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MAN’S THREE ASPECTS - Part 2

10. Each of these three parts is also triple from the [43] physical side, making the analogy to the three parts of man's nature and the nine of perfected monadic life.  There are other organs, but those enumerated are those which have an esoteric significance of greater value than the other parts.

a. Within the head are:

1. The five ventricles of the brain, or what we might call the brain as a unified organism.

2. The three glands, carotid, pineal and pituitary.

3. The two eyes.

b. within the upper body are:

1. The throat.

2. The lungs.

3. The heart.

c. Within the lower body are:

1. The spleen.

2. The stomach.

3. The sex organs.

11. The sum total of the body is also triple:

a. The skin and bony structure.

b. The vascular or blood system.

c. The three-fold nervous system.

12. Each of these triplicities corresponds to the three parts of man's nature:

a. Physical nature:—The skin and bony structure are the analogy to the dense and etheric body of man.

b. Soul nature:—The blood vessels and circulatory system are the analogy to that all pervading soul which penetrates to all parts of the solar system, as the blood goes to all parts of the body.

c. Spirit nature:—The nervous system, as it energises and acts throughout the physical man is the correspondence to the energy of spirit.

13. In the head we have the analogy to the spirit aspect, the directing will, the monad, the One:

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a. The brain with its five ventricles is the analogy to the physical form which the spirit animates in connection with man, that fivefold sum total which is the medium through which the spirit on the physical plane has to express itself.

b. The three glands in the head are closely related to the soul or psychic nature (higher and lower).

c. The two eyes are the physical plane correspondences to the monad, who is will and love-wisdom, or atma-buddhi, according to the occult terminology.

14. In the upper body we have an analogy to the triple soul nature.

a. The throat, corresponding to the third creative aspect or the body nature, the active intelligence of the soul.

b. The heart, the love wisdom of the soul, the buddhi or Christ principle.

c. The lungs, the analogy for the breath of life, is the correspondence of spirit.

15. In the lower torso again we have this triple system carried out:

a. The sex organs, the creative aspect, the fashioner of the body.

b. The stomach, as the physical manifestation of the solar plexus is the analogy to the soul nature.

c. The spleen, the receiver of energy and therefore the physical plane expression of the centre which receives this energy is the analogy to the energising spirit.

The vital body is the expression of the soul energy and has the following function:

1. It unifies and links into one whole the sum total of all forms.

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2. It gives to every form its particular quality, and this is due to:

a. The type of matter drawn into that particular part of the web of life.

b. The position in the body of the planetary Logos, for instance, of any specific form.

c. The particular kingdom in nature which is being vitalised.

3. It is the principle of integration and the cohesive force of manifestation, from the strictly physical sense.

4. This web of life is the subjective analogy to the nervous system, and beginners in the esoteric sciences can, if they remember this, picture to themselves a network of nerves and plexus running throughout the entire body, or the sum total of all forms, coordinating and linking, and producing an essential unity.

5. Within that unity is diversity.  Just as the varied organs of the human body are inter-related by the ramification of the nervous system, so within the body of the planetary Logos are the various kingdoms in nature and the multiplicity of forms.  Back of the objective universe is the subtler sensitive body—one organism, not many, one sentient, responsive, connected form.

6. This sensitive form is not only that which responds to the environment but is the transmitter (from inner sources) of certain types of energy, and the object of the Treatise might here be stated to be that of considering the various types of energy transmitted to the form in the human kingdom, the responsiveness of the form to the types of force, the effects of that force upon man, and his gradual responsiveness to force emanating:

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a. From his environment, plus his own outer physical body.

b. From the emotional plane, or astral force.

c. The mental plane or thought currents.

d. Egoic force, a force only registered by man and of which the fourth kingdom in nature is the custodian and which has mysterious and peculiar effects.

e. The type of energy which produces the concretion of ideas on the physical plane.

f. Strictly spiritual energy, or force from the plane of the monad.

The different types of force can all be registered in the human kingdom.  Some of them can be registered in the subhuman kingdoms, and the apparatus of the vital body in man is so constructed that through its three objective manifestations, the triple nervous system, through the seven major plexi, the lesser nerve ganglia, and the many thousands of nerves, the entire objective man can be responsive to:

a. The above mentioned types of force.

b. Energies generated in and emanating from any part of the planetary etheric web of life.

c. The solar web of life.

d. The constellations of the Zodiac which appear to have a real effect upon our planet and of which astrology is as yet the immature study.

e. Certain cosmic forces which, it will be recognised later, play upon and produce changes in our solar system and consequently upon our planet and upon all forms upon and within that planetary life.  This has been touched upon in the Treatise on Cosmic Fire.

To all of these the planetary web of life is responsive, and, when astrologers work in the occult way and consider [47] the planetary horoscope, they will arrive more quickly at an understanding of the zodiacal and cosmic influences.

The anima mundi is that which lies back of the web of life.  The latter is but the physical symbol of that universal soul; it is the outer and visible sign of the inner reality, the concretion of the sensitive responsive entity which links spirit and matter together.  This entity we call the Universal Soul, the middle principle from the standpoint of the planetary life.  When we narrow the concept down to the human family, and consider the individual man, we call it the mediating principle, for the soul of mankind is not only an entity linking spirit and matter, and mediating between monad and personality, but the soul of humanity has a unique function to perform in mediating between the higher three kingdoms in nature and the lower three.  The higher three are:

1. The Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, nature spirits or angels and human spirits, who stand at a peculiar point on the ladder of evolution.  Of these Sanat Kumara, embodying a principle of the planetary Logos is the highest, and an initiate of the first degree is the lowest, with corresponding entities in what we call the angel or deva kingdom.

2. The Hierarchy of Rays—certain groupings of the seven rays in relation to our planet.

3. A Hierarchy of Lives, gathered by an evolutionary process out of our planetary evolution and from four other planets, who embody in themselves the purpose and plan of the solar Logos in relation to the five planets involved.

In narrowing the concept down to the microcosm, the ego or soul acts verily as the middle principle connecting [48] the Hierarchy of Monads with outer diversified forms which they use sequentially in the process of:

a. Gaining certain experiences, resulting in acquired attributes.

b. Working out certain effects, initiated in an earlier system.

c. Cooperating in the plan of the solar Logos in relation to His (if one may use a pronoun in speaking of a life which is an existence and yet is an extended concept) Karma—a point oft overlooked.  This Karma of His must be worked out through the method of incarnation and the subsequent result of the incarnated energy upon the substance of the form.  This is symbolised for us, if we could but grasp it, in the relation of the sun to the moon.  "The Solar Lord with his warmth and light galvanises the moribund Lunar Lords into a spurious life.  This is the great deception; and the Maya of His Presence."—So runs the Old Commentary oft quoted by me in earlier books.  The above concept has in it truth for the individual soul likewise.

This middle principle is in process of revelation now.  The lower aspect is functioning.  The higher remains unknown, but that which links them (and at the same time reveals the nature of the higher) is on the verge of discovery.  The structure, the mechanism, is now ready and developed to its point of usefulness; the vital life that can guide and motivate the machine is likewise present, and man now can intelligently use and control, not only the machine, but the active principle.

The great symbol of the soul in man is his vital or etheric body and for the following reasons:

1. It is the physical correspondence to the inner light body we call the soul body, the spiritual body.  It [49] is called the "golden bowl" in the Bible and is distinguished by:

a. Its light quality.

b. Its rate of vibration, which synchronises always with the development of the soul.

c. Its coherent force, linking and connecting every part of the body structure.

2. It is the microcosmic "web of life" for it underlies every part of the physical structure and has three purposes:

a. To carry throughout the body the life principle, the energy which produces activity.  This it does through the medium of the blood, and the focal point for this distribution is the heart.  It is the conveyor of physical vitality.

b. To enable the soul, or human yet spiritual man to be en rapport with his environment.  This is carried forward through the medium of the entire nervous system and the focal point of that activity is the brain.  This is the seat of conscious receptivity.

c. To produce eventually, through life and consciousness, a radiant activity, or manifestation of glory which will make of each human being a centre of activity for the distribution of light and attractive energy to others in the human kingdom, and through the human kingdom, to the subhuman kingdoms.  This is a part of the plan of the planetary Logos for the vitalising and renewing of the vibration of those forms which we designate subhuman.

3. This microcosmic symbol of the soul not only underlies the entire physical structure and thus is a symbol of the anima mundi, or the world soul, but is indivisible, coherent and a unified entity, thereby symbolising the unity and homogeneity [50] of God.  There are no separated organisms in it, but it is simply a body of freely flowing force, that force being a blend or unification of two types of energy in varying quantities, dynamic energy, and  attractive or magnetic energy.  These two types characterise the universal soul likewise—the force of will, and of love, or of atma and buddhi, and it is the play of these two forces on matter that attracts to the etheric body of all forms the needed physical atoms and that—having so attracted them—by the will force drives them into certain activities.

4. This coherent unified body of light and energy is the symbol of the soul in that it has within it seven focal points, wherein the condensation, if it must be so called, of the two blended energies is intensified.  These correspond to the seven focal points in the solar system, wherein the Solar Logos, through the seven Planetary Logoi, focusses His energies.  This will be later elaborated.  The point to be noted here is simply the symbolic nature of the etheric or vital body, for it is by understanding the nature of the energies displayed and the unified nature of the form and work that some idea as to the work of the soul, the middle principle in nature, can be grasped.

5. The symbolism is also carried forward when one remembers that the etheric body links the purely physical, or dense body with the purely subtle, the astral or emotional body.  In this is seen the reflection of the soul in man which links the three worlds (corresponding to the solid, liquid and gaseous aspects of the strictly physical body of man) to the higher planes in the solar system, linking thus the mental to the buddhic and the mind to the intuitional states of consciousness.

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RULE ONE

The Solar Angel collects himself, scatters not his force but, in meditation deep, communicates with his reflection

Some Basic Assumptions.

The Way of the Disciple.