CHAPTER XVIII.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH: AND VOLCANIC
ERUPTIONS.

EVEN" among occult scientists it is counted among
the most difficult problems to investigate the mys-
terious construction of the Earth. Every occult
scientist knows how much easier it is to thoroughly and
accurately investigate the Desire World and the Region
of Concrete Thought and bring back the results into the
Physical World than to investigate completely the secrets
of our physical planet, because to do that fully, one must
have passed through the nine lesser Mysteries and the first
of the Great Initiations.

Modern scientists know very little about this matter.
So far as seismic phenomena are concerned, they very
frequently change their theories, because they are constant-
ly discovering reasons why their previous hypotheses were
untenable. They have, with all their usual splendid care,
investigated the very outside shell, but only to an insignifi-
cant depth. As for volcanic eruptions, they try to under-
stand them as they try to understand everything else, in
a purely mechanical way, depicting the center of the Earth
as a fiery furnace and concluding that the eruptions are
caused by the accidental admission of water and in other
similar ways.

In a certain sense, their theories have some foundation,
but in this case they are, as always, neglecting the spiritual

498

CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 499

causes which to the occultist appear to be the true ones.
To him, the world is far from being "dead." On the
contrary, its every nook and crevice is permeated by spirit,
which is the leaven that causes changes in and upon the
planet.

The different kinds of quartz, the metals, the disposition
of the various strata — all have a much higher significance
than the materialistic investigator has ever been able to
grasp. To the occult scientist, the way in which these
materials are arranged is full of meaning. On this sub-
ject, as on every other, occult science stands in the same
relation to modern science as physiology does to anatomy.
Anatomy states with minute detail the exact position of
every bone, muscle, ligament, nerve, etc., their relative
positions to one another and so forth, but does not give
any clue to the use of any one of the different parts of
which the body is composed. Physiology, on the other
hand, not only states the position and structure of every
part of the body, but also tells their use in the body.

To know the different strata of the Earth and the rela-
tive positions of the planets in the sky without having
also a knowledge of their use and meaning in the life and
purpose of the Cosmos, is as useless as to know merely
the positions of bones, nerves, etc., without understanding
also their use in the functional economy of the body.

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST.

To the trained clairvoyant sight, of the Initiate of the
various degrees of the Mysteries, the Earth appears built
in strata, something like an onion, one layer or stratum
outside another. There are nine such strata and the cen-
tral core, making ten in all. These strata are revealed
to the Initiate gradually. One stratum becomes accessi-

500 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

ble to him at each Initiation, so that at the end of the
nine lesser Initiations he is master of all the layers, but
has not yet access to the secrets of the core.

In ancient parlance these nine steps are called the
"lesser Mysteries." They take the neophyte consciously
through all that relates to his past evolution, through the
activities of involuntary existence, so that he is able to
understand the manner and meaning of the work he then
performed unconsciously. He is shown how the present
ninefold constitution (the threefold body, the threefold
soul, and the threefold spirit) was brought into existence;
how the great creative Hierarchies worked on the virgin
spirit, awakening in it the Ego, helping it to form the
body; and also the work he himself has done, to extract
from the threefold body as much of the threefold soul
as he now possesses. One step at a time is he led through
the nine steps of the lesser mysteries, the nine strata.

This number nine is the root-number of our present
stage of evolution. It bears a significance in our system
that no other number does. It is the number of Adam,
the life which commenced its evolution as Man, which
reached the human stage during the Earth Period. In
the Hebrew, as in the Greek, there are no numerals, but
each letter has a numerical value. In Hebrew "Adam"
is called "ADM." The value of "A" is 1; of "D," 4;
and of "M," 40. If we add these figures, we get
144+4+0=9 — the number of Adam, or humanity.

If we turn from the Book of Genesis, which deals with
the creation of man in the hoary past, to the Book of
Eevelation, which deals with his future attainment, we
find that the number of the beast which hinders is 666.
Adding these figures, 6+6+6=18; and further, 1+8=9
— we have again the number of humanity, which is itself

CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 59!

the cause of all the evil which hinders its own progress.
Going further, to the point where the number of those
who are to be saved is stated, we find it to be 144,000.
Adding as before, 1+444+000=9 — again the number of
humanity, showing that practically it will be saved in
its totality, the number incapable of progress in our
present evolution being negligible in comparison to the
grand total, and even the few who fail are not lost, but
will progress in a later scheme.

The consciousness of the mineral and the plant is really
unconsciousness. The first glimmering dawn of con-
sciousness begins with the animal kingdom. We have
seen also that according to the most modern classification,
there are thirteen steps in the animal kingdom : three
classes of Radiates; three classes of Mollusks; three classes
of Articulates; and four classes of Vertebrates.

If we regard ordinary man as a step by himself, and
remember that there are thirteen Initiations from man
to God, or from the time he commenced to qualify him-
self for becoming a self-conscious Creative Intelligence,
we have again the same number, Nine — 13+1+13=27;
2+7=9.

The number 9 is also hidden in the age of Christ
Jesus, 33; 3x3=9, and in a similar manner in the 33
degrees of Masonry. In olden times Masonry was a
system of Initiation into the lesser Mysteries which, as
we have seen, have 9 degrees, but the Initiates often wrote
it as 33. Similarly we read of the 18th degree of the
Rosicrucians, which was only a "blind" for the uniniti-
ated, because there are never more than 9 degrees in any
lesser Mystery, and the Masons of today have but very
little of the occult ritual left in their degrees'.

We have also the nine months of gestation, during

502 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

which the body is built up to its present efficiency; and
there are in the body nine perforations — two eyes, two
nostrils, two ears, one mouth, and the two lower orifices.

When the advancing man has passed through the nine
lesser Initiations, gaining thereby entrance to all the
layers of the Earth, entrance into the core is yet to be
won. That is opened to him by the first of the four Great
Initiations, in which he learns to know the mystery of
the mind, that part of his being begun on Earth. When
he is ready for the first Great Initiation he has developed
his mind to the degree all men are destined to attain to
at the end of the Earth Period. In that Initiation he is
given the key to the next stage, and all work done by him
after that will be such as humanity in general will do in
the Jupiter Period, and does not concern us at present.

After his first Great Initiation, he is an Adept. The
second, third and fourth Initiations pertain to the stages
of development to be arrived at by ordinary humanity
in the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods.

These thirteen Initiations are symbolically represented
in the Christ and His twelve Apostles. Judas Iscariot is
the traitorous propensities of the lower nature of the
neophyte. The beloved John is the Venus Initiation, and
Christ Himself symbolizes the Divine Initiate of the
Vulcan Period.

In different schools of occult science the rites of Ini-
tiation vary, also their statement of the number of Initia-
tions, but that is merely a matter of classification. It will
be observed that such vague descriptions as can be given
become more vague as one proceeds higher and higher.
Where seven or more degrees are spoken of, almost nothing
is paid of the sixth Initiation, and nothing whatever of
the ones beyond. That is because of another division —

CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 593

the six steps of "Preparation," and the four Initiations
which bring the candidate to the end of the Earth Period,
to Adeptship. Then there must always be three more,
if the philosophy of the school or society goes so far. The
writer, however, knows of none but the Kosicrucians who
have anything to say of the three Periods which preceded
the Earth Period, save the bare statement that there were
such Periods. They are not brought very definitely into
relationship with our present phase of existence, how-
ever. Likewise, other occult teachings simply state that
there will be three more schemes of evolution, but no
particulars are given. Of course, under those circum-
stances, the three last Initiations are not mentioned.

Diagram 18 will give an idea of the arrangement of the
Earth's strata, the central core being omitted to indicate
more clearly the lemniscate formation of the currents in
the ninth stratum. In the diagram the strata are repre-
sented as being of equal thickness, though in reality some
are much thinner than others. Beginning at the outside,
they appear jn the following order:

(1) The Mineral Earth: This is the stony crust of
the Earth, with which Geology deals as far. as it is able
to penetrate.

(2) The Fluid Stratum: The matter of this stratum
is more fluid than that of the outside crust, yet it is not
watery, but rather more like a thick paste. It has the
quality of expansion, like that of an exceedingly explosive
gas, and is kept in place only by the enormous pressure
of the outer crust. Were that removed, the whole of the
fluid stratum would disappear in space with a tremendous
explosion. These correspond to the Chemical and Etheric
Regions of the Physical World.

(3) Vapor Stratum: In the first and second strata

504 KOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

there is really no conscious life. But in this stratum
there is an ever-flowing and pulsating life, as in the
Desire World surrounding and inter-penetrating our
Earth.

(4) Water Stratum : In this stratum are the germinal
possibilities of all that exists upon the surface of the
Earth. Here are the archetypal forces which are back
of the group spirits; also the archetypal forces of the
minerals, for this is the direct physical expression of the
Eegion of Concrete Thought.

(5) Seed Stratum: Material scientists have been
baffled in their efforts to discover the origin of life, how
the first living things came forth from previously dead
matter.

In reality, according to the occult explanation of evo-
lution, the question should be how the "dead" things
originated. The Life was there previous to the dead
Forms. It built its bodies from the attenuated, vaporous
substance long before it condensed into the Earth's solid
crust. Only when the life had left the forms could they
crystallize and become hard and dead.

Coal is but crystallized plant bodies; coral is also the
crystallization of animal forms. The life leaves the forms
and the forms die. Life never came into a form to awaken
it to life. Life departed from the forms and the forms
died. Thus did "dead" things come to be.

In this fifth stratum is the primordial fount of life
from which came the impetus that built all the forms on
Earth. It corresponds to the Eegion of Abstract Thought.

(6) Fiery Stratum: Strange as it may seem, this
stratum is possessed of sensation. Pleasure and pain,
sympathy and antipathy have here their effect on the
Earth. It is generally supposed that under no possible

CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 595

circumstances can the Earth have any sensation whatever.
The occult scientist, however, as he watches the harvesting
of the ripe grain and the gathering of fruit from the trees
in the autumn, or the plucking of flowers, knows the
pleasure experienced by the Earth itself. It is similar to
the pleasure felt by the cow when its bursting udders are
being relieved by the sucking calf. The Earth feels the
delight of having yielded nourishment for its progeny
of Forms, this delight reaching its culmination in the
harvest time.

On the other hand, when plants are torn out by the
roots, it is patent to the occult scientist that the Earth
senses a sting of pain. For that reason he does not eat
the plant-foods which grow under the Earth. In the first
place they are full of the Earth-force and deficient in
Sun-force, and are additionally poisoned by being pulled
up by the roots. The only exception to this rule is that
he may partake sparingly of the potato, which originally
grew on the surface of the earth, and has only in com-
paratively recent times grown beneath the soil. Occultists
endeavor to nourish their bodies on fruits which grow
toward the Sun, because they contain more of the higher
Sun-force, and have not caused the Earth pain.

It might be supposed that mining operations would
be very painful to the Earth, but the reverse is the case.
Every disintegration of the hard crust causes a sensation
of relief and every solidification is a source of pain.
Where a mountain torrent washes away the soil and carries
it toward the plains, the earth feels freer. Where the
disintegrated matter is again deposited, as in a bar out-
side the mouth of a great river, there is a corresponding
sense of uneasiness.

As sensation in animals and men is due to their sepa-

506 ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

rate vital bodies, so the feeling of the Earth is particularly
active in this sixth stratum, which corresponds to the
World of Life Spirit. To understand the pleasure felt
when mining operations are disintegrating the hard rock,
and the pain when deposits gather, we must remember
that the Earth is the dense body of a Great Spirit, and
to furnish us with an environment in which we could
live and gather experience, it had to crystallize this body
into its present solid condition.

As evolution proceeds, however, and man learns the les-
sons pertaining to this acme of concretion, then Earth
will become softer and its spirit more and more liberated.
This is what Paul meant when he spoke of the whole
creation groaning and travailing, waiting for the day of
liberation.

(7) Befracting Stratum: This part of the Earth
corresponds to the World of Divine Spirit. There are, *
in occult science what are known as "The Seven Un-
speakable Secrets." For those who are not acquainted
with these secrets, or have not at least an inkling of their
import, the properties of this stratum must seem particu-
larly absurd and grotesque. In it all the forces which
are known to us as the "Laws of Nature" exist as moral,
or rather immoral forces. In the beginning of the con-
scious career of man they were much worse than at
present. But it appears that as humanity progresses in
morals, these forces improve correspondingly; also that
any lapse in morals has a tendency to unleash these
Nature-forces and causes them to create havoc upon the
Earth; while the striving for higher ideals makes them
less inimical to man.

The forces in this stratum are thus, at any time, an
exact reflection of the existing moral status of mankind.

CONSTITUTION OF THE EAETH 507

From the occult point of view, the "hand of God" which
smites a Sodom or a Gomorrah is not a foolish super-
stition, for as surely as there is individual responsibility to
the law of Consequence which brings to each person the
just results of his deeds whether for good or evil, so is
there also community and national responsibility, which
brings upon groups of men corresponding results for their
collective acts. Nature-forces are the general agents of
such retributive justice, causing floods, or earthquakes,
or the beneficent formation of oil or coal for various
groups, according to their deserts.

(8) Atomistic Stratum : This is the name given by the
Rosicrucians to the eighth layer of the Earth, which is
the expression of the World of Virgin Spirits. It seems
to have the property of multiplying many fold the things
in it; this applies, however, only to those things which
have been definitely formed. An unshapen piece of wood,
or an unhewn stone has no existence there, but upon any-
thing which has been shaped, or has life and form (such
as a flower or a picture), this stratum has the effect of
multiplication to an astonishing degree.

(9) Material Expression of the Earth-spirit: There
are here lemniscate currents, which are intimately con-
nected with the brain, heart, and sex-organs of the human
race. It corresponds to the World of God.

(10) Center of Being of the Earth-spirit: Nothing
more can be said about this at present except that it is the
ultimate seed-ground of all that is in and on Earth, and
corresponds to the Absolute.

From the sixth or fiery stratum to the surface of the
Earth are a number of shafts in different places. The
outer ends of these are called "volcanic craters." When
the Nature-forces in the seventh stratum are unleashed so

508 KOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

that they can express themselves through a volcanic out-
burst, they set the (sixth) fiery stratum in motion and the
agitation spreads outward to the mouth of the crater. The
bulk of the material is taken from the substance of the
second stratum, for that is the denser counterpart of the
sixth stratum as the vital body, the second-vehicle of man,
is the denser counterpart of the life Spirit, the sixth prin-
ciple. This fluidic stratum, with its expansive and highly
explosive quality, insuring an unlimited supply of material
at the point of eruption. The contact with the outer
atmosphere hardens that part of it which is not blown
away into space, thus forming the lava and dust, until, as
the blood from a wound congeals and stanches the flow,
so the lava finally seals the aperture from the inner parts
of the Earth.

As might be gathered from the fact that it is the re-
flected immorality and anti-spiritual tendencies of man-
kind which arouse the Nature-forces in the seventh
stratum to destructive activity, it is generally profligate
and degenerate peoples who succumb to these catastrophes.
They, together with others whose destiny, self-generated
under the law of Consequence, for various reasons, involves
a violent death, are gathered from many lands by the
superhuman forces, to the point where the eruption is to
occur. To the thoughtful, the volcanic outbursts of Ve-
suvius, for instance, will afford corroboration of this state-
ment.

A list of these outbursts during the last 2,000 years
shows that their frequency has been increasing with the
growth of materialism. In the last sixty years, especially,
in the ratio that materialistic science has grown arrogant
in its absolute and sweeping denial of everything spiritual,
have the eruptions increased in frequency. While there

CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH

510 ROSICEUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

were but six eruptions in the first 1,000 years after Christ,
the last five have taken place within 51 years, as will be
shown.

The first eruption during the Christian Era was that
which destroyed the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii,
in which the elder Pliny perished, A. D. 79. The other
eruptions followed in A. D. 203, 472, 512, 652, 982, 1036,
1158, 1500, 1631, 1737, 1794, 1822, 1855, 1872, 1885,
1891, 1906.

In the first thousand years, there were six eruptions; in
the second thousand there have been twelve, the last five
occurring in a period of 51 years, as before stated.

Of the entire number of 18 eruptions, the first nine oc-
curred in the so-called "dark ages," that is to say, the 1600
years during which the Western World was dominated by
what are commonly termed the "heathen," or by the
Eoman Church. The remainder have taken place in the
last three hundred years, during which the advent and rise
of Modern Science, with its materializing tendencies, has
driven almost the last vestige of spirituality to the wall,
particularly in the last half of the 19th Century. There-
fore the eruptions for that period comprise nearly one-
third of the total number that have taken place in our Era.

To counteract this demoralizing influence, a great deal
of occult information has been given out during that time
by the Elder Brothers of Wisdom, who are ever working
for the benefit of humanity. It is thought that by giving
out this knowledge and educating the few who will still
receive it, it may be possible to stem the tide of material-
ism, which otherwise may bring about very serious conse-
quences to its advocates who, having so long denied the
existence of the spiritual, may be unable to find their bal-
ance when they discover that, though still living, they have

CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 5U

been deprived of the dense body. Such persons may meet
a fate too sad to contemplate with equanimity. One of the
causes of the dread "white plague" is this materialism,
not traceable to the present incarnation perhaps, but the
result of previous materialistic beliefs and affirmations.

We have spoken of the demise of the elder Pliny, at the
time of the destruction of Pompeii. It is interesting to
follow the fate of such a scientist, not so much for the
sake of that particular individual as for the light it throws
upon the manner in which the memory of Nature is read
by the occult scientist, how the impressions are made upon
it, and the effect of past traits upon present tendencies.

When a man dies, his dense body disintegrates, but the
sum total of its forces can be found in the seventh or re-
flecting stratum of the Earth, which may be said to con-
stitute a reservoir in which, as forces, past forms are stored.
If, knowing the time of the death of a man, we search
this reservoir, it is possible to find his form there. Not
only is it stored in the seventh stratum, but the eighth or
atomistic stratum multiplies it, so that any one type may
be reproduced and modified by others. Thus it is used
over and over again in the formation of other bodies. The
brain-tendencies of such a man as Pliny the elder may
have been reproduced a thousand years afterwards, and
have been partly the cause of the present crop of mate-
rialistic scientists.

There is still much for modern, material scientists to
learn and to unlearn. Though they fight to the last ditch
what they sneeringly term the "illusionary ideas" of the
occult scientist, they are being compelled to acknowledge
their truth and accept them one by one, and it is only a
matter of time when they will have been compelled to ac-
cept them all.

512 BOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Mesmer, who was sent by the Elder Brothers, was worse
than ridiculed, but when materialists had changed the
name of the force discovered by him, calling it "hypno-
tism" instead of "mesmerism," it at once became "scien-
tific."

Twenty years ago Madame Blavatsky, a faithful pupil
of Eastern Masters, said that the Earth had a third move-
ment, in addition to the two producing day and night and
the seasons. She pointed out that the inclination of the
Earth's axis is caused by a movement which, in due time,
brings the north pole to where the equator is now and still
later, to the place now occupied by the south pole. This,
she said, was known to the ancient Egyptians, the famous
planisphere at Dendera showing that they had records of
three such revolutions. These statements, in common with
the whole of her unexcelled work, "The Secret Doctrine,"
were hooted at.

A few years ago, an astronomer, Mr. G. E. Sutcliffe, of
Bombay, discovered and mathematically demonstrated that
Laplace had made a mistake in his calculations. The dis-
covery and rectification of this error confirmed by mathe-
matical demonstration the existence of the third motion of
the Earth, as claimed by Madame Blavatsky. It also af-
forded an explanation of the theretofore puzzling fact that
tropical plants and fossils are found in the polar regions,
as such a movement would necessarily produce, in due
time, tropical and glacial periods on all parts of the Earth,
corresponding to its changed position in relation to the
Sun. Mr. Sutcliffe sent his letter and demonstrations to
Nature, but that journal refused to publish them, and
when the author made public the discovery by means of a
pamphlet, he drew upon himself an appalling storm of
vituperation. However, he is an avowed and a deep stu-

CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 513

dent of "The Secret Doctrine/' and that explains the hos-
tile reception accorded his discovery and its inevitable
corollaries.

Later, however, a Frenchman, not an astronomer, but a
mechanician, constructed an apparatus demonstrating the
ample possibility of the existence of such a movement. The
apparatus was exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Ex-
hibition at Saint Louis, and was warmly endorsed by M.
Camille Flammarion, as worthy of investigation. Here
was something concrete, something "mechanical," and the
editor of The Monist, though he described the inventor as
a man laboring somewhat under "mystic illusions" (be-
cause of his belief that the ancient Egyptians knew of this
third motion), nevertheless magnanimously overlooked that
feature of the case and said that he had not lost faith in