THE QUATERNARIES TO BE RECOGNISED

This rule is for me one of the most difficult to explain, the reason for this being threefold:

One:  The number of people in physical incarnation at this time who can work in a truly creative manner and profit by the information given in this Rule is exceedingly few.  Only to the white magician, and he experienced in his work, can the real interpretation be given.  There is much danger in imparting the significance of these rules to those who are not qualified in themselves to work correctly.  We will, therefore, consider the qualifications required of those who are entitled to this knowledge so that the student can begin to develop in himself that which may be lacking.

Two:  The danger of minute and detailed instructions consists in the fact that were they now to be given to the world, we should be flooded with thought-forms and these thought-forms would be created in order to express purely selfish desire and mental matter would be swept into activity in line with the fancies and the whims of the undeveloped along spiritual lines.  It must be remembered that every human thought, whether the potent mass thoughts or individual dynamic ideas, must eventually emerge objectively on the physical plane.  This is an inevitable and unalterable rule and due consideration of this law which governs mental substance will show the danger of wrong thought and the power of right.  The potency of human thought at this time is primarily of mass description, for few there are who can think creatively.  Public opinion, mass ideas, the tendencies of human [542] desire and thought, are not at this time of the highest order, and the physical precipitation of these vague and inchoate thoughts distinguished by a vast similarity, and coloured by selfish intent and personal behest, and based upon likes and dislikes, prejudices and longings, can be seen in the most interesting precipitation.  The vast assembly of insects which now haunt our planet and cause increasing concern to the scientist, agriculturist, and all those dealing with the welfare of the human animal, are the direct result of thought precipitation.

I have not time to enlarge upon this fact, but I can assure you that as men learn to think with more unselfishness and with greater purity, and as malice and hatred and competition give place to brotherhood, kindness and cooperation, the insect pest, as it is now called, will most surely die out.

Three:  Another difficulty which I experience in elucidating these rules lies in the fact that it is today more easy to prove the fact that there is a realm of mind than it is to prove that there is a realm of the ether, even though scientists use the word widely.  This rule concerns the four grades of etheric substance which constitute the etheric envelope of all forms in nature, from a mountain to an ant, and from a plant to an atom.  Certain scientists recognize the fact of an etheric body, vast numbers do not, and from the standpoint of the masses of humanity, it remains unrecognized.  That which lies closest to us and in our immediate foreground is often overlooked, and it has interested those of us who teach and guide to note how much emphasis is laid upon psychic and astral phenomena, and how little attention is paid to the more obvious and more easily discerned etheric forms and forces!  Given a slight change in the present mode of visual focussing it will be found that the human eye is capable of including an entirely new field of perception and of awareness.  Blindly men introvert their [543] consciousness and become aware of astral objects and that illusive world of ever changing forms in which we live and move and have our being, and yet, they fail to see that which lies immediately before them.

These three difficulties of:

1. Lack of qualification,

2. Dangers inherent in unconscious form-building.

3. Etheric blindness,

make it well nigh impossible for me to do full justice to this rule and to elucidate the work on etheric levels, and hence the relative brevity of the elucidation.

In dealing with the subject of qualification and answering the question:  What constitutes the equipment needed by a white magician?  I would say one thing:—all students realize that certain requirements must be met if a man is to be entrusted with any measure of understanding of the technique of the Great Work.  I take it for granted, however, that the character qualifications are not those to which our question refers.  All aspirants know, and down the ages have been taught, that a clean mind and a pure heart, love of truth, and a life of service and unselfishness, are prime prerequisites, and where they are lacking, naught avails and none of the great secrets can be imparted.  You might well say here:  We have also been taught that there exist those who work in the four ethers and who undoubtedly perform magical deeds, yet who do not possess this essential purity and loving-kindness to which reference has been made.  This is undoubtedly true; they belong to a group of workers in matter whom we call Black Magicians; they are highly developed intellectually and can motivate mental substance or mind stuff in such a manner that it can achieve objectivity on the physical plane and bring about their deep intent.  About this group there is much misunderstanding and profound ignorance.  It is perhaps as well, [544] for their destiny is tied up with the future race, the sixth, and their end and the cessation of their activities will come about in that far distant aeon which is technically called the Sixth Round.  The final break or division between the so-called black and white forces, for this particular world cycle, will take place during the period of the sixth root race in the present round.  Towards the close of the sixth root race, before the emergence of the seventh, we shall have the true Armageddon about which so much has been taught.  A small cycle, corresponding to this final battle and cleavage, will appear during the sixth subrace which is now in process of formation.  The world war which has just taken place and our present cycle of separativeness and upheaval, do not constitute the real Armageddon.  The war which is told to us in the Mahabharata and the present war had the roots of their trouble and the seeds of the disasters which they brought about, one in the lower and one in the higher astral world.  Selfishness and desire of a low order were the impulses back of them both.  The coming great division will have its roots in the mental world and will consummate in the sixth subrace.  In the sixth root race it will have the seeds of portentous disaster in the coordinated triplicity of mind, astralism, and physical nature, which will bring about a climaxing moment for the planetary duality.

Beyond that we need not go, for the humanity of the sixth round will be so different in nature to ours and those who will differentiate into the black and the white forces will be so unlike what we now understand by the words, that we need not concern ourselves with that far distant problem.

Let it be remembered that the true black magician (I refer not here to a person with a tendency to black magic) is a soulless entity.  He is a being in whom the Ego is—as [545] we understand the term today—non-existent.  It is oft overlooked and seldom grasped or told that they, therefore, do not exist in physical bodies.  Their world is ever the world of illusion.  They work, from the lower mental plane, on desire matter and on the sentient desire bodies of those on the physical plane who are swept by delusion and held in the bonds of extreme selfishness and self-centeredness.  What the ignorant call a black magician on the physical plane is only some man or woman sensitive to or en rapport with a true black magician on the astral plane.  This relationship is only possible when there have been many lives of selfishness, low desire, perverted intellectual aspiration, and love of the lower psychism, and this only when the man has been held willingly in thrall by them.  Such men and women are few and far between, for unadulterated selfishness is rare indeed.  Where it exists, it is exceedingly potent, as are all one-pointed tendencies.

The clue to the requirements of a more esoteric kind is given to us in Rule XIII.  "The magician must recognize the four."  He has presumably built up a fine character.  He has educated himself for service.  His aspiration is true and steady.  He is living purely and unselfishly.  He has mastered somewhat the meaning of meditation.  He now has to begin to train himself in what is called "occult recognition."

This rule is a most interesting example of the many connotations and numerous correspondences which can be conveyed in a few simple words.  We are told that he must "recognize the four".  The Treatise on Cosmic Fire tells us:

"This means literally that the magician must be in a position to discriminate between the different ethers and to note the special hue of the different levels, thereby insuring a balanced building of the 'shadow.'  He 'recognizes' them, in the occult sense; that is, he knows their note [546] and key and is aware of the particular type of energy they embody.  Enough emphasis has not been laid upon the fact that the three higher levels of the etheric plane are in vibratory communication with the three higher planes of the cosmic physical plane, and they (with their ensphering fourth level) have been called in the occult books 'the inverted Tetraktys.'  It is this knowledge which puts the magician in possession of the three types of planetary force and their combination, or the fourth type, and thus releases for him that vital energy which will drive this idea into objectivity.  As the different types of forces meet and coalesce, a dim shadowy form clothes itself upon the vibrating astral and mental sheath, and the idea of the solar Angel is attaining definite concretion."

The obvious and most apparent meaning is, therefore, recognition of the four ethers, but this is in its turn dependent upon other meanings and based upon the recognition of other quaternaries.  I would like to give a short resume of some of the qualifications needed by the white magician and of some of the recognitions which will gradually emerge in his consciousness.

First, he must recognize "the four that constitute the One."  In other words, the first quaternary that he must know and know well is that which he is essentially himself:

1. Physical body, sensitive emotional nature, mind and soul;

2. Soul, mind, brain and the outer world of forces;

3. Spirit, soul and body within the great Whole.

This presupposes real spiritual attainment and the capacity, therefore, to function as a soul.  Until this has been achieved, one can be an aspirant to the practice of white magic, but one is not yet a white magician.

Second, he must recognize "the city that stands foursquare."  He must understand the meaning, of "man, the cube", and this in three ways:

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1. Himself as a human being;

2. His fellow man in relation to himself and the Whole;

3. The fourth kingdom in nature, the human kingdom, viewing that entire kingdom as an entity, an organized life functioning on the physical plane, indwelt by soul, animated by spirit.

This means, therefore, that as a man he is responsive to his kind and is aware also of the purpose of the kingdom to which he belongs.  This can best be expressed in some wonderful words from an ancient writing in the Masters' Archives.  It is said to date back to early Atlantean times.  The material on which the writing is found is so old and so frail that all that the Masters themselves can touch and see is a precipitation made from it, the original being kept at Shamballa.  It runs thus, with certain deletions, which it is wiser not to insert:

"At the four corners of the square, the four angelic...are seen.  Orange they are, but veiled in rosy light.  Within each form the yellow flame is seen and round each form the blue...

"Four words they utter forth, one for each human race, but not the sacred sound which bringeth forth the seventh.  Two words have died away, four sound today.  One sounds in realms so high that man can enter not as man.  Thus are the seven words of man ringing around the square, passing from mouth to mouth.

"Each day of man the words take form and different seem.  In...the words will be as follows:

"From out the North a word is chanted forth which means...be pure.

"From out the South the word peals out: I dedicate and...

"From out the East, bringing a light divine, the word comes swinging round the square:  Love all.

"From out the West, answer is thrown back:  I serve."

This is a faint effort to express in English these ancient Atlantean phrases, older than Sanskrit or Senzar, and [548] known only to a mere handful of the members of the present hierarchy.  But in the thoughts of purity, dedication, love and service, are summed up the nature and the destiny of man, and it should be remembered that they do not stand for so-called spiritual qualities, but for potent occult forces, dynamic in their incentive and creative in their result.  This should be pondered on carefully by all aspirants.  We have, consequently, with these four, added to the first one, spiritual attainment, five of the qualifications of the white magician.

Third, the white magician must recognize the cross which stands in the Heavens upon which the cosmic Christ is crucified and on which the white magician, being a cell in the body of the cosmic Christ, is also crucified.  Technically and astrologically speaking, in this present aeon he must understand the inner significance of Taurus, of Leo, of Scorpio and of Aquarius, for they are potent in our world cycle.  He must, if I may express it symbolically, and yet at the same time accurately, be able to utter forth the achievement which is the goal of his endeavor in each of these four signs and under each of these four powers.  In Taurus he must be able to say:  "I seek illumination and am myself the light."  In Leo he will say:  "I know myself to be the one.  I rule by Law."  The word he will utter forth in Scorpio will be:  "Illusion cannot hold me.  I am the bird that flies with utter freedom."  In Aquarius the words spoken will be:  "I am the server, and I the dispenser am of living water."

These occult qualifications upon which I have thus lightly touched, must be closely studied by the aspirant and as he studies them and lives by these rules, various qualifications will emerge and will distinguish him.  It must be remembered that all that I have here said has a different meaning on each plane and in relation [549] to the seven stages of consciousness as these express themselves in these seven fields of awareness.

Finally, as far as the aspirant who reads these instructions is concerned, he must have transcended the four noble truths, learned the meaning of the four gospels, understood the significance and purpose of the four elements—earth, water, fire and air, and, esoterically speaking, passed as a Saviour through the four kingdoms.  This latter phrase will only be really understood at the fourth initiation.  When he has done this, he can say:  "Desire holds me not, with freedom now I stand.  I desire all and nothing.  I live and die, am offered up and rise again: I come and go at will.  Earth lies beneath my feet and water laves my form.  The fire destroys that which impedes my way, and master of the air am I.  Through all the world of forms my feet have passed.  All now exists for me and I, the servant of the whole, persist."

Study these words and note how the concept of the ideal requirements which constitute the equipment of the white magician has steadily grown.

I could enlarge on many other quaternaries, but the few just quoted suffice to show some of the recognitions towards which the aspirant strives.  The only other one which I will note is that referred to as the violet four, or the four types of energy which constitute the vital or etheric body of all forms in the natural world.  Here again we have a higher three and a lower one, which ever indicates the three aspects or principles of divinity and the form through which these three must manifest.  Spirit, soul and body express the same idea from another angle, added to that which is produced through their interaction.  It must ever be remembered that from the point of view of Reality what we call the dense physical body, tangible and objective, is but an illusion.  We are told again and again in the ancient writings that it is not a principle.  Why is this so?  Because it is only an [550] appearance brought about by the merging of the higher three and the fourth, and this appearance is a fiction or a figment of the human mind.  I speak not in parable; I utter only facts in nature and one that is slowly coming into mature consideration among the philosophers of both hemispheres.  Both in the solar system, the macrocosm of the microcosm, and likewise in the microcosm, there are ever the three highest planes which embody the principles and produce the dynamic purpose, and which constitute the four levels of the etheric body of both God and man, viewing them from what we call the energy or physical angle.  These four are reflected in the four levels of the etheric division of the physical plane as regards the physical body of all forms.  These four etheric levels, or these four grades of vital substance constitute what is called the "true form" of all material objects or phenomena, and they are responsive to the four higher types of spiritual energy which we usually call divine.  This relation between the prototypal trinity and its plane of merging and the etheric reflection is found in all forms according to the type of energy which predominates.  In each of the four kingdoms in nature all four types are found, but the fourth etheric is found in fuller degree in the mineral kingdom than in the human, whilst the highest of the four ethers is found in greater proportion in the human than in the other three kingdoms.  This which I tell you is apt to be found confusing by the neophyte for the words energy, dynamic purpose, vitality and etheric substance mean little to the beginner, but they serve to indicate some of the knowledge which the worker in white magic has to grasp.  This I might illustrate, for instance, by stating that working in the mineral kingdom, the fourth kingdom in nature from the standpoint of God, and the first from the standpoint of time and space, he will work with the fourth cosmic ether (buddhic energy) utilizing [551] ether of the fourth grade in his own body as the transmitting agent, and so on, in connection with the other three kingdoms in nature.  One of the secrets not yet revealed, fortunately, is concerned with the question as to whether light violet is the colour of the highest or the lowest of the four and this will not be revealed for some time to come.

The consideration of these various quaternaries which it is necessary that the white magician understand, and the qualifications which he must possess before he is permitted to carry forward the magical work, leads to the following question:  Is there some basic formula or proposition which must govern the magical activity?

This question is, of course, too general and vague, but until the inclusiveness of the human mind is greater than is now the case, such questions will inevitably be asked.  I can, however, give a short reply which holds in it the clue to the entire process.  When correctly understood, it will govern the method of work and the thought life of the worker in white magic.  My answer is this:  Potencies produce precipitation.  In those three words lies the entire story.  They sum up the history of the Creator and the life story and environing conditions of every human being.  They account for all that is, and lie back of the law of rebirth.  These potencies are driven into activity by the power of thought and hence, in training them to be creators and in teaching them to govern and control their own destinies, the Teachers of the race begin with the mind aspect of aspirants.  They emphasize that which will govern the potencies; they deal with that which produces the objective form, which is qualified by them, is energized by them and which fulfills the purpose of the Thinker.

A thinker, then, is the essential factor, and it will become apparent to you, therefore, as you study these words, just what is going on in the world of today. The [552] trend of our modern civilization, in spite of all its mistakes and errors, is to produce thinkers.  Education, books, travel, in its many and varied forms, enunciations of science and of philosophy, and the driving inner urge which we call religious, but which is, in fact, the drive towards truth and its mental verification—all these factors have one objective, and this is to produce thinkers.  Given a real thinker, you have an incipient creator and (unconsciously at first, but consciously later on) one who will wield power in order to "precipitate" or cause to emerge objective forms.  These forms will either be in line with Divine purpose and plan and, consequently, will further the cause of evolution, or they will be animated by personal intent, characterized by separated, selfish purpose, and constitute, therefore, part of the work of the retro-active forces and the material element.  They will be of the nature of black magic.

Again the four appear:

1. The thinker.

2. The potency.

3. The quality of that potency.

4. The precipitation.