FROM BETHLEHEM TO CALVARY:-
These facts can be checked by anyone who cares to do so and who is sufficiently interested to trace the growth of the doctrine of world Saviours in world idealism. Edward Carpenter goes on to say, in the same book:
"The number of pagan deities (mostly virgin-born and done to death in some way or other in their efforts to save mankind) is so great as to be difficult to keep account of. The god Krishna in India, the god Indra in Nepal and Tibet spilt their blood for the salvation of men; Buddha said, according to Max Müller, `Let all the sins that were in the world fall on me, that the world may be delivered;' the Chinese Tien the Holy One—`one with God and existing with him from all eternity'—died to save the world; The Egyptian Osiris was called Saviour, so was Horus; so was the Persian Mithra; so was the Greek Hercules who overcame Death though his body was consumed in the burning garment of mortality, out of which he rose into heaven. So also was the Phrygian Attis called Saviour, and the Syrian Tammuz or Adonis likewise—both of whom, as we have seen, were nailed or tied to a tree, and afterwards rose again from their biers or coffins. Prometheus, the greatest and earliest benefactor of the human race, was nailed by the hands and the feet, and with arms extended, to the rocks of Mount Caucasus. Bacchus or Dionysus, born of the virgin Semele to be the Liberator of mankind (Dionysus Eleutherios as he was called) was torn to pieces, not unlike Osiris. Even in far Mexico [page 179] Quetzalcoatl, the Saviour, was born of a virgin, was tempted, and fasted forty days, was done to death, and his second coming looked for so eagerly that (as is well known) when Cortes appeared, the Mexicans, poor things, greeted him as the returning god! In Peru and among the American Indians, North and South of the Equator, similar legends are, or were, to be found."3
(BTC Page 178-179).
A TREATISE ON COSMIC FIRE:-
Speaking cosmically, and regarding the solar system as itself a cosmic atom, we would consider that:
The abstractions or entities who indwell the form are "electric fire."
The material substance which is enclosed within the ring-pass-not viewing it as a homogeneous whole, is "fire by friction."
The fire devas from the cosmic mental plane (of whom Agni and Indra are the embodiers along with one whose name is not to be given) are the external agencies who carry on cosmic transmutation.
This triple statement can be applied to a scheme, a chain, or a globe also, remembering ever that in connection [Page 494] with man the fire which is his third aspect emanates from the systemic mental. (TCF Page 493-494).
Students of the Secret Doctrine when they read carelessly are apt to consider Him only as the fire of matter and omit to note that He is Himself the sumtotal—and this is especially the case when they find that Agni is the Lord of the mental plane.88 He is the animating life of the solar system, and that life is the life of [Page 603] God, the energy of the Logos, and the manifestation of the radiance which veils the Central Sun. Only as He is recognised as Fohat, the energy of matter, as Wisdom, the nature of the Ego and its motivation, and as essential unity, can any due conception be arrived at as to His nature or being. He is not the solar Logos on the cosmic mental plane, for the egoic consciousness of the Logos is more than His physical manifestation, but Agni is the sumtotal of that portion of the logoic Ego which is reflected down into His physical vehicle; He is the life of the logoic Personality, with all that is included in that expression. He is to the solar Logos on His own plane what the coherent personality of a human being is to his Ego in the causal body. This is a very important point to be grasped, and if meditated upon will bring to the student much enlightenment. His is the life that fuses and blends the threefold nature of the Logos when in physical incarnation; His is the coherent force that makes a unity of the triple logoic Personality, but man can only arrive at His essential nature by the study of the logoic physical vehicle—hence the difficulty; he can only understand by a consideration of His psychic emanation as it can be sensed and viewed by passing the history of the races in retrospect. Man's personality reveals his nature as his life progresses; his psychic quality unfolds as the years slip away, and when he passes out of incarnation he is spoken of in terms of quality, good or bad, selfish or unselfish; the effect of his "emanation" during life is that which remains in men's minds. Thus only can the logoic personality express itself, and our knowledge of His nature is consequently limited by our close perspective, and handicapped by the fact that we are participants in His life, and integral parts of His manifestation.
88 : "...Agni, who is the source of all that gives light and heat. So that there are different species of Agni (fire); but "whatever other fires there may be, they are but the ramifications of Agni, the immortal" (Rig Veda, L, 59 I). The primary division of Agni is threefold. "Agni," says the Vishnu Parana, "has three sons, Suchi, Pavamana, and Pavaka" (I, x). Suchi means the Saura, or Solar fire; Pavamana means Nirmathana, fire produced by friction, as the friction of two pieces of wood; and Pavaka means the vaidyuta or fire of the firmament, i.e. the fire of the lightning, or electric fire.
The sources of these three fires I may observe in passing, constitute the three principal deities spoken of in the Veda, namely, Surya, the sun, representing the solar fire; Indra (and sometimes, Vayu) the rain-producing deity, representing the fire of the firmament; and Agni, representing the terrestrial fire, the fire produced by friction (Nirukta, VII, 4); and all these three, be it remembered, are merely the ramifications of one Agni; which in its turn is an emanation from the Supreme One, as the reader will find from the allegorical description given of Agni as being the mouth-born son of Brahma, in the Vishnu purana.
Now, each of the triple forms of Agni has numerous subdivisions. The solar fire is distinguished by several divisions according to the nature of the rays emitted by the great luminary."—The Theosophist, Vol VII, p. 196. (TCF Page 602-603).
Group C. Agnichaitans. In considering these groups of Agnichaitans, we must remember that we are dealing with that manifestation of the Logos with which exoteric science is dealing, and that as regards Group C, science is already making fair progress in the accumulation of knowledge; it remains yet for science to [Page 638] acknowledge the "entified" nature of substance,8,9 and thus account for the life that energizes the substance of the three lower subplanes. This recognition by science that all forms are built of intelligent lives will come about when the science of magic begins again to come to the fore, and when the laws of being are better understood. Magic concerns itself with the manipulation of the lesser lives by a greater life; when the scientist begins to work with the consciousness that animates substance (atomic or electronic), and when he brings under his conscious control the forms built of this substance, he will gradually become cognizant of the fact that all entities of all grades and of varying constitutions go to the construction of that which is seen. This will not be until science has definitely admitted the existence of etheric matter as understood by the occultist, and until it has developed the hypothesis that this ether is in differing vibrations. When the etheric counterpart of all that exists is allocated to its rightful place, and known to be of more importance in the scale of being than the dense vehicle, being essentially the body of the [Page 639] life, or vitality, then the role of the scientist and the occultist will merge.
9 : An atom is an entified abstraction.—S. D., I, 559-560.
a. The informing entity of the system is the Logos.
b. The informing entity of a plane is its raja-Lord.
Such as Indra, Agni, Varuna, Kshiti.
c. The informing entity of a planet is its planetary Logos.
d. The informing entity in the Microcosm is a Dhyan Chohan.
e. The informing entity in the causal body is the Divine Thinker.
f. The informing entity in a physical atom is an elemental life.
Fire is in all things.—S. D., I, 146; II, 258.
a. The informing entity is Fire.—S. D., I, 145, 146.
b. The matter of the form is permeated with fire.—S. D., I, 112.
c. The developing mind is cosmic fire.—S. D., I, 114. (TCF Page 637-638).
A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC:-
4. Agni rules on the mental plane, and has domination likewise on the third subplane of the etheric planes. He [Page 390] is the Lord of the fifth or mental plane, counting from above downwards, if one must employ these terms for the sake of symbolism. For this world cycle, Agni is the dominating influence, though Indra, Lord of the buddhic or intuitional level has a subtle control which is steadily waxing stronger. All humanity is striving towards the fourth plane of union between the three higher and the three lower, but, at this present moment, the plane of mind or of fire is the most important.
5. We need to remember that just as in particular incarnations, men are focussed or polarised in various bodies—sometimes the astral and sometimes the mental—so at this time one might infer that our planetary Logos Himself is focussed in His mental body. He, it has been said, is striving towards the fourth cosmic initiation, which makes possible our attainment of the fourth Initiation, for He carries us forward with Him, and, on our particular level, we achieve as cells in His Body.
6. As time progresses, Indra will swing into control and the age of air will be ushered in. More and more as the buddhic principle manifests and at-one-ment is achieved shall we see this age of air coming into being. A corroboration of this can be seen in the gradual control by men of the air. In an esoteric sense, all in the future will become lighter, more rarefied and more etherealized. I am choosing my words with care. (TWM Page 389-390).
Fiori di saggezza
