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THE NEGATION OF THE GREAT ILLUSION

The phrase in Rule XV which says "that blend the fire and water" has reference to the effect produced at the [612] point of condensation, after the great words bringing about that effect have been pronounced.  This rule is almost incapable of explanation and it is not permitted to me to give to you the words that effect this process.  Only some hints may be given which will serve to encourage the true aspirant to think and may, alas, only irritate the casual thinker who seeks easy and quick methods and formulas through which to work.  Heat and moisture are present in the production of all forms of life, but the great mystery (and almost the final mystery to be explained to the adept) is how the merging of three fires can produce moisture or the watery element.  This problem and this phenomenon constitute the basis of the Great Illusion to which the ancient books refer; through the agency of the combination, the enveloping maya is produced.  There is, in reality, no such thing as water; the watery sphere, the astral plane, is, could you but realise it, an illusory effect and has no real existence.  Yet—in time and space and to the understanding of the witnessing consciousness—it is more real than that which it hides and conceals.  I cannot make this clearer in words.  It is only possible to suggest to the intelligent student that the light of his soul (reflected in his mind) and the energy of form (as expressed in his etheric body) are for him, in the realm of temporary duality, his two basic realities.  The watery nature of his astral experience in which these two aspects of divinity seem (again illusion, be it noted) to meet and work is but a glamorous phenomenon and in an occult sense is not based on fact.  Any true aspirant knows that his spiritual progress can be gauged in terms of his freedom from this illusion and of his release into the clear air and pure light of his spiritual consciousness.  In its consciousness, the animal kingdom works with the second of these two basic realities, and for it the life of the etheric body and the force which governs the animal or material nature are the [613] prime expression of truth.  Yet the animal is beginning to sense dimly the world of illusion and possesses certain psychic powers and senses which recognise yet fail to interpret the astral plane.  The veil of illusion is beginning to fall before the eyes of the animal but it knows it not.  The human being has wandered for ages in the world of illusion, for it is of his own creating.  Yet man in his turn, from the standpoint of consciousness, has contact with both the realities and learns little by little to dissipate the illusion by the steady growth of the radiant light of the soul.  May I pause here to remind you that duality is only a stage on the evolutionary arc, leading eventually to the realisation of unity.

The veil of illusion resembles the moment before dawn when the world of familiar things is seen through the fogs and the streamers of mist which veil the world form and also veil the rising sun.  Then we have that half-time, that mysterious and vague period when the real is hidden by the unreal; then we have that weird and distorted condition when forms are not seen as they truly are but lose their shape and colour and perspective.  True vision is then impossible.  The astral stage and the vast cycle of time in which the great illusion holds sway can therefore be judged, from the above symbolic approach, to be but temporary and transient.  It is not the stage of a definitely divine manifestation; it is not the stage of pure undimmed awareness; it is not the stage of the perfected work.  It is that period of time wherein the half-Gods walk; it is the time wherein truth is only dimly sensed, the vision only vaguely and occasionally seen; it is the stage of the half-realised Plan, and when one works on partial knowledge, difficulty and mistakes are bound to supervene.  It is also the stage of distortion and of constant mutability: whilst it is in evidence we have the apparently ceaseless pulling hither and thither by forces, working blindly and seemingly without purpose. [614] As far as humanity is concerned, it is the time wherein man is enveloped in mist and fog, and lost in the miasmas arising out of the ground (symbol of the foundational nature of the animal kingdom).  Yet at times this stage is seen to be unreal as the dawning light of the spiritual consciousness pierces through the surrounding darkness.  It is the interlude between the dominance of the animal consciousness and that of the spiritual, and this interlude of astral illusion is only known in the human family.  There is no astral plane except in the consciousness of the fourth kingdom in nature, for man is "under illusion" in a sense different to the conscious awareness of any other kingdom—subhuman or superhuman.

I despair in making my meaning clear.  How can one who is subject to the illusions of the senses, as are all human creatures, conceive of the state of consciousness of those who have freed themselves from the illusions of the astral plane or realise the state of awareness of those forms of life which have not yet developed astral consciousness?  It is the dual nature of the mind which causes this illusion, for the mind of man presents to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven or locks upon him the door of entrance into the world of spiritual realities.  It is the concretising unprincipled mind which brings about all the troubles of humanity.  It is the sense of I-ness and the spirit of separative individuality which has brought humanity to its present condition, and yet even that is a part of the great developing process.  It is the consciousness of duality, and the subjectively realised and synchronously acknowledged sense of "I am God" and "I am form" which has plunged mankind into the great illusion.

Yet it is this very illusion which renders up to man eventually the secret password into the kingdom of God and brings about his release.  It is this maya itself which [615] serves to guide him into truth and knowledge; it is on the plane of the astral that the heresy of separateness has to be overcome, and it is on the field of Kurukshetra that the individual aspiring Arjuna, and the cosmic Arjuna learn the lesson that the knower and the known are one.  The secret science of the Master of the Wisdom is the secret of how to dissipate the fogs and mist and darkness and gloom which are produced by the union of the fires in the early stages.  The secret of the Master is the discovery that there is no astral plane; he finds that the astral plane is a figment of the imagination and has been created through the uncontrolled use of the creative imagination and the misuse of the magical powers.  The work of the hierarchy is primarily to bring to an end the shadows and to dispel the moisture; the aim of the Masters is to let in the light of the soul and to show that spirit and matter are the two realities which constitute the unity and that it is only in time and in space and through the cyclic misuse of the magical and psychic powers that the astral plane of the great illusion has come into being and is now so real a thing that it is—in a certain sense—more real (to man) than the kingdom of light and the kingdom of form.  In one most interesting sense it is true that because the human being is a soul and because the light of the soul is found within him and is gradually growing into fuller radiance this itself produces the illusion.  Because of this illusion, the magical work has been carried forward along wrong lines and has been based on wrong motives and fitted into a scheme which is stronger than the average worker, for the whole force of the world illusion is against all the efforts of the beginner in white magic.

The rules therefore end with the statement that the magician chants the words that "blend the fire and water"—but these are the rules for the aspirant.  The rules for initiates of a paralleling kind end with the [616] words:  "Let the initiate sound the note that unifies the fires".  This is significant and of much encouragement to the beginner in the magical work.  He is still perforce working on the astral plane and he cannot possibly avoid so doing for much time.  The mark of growth for him is the steady withdrawal of his consciousness from that plane and his attainment of mental poise and of mental awareness, followed by creative work on the mental plane.  There is an interesting and ancient proclamation found in the archives of the adepts which covers some of the stages in the magical work, couched of course in symbolic form:

"Let the magician stand within the great world sea.  Let him immerse himself in water and there let him stand his ground.  Let him look down into the watery depths.  Nothing is seen in form correct.  Nothing appears but water.  Beneath his feet it moves, around him, and above his head.  He cannot speak; he cannot see.  Truth disappears in water.

"Let the magician stand within the stream.  Around him water flows.  His feet stand firm on land and rock, but all the forms he sees are lost in the grey immensity of mist.  The water is around his neck, but, feet on rock and head in air, he maketh progress.  All is distortion still.  He knows he stands, but where to go and how to go he knows not, nor understands.  He sounds the words of magic, but muffled, dim and lost, the mist returns them to him, and no true note sounds forth.  Around him are the many sounds of many forms, which swallow up his sound.

"Let the magician stand in watery mist, free of the running stream.  Some outlines dim appear.  He sees a little distance on the Path.  Flickers of light break through the clouds of mist and fog.  He hears his voice; its note is clearer and more true.  The forms of other pilgrims can be seen.  Behind him is the sea.  Beneath his feet is seen the stream.  Around him mist and fog.  Above his head no sky is seen nor sun.

"Let the magician stand on higher ground, but in the rain.  The drops pour down upon him; the thunder breaks; the lightning flashes in the sky.  But as the rain pours down, [617] it dissipates the mist, it washes clean the form and clears the atmosphere.

"Thus forms are seen and sounds are heard, though dim as yet, for loud the thunder roars and heavy is the sound of failing rain.  But now the sky is seen; the sun breaks forth and in between the drifting clouds, expanses of the blue of heaven cheer the tired eyes of the disciple.

"Let the magician stand upon the mountain top.  Beneath him in the valleys and the plains, water and streams and clouds are seen.  Above him is the blue of heaven, the radiance of the rising sun, the pureness of the mountain air.  Each sound is clear.  The silence speaks with sound."

Then come the highly significant phrases which give the picture of the consummation:

"Let the magician stand within the sun, looking from thence upon the ball of earth.  From that high point of peace serene let him sound forth the words that will create the forms, build worlds and universes and give his life to that which he has made.  Let him project the forms created on the mountain top in such a way that they can cleave the clouds which circle round the ball of earth, and carry light and power.  These shall dispel the veil of forms which hide the true abode of earth from the eye of the beholder."

Such is the end of the magical work.  It involves the discovery that the astral plane and the astral light so-called are but the cinematographs created by man himself.  What man has created he can also destroy.

More as to the magical work I may not at this time give.  The words that blend may not under any circumstances be given except under the oath of secrecy which governs automatically the pledged disciple; these oaths are given to no man but are rendered by the aspirant to his own soul when that soul has conveyed to him the words.  He finds them for himself as the result of tireless effort and endeavour.  He knows that these formulas are the prerogative of all souls and can only be known and safely used by those who have realised the Self as One.  He therefore pledges himself never to reveal these [618] words to any one who is not functioning as a soul or who is wandering blinded in the vale of illusion.  From this automatic response to knowledge by the knowers of the race, the Hierarchy of Adepts has gathered its personnel.