1. Their magnitude,
2. Their vibration,
3. Their color,
4. Their influence upon each other.

These cosmic wheels, according to the esoteric books, are divided into forty-nine groups, each comprising millions of septenary constellations. For purposes of study by the Adepts, they are each known by a symbol, and these forty-nine symbols embody all that can be apprehended anent the size, magnitude, quality, vibratory activity, and objective of those great forms through which an Existence is experiencing. The Chohans of high [1086] degree know the forty-nine sounds which give the quality of the consciousness aspect of these great Beings Who are as far removed from the consciousness of our solar Logos as the consciousness of man is removed from that of a crystal. The knowledge thus appreciated by the Chohans is naturally but theoretical and conveys only to their relatively limited consciousness the general nature of the group of constellations, and the force occasionally emanating from them which has at times to be taken into calculation. For instance, the interest awakened in the public mind lately by the giant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion is due to the fact that at this particular time there has been an interplay of force between our tiny system and this giant one, and communication between the two informing Existences.

1. A system of the fourth order, having its force centers upon the fourth cosmic plane, and making its objective manifestation from the fourth systemic plane, via the fourth subplane of the systemic physical plane.
2. Blue in color, esoteric orange and green.
3. A system which is occultly known to the Adept as "in an airy sign in which the Bird can fly."
4. A system formed of "three fires which form a fourth."
5. A system in which the Bird has "four tail feathers" [1087] and hence can occultly "mount to a higher plane and find its fifth."
6. A system which has four major cycles, and minor periods of manifestation which are multiples of that figure.
7. A system which in the alchemical phraseology of the Masters is viewed as being "a product of the fourth; the fourth itself in process of transmutation; and the living stone with four shells." All this can be seen at one glance by the Master who has the ideographic word before Him. Other ideograms are available for His use which give Him the immediate information as He studies the influences contacting our solar system.

Planetary wheels. For these there are ten modes of expression.

Chain wheels, called in some of the books rounds.

• The revolution of any one globe.
• The cycle of the three worlds.
• The wheel of a plane.
• The revolution or cyclic appearance of a kingdom in nature. This applies within a scheme but only to the four kingdoms in objective appearance.
• The revolution of a planetary center producing monadic appearance.
• The monadic wheel, or the periodic appearance of units of the fourth Creative Hierarchy. Thus we pass down the scale through all the kingdoms and forms till we arrive at the tiny revolution of an atom of substance.

It must be borne in mind that the evolution of the [1088] Monad is a much more intricate thing than appears in the books as yet given to the public. In those books the development of consciousness and its transition through the kingdoms of nature are the points dwelt upon. Yet there have been earlier cycles which it will be only possible to comprehend as the history and evolution of the planetary Logoi become gradually revealed. They are parts of His body of manifestation, cells within that greater vehicle, and thus vitalized by His life, qualified by His nature, and distinguished by His characteristics. This will take the history, therefore, of a Monad back to the earlier kalpas. Such history it is not possible to reveal, and no purpose would be served by such a revelation. The fact only can be touched upon as it must be considered along general lines if the true nature of the Self is to be accurately known.

We might consider that the Monad of the human being passes through cycles analogous to those through which the Heavenly Man travels. There is, first, the vast cycle of unfoldment through which a "spark" passes. This covers the period of three major solar systems - that preceding this one, the present, and the succeeding one. In these three, the totality of the cosmic Past, Present, and Future, embodying the three aspects of the divine Life of the solar Logos, are carried to the point of perfection in an individualized Monad. It must be remembered that in this solar system, for instance, certain developments are only recapitulations of evolutionary processes undergone in an earlier solar system; the clue to this lies in the consideration of the manasic or mind principle. The solar Angels, the intelligent individualizing factor, were (from certain angles of vision) the product of an earlier system, and only waited for the time in the present system when the forms in the three kingdoms had reached the point of synthetic development which made it possible for them to be impressed and influenced from on high. We [1089] have in this concept an idea analogous to the entering in of those Monads, during Atlantean days, who, having individualized upon another chain, tarried in the interplanetary spaces until earth conditions were such that the occupation of adequate forms became possible. The correspondence is not exact but is indicative of the truth. The vast cycle of unfoldment (which rendered later evolution possible) preceded this solar system, and might be regarded as the monadic correspondence to a cosmic wheel. In the old Commentary this point of development is hinted at in the words:

"The fifth did not appear as the product of the present. The five spokes of that wheel had each a cycle of development, and one in which they were welded at the center."

The Monad has cycles analogous, though on a miniature scale, to those of the one Life Who permeates and animates all lesser lives. (Bible. I Peter 2:4.) Certain of these cycles cover periods of time so vast, and so long past, that their history can only be conveyed to the investigating Adepts through the medium of sound and symbol. The details of that development are lost in the night of other kalpas, and all that can be seen are the results, - the cause must be accepted as existing, though for us remaining inexplicable until the higher initiations are taken.