Theosophical University Press Online Edition
The Universe is one vast Organism, a macrocosmic organic entity: everything in the Universe is interconnected and interwoven with everything else; all are united by one common Cosmic Life, which expresses itself in the manifold and myriad types of the Cosmic Forces and Energies. Due to this constant interaction and mutual interflowing of forces and substances, it is impossible for any particular being or entity, i. e., any consciousness-center, in other words any Monad, to remain in one place always. These Individuals or Monads are, throughout the entire course of Cosmic Manifestation, in unceasing peregrinations or pilgrimages, so that perduring residence or stay in any one place or locality is seen to be an obvious impossibility. Life itself involves incessant movement because the Cosmic Life is the fountain of all energy; and all beings and things are inherently alive precisely because they are all component and inseparable parts of the Universal Organism. There is no death per se, i. e., an utter cessation or annihilation of evolving beings; but there is that phase of life which brings about the dissolution or separating of component parts or vehicles.
Immobility, as an idea, is offensive to our intellectual sense of cosmic activity and hence to our instincts of interacting harmony and proportion; and it still more deeply offends our intuitions of the universality of Life and its consequent interacting fields of activity.
Is all this marvelously interconnected working of Nature and her organic structures only haphazard, chance-work? Is there about it all no operative harmony, no intelligent and logical sequences -- hence no causal and effectual relations -- but all just a crazy, unintelligent and uninsouled 'happening so'? We have no hesitation in describing such an idea as inherently absurd, because founded on no essential fact in Nature herself, and because utterly contrary to all that we do really know of Nature's inseparably sequential workings, harmonious relations, and the appearances and durations of intelligent beings. Not the mightiest super-genius, not even an infinite mind, could explain how utter non-intelligence and entire lack of essential life could produce law and order, intelligence and wisdom, and the inevitable concomitants of these. Beings and things in the Universe either are coherent, or they are incoherent. They are either following certain and definite pathways of destiny, or they are whirled in incomprehensible gyrations due to haphazard, helter-skelter chance; and who can believe in the latter which has no existence anywhere, and as a notion is merely an unfounded phantasm born of ignorance? We see such helter-skelter chance operative nowhere. We note that, on the contrary, all we do see bears all the characteristics of the phenomena of what we men call 'life.'
Every being or entity of the universal Organism is but an individual strand in a cosmic web of beings, following from point to point the various links in an unceasing chain of causation -- effects following causes in regular and unbroken series, and inescapably from eternity to eternity. Turn to a particular instance. A man lives on earth, and he does certain acts, the consequences of certain thoughts, is motivated by certain feelings, follows certain ideas, commits certain 'sins' as the word goes, or contrariwise does certain ethically fine things. In all this he expends force, or what it is popular in our day to call energy. What becomes of that energy? What becomes of him -- the active and originating cause of it all? The bundle or sheaf of forces which was man during life, after death must have -- when this bundle is broken and disjoined -- its own pathway to follow, along which pathway it is impelled or driven by the accumulated effectual energies acquired or stored up during the previous life. What is more logical than this idea? What is more consistent than the visible evidences of the working of Nature? Each such force or energy, which is equivalent to saying each particle composing that bundle or sheaf of energies in its aggregate, is directed by causes engendered or aroused during the earth-life just lived and impelling the entity in the certain direction that these engendered causes indicate.
But this matter has been already argued at greater or less length in the chapters of the present work which precede and there is no need to labor the question further here. Indeed, in a more spiritual age than ours, a great deal of the matter contained in the preceding chapters it would have been quite unnecessary to write, because of the unspoiled instincts and uninhibited intuitions of the human soul which would teach the normal man by daily intimations of the great fundamental fact that every human being, and indeed every being or entity everywhere, is rooted in the Universal or Cosmic Life-Essence, so that unceasing and unbroken life would be recognised as a fact of common knowledge. Such a spiritual age will in the future return.
We do not live in a spiritual age, but in one of those periods which the great Plato wrote of as being epochs of 'spiritual barrenness'; and to the present writer at least there is immense pathos in the almost inextricable confusion of ideas concerning spiritual things and involving the great questions of life and death which today is prevalent almost universally over the globe. There is a poignancy in this pathos which must touch every sensitive heart very deeply; for men and women today are virtually unguided by spiritual intuitions, and really know not whither to turn to find an answer to questions welling up from the deeps of every human heart and which demand insistently some kind of answer which will be satisfactory -- unless indeed, as happens in most cases, these questions are choked back and refused consideration, because the distraught mind of the age knows not where to turn to find proper response or reply.
What has brought about all this confusion of ideas regarding things which the human heart and human mind have pondered over for ages, and to which other and more favored times have found answers satisfactory to the most brilliant and most spiritual intellects the world has ever known? In reply to this question, one feels obliged to point to false and distorted teachings, without any basis in Nature, hence without any basis in fact: teachings derived from the past which have gained thoughtless acceptance -- false scientific teachings, and false philosophical teachings, and misapprehended religious teachings. It is these teachings which have produced the welter of mental confusion in which the modern man lives and plays out his little drama on the stage of life, and which have produced the unrest in all spheres of human activity.
Chiefest among the mental concerns of the modern man, principal in its position among the problems which vex and harass his spirit, is the commonest event or phase in human existence -- death! Ignorance of this subject is almost universal, and beyond the pious hopes which Western religion offers, and the weak and hesitant voice of modern science, and the almost empty verbiage of Western philosophy, the modern man knows not where to turn in order to gain at least some adumbrations of knowledge of what death is and of the nature of the post-mortem states. Actually there is a wealth of knowledge to be obtained about death, and this information is imbodied in the great and often sublime archaic literatures of the world, the products of titanic spiritual intellects; but the modern man has no longer any belief that there can be found in these old writings matter of genuine worth or of value to him in his wanderings in search of truth. His thought is so impregnated with the utterly false teachings of a bygone and now nearly dead materialism, that he not only doubts whether truth itself may at any time be found, thus showing himself to be a confirmed skeptic, but he is not at all sure that there is anything more to him than mere body.
Yet how pathetic is this illusion, and how greatly dangerous is its effect on human life as the prevalent psychology of the day! The modern man who believes that death is the end of all, or who is not certain whether death ends everything, and therefore has no convictions on the matter, is morally rudderless on life's stormy seas. He sees no urgent and compelling reason why he should do right when right seems to conflict with self-interest, and equally he seems to believe that personal profit, opportunism, and the satisfactions of physical existence, comprise the only practical rule to follow in his living.
But do we find extinction anywhere? No. We find nothing but unceasing action in movement; we find nothing but incessant change, and change implies vital activity. Nothing stands still for an instant, and the annihilation of anything is utterly unknown. What is called 'death' itself shouts forth to us the fact of movement and change. Panta rhei! said Herakleitos, the ancient Greek philosopher: Everything, man therefore included, is in a constant state of flux. Absolute inertia is unknown in Nature, or in the human mind; it does not exist so far as we know; it is but a fantasy which the mind in its vagaries constructs, much as we may humorously speak of a 'square triangle' or a 'flat sphere,' deliberately using phrases which we know perfectly well are meaningless. Wherever we look we see movement; we see change; we see growth; we see decay -- in other words, we see LIFE!
Our own interior apparatus -- which is we, the essential self -- is likewise a sheaf or bundle of forces always in movement, never resting, therefore never 'dead.' This is equivalent to saying that if it be a sheaf or bundle, and therefore a composite entity, its term of life is as prolonged as is the union of these factors -- and that the factors themselves must continue for ever; otherwise the mind instantly demands to know whither what once was has gone, or what has become of it. To say that it is annihilated is to say nothing at all in explanation, but is merely using words to reiterate the already known fact of an apparent or real disappearance.
Dissolution, or what is usually called death, is common to all beings and things, because all beings and things are obviously manifested entities, and therefore are composites; they are not absolute beings or things; they are 'born'; thereafter they grow; in time they reach maturity; they enjoy, as the expression runs, a certain term of life in the full bloom of their powers; then at last they 'die' -- 'dissolve' or fall to pieces so far as the vehicular aspects of them are concerned.
If any clear picture is desired by the reader of the essential difference which exists as between the Monadic Essence per se and imbodied beings or entities or things, he should always keep foremost in his mind the realization that 'bodies' exist in all forms and kinds and shapes and types, possessing characteristics and particularities which distinguish body from body; and this produces the immense variety, or ranges of variety, everywhere perceptible in the worlds of manifestation or differentiation. He should likewise remember that the Monadic Essences are homogeneous -- purely so -- beings. Bodies therefore of whatsoever kind are builded or composed of minor or smaller or inferior component parts; and these minor bodies in turn may be subdivided into their respective life-atoms, although it should be remembered that these life-atoms are themselves the astral-vital vehicles through which the essential Monads work or operate. Having this picture clearly in mind, it should be evident enough that all bodies or vehicles or sheaths or integuments or coatings or wrappings or garments -- call them by what name you will -- are invariably temporary 'events' because composite structures. It is these composite structures, formed of 'atoms,' which most people consider to be 'beings' or entities, and so indeed they are, but merely temporary beings or entities, because they are, as just stated, mere composite vehicles or appearances. Hence it is perfectly useless and entirely unphilosophical to seek for permanent individuals in these transitory, fluid, and passing 'event.' The permanent Individuals are to be sought only where they may be found -- or rather are, and that is as the Monads themselves.
It has always seemed to the present writer that just here is where spiritists pre-eminently make their capital mistake in attempting to locate permanent individuals, for their attention seems to be entirely concentrated on what are, when all is said, vehicular appearances, bodies, which they call 'spirits' but which the Theosophist, with the vast wisdom of the Esoteric Philosophy as his guide, calls by their exactly proper name: 'spooks,' or 'astral bodies,' or kama-rupas, or equally well, but as occurring less frequently, Elementaries. Similarly, the pious Christian, orthodox in his views -- if any such indeed still live today -- controlled by his belief in the 'resurrection of the body,' seems to suppose that the post-mortem state of excarnate human beings will be that of an existence in the invisible worlds as 'spiritual bodies.'
In either case, and in all other cases where the attention is centered or concentrated upon the vehicular side of being, it is bodily forms or shapes which are supposed to be the real Individuals; and no greater mistake could possibly be made, whether as natural fact, or as religious or philosophical teaching. It is not the body or form or shape, or what the Theosophist calls a rupa, which is the essential Individual, the font and source of intelligence, intellect, feeling, the ethical intuitions, or any other attributes or qualities of the spirit. This latter is the spiritual Monad, or the perduring and ever-lasting Individual.
It is so easy to fall into this egregious error of considering shapes or forms or bodies as being real things, instead of the homogeneous Monad which produces these forms and shapes; because we are surrounded by forms and shapes which apparently possess vital characteristics, and thus the mind is continuously misled to consider the clothing as being the wearer within.
A careful consideration of the foregoing observations will show us at once the fallacy in all exoteric religious or other teachings or doctrines or ideas which set forth the continuation of mere forms or bodies in the post-mortem condition. It is an egregious folly to search for what is popularly called immortality in these things. As has so often been said already in these pages, all bodies or forms or shapes or rupas are invariably composite, therefore transitory or fugitive, events or appearances which, one and all, merely manifest or show forth in greater or less degree the qualities and attributes flowing forth from the indwelling Individuality within and above. The point is one of great importance and therefore it is again emphasized here; and unless clearly seized the student will never gain any clear conception of the nature of the teachings of the Esoteric Philosophy, or Esoteric Tradition, concerning the mysteries of 'death' or indeed of 'life.'
Now the immediately foregoing paragraphs do not in any wise signify that forms and aspects and rupas and bodies, etc., are absent in the Astral Worlds, for the exact contrary of this is true, the Astral Worlds being as packed with them as is the physical sphere. The intention here is to point with emphatic finger to the fact that spirituals, which on this plane are intangibles, are the causes of the productions of forms and shapes; and it is these intangibles which have to be followed in thought and studied in their peregrinations through the spheres comprising their various evolvings and revolvings, and their assumptions of forms or shapes after forms or shapes, if one desire any correct understanding of what happens after death.
The adventures of the atoms are unquestionably exceedingly interesting episodes; but even here a correct understanding of these adventures cannot be had if the student wilfully persist in imagining that he is tracing their career by picturating to himself a continuation in unchanging and unchanged state of appearances or shapes which these atoms may at any time assume. An Atom, or more strictly speaking a Life-atom, is no more a shape or form in itself than is the Monad, of which the Atom may either be considered a synonym, if we refer to it as an individuality, or as its most ethereal clothing, if we look upon it as a monadic encasement in its first stage.
Having in mind the ideas contained in the observations which have just been made, it is almost a vain question to ask: Where are the 'dead'? Or again, Who are the 'dead'? There are certainly no 'dead' men if we are to use language consistent with common knowledge of ordinary logical processes; for a 'man' is one of the human beings with whom we are all doubtless familiar enough -- a being who lives on earth in a body and enjoys or suffers a certain destiny. The reader is such a 'man,' and the writer of these lines is such a 'man.' Now if a 'man' is deprived of his physical body, which happens at death, and which likewise means loss of the model-body or Linga-sarira, with its characteristic vital force, this certainly can no longer be a man, because the being thus deprived of three of the essential elements on this plane which make him to be a 'man,' can logically and consistently no longer be called a 'man.' What remains of the man who was, which certainly is all the finest and best and most highly evolved portion of his constitution, should be called by some other name. Thus we see that to speak of 'dead men' is to utter a fallacy unless we choose to limit the term 'man' solely to his physical cadaver, and this again is but an absurdity, for no human corpse speaks, moves, thinks, loves and hates; nor has it feeling, nor does it move in the world and make an impression on its environment and on other human beings because of inherent spiritual and moral and intellectual powers and attributes. What has been cast off at death is obviously but a sheath, a garment, which thus is 'dead' and beginning to dissolve into its component life-atoms.
There are then dead bodies -- bodies which have reached their limit of vital power in physical matter, and therefore break up into their component elements when causes previously set in motion bring this to pass: bodies in the state of dissolution which itself, as a matter of fact, is a manifestation of life-force, of vital energy. No compound thing can break up unless there be movement in it; that breaking up, that dissolution, is in itself a change, which is another word for activity, force or energy, or in this case molecular and atomic life. Each one of such physical bodies is composed, in its ultimate analysis, of force, also of matter, entities or things which by their nature are never at rest, always in movement, never perfectly unmoving. How can a force or energy be unmoving or perfectly still? And precisely the same observation may be made of matter, composed as the latter ultimately is of atoms and electrons which every merest tyro in modern scientific study today knows to be in movement of utmost rapidity. Every atom of our bodies is composed, as our ultra-modern science tells us, of atomic forces or energies, in incessant, continuous, and as we say, vital movement. Therefore, what are we? Physically speaking, an aggregate of a quasi-infinitude of electrons whirling and moving with vertiginous rapidity. Here again we see the reason for the preceding reiterated statement that all bodies or forms or shapes are compounded or composite entities or things.
Living men, considered for the moment as bodies, are, according to the dicta of modern science, but hosts of electrical corpuscles of different kinds or types, which are held in coherent and individualized form or shape or rupa by the overlordship of the dominating human soul. When that human soul withdraws at what people call the moment of 'death,' there then ensues to the body, not loss of life, which is an absurdity, but loss of individualized coherence. The body itself as a matter of fact is as alive as ever, as can easily enough be shown in a number of ways, not least by its breaking up into its component elements through the process of what is popularly called 'dissolution' or disintegration. In other words, the hitherto individualized life of the body now passes over to or becomes diffuse life without the dominating control of a centralized inner government.
This phenomenon may perhaps be illustrated by what has lately been discovered in the realm of mineral nature by our ultra-modern chemistry in the form of two decaying chemical elements -- at least two are known, and the existence of others is more than suspected. These two chemical elements, which show what is called radio-activity, form or give forth by that process a number of other elements derivative from them, thus proving, by the way, the dream of the mediaeval alchemists of the transmutation of metals. In other words, and more accurately stated, it is the passing of one chemical element, so called, into another and later into others by the loss of one or more of these minuscule or minute objects -- an electron. The two chemical elements specifically referred to here are uranium and thorium, and each one of these bodies gives birth to its own particular line of derivatives, but both eventuate in 'derivative lead.'
The following interesting tabulation of the processes by which uranium finally results in lead of its own type or kind, is taken from Dampier-Whetham's A History of Science: (349)
name -- atomic number -- atomic weight -- radioactivity (350)
Uranium I -- 92 -- 238 --
Uranium X1 -- 90 -- 234 -- ,
Uranium X2 -- 291 -- 234 -- ,
Uranium II -- 92 -- 234 --
Ionium -- 90 -- 230 --
Radium -- 88 -- 226 --
Radium Emanation -- 86 -- 222 --
Radium A -- 84 -- 218 --
Radium B -- 82 -- 214 -- ,
Radium C -- 83 -- 214 -- , ,
Radium D -- 82 -- 210 -- ,
Radium E -- 83 -- 210 -- ,
Radium F (Polonium) -- 84 -- 210 --
Lead -- 82 -- 206
It is to be noted that the atomic weight of this uranium-lead is given as 206; the atomic weight of ordinary lead is 207; and the final product or end of the similar thorium-series is lead also, but its atomic weight Soddy has found to be 208. All these three kinds of lead possess identical chemical properties and by ordinary processes of analysis are indistinguishable; and yet they possess the distinct difference that they vary in weight.
Now this illustration, taken from the wonderful studies of modern chemical researchers, may perhaps give us by picture some inkling of what takes place in the so-called 'dead' human body. It is decaying; it is as full of life as ever it was -- in fact, more full of diffuse life, because now that the overlordship of the dominating influence has been withdrawn, every infinitesimal part of it is seeking its freedom as an individual, and the result is bodily anarchy or death, so called.
It is as yet unknown by our most progressive scientists whether in past times there were as many radio-active elements on earth as there are today, but the majority seem to think that there were. They likewise say, or hint perhaps, that all the rest of physical matter is radio-active or giving out radiations, but in less pronounced degree. Now this last thought of the universality of radio-activity is precisely the teaching of Theosophy, and is commonly referred to as the movements or operations of the life-atoms or, in other words, expressions of the individual atomic lives. The esoteric teachings tell us that our planet pursues a cyclic course in its evolution, or progressive development in time and space, from ethereal realms in its origin down into what is for it its own grossest matter-stage; and that when this bottom or lowest point has been reached, it commences the reascent of the arc of evolution finally to gain its former ethereal condition, but on a plane higher than the one which it departed from in the beginning. This has already been stated in a previous chapter with reference to the minor subject of radio-activity. We, which is equivalent to saying our planet, have already passed the lowest or grossest stage of physical matter; and our lowest or grossest physical elements are therefore the first to feel the results of the upward rise towards etherealization, and therefore these heaviest or grossest or lowest elements are at present in the beginnings of the process of internal decay, expressing itself as spontaneous radio-activity. They are breaking up into finer or less heavy elements, more ethereal ones, giving birth to elements lighter than they themselves are. This process of radio-activity will be far more widely prevalent in physical nature in the future than now it is, and its manifestations will increase in ever-expanding ratio as time goes on.
So, when we say 'dead men,' following the lines of this thinking, we are but using words that have no further meaning than what has just been outlined, and we hunt in vain for something corresponding to the popular idea of 'death.' We hunt in vain for any evidence anywhere that is positively believable that there are 'dead men' -- i. e., men existing in the astral realms who are 'dead' and yet nevertheless alive! (351)
Before pursuing into somewhat larger elaboration the thoughts of the preceding few paragraphs, it may be as well to attempt to form some more or less general picture of the microcosmic scenery, or 'stage of life' in which so-called 'animate' beings and entities find themselves in this our globe Earth. Reference is not here made to the seven (or twelve) Globes of the Planetary Chain, considered as a compounded Entity, but to our Earth only, which is one -- and the lowest or most physical -- of the globes of the planetary chain. Each such globe, and therefore our Earth of course as being one of them, is an Entity in itself, divisible into either seven or ten or twelve parts or portions, which we may otherwise describe as Principles or Elements according to our individual preference. Our Earth-globe, therefore, and using the septenary viewpoint here for easier illustration, is a septenary being, entity, or 'Animal,' as the ancient Latins would have phrased it -- i. e., a 'living being' possessing in itself, either in latency or in manifestation, in potentia or in actu, every attribute, quality, essence, or power, that the Macrocosm, its Parent, itself has. Or, conversely, since Nature's reproductions everywhere are built on identical lines and of identical forces and substances, the Earth-globe possesses everything that Man, as the instance of another such entity, himself possesses, both obviously being sevenfold or septenary entities, the Principles of each ranging from the inmost and highest or Divine or super-Divine, down through all intermediate stages of increasing materiality until the physical body of each is reached, which thus is the channel, the 'carrier,' of the remaining six parts or portions or Principles of the septenary aggregate.
From the foregoing it should be easily seen that just as man has his physical body, which is the rind or shell or veil, of all the inner and invisible parts of his constitution, so in precisely and exactly parallel lines of structure is the gross physical globe of our Earth the rind or shell or veil enshrining and containing and therefore manifesting all the others of its six Principles or Elements, counting from the highest or super-Divine, or divine, down through all the intermediate stages of gradually increasing materiality until the rocky globe itself is reached in the scale.
Now, just as in Man his Principle or Element next higher or superior on the ascending scale of his constitution is what is called the Linga-sarira or Model-body, so in precisely similar manner, indeed in a precisely identic manner, the Earth-globe has its model-body or Linga-sarira, to which the technical name of 'Astral Light' is commonly given, in each case the gross physical body being the astral deposit or precipitation of the grossest and coarsest elements of the inner vital portion or model-body.
Now there is an unceasing and extremely active interchange of forces and substances between the Linga-sarira whether of Earth or of Man, and the physical body of each in either case; and this interchange of vital forces or energies on the one hand, and of ethereal matters on the other hand, takes the form of incomprehensibly numerous armies or hosts or multitudes of peregrinating atoms of various kinds -- which we may particularize here by the general term 'life-atoms.' The teaching with respect to this interchange of vital entities and elements is distinctly one which belongs to the deeper ranges of esoteric thought, and can therefore be here merely outlined or sketched; yet upon this teaching will inevitably repose any clear conception of the nature of post-mortem conditions in the case of man, and of the adventures of the life-atoms in and out of man's physical body while this body remains alive on Earth. What takes place with regard to the process called 'death' in man's case, is identic with what takes place with regard to the 'death' of the 'life-atoms' of man's own physical body; and when one knows the truth in either case, it is easy enough by making slight adjustments of magnitudes to know the truth in the other case.
For instance, the life-atoms in man's physical body, which is nearly but not quite equivalent to saying the 'atoms' in man's physical body, are in a constant and unceasing state of flux -- which may be more clearly and accurately elaborated to signify their peregrinations of both influx into the body and efflux out of the body. Of course the life-term, or period of physical manifestation, of any one such life-atom or atom in the peregrinating cycle in and out of man's physical body, is of extremely short duration -- possibly a second or two or three counting in terms of human time; whereas the similar peregrination of the 'human life-atom' into and out of the Earth's physical sphere is of correspondingly greater magnitude in terms of human time, but the law is the same for both, and the facts are identic in the two cases. When a life-atom in man's physical body dies, which means when its very brief life-term is ended, it passes by efflux out of the physical body into man's 'astral body' or Linga-sarira, and there with equal rapidity undergoes certain transformations before the Monad or higher principles of such life-atom ascends through the superior principles of man's constitution, wherefrom, after a longer or shorter period of recuperative rest, such life-atom 'descends' through the Principles of man's invisible constitution 'downward' into man's Linga-sarira again, thence to pass again into the physical body where anew for its short life-term it helps to build the human physical vehicle.
On exactly analogical lines and following the same general character of peregrinating efflux, and the recuperative rest in the Devachan, and the succeeding peregrinating influx into the astral light and the earth-sphere, do the human Monads pursue their own courses. Thus, what the life-atom is to man's physical body, from one viewpoint and on strictly analogical lines, is the human spiritual life-atom or human Monad to the Earth-globe. This observation applies to all entities.
Now in all this process lies the full secret of 'death,' as well as of 'life,' and in default of larger explanatory elaboration which the author of the present work does not feel it either proper or wise to set forth, the perspicacious student or even the intelligent ordinary reader of these lines will be able to gather for himself at least some idea of the nature of all forms of ancient initiation and the teachings in the ancient Mysteries, for both were built around the central thought of death and the post-mortem journey or pilgrimage or peregrination of the human 'soul' -- more accurately, the human Monad.
This is not to say that matters treating of death alone were imbodied in the ancient initiatory rites and the ancient Mystery-teachings, for a great deal of collateral matter was included, both by way of instruction and by way of the individual experience gained by the initiant or neophyte. Indeed it would seem to be no wandering from strict accuracy, or outside the confines of Truth, to state that not only the purpose but the effectual results of the ancient Mystery-teachings with their concordant initiations combined to free man from all fear of death, and coincidently to show how inseparably he was interlinked and involved with all Nature's processes themselves. He was taught to feel his oneness not only with Sun and stars, planets and moon, but with all the nearer phenomena which form so large a part of the fields of investigation by modern science, such as the nature of the Earth, its vital processes, and the place that electricity and magnetism -- including electric storms and other meteorological phenomena, and light and darkness, earthquakes and tidal waves, and all the rest -- occupy in these vital processes.
First of all was Man taught to recognise his utter oneness with the Anima Mundi of which the Astral Light or Linga-sarira of the Earth is the lowest plane or world save only the earth, which may be placed somewhat lower than the Astral Light because it is the dregs or lees thereof. He was thus taught to look upon not only the Earth itself, but on all the Solar System, and indeed the entire Universe, as being alive throughout, eternally vibrating in ceaseless vital activity of innumerable kinds, and to feel himself an inhering and inseparable part or portion thereof.
He came to recognise that his highest or divine-spiritual parts were as much portions of the loftiest essence of the Anima Mundi, as his physical body was wholly derivative from the elements of the Earth-globe on which as a complete septenary man he passes through the temporary phase of his cosmic peregrination called earth-life. He came first to recognise, then finally to know and to feel, that just as the atoms of his own physical body peregrinate by efflux and influx in and out of his body, so does he as a human 'life-atom' or human Monad peregrinate by unceasing influx and efflux in and out of the regular series of his earth-lives which succeed one another uninterruptedly during his sojourn in a Planetary Round on this globe Earth of the planetary chain, and much, very much, more. He came clearly in time to recognise that to speak of a man as being 'dead' at any time, is reasonable only in the sense that his physical body had reached the end of its vital activity and had been cast aside or abandoned, thereupon to dissolve into its component elements. He realized that at the same time the other portions of his septenary constitution were, as a unitary compound, slowly ascending into invisible and 'higher' worlds, dropping inner body after inner body during the process of 'ascent' as the Monad gradually freed itself from its bodies and thus grew ever more able to wing its way upwards.
The ancients in all ages and in all countries, who knew themselves to be the heirs of former widespread promulgations of some of the more or less secret teachings of the Esoteric Tradition, knew very well -- at least the more educated and certainly the Initiates among them -- a very great deal about the nature of man's constitution, and the nature of his physical body, of the Astral World, of the attributes and powers of the Anima Mundi; and hence they left enshrined in the various literatures to which the different ages have given birth, a great many illuminating hints as to all these matters just named, although always expressed more or less under the veils, thick or thin, of allegory and ambiguous statement. Such allegory was for the multitude; the initiates and adepts knew the truth.
Even the Romans, among other European peoples, possessed no small amount of information about all these matters, although it is readily admitted that in the degenerate times in which the Roman Empire flourished, such knowledge was diffuse, scattered, and probably known only in consecutive and accurate form by those who had been duly and properly initiated in the Ancient Mysteries. The Roman writers of the different ages, in their various allusions to such matters as the so-called problem of death or the peregrinations of Monads and life-atoms -- to which last of course they gave other names -- spoke of the Astral Realms as the Underworld or as Orcus, or used the Greek term Hades. Furthermore, a careful study of these old writers enables us to draw some fairly accurate outline of their understanding of the human constitution, which with proper changes will apply likewise to the constitution of our Earth-globe, and which may therefore be cast into columnar form as given hereunder: (352)
1. Spiritus ------------------Atman
2.} Mens -------------------Buddhi-manas
3.} Animus -----------------Kama-manas
4.}
5. Anima --------------------Prana-manas
6. Simulacrum or Imago----Linga-sarira
7. Corpus--------------------Sthula-sarira
In similar fashion we may cast into columnar form as given hereunder scraps of information drawn from Greek writers as to their understanding of the human constitution and its characteristics as commonly accepted among educated men and philosophical schools in Hellas.
1. Pneuma ------------------ Atman
2. Nous --------------------- Buddhi-manas
3. Phren -------------------- Higher Manas
4. Thumos ------------------ Kama-manas
5. Bios ---------------------- Prana
6. Phantasma or Phasma - Linga-sarira
7. Soma --------------------- Sthula-sarira
As concerns the analogical application of the above hierarchical or graded list to the Earth-globe itself, pretty much all that the reader or student need do is to substitute the term Paramatman or Supreme Atman as first or (1) in the list; to put Alaya-Swabhavat or Cosmic Maha-buddhi as second in the list; to put Mahat as (3); to put Manasaputric Hierarchies as (4); likewise to substitute the generalizing Sanskrit term Jiva or Cosmic Jiva for Prana; to change Linga-sarira to Astral World; and to put Earth as the Seventh or last:
1. Paramatman
2. Alaya-Swabhavat or Cosmic Maha-buddhi
3. Mahat
4. Manasaputric Hierarchies
5. Cosmic Jiva
6. Astral World
7. Earth
The term Anima Mundi, so often used in philosophical and mystical Latin writings, is properly to be conceived of as descriptive of the spiritual-intelligent background or Essence of Nature, and therefore would run through the seven items on the list as being the inspiring Cosmical Intelligence and Life as well as Substance. It is likewise to be noted that the terms Animus and Anima given in the above Latin list are to be understood respectively as described by the Latin grammarian, Nonius Marcellus, in the following words: Animus est, quo sapimus, anima qua vivimus (353) -- that is to say, "animus is the faculty by which we know; anima that by which we live." Thus animus is equivalent to Mind or the Lower Manas, whereas anima is equivalent to the vital power or the Prana.
With respect to the nature of the Underworld, variously called by the Greek and Roman ancients, Hades, Orcus, the 'Realm of the Shades' or in short and very commonly the 'Underworld,' it is carefully and truthfully described as regards its nature and characteristics as being in large part beneath the earth, which in fact is where the lower portions or regions of the Kama-loka are, although the Kama-loka likewise extends to a certain extent upwards into the earth's atmosphere, and in its highest parts reaches the moon. The Underworld is also described at various times as being a drear and lonely place, without the benefit of glorious sunlight, still, mournful, and 'marshy,' but having its own feeble luminosity or rather luminescence in which the shades or umbrae or the 'dead' flit, flutter, and float about irresolutely and without apparent design; and these shades or umbrae, which are the kama-rupas or cast-off shells, from which the former inspiriting Monads have fled, are described as wan and pallid beings or entities, gibbering and twittering in the same irresolute and somewhat senseless manner -- all of which quite accurately and clearly describes, as far as it goes, just what these kama-rupic phantoms, spooks or shades, really are.
It is to be remembered that the Underworld, in all its different grades or phases, is what in the Esoteric Philosophy or Tradition is called a 'World of Effects,' just as our earth-life is in a 'World of Causes.' In other words, again, the Underworld is a transition-series of matters and conditions, intermediate between earth-life and, so far as human beings are concerned, the Devachan, which is itself a state and really a 'World of Effects' also, but of a quite different type.
The Roman writers, and before them the great Greek writers -- the latter of course employing their own Greek terms -- likewise, commonly spoke of the portions of man's constitution which survive the dissolution of the physical body under the general term lemures; and they divided the lemures into two classes or kinds: the larvae, who were what is modernly called spooks, and which are otherwise called umbrae, the kama-rupas of the Theosophical Philosophy; and the higher portion of the human constitution (when this higher part has separated itself from the larva), the lar (plural lares) or manis (plural manes). (354)
It is to be remembered that the times of the Roman Empire were already a spiritually degenerate age, and consequently exact knowledge concerning post-mortem conditions was not easily to be found; and hence it is that contrarieties of opinions and differences of statement about the nature and characteristics of the various apparitional entities of earth-bound character were almost as numerous as were the writers who treated of these topics. Nevertheless among a certain few, more or less exact and accurate knowledge remained of the teachings of the Esoteric Tradition, although those who had this knowledge were correspondingly guarded in what they wrote, whether of the nature of the post-mortem conditions of excarnate entities or of the nature of the inner worlds, either of the solar system or of our own Earth-globe.
There is an interesting Latin couplet, cited by H. P. Blavatsky in Isis Unveiled, (355) which she ascribes to Ovid; or this couplet may be one of the mortuary epitaphs which are so commonly found even in our days and which it was a favorite custom of the Romans to engrave on the tombs of their departed. This couplet is as follows:
Terra tegit carnem, tumulum circumvolat umbra,
Orcus habet manes, spiritus astra petit.
the English meaning of which is as follows:
The earth covers the body; the shade (or spook) flits around the tomb;
Orcus (the Underworld) contains the manes; the spirit flashes to the stars.
-- every phrase of which is exactly correct when properly understood; and one may add that the precisely proper words are here used for what it has been for ages convenient to call the four important parts of the human septenary constitution, to wit: the body (although in strict accuracy no principle at all but a mere carrier); the 'shade' or kama-rupa in the astral world, which flits around and haunts -- at least at first -- the tomb, but which term umbra is equally applicable to the Linga-sarira and its acts for a short time after the dissolution of the physical body; the manes which in strict accuracy is here used as the Human Ego, and which is destined to pass through Orcus or the Underworld before it seeks its devachanic rest in the bosom of the Monad or 'Spirit'; and, finally, the spiritual Monad, called in this couplet spiritus, which flashes to the 'stars' -- i. e., celestial bodies -- this last clause having distinct reference to the post-mortem peregrinations of the evolving and revolving Monad as it journeys on its long post-mortem pilgrimage through the spheres.
FOOTNOTES:
349. Page 397. (By permission of the Macmillan Co., publishers.) (return to text)
350. This vertical column indicates the type of particles or rays emitted, resulting in each case in the succeeding derivative element. The mass of the emitted particle determines the decrease in atomic weight as shown in the second vertical column of numbers. The first vertical column of numbers indicates a decrease or increase in the atomic number according as the emitted particles are of positive or of negative charge. The tabulation is worthy of close study. (return to text)
351. It is hoped that the wording in the text above will not be misunderstood to signify that the astral simulacra or 'shapes' which are left behind in the astral world by the Reimbodying Ego do not resemble the man who was on Earth, for the exact contrary of this is the case. After the physical body has been cast off and the Reimbodying Ego is freed from the attractions of the physical sphere, it remains for a certain time in the lower planes or realms of the Astral Light, and finally there occurs the 'second death' which means that the Reimbodying Ego there and then casts off or drops the kama-rupa -- the more or less exact duplication in form or appearance of the man as he was when alive on Earth. Thus it is that the lower realms of the Astral Light are literally filled with multitudes of such kama-rupas or forms or shapes, each one a more or less perfect duplication of the previously living being or entity as it was on Earth.
It is these kama-rupas, or astral reliquiae which are the simulacra or astral likenesses of the beings who had lived on Earth, who are the 'spooks' or eidola spoken of in the Esoteric Philosophy. They are all soulless, i. e., mere 'shells,' because the Reimbodying Ego, which had formerly used its astral kama-rupa as its intermediary between itself and the physical body, now is free from its kama-rupa, and is on its peregrinations towards the Devachan.
When these kama-rupas or astral spooks are of extremely evil and grossly living men on Earth, then they form what are called Elementaries, still containing some remnant of personal intelligence and still filled with the astral automatic instincts, and hence are very dangerous creatures -- being entities of evil passions and tendencies -- for living human beings to attempt to associate with through mediums or otherwise. For a further discussion of this matter, see later pages of the present chapter, and especially H. P. Blavatsky's books and articles. (return to text)
352. Opposite to the respective Latin names of the first columnar list in the text are given the corresponding Principles or Elements as commonly used in modern Theosophy, the latest promulgation of Esoteric Theosophy to the world. In the following or Greek list the Sanskrit names are again given in columnar form as best corresponding to the Greek list. The student has a chance here to note and to study what is really an important point if he desire accuracy in grasping the variations of terms as they existed among the different peoples. The karman of history applied in full force to each delivery of the Esoteric Philosophy to the age and people or race for whom each such promulgation was made. The result is that due to psychological if not spiritual causes the constitution of the Universe, or of the Earth-globe, or of man himself, was always arranged in fundamental identity, but with minor varying differences; and these differences are by no means unimportant.
The above is an attempt to establish accurate correspondences and is quite correct as far as it goes. A volume, however, might be written upon this one theme alone -- the correspondences, mystical and philosophical, of different deliveries of the Truth. In a later chapter a more elaborate study of the human constitution as a standard or key by which to comprehend the constitution of larger entities is given, and the reader is requested to turn thereto. (return to text)
353. Nonius Marcellus: De compendiosa doctrine, pp. 426-7. (return to text)
354. This statement of the two classes of kama-lokic entities, respectively the manes and the larvae, is made on the authority of Ovid, Martianus Capella, and Servius, the commentator on Vergil's Aeneid. The references in Roman literature to the nature and characteristics of the manes, the larvae, the umbrae, the lemures, the simulacra, etc., respectively, are very numerous, and merit attention. (return to text)
355. Vol. I, p. 37. This ascription of authorship may be correct, but the lines do not appear in any of the commonly known verses of Ovid. (return to text)