A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

	The spiritual truths dealt with involved in many cases the expression by the lower concrete mind (often with the insuperable restrictions of the English language) of abstract ideas and hitherto quite unknown concepts of spiritual realities. This unescapable limitation of truth has been frequently called to the attention of the readers of the books so produced but is all too often forgotten. Its constant remembrance will constitute in the years to come one of the chief factors in preventing the crystallization of the teaching from producing yet one more dogmatic sectarian cult.

	Clear and profound as the teaching actually is in the books published in her name, the truths imparted are so partial and subject to later revelation and expansion that this fact, if constantly remembered, will give us a second much-needed safeguard against that quality of the concrete mind which constantly tends to produce sectarianism.

	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.

	Astral - pure desire, emotion, feeling. Kama - manas - desire-mind. Manas - lower concrete mind. Higher manas - abstract or pure mind. Buddhi - pure reason, intuition. Atma - pure will, realization. Monadic - Will, love-wisdom, intelligence.

	The animal uses the solar plexus in the same way that a man uses the brain; it is the organ of instinct. All that can be acquired by instinct and by the use of the concrete mind functioning through the physical brain can be considered as dealing with that which we call exoteric. It is thus evident how the range of fact will differ according to: The age of the soul. Experience developed and used. Condition of the brain and the physical body. Circumstances and environment.

	As time progresses and man reaches a fair state of evolution, mind is more rapidly developed, and a new factor comes gradually into play. Little by little the intuition, or the transcendental mind, begins to function, and eventually supersedes the lower or concrete mind. It then utilizes the physical brain as a receiving plate, but at the same time develops certain centers in the head, and thus transfers the zone of its activity from the physical brain to the higher head centers, existing in etheric matter. For the mass of humanity, this will be effected during the opening up of the etheric subplanes during the next two races. This is paralleled in the animal kingdom by the gradual transference of the zone of activity from the solar plexus to the rudimentary brain, and its gradual development by the aid of manas.

	The center which is analogous to that at the base of the spine, or the reservoir of kundalini, has a permanence which is not seen in the other two lower centers. The Heavenly Man Who embodies this principle and is the source of generative heat to His Brothers, must be sought for by the aid of the intuition. concrete mind will not here avail.

	It will also be apparent that only as the lower mind is transmuted into the abstract or higher mind and from thence into the intuition, will man be able to understand the significance of manas. We may perhaps ask why this must be so. Surely it is because the abstract mind is the agent on cosmic levels whereby the Entity concerned formulates His plans and purposes. These plans and purposes (conceived of in the abstract mind) in due course of evolution crystallize into concrete form by means of the concrete mind. What we call the archetypal plane in connection with the Logos (the plane whereon He forms His ideals, His aspirations and His abstract conceptions) is the logoic correspondence to the atomic abstract levels of the mental plane, from whence are initiated the impulses and purposes of the Spirit in man, - those purposes which eventually force him into an objective form, thus paralleling logoic manifestation.

	Karma works through manas, and only as the six-pointed star (or the sumtotal of concrete mind in its various divisions) becomes the five-pointed star, or the synthesis of the lower into the abstract or higher, is the transmutation into the three, or the Spiritual Triad, made possible via the four, or the formless repositories of karmic purpose; thus is liberation achieved, thus is man set free, and the microcosm attains BEING without the necessity of form-taking.

	The consciousness of the mass of the human family will gradually pass on to the fourth subplane of the mental plane, and be more and more controlled by purely concrete mind. Unless this is paralleled by a steady influx of egos on to the buddhic plane in conscious activity, and thus out of the control of manas pure and simple, a very serious condition will have to be handled by the Hierarchy.

	During the sixth subrace, the emphasis will not be so much on the development of mind, as it will be on the utilization of the concrete mind, and its acquired faculty, for the development of the powers of abstract thought.

	The Ray of Concrete Science has a peculiar relationship to the animal kingdom, in that it is the Ray that governs the merging of that kingdom into the human. The planet, Venus, in her fifth round, gave the impetus which produced the spark of mind in animal man - a fact well known. It is also the fifth Ray, and has an interesting connection with the fifth Law of Fixation. We might study, too, with profit, the analogy that can be seen between these factors and the fifth root-race, the race of peculiarly strong development of the concrete mind. The Law of Analogy always holds good.

	The major root races are chosen under the Law of Correspondence. In the third root race came the third Outpouring, the merging and the point of contact between the Spiritual Triad and the Lower Quaternary. The fifth root race marks a point where higher and lower manas approximate, and where the concrete mind, meeting its highest development of this round, gives place to the intuition from above.

	I seek to deal with a very important point here, emphasizing the close connection between Agni, the sumtotal of the life force of the logoic threefold personality, as He is seen at work on the mental plane (which closely concerns man), and that manifesting driving force or intelligent will which emanates from the cosmic mental plane. There is a very interesting series of correspondences to be worked out here and we might briefly indicate the lines to be followed in this connection by the ensuing tabulation: The 5th cosmic plane - The cosmic mental. The 5th systemic plane - The mental plane. The 5th subplane of the physical - The gaseous. The 5th principle - Manas. The 5th Law - Fixation, the Law of Concretion. The 5th Ray - Concrete knowledge. The 5th round - The round of manasic attainment. The 5th root-race - The Aryan. Mental development. The 5th subrace - The Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon. concrete mind. The 5th group of Devas - Fire Devas of the mental plane. The 5th Manvantara - Three-fifths of the manasaputras achieve. The 5th scheme - The Lord of concrete science. The 5th Mahamanvantara (or solar system) - The solar Logos achieves His fifth major Initiation. The 5th chain - Principal evolution - fire devas. The 5th Hierarchy - The greater Builders. Vibrations of fifth order - Manasic.

	In connection with this final section of the Treatise on Cosmic Fire, dealing with the Electric Fire of Spirit it should be remembered that it will be quite impossible to impart information of a definite character; this subject is considered (from the standpoint of the esoteric student) to be devoid of form and therefore incognisable by the lower concrete mind. The nature of Spirit can only be intelligibly revealed to the higher grades of the initiates, that is, to those who (through the medium of the work effected in the third Initiation) have been put in conscious contact with their "Father in Heaven," the Monad. Esoteric students, disciples and the initiates of lower degree are developing contact with the soul, or the second aspect, and only when this contact is firmly established can the higher concept be entertained.