CHAPTER X

THE SYSTEM TO WHICH .WE BELONG
EVERYONE who has touched the outskirts of Theosophic teaching will be familiar with the idea that this planet we are actually inhabiting for the moment forms one of a connected series through which the human life-wave flows, manifesting in full activity on one only at any given period; that the course of the whole Manvantara involves a septenary journey round this chain of worlds; that each in turn is brought into full activity during this progress, and fades back into compara- tive obscuration as the life-wave passes on, and that the passage around the whole seven globes is spoken of for convenience as a " round " in evolution, seven of which make up a whole Manvantara. The strain and struggle of existence is not equally great on all these globes — in four of them, indeed, two of these being on the down- ward and two on the upward arc of the circle, humanity is not called upon to undergo the strain of physical exist- ence at all. On the first globe of the series existence is altogether conditioned by surroundings corresponding with that which we call the Manasic Plane of the earth, while the lowest point of materiality touched by the second globe of the series is on a level with that which we here call the astral plane. Life on the third planet on the down- ward series has already the physical vehicle, and that third planet, therefore, becomes perceptible to our present senses, and is in fact the planet Mars. Passing onward from this earth, humanity again functions on a physical globe — the planet Mercury — and then passes to the sixth, the lowest materiality of which is astral, and to a seventh which, like the first, is altogether manasic.
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THE SYSTEM 201
I need not attempt the almost impossible task of describ- ing life on the non-material planets of the chain to which we belong. Nor, indeed, will I attempt to deal with the conditions of life on the three physical planets during the earlier rounds of human progress through them. Let us be content with an attempt to comprehend in some measure the condition of ou"r world and of the two other physical worlds of the chain during our present world period, the middle period of the whole grand process described as the Manvantara. Here, perhaps, it is worth while to interpolate an explanation of the term just used. The whole existence of a given planetary chain consti- tutes merely one episode in the vast series of manifesta- tions which embrace, in the whole, seven successive epi- sodes of somewhat similar, though in some respects widely different, manifestations of creative power and evolu- tionary progress. At one time, at the early stages of theosophical study, we were left with the impression con- cerning such episodes that each involved the existence of a septenary change of worlds. Clearer and more scientific comprehension of the process enables us to realise that this is not the case. We must think of the first Manvantara as representing simply divine ideation on the Manasic Plane; creative power, that is to say, engenders what we may think of as a globe on the Manasic Plane in which the scheme of the whole Manvantara is faintly shadowed forth. That stupendous process of divine creative thought constitutes the first Manvantara or creative process. An interval elapses and the divine activity is resumed. That which was done is recalled into existence relatively with- out an effort. The next effort is to approach the materialisation of the ideas engendered, in the first instance, on the astral plane of consciousness. So the second
202 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
Manvantara consists of a manasic globe, an astral globe — realising the first intention to that extent — a third globe on the upward ?rc representing manasic consciousness developed to a higher level than in the first instance. Such phrases, of course, must be exceedingly vague and merely suggestive, not to be taken with too rigid a devotion to the letter. Another interval and then ensues the third Manvan- tara. The purpose to be achieved here is that of bringing down the original ideas to physical manifestation, and the third Manvantara witnesses the development on the physical plane of a world constituted of physical matter. In our own case that world was the one we now call the Moon, but in a condition of very much fuller development. I think this will become intelligible later on, and I need not stop now to develop the idea. We may then conceive a return to astral conditions and an ultimate return to manasic conditions. And again I venture to describe that interpretation as rather symbolically than literally accurate. The truth is that the more our knowledge extends, the more it becomes difficult to invest any stage of natural activity with explanations that seem directly to correspond with the experiences of our present more advanced stage of knowledge. By reason of the fact that the Moon was the physical planet of the third Manvantara, that one is always referred to in theosophical writing as the Lunar Manvantara — full of the deepest interest for us, as further explanations will show.
Here on the earth we are at the middle point of our progress in each round, and this period of the earth's activity is the middle period of the whole Manvantara as the round on which we are engaged is the fourth, just a little more than half of which is already accomplished. If we concentrate our attention on the present world period
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alone we find evolution being carried out during the whole of the period through seven great races, with seven different configurations of land and water to harmonise with their needs, the race in the midst of which we Europeans and some other populations now find ourselves being the fifth, while the fourth, the middle race, was the great Atlantean race which already began very slowly to decline from its culminating grandeur nearly a million years ago. The last remnant of land which belonged to the great continent it once occupied disappeared in the natural convulsion of which some faint records have been preserved in classical literature, and more definitely in the Mexican manuscript known as the Troana MS., lately deciphered by Dr. Le Plongeon. Periods of years ex- pressed in figures simply bewilder the mind when we begin to talk of millions, and yet we know that the duration of a great root race must be counted in millions, that a great many millions of years are thus represented by even the briefest of the world periods which are connected with the great course of planetary evolution. It will not be an exaggeration of the truth to say that if we think of the whole Manvantara as representing the individual life of a man, such a lifetime as we are familiar with now, say one of seventy years, would stand in the same relation to the whole as one second of time would stand in relation to the seventy years. Illustrations of this nature may, to some extent, help the mind in realising the length of the evolutionary journey through which we have already passed, and in realising the rate at which the soul grows while it is left, so to speak, to the single influence of what may be thought of as the evolutionary drift. In looking backward over the progress achieved in the past by any soul not yet transcending from ordinary conditions — and
204 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
such retrospect is possible for those whose faculties have already begun to function on manasic levels — there is something almost appalling in the tardiness in the growth observable. Each physical life has such infinitesimally minute contributions to make to the permanent individu- ality ! Look back, if you are able, for a dozen lives, and you will probably find so little difference between the spiritual individuality at that remote period and the corre- sponding individuality at this moment, that you might be tempted to think the time and strain and effort of all that existence but thrown away and wasted. But it has not been wasted really, any more than the corresponding interval of time has been wasted by* the stalactite, that wonderful monument to Nature's patience, which is not without its significance for observers who can appreciate analogies. And though progress may have been slow along the im- measurable course of bygone ages, the final result attained, even if we look merely at the spiritual individuality of the human being of our own period, is a growth the accom- plishment of which eclipses that of the stalactite in the estimation of those who can appreciate the difference between the plane of Nature on which it has been achieved and that to which the perishable, however ancient, mineral form belongs.
But what is the road to be travelled by the Ego in its development between this middle period of the Man- vantara and the final culmination of its possibilities at a period in advance to be measured by the magnitude of that awful journey we have already taken, during which we have been shielded from a perception of its wearisome length by the torpor of our higher nature ? The distance to be yet travelled as measured on the scale of human con- dition, from the place at which the ordinary humanity
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now stands to that it should reach at the end of the Man- vantara, is not less than that which separates a fashionable example of modern civilisation — say a man of distin- guished literary culture or scientific attainments — from the primitive savage of Tierra del* Fuego. It is the design of Nature that the majority of the whole human family shall at the end of the seventh round of planetary experi- ence attain to a condition in which existence, in reference to this planetary chain to which we belong, will be, to begin with, more free than our present incarnate existence in as great a degree as the living man of to-day, so to speak, is freer than the stone. If we endeavour to invest the stone in our imagination with a consciousness, it must clearly be one of a very restricted character, and, amongst other conditions, it exists wherever it is put, not wherever it wills to go. Within limits the man can move about on the surface of this earth at his pleasure, but compared with the being he may become, he is as much in prison in his present vehicle, and as much chained down to one spot by the limitations of his capacity, as in comparison with him the stone itself is subject to restrictions. The final example of perfected humanity will use whatever body he then retains as a mere instrument of his convenience, to be worn or left aside at pleasure. The higher realms of Nature, of which I have been speaking in endeavouring to describe the course of human experience between death and re-birth, and others, again, immeasurably transcending these, will be accessible to him as readily as the various rooms in the house in which he lives may be accessible to him now. From any one globe of the chain to another he will be able to pass as freely as within the various phases of each. Forces of Nature as far transcending any with which modern science is acquainted as these transcend
206 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
the resources of the African savage will lie within his reach and command, for his moral nature will have attained alti- tudes corresponding with the development of his power and knowledge, and by that time his Will will be so com- pletely welded with that which controls the whole of Nature, and is represented to our ordinary thinking by the idea of Divinity, that no care on the part of Nature for his own or others' welfare will render it necessary to subject him to the disabilities of ignorance. Language entirely fails to do more than hint in the vaguest fashion at the kind of exaltation thus within the possibilities of human progress, but that progress may in some faint degree be appreciated with the help of the thought that it will amongst other things embrace all knowledge concerning this whole Manvantaric design — an absolute and complete understanding of every intricacy in Nature's stupendous mechanism, and will embrace the answer to every moral enigma which the experience of life may suggest, or to which in the weary efforts of our speculative thinking in the present day we may turn continually in despairing sorrow, holding on with what strength we may to the vague trust that in superior wisdom there resides, beyond our reach, a clue to the mysteries of evil.
That is the course along which human evolution has still to travel, but it ought to be manifest to any reason- able thinker that the scheme thus set forth, involving, as it does, the elevation of Man to levels which we are in the habit of thinking God-like, is not to be accomplished by any process of evolution pressing upon him from without. In a certain sense, though even this is perhaps a strained one, it may be said that up to the present period of evolu- tion, primeval germs of human consciousness have been brought to the position in which we now stand under the
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influence of external forces or guidance, but before a man can be invested by nature with God-like attributes, he must engender within his own consciousness the will to be God-like, and he must, as it were, put the whole force of his own intention into the undertaking. He must be actuated by an intelligent will as well as by vague aspira- tion towards progress; he must make the choice between good and evil with his eyes open; he must determine whether he would rather grasp whatever good things connected with progress it may be possible for him to monopolise for himself, or whether he would rather join his forces to those who are endeavouring to serve the purposes of God, and to promote the acceleration of the whole undertaking. It will only be by individual effort at each step of man's progress as he goes on through the ordinary course of Nature that he will really ascend along the gentle upward spiral, but at this point it is impossible to describe the course of normal evolution without making some reference to that kind which is abnormally hastened. If a man follows the normal course no great magnitude of effort, so to speak, will ever Be required from him at any given moment, but his growth towards ultimate possi- bilities of his own development will be correspondingly slow. On the other hand, the extent to which, by empha- sising that effort to an enormous degree of intensity, it is possible for him from this stage of human advancement onward to accelerate his own evolution will be found to eclipse the boldest conjectures which anyone might form from the point of view of comprehending the whole evolu- tionary scheme without actually knowing what have been the results of abnormal effort on the part of those who have gone in advance of the rest. But whether he concentrates his effort or distributes it, for the evolution of the latter
208 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
half of the Manvantara he must contribute his own effort to the evolutionary tendency or he will fall back into the rear. This will be better intelligible when we come to study the conditions of abnormal progress, but meanwhile explanations are still wanting to complete our picture of the whole evolutionary field, within the almost boundless range of which the growth of the soul proceeds.
The planetary series with which our present Manvan- tara is concerned, with all its marvellous intricacies as regards its physical manifestation alone, with all its unseen conditions of existence around it, with all its magnificent possibilities of consciousness having to do with the spiritual planes of Nature, is but one of a series of such with which this human family is concerned. Seven Manvan- taras succeed each other in due order, this we are now going through being the fourth, and the worlds of each succeeding Manvantara are themselves evolved afresh each time, though each in turn must be thought of as a Re- incarnation of its predecessor rather than as an entirely fresh creation. Meanwhile within the limits of the solar system of which we form a part, there are other chains of Manvantaras in progress connected with other planets, visible and invisible, and in all we are given to understand that there are thus seven schemes of planetary evolution, all having some touch with the physical plane, and deriv- ing their vital energies from the sun. At certain very exalted stages of spiritual progress the foremost representa- tives of humanity in the very vanguard of our evolution are in a position to acquire definite knowledge concerning these other schemes, and some information on the subject has filtered down to occult students of our level. We are thus enabled to form a comprehensive conception of the
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solar system as a whole, and even to appreciate to some extent the nature of the great design it represents.
Seven, as we have long recognised, is the root number of our system — in so far, at any rate, as that system is in any way concerned with physical manifestation — and the simple invariability of the law makes the great plan in question more easily intelligible than it would be other- wise. The solar system includes (we must take care not to fall into the arrogant mistake that might be involved in saying it consists of) seven great schemes of planetary evolution, in each of which there are some worlds, one or more, on the physical plane. The schemes are not all designed to match one another, and in some more than in others the higher planes of Nature are engaged in their design. Theosophists are well used now to the conception that super-physical planes of Nature may be just as real and the manifestations thereon just as objective as those which affect the physical senses. The astral and manasic planes are available as areas of manifestation within the solar system as completely as the physical plane, and, indeed, over and above the seven planetary schemes, to which I have already referred, there are some others which are altogether established on the higher planes and have no physical planets connected with their evolution at any time. It will not be possible to say much of these at present, but the recognition of the fact that they exist will help to bring order into our thinking at a later stage of this inquiry. Our own scheme makes a larger draught than any other but one on the resources of the physical plane, and at the period of our present Manvantara three planets of our own series are on this plane; but the con- stitution of the various chains is varied in this respect.
Each scheme of evolution is worked out by means of a
15
210 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
series of seven Manvantaras. Each Manvantara includes an evolutionary process, such as that set forth in theo- sophic teaching in reference to the seven rounds of our planetary chain. As each round includes a world period of activity on each planet in turn, and as each of these world periods is divided into seven great racial cycles, we may get a view of the proportionate magnitude of a race period — itself extending over some millions of years — as compared with the whole system to which we belong, if we bear in mind the following progression :
Seven root race periods make up one world period.
Seven world periods (following each other on as many planets in succession), one round.
Seven rounds one Manvantara.
Seven Manvantaras, one scheme of evolution.
Seven schemes of evolution (more or less contem- poraneous in their activity), the solar system.
Some of these schemes are much more advanced than others, but before going into a more minute account of the condition in which we find the whole stupendous under- taking at the present time, it will be desirable to go back in imagination to its beginning, and appreciate the beautiful intuition with which modern science — not always entitled to as much credit— has divined with a very close approach to accuracy the condition in which our system existed before any of its planets were differentiated.
The nebular hypothesis is one of the grandest achieve- ments of which the unassisted human intellect has ever shown itself capable. That hypothesis closely harmonises with theosophic teaching on this subject, even though that teaching expands and interprets it in a way that would
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not be possible from the narrow platform of thought which recognises only one order of matter.
The theory that solar systems were each, in the first instance, vast aggregations of highly heated and very attenuated matter — gaseous, or perhaps even more attenuated still — and that by degrees each such nebula was subjected to a cooling and contracting process which con- densed its nucleus, and so forth, is generally attributed to the great astronomer Laplace. Some writers trace the genesis of the idea to Tycho Brahe, who suggested that stars were formed by the condensation of the ethereal sub- stance of which he supposed the Milky Way to be com- posed. Kepler extended the idea by suggesting that the nebular substance may originally have pervaded all space, instead of being confined to the Milky Way, and other great thinkers in turn suggested further modifications of the original conception. It was immensely fortified when the researches of Sir William Herschell showed us over 2,000 separate nebulae within range of the telescope, and then, in the last year of the eighteenth century, Laplace worked out the whole scheme far more systematically than any of his precursors, and developed it into pretty much the shape in which the astronomical world generally accepts it now.
Laplace showed how the planets of a system could be successively formed by the rupture, from the central mass of the nebula, of great external rings of condensing matter. The whole nebula was assumed to have been originally in rotation, so the rings would themselves continue to rotate in the same way. By degrees the rings would themselves be somewhere ruptured, and then the matter of which they were composed would roll up and aggregate itself either into great globular planetary bodies, or into swarms
212 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
of smaller meteoric masses. This view is not confirmed in detail by occult teaching, but is based on broad ideas that are fairly in harmony with that.
Concurrently with the development of the whole idea, speculation has concerned itself with the question how the nebula in the first instance was probably formed. According to one view, sometimes spoken of as the vortex theory, matter is supposed to be drawn in with a whirling motion around some already existing nucleus. By another — the impact theory — the original nebula is supposed to be due to the collision in space between two cold and extinct suns moving in different directions with planetary velocities. The heat engendered by such an appalling catastrophe is recognised as sufficient to volatilise all the matter of which the two globes consisted, and to set up in this way, a new nebula of glowing incandescent gas, which would be set in rotation by the nature of the collision which caused it, as the chances would be enormous against the exact encounter of the two bodies centre to centre. At present, I think, the impact theory of nebular origins is most in favour, and it is profoundly interesting to learn from our exalted teachers that, though as a matter of fact it is not the method of development that was actually adopted in the case of our own solar system, it has been employed in the course of Nature with some other systems, and can be brought into harmpny with those activities on higher planes than the physical, which our theosophic instincts will at once assure us must always be mainly instrumental in bringing a solar system into existence.
The method actually adopted at the inauguration of our own solar system was one concerned entirely, in the first instance, with higher planes of Nature. On some level of superphysical matter a force was set in action which had
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the effect of creating what we may think of — without claiming, in this respect, to think with exactitude — as a vast electric field extended over a region of space greater by far than the area included in the orbit of Neptune.
The region of space affected would, to begin with, be pervaded by matter of a certain order, or, indeed, of certain orders. The more we comprehend the spirit of occult teaching, the more clearly we realise the idea that space is nowhere empty and vacant. It may contain nothing that affects some given set of limited senses, but for all that it is a plenum rather than a vacuum. Something pervades all space with which we can concern ourselves in thought. Recognising this, and recognising also that matter on other planes than the physical is clearly subject to limita- tion— so that what we habitually talk of, for example, as the astral plane is not a homogeneous infinitude but is the astral plane of this earth — esoteric students sometimes puzzle over the question, What plane in the ascending series is common to the solar system, what common to the cosmos ? The answer to the riddle is to be found in the fact that each plane is represented by matter in several — the usual seven — stages of refinement. The lower sub- planes are in all cases specialised around each planet; but in each case the highest sub-plane is co-extensive with the solar system — with the universe itself, for all we know to the contrary. Thus in a certain sense even the physical plane is co-extensive with space, as represented by the highest, the atomic state of ether. So equally with the astral and manasic planes; these, in their highest states, are co-extensive with the ether; and a fortiori higher planes still are co-extensive.
From this it will be apparent that matter of every variety, plus all its potentialities, lay within the region
2i4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
in which the sublime power, directing the manifestation of our system, set up the activities already referred to. These activities had for one effect, we are told, that of drawing in from surrounding space, as into a vortex, immense additional supplies of the all-pervading ether. Some scientific difficulties present themselves to the mind in reference to this statement, but solar systems are suffi- ciently wide apart in their distribution through space to harmonise with the idea that even the ether, though we have to think of it as incompressible to accommodate our prevailing conceptions of matter with some of its attributes, may be attenuated in intersolar space, and relatively con- densed in and around solar systems. At all events, the esoteric interpretation of the beginning of our system seems to involve the idea of such condensation, and on the ether in this condition an influence coming down from some higher plane of^ature ultimately converted the con- densed mass into a physical nebula — an immense volume of incandescent gas at some inconceivably high tempera- ture.
From this condition of things the process imagined in connection with the nebular theory appears to have come into play.
The various planets originally formed were grouped by degrees into seven great schemes of evolution, and to comprehend these in some approximate measure, we must regard them from our present point of view. The survey we have to carry out would not be materially assisted by attempts to fathom the all but unfathomable past so far as to investigate the order in which the various schemes were launched. Meanwhile, however, we may take note of the fact already referred to that there are within the solar system three schemes of evolution to which no
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physical planets are attached, so that in truth there are not seven but ten schemes to be thought of; and probably if we possessed a sufficiently exhaustive knowledge of Nature we should find septenary systems constantly merging themselves in a more embracing system of tens; but wherever the physical plane plays a part in any cosmic undertaking the septenary law appears to hold good. Thus our first task in attempting to understand the solar system has to do with seven schemes in each of which the physical plane is touched.
Beginning with that which is the outermost in space, we find that the planet Neptune is concerned with a scheme of a very different character from that which may be assigned to most of the others. In this world-series the evolutionary process is not destined to achieve results commensurate with those which it is the purpose of the other schemes to bring about. The life with which Neptune is concerned is not calculated to attain very high levels, but on the other hand this planet is interesting for an astronomical reason. Connected in evolution with Neptune there are in fact two other planets physically belonging to our system that have not yet fallen a prey to telescopic research. One of them may ultimately be discovered by ordinary means, the outermost lies far beyond the range of physical instruments, for not merely is its distance something appalling to the imagination, but the light it would throw back to us by reflection from the sun is exceedingly feeble. Viewed from Neptune itself the sun would appear a mere speck in the sky compared with the glowing disc we have to deal with, but the two outer planets are at distances from the centre of the system which continue to observe what is called in astronomy " Bode's law." Thus without having yet discovered either
2i6 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
of them we know that the radius of the orbit in which the outermost of all is moving is something over 10,000 million miles. (The distance of Neptune from the sun, it will be remembered, is about 2,700 millions.) At that distance the light of the sun would barely make darkness visible. And for any warmth the distant planet may require it must be dependent chiefly on influences with which physical science on this earth at present is ill acquainted. However, little as we can expect just yet to understand the Neptune scheme, we may formulate our thinking on the subject So far as to recognise that scheme as including — at its present stage of advancement — three physical planets.
All the other schemes, as we shall see by degrees — excepting our own — are at present represented on the physical plan by only one planet each. But all through this survey of the system it must be remembered that schemes are not equally represented on the physical plane at each of their Manvantaric stages. Our own scheme had but one physical planet in its last Manvantara, and will have but one in its next Manvantara, though at present it has a triple manifestation on the physical plane. So other schemes which at present have only one physical planet may have more than one at later stages of their progress, may have had more than one at former stages.
The Uranus scheme — for thinking at this date we may as well call each scheme by the name of the visible planet of its present chain — is the next in order to be considered. I understand the Uranus scheme is fairly well advanced, and to be concerned with evolution of a high order of life, but of course the physical conditions of Uranus must be widely unlike any with which we have acquaint-
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ance. The sun can hardly seem a much larger object viewed from Uranus than Jupiter appears to us, but one of the lessons most strongly emphasised by the esoteric study of the whole system is that life is compatible with conditions of the most diverse character, and that we must never seek to determine the habitability of other globes in space by inquiring how far their meteorological or climatic conditions correspond with our own.
The Saturnian scheme is very much less advanced in its Manvantaric development than our own, and the planet Saturn itself is in an early round of its present Manvantara, so that it is not yet physically habitable at all. The family of beings with whose evolution it is concerned are still at an early stage of their descent into matter, even though it must not be supposed that the Saturn scheme, any more than other schemes connected with the outer planets, are young in the order of their creation as compared with some of those nearer the sun. The rates of progress of the various schemes are very different. Saturn is slow in its evolution, with Manvantaras of enormous length. We must be patient yet a while in regard to speculations which would attempt to correlate the rate of progress of the various schemes, though no doubt they are all designed to harmonise their results in some way towards the close of the mighty drama in which they play their several parts.
The Jupiter scheme is very interesting, for though it is still young — in advancement, if not in time — it is destined, we understand, to bring forward its family of evolution to a very high level eventually. So far, how- ever, the Manvantara of the Jupiter scheme now in progress is only the third of the septenary series, corre- sponding to our lunar or last Manvantara, which did not
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a-i-8. THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
bring our family forward to a very mature stage of develop- ment. Moreover, at present the Jupiter family is only in the second round of its third Manvantara, and its physical planet therefore is not yet fitted to be the abode of physical life. It is still hot from its relatively recent condensation, and this condition of things, recognised by ordinary astronomy, is not due, as ordinary astronomers suppose, to the fact that Jupiter is much larger than the inner planets, and has thus taken more time to cool since the original nebula consolidated. Jupiter is a later creation than the earth, but the view of the whole subject with which this fact is connected will more conveniently be dealt with when the general survey of the schemes is completed.
Coming inward from Jupiter, the next planetary orbit we reach is that at present occupied by the swarm of asteriods, merely the broken remains of a complete planet which? once occupied that orbit. The next -planet is Mars, but in reaching this interesting world we of the earth chain are comparatively at home, for the scheme to which we belong, at present in its fourth Manvantara, is at the stage of its deepest immergence in matter, and is thus represented on the physical plane by three planets, Mars being one. Mars, the Earth, and Mercury are in evolutionary partnership, Mars being the planet behind the earth in the order of progress round the entire chain, and Mercury in advance of us. A large portion of the present human family has actually lived on Mars — where, if we could but visit the planet now, as, indeed, some of our more advanced companions can and do, in the appropriate vehicle of consciousness while out of the physi- cal body, we should still find the least advanced, — the dregs of the family, — still hanging on there.
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Of all the seven schemes of the system, that which Venus at present represents on the physical plane is the farthest advanced in evolution, not necessarily the oldest as judged by the period at which it began, but the quickest of the series as regards the rate of its progress or the duration of its Manvantaras.
Our own scheme is now going through its fourth Man- vantara, but that to which Venus belongs is far advanced through the fifth. It is already in the seventh round of that Manvantara, the family it is evolving being at present established like ourselves on the physical planet of its chain, although at such an immensely more forward stage of its progress, that the foremost of its beings, in great numbers represent, as compared with our humanity, a fairly god-like degree of exaltation. From Venus, as all students of esoteric teaching will be aware, the guardians of our infant humanity in the later third and early fourth race of this world period descended to stimulate in our family the growth of the manasic principle, and to them we owe the fact that as we stand at present we are in truth somewhat further advanced in evolution than our actual place in our own scheme strictly entitles us to be. We have been helped onward by some of those who are in the loftiest sense of the term our Elder Brethren in the whole system, and among us there have been found some at all events, who have proved apt pupils, and are already on levels of spiritual dignity commensurate with those previously attained by their sublime instructors.
Within the orbit of Mercury another planet is to be found, and probably will be found some day by ordinary astronomers, who already suspect its existence, and have been keenly on the look out for it when solar eclipses give them a chance of seeing it. Merged as it is in the blinding
220 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
glare of the sun at other times, it is hopeless to seek for it in the unshielded sky. A name has been given in advance by some astronomers to the undiscovered planet, and it is sometimes referred to as Vulcan. It must certainly be a very hot little world, although Bode's law should give it a distance from the centre orb of something like thirty millions of miles. However, it belongs to an independent scheme of evolution not destined to bring forward life to the high levels to be ultimately attained in connection with our own and the Venus scheme. It completes the series of seven schemes. Enumerating them once more as under we have :
1. The Neptune scheme.
2. „ Uranus „
3. „ Saturn „
4. „ Jupiter „
5. „ Earth
6. „ Venus „
7. „ Vulcan „
The first and fifth of this series have each three physical planets, the others one each.
Of the three schemes which have no touch with the physical plane there is very little to be said at present. They are concerned with high orders of evolution and in some way with the ultimate perfection of the life of the system at large when all the septenary schemes shall have completed their cycles.
It must not be supposed, however, that they are await- ing development till such time as the other schemes have completed their cycles. They are already in activity, and the globes of which they consist occupy definite places in space, though composed of higher orders of matter than
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those which our physical senses can cognise. On the other hand we need not think of them as dealing with phases of existence entirely beyond the reach of our imagination. The highest plane of Nature to which they are directly related is the lower Manasic.
From the general idea of the structure and design of the system that has already been given, and particularly from many passages in Theosophical literature, it will be apparent that the configuration of the solar system is no more unchangeable throughout the life of that system than the configuration of land and water on the earth's surface is unchangeable during the progress of a world period. In every scheme the chain of planets on which its evolution has been carried on, during any given Manvantara, is dis- integrated at its close (subject to a qualification to be noticed directly) and a new chain of worlds is called into being. This does not mean that new matter is created out of non-manifested substance, but that planets, when their life cycle is completed, are broken up or resolved into dust which is dispersed through the solar system at large and is available to be drawn together into new forms, just as the elements of a dead human body, dissolved in the earth or air and absorbed in process of time into vegetable tissue, become in due season the nutriment of new animal or human forms.
Thus it will be seen that our earth, for instance, with its companion planets, is not alone a new creation as com- pared with the state of things that existed when the nebula was first condensed, but is in the fourth generation of such new creations having regard to our own scheme alone. I have no information as to the manner in which the planetary matter of the system was first distributed, but it is a matter of obvious certainty that from Uranus
222 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
inwards not one of the existing planets belongs to the first- born series of the nebula. It hardly concerns us to make close inquiry as to the actual course of events in this respect. Our appreciation of Nature's design and of our own place therein would not be materially assisted by knowing, for instance, what planets existed in connection with the Uranus evolution before Uranus came into being. Nor in regard to the other chains would it profit us much to know by how many predecessors each of the now known planets have been heralded in past ages. But there are some aspects of the problem which do present features of peculiar interest as applied to our own chain, and without making any conjectures as to the extent to which the analogies of our own scheme apply to others, attention may usefully be turned at this stage of the in- quiry to the plan on which our own planetary habitations are from time to time remodelled.
As the tide wave of life leaves each planet (in our scheme) during the seventh round of any Manvantara, each planet in turn is disintegrated, and the matter of which it is composed returns to the general ocean of such matter within the solar system. Corresponding planets are evolved afresh for the next Manvantara, becoming as it were re-incarnations of the higher principles inherent in the old planets. This arrangement, however, does not apply to the fourth planet of each chain — the most physical in its constitution. That loses a good deal of the matter forming it in a way that will be appreciated directly, and in its shrunken condition becomes the moon of its suc- cessor. Each new physical planet so called into being may be created as new solar systems themselves are created in the first instance — according to different methods; but our earth appears to have been engendered on a plan closely
THE SYSTEM 223
resembling that by which our whole system was developed. Within the appropriate area of space, a planetary nebula was evolved, the matter of which it was composed being drawn in from surrounding space, itself no doubt the dis- integrated material of former planets that had been broken up, or to some extent no doubt meteoric matter belonging to the system at large that may not have been previously utilised in that way. The new earth nebula was developed round a centre bearing pretty much the same relation to the dying planet that the centres of the earth and moon bear to one another at present. But in the nebulous condition this aggregation of matter occupied an enormously greater volume than the solid matter of the earth now occupies. It stretched out in all directions so as to include the old planet in its fiery embrace. The temperature of a new nebula appears to be considerably higher than any tempera- tures we are acquainted with, and by this means the old planet was superficially heated afresh in such a manner that all atmosphere, water, and volatilisable matter upon it was brought into the gaseous condition, and so became amenable to the new centre of attraction, set up at the centre of the new nebula. In this way the air and seas of the old planet were drawn over into the constitution of the new one, and thus it is that the moon in its present state is an arid, glaring mass, dry and cloudless, no longer habitable, and no longer required for the habitation of any physical beings. When the present Manvantara is nearly over, during the seventh round, its disintegration will be completed, and the matter which it still holds together will resolve into meteoric dust, to be made use of, mixed with the ocean of all such matter, in the formation of new planetary nebulas hereafter.
But without attempting to forecast in detail the
224 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
processes associated with that far distant event, we may ex- pand the statement with reference to the remote past when our own planet was in process of construction, by the addition of a great deal more detail, not merely interesting on its own account, but conducive, when fully understood, to a better comprehension than is obtainable in any other way of many physical phenomena in progress on the earth at the present time. The condensation of what I have described above as the vast planetary nebula out of which the earth was composed, was not in fact a process accom- plished at one coup. In harmony with the analogies which nature suggests around us in every direction, the growth of the planet itself was a gradual process, and the first condensation gave rise to a globe very much smaller in magnitude than this on which we now stand, but which in the progress of ages was destined to be the nucleus around which the complete planet would be constructed. It is just worth while before passing on to an account of the successive stages, to take note of the fact that in a work put together from the point of view of ordinary astronomy, " The Nebular Theory," by Mr. William Ford Stanley, that author recognises the possibility as sug- gested by purely physical considerations, that the planets were not formed by one single operation but by a series of successive condensations. And another representative of exoteric science on wholly different grounds has come to the conclusion that the interior of the earth in its present state exhibits a condition of things which would be in harmony with the idea of successive condensations. The actual fact I understand to be that the planet on which we are at present living was the result of several condensations of nebulous matter, and the constitution of the Earth at this mature period of its existence is only
THE SYSTEM 225
to be understood by reference to this method of develop- ment. The nucleus having been formed in the first in- stance in the way already described, a considerable time was allowed to elapse before the second deposition of matter took place. In this interval the surface of the nucleus had time to solidify and cool down to temperatures in which all but its more volatile ingredients assumed, on the surface, the solid state. Then another clash of meteoric streams surrounded the young Earth with a huge envelope of fresh nebulous matter. I say " nebulous " because the heat engendered by the collision of the meteor streams would resolve the meteoric matter back again into its primitive state. It is necessary, indeed, that such a return should be included in the process in order to provide the growing Earth with the varied materials required in its composition. Meteoric matter for the most part is simple in its composition, and very largely made up of certain metals of which iron is the most abundant. But a planet consisting almost entirely of iron would not be a suitable home for the evolutions it might be destined to bear. Occult teaching in reference to the constitution of matter comes in here to relieve us of the embarrassment this thought suggests. Thrown back into the nebulous con- dition by the intense heat of the meteoric collision, the matter of the meteor streams, even if it had all been iron to begin with, would be once more in the etheric state — in that state in which Sir William Crookes has called it " protyle " in connection with his extremely admirable and occultly justified theory of " the Genesis of the Elements." From that state it would be capable of rear- ranging its atoms in the varied forms of the many chemical elements required for the service of a life-bearing planet. The new envelope of nebulous matter is destined to
16
226 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
condense into a complete solid shell surrounding the original nucleus, and here it is for the first time in the course of this explanation necessary to interpolate an idea for which we are not fully prepared by any ordinary habits of scientific thought. When the outer shell has been completely solidified, the condition of things we find to exist is this : The volatile ingredients in the composition of the original nucleus have not been, as expectation might have led us to expect, squeezed through the newly deposited shell of solid matter, but have been confined within that at an enormous pressure and at a corresponding temperature. At the stage of the Earth's growth we have reached in imagination, we have an interior globe of solid matter, the central portions of which are still at an enor- mously High temperature while the outer crust is rela- tively cool. But on the surface of that crust there exists a stratum of compressed gaseous matter, largely consisting of water in its gaseous form, at the temperature, or even exceeding through contraction, the temperature of the nebula which condensed upon it. We cannot expect at this stage of our knowledge to understand precisely how the condensation is so effected as to keep the gaseous matter within the new shell, but no extravagant amount of intel- lectual modesty is required to induce us to recognise that there may be laws of nature which come into play when new planets are being constructed, the full details of which are missing as yet from our present catalogue of such laws. The outer shell having in its turn had time to cool down so that its least volatile ingredients are solid, and its more volatile ingredients in the atmospheric state around it, H third process sets in. Again there is a clash of meteor streams, another vast nebulous sheath is condensed around the growing globe, and in time this forms, a second shell
THE SYSTEM 227
with a stratum of confined gaseous matter between it and the interior shell. Further operations of a similar character are carried on at later stages of the planet's growth until it arrives at maturity, and consists as at present of six concentric spheres or shells surrounding a central nucleus, with strata of hot gaseous matter inter- vening between each sphere and its neighbours. The outer shells are of considerably greater thickness than those im- mediately surrounding the nucleus, and the outermost of all, with which we are concerned, is much the thickest of all. Within this, however, there is a shallow stratum of heated matter at a depth of about twenty-five or thirty miles below the surface. It is of a wholly different character from the interstitial spaces of hot condensed gases. It is simply a portion of the Earth's solid shell which is hot by reason of the fact that it was an extra nebulous condensation superimposed upon the otherwise completely finished planet, with an end in view, no doubt, which I do not as yet exactly understand, but which I believe to have related in some way to the ultimate development of the vegetable kingdom. The surface layer of hot matter (as it may be called by comparison with the interstitial layers far down in the depths of the globe) was a kind of " top dressing," to use an agricultural expression, which seems to have been provided for as regards the actual material used up, by the disintegration of the two outer shells of the Moon. Some forecast of this condition of things has been already embodied in theosophic writings as mentioned above, but the present explanations will advance our comprehension of the matter to some extent. Leaving over for the moment the fuller interpretation of the state- ment just made about the two outer shells of the Moon, let us keep to the Earth's history till that is further
1 6*
228 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
developed. The final " top dressing " was not designed to form a new shell separate in any way from the great crust already formed. It did not operate to confine between itself and the established surface any atmospheric gases. It was simply a hot layer of physical matter, the more volatile portions of which remained in the atmosphere of the globe already formed, while the solid portions settled down and beginning to cool from the outside, eventually established the conditions now prevailing. Of course at first the whole new layer of physical matter twenty-five miles thick was incandescent, but the cooling and solidifi- cation of the surface prepared the way for the establish- ment thereon of the geological deposits with which we are familiar, and, eventually, for the development of the vegetable and animal kingdoms.
I have been interested in finding since I have been at work upon this interpretation of the Earth's constitu- tion, that in other schools of oriental occultism besides that with which my own opportunities have chiefly brought me into contact, the Earth is described as resembling in its constitution " the skins of an onion." The subject has not hitherto been treated in any western exposition of theosophic teaching, but the main ideas of the present explanation are vaguely in circulation already among the pupils of some eastern occultists, even though the onion with its skins would not constitute a satisfac- tory analogy for the western scientific mind once directed to the problems of the Earth's constitution.
In some earlier theosophic writings vague reference has been made to " the Spirit of the Earth." There is such a Spirit, belonging to an evolution quite apart from our own, who is in the first instance an emanation from the stupendous life of the Sun. And such an emanation
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is the first step taken in connection with the creation of any planet of the system. It is by his power that the meteor streams are guided in the paths of those tremendous collisions which give rise to the successive nebulous clouds required for the construction of the successive concentric spheres. The nucleus-globe remains to the end of the planet's life his great workshop — if the phrase may be allowed — and storehouse of those incomprehensible energies which maintain the physical health of the planet.
The heat of the interior of the central globe far exceeds any temperature maintained in the interstitial spaces, and a vast army of Elemental Agencies is employed there, under the direction of the Spirit of the Earth, on tasks the nature of which is utterly beyond the range of our present com- prehension. But our world somehow depends for its continued life on the activities carried on in the central globe, and they are never relaxed until the planet con- cerned has fulfilled its destiny and the time has come for its decease or disintegration.
I understand that life exists in the Earth's interior, even in the intensely hot regions of the interstitial spaces, and startling as the idea may seem at the first glance, it is only for the cramped understandings of people brought up to regard the conditions around them as the only kind com- patible with consciousness, that the conception will be seriously embarrassing. Flesh and blood designed to be the vehicle of consciousness on the surface of the external sphere and at temperatures familiar to human life would not be adapted to temperatures at which platinum would be a mobile liquid, but every occult student is well aware that his consciousness, his life, can go on just as freely when he is in an astral vehicle or body as when he is animating flesh and blood. And in the astral vehicle, physical
230 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
temperature is a condition that does not affect him one way or the other. In an astral body he could live as comfortably in the heart of a furnace or in the midst of arctic ice-floes as in the meadows of an English farm in the summer. It is not even necessary to assume that the bodies of the beings who inhabit the interstitial spaces of the earth are entirely of astral matter. That intervening condition of matter which is called etheric would, perhaps, furnish the material adapted to provide vehicles of consciousness for the beings in question. However this may be arranged, this closely packed earth of ours is made use of through- out. Not merely in the heated spaces that constitute the surface of each interior globe but within the substance of each concentric sphere there are forms of life adapted to the conditions around. For in the cool and solid depths of each mighty crust there are great cavernous spaces in which beings exist who are going through evolutions of their own, and are scarcely in touch at all with the supreme evolution — supreme as far as this Earth is concerned — to which the human race belongs. Very little information relating to these interior races has reached me, and it would be useless to speculate as to the purpose in the whole economy of the system served by the involvement of any part of the Supreme consciousness, in forms and in the midst of conditions that do not appear favourable to spiritual or any other kind of growth. But the varieties of condition under which life is carried on, in and around the world we share with so many other tenants, is all but infinite. Nor is the life of the Earth's interior confined to the more or less intelligent beings or entities established there. Wild as the notion may strike one at the first glance, there is something analogous to a vegetable king- dom on the white hot surfaces of the interior globes —
THE SYSTEM 231
actual plants with leaves and a kind of granular circulation analogous to the sap of plants on the outer surface. If difficulties present themselves to the mind as we endeavour to realise the scenes of these strange worlds within our own, that is merely due to the false system on which the average mind of the nineteenth century has been educated. The tendency has been not merely to encourage the idea that " what I know not is not knowledge " but to invest the victims of our educational system with a conviction that what they do not understand cannot exist. We do know something of the relationship in space and magni- tude between the habitable portions of the Earth's surface and the universe at large. And yet the nineteenth century mind has been only half inclined to admit that there may be intelligent beings in other worlds than ours — always assuming that some of these may be adequately provided with water, food, and sunshine, without which we know life is impossible ! The contrast afforded by the brilliant intellectual achievements of the nineteenth century mind along some lines of activity and investigation, with the imbecile silliness of its habitual limitations, is equally irritating and amusing to the occult student who has got outside those limitations. But even for many such students, familiar though they may be with the idea of superior planes of Nature and faculties of a wider reach than those of the physical brain, the explanation here given of the real condition of the Earth's interior may be received with a kind of gasping surprise. We were not prepared for so complex an organisation in the body of our planet, any more than the physiologists of, say, the Eliza- bethan period were prepared to find so much in the human body as later research has disclosed. But in all likeli- hood the sketch here given errs in its omissions to a far
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greater extent than in its positive statements. It is a mere broad outline of the story that might be told by those thoroughly conversant with the facts. The interest from the mere scientific point of view of further detail if we could obtain it would be intense, but for the present we must remain, if not content, unsatisfied as regards the mul- titude of questions that naturally arise in the mind. To what extent does the incombustible vegetable kingdom of the interior surfaces cover the whole glowing landscape ? Are there forests of white hot trees, and is there an appro- priate animal kingdom associated with the others of the inner worlds? The beings in more or less astral bodies already referred to, would be the relatively human king- dom in each case, the head evolution of the series to which it belonged, but it is more than probable that it would be surrounded by satellite evolutions, as our own on the outer surface is so surrounded.
With intense heat we naturally associate the idea of light, so as regards the inhabitants of the regions I have called the interstitial spaces there is no need to consider the question how these are illuminated. But directly we confront that question we cannot but be struck with the mistaken impulse which prompts it. If the intelligent beings of the inner regions are invested with astral vehicles of consciousness they see with senses altogether unlike those of the physical plane, and are thus quite indepen- dent of physical plane light. A very moderate acquaint- ance with the experiences of super-physical research amongst ourselves will render us familiar with the idea that darkness is more favourable than what we call light to the activities of some beings at all events functioning in astral vehicles of consciousness. So it may easily be that the beings inhabiting the dark interior caverns of the solid
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crusts may have senses to which that darkness is perfectly luminous. It is apparently held by the authorities of the Earth that the humanity of the outer surface should be effectually cut off from communication with the interior kingdoms, and this may be provided for by the heated stratum at the twenty-five mile depth through which it is quite impossible that any inquisitive borings on our part should ever penetrate. But knowledge may be gained, as occult students are well aware, in reference to regions quite beyond the reach of physical investigation. And so it is coming to pass that we are learning something of the conditions under which existence is carried on in the deeply buried cavern worlds of the Earth's interior.
All thoughts will turn in connection with this subject to the beautiful story evolved from Lord Lytton's imagina- tion concerning the magnificent civilisation of his " Coming Race." But though there is just so much actual justification for the tale in question as is embodied in the fact that races do actually exist in vast cavernous spaces in the interior of the outermost and some others of the concentric globes, we must deny ourselves the intellectual luxury of conceiving that the superb Gy-ei of Vrilya will ever ascend to the upper world to set our " Koom-poshes " in order. The interior evolutions are far below. the intel- lectual level of even our present humanity, although they are advanced enough to have something like systems of government, dwelling-places of artificial construction, and to put inscriptions on the walls of their inner world.
Yet a third order of consciousness ranges the interior spaces of the Earth, but this is altogether elemental in its character. I have spoken of the armies of "fire elementals ' employed under the Spirit of the Earth on the mysterious tasks carried out in the central globe of all. Elemental
234 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
evolutions are very difficult to understand, but in some way there is an evolution outwards possible for these fire elerhentals, and an emergence for them in some cases into the superior elemental life of the external surface of the earth. I can say so little on this subject that it may seem to some readers hardly worth while to have said anything at all, but vague as our information must for the present remain in reference to the interior evolutions, the mere recognition of these as in progress is calculated to enlarge our view of the Nature of which we form a part. To my mind there is a gulf of difference in the conception of this Vast planet on the surface of which we roam about, as a huge lump of inorganic matter serviceable for no other purpose than to bear the minute organisms swarming on its outside, and on the other hand the conception of it as a teeming hive of life and consciousness filled to overflow- ing with the vital influence of the Logos. The mere physical complexity of its structure as now explained dig- nifies the whole globe as compared with the crude ideas of its interior condition prevalent in the common imagina- tion hitherto. And although orthodox science — as bigoted in reference to its methods as the Church in reference to its dogmas — will decline any enlightenment that does not come along familiar roads, occult students will be enabled by the explanations now set forth to check some of the speculations concerning the past history of the Earth in which scientific writes allow themselves to indulge. We are constantly told that the manner in which the Moon rotates once on her axis in the same time that she revolves once round the Earth, is the result of tidal action in the remote past. The satellite is assumed to have been cast off from the Earth while this was still in its early molten condition and having thus been flung into space to have
THE SYSTEM 235
settled down to its present habits as the result of tidal retardation while it was still a plastic mass. Tidal friction is very much in favour just now among speculative physicists as an explanation of some phenomena that have taken place (in an entirely different way) and of some others (erroneously) assumed to be in preparation for the future. As the Moon was really in existence for millions of years before the first initial measures were taken for the formation of the Earth, all guesses based upon the idea that it was a bit of the original Earth torn off by an early convulsion of Nature are little likely to find themselves in harmony with the truth. The Moon is, indeed, a dead planet now, not because it has never been anything else, as the conventional theory would imply, but because it has fulfilled its part in the economy of the scheme to which it belonged and is in process of disintegration.
For the final return to the bosom of Nature of the materials used in the construction of a planet is accom- plished by degrees, just as the planet in the beginning has been built up by degrees. The concentric sphere arrange- ment is, as I infer from what I have learned, the method of planetary formation adopted throughout the solar system, but at any rate it was the method adopted in the formation of the Moon in the beginning (long before the Earth was thought about) just as in our own case after- wards. And when the active life of the Lunar world was over and its physical body had to be dispersed again — as in the case of each one of us when each life is spent the physical body concerned has to return to dust — the outer- most shells disintegrated first. As with their original con- struction forces are employed that we do not habitually reckon with, so in the processes of disintegration agencies of an unfamiliar kind take the work in hand, but the broad
236 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
idea is that when the Spirit of the Planet that is outworn has no longer any work to do there he leaves it and decay sets in as naturally as it sets in with a human corpse when the soul has fled away. In its full maturity, the Moon must have been a planet about the same size as our own, for as we look at it now we see the surface of what was originally its third concentric sphere going inwards. The two outer ones have been shed, and the matter of which they were composed no doubt largely drawn upon for the final deposit of matter on the outer shell of the Earth. A long time will yet elapse before the four remaining shells arid the internal nucleus return to the oceanic store of meteoric matter, but time in these undertakings is spent by Nature with much prodigality. In guess-work con- cerning the duration of astronomical periods modern science has not yet been furnished with data on which to proceed with security, and its confidence in the data which it assumes is apt to be misplaced. Thus all calculations relating to the supposed maintenance of the Sun's heat by shrinkage are quite ludicrously wrong, and the forecasts at present in favour as regards the time at which there will be no room for it to shrink any more, and at which con- sequently the planetary family around it will be frozen to death, will sooner or later be looked back upon by the science of the future as quite on a level with the theory of the tortoise that supports the world. I am little in- clined, however, to encourage the flippancy of some occultists who speak disrespectfully of modern science because our information enables us to catch it out here and there in mistakes. The science of the western world is in the van of human intelligence, if we except only the wisdom of Adeptship. Its achievements so far have been beautiful and glorious. It merely needs now to avail itself
THE SYSTEM 237
of the wonderful instruments of research which lie but half hidden in the depths of human faculty, and then it will carry the exquisite discipline of its thought into regions where at present only a few exceptionally gifted explorers are roaming, unprepared by their training for the work they attempt to perform. In times not long gone by, the reconciliation of science and religion was hoped for by enthusiasts as promising, when it should be accomplished, some immense advance in general civilisa- tion. That union is in process of realisation, religion having, so to speak, accorded a grudging consent. But the next great step must be the reconciliation of science and occultism. That, too, must come, though perhaps this time it will be the scientific world that will show some disposition to be sulky as the change forces its way. That will not matter in the long run, and in that long run the state of facts dealt with in this volume will assuredly be the subject of investigations with which future members of the Royal Society will be engaged, though at the moment the wonderful story I have had to tell may find even some Theosophists incredulous, unless they have intuition enough to feel sure that, all things considered, I should not be likely to put it forward without such assurance of its accuracy as suffices to justify its association with the many other Fragments of Occult Truth which it has been my privilege to set forth.
The changes which thus take place from time to time within the interior economy of the solar system must, of course, produce perturbing effects on the movements of planets already in existence at any given period when an old planet is disintegrated, or a new one solidified, and probably such perturbations play a part in the cyclic processes going forward in the active worlds of the time.
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It sometimes happens that isolated statements cropping up in occult teaching point to astronomical events that we cannot easily refer to cosmic causes visibly in operation. They are very likely promoted by changes which are going on in what may be called the configuration of the system, at great intervals. It can never fall to the lot of any one generation of observant beings on any one planet to witness the evolution of a new world or the destruc- tion of an old one. Such processes are protracted com- pared with the span of human life. But crises must come on at some periods in the future when rational inhabitants of some planets may see new worlds in formation, or processes in activity foreshadowing the disintegration of some aged planet that has fulfilled its purpose.
The seven great schemes of planetary evolution pro- ceed on independent lines, but helpfulness is the law of life throughout the entire system, and in this way it comes to pass that the various schemes are not rigidly excluded from the possibility of receiving benefits from others. On this subject we need only concern ourselves with one example of such intercommunication, but it is important to comprehend this one example correctly if we are endeavouring to understand our own evolutionary history. The Venus scheme, as already stated, is in the seventh round of its fifth Manvantara, we of the earth chain being at present in the fourth round of the fourth Manvantara. Thus the humanity of the Venus chain was already on spiritual levels immensely higher than those of our humanity when we were still struggling on in the earlier phases of our evolution during this earth period. So it came to pass that some representatives of the Venus Adeptship, availing themselves of possibilities having to do with immensely exalted spiritual planes com-
THE SYSTEM 239
mon to the whole solar system, transferred themselves to this earth for a time during part of the third and early fourth race, and took part in the teaching and guidance of our comparatively infant humanity.
Readers approaching these conceptions for the first time may be inclined to wonder how so great a gulf on the scale of evolution can have separated the earlier humanity of this world period from that inhabiting the earth to-day, and including masters of wisdom who have already scaled heights on a level, so far as we cart understand, with those from which our Venus teachers descended. The explana- tion lies in this simple fact that until the midway point of any Manvantara is reached the whole process of evolution must be thought of as a downward growth into the com- plexities of materiality. No one, however individually ripe for spiritual evolution, could begin to transcend his companions in any extraordinary degree until the middle point of the Manvantara was turned. Then he had a clear course before him; it was possible for anyone, assum- ing extraordinary aptitudes on his part, to achieve in a comparatively brief series of lives the whole development, for which, as regards the race at large, Nature liberally provides the whole second half of the Manvantara. Before the midway point of our Manvantara — that is to say, before the middle period of the great root race preceding our own — there were no Adepts belonging to our human family; thus no further back than at the beginning of the great Atlantean, or fourth root race, the earth chain was entirely dependent on external help for its loftier spiritual guidance.
The course of human pirogress through this world period, therefore — the history of the great root races- may be best studied in theosophical books devoted
24o THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL
specially to the elucidation of that magnificent progress, but the general character of such progress must be borne in mind by all who would form a mental picture of the whole system to which we belong, calculated to give an intelli- gent significance to individual progress. Moreover, the comprehension of the way the great race evolution has been, and is going on during this world period, will connect itself in a peculiarly interesting way with the general comprehension of the whole structure of the system.
On the planet Mars, where humanity was last incar- nated before the world period of the earth began, humanity already inhabited physical bodies, and was endowed with sufficient human intelligence to carry out architectural and engineering works under the guidance of teachers belonging to a superior evolution. On completing its cycle on that planet mankind began its existence on this, under conditions which can hardly be thought of as physical. The vehicles of their consciousness were of ethereal matter, insusceptible to heat or cold, not yet subject to laws connected with waste and replenishment, which operate in connection with the more compact organisms of our time. The first and second great root races were of this order; in the course of the third, the condensation of the physical vehicle of human conscious- ness was accomplished, in the fourth root race man was in the beginning considerably bulkier than at present, was already designed on the physical pattern we are acquainted with, and divided into two sexes. The course of evolution through preceding rounds was thus recapitulated in the course of the present world period in a way which bears some analogy to that curious recapitulation of physical existence which goes on at the present day in connection
THE SYSTEM 241
with the birth of every fresh physical creature, as students of embryology are well aware.
It must not be supposed, however, that the whole human family of this scheme evolved during the first half of the present Manvantara on precisely the same plan. Our last Manvantara, the third or Lunar Manvantara, so called because the present moon was then the physical planet of the chain, did not bring forward all entities to levels which correspond to what we think of as humanity to-day, but it afforded some scope for individual progress, and thus left the family at its close, on various levels of advancement.
The varied requirements of the situation were provided for in this way : the most developed entities did not come into incarnation in the earlier rounds of the present Man- vantara. These earlier rounds afforded an appropriate field of activity on lower levels of existence for the less developed entities, and while these were enjoying a fresh opportunity of accomplishing tRe evolution they failed to realise properly during their last Manvantara, the highly developed entities of that Manvantara were passing through periods of spiritual existence to which those on the lower levels had no access. These spiritual periods occupied periods of time corresponding to three round periods, so that while the undeveloped entities of the last Manvantara were, so to speak, bringing the next into a condition which once more would afford them an oppor- tunity of making progress beyond the possibility of the last Manvantara, they were at the same time rendering it suitable for the occupation of their elder brethren who had not only attained to the maximum possibilities of the previous Manvantara, but had spent time corresponding to the three first rounds of the next, in conditions of
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existence involving definite spiritual progress. Thus only on the conclusion of the three spiritual periods did the most advanced entities of the last Manvantara come into incar- nation in this. In the technical language of modern occult study the most advanced entities are spoken of as the first class Lunar Pitris. The phrase is perfectly intelligible and significant, when we bear in mind the fact that Pitri comes from the same root as Father, and simply signifies ancestor.
As a physical planet the moon is now but the dead body of the planet which once bore the mighty life-wave of the human family. It has shrunk to relatively small proportions, for not only have its subtle principles been re-incarnated in the earth, but a good deal of its physical matter has actually been withdrawn from it to the body of its offspring. The process by which this result was accomplished has been already described.
So then, the most advanced representatives of the whole human family came into incarnation in this Manvantara at the middle period, that is to say, during the present period of the world's activity, in a condition which repre- sents the maximum development possible during the Lunar Manvantara, plus the further progress accomplished during the three spiritual periods. Thus the two classes who have been in incarnation during the earlier rounds of this Man- vantara have had an opportunity by this time of rising to nearly the same development of evolution, but are still in the rear of the foremost class, which, as the whole body continues to progress, may be thought of as still leading the van, and representing in our own time all those who are the flower of our own age, who are the exponents of its most advanced intellectual capacity, and especially those who at the earliest possible moment in the life of
THE SYSTEM 243
the world show aptitudes for spiritual progress, and most readily assimilate such teaching concerning the higher destinies of man as are involved in the noblest religious conceptions — especially in the occult philosophy which unites these loftiest aspirations with definite knowledge concerning the superphysical states of existence. Not only all those who at the earliest possible date emerge from the ruck of humanity, and taking full advantage of the guidance received from those of a superior evolution, pass upward into the ranks of Adeptship, but all those who are in any sense their pupils, besides all those whose intellectual and moral development is of a kind which will render them available as occult pupils in the course of a few more incarnations, may be thought of as belonging to the class spoken of as the first of the Lunar Pitris. This statement must not be taken as implying that it is impos- sible for entities belonging to the second class to attain spiritual exaltation, but at the present stage of evolution the great majority of those who get on to the high levels are of the first Pitri class. As the mighty force of evolu- tio*n sweeps upward during the successive rounds of the Manvantara, great numbers of those belonging to the second class will gradually attain levels of spiritual growth, from which they also will be capable of taking short cuts towards the summit levels possible in this Manvantara, but the first class of the Lunar Pitris ought to attain these summit levels at periods far in advance of the Manvan- tara 's close. At that remote period in the future it will be theoretically possible that all members of the human family, whose differentiation into specific entities had been accomplished during the Lunar Manvantara, will be able to attain the summit level. Those only for whom this progress would be hardly possible in the time are those
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who have only emerged as definite entities from the animal kingdom during the earlier rounds of this Manvantara. The probabilities are — and taking into account the enormous numbers with which we have to deal, proba- bilities in such a matter amount to something like cer- tainty, over the whole area considered — the probabilities are, that of the whole number of entities constituting the human family at this time, including those who have emerged during the first half of the Manvantara from the animal kingdom as well as those who have distinct Pitri ancestry, three-fifths will arrive in some degree of appro- priate advancement at what I have called the summit levels of the Manvantara.
The destiny of the two-fifths is profoundly interesting. Nature does not make the ghastly mistake attributed to her by some ecclesiastical creeds of consigning to perma- nent perdition the failures of any one evolutionary period. The two-fifths cannot get along any further with the planetary scheme to which they belong. They are not qualified to enter on the later incarnations of that period. But what happens to them ? That will best be understood by turning our attention for the moment to the failures of the planetary scheme senior to our own, of which the planet Venus is the physical representative. The human family of that scheme has long since passed the period at which its two-fifths were unable to get on to the loftiest possibilities of the scheme to which they belong. Where are they to be found ? At an early stage of our thinking, many of us assumed that they would somehow begin again in the next Manvantara of that scheme. Nature is much more scientific in her working, meaning by that phrase, more clearly in harmony with intelligent thinking, as to what ought to take place. The failures of the Venus
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Manvantara have long since been merged in the human family of the next scheme gradually approaching maturity — our own! The Venus failures are amongst us at the present day, although, as a matter of fact, they failed at a stage of evolution so far in advance of that which this world has yet attained to, that this world hardly yet affords them incarnations of sufficiently appropriate advancement for them to merge themselves fully in our own family. Another deeply interesting state of facts arises from this condition of things.
Very broadly stated in all earlier books on the subject, the tide wave of humanity during any round from one planet to another is a vast tidal wave of life leaving the planet behind in a state of relatively inanimate obscuration. This view rather too hastily interprets the method adopted. It is true that the vast majority of the human family to which we belong did actually sweep on from the planet Mars to this earth at a very remote period of its present activity. But it is not true that absolutely all were swept on with it. A fairly considerable residuum of the less developed entities remained behind, and to a large extent remain still on the planet Mars, of which they are the present inhabi- tants. They are frankly the dregs of the human family. The interesting fact discovered by modern astronomy that they show marvellous capacities for hydraulic engineering, does not militate against the truth that I have just declared. In some respects they are more capable; in other respects they fall behind the moral developments of the earth's in- habitants to an extent that language hardly enables one to define. Meanwhile, as time has gone on, some of us, in obedience to karmic conditions, rather too intricate to describe minutely just now, have gone on as an advanced guard of humanity to the next planet in advance of us, the
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planet Mercury. There, in truth, they are leading a very beautiful life in advance, both morally and in regard to natural knowledge of our own to a very remarkable extent. And there, the residual population of the Venus chain have found appropriate incarnation. So that the fairly considerable population of Mercury at the present moment largely and in the great majority, consists of what I have so far called the Venus failures. In all probability they will now continue to represent, although not exclusively constituting the vanguard of our humanity. The idea once comprehended will be seen to be susceptible of application all through the solar system. The next planet, as matters now stand — for the planet once occupying the asteroid orbit proved a failure for reasons it is impossible to diverge into now — the next planet to be fully developed will be the planet Jupiter, at present, as I shall be able to show later on, at an early stage of its growth and in an earlier Manvantara than that which is in progress in our own case at present.
Of the Venus three-fifths, above referred to, something like half will actually have achieved the maximum progress this Manvantara is designed to effect. That progress will put each of such beings in a position so far transcending the conditions of humanity around us at the present day, that if we compare them with the ordinary humanity they will seem fairly God-like in their knowledge and power and capacity for cosmic service. They will have attained to a full and complete appreciation of all the powers and forces and Divine purposes of which this chain of worlds has been the stage. For them the whole chain of worlds, not merely in their most material manifestations, but in all their astral and spiritual aspects as well, will constitute an absolutely familiar field of operations. They will be
THE SYSTEM 24?
functioning in full consciousness on planes of Nature which embrace all these worlds. Every globe of the chain will be as accessible to them as the different rooms of a house in which he lives may be accessible to a human being of the present ordinary type. Their moral evolu- tion corresponding with the growth of their knowledge and power will have brought them into perfect harmony with the whole Divine design of which the Manvantara has been the expression. They will be conscious and in- telligent agents engaged in working out this design, and as regards their own ulterior progress they will themselves select from many various lines of ulterior evolution open to them, those along which they will best be able to con- duce to the complete fulfilment of even loftier designs than that with which our Manvantara is directly related, and may either continue to guide and direct the progress of the succeeding Manvantaras associated with this chain of existences, or may pass away into other regions of cosmic activity, already representative, as it were, of the final achievement to which this chain of Manvantaras is sub- servient, in connection with still vaster processes lying within the immeasurable economy of Nature. Those who, while still belonging to the great three-fifths, have not at the close of this Manvantara actually attained the maximum perfection which lies within its possibilities, but are nevertheless in sight, as it were, of that perfection, will be the vanguard of human life in the next Manvan- tara perhaps when that has been prepared for their recep- tion by the earlier activities of less advanced entities. As for the nature of the progress on which they will then set out it is hardly necessary for us at this stage of our develop- ment to attempt any definite conception.
One idea, however, should be borne in mind in con-
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nection with all attempts to realise, however imperfectly, the colossal proportion and constitution of this system to which, we belong. We must not think of the worlds of the system as existing wholly and solely for the sake of the evolution of the human family, on which so far our attention has been chiefly concentrated. Just as the world around us is the theatre of a great many forms of physical life, destined perhaps in the progress of time to merge one into the other, but for the time being on widely different levels, so the whole chain of worlds is the theatre of many evolutions which, during this Manvantara, are not destined to blend one into the other. Meanwhile crude concep- tions concerning the place of humanity in the cosmos are apt to render people at the same time too humble and too arrogant concerning their place in Nature. Conventional teaching entirely underrates the dignity and splendour of the altitude to which it is possible for a human being to ascend, and very often as ludicrously misconceives the stupendous proportions of the cosmos, by regarding the interests of humanity as something like the sole concern of its presiding Divinity.
With this very general sketch of the system to which we belong it will now be convenient to pass on to an explanation of the methods open to us for the ascent to its summit levels at an earlier period than that contem- plated by the design of the scheme as a whole, and when we have realised more exactly the phases ol spiritual achievement constituting the steps on trie great path that leads to the highest attainable Adeptship, we shall be in a better position to forecast with exactitude the ultimate stratification of the human family at the close of this Manvantara.