality on Mercury, as in Bulwer Lyttons' story, the female half of humanity
is distinctly, though in no inconvenient degree, superior to and predominant
over the other half. It is difficult to make the statement in any form of words
which does not convey at the first glance a misunderstanding, because the very
words male and female, as we use them here, have very different meanings on
Mercury, especially from the physiological point of view from those we attach
to the words in this less beautiful world. And again, when we talk of superiority
and predominance, we can hardly keep touch with ideas that seem from our experience
incompatible with those others — the ideas of perfect harmony and love.
Really all these apparently conflicting principles are susceptible of combination
in a perfect chord like varying notes in music, and the whole subject tempts
imagination. But for the moment I must revert to the connection between Mercury
conditions and the claims on nature of the Venus failures. [Page
14]
In its later evolution, possibly in obedience to a law which may govern other
worlds, the people of Venus became very much more advanced students of beauty — mong
other things — than we on this world can claim to be as yet. That drift
of development was already operative with the whole race before the critical
period. So as a matter of fact Venus failures now on Mercury are enormously
in advance of the earthly population as a whole as regards the appreciation
of beauty on a level only represented amongst us, if at all, by the greatest
artists of our period. Parenthetically I may here just mention a bit of information
that reached me a long time ago, and seemed puzzling at the moment, concerning
the peculiar Karma which in some cases makes it possible for Earthly egos to
be prematurely transferred to incarnations on Mercury (I am not talking about
the inner round, which is a subject apart). It is just possible for people
appropriately qualified by their Karma to be thus transferred. I must not stop
to go into the numerous details of the subject, but one characteristic required
by people unconsciously becoming qualified for the transfer, is the artistic
temperament. They must have some qualification for appropriately enjoying the
heredity of Mercurial parents.
This whole department of the subject is curiously fascinating. Of course the
word beauty must not be used in any narrow sense, but in one which includes
the natural beauty of trees and flowers, the loveliness of colour in a landscape,
the harmony of form in a structure, as well as that beauty in the feminine
aspect of humanity which is perhaps the variety of beauty we all think of first
when we make-use of the word.
As above suggested, not quite all the Venus failures are already established
on Mercury. Some, if not actually amongst us yet, are awaiting earthly incarnation,
due, no doubt, to their exact place on the [Page 15] scale
of evolution, and are meanwhile from higher levels either on the Astral or Manasic
worlds, influencing artistic thought, inspiring artistic achievement actually
in progress amongst us at the present time, and this has been going on over what
we are in the habit of thinking of as long periods; short, of course, as measured
on the scale of natural evolution. The whole outburst of artistic capacity in
Greece during that period the other day, which we call "ancient",
was due to the way in which Venus failures in our higher worlds discerned in
that race great capacities for the reception of their influence. Roughly speaking,
all Greek art in sculpture may be regarded as having been a gift to us from
the Venus immigrants, whom from the Venus point of view we must still speak
of as failures.
There is something eminently suggestive in the fact that a more highly evolved,
more morally and intellectually perfect a race than our own at its present
stage should also be identified with beauty for that matter, not merely in
regard to capacity to appreciate it, but in actual manifestation. Looking back
far to the rear of our own place in evolution, we always find early forms,
more or less to our senses, ugly and repulsive. The forms indeed of the degraded
remnants of the human family on Mars are simply hideous, as compared even with
the best examples among us. The animal life is uncouth and repulsive as compared
with the animal life of this world. Doubtless there are exceptions that will
leap into consciousness for everyone who thinks on the subject, but very broadly
the law of nature appears to link the moral improvement of conscious beings
with corresponding improvement in the beauty of form. When we understand the
intricacies of Karma better than we do at present, it may be possible to find
out why men and women amongst us are sometimes conspicuous at the same time
for beauty or form and atrociously defective character. But [Page
16] exceptions without, according to the stupid proverb, "proving
the rule", are at all events compatible with its operation on a large
scale.
And one more suggestion in connection with this line of thought arises from
definite information about the people on Mercury. Without going into indecorous
detail, it is enough to say that the birth of children is absolutely unattended
with distress or inconvenience for the mother. The whole business of race propagation
is in point of fact so unlike our own, so infinitely more charming and attractive
to the imagination, that incidentally it must mean differences in the physical
conformation of men and women which may at the first glance seem to conflict
with our present conceptions of perfect female beauty. And yet I am assured
by one, at all events, in a position to form an opinion, that, without for
a moment denying the beauty of a perfect female form of our kind at present,
the perfect Mercury woman, though very different, is the more beautiful of
the two. The perception of beauty is a faculty that grows and changes in its
growth, and this thought reaches in both directions, so that when I have sometimes
sought to ascertain why Nature's early experiments in form have generally been
uncouth and ugly, I have been told they were neither from the point of view
of the lowly developed consciousness they were designed to express.
THE ASTRAL WORLD
Any reference to the real conditions
of astral life must bring us first of all into touch with a situation —as lamentable as it is ludicrous — that
has established an almost impassable chasm between the vast body of superphysical
enquirers engaged with the methods of spiritualism, and those who have appreciated
what with all respect to the other I cannot but describe as the infinitely
more important line of study identified with the Theosophical movement. [Page
17] One might laboriously trace the way mistakes were made in the beginning,
but as regards authentic teaching from the Masters, on the strength of which
the Theosophical movement was launched, the subject of astral life immediately
following the death of the physical body was simply neglected. Somehow we were
drifted in the beginning into concerning ourselves with the gigantic principles
governing human evolution on a large scale, and disregarded opportunities of
understanding our immediate future better than before, in a way which painfully
reminds one of the old story about the star-gazer who fell into the ditch.
The pity of it, looking back, is intense. The Theosophical movement ought to
have been recruited wholesale from the ranks of the spiritualists. As things
have turned out, it is only a few who can be drawn across the gulf dividing
most of them from our work.
But now, forgetting all this, let us turn to the accurate information which
in later years some of u; have been able to obtain from lofty sources of information
concerning that astral world which thirty or forty years ago the spiritualists
understood better than the first writers on Theosophy, but which now we are able
to examine and interpret to an extent which puts the knowledge acquired by the
ordinary methods of spiritualism in the background altogether
To survey the astral world in its entirety and to comprehend its manifold varieties
of condition, the survey must be on an altogether higher level of consciousness
than that of the normal inhabitants. This idea which is obvious as soon as stated,
is ignored altogether by spiritualists of the simpler type who imagine
that because their friend has passed to a new state of existence he must know,
not merely all about it but all that relates to human destinies beyond his own
condition. And many spiritualist will even accept negative testimony; a spirit
who quite truly says that he cannot perceive any [Page
18] reincarnations in progress, is held by his friend on this plane
to have proved that no reincarnations take place; but in thus indicating the
necessary imperfection of the spiritualistic method as a means of acquiring
knowledge, let me, before passing on to deal with the knowledge acquired in
other ways, bear testimony to the magnificent work that has been done in the
world by spiritualism in its relations with religious thinking. The growth
of materialistic belief in the middle of the last century was so powerful that
if entirely unchecked, it would probably have extinguished religious thinking
altogether. Spiritualism, by proving that there was another life after this,
and one with which we could get into touch, broke up the domination of the
materialistic school in a way which no theological influence could possibly
have accomplished.
Coming to detail, we find the number seven playing an important part in the
astral economy as in many other ways with which we are familiar. It is a great
mistake to imagine that seven as a key number, is one of any deep significance
in the universe at large. It has a deep significance as regards our world,
of which, after all, the astral plane is merely a part — a part as definitely
objective as so much granite rock to appropriate senses of perception. To those
the granite rock would hardly make an appeal. We must think of the astral world
to begin with as consisting of a vast series of concentric shells entirely
surrounding this Earth, the aggregate diameter of which is enormously greater
than that of the physical globe. It is difficult to get measurements in miles
when dealing with the region of nature in which, for some purposes, distance
is almost negligible, and yet in truth there are actual magnitudes in connection
with the various sub-divisions of the astral world which may actually be expressed
in terms of our measurement. Enough for the moment to realise that the height
above the [Page 19] earths' surface to which the
loftier sub-divisions of the astral world extend, is to be thought of at least
in tens of thousands of miles. Then if we begin to attempt a survey of the
varied subdivisions we have to recognise that the astral plane interpenetrates
the physical body of the earth to a fairly considerable extent, and that the
regions thus submerged below the earth's surface are horrible in their characteristics
though definitely fulfilling a purpose in the divine plan of human evolution.
There are two distinct concentric shells of astral matter sunk within the body
of the earth. The lowest of all is one with which humanity has scarcely anything
to do, or ought not to have anything to do, though in the ghastly unprecedented
conditions of Satanic disturbance that we are going through, influences from
that lowest astral region have been brought to the surface for our profound
discomfort. Sub-plane No. I. ought to be concerned merely with the gradual
disintegration of elemental forms that played a part appropriately enough in
the very earliest history of this planet, but the need for which has long since
expired. Level No. 2, immediately below the earth's surface, is the real Hell
of actual Nature, a condition of suffering for those who drift thither that
can hardly be exaggerated in imagination. That such suffering, however, is
destined to be curative in its character is a fundamental idea to which in
investigating that region we should always cling. It deals only with the most
hideously degraded and atrociously criminal representatives of our humanity.
Without for the moment attempting to go into further detail in connection with
this ghastly department of the subject, we still have to realise that when
we consider Sub plane No. 3, that which is the first above the surface of the
physical world, we are still in touch with a purgatorial realm, the curative
influences of which are appropriate to evil-doers whose iniquity falls short
of that which leads to the lower [Page 20] hell.
Experiences on No. 3 may nevertheless be of a serious character. The misapprehension
people are so liable to fall into in connection with this purgatorial condition
arises from a very common tendency to take too severe a view of our own shortcomings.
People taught to consider themselves miserable sinners merely because they
are leading a commonplace physical life are probably, in most cases, so entirely
innocent in reality that when free of the body they will slip unconsciously
through the purgatorial region and wake up happily on some level of the fourth
sub-plane. Again, the study of the purgatorial region is so intricate that
imagination is misled if we dwell upon it elaborately before realising the
still greater and altogether beautiful intricacies of the higher sub-planes
which, from the lower levels of the fourth right up to the highest, are hardly
tinged with any emotion in the nature of suffering. The intricacy and complication
of the vast fourth sub-plane will be readily comprehended when we think of
it as the natural future home of entities as varied as the population of the
earth, or, leaving out of account the humbler multitudes of uncivilised communities,
the difference between individual Egos within the limits of a civilised country
like our own are so enormous and elaborate that natural law has indeed a delicate
task in providing all with perfectly suitable environment in the restful period
between two physical lives. Close observation to begin with divides the fourth
sub-plane into another septenary series, but seven is left far in the rear
as a number indicative of the need such life develops for variety. On quite
the lower levels of the fourth we find life carried on with such close resemblance
to the conditions of physical life on this globe that when we hear of houses,
theatres and amusements there, landscapes and lakes, and actual furniture in
the houses, some of us start up indignantly with the idea of associating such
phenomena with a spiritual condition. The [Page 21] spiritual life and fleshly life are, however, closely intermingled, not merely
in the living human body but in the super-physical worlds, appropriate to human
existence. There are people on the astral world free of all painful embarrassments
but who have not climbed beyond the conception of happiness associated with
physical enjoyment. To find these still available to the astral life their
aspirations in that direction must indeed be a good deal refined, and we have
always to remember that the affections which play so important a part in our
life even here, are still more supreme in their importance on all the happy
levels of the astral world. Karma entangles incarnate life with all kinds of
associations, and though it may permit us to enjoy some really congenial companionship
it often forces upon us a good deal or the other kind. In the astral life,
even on the fourth level, not to speak for the moment of loftier conditions,
people are never thrown into companionship which is otherwise than congenial.
This is one of the foremost assurances we gather from people speaking to us
from the next world. Sometimes they are still with friends they have known
and cared for on the earth life, but in any case with people towards whom they
feel entirely sympathetic.
In attempting this sort of survey, the magnitude of the task is intimidating.
We have accumulated such a vast body of detailed information concerning astral
life that to use a favourite simile, one cannot see the forest for the trees;
but keeping for the moment to generalities, let me attempt to indicate the
leading characteristics of the vast fifth, sixth, and seventh sub-planes of
the astral world. These must not be thought as definitely one superior to the
other. Through the various minor sub-divisions of the vast fourth sub-plane,
people do get actually promoted, as it were, from one to the other, as their
qualifications for enjoying the higher regions become developed; but once attaining
the highest levels of the fourth, [Page 22]
the other regions are reached, not so much by virtue of anything that can be
thought of as promotion, but in accordance with what may much more accurately
be described as individual taste. Roughly speaking, the fifth sub-plane is
the region in which intellectual activity can most easily expand; the sixth
is more devotional in its character, while the seventh is a region in which
those Egos that have played an important public part in the Earth life find
themselves in congenial companionship, and within reach of opportunities developing
their own qualifications as leaders of men in preparation for future incarnations
along that line of activity.
The idea just hinted at interprets
the enormously significant fact that in various departments of human distinction
great Egos remain by preference on the higher levels of the astral world
instead of passing on, as they conceivably might, to the still more elevated
conditions of the Manasic plane. Let us consider, for example, the choice
to be made by the great men of science as they pass on from physical life.
Assume, first, that they have no bad karma to keep them for a while on No.
3. They wake up on the highest levels of the fourth in company with congenial
friends in their own line of development. They quickly learn that on the
fifth, to which they can pass on at will, splendid opportunities for carrying
on the scientific researches to which they may have been devoted, lie within
their reach. They see that to take a forward step to the Manasic plane would
break the continuity of their work — land them on levels
of perception out of tune with the science they have been used to. It would
carry them on to another line of development altogether. By keeping on the
astral they acquire new knowledge in tune with that of their lives just spent.
That will invest their Egos with expanded capacity. In the next life on Earth
they will be able to carry on their work from the [Page 23]
point at which they left it off last, and they see the plain path of duty
before them.
The same principle certainly applies to the case of the great poets of the
past who are gathered together on the sixth sub-plane, though in other departments
of artistic greatness complications may arise. But how about people who are
not especially distinguished? Have they any choice as regards astral and
Manasic destinies? Serious confusion of thought arose among Theosophical
students in the beginning by reason of the way in which we happened to pick
up some quite correct information about the Devachanic state. That is a
condition of blissful illusion on the lower levels of the Manasic plane,
appropriate to people innocent of wrong doing, of affectionate nature, but
not highly qualified intellectually, or in other ways, for active work or
progress on the astral plane. The mistake we made at first was to suppose
that the Devachanic state was a goal to be aimed at by all. As we have come
to understand the life and opportunities of the higher astral world, the
mistake assumes a ludicrous aspect.
Obviously the study of astral details is an endless task, and can only be
carried out thoroughly when we are in personal touch with them; but one idea
not yet dealt with in this hurried survey can be understood now and claims
attention. Besides that which may be broadly thought of as the stratification
concentrically of the astral world, it has vast divisions that may be thought
of as corresponding to the geographical divisions of this Earth. Over the
great geographical areas of the Earth lie the astral regions appropriate
to the people of the region below. Thus the astral regions over India and
other parts of Asia are quite different in many ways from the astral regions
over European countries. This does not interfere with the fact that movement
from one part of the astral world to any other with the velocity of light
is open to any one belonging to that [Page 24] world
who knows to start with that he has the power of getting about in that way.
In truth, that knowledge only appertains to people who have been making some
progress during physical life in occult study. The vast majority of perfectly
commonplace people on the comfortable lower levels of the fourth sub-plane
never want to investigate for example — the corresponding conditions
of the Indian astral world. In a still more emphatic extent the Indian on
the astral never thinks of its western aspect, unless he belongs to the few
who have traveled west in life.
Does the geographical idea adapted to astral conditions embarrass thought
in any way? Are there blank spaces corresponding to the great oceans? Not
at all. The ocean spaces allow of convenient adjustments. Our British astral
stretches half across the Atlantic, and no doubt impinges (though I do not
remember to have heard of this as a fact) on the American astral, necessarily
a very wide domain.
For those who realise the importance, as well as the possibilities of getting
definite and vivid mental conceptions of super-physical Nature, this geography
of the astral world is extremely significant. It all helps to make the whole
complicated realm harmonious and restful for the great multitudes. For all
of us there may in future be a time when nationality becomes merged in some
higher attribute of exalted consciousness, but all progress is gradual. That
is the foremost principle to be discerned in studying astral life. Spiritualists
all recognise it, as well as those who derive super-physical knowledge in
other ways. For a time people passing on are on the other side just what
they were here. Especially, therefore, they are of the same nationality as
here. If all the nations of the world were jumbled up together on the astral,
that world would not, as it does, show us the laws and designs of Nature
in perfect harmony and accord, — in that symmetrical aspect which appeals
so powerfully to the intelligent observer. [Page 25] That
is the peculiar charm of the later Theosophical teaching. It enables all
who truly understand the Theosophical movement to feel that they are engaged
not merely in stimulating spiritual aspiration but in the magnificent task
of creating a true spiritual science.
THE INFINITE FUTURE
As I have endeavoured to show, in
dealing with the phenomena of the astral plane, it is possible to obtain
clearly defined knowledge in reference to some aspects of the super-physical
future awaiting mankind. The immediately "next
world" may become so vividly foreseen during our stay in this one that
its importance to us may be appreciated in a way rarely attained under the
influence of simple religious thought. That alone may give rise to a beautifully
reverential emotion in reference to the future life, but not to the same
kind of absolute confidence engendered by specific knowledge. Take an imaginary
case — in illustration of what I mean — from the possible conditions
of ordinary life. Suppose a young man entering some business or profession
is told by some friend, "You might do better if you went to America". The
young man does not deny this, but still thinks he can do fairly well at home,
so he does not dwell in thought on the friend's idea. Suppose he is offered
a definite engagement or opportunity in America and signs a contract to go
there next year. Will he not become at once deeply interested in the conditions
of residence in America ? He would read books about the country, talk eagerly
with travellers who had been there; fit himself out with clothes and other
things appropriate to the climate he would know to be that of his future
home. He would not neglect his current work, because he would know that his
efficiency therein would have much to do with his [Page
26] welfare
in the new life; but he would look on the current work with an eye to the
future, attending to it all the more zealously so far as it trained his capacity,
but with a sense of detachment that would make him relatively indifferent
to its immediate results.
Will the little parable fit the case of those who are — and who are
not — destined
to migrate at no very distant future, to the astral plane? Most people, it
is true, have made no attempt to get information in advance in reference
to the conditions prevailing there because they have not believed any information
on the subject to be trustworthy. The misty suggestions of religious doctrines
left all details obscure. Spiritualism incurred discredit in various ways,
and the importance of its main revelation was imperfectly understood by the
critical world at large; but now we have to deal with a fuller revelation
conveyed to us by Theosophy. The history of the movement since 1880 embodies
its credentials. The vision of the future is clearing up in many directions.
That department which includes life on the astral plane is illuminated by
a great wealth of knowledge. For all who appreciate this, that knowledge
sheds light on the path they are actually treading through the current physical
life, and with an expanded power of gazing into futurity; we are already
beginning to concern ourselves with problems of infinite futurity extending
far beyond the range of astral experience and physical reincarnation.
The feeling with which we do this is very unlike that which governs the investigation
of astral conditions. The ultimate conditions of our humanity when the history
of this world is complete are interesting only to thinkers who can deal in
imagination with states of consciousness so far transcending that of any
one personal life, that they are content to lose touch with the limitations
which actually engender the feeling of individuality. And if, as we [Page
27] may, we look beyond the limitations of the one world we seem to
lose sight of ourselves. Thus the contemplation of infinite futurity is not
at the first glance at all events compatible with an interest in ourselves.
But none the less does it dignify all thinking, even of the kind which does
relate to ourselves. We know that the continuity of our individual consciousness
will never be broken. Plant us suddenly in the state we shall be in — say
ten million years hence — and that would be so unlike our present state
that we should not recognise ourselves. The leap would be equivalent to annihilation
of our present selves. The gradual character of the change will preclude
this unhappy result. So we really may discuss the problems of infinitude
with composure without making the great mistake of projecting our personal
limitations into infinity.
Campbell's poem — beautiful in some respects —
"The Last Man," is a ludicrous illustration of this mistake. "I
saw the last of human mould. That shall creation's death behold as Adam saw
her prime".No doubt "The Sun himself must die", but that
will not happen till the life of the Sun, including ours, is transferred
to another vehicle, and we know enough now to foresee the change. We know
that our Sun is one of many constituting a stupendous Cosmos, of which the
great star Sirius is the centre. We can apply the rule, "as below; so
above", even to this state of things. The planets of our solar system
breed their humanities, which attain perfection and pass into Divine Hierarchies.
The aggregate Hierarchies of each solar system in the Sirian Cosmos must
have corresponding destinies on a loftier level. With us, planet is linked
with planet in accordance with a comprehensive scheme providing for the ultimate
perfection of all. Beyond doubt the solar system of the Cosmos must be linked
together in a somewhat similar way. And already we have learned something
about their destinies which [Page 28] shows these
analogous to the idea underlying the succession of manvantaras in each planetary
chain of our system. A sun which is in manifestation on the physical plane
has in a former manvantara been a sun on a super-physical plane, and will
again in some mysterious upward arc of evolution be on a super-physical plane.
I avoid saying on the Astral or Manasic plane, because these terms in reference
to the Cosmos must mean something very unlike their meaning in this one solar
system.
All through these mighty changes the continuity of each individual consciousness
concerned with them will be maintained. However overwhelming to the mind
may be the character of these colossal processes of change, we can already
contemplate them with open-eyed admiration, as on a lesser scale we may contemplate
the splendour of a mountain range bathed in the colours of the sunset. Even
natural beauty and grandeur of that order is uplifting in its effect on the
emotions. So with the mental influence of attempts to gaze in thought at
the infinitudes of spiritual development. By comparison our Humanity seems
so small — if, indeed, we can think of it at all as the stupendous
magnificence of the Cosmos is partly revealed to us. In one sense, if we
can forget it, so much the better. Truth lies in some paradoxical phrases
about sublime results attained by the loss of what seems everything for the
moment, but paradoxes may be misleading as well as suggestive. If only by
our capacity to admire, we are identified with the glories of infinitude — the
realm to which, attached to it by ties that can never be broken, we eternally
belong.
