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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division D - Thought Elementals and Fire Elementals
RULE VIII

The Agnisuryans respond to the sound. The waters ebb and flow. Let the magician guard himself from drowning at the point where land and water meet. The midway spot which is neither dry nor wet must provide the standing place whereon his feet are set. When water, land and air meet there is the place for magic to be wrought.

It will be noted that in this rule, no mention is made of the fourth element, fire. The reason for this is that the magician has to accomplish the stupendous task of generating the needed fire at this triple "meeting place." This is one of the most occult and most puzzling of the [1015] rules. Some light is thrown on it by the following three sentences from the old Commentary:

"When the fire is drawn from the inmost point within the heart the waters suffice not to subdue it. Like a stream of flame it issues forth, and traverses the waters, which disappear before it. Thus the goal is found."

"When the fire descends from the One Who watches above, the wind suffices not to blow it out. The very winds protect, shield and aid the work, guiding the falling fire unto the point of entrance."

"When the fire emanates from the mouth of the one who thinks and sees, then the earth sufficeth not to hide or kill the flame. It feeds the flame, causing a growth and magnitude of fire which reaches to the narrow door of entrance."

Under this symbology much is hidden anent the life-giving energy, the centers symbolized to focalize it, and to drive it forth, and the place the various types of receptive matter play in the magical work. As is ever the case in all white magic, the activity of the solar Angel is the primary factor and the work of the man upon the physical plane is regarded as secondary; his physical body, and the work engendered therein, being frequently referred to as "fuel and its warmth." This needs careful remembering, and will give the clue to the necessity of egoic alignment, and to the problem of the extinction of certain workers in magic, who were "destroyed by their own fire" or energy. The discreet magician is one who sees to the readiness of his lowest vehicle to carry the fire wherewith he works, and this he accomplishes through discipline and strict purity.

The magician guards himself from "drowning" or from coming under the influence of the water or astral elementals, through a knowledge of certain formulas, and until these sounds and mantrams are imparted and known, it is not safe for the man on the physical plane to attempt magical creation. These formulas are three in number: [1016]

  • First, those which blend the two notes, add a third, and thus call into activity the builders of the astral plane, the Agnisuryans, in some one or other of their grades. These are based on the initiatory sound of the Ego, and distinguish between it and the sound of the note of the builders and lives of the tiny thought form already formed. The formula is chanted on a basis of these three notes, variation of tone and note, though not of formula, producing the types of forms.
  • Second, those which are of a purely protective nature, and which, through a knowledge of the laws of sound as they are known in connection with water (or the astral plane), place a vacuum between the magician and the waters, as well as between him and his creation. This formula is based on the sounds connected with air as well, for it is through placing around himself a protecting shell of air atoms, esoterically understood, that the magician guards himself from the approach of the water builders.
  • Third, those which, when sounded, produce two results: the sending forth of the perfected creation, so that it may take to itself a physical body, and next, the dispersal of the building forces, now that their work is completed.

This last set of formulas is of exceeding interest, and were they not so powerful the magician might find himself cumbered with the produce of his thought, and the prey of a vital form, and of certain "devas of the waters" who would never leave him until they had completely drained from him all the "waters of his nature," absorbing it into their own nature, and producing his astral death. The curious phenomenon would then be seen of the Ego or solar Angel being incarnated in the mental sheath, yet separated from the physical body, owing to the occult "drowning" of the magician. There is nothing left for the Ego to do then but to snap the [1017] sutratma or thread, and sever all connection with the lowest sheath. This lowest sheath then may persist for a short time, according to the strength of the animal life, but more probably death would immediately ensue. 4 Several magicians have perished thus.

4 The courses open to the Divine Ego after separation are two - S. D., III, 524.

  1. It can start a fresh series of incarnations.
  2. It can return to the "bosom of the Father" and be gathered back to the Monad.

Two courses are open to the lower discarded self - S. D., III, 525, 527.

  1. If with a physical body it becomes a soulless man. In this case there is hope.
  2. If without a physical body it becomes a spook, or one form of the Dweller on the Threshold.
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