CHAPTER IX.

STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS.

IN following through the preceding chapter the evolution
of life, consciousness and form — the triple phase ot
manifestation of the virgin spirit — which is the life
that gathers the form about itself and gains consciousness
thereby, we have spoken as though there were only one
class; as though the virgin spirits, without exception, had
made constant and uniform progress.

This was done for the sake of simplicity, because strag-
glers there were, as there are in any great body or
company.

In school there are, every year, those who fail to reach
the standard required for promotion into a higher grade.
Similarly, in every Period of Evolution, there are those
who fall behind because they have not attained the stand-
ard necessary to pass onward to the next higher stage.

Even so early as the Saturn Period there were some who
failed to improve sufficiently to take the next forward step.
At that stage the Higher Beings were working with the
life, which was itself unconscious, but that unconscious-
ness did not prevent the retardation of some of the virgin
spirits who were not so pliable, nor so readily adaptable
as others.

In that one word "Adaptability," we have the great
secret of advancement or retardation. All progress depends

223

224 EOSICEUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

upon whether an evolving being is flexible, adaptable and
pliable, so as to be able to accommodate itself to new con-
ditions, or whether it is crystallized, set, and incapable of
alteration. Adaptability is the quality which makes for
progress, whether an entity is at a high or a low stage of
evolution. Lack of it is the cause of the retardation of
the spirit and retrogression of the Form. This applies to
the past, present and future, the division of the qualified
and the unqualified thus being made with the exact and
impersonal justice of the law of Consequence. There
never was, nor ever shall be any arbitrary distinction made
between the "sheep" and the "goats."

The hardened unresponsive condition of some of the
Saturn beings prevented the awakening of the divine
spirit within them, therefore they remained simply min-
eral, all they had gained being the germinal dense body.

Thus there were two classes, or kingdoms, in the Sun
Period, i. e., the stragglers of the Saturn Period, who
were still mineral, and the pioneers of the Saturn Period,
who were capable of receiving the germ of a vital body and
becoming plant-like.

In addition to those two kingdoms there was also a
third — a new life wave, which was just commencing its
activity at the beginning of the Sun Period. (That is the
life wave which now ensouls our animals).

The matter into which the new life wave entered, to-
gether with the stragglers of the Saturn Period, composed
the mineral kingdom of the Sun Period. There was, how-
ever, a great difference between those two classes or sub-
divisions of the second kingdom. It is possible for the
stragglers to make a "spurt" and overtake the pioneers —
who are now our humanity — but it is impossible for the
new life wave of the Sun Period to do that. It will reach

STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS 225

a stage corresponding to the human, but under very dif-
ferent conditions.

The division of stragglers and pioneers took place in
the seventh Revolution of the Saturn Period, when the
divine spirit was awakened by the Lords of the Flame.
Then it was found that some of the evolving entities were
in such an unresponsive, hardened condition that it was
impossible to arouse them. They therefore remained with-
out the spark of spirit upon which their progress depended
and they were obliged to remain at the same level, being
unable to follow the others in whom the spiritual spark
was awakened. Truly, truly, all that we are or are not is
the result of our own effort, or our own inaction.

These stragglers and the newly arrived life wave formed
dark spots in the otherwise glowing gas-sphere which was
the densest Globe of the Sun Period, and our present Sun-
spots are an atavistic remainder of that condition.

In the sixth Revolution of the Sun Period the life spirit
was awakened by the Cherubim, and again it was found
that some who had safely passed the critical point in the
Saturn Period, had fallen behind in the Sun Period and
were unfit to have the second aspect of the spirit vivified.
Thus there were another class of stragglers, who had
lagged behind the crest-wave of evolution.

In the seventh Revolution of the Sun Period the Lords
of the Flame reappeared to awaken the divine spirit in
those who failed to qualify for it at the end of the Saturn
Period, but had attained to the point where they could
receive the spiritual impulse in the Sun Period. The
Lords of the Flame also awakened the germ of divine
spirit in as many of the new life wave entities as were
ready, but here also there were stragglers.

226 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Thus at the beginning of the Moon Period there were
the following classes:

1 — The Pioneers who had successfully passed through the Saturn
and the Sun Periods. They had dense and vital bodies,
divine and life spirit germinally active.

2 — The Stragglers of the Sun Period, who had dense and vital
bodies, also divine spirit — all germinal.

3 — The Stragglers of the Saturn Period, who had been promoted
in the seventh Eevolution of the Sun Period. They had
the germ of dense body and divine spirit.

4 — The Pioneers of the new Life Wave, who had the same vehicles
as class 3, but belong to a different scheme of evolution
from ours.

5 — The Stragglers of the new Life Wave, who had only the germ
for the dense body.

6 — A New Life Wave, which entered upon its evolution at the
beginning of the Moon Period and is the life that en-
souls our plants of the present day.

It is necessary to remember that Nature hastens slowly.
She makes no sudden changes in forms. To her, time is
nothing; the attainment of perfection is everything. A
mineral does not change to a plant at one bound, but by
gradual, almost imperceptible degrees. A plant does not
become an animal in a night. It requires millions of years
to bring about the change. Thus at all times there are all
stages and gradations to be found in nature. The Ladder
of Being stretches without break from protoplasm to God.

Therefore we have to deal, not with six different king-
doms corresponding to the above six classes which entered
the arena of evolution at the beginning of the Moon
Period, but with three kingdoms only — mineral, plant and
animal.

The lowest class in the Moon Period composed the new
life stream which there commenced its evolution. It
formed the hardest mineral part, yet it must be borne in
mind that it was by no means as hard as the mineral of
the present time, but only about as dense as our wood.

STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS 227

This statement does not contradict former ones which
described the Moon as watery, nor does it conflict with
diagram 8, showing the densest Globe in the Moon Period
as located in the Etheric Kegion, which is etheric. As
before stated, the fact that the path of evolution is spiral
prevents any condition ever being duplicated. There are
similarities, but never reproductions of identical conditions.
It is not always possible to describe conditions in exact
terms. The best available term is used to convey an idea
of the conditions existing at the time under consideration.

Class 5 in our list was nearly mineral, yet on account
of having passed through and beyond the mineral condi-
tion during the Sun Period, it had some plant charac-
teristics.

Class 4 was almost plant and did evolve to a plant before
the close of the Moon Period. It was, however, more
nearly allied to the mineral kingdom than the next two
classes, which formed the higher kingdom. We may there-
fore group classes 4 and 5 together, as forming a sort of
half-step, a "mineral-plant" kingdom, which composed the
surface of the ancient planet of the Moon Period. It was
something like our present peat, which is also a state
between the mineral and the plant. It was soggy and wet,
consistent with the statement that the Moon Period was
watery.

Thus the fourth, fifth and sixth classes composed the
different gradations of the mineral kingdom in the Moon
Period — the highest being nearly plant and the lowest
the hardest mineral substance of that time.

Classes 2 and 3 formed the plant kingdom, though they
were both really more than plants, yet were not quite
animal. They grew in the mineral-plant soil; they were
stationary like plants ; yet they could not have grown in a

228 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

purely mineral soil, as our plants do now. Good examples
of what they were like may be found in our parasitic plants,
which cannot grow in a purely mineral soil, but seek the
food already specialized by a real plant or tree.

Class 1 was composed of the pioneers of the life wave
of virgin spirits. In the Moon Period they were going
through a sort of animal-like existence. Yet they were
like the animals of our time only in so far as they had the
same vehicles and were under the control of a group-
spirit, which included the whole human family. In ap-
pearance they were very different from our present animals,
as shown by the partial description given in the previous
chapter. They did not touch the surface of the planet,
but floated suspended by umbilical-like cords. Instead
of lungs they had a gill-like apparatus through which they
breathed the hot steamy "fire-fog." These features of the
Moon existence are still recapitulated by the embryo dur-
ing the period of gestation. At certain stages of develop-
ment it has the gills. The Moon beings at that time had
also the horizontal spine of the animal.

During the Moon Period several more divisions of classes
occurred than in the preceding periods, because there were,
of course, stragglers who failed to keep abreast of the crest-
wave of evolution. As a result there were, at the begin-
ning of the Earth Period, 5 classes, some of them contain-
ing several divisions, as diagram 10 will show. These divi-
sions occurred at the following times and for the follow-
ing reasons:

In the middle of the fifth Eevolution of the Moon Period,
when the Seraphim bestowed the germ of the human spirit
upon the pioneers who had fitted themselves to pass on,
some were found wanting when weighed in the balance

STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS 229

and therefore unfit to receive the spiritual impulse which
awakened the threefold spirit.

In the sixth Revolution of the Moon Period the Cheru-
bim reappeared and vivified the life spirit of those who
had been left behind in the Sun Period but had since
reached the necessary stage of development (Class 2 in
our previous list), and also in those stragglers of the Sun
Period who had not evolved a vital body during their plant
existence in the Moon Period. (These latter were class 3
in the previous list).

Class 4 in the previous list had been going through a
low stage of plant existence; nevertheless the majority of
them had evolved the vital body sufficiently to allow of the
awakening of the life spirit.

Thus, the three last-named all possessed the same vehicles
at the beginning of the Earth Period, although only the
two first-named (classes 3a and 3b in diagram 10) belong
to our life wave, and have a chance of even yet overtaking
us if they pass the critical point which will come in the
next Revolution of the Earth Period. Those who cannot
pass that point will be held over until some future evolu-
tion reaches a stage where they can drop in and proceed
with their development in a new human period. They
will be debarred from going forward with our humanity
because it will be advanced so far beyond their status that
it would prove a serious clog to our progress to Tlrag them
along. They will not be destroyed, but simply held in
waiting for another period of evolution.

Progression with our present wave of evolution is what
is meant when "salvation" is spoken of in the Christian
religion, and it is something to be earnestly sought, for
though the "eternal damnation" of those who are not
"saved" does not mean destruction nor endless torture, it

230

KOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

DIAGRAM 10

Showing the different classes of the several life waves which are
evolving in the four kingdoms of the earth; their status at the
beginning of the earth period and the vehicles they then possessed; also
their present status.

CLASS

VEHICLES

PRESENT STATE

1— Pioneers of the
Saturn. Sun and

Divine ) Dense )
Life f spirit Vital ^body

The Aryan Races

2— The Stragglers of
the Moon Period...

Divine ) Dense ) •
? spirit Vital ? body
Life ) Desire )

The Mongolians, Af-
ricans, and all lower
Races

3— (a) The Stragglers
of the Saturn Pe-
riod

(b) The Stragglers
of the Sun Period..

All the

(c) Pioneers of the
new Sun life wave.

> spirit > body
Life ) Vital 1

above belong to our
Same as 3a and 3b

Anthropoids

life wave
Animals

4— (a) Stragglers .of

Plant Kingdom

(b) Pioneers of the
new Moon life wave

Same as 4a

Flowers and grasses

5— (a) Stragglers of

Mineral Kingdom

wave

Sand, soft soils, etc.

wave of the Earth
Period

STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS 231

is nevertheless a very serious matter to be held in a state
of inertia for inconceivable milliards of years, before a
new evolution shall have progressed to such a stage that
those who fail here can have an opportunity to proceed.
The spirit is not conscious of the lapse of time, but it is
none the less a serious loss, and there must also be a
feeling of unhomelikeness when at last such spirits find
themselves in a new evolution.

So far as the present humanity is concerned, that possi-
bility is so small as to be almost negligible. It is said,
however, that of the total number of virgin spirits which
started evolution in the Saturn Period, only about three-
fifths will pass that critical point in the next Revolution
and go on to the end.

The greatest apprehension of occult scientists is material-
ism, which if carried too far, not only prevents progress but
will destroy all the seven vehicles of the virgin spirit, leav-
ing it naked. Such an one will then have to commence at
the very beginning of the new evolution. All the work it
has done since the dawn of the Saturn Period will have
been utterly wasted. For this reason, the present period
is to our humanity, the most critical of all. Therefore
occult scientists speak of the sixteen Races, of which the
Germano-Anglo-Saxon is one, as "the sixteen possibilities
for destruction." May the reader safely pass them all, for
their grip is worse than the retardation in the next
Revolution.

Speaking generally, class 5 in the foregoing list was
given the germ of divine spirit in the seventh Revolution,
when the Lords of Flame reappeared. Therefore they were
the pioneers of the last life wave, which entered evolution
in the beginning of the Moon Period. They passed their

232 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

mineral existence there. The stragglers of that life wave
were thus left with only the germ of a dense body.

In addition to the above, there was also a new life wave
(our present mineral kingdom) entering upon its evolution
at the beginning of the Earth Period.

At the end of the Moon Period these classes possessed
the vehicles as they are classified in diagram 10, and started
with them in the beginning of the Earth Period. During
the time which has elapsed since then, the human kingdom
has been evolving the link of mind, and has thereby
attained full waking consciousness. The animals have
obtained a desire body; the plants a vital body; the strag-
glers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Moon
Period have escaped the hard and fast conditions of rock
formation and now their dense bodies compose our softer
soils; while the life wave that entered evolution here in
the Earth Period forms the hard rocks and stones.

Thus have the different classes obtained the vehicles
ascribed to them in diagram 3, to which the reader is
referred.

CHAPTEK X.
THE EARTH PERIOD.

THE Globes of the Earth Period are located in the
four densest states of matter — the Region of Con-
crete Thought, the Desire World, the Etheric, and
the Chemical Regions (See Diagram 8). The densest Globe
(Globe D) is our present Earth.

When we speak of "the densest Worlds," or the "densest
states of matter," the term must be taken in a relative
sense. Otherwise it would imply a limitation in the Abso-
lute, and that is absurd. Dense and attenuated, like up
and down, east and west, are applicable only relatively to
our own status or position. As there are higher, finer
Worlds than those touched by our life wave, so there are also
denser states of matter which are the fields of evolution
for other classes of beings. Nor must it be thought that
these denser worlds are elsewhere in space ; they interpene-
trate our worlds in a manner similar to that in which the
higher Worlds interpenetrate this Earth. The fancied
solidity of the Earth and the forms we see is no bar to the
passage of a denser body any more than our solid dense
walls bar the passage of a human being clothed in his de-
sire body. Neither is solidity synonymous with density, as
may be illustrated by aluminum, a solid which is less dense
than the fluidic mercury; nevertheless the latter, in spite
of its density, will evaporate or exude through many solids.
This being the fourth Period, we have at present four

232

234 ROSICBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

elements. In the Saturn Period there was but one element,
Fire — i. e., there was warmth, or heat, which is incipient
fire. In the second, or Sun Period, there were two ele-
ments, Fire and Air. In the third, or Moon Period, there
were three elements, Water being added ; and in the fourth,
or Earth Period, was added the fourth element, Earth.
Thus it will be seen that a new element was added for
each Period.

In the Jupiter Period an element of a spiritual nature
will be added, which will unite with the speech so that
words will invariably carry with them understanding —
not misunderstanding, as is frequently the case now. For
instance, when one says "house," he may mean a cottage,
while the hearer may get the idea of a tenement flat
building.

To this environment of the four elements, as specified
above, the different classes mentioned in diagram 10 were
brought over by the Hierarchies in charge of them. We
remember that in the Moon Period these classes formed
three kingdoms — animal, animal-plant and plant-mineral.
Here on Earth, however, the conditions are such that there
can be no large half-way classes. There must be four dis-
tinctly different kingdoms. In this crystallized phase of
existence the lines between them must be more sharply
drawn than was the case in former Periods, where one king-
dom gradually merged into the next. Therefore some of
the classes mentioned in diagram 10 advanced one-half
step, while others went back half a step.

Some of the mineral-plants advanced completely into
the plant kingdom and became the verdure of the fields.
Others went down and became the purely mineral soil in
which the plants grew. Of the plant-animals some ad-
vanced into the animal kingdom, ahead of time, and those

THE EARTH PERIOD 235

species have yet the colorless plant-blood, and some, like
star-fishes, have even the five points like the petals of
flowers.

All of class 2 whose desire bodies could be divided into
two parts (as was the case with all of class 1) were fitted
to become human vehicles and were therefore advanced
into the human group.

We must carefully remember that in the above para-
graphs we are dealing with Form, not with the Life which
dwells in the Form. The instrument is graded to suit the
life that is to dwell in it. Those of class 2, in whose
vehicles the above mentioned division could be made were
raised to the human kingdom, but were given the indwell-
ing spirit at a point in time later than class 1. Hence,
they are not now so far evolved as class 1, and are there-
fore the lower races of mankind.

Those whose desire bodies were incapable of division
were put into the same division as classes 3a and 3b. They
are our present anthropoids. These may yet overtake our
evolution if they reach a sufficient degree of advancement
before the critical point already mentioned, which will
come in the middle of the fifth Revolution. If they do not
overtake us by that time, they will have lost touch with
our evolution.

It was said that man had built his threefold body by
the help of others higher than he, but in the previous
Period there was no co-ordinating power; the threefold
spirit, the Ego, was separate and apart from its vehicles.
Now the time had come to unite the spirit and the body.

Where the desire body separated, the higher part became
somewhat master over the lower part and over the dense
and vital bodies. It formed a sort of animal-soul with
which the spirit could unite by means of the link of mind.

236 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Where there was no division of the desire body, the vehicle
was given over to desires and passions without any check,
and could therefore not be used as a vehicle within which
the spirit could dwell. So it was put under the control of a
group-spirit which ruled it from without. It became an
animal body, and that kind has now degenerated into the.
body of the anthropoid.

Where there was a division of the desire body, the dense
body gradually assumed a vertical position, thus taking
the spine out of the horizontal currents of the Desire
World in which the group-spirit acts upon the animal
through the horizontal spine. The Ego could then enter,
work in and express itself through the vertical spine and
build the vertical larynx and brain for its adequate expres-
sion in the dense body. A horizontal larynx is also under
the domination of the group-spirit. While it is true that
some animals, as the starling, raven, parrot, etc., previ-
ously mentioned, are able, because of the possession of a
vertical larynx, to utter words, they cannot use them under-
standingly. The use of words to express thought is the
highest human privilege and can be exercised only by a
reasoning, thinking entity like man. If the student will
keep this in mind, it will be easier to follow the different
steps which lead up to this result..

THE SATURN REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH PERIOD.

This is the Revolution during which, in each Period,
the dense body is reconstructed. This time it was given the
ability to form a brain and become a vehicle for the germ
of mind which was to be added later. This addition
constituted the final reconstruction of the dense body, ren-
dering it capable of attaining the highest degree of effi-
ciency possible to such a vehicle.

Unspeakable Wisdom has been employed in its construe-

THE EARTH PERIOD 237

tion. It is a marvel. It can never be sufficiently im-
pressed upon the mind of the student what immeasurable
facilities for the gaining of knowledge are contained in
this instrument, and what a great boon it is to man; how
much he should prize it and how thankful he should be
to have it.

Some examples of the perfection of construction and
intelligent adaptability displayed in this instrument have
previously been given, but in order to further impress this
great truth upon the mind of the student, it might not be
out of place to illustrate more fully this Wisdom, also the
work of the Ego in the blood.

It is generally known, in a vague kind of way, that the
gastric juice acts upon the food to promote assimilation;
but only a very few people, outside of the medical profes-
sion, are aware that there are many different gastric juices,
each appropriate to the treatment of a certain kind of
food. The researches of Pavloff, however, have established
the fact beyond doubt, that there is one kind of juice for
the digestion of meat, another for milk, another for acid
fruit, etc. That fact, by the way, is the reason why all
foods do not mix well. Milk, for instance, requires a
gastric juice that is widely different from almost any other
kind except that required for the digestion of starchy
foods, and is not readily digested with any food other than
cereals. This alone would show marvelous wisdom; that
the Ego working subconsciously is able to select the differ-
ent juices which are appropriate to the different kinds of
food taken into the stomach, making each of just the right
strength and quantity to digest the food. What makes
the matter still more wonderful, however, is the fact that
the gastric -'uice is poured into the stomach in advance of
the food.

238 ROSICRUC1AN COSMO-CONCEPTION

We do not consciously direct the process of mixing this
fluid. The great majority of people know nothing of
metabolism or any other phase of chemistry. So it is not
enough to say that, as we taste what is coming, we direct
the process hy means of signals through the nervous
system.

When this fact of the selection of juices was first proven,
scientists were sorely puzzled trying to learn how the right
kind of juice was selected and caused to enter the stomach
before the food. They thought the signal was given along
the nervous system. But it was demonstrated beyond doubt
that the proper juice was poured into the stomach even
though the nervous system was blocked.

At last Starling and Bayliss, in a series of experiments
of brilliant ingenuity, proved that infinitesimal parts of
the food are taken up by the blood as soon as the food en-
ters the mouth, go in advance to the digestive glands and
cause a flow of the proper juice.

This again, is only the physical side of the phenomena.
To understand the whole wonderful connection, we must
turn to occult science. That alone explains why the signal
is carried by the blood.

The blood is one of the highest expressions of the vital
body. The Ego guides and controls its dense instrument
by means of the blood, therefore the blood is also the means
used to act on the nervous system. During some of the
time that digestion is going on, it acts partially through the
nervous system, but (especially at the commencement of
the digestive process) it acts directly upon the stomach.
When, during scientific experiments, the nerves were
blocked, the direct way through the blood was still open and
the Ego derived the necessary information in that way.

It will also be seen that the blood is driven to wherever

239

the Ego unfolds the greatest activity at any time. If a
situation requires sudden thought and action, the blood is
promptly driven to the head. If a heavy meal is to be
digested the greater portion of the blood leaves the head,
centering around the digestive organs. The Ego concen-
trates its efforts on ridding the body of the useless food.
Therefore a man connot think well after a heavy meal. He
is sleepy because so much blood has left the brain that the
residue is insufficient to carry on the functions necessary
to full waking consciousness, besides, nearly all the vital
fluid or solar energy specialized by the spleen is absorbed
by the blood rushing through that organ after a meal in
greater volume than between meals. Thus the rest of the
system is also deprived of the vital fluid in a large measure
during digestion. It is the Ego that drives the blood into
the brain. Whenever the body goes to sleep, the blood
leaves the brain, as may be proven by placing a man on a
balanced table. When he goes to sleep, the table will
invariably tip towards the feet, raising the head. During
coition the blood is centered in the sex organs, etc. All
these examples tend to prove that during the waking hours,
the Ego works in and controls the dense body by means of
the blood. The larger portion of the total amount goes to
that part of the body where at any given time, the Ego
unfolds any particular activity.

The reconstruction of the dense body in the Saturn
Revolution of the Earth Period was for the purpose of
rendering it capable of inter-penetration by the mind. It
gave the first impulse to the buiWing of the frontal part of
the brain ; also the incipient division in the nervous system
which has since become apparent in its subdivisions — the
voluntary and the sympathetic. The latter was the only
one provided for in the Moon Period. The voluntary nerv-

24U EOSICEUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

ous system (which has transformed the dense body from a
mere automaton acting under stimuli from without, to an
extraordinary adaptable instrument capable of being guided
and controlled by an Ego from within) was not added
until the present Earth Period.

The principal part of this reconstructive work was done
by the Lords of Form. They are the Creative Hierarchy
which is most active in the Earth Period, as were the Lords
of Flame in the Saturn Period, the Lords of Wisdom in
the Sun Period, and the Lords of Individuality in the
Moon Period.

The Earth Period is pre-eminently the Period of Form,
for here the form or matter side of evolution reaches its
greatest and -most pronounced state. Here spirit is more
helpless and suppressed and Form is the most dominant
factor — hence the prominence of the Lords of Form.

THE SUN REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH PERIOD.

During this Revolution the vital body was reconstructed
to accommodate the germinal mind. The vital body was
fashioned more in the likeness of the dense body, so that
it could become fitted for use as the densest vehicle during
the Jupiter Period, when the dense body will have become
spiritualized — as explained later in this work.

The Angels, who were the humanity of the Moon Period,
were aided by the Lords of Form in this reconstruction.
The organization of the vital body is now next in efficiency
to that of the dense body. Some writers on this subject call
the former a link, and contend that it is simply the mold"
of the dense body, and not a separate vehicle.

While not desiring to criticise, and while admitting that
this contention appears to be justified by the fact that man,
at his present stage of evolution, cannot ordinarily use the

THE EARTH PERIOD 241

vital body as a separate vehicle — because it always remains
with the dense body and to extract it in toto would cause
the death of the dense body — yet there was a time when it
was not so firmly incorporated with the latter, as we shall
presently see.

During those epochs of our Earth's history which have
already been mentioned as the Lemurian and the Atlantean,
man was involuntarily clairvoyant, and it was precisely
this looseness of connection between the dense and the
vital bodies that made him so. (The Initiators of that
time helped the candidate to loosen the connection still
further, as in the voluntary clairvoyant).

Since then the vital body has become much more firmly
interwoven with the dense body in the majority of people,
but in all sensitives it is loose. It is that looseness which
constitutes the difference between the psychic and the
ordinary person who is unconscious of all but the vibrations
contacted by means of the five senses. All human beings
have to pass through this period of close connection of the
vehicles and experience the consequent limitation of con-
sciousness. There are, therefore, two classes of sensitives,
those who have not become firmly enmeshed in matter,
such as the majority of the Hindoos, the Indians, etc., who
possess a certain low grade of clairvoyance, or are sensitive
to the sounds of nature, and those who are in the vanguard
of evolution. The latter are emerging from the acme of
materiality, and are again divisible into two kinds, one of
which develops in a passive, weak-willed manner. By
the help of others they re-awaken the solar plexus or other
organs in connection with the involuntary nervous system.
These are therefore involuntary clairvoyants, mediums who
have no control of their faculty. They have retrograded.
The other kind is made up of those who by their own wills,

24:2 ROSICEUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

unfold the vibratory powers of organs now connected with
the voluntary nervous system and thus become trained
occultists, controlling their own bodies and exercising the
clairvoyant faculty as they will to do. They are called
voluntary or trained clairvoyants.

In the Jupiter Period man will function in his vital
body as he now does in his dense body ; and as no develop-
ment in nature is sudden, the process of separating the
two bodies has already commenced. The vital body will
then attain a much higher degree of efficiency than the
dense body of today. As it is a much more pliable vehicle,
the spirit will then be able to use it in a manner impossible
of realization in the case of the present dense vehicle.
THE MOON REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH PERIOD.

Here the Moon Period was recapitulated, and much the
same conditions prevailed (on an advanced scale) as ob-
tained on Globe D of that Period. There was the same
kind of fire-fog atmosphere; the same fiery core; the same
division of the Globe into two parts, in order to allow the
more highly evolved beings a chance to progress at the
proper rate and pace, which it would be impossible for
beings such as our humanity to equal.

In that Revolution the Archangels (humanity of the
Sun Period) and the Lords of Form took charge of the
reconstruction of the desire body, but they were not alone
in that work. When the separation of the Globe into two
parts occurred, there was a similar division in the desire
bodies of some of the evolving beings. We have already
noted that where this division took place, the form was
ready to become the vehicle of an indwellng spirit, and in
order to further this purpose the Lords of Mind (humanity
of the Saturn Period) took possession of the higher parv
of the desire body and implanted in it the separate selk

THE EAETH PERIOD 243

hood, without which the present man with all his glorious
possibilities, could never have existed.

Thus in the latter part of the Moon Revolution the
first germ of separate personality was implanted in the
higher part of the desire body by the Lords of Mind.

The Archangels were active in the lower part of the
desire body, giving it the purely animal desires. They
also worked in the desire bodies where there was no divi-
sion. Some of these were to become the vehicles of the
animal group-spirits, which work on them from without,
but do not enter wholly into the animal forms, as the indi-
vidual spirit does into the human body.

The desire body was reconstructed to render it capable of
being interpenetrated by the germinal mind which, during
the Earth Period, will be implanted in all those desire
bodies in which it was possible to make the before-men-
tioned division.

As has been previously explained, the desire body is an
unorganized ovoid, holding the dense body as a dark spot
within its center, as the white of an egg surrounds the yolk.
There are a number of sense centers in the ovoid, which
have appeared since the beginning of the Earth Period. In
the average human being these centers appear merely as
eddies in a current and are not now awake, hence his
desire body is of no use to him as a separate vehicle of con-
sciousness; but when the sense centers are awakened they
look like whirling vortices.

REST PERIODS BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS.

Hitherto we have noted only the Cosmic Nights between
Periods. We saw that there was an interval of rest and
assimilation between the Saturn and the Sun Periods;
another Cosmic Night between the Sun and the Moon

244 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Periods, etc. But in addition to these, there are also rests
between the Revolutions.

We might liken the Periods to the different incarnations
of man; the Cosmic Nights between them to the intervals
between deaths and new births ; and the rest between Revo-
lutions would then be analogous to the rest of sleep between
two days.

When a Cosmic Night sets in, all manifested things are
resolved into a homogeneous mass — the Cosmos again
becomes Chaos.

This periodical return of matter to primordial substance
is what makes it possible for the spirit to evolve. Were the
crystallizing process of active manifestation to continue
indefinitely it would offer an insurmountable barrier to the
progress of Spirit. Every time matter has crystallized to
such a degree that it becomes too hard for the spirit to
work in, the latter withdraws to recuperate its exhausted
energy, on the same principle that a power-drill which has
stopped when boring in hard metals, is withdrawn to
regain its momentum. It is then able to bore its way
further into the metal.

Freed from the crystallizing energy of the evolving spir-
its, the chemical forces in matter turn Cosmos to Chaos by
restoring matter to its primordial state, that a new start
may be made by the regenerated virgin spirits a]t the dawn
of a new Day of Manifestation. The experience gained in
former Periods and Revolutions enables the Spirit to build
up to the point last reached, with comparative celerity,
also to facilitate further progress by making such altera-
tions as its cumulative experience dictates.

Thus at the end of the Moon Revolution of the Earth
Period, all the Globes and all life returned to Chaos, re-

THE EARTH PERIOD 245

emerging therefrom at the beginning of the fourth Revo-
lution.

THE FOURTH REVOLUTION OF THE EAKTH PERIOD.

In the exceeding complexity of the scheme of evolution,
there are always spirals within spirals, ad infinitum. So
it will not be surprising to learn that in every Revolution
the work of recapitulation and rest is applied to the differ-
ent Globes. When the life wave reappeared on Globe A
in this Revolution, it went through the development of the
Saturn period; then after a rest which, however, did not
involve the complete destruction of the Globe, but only an
alteration, it appeared on Globe B, where the work of the
Sun Period was recapitulated. Then after a rest, the life
wave passed on to Globe C, and the work of the Moon
Period was repeated. Finally, the life wave arrived on
Globe D, which is our Earth, and not until then did the
proper work of the Earth Period begin.

Even then, the spiral within the spiral precluded its
beginning immediately on the arrival of th3 life wave
from Globe C, for the bestowal of the germ of mind did
not actually take place until the fourth Epoch, the three
first Epochs being still further recapitulations of the Sat-
urn, Sun and Moon Periods, but always on a higher scale.