Study Set 6

The Major Septenaries of Life

Contents

Seed Thought
Reading Assignment
Written Work to be Completed and Mailed
Letter from the Teaching Staff
The Seven Principles
Kingdoms and Rays
Corresponding Centers, Rays, Kingdoms
The Physical Body is not a Principle
Humanity and the Number Three
Planetary and Human Centers
Variations to Consider
Chart: Cosmic Physical Plane

WRITTEN WORK TO BE COMPLETED

1. )  a. What relationship do you see between the daily quieting of the emotions during the morning, and one’s emotional expression the rest of the day?

b. What relationship do you see between concentrating the mind on the seed thought in meditation, and the way the mind is used throughout the day?

2.) The Tibetan suggests, "This is one way wherein the new ideas will be disseminated and spread; some one must think them and some one speak them and some one must respond to them."
(D.I.N.A. Vol. I, 651)

We need to look for the ways to disseminate new ideas. One of these ideas is that emotions can be controlled. This idea of controlling the emotions is something that the esoteric students know and the public does not know but needs to know.

The world is full of neuroses, allergies and innumerable diseases caused directly or indirectly by uncontrolled emotion. Painful and even violent human relations would be healed or need never have developed if emotions had been kept under control.

Write a paper on "The Merit of Controlling Emotions". Write as though you were addressing your thinking to an average intelligent person. Try not to use esoteric terms or psychological language. Use clear simple thoughtforms to express simply and convincingly what you have learned from your studies and meditation experience about emotional control.

Dear Fellow Student,

Between the point in your life when you first entered Arcana, and your present point of development, important changes have surely taken place in your consciousness. Many students enter this training for one reason, and continue it for another reason. By this we mean that as the soul increasingly enlightens one’s thought life and expands one’s capacity to love, the motivation for everything we do throughout the day changes. With refinement and purification of motive, our whole point of view changes. As we learn, slowly, gradually, to look at life from the soul’s point of view, the view appears to change. Such is the transforming effect of persistent meditation, which all of us in Arcana are together experiencing.

In aspiring to new ideals a man takes on something of the greatness of the soul’s vision. He creates a link in consciousness with a spiritual goal. When the new ideal directs the whole life there will be continuity of effort, because the ideal is taking root and growing in his consciousness, and is destined to be realized through its own evolutionary process.

Esoteric study, leading to a practical and well-rounded knowledge of all that makes up life, is part of the process of attaining our spiritual goal. Aspiration alone is not enough; we must know what causes certain conditions and how to change them when necessary. Esotericism is not just an accumulation of theoretical facts; it is a way of life. Series IV, entitled THE FABRIC OF LIFE, is giving you an almost overwhelming abundance of esoteric knowledge. But digestion of knowledge leading to expansion of consciousness alone does not make a competent server. Esoteric training is meant to produce a skilled server. And isn’t that the idea all of us hold most dear? – to be a skilled and dependable server of the Great Ones?

The disciple knows that he is related to other forms of life and is part of a Greater Life. He is striving diligently to hold the inner vision of possibility and to become a constructive thinker and inspired server. He realizes the world’s need for new methods of procedure, but may be overwhelmed by the enormity of the need and the many lives affected wherever change and reform are attempted. At that stage, where there is awareness of world need, but before the soul controls its instrument for service (the personality), he is likely to feel inadequate and doubt that his small effort can help to improve the world situation.

Common sense comes to the aid of the disciple if he will but realize that the individual’s work is proportioned to his capacity and not to the overwhelming need. No one need doubt the results of right effort, nor the importance of any contribution to world need. The effort to change the self-interested attitude of mind into the service intent of the soul will light the way to right action in human affairs. By assuming the responsibility to liberate the soul from the limitations of self-interest, the individual is pointed in the direction of spiritual progress and becomes a light bearer to his world.

Man’s consciousness had been identified with form for so long that he has come to think that the purpose of his evolution is the perfection of form. The esoteric student should, however, know that the evolution of consciousness comes first, and that changes in the form automatically result from changes in consciousness. The personality is usually emotionally polarized, separative in nature, and tends to compete with other personalities. At the same time the person can respond to the soul on the mental plane. It is on the mental plane that we consciously respond to soul impressions.

The first sign of mental polarization is the growing inclination to face up to the facts about oneself. It is not easy to confront personality failings honestly; and it is even harder to change the life-long habit of thinking of oneself first and blaming others for the state of the world. Thoughts, whether good or evil, merge with similar thinking of other minds and we are continually adding to either constructive or destructive trends of thought. The future of the world will depend upon man’s dominant line of thought and motivation.

We must transfer our attention from the world of forms to the world of meaning in order to see in the light of the soul and to work with the cause of outer conditions. The tendency to selfish interest is still the strongest factor in the world today, therefore every effort to direct our thoughts and attention to higher ideals will strengthen unselfishness of the souls in incarnation in the world. The effort to discipline the mind and improve the ideals is the individual’s responsibility. He cannot contribute to group life or to world betterment what he does not possess. The ultimate goal of being a skilled and reliable server may be beyond our reach at present, but we are on our way.

Man have been led to believe that without effort on their part a Messiah would deliver them from evil, redeem the world and establish the kingdom of God on earth. The disciple knows that the kingdom of God will be established on earth when the soul within man controls and directs the conduct of human affairs.

In White Magic, pages 639-640 we read: " The urgency of the hour is upon us, and I call upon all of you to join the strenuous effort of the Great Ones. They are working day and night in an effort to relieve humanity and to offset those evils and disasters which are immanent in the present situation. I offer you opportunity and I tell you that you are needed – even the very least of you. I assure you that groups of students, working in unison and with deep and unfaltering love for each other, can achieve significant results.

"That each of you may so work, and that each of you may lose sight of self in the realization of world need, is the earnest prayer and deepest aspiration of your brother. THE TIBETAN."

We, your loving fellow students, blend our prayer and aspiration with His.

The Staff of ARCANA

THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES

In manifestation we might regard the principles as follows:

First Principle……………..The sphere of manifestation, the monadic egg.
Second Principle ……… …Atma …………………………Will.
Third Principle ……………Buddhi………………………...Pure reason, wisdom.
Fourth Principle……………Manas ………………………...Pure mind, higher mind.
Fifth Principle……………...Manas…………………………Lower mind.
Sixth Principle……………..Kama-manas . . . .
Seventh Principle…………..Pure emotion, or feeling.

These are the principles for the microcosm viewed as having transcended the physical bodies altogether, and thus the tabulation deals entirely with the subjective life, or the development of the psyche or soul.

This should be born carefully in mind else confusion will ensue. In our enumeration we are here dealing with subjectivity and not with form. We have, therefore, considered:

1. Sevenfold objectivity…………….. the material forms.

2. Sevenfold subjectivity……………..the psychic evolution.

3. Sevenfold spirituality……………...the life of the Entity.

It might be useful here to consider another enumeration of the principles of man as he manifests in the three worlds, the planes whereon the subjective and the objective are united. What have we there? Let us begin where man begins, with the lowest:

7. The etheric body………………..1. The vital body.
6. Prana……………………………2. Vital force.
5. Kama-manas……………………3. Desire Mind.
4. Lower mind……………………..4. Concrete mind.
3. Manas…………………………...5. Higher or abstract mind.
2. Buddhi…………………………..6. Wisdom, Christ force, intuition.
1. Atma………………………….…7. Spiritual Will.

This is the lowest enumeration for little evolved man at present time.
COSMIC FIRE, 263-265

Enumeration of the Principles. – S.D., II, 627, 631.

1^st Principle……………..Dense physical body, Sthula Sharira.
2^nd Principle……………..Etheric body. Linga Sharira.
3^rd Principle……………..Prana. Vital energy.
4^th Principle……………..Kama-rupa. The energy of desire.
    - S.D., I, 136.
    (These are the lower four principles.)

5^th Principle……………..Manas. The energy of thought. The middle principle
        S.D., II, 83,84. II,332. S.D., II, 669.
6^th Principle……………..Buddhi. The energy of love. –
        S.D., II, 649, 676. S.D., III, 58.
7^th Principle……………..Atma. The synthetic principle. –
        S.D., I, 357, 201. S.D., III, 142.

See S.D., III, 201, note.

1. Buddhi is the vehicle for atma.

2. Manas is the vehicle for buddhi.

3. Kamarupa is the vehicle for manas. – S.D., II, 171.

4. The etheric body is the vehicle for prana.

Remember also: --

1. That the physical body is not a principle. – S.D., II, 652. III, 445. III, 652.

2. That atma is not a principle. See also S.D., III, 62, 63. III, 293.

(Other enumerations, differing in certain particulars will be found: -- S.D., I, 177, 181, 685. II, 669. III, 476, 560. The latter is more esoteric.)

Footnote 10, COSMIC FIRE, 264-265.

The objective development

This is sevenfold in evolution and in time, ninefold during obscuration, and tenfold at dissolution.

                    Macrocosmic

1. The seven sacred planets of the solar system.

2. The two which are hid, which are the synthesizing planets.

3. The one final synthesizing planet – the Sun. Seven added to two added to one make ten.

There are ten centers in the Grand Heavenly Man.

A Heavenly Man

1. The seven chains of a scheme.

2. The two synthesizing chains.

3. One ultimate chain.

There are ten centers in a planetary logos.

Microcosm

1. The seven vehicles employed:

1. The atmic sheath.

2. The buddhic vehicle.

3. The causal or egoic body.

4. The mental body.

5. The astral body.

6. The etheric body.

7. The dense physical.

            2. Two synthesizing bodies:
                                    a. The causal body.
                                    b. The physical body.

            3. One synthesizing body:
                                    a. The monadic sheath.

There are seven centers in the physical vehicle which correspond to these bodies, with the synthesizing centers at the heart and throat; the head is then the ultimate synthesizer. This tabulation deals entirely with the form side, and with the vehicles indwelt by the Logos, the Manasaputras and by Man.

The Subjective Development

This is also sevenfold:

1. Astral ……………..pure desire, emotion, feeling.

2. Kama-manas ……...desire-mind.

3. Manas …………….lower concrete mind.

4. Higher manas……...abstract or pure mind.

5. Buddhi……………..pure reason, intuition.

6. Atma……………….pure will, realization.

7. Monadic…………...Will, love-wisdom, intelligence.

This deals with sevenfold development of inherent love-wisdom by the aid of mind. This proceeds macrocosmically through the seven Heavenly Man, Who are actively intelligent, inherently love, and are objectively seen through Their forms, the planetary schemes. In Their totality They are the Logos, the Grand Man of the Heavens. In the case of a Heavenly Man the development proceeds through the seven groups of human entities who form Their psychic centers. These groups are on their own plane developing intelligence, are inherently love, and can be objectively contacted on the seven chains of a scheme. In the case of individual man, the development proceeds through his seven centers, which are the key to his psychic evolution. A man is also developing intelligence, is inherently love, and is objectively seen through one or other of his bodies.

Let us now consider how this can be expressed in terms of Fire:

COSMIC FIRE, 263-269

All forms exist in order to express truth. By the steady application of God’s will in the Whole is truth revealed through the medium of matter. When the truth or basic principle is known spirit will then stand revealed. When the disciple realizes what principle his various forms, sheaths, or bodies are intended to express, then he will know how to direct his will with exactitude so as to bring about the desired conditions. The sheaths and vehicles are simply his bodies of manifestation on the various planes of the system, and those sheaths must express the principle which is the characteristic or quality underlying each plane. For instance, the seven principles with which man is concerned are:

1. Prana ……………vital energy …………..etheric body ………….physical plane.

2. Kama …………...desire, feeling ……….astral body …………..astral plane.

3. Lower Manas……concrete mind ……….mental body ………….mental plane.

4. Higher Manas …...abstract mind ………...egoic body…………....mental plane.

5. Buddhi…………...intuition………………buddhic body…………buddhic plane.

6. Atma …………… spiritual will………… atmic body……………atmic plane.

And that which corresponds to the "boundless immutable principle" in the macrocosm, the Monad (on its own plane) constitutes the seventh principle. There are other ways of enumerating the principles, for Subba Rao is correct in one respect when he says there are only five principles. The two highest, atma and the life monadic, are not principles at all.
    THE LIGHT OF THE SOUL, 73-74

KINGDOMS AND RAYS

The Mineral Kingdom
    Ray 7……….Radiation, radioactivity.
    Ray 1……….The basic reservoir of power.

The Vegetable Kingdom
    Ray 2………..Magnetism.
    Ray 4………..Harmony of color.
    Ray 6………..Upward tendency.

The Animal Kingdom
    Ray 3………..Instinct.
    Ray 6………..Domesticity.

The Human Kingdom
    Ray 4………..Experience, Growth.
    Ray 5………..Intellect.

The Kingdom of Souls
    Ray 5………..Personality.
    Ray 2………..Intuition.

The Planetary Kingdom
    Ray 6………..The Plan.
    Ray 3………..Creative Work.

The Solar Kingdom
    Ray 1………..Universal Mind Will.
    Ray 7………..Synthetic Ritual.

SEVEN RAYS Vol. I, 412-413 & 422

Mineral………..Base of Spine………..Adrenals………..Ray 4.
Vegetable……...Heart Center…………Thymus………...Ray 2.
Animal…………Solar Plexus…………Pancreas………..Ray 6.
Human…………Sacral Center………...Gonads…………Ray 7.
Egoic…………..Throat Center………...Thyroid……...…Ray 3.
Planetary……….Ajna Center………….Pituitary………..Ray 5.
Solar……………Head Center…………Pineal…………..Ray 1.

SEVEN RAYS Vol. I, 413 & 428

The fourth kingdom has:

1. The fourth ray as its egoic ray.

2. The fifth ray as its personality ray.

We have also to understand the dominant ray influences of the kingdom of souls, the fifth kingdom. These are:

1. Ray five. . . . . . . . . .working through the personality.

2. Ray two. . . . . . . . . . working through the intuition.

CORRESPONDING CENTERS, RAYS, KINGDOMS

Humanity was at one time the correspondence to planetary solar plexus and some day will shift the focus of its receptivity to the planetary heart center; when this takes place. The Hierarchy will shift its focus of receptivity into the sphere of influence of Shamballa. Of this shift, the presence of the twelve-petalled lotus in the highest head center (the relating point between the heart center and the soul on its own plane) is the guarantee.
    ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY, 454-456

THE PHYSICAL BODY IS NOT A PRINCIPLE

One of the things which frequently puzzle students is the statement that the dense physical body is not a principle. H.P.B states this fact with emphasis; people are apt to think (unless they are theosophical fanatics) that he was incorrect or was intentionally misleading students. One of the points, little understood, is the nature of a principle. Yet only by understanding what a principle is can the beauty and accuracy of his statement be grasped. What, in the last analysis, is a principle? A principle is that which, macrocosmically speaking, is being developed upon each plane of our seven planes – the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane. It is the germ or the seed on each subplane which embodies some aspect of the divine unfolding consciousness; it is that which fundamentally related to some form of sensitivity; It is that which the bodies, as they evolve, find that they can respond. A principle is a germ of awareness, carrying all the potentiality of full consciousness on some particular level of divine activity. It is that which makes knowledge and conscious response to environment possible; it is that which connotes a sequential and "unrolling" sensitive activity, resulting in divine understanding, possible and inevitable.

The physical body, and to a far less extent the astral and mental bodies, are automatic in their activity as aspects of a divine response apparatus, of a mechanism which enables the Heavenly Man, the planetary Logos and the spiritual man to register conscious response to that which is to be contacted under the divine plane and through the medium of mechanism. At present, the physical body is the only one which is as yet so fully developed that it has in this planetary scheme of ours no further evolutionary development, except in so far as the spiritual man can affect it – and most of the effect is produced in the etheric body and not in the dense physical. This is point little grasped but of major importance.

The dense physical body reached its high point of development and of interest (from the angle of mental attention and of hierarchical action) in the previous solar system. It was then the divine goal of the entire evolutionary process. This is not an easy point for humanity today to grasp. It is not possible or advisable for me to indicate the evolutionary stages through which this divine mechanism passed in preparation for the task to be undertaken in the present solar system. In this divine incarnation of our planetary Logos through the medium of this little planet, the Earth, the physical body is not a goal, but simply something which exists and must be accepted, and which must be adapted and incorporated into the general evolutionary plan. That plan has to do entirely with consciousness. The physical body is simply (no more and no less) the vehicle of consciousness upon the physical plane, but the emphasis of attention is the etheric body as an expression of the subtler vehicles and their state of embodied consciousness. The physical body is important because it has to house and respond to every type of conscious response, from that of the lowest type of human being up to and inclusive of the consciousness of an initiate of the third degree. The bodies and forms of the indwelling conscious life in the three subhuman kingdoms have an analogous but less difficult problem; I am here, however, considering only the physical body of a human being, which is not a principle because it is not in any way a goal; it is not the seed or germ of anything. Any changes wrought in the physical body are secondary to the goal of conscious response to the revelation of an emerging divinity. I have felt it necessary to emphasize this because of the confusion in men's minds anent the subject.

To sum up: the physical body is not a principle; it is not a main object of attention of the aspirant; it automatically responds to the slowly unfolding consciousness in all the kingdoms of nature; it constantly remains that which is worked upon and not that which has an innate influence of its own; it is not important in the active process, for it is a recipient and not that which initiates activity. That which is important is the unfolding consciousness, the response of the indwelling spiritual man to life, circumstances, events and environment. The physical body responds. When the physical body becomes, in error, the object of attention, retrogression is indicated; and this is why all profound attention to the physical disciplines, to vegetarianism, to diet and to fasting, and to the present modes of (so-called) mental and divine healing, are undesirable and not in line with the projected plan. Therefore undue consideration and excessive emphasis upon the

physical body is reactionary and is like the worship of the golden calf by the children of Israel; it is reversion to that which at one time was of importance but today should be relegated to a minor position and below the threshold of consciousness.

I have dealt with this here because in Law VII the fact of the endocrine glands is brought to our attention, and it is necessary that we approach this subject from the right point of view. The endocrine glands are a tangible part of the physical body; they are therefore a part of that created manifestation which is not regarded as a principle. They are, however, effective and potent and may not be ignored. It is essential that students regard these glands as effects and not causes of events and happenings and conditions in the body. The physical body -- no matter what its victims may believe and declare -- is always conditioned by inner causes; it is never, intrinsically, itself a cause. It is, in this solar system and on our planet, automatic and affected by causes generated on the inner planes or by the action of the soul. Please note the importance of this statement. The physical body has no true life of its own, but is simply -- in this cycle -- responsive to impulses emanating from elsewhere. Its achievement and its triumph is that it is an automaton.
    ESOTERIC HEALING, 611-614

Occidental thinkers should remember that the Eastern occultist does not consider the organs to be the physical organs. The reason far this is that the physical body in its dense or concrete form is not regarded as a principle, but simply as the tangible outcome of the activity of the real principles.
    THE LIGHT OF THE SOUL, 73

The first initiation is closely related to the planetary center which is humanity itself. It will produce, when over, an increased stimulation of the intellect as it expresses itself as ordered activity upon the physical plane. It is also closely connected with the third Ray of Active Intelligence. This third ray has been in objective manifestation since 1425 A.D. and will remain in incarnation throughout the Aquarian Age. Its cycles are the longest of any of the ray cycles. However, within these mayor cycles there are periods of intensified activity which are like the beat or pulsation of the heart and these periods last approximately three thousand years. They are, when out of incarnation, called "cycles of withdrawal but not of abstraction." They are three thousand years also in incarnation. One of these three thousand year periods of expression is now here and we can look for much development of the intellectual faculty and a marked increase of creative work during this time. This particular cycle of expression marks a climaxing point in the larger cycle. During the coming age, the intelligence of the race and its active development will assume real proportions and this with much speed.

The intensification of the life of the human center will proceed apace and this is the reason why so many people (as I have earlier hinted) will take the first initiation. Students are apt to forget that the first initiation can be described in reality as:

1. The grounding or externalization of the Christ principle in humanity as a whole and upon the physical plane.

2. The flowering of the intelligence so that the initiate can work powerfully upon the mental plane and humanity itself be lifted up and aided throughout every part thereby.

3. The coming into activity of the throat center and (because the third ray is closely connected with the first ray) the first faint orientation of the spiritual man towards Shamballa can take place, becoming more and more intensified and pronounced at the time of the third initiation. I would like here to point out the numerical correspondences:

1. The third great world center – humanity.

2. The activity of the third ray -- active intellect.

3. The third initiation which marks the consummation of the 1^st, just as the 4th initiation marks the consummation of the second, and the fifth of the third.

4. The third mayor center -- the throat center.

5. The third race -- the Aryan, as it expresses the first strictly human race, the Lemurian.

6. The third plane -- the physical, the reflection of the third highest plane, the atmic.

7. The third periodical vehicle -- the personality.

8. The third divine aspect -- intelligence.

9. The third grade of divine messenger -- Hercules.

10. The sustaining Life, the third or outer Sun -- the physical sun.

These are a few of the correspondences which it is helpful for us to bear in mind in so far as they reveal divine quality, spiritual intent and universal objectives.

During the Aquarian Age and during one third of its expression, that is, during the first decanate, esoterically considered, the vitalizing of the human center (spiritually considered) and in relation to the Plan and the steady growth of widespread creative activity, both in the individual and the race, will be increasingly seen. This will be due to the work and influence of Saturn, which is governed by the third ray. This planet is the planet of opportunity, of discipleship and of testing and the race can look for an increasing expression of Saturnian activity as that great divine Life continues His beneficent task.
    THE DESTINY OF THE NATIONS, 136-138

PLANETARY AND HUMAN CENTERS

1. The planetary Logos works through the medium of the three major centers:

a. Shamballa, the planetary head center, the expression of the divine Will; "where the Will of God is known". This center is created by the Ray of Will or Power.

b. Hierarchy, the planetary heart center, the expression of divine Love or pure Reason, "where the Love of God holds sway". This center is created by the Ray of Love-Wisdom.

c. Humanity, the planetary throat center, the expression of the divine Intelligence; where the Intelligence of God is producing the evolutionary process". This center is brought into being by the Ray of Active Intelligence.

2. These three major energy centers are closely related to each other and through his own individual major centers (the head, the heart and the throat) the disciple is in relation with the three planetary centers. I would have you ponder on this statement for it has practical value.
    Extracted from TELEPATHY, 125, 149, 159-160, 183-185

1. Man's etheric body is an integral part of the planetary etheric body and is responsive to the free distribution of the many circulating energies.

2. The three periodical vehicles which compose the expression of the human being and which make him what he is (the Monad, the Soul, and the Personality) are each related to the three planetary centers: Shamballa, the Hierarchy, and Humanity, and therefore to each of man's individual three major centers.

3. The three centers in the human being which are to be found above the diaphragm (the head, the heart and the throat centers) are the organs of reception for energies coming from the three planetary centers.

4. The agent for the distribution of the energies received via the head, the heart and the throat centers is the ajna center between the eyebrows.

5. The agent for the purification, transmutation and transmission of the energies of all centers below the diaphragm is the solar plexus center. It is this center through which the majority of human beings are at this time working. It is the mayor controlling center, both for the reception and the distribution of energies, until such time as the heart center is awakening and beginning to control the personality.
       TELEPATHY, 192-193

VARIATIONS TO CONSIDER

Two [points] must form part of your thinking as you study this science:

1. All the centers come under the influence of all the rays, and this must surely be obvious in relation to average and undeveloped human beings. Were this not so, such human beings would be unable to respond to first ray, second ray and third ray energy, for the centers above the diaphragm are, in their case, inactive.

2. In time and space and during the evolutionary process, it is not possible to say which center is expressing the energy of any particular ray, for there is a constant movement and activity. The center at the base of the spine is frequently the expression of first ray energies. This is apt to be confusing. The human mind seeks to make everything precise, stable, to bracket certain relations or to assign certain centers to certain ray energies. This cannot be done.

It must be remembered also that the Rays of Attribute shift and change constantly; for instance, humanity as the planetary throat center is under the constant influence of the seventh ray, as is the solar plexus center of the planet. To that sub-diaphragmatic center I give no name. Though the human throat center is primarily expressing the third ray, there is an interesting situation to be noted in this connection: two ray energies control this center at this time.

The throat center of the average integrated personality is governed by the third ray and is strongly energized by third ray energies (again seven in number), whilst the throat center of the spiritual aspirant, of disciples and initiates below the third initiation is responding primarily to seventh ray influence, and this is peculiarly the case now as the seventh ray is in incarnation.
        TELEPATHY, 136-137

see picture in cosmic fire p-817

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