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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Div. B - Manas as a Cosmic, Systemic and Human Factor
III. The Present Stage of Manasic Development in the Three Groups

Literally, should we paraphrase this sentence, we might express it in the form of an enquiry as to the point attained in the active working out of the purposes of the great Entities involved in cosmic and systemic manifestation; we might also enquire if the intelligent will of the cosmic Logos and of the solar Logos and equally (within the system) of the different planetary Logoi, proceeded satisfactorily to a stage where it can be both appreciated and somewhat comprehended. These thoughts are involved in the consideration of this point, and open up for us much of very real interest. It should here be pointed out that the manasic principle (whether cosmic, systemic, or human) manifests in five ways, is transmuted into wisdom after its fivefold manifestation, and eventually is resolved into pure will or power. Herein lies the clue; all the objective display we see around us in connection with the Heavenly Men, and with the cells of Their bodies, [402] lies hidden in this. Herein may be found the mystery of the five Kumaras, Who are awaiting the final resolution, and herein is secreted the knowledge of divine alchemy, which is based on the five elements, and is concerned with their transformation into a primal element through the medium of an intermediate stage.

1. In the Planets

Occult students need, in considering these points, to remember very clearly the distinction between transmutation and the final resolution; between the process of transforming the five elements, esoterically understood, and the final resolution of the transmuted essences into their synthesis. This has a vital bearing upon our subject, for resolution is as yet by no means possible, and the process of transmutation is only just beginning in the majority of cases. In studying these subjects we have necessarily to confine ourselves to the Heavenly Men, for the human units - as cells in Their body - are of course included in all that is posited about Them, and until it is known which cosmic Logos recognizes our solar Logos as a center in His body, and which six other systems are affiliated with ours, it will not be possible to touch upon the systemic stage of manasic development. But in connection with the Heavenly Men certain facts are possible of theoretical comprehension, even though not as yet demonstrable to the scientific mind. We will, as usual, tabulate our premises, and thus keep clearly in mind, and visualized, the points under investigation:

First. It might first be said that the third aspect, combined with the second, or Brahma and Vishnu allied, go to the totality of the Divine Manasaputras. They are Will utilizing matter, or active intelligent substance, in order to demonstrate Love-Wisdom; all this is based on purpose, and has causation as a fundamental. This [403] Brahma aspect is fivefold and, with the Vishnu aspect, makes the six, or the pentagon, having Mahadeva or Will in the center of all manifestation.

Second. This fivefold Brahma aspect or the five Kumaras, are in full manifestation, and, with the reflection of the other two aspects, make the seven of our manifested system.

Third. Mercury and Venus are in process of transmutation, and the manasic principle in both these schemes, having reached a high stage of development, is being transmuted into Love-Wisdom. When three fifths of the units (deva and human) that go to the composition of the vehicles of any planetary Logos are entering upon the Path, then the process of transmutation is entered upon. The faculty of MIND is then an instrument for creative use, and not the "slayer of the real," and a barrier to the free life of the Spirit.

Again, it must be noted that Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Vulcan are as yet developing manas, and the stage achieved in each varies, and is not for exoteric publication. The Heavenly Men of these schemes have not yet succeeded in bringing Their bodies to the stage where transmutation on a large scale is possible. They are approaching it, and when the necessary three fifths is reached, then They will begin to transmute on a larger scale. The Earth scheme has about one fifth in process of transmutation in one or other of the globes at this time and Vulcan has very nearly two fifths.

We might here point out that though we are concerned primarily with manas in the human cells in the body of a planetary Logos, yet we must remember that the deva units in some schemes preponderate. Although from the standpoint of a human being the devas are in no way considered as coming under the influence of manas, as we understand it, yet from another angle they are manas itself, the active creative force, the fifth and the sixth [404] Hierarchies in full display. We should ponder upon the relationship (a necessarily close relationship) between the fifth deva Hierarchy and the fifth logoic principle, and we should also bear in mind that - viewing the whole matter from the angle of vision of a Heavenly Man - the devas are a corporate part of His nature, and He is a Manasaputra, a creative Builder, and the fivefold aspect of Brahma. The sumtotal of manas is pure deva essence, and it is only as union is made between this fivefold third aspect and the other two aspects that what we understand as MAN - whether Heavenly Man or human - comes into being. The devas are united with these other two factors and the result is:

  1. A solar Logos.
  2. A Heavenly Man.
  3. A human being.

This is a great mystery and is allied to the mystery of electricity (or of fohatic life) which H. P. B. (S. D., I, 107) refers to. The Messengers, the Builders, the devas, are flaming fire, radiant electric matter, and only in time and space, only during manifestation and only through the cycles of objectivity, is such an entity as man possible, or can a Heavenly Man come into existence. Outside a solar ring-pass-not, for instance, and as far as our evolution is concerned, we have radiant electric substance, active, intelligent ether, ensouled by the deva evolution. 43 These [405] work blindly and under the laws of cosmic electricity. (We must differentiate with care between cosmic electricity, and the electrical akasha of the system, which is electrical substance confined and brought under another set of laws through the instrumentality of another factor, that of pure Spirit.) Outside the ring-pass-not, we have that abstraction which we call pure Spirit. This "pure Spirit," or abstract, conscious Being, through conscious karma periodically seeks to manifest, and wills to work out a purpose under the laws of its Own being, and is thus impelled by the attractive quality of its opposite pole, intelligent substance, to blend with it. The meeting of these two polarities, and their point of merging, causes that flash in the cosmic universe which we call a sun, and results in light or objectivity. Within the ring-pass-not, therefore, the electric fire of pure Spirit can only manifest through merging or union with electrical substance, and is, therefore, during evolution and for the major portion of the process, limited by it. In fact, little as it is realized, the deva evolution controls for the greater portion of manifestation up to the beginning of the transmutative process. They build incessantly the confining form.

43 Pitris. "What I called spirituo-ideal constitution is what is known as swarga in our Sanskrit works and the entities that are functioning there are called the Pitris, which of course means fathers. These Pitris are often heard of in a sort of antithetical way to the Devas in our puranas and this has led some of our Hindus, many theosophists included, to think that the Pitris and Devas are in two distinct spheres of life. Now Pitris and Devas always exist together, the Devas giving the consciousness and the Pitris forming the body. The two are relative terms. If the Pitris be water the Devas are the fire in the water. If the Pitris be fire, the Devas are the flame in that fire. If the Pitris be the flame, the Devas are the conscious principle that actuates the flame and gives to the flame the power of illumining the world and making it exist as a factor of our consciousness. From the highest to the lowest plane of life, the Pitris furnish the objective aspect and the Devas the subjective aspect and life itself is a stream that forms the middle line... When instead of three lokas the cosmos is divided more accurately into seven lokas, you may assort the three higher lokas to the Devas, the three lower to the Pitris and the middle to the life stream which may be conceived as the point in which the Deva essence is changed into Pitric essence or the no loka is made fit to appear as a loka down below or the unmanifested becomes the manifested."
- Some Thoughts on the Gita, p. 56.
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