CHAPTER VII.

THE PATH OF EVOLUTION.

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

194

THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 195

REVOLUTIONS AND COSMIC NIGHTS.

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

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

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

When the work on Globe E has been completed, the

196 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO CONCEPTION

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

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

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

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

198 ROSICRUCiAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

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

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

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

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

THE WORK OF EVOLUTION 199

being exactly the same as when the Globes were removed
from (heir locations in the Saturn Period to the positions
they occupied during the Sun Period. Thus the Globes
of the Moon Period are placed one step further down in
matter than they were during the Sun Period, the lowest
(Globe D) being situated in the Etheric Eegion of the
Physical World.

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

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

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

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

In the Venus Period they will be located in the same

200 BOSICBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

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

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

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