Three worlds surround, penetrate and bear up this physical world, which is the lowest, and the sediment of the three.

—The Zodiac.

THE

WORD

CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE

III

AN intelligence uses the medium of communication appropriate to the world or plane on which it is functioning. An intelligence acting in the world of knowledge would communicate with mind by a breath speech and not a word speech as is ours. In such a case the communication would not be one of words, yet if the subject were relative to the world and the senses the subject would be communicated no less accurately. The difference would be that instead of using the ordinary vibrations of air which the mind has learned to use and understand when working through the senses, a far more subtle medium would be employed. Now, while we are not able to speak of or describe the mind in its spiritual world—here called the spiritual zodiac—in the speech of that world, yet we may be able to describe it in our own word language.

Our senses do not perceive spiritual things, yet there is a medium of communication between the spiritual world of mind (♋︎–♑︎) and the world of the senses (♎︎ ). Symbols are the means of communication; and symbols can be perceived by the senses. Although symbols can be perceived through the senses, the senses cannot understand nor interpret them. We shall use symbols to describe the mind in such terms as may be grasped by the senses, but the reason must understand and interpret through the senses that which it is impossible for the senses or the nascent mind (♋︎) to know.

Each one knows that he has a mind, and many ask what the mind is like, whether it has color and form and movement similar to such as we know, whether the mind exists before birth and after death, and if so where, and how the mind comes into existence?

Before what is called the creation of the world there existed what religions call God. Philosophers and sages speak of it in different terms. Some have called it the Over-soul, others the Demiurgus, and others have called it the Universal Mind. Any name will do. We shall use the term Universal Mind (♋︎–♑︎). Much of what is said of Deity or God, or Over-soul, or Demiurgus, or Universal Mind, is to be here applied. It is all-containing, all-inclusive and absolute in itself, because it contains in itself everything which during a period known as a manvantara is or is to become manifested and is known under such terms as emanation, or, involution and evolution. The Universal Mind, though absolute in itself as regards the things to be, is not absolute in reality, but it comes from that source of being which has in previous editorials been described as substance (♊︎). The Universal Mind is the source of all the manifested worlds; in it “we live and move and have our being.” According to the zodiac the Universal Mind is represented by the sign cancer (♋︎), extends to capricorn (♑︎) and includes all the signs below these, in the absolute zodiac. See figure 30.

Let us consider the Universal Mind under the symbol of boundless space, and that space to be in the form of a crystal sphere. We select a crystal sphere to represent space and the Universal Mind, because the human mind, although it can put no limit to space, yet when it thinks of space it naturally conceives it to be in the form of a sphere. The crystal is used because it is transparent. Let us then symbolize the Universal Mind as a boundless crystal, or space, in which no object nor beings nor anything existed except boundless light. This we may believe to have been the state before any effort at creation or emanation or involution of the worlds was determined by Universal Mind.

Let our next conception be that of motion or breath within Universal Mind, and that by motion or breath within this boundless crystal sphere or space there appeared in outline many crystal spheres as miniatures of the all-inclusive parent sphere, and that which caused them to appear as distinct from the parent sphere was the motion of the breath. These individual crystal spheres are the individual minds, within the Universal Mind, the sons of Mind also called the Sons of God, each differing from the other according to the state and degree of perfection which each respectively had attained (♑︎) in the previous period of manifestation within the Universal Mind. When that period had ended and all had returned into the bosom of Universal Mind, there came the period of heaven, pralaya, rest or night, spoken of in many of the ancient scriptures.

In the course of events the transparent space or Universal Mind (♋︎–♑︎) took on a different appearance. As a cloud may gradually appear in a cloudless sky, so was matter condensed and solidified within the Universal Mind and the worlds came into existence (♌︎, ♍︎, ♎︎ ). Each potency within the Universal Mind becomes active at the appropriate time.

We can speak of the individual minds as being crystal spheres of more or less brilliance and glory according to their development (♑︎). These individual minds or crystal spheres were not all developed alike. Some had attained to a full and complete knowledge of themselves and their relation to their parent sphere, the Universal Mind (♋︎–♑︎). Others were ignorant of the Universal Mind as their parent and only dimly conscious of themselves as individual beings. Those minds who were perfect in attainment (♑︎) were and are the rulers, the great intelligences, sometimes called archangels or sons of wisdom, and are the agents of the great Universal Mind who see to the enactment of law and who control and regulate the affairs of the world according to the law of justice. Those minds or crystal spheres whose duty it was to incarnate, evolved within themselves the ideal pattern of a set of other bodies which were to be formed, by which and into which they should incarnate a portion of themselves.[1][1] See The Word, Vol. IV., Nos. 3-4. “The Zodiac.”

Now, the stages through which the individual mind passes in its various phases of development are as follows: As the Universal Mind contains all that was and is to become manifested, so also does the individual mind contain within itself the ideal pattern of all phases through which it will pass in its development. The individual mind is not separated from the Universal Mind, but it is directly related to the Universal Mind and all that is in it.

It is not our purpose to describe here the formation of the world (♌︎, ♍︎, ♎︎ ) and the development of the forms thereon. Suffice it to say that at the proper stage of development of this earth world (♎︎ ), it became the duty of the minds as crystal spheres (♋︎) to carry on its and their development[2][2] The gradual stages in the development of the mind have been described in previous articles, such as that of “Personality;” see The Word, Vol. 5, No. 5 and No. 6. on it. Within and from each of the crystal spheres or breath, different bodies were developed of varying density (♌︎, ♍︎, ♎︎ ) and form until at last the physical body (♎︎ ) was produced such as we now have it. There are many spheres within each crystal mind-sphere. Each such sphere has to do with the principles involved into the constitution of the physical body, such as the form, life and desire.[3][3] In this connection we would advise the reading of the articles “Birth-Death” “Death-Birth;” see The Word, Vol. 5, No. 2 and No. 3.

It will be remembered that there is a perennial, invisible, physical germ (♌︎, ♍︎, ♎︎ ). That at the building of each physical body this invisible, physical germ leaves its particular sphere in the crystal mind-sphere, and, contacting a couple, is the bond by which the two germs unite and from which the physical body is built. The spheres within the crystal mind-sphere[4][4] The crystal mind-sphere cannot be seen through the physical eye nor by the astral sense of clairvoyance, but can be perceived by the mind only, as it is on the plane of the mind.
Any aura seen by clairvoyants, however pure they may be, is far below that which is here symbolized as the crystal sphere of the mind. act on the foetus, watch over prenatal (♍︎) development, and, through a silver-like thread by which they are connected with the new life, they transfer such essences and principles as are needed in the building of the miniature universe. As such essences have to do with the constitution of the future body and the tendencies (♏︎–♐︎) of the future personality they are often so different and distinct from the nature of the mother as to cause certain strange emotions, tastes and desires, which most mothers have experienced. This is not due to the mother nor to the physical heredity of the father or mother. Although the parents have considerable to do with the inherent tendencies of the child, yet these promptings, impulses and emotions, are caused by an inflowing into the foetus from its parent spheres. Such tendencies must appear in its later physical development in the world as have been engendered by the incarnating mind in a previous life or lives. The mind when incarnate may change or continue, as it sees fit, the inheritance from such previous life or lives.

Thus the incarnating mind comes into life and into its inheritance, left by itself; this is its own heredity. During the entire period of prenatal development the crystal sphere of mind (♋︎–♑︎) transfers from its corresponding spheres within itself the respective principles which enter into the constitution of the physical body. The communication finds its channel through the breath. By the breath the invisible germ enters during copulation, and is the bond by which the two germs unite. This bond remains throughout the whole period of prenatal life and is the connection between the crystal mind-sphere and the physical body, which is being developed within its physical matrix. Life (♌︎) is transmitted from the life sphere in the crystal sphere of the mind through the breath (♋︎) of the mother to her blood (♌︎) and through her blood, life precipitates into and around the invisible form of the foetus as the physical body (♎︎ ). This physical body within its matrix (♍︎) develops according to the invisible germ of form, and, although following the type in which it is formed, it is not yet an independent physical body and does not draw its life directly from its own parent mind, because it has as yet no separate breath. Its blood (♌︎) is oxygenated by proxy through the lungs and heart (♋︎–♌︎) of the mother (♍︎).

During the period of gestation, the foetus is not within its mind nor is its mind within it. It is outside the crystal sphere of mind and is connected with the mind sphere by a subtle, invisible line or silvery cord only. At the proper life cycle the body is borne forth from its matrix and is born into the world. Then is made the direct connection between it and the particular sphere of the crystal sphere of the mind to which the physical body belongs. This connection is made through the breath, and through the breath the connection continues throughout the cycle of the life of that body.

It has taken ages for the mind to develop a physical body such as we have today. The physical body is to be the instrument through which man becomes a God. Without the physical body man must remain an imperfect being. The physical body therefore is not a thing to be disregarded, despised, abused, or indifferently treated. It is the laboratory and divine workshop of the Individuality, of God, the Over-Soul, the Universal Mind. But the laboratory, workshop, temple, or sanctuary of the body is not perfect. The body is often used for diabolical and infernal rather than godlike purposes. The organs of the body have many functions and uses. While they are used for sensuous purposes, they produce results for the senses only. When they are used in a god-like manner the results will be noble and divine.

All matter within the crystal sphere of the mind is changed with each varying thought, but not so the physical body. Matter crystallized in the form of the body is so held and formed after much thinking and acting. To change our thinking and our bodies will therefore require much greater thinking and living than is now done, where our mode of thought (♐︎) is along the line of the senses and the cells of our bodies (♎︎ ) are keyed to the tune of the senses. With the present line of thought and with the body keyed to the senses, the matter of our bodies resists all effort of the mind to change its actions. This resistance of the body represents the accumulated thoughts and actions of all previous incarnations in which we have lived sensuous and sensual lives, as well as the resistance of the forces and elements of nature within the Universal Mind. All this must man overcome; all the resistance now offered by matter in its various forms will, when overcome, be so much strength and power and knowledge gained by the individual mind. If looked at in this light, all the obstacles of life, all its troubles and afflictions now regarded as evil will be appreciated as necessary to progress, and resistance in whatever form will be regarded as a step to power.

The birth of a child, the various stages of its growth from infancy to childhood, to the schoolboy days and early manhood, to fatherhood and old age, are such commonplace occurrences that no mystery is seen underlying the phenomena of such a life, as they are passed through, yet mystery appears the moment one thinks of the matter. How can a flabby, noisy infant transform milk into living tissue? then other foods into a full-grown man or woman? How is it that its form gradually changes from that of a crawling little thing, with soft bones and void features, to a person of adult stature with features expressing character and intelligence? Is it an answer to say: this is the course of nature? or to ask: why should it not be so?

It is the crystal sphere of the mind with its spheres within that have to do with the building of the body, the digestion and assimilation of the foods, the vigor of the emotions and desires, the processes of thought, the development of the intellect, the unfoldment of spiritual faculties into full illumination and enlightenment. All of this is accomplished by the action of the spheres of the mind on and through the little physical body.

The breath (♋︎) continues to keep the life (♌︎) in contact with the form principle (♍︎) of the physical body. The form body is the reservoir and storage battery of life. The body develops form and growth. With the development of the form there is called into existence the principle of desire (♏︎), which had not before acted independently through the body. Not until after the body and its organs are brought into their proper form does desire begin to manifest. In early youth the desires become apparent, and still more apparent with advancing age. Only after desire has become manifest through the physical body does the mind incarnate. That which we call desire is the uncreate stuff which exists in the sphere of the nascent mind (♋︎) and from which sphere it surrounds and operates through the physical body. It is this matter, desire (♏︎), which surges through, disturbs, stimulates and drives the form (♍︎) and physical body (♎︎ ) to action. Desire is the distinctive animal in man. Often has it been called the devil or the evil principle in nature, because it intoxicates the mind and compels it to furnish the means for its gratification. This desire principle is necessary for the mind to work with, that by so working the nascent mind as cancer (♋︎) may become the individuality, the mind, as capricorn (♑︎).

When desire (♏︎) has become operative in the physical body and mind incarnate, then begins that process known as thought (♐︎), which is the result of the action of the mind and the desires. At the present stage all the spheres in the crystal sphere of the individual mind are concerned with the physical body, for the form and the organs of the physical body are the means by which the mind plies the task of its and their development. The spheres are all powerful on their own planes, but to control the physical body they must labor. Little seems to be done in one life, for after great pains and much trouble in watching over the development of the form of the physical body, its life is lived out, and that portion of mind which had operated through it has not perceived nor realized the object and purpose of its being, and so it is life after life.

The mind sweeps through the physical body, suggesting thoughts of a higher and nobler life, but the desires resist the efforts of the mind which come as thoughts and aspirations. But with each action of the mind on the physical body, and with each resistance of the desires to the action of the mind, there result from the action and reaction between mind and desire, thoughts, and these thoughts are the children of mind and desire.

The thoughts so generated persist after death, and, entering the spheres of the mind[5][5] The spheres of the mind which influence the building of the body, into which the thoughts pass after death, and from which the inheritance of the following earth life is drawn, may be seen in figure 30. according to their nature, are there retained. When the incarnating mind leaves the body at the end of the life of the body, it, the discarnate mind, passes through these spheres of the mind and reviews the thoughts which were the product of its earth-life. There it remains for a period proportionate to the nature of the thoughts, when the period has expired there is again projected from the appropriate sphere of the mind that invisible physical germ which is the basis of the new physical body. Then, each in their appropriate time, there pass from the spheres of the mind, the crystallized thoughts, which enter the form body and determine the tendencies in physical life. The process of the mind’s action on the body, in its effort to stimulate it to a spiritual awakening, is re-enacted, life after life, until through the course of many lives the thoughts become noble, the aspiration divine, and the thinker in the body resolves to become the knower of Self (♑︎) and to make the form (♍︎) immortal (♑︎).

Thenceforward, the physical body and its organs must be regenerated. The organs of the body which have been abused for sensuous pleasures and to gratify sensuality are no longer made use of for such ends, because it has then been discovered that they have many functions and that each organ of the body is the reservoir or receptacle of power, that each organ within the body can serve for occult purposes and to diviner ends. The brain, a thinking machine, hitherto used by the mind to minister to the senses, or by the mind suffered to be a mere sponge or sieve through which the thoughts of others passed in and out, is changed and stimulated. It is through the brain that man reforms his body. Through the brain the matter of the body is changed by the direction and nature of one’s thoughts. Thoughts are generated through the brain, though they may have entered through any of the gates of the body. Through the brain, the inner occult brain, man receives his first illumination which is a prescience of immortality.

From the brain, the mind should control the body and its actions, though the body now usually impresses the brain with its wants. From the brain, the desires of the body should be controlled and regulated, but in man’s present development the desires compel the mind to use its brain mechanism to supply their demands. Through the brain, the incarnate mind should act and communicate with the spheres related to it, instead of which the emotions yet compel the mind to go out into the world only, through the brain and the avenues of sense.

The trunk of the body has three great divisions: the thoracic, abdominal and pelvic cavities. The thoracic cavity contains the organs[6][6] These cavities contain organs, such as the thyroid gland, which are not yet fully or at all used by the mind in its present development, though they may have bodily functions. of emotion and respiration, which relate to the human animal world. The abdominal cavity contains the stomach, intestines, liver and pancreas, which are the organs of digestion and assimilation. The pelvic cavity contains the organs of generation and reproduction. These regions of the body have their correspondences in the spheres of the crystal sphere of the mind.[7][7] The crystal sphere of the mind is the spiritual zodiac in figure 30. Above the body is placed the head, containing the organs which are the types of those in the trunk of the body.

The head contains the organs through which the reasoning faculty (♐︎) operates and where the discriminating faculty (♑︎) should rule, but at present the strong desires (♏︎) of the body send up clouds of passion, which still the reasoning and prevent guidance by discrimination. The order of action must be changed if one would intelligently enter the spheres of the mind, the spiritual world of knowledge. The thoracic and abdominal regions will then continue to perform their functions of supplying the body with its needs, but these must be controlled and determined by the reason, whose governing seat is in the head; and the generative functions must be changed from the mundane, of reproduction, to the divine, of creation. When procreation of the animal body in the animal world is discontinued according to reason, then creation in the world of the divine may begin, but not before. The pelvic region is that in which the two physical germs are united by the individual invisible physical germ, and in which it is developed and elaborated for its entrance into the physical world. When the forces of nature and the fires of life do not burn in this region they may be kindled in the region of the divine.

The region where creation may begin is the head. When the head is not merely used as a thinking machine by which the pleasures and advantages of the world are gained, as the body with its desires may dictate, but when, instead, the thoughts are turned to things of a more enduring nature than the froth and baubles on the surface of the world, then the head becomes a divine sanctuary. While the brain remains a servant of the senses, no feeling or illumination passes through the head and the head remains a dull cold region, which seems to be without feeling, except when perturbed by passion and storms of anger. All this is changed when spiritual life has begun after man has determined to enter the spiritual world of knowledge. The feelings and emotions of the body have their analogies in the head. As the stomach may suggest hunger so its corresponding region, the cerebellum, may yearn for spiritual food; as the heart may leap for joy when it is gratified by the object of its emotion, so will the inner chambers of the brain open with rapture to the light of the spheres of the mind, when these chambers are illuminated from the spheres of the body. The yearning after spiritual knowledge and the enlightenment received prepare and fit the brain for its creative functions.

It is not our purpose to describe here this work of creation, but we state that when the brain has been changed from its sensual uses and abuses and is trained for spiritual knowledge, then it becomes a sanctuary of the divine and within its inner spaces there is a “holy of holies.” As the pelvic region was a temple for the building and elaboration of a physical body for the lower mundane world, so now within the head there is a “holy of holies” in which the process is begun for the building of a psycho-spiritual body suited and adapted to the psycho-spiritual world, as the physical body is fashioned and suited for the physical world.

This psycho-spiritual body is born through its divine center. It is quite independent of the physical body, even as Jesus was independent of her, who, it is usually supposed, was his mother, Mary, and even as Jesus is said to have replied to his mother, who, it is supposed to have been a woman: “Know ye not that I must be about my father’s business?” when questioned as to why he should leave her for so long a time, so the psycho-spiritual body has quite an independent existence from the physical and its purpose is to do the work of its “father in heaven” which is the crystal sphere of the mind. From this point the mind carries on its development consciously and in time enters the spiritual world of knowledge.

(To be continued)

[1] This has been described in The Word, Vol. 4, No. 3 and No. 4

[2] The gradual stages in the development of the mind have been described in previous articles, such as that of “Personality;” see The Word, Vol. 5, No. 5 and No. 6.

[3] In this connection we would advise the reading of the articles “Birth-Death” “Death-Birth;” see The Word, Vol. 5, No. 2 and No. 3.

[4] The crystal mind-sphere cannot be seen through the physical eye nor by the astral sense of clairvoyance, but can be perceived by the mind only, as it is on the plane of the mind.

Any aura seen by clairvoyants, however pure they may be, is far below that which is here symbolized as the crystal sphere of the mind.

[5] The spheres of the mind which influence the building of the body, into which the thoughts pass after death, and from which the inheritance of the following earth life is drawn, may be seen in figure 30.

[6] These cavities contain organs, such as the thyroid gland, which are not yet fully or at all used by the mind in its present development, though they may have bodily functions.

[7] The crystal sphere of the mind is the spiritual zodiac in figure 30.