The Theosophical Forum – December 1946

SAGES — Marion O. French

Minerals, vegetation, and animals are conscious in their respective gradations. Human beings are self-conscious, and some men and women become cosmically conscious. A few have achieved the encompassing enlightenment of spiritual consciousness. A transformation has taken place in their physical status as the circle of consciousness expanded. Their sensory faculties have become refined to the point of being psychic. In them, the third Eye of Siva has opened. Through it, they see Reality in all its scintillating kaleidoscope of Beauty. With all the power of their souls, they endeavor to transmute these visions to enlighten humanity. It is a difficult task because what has become commensurable for them continues to be incommensurable for others. The unenlightened see a reflection of Divinity in the mirror of Maya, as Deus Inversus. They are, as it were, confronted by the problem of transferring the flesh of the right hand into the symmetrical skin of the left; without the secret of passing with "Alice through the Looking Glass."

Any solution of this problem of symmetry is apt to present itself as a symptom of insanity that must be dismissed. If followed further, the "Quest of the Holy Grail" may cause the mind to find itself in a void wherein all sensation has ceased. Without the power of spiritual perception, this is isolation in a soundless and stygian negation. Nonetheless, the mind perseveres in seeking. Exoteric religions offer an end to the search in the form of blind faith. They assume that the hierarchy of the church is inspired by Deity to enlighten the laity. In contradistinction to this ecclesiastical opinion is that of Gautama the Buddha. To the simple woman who brought him bread and the question of how to find the road to heaven, He replied that, "The dove flies home by love alone." This, then, is the relation that must exist between the chela and the guru. The sphinx will not describe specifically that which he sees, lest the student should accept it on authority and fail to identify the Self with the Knowledge. The disciple must decipher the symbols that are displayed by means of meditation. For most people trained in the western tradition of inductive research and empiric methods, it is extremely difficult to accept this attitude of passivity as a student. They are accustomed to searching actively for scientific explanations or proofs. Being incapable of direct cognition, they must resort to reasoning by analogy.

Inadequate as this analogical method is, it is the only one available for general use. Therefore, it may serve a useful purpose to employ it in an attempt to rationalize the method of the Sage, his spiritual vision, and his perspective. Sages are born with an instinctive desire to see through the fontanelle in the top of the skull, that is so soft in infancy. They may succeed in lifting the covering curtain by their own efforts. Sometimes, they short-circuit their nervous systems by the intensity of their efforts. Consequently, to be passive in obedience to the behests of an Enlightened One is the safest approach to Wisdom. Physiologically, the third organ of sight, or Eye of Siva, is a singular instrumentality. The conarium encases the pineal gland that is constituted to be en rapport with the Four Kingdoms of Nature. Being human, it has the cellular structure and attributes of animal organisms. Its vegetable aspect is suggested by its similarity in shape to the pine cone, or seed of that ancient tree. Within it are yellow mineralogical accretions that might be compared to quartz crystals, and that give a key to the "speaking stones" of antiquity. The potencies of the Four Forces are inherent in it by reason of its connection with the pituitary body and the entire nervous system through a dehydrated or residual tube. The function of this operative pituitary appendage to the atrophied eye in the conarium may be considered that of an actuating agency.

The most important point in regard to the Eye is the perspective envisioned by the Sage. Dawning faculties of clairvoyance and clairaudience may catch glimpses and hear whispers of the past and future in the non-existent present. They conclude that the conquest of time has been achieved. Actually, a two-dimensional vision in time is being acquired, and, still, pertains to "plane-tary" time. The fully opened Eye looks forth in six space-time directions upon the dimensionless vista of duration. The point of view is from "the center that is everywhere in the circle (or sphere) whose circumference is nowhere," as St. Augustine denfined God. There, "everything is everywhere always," as P. D. Ouspensky puts it. Infinity is always limited for all but the unknowable essence of Deity itself; as is indicated by the fact that any solid, no matter how small, contains an infinite number of planes. Hence, the scope of vision of the Eye in our Galaxy extends as far as the solar rays can reach. This space is that within the circumference of our Sky or Island Universe and may be construed as computable in the space and time terms that determine the cycles and cyclic events. The perspective in which it is visualized by the Sage for the benefit of the blind may be termed psychological. Like that of Chinese and Japanese prints, it may enlarge these forms and figures in both the foreground and the background that are important as impending events in the tableau taken from the entire drama on the circumferential screen. It is a chronometric motion picture in one sense, a pertinent presentiment.

Erudition, alone, is of no assistance in gauging the vision of the Sage. Love, only, serves to establish the radio receptivity that is capable of receiving these high frequency television broadcasts. One must, literally, become as a little child, humble, passive, and making the confession of ignorance that is the beginning of wisdom. In that frame of mind, it is possible to differentiate between the true and the false. One may discern the authentic Sage, the veritable guru, and not be deceived by impostors who attempt to hypnotize us with astral images. The soul knows, if the mind does not interfere. The guru guide sees much that is beyond our cognizance, and love is the sole test that we can judge him by. Since he has identified himself with Love, he will extend it to us in his every thought, word, and deed. Impostors do not love their fellow men, and love is something that can be felt. It cannot be weighed and measured, or placed in a retort to determine its specific gravity, or whether it is gold or dross.

Thus, Sages cannot be analyzed or proven by scientific tests of their intelligence quotient or of aught else. What they see and know is unknown to us. We can, however, form some concept of the operation of that vestigial third eye that we all possess. We can conceive, then, that true sagacity may see through it far into the Great Beyond. In the conarium, the crystalline substance that is comparable to quartz crystals may be considered as capable of what modern physics calls the piezoelectric effect. The scientific explanation of this in quartz crystals is as follows:

"Electrical energy applied to two parallel faces of the crystal produces a mechanical strain in the crystal. This strain in turn produces a dielectric field which in turn again produces a strain. This process goes on. At the natural period of the mechanical vibrations of the crystal, the two actions may be made mutually self-sustaining by feeding back a sufficient portion of electrical energy to replenish the energy which is lost as heat during each cycle."

From numerous physiological experiments, we know that the body generates electrical energy. A delicate ammeter will register the amperes necessary to initiate and to sustain muscular action. Also, we are familiar with the fact that tensor action by the muscles will produce or reduce membranous mechanical strains. Thus, the conarium may have what we might call the transmitting capacity of a small crystal television set. Likewise, with respect to audition, the properties of crystals of the chemical compound known as Rochelle salts may be viewed as analogical. "When one of these crystals is squeezed, it generates a minute alternating electrical voltage." This fact is made use of in the audio-frequency amplifier of electrical phonographs. "If for the needle holder we substitute a diaphragm, then sound waves striking this diaphragm set up a fluctuating alternating voltage across the faces of the crystal. These voltage variations are amplified by the audio-frequency amplifier."

There is but one Divine Law, that all obeys. In the Smaragdine Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus "the uplifted right hand is inscribed with the word "Solve," the left with the word "Coagula'." As alternating, they may be said to produce the positive and negative phases of an electric current. Further, an electric current sets up a magnetic field capable of creating subsidiary electric currents by induction. The Secret Doctrine states that the Tabula Smaragdina has seven esoteric keys. The anthropological one is that the "One Thing" mentioned in it "is Man." "The father of That One Only Thing is the Sun; its mother the Moon; the Wind carries it in his bosom, and its nurse is the spirituous Earth." Occultly, it is added "and Spiritual Fire is its instructor (Guru)." Also, "The Superior agrees with the Inferior; and the Inferior with the Superior; to effect that one truly wonderful Work." This Work "is Man." Thus, sights and sounds gathered from the noumenal realms may be said to reach the consciousness of the Sage with crystalline clarity. His ability to transmute them so that we may perceive them in their phenomenal aspect is an acquired power such as poets, mathematicians and musicians have developed through successive embodiments. He must utilize the conventionalized forms of religion, art, and science with which we are familiar, as media of transmission. The constant current that actuates his efforts is Love.



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