Chapter V.

GROUP-SOULS.
The Meaning i
Speaking generally, a Group- Soul is collection of permanent triads, in a triple envelope of monadic essence. This description is true of all Group-Souls functioning on the physical plane, but gives no idea of the extreme complexity of the subject of Group-Souls. For they divide and sub-divide constantly, the contents of each division and sub-division decreasing in number, as evolution goes on, until at last a " Group-Soul " encloses but a single triad, to which it may continue for many birth? to discharge the protective and nutrient functions of a Group-Soul, while no longer technically describable as one, the "Group" having separated ofif into its constituent parts.
CROUP- SOULS.
"5
^ Seven Group-Souls are to be seen, unctioning on the ph\*sical plane, before any forms apjiear. They first show them-
selves as V
ague.
lilmv forms, one in each
.•itrcam of the Second Life-Wave, on the mental plane, becoming more clearly out-
|ilio«
I the physical. They float in the great
»an of matter as balloons might Hoal in
the sea. Observing them more closely,
we see three separate layers of matter,
, forming an envelope, which contains innu- ■able triads. Before any inmlneralisa- I has taken place, no golden life-wcb is, of course, visible around these ; only the radiant golden threads which connect them with their parent JivltiriAs are to be seen, shining with that strange lustre which belongs to their birth-plane. The inner- most of these three layers consists of physical monadic e-sscnce ; that is, the layer is composed of atoms of the physical plane, ensouled with the life of the Second Logos. At first sight, these innermost layers appear to be identical in the seven Group -Souls ; but closer observation reveals that each layer is formed of atoms
Il6 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
from only one of the seven Matter-groups before described. Each Group - Soul. therefore, differs in material constitution from all the rest, and the contained triads in each belong to the same matter-group. The secund layer ot the Group - Soul envelope is composed of astral monadic essence, belonging to the same matter- group as the first ; and the third of units of the fourth sub-plane of mental matter of the same type. This triple envelope is the protector and nourisher ol tht; triads contained within it, veritable embryos, incapable, as yel, of separate independent activity.
The seven Group-Souls soon multiply, division going on continually with the multiplication of distinct sub -types, as the immediate forerunners of the chemical elements appear, to be followed by the elements themselves, and the minerals formed from them. The laws of space, for instance— apart from the specialisation of the contents of the Group-Soul, the permanent triads — may lead to a division of it.
Thus a vein of gold in Australia may
to ihe inmineralisation of many such triads within a singlt; envelope, while the laying down of another vein in a distant plact'. say the Rocky Mountains, may id to the division of this envelope. ihe transfer of part of its contents America in iheir own envelope. But the more important causes which bring aixjut sub-divisions will be explained in the course of our study. The Group- Soul and its contents divide by lisston. like an ordinary cell — one becomes two. four, and so on. All the triads have pass through the mineral kingdom, place in which matter reaches its form, and the place where the ,t wave reaches the limit of its descent, id turns to begin its upward climbing. lere it is thai physical consciousness must raken ; life must now turn definitely .wards, and recognise contacts with icr lives in an external world. Now the evolution of each beinj; in these early stages depends chiefly on the cherishing life of the Logos, and partly the co-operating guidance of the lining Ones, and partly on its own
Il8 A STUDY IN COKSCIOUSNESS.
blind pressure against the limits of its enclosing form. I have compared the evolution through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms to an ante-natai period, and the resemblance is exact. As the child is nourished by the life- si reams of the mother, so does the protective envelope of the Group-Soul nourish the lives within it. receiving and distributing the experiences gathered The circulating life is the life of the parent ; the young plants, the young animals, the young human beings, are not ready for independent life as yet, but must draw nourishment from the parent. And so these germinating lives in the mineral kingdom are nourished by the Group- Souls, by the envelo5>es of monadic essence, thrilling with Logic life. A very fair picture of this stage may be seen in the carpel of a plant, in which the ovules gradually appear, becoming more and more independent.
For the sake of a clear conception, we may glance rapidly forward over the changes through which the Group-Soul passes, as its contents evolve, before going
GROUP-SOULS. 1 19
into details. During the mineral evolution, the habitat of the Group-Soul may be said to be that of its densest envelope, the physical ; its most active working is on the physical plane. As its contents pass on- wards into the vegetable kingdom, and ascend through it, the physical envelope slowly disappears — as though absorbed by the contents for the strengthening of their own ctheric bodies — and its activity is transferred to the astral plane, to the nourishing of the astral bodies of the contained triads. As these develop yet further and pass into the animal kingdom. the a.'itral envelope is similarly absorbed. and the activity of the Group-Soul is mnsferred to the mental plane, and it Tshes the inchoate mental bodies and s them gradually into less vagueness Outline. When the Group-Soul contains but a single triad, and has nourished this into readiness for the reception of the third GOtpouring, what is left of it disintegrates into matter of the third sub-plane, and becomes a constituent part of the causal body formed by the downpouring from above meeting the upward-drawn column
and tt I pa nsfe
K
^^Woutl
I20 A !^TUnV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
from below — to use the graphic water- spout simile. Then is the re-incarnating Ego born into independent manifestations the guarded ante-nata! life is over.
§2. Thf Division oi the Group-Soui..
It is on the physical plane that con^ sciousness must first evolve into Self- consciousness, must become aware of an externa! world that makes impacts upon it, and must learn to refer those impacts to an external world, and to realise as its own the changes which it undergoes in consequence of those impacts. By prolonged experiences it will learn to identify with itself the feeling of pleasure or pain that follows the impact, and to regard as not itself that which touches its external surface. It will thus make its first rough distinction of " Not-I " and " I." As experience increases, the ■' 1 " will retreat ever inwards, and one veil of matter after another will be relegated outwards as belonging to the " Not-I " ; but while its connotations change. this fundamental distinctiqi
GROUP-SOtTLS. 12!
between subject and object will ever remain. " I " is the willing, thinking, acting consciousness ; while the " Not-I " is all as to which it wills, about which it thinks, and on which it acts. We shall have to consider later the way in which consciousness becomes Self - conscious- Dcss, hut at present we are concerned only with its expression in forms, and the pan played by the forms.
This consciousness awakens on the
tysica! plane, and its expression is the lancnt atom. In this it lies sleeping:
It sleeps in the mineral ; " and therein awakening into lighter slumber must take place, so that it may be roused out of this deep dreamless sleep, and become sufficiently active to pas.s on into the next stage : '• It dreams in the vegetable."
Now the Second Logos, acting in the envelope of the Group-Souls, energises the permanent physical atoms and, by the mediation of the Shini ng Ones, as we have seen, plunges them into the various conditions olTered by the mineral kingdom. where each attaches to itself many mineral panicles. At once here we sec a large
I n
122 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
variety of possible impacts. leading to a variety of experiences, and so presently to lines of cleavage in a Group-Soui. Some will be whirled high in air, to fall in torrents of burning lava ; some will be exposed to arctic cold, others to tropic heat ; some will be crushed and sheathed in molten metal in the bowels of the earth ; some will be in the sand tossed roughly by rushing billows. Infinite variety of external impacts will shake ^ind strike and burn and freeze, and in vague answers of sympa- thetic vibrations will the deep-slumbering consciousness respond. When any per- manent atom has reached a certain responsiveness, or when a mineral form, /,(•., the particles to which a permanent atom has attached itself, is broken up, the Group-Soul draws that atom from Its encasement. All the experiences acquired by that atom — and that means the vibrations it has been forced to execute- remain as powers of vibrating in particular ways, or as "vibratory powers." That is the outcome of its life in a form. The permanent atom, losing its embodiment and remaining for a while naked, as
CROOP-SOULS. 123
tre, in its Group-Soul, and continuing to "repeat these vibrations, to go over within tt5cir its tifc-expericnces, sets up pulses »hich run through the envelope of the jfoup-Soul and are thus conveyed to lier permanent atoms ; thus each affects ind helps all the others while remaining elf. The permanent atoms which have i experiences similar in character will be more strongly affected by each other than Drill be those whose experiences have been different, and thus there will be a ain segregation going on within the Broup-Soul, and presently a filmy larating wall will grow inwards from : envelope, and divide these segregated "oups from each other ; and so there will an ever-increasing number of Group- luU with conienls showing an ever- increasing distinction of consciousness. while sharing fundamental characteristics. Now the responses of consciousness to \ exicmal stimuli in ihe minerfil kingdom far greater than many quite realise, some III them art of a nature which It thxit there is a dawning of cunscious- atso in the astral permanent atom.
r24 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS,
For chemical elements exhibit distinct mutual attractions, and chemical marital relationships are continually disorganised by the intrusion of couples, one or other of which has a stronger affinity for one of the partners in the earlier marriage than the original mate. Thus a hitherto mutually faithful couple, forming a silver salt, will suddenly prove faithless to each other if another couple, hydro-chloric acid, enters their peaceful household ; and the silver will pounce upon the chlorine and take her to wife, preferring her to his former mate, and set up a new household as silver chloride, leaving the deserted hydrogen to mate with his own forsaken partner. Wherever these active interchanges go on there is a slight stir in the astral atom, in consequence of the violent physical vibra- tions set up by the violent wrenching apart, and formation, of intimate ties, and vague internal thrillings appear. The astral must be roused from the physical, and consciousness on the physical plane will long take the lead in evolution. Still, a little cloud of astral matter is drawn round the permanent astral atom by these
1
I
GRoup-sout.s. ii"^
si^ht thrilling, but it is very loosely held, and seems to be quite unorganised. There does not seem to be any vibration in the menial atom at this sta}:;e.
After ages of experience in the mineral kingdom, some of the [)ermanent atoms will be ready to pass into the vegetable king- dom, and will be distributed by the agency of the Shining Ones over the vegetable world. It is not to be supposed that every Uade of g^rass, every plant, has a perma- nent atom within it, evolving to humanity during the life of this system. Just as in the mineral kingdom, so here ; the vegetable kingdom forms the field of evolutton for these permanent atoms, and the Shining Ones guide them to habitat after habitat, so that they may experience the vibrations that affect the vegetable world, and again store up these as vibra- tory powers in the same fashion as before. The principles of interchange and of con- sequent segregation work out as before. and the Group-Souls in each stream of evolution become more numerous, and more different in their leading charac- teristics.
r
126 A sTunv IX coxsaousNEss.
At our present stage of knowledge, the laws siccording to which permanent atoms in a Group-Soul are plunged into the kingdoms of nature are by no means clear. Many things seem to indicate that the evolution of the mineral, vegetable, and the lowest part of the animal kingdom belong more to the evolution ol the earth itself than to that of the jivAtmis repre- senting the Monads who are evolving within the Solar System, and who come, in due course, to this earth to pursue their own evolution by utilising the conditions it affords. Grass and small plants of every kind seem to be related to the earth as a man's hairs are related to his body, and not to be connected with the Monads, represented by JivStm^s in our five-fold universe. The life in them, holding them together as forms, appears to be that of the Second Logos, and the life in the atoms and molecules com- posing them to be that of the Third Logos, appropriated and modified by the Planetary Logos of our system of Chains, and further appropriated and modified by the Spirit of the Earth —
CROin'-SOCLS.
entity wrapped in great obscurity.
kingdoms offer a field for the
olution of the JivatmSs truly, but do
exist, apparently, wholly for this
purpose. We find jiermanent atoms
scattered through the mineral and vegc-
r tabic kingdoms, but are unable to pierce
I the reasons which govern their disiri-
A permanent atom may be found
I pearl, in a ruby, in a diamond ; many
may be found scattered through veins of
_pre. and so on. On the other hand much
ineral does not seem to contain any.
( with short-lived plams. But in plants
long continuance, such as trees, i>er-
jimt atoms arc constantly found. But
; again, the life of the tree seems to
more closely related to the Deva-
nrolution than to the evolution of the
nsctousncss to which the {>ermanent
tom is attached. It is rather as though
dvantage were taken of the evolution of
' 'fife and consciousness in the tree for the
benefit of the permanent atom ; it seem.s
to live there more as a parasite, profiling
by the more highly evolved life in which
it is bathed. The fact is that our know-
STL'DV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
ledge on these points is extremely fragqi mentary so far.
There is more activity perceptible in the astral permanent atom during the course of the accumulation of vegetable experiences by the physical, and it attracts round itself astral matter which is arranged by the Shining Ones in a rather more definite way. In the long life of a forest tree, the growing aggregation of astral matter developes itself in all directions as the astral form of the tree, and the consciousness attached to the permanent atoms shares, to some extent, that of its surroundings, experiencing through that astral form ihe vibrations causing massive pleasure and discomfort, these vibrations being the result of those set up in the physical tree by sunshine and storm, wind and rain, cold and heat. With the perishing of such a tree, the permanent astral atom retreats to its Group- Soul, now established on the astral plane, with a rich store of experiences, shared \ manner before described.
Further, as the consciousness becom more responsive in the astral, it sends litt
pcniu
thrills downwards Eo the physical plane, and ihese give rise to feelings felt as though in the physical, but really derived from the iistral. Where there has been a long separate life, as in a tree, the pcnnanent mental unit will also begin to ci round itself a little cloud of mental ;ter, and on this the recurrence of ins will slowly impress itself as a faint memory, which becomes inevitably a faint antidpauon.'
At last some of the permanent physical
atoms arc ready to pass on into the animal
kingdom, and once more the agency of the
lining Ones guides them into animal
During the later stages of their
lution in the vegetable world, it appears
lo be the rule that each triad —physical
and astral atoms and mental unit — shall
ive a prolonged experience in a single
so that some thrills of mental life
ly be experienced, and the triad may
lus be prepared to profit by the wandering
life of the animal. But it also appears that
in some cases the passage into the animal
' See Thtfuht-Paiver, ill Control and Cultun. Pp.
130 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
kingdom is made at an earlier stage, and that the first thrill in the mental unit occurs in some of the stationary forms of animal life, and in very lowly animal organisms.
In the lowest types of animals conditions similar to those described as existing in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms also appear to prevail. Microbes, amsbie, hydrje, etc., etc., only show a permanent atom as a visitor, now and again, and obviously in no way depend upon it for life and growth, nor do they break up when the permanent atom is withdrawn. They are hosts, not bodies formed around a permanent atom. And it is noteworthy that, at this stage, the golden Ufe-web in no way represents the organisation of the host's body, but merely acts as rootlets act in the soil, attaching particles of soil to themselves and sucking there- from nourishment. The permanent atoms in the animal kingdom have received and stored up many experiences, before they are used by the Shining Ones as centres round which forms arc to be built.
Needless to say that in the
en' I ani
GKOUr-SOULS.
kingdom, the pennanent atoms receive lar inore varied vibraiions than in the lower kingdoms, and consetjuently differentiate more quickly, the number of triads in the Group-Souls diminishing rapidly as this difTcrentiaiion proceeds, and the muliipli- catton of Group-Souls therefore jj^ing on «rith increasing rapidity. As the period of individuality approaches, each sejMiraic triad becomes possessed of its own envelope, obtained from the Group-Soul. and takes on successive embodiments as
separate entity, though still within the
iveloping case of protecting and nourish-
ig monadic essence.
Lar^ numbers of the higher animals in a stale of domestication have rcachetl this stage, and have really become separate re-incanialing entities, although not as yet possessinjj a causal body— the mark of what is usually called individual isation. The envelope derived from the Group-Soul serves the purpose of a causal body, but consists only of the third layer, as previously indicated. and is therefore composed of molecules derived from the fourth grade of mental
132 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
matter, that which corresponds to thi coarsest ether of the physical plana Following the analogy of human ante- natal life, we see that this stage corresponds with its last two months. A seven-months' babe may be born and may survive, but it will be stronger, healthier, more vigorous, if it profits for yet another two months by its niother'n shielding and nourishing life. So is m better for the normal development of the Ego that it should not too hastily burst the envelope of the Group-Soul, but should still absorb life through il, ajid, strengthen from its constituents the fine! part of its own mental body. Whedl that body has reached its limit of growtte under these shielded conditions, th envelope disintegrates into the finer molecules of the sub-plane above it. and becomes, as above said, part of the causal body.
It is the knowledge of these facta that has sometimes caused occultists to ■ warn people who are very fond of animals not to be exaggerated in their affection, nor to show it in unwise ways^
GROUP-SOULS. 133
The growth of the animal may be unhealthily forced, and its birth into individuality be hastened out of due lime. Man, in order to fill rightly his place in the world, should seek to under- stand nature and work with her laws, quickening indeed their action by the co-operation of his intelligence, but not quickening it to the point whereat growth is made unhealthy and its product frail and "out of season." It is true that the Lord of Life seeks human co-opera- tion in the working out of evolution, but the co-operation should follow the lines which His Wisdom has laid down.
^
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
Si. Consciousness a Unit.
In studying the very varied manifesta- tions of consciousness, we are apt to forget two important facts : first, that the consciousness of each man is a Unit, however separate and different from each other its manifestations may appear to be; secondly, that all these Units themselves are parts of the consciousness of the Logos, and therefore re-act similarly under similar conditions. We cannot too often remind ourselves that consciousness is one ; that all apparently separate consciousnesses are truly one, as one sea might pour through many holes in an embankment That sea-water might issue from the holes differendy coloured, if the embankment were composed of
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
'35
differently coloured eanhs ; but ii would all be ihe samt sea-water ; analysed, it would all show the presence of the same characteristic salts. So are all consciousnesses from the same ocean of consciousness, and have many essential identities. Enveiled in the same kind of matter, they will act in the same kind of way, and reveal their fundamental identity of nature.
The individual consciousness appears to be .1 complexity instead of a unity, when its manifestations are concerned, and modem psychology speaks of dual and treble and multiplex personality, losing sight of the fundamental unity among the confusion of the manifold. Yet truly is our consciousness a Unit, and the variety is due to the materials in which it is working.
The ordinary waking-consciousness of a man is the consciousness working through the physical brain at a certain rate imposed by it. conditioned by all the con- ditions of that brain, limited by all its limitations, baulked by the varying obstructions it offers, checked by a dot
t36 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
of blood, silenced by the decay of tissue. At every momeat the brain hinders its manifestations, while at the same lime it is, on the physical plane, its only enabling instrument of manifestation.
When the consciousness, turning its attention away from the external physical world, ignores the denser part of the physical brain, and uses only the etheric portions thereof, its manifestations at once change in character. The creative imagi- nation disports itself in etheric matter, and drawing on its accumulated contents, obtained from the external world by its denser servant, it arranges them, dis- sociates, and recombines them after its own fancies, and creates the lower worlds of dream.
When it casts aside for a while its ethereal garment, turning its attention away completely from the physical world, and shedding its fetters of physical matter, it roams through the astral world at will, or drifts through it unconsciously, turning* all its attention to its own contents, receiving many impacts from that astral world, which it ignores or accepts according to its stage
y^
UNITV OF COWRCIOUSNESS.
t37
of evolution, or its humour of the moment. If it should manifest itself to an outside observer — as may happen in trance-con- l^^^litions — it shows powers so superior to ^^^Bfaose it manifested when imprisoned in ^^^Bhc physical brain, that such an observer. ^^^Bbdging only by physical experiences, ^^^May well regard it as a dilferent con- ^^BS^ousness.
' Still more is this the case when, the
astral body being thrown into trance, the ^ird of Heaven shows itself soaring into aftier regions, and its splendid flight so Dchants the observer that he deems it a ' being, and no longer the same entity crawled in the physical world. Yet Illy is it ever one and the same ; the ifferences arc in the materials with which t is connected, and through which it works. ind not in itself.
' As to the second important fact slated ove. man is not yet sufficiently develofied > appreciate any evidence as to the unity r consciousness in its workings above the liysical plane, but its unity on the physical pkuie is being demonstrated.
L
13s a study in consciousness.
§ 2. Unity of Physical Consciousness.
Amid the immense varieties ol the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms, the underlying unity of physical consciousness has been lost sight of, and broad lines of cleavage have been set up which do not, in reality, exist. Life has been wholly denied to the mineral, grudged to the vegetable, and H. P. Blavatsky was ridiculed when she declared that one Life, one Consciousness vivified and informed all.
"With every day, the identity between the animal and the physical man, between the plant and man, and even between the reptile and its nest, the rock, and man, is more and more clearly shown, the physical and chemical constituents of all being found to be identical. Chemical Science may well say that there is no difference between the matter which composes the ox, and that which forms man. But the occult doctrine is far more expliciL It says : Not only the chemical compounds are the same, but the same infinitesimal invisible Lives compose the atoms of the
' OF CONSaOUSNESS.
1391
bodies of the mountain and the daisy, of
1 and the ant, of the elephant and of
be tree which shelters it from the sun.
Each particle— whether you call it organic
r inorganic — is a Life."'
If this be tnie, it should be possible
obtain from such living minerals,
J vegetables, animals, and men. evidence of
t.«n identity of life, of sentiency, of response
stimuli : and while we may freely
dmii that wc should expect to find
Vfpadations of sentiency, that as we ascend
the ladder of life we should expect the
manifestations to become fuller and more
■complex, yet sume definite manifestations
' sentiency should be found in all who
one life. The evidence for this
i lacking when H. 1'. Blavatsky wrote;
is available now ; and it is from an
astern scientist, whose rare ability has
ensured his welcome in the West, that
ihc evidence appropriately conies.
Professor Jagadish Chandra Bose,