CHAPTER III

THE PEOPLING OF THE FIELD.

1. THE COMING FORTH OF THE MONADS.

WHEN the five-fold field is ready, when the five planes, each with its seven sub-planes, are completed, so far as their primary constitution is concerned, then begins the activity of the Second Logos, the Builder and Preserver of forms. His activity is spoken of as the Second Life­ Wave, the pouring out of Wisdom and Love - the Wisdom, the directing force, needed for the organisation and evolution of forms, the Love, the attractive force, needed for holding them together as stable though complex wholes. When this great stream of Logic life pours forth into the five-fold field of manifestation, it brings with it into activity the Monads, the Units of Consciousness, ready to begin their [58] work of evolution, to clothe themselves in matter.

Yet the phrase that the Monads go forth is somewhat inaccurate; that they shine forth, send out their rays of life, would be truer. For they remain ever “in the bosom of the Father”, while their life-rays stream out into the ocean of matter, and therein appropriate the materials needed for their energising in the universe. The matter must be appro­priated, rendered plastic, shaped into fitting vehicles.

H. P. Blavatsky has described their forth-shining in graphic allegorical terms, using a symbolism more expressive than literal-meaning words: “The primordial triangle, which - as soon as it has reflected itself in the ‘Heavenly Man’, the highest of the lower seven - disappears, returning into ‘Silence and Darkness’; and the astral paradigmatic man, whose Monad (Atma) is also represented by a triangle, as it has to become a ternary in conscious devachanic interludes”[32]. The primordial triangle, or the three-faced Monad of Will, [59] Wisdom, and Activity, “reflects itself” in the “Heavenly Man”, as Atma-Buddhi­ Manas, and then “returns into Silence and Darkness”. Atma - often spoken of as the Monad of the lower, or astral man - has to become a ternary, a triple-faced unit, by assimilating Buddhi and Manas. The word “reflexion” demands explanation here. Speaking generally, the term reflexion is used when a force manifested on a higher plane shows itself again on a lower plane, and is conditioned by a grosser kind of matter in that lower manifestation, so that some of the effective energy of the force is lost, and it shows itself in a feebler form. As now used in a special instance, it means that a stream of the life of the Monad pours forth, taking as the vessel to contain it an atom from each of the three higher planes of the five-fold field -the third, the fourth, and the fifth - thus producing the “Heavenly Man”, the “Living Ruler, Immortal”, the Pilgrim who is to evolve, for whose evolution the system was brought into being.

“As the mighty vibrations of the Sun throw matter into the vibrations we call [60] his rays (which express his heat, electricity, and other energies), so does the Monad cause the atomic matter of the atmic, buddhic, and manasic planes - surrounding him as the ether of space surrounds the Sun - to vibrate, and thus makes to him­self a Ray, triple like his own three-fold nature. In this he is aided by Devas from a previous universe who have passed through a similar experience before; these guide the vibratory wave from the Will­ aspect to the atmic atom, and the atmic atom, vibrating to the Will-aspect, is called Atma; they guide the vibratory wave from the Wisdom-aspect to the buddhic atom, and the buddhic atom, vibrating to the Wisdom-aspect, is called Buddhi; also they guide the vibratory wave from the Activity-aspect to the manasic atom, and the manasic atom, vibra­ting to the Activity-aspect, is called Manas. Thus Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the Monad in the world of manifestation, is formed, the Ray of the Monad, beyond the five-fold universe. Here is the mystery of the Watcher, the Spectator, the action-­less Atma, who abides ever in his triple [61] nature on his own plane, and lives in the world of men by his Ray, which animates his shadows, the fleeting lives on earth. … The shadows do the work on the lower planes, and are moved by the Monad through his Image or Ray; at first so feebly that his influence is well-nigh imperceptible, later with ever-increasing power.”[33]

Atma-Buddhi-Manas is the Heavenly Man, the Spiritual Man, and he is the expression of the Monad, whose reflected aspect of Will is Atma, whose reflected aspect of Wisdom is Buddhi, whose reflected aspect of Activity is Manas. Hence we may regard the human Atma as the Will-aspect of the Monad, ensouling an akashic atom; the human Buddhi as the Wisdom-aspect of the Monad, ensouling an air (divine flame) atom; the human Manas as the Activity-aspect of the Monad, ensouling a fiery atom. Thus in Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the spiritual Triad, or the Heavenly [62] Man, we have the three aspects, or energies, of the Monad, embodied in atomic matter, and this is the “Spirit” in man, the Jivatma or Life-Self, the separated Self.[34] It is the germinal Spirit, and in its third aspect the “baby Ego”. It is identical in nature with the Monad, is the Monad, but is lessened in force and activity by the veils of matter round it. This lessening of power must not blind us to the identity of nature. We must ever remember that the human consciousness is a unit, and that though its manifestations vary, these variations are only due to the predominance of one or other of its aspects and to the relative density of the materials in which an aspect is working. Its manifestations, thus conditioned, vary, but it is itself ever one.

Such part, then, of the consciousness of the Monad as can express itself in a five­fold universe enters at first thus into the higher matter of this universe, embodying itself in an atom of each of the three [63] higher planes; having thus shone forth and appropriated these atoms for his own use, the Monad has begun his work; in his own subtle nature he cannot as yet descend below the anupadaka plane, and he is therefore said to be in “Silence and Darkness”, unmanifest; but he lives and works in and by means of these appro­priated atoms, which form the garment of his life on the planes nearest to his own. We may figure this action thus:

[64]

This spiritual Triad, as it is often called, Atma-Buddi-Manas, the Jivatma, is described as a seed, a germ, of divine Life, containing the potentialities of its own heavenly Father, its Monad, to be unfolded into powers in the course of evolution. This is the “manhood” of the divine Son of the First Logos, animated by the “Godhead”, the Monad - a mystery truly, but one which is repeated in many forms around us.

And now the nature, which was free in the subtle matter of his own plane, becomes bound by the denser matter, and his powers of consciousness cannot as yet function in this blinding veil. He is therein as a mere germ, an embryo, powerless, senseless, helpless, while the Monad on his own plane is strong, conscious, capable, so far as his internal life is concerned; the one is the Monad in Eternity, the other is the Monad in time and space; the content of the Monad eternal is to become the extent of the Monad temporal and spatial. This at present embryonic life will evolve into a complex being, the expression of the [65] Monad on each plane of the universe. All-powerful internally on his own subtle plane, he is at first powerless, fettered, helpless, when enwrapped externally in denser matter, unable to receive through it, or to give out through it, vibrations. But he will gradually master the matter that at first enslaves him; slowly, surely, he will mould it for Self-expression; he is aided and watched over by the all-­sustaining and preserving Second Logos, until he can live in it fully as he lives above, and become in his turn a creative Logos and bring forth out of himself a universe. The power of creating a universe is only gained, according to THE WISDOM, by involving within the Self all that is later to be put forth. A Logos does not create out of nothing, but evolves all from Himself; and from the experiences we are now passing through, we are gathering the materials out of which we may build a system in the future.

But this spiritual Triad, this Jivatma, which is the Monad in the five-fold universe, cannot himself commence at [66] once any separate self-directed activity. He cannot gather round himself any aggregations of matter as yet, but can only abide in his atomic vesture. The life of the Second Logos is to him as its mother’s womb to the embryo, and within this the building begins. We may, in very truth, regard this stage of evolution, in which the Logos shapes, nourishes, and develops the germinating life, as being, for the Heavenly Man, or truly the Heavenly Embryo, a period corresponding to the ante-natal life of a human being, during which he is slowly obtaining a body, which is nourished meanwhile by the life-currents of the mother and formed out of her substance. Thus also with the Jivatma, enclosing the life of the Monad; he must await the building of his body on the lower planes, and he cannot emerge from this ante-natal life and be “born”, until there is a body builded on the lower planes. The “birth” takes place at the formation of the causal body, when the Heavenly Man is manifested as an infant Ego, a true Individuality, dwelling in a body on the physical plane. A little [67] careful thought will show how close is the analogy between the evolution of the Pilgrim and that of each successive rebirth; in the latter case the Jivatma awaits the formation of the physical body which is building as his habitation; in the former the spiritual Triads, as a Collec­tivity, await the, building of the systemic Quaternary. Until the vehicle on the lowest plane is ready, all is a preparation for evolution, rather than evolution itself - it is often termed involution. The evolution of the consciousness must begin by contacts received by its outermost vehicle; that is, it must begin on the physical plane. It can only become aware of an outside by impacts on its own outside; until then it dreams within itself, as the faint inner thrillings ever outwelling from the Monad cause slight outward-tending pressures in the Jivatma, like a spring of water beneath the earth, seeking are outlet.

2. THE WEAVING.

Meanwhile the preparation for the awakening, the giving of qualities to [68] matter, that which may be likened to the formation of the tissues of the future body, is done by the life-power of the Second Logos - the second life-wave, rolling through plane after plane, imparting its own qualities to that seven-fold proto-matter. The life-wave, as said above, carries the Jivatmas with it as far as the atomic sub-plane of the fifth plane, the plane of Fire, of individualised creative power, of mind. Here they each have already an atom, the manasic, or mental veil of the Monad, the Logos flooding these and the remaining atoms of the plane with His life. All these atoms, forming the whole atomic sub-plane, whether free or attached to Jivatmas, may rightly be termed Monadic Essence; but as in the course of evolution, presently to be explained, differences arise between the attached and the non-attached atoms, the term Monadic Essence is usually employed for the non-attached, while the attached are called, for reasons which will appear, “permanent atoms”. We may define Monadic Essence then as atomic matter ensouled by the life of the [69] Second Logos. It is His clothing for the vivifying and holding together of forms; He is clad in atomic matter. His own life as Logos, separate from the life of Atma-Buddhi-Manas in the man, separate from any lives on the plane - though He supports, permeates, and includes them all - is clothed only in atomic matter, and it is this which is connoted by the term of Monadic Essence. The matter of that plane, already by the nature of its atoms[35] capable of responding by vibrations to active thought-changes, is thrown by the second life-wave into combinations fit to express thoughts - abstract thoughts in the subtler matter, concrete thoughts in the coarser. The combinations of the second and third higher sub-planes constitute the First Elemental Kingdom; the combinations on the four lower sub-­planes constitute the Second Elemental Kingdom. Matter held in such com­binations is called Elemental Essence, and is susceptible of being shaped into thought-forms. The student must not confuse this with Monadic Essence; one [70] is atomic, the other molecular, in con­stitution.

The second life-wave then rolls on into the sixth plane, the plane of Water, or individualised sensation, of desire. The before-mentioned Devas link the Jivatma - ­attached, or permanent, units of the fifth plane to a corresponding number of atoms on the sixth plane, and the Second Logos floods these and the remaining atoms with His own life - these atoms thus becoming Monadic Essence as explained above. The life-wave passes onwards, forming on each sub-plane the combinations fit to express sensations. These combinations constitute the Third Elemental Kingdom, and the matter held in such combination is called Elemental Essence, as before, and on this sixth plane is susceptible of being shaped into desire-forms.

Elemental Essence is thus seen to consist of aggregations of matter on each of the six non-atomic sub-planes of the mental and desire planes, aggregations which do not themselves serve as forms for any entity to inhabit, but as the [71] materials out of which such forms may be built.

The life-wave then rolls on into the seventh plane, the plane of Earth, of individualised activities, of actions. As before the Jivatma-attached, or permanent, atoms of the sixth plane are linked to a corresponding number on the seventh plane, and the Second Logos floods these and the remaining atoms with His own life - all these atoms thus becoming Monadic Essence. The life-wave again passes onwards, forming on each sub-plane com­binations fitted to constitute physical bodies, the future chemical elements, as they are called on the three lower sub-­planes.

Looking at this work of the second life wave as a whole, we see that its down­ward sweep is concerned with what may fairly be called the making of primary tissues, out of which hereafter subtle and dense bodies are to be formed. Well has it been called in some ancient scriptures a “weaving”, for such it literally is. The materials prepared by the Third Logos are woven by the Second Logos into threads [72] and into cloths of which future garments ­the subtle and dense bodies - will be made. As a man may take separate threads of flax, cotton, silk-themselves combinations of a simpler kind - and weave these into linens, into cotton or silk cloth, these cloths in turn to be shaped into garments by cutting and stitching, so does the second Logos weave the matter-­threads, weave these again into tissues, and then shape them into forms. He is the Eternal Weaver, while we might think of the Third Logos as the Eternal Chemist. The latter works in nature as in a labora­tory, the former as in a manufactory. These similes, materialistic as they are, are not to be despised, for they are crutches to aid our limping attempts to understand.

This “weaving” gives to matter its characteristics, as the characteristics of the thread differ from those of the raw material, as the characteristics of the cloth differ from those of the threads. The Logos weaves the two kinds of cloth of manasic matter, of mind-stuff, and out of these will be made later the causal and the mental [73] bodies. He weaves the cloth of astral matter, of desire-stuff, and out of this will be made later the desire body. That is to say, that the combinations of matter formed and held together by the second life-wave have the characteristics which will act on the Monad when he comes into touch with others, and will enable him to act on them. So will he be able to receive all kinds of vibrations, mental, sensory, etc. The characteristics depend on the nature of the aggregations. There are seven great types, fixed by the nature of the atom, and within these innumerable sub-types. All this goes to the making of the materials of the mechanism of conscious­ness, which will be conditioned by all these textures, colourings, densities.

In this downward sweep of the life-wave through the fifth, sixth, and seventh planes, downward till the densest matter is reached, and the wave turns at that point to begin its sweep upwards, we must think, then, of its work as that of forming combi­nations which show qualities, and so we sometimes speak of this work as the giving of qualities. In the upward sweep we shall [74] find that bodies are built out of the matter thus prepared. But before we study the shaping of these, we must consider the seven-fold division of this life-wave in its descent, and the coming forth of the “Shining Ones”, the “Devas”, the “Angels”, the “Elementals”, that belong also to this downward sweep. These are the “Minor Gods” of whom Plato speaks, from whom man derives his perishable bodies.

3. THE SEVEN STREAMS.

The question is constantly asked: Why this continual play by Theosophists upon the number seven? We speak of it as the “root-number of our system”, and there is one obvious reason why this number should play an active part in the grouping of things, since we are concerned with the triplicities previously mentioned and explained. A triad naturally produces a septenate by its own internal relations, since its three factors can group themselves in seven ways and no more. We have spoken of [75] matter, outside the limits of a universe, as having the three qualities of matter - ­inertia, mobility, and rhythm - in a state of equilibrium. When the life of the Logos causes motion, we have at once the possibility of seven groups, for in any given atom, or group of atoms, one or other of these qualities may be more strongly energised than the others, and thus a predominant quality will be shown forth. We may thus have three groups, in one of which inertia will predominate, in mobility, in a third rhythm. Each of these, again, sub­divides, according to the predominance in it of one or other of the remaining two qualities: thus in one of the two inertia groups, mobility may predominate over rhythm, and in the other rhythm over mobility, and so with the other two groups of mobility and rhythm. Hence arise the well-known types, classified according to the predominant quality, usually designated by their Samskrit terms, satvic, rajasic, and tamasic, rhythmical, mobile, and inert, and we have satvic, rajasic, and tamasic foods, [76] animals, men, etc.. And we obtain seven groups in all: six subdivisions of the three, and a seventh in which the three qualities are equally active. [The varieties of type are simply intended to mark in each triad the relative energies of the qualities.]

The Life of the Logos, which is to flow into this matter, itself manifests in seven streams, or rays.

These arise similarly out of the three Aspects of Consciousness present in Him, as in all consciousnesses, since all are manifestations of the Universal SELF. These are Bliss, or Ichchha, Will; Cognition, or Jnanam, Wisdom; [77] Exist­ence, or Kriya, Activity. So we have the seven streams or rays, of Logic life:

All things may be regarded as grouped under these seven headings, the seven streams of Logic life composing the second life-wave, and we may think of it as flowing through the planes, descending through them; so that, if we draw the planes horizontally, the life-wave would sweep vertically downwards through them. Moreover in each stream there will be seven primary sub-divisions, according to the type of matter concerned, and within these secondary sub-divisions, according to the proportions of the qualities within each type, and so on and on in [78] innumerable variations. Into these we need not enter. It is enough to notice the seven types of matter and the seven types of consciousnesses. The seven streams of Logic life show out as the seven types of consciousnesses, and within each of these the seven types of matter-combinations are found. There are to be seen seven distinct types in each of the three Elemental Kingdoms and on the physical plane. Mme. Blavatsky, in The Secret Doctrine, dealing with man, quotes from the stanzas of the Book of Dzyan, the fact that there were: “Seven of Them [Creators] each on His lot”, forming the seven types of men, and these subdivided: “Seven times seven shadows of future men were born”[36]. Here is the root of the differing temperaments of men.

4. THE SHINING ONES.

We have now to consider another result of the downward-sweeping Life-Wave. We have seen that it gives qualities to [79] aggregations of matter on the fifth and sixth planes, and that we have in the First Elemental Kingdom materials ready to clothe abstract thoughts; in the Second Elemental Kingdom materials ready to clothe concrete thoughts; in the Third Elemental Kingdom materials ready to clothe desires. But in addition to impart­ing qualities to aggregations of matter, the Second Logos gives forth, during this stage of His descent, evolved beings, at various stages of development, who form the normal and typical inhabitants of these three kingdoms. These beings have been brought over by the Logos from a pre­ceding evolution, and are sent forth from the treasure-house of His life, to inhabit the plane for which their development fits them; and to cooperate with Him, and later with man, in the working-out of His scheme of evolution. They have received various names in the various religions, but all religions recognise the fact of their existence and of their work. The Samskrit name Devas - the Shining Ones - is the most general, and aptly describes the most marked characteristic of their [80] appearance, a brilliant luminous radiance.[37] The Hebrew, Christian, and Muhammadan religions call them Archangels and Angels. The Theosophist - to avoid sectarian con­notations - names them, after their habitat, Elementals; and this title has the further advantage that it reminds the student of their connection with the five “Elements” of the ancient world: Ether, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. For there are similar beings of a higher type on the atmic and buddhic planes, as well as the Fire and Water Elementals of the mental and desire planes, and the ethereal Elementals of the physical. These beings have bodies formed out of the elemental essence of the kingdom to which they belong, flashing many-hued bodies, changing form at the will of the indwelling entity. They form a vast host, ever actively at work, labouring at the elemental essence to improve its [81] quality, taking it to form their own bodies, throwing it off and taking other portions of it, to render it more responsive; they are also constantly busied in the shaping of forms, in aiding human Egos on the way to re-incarnation in building their new bodies, bringing materials of the needed kind and helping in its arrangements. The less advanced the Ego the greater the directive work of the Deva; with animals they do almost all the work, and practically all with vegetables and minerals. They are the active agents in the work of the Logos, carrying out all the details of His world-plan, and aiding the countless evolving lives to find the materials they need for their clothing. All antiquity recognised the indispensable work they do in the worlds, and China, Egypt, India, Persia, Greece, Rome, tell the same story. The belief in the higher of them is not only found in all religions, but memories of those of the desire and of the ethereal physical plane linger on in folklore, in stories of “Nature-spirits”, “Fairies”, “Gnomes”, “Trolls”, and under many other names, memories of days when men were [82] less deeply enwrapped in material interests, and more sensitive to the influences that played upon them from the subtler worlds. This concentration on material interests, necessary for evolution, has shut out the working of the Elementals from human waking consciousness; but this does not, of course, stop their working, though often rendering it less effective on the physical plane. ­

At the stage we are considering, how­ever, all this work, except that of the improvement of the elemental essence, lay in the far future, but the Shining Ones laboured diligently at that improvement.

There was thus a vast work of prepara­tion accomplished before anything in the way of physical forms, such as we should recognise, could appear; a vast labour at the Form side of things before embodied consciousnesses, save that of the Logos and His Shining Ones, could do any­thing at all. That which was to be human consciousness at this point was a seed, sown on the higher planes, unconscious of all without it. Under the impelling warmth of the Logic life, it sends out [83] a tiny rootlet downwards, which pushes its way into the lower planes, blindly, uncon­sciously, and this rootlet must form cur next object of study. [84]