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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Div. B - Manas as a Cosmic, Systemic and Human Factor
2. Development of the Human Mind

When the future results brought about by the four types of force mentioned above are somewhat realized, and their relationship to the adaptation of matter to Spirit (through the building into form), is studied, much of profound significance will be sensed by the student. In the foretelling of mental developments along these four lines and the prophesying of definite achievement, indications may be given of the path which concrete science may follow. Let us, therefore, take these four types of force, or these four planetary influences, and study them separately, bearing ever in mind that:

  1. Each of them has swung into power during earlier world cycles.
  2. One of them, being the influence of our own planetary Logos, is ever present with us, and is the major influence or vibration on the planet.
  3. Certain of them are passing out of power at this present time, and others are coming in.
  4. During the remainder of this round and the entire fifth round these four rays of attribute will circulate into and out of power ceaselessly; towards the end of the fifth round the third Ray of Aspect will predominate, having begun its work of synthesizing and its influence will be paralleled in the sixth round by the gradually growing power of the second Ray of Aspect, - the two types of influence overlapping. In the seventh round, the power of the second Ray will predominate and the influence of the third will weaken. The first Ray will make itself felt. The first Ray, that of [425] Mahadeva 49 or the Destroyer, will set its second great impulse upon our planetary evolution by the obscuration of two fifths of the human family. The impress to be set by the first Ray upon our human family on this globe might be considered as threefold:

First. At human individualization in the middle of the third root-race. This was produced by a vast destruction of the forms we call animal-man. This point has seldom been brought out in teaching. The advent of the Lords of the Flame, the electrical storm which ushered in the period of man, was distinguished by disaster, chaos, and the destruction of many in the third kingdom of nature. The spark of mind was implanted and the strength of its vibration, and the immediate effect of its presence caused the death of the animal form, thus producing the immediate possibility of the newly vitalized causal bodies vibrating to such purpose that new physical vehicles were taken. That was the Will aspect manifesting in the fourth round in connection with the human family.

Second. In the fifth round, at the so-called Judgment. This will bring about the apparent destruction of two-fifths of the human family, and the translation of the indwelling units of consciousness to other spheres, more [426] suited to their stage of evolution. This event will be regarded at the time as a catastrophe, but the Knowers will see and know, and three fifths of the human family will understand the reason.

Third. At the final reabsorption of the perfected monads into their emanating source in the seventh round. This will be marked by obscuration and the destruction of the form. Suffering will be practically nil, as the human units involved will have reached a stage where they can consciously cooperate in the process of abstraction. It is evident therefore that as regards the human family (the manasaputras in incarnation), the fourth, fifth, and seventh rounds hold hid the key to the first aspect. For the devas it is the first, second and sixth. For the involutionary entity, whom we call the "spirit of the planet" it is simply the third.

The third Ray holds sway all the time, for the second Ray only came into power in the second round. It holds sway simultaneously with the second Ray until the end of the age, when it begins gradually to obscure as the first Ray swings into influence again. Remember, nevertheless, that all three are at all times present. It is simply a question of degree and of cyclic evolution.

We might now take the four minor Rays, which, with the third, make the sumtotal of manas, and see wherein their influence may be expected. The subject is so stupendous that we cannot possibly do more than touch upon certain points, nor can we enlarge along the line of the mechanistic development of forms to utilize the force. This is all hidden in the science of electricity, and as exoteric science discovers how:

  • To utilize the power in the air, or to reduce electrical phenomena to the uses of man;
  • To build forms, and create machines to contain and distribute the electrical forces of the atmosphere; [427]
  • To harness the activity of matter, and to drive it towards certain ends;
  • To employ the electrical force in the air to vitalize, rebuild, and heal the physical body;

then the phenomena of the Rays, working in cycles, will be comprehended, and vast opportunities will be seized by man to bring about specific ends during specific cycles.


49 The Trinity. "Mahavishnu presides over the summation and totality of all this. In every Brahmanda the activity is fourfold, and the chief functionaries are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Subdivisions of their functions give rise to the names and offices of Narayana, etc.

"Among these functions, that of making or creating goes with action and belongs to Brahma. Again, "that which has been made is maintained by knowledge; "this maintenance or preservation is the work of Vishnu. Further, because it is necessary that what has appeared should disappear, therefore is there a destroyer, and he is Shiva, connected with desire, which first affirms and next denies, acts and reacts, now attracts and then repels, begins with craving for, and, after satiety, revolts from its object and casts it off. It precedes action, or Brahma, as longing for manifestation; and it succeeds knowledge or Vishnu, after maintenance or enjoyment of that manifestation, as a sense of fatigue, a growth of inertness, a need for rest by winding up the manifestation."
- From Pranava-Vada, pp. 82-84, 311.

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