THE GROWTH 
 OF THE SOUL 
 
 */ SEQUEL TO "ESOTERIC <BUDT>HISM" 
 
 BY 
 
 A. P. SINNETT 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
 
 THIRD AND REVISED EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 i UPPER WOBURN PLACE, W.C.I. 
 1918 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1896 
 BY THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY 
 
 PRINTED IN ENGLAND 
 AT THE PELICAN PRESS 
 
PREFACE 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 THE gulf which lies between the thinking of the 
 ordinary world in reference to matters having to 
 do with the destinies of the human soul, and the 
 position occupied by those students of the school with 
 which I am specially concerned, is widening, year by year. 
 " Current teaching," as Mr. Balfour has called it, stands 
 still; knowledge concerning the conditions of existence in 
 ultraphysical realms of Nature has expanded enormously 
 for those who have sought it the right way during the 
 last fifteen years, and is expanding with ever-increasing 
 rapidity. With the 'first gush of theosophic teaching 
 we were told that knowledge concerning matters generally 
 thought to be unknowable had not only been reached 
 by a few philosophers holding themselves, for reasons of 
 their own, aloof from contact with the world at large, 
 but was acquirable also in the long run by all who took 
 certain prescribed methods for its acquisition much more 
 rapidly if appropriate qualifications were possessed at the 
 outset. This idea has not lain unfruitful in the minds 
 of those who were the first to appreciate the significance 
 of the theosophical opening. Many are those who have 
 entered, as the phrase goes, on the path of theosophical 
 progress; several have already advanced sufficiently to be 
 themselves in a position to investigate mysteries hitherto 
 regarded as lying beyond incarnate human ken. Much, 
 therefore, that in earlier theosophical books could only 
 be treated as ex cathedra statement forcibly appealing, 
 perhaps, to reason, but not otherwise susceptible of veri- 
 fication has come within range of personal observation 
 
 M701115 
 
VI. 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 for several students amongst ourselves. The sources of 
 the earlier teaching have not by any means run dry, 
 but we are now in a position to get corroborative testi- 
 mony concerning the outlines of this teaching, together 
 with an immense amplitude of detailed information from 
 persons who have thus advanced a part of the way on the 
 journey towards genuine spiritual development. Views 
 of Nature which lie wholly beyond the range of ordinary 
 perception have come within the domain of positive and 
 experimental knowledge for those who have best profited 
 by current opportunities. 
 
 There is something pathetic, for us who know better, 
 in the attitude of mind of people who treat as matters 
 of ribald incredulity the existence of faculties in daily use 
 amongst some of us in connection with the study, not 
 merely of literary philosophy, but of special conditions 
 of existence. That other world from which, in the old 
 phrase, no traveller returns, has been found accessible to 
 travellers who are going backwards and forwards con- 
 stantly, and in saying this, I am leaving entirely out of 
 account communications from the " next world " pur- 
 porting to come from those who have passed over to it 
 finally. 
 
 The explanations given in the present volume con- 
 cerning the principles on which the growth of the soul 
 proceeds, have been rendered possible by the continual 
 expansion in this way of the fundamental teaching put 
 forward in " Esoteric Buddhism." But nothing in this 
 later presentation of the subject has been the fruit of 
 mere intellectual speculation. Readers chiefly familiar 
 with metaphysics in their non-theosophical aspect are 
 used to regarding them as altogether speculative; but, 
 however slowly those outside the central nucleus of 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Vll. 
 
 theosophical activities may recognise the fact, the^ fact 
 nevertheless is that metaphysical experiment and observa- 
 tion have now become possible for a good many people 
 still in direct relations with ordinary humanity. The 
 human body is not really the prison of consciousness it 
 was once supposed to be; other senses may be developed 
 besides the five faculties of physical perception, and the 
 result is that a great deal may be known concerning aspects 
 of Nature which the familiar five faculties are quite 
 unable to deal with. 
 
 The information so attained is essentially necessary to 
 a comprehension of the natural possibilities lying before 
 man in connection with that growth of his soul to which 
 this volume relates. To introduce the subject and show 
 it susceptible even of definite treatment, it will be neces- 
 sary to build a bridge across the widening gulf of which I 
 have spoken, so that, at all events, whoever endeavours 
 to apprehend what I have to say may have before his mind, 
 even if only in the form of a hypothesis, the knowledge 
 concerning ultra-physical nature which has been accumu- 
 lated by theosophical students within the last few years. 
 That which we have to recognise as actually going on in 
 connection with the progress of the human race is a process 
 of growth as regards individual souls not less protracted 
 and elaborate than that evolutionary work going on part 
 passu on the physical plane of life and developing the 
 simplest organic cells into the complicated bodies of the 
 higher animals. The fundamental blunder concerning 
 the inner nature of man which has saddled itself upon 
 many religious systems (as true as they are beautiful in 
 their spiritual essence) is the notion which represents the 
 human soul as going through two simple phases the 
 physical existence of which we are cognisant on this 
 
viii. PREFACE 
 
 arth, and the uniform unchangeable destiny of sorrow 
 or joy that ensues hereafter as the consequence either of 
 the brief physical life, according to one view, or of a pre- 
 appointed destiny according to another. That which we 
 get at, since we have begun to understand the actual 
 working of Nature, is a scheme in which we see vast 
 amplitudes of time laid out before consciousness as the 
 field of its individualisation, and stupendous possibilities 
 of growth and development, extending as far beyond the 
 heights which human civilisation has yet reached as this 
 has reared itself above the earliest humanity of which 
 geology bears trace. 
 
 Occult teaching casts a light to almost immeasurable 
 distances along this path of progress, recognising the 
 continued individuality of every human being as extending 
 through an infinite multiplicity of changes and varied 
 states, the whole process moving in great cycles in which 
 we return ever and anon to the physical plane of existence, 
 and gather from each great sweep of the spiral evolution 
 something which is contributed to the truly permanent 
 entity constituting the individual soul. That is the one 
 unchangeable centre of identity throughout the whole 
 process. The expansion of its consciousness, faculties, and 
 moral grandeur is the subject I have before me for elucida- 
 tion, so far as the resources of our present knowledge 
 extend. And their extent is already so vast even though 
 the horizon of the unknown lies ever in a widening circle 
 beyond that it is not possible even to describe the manner 
 in which this growth is accomplished without paving the 
 way for the main idea that has to be developed by a 
 multiplicity of subordinate explanations. In this way it 
 has been necessary to wander sometimes in the progress of 
 this work into many fields of occult inquiry, which at the 
 
PREFACE ix. 
 
 first glance may have seemed out of touch with the main 
 object in view; but such collateral surveys have not merely 
 been necessary in themselves, but have been calculated to 
 show that an inquiry into the nature of the soul's growth 
 is really one of even more dazzling magnitude than the 
 simple words would at first suggest. 
 
PREFACE TO THIS EDITION 
 
 FEW words are needed to explain the principle on 
 which the present revision of this book has been 
 carried out. In the twenty years that have elapsed 
 since its first publication, the fountains of that teaching 
 which gave rise to " Esoteric Buddhism " have never run 
 dry. The first edition of " The Growth of the Soul " 
 was written some twelve or thirteen years later. It con- 
 tained immensely important additions to the rough sketch 
 of Theosophical Science embodied in the first book. It 
 also contained a great deal of new matter imperfectly 
 comprehended at that period. It was impossible for the 
 Adept Teachers to convey the whole volume of the 
 information and guidance they were willing to give all at 
 once. My attempt to present that which came was 
 embarrassed in many directions for want of deeper know- 
 ledge. And now distant horizons are opening before 
 me which it would be impossible to deal with even in this 
 revised edition of the present book; but, at all events, 
 I think I have cleared it of all misleading passages in the 
 earlier editions, and I have entirely rewritten the chapter 
 relating to the Astral and Manasic planes, which in their 
 earlier form represented a stage of Theosophic research 
 which I have been enabled to leave far in the rear of my 
 present appreciation of those deeply interesting regions. 
 The Astral world especially was, in former years, the 
 subject of a deplorably imperfect conception among 
 Theosophists generally. It includes the purgatorial aspect, 
 on which, at one time, our attention became too exclusively 
 focussed; but, beyond this, glorious possibilities of higher 
 life which to some extent, in the present edition of this 
 work, I have endeavoured to unveil. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY I 
 
 The progress of Theosophic Knowledge Super- 
 physical research Expansion of theosophic litera- 
 ture Its bearing on the problems of life Advanced 
 evolution in some cases to be expected Nature of 
 effective testimony on occult matters The volume 
 of evidence now available Witnesses to the truth 
 amongst us Earlier evidence now enlarged The 
 divinity latent in man Its development as evolution 
 proceeds. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 30 
 
 Theosophy in harmony with essential religious 
 ideas The uncertainties of modern thought in 
 spite of religious teaching The exactitudes of 
 theosophic interpretation The methods of research 
 in spiritual science True meanings of misunder- 
 stood dogmas. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 RE-INCARNATION 46 
 
 The root idea of evolution The nature of the 
 proof offered The only theory that suits the facts 
 The true doctrine cleared of misrepresentation 
 The law of Karma Heredity and assimilation 
 Necessary exhaustion of ordinary memory Logical 
 certainties of pre-existence Inequalities of life 
 accounted for No " accidents of birth " The 
 world-wide acceptance of the doctrine Buddhist 
 teaching on the subject Absurd misunderstanding 
 thereof by many Western writers Some Buddhist 
 symbolism explained Re-incarnation recognised in 
 Christianity References to it in the Gospels 
 The certain knowledge concerning Re-incarnation 
 of the occult disciple. 
 
xii. CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV PACK 
 
 THE HIGHER SELF ..." 80 
 
 Crudity of conventional ideas concerning the soul 
 The spiritual part of the superphysical man 
 Gradual involvement of the spiritual soul in a child 
 The growth of the Higher Self the purpose of 
 life The working of the Higher Self in waking 
 consciousness Its identity through successive in- 
 carnations Its disregard of minor experiences 
 The scope of its evolution Perverted version of the 
 teaching Higher consciousness embraces lower 
 The rewards of Lower Self merit Relations of 
 Higher and Lower Self. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 FREE WILL AND KARMA . . . ., ., no 
 
 The theories of Necessity and Free Will Cleared 
 up by Re-incarnation and Karma The pressure of 
 Karma on action Concurrent freedom of thought 
 Bearing of this on the Karma of the act Thought 
 forces in connection with good acts Dangers of a 
 half comprehension of the law Progress of emanci- 
 pation from Necessity Complications of inter- 
 blended Karma Readjustments The Lords of 
 Karma Distribution of consciousness the pre- 
 destination idea. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN .138 
 
 The different vehicles of consciousness Ethric 
 matter Jiva free and specialised The astral body 
 Reflection of consciousness in the higher vehicles 
 The true individual Man The Aura Its various 
 elements. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE ASTRAL PLANE . .151 
 
 The sub-divisions of the astral plane Conscious- 
 ness on the sub-planes. 
 
CONTENTS xiii. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII PACK 
 
 THE MANASIC PLANK 170 
 
 Conceptions of Heaven Infinite resources of 
 spiritual planes Responsive to soul growth-r-The 
 self-centred Heaven of undeveloped souls Necessity 
 for the subjective vision Religious expectations; 
 their subjective realisation Spiritual consciousness 
 during earth life. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 ELEMENTAL AND DEVAS 185 
 
 Mediaeval terms Physical forces in their 
 elemental aspect Elemental forces subject to will 
 Beginnings of elemental evolution The three 
 kingdoms of elementals Cross classifications 
 Elemental forms Elementals of good and evil 
 efficiency. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE SYSTEM TO WHICH WE BELONG 200 
 
 Planetary chains, rounds, and Manvantaras 
 Prospects of the second half of the Manvantara 
 Other schemes in the solar system besides our The 
 system as a whole The nebular theory confirmed 
 The origin of our nebula Condensation of atomic 
 ether The interior constitution of the earth The 
 various schemes Planetary reconstructions In- 
 fluence of schemes on one another The last 
 Manvantara of our scheme The various classes 
 of Pitris Corresponding divisions of our own 
 humanity Other evolutions connected with the 
 solar system. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY 249 
 
 Outstripping normal evolution The necessity 
 that some should do this The magnitude of the 
 achievement The possibilities of selfish advance- 
 ment The range of the path of service its earliest 
 
xiv. CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 disciples The impulse of fifth race improvement 
 The motives for an upward struggle Ordinary 
 human suffering and Adept sympathy The Divine 
 government of the world and its ministers. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 275 
 
 Egyptian and Gi^ek initiations Current 
 authorities on the subject The evident reality of 
 their purpose The explanation of secrecy Further 
 motives for reserve in the Middle Ages. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 290 
 
 The Alchemical disguise The spiritual purpose 
 of Alchemy the motives with which the real 
 Alchemists wrote Their sordid imitators The real 
 Alchemists aspirants for Adeptship The powers 
 they incidentally acquired Their chemical sym- 
 bology Its Hermetic origin Illustrations from 
 Alchemical writers. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 310 
 
 The avenues of initiation still open Visible 
 temples not necessary Old secrecy broken down 
 Motives for a more open policy Dangers of progress 
 in knowledge unaccompanied by spiritual growth 
 Those who are ready Understanding required as 
 well as moral fitness Mental powers and psychic 
 gifts The conservation of energy on the moral 
 plane Normal and abnormal re-incarnation 
 Immediate re-incarnation Its sacrifices and 
 advantages The door open to all who knock 
 Self-preparation; the appeal required The attri- 
 butes and qualifications to be developed The 
 greater initiations. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 IRREGULAR PSYCHIC PROGRESS . . . . . 367 
 
 Natural born faculties Mediumship Psychic 
 
CONTENTS xv. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 faculties unaccompanied by spiritual development 
 Their dangers A blessing or a curse Legitimately 
 earned psychic faculty. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 INDIVIDUALITY 377 
 
 The genesis and destinies of individuality The 
 immensity of the task involved in its evolution 
 Animal instinct The focalisation of consciousness 
 The touch with Atma-Buddhi The spiritual 
 purpose of the whole system The " Sacrifice " of 
 the Logos. 
 
THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THEOSOPHIC teaching has expanded during the 
 last twelve years till it now constitutes a vast 
 coherent statement concerning human evolution, 
 the conditions of existence that await humanity on supra 
 physical planes of nature, and the methods by which 
 it is possible to acquire faculties, knowledge, and oppor- 
 tunities of usefulness far exceeding those in possession of 
 ordinary humanity at the present day. It presents itself 
 as the most widely reaching system of philosophy with 
 which the progress of thought has yet put us in contact. 
 Treated as a hypothesis it would claim attention by 
 offering a reasonable explanation of many phenomena 
 of life constituting painfully insoluble enigmas on any* 
 other theory; including an elucidation of the way in which 
 it is built up on positive knowledge concerning the con- 
 ditions under which human consciousness may function 
 out of and independently of the body, it surely makes a 
 startling appeal to advanced intelligence. No man of 
 science worthy of the name would exalt the pursuits in 
 which he may be engaged to a level of importance com- 
 parable with that of spiritual research, provided he 
 acknowledged that there were any means of really making 
 sure of discoveries along that road. Unhappily most 
 patient questioners of Nature in the Western world are 
 persuaded that definite answers are only to be obtained 
 in reply to questions concerning the laws and properties 
 of matter; but if it were satisfactorily established that 
 questions concerning the laws and properties of 
 
 2 
 
2 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 consciousness could be answered as explicitly, eager 
 explorers of that untrodden realm untrodden as they 
 imagine it would surely endeavour to equip themselves 
 for the new research. 
 
 No doubt it is a very delicate research. Matter, and 
 even the subtlest forces that pervade matter, are uniform 
 and reliable in their activities; once their secrets are wrung 
 from them, the same answer will be given to the same 
 question however often it may be put. The truth may 
 be difficult to attain, but once attained its disguise can 
 never again be assumed. Till recently, on the other hand 
 and some persons will still think the qualification un- 
 necessary there has been nothing indisputably established 
 about the laws and properties of consciousness, considered 
 as something apart from its physical vehicle. Metaphysics, 
 in so far as vague speculation bearing that title has been 
 cast in a scientific mould, has dealt with thought itself 
 as an object of contemplation rather than with the think- 
 ing consciousness as an entity. We have no body of 
 manageable facts or phenomena to deal with as a founda- 
 tion on which to build any certain conclusions in reference 
 to extra-corporeal consciousness, or rather, those of us 
 who have such facts at our disposal have been unable to 
 hand them out to the world at large for examination. A 
 new chemical compound, however unstable or difficult to 
 handle, is at all events on equal terms with every experi- 
 mentalist. An abnormal human being, with spiritual 
 faculties adapted to function independently of the bodily 
 organism, is a human being, with rights as such, and gener- 
 ally with an extreme susceptibility to suffering. He or she 
 may render priceless service to individuals by introducing 
 them to laws of Nature concerning consciousness apart 
 from the body, but cannot be used to break down the rocky 
 
INTRODUCTORY 3 
 
 barriers of incredulity in the world at large, any more 
 than a violin could be used as a spade to dig up a clay 
 soil. The best that can be done with the help of such 
 persons towards educating the world at large is done when 
 their capacities and testimony are reported upon by careful 
 observers. 
 
 Nine people out of ten, or a larger proportion of larger 
 numbers, habitually reject the secondhand evidence thus 
 provided, but at the same time a small minority shows a 
 better sagacity, and minorities gradually accumulate. In 
 this way, by degrees, a body of enlightened opinion is 
 formed, and so it comes to pass that people who are quite 
 untouched by the growing belief that there is an unseen 
 world around us, with which human consciousness is in 
 some sort of relationship independently of the senses, are 
 already left in the rear of anything that deserves to be 
 called advanced thought. Of course, there is a long 
 interval between the recognition of the broad idea just 
 described and the appreciation of theosophic teaching as 
 the scientific outcome of knowledge concerning the laws 
 which regulate the expansion, growth, and the progress 
 of consciousness out of the body. But at all events, 
 if there is an unseen world, in addition to that visible 
 to eyesight, it is a part of Nature, and will be credited 
 as such by every scientific mind, with being under the 
 reign of law. There must be a science of unseen, unfelt 
 phenomena lurking in the possibilities of the future, if 
 there are such phenomena in existence. If for no better 
 reason, theosophical writers might expect, therefore, to 
 be commended for their attempt to arrange, with order 
 and scientific method, the chaotic evidences relating to 
 the unseen world which pour in upon us from so many 
 quarters. Supposing their interpretation of Nature in her 
 
 2* 
 
4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 higher aspects were merely hypothetical, by what other 
 process has any science been perfected ? Incoherent facts, 
 accumulated in the beginning at random, are pored over 
 and studied, till hypotheses are framed in the attempt to 
 reconcile and correlate them. The hypotheses are open to 
 revision later on, if new experience challenges their 
 applicability. The situation as regards theosophical 
 teaching is not as though this represented a hypothesis in 
 rivalry with others. It is the only comprehensive theory 
 of superphysical Nature that has yet been presented to the 
 world in a shape which can be regarded as scientific in 
 its range and character. Supported as it is at every turn 
 by superphysical facts available for examination, it 
 embraces an interpretation of the laws and conditions 
 which regulate the growth of the Human Soul, the 
 neglect of which by any thoughtful persons who rise above 
 the contemplation of purely material objects, is so un- 
 reasonable as to be almost absurd. 
 
 What other knowledge can compare with that which 
 enables us to form a right appreciation of the spiritual 
 potentialities bearing on the permanent and imperishable 
 elements of our own being? The future, looking beyond 
 the limits of physical life, is moulded, according to 
 theosophical teaching, in accordance with the causes 
 brought into activity during the physical life, and though 
 occult science is the last spiritual system in the world 
 to suggest that finite blunders or neglect have infinite con- 
 sequences, it is, nevertheless, profoundly earnest in assur- 
 ing us that no great results in the future, either for evil or 
 good, are possible without being provided for by adequate 
 causation. Our will, our intelligently directed effort, need 
 not be called into play to assist Nature in the regular 
 development of her general design; but as regards the 
 
INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 destinies of each individual, he himself must make choice 
 with his eyes open in reference to the part he elects to 
 play in the loftier regions, so to speak, of that general 
 design, and the very first step he must take in that direc- 
 tion, if he is ever to move on at all, is the step involved 
 in the effort to comprehend. He cannot afford to drift 
 on for ever, or for very much longer, paying attention 
 only to material things. His eyes can only be opened 
 to the character of the loftier regions referred to by- 
 virtue, in the first instance, of knowledge gained concern- 
 ing the superphysical realms, spheres, or planes of Nature. 
 
 Esoteric teaching exhibits the fundamental truth of 
 things in regard to these mighty departments of conscious- 
 ness, as those know full well who, first taking the trouble 
 to understand the esoteric statement, proceed then, with 
 whatever means may be within their reach, to check and 
 verify it. But this is just what the intellectual world 
 of our time, at large, has not yet attempted. Only a few, 
 relatively of its leading thinkers are even proclaiming the 
 importance of psychic investigation. Still fewer have had 
 the quick discernment to perceive that the esoteric teach- 
 ing offered by theosophical literature reaches far ahead 
 of such immature discoveries as unaided psychic investi- 
 gation has yet brought out. Though embracing and 
 interpreting these, it also embraces and interprets the most 
 perplexing riddles of human existence, and the most 
 embarrassing traditions of religious faith. 
 
 The " few," indeed, are pretty numerous, if we look 
 at them apart from the rest. After all, the theosophical 
 movement has struck its roots into almost every country 
 all over the civilised world. Its literature has been trans- 
 lated into nearly every civilised language, and all over 
 Europe and America we find considerable groups of 
 
6 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 people, including men of the highest culture, devotedly 
 attached to theosophic study, ardently convinced that it 
 opens out a pathway of research leading to positive know- 
 ledge concerning the spiritual future of mankind. But 
 this fact only renders it the more unreasonable and deplor- 
 able that such groups should even collectively remain a 
 mere handful, compared with the hosts of the educated 
 world at large. 
 
 However, whether fully or only partially compre- 
 hended, the teaching that has been offered to the world 
 through theosophic agency does nothing less than offer a 
 revelation from the spiritual plane of consciousness and 
 knowledge, and one which must, in accordance with the 
 infallible pressure of necessity in the future, be recog- 
 nised as such, however many or however few may be those 
 who in the present invest themselves with the great advan- 
 tage of recognising it among the earliest. 
 
 The guidance under which I began to write on these 
 subjects in the year 1880 has never been inactive in my 
 life from that time till now, and the information on the 
 basis of which " Esoteric ^Buddhism " was written has 
 been expanded and deepened in a great variety of ways, 
 one consequence of which is that I am now enabled to 
 put forward the great and manifold additions to the earlier 
 teaching which the present volume contains. And in the 
 interval a flood of theosophical writing has emanated from 
 other exponents of the spiritual science under elucidation. 
 Some of these writings appear to be exactly parallel with 
 the guidance I have received; in some cases subtle ideas 
 are differently expressed; in others, again, there may be 
 apparent discrepancies between the interpretations I have 
 given and those which others have constructed. Such 
 variations of conception, however, in regard to the mean- 
 
INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 ing of occult teaching as bearing on remote problems of 
 cosmology and on departments of natural science beyond 
 the range of phyical exactitude, are of no consequence in 
 reference to the general value of the theosophic revelation 
 at large. Minor conflicts of opinion in respect to the 
 manner in which ideas of a very obscure order can best be 
 translated into the language of incarnate thinking ought 
 rather to be welcomed than otherwise as stimulating the 
 activity of minds addressed to such undertakings. In its 
 bearings on the possibilities of individual spiritual evolution 
 there is no ambiguity in the teaching of Theosophy, no 
 room for differences of interpretation among honest ex- 
 ponents of the one great doctrine. 
 
 And it is mainly with the purpose of setting forth these 
 essential principles clearly by themselves, with all such 
 amplifications of the previously existing explanations as 
 the later information supplied to me enables me to fur- 
 nish, that the present work has been undertaken. From 
 a complete account of the laws governing human evolu- 
 tion as a whole, from the first manifestations of spirit on 
 the material plane, to the culmination of the all but deified 
 human individuality, any students sufficiently in earnest 
 will be able to discern the methods and principles that 
 regulate individual progress. 
 
 But theosophic literature is not merely designed for the 
 service of those whose already awakened intuitions render 
 them quickly appreciative of the lines on which spiritual 
 progress may be achieved. It should aim quite as much 
 at leavening religious and scientific thought at large with 
 the great ideas on which the ultimate progress of the race 
 depends. At some stage or other of his immortal career 
 every human being who would not drop hopelessly into 
 the rear of the advancing wave of evolution must make a 
 
8 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 beginning in the work of voluntarily uniting his own in- 
 dividuality with the forward movement. That beginning 
 is only to be made by attaining a broad comprehension 
 of the enterprise before him. But a great deal of prepara- 
 tory culture is possible for the human mind, even before 
 spiritual enthusiasm becomes a clearly defined motive for 
 intelligent action. The views of life and Nature which 
 Theosophy unfolds are precisely adapted to subserve that 
 culture, and thus the explanations with which this book 
 is concerned are subject to no narrow limitations as regards 
 those to whom they are addressed. 
 
 There is no logical coherence in a scheme of things 
 which regards the mankind round us as a worthy cul- 
 mination of all the efforts Nature has made so far. Justice 
 will never be fulfilled if the variegated panorama of 
 existence, as passing now before our sight, is a point of 
 departure from which each of us passes out, once for all, 
 to be stereotyped for good or evil hereafter in some other 
 spheres of unchanging beatitude or suffering. Vaguely it 
 may be apprehended, there must be some unknown 
 futurity in which moral cause and effect will still be 
 operative with much finer exactitude than would be in- 
 volved in a broad separation of all post-mortem humanity 
 into sheep and goats. With resolute striving after the 
 realisation in life of whatever ideals of goodness may 
 present themselves as best calculated to bring the soul into 
 sympathetic relations with the Divine consciousness, many 
 people may be, without knowing what they are about, 
 entering on the path of the higher evolution; and some 
 students of the laws governing the higher life knowing 
 that it is easier to become intelligent than morally exalted 
 - would prefer to see their fellow-creatures animated 
 by moral enthusiasm rather than by the thirst for spiritual 
 

 INTRODUCTORY 9 
 
 knowledge as such. But none the less is it inevitably true 
 that a beginning must be made sooner or later in the 
 acquisition of the knowledge, and the response which 
 Nature would make to the life of unselfish devotion to high 
 ideals, unaccompanied by an intellectual appreciation 
 of the reason why unselfish and moral exaltation are con- 
 ducive to great results hereafter, would be the gift at a 
 future step of progress, of peculiarly favourable oppor- 
 tunities for acquiring the knowledge. 
 
 And while in this way moral exaltation, to begin with, 
 will bring such opportunities in its train in the long run, 
 it is also true that for persons of a type of mind that I 
 believe to be very widely diffused, nothing can be more 
 conducive to the cultivation of the highest moral attributes 
 than an intellectual appreciation of the truly symmetrical 
 and reasonable laws really governing human evolution 
 which the esoteric doctrine brings to light. For it may 
 surely be argued with some force that the spectacle of the 
 world with its hideous entanglements of apparently un- 
 merited suffering, with its rampant injustice, and wild 
 carnival of cruelty and wrong always roaring in full 
 activity around us, and interpreted by no other philo- 
 sophy than an appeal to the inscrutability of the Divine 
 will, is hardly calculated to convince the thoughtful spec- 
 tator that he belongs to a universe in which the principles 
 of goodness and justice are triumphant, nor to encourage 
 him in attempting to combat the apparent victories of the 
 evil principle. We know that the spectacle leads some 
 thoughtful spectators, at all events, to the sorrowful con- 
 clusion that all is for the worst in this worst of all possible 
 worlds, and that non-existence would be distinctly prefer- 
 able to existence on the terms offered us. 
 
 A new, a more enlarged and more enlightened view of 
 
io THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 human existence is the foremost necessity of the age, and 
 that view is afforded by the theosophic revelation. My 
 task will be to trace out the bearing of that revelation on 
 the problems of individual life as we stand now confronted 
 by the phenomena of our own generation, and enabled 
 for the first time in the history of metaphysical speculation 
 to deal with the higher planes of Nature's activity, and 
 the possibilities of spiritual consciousness, as with an open 
 book. 
 
 And here at once I may as well grapple with questions 
 that will arise in the reader's mind as to the grounds on 
 which I speak of mysteries hitherto generally deemed 
 insoluble, as coming within the range of positive know- 
 ledge. From the first, theosophical teaching introduced 
 those who studied it to the idea that in some excep- 
 tional cases human evolution had far outstripped the stage 
 exemplified by the ordinary humanity around us. Those 
 who had advanced to a high degree along this path of 
 development were spoken of as Adepts, and by other 
 names. That one will serve for the moment. Some of 
 us came into more or less intimate relations with certain 
 Adepts, and out of such relationships all theosophical 
 teaching arose. Now that it has been developed to the 
 extent with which advanced Theosophists are familiar, it 
 constitutes, as I say, a coherent interpretation of life and 
 Nature claiming attention and respect on its own merits. 
 This volume, for instance, is offered to the non- 
 theosophical reader as a view of the spiritual constitution 
 and destinies of man, which it will be worth his while to 
 examine, independently of all authority on which it rests. 
 It embodies its own authority, in one way, by affording 
 the only available solution of many human problems 
 to which no other system of philosophy or religion affords 
 
INTRODUCTORY 1 1 
 
 an answer. But it does really come to us under guarantees 
 of immense importance for those who can understand 
 them. So it is only fair to readers who may be able to 
 appreciate these, to say something more about them at 
 the outset. 
 
 Part of the teaching modern Theosophists have received 
 shows us that, granting certain conditions of preparedness 
 on the part of persons still on the ordinary level of 
 evolution, well-directed efforts to that end will lead to 
 the awakenment of interior faculties, by means of which 
 such persons are able to cognise and communicate with 
 adept teachers, clairvoyantly. All such processes of 
 development will be considered much more fully later 
 on in this volume, but it is enough for the moment to- 
 refer to the position in general terms. As time elapsed a 
 considerable number of theosophic students became 
 enabled to take advantage of the opportunities thus pointed 
 out to them. No one decently well informed concerning 
 the progress of superphysical research during the last 
 century ought to find such a state of things surprising 
 or difficult of intellectual acceptance. Nor, apart from 
 modern experiences, should the existence of adepts beings 
 on a higher level of spiritual development than the 
 common run of mankind be regarded as otherwise than 
 probable by rational thinkers. Once let us realise the 
 fundamental fact of spiritual evolution, ill understood as 
 yet by the world at large the fact that the spiritual entity 
 which is the permanent ego of each human being, itself 
 evolves through successive physical lives, and the more 
 rapid evolution of some as compared with the majority 
 becomes a matter of practical certainty. Some great 
 figures in the past, on spiritual heights far above those 
 generally attained, show us examples of such 
 
12 
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 pre-eminence, and reflection may enable us to feel sure that 
 besides the pre-eminent spiritual leaders who have played 
 a part before the world, others must have been evolved 
 in connection with less conspicuous destinies. For when 
 we understand something of the manner in which spiritual 
 influences operate on the higher planes of Nature, we 
 are not surprised to rind that the real work of those 
 who attain great spiritual advancement is mainly carried 
 on in ways which do not bring them into direct physical 
 relationship with the less developed masses of mankind. 
 The seclusion of the Adepts is a physical seclusion alone, 
 favourable to greater activity on other planes than would 
 be possible for them if they mixed in the turmoil of 
 ordinary life. It is no seclusion at all, from the point of 
 view of those among their pupils and disciples, wherever 
 these may be living, who also develop their consciousness 
 on those other and higher plane of Nature. 
 
 The direct testimony of such pupils, available for many 
 earnest students of theosophic teaching, is now multiplied 
 to such an extent that doubt about the existence of the 
 adept fraternity has long been absurd, from the point of 
 view many of us occupy. Testimony which rests on the 
 use of abnormal faculties is just as easily susceptible of 
 collateral checks and corroboration as any other sort. Cer- 
 tainly it stands more in need of check and corroboration, 
 because a new factor, liability to mistaken observation, 
 is introduced. But this can be neutralised. For example, 
 suppose a friend whose personal honour you trust, tells 
 you that at a certain time and place he met some common 
 acquaintance. Thereupon you believe that at the time 
 and place mentioned the acquaintance was actually 
 present. But, if your friend tells you at such and such a 
 time and place, being then himself " out of the body " 
 
INTRODUCTORY 13 
 
 and functioning on the " astral " plane of Nature, he 
 saw such and such a person you do not necessarily feel 
 sure the person named was there. It is possible your 
 friend was subject to a delusion. However completely 
 the statement may have been made in good faith, it wants 
 corroboration. But suppose another friend whom you 
 also have reason to credit with abnormal faculties says, 
 " Yes, I was there at the same time; what A says is true; 
 I also saw so and so " the united testimony of the two 
 observers is worth very much more than twice what each 
 would have been worth singly. Now, suppose the two 
 observers become three or four and that their testimony 
 does not^ relate to one observation but to a continual 
 familiarity with the person or persons and places described, 
 then the actual existence of such persons becomes as 
 assured to you as though the testimony related to the 
 physical plane of facts altogether. 
 
 That is the state of the case for many modern 
 Theosophists in Europe, not to speak of those in India, 
 where pupils of the Adepts in a position to visit them 
 out of the body, are more often encountered. The whole 
 subject, for them, has been lifted right out of the position 
 in which it stood when it rested on the testimony of the 
 first promoters of the Theosophical Movement. The 
 honesty of that testimony has been abundantly, vindicated, 
 but we can afford now to rest our assurances on evidence 
 with which it has had nothing to do. It may be con- 
 venient for me to incorporate with this explanation the 
 substance of a statement I put forward in a Transaction 
 of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society in 
 April, 1894. Referring back to the beginning of my own 
 theosophical studies in India, about the year 1880, I 
 explained how, growing interested in the whole matter, I 
 
i 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 became acquainted with other persons also interested. 
 Two of these especially, natives of India, earnest spiritual- 
 minded men, told me in course of time that they knew 
 the " Masters " on the astral plane i.e., in that extra- 
 physical state of consciousness of which millions of crass 
 materialists know nothing, but of which a large number 
 of mystic students know a great deal. 
 
 A third Indian acquaintance, after acquiring astral plane 
 knowledge of the Masters, determined to reach them per- 
 sonally in the physical body or perish in the attempt. 
 He pushed across the Tibet frontier and, guided by astral 
 perceptions, succeeded in his quest. He saw in the flesh 
 those whom he and others had previously seen in vision, 
 recognising them as such, and returning to tell of his 
 success. Meanwhile I had been receiving a long series 
 of letters, reaching me, apparently from certain Mahatmas, 
 under peculiar circumstances described in my books, and 
 conveying a mass of teaching which in due time I was 
 enabled to publish, and in which great numbers of people 
 have found a better clue to the comprehension of their 
 own nature and of the world around them than any pre- 
 viously known religion or philosophy afforded. 
 
 One all-important fact thus revealed was that the 
 avenues of initiation were still open for people who were 
 qualified to advance along them; that the " Masters," 
 though in seclusion, were not inaccessible for persons 
 in whom certain interior faculties were ripe for develop- 
 ment. Many persons, including some Europeans whom 
 I know, were inspired by this revelation to make the 
 necessary exertions, and have learned to transfer their 
 consciousness to the astral plane, to get about freely on 
 that level of Nature, to obtain access to the Mahatmas, 
 and to recognise, as also astral pupils, friends whom they 
 
INTRODUCTORY 15 
 
 know in the flesh. One such person, a European, whose 
 development has taken place since the formation of the 
 Theosophical Society, first came into conscious relation 
 with the Mahatmas while working for Theosophy in 
 India in connection with the headquarters of the Society 
 at Adyar. Another gained the same privileges here in 
 Europe, scarcely knowing the persons chiefly concerned 
 with the Theosophical Society organisation in India. 
 Within the last year or two, other Europeans and one 
 person of Eastern parentage, among my own circle of 
 intimate friends, have in varying degrees acquired the 
 faculty of consciousness on the astral plane, and of clair- 
 voyance in the ordinary state, to the extent of being able 
 to hold converse, when permitted, with some of the 
 Mahatmas, or to see them when they or some of their 
 disciples have come astrally among us. 
 
 Thus I am dealing with a large grolip of witnesses 
 to the truth, not with any one or two. Let me call 
 them by letters of the alphabet, to show more definitely 
 how their testimony hangs together.* 
 
 A. went in the flesh many years ago to Tibet. C., 
 D., and E. have seen him with the Masters when them- 
 selves there in the astral. 
 
 B. is " dead " as regards the body in which I knew 
 him. Being a regular disciple, his post mortem adventures 
 do not follow the normal course. C. knew him while 
 
 * In preparing the present edition of this work twenty years 
 after the publication of the first, it would be impossible for me 
 to bring the statement which follows up to date, because to do 
 so I should exhaust the alphabet in referring to the various 
 persons who have since then crossed the threshold dividing 
 mere confident belief from personal knowledge relating to the 
 occult world. I leave the statement as it was given in the first 
 edition as an indication of the manner in which, though not as 
 showing the extent to which, our touch with the higher planes 
 of consciousness has gradually been established. 
 
1 6 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 living in India; and sees him still from time to 'time in an 
 astral body with the Masters. 
 
 C. is an advanced disciple, as much at home on the 
 astral plane, and as fully reminiscent of all that happens 
 to him there, as though the matters dealt with were 
 yesterday's doings in the flesh. On the astral plane he 
 constantly sees D., E., F., and H., all of whom know 
 him and know one another on this plane of life, discuss 
 what takes place when with the Masters, after returning 
 to their normal condition, and are in all respects them- 
 selves completely in their mutual relation on the higher 
 plane. 
 
 D. has more recently attained to similar privileges, and 
 is in the full exercise, not merely of the faculties just 
 noticed, but also, as is indeed the case with C. likewise, 
 of the astral and manasic planes in the waking state in the 
 body. A better appreciation of what this means will be 
 acquired by the reader, to whom the terms used may be 
 unfamiliar, when he has gone over some of the later 
 chapters of this book. 
 
 E. Everything just said of C. and D. applies also to 
 E. in the fullest measure. C. and E. knew one another 
 on the astral plane before they \yere acquainted in physical 
 life. E. has been in free and unrestricted relations with 
 the Masters for several years, though only coming into the 
 inheritance of this privilege earned in former lives since 
 the activities of the Theosophical Society began. Unlike 
 C. and D., however, E., though also a European, reached 
 the development described without having any touch with 
 the Theosophical Society in the first instance. This is 
 important with reference to preposterous hypotheses some- 
 times put forward with regard to " hypnotic influences." 
 E. knows others of the Masters besides those of whom 
 
INTRODUCTORY 17 
 
 theosophic literature has treated, sees on the astral plane 
 (as D. does also) both in and out of the body; has friendly 
 relations also with F., G., and H. on the other plane. 
 
 F. is not yet so far on, but knows the Masters on the 
 astral plane; also sees D., E., and H. there constantly. 
 
 G. is but just beginning to exercise the faculty of 
 astral consciousness, and need not be more minutely 
 explained. 
 
 H. is in a position to be present frequently when astral 
 meetings of pupils are held in the Masters' presence; 
 recollects as yet imperfectly, but is sometimes able to 
 corroborate C., D., E., and F. with respect to conversa- 
 tions at which all were present. 
 
 Concerning the reasons why the great " Masters of 
 Wisdom " have remained in the deep seclusion- that has 
 shrouded their very existence, even during recent centuries 
 of Western progress, it would be premature to say much 
 at this stage of my explanation. But for the sake of its 
 direct bearing on the question I may quote a few lines 
 from an old alchemical treatise of the seventeenth century, 
 by a writer who was truly an occult philosopher, though 
 availing himself of the then favourite alchemical disguise. 
 In his Lumen de Lumine Eugenius Philalethes, referring 
 obviously to those whom we now speak of as the Adepts 
 or Mahatmas, says : " Every sophister contemns them 
 because they appear not to the world, and concludes there 
 is no such society because he is not a member of it. There 
 is scarce a reader so just as to consider upon what grounds 
 they conceal themselves and come not to the stage when 
 every fool cries enter ! No man looks after them but 
 for worldly ends. . . . How many are there in the 
 world that study Nature to know God ? Certainly they 
 study a receipt for their purses, not for their souls, nor in 
 
 3 
 
1 8 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 any good sense for their bodies. It is fit that they should 
 be left to their ignorance as to their cure. It may be 
 the nullity of their expectations will reform them, but 
 as long as they continue in this humour neither God nor 
 good men will assist them." 
 
 The fact of the matter is, indeed, not so much that 
 the Adepts have withdrawn into seclusion as that man- 
 kind at large in the modern world has turned a deaf ear 
 to their teaching, until in the end it has all but forgotten 
 their existence. As Thomas Taylor the indefatigable 
 translator of the Neo-Platonists writes in his preface to 
 the Orphic Hymns, " Wisdom, the object of all true 
 philosophy, considered as exploring the causes and prin- 
 ciples of things, flourished in high perfection among the 
 Egyptians first and afterwards in Greece. Polite literature 
 was the pursuit of the Romans; and experimental enquiries 
 increased without end and accumulated without order, 
 are the employment of modern philosophy. . . . 
 Modern enquiries never rise above sense, and everything 
 is despised which does not in some respect or other con- 
 tribute to the accumulation of wealth, the gratification of 
 childish admiration, or the refinement of corporeal 
 delight." 
 
 It is the prevalence of this characteristic in the modern 
 world that has shut the higher spiritual teaching out of our 
 lives to so great an extent. But happily the exclusion is 
 not complete. For all who can appreciate the height to 
 which it may lead, the Adepts in this closing decade of 
 the nineteenth century are just as accessible as in those 
 bygone ages to which Thomas Taylor refers, when all 
 men knew that the " Mysteries " were a portal through 
 which it was possible for those prepared to make im- 
 mediate temporal sacrifices, to pass on towards a loftier 
 
INTRODUCTORY 19 
 
 spiritual evolution. Though rarely approached in the 
 Western world of late, such portals are open still; and 
 Theosophists who have gained access to them have learned 
 before going far to be guided by the great law which 
 governs all real occult progress, that such progress is 
 never to be attempted even by the neophyte with the 
 single purpose of acquiring spiritual exaltation for himself 
 alone. In its higher stages that progress must find its 
 pre-eminent motives in the desire to help on the spiritual 
 development of humanity at large; and so, in a humbler 
 way, those who make their first steps on " the Path " with 
 a clear sight of the destination to which it leads, cannot 
 but be inspired to proclaim with all the earnestness at 
 their command the importance of the discoveries they 
 have attained to concerning the place occupied by the 
 Adepts in the spiritual evolution of mankind. 
 
 Only by learning to appreciate in some measure the 
 attributes and powers of these, our Elder Brethren, will 
 humanity at large get some glimpse of the future that 
 lies before them, of the possibilities connected with 
 spiritual evolution that are associated with the rank in 
 Nature to which they have now attained. The investiga- 
 tion of these possibilities is the foremost task of those who 
 may fairly be described as occult students. The effort 
 to realise in daily work and thought and habits, the lofty 
 ideals which theosophic teaching defines for our aspiration, 
 is the next step in their upward progress. Such efforts 
 can only be made with the best effect when we compre- 
 hend the system to which we belong, and, in some 
 measure, the design that it subserves. We cannot aim in- 
 telligently at the noblest objects, for the sake of which 
 such efforts should be made, till we know something of 
 the extent to which consciousness may be developed on 
 
 3* 
 
20 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 those higher planes of Nature, as yet veiled from ordinary 
 vision. And this cannot be appreciated even in imagina- 
 tion till those higher planes are described for us by persons 
 who are already in a position to function there. Bewilder- 
 ing at first, as it may be, the vast cosmology of occult 
 teaching must be apprehended in general outline, at all 
 events, before the true character of the spiritual evolution 
 available for us can be adequately grasped. But it is not 
 necessary to plunge into this at the beginning of the whole 
 study. We begin to appreciate the nature of the prospect 
 before us when we get firm hold of the idea that Man is 
 not merely a product of Nature adrift on the stream of 
 evolution, but is eventually carried, so to speak, by that 
 stream out into a vast ocean that he can only cross by 
 virtue of conscious efforts put forward on his own account. 
 And then, with some comprehension of its winds and 
 currents with some understanding, that is to say, of the 
 higher planes of Nature that may be described for us by 
 those familiar with them we may know enough to appre- 
 ciate the way in which it is competent to man to help 
 forward his own evolution towards the loftier levels. 
 
 Just as chemistry or astronomy may be largely com- 
 prehended now by people who would not have been 
 equal, in the first instance, to the task of wresting their 
 secrets from Nature, so with occult science. The com- 
 prehension of great realms of superphysical law and 
 phenomena is relatively easy for any of us who will take 
 advantage of the adequate guidance offered, now that the 
 knowledge has been acquired by those who have been 
 spiritually strong enough to lead the way. In the present 
 day people quite unprovided with psychic gifts may invest 
 themselves with a true and sufficient acquaintance with 
 realms of nature which seemed almost hopelessly removed 
 
INTRODUCTORY li 
 
 beyond the comprehension of all but the initiated few 
 only a handful of years ago. Only by students of 
 mediaeval occult literature, almost maddening in its 
 obscurity, can the bright light now thrown in our own 
 time upon the subjects that literature dealt with be 
 estimated at its true value. 
 
 In chaotic disarray, indeed, but in great abundance, 
 facts have been lying before us for the last half-century 
 which have all along established for observers, whose 
 common-sense has been unclouded by illogical prejudice, 
 the broad truth that animated matter does not sum up 
 or embrace the whole intelligent consciousness of the 
 world. Mainly, it would seem, because these facts were 
 not amenable to systematic experiment or correlation, the 
 classes chiefly concerned with the interrogation of Nature 
 have shunned them with something like irritation. They 
 had dropped from the clouds, as it were, in an unintel- 
 ligible fashion, instead of growing in a reasonable and 
 coherent manner out of previously existing knowledge. 
 It was very doubtful, when first reported, whether they 
 had really occurred. No one could make sense of them, 
 and with the unacceptable hypotheses concerning their 
 origin generally put forward by those who testified to 
 their occurrence they were doubly offensive to a 
 materialistic generation. Whether they had to do with 
 the records of psychic mesmerism or were frankly 
 associated with spiritualistic mediumship, they were 
 equally out of gear with ordinary knowledge and were 
 too hastily assumed to involve a denial of principles to 
 which ordinary knowledge was devoted. But, inhospit- 
 ably received as they were, evidences of incident and ex- 
 perience transcending those of familiar physical science 
 continued to pour in very freely. The literature of 
 
22 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 spiritualism, mainly consisting of records of .abnormal 
 observation and experience, has expanded to enormous 
 proportions. The accumulations of mesmeric record were 
 very considerable before the new departure, which within 
 the last few years has reconciled public opinion with mes- 
 merism generally by restating some of its conclusions 
 under a new name. Psychic research of an independent 
 character, keeping both spiritualism and mesmerism, with 
 all their hypotheses, at arm's length, has also accumulated 
 its records, and the situation is now such that nothing but 
 ignorance or stupidity of the densest sort can in the present 
 day provoke a denial of the broad conclusions which point 
 to the existence of super-physical conditions of matter, 
 force, and consciousness. These conclusions may not be 
 sufficiently precise in themselves to constitute material 
 from which to deduce any theory of extra corporeal life, 
 but they ought to satisfy even the least thoughtful observer 
 that there is a realm of some sort of extra corporeal life 
 around us. And when we find as we do find at the 
 outset of any examination of the facts concerned that 
 different people are very differently endowed in respect 
 to their capacity for cognising the phenomena of the super- 
 physical planes, that ought to suggest the possibility that 
 some persons may be able to cognise these completely 
 enough to make sense of them, and fit their phenomena 
 into a coherent scheme of Nature. 
 
 At this stage of the argument we get back to the theory 
 that with adequate guidance it is possible for persons who 
 are themselves quite without the gifts required for the 
 personal observation of occult phenomena, to bring the 
 whole subject within the area of intelligent study. We 
 can listen first of all to a statement which may profess to 
 formulate the various and bewildering phenomena of 
 
INTRODUCTORY 23 
 
 psychic, mesmeric, and spiritualistic investigations 
 (together with many others besides). We may check the 
 methods by which information of that kind is alleged to 
 be attained, by the consideration of all accumulated ex- 
 perience of abnormal vision, and may then check the state- 
 ment itself by a general consideration first of all of its 
 inherent reasonableness; secondly, of its adaptation to the 
 enigmas and requirements of life, and thirdly, of its sym- 
 metry as compared with the working of Nature in depart- 
 ments within the range of easy observation. Finally, 
 we may consider its power of explaining the sporadic and, 
 in themselves, unintelligible occurrences that lie around 
 us in profusion. 
 
 Just such a statement as I have here imagined is em- 
 bodied in the theosophical literature of recent years. 
 Available for our acceptance if we find it satisfying the 
 tests that we are entitled to apply, we now have before 
 us a scheme of nature, of the world, of human life and 
 future existence, which has as it were drawn aside the 
 veil from the symbolism of religion, and brought the 
 region of faith within the area of exact apprehension. 
 
 And theosophic teaching in reference to spiritual pro- 
 gress should surely claim favourable consideration from 
 modern thinkers, if for no other reason, for this : that 
 it brings that transcendental process within the uniform 
 operation of cause and effect. Perhaps, indeed, religious 
 teaching only seemed to disregard cause and effect in 
 assigning the conditions of after-life to arbitrary favour or 
 condemnation. Clear-sighted students may as readily dis- 
 cern true theosophy disguised in the symbolism of religion, 
 as the most intelligent exponents of religious doctrine 
 will discern the spirit of religion in the sublime teaching 
 of occult science; but at all events popular corrupt religion 
 
24 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 is apt to regard the destinies of man after death as subject 
 to treatment which, whether gracious or retributive, is 
 influenced by considerations quite external to himself; 
 and exact thinking must recognise such treatment as 
 capricious as outside the law of cause and effect which 
 operates so invariably in all realms of Nature, fairly open 
 to observation. Theosophy, on the other hand, in regard 
 to the progress of humanity, embodies an infinite exalta- 
 tion of the doctrine of the conservation of energy. All 
 future experiences of each of us in turn are the inevitable 
 and logical outcome of our previous acts with their con- 
 current states of mind. The apparent iregularity and 
 injustice of life is an appearance merely due to the fact 
 that we take too short a view of life when we think that 
 we perceive such irregularity and injustice. Spiritual 
 science reveals the fact that each human life stretches 
 both in front of and behind any given period of physical 
 manifestation to an enormous extent. On the whole 
 account the events and conditions of each life in turn are 
 the effects of antecedent causes. 
 
 With this magnificent revelation, which is at the root 
 of all truly scientific views of human existence, we shall 
 be largely concerned later on; but there are some general 
 principles concerning the potentialities of human progress 
 which may be dealt with at once. 
 
 If we start from the safe point of departure to be found 
 in the established fact that some persons have a much 
 more highly perceptive organism than others, and if we 
 keep in touch with the idea that faculty itself is the pro- 
 duct of causes, we are at all events within reach of a 
 plausible hypothesis pointing to the theory that people 
 may perhaps be able by appropriate effort to develop the 
 aptitudes of their own organism for cognising a wider 
 
INTRODUCTORY 25 
 
 range of natural phenomena than those which are reflected 
 in the five senses. And if so, do we not come within 
 range of the idea that human evolution may be the product 
 of two lines of force, the one proceeding, so to speak, 
 from Nature at large, and representing the normal im- 
 pulse of evolution, the other generated by the spontaneous 
 volition of the individual, and representing the previously 
 dormant principle of Divinity within him ? 
 
 This idea is really the keynote of the scientific view of 
 human spiritual evolution. The will force of each human 
 being who would rise in Nature must be united with the 
 evolutionary tendencies of the race as a whole in order 
 that his greatest possible development may be brought 
 about. The plain common-sense of this should be obvious 
 to anyone who will dwell in thought on the deep signi- 
 ficance of any among many conventional religious phrases 
 that are constantly echoed and rarely appreciated. Take, 
 for instance, the familiar idea that in God we live and 
 move and have our being. The converse spoken with 
 all due reverence is a corollary of that statement. God 
 the spirit or influence of God lives in us, and in so far 
 as w'e have consciousness of being very ungodlike in many 
 respects, it should be obvious that the extent to which 
 that condition of things may be destined to become a vital 
 truth, depends on the degree to which we render ourselves, 
 so to speak, habitable for God. But surely, if one human 
 being has rendered himself very much more habitable for 
 God than another, that human being is the one whose will 
 has became a more potent force than the will of the other, 
 for it is more largely infused with the Will which, in its 
 perfection, is recognised as the first cause of all things, and 
 the guiding principle of Nature and evolution. 
 
 Who can fail to see what nonsense it must be to predi- 
 
26 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 cate the same immediate destiny in evolution for the God- 
 inhabited man and the mere self-centred human animal. 
 True, conventional religion, taking refuge in a meek faith 
 that the worst sinner may be purified somehow in another 
 world, is content to remain in ignorance of the way in 
 which its paradox works, of the device by which it is 
 arranged that opposite causes should produce the same 
 effect; but occult science, comprehending the patience of 
 Nature, as well as its invariability, is well aware that the 
 human animal will have other chances, besides any one 
 in particular that we may see him wasting, for making 
 the efforts that will render himself in some future per- 
 sonality the temple of spiritual consciousness. Oppor- 
 tunities may be wasted, and if so they may recur. The 
 considerations governing that reflection will be examined 
 later on. The all-important point is that at some stage 
 or other of his career a human being must undertake his 
 own evolution unite an adequately powerful ray of the 
 Universal Spirit with his own consciousness or he will 
 not evolve up into those superior realms of evolution 
 which the humanity of our own epoch merely exists to 
 subserve. Nor is that the whole of the thought which 
 this simple view of the subject suggests. It is a common- 
 place of all scientific thinking that there cannot be im- 
 mobility in Nature; there must be progress or retrogression 
 change of some sort. Nothing really stands still, either 
 in the cycles of astronomy, or chemical change, or meta- 
 physical condition. A man may live one life, perhaps, 
 and appear to be neither higher nor lower in the scale of 
 Nature at the close of it than he was at the beginning; 
 but one life is after all but a brief interval in eternity, 
 or even in those very protracted cycles of time which 
 occult science prefers to handle rather than to prattle, 
 
INTRODUCTORY 27 
 
 with the modern creeds, of conceptions so embarrassing 
 to the finite mind as eternity and infinitude. 
 
 The man, as a continuous being, having a life history 
 of which the one physical personality is but a single link, 
 cannot stand still in evolution. It is an intellectual 
 absurdity to imagine man doing that. He must either 
 advance or recede; progress or retrogress like everything 
 else every being else in Nature. Up to the rank in 
 creation where most of us are standing now, such retro- 
 gression as has been possible need not for the moment be 
 considered. The great automatic forces of evolution have 
 driven each individual forward. There has been suffering, 
 perhaps, if during the process of such driving his will 
 has been set against the Great Power behind him, but 
 broadly speaking there has been no retrogression. From 
 the humbler spheres of consciousness in the lower king- 
 doms of Nature the soul, in dim ages of the past, has risen 
 upward. Through processes of ethereal existence ante- 
 dating the humanity of the type now attained, the in- 
 dividuality has moved onward towards its higher destinies 
 as a human being qualified to say with a full comprehen- 
 sion of what it is about " Now I will blend this con- 
 sciousness and volition which is myself with the superior 
 divine consciousness of which I am the material mirror, 
 and thus illuminated and inspired I will move forward 
 again ever onward and upward." But just because he 
 is now qualified to say this if he chooses to act upon such 
 a declaration, a man is also qualified to determine that 
 it is all too much trouble; too painful for the time-being, 
 perhaps. And then if the election is so made, the human 
 consciousness which is the product of natural evolution 
 so far, chooses, in effect, to unite itself with matter and 
 its limitations, instead of with spirit and its potentialities. 
 
28 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 It is not necessary to stop here and at full length attempt 
 to define the characteristics of the descent that must then 
 set in. It should be obvious to any rational understanding 
 that such a descent is the inevitable alternative to the 
 conscious self-directed ascent, at the turning-point of 
 evolution, wherever that may be, at which a higher 
 progress to be achieved by the preparation of the interior 
 self for the access of the Divine influx is offered to each 
 man in turn as a potentiality of the consciousness he has 
 attained. But looking upward and considering the prospects 
 of humanity so very ill comprehended as yet by the 
 world at large in their broadest aspects the truth just 
 defined is one of pre-eminent significance. We have got 
 half-way through the great evolutionary process on which 
 the human faculty is launched. So far we have been led 
 and supported. For the rest of the way we must push 
 on ourselves seeing our way; understanding what is 
 expected of us; resolute to fulfil the Divine purpose. 
 
 Nor from this moment onward need we be any longer 
 in the dark concerning the road to be travelled, the interior 
 development we have it in our power to reach, nor the 
 attributes of that rank in Nature which it is open to us to 
 attain. The view of the whole evolutionary scheme that 
 has been gradually set forth in theosophical literature is 
 now sufficiently complete to make the prospects of the 
 future as intelligible as the history of the past. We are 
 as I have said, half-way through the whole " manvantara," 
 or period within which the present chapter of spiritual 
 evolution is designed to take place. The time spent up 
 to now on other planets besides this has been counted 
 in millions of ages. Millions of ages lie before the human 
 family for the full and complete development of its 
 evolution. Paying attention for the moment to that which 
 
INTRODUCTORY 29 
 
 may be described as normal evolution alone, occult science 
 shows us that the stupendous task of harmonising our wills 
 completely with the Divine idea of the whole undertaking, 
 and of mastering all the knowledge which it is possible 
 for us to acquire when our natures are adequately exalted 
 by that process, is one which may be protracted over the 
 whole range of those millions of ages. We shall gather 
 more as we go on concerning the circumstances under 
 which it is so protracted, but taken as slowly as Nature 
 allows for, or as rapidly as the process can be hastened, 
 nothing can be achieved from the middle point of the 
 manvantara onwards unless a comprehension of what is to 
 be done animates each effort at every stage. That is the 
 all-essential idea to keep hold of in contemplating the 
 prospects of humanity. The nature of the attainments 
 possible eventually, will be considered more conveniently 
 at a later stage of the inquiry. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 
 
 AT the outset of any serious attempt to compre- 
 hend Theosophic teaching concerning the growth 
 of the soul, it is well worth while to dissipate the 
 foolish delusion that such teaching is at war with religion, 
 and based upon a godless and atheistic system of thought, 
 Theosophy is so far from deserving that reproach that it 
 even brings into sympathy with all essential religious ideas, 
 those of its followers who, repelled in the first instance 
 by the unsatisfactory creeds in which religion has so often 
 been disguised by ecclesiastical systems, have approached 
 it from the point of view of agnostic or even atheistic 
 thinking. 
 
 Occult science enables us to define clearly before the 
 mind's eye the goal at which humanity has to aim. 
 Religious faith, it may be urged, does this also, no matter 
 with what varieties of creed it may be associated. It 
 points to a happy spiritual life of a refined order as a 
 reward for piety and blameless conduct. But that is 
 not a " clearly defined " goal, because the conditions of 
 such superior existence are never explained in sacred 
 writings with exactitude. The theosophic exposition of 
 spiritual science, on the other hand, shows quite definitely 
 the conditions of spiritual existence which ensue as a 
 consequence of simple piety and blameless life, and also 
 the still higher conditions that may be attainable for those 
 who unite with the utmost attainable blamelessness, 
 adequate knowledge concerning the scope and possibilities 
 of human existence, and who, guiding their conduct by 
 the light of that knowledge, bring themselves so far into 
 harmony with the loftiest principles governing the evolu- 
 
 30 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 3 r 
 
 tion of the world, as to rise in the scale of creation, and 
 take their places in that sphere of existence which, as 
 compared with the kingdom of humanity, might be 
 termed the kingdom of divinity. 
 
 Before going further let me expand this contrast a 
 little. For one very common mistake made about theo- 
 sophic teaching by people who begin to appreciate its 
 ethical tendencies, is that, after all, it only repeats familiar * 
 Christian exhortations in a new form of words, dropping 
 out the ecclesiastical phraseology. 
 
 In spite of the painful pretences of precision which 
 distinguish the anthropomorphic formulas of modern 
 churches, the philosophical literature of modern thought 
 is saturated with the conviction that the conditions of 
 physical life hopelessly deny us exact knowledge in 
 reference to the hereafter. ** The bourne from which 
 no traveller returns " is a region which Shakespeare, even 
 though presenting us in the same breath with a traveller 
 who does return from it, recognises as shrouded in im- 
 penetrable darkness. Tennyson cannot give, by the Voice* 
 of Faith, any more definite information concerning the 
 future than is conveyed in the " notice faintly under- 
 stood," which embodies the encouragement of " a hidden 
 hope." The leading exponents of modern knowledge 
 concerning physical nature are bitter in their repudia- 
 tion of the theory that it is possible to get touch with 
 positive facts having to do with non-carnate conditions 
 of consciousness. With eighteen centuries to work in, the 
 Christian churches have finally produced, as the result 
 of their teaching, the assured conviction on the part of 
 their most intellectual pupils, that there is nothing to be 
 known, however much to be hoped for, along that road. 
 Reasonable conjectures, pointing to a superphysical intel- 
 
32 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 ligence and consciousness of some sort governing the 
 world, there may be, but of real knowledge, such as 
 that we have about the planetary movements or the mole- 
 cular constitution of matter, there is none attainable. 
 
 Samuel Laing, summing up the conclusions of Modern 
 Thought, writes : " As far as our experience and know- 
 , ledge extend, this life of conscious personal identity is 
 indissolubly connected with a material organ the brain. 
 What will become of it when the brain is dis- 
 solved into its elements ? No voice comes from beyond 
 the grave to tell us. It is the mystery of mysteries." 
 
 And the authors of " The Unseen Universe," though 
 their whole book presents itself as an attempt to argue 
 that there may be an unseen universe and some avenue that 
 may at last lead from the seen to the unseen, conceive that 
 up to now this avenue " has unfortunately been walled up 
 and ticketed with ' No road this way.' " " In fine," they 
 say elsewhere, " the unseen may have a very wide field 
 of influence, but from its very nature its working is not 
 discernible, and we are therefore led to consult the Chris- 
 tian records for otherwise unattainable information regard- 
 ing the reality of a present influence exercised by the in- 
 visible universe upon ours." As for the fate of evil doers, 
 " We greatly question whether any school of theologians 
 have succeeded in throwing a single ray of real light into 
 this mysterious region." 
 
 The whole body of theosophic teaching on the con- 
 trary rests on the confident declaration that an immense 
 volume of real knowledge, quite as precise and certain as 
 that we possess about the movements of the planets, or 
 the behaviour of molecules, is attainable and has been 
 attained in reference to superphysical conditions of human 
 consciousness, the natural laws which govern the transition 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 3 3 
 
 of human consciousness from one sphere or plane of Nature 
 to another, and the conditions of existence which belong to 
 other Beings, some higher than, some lower than the 
 humanity of which we have cognisance on this earth. 
 But when the practical bearing of this knowledge on 
 human conduct during incarnate life is brought down to 
 an every-day level, undoubtedly it is found that in many 
 respects the ethics of exact spiritual science are identical 
 with the ethics of the inexact, however ardent, aspira- 
 tions of religion. That is in no way surprising for students 
 of Theosophy who come to realise that all religion worthy 
 of the name has grown out of spiritual science as existing 
 in the world at the period of such growth. Religions 
 prepared by the various great teachers and prophets of man- 
 kind for propagation in the world at large, are in all cases 
 excerpts clothed in a more or less elaborate symbolism, 
 from the great body of definite scientific knowledge con- 
 cerning the spiritual laws and purpose of the world 
 possessed by the initiates for the time being of esoteric 
 wisdom. 
 
 The identity, however, of ordinary religious and theo- 
 sophic ethics up to a certain point in no way lessens the 
 importance of the additional spiritual guidance to be 
 derived from the knowledge of theosophic doctrine. The 
 acquisition of that knowledge at one stage or another of 
 human progress is an absolute condition, sine qua non, for 
 the attainment of the grander possibilities of that progress. 
 The good life per se will lead to happiness hereafter, as 
 the most popular forms of religious teaching very fairly 
 declare. The ideas associated with religious piety, if 
 welded with that good life, will colour the happiness to 
 which it leads and determine its character and kind. But 
 the good life per se leads to nothing more than happiness, 
 
 4 
 
34 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 and not even to an eternity of that. To rise in the scale 
 of Nature and get above the conditions of transitoriness 
 that beset all phases of consciousness of the merely human 
 kingdom, whether incarnate or disincarnate, we must 
 make specific efforts of a kind that can only be made by 
 virtue of knowledge concerning the higher spiritual laws of 
 Nature. 
 
 These are vague phrases till they are brought to a focus 
 by an exposition of the great and magnificent discoveries 
 concerning the dormant spiritual faculties of humanity 
 and the phases of Nature suitable to their expansion, which 
 some advanced representatives of humanity in all ages of 
 the world since the human epoch began, have been enabled 
 to make. 
 
 When churches or sects with their hundreds of 
 divergent creeds make definite statements of fact con- 
 cerning the destinies of humanity which can be shown 
 to have arisen from some unintelligent materialisation of 
 an allegory, or from a grovelling, anthropomorphic con- 
 ception of the principles on which the world is governed, 
 theosophical teaching will naturally endeavour to break 
 through such incrustations of error; but the religious in- 
 stinct or sentiment itself is so fundamentally identical with 
 the theosophical instinct or sentiment, that to suppose the 
 one hostile to the other is to misunderstand the position 
 entirely. 
 
 It is quite true, more's the pity, that much genuine 
 religious sentiment is often blended with limited sectarian 
 bigotry. Whether a man be a member of the Church of 
 England, or a Roman Catholic, or a Baptist, or a Mussul- 
 man, if he conceives that his own creed sums up the actual 
 truth of things and that the other creeds are false, he is in 
 a state of mind which we must recognise, to say the least, 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 3 5 
 
 as highly unintelligent. If he goes further, as many do, 
 and believes that there is no salvation, outside the pale of 
 his own creed, for the adherents of others, he stands before 
 us as a reductio ad absurdum of sectarian folly. But how- 
 ever feeble may be his mental grasp of spiritual principles, 
 even he and, all the more, sectarians who are in various 
 degrees less bigoted may blend with their foolishness 
 a great deal of genuine religious sentiment. They may 
 set before their own interior sight a conception of Deity 
 which they adore, a code of right and wrong which is, at 
 all events, something divorced from the immediate dictates 
 of selfish interest, and they may govern their lives on the 
 principle that the destinies of the soul after death are of 
 more importance than the transitory enjoyments of physi- 
 cal life. With that much spirituality to begin with, 
 advancing intelligence in progress of time may lead them 
 into the path of real enlightenment. 
 
 In a very much higher degree may religious sentiment 
 of a more refined and intense order be directly calculated 
 to prepare the mind for the supreme illumination of theo- 
 sophic teaching, and however little modern popular creeds 
 may seem adapted to develop ardent spiritual enthusiasm 
 of a pure and refined character, we have to recognise the 
 curious fact that in the present age of the world great 
 numbers of religious people .are immeasurably better and 
 more spiritually intelligent than their creeds would lead 
 one to expect. In fact, the growth of intelligence has 
 permeated European religions to an extent that has honey- 
 combed them, really, without apparently disturbing their 
 external form; in other words, the refinement of feeling 
 that general culture evokes, and the earnestness of spiritual 
 aspiration among multitudes of people still professing some 
 orthodox faith, have woven so beautiful a drapery of vague 
 
 4* 
 
3 6 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 sentiment around the original doctrines which it has 
 never occurred to them to dispense with that the ugly 
 deformities thus hidden from view are effectually for- 
 gotten. If the outsider complains, " Your doctrine says 
 so and so," the answer is, " Not at all; nobody of culti- 
 vated mind takes it in that sense; it really means this and 
 that." And then the ignoble statement, whatever it may 
 be, is sublimated into something too ethereal to be con- 
 troverted. 
 
 This method of dealing with exoteric or popular 
 religions may be supported or condemned along different 
 lines of argument. Whether it hastens or retards the 
 evolution of the popular religion into something higher 
 is a question that cannot be easily decided. But at all 
 events, the attitude of mind of people who in this way 
 cling to and refine for their own use, at least the con- 
 ventions of exoteric belief, may go hand in hand with a 
 capacity to assimilate real spiritual knowledge. And the 
 ardour of religious feeling which has in the first instance 
 inspired their own interior development, must be distinctly 
 favourable, in their case, to that practical application of 
 the higher wisdom to the problems of human life and con- 
 duct which it is the great purpose of Theosophy to 
 promote. 
 
 Indeed, it is impossible, from the theosophical point 
 of view, to be too earnest in repudiating the miserable 
 misrepresentation of Theosophy that leads people some- 
 times to imagine it an aggressive and iconoclastic philo- 
 sophy essentially hostile to religion. It would be as wise 
 to assert that mathematical teaching is hostile to 
 astronomy. Mathematics may from time to time have 
 upset some popular idea on the subject of astronomy, but 
 that has simply been so much the better for astronomy; 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 3 7 
 
 and in the same way any religious idea any idea, that is 
 to say, which has become encrusted on religion which 
 Theosophy may be in a position to discredit will be got 
 rid of by religion greatly to its own advantage. 
 Theosophy, in fact, stands to religion very much in the 
 position of mathematics to astronomy; that last relation- 
 ship is the relationship of the abstract to the concrete. 
 The pure colourless truths of mathematical science lead 
 us upwards to an appreciation of the sublime and soul- 
 stirring panorama of the heavens. So does an understand- 
 ing of theosophic truth, however stern, scientific, and 
 abstract it may seem in the first instance, lead the spiritual 
 consciousness upward towards realms of glowing emotion, 
 and eventually into the actual contemplation of spiritual 
 realities, the glories of which may easily account for the 
 way in which the illuminated theosophic student regards 
 all familiar objects of mundane desire as contemptible 
 trivialities beside the experiences of his interior progress. 
 
 To repeat a phrase growing almost too hackneyed for 
 use, but representing a truth that must never be forgotten, 
 Theosophy is the essence of religion, and of all religions 
 worthy of the name. Or in other words, it is the science 
 of Divine things, as the word implies. Reverence for 
 each specific religion felt by its adherents, may often blind 
 them to the idea that there must be such an underlying 
 science. The outer expression given to the views of 
 exoteric religions concerning Deity and Divine relations 
 with humanity must for all but the most circumscribed 
 intelligence be recognised as at any rate falling far short 
 of a complete explanation of those stupendous mysteries. 
 There must be a prodigious complexity, so to speak, in 
 the organisation of spiritual Nature, which very bald 
 however poetical declarations concerning omnipotence, 
 
3 8 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 omniscience, Heaven, and eternal life, fail to expound. 
 Within the far narrower field of observation with which 
 physical science deals, it will be seen on reflection that a 
 great many broad generalisations are in the nature of an 
 exoteric substitute for the declarations which more ad- 
 vanced knowledge might supply. The sun, for example, 
 is for the popular Western understanding a vast globe 
 in the centre of the system of planets to which we belong, 
 which shines with a bright light and gives out heat, 
 generating organic growth, and providing for the recur- 
 rence of seasons, and so on. Other popular conceptions 
 of the sun have anthropomorphized these ideas, more or 
 less, and have imputed a self-conscious Divinity to the orb 
 on whose influence the life and health of the world so 
 manifestly depended. But underlying both views, there 
 are certainly immense realms of complex intermediation 
 that the popular understanding does not trouble itself 
 about in either case. How does the sun make a plant 
 grow ? It sends out light and heat, but that is a loose and 
 ineffectual statement that takes us no forwarder. We can 
 hunt down the physical elements concerned, and discern 
 them, if not absolutely with the sight, with the eye of 
 understanding in their molecular simplicity. Heat may 
 throw these molecules into motion, but that alone will not 
 account for organic growth. Moreover, when we begin 
 to examine into these things how does the heat get here 
 from the sun ? The sun radiates it ! That does not 
 explain anything. By what intermediation is the influence 
 conveyed ? Science begins at this stage to be esoteric. 
 
 Popular knowledge the popular religion of the matter 
 so to speak is content with the statement the sun emits 
 heat. Even exoteric science finds it necessary to fortify 
 and expand this crude statement, and brings the lumini- 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 3 9 
 
 ferous ether into the field of observation. Ether, that 
 marvellous medium of physical influences that can neither 
 be seen, felt, nor examined by any instrument, is dis- 
 covered by advancing knowledge nevertheless, and 
 science, in spite of its extremely cautious habits, begins to 
 affirm certain definite propositions concerning it. Then 
 does " emission " in the popular sense take place at all 
 in connection with tjie sun's heat and light ? According 
 to the very latest views of physical science, such emission 
 is actually suspected, though till the appearance of the 
 electron on the scene, the tendency of modern thought 
 was rather in the direction of assuming that all solar in- 
 fluences were transmitted to us as vibrations or peculiar 
 conditions of the ether. That the sun does something 
 to the ether, and that we feel effects in the ether round 
 us, is undeniable; but esoteric science enables us to realise 
 that the sun at all events is in control of forces infinitely 
 more subtle even than those having to do with etheric 
 vibrations, and already we can foresee developments of 
 scientific knowledge in preparation for no very distant 
 periods when the term " physical science " will have to 
 be discarded as an incomplete description of the know- 
 ledge accumulated by the Royal Society. 
 
 Assuming eventually that students of solar physics come 
 to something resembling complete knowledge of the chain 
 of cause and effect between the sun's influence and the 
 organic life of the world, then solar physics would be to 
 the broad popular statements on the subject, just what 
 theosophical knowledge in its perfection is to popular 
 religion. 
 
 The analogy just employed is all the more inviting, 
 because it suits the idea to be illustrated in more ways 
 than one. Just as esoteric solar physics require us to 
 
40 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 investigate the properties of a medium imperceptible to 
 exoteric senses, so in dealing with spiritual science we 
 must range over fields of observation that lie altogether 
 beyond exoteric understanding. Even without attempt- 
 ing this, a great deal of very instructive and suggestive 
 information on the subject may, it is true, be picked up 
 by those peculiarly qualified, from ancient Oriental 
 literature. Most of this is maddeningly obscure, though 
 when you know what it ought to mean you can often 
 see that this meaning must have been present to the 
 writer's mind. But granting that in this way from one 
 region or another of ancient Oriental literature, it would 
 be possible to compile an account of the great evolutionary 
 processes of Nature, showing the origin of the solar system, 
 the successive development of planets related to each other, 
 the passage of the life influence through the vegetable and 
 animal kingdoms, and the evolution of the human king- 
 dom at last through a series of mighty races, and so on, 
 after all the knowledge so preserved in the Eastern books, 
 must in the first instance have been acquired by persons 
 qualified to direct their observation to realms of Nature 
 beyond those penetrated by the ordinary senses. Whether 
 knowledge concerning the higher planes of Nature was 
 obtained by ancient seers thousands of years ago, or by 
 modern seers quite recently, its acquisition must of neces- 
 sity depend on the exercise by some persons at one time 
 or another of higher faculties than those concerned with 
 the ordinary objects of sense. We may frankly recognise 
 that the knowledge concerning Nature on which the lofty 
 moral purpose of theosophic teaching rests, could never 
 have been acquired by the mere intellectual study of 
 evidences lying within the range of mere scientific observa- 
 tion. The gifts of seership, including the highest spiritual 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 4 1 
 
 clairvoyance, have been brought into play in the prolonged 
 task of educating the human mind to understand the great 
 scheme of Nature to which that mind belongs, and from 
 this reflection it directly follows that the cultivation in 
 ourselves of analogous faculties, is the great task on which 
 it behoves us to enter if we would come fully into com- 
 munion with the aspects of Nature from contact with 
 which the seer's knowledge has been developed. 
 
 But not on that account need we assume that no 
 progress in spiritual science is to be accomplished without 
 first developing faculties that will bring us into conscious 
 relations with higher planes of Nature. As well might 
 we refuse to accept any knowledge concerning the stars 
 unless we were in a position to build an observatory for 
 ourselves, and arm ourselves with a complete comprehen- 
 sion of all sciences subsidiary to such knowledge. 
 Through every department of human enlightenment 
 through which culture ranges, most of us are daily in the 
 habit of relying to a very large extent upon the original 
 research of others. And for the great majority of man- 
 kind, for a long time to come, it will be inevitably neces- 
 sary that they should rely, in dealing with the science of 
 spiritual things, on the original research of others along 
 those lines. But with reasonable precautions they may do 
 this confidently in the one case as in the other. Of course, 
 the situation is embarrassing at the outset in the case of 
 psychic inquiry. Jn the other case the multitude know 
 that each expert is checked and watched by a number of 
 other experts, and it is quickly known whether any new 
 conclusions of independent research are accepted by con- 
 temporary science. If so, the multitude accepts that 
 guarantee. Now, at present, as regard spiritual science, 
 we have no Royal Society at hand to put its imprimatur 
 
42 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 on progressive discoveries. Some of us know, indeed, that 
 there is, so to speak, a Royal Society of spiritual scientists 
 in existence, and that if we reach it we gain access to a 
 source of authority in such matters far better to be relied 
 on than even the elite leaders of contemporary physical 
 science in their department of knowledge. It is from 
 that source of information, as repeatedly explained, that 
 the theosophical revelation of our time has come. But 
 for reasons which patient investigation makes very intel- 
 ligible, the foci of spiritual initiation are not readily 
 accessible to all inquirers at present, so their authority can 
 never be invoked for the guidance of people who are 
 merely beginning the investigation of occult teaching. 
 Nothing is more helpful to earnest inquirers than a clear 
 conviction as to the existence of such foci and the con- 
 ditions under which their influence radiates out into the 
 world, but it is possible to get a long way on the path of 
 theosophic culture before the question is taken up for 
 thorough examination. 
 
 Leaving it out of sight for the moment we have to 
 decide how we are to investigate spiritual science 
 without special faculties which enable us to cognise 
 other planes of Nature and without access to any body 
 of established knowledge, in reference to which we have 
 as yet entire confidence. My answer is that we all have 
 the capacities of reason that enable us to consider the 
 statements of occult science now lying before the world, 
 to compare them with the familiar facts of life, to test 
 them by reference to ideal conceptions as to justice and 
 purpose in the spiritual government of the world, to make 
 prudent and careful use of the wonderful analogies of 
 Nature that visibly in so many ways, and inferentially in 
 many more, bring her various phases into harmony with 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 43 
 
 one another, and finally this kind of test bringing me 
 back to the special subject I have in hand for the moment 
 to apply the declarations of occult science to the great 
 and fundamental conceptions of traditional religion, and 
 see whether or not they offend, confirm, or illuminate the 
 elements of those conceptions to which we may feel the 
 deepest attachment. 
 
 In reality occult science not only shows itself in funda- 
 mental harmony with great religious ideas, but going far 
 beyond this, reconciles itself, so to speak, with religion; 
 and actually invests in a great many cases with a new and 
 beautiful significance, dogmas of exoteric religion which 
 have gradually forfeited their true spiritual significance 
 for a materialistic generation, which have been for many 
 centuries taken by churches and congregations merely at 
 the foot of the letter, to be a stumbling block for some, 
 unhealthy food for those who have swallowed them in 
 blind faith, taking them literally and yet refusing to bring 
 them out, for consideration, into the light of common 
 reason. Take for example and merely as an example, 
 for to go fully into the interpretation of religious dogma 
 by the light of occultism would be to write a book on 
 that branch of the subject alone the Vicarious Atone- 
 ment that has long taken its place as the leading doctrine 
 of modern Christianity. The notion of a wrathful God, 
 expending anger on an innocent being and ultimately for- 
 giving guilty persons when his desire to take vengeance 
 somehow has been satisfied, is a notion that blasphemes 
 Deity, offends justice, and is generally grotesque and 
 refined modern theology sublimates it more or less vaguely 
 into something different, while leaving it in that form for 
 humbler understandings that do not rise in overt rebellion 
 against its horrors. Occult science on the other hand, 
 
44 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 gives us the true reading of the mysterious dogma. The 
 whole story of the crucifixion is enacted afresh in the case 
 of every human soul that attains spiritual exaltation. It is 
 the allegory of the soul's progress. It is the only process by 
 which redemption can be accomplished and it is vividly 
 appreciated as soon as we understand the occult teaching 
 concerning the lower and the higher self. The higher self 
 very roughly anticipating occult explanations that will 
 be given more fully further on is the truly spiritual, 
 immortal, imperishable part of a man the growth and 
 expansion of which into full consciousness, is the purpose 
 of physical life, and its protracted experiences. That is 
 the Divinity which incarnates, welding its consciousness 
 during each physical life with its lower self, the visible, 
 sinful, fallible man of our every day observation the 
 reflection of itself on the plane of matter. It can only 
 exalt the personality to the plane of true spiritual evolu- 
 tion and redeem it from sin and suffering by crucifixion 
 on the physical plane, by the painful sacrifice on the 
 plane of its incarnate manifestation of physical desires and 
 tendencies and personal selfishness that is to say, by the 
 subordination of the lower self the ordinary waking 
 consciousness to the Divine teaching involved in the 
 loftiest aspiration of the Christ within us the higher self. 
 Then the atonement is accomplished without an atom of 
 injustice entering into the transaction. 
 
 In a similar way the whole story of Adam and Eve, 
 the Garden of Eden, of the rib, the temptation, and 
 the fall, can be shown, when illuminated by occult know- 
 ledge, to be a profound cryptograph embodying some of 
 the most important facts in the evolution of the human 
 race in the evolution especially of humanity as we know 
 it now, expressed in the two sexes, from that earlier 
 
OCCULT SCIENCE AND RELIGION 45 
 
 humanity belonging more to the " astral " than to the 
 physical plane of Nature, which preceded our present type 
 in the great process of the descent of spirit into matter. 
 But I need not go into the minutiae of that interpretation 
 here. The broad principle which I am specially con- 
 cerned to lay down does not really depend on, however 
 much it is fortified by, the precise correspondence between 
 occult teaching and the dogmas of exoteric religion as 
 soon as these are raised above the level of nursery tales or 
 Icelandic sagas by an adequate translation into terms of 
 spiritual thought. The harmony between occultism and 
 the essence of everything that is most exalted in religious 
 aspiration or emotion is unmistakable for everyone who 
 gets on far enough in the study of occultism to realise 
 how much more it signifies than that which it is sometimes 
 supposed to be chiefly concerned with the unveiling of 
 a new set of natural mysteries, the exploration of a new 
 realm of scientific wonder. It is, indeed, the science 
 behind all sciences, without which none can be complete; 
 but it is also the religion behind all religions, without 
 which none can do more than prepare the soul of man for 
 entrance on its loftiest inheritance. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 RE-INCARNATION 
 
 NO purpose worth speaking of can be served by 
 studying the teachings which constitute in their 
 entirety the Esoteric Doctrine until the student 
 is in the first instance completely saturated with the 
 conception that the growth and development of the human 
 soul is accomplished by means of successive returns to 
 physical life (with intervening periods of spiritual rest) 
 which, regarded in the aggregate as a process of Nature, 
 make up what is generally called the theory of Re-incarna- 
 tion. It is equally true, however, that the subject cannot 
 be studied quite apart from other branches of the great 
 body of knowledge to which it belongs. A general appre- 
 ciation of the perfect harmony of the Esoteric Doctrine in 
 its various ramifications is often required for the proper com- 
 prehension of its fundamental conceptions. Esoteric teaching 
 is not in that respect quite like Euclid's geometry, of which 
 one may learn a little and no more and yet have that little 
 firmly established in the understanding. It is like Euclid's 
 geometry in the sense that the later propositions cannot 
 be accepted unless the earlier propositions have been 
 realised and appreciated first; but to get at that realisation 
 it may often be necessary to sweep on far ahead and realise 
 how necessary the earlier propositions are to an apprecia- 
 tion of the grander spiritual ideas with which its later 
 exposition may be concerned. Then the student, recom- 
 mencing the examination of the whole teaching, will 
 begin, perhaps, to see the fundamental principles in a new 
 light, and may finally get them embedded in his perma- 
 nent conviction. Then he finds himself at last in pos- 
 session of a foundation whereon he can build a structure 
 
RE-INCARNATION 47 
 
 of knowledge which it is possible to ascend with con- 
 fidence. 
 
 In dealing at the outset with 'the question whether the 
 doctrine of human evolution summed up in the term " Re- 
 incarnation" can be "proved" or not, in the sense that you 
 can prove a new discovery in physics, we have to recog- 
 nise that, of course, such proof is impossible. All we can 
 do is to show that it would be profoundly unphilosophical 
 to believe anything else anything, that is to say, at 
 variance with that doctrine; that Re-incarnation will satis- 
 factorily account for all the phenomena of human life 
 (which the idea can have any relations with), and that 
 these would be chaotic and unintelligible otherwise; that 
 without bringing in this all-important interpretation of 
 its conditions the world around us would be a creation of 
 malevolence and injustice, rather than one of wisdom and 
 goodness; that only by recognising Re-incarnation can we 
 account for one man being a Newton and another an 
 ignorant blockhead; finally, that although the majority of 
 human beings at the present stage of evolution for 
 reasons that esoteric teaching renders abundantly clear 
 do not remember their past lives, some people whose 
 spiritual development has passed certain limits, actually do 
 remember theirs not merely in a vague and shadowy 
 fashion, but with complete precision and even a fuller 
 grasp of detail than untrained memory will afford in deal- 
 ing with the earlier periods of a current life. I shall 
 amplify these and other considerations directly, but what 
 I want to emphasise for the moment is that in admitting 
 the doctrine of Re-incarnation to be insusceptible of proof 
 in the absolute, physical sense of the word I claim 
 for it all the while that it can be so nearly proved by 
 reasoning, that no intelligent man who correctly appre- 
 
48 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 hends the idea, and who applies it with adequate patience 
 to the experience of existence whether in or out of the 
 body, can possibly fail to believe it as fully, for example, 
 as the modern scientific world believes in the undulatory 
 theory of light. That theory is not argued about any 
 more in these days. It is the only theory that will explain 
 all the facts. And so with Re-incarnation in the domain 
 of spiritual science; it is the only theory which will ex- 
 plain all the facts, and it is luminous with a truly scientific 
 aspect; that is to say, it is in harmony with the uniformities 
 of Nature, affording indeed the only way out of supposing 
 that the uniformities of Nature are rudely violated in the 
 laws which govern the evolution of humanity. Thus, in 
 progress of time, cultivated thinkers will certainly cease 
 to argue about Re-incarnation, even before the develop- 
 ment in ordinary mankind of those higher faculties to 
 which the concatenation of successive lives will ultimately 
 become as plainly perceptible, no doubt, as the identity of 
 the sun is obvious to us, on his rising every day. 
 
 The first step towards realising the truth of the doctrine 
 of Re-incarnation is to obtain a clear comprehension of 
 the views really held by people who recognise that doctrine 
 as explaining the actual process of the soul's evolution. , 
 We possess a considerable mass of writing on the subject 
 now, which students of Oriental philosophy generally 
 would recognise as setting forth the teaching of the most 
 cultivated exponents of that philosophy, and we find, to 
 begin with, that a good many popular notions on the 
 subject which have floated about the world at various 
 periods may be pared away from the central idea. The 
 esoteric doctrine of Re-incarnation, for example, does 
 not contemplate the descent of human souls, under any 
 circumstances, into animal bodies. In the crudest presen- 
 
RE-INCARNATION 49 
 
 tation of the idea, that has been treated as part of the 
 scheme, but I do not believe it has ever been suggested 
 except as a symbol of moral deterioration following on 
 bad lives, or as a disguise of the true teaching. The only 
 theory that I am anxious to support is that according to 
 which the drift of successive Re-incarnations must always 
 be progressive. Never mind for the moment from what 
 phases of existence in the remote past human beings may 
 have ascended : once on the human level they remain on 
 that level, or, at all events, continue to advance on that 
 level. 
 
 We may start, in order to explain the real teaching 
 of occultists on the subject of Re-incarnation, at a point 
 in human evolution when the human condition has already 
 been fully attained and when life is going on under the cir- 
 cumstances with which we are familiar. The doctrine 
 is that when a man of our kind dies as regards the 
 physical manifestation of his consciousness that con- 
 sciousness passes first of all into spiritual or relatively 
 spiritual conditions of existence, which are calculated to 
 endure for a long time, and are immensely important. 
 From some of these conditions it is undoubtedly possible 
 that touch may be maintained with the consciousness of 
 people still in the earth life. And though there are some 
 spiritual conditions into which the soul may pass which are 
 too exalted to permit anything resembling what is 
 ordinarily meant by intercourse with friends still in earth 
 life, I imagine that the experience of many Spiritualists 
 would go far to confirm rather than to conflict with that 
 view. Broadly, therefore, it will be seen that the theory 
 of Re-incarnation does not enter into competition with 
 any estimate of the probabilities of spirit life except 
 in so far as some of those estimates will be satisfied with 
 
50 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 nothing less than eternity as the duration of the con- 
 ditions they predict. The theory of Re-incarnation con- 
 templates, with the progress of ages, so great an advance 
 and improvement in the type of humanity, both as regards 
 earthly body and soul consciousness, that it would certainly 
 shrink from supposing that any human being of an im- 
 perfect type should be doomed to preserve to all eternity 
 any single personality which would perpetuate its im- 
 perfections. But that theory, let it always be remem- 
 bered, is in no hurry to obliterate personalities. The 
 spiritual existence following the release of the soul from 
 any particular body may be prolonged, if the experiences 
 of life in that body have been of a peculiarly vivid and in- 
 spiring character, for prodigious periods. But the con- 
 tention of esoteric philosophy is that finite causes must 
 have finite effects. The earthly experience of any human 
 being between birth and death is an accumulation of finite 
 causes, summed up within the experience, the emotions, 
 the thoughts of the life in question. Grant those subjec- 
 tive energies any range of amplification we please, a time 
 will come, according to the doctrine I am now describing, 
 when they are all distilled as it were into the essence of 
 life. The soul has then absorbed into its permanent or 
 truly spiritual nature all the capacities of emotion and 
 knowledge, which its last life invested it with. It is once 
 more a centre of abstract consciousness, and in that 
 capacity, under the affinities of its nature, it once again 
 seeks a vehicle for the activity of its latent capacities. It 
 finds that vehicle not consciously, but under the opera- 
 tion of a comprehensive natural law in a newly develop- 
 ing human form. 
 
 So far we have just a bare outline of the theory of Re-in- 
 carnation. We start with a soul in physical life we follow 
 
RE-INCARNATION 51 
 
 it through the experiences of life which develop all those 
 innumerable memories and affections and associations of 
 thought which make up the person or personality in ques- 
 tion (a something quite distinct, of course, from the body 
 which is its vehicle). We perceive that personality pro- 
 ceeding next to enjoy a spiritual existence (for periods 
 enormously outrunning the span of physical life), and 
 then we find it returning to a new earth life to gather in 
 fresh experience, and develop fresh capacity for know- 
 ledge, and perhaps to make that all-important moral pro- 
 gress which can only be accomplished in the midst of the 
 temptations, the struggles, and the internal victories of the 
 physical plane. 
 
 But to understand the doctrine aright, it is above all 
 things necessary to keep in view the law under which the 
 soul, at the expiration of its spiritual rest, is drawn back 
 into earth life. That law is known to Oriental philo- 
 sophy as the law of Karma, and it is the essential comple- 
 ment of the doctrine of Re-incarnation. In its broad out- 
 lines this law is very easy of comprehension. The literal 
 meaning of the word is simply " doing " or " action." 
 But the law without which the whole scheme of human 
 life would be chaotic, enacts that action of whatever kind 
 must give rise to consequences; that on the moral plane 
 the effect follows the cause as inevitably as in the labora- 
 tory. The word seems sometimes to puzzle readers un- 
 familiar with occult literature, but need never do so 
 although used sometimes in different senses, because the 
 context of any sentence must always show in what sense 
 it is used. The law of Karma is, as just described, the 
 great principle that effect follows cause, that as we sow 
 so shall we reap, that good deeds give rise to happiness 
 in some form or another, and evil deeds to the reverse. 
 
 5* 
 
52 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Then, as a substantive, Karma is often spoken of as the 
 action itself which gives rise to a result, and thus we 
 come to speak of bad karma or good karma as phrases 
 indicating the kind of action productive of good or evil. 
 Again Karma may be spoken of as the force which ex- 
 plains any actual condition of things, and is thus associated 
 especially with the teaching concerning Re-incarnation, 
 with which we are now concerned. It shows us that the 
 bodily form to which the soul is drawn back is not selected 
 at random as in a certain sense the raindrops may be said 
 to fall at random on the shore or the sea, on the desert 
 or the fruitful plain. Governed by the all-sufficient dis- 
 cernment of Nature, the soul ripe for Re-incarnation finds 
 its expression in a body which affords it the exact conditions 
 of life which Karma in this sense its desert requires. 
 The circumstances of life to which that body introduces 
 its tenant, the destiny of happiness or suffering which its 
 leading characteristics provide for, its intellectual capacities 
 as an instrument on which the soul can play, are all deter- 
 mined (with an infinite variety of other conditions) by the 
 Karma of the re-incarnating soul, or, to use what is, 
 perhaps, a more scientific expression, of the re-incarnating 
 Ego. No one need here for an instant be embarrassed by 
 the familiar phenomena in human life of what is called 
 heredity/'^Physical forms are transmitted on the plane of 
 physical evolution from father to son with sometimes 
 remarkable resemblances; in such cases heredity is not the 
 cause, but the concomitant of the attributes manifested by 
 the son. For his independent soul Karma has required 
 such a vehicle as the man who becomes his father was 
 physically qualified to engender. Many illustrations 
 might be taken from Nature to show her various forces 
 and powers playing in this way into one another's hands. 
 
RE-INCARNATION 53 
 
 Assimilation is the law by which Re-incarnation and 
 Karma reconcile themselves with heredity. 
 
 Now this statement of the view really held by occult 
 students in respect to Re-incarnation should go far to 
 answer by anticipation many objections to the idea often 
 urged by people who acquire an inaccurate or incomplete 
 notion of the teaching. The suggestion, for instance, that 
 we cannot have passed former lives on earth because we 
 do not remember them, might be an objection to some 
 totally different theory; but it is no objection to the theory 
 I have reviewed. For manifestly, by the hypothesis, it is 
 impossible for anyone returning to the incarnate life to 
 remember that which he must wear out, completely distil, 
 and forget, as regards its specific details, before he is quali- 
 fied to re-incarnate. If it is alleged, as has, indeed, some- 
 times been alleged with great force in reference to par- 
 ticular cases, that some rarely organised persons have main- 
 tained recollections of a former life of no very remote 
 period, all we need point out is that few of the standing 
 rules of natural growth in any of the kingdoms of Nature 
 are beyond the reach of occasional abnormal exceptions. 
 It is the rule, for instance, that men of our race live to 
 about threescore years and ten, but there are many 
 examples in which that rule is violated, and we may con- 
 ceive in the same way that people sometimes die prema- 
 turely from the spiritual planes of Nature and return 
 before their time to the earth life. Nor in venturing that 
 guess need we assume that accidents like those which 
 terminate life abruptly sometimes pmongst us, are liable to 
 befall the released souls of the higher levels. Premature 
 returns to earth life in the rare cases where they occur, 
 may be due to Karmic complications too elaborate to in- 
 quire into now. The important point is that the regular 
 
54 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 course of events must necessarily clear the Ego of all 
 specific recollections of one life before it is ready for 
 another. 
 
 It might be desirable that this should be done in the 
 interest of the soul's progress, if for no other reason. Life 
 would perhaps hardly be bearable for human beings still in 
 a humble phase of evolution, if the long and weary proces- 
 sion of uninteresting existences through which they had 
 passed lay within sight behind them, before an enlightened 
 spirituality of consciousness had shown them the ultimate 
 possibilities of progress in future. And each life in turn 
 would not, perhaps, be fraught with its own lessons unless 
 these were learned separately, as it were, and one by one. 
 But above all the forgetfulness of each life is plainly due 
 to that provision of Nature Already referred to which 
 ensures for each of us after death the maximum fruition of 
 all our spiritual aspirations in the corresponding and appro- 
 priate realms of consciousness. It would be unjust to the 
 soul that it should remember, before it is exalted enough 
 to exercise faculties far transcending those of the present 
 average mankind. Memories are apt to be tinged either 
 with sad longing or regret. For a man to remember some 
 long vanished happiness of a former incarnation would 
 mean one of two things : either he would have been 
 unfairly deprived of the spiritual complement of that 
 happiness, turned out too soon from the Heaven in which 
 it would naturally be protracted, or supposing his new 
 conditions of physical life owing to bad Karma i.e., to 
 evil-doing on his part in the former life to be the painful 
 penalty of such misdoing, he would be doubly punished if 
 allowed the tantalising memory of what he had lost. 
 Finally, as regards this point, though I have here been 
 endeavouring to justify the law of Nature in question, it 
 
RE-INCARNATION 55 
 
 is not always to be expected that we can do this com- 
 pletely, and even if some critics remain inclined to dispute 
 the wisdom of Nature in providing a draught of Lethe, 
 "on slipping through from state to state," I would answer 
 that the first thing we have to do in studying these 
 mysteries is to find out what is, leaving to a more advanced 
 period of our knowledge the task of ascertaining why it is. 
 
 At all events, the fact that we do not remember former 
 incarnations, taken in conjunction with the merciful 
 arrangement that provides us after each physical life a 
 long, and, in most cases, highly enjoyable and refreshing 
 expansion of our existence on the spiritual planes, is no 
 impediment whatever to the acceptance of the Re-incarna- 
 tion theory, if we find it recommended to acceptance on 
 independent grounds. 
 
 Coming now to some of those independent grounds, I 
 would call attention to a somewhat recondite but ex- 
 tremely important argument, which is this : Ex nihilo 
 nihil -jit. That is a rule which commands our respect as 
 much on the spiritual as on the physical plane of Nature. 
 Now, independently of the broad teachings of religion, 
 there is plenty of evidence around us for inquirers who are 
 not too much prejudiced to avail themselves of it, to show 
 that the human soul is a real entity even when apart from 
 and independent of the body with which it is associated 
 during physical life. The experiences of spiritualism afford 
 us this evidence. In spite of all the fraud and trickery 
 with which the practice of spiritualism is surrounded, and 
 in spite of the insufficiency of its most genuine experiences 
 to establish the theories which many spiritualists have 
 hastily built up, nothing but wilful ignorance of these 
 experiences can blind the world at large to the proof 
 it affords of one all-important fact, viz., that intelligences, 
 
56 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 formerly those of living persons on earth, do in some cases 
 show themselves still actively functioning on another 
 plane of Nature. To take that much as established by the 
 investigations of spiritualists at large, is like taking from 
 astronomy nothing more than an assurance that the earth 
 is round. It is a simple and elementary assurance to 
 which, of course, I am aware that many people do not 
 help themselves as indeed there are other persons, or 
 some among these who do not help themselves to the 
 demonstrations of the earth's rotundity. There will come 
 a time when disbelievers in the reality of spiritualistic 
 phenomena persons who refer all such alleged occur- 
 rences to fraud and delusion will be to a future genera- 
 tion what the few surviving " flat earth men " are to our 
 own. But this is not an opportunity which I need take 
 for the full discussion of that matter with detailed refer- 
 ence to trustworthy observations and records. The argu- 
 ment I am concerned with is merely one among many con- 
 verging on the doctrine of Re-incarnation, and is specially 
 addressed to persons who recognise either on religious 
 grounds, or from the experience of spiritualism that the 
 human soul is an entity apart from the body. 
 
 Now where has that soul come from when we first 
 begin to see it flutter in a young child r It is a something 
 independent of the body, therefore it has had an origin 
 independently of the body. It has not come out of 
 nothingness it is essentially of the nature of the spiritual 
 plane to which we find abundant reason for feeling sure 
 it will flit off whenever the body is destroyed. Is it not 
 obvious, therefore, that it has emerged from the spiritual 
 plane coming into manifestation on the physical r 
 " But," someone may urge, " what we see in the young 
 child in the nature of a soul is something very different 
 
RE-INCARNATION 57 
 
 from that which we can follow to a certain extent on its 
 departure from the worn-out body of a person dying in 
 mature life. It may be that we have to recognise it as 
 coming into the child's body, an entity already, but it 
 looks very much like a freshly created entity. It is merely 
 a centre of potentialities, a consciousness that may be 
 taught, may acquire experience, may become a man, 
 clearly not the trained soul of a man from the first moment 
 of birth." Let me show how that objection is met. 
 Firstly, for the purpose of the argument I am setting forth, 
 all that matters is to establish that the soul is a continuous 
 entity which was in existence before and remains in 
 existence after the physical life. That which we see 
 before us, in the physical life of a man, is a bead, so to 
 speak, upon the thread of life. When we fully appreciate 
 the fact that the thread stretches into darkness in both 
 directions, we realise that the process of birth is, at all 
 events, the coming of a soul into incarnation, an emergence 
 into physical manifestation from a spiritual state; and when 
 we once realise that, we are, at all events, a very long way 
 on the road towards recognising the doctrine of Re-incar- 
 nation in its scientific completeness. But, secondly, the 
 vacuity of the child's mind, the emptiness of the soul on 
 coming into incarnation, is exactly the condition of things 
 which, on the doctrine of Re-incarnation, as I have ex- 
 plained it, we are bound to expect. All its specific states 
 of consciousness, its definite possessions of knowledge and 
 stores of emotional experience, have vibrated to their 
 utmost capacity for vibration on the spiritual plane of 
 being before Re-incarnation claimed it for earth once 
 more. As a re-incarnating entity it can only be a centre 
 of potentialities, a focus of consciousness replete with the 
 power of acquiring knowledge and the power of develop- 
 
58 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 ing thought, as soon as the new instrument, the new body, 
 with which it is thrown into relations by its Karmic 
 affinities, shall have grown into perfection sufficiently 
 to give it free play. 
 
 Here it is worth while to meet one objection that very 
 often arises in the minds of people who do not really under- 
 stand the teaching correctly, to the effect that it must be 
 very horrible for a conscious entity of an advanced order 
 to find him or herself once more in a baby's form, or even 
 in that very early stage of childhood identified with the 
 nursery. The mistake here arises from forgetfulness of 
 the fact that the ensoulment of the newly-born child by 
 the original entity coming again into incarnation, is a very 
 slow process. There are complications to be remembered, 
 because the case of quite common-place people unversed 
 in any occult knowledge, does not quite correspond with 
 that of those ripe for what is technically called an im- 
 mediate re-incarnation. Speaking, however, first of those 
 who belong to the more widely-diffused type, they are 
 quite unconscious of the very gradual way in which Nature 
 enables them to take possession of the new form, and at all 
 events, as in the other case to be considered, the first seven 
 years of the newly-born child's life is simply spent in the 
 gradual assimilation of etheric matter (this will be ex- 
 plained more fully later), and it is not until the child is 
 about fourteen years of age that any consciousness really 
 identified with the last incarnation of the Ego is really 
 manifesting in the new body. 
 
 In the case of immediate re-incarnations we are dealing 
 with more advanced Egos directly under the guidance of 
 a definite Being on a lofty plane of consciousness. The 
 original Ego is still functioning in the astral vehicle 
 appertaining to the former life. He is fully conscious of 
 
RE-INCARNATION 59 
 
 the new birth as forecasting the beginning of what, when 
 it becomes mature, he knows will be a vehicle for his own 
 consciousness. But he meanwhile is looking on from the 
 astral plane and is in no way sharing the dawning con- 
 sciousness within the baby form. 
 
 But passing on now from subtle considerations which 
 guide us to the discovery of the principle of Re-incarna- 
 tion, let us consider for a moment the immensely powerful 
 argument for its acceptance embodied in the condition of 
 the world around us. On the hypothesis that each physical 
 life is the only earth life of each soul in actual incarnation, 
 could any cruelty and injustice be worse than that which 
 the inequalities of life would exhibit in operation ? We 
 have not merely to consider the stupendous inequalities 
 in the lot of the rich and the poor; we see these inequalities 
 emphasised by all imaginable differences of health and 
 physique, and by the terrible differences of moral sur- 
 rounding. We see some members of the human family 
 strong and robust, and gifted with brilliant fa :ulties of 
 intelligence; prosperous, carefully guarded in youth from 
 evil, brought up in innocence and purity, drifted, as 
 naturally as a river flows, into lives of benevolence and 
 usefulness, and passing on into whatever spiritual existence 
 may await them beyond the grave, with every advantage 
 which the utmost development of their loftier aspirations 
 may bestow. Others we see crippled, deformed, miser- 
 able; steeped in poverty and, perhaps, painful disease; 
 nurtured in crime, and fed on evil of every sort; living a 
 curse to their companions, and destroyed at last perhaps 
 by the human justice they have offended. With unfeeling 
 foolishness some unintelligent defenders of the one-life 
 hypothesis will sometimes attempt to argue that beneath 
 all the apparent inequalities of life, the relief the miserable 
 
6o THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 and suffering may sometimes experience, during transitory 
 moments, when their hard lot may be a little ameliorated, 
 is so great that it may be set against their habitual misery, 
 with the result that all may roughly be said to have the 
 same share of happiness on the whole. Words would 
 fail me if I sought to characterise the grovelling and ig- 
 noble nonsense of this theory. Earthly happiness varies 
 with different people in the proportion in which lakes 
 vary in size; in which streams vary in length. There are 
 boundless differences in the well-being of different men 
 and women on earth, and these differences are of a nature 
 that could not be equalised on the spiritual plane of life, 
 in the way sometimes suggested. For if the poor and 
 suffering on earth were translated to a Heaven superior to 
 that provided for those who had been happy in earth life, 
 that would simply be translating the injustice of Provi- 
 dence to the realms in which its justice ought to be 
 especially operative. The persons wronged would then be 
 those who had been, without reference to themselves, 
 cheated of a blissful eternity at the poor price of transi- 
 tory delusions here. 
 
 It is only by realising the long succession of earth lives 
 which make up the individuality of each soul that .we can 
 discern order, harmony, and justice reigning in the 
 destinies of man. By this interpretation of the phenomena 
 of life we not alone restore justice to the government of 
 the world, but discover the working of natural law in 
 human evolution to be precise and unerring in its exacti- 
 tude. The good and bad deeds of men are of a mixed 
 and complex character. Some are spiritual in their colour- 
 ing; others appertain to the earth life. These last find 
 their fruition in the earth life when the soul returns to it. 
 They in their boundless variety account for the boundless 
 
RE-INCARNATION 61 
 
 diversities of human lot. Such diversities are not the 
 sport of brainless chance the outcome of what by an 
 absurd phrase the expression of the world's ignorance in 
 these matters is sometimes called the accident of birth. 
 There is no " accident " in the supreme act of Divine 
 justice guiding human evolution. With the same inevit- 
 able certainty that force on the physical plane governs the 
 combination of the molecules of matter though the 
 bewildering complexity of even that aspect of force 
 dazzles the mind as we attempt to follow out its workings 
 so does the far more exalted force which gives effect to 
 the primary laws of Nature in the moral world operate 
 with an exactitude that no chemical reactions can eclipse. 
 The outward circumstances of each life into which we 
 may be born are the mathematical result of the causes we 
 have ourselves set in motion in former lives. The causes 
 we are setting in motion now the effort of our own free 
 will within the narrowest hedge of circumstances we can 
 possibly imagine as confining it will be the all-powerful, 
 determining influence in the creation of the conditions 
 under which we shall live on earth next time. 
 
 And these conditions, let it be remembered, are not 
 merely a response to the moral requirements of the situa- 
 tion ; meting out happiness or suffering in accordance with 
 the karma of the individual Ego at the time of each Re- 
 incarnation, they are the expression, as well, of his intel- 
 lectual and psychic progress. No human effort is wasted 
 and resultless in the regions of such progress any more 
 than in those of the great moral law. If a man labours, 
 for example, during a whole life at some branch of science 
 at some art, or at some special department of study, the 
 specific acquirements he may possess at the end of his life 
 are not passed over, it is true, to the next life exactly 
 
62 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 as he lays them down. They would probably be of very 
 little use to him in the altered circumstances of the world 
 when he comes back, if they were. But they are thrown 
 into manifestation again at his Re-incarnation in the 
 appropriate form of highly developed aptitudes for the 
 line of acquisition he has formerly been concerned with. 
 Do we not observe, for instance, in such a very earthly 
 matter as the power of learning languages, great gulfs of 
 difference between the aptitudes of different people? 
 Some will learn a dozen languages with less difficulty than 
 others will learn one. " They have an inborn faculty," 
 says the careless commonplace critic, content as usual to 
 libel Nature by setting down to the accident of birth the 
 symmetrical outcome of exquisitely adjusted law. So 
 with the glaring examples of re-incarnating acquirements 
 presented to us by the case of people who show extra- 
 ordinary genius for music at an age when less " gifted " 
 contemporaries can barely distinguish a tune. There is 
 no gift in the matter there is acquirement faithfully pre- 
 served in the karmic affinities of the Ego and in its true 
 individuality. 
 
 Surely no one who appreciates, even imperfectly, the 
 fulness with which the doctrines of Re-incarnation satisfy 
 the problem of life and human evolution, will be surprised 
 to remember that it has always, as far as philosophical 
 history can look back, been accepted as the keynote of 
 spiritual science by the vast majority of mankind. 
 Buddhism finds it established as the corner-stone of 
 Brahminical teaching and takes it over as a matter of 
 course. This is a consideration which should not be too 
 lightly put aside by European thinkers over prone to 
 assume that their own age, which has been glorified by 
 an extraordinary advance in knowledge and intelligence 
 
RE-INCARNATION 63 
 
 relating to the physical plane of Nature, is entitled to a 
 monopoly of our intellectual respect. Modern scholar- 
 ship which is only now beginning to unlock the mysteries 
 of Sanscrit literature may well stand aghast at its dis- 
 coveries. Not for the moment to raise any question 
 about the real age of this literature; it is established at 
 all events, that far back behind the beginning of European 
 philosophy, there lies a complete literature exhibiting 
 profound sagacity and subtlety on the part of its authors 
 in regard to the problems of the mind and the speculations 
 of metaphysics. Take the Bhagavat Git& for example 
 at all events an existent literary work or, as occultists 
 and native Indian scholars maintain, already a work of 
 profound antiquity when Britain was a savage island, and 
 the race destined to commence its civilisation, only begin- 
 ning its own struggle for existence among the warring 
 tribes of Italy. Now that the boundlessly elaborate mean- 
 ing of the allegory embodied in that poem is shining forth 
 for us by degrees, it is plain at least that its authors were 
 deep students already of the mysteries of human life and 
 death, that they were filled with spiritual aspiration of 
 the purest kind, that their conception of the relations 
 between the finite embodied and infinite consciousness 
 have left nothing for later theologians to refine upon. 
 And the stupendous epic in which the Bhagavat Gita is 
 embedded, is no less remarkable for the finished delicacy 
 of its poetic feeling, for the loftiness of its ethical code, 
 for the intricate abundance of its symbology, for all the 
 characteristics which mark the literary work of a highly 
 cultured race. Europeans are children in metaphysical 
 speculation beside the Hindus of old, and if we could 
 imagine an impartial inquirer from another sphere, 
 acquainted with the intellectual history of these two races, 
 
6 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 and informed that the Hindus of old believed in Re-incar- 
 nation while the modern Europeans rejected it, he would 
 certainly smile at the anti-climax involved in such a state- 
 ment. Modern theology should show some credentials 
 more effective than its ignorance of ancient records and 
 its obliquity of vision in regard to the bearings of its own 
 sacred writings to which I will come directly before it 
 can justly claim to impose its own negations on the minds 
 of people who are now beginning to look around them in 
 an inquiring spirit. 
 
 I have just said that Buddhism took over the Brahmini- 
 cal doctrine of Re-incarnation as a matter of course 
 and this is the case. But Buddha's teaching on all vital 
 points connected with spiritual growth has been so wildly 
 caricatured and distorted by commentators who have 
 approached it without any interior illumination as to its 
 meaning, that I may fairly ask the reader's attention for a 
 little while to the true significance on this subject of the 
 Buddhist scriptures. 
 
 The sacred books of Eastern religions are written, for 
 the most part, in a style which is rather a disguise than an 
 expression of the meaning they are intended to convey. 
 Figurative phraseology and intricate symbols are, at all 
 events, so little in harmony with Western habits of 
 thought, that such vehicles of philosophic teaching may 
 easily be mistaken by readers accustomed to a more lucid 
 treatment of religious doctrine, for the wild conceptions 
 of a crude superstition. And even when simpler topics 
 than the avatars of Vishnu are under treatment, the same 
 habits of speech which veil cosmological theories with 
 narratives of Divine incarnations in animal forms, lead 
 Oriental writers to describe even such events as Buddha's 
 death and cremation in the circuitous language of symbols 
 
RE-INCARNATION 65 
 
 rather than in plain and matter-of-fact prose. Thus, in 
 one of the Pali " Suttas," or Buddhist Gospels the 
 Maha-parinibbana " Sutta " for the English version of 
 which we are indebted to the admirable scholarship of Dr. 
 Rhys Davids, we are told how " the Blessed One " died 
 from an illness which supervened upon a meal of " dried 
 boar's flesh," served to him by a certain Kunda, a worker 
 in metals at Pava. A prosaic interpretation of this narra- 
 tive has passed into all epitomes of Buddhism current in 
 European literature. Mr. Alabaster, for instance, in his 
 " Wheel of the Law," calmly quotes a missionary 
 authority for the statement that Buddha died " of 
 dysentery caused by eating roast pork "; and even Dr. 
 Rhys Davids himself gives further currency to this 
 ludicrous misconception in his well-known treatise on 
 Buddhism, published by the Society for the Propagation 
 of Christian Knowledge. One might have supposed that 
 students of the subject, even without a clue to the meaning 
 of the " dried boar's flesh " in the legend, would have been 
 startled at the notion of finding the simple diet of so 
 confirmed a vegetarian as we must suppose any Indian 
 religious teacher to have been, invaded by so gross an 
 article of food as roast pork. But one after another, 
 European writers on Buddhism are content to echo this 
 absurdly materialistic version of the figurative Eastern 
 story. If they had sought to check their interpretation of 
 it by reference to living exponents of the Buddhist faith, 
 they would have fallen easily on the track of the right 
 explanation. The boar is an Oriental symbol for esoteric 
 knowledge, derived from the boar avatar, of Vishnu that 
 in which the incarnate god lifted up the earth out of the 
 waters in which it was immersed. In other words, accord- 
 ing to Wilson's translation of the Vishnu Purana, the 
 
 6 
 
66 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 avatar in question " allegorically represents the extrication 
 of the world from a deluge of iniquity by the rites of 
 religion." In the Ramayana we may find another version 
 of the same allegory, Brahma in this case, assuming the 
 form of a boar to hoist up the earth out of primal chaos. 
 Boar's flesh thus comes to symbolise the secret doctrine 
 of the esoteric initiates, those who possessed the inner 
 science of Brahma, and dried boar's flesh would be such 
 esoteric wisdom prepared for food; reduced, that is to 
 say, to a form in which it could be taught to the multi- 
 tude. It was through the too daring use of such dried 
 boar's flesh through his attempt to bring the multitude, 
 to a greater degree than they were prepared for it, within 
 the area of esoteric teaching that Buddha died; that is 
 to say, that his great enterprise came to an end. That is 
 the meaning of the story so painfully debased by European 
 writers; and that meaning once assigned to its central idea, 
 will be followed through many variations in the details 
 of the Pali narrative, even as translated by Dr. Rhys 
 Davids, apparently without any suspicion on his part of 
 its true intention. Buddha, for instance, before the feast, 
 directs that he only should be served with the dried boar's 
 flesh, while " the Brethren," his disciples, are to be served 
 with cakes and rice; also, that whatever dried boar's flesh 
 may be left over after he has done, shall be buried, for 
 none but himself, he says, can digest such food a strange 
 remark for him to have made, according to the materialistic 
 interpretation of the story, which represents him as not 
 able to digest such food. The meaning of the injunction 
 plainly is that after him none of the Brethren shall 
 attempt the task of giving out esoteric secrets to the world. 
 Buddhist doctrine has fared but little better than 
 Buddhist gospel narrative in the hands of the distinguished 
 
RE-INCARNATION 67 
 
 scholars who have rendered the Western world the service 
 of translating a good many of the writings in which it is 
 enshrined, without conferring on us the additional benefit 
 of elucidating the spiritual science which that doctrine 
 cautiously sets forth. Indeed, the plain fact of the matter 
 is that two leading ideas concerning Buddhist doctrine 
 have been presented to the world by the principal writers 
 on the subject, and that both these ideas are on a level 
 with the roast pork theory. These ideas are that Buddhism 
 does not recognise any future conscious life of the 
 individual man beyond the grave, and that in exhorting 
 us to tread the path which leads to Nirvana, it proceeds 
 on the ultra-pessimistic view that all conscious life must 
 be misery; so that the only wise course for us to pursue 
 is to court its extinction in profound and dreamless 
 slumber, in utter oblivion of all things, in that Nirvana 
 which we are told to regard as identical with absolute 
 annihilation. Spence Hardy, Max Muller, Rhys Davids, 
 Alabaster, Bigandet, Burnouf, and others, might be 
 shown by reference to unequivocal passages to entertain 
 this idea, perhaps most grotesquely emphasised by an 
 American caricaturist of Buddhist doctrine, Dr. S. H. 
 Kellogg. The German commentator on Buddhism, Dr. 
 Oldenberg, is honourably distinguished by combating the 
 theory that the Buddhist Nirvana is equivalent to annihila- 
 tion; but though he argues the question in an elaborate 
 and painstaking way, he does not put his finger on avail- 
 able passages in Buddhist scriptures that would settle the 
 matter decisively. Barth, also, in his " Religions of 
 India," " takes leave to doubt " whether the intention of 
 Buddhism was to preach that there is no survival of the 
 individual consciousness from one incarnate existence to 
 another, but even he thinks that " this vaguely appre- 
 
 6* 
 
68 THE GRDWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 hended and feebly postulated ego " cannot be compared 
 with the " simple and imperishable soul of the Sankhya 
 philosophy." And as a whole, European Buddhistic 
 exegesis may be held to rest chiefly on the two ideas above 
 referred to no future life, and annihilation in Nirvana. 
 
 Now, the reconciliation of these two commanding mis- 
 apprehensions has given critics of Buddhism no little 
 trouble. For, on the face of things, if man's consciousness 
 is merely a matter of this life, he need not go through 
 the self denial and privations of the candidate for Nirvana 
 to accomplish the annihilation that must await him any- 
 how. And again, Buddhist teaching is saturated with 
 references to Karma, which, as the sum total of merit 
 and demerit that determines the conditions of a man's 
 next rebirth, seems to presuppose the persistence of the 
 soul-consciousness which those conditions are apparently 
 designed either to reward or punish. But the embarrass- 
 ment is got over by help of the theory for the ingenuity 
 of which Dr. Rhys Davids appears to deserve the credit 
 that Karma does not follow an individual soul from one 
 incarnation to the other, but causes the birth of an entirely 
 new individuality, which becomes the independent heir, 
 for good or evil, of its predecessor. The motive which 
 each person thus has for making a sacrifice of himself to 
 achieve Nirvana, is altogether altruistic. His Karma being 
 extinguished in the total annihilation of Nirvana, no other 
 being is born along that line of influence to suffer the 
 pain and sorrow of existence. The inventor of this idea 
 admits that the motive does not seem a strong one, as 
 a fundamental rule of human conduct; but its insufficiency 
 does not present itself to his mind as a ground for dis- 
 trusting the former conclusions out of which it grows. 
 
 All this misdirection of thought appears to have been 
 
RE-INCARNATION . 69 
 
 started by forgetfulness on the part of the first interpreters 
 of Buddhism to the modern West Bournouf and Spence 
 Hardy especially of the broad fact that Buddha was a 
 religious reformer rather than a person who made any 
 profession of re-codifying the whole body of religious truth 
 from A to Z. Roughly speaking he takes the entire block 
 of Hindu faith, or Brahminical philosophy, for granted, 
 and builds upon that, the higher teaching he has to offer 
 from his store of " dried boar's flesh " of esoteric wisdom, 
 adapted to the understanding of the multitude. '* The 
 simple and imperishable soul of Sankhya philosophy " is 
 the property of the Buddhist, just as fully as of the earlier 
 Brahmin or later Hindu. Current religious instruction 
 before Buddha took up the task had familiarised the people 
 with the idea that good men went to Heaven and bad men 
 to hell. But Buddha did not put that fundamental idea 
 in the forefront of his teaching. It was unnecessary to 
 do so. Indian theology was already stocked to over-flowing 
 with ideas concerning the life after death in the numerous 
 heavens and hells which its doctrines recognised. And 
 it was also fully possessed with the conviction that in each 
 case, after the appropriate period of spiritual enjoyment 
 or suffering, the soul would return to earthly incarnation. 
 Buddha's reform started from these assumptions. The 
 fact is acknowledged by modern writers, but not its force. 
 Professor Sir Monier Williams, in his treatise on* Hinduism 
 for the S. P. C. K., says : " About five centuries before 
 our era, the reformer Buddha appeared, and about con- 
 temporaneously with him various Brahmin sages, stimu- 
 lated by his example and perhaps by that of others who 
 preceded him, thought out what are called the orthodox 
 systems of Hindu philosophy." What did such thought 
 amount to ? Sir Monier Williams sums it up as including 
 
yo THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 these articles of faith, amongst others : The eternity of 
 the soul, prospectively and retrospectively; the periodical 
 removal of the soul to places of reward or punishment; 
 the subsequent return of the soul to corporeal existence. 
 Buddha, from the standpoint of these conceptions, 
 addressed himself especially to the task of showing men 
 that, beyond spirtual conditions and rebirth, there lay 
 possibilities of human evolution which, in their transcen- 
 dent excellence, rendered the familiar alternations of cor- 
 poreal and ethereal existence relatively unworthy of 
 acceptance. A state of blessedness which would come 
 to a definite end was, for his exalted perception, no state of 
 blessedness at all. Human life on earth, though such as 
 men might esteem as happy, was subject to manifold perils 
 and to decay. It was a state for the wise man to avoid 
 by making the stupendous effort that would emancipate 
 his desires from all the objects of sense, and thus cut off the 
 attractions that would otherwise inevitably bring him back 
 again, after a period of heavenly existence, to physical 
 incarnation. 
 
 Buddha's sermons and lessons became thus almost 
 altogether concerned with the contemplation of that trans- 
 cendent spiritual condition described by the term Nirvana, 
 but never defined with any degree of precision, simply 
 because its attributes were by the hypothesis insusceptible 
 of exact definition in terms of the physical intellect. That 
 which men in the flesh can imagine as attractive must 
 necessarily be tainted with the limitations and sense of 
 separateness inherent in the incarnate imagination. Nir- 
 vana could only be described by negatives which ruled it 
 off from any state of being which individual aspirations 
 for happiness would be capable of picturing in the mind. 
 And while the attempt would have been fruitless, it was, 
 
RE-INCARNATION 71 
 
 at the same time, unnecessary for Buddha to define Nir- 
 vana, because the idea to be dealt with was no novelty 
 for Hindu audiences. Referring again to Sir Monier 
 Williams' epitome of Hindu faith, we find that system of 
 thought, quite independently of Buddha's teaching, to 
 recognise that the supreme state of bliss involved an 
 escape from all sense of individual personality complete 
 absorption into the Supreme and only existing Being who 
 is wholly unfettered by action, without qualities of any 
 kind pure life, pure thought, pure joy. No one, from 
 the physical plane of existence, can understand such a con- 
 dition; but this impossibility does not justify us in the 
 absurdity of pretending on that account to understand 
 it as equivalent to annihilation. We are not even called 
 upon, for the purposes of the present argument, to consider 
 whether or not, Buddha himself understood it. It is 
 enough to realise that undeniably Buddha treated it as a 
 state of being which was supremely desirable by reason of 
 its exaltation in the scale of Nature above all other states 
 of being, and that in doing this he had no antagonistic 
 opinion on that point to combat. Brahminism already 
 recognised Nirvana, under various names the ultimate 
 absorption into the Supreme as the most glorious goal to 
 which humanity could turn. The failure of modern 
 Western thinkers to recognise the splendour of such an 
 ideal is plainly due to our deeper immersion in material 
 habits of thought, in which the sense of separateness that 
 Oriental philosophy, at all events, already perceived to 
 be a defect of the incarnate imagination, has been elevated 
 into the sine qua non of all conditions to be desired. We 
 may be able to conceive a high degree of spiritualisation in 
 consciousness. We may contemplate an existence as free 
 from all lower passions, and yet attractive; but we find it 
 
72 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 hard to realise that ultimate exemption from the fetters 
 of Self, which finds its most glorious fulfilment in com- 
 plete identification with the universal consciousness. 
 However, without professing to realise this, we may, at 
 any rate, intellectually comprehend that men of abnormal 
 spirituality, who have declared such a desire, are not on 
 that account declaring a desire for extinction of conscious- 
 ness. For them, at all events, the higher kind of con- 
 sciousness embraces the lower, supersedes it and triumphs 
 over it. 
 
 If Buddha thus said nothing to break down existing 
 beliefs in the normal progress of man through successive 
 rebirths, intercalated with successive periods of heavenly 
 enjoyment, and if Hindu philosophy had already acknow- 
 ledged that the highest state of human evolution would 
 carry men into Nirvana, what was it that he did teach r 
 The answer will be readily substantiated by the sermons 
 and teachings of Buddhist literature, as already translated 
 for Western reference, and will in half-a-dozen words 
 afford the clue to the comprehension of his whole position. 
 He taught the way to Nirvana. This teaching had pre- 
 viously been esoteric. He sought to show all men the 
 way to Nirvana, and the rules of life with which almost 
 all his recorded utterances are thus concerned, did not 
 constitute an everyday code of morality for ordinary 
 people. They were the prescriptions laid down for those 
 whose spiritual aspirations were already so highly 
 awakened that they desired Nirvana; or, at all events, 
 were so near the threshold of that desire that a little 
 stimulus to their spirituality might suffice to lead them 
 across it. The proof of this view will be supplied most 
 readily, not by quoting at length from the language which 
 Buddha addressed to his monks, to " the brethren," who 
 
RE-INCARNATION 73 
 
 were avowedly candidates for Nirvana, but by showing 
 that all the while he recognised a totally different sort of 
 morality for men who were still in the fetters of separate- 
 ness, and whose highest aspirations were for individual 
 spiritual happiness in Heaven. Let us take, for example, 
 the following passage from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, as 
 translated by Dr. Rhys Davids (Sacred Books of the East, 
 vol. xi.j page 1 6), by no means the only one of the kind 
 that could be produced, but sufficient in itself for our 
 present purpose. The sentences quoted constitute a short 
 address to certain " householders," followers of his teach- 
 ing, but persons who were not engaged in the arduous 
 struggles of arhatship, that candidature for Nirvana of 
 which we have already spoken. Here there are no 
 ambiguous metaphysics to lead astray the minds of later 
 readers out of sympathy with the subtle selflessness of 
 Nirvanic aspirations. The passage runs : 
 
 Then the Blessed one addressed the Pataligama disciples, 
 and said : Fivefold, oh householders, is the loss of the wrong- 
 doer through this want of rectitude. In the first place, the 
 wrong-doer, devoid of rectitude, falls into great poverty 
 through sloth; in the next place, his evil repute gets noised 
 abroad; thirdly, whatever society he enters, whether of 
 Brahmans, nobles, heads of houses, or Samanas, he enters 
 shyly and confused; fourthly, he is full of anxiety when he 
 dies; and lastly, on the dissolution of the body after death, 
 he is reborn into some unhappy state of suffering or woe. 
 
 Fivefold, oh householders, is the gain of the well-doer 
 through the practice of rectitude. In the first place, the 
 well-doer, strong in rectitude, acquires great wealth through 
 his industry; in the next place, good reports of him are spread 
 abroad; thirdly, whatever society he enters, whether of nobles, 
 Brahmans, heads of houses, or members of the order, he enters 
 confident and self-possessed; fourthly, he dies without anxiety; 
 
74 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 and lastly, on the dissolution of the body after death, he is 
 reborn into some happy state in Heaven. 
 
 Certainly it might be argued that this address does not 
 contain a complete code of even worldly morality, but if 
 we were merely considering the ethics of Buddha's teach- 
 ing we should find plenty of other material to work with. 
 The very simplicity of the appeal here made to selfishness 
 as a motive for well doing gives the present quotation its 
 value, as showing how fully Buddha recognised the per- 
 sistent existence of the soul as an individual entity after the 
 death of the body in regard to the great bulk of mankind 
 at large, in regard to whom there might be no question 
 of treading the path to Nirvana. 
 
 Coming now to the teaching of Christianity in refer- 
 ence to which the Western world has so long denied itself 
 the advantage of comparative theosophy we find the later 
 faith really taking Re-incarnation for granted, just as 
 this was done by the earlier Buddhist reform. 
 
 One of the most striking of the passages in the New 
 Testament that recognises Re-incarnation is that in which 
 Jesus refers to the prophecy in Malachi that Elijah or 
 Elias would return to earth. The prophecy itself occurs 
 in the last verse but one of the Old Testament, " Behold, 
 I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of 
 the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Jesus refers to 
 this, according to the eleventh chapter of Matthew, as 
 follows : " But what went ye out for to see ? a man 
 clothed in soft raiment? . . . But wherefore went 
 ye out? To see a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and 
 much more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is 
 written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, 
 who shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto 
 you, Among them that are born of women there hath 
 
RE-INCARNATION 75 
 
 riot arisen a greater than John the Baptist . . . And 
 if yeare willing to receive it this is Elijah which is to come. 
 He that hath ears to hear let him hear." 
 
 The same idea is expressed in the ninth chapter of 
 Mark, as follows : " And they asked him, saying, The 
 scribes say that Elijah must first come. And he said 
 unto them, Elijah indeed cometh first, and restoreth all 
 things; and how is it written of the Son of man, that he 
 should suffer many things and be set 'at nought? But 
 I say unto you, that Elijah is come, and they have also 
 done unto him whatsoever they listed, even as it is written 
 of him." 
 
 Again, in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, we 
 read : " And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then 
 say the scribes that Elijah must come first? And he 
 answered and said, Elijah indeed cometh, and shall restore 
 all things; but I say unto you that Elijah is come already 
 and they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they 
 listed. Even so shall the Son of man also suffer of them. 
 Then understood the disciples that he spake to them of 
 John the Baptist." 
 
 In what sense these worcfb can be taken except as mean- 
 ing that John the Baptist was a Re-incarnation of Elijah 
 it would be difficult to say. The remarkable words above 
 quoted, " He that hath ears let him hear," show that the 
 information was given out rather for the use of the 
 enlightened than of the common multitude, who might be 
 expected not to understand its full significance; but it is 
 evident, from another passage, that Jesus assumed a wide- 
 spread knowledge around him of the principle of Re-incar- 
 nation, for in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew we 
 read : 
 
 " Now, when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea 
 
76 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Philippi he asked his disciples, saying : Who do men say 
 that the Son of man is? And they said, Some say John 
 the Baptist; some Elijah; and others Jeremiah, or one 
 of the prophets." 
 
 Jesus then goes on to repudiate any such specific in- 
 dividuality for Himself, but none the less does the con- 
 versation show that the idea of Re-incarnation was a 
 familiar and accepted principle with those whom he 
 addressed; while far from rebuking that belief as a prin- 
 ciple, He explicitly affirms it in the case of John the 
 Baptist. 
 
 That the principle in question was a generally accepted 
 belief among the disciples is plainly shown by the passage 
 in John ix., relating to the man who was blind from his 
 birth : 
 
 " And as he passed by he saw a man blind from his 
 birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who did 
 sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ? " 
 
 It would be a digression if I went into an analysis 
 of the answer which Jesus here gives " Neither did 
 this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God 
 should be made manifest in turn." The value of the 
 passage for my present purpose lies in the significance of 
 the question. The man had been blind from his birth, 
 and yet the disciples asked did he earn that affliction by 
 sin ? The question was either nonsense, or it meant did 
 he sin in his last incarnation ? 
 
 The truth appears to be that it is only among the 
 modern generations of the Western world, when the inner 
 science of spiritual nature has been so deeply obscured 
 by the acquirements of material civilisation, that people 
 have lost touch with the all-important tenet that true 
 Theosophists, students of Divine Wisdom, are at last 
 
RE-INCARNATION 77 
 
 struggling to restore. It has been forgotten so long that 
 people who have constructed a fanciful scheme of human 
 destinies for themselves, are sometimes in the present day 
 inconquerably loth to welcome back the truth. They find 
 it uncomfortable, and regard that as a sufficient ground for 
 its rejection, unaware of the fact that the other alternative 
 the perpetuation ad infinitum of the miserable personalities 
 that so many men are doomed to bear, or, as I should 
 rather say, have built up for themselves by the sad misuse 
 they have hitherto made of their opportunities would 
 be for the majority of the present race the most profoundly 
 uncomfortable fate that could well be imagined. And it 
 is but a short-sighted aspiration, indeed, which would lead 
 even the most lofty-minded and cultivated members of 
 that race to prefer the infinite perpetuation of their own 
 personalities to the infinite improvement of these which 
 the principles of Re-incarnation hold out to them. I am 
 not unaware of the hypothesis which some thinkers may 
 vaguely cling to, according to which they hope for im- 
 provement along some unknown channels of progress in 
 spiritual realms external to the life of this planet. Such 
 unphilosophical expectations ought not to be maintained 
 by a generation for whom it has been clearly shown if 
 they have eyes to see that the spiritual planes of Nature 
 are closely linked with that on which humanity is manifest 
 in the flesh. 
 
 Such hopes ought not to be the refuge of those whose 
 experience, far transcending that of the common-place 
 world at large, renders them familiar with the idea just 
 expressed. The simple creed that we shall go to Heaven 
 if we are good, and there be taken care of and helped 
 along somehow, may be a good working creed for men 
 in an early stage of spiritual development who are drifting 
 
78 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 along from one unintelligent life to another, remitting 
 to later opportunities the commencement of their higher 
 evolution. But it is not a creed that can long suffice for 
 people who begin to realise the intimate manner in which 
 various states of existence in this highly complicated world 
 around us are blended together. It converts the visible 
 world for one thing, as I have said into a seething 
 cauldron of injustice, and further than this, it degrades it 
 into playing an almost useless part in the evolution of 
 humanity for by the hypothesis I speak of all that would 
 be really important in that evolution would have to be per- 
 formed elsewhere. We need not, however, disinherit the 
 earth and deny it the fruition of its own suffering. As 
 far as the human family, as manifested on earth, has 
 already advanced* beyond the condition of the lowliest 
 savages and further will that family advance in the 
 future. To question or doubt this would be an insult 
 to the majesty of the Divine principle in Nature, with 
 which most surely the human family must be in close 
 relations. As we grow in moral stature and wisdom and 
 in all the higher capacities, as we work our way on through 
 the sometimes painful schooling of physical life, our souls 
 grow gradually fitted to inhabit the physical organisms 
 of the future which the progressive forces of the material 
 plane will evolve for us as we successively return to them. 
 We shall all of us see the world again, under those greatly 
 ameliorated conditions, and looking back then to this 
 period will smile to think that it was ever possible for men 
 to regard the present conditions of this now current race 
 as a fitting platform from which to part company for ever 
 from the sphere of incarnate experience. 
 
 So far I have dealt with a mass of reflections bearing 
 on the doctrine of Re-incarnation. The subject, however, 
 
RE-INCARNATION 79 
 
 may be handled in. a different way as soon as we get 
 touch with the thought that at certain stages of advance- 
 ment in occult study people whose faculties have under- 
 gone adequate development are enabled to recover a full 
 and complete recollection of their former lives a recol- 
 lection far more complete indeed than that which enables 
 ordinary people in mature life to remember the events 
 of their youth. Clairvoyant faculties that are susceptible 
 of exercise on the spiritual plane as well as on the 
 astral of which more anon will enable their possessor 
 to do more than remember his own past lives. It will 
 enable him to get into magnetic relations with the im- 
 perishable records of other lives as well, and to track back 
 the previous existences on the physical plane of almost 
 anyone with whom he may be acquainted. And in the 
 same way the adepts of occult science know by their own 
 personal observation, not merely that Re-incarnation is 
 the law of human evolution, but the exact way in which 
 it works. I should be arranging my explanations, however, 
 in the wrong order if I tried to elucidate the science of 
 the matter before treating fully of the " higher self " of 
 man, which is the true Re-incarnating Ego. So this 
 department of the subject must be picked up again a little 
 later on. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE HIGHER SELF 
 
 A FUNDAMENTAL error concerning the con- 
 stitution of the human soul, which crude con- 
 ceptions of spiritual science have imposed on 
 modern thinking, has been that which leads many people 
 to regard it as a simple entity, complete in itself, self- 
 contained on the plane of Nature to which it belongs, as 
 the incarnate man is, or appears to be, self-contained in 
 reference to the other similar beings around him. People 
 think of the soul when so far acquiescent in conventional 
 religious teaching as to put trust in the theory that there 
 is such a thing much as they think of the Djin, of 
 the old fairy tale, imprisoned for a time in the bottle found 
 by the fisherman of the Arabian Nights. Death is a 
 process of letting it out of the bottle, and then it proceeds 
 to live according to its nature a complete entity formerly 
 imprisoned but at last set free. But the more we study 
 Nature, even on the physical plane, the more complex 
 do we find her phenomena to be, and the same rule holds 
 good on the higher planes of natural activity. Conceptions 
 we form of super-physical processes, expand ad infinitum 
 the longer the mind dwells on their wider significance. 
 The first notion we may put together of any such process 
 can rarely, indeed, in the beginning bear any closer 
 resemblance to the truth than the notion we form of a 
 solid by examining one of its sides. The mind may ulti- 
 mately be enabled to hold all the attributes of the solid 
 in its grasp, but that achievement is only possible as the 
 consequence of a large development of its first impressions. 
 It may be unnecessary to discard those impressions. From 
 the later standpoint they will seem to have afforded a very 
 
 80 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 81 
 
 crude idea of the truth, but they will be valued still as 
 having led up to more complex conceptions, which for that 
 matter may in their turn be developed still further as our 
 capacity for knowledge is expanded. 
 
 In this way the picture of the soul's growth through 
 Re-incarnation under the guidance of the Karmic law, 
 which is presented to the mind by the first broad analysis 
 of esoteric teaching, is, to begin with, a stupendous advance 
 on the happy-go-lucky theory of soul creation. Even the 
 view of life which accepts the soul as a primary fact with- 
 out seeking or offering any explanation of its genesis, 
 which treats it as a new creation originating with the birth 
 of each child, is no doubt an advance upon the blank 
 unconsciousness of anything connected with life beyond 
 sensation, which we may reasonably impute to the animal 
 kingdom, but which even the savage feebly endeavours 
 to rebel against when he constructs a vision of the happy 
 hunting grounds, though modern materialism endeavours 
 to cultivate the gloomy doctrine with much intellectual 
 ingenuity. In doing this, by the bye, he is pleasantly 
 unaware of the fact that he is illustrating in his own person 
 one of the principles brought to light by esoteric science 
 that the culmination of the physical intellect is the nadir 
 point of spiritual enlightenment. He will eventually 
 appreciate the further principle that in the progress of the 
 cycle evolution will go on, even after that point is reached, 
 illuminating the physical intellect with an influx of 
 spiritual perception without requiring it to forfeit any 
 portion of its own independent conquest. But, to go back 
 to our comparison, just as blank ignorance of soul is well 
 superseded by the illuminating conjecture which recog- 
 nises it as at all events a something, even if created ex 
 nihilo; and just as that idea in turn is enormously elevated 
 
 7 
 
8-2 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 in the philosophical scale when harmonised with the prin- 
 ciples of Re-incarnation and Karma, so may the first 
 conception of spiritual evolution, as proceeding along that 
 path, be developed by a fuller examination of the highly 
 complicated constitution of the soul, and of the methods 
 by which the experiences, opportunities, and sufferings of 
 each incarnate existence are made to react on the perma- 
 nent immortal consciousness, and translated into so much 
 cosmic growth. 
 
 In approaching such problems we may be coming into 
 the neighbourhood of the boundaries beyond which precise 
 language is inapplicable to spiritual research. In handling 
 such topics it is well to remember that any attempt to 
 pass beyond those boundaries will necessarily be futile. 
 The attributes and modes of consciousness of Universal 
 Spirit, for example, are beyond the reach of language 
 because they are beyond the reach of thought functioning 
 in a physical brain; and metaphysicians, who sometimes 
 attempt, by the construction of quaint phrases, to suggest 
 the belief that their thoughts have outrun in subtlety the 
 resources of expression, are probably, in most cases, as little 
 qualified to apprehend, as their phrases to convey, ideas 
 that are really entitled to be so described. But, on the 
 other hand, as long as we find it possible to be precise, it 
 is a fatal mistake for the student of spiritual science to be 
 content with vague suggestions. Cloudiness of language 
 is not depth of thought. Obscure, allegorical forms of 
 expression are not superior, in occult dignity, to definite 
 and exact phraseology though in the past such forms 
 have often been pardonable, either because the writers 
 who used them were pledged to partial secrecy or pre- 
 cluded by the bigotry of their age from being quite explicit. 
 That which we have now to aim at now that spiritual 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 83 
 
 research has been endowed with advantages it never pos- 
 sessed in the days of the alchemists and mediaeval mystics 
 is the exact comprehension, as far as that is possible, 
 of mysteries till now cloaked in an almost impenetrable 
 obscurity. Of course, as we extend our conquests there 
 will always at their confines be a region of thought and 
 conjecture which baffles exposition. But it is of the utmost 
 importance that we should push precision as far as possible, 
 and with care and patience it will be found practicable 
 to analyse some of the processes by which soul evolution 
 is accomplished and realise them, unseen and intangible 
 as they may be, even as it is possible to realise some of the 
 intricate laws governing the no less intangible and unseen 
 molecules of matter in their chemical reactions. 
 
 The law which we have to bring under a higher micro- 
 scopic power than that applied to it hitherto, is the law 
 regulating the alternate physical and spiritual existence 
 of the human entity. The human soul, we have seen, 
 once launched on the stream of evolution as a human 
 individuality, passes through alternate periods of physical 
 and relatively spiritual existence. It passes from the one 
 plane (or stratum, or condition) of Nature to the other, under 
 the guidance of its Karmic affinities, living, in incarnation, 
 the life which its Karma has preordained, modifying its 
 progress within the limitations of circumstance, and 
 developing fresh Karma by the use or abuse of its oppor- 
 tunities. It returns to spiritual existence after each physi- 
 cal life through the intervening region of astral experi- 
 ence for rest and refreshment and for the gradual absorp- 
 tion into its essence as so much cosmic progress of the 
 life's training passed through " on earth " or during physi- 
 cal existence. 
 
 This broad view of the subject, however, though it may 
 
 7* ' 
 
84 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 suggest to a thoughtful mind, does not necessarily include 
 an all-important conception which is required to invest 
 the whole process with a truly Nature-like aspect. 
 
 It is clear that, even during physical existence, people 
 who possess certain unusual faculties psychic senses that 
 open other avenues to their consciousness besides those of 
 the physical plane remain in connection in some way 
 with the planes of superphysical consciousness. All of 
 us, indeed, as the experiences of sleep show, are capable 
 of entering into conditions of consciousness with which 
 the five ordinary senses have nothing to do. And the 
 phenomena of somnambulism, as it is sometimes called 
 (the somnambulism of the soul, not of the body), or of 
 clairvoyance, whether of spontaneous occurrence or in- 
 duced by mesmerism, point to the same conclusion with 
 very much greater force. We the souls within us 
 are not, as it were, altogether contained in the material 
 envelope we actuate during life. We clearly retain some 
 rights and interests in the ocean of spirit, so to speak, from 
 which we have been stranded on the shores of incarnation. 
 The process of incarnation is not fully described when we 
 speak of an alternate existence on the physical and spiritual 
 planes, and thus picture the soul as a complete entity, 
 slipping entirely from the one state of existence to the 
 other. A more correct definition of the process might 
 represent incarnation as taking place on this physical plane 
 of Nature by reason of an efflux emanating from the soul. 
 The spiritual realm would all the while be the proper 
 habitat of the soul, which would never entirely quit it; 
 and that non-materialisable portion of the soul which 
 abides permanently on the spiritual plane may fitly be 
 spoken of as the Higher Self. 
 
 In some theosophical writings, the term here employed 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 85 
 
 has been identified with a highly profound metaphysical 
 idea, which we may consider later on, and which con- 
 templates the spiritual unity, if we push the tonception 
 back far enough, of all temporarily segregated centres of 
 human consciousness. Between the explanation I am now 
 endeavouring to give and that great conception there is no 
 divergence of principle, but the term "Higher Self" 
 seems to me most fitly assigned to the individual spiritual 
 consciousness of each soul, and I will maintain the har- 
 mony of my own writings on this subject by continuing 
 its employment in that sense. 
 
 I must not, however, be supposed to mean that 
 absolutely every human being is to be thought of as 
 associated with a more exalted form of consciousness on a 
 hig'her plane than the physical. The lower orders of 
 mankind, meaning by that term the savage races as a 
 whole and the least evolved amongst ourselves, may be 
 as yet undeveloped beyond the stage of physical con- 
 sciousness. Their quasi-spiritual existence between in- 
 carnations, would be little more than a pale reflection 
 of that through which they have passed on earth. But 
 as the human being advances as regards his interior com- 
 plexity, developing in protracted lives of intellectual 
 activity and intense emotion, great possibilities of thought 
 and feeling which it would be difficult fully to express 
 in any one life thereafter, he gradually drifts into the con- 
 dition of those referred to, whose real spiritual or higher 
 self is so to speak, too great for expression in any one 
 physical life. Of course it will be seen that between these 
 two extremes lie all possibilities of intermediate develop- 
 ment. 
 
 One great comfort at once afforded by the appreciation 
 of the nature of the Higher Self is that we escape from the 
 embarrassment of having to think of the whole complete 
 
86 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 soul of a highly advanced human being, inhabiting the 
 highly unsuitable tenement of a young child's body. 
 However unsatisfactory the notion of such an arrangement 
 would appear, it would be futile to try and escape from 
 it by the hypothesis that the child could be born first and, 
 so to speak, ensouled afterwards. From the earliest begin- 
 ning, the child and the soul, to which it might be destined 
 to give incarnation, must evidently be regarded as already 
 in union. But the conception with which I am now deal- 
 ing harmonises with the fitness of things and with the 
 analogies of Nature. The soul on the spiritual plane and 
 ripe for Re-incarnation takes note, as it were, of the newly 
 germinating human being whose physical associations and 
 destiny render it the most appropriate physical habitation 
 that soul can find. Of course, for entities of the ordinary 
 type, leaving out of account those abnormally developed 
 there is no conscious, deliberate selection in the matter. 
 The Karmic affinities constitute a line of least resistance 
 along which the soul .throws out a magnetic shoot into the 
 objective world, just as a root germinating in the earth 
 throws out through that portion of the ground which most 
 readily gives way before it, the first slender blade of green 
 growth which makes its appearance at the surface. A 
 more recondite but still more exact illustration might be 
 drawn from the behaviour of an electric current choosing 
 among several available channels of approach those which, 
 though not necessarily the shortest, conduct it under cir- 
 cumstances best suited to its own nature to its goal, the 
 earth. Along the magnetic fibre thus established itself 
 no doubt growing in vigour simultaneously with the 
 growth of the child the psychic entity flows into the new 
 body by degrees. 
 
 The same idea has sometimes been expressed in other 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 87 
 
 terms. The growing child has been said to be morally 
 irresponsible and incapable of generating Karma till attain- 
 ing the age of seven years. This amounts to the same 
 thing. Before seven years, there is not enough of the soul 
 passed down into the child's bodily consciousness to allow 
 of the development of a moral sense. Conscience has not 
 begun to assert itself. The Higher Self has not begun 
 to brood over the impulses of the flesh. If the child dies, 
 the soul has simply to sprout in another place. As the 
 body develops, more and more of the true soul-conscious- 
 ness passes into the new organism till at last in the grown- 
 up man, all of the soul which is susceptible of expression 
 in physical consciousness is once more re-established, or 
 re-incarnated, on the earth plane. 
 
 But there is still an all-important something belonging 
 to the soul remaining behind (if I may still for a while 
 cling to a materialistic figure of speech quite inevitable if 
 we are to have the idea clearly established in our minds) 
 on the spiritual plane. This something is the most essen- 
 tially spiritual element in the incarnating soul its Higher 
 Self almost dormant and unconscious during the full 
 activity of the incarnate being, but constantly, during the 
 sleep of the body, recovering a more vivid sense of 
 existence. Certainly the extent to which such conscious- 
 ness is revived, differs for different people, within very wide 
 limits. The Higher Self is not merely the colourless, 
 imperishable, spiritual monad, but the growing spiritual 
 individuality of the man, in each given case. As we 
 shall realise more fully later on, the growth of the spiritual 
 individuality is, in fact, the purpose of human life, and thus 
 the Higher Self may in one case be backward in its 
 development, in another very greatly progressed; but in 
 any case where it may be advanced to any considerable 
 
88 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL ' 
 
 degree, it must enjoy a certain degree of consciousness on 
 the spiritual plane whenever the incarnate being, in which 
 it is manifest on the earth plane, is plunged in profound 
 slumber. 
 
 For most people, however, belonging to the normal 
 development of the present race, the physical brain is not 
 organised finely enough to reflect the spiritual conscious- 
 ness of the inner Ego during ordinary periods of waking. 
 At the best, sleep will sometimes be found morally refresh- 
 ing. Worries and temptations that may have been op- 
 pressive overnight will seem to have diminished in power 
 or importance in the morning, and where such ameliora- 
 tions of feeling are very marked, one may fairly assume 
 .that the influence of the Higher Self, restored during sleep 
 to a fuller consciousness than usual, has had something to 
 do with the sensation experienced. It is only in the case 
 of persons psychically and spiritually advanced beyond the 
 normal stage of progress that the Higher Self conscious- 
 ness is remembered. That it is so remembered in some 
 cases, is most assuredly the fact. At a stage of develop- 
 ment considerably short of that which would take a human 
 being out of the range of physical attraction altogether, 
 people may lead, as it were, a double life, fully conscious 
 of and remembering in daily life the spiritual life of their 
 deep sleep or trances. This possibility it is which points 
 to the sublimest achievements of mesmerism; for a person 
 so gifted may be able to converse, while in a -mesmeric 
 trance, with a waking incarnate friend, conversing from 
 the point of view of the true spiritual consciousness. But 
 some intermediate possibilities may also be considered. 
 It may happen that a person with some psychic faculties 
 with the bodily consciousness of the spiritual plane 
 partially but imperfectly developed, may perceive the 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 89 
 
 Higher Self, as it were, but have the impression, in their 
 waking remembrance, that they have been conversing 
 with some being external to themselves. They do not 
 realise, so to speak, that they are beholding the other end 
 of the curve through Nature, which constitutes in its 
 entirety their own complete individuality. As the Higher 
 Self would, by the hypothesis, be manifesting thoughts 
 of a kind that had not fully passed into incarnation, there 
 might seem to be a complete interchange of ideas between 
 itself and its incarnate phase, as though two persons were 
 concerned. In a still less distinctly understood relation- 
 ship with the Higher Self, the incarnate man would regard 
 its promptings as nothing more than what is generally 
 called the voice of conscience. 
 
 The theory we are considering harmonises very well 
 with the treatment of this world in which we live as a 
 phenomenal world of illusion, though the meaning of that 
 doctrine of Oriental philosophy is often grotesquely mis- 
 conceived. The intention of the doctrine is not that the 
 earthly plane of existence, with all its countless attributes, 
 has no existence, but that the idea of its permanence and 
 self-sufficing completeness which sometimes fills the in- 
 carnate consciousness, is a delusion. The spiritual world, 
 of which it is the emanation, is more real if the 
 phrase may pass current than the world of transitory 
 material conditions, but that material world is not alleged 
 to be a delusion in the sense of being a deception. The 
 highest consciousness of Man embraces its phenomena 
 the manifestations of Nature which it embodies as 
 well as the phenomena of superior planes of existence; 
 and in the vast and perfectly balanced design of Nature 
 the physical plane is as much a necessity of the whole 
 scheme as any other. But a comprehension of the doctrine 
 
90 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 of the Higher Self shows the relation between the physical 
 life and the plane of the spiritual consciousness in a way 
 which may well teach us to forego the terrible mistake 
 of living altogether for the sake of the lower conscious- 
 ness. The region of Nature, in which the permanent 
 Ego is thus seen to be rooted, is immeasurably more im- 
 portant to it than that in which its transitory blossoms 
 appear for a brief space to wither and fall to pieces, while 
 the plant recovers energy for sending forth a fresh flower. 
 Supposing flowers only were perceptible to ordinary senses, 
 and their roots existed in a state of Nature intangible and 
 invisible to us, philosophers in such a world who divined 
 that there were such things as roots in another plane of 
 existence would be apt to say of the flowers, These are 
 not the real plants; they are of no relative importance, 
 merely illusive phenomena of the moment. 
 
 The Higher Self doctrine is also recommended by its 
 correspondence with that inbreathing and outbreaking 
 of Brahm, which symbolises natural phenomena on the 
 macrocosmic scale, and therefore probably fits in likewise 
 with the microscomic scale. Physical incarnation is the 
 outbreaking of the soul; the death of the body is associated 
 with its inbreathing. 
 
 The Karmic progress of the soul, as depicted by the 
 first simple conception of its passage backwards and 
 forwards between the planes of spirit and matter, is in 
 no way interfered with by the permanent existence of the 
 Higher Self on the spiritual plane. No essential idea to 
 which that broad statement of the case gives rise is dis- 
 countenanced by the more advanced and elaborate theory. 
 For instance, let us consider the case of an incarnate 
 being regarding Nature from the point of view of the 
 physical plane on which his consciousness seems to him 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 91 
 
 to be altogether concentrated in his waking life, and cling- 
 ing earnestly to the hope of retaining his present personal 
 consciousness after death. This hope, unqualified by 
 spiritual knowledge," has in a pre-eminent degree moulded 
 the creeds of exoteric religions. People say, very reason- 
 ably as far as that one idea goes : " If I do not remember 
 my present life in the next that I may lead, there is no ' I ' 
 left in the transaction at all I do not obtain any im- 
 mortality or survival." Nor does the esoteric doctrine put 
 aside or rebuke this very natural aspiration. In its simplest 
 form it certainly tells us : " You will eventually wear 
 out, get tired of and be done with your present personality, 
 as you have got rid of many others in the past, but you 
 will not be violently torn from it. When you pass after 
 death into the higher planes of existence you will still be 
 your present self, remembering all that is essential in your 
 present life, and finding, if all goes well, on the spiritual 
 levels of Nature a much freer scope for the development 
 of all that may be noblest and best in your present life 
 than you can possibly hope for in the body. It is only 
 when these phases of consciousness have vibrated to the 
 last possible echo of the forces you have engendered during 
 life, and when the spiritual soul -is once more colourless 
 as regards definite recollections, that it will return through 
 the Lethe of a fresh incarnation to the experiences of an 
 altogether fresh personality." But now let us see how this 
 view of the matter is affected by the doctrine of the Higher 
 Self. Its essential idea is preserved, according to that 
 doctrine, as completely as by means of the most materialis- 
 tic statement of which the case is susceptible. 
 
 The Higher Self may be regarded as dominating the 
 lower or earthly personality with very different degrees 
 of completeness in different people, and this considera- 
 
r 
 
 92 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 tion would show that personalities deeply attached to 
 their own earthly consciousness would represent souls in 
 which the lower elements were largely in the ascendant. 
 The reunion of higher and lower selves in such cases, 
 after death, would probably mean the saturation of the 
 higher by the lower in a commanding degree. But fn 
 truth, after a soul has just been going through a complete 
 span of earthly life, the lower elements can hardly fail, 
 on reunion, to have so much to do with the completely 
 restored consciousness as to determine the colour of the 
 compound for the time being. And this infusion of the 
 last personality through the Higher Self or saturation of 
 the Higher Self therewith fully meets aspirations we may 
 feel in the direction of a personal survival after death. 
 
 We need not regard that aspiration as either blame- 
 worthy or misleading. For all men below certain exalted 
 levels of spiritual perfection, which we need not at present 
 consider, a survival of the personality is alike required on 
 abstract grounds of justice and common sense; and as a 
 part of our primary conception of the esoteric doctrine 
 we shall be, in the spiritual condition, in no sense less our- 
 selves for feeling our personality expanded by a large super- 
 addition of spiritual consciousness. And it will be to the 
 gradual reassertion of the supremacy of the spiritual con- 
 sciousness that we must look forward as constituting the 
 fading out of the personality which is either dreaded or 
 longed for by people in the flesh, according to the degree 
 of their psychic advancement, but which will, probably, 
 be no more a source of regret to the Higher Self in its 
 actual occurrence than on the poor plane of our physical 
 analogies the digestion of the day's dinner is a source 
 of regret for a healthy man at night. That dinner may 
 have played its part in the nutrition of the body. At the 
 
THE HIGHER SELF Q] 
 
 time of its consumption, perh^p^ l^-may^iave been a 
 source of some transitory pleasure in itself; but absorbed 
 into the body it is merely so much renewed strength and 
 health. So with the personality and the Higher Self 
 which digests it. We need not push the analogy too far; 
 but it is quite clear that the conversion of the specific 
 experiences of a life just past, which constitutes its per- 
 sonality, into so much cosmic progress for the Higher Self 
 which is the ultimate motive, so to speak, with which 
 those experiences have been incurred is a process which, 
 while it goes on, constitutes a prolonged preservation of 
 identity for the personality itself, and one which only 
 yields to the conscious pre-eminence of the Higher Self's 
 identity, which is inextricably blended with that of the 
 earthly personality during physical life, as soon as the two 
 are united. 
 
 From the last phrase of our conception, which shows us 
 the Higher Self absorbing the experiences of each life- 
 time in turn, we can readily infer that all through the long 
 ages of its existence it is going through a process of 
 growth on that higher plane to which it belongs, just as 
 a man's mind grows within the narrow limits of one 
 physical life. And as we reflect upon all that is implied 
 by such growth we shall find our conception of the whole 
 process expanding readily in both directions. To go 
 back on the past, in the first instance, it is clear that each 
 Higher Self must have existed at one time in a very im- 
 perfectly developed state. As soon as any individuality 
 is defined by the earliest process of human evolution in the 
 beginning of a cosmic period, there must be associated with 
 that individuality, throughout its incarnations, a focus of 
 activity and consciousness on the spiritual plane of Nature^ 
 which constitutes from the beginning its Higher Self. But 
 
94 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the Higher Self of the primitive savage and the Higher Self 
 of the spiritualised man of later races are two very different 
 entities. It is clearly by means of the experiences gathered 
 by its successive manifestations of activity on the physical 
 plane, that each Higher Self grows and advances to loftier 
 perfection. Certainly, the quality of pure spirit can 
 never vary, but the individualisation of spirit may be 
 accomplished around different foci of activity with very 
 different degrees of success. And as the process can rarely 
 be a rapid one, we may easily comprehend that the growth 
 of Higher Selves on the appropriate plane of existence 
 during a planetary manvantara is going on all the while 
 part passu with the improvement of the races in incar- 
 nation. 
 
 The Higher Self must always exercise a consciousness 
 of an elevated quality, though, in the beginning, a con- 
 sciousness deficient in vigour and intensity. But as it 
 throws out one plant after another into incarnation, and 
 successively draws back into itself such experiences of 
 earthly life as may be .susceptible of absorption into its 
 own consciousness, its horizon widens, its knowledge 
 expands, its individuality intensifies. The normal 
 rule of its growth appears to be very slow and to be sym- 
 bolised in this respect by some of the physical processes of 
 Nature, like the accumulation of sand on ocean beds, or 
 the accretion of particles on a coral reef. But in the course 
 of time seas are filled up and islands of coral built on 
 foundations in deep water. So the Higher Self selects 
 its spiritual particles from the lives of its innumerable 
 offspring, and the greatest Adept, or the greatest being 
 destined to arise out of humanity, is a final consequence 
 of processes that must have been carried on as slowly, at 
 one time, as those by which the Higher Self of any 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 95 
 
 African savage is rising in the scale of Nature by virtue 
 of its all but unprofitable manifestations on earth. 
 
 The theory of the Higher Self thus conceived seems 
 to me to recommend itself to the mind as a scientific 
 idea that is to say, as a view in harmony with the pure 
 and subtle dignity of natural operations, which often as 
 they may be symbolised by theatrical or fantastic allegories, 
 never betray the taint of such a character when exhaus- 
 tively understood. 
 
 It is only when the doctrine of the Higher Self fully 
 takes possession of the mind that we can begin to realise 
 the purpose of earthly existence, and be in some measure 
 reconciled to the strain of emotion and feeling with which 
 that existence is often associated. Viewed as a complete 
 thing in itself, the earthly existence but too often seems to 
 justify the gloomy despair of the pessimist and, indeed, 
 if the earthly existence were either complete in itself, or a 
 singular experience in a human career, to be followed 
 either by good or bad conditions of existence hereafter 
 pessimism as a philosophy applied to the phenomena of life 
 as we behold them would be an irresistible conclusion. 
 But the development of the Higher Self as a purpose of 
 existence is an aim which may reconcile us to life, and 
 justify the fact of suffering. For the time being for 
 most of us it is impossible to feel the identity of the 
 higher and lower self from the incarnate point of view, 
 but an intellectual perception of the truth may enable 
 us to foresee the inevitably superior capacity of the Higher 
 Self in this respect. And a full appreciation of all that 
 lurks in that forecast will do a great deal to illuminate the 
 pathway we have to travel, if we resolve to live in the 
 lower self on conditions conducive to the interests of the 
 higher. As a general rule and by that I mean in all 
 
96 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 cases but those of people exquisitely spiritualised already 
 in their earthly nature, and endowed with clairvoyant 
 vision of a high order the lower self must be content 
 to regard itself as appointed to undergo the suffering phase 
 of existence for the benefit not really of another being, 
 but for the benefit of a phase of itself, of which it can 
 never have any direct consciousness in the flesh. But on 
 the other hand it may acquire a confident certainty that the 
 consciousness of the Higher Self will ultimately be so 
 adjusted as to provide for the enjoyment of the fruit of 
 this suffering in a manner that will constitute a complete 
 recompense to the true individuality of the lower self. 
 
 Is it necessary here to take note of the occult theory 
 that calculations of recompense do not furnish the highest 
 motives of human action ? We may all be aware of that, 
 but at the same time be interested, on all grounds, in 
 studying the methods by which Nature provides a recom- 
 pense for the suffering incurred through aspirations towards 
 a higher life. 
 
 The comprehension of the problem before us turns 
 on a realisation of the fact that while the lower is not 
 conscious of the Higher Self, the higher is conscious of 
 the lower, and will be increasingly conscious thereof in 
 proportion to the extent that the lower applies itself 
 deliberately to the task of living for the sake of the higher. 
 Let us keep in view the theory or principle, or fact of 
 Nature, that consciousness on the superior planes or 
 spiritual realms of Nature is accompanied by a vivid sense 
 of enjoyment. In proportion as the Higher Self is 
 expanded and developed is that sense of enjoyment 
 broadened and deepened. In such expansion, in such 
 development, the reward of the efforts made by the lower 
 self is realised. This appears to me to be an all-important 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 97 
 
 point on which it is desirable for us to dwell with the 
 closest attention. 
 
 The crude, guardian angel theory of the Higher Self, 
 as well as that which looks too far ahead and seeks to 
 identify the higher individual with the Universal Self, 
 or God, both err in leading us to think, so to speak, 
 too well of the Higher Self as a rule. There are, no 
 doubt, as I have suggested, advanced human beings still 
 in the flesh for that matter, and far below the Adept 
 level of advancement, with whom the Higher Self is a 
 very exalted and highly conscious kind of guardian angel. 
 But with the vast majority of people it would be an im- 
 mense mistake to regard the Higher Self as anything but 
 higher in kind. It may not be nearly so much 
 higher in degree on the general scale of human progress, 
 that is to say than the lower self, as people are sometimes 
 apt to imagine. Of course its affinities are all spiritual in 
 their order. The Higher Self, such as it is, of the most 
 grovelling sensualist is wholly indifferent to sensual things; 
 and in touch, to some very limited extent, with the ocean 
 of real knowledge, which is the same ocean on which a 
 Planetary Spirit floats. But its consciousness on that plane 
 of existence is, to a corresponding extent, torpid and im- 
 perfect. For its growth, for its happiness, for its awaken- 
 ment to the opportunities within its reach in the higher 
 realms of Nature, it is altogether dependent altogether, 
 at all events, in the earlier stages of such growth on its 
 lower self; on its own material phase; on the earthly 
 fulcrum which it leans upon to accomplish an upward 
 movement. Let us remember, indeed, that though thus 
 dependent, it is not itself lethargic in the matter. The 
 lower self action which conduces to such growth is neces- 
 sarily, when accomplished, the result of promptings from 
 
 8 
 
9 8 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the Higher Self thought, or suggestion. The growth we 
 are considering may thus be said by an enlargement of 
 the view already expressed to be dependent on the 
 responsive action of the lower self; on the efforts and 
 exertions made by the lower in response to the influence 
 of the higher. The action and reaction, in short, by which 
 progress is accomplished should always be thought of as 
 started, in the first instance, by the Higher Self. But, 
 keeping this in view, we may safely shut our eyes for the 
 moment to the capacity said to be latent in every human 
 soul of universal knowledge. " Your own soul,'* say some 
 occult students, " is omniscient. You only have to get 
 into union with it, to share its knowledge." The doctrine 
 may not .be false, but it is misleading. You own soul, 
 your own Higher Self, may grow into omniscience or 
 something approaching that if you give it time and 
 adequate help through, certainly, more than one life, 
 from the date at which that enterprise is first set on foot 
 by " you " yourself the earthly phase of the being we 
 are considering. But the Higher Self of an ordinary man 
 of the world is certainly not yet in the perfection of its 
 potential development. On the contrary, the fact that it 
 is not, and cannot be, will be seen, on reflection, to square 
 exactly with the information which has been formulated 
 during the last few years (with the help of high authority 
 as well as of the investigations carried on by advancing 
 students among ourselves), in respect to the Devachanic 
 state. For the majority of those who share it, that state 
 is not one of highly advanced insight into truth. It is 
 a state of great happiness, the intensity of which is prob- 
 ably proportioned to the advancement of the soul which 
 experiences it; but it is a state replete with illusion. And 
 yet, undoubtedly, those are the Higher Selves of the human 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 99 
 
 beings concerned who are enjoying the Devachanic happi- 
 ness; and more than this, if they are capable of conscious- 
 ness in the Devachanic condition at all, they must be 
 already human beings who in the flesh have been animated 
 with very well defined spiritual aspirations, or deeply 
 moved by truly spiritual emotions. 
 
 Their gradual elevation into Higher Selves of the true 
 guardian angel type may be looked upon if for the 
 moment we do not look further as the purpose and justi- 
 fication for physical existence. This view of the situa- 
 tion, be it observed, is quite compatible with the view 
 which in all cases assumes the best and noblest impulses 
 of each man's life, be he higher or lower as an incarnate 
 being on the scale of spirituality, as emanations, warnings, 
 or guidance from his Higher Self. To the extent that 
 they are active, the aspirations of the Higher Self must be 
 all towards good. But except as regards its kind and 
 affinities, it would be a mistake to consider the mental 
 activity of the Higher Self as very greatly superior to that 
 of the lower. Before the Higher Self can use the faculties 
 latent in its nature, before it can be awakened from its 
 lethargy on the higher plane, which, in fact, has deepened 
 in the course of ages as its periodical presentations on the 
 plane of matter became more and more intense, it must be 
 revived by the conscious effort of its own lower self of 
 itself on the lower plane an effort which is analogous to 
 the rebound of a ball dropped on the ground from a height. 
 
 This group of conceptions, I think, will prepare the 
 rnind for an appreciation of the manner in which the 
 recompense for meritorious but painful action on this 
 plane of life is worked out. The Higher Self, in propor- 
 tion to the extent that its perceptions are awakened, can 
 survey the whole process, embrace in one retrospective 
 
 8* 
 
TOO THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 glance the suffering and the beneficial consequence, and 
 thus feel that the efforts made were not thrown away. 
 In the case of an undeveloped Higher Self, indeed, the 
 fruits of the good deeds of the lower self are enjoyed with- 
 out being analysed in the way just supposed. But by the 
 hypothesis the correspondingly undeveloped lower self 
 would never in such a case have been oppressed by meta- 
 physical speculations concerning its own future. It would 
 have been content to regard that future in the light of 
 some exoteric religious fiction, and though its expectations 
 might not be fulfilled to the letter, their essence would be 
 fulfilled in the unreflective bliss of the Higher Self the 
 same individuality, really, though not yet inspired with an 
 interest in the observation of the fact of its own identity 
 with its physical phases. But by the time a long suc- 
 cession of physical lives and spiritual interludes have culti- 
 vated the consciousness of the Higher Self to such a degree 
 that it begins to approximate to the guardian angel type 
 of Higher Self, its relations with the lower become sensibly 
 modified. The true Ego begins not alone to feel, but to 
 think, on the higher plane. It becomes more and more a 
 conscious, directing power, watching and influencing the 
 acts of its lower self, and alive to the advantages it may 
 derive from the co-operation thereof. For metaphysical 
 purposes one might, of course, throw the idea just 
 expressed into other language, which would, perhaps, 
 avoid some crudities involved in the more dramatic 
 formula, but at the expense of vivid significance. It could 
 be argued that the physical and spiritual aspects of the Ego 
 act and react on each other, and that the soul is manifested 
 in the phenomenal world is an illusory counterpart of the 
 true Ego, whose absorption in the universal self is more 
 or less retarded by the greater or less subjection of its 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 101 
 
 physical consciousness to the plane of maya. But the 
 processes of development we are examining will be 
 rendered more intelligible, I think, for most observers 
 incarnate, for the time being, on this plane of maya 
 by language in harmony with the conditions of the 
 physical consciousness. 
 
 It will be understood that I am not supposing the Higher 
 Self to be standing sentinel over the lower at all moments 
 of its existence, and in respect of all the acts of its daily 
 life to be nervously watchful lest its protege should take 
 a false step. With persons of advanced development there 
 is, perhaps, a greater approximation towards such a condi- 
 tion of things than a first glance at the situation would 
 lead us to suppose; for the spiritualisation of the lower 
 self or aspect, renders the higher all the more continuously 
 conscious; but I take it that in conditions of ordinary 
 human life the Higher Self is always more or less asleep 
 on the higher plane, when the lower is awake and only 
 conscious of its place in Nature, of its relations with the 
 lower self, and of the consequences to itself of the exer- 
 tions its lower self, or its allied personality (to suggest an 
 alternative phrase), may have been making when that 
 allied personality is asleep on the physical plane plunged, 
 that is to say, in a spontaneous or artificially induced trance 
 as regards its lower consciousness. A proviso should be 
 interpolated here, indeed. Sleeping and waking are the best 
 terms we can use to describe the alternate states of the 
 Higher Self during the life of the body, but we should 
 remember that its sleep has reference only to its own 
 higher plane consciousness, and its influence is not extinct 
 as regards the incarnate personality at any time. Thus 
 the so-called voice of conscience, which asserts itself, and 
 is heard from time to time, even in the most unspiritu- 
 
102 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 alised personalities, is neither more nor less than the 
 influence of the Higher Self making itself felt. This 
 influence is, of course, feeble and incomplete in cases 
 where the lower self does not, by action responsive to 
 this influence, increase and strengthen its power. But 
 in endeavouring to realise the oscillation, as it were, of 
 the centre of consciousness between the higher and the 
 lower planes, it would be undesirable to lose sight of the 
 fact that the Higher Self is always the source of the best 
 impulses of the lower. 
 
 The Ego, as I have said, awake on the physical plane 
 is normally quite unconscious of its periods of supra- 
 physical or spiritual consciousness of the existence, in 
 other words, of its Higher Self even though that same 
 Higher Self, on its side, is fully conscious when itself in 
 its wakefulness on the higher plane, of the lower per- 
 sonality, and of its efforts or inaction, as the case may be. 
 How far it may consciously deplore the failures of its 
 lower self to achieve this or that specific rung on the 
 ladder of progress how far it may be distressed, so to 
 speak, at observing its own lower self give way to tempta- 
 tion, is a point to be considered separately. The condi- 
 tions of the existence of the Higher Self may not afford 
 it scope for emotions of distress or regret; and a failure or 
 surrender to temptation by the lower self may take the 
 shape, as regards the higher, of so much retardation in its 
 progress in regard to which, with its sublime capacity 
 for patience, it may be quite unconscious of any irritation. 
 But, on the other hand, every success and every victory 
 of the lower self over temptation may none the less be 
 translated at once into so much progress for the Higher 
 Self, and so much definite consciousness of satisfaction 
 and enjoyment arising from that progress. 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 103 
 
 Now it may seem, at first sight, to an imaginative 
 mind, that these views are comfortless, as regards what 
 may be called the interests of the Personality. All its 
 struggles, and all its sufferings, are undergone for the 
 benefit of a Being that it can hardly help feeling external 
 to itself an almost pitiless taskmaster and a thankless 
 consumer of the fruits of its physical slave's industry. 
 Calm and impassive in the serene realms of spirit, the 
 Higher Self lives for enjoyment only, luxuriating in the 
 harvest of the toil carried on below when there is a 
 harvest to reap but undisturbed by the disaster when the 
 heavily-burdened labourer staggers or falls beneath his 
 load ! But though that would not be a satisfactory or 
 equitable arrangement all round, if the two phases of the 
 Ego were really the separate entities they look like from 
 the earthly point of view, the propriety of the whole 
 situation is amply vindicated as soon as we can be quite 
 sure that, from the celestial point of view, the personality 
 and the Higher Self or Individuality are felt and seen to 
 be one and the same centre of consciousness, though func- 
 tioning first under one and then under the other set of 
 conditions. How, it may be asked, are we to get proof 
 of this vitally important theory ? In such a region of 
 thought as this we are exploring, it is almost superfluous 
 to answer that proof must be sought for in the interior 
 consciousness, which is the more or less obscured reflection 
 in each of us of the Higher Self to which such personality 
 may belong. But, meanwhile, I venture to think that, in 
 the " sweet reasonableness " of the position, a provisional 
 guarantee of its security may be found. We stand face to 
 face with the perennial problem of life the hardship of 
 existence and the necessity of accounting for this in some 
 way that shall be coherent with the general drift of 
 
io 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 humanity towards perfection, and the prevalence of Justice 
 as a law of Nature, in the long run. Around the leading 
 ideas of the esoteric doctrine, which we in this generation 
 have been stimulated to reflect upon, theosophical study 
 has enabled us to group a considerable mass of inevitably 
 certain detail. The alternate manifestations of the Ego 
 on the physical and spiritual planes of Nature lead by an 
 indisputable train of conjecture to the doctrine here spoken 
 of as that of the Higher Self, and this, in turn, brings us, 
 along a causeway of trustworthy reasoning, to the con- 
 sideration of the still more elevated subject the evolution 
 of the Higher Self with which we are at present engaged. 
 
 In the comprehension of the laws thus governing the 
 evolution of the Higher Self, we attain the innermost goal 
 of esoteric study, as this study may be regarded from the 
 incarnate point of view. The practical value of such a 
 comprehension in its bearing on life and conduct, and on 
 any capacity to bear whatever trials of one sort or another 
 we may have to bear in our " lower selves " that is to 
 say, in the incarnate phase of our existence is something 
 that cannot be exaggerated. The old vague religious hope 
 that we shall somehow be rewarded after we die for any 
 meritorious behaviour we may have contrived to carry 
 on here below, in spite of our manifold embarrassments, 
 is thus replaced by a specific, scientific perception of the 
 way that process is worked out. 
 
 The method is altogether in harmony with all truths 
 of spiritual science we have been able to reach, and the 
 consequence is that, once thoroughly assimilated, it is cal- 
 culated to soothe in a remarkable degree the strain of 
 emotion and the great vacuity of life which are among the 
 well-known concomitants of any deliberate attempt to 
 tread the upward path. It is not in human nature to be 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 105 
 
 content above all it is not in the highly speculative and 
 introspective nature of an occult student to be content 
 with the attenuated promise of an ultimate absorption 
 of his consciousness in the Infinite Consciousness, as a 
 compensation for painful self-denial in this life, and as a 
 readjustment, in accordance with infallible justice, of the 
 long account of physical existence. Some exalted natures 
 may be indifferent to compensations as far as they them- 
 selves are concerned, or may honestly imagine themselves 
 so indifferent at all events, till some unforeseen turn of 
 the screw, influencing them in an unexpected way, may 
 betray their natural human weakness to their own inner 
 consciousness. But at any rate even these will not be 
 content to suppose that humanity at large is destined all 
 along the line to the cheerless prospect of unremunerated 
 labour. Let us each, leaving ourselves out of the calcula- 
 tion, and thinking only of our brother, admit that we have 
 not made sense of the problem of Nature till we have 
 distinctly provided, by our interpretation thereof, for the 
 reward of merit. 
 
 And up to the very threshold of the theory I have 
 endeavoured to set forth, this reward is not adequately 
 provided for in the sense of being specifically apprehended. 
 If the Higher Self were in all cases an already omniscient 
 being, as some occultists have seemed to imagine, and if 
 progress merely represented the efforts of the lower self 
 in any given case to rise into conscious relations with it, 
 the lower self or personality would go altogether un- 
 rewarded in the enormous number of cases where that 
 conscious relationship is never established. The struggle 
 to do right on this plane of existence would then indeed 
 be a futile and miserable undertaking, at the very best 
 rewarded only by the good Karma, that would render 
 
106 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the next physical life, which the impassive Higher Self 
 or Individuality might overshadow, a less painful experi- 
 ence for the practically new entity which would have no 
 recollection of its former struggle to give zest to its 
 relative enjoyment in the new and altogether detached 
 physical existence. Without the evolution of the Higher 
 Self to express the consequences of that struggle, the 
 situation would go far to justify the familiar objection 
 to the doctrine of Re-incarnation, which rests upon the 
 forgetfulness in each physical life of the circumstances of 
 the last. But let us once realise the position as occultists 
 of even a moderate degree of advancement know that it 
 actually stands, and the incarnate man, however little he 
 may himself, in his own incarnate consciousness, feel the 
 reward of his good deeds or self-denial, is nevertheless 
 assured of being himself, in his spiritual condition after 
 release from the body, the recipient of the harvest that 
 he has sown. He may not, in the flesh, be conscious of 
 the emotions and exhilaration of the Higher Self due to 
 his work, but the consciousness of his Higher Self embraces 
 his consciousness as he looks back on his past career from 
 the point of view of the superior plane. We are not 
 violently straining or materialising the facts, merely adapt- 
 ing them to the character of our present consciousness, 
 if we imagine the Higher Self as reflecting : " If, in the 
 physical environment from which I am now set free, I 
 had not the strength of mind to do this or that," whatever 
 the important achievement may have been, " I should not 
 now be enjoying my present rich sense of spiritual blessed- 
 ness." Indeed we may, in the attempt to realise the 
 position in all its bearings, accept the service of illustra- 
 tions drawn from commonplace life. A man, established 
 from very early youth abroad to carve out his fortunes 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 107 
 
 in some distant country, may have set his face during 
 that undertaking against all kinds of wasteful and tempo- 
 rary self-indulgence. He may have been guided by the 
 resolution to postpone the enjoyment of his earnings till 
 circumstances should permit him to return to his own 
 natural home, even though the ways and surroundings of 
 life there should be unknown to him, and the lines along 
 which it should be spent, left to be planned out later 
 on. But assuming the programme to be fulfilled, the 
 fruition of his efforts on his return home might be an 
 ample compensation to him for the toil and self-denial 
 of his earlier years. So, in a far more elevated and 
 glorious degree, and unqualified by risks of disaster which 
 may always dash any worldly cup of enjoyment from ex- 
 pectant lips, may we regard the programme of physical 
 effort and fruition on the spiritual plane, as assuring us 
 the reward which we must be able to discern as awaiting 
 the meritorious actor in this life's drama, if the whole 
 proceeding is to be regarded as something better than a 
 farce and a tragedy in one. 
 
 It is not necessary to this speculation to treat, as an 
 essential part of the scheme of Nature, the possibility that, 
 by the conscious direction of our efforts on this plane of 
 life to the fulfilment of the idea thus conceived, we may 
 actually, if all circumstances are propitious, obtain, even 
 during this life, something more than an intellectual con- 
 viction of the spiritual reward that will be secured by our 
 efforts here. But we should let slip a very important 
 consideration connected with the whole transaction if we 
 did not take note, in reviewing it, of the possibility to 
 which I refer. There may be here and there, even among 
 people who are not obtrusively elevated to any remarkable 
 degree above their fellows of this race to which we belong, 
 
io8 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 some who in the lower self-consciousness are invested 
 with the beautiful characteristics of a spiritualised clair- 
 voyance. Such persons will be able, from time to time, to 
 ascend into the consciousness of the Higher Self, retain- 
 ing in the physical brain a recollection of those experi- 
 ences. They are in a position to be the pioneers of 
 spiritual progress for their less gifted brethren, rendering 
 transparently obvious, as a fact in Nature, the existence of 
 that relationship between the lower and Higher Self which 
 I have endeavoured to depict. And they may afford to 
 any resolute explorer of the higher life good ground for 
 hoping that others in turn, by earnest endeavours in that 
 direction, may anticipate the revelation even while in 
 this life of that which has hitherto been regarded as the 
 great and insoluble mystery of death. 
 
 In dealing with these problems I have endeavoured to 
 avoid the comfortless dissipation of thought and conjecture 
 apt to ensue if we endeavour to examine the conditions 
 of our present existence by the light of metaphysical think- 
 ing which seeks to adapt itself to infinity. But if the 
 subject has thus been kept upon a plane of thought below 
 the level of some to which our speculations may occasion- 
 ally soar, I would, nevertheless, suggest that, in dealing 
 with the circumstances under which the lower self may 
 be drawn towards the true individuality of the Ego, which 
 is the Higher Self, we are really dealing also with the 
 circumstances under which the true individuality over- 
 shadowed by the spirit as it overshadows the incarnate man 
 is itself drawn towards the highest influence the uni- 
 versal self or universal spirit. We may not, from our 
 present standpoint, be able to divine very much concern- 
 ing that process, but we can infer, with complete con- 
 fidence, that the development, and evolution of the Higher 
 
THE HIGHER SELF 109 
 
 Self, which it is within the power of the lower self, 01 
 incarnate man, to promote, is none the less its response 
 to that mysterious emanation from the supreme, that is 
 the ultimate goal towards which the later efforts of a 
 perfected humanity, in some remotely future epoch, may 
 consciously and appreciatively turn. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 FREE WILL AND KARMA 
 
 THE general purpose of this work is to interpret 
 the opportunities for spiritual progress lying 
 before humanity. The nature of these oppor- 
 tunities is the first great revelation of occult science, and 
 the prospects before us, if we are resolute enough to ex- 
 plore them, are the subject of the occult student's most 
 eager study. Every phase of emotion and faith embraced 
 in religion, if rightly understood, is in harmony with the 
 theosophical exposition of the evolutionary task provided 
 for us by the design of the world. We have traced in 
 the great law of Re-incarnation the method employed by 
 Nature in working out that design up to a certain point, 
 and have seen how the Higher Self of each human unit 
 is the permanent centre of consciousness which is in fact 
 the Ego, and the final expression of every effort which 
 it puts forth during the successive periods of its long 
 struggle in incarnate life. We shall go on ultimately to 
 endeavour, as far as it is possible, to do this from the point 
 of view of consciousness reflected in a material organism, 
 to realise the kind of existence towards which the Higher 
 Self, strengthened and illuminated by accumulated know- 
 ledge and capacity, must strive if it would fulfil the loftiest 
 potentialities of its Nature. And the explanation will be 
 fortified by a review of the traces in ancient and mediaeval 
 history which show us, now that we have the key to their 
 real meaning, how earlier generations of men were 
 already bent upon the supreme task. But many side lights 
 have to bt thrown on the explanations already given before 
 the sufficing character of the theosophic revelation can be 
 entirely appreciated. And at this stage it may be con- 
 
 IIO 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 1 1 
 
 venient to deal with some metaphysical embarrassments 
 which thinkers, trained in European schools of philosophy, 
 will be apt very likely to regard as stumbling blocks in the 
 way of the all-important doctrine on which the whole 
 argument turns that which recognises in the spontaneous 
 Will of each individual the force which may direct his 
 evolution into the right channel. 
 
 Although few European thinkers adopt in its naked 
 simplicity the doctrine of fatalism, we find the essential 
 idea of that doctrine firmly established in the theories of 
 " necessity," which stand in time-honoured antagonism 
 to the doctrine of " free will." The arguments which 
 make for each of these theories considered separately, are 
 often regarded as so irrefragable that the paradox in these 
 days is accepted as such more often than discussed. The 
 conflict of Free Will and Necessity is hardly any longer 
 an academical rather a schoolboy theme for the exercise 
 of wit, just as perpetual motion and the quadrature of the 
 circle are problems left now to amuse juvenile engineers 
 and mathematicians. 
 
 Reason out the matter how we like, each man feels 
 within him that he has a liberty of choice between various 
 courses of action at every step in his progress through 
 life. Moreover, he not only feels this, but, as a reasonable 
 being, if he has any faith in an ulterior destiny whatever 
 it may be for the soul, he feels that human beings must 
 have free will, or the notion of any spiritual consequences 
 befalling them as a sequel to this life, is incompatible with 
 the operation of justice as a law of Nature. If rewards 
 and punishments are meted out to saints and sinners in 
 accordance, not with their independent responsible acts 
 in life, but in accordance with the way they were com- 
 felled to act by an overruling power which dictated every 
 
H2 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 thought and movement of which they fancied themselves 
 the authors then, of course, such an overruling power 
 would represent the principles of mockery and malignity, 
 instead of justice and goodness. 
 
 On the other hand, the theory of Necessity is sup- 
 ported by an unbroken chain of logical reasoning. In 
 its broadest aspects we all recognise it as a matter of 
 course. We can all see that people born under condi- 
 tions of extreme degradation, brought up in ignorance 
 of all motives for right action and of all meritorious 
 example, surrounded, as they grow, by every tempta- 
 tion, and educated in vice and crime, must take to such 
 pursuits, like ducks to the water. Their evil deeds in 
 the main are the outcome of moral influences as power- 
 ful as the forces of the storm and tide on the floating 
 driftwood of the sea. So with the self-denial, and actively 
 benevolent lives of others. The persons who lead such 
 lives must, of course, trace their general character to the 
 teaching and influences of their bringing up. They may 
 feel in accordance with the other view of the subject 
 that when they came to years of discretion, they exercised 
 their own free will in applying to the opportunities of 
 existence the principle of deliberate choice, but many 
 of the best among them have, as a matter of intellectual 
 conviction, declared on the whole for Necessity as the 
 only logical theory of life. There is no line to be drawn 
 in Nature between important things that it is worth while 
 for her laws to pay attention to, and others which are in- 
 significant and fit to be left to chance. The earth's attrac- 
 tion operates equally on a microbe and a mastodon; and 
 the chemical affinity that holds together the elements of 
 the man is not permitted to neglect those of the smallest 
 drop of dew. So argues the metaphysician with regard 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 1 3 
 
 to human conduct. He is withheld from shooting the 
 man who offends him by the influences that have been 
 poured into his mind by his education, his observation 
 of others, by reading, and reflection. The minor acts and 
 abstinences of his life are in just the same way the product 
 of moral causes working in his interior consciousness. 
 He takes such and such a journey, let us say, because he 
 has read such and such a book. He read the book because 
 he had acquired certain habits of study. These were the 
 product of previous influences, and so on. This kind of 
 reasoning has, at all events, grasped one efficient principle. 
 Cause and effect rule on the moral as well as the physical 
 plane of Nature, and if the recognition of this is plainly at 
 variance with the theory that human beings are responsible 
 agents, the devotee of Necessity may sometimes say, " So 
 much the worse for the general character of the Universe," 
 or sometimes " the contradiction is a mystery which can 
 only be elucidated, if at all, hereafter." 
 
 For some of us yes " hereafter " a very distant 
 hereafter may be the only period at which we shall be 
 qualified to fathom such mysteries. But the " hereafter " 
 of one man may be the " now " of another, more advanced 
 than himself in cosmic evolution. The conventional 
 thinker is too apt to suppose that all human intelligence is 
 waiting to bear him company in that progress which he 
 may, perhaps, admit as a possibility of Nature, after he 
 shall have passed on to other states of being. All phases 
 of consciousness are co-existent if we take all planes of 
 Nature into account together. Time and change are 
 merely conducive to the advance of knowledge qua any 
 given centre of consciousness localised at one point of 
 space at the moment under consideration. If A B any 
 man of our generation is destined, in the lapse of ages, 
 
 9 
 
1 14 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 to attain a condition of consciousness in which any given 
 mystery of this period shall be made plain, assuredly Y Z 
 in the progress of past ages, has already accomplished that 
 amount of development. We are not necessarily bound 
 to wait so long as is sometimes imagined for revelations 
 that we may rightly conceive to be outside the reach of 
 mere intellectual cogitation of the kind with which we 
 are familiar. That which is known may sometimes be 
 communicated in a world which has many more avenues 
 to its consciousness than the general multitude of its 
 inhabitants are yet in the habit of using. 
 
 One of the most interesting among the many com- 
 munications of such a nature that have enlarged the theo- 
 sophical student's comprehension of spiritual science 
 during the last few years, has related to the great meta- 
 physical dead-lock represented by the conflict of Free 
 Will and Necessity, and I now approach the occult solu- 
 tion of that old difficulty, not merely for the sake of its 
 value as such, but because it is pre-eminently necessary to 
 understand it, in order that no misleading conceptions 
 of the Necessitarian may stand in the way of a full accept- 
 ance of the all-important truth that every human being 
 holds the control of his own ultimate future in his own 
 hands, however closely he may seem to the eye of exoteric 
 reasoning bound down and hemmed in by the narrow 
 limitations of circumstance. 
 
 To begin with, the dead-lock, as a mere logical dilemma, 
 is loosened as soon as we apply to the apparent contradic- 
 tion the law of Re-incarnation. As long as a human life 
 is thought of as a complete operation of Nature, beginning 
 at birth and ending at death, there will be no possible 
 reconciliation for the opposing lines of argument which 
 show first, that Free Will must be exerted to leave room 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 1 5 
 
 for justice in the conception of human affairs; and, 
 secondly, that Necessity must be recognised, or we do 
 violence to the uniformity of cause and effect. But when 
 we remember that justice has more than one a long series 
 of lives to work in, we see how it may operate, even 
 though acts at each moment of existence may be the pro- 
 duct of predetermining influences. Each act may be 
 and necessarily is surrounded, so to speak, with an in- 
 terior atmosphere of consciousness, the cloud of thought 
 by which it is accompanied. In other words, an act is not 
 exclusively to be estimated by the dead letter of the thing 
 done this may be done in one spirit or another. The 
 interior consciousness may follow and emphasise the act, 
 or hang back from it and in a measure resist it. And it 
 will be plain that this interior consciousness the product 
 of the voice of conscience or the promptings of the Higher 
 Self, blending with the habits of thought engendered by 
 the incarnate will or lower self may be regarded as 
 entirely within the control of Free Will, even though 
 the law of cause and effect may determine, by overmaster- 
 ing influences, the actual deed performed. Now Karma, 
 the law of cause and effect on the spiritual plane in one of 
 its aspects, assuredly does not leave out of account the 
 spirit in which an act is performed. The act itself is a 
 Karmic consequence of the sum total of influences bear- 
 ing on that point of the life concerned, from the previous 
 life of which it is the sequel. And it is necessarily also a 
 cause of further consequences to ensue in the future. But 
 at the moment of its projection into objectivity as such a 
 cause, it may be qualified to an enormous extent by the 
 concurrent thought, state of mind, or spirit with which it 
 is associated. And the effect it will have on the next 
 life is thus modified to a corresponding degree. At every 
 
n6 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 step of our progress, therefore, we are thus working out 
 Karma, the causes set in motion by our last life, and 
 determining by the spirit in which we realise them, by 
 the Free Will we apply at every step to the Necessity 
 under which we act the Karmic effect, of our acts on 
 the conditions, welfare, happiness, and opportunities of 
 our next life. 
 
 The law here defined may be illustrated by extreme 
 cases. Let us assume first of all that some person under 
 consideration is going through the current life under the 
 influence of some terribly bad Karma in the last, which 
 is not only productive of sorrow and suffering but of 
 renewed offences against the purpose of Nature. Say 
 in this way, it is within the " necessity " of the situation 
 that he should commit some serious offence, against not 
 merely the exalted dictates of ethics, but the plainest prin- 
 ciples of right and wrong, of course he will never feel 
 that he is an automaton as regards that act, nor if the crime 
 is a serious one, can it be truly affirmed from any point of 
 view that he is. A qualification must come into play here 
 which I will explain directly, for in truth though the 
 broad law is that our acts are dictated by Karma, there is 
 room in the design of Nature for some lateral play of the 
 forces concerned as regards action. But reserving the. 
 subject of this qualification let us for the moment assume 
 the act to fall within the category of those which are 
 Karmically inevitable. 
 
 Now the man has at all events Free Will as regards 
 the cultivation of internal states of consciousness. Will 
 any reader wish to interrupt me here and argue that 
 the interior states of consciousness are as much the pro- 
 duct of education, training, heredity, and circumstance 
 generally, as the acts performed ? The answer would be 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 1 7 
 
 very simple. That may be true as regards a man who has 
 never come into contact with moral teaching, which is 
 the first step towards theosophic enlightenment. But such 
 a man is, indeed, far in the background of evolution, and 
 even in his case the opportunities will come later in 
 later lives which will bring him to the stage already 
 reached by the man who is a moral agent. So we go 
 back to the statement made above. The person in ques- 
 tion is hurried by circumstance into the commission of 
 his crime, but is a free agent in thinking about it. That 
 is a part of his inalienable "heritage as a human being with a 
 higher self in the background and potentialities of Divine 
 perfection. First, let us suppose he applies that Free Will 
 in the same direction in which his bad Karma is operating. 
 He commits his crime with ardour and fierce intensity 
 of desire. He is glad he has done it, perhaps, and would 
 do it again if the circumstances were placed before him 
 again. He suffers no remorse; his Karmic career is going 
 on with its old momentum. The Karmic effect, therefore, 
 of his crime on the circumstances of his next life is 
 appallingly intensified. 
 
 When that life comes on, the suffering attendant on 
 his continued career of crime will probably force on his 
 consciousness a distate for all the experiences associated 
 with that suffering the crime included. So in the ulti- 
 mate working of a penal Karma, the interior repentance is 
 engendered which w-'ll have its Karmic effect in turn. 
 And in this way we see how Nature tends back into the 
 straight road, so to speak, in any case, even while her 
 (unenlightened) children are perpetually straying off it. 
 But let us now imagine that the man with whom we 
 started, after having committed his crime, brings to play 
 upon his reflections concerning it the Free Will of his own 
 
1 1 8 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 interior consciousness. Let us suppose that he has taken 
 the first step towards the expansion of his moral nature, 
 that he has seen fit to take a new departure, to culti- 
 vate higher aspirations than were present to his former 
 life, to give in that way freer play within the conscious- 
 ness of his lower self or personality, to the promptings 
 and reflections of his Higher Self, previously almost shut 
 out from his cognition. Still, it may be the evil legacy 
 of his last incarnation is realised in the criminal act which 
 the modern metaphysician would then regard as the in- 
 evitable outcome of early training, circumstance, and so 
 forth. He has no sooner committed the evil act, than the 
 rush of interior sensation, due to the fact that his lower 
 consciousness is now partly open to the influence of the 
 spiritual plane, is overwhelming. He is horror-stricken at 
 
 Twhat he has done, borne down with remorse. Every 
 subsequent event in life may be coloured by this terrible 
 emotion; the suffering through which he passes during 
 this period may be greater even than that through which 
 he would have passed if he had for the moment been 
 making worse Karma, still on his old bad road. But bad 
 as his momentary condition may be, he is all the while 
 closing that formidable account, closing it in the tribula- 
 tion that is inevitable under the circumstances one way 
 or the other, but no doubt is less that way than if it were 
 propagated as a persistent force through the ages. 
 
 According to whether the crime is thus committed in 
 the one spirit or the other, the next life is altogether 
 different. Free Will is realised in the conditions and 
 opportunities it presents to the being concerned, even 
 though he may be bound perforce to the necessity inherited 
 from the past . 
 
 In just the same way, mutatis mutandis, we can apply 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 1 9 
 
 the law under examination to the Karmic necessities of a 
 good life, and the varying effect of a persistent spirit co- 
 operating with their tendency, or on the other hand 
 retarding and weakening them. It is in the Karmic 
 necessity of the case, with some given person let us assume, 
 to accomplish some great work of charity and benevolence. 
 The good Karma of his previous life has drifted him into 
 the pleasant and influential position in which he is enabled 
 to design this and carry it out. Well, it may be that the 
 charm and soft indulgence of circumstances have a good 
 deal obscured the active sympathies which, in the former 
 life, were productive of the good Karma. The man per- 
 forms his act of charity little realising that it is simply 
 the behest of his former personality but performs it 
 perhaps with some interior hesitation and grudging. He 
 is not at all sure in his own mind afterwards that the 
 objects of his beneficence deserved the good things he has 
 secured for them. He feels as if he has been too good- 
 natured, and so forth, and that after what he has done, no 
 one can blame him for thinking of himself and his own 
 enjoyment for a change. Here the stream of Karmic 
 influence is stopped again. The man in question will 
 not be troubled with having to accomplish noble deeds in 
 his next life, nor embarrassed, it may be, with the power 
 and influence required for their accomplishment. 
 Whereas if, on the other hand, the life under notice had 
 been as well filled with lofty emotions as its predecessor, 
 if the seductive circumstances had been held in subordina- 
 tion to the continuous spiritual effort begun in the former 
 life, the man would have been carried far on along 
 the path to ulterior perfection, and the cumulative effort 
 of good Karma in successive lives might have given rise to 
 some verv far-reaching results. 
 
120 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Between the two extreme cases put forward, there 
 is room, of course, for an infinitely varying operation of 
 the same law on minor conditions of good and evil. 
 Always, however, the same result will be seen emerging 
 from all the complexities that might be imagined. We 
 are however little we can realise that state of the facts 
 in our physical consciousness the heirs of our last life's 
 Karma, the obedient progeny of its complicated impulses. 
 But we have never parted company with the Free Will, 
 the use of which in the past has given rise to those im- 
 pulses. We can apply it to the cultivation of beneficent 
 or maleficent states of mind in the current life, and so 
 accordingly will the Karmic account of that life work out. 
 
 I can imagine an objection raised against this view of 
 the subject on the ground that it is a dangerous doctrine. 
 It will be held by some people to lend too powerful a 
 support to the theory of Necessity, by clearing away the 
 apparent absurdities which, in spite of its logical character, 
 stood in the way of its acceptance. People will say, if 
 our acts are dictated by an irresistible force, it is useless 
 to struggle against them. And perhaps a very imperfect 
 grasp of the doctrine here defined might be demoralising 
 rather than beneficial. But this is only one of the many 
 cases in which the exposition of occult laws is more or less 
 ethically dangerous. With enlarged wisdom and know- 
 ledge, comes enlarged responsibility, and an occult truth 
 half understood may indeed be a perilous possession. But 
 in the present case it is, at all events, easy to point out one 
 consideration which militates against the notion that the 
 doctrine of Necessity in Act, Free Will in Spirit, must 
 tend to make people drift into evil and give way without 
 an effort to temptation. Even though the accomplished 
 act, whatever it may have been, may have been inevitable, 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 
 
 no contemplated act can ever be assigned to that category 
 up to the moment of its accomplishment, it may be that 
 it belongs to the group of acts which we are destined to 
 avoid ! It would require a far greater degree of occult 
 advancement than is embodied in an intellectual apprecia- 
 tion of the law under review, to help us in all cases before- 
 hand to a knowledge as to what acts are decreed by the 
 Karma of the past, and which are empty suggestions of 
 the imagination. When that sublime foresight shall have 
 been attained, we shall probably with it have attained to 
 other characteristics that may enable us to bear the weight 
 of increased responsibility and power. 
 
 Of course, the only way in which we can deliberately 
 apply the right spirit to the events of a current life in 
 which we " will " to elevate our destinies to extinguish 
 bad Karma in the past and accomplish spiritual progress 
 is by working on the hypothesis that we are free as to 
 the acts. Nature has prescribed that hypothesis for our 
 guidance by implanting so fixedly in our consciousness 
 the feeling that we are free as to act. And here we revert 
 to the " qualification " I spoke of a few pages back. 
 
 Within limits, we of the present stage of human evolu- 
 tion are not bound by Karmic necessity to acts with such 
 a rigid destiny as to deprive us altogether of Free Will 
 as regards them. Will anyone suppose that there is going 
 to be something loose here in the chain of occult reasoning, 
 a flaw in the great system of cause and effect ? On the 
 contrary, there is merely a beautiful adaptation of minor 
 to higher laws. Gradually, very gradually, the whole 
 world, " and all that it inhabits," is moving on to higher 
 conditions of being in which continued evolution must be 
 blended with the exercise of their own spiritual will by 
 all who share it. It is a law of Karma of the Karma we 
 
122 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 are now talking about, that of physical life that the per- 
 fected Arhat gets above its operation. This is no legal 
 quibble like the saying that the sovereign can do no wrong, 
 but is simply another way of saying that a man does not 
 become an Arhat till the temptations of the ordinary 
 physical life have quite ceased to be temptations for him. 
 He has got beyond the hopes and fears of physical life. 
 His existence in the body is merely an inconvenient phase 
 of his everyday existence out of the body. He keeps it 
 going for duty's sake alone, and for no other conceivable 
 or possible motive, and he is as likely or shall we say less 
 likely to sin on the physical plane than a grown man 
 with us is likely to cry and beat the table if he accidentally 
 hurts his hand against it. 
 
 Very well, that being so as regards the extreme case of 
 the Arhat, there is clearly no Karma left binding him 
 to physical acts. But Nature always shades her varieties 
 of condition one into another like the rainbow's tints. 
 The man partially developed in the direction of arhatship 
 is already partially exempt from the tyranny of Karma 
 as regards his acts. His Free Will is becoming a more 
 potent force in his life than it is in the case of the man 
 whom it can merely influence through his interior states of 
 mind. And at the present stage of human evolution that 
 we have reached as a body, we human beings of the 
 " nineteenth century," or as the occultist would prefer to 
 put it, of the fifth race, have all of us, broadly speaking, 
 passed the stage at which we are mere automata in the 
 hands of Karma as regards our acts. It would not be true, 
 for instance, to say at the present day that any man in a 
 civilised country is under Karmic obligations to commit a 
 murder. He may be under Karmic suggestion in that 
 direction, but unless we can find a man whose education 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 2 3 
 
 and training have been such that it has never been sug- 
 gested to his mind that committing murder is wrong, 
 then we may fairly deny that anyone is under Karmic 
 pressure so unbending as to make him a mere instrument 
 in respect to such an act as that. Observe, of course, that 
 in speaking here of " murder " I mean the wilful murder 
 which really involves the intention, and I am not noticing 
 any crude distinctions made by legal enactments. 
 
 So with any of the very great crimes against duty, 
 whether they come within the catalogue of human codes 
 or not. The least enlightened of us are at least beginning 
 to be responsible beings. 
 
 In most branches of science, and in occult science 
 especially, the solution of one problem will often suggest 
 others with which we may not previously have been in 
 relation. So it may be well here at once to deal with a 
 difficulty that will be sure to occur sooner or later to any- 
 one who thinks over the limited Free Will, even as regards 
 acts, which is assigned by occult teaching to people of the 
 present race. 
 
 All of us are in very close relations on this plane of 
 life with one another. Perhaps, indeed, on all planes, 
 and on others more even than here; but at all events the 
 manner in which our acts influence one another is obvious. 
 So obvious as to make loose thinkers recoil from the notion 
 of anything resembling predetermination in the course 
 of events. If A robs B he may alter the whole course 
 of B's life. If A has Free Will whether to rob B or not, 
 how can B's Karma be correctly worked out ? And so on 
 ad infinitum, with small acts and events as well as great 
 ones. Indeed, the mightiest events in our lives often 
 ensue from acts on the part of others that look quite in- 
 significant at the time. Where are we to draw the line 
 
I2 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 in any* scientific spirit? Human affairs are so intensely 
 entangled that it looks as though we must say all or 
 nothing, either every act, to the smallest, must be auto- 
 matic and inevitable, or there is no prearranged course of 
 events and no regular working out of Karma at all. But 
 there is a way of drawing the line which becomes intel- 
 ligible in the light of some further revelations. These 
 are so subtle that I must approach them gradually. 
 
 When we talk about the laws of Nature being the 
 will of God we use language with which few European 
 thinkers will quarrel. Even materialism, if not absolutely 
 atheistic, might let the phrase pass. Religious instinct 
 will cling to it as a mode of bringing the incontrovertible 
 facts of physical science into harmony with theological 
 ideas. But those beautiful generalities are never com- 
 pletely satisfactory to the occult student. He wants some 
 closer interpretation of the spiritual facts. When two 
 chemical salts are mingled in solution, and thereupon the 
 acids and bases change hands and group themselves into 
 a new arrangement of molecules, is the will of God con- 
 sciously ordaining that change ? On the other hand, if a 
 nebula of fire mist come under the conditions that convert 
 it into a system of planets teeming with life, with joy 
 and suffering, with lofty human aspiration, and with evil 
 tendencies, with love and hatred, and so on, can we 
 suppose that the will of God, if producing this result, is 
 unconscious of it ? The double problem lies in the region 
 respectfully put aside as inscrutable in most cases. But 
 the inscrutability only ensues from the pestilential trick 
 of modern thinking, which will only concern itself with 
 God in the cosmic sense if it transcends the narrowest 
 observation of the physical facts of this world at all. It 
 is only occult teaching that introduces us to the links 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 2 5 
 
 between humanity and absolute universal spirit the 
 cosmic God. 
 
 We are coming into relations at this stage of the 
 explanation with one of the sublimest mysteries of the 
 spiritual plane, and I hope my readers will deal with 
 the subject, and think of it, in an appropriate attitude 
 of mind. But the fact is as I have just foreshadowed. 
 Just as there are, undoubtedly, men far more highly 
 endowed or evolved, both as regards goodness and power 
 and faculty, than the generality of those around us, so 
 in Nature and in relation with this world there are spiritual 
 beings of again far more exalted attributes. And the direct 
 influence on the affairs of the world of some among these 
 beings is a profound and wonderful truth. Of such 
 beings we can obviously know but little beyond the fact 
 that they exist, and beyond the obvious logical neces- 
 sity for their existence in the great hierarchy of con- 
 sciousness of individualised spirit. But in the fact 
 of their existence we may begin to discern the real truth 
 at the bottom of the somewhat distorted popular 
 conceptions concerning the providential government of 
 the world. 
 
 How far these spiritual Lords of Creation are directly 
 concerned with carrying out the cosmic will in regard to 
 those great uniformities of Nature which constitute the 
 laws of matter, is a question we need not here investigate, 
 but it is at once intelligible that they should direct with 
 conscious intention the marvellous concatenation of events 
 which constitute the laws of Karma. Of course, the 
 ordinary mind is aghast at the complexity of the problems 
 to be dealt with, but physical science teaches us not to 
 shrink from complexity as tantamount to improbability 
 in our interpretations of Nature. The laws of the spiritual 
 
126 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 plane are not likely to be less complex than those of matter 
 and multiplex telegraphy not to seek for still more 
 powerful illustrations in the laws of optics will suffice 
 to warn us not to reject as inconceivable activities in 
 Nature that the human mind cannot imagine itself as 
 following consciously in detail. 
 
 At all events, the differences that exist between the 
 laws of physical matter and the mysteries of human con- 
 sciousness suggest, as an analogy, some different mode in 
 which universal spirit should control the laws of matter 
 and the incidents of life, which contribute to make up the 
 justice of Karma. Somehow we may think of the former 
 as provided for by some stupendous exercise of Creation 
 or Divine Will in advance, so to speak, of the human 
 drama to be enacted on that stage. Then, when the 
 human drama begins, we may think of that Divine Will 
 as focussed in some sort of exalted individual consciousness 
 or consciousnesses, but scarcely less omnipresent than the 
 other or fundamental stratum of the Divine Will. The 
 problem, as a metaphysical problem for the human mind 
 contemplating it, is a problem in the distribution of con- 
 sciousness. The terrible limitations of the physical 
 organism as an instrument of thought are such that, 
 broadly speaking, an incarnate man is only able to think 
 of one thing at a time. With practice, indeed, I believe 
 that on the very threshold of that great process of evolu- 
 tion, which occultists call initiation, it is found that these 
 limitations are not so rigid as most people think, and 
 that it is possible to keep up more than one continuous 
 train of thought simultaneously and by that, of course, 
 I mean something more than the power of jumping 
 rapidly backwards and forwards among various trains of 
 thought and recollecting each in turn, after the manner of 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 2 7 
 
 a chess-player engaged on several games of chess at once. 
 The distribution of consciousness required for a being 
 conscious, so to speak in Divinity and concerned with 
 the control of Karma, is, again, something as transcen- 
 dently greater than this simplest distribution,. in degree, 
 as the rapidity, for example, of light waves counted by 
 billions per second is greater than the rapidity of a piano- 
 forte player's execution. But from the power of thinking 
 of two things at once to the power of thinking of two 
 million would only be a question of degree. To recognise 
 the conceivability of the higher achievement is logically 
 possible for the understanding. 
 
 And this is all we have to recognise, in order to bring 
 within the range of imagination the Karmic government 
 of the world, as providing for the lateral play of individual 
 Free Will. Any of us may now and then disturb the pre- 
 existing Karmic plan with which, so far we had been 
 entangled. Let it be assumed, for example, that it lay 
 within the Karma of A and B that they should be ruined 
 and made to suffer much material discomfort by the (prob- 
 able) act of C. But C has developed a moral sense, out- 
 running that of his previous incarnation by the exercise of 
 his spiritual Free Will, and he misses his appointment with 
 Karma, to put it that way. Then other arrangements 
 have to be made, and A and B are provided with the 
 suffering due in some other manner, and a great number 
 of minor adjustments have to be carried out accordingly. 
 But this is only % question of adequate capacity on the part 
 of the governing power, and our hypothesis or rather, 
 the esoteric teaching concerning the actual state of the 
 facts recognises that adequate capacity as existing in the 
 " Providences " of the world. 
 
 The principle I have been endeavouring to explain in 
 
128 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 regard to the lateral play of Free Will during each physi- 
 cal life may be further elucidated with the help of a 
 diagram (p. 129). 
 
 In this figure the centre line A B represents the general 
 direction of evolution for the race at large, and the small 
 parallelograms represent a few individual lives. Taking 
 the life a first, its place on the centre line shows that the 
 Karmic impulses from the previous incarnation are in 
 accordance with the normal tendency of the age. But 
 the privilege of partial Free Will, which the person whose 
 life is in question enjoys, enables him to modify the ten- 
 dency of his individual evolution either to the right or the 
 left, to the extent shown by the dotted lines. He cannot 
 modify that tendency more than is shown by the dotted 
 lines, for he is hemmed in by the limitations of Karma 
 and circumstance, in so far as the side lines of his paral- 
 lelogram restrain the divergence. Let us assume that the 
 direction to the right is towards spiritual good that to the 
 left, towards spiritual evil. If the individual concerned 
 makes the necessary efforts during the life represented 
 by 0, his next incarnation has a general Karmic tendency 
 in the direction of the centre line of the life b. Suppos- 
 ing, again, efforts in the direction of the better spiritu- 
 ality determine a further inclination of the centre line 
 of life towards the right, then the third life of the series 
 will be in the direction of c. And it will be obvious 
 that a few more lives of similar effort will finally establish 
 the centre line of the life at right angles to the original 
 centre line as in the case of the parallelogram h, which 
 may be taken to represent complete adeptship in harmony 
 with the Divine idea of absolute good. 
 
 But at every step of the process the Free Will of the 
 individual is an uncontrolled agency in the matter, and it 
 
B 
 
 10 
 
130 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 will be always possible before the complete perfection of 
 the h life is attained that the individual in question may 
 swerve in the wrong direction. Thus the energies of the 
 life c may be misdirected, and give rise to a subsequent 
 incarnation in the direction d, and one more wrong swerve 
 in that case would bring back the Ego into the original 
 main current of commonplace evolution. At any stage of 
 his progress along that centre line an evil swerve will take 
 him in the left-hand direction, and determine a new life 
 with its predominant bent towards evil, as in the case 
 marked /. And persistence in the evil tendency will, in 
 a few lives, establish the Ego on the horizontal centre line 
 in the left hand direction, which may be taken to represent 
 the course of absolute evil, which, like that of absolute 
 good, disentangles an Ego from the main current of evolu- 
 tion altogether, under conditions dealt with in theosophical 
 teaching. 
 
 It will be seen that the general probability in regard 
 to a great majority of lives considering the complex 
 tendencies of human nature will be such that most Egos 
 will swerve now to the right and now to the left in 
 such a way that they continue in the main current of 
 evolution. But to make the diagram a little more signi- 
 ficant, we may suppose that the main centre line, A B, 
 is not a straight line, but the arc of an enormous circle 
 bending towards the right, so that in the great procession 
 of the ages the great majority will be slowly borne round 
 towards the direction of good this tendency representing 
 that general preponderance in the long run of the prin- 
 ciple of good as compared with the principle of evil, 
 nearly balanced as they often seem to be if we take short 
 views of human affairs. And yet another modification 
 might be introduced into the figure, with which I have not 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 3 1 
 
 thought it worth while to embarrass the drawing, which 
 should give a somewhat greater breadth to each parallelo- 
 gram as it swerves from the main centre line in either 
 direction representing the increased efficiency of individual 
 Free Will as the Ego inclines more towards spirituality 
 of either sort. This would hasten the possibility of attain- 
 ing the completely horizontal position as compared with 
 the rate of progress that would be available if the more 
 spiritualised lives were as narrowly hemmed in by the 
 walls of Karma and circumstance as those on the normal 
 centre line. 
 
 I hope it will not be supposed that in the arbitrary 
 length and breadth I have assigned to the parallelograms 
 in the foregoing diagram I have been endeavouring to in- 
 dicate the extent to which Free Will is a potent factor 
 in determining the events of our lives. Perhaps if we 
 correlated the figure with events alone, the lateral dimen- 
 sions would have to be much narrower. But reason about 
 Necessity however much we please, even with the light of 
 the present occult interpretation to fortify the conception, 
 we shall always, when the strain of action comes on, pro- 
 ceed on the practical assumption that we have a liberty of 
 choice before us. And there is not much danger for any- 
 one with intuitions sufficiently awake to take in the full 
 significance of the occult interpretation, of his taking, as it 
 were, an unfair advantage of his intellectual knowledge 
 of the occult law. Should anyone argue after any given 
 surrender to temptation, " Now the thing is done, and 
 therefore it could not have been left undone, and it is 
 useless to make a fuss about it," then the answer would 
 be that the application of such a feeling, state of con- 
 sciousness, or spirit, to the Karmic result just accomplished 
 would be the very worst possible spirit in which it could 
 
 10* 
 
132 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 be enveloped for its transmission through future ages as a 
 new Karmic force. 
 
 It must be remembered, after all is said that can be 
 said about the lateral play of Free Will as regards acts, 
 that the law concerned is mainly related to thought in 
 reference to acts. For the last few pages I have been 
 dealing with an all-important qualification of the main 
 rule, but let us now revert to the consideration of the main 
 rule, always keeping the qualification at the back of our 
 minds, but treating the extent to which Free Will can 
 make the centre line of evolution swerve to the right or 
 left as having chiefly to do with the manner in which we 
 surround the acts of our lives with a Karmic aura imposed 
 on them by our thoughts. 
 
 Rightly appreciated the whole doctrine laid down should 
 tend to elevate and dignify life. It exalts, to begin with, 
 the importance of thought regarded in itself as a force in 
 Nature. Too often people imagine that thought is a 
 casual and unimportant concomitant of acts. Take care 
 of the acts, and the thoughts will take care of themselves, 
 may be a view of the subject that many people will con- 
 sider to embody a sufficiently heavy tax upon the good 
 aspirations of a fallible humanity. That we may be 
 somehow held responsible for what we do, may be 
 admitted, but our thoughts, it may be argued, are beyond 
 our own control. The lessons of esoteric philosophy are 
 directly at variance with that popular delusion. Our 
 thoughts are by no means beyond our own control, and 
 for them, in a very high degree, we shall be " held respons- 
 ible," to use a familiar phrase, which can easily be thrown 
 into a more philosophical form. 
 
 A very crude and imperfect idea, which points the same 
 way as the doctrine here laid down, is embodied in the 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 3 3 
 
 frequently-expressed theory that after all " motive " is the 
 great thing; that people may perform the most mischievous 
 acts and yet be blameless in the sight of Providence if they 
 do whatever they do from a good motive. That notion 
 is only to be recognised as sound, in so far as it contains 
 the germ of the far more subtle idea that the Karmic 
 efficiency of acts is greatly qualified by the spirit in which 
 they are performed. It is in its straightforward meaning 
 both incomplete and false, as far as it goes. A good motive 
 will not extinguish the Karma of a bad act any more 
 than a previous belief that a piece of iron you may touch 
 is cold will prevent it from burning you if it is really 
 hot. The act done will reverberate through time and 
 produce its consequences, and if these are evil, they will 
 sometimes, under the infallible operation of the Karmic 
 law, react on their author. Motive may qualify their 
 Karmic effect certainly, but if an act be evil, good motive 
 may simply operate to blind the agent to its evil character, 
 to prevent the development in his mind of the thoughts 
 which bring with them remorse for the evil act, and hence 
 the extinction of the Karma of the act. The tendency 
 to repeat such acts, on the contrary, would be established 
 in the mind, and that line of Karma would be intensified 
 till in later lives it developed, perhaps, to a terrible degree 
 the suffering which such a line of action would be cal- 
 culated to produce. Moreover, when people talk about 
 good motives excusing bad acts, they speak without regard 
 to the complexities of old Karma, which really produce 
 the acts. They treat them as an altogether fresh departure, 
 which a more philosophical comprehension of the matter 
 shows us that they are not. Of course it is needless to 
 grant that a man who does a bad act from a bad motive 
 is worse than another who does a bad act from a good 
 
134 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 motive, and up to a certain point the good motive doctrine 
 may be better than none for unphilosophical thinkers. 
 But it is a doctrine that will not carry anyone very far 
 on the road to a true conception of ethics, and, above all, 
 it contributes nothing whatever to the elucidation of the 
 mystery concerning Free Will and Necessity, which the 
 corresponding occult doctrine so satisfactorily furnishes. 
 
 With that profound reflection before us, it may . be 
 worth while to look back at the pitiable shifts by which a 
 corrupt theology and a conventional system of metaphysics 
 ignoring the sequence of continuous earth lives have 
 endeavoured to grapple with the plain contradictions of 
 Free Will and Necessity, applied to the one life. The 
 Articles of Religion, for instance, of the Church of 
 England, inform us in the interests of the necessitarian 
 theory that " Predestination to life is the everlasting 
 purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the 
 world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel 
 secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those 
 whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to 
 bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels 
 made to honour," certain other vessels in large number 
 being accordingly made to dishonour, and provided for in a 
 very different way. The chosen people " by grace obey 
 the calling," and walk religiously in good works. This, 
 of course, is a naked statement so far of the necessity 
 which makes of men the automata of a Deity who would, 
 by that hypothesis, have decided before the foundations 
 of the world were laid, to carry it on on principles revolt- 
 ing to the moral sense. But though the Articles may not 
 hesitate to libel Divinity, they are quite ready to con- 
 tradict themselves, and leave their disciples to take which 
 meaning they prefer. So the article containing the words 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 135 
 
 just quoted ends by saying that " we must," after all 
 " receive God's promises in such wise as they may be 
 generally set forth to us in Holy Scriptures." Inasmuch 
 as Holy Scriptures leave room for many readings, the 
 adherents of Free Will and justice, as a principle of Divine 
 government, are thus empowered to accept the article set 
 forth if they so please, not in the sense the words convey, 
 but as meaning diametrically the reverse. A is B; that 
 is the doctrine of the Church, but at the same time, if you 
 think that A is not B, then you may work it out that way, 
 and remain, nevertheless, a faithful believer of the 
 Church's doctrine. This is as though one should teach 
 geometry by saying the three angles of a triangle were 
 made to equal four right angles before even the founda- 
 tions of the earth were laid; but, nevertheless these facts 
 may be received if you are obstinate about them, subject 
 to the general conclusions derived from the study of 
 Euclid; and with this reflection to ease your mind, please 
 go on saying, whenever you talk of such things, that four 
 is the proper number for good people to put their faith in. 
 Metaphysicians hardly deal with the subject more logic- 
 ally than the Church. Materialistic philosophy would, as .1 
 rule, plump for " uniformity," a pleasanter word than 
 necessity or predestination, but meaning exactly the same 
 thing in this concatenation. Free Will then goes irretriev- 
 ably overboard, and with it justice in the government of 
 the world and all conjectures concerning consciousness 
 prolonged beyojid the grave. The Materialist and the 
 Calvinist join hands in this matter, and there may not be 
 much to choose between the view of the school which 
 makes Divinity a myth and the soul an attribute of matter, 
 on the one hand, and on the other that which recognises 
 a God only to invest Him with moral attributes that would 
 
136 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 disgrace the most degraded manhood. However, both the 
 Materialist and the Calvinist are so far logical; that may 
 be granted to them. On the other hand, the reasoners 
 who cling to Free Will never suspecting that it may 
 exist, and exist with complete efficiency even if generally 
 incapable of controlling acts try to work it out by saying 
 the emotions of mind have a uniform efficacy as motives; 
 but independently of the attributes of mind, there is the 
 substance thereof to be considered, the actual Self or Ego 
 which is exempt from the conditions that attach to its 
 attributes. This ultimate personality is free and inde- 
 pendent, and a self-determining power of action, indepen- 
 dent of external causes, resides therein. That is almost 
 as much as saying that the height of a tree may be twenty 
 feet, but that is the measure of its height and not the 
 measure of the tree. Assuredly the Self or Ego is a very 
 different thing from the attributes it manifests during any 
 one earth life, but while it is in that earth life, you can 
 no more deal with it for the purposes of its relations with 
 earth as something apart from the sum total of its 
 attributes than you can deal, on the physical plane, with 
 Berkeley's orange apart from the sum total of its size, 
 colour, weight, shape, &c. 
 
 There is something in the Ego which has touch with 
 the physical plane, but is not of it, and which is exempt 
 from the " Uniformities " spoken of by the old disputants 
 concerning Free Will and Necessity. This something is 
 the thought of the Ego, its own interior spiritual aspect 
 which has direct relation to its acts, but does not 
 constitute act, and therefore does not come or, at 
 all events, does not come entirely within the 
 operation of the Karmic forces which make up the in- 
 fluence under which the doctrine of uniformity is sup- 
 
FREE WILL AND KARMA 1 3 7 
 
 posed to operate. It is free at any time, and always, to 
 appeal to its own Divine fountain-head to review the acts 
 to which it has found itself driven, in the light of its 
 own Divine consciousness; to reach out towards future 
 acts that may better express the Divine purpose (which 
 it may, if it so choose, become a co-operative agent in 
 carrying out), and very often in so reaching it may discover 
 as the future unrolls itself, that the Karmic forces of 
 the past are asserting themselves in the same direction, 
 and that the Free Will of its ennobled desire has a plain 
 pathway before it, no longer encumbered by the obstacles 
 that have hitherto created such terrible trouble or it 
 may find them, for that matter, strewn all the thicker 
 in the way, and may only realise that they can be passed, 
 however painful the process. 
 
 The great point to emphasise is that the recognition of 
 this interior freedom, which is in scientific and complete 
 harmony with the whole view of Nature prescribed by 
 the Esoteric Teaching, has the effect, among others, of 
 accomplishing what has hitherto been regarded as a 
 problem no less insoluble than the squaring of the circle 
 the reconciliation of Free Will and Necessity. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN 
 
 TO pave the way for an examination into which 
 we must shortly enter concerning the actual 
 conditions of those realms through which the 
 soul must pass in the course of its progress from physical 
 death to rebirth, it will be desirable to pause for a moment 
 in order to get a clearer view of the complex constitution 
 of man. This constitution includes within itself vehicles 
 adapted to the expression of consciousness on every plane 
 of Nature besides that with which, for the moment, we 
 are chiefly concerned, and no adequate comprehension 
 of the process through which the evolution of the central 
 individual consciousness is accomplished, can be attained 
 by any thinker who fails to grasp the true character of 
 the various vehicles in which that consciousness may at 
 different times be manifest. On the plane of physical 
 incarnation the vehicles are all involved one within the 
 other, and in higher realms of Nature, we are, from one 
 point of view, simpler beings than on this level. But 
 confining our view for the moment to the physical plane, 
 a series of vehicles of consciousness available for use on 
 higher planes, are, during the wakeful state of the physical 
 entity, involved one within the other. 
 
 At an early stage of theosophical research, when definite 
 teaching from higher levels related mainly to very broad 
 ideas which had first to be conveyed, I was led to describe 
 these various vehicles as " the seven principles of man." 
 That phrase crept into general use and reappears in many 
 of the earlier theosophical books. I should never have 
 used the word " principles " had I, in the beginning, quite 
 understood the analysis I was endeavouring to work out. 
 
 138 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN 139 
 
 The vague expression was adopted in the first instance 
 because some of what were then regarded as the con- 
 stituent elements of the human being, were rather in the 
 nature of force than of materiality, however refined. 
 Then, again, it was connected with the belief that the 
 number seven was in some mysterious way the key number 
 of all natural activities connected with this world. It 
 seemed necessary to think that there must be a septenary 
 constitution of man discernible if we could understand 
 it correctly. And, indeed, that last idea was well founded; 
 but we failed at first to realise that the seven should in 
 this case relate definitely to seven varied vehicles of con- 
 sciousness, each invested with spiritual attributes whicii 
 might properly be described as principles. Thus in the 
 early presentation of the seven principles, Jiva, the life 
 force emanating from the Sun, used to be ranked as one. 
 This mistake spoiled the scientific harmony of the arrange- 
 ment and further confusion arose from early mistakes 
 which identified the astral and manasic vehicles as separate 
 souls spoken of as the animal, the human, and the divine 
 souls. This involved a comfortless conception of the 
 human being as a sort of bundle of entities instead of being 
 a definite unity, and gave rise, amongst other consequences, 
 to a great deal of sarcastic treatment devoted by outsiders 
 to the criticism of theosophical teaching in the beginning. 
 Now we are clear of all these embarrassments. There 
 is a possible septenary view of the human constitution, 
 and it relates entirely to the various vehicles of conscious- 
 ness which on different planes of nature it is possible for 
 the Ego to make use of. They may be set forth in this 
 order : 
 
 The Physical Body. 
 
 The Etheric Double. 
 
1 40 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 The Astral Body. 
 
 The Lower Manasic Vehicle. 
 
 The Higher Manasic Vehicle. 
 
 The Buddhic Vehicle. 
 
 The Atmic Vehicle. 
 
 Now that classification only applies in reality to the 
 perfected human being. It is simply a mis-comprehension 
 of the whole subject to regard the ordinary human being 
 around us at this period of evolution in numerous millions, 
 as endowed with seven vehicles of consciousness. An 
 average human being even of the modern civilised cultured 
 races, cannot be said to have evolved any vehicles of con- 
 sciousness higher than that of the lower manasic condition. 
 The savage races cannot be regarded as having evolved 
 anything beyond a half-grown astral body. But in some 
 mysterious fashion there must in all cases be something 
 within the human Ego representing the invisible germ of 
 higher things, just as the potentialities of the tree reside 
 in the acorn or of the highly organised chicken within the 
 egg. But no thoughts working in a physical plane can 
 even approximately forecast the aspect of those higher 
 vehicles of consciousness which will eventually become 
 available for use by the Ego, when, in the ordinary course 
 of things, innumerable ages hence, it will have evolved 
 the need of activity on those higher planes. 
 
 Treating the seven constituents of the human being as 
 in all cases vehicles of consciousness, some embarrassment 
 may arise from the fact that our etheric doubles can 
 hardly, as a rule, be thought of as vehicles of conscious- 
 ness at all. Etheric matter is of an order too refined and 
 subtle to affect the senses directly or even to be cognised 
 by the most delicate instruments of physical research that 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN 141 
 
 we can make use of. But nevertheless, from the point 
 of view of occult science, the ether belongs to the plane 
 of physical manifestation. And just because it is, so to 
 speak, on the outskirts of this manifestation, it becomes 
 an intermediary between the higher forces of nature and 
 results worked out on the physical plane. To the eye 
 of the qualified clairvoyant the etheric double permeating 
 the whole physical body is a replica of that in regard to 
 form with a nerve system of its own through which the 
 life forces originally emanating from the Sun circulate 
 in much the same way that blood circulates in the physical 
 body. It may be thought of from one point of view as 
 nature's preliminary sketch of the physical body that is 
 coming into manifestation. The idea is almost too intri- 
 cate for explanation in language, and it would be a mistake 
 to imagine that Nature first of all constructs a complete 
 etheric plan of what the future body of a newly born child 
 is going to be when it grows up. And yet on some higher 
 plane of thought that design has been created and is gradu- 
 ally realised in etheric matter as the child grows, becom- 
 ing the means by which the physical molecules are 
 arranged within the body as it gradually advances towards 
 maturity. In this way, it has been correctly stated that 
 the first seven years of a child's life are spent quite uncon- 
 sciously to the Ego under the guidance of natural forces, 
 in the absorption of etheric matter. Only in normal cases, 
 when the child is seven years old, can it be thought of as 
 actually having an etheric double. And yet you have 
 also to think of that etheric double as gradually growing 
 into the form represented by the original thought of the 
 creative agents in the beginning. 
 
 In the mature man it seems hardly true to say that the 
 etheric double, even when complete, is a vehicle of con- 
 
1 42 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 sciousness, for during normal life it rarely has to play this 
 part. It never leaves the physical body, or never com- 
 pletely, until death. The astral vehicle may, and does, 
 emerge from the body quite freely every night in sleep, 
 hut it does not draw out the etheric double with it until 
 the period of that change commonly called death. On 
 the other hand, though I cannot stop here to elaborate this 
 statement more fully, there is a definite etheric plane of 
 consciousness with which ordinary humanity has little or 
 nothing to do, intervening between the physical and 
 the astral worlds. On that plane it is possible for 
 an etheric body to carry the complete consciousness 
 of the Ego, plus the involvement of the higher vehicles. 
 So there is no impropriety in classing the etheric 
 double with the septenary series of human vehicles of 
 consciousness. 
 
 Coming now to the astral, we are concerned with that 
 which, at our present state of evolution, is for most of us, 
 perhaps, the most important vehicle of the whole series. 
 Again, as is the case with almost any sweeping statement 
 one can make in attempting to follow the intricate work- 
 ing of natural law, the statement just made is not quite 
 theoretically true because, however apparently grovelling 
 and ignoble, the physical plane of life i that from which 
 all important spiritual achievements must be inaugurated. 
 But dealing with the man of fairly advanced culture (and 
 let me here interpolate the remark that, of course, one 
 uses the term " man " for simplicity as covering both the 
 varieties of sex in which human Egos are embodied in 
 physical life), the man of fairly advanced intelligence 
 and spiritual growth has grown an astral body capable, 
 when out of the physical body, of becoming an efficient 
 vehicle of consciousness. That would not be true of less 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN 143 
 
 developed entities amongst whom the astral body, when 
 detached from the physical in sleep, is itself hardly 
 more awake than the form it has left in a temporary trance. 
 To assume a fair development of progress, the astral of 
 such an entity, once free of the body, is free, also, of all 
 the limitations he is used to in the denser vehicle. He 
 can instantaneously visit regions of the earth where the ties 
 of affection or even of intellectual interest may draw him, 
 and beyond this become cognisant to some extent of the 
 infinite variety and incidents attaching to consciousness in 
 the astral world. Where still further progress has been 
 accomplished, where an entity is in definite relation with 
 the divine hierarchy presiding over the government of the 
 world, and of all the planes of Nature surrounding it, he 
 may be able in the astral body to do much more than 
 merely cognise distant scenes or friends. He may be 
 able, under superior direction, to do actually useful work 
 in connection with what may vaguely be described as the 
 Divine purpose. But that possibility may be dealt with 
 more definitely at a later stage of this dissertation. 
 
 The manasic vehicles have to do with lofty conditions 
 of consciousness not readily touched by any of the human 
 family still belonging to what may be called the average 
 multitude. And in a still higher degree that remark applies 
 to our ultimate potentialities as regards the still loftier 
 planes of consciousness described in terms of Eastern origin 
 as Buddhic and Atmic. Occult teaching being in no way 
 limited to the eastern world is sometimes hampered at 
 present by the want of terms in European languages appro- 
 priate to ideas with which European metaphysicians have 
 not so far concerned themselves. But just as words of 
 Greek etymology became definitely Anglicised by use, 
 so I think a few of the expressions we have to borrow still 
 
i 4 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 from Sanscrit, may pass into the English language and be 
 recognised as English words with a definite meaning. 
 
 This comprehensive survey of the septenary consti- 
 tuents of manifest humanity would be incomplete without 
 some interpretation of what is generally called the Human 
 Aura. To clairvoyants a complete human being of a fairly 
 advance^! type is always surrounded by a more or less 
 luminous cloud, highly variegated in colour, undergoing 
 constant changes, full of significance for those who under- 
 stand its cryptograph and replete with information con- 
 cerning the mental and emotional condition of the person 
 under observation. The whole phenomenon is intricate 
 because blended together in the case of a fairly advanced 
 Ego there are auras of different vehicles, those of the 
 higher constituents being indeed only within the cognis- 
 ance of clairvoyants of a very high order. The subject 
 has been very fully treated in books devoted to it exclu- 
 sively, and can only here be noticed in passing. But at all 
 events, that which is generally seen by clairvoyants who 
 can see auras at all is the aura of the astral body, and some- 
 times this appears to be the external portion of the astral 
 vehicle, itself much larger than the physical body to which 
 it is attached. But without presuming to be dogmatic in 
 this matter for like many of the even apparently simple 
 phenomena of nature, there are mysteries it is difficult to 
 understand involved in the subject we are dealing with 
 I am inclined to think that however large the astral body 
 may be in the case of well-developed people, it also has 
 an aura which is not part of itself, but an emanation of 
 some kind, the occult chemistry of which, so to speak, it is 
 very difficult to follow. But, however this may be, within 
 the astral aura or circumambient portions of the astral 
 body lying beyond the physical, there is a definite physical 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN 145 
 
 aura that we can more easily understand. That is dis- 
 tinctly visible to qualified clairvoyant observation and is 
 fairly comprehensible. It consists, closely examined, of 
 myriads of minute lines apparently radiating from the 
 surface of the body in all directions, only to the distance 
 of an inch or two, if so much, and these lines give a 
 definite clue to the comprehension of the health conditions 
 prevailing in the body from which they emanate. If all 
 goes well, they all stand out at right angles from the part 
 of the body from which they proceed, and seem, if the 
 phrase may be used, stiff and free from mutual entangle- 
 ment. In a weakened or diseased body they droop and 
 become entangled. Now the scientific meaning of this is 
 clear. Those minute and radial points, minute as they 
 are, are really tubes through which the superfluous 
 prana developed within the body is flowing out. 
 Further explanation is here needed. I spoke of the etheric 
 double as involving what may be described as a nerve 
 system through which the life forces originally emanating 
 from the Sun are circulating. Within the physical body 
 at certain ganglionic centres within the etheric double, 
 this life force is, if the phrase may be used, digested or 
 converted into a condition in which it is available for 
 maintaining the vitality of the physical system. Again, 
 it is inevitable that we should use words of an eastern 
 origin, because these ideas are to a certain extent developed 
 in Eastern literature, and absorbed from them into our 
 own language. So we may call the force the life force 
 emanating from the Sun Jiva, and when it has under- 
 gone the change within the physical system, or, rather, 
 within the etheric system, which we call above digestion, 
 it assumes a new aspect and is known to occult science as 
 Prana, Now a healthy human being digests a good deal 
 
 II 
 
146 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 more Jiva than he really requires for his own personal 
 use. It flows from him freely, a contribution to the 
 welfare of humanity at large, and flowing through those 
 radial points or tubes above referred to, keeps them dis- 
 tended and rigid. And it does more than this, for it carries 
 with it those inconceivably minute molecules of physical 
 matter which are always being worn off from the body 
 as time goes on. It is a very familiar truth connected with 
 physiology that our bodies are continually being disinte- 
 grated and re-made, that in advanced life we have few, 
 if any, of the molecules which build up our bodies at earlier 
 periods. The Health Aura, as it is sometimes called 
 this surrounding haze of minute radiant points is the 
 mechanism by means of which this change is carried on. 
 For more complete attempts to interpret the significance 
 of the astral aura I can only leave the reader to consult 
 volumes exclusively directed to that intricate subject. 
 
 It may be just worth while to add in reference to the 
 Health Aura that the very familiar experience we must 
 all have had of finding ourselves energised or invigorated 
 by association with some people, and depleted or weakened 
 by association with others, has entirely to do with the 
 activities of the Health Aura. Those who are pouring 
 forth an abundant stream of superfluous prana are stimu- 
 lating others with whom they may be in close association. 
 Where their own supplies have fallen short and their own 
 radiant points are drooping and impoverished, they become 
 absorbent of the energy thrown out by others to an extent 
 that they seem to sop this up as a sponge sops up water, 
 leaving the healthier companion considerably the worse for 
 the change. Not necessarily in any way that is it perma- 
 nently prejudicial to his welfare, and, indeed, the correct 
 appreciation of this idea is the interpretation of the benefit 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN 147 
 
 which may often be given to weak patients by a vigorous 
 mesmerist who thus is consciously and willingly pouring 
 out his superfluous volumes of Pranic energy into the 
 patient whom he desires to benefit. 
 
 Etheric matter is still physical according to the most 
 accurate classification that can be adopted, although 
 it is already entirely beyond the reach of instrumental 
 observation and can only be seen by the finer senses 
 appertaining to the Astral vehicle. Each plane of 
 Nature, as we ascend through the refinements of the 
 Cosmos, is constituted of different orders of matter, 
 each order being subject to various modifications on 
 its own plane. For example, we have solid, liquid, 
 and gaseous matter, and beyond these, four varieties of 
 etheric matter into which the molecules of elementary 
 matter, as known to ordinary chemistry, may gradually be 
 broken up. The whole subject is one of very deep interest, 
 but I should be turning too far aside from the main 
 path of what I have to say if I stopped here to unravel 
 its complexities, even as far as these have at present been 
 examined by occult students qualified to engage in such 
 researches. It will be enough to make the leading idea 
 of this occult development of chemical science intelligible 
 in its broad outlines. The molecule of matter which 
 possesses the characteristics of one of the known chemical 
 elements must be thought of, in accordance with the actual 
 truth of Nature, as a complicated structure built up of 
 numerous ultimate physical atoms. All these ultimate 
 physical atoms are identical in their own composition and 
 attributes, or approximately so; at all events for our present 
 purposes whatever differences are latent within them have 
 nothing to say to their physical plane aspects. Each mole- 
 cule may be roughly thought of as a different building, but 
 
148 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 each building is constructed of similar bricks. A great 
 many bricks are required for some molecular structures, 
 and whereas the simplest known to ordinary chemistry, 
 the hydrogen molecule, contains only eighteen atoms, the 
 molecules of some gases included many hundreds, and 
 those of other substances some thousands, the figures 
 expanding enormously in the case of molecules represent- 
 ing the metallic elements. 
 
 On the lowest etheric condition the gaseous molecules 
 known to chemistry are broken up into sub-divisions, and 
 in this condition appear at once to escape entirely beyond 
 the reach of physical senses and instruments. Their effects 
 are, of course, manifest in all the various phenomena of 
 Nature which have to do with etheric vibrations; and a 
 time, of course, will come in the progress of physical plane 
 knowledge when all this will be the A B C of the text 
 books. In the higher varieties of etheric matter the sub- 
 divisions get broken up again and again until finally, in the 
 highest condition of etheric matter, we find the atoms 
 entirely separated one from the other, and matter at that 
 level to be perfectly uniform in its structure. 
 
 It is of matter derived from the etheric sub-planes 
 that the Etheric Double is composed under the guidance 
 of extremely subtle laws, and as the expression indeed of 
 the most exalted spiritual will with which the affairs of this 
 planet are directly concerned. The Etheric Double guides 
 the actual deposition of physical molecules as the body 
 grows, growing with it indeed, but always one step in 
 advance; and the force which circulates through the nerve 
 system of the Etheric Double is that which constitutes the 
 physical life-principle, which as it becomes differentiated 
 from the vast stores of Nature for the purpose of human 
 requirements, itself comes within the field of vision of the 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN 149 
 
 astral senses, and can actually be seen, by persons 
 adequately qualified, coursing through the nerve system 
 of the Etheric Double as the blood flows through the 
 veins of the physical body. The force pours into this 
 planet from the sun. It has a multitude of tasks to 
 perform connected with organic Nature, but keeping for 
 the present to the question of human growth, we find it 
 undergoing, in healthy human organisations, a process of 
 differentiation which adapts it for its peculiar task, just as 
 organic food is converted into blood by the physical body. 
 A strong and healthy human being specialises a good deal 
 more than he requires for his own use, just as the bees 
 make more honey than they really want for themselves 
 In such a case it is constantly radiating from him, supply- 
 ing the deficiencies more or less completely of those who 
 are too feeble to specialise enough for themselves. 
 
 A man in good health is thus constantly, even without 
 intention, imparting some of his spare vitality to others, 
 though he does this with far greater energy when he 
 employs mesmeric passes to assist the process, and uses his 
 will-power, in a greater or less degree according to the 
 extent of its development, to render them effective. Con- 
 versely the man in bad health, who through inefficient 
 action of the appropriate organs in his own system is unable 
 to specialise for his own use an adequate volume of the 
 solar radiation all around us, acts unconsciously as a sponge, 
 absorbing that specialised by others with whom he is in 
 contact. To different degrees most people are conscious 
 that some others weary and tire them by their contiguity, 
 even though they may not be able to trace the nature of 
 the process by which they are affected. Persons of a very 
 robust temperament hardly experience this feeling, 
 perhaps, because in most such persons the higher principles, 
 
150 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 including those subtle emanations belonging to the astral 
 plane, are more inextricably entangled with their physical 
 molecules; and the very materialistic nature which is 
 extremely insensitive itself is generally as little disposed to 
 part with its own influences. The sensitive, very ready 
 to feel the magnetic emanations of others, is, on the other 
 hand, generally the person who is most easily drained of 
 whatever vitality he may himself possess. These con- 
 siderations, however, must not be read as implying that 
 perfect physical health and robust constitution are identical 
 with materialistic self-involvement. The whole subject 
 of sensitiveness is profoundly misunderstood when, as is 
 too often the case, people imagine it to be in some way 
 identified with states of health; but the complete examina- 
 tion of that idea would take me too far away from the 
 main part of the explanation I am now pursuing. 
 
 The third constituent, or Astral Body, is the vehicle in 
 which the soul may function on the astral plane of 
 Nature, that immediately above the physical, the nature 
 and characterises of which we must next examine. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 THE ASTRAL PLANE 
 
 IN connection with the early work done by those who 
 have been privileged to put into a literary form avail- 
 able for Western readers the occult teaching derived 
 in the first instance from Eastern channels of information, 
 no department of the subject was so imperfectly under- 
 stood as that which I now wish to treat from a later 
 standpoint of knowledge the conditions and constitution 
 of the Astral World. Among the many mistakes habitu- 
 ally made by those who take up the study of Theosophy, 
 one we frequently encounter is the notion that all the 
 subjects we are now dealing with have always been fully 
 understood by the early students of Eastern philosophy 
 and metaphysics. I have not the slightest desire to dis- 
 parage the varieties of culture referred to; but, from the 
 point of view of the information I have, within later years, 
 been able to obtain, I see now that the prevailing Eastern 
 comprehension of the Astral World is misleading in a 
 high degree for the European student. That phrase may 
 seem bewildering at first, because great truths of Nature 
 must be independent of Eastern or Western thinking. 
 And yet the Astral World is so wondrously variegated a 
 region, of such colossal magnitude and diversity, that 
 putting the matter in the first instance rather crudely, the 
 Astral World of European communities is a very different 
 region from the Astral World regarded from the Eastern 
 point of view. It is not a mere uniform appendage over 
 the physical world or plane, it is not merely a " next 
 world," as it may sometimes be correctly called, it is a 
 congeries of next worlds, just as the physical earth is a 
 congeries of continents and nations; so wonderfully 
 
152 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 complex in its structure and in connection with the natural 
 laws and forces operative there, that the more we come 
 to know about it, the more difficult becomes the task of 
 expressing that knowledge in continuous writing or 
 speech. No generalisation we can employ is exempt 
 from the need of continual qualification. In the earlier 
 editions of this book, I seemed to have a comparatively 
 simple task in describing the Astral Plane. In the present 
 edition, dealing with the whole subject entirely afresh, 
 I feel at the outset rather dazzled by the complexity of 
 the story that has to be told. That is indeed the case with 
 all study of Nature on whatever level of creative mani- 
 festation we may be dealing with. At the first glance the 
 phenomena seem simple, to the closer investigation their 
 complexity is infinite. 
 
 To begin with, of course, the term Astral Plane, so 
 widely in use at present that it cannot be discarded, is a 
 misnomer, because the Astral World or worlds is, or are, 
 vast concentric spheres of matter finer, of course, than 
 the matter cognisable by the physical senses, and, there- 
 fore, by them quite unperceived surrounding the physical 
 globe completely and extending in space to dimensions 
 within which the physical earth is the mere small 
 kernel of a gigantic husk. But no physical illustration 
 can do otherwise than offend delicate intellectual per- 
 ceptions. And yet, though the astral spheres surrounding 
 the earth may be thought of, to begin with, as definitely 
 stratified in their character, so that the conditions of each 
 are entirely varied from those which prevail above or 
 below, nevertheless in a certain sense they all interpene- 
 trate one another, and as any of us sit in any room on the 
 physical earth, we are surrounded with matter derived 
 from all the planes or spheres of the Astral Worlds. 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 1 53 
 
 Further than this, that astral matter interpenetrates the 
 solid crust of the earth, and regions of the Astral 
 World in this way definitely available as habitations for 
 consciousness working in suitable vehicles, are actually 
 sunk below our feet within the body of the planet. 
 
 Now, in spite of the interpenetration that I speak of, 
 one can best approach a comprehension of the complicated 
 truth by thinking of the various planes or spheres it will 
 generally be more convenient to use the word " planes " 
 in spite of its geometrical inaccuracy as definitely super- 
 posed one above the other. There are the usual seven 
 great sub-divisions of the Astral Plane, and counting from 
 below upwards, the first two are actually submerged 
 within the crust of the earth and to a considerable depth. 
 Those regions of consciousness are very terrible to con- 
 template; but we have to get over one great difficulty 
 before describing their conditions more fully. It is exces- 
 sively difficult for ordinary thinking to picture a habitable 
 world in a region of space actually occupied by solid rock. 
 But here, without going to the extreme length of meta- 
 physicians who have endeavoured to deny the actuality of 
 matter, let us endeavour to realise the profound truth that- 
 the actuality or apparent solidity of matter is entirely a 
 question of the senses devoted to its observation. Our 
 senses in the ordinary physical life are adapted to certain 
 attributes of matter which respond to them. If we could 
 imagine ourselves invested with a wholly different set of 
 senses, the matter which responds to the senses we know 
 of, would simply be non-existent for us. However un- 
 acceptable this may seem as an abstract statement, it has 
 been for many of us a matter of simple experimental proof. 
 There are people who can emerge from the physical body 
 in the astral vehicle of consciousness, and finding them- 
 
154 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 selves by so doing invested with an entirely new and 
 different set of senses, such people will cease to cognise 
 the objects of the physical plane, unless, indeed though 
 this qualification can only relate to peculiar cases they 
 are able to retain some trace of the physical senses plus 
 those of the Astral World. Never mind that point for 
 the moment. To illustrate what I mean, let me take the 
 definite case of a friend who was enabled, like many others 
 but I am thinking of one case in particular with help, 
 to try the experiment referred to. He was enabled to 
 emerge from the body in the Astral but guarded from at 
 once wandering off into distant spaces. With the Astral 
 body still in the room in which his physical body sat at the 
 table writing, he became at once cognisant of astral pheno- 
 mena of all kinds around him, while the wails of the room 
 in which he stood had faded into a diaphanous mist, 
 scarcely perceptible at all, constituting no impediment to 
 his passage through them had he moved in any direction. 
 So it is with the submerged sub-planes of the Astral Plane. 
 They are, as regards space, within the solid body of the 
 earth, but that solid body for those who live and move in 
 astral vehicles of consciousness, is, I will not say absolutely 
 diaphanous, but is a condition which does not do more 
 than somewhat impede and embarrass movement without 
 prohibiting it altogether. I prefer to leave for later con- 
 sideration the actual conditions of life in these two sub- 
 merged sub-divisions of the Astral World, because however 
 terrible their aspect may be, no great proportion, no more 
 than a small minority of the most hideously debased 
 examples of the human race, can have any personal ex- 
 perience of them. 
 
 If we come to the first sub-division super-posed above 
 the earth the third in the septenary classification we 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 1 5 5 
 
 find ourselves in presence of a region still of a highly 
 undesirable order. If the lower regions may be thought of 
 as the actual hells of Nature (however different from the 
 grotesque caricature of that idea presented by theology) 
 we may think of the third sub-plane as the purgatorial 
 region in which the lesser offences of humanity are appro- 
 priately dealt with in preparation for passage to a loftier 
 and more enjoyable region. And perhaps I may surprise 
 some of my readers by saying I mean by lesser offences 
 every kind of commonplace crime, every variety of vice 
 or debauchery, almost every sinful proclivity that can be 
 thought of. The horrible offences which carry people 
 to the lower regions are of deeper dye still. We will con- 
 sider them later. The purgatorial third level, although 
 for some of our brothers and sisters who have frightfully 
 misused the opportunities of physical life it is a condition 
 of temporary suffering not to be treated lightly, must 
 not be thought of as a penitentiary. Most of the grievous 
 consequences of serious misdoing relate to the physical 
 life, and can only be worked out on the physical plane. 
 That is to say, the person who has engendered bad karma 
 through selfish indulgence and disregard of other people's 
 welfare who has committed any of the commonplace 
 crimes against person or property such an entity must 
 encounter the consequences of his misdoing in the next 
 life on the physical plane. In that way the law of Karma 
 suspends its operation at his death, and under some imagin- 
 able conditions a person might be very faulty indeed, full 
 of bad Karma which he would have to work out in another 
 life, and yet, at death, free from any of the characteristics 
 that would impede his happiness in the intervening period 
 during his astral life. Such a person might slip through 
 the third plane without being much aware of it, if at all, 
 
156 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 and find himself in a happy condition in the exercise of 
 what, by the hypothesis, will be the loftier characteristics 
 of his nature honest love for some others, honest care for 
 his own children or belongings, good human impulses 
 along certain directions, compatible though these may 
 have been with serious defects along others. But take the 
 case of a person with a very little bad Karma of the kind 
 above referred to as destined to embitter future lives on 
 earth, but none the less with such persistent devotion to 
 the mere pleasures of the physical plane that his mind is 
 unable to contemplate anything like pleasure or happiness 
 in the absence of those pleasures. Now there is no hard- 
 ship for such a person in having to go through experiences 
 which gradually show him that after all those pleasures 
 are not the final thing worth having. We assume that 
 such a man has some loftier streaks in his character, that 
 if it had not been for his infatuated devotion to lower 
 pleasures those higher streaks would have operated more 
 freely in his consciousness. The third sub-plane for him 
 is simply the region in which he wears out, by satiety, 
 the impulse to which in the physical life he had given free 
 play. Some exaggerated nonsense is talked sometimes 
 about the after effects of the vice commonly called 
 drunkenness. Of course, it is a habit of the entity in the 
 body which he really must be induced to forget by some 
 experience of a more or less disagreeable character on the 
 third sub-plane; and inhering as such tendencies do to a 
 very great extent in the physical body, although partially 
 manifest also in the astral, they will unhappily cling to 
 some extent in all probability in his next physical life, in 
 which, again, they have to be worn out by some more or 
 less disagreeable experiences. But there is so little of what 
 may be called spirituality in the vice of drunkenness that 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 1 5 7 
 
 it is pretty easily dealt with on the third sub-plane, and I 
 have heard of cases in which in its less extreme develop- 
 ment, it has been dealt with almost at once by what may 
 almost be thought of as a mesmeric suggestion. In the 
 astral consciousness, the entity is enabled to see that there 
 are really no roots in his nature that demand this gratifi- 
 cation, and the thirst for it disappears. More protracted 
 embarrassments ensue from the excessive development of 
 the sex impulse. Again, in itself, that is so little to be 
 condemned that where its gratification in no way interferes 
 with the happiness or welfare of any others, it is not to 
 be thought of as a vice in any degree whatever. Indeed, 
 it may be so intimately blended with spiritual love as to be 
 merely on the physical plane the expression of states of 
 consciousness which will find their more congenial expres- 
 sion on lofty levels of the astral world in ways wholly 
 unlike that to which the physical incarnate being has been 
 used. But sometimes, where the passion is carried to 
 excess, with perhaps a grievous disregard of incidental 
 suffering to which it may give rise on the part of others, 
 then it becomes a too inveterate propensity to be dis- 
 regarded by those who rule the purifying methods of treat- 
 ment available on the third sub-level. People not other- 
 wise embarrassed by any serious defects of character have, 
 I know, been entangled for years of our time on the lower 
 astral level before getting rid of this devouring propensity 
 for which, of course, loftier conditions of life on the astral 
 world would afford no further scope. And there are no 
 limits to the variety of purifying experiences which people 
 of differently defective character will have to go through 
 before getting clear of the third sub-level. It would be an 
 endless task to try to draw up a complete catalogue of the 
 varied experiences which those of us favourably situated 
 
158 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 for getting such information may gradually hear of con- 
 cerning existence on the third sub-level. But let me 
 hasten to relieve what, no doubt, any protracted devotion 
 of thought to this subject will give rise to as an appre- 
 hension on the part of many people taking too modest a 
 view of their own nature, let me assure the multitudes of 
 relatively quite innocent people, grossly misled once a 
 week in churches to think of themselves as " miserable 
 sinners," that in all probability they will pass on, when in 
 time set free from the physical life, through that lower 
 sub-division of the Astral World all around us, as easily, 
 to use an old familiar illustration, as an arrow passes 
 through a cloud, as utterly unconscious of its embarrass- 
 ments as the arrow would be of the impeding mist. 
 
 Passing clear in thought, now, from what I have called 
 the purgatorial sub-division of the super-terrestrial astral 
 plane, we have to consider the varied aspects of its higher 
 and happier sub-divisions. Although for a variety of 
 reasons affecting individual conditions, the intensity of 
 happiness prevalent in the higher regions is superior to 
 those of the less exalted, happiness, in one degree or 
 another, is a normal condition of life in that exhilarating 
 next world. The higher sub-planes vary, however, very 
 greatly in the opportunities they afford to people at dif- 
 ferent levels of development. And before describing the 
 predominant attributes of the fifth, sixth, and seventh sub- 
 planes, we have to recognise that the highly variegated 
 region to be broadly defined as the fourth sub-plane pro- 
 vides for a very great expansion of consciousness beyond 
 that of those who in the beginning find their aspirations 
 adequately dealt with on its very threshold. This con- 
 sideration meets a bewildered complaint by those who hear 
 of some first awakening to the happy conditions above, 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 159 
 
 because these seem at the first glance to be altogether too 
 materialistic, too deeply tinged with the habits of physical 
 life to be acceptable in any way as a realisation of exalted 
 anticipations concerning the life beyond the grave. The 
 confusion of thought involved is due to the vague unen- 
 lightened suggestion provided by commonplace ecclesias- 
 tical teaching in reference to Heaven. Occult revelation, 
 indeed, shows us conditions obtainable by discarnate human 
 intelligence which realise the most glowing and poetical 
 conceptions of a heavenly state. But accurate knowledge 
 equally shows us intermediate conditions of 'super-physical 
 happiness appropriate to the needs of those of us who pass 
 on, still saturated, however innocently, with the habits 
 of the earthly life. The real Heaven World, as it is some- 
 times called, super-posed in one sense above the astral, is a 
 region of spiritual beatitude concerning which much will 
 have to be said later. But the vast average multitude of 
 mankind are no more ready when they quit this life for 
 that sublime condition of existence than a savage imported 
 from Africa to a European capital would be at once capable 
 of appreciating the refinements of its pleasures or the vast 
 range of its intellectual resources. Thus the common- 
 place human entity if free of any defects which con- 
 strain him to linger in the third sub-plane, or having passed 
 through a purification there may wake up on the thres- 
 hold of the fourth under conditions where the creative 
 power of the thoughts of all around him will have provided 
 a world, the scenery and decoration of which are curiously 
 the counterpart of much that he has been familiar with in 
 the earth life. He and those with whom he is brought by 
 some natural sympathy into intimate relationship will be 
 found living in houses, going through some routine of 
 life not entirely unlike that of physical existence, and 
 
160 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 yet already exempt from the strain and liability to suffer- 
 ing that enter so largely into the familiar earth life. Some 
 communications coming to still incarnate people from 
 friends who have passed on and are really on the humbler 
 levels of the fourth sub-plane, have even shocked many 
 who hear of them because they relate to such earthly habits 
 as eating and drinking and smoking cigars. It is difficult 
 for us in imagination to realise that while the astral friends 
 who talk of such habits quite honestly believe they are 
 indulging them, they are nevertheless to a certain extent 
 misled by their own imagination. Thus at the very outset 
 of our attempt to understand the conditions of life in the 
 Astral World, we come into touch with mysteries it is 
 very difficult to comprehend. We have somehow to 
 reconcile the idea that, for example, an astral, or to be 
 more accurate, an etheric cigar may be at once real and 
 unreal, giving, that is to say, to one consciousness a sense 
 of reality, to a loftier observation, the consciousness that it 
 is a mere figment of imagination. But the leading idea 
 to keep touch with is, that all through the Astral World, 
 the matter of which it is built is plastic to thought, 
 can, therefore, assume almost any shape which the thinker 
 desires. 
 
 The apparent reality or solidity of buildings and scenery 
 on the lower fourth may generally be due to the persistent 
 contribution of many streams, so to speak, of creative 
 thought confirming the original design. But even though 
 we are talking merely of the threshold of the next world, 
 its conditions, like all those appertaining to Nature on any 
 level, present almost insoluble mysteries to us when we 
 endeavour to get to the bed-rock of scientific reality. 
 
 Anyhow, observation by those capable of bringing 
 adequate intellectual development to the task of 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 1 6 1 
 
 investigating the higher regions still belonging to what we 
 call the fourth sub-plane, shows us these varying in char- 
 acter to an almost limitless degree. We very soon get clear 
 of all those embarrassing conditions above referred to which 
 offend certain sensibilities in the way described. And it 
 will hardly be worth while to attempt a methodical pro- 
 gress through the vast region of life we must all be so 
 eager to explore. But here let me deal for a moment with 
 magnitudes as well as with conditions. 
 
 Certainly those who are especially impressed with the 
 way in which higher planes of nature interpenetrate one 
 another are apt to forget that they do none the less have 
 relation with space and magnitude. Keeping touch simply 
 with one idea accepted universally by all who deal with 
 astral phenomena, the Astral World is composed of matter, 
 although of matter in a much more highly refined state 
 than that with which we deal on the physical plane, and 
 matter, however refined, must occupy space. The matter 
 of the Astral World increasing in refinement on the 
 higher levels, constitutes an envelope enclosing the earth, 
 the thickness of which in the aggregate can hardly be less 
 than a hundred thousand miles. And though the matter 
 of the higher levels undoubtedly interpenetrates the lower, 
 from another point of view, the solar spectrum suggests 
 the way in which, though no definite boundaries between 
 one colour and another can be discerned, there are never- 
 theless regions in that spectrum which are yellow and 
 other regions which are blue. So with the Astral World. 
 To an adequately developed entity, even still of the human 
 kingdom, all regions are equally accessible, all sub-plane 
 boundaries equally negligible, and yet equally susceptible 
 of observation. 
 
 Another very broad thought to be borne in mind in all 
 
 n 
 
1 62 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 studies of the Astral World has to do with the way in 
 which, although again boundaries are not hard and fast, 
 those regions of the Astral World that are in space super- 
 posed above definite regions of the earth, are those to which 
 the inhabitants of those definite regions would naturally 
 gravitate after passing on. Thus we have a European, 
 an American, an Asiatic astral dominion, an astral 
 geography, so to speak, which takes count of the broad 
 national distribution of life on the earth's surface. People 
 whose habits of thought render them easily shocked if any 
 statement is made concerning the after-life which fails to 
 harmonise with their religious emotion, must none the 
 less, if they desire to comprehend the actual state of the 
 facts, be prepared to find some of the conditions of physical 
 nature reproduced above. 
 
 Thus, for example, within the vast expanses of the 
 fourth sub-plane, we find ample scope for the satisfaction 
 of the religious emotion of those amongst whom it exists as 
 a predominant idea. There are great regions in the super- 
 physical world where the representatives of the varied 
 religions amongst us are drawn together by mutual sym- 
 pathy. There is a vast Roman Catholic area where 
 creative thought devoted to the task and continuously 
 re-in forced by fresh outbursts of this energy, has evolved 
 cathedrals of surpassing magnitude and beauty, where 
 ceremonies are constantly in progress, appealing even 
 more effectually than any on earth to the religious 
 emotions of those who attend them. But we need not 
 think of that state of things as interfering with the full 
 fruition of human life, which may be quite independent 
 of religious thinking. The ties of real affection bring 
 those who care for one another together in the astral life 
 with the same or even a greater degree of certainty than 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 1 6 3 
 
 the laws of chemistry control the combinations of the 
 elements amongst us here. That, indeed, is one of the 
 exquisite characteristics of the astral life, whether fore- 
 shadowed or not by the experiences of the earth life. 
 Mutual sympathy is the force that brings people into 
 social relation on the astral world. Over and over again, 
 in touch with friends who have passed on, I have been 
 told that they find themselves living in households or 
 communities with people they like exceedingly, even 
 though they may not have known them on the physical 
 plane. Indeed, on the happy levels of the astral, there 
 seems to be no room for uncongenial companionship. 
 
 The reader will see that I am attempting a task of 
 extraordinary magnitude in endeavouring to describe the 
 varieties of life in the Astral World, now that oppor- 
 tunities of research in that direction have so enormouslv 
 outgrown those with which theosophical students were 
 concerned in the beginning. But although an unmanage- 
 able volume of detail is accumulating to my hands, I must 
 be content, in dealing with the higher sub-planes, to 
 emphasise some broad considerations of supreme import- 
 ance. The foremost idea to be emphasised is that, whereas 
 at earlier stages of theosophical research some of us were 
 led to believe that opportunities for lofty intellectual and 
 spiritual consciousness had to be sought in spiritual regions 
 entirely transcending the Astral World, we now find that 
 the higher levels of the Astral World afford almost limit- 
 less opportunities for the expansion of the higher faculties 
 which inhere in human life. I am very far from wanting 
 to deny or belittle the importance of that stupendously 
 magnificent aspect of Nature which some theosophical 
 writers call the Heaven World, but which I shall prefer 
 to designate by a more scientifically appropriate term, the 
 
 n* 
 
164 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Manasic Plane. But before attempting, however faintly, 
 to foreshadow the conditions of life there, let me attempt 
 to dissipate the notion that the Astral World is itself 
 subject to any ignoble limitations. On the higher levels 
 of the Astral World there is still scope for the growth, ex- 
 pansion, and improvement of every intellectual or artistic 
 faculty which we can think of as taking its rise on the 
 physical plane. Thus to begin with, as a matter of fact, I 
 find that all the great scientific men of the past, not yet 
 specifically re-incarnated on earth, are still to be found 
 on the high levels of the Astral World, distinctly declining 
 a certain course of development which would carry them 
 into the Manasic condition because they find the oppor- 
 tunities of the higher Astral World best suited to the 
 further development of the researches, whatever these may 
 have been, with which they were concerned in the earth 
 .life. This statement seems at variance with what we 
 know of the Manasic Plane as pre-eminently distinguished 
 by the characteristic we described as intellect, when 
 endeavouring to analyse the human being. And yet the 
 paradox can be interpreted. The opportunities of the 
 Astral World afford, for example, a great scientist a better 
 opportunity than could even be found on the manasic level 
 for cultivating in his own consciousness those attributes 
 which will render him more and more capable of carrying 
 on scientific research when he ultimately returns to the 
 physical plane of life. Does he sacrifice anything by not 
 passing on, as he might, to the so-called heaven world ? 
 So far as mere happiness is concerned, though there may 
 be differences even in that condition, the happiness insepar- 
 ably associated with life on the higher levels of the Astral 
 is so complete that one can hardly think of any sacrifice as 
 involved in foregoing something that may be even more 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 165 
 
 complete still. But anyhow, if there is a theoretical sacri- 
 fice involved, that is one which the great scientists of the 
 past, as far as fairly extensive information on the subject 
 enables me to speak, are deliberately making in pursuance 
 of what they hold to be their loftiest duty the prepara- 
 tion of themselves for more and more useful work when 
 they return to the earth life. 
 
 Nor must we imagine that such people are shut off from 
 the perception of manasic experience. So far as their 
 selected path of progress is compatible with the idea, they 
 may be thought of as having perfectly free access to 
 manasic conditions where those are in some way needed 
 to fulfil the developments of capacity at which they are 
 aiming. And with appropriate modifications all that I 
 have said of the great scientists applies equally to the great 
 artists, poets, and men of letters, or if not quite equally, 
 in a general way subject to individual exception. 
 
 In dealing with this profoundly interesting subject, I 
 have aimed first at giving the reader some broad conception 
 of the varied beauty, splendour, and opportunity involved 
 in Astral life. And so I shrank in the beginning from 
 dealing more minutely with the horrors of the lowest 
 conditions prevailing in the submerged depths. Nor is it 
 necessary to dwell in detail on them. But after what I 
 have said with the design of showing how little those 
 regions of horror have to do with the prospects of ordinary 
 humanity, the story as a whole would be left incomplete 
 without some further explanation of the circumstances 
 under which a small minority of the most intensely evil 
 sections of humanity may be dealt with in accordance with 
 the inevitable justice of Divine Rule. Broa'dly speaking, 
 there is only one kind of wickedness which can draw a 
 human entity after physical life to the submerged regions. 
 
1 66 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 That characteristic is to be broadly defined as cruelty. 
 Cruelty, that is to say, on the physical plane, not merely 
 the outcome of thoughtless or careless disregard of suffer- 
 ing inflicted on others. The kind of cruelty in question is 
 that which really takes pleasure in the infliction of suffer- 
 ing on others. It is an attribute of character which few of 
 us can really comprehend; but it does exist as a possibility 
 of the lowest and most degraded human life, by no means 
 always to be found in the lowest in the sense of the 
 humblest, or degraded in the sense of the most ignorant 
 examples of humanity. The horrible attribute I speak of, 
 diabolical in its essential character, will be seen on reflec- 
 tion to be the exact antipodal reverse of the Divine 
 emotion, love and sympathy for others, pleasure in the 
 sight of their improved welfare when anything can be 
 done to promote it. The diabolical attribute where it 
 exists must be burned out of the Ego it has infected before 
 it is possible for that Ego to enter on the happier conditions 
 of the upper Astral World. And so the awful process of 
 eradicating that characteristic has to be carried out in that 
 region which I have described as the second sub-plane of 
 the Astral, counting from the bottom, the region im- 
 mediately submerged below the earth's surface. Beyond 
 that, indeed, there is a region which we speak of as the 
 first sub-plane of the Astral with which even the horrible 
 examples of humanity to which I refer have little or 
 nothing to do. It is a region mainly devoted to the gradual 
 disintegration of early elemental forms only appropriate 
 to the very primitive conditions prevailing on the globe 
 before it reached the condition appropriate to human life. 
 The second sub-plane is the hell of reality, as different 
 from the hell of mediaeval religion as the perfection of 
 scientific knowledge is different from the crudest 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 1 6 7 
 
 superstition. I need not attempt to describe in detail the 
 miseries of existence there. That existence has utter 
 misery for the background of its consciousness, just as the 
 existence on the higher Astral regions has happiness for 
 its background, whatever specific variety of happiness is 
 best appropriate to each variety of human aspiration. And 
 to each variety of human atrocity the second sub-plane 
 will provide an exactly appropriate intensification of the 
 pervading misery. But even there, let us constantly 
 remember, that purification is the purpose the Divine 
 scheme has in view, not merely blind revengeful punish- 
 ment in accordance with the blasphemous conception 
 which commonplace religion provides for the victims of 
 its foul imagination. The Ego condemned by his own 
 action to a sojourn on the second sub-plane will be released 
 therefrom as soon as a genuine change in his nature has 
 been effected by its awful remedies, but not until then. 
 There is no possibility of defining an average period for 
 existence on the second sub-plane; it may even be brief 
 as measured in months or years, it may extend, as I 
 know in extraordinary cases, to centuries of our time. But 
 there is only one more thought to be impressed on the 
 reader in connection with this gloomy topic, though that 
 is one of supreme importance. 
 
 The blundering stupidity of mediaeval thinking designed 
 a hell to be ruled by a devil, by the Devil, so clumsily 
 caricatured. A moment's thought along the line of recog- 
 nising all that exists in connection with the programme 
 of human life as of Divine origin, will show that the real 
 hell, curative in its purpose, as I have already shown, must 
 be ruled by Divine intelligence. And it is so ruled by a 
 Being whom we may think of with reverential adoration 
 that cannot be in excess of what the situation needs, if 
 
1 68 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 we really understand the wonder and beauty of the whole 
 idea. The ruler of a real curative hell must be of an 
 absolutely god-like nature, and before going further, let 
 me emphasise one truth connected with the great Divine 
 hierarchy through which the Will, that we vaguely think 
 of as Divine, is worked out. All service in that mighty 
 hierarchy is voluntary service. Whatever task of the kind 
 that can only be confided to a being of lofty spiritual 
 evolution has to be fulfilled, its fulfilment awaits the 
 voluntary readiness of some appropriate being to perform 
 it. Thus the awful task of governing the hell I am 
 describing claimed the service of a volunteer from regions 
 of spiritual beatitude entirely transcending the scope of 
 human imagination. And it was from such regions that 
 the glorious and mighty being who rules the under-world 
 at this moment voluntarily descended in order that the 
 terrible task that had to be fulfilled should, in the service 
 of God, be accomplished. Faintly one can grope towards 
 a conception of what it must be for a being who, to begin 
 with, so to speak, amongst other attributes of power, is an 
 embodiment of Divine Love, to undertake the task of 
 distributing in the varied population of the awful domain 
 below, the horrible sufferings that have to be borne by its 
 ghastly population. 
 
 There are few subjects connected with occult study that 
 appeal more powerfully to the emotions if any other can 
 appeal so powerfully as that mighty sacrifice I am faintly 
 endeavouring to describe, accomplished by the sublime 
 being who is the ruler of the Under- World. 
 
 And so, although a multitude of details have been 
 omitted, the description of the Astral World I have been 
 able to give will show how grotesquely incomplete were 
 the first crude presentations of what, while theosophical 
 
THE ASTRAL PLANE 169 
 
 writers were still hampered by Eastern terminology, was 
 called " kama-loka." So far as I can make out, the ideas 
 attached to that phrase can only have been derived from 
 some imperfect comprehension of the third sub-plane of 
 the Astral. Nothing connected with the original night- 
 mare described as kama-loka has any resemblance to the 
 beautiful realities of astral existence of the loftier order. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE MANASIC PLANE 
 
 AGAIN surrounding the astral world and in one 
 sense above it, we have to realise that a vast con- 
 centric region, still belonging to this globe and 
 accompanying it in its revolutions around the sun, provides 
 us with a theatre of life of a higher spiritual order than 
 that provided by the astral world. This region has borne 
 many names so far in the course of our early attempts to 
 interpret super-physical nature. At one time it was gener- 
 ally referred to as the " Devachanic Plane," exaggerated 
 attention being then paid to one of its aspects to be fully 
 described presently. Then, in view of the fact that the 
 region in question is pre-eminently associated with the 
 idea of intellectual development, some theosophical writers 
 preferred to call it the " Mental Plane," a term still in 
 very general use, and only to be objected to because it 
 seems to disparage the opportunities for high mental 
 development afforded on the superior levels of the astral 
 world, and this is very undesirable from the point of view of 
 attempts to interpret the varied planes of nature correctly. 
 Then because of the supreme conditions of bliss attending 
 life of all varieties on that exalted level, the region in 
 question has sometimes been called the " Heaven World," 
 a very appropriate designation except that it seems to 
 involve us in the connotations of that word " heaven " 
 derived from theological conceptions, which increasing 
 knowledge leads us to modify. It is really better in deal- 
 ing with the plane or vast concentric sphere now under 
 consideration to adopt into our language an Eastern term 
 with a sound etymological meaning, but one which at the 
 same time for Western thinkers will remain free from 
 
 170 
 
THE MAN ASIC PLANE 171 
 
 misleading suggestion. So let me adhere to one of the 
 terms used from the beginning, and call the region I now 
 propose to describe, as far as commonplace language will 
 make that possible, as the Manasic Plane. 
 
 When describing it as the Devachanic Plane, we were 
 concentrating attention on one of its aspects which 
 by degrees we have come to recognise as the least 
 important among those which we are to some extent 
 enabled to comprehend. There are many human Egos 
 among us entitled by their characteristics to a happy and 
 beautiful period of spiritual rest between incarnations, who, 
 at the same time, are hardly advanced intellectually to the 
 extent of being able to function freely with advantage 
 on the higher levels of the astral world. For them, para- 
 doxically as it may seem at first glance, the mental world 
 on its lowest levels, by reason of its essentially blissful 
 characteristics, provides suitable conditions of temporary, 
 though sometimes very protracted, existence. The idea 
 may best be comprehended by considering definite though 
 imaginary cases. Take that of a personality representing 
 an Ego of no very great intellectual advancement; but of 
 beautiful character and emotion say the case of a loving 
 mother, devoted during life to the welfare of her children, 
 coupled with genuine love of a husband; but not much 
 concerned during life with the cultivation of her higher 
 mental potentialities. Nature must provide her with a 
 happy and restful interlude between her last life and her 
 next. By the hypothesis she is not in a position to revel in 
 the acquisition of fresh knowledge. Her love nature needs 
 no fresh stimulus, it simply craves gratification. One 
 region of the Manasic Plane provides for this. She finds 
 herself under conditions in which the love she has exhaled 
 meets with overflowing response. She -finds herself sur- 
 
172 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 rounded by all whom she cared for, each representing her 
 own best ideals and bathed in that delicious dream, illusory 
 in one sense, and yet for her more vivid in its reality than 
 any life experience, she drifts deliciously through the 
 ages until the karmic and evolutionary forces, operative 
 on her as well as on the rest of humanity, provide for a 
 return to earth life. 
 
 Now such a condition, quite erroneously by some writers 
 in the early stages of theosophical study treated as a goal 
 to which all should aspire, would be hopelessly repug- 
 nant to the imagination of those who look forward to an 
 after-life of conscious touch with the sublime realities 
 of Nature. For such people it would be a grotesquely 
 unsuitable variety of after-life, and in truth the Deva- 
 chanic condition is merely appropriate to those capable of 
 beautiful loving emotion and of very little beyond or out- 
 side of this. And for them be it remembered that, although 
 the Devachanic condition is illusory, it constitutes a dream 
 that can never fade or conduce to disappointment. It 
 lasts in full perfection until the spiritual forces engendered 
 in the previous life on earth have ultimately worn them- 
 selves out, and until a brief and practically unconscious 
 passage to the higher levels of the Manasic World provide 
 for a return to the earth life. 
 
 To fully understand the Devachanic condition from our 
 point of view is exceedingly difficult. It must not be 
 thought of as a mere mental picture; its dramatis persona? 
 are all in vivid activity, and a thought must here be in- 
 volved in our attempt to understand this condition which 
 invests it, in spite of its illusory character, with influences 
 that make for progress. Let some of the dramatis per- 
 sonse in the case above imagined acquire during life or 
 after life higher spiritual knowledge than they possessed 
 
THE MANASIC PLANE 173 
 
 during the mother's earth life, and they may succeed in 
 animating the mother's Devachanic vision of themselves 
 with the higher consciousness to which in the interim 
 they have ascended. And thus for the mother the Deva- 
 chanic vision becomes something more than a beautiful 
 illusion, it becomes a genuine reality to the extent sug- 
 gested, conducive to her further interior evolution. 
 
 Without elaborating the whole explanation further, it 
 may now be perceived that the Devachanic condition, 
 while exactly fitting in with some of the emergencies that 
 natural law has to deal with, need not for one moment 
 disturb the apprehensions of those for whom the pursuit 
 of truth, the attainment of improved conditions of con- 
 sciousness, may be more attractive than the mere idea of 
 luxurious emotional rest. 
 
 Now let us endeavour, so far as this is possible for a 
 physically active brain, to contemplate the structure of the 
 Manasic region in its vast entirety. Like the astral world 
 beneath, it must be thought of to begin with as divided 
 into a series, the usual seven great sub-divisions, or sub- 
 planes, or sub-spheres. But once more plane is the most 
 convenient expression to employ, though, of course, in- 
 appropriate from the point of view of its simple mechani- 
 cal meaning; and, again, inappropriate as we endeavour to 
 keep in touch with the fundamental principle that loftier 
 planes of spiritual consciousness interpenetrate those below 
 so that the loftiest planes of the Manasic World may be 
 actually around us here on the surface of the earth, 
 although equally in regions of surrounding space elevated 
 above . us to incredible distances. The last-mentioned 
 conception is just as true as the other, and no correct 
 mental picture of the whole world can be formed in the 
 mind until we can realise it as a globe in regard to its 
 
174 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 finer orders of matter some millions of miles in diameter. 
 Now, without attempting a minute description of the 
 Manasic sub-planes, we must, in order to have something 
 like a fair comprehension of the subject, keep in touch 
 with the idea that the lower levels differ from the higher 
 in one more or less appreciable way. The lower levels 
 may be described very unsatisfactorily as concerned with 
 form, and the higher as concerned with formless aspects 
 of consciousness. Most attempts to deal with this idea in 
 theosophical literature so far have made use of two terms 
 of Eastern origin Rupa and Arupa Planes, those terms 
 being the equivalent to form and formless. And though 
 it is extremely desirable, wherever we can, to use words 
 of Western etymology, in dealing with facts of nature just 
 as closely related to ourselves here in Europe as to Eastern 
 students, adopting the words just quoted as labels designat- 
 ing regions of nature that we more or less understand, we 
 may, I think, prefer to use the Eastern terms in preference 
 to those which though perhaps more familiar, cannot but 
 suggest more than they are intended to convey. 
 
 Of course, the Devachanic conditions are found on the 
 lower Rupa levels, but in this sublimely attenuated 
 spiritual constitution of the Manasic Plane, we must not 
 think of any particular region as being ruled off or fenced 
 off, so to speak. There is ample scope in the Rupa sub- 
 plane for the active life of human entities, not to speak 
 of their other inhabitants who are far above in spiritual 
 and intellectual developments those who sink into the 
 blissful indolence of the Devachanic condition. There 
 are considerable numbers of the human family who 
 actually pass in full consciousness from the higher levels 
 of the astral world into the Rupa sub-levels of the Manasic. 
 For them the region in question may be thought of, with- 
 
THE MAN ASIC PLANE 175 
 
 out doing violence to language, as a Heaven World of 
 reality, providing the most glorious imaginable oppor- 
 tunities for an almost infinitely expanded appreciation of 
 the sublime principles underlying the loftiest religious 
 thinking. At a glance it will be obvious that only those 
 among us who have already during the earth-life attained 
 to a fairly dignified level of spiritual capacity could be 
 qualified to appreciate the opportunities afforded by 
 Manasic consciousness. 
 
 Transplant to Heaven a consciousness, a being, invested 
 with no attributes transcending the best emotions of 
 ordinary physical life, and Heaven does not for such 
 persons contain more than the fruition of these emotions. 
 You do not change an African savage's nature by bringing 
 him over to a civilised country and planting him suddenly 
 in the midst of art and science and literary culture. To 
 use comparatively grovelling and familiar ideas in illustra- 
 tion of the principle before us, the savage can merely select 
 from the resources of civilisation, supposing them offered 
 to him in all their abundance, the food and drink and 
 physical comforts which his experience of life enables him 
 to crave for. So with the imperfectly developed souls of 
 common humanity. Heaven is only Heaven for them in 
 so far as the growth of their minds enable them to avail 
 themselves of its resources. That which it does for all 
 who have it in them to attain its confines at all, is to assure 
 them complete happiness along the lines that their spiritual 
 development has followed. 
 
 By spiritual development in this sense, let me hasten 
 to add, I do not mean, in any exclusive way at any rate, 
 the development of the religious instinct. Where this 
 instinct is very energetic that is undoubtedly one phase 
 of spiritual development, but real unselfish love is no less 
 
176 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 spiritual in its character and is equally capable of a glorified 
 expansion on the heavenly or spiritual plane of conscious- 
 ness, and the same may be said of pure eagerness for 
 knowledge by " pure " meaning free from any thought 
 of personal profit to be gained by acquiring knowledge. 
 
 The artistic faculty, again, is deeply tinged with true 
 spirituality and is thus capable of evoking a generous 
 response from the spiritual plane whether it has to do 
 with the beauty of form, colour, or sound. The resources 
 of the spiritual plane are all but infinite, for thought is 
 there becoming a creative power in a far higher degree 
 than on the astral plane, and independently of this, con- 
 sciousness is there in direct relation with the all but in- 
 finite memory of Nature, which is preserved how we 
 cannot at present expect to understand exactly with im- 
 perishable perfection, in the all-embracing medium known 
 to occult science as the " Akasa," or Memory ether. 
 
 This marvellous medium is discernible in some of its 
 manifestations on the astral plane, but its clear and uncon- 
 fused records belong especially to the higher plane of 
 spiritual consciousness. It is a natural mirror of all events, 
 which recalls them for those who have the power of 
 reading in it, in their minutest details. As nothing can 
 alter the past when its events are once accomplished, so 
 nothing can obliterate them from the memory of Nature. 
 Our own individual memories in physical life are imperfect 
 readings of so much in its records as we have personally 
 had to do with of as much as is connected by mysterious 
 affinities with our own brain cells; but to the emancipated 
 spiritual faculties on the Manasic Plane the records are 
 more easily accessible. We are in a position to remember 
 everything that has ever occurred in the history of our 
 world, and to remember it not in that dim shadowy way 
 
THE MANASIC PLANE 177 
 
 which physical memory alone achieves, but in such a way 
 that the past scene or chain of events on which we bend 
 our attention re-enacts itself before us in vivid perfection 
 of detail. Obviously it would not so unroll itself unless 
 the attention is bent upon it with the set purpose of 
 evoking its records. 
 
 Now, however, without attempting to elaborate these 
 considerations further, let me endeavour to answer the 
 question which will certainly arise in the reader's mind 
 as to what variety of human development qualifies any 
 given entity for participation in the free life of the Rupa 
 Manasic Plane. The answer is very simple, though for 
 those as yet unversed in the study of the methods by which 
 individual human progress can be greatly exhilarated, as 
 compared to the drift through the ages of the main multi- 
 tude, a full comprehension of what I mean will best be 
 appreciated after I shall have endeavoured to describe what 
 is meant by occult initiation. Briefly, in advance of that 
 fuller explanation, let it be understood in accordance with 
 the earliest hints provided by theosophical teaching that it 
 is possible by strenuous devotion to that purpose to attain 
 in a relatively brief period (though relatively brief may 
 still mean the course of many successive lives) a condition 
 of spiritual growth transcending that which would be 
 reached in the same time by those content to travel slowly 
 along the main highway of evolution. In other words, 
 some of us, sooner or later, enter on what we commonly 
 speak of as the " Path " leading to the quicker spiritual 
 evolution (to be more fully described later on), and 
 broadly speaking, it is only those who are already on the 
 path, though not necessarily far advanced along it, who are 
 qualified for existence of the free kind on the lower levels 
 of the Manasic world. Individual characteristics will in 
 
178 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 all cases determine the question whether such entities 
 should ascend to the Manasic region or find a more appro- 
 priate sphere of activity on the higher levels of the astral. 
 I have already, in speaking of those beautiful conditions, 
 described them as still abundantly inhabited by the most 
 splendid examples of eminence in science, literature, and 
 art. Probably few of these would be otherwise than entitled, 
 if they chose, to pass on into the Manasic condition. In- 
 deed, they are so circumstanced that most of them can 
 reach up, so to speak, to those conditions when they desire 
 to do so for the amplification of the knowledge they are 
 acquiring without finally severing their connection from 
 the astral region. On that the character of the knowledge 
 they are acquiring is better appropriate to later uses in 
 succeeding earth-lives than perhaps the deeper spiritual 
 knowledge accessible to them on lofty levels. These 
 few words may suggest rather than adequately convey the 
 idea they attempt to involve. It would claim rather a pro- 
 tracted dissertation if kept on the abstract level. An 
 imaginary illustration will best help to show what I mean. 
 Take the case of an electrician bent upon trying to help 
 the world of science to an improved comprehension of 
 what electricity really is. That force is probably identi- 
 fied with some ultra-refined manifestation on the Manasic 
 Plane. The electrician, entitled by his own spiritual 
 growth to ascend to the Manasic Plane, might gratify 
 himself by coming there to understand the higher mani- 
 festation of electricity, as yet quite incomprehensible, no 
 matter how frank the teaching to an incarnate understand- 
 ing. But on the astral plane, without diving into the 
 Manasic mysteries of electricity, he would be able to get 
 on a good deal further than during his previous life with 
 the comprehension of the infinite mystery. That sort of 
 
THE MAN ASIC PLANE 179 
 
 progress, once embodied in his own capacity to understand 
 things, will be distinctly conducive to the success of his 
 later work when he comes back to incarnation as a scientist 
 of some future generation. So he is content with that 
 achievement, in one sense makes a certain sacrifice in order 
 to do the work that he conceives appointed for him better 
 than if he refused the sacrifice. I do not pretend to think 
 the sacrifice a very terrible one. I have no doubt that 
 many men of science on the higher levels of the astral 
 world will distinctly prefer to make progress in the way 
 they are used to rather than leaping an almost impassable 
 gulf to reach states of consciousness that cannot be brought 
 back into any physical brain. But at all events, we have 
 the alternatives before us in imagination, and we may 
 feel fairly sure that those who actually avail themselves of 
 their right to ascend to the Manasic world will do so 
 because they can discern in that condition opportunities 
 for serving the ultimate progress of science even better 
 than by following the path more congenial to others. 
 
 Concerning the higher or Arupa sub-planes of the vast 
 Manasic region, it may be possible to suggest some broad 
 idea not entirely out of harmony with the truth, and yet 
 the better one's own glimmering perception of natural 
 truth lying beyond the limits normally set for the physical 
 understanding of this period, the more one is daunted in 
 reference to any attempt to portray such glimmering in 
 familiar language. For those not alone on the Path, but 
 considerably advanced along it, the higher regions of the 
 Manasic world are undeniably accessible. But the states 
 of consciousness available there are definitely beyond the 
 reach of language designed merely to deal with lower 
 planes of manifestation, I believe it is quite true that on 
 some of those higher levels of the Manasic world vision 
 
 13* 
 
i8o THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 adapted to its phenomena will perceive the more or less 
 developed centres of spiritual consciousness appertaining 
 to all the mighty host of the human family. No term 
 that I can think of as appropriate can be assigned to those 
 mysterious centres or vortices. By some writers they are 
 spoken of as Causal bodies, a comfortless and misleading 
 expression which anyhow denotes only a small minority 
 of the subtle phenomena in question. The aggregate 
 number of Egos constituting the whole human family has 
 been estimated by those who know as approximating 
 to 60,000 millions, including, not merely the 1,500 
 millions or so of incarnate human beings, but all those who 
 exist for periods far more protracted than those of ordinary 
 life, in Astral, Devachanic, and Manasic conditions. Now 
 the vast majority are still on a stage of evolution which 
 does not provide for the complete evolution of any 
 vehicle of consciousness on the higher Manasic levels. 
 Therefore what is perceptible in the way I have hinted at 
 above on those levels is some mysterious germ of future 
 Causal bodies which would be very inaccurately thought 
 of as constituting any thing that may be described as a 
 population on those lofty levels. Their actual population 
 is assuredly to be recognised as consisting of beings already 
 on a very high stage of abnormal progress. And yet such 
 beings probably in most cases are actively engaged in deal- 
 ing with the affairs of the world on our own levels of 
 manifestation, though working on these levels in bodies 
 invisible to the physical senses. But such complications 
 may be somewhat better appreciated when we come to 
 consider the meaning and purpose of initiation, and for 
 the moment I prefer to leave this very imperfect sketch 
 of the Manasic World in the shape I have already given. 
 People who are used to thinking that the Heaven to 
 
THE MANASIC PLANE 181 
 
 which they will pass after death is co-extensive with the 
 universe, are inclined to be discontented on that account 
 with the prospect actually before them, their discontent- 
 ment can only be due to an imperfect understanding of 
 the relations between their own present consciousness and 
 infinity. The child that puts out its hand to grasp at the 
 moon is a feeble illustration of that miscalculation of their 
 own spiritual range, which leads some incarnate thinkers 
 to imagine that nothing will satisfy them after death but 
 all the spiritual potentialities the cosmos contains. 
 
 We have seen how on the astral plane itself, matter is 
 already infinitely more plastic to the influence of thought 
 and will than the grosser matter we have to deal with on 
 the physical plane. It may seem somewhat strained 
 language to speak of the matter of the astral plane, when 
 it is wholly beyond the reach of our present senses nor 
 capable, as far as we know, of affecting the most delicate 
 instruments of the physical laboratory, but it is material, 
 as truly as gold or iron are material, to the senses adapted 
 to its perception. And on the Manasic plane again the 
 thought of the Creator has taken manifestation in matter, 
 though this, in its turn, will be beyond the range of the 
 astral senses for those on the lower level. Nor, indeed, 
 are the various phases of material nature entirely discon- 
 nected the one from the other. They melt as it were, the 
 one into the other like the colours of the spectrum. The 
 molecule of physical matter is utterly beyond microscopic 
 reach in the direction of the infinitely little and constitutes 
 the finest manifestation of physical matter whose charac- 
 teristics can be discerned by physical means. But our 
 molecule of physical matter is a congeries of ultimate 
 physical atoms, and the ultimate atom itself constitutes the 
 ether of the physical plane and is still of the physical plane, 
 
1 82 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 although already beyond the reach of any instrument of 
 research designed up to the present time. That ultimate 
 physical atom, however, is found to be itself a highly com- 
 plicated structure, consisting of atoms of astral matter. 
 The Manasic atoms in turn, we may feel sure, from 
 reasoning and the analogies of nature, are themselves con- 
 stituted of similar aggregations of matter. A great region 
 of thought is opened out in connection with this branch of 
 superphysical science, before we begin to get in touch 
 with the nature of force on each plane. Force, it is some- 
 times said, is matter, although the expression in that bald 
 shape is not calculated to convey any acceptable idea to 
 the mind, but the matter which it is, is in all cases the 
 matter of a superior plane. Astral matter may become 
 force on the physical plane, or to express the idea with 
 greater precision, may become the vehicle of force on the 
 physical plane, and Manasic matter in the same way may 
 become the vehicle of a force on the astral plane. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 
 
 FEW subjects connected with occult research 
 present greater embarrassment to the student than 
 those which attend an inquiry into the nature of 
 Elementals. The term is vaguely understood to apply 
 to beings of a superphysical order, and except for the broad 
 statement that they are non-human, but subject to the 
 control of human will, while varying in their nature over 
 an enormous range of characteristics, the information 
 available until considerable progress had been made with 
 theosophical teaching clouded, more perhaps than it 
 elucidated, the mysteries connected with their place and 
 functions in evolution. In the beginning of that teaching 
 out of which our present theosophical knowledge has 
 been developed, information concerning the elementals 
 was avowedly withheld on the ground that it was all but 
 impossible to be explicit on the subject without revealing 
 secrets that related to the exercise of occult power. It was 
 by the intermediation of the elementals, we were told, 
 that the physical plane phenomena of occultism were 
 brought about; as also those which in a sporadic and un- 
 scientific fashion took the shape of marvellous occurrences 
 at some spiritualistic seances. In various theosophical 
 books reference was made to elementals of earth, air, fire, 
 and water, to gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines, 
 following the nomenclature of some mediaeval writers on 
 occult mysteries, but every statement of this kind 
 darkened the whole subject instead of clearing it up, and 
 left the mind of cultivated students disturbed by a feeling 
 that the statements in question were not merely 
 
 183 
 
i8 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 unintelligible, but designed rather to put a veil over, than 
 to elucidate the subject. 
 
 Step by step, however, it has been possible for some 
 of us to make a little progress in the comprehension of the 
 deeply intricate mystery in question. As the number of 
 modern theosophical students qualified to transfer their 
 consciousness to the astral plane, and to retain in their 
 normal consciousness a recollection of what they learn 
 there, gradually increases, it becomes possible for others 
 to push their inquiries nearer and nearer to the impassable 
 barriers that separate the knowledge of the outer world 
 from that of initiated occultists. And we thus know some- 
 thing more about the elementals now, than at the outset 
 of the Theosophical Movement. We can at any rate begin 
 to disentangle scientific truth from poetical imagery, and 
 to formulate conceptions concerning elemental agency 
 which harmonise, as far as they go, with definite physical 
 knowledge, and suggest a line of thought calculated to link 
 on that knowledge with the deeper mysteries of Nature 
 some appreciation of which is absolutely required to enable 
 us to form even a partial comprehension of the vast theatre 
 in which the evolution of life up to the human level, and 
 beyond it, is carried on. 
 
 First, we have to get rid of the notion that elemental 
 nature is simply represented by semi-intelligent creatures 
 of a fairy-like order and of the kind mentioned above who 
 can be seen and are seen by clairvoyants playing about in 
 the surf of the sea-shore, in flower-gardens, in conflagra- 
 tions in towns and cities, wEerever, in fact, natural 
 activities are in progress. Elemental nature, it would be 
 a misuse of language to say the elemental kingdom, because 
 it is so infinitely vaster than the animal, vegetable, or 
 human kingdoms amongst ourselves, elemental nature 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 185 
 
 pervades the universe. In one way we can go back in 
 imagination to its beginnings, and yet its beginnings must 
 not be thought of as their remote condition in the past 
 leading up to the complicated results we can now observe. 
 Elemental beginnings are in progress amongst us at this 
 moment all over the universe, and the activities of highly 
 elemental beings are equally going on wherever worlds of 
 life exist. To picture in imagination the beginning of 
 elemental evolution, we have to think of the vast ocean 
 of etheric matter pervading the universe, with every atom 
 of which an elemental germ is somehow associated. Such 
 atoms, of course, defy imagination by their minuteness. 
 The smallest speck of matter that can be discerned in a 
 microscope is a mountain compared to the etheric atom, 
 and yet each atom carries with it the germ of elemental 
 existence. To say life, would be almost a misleading 
 use of the word, because that word is so inseparably 
 associated in our own minds with some order of conscious- 
 ness. The consciousness of an advanced elemental is so 
 unlike our own, that the word is hardly applicable, and 
 " semi-intelligent " is the term not inappropriately devoted 
 to the description even of advanced elemental beings. 
 But the whole subject is so complicated that when we 
 begin to think of elemental evolution, we are merely 
 thinking of the subject in one of its many aspects. In 
 that aspect it must first be contemplated. 
 
 As etheric matter combines to form molecules, first of 
 the higher ether and then, to concentrate our attention at 
 the outset on the physical plane, of physical matter, the 
 elementals may be thought of as advancing in the slow 
 progress of their gradual evolution, and that evolution, 
 be it remembered, just because it is universal, is as gradual 
 and more gradual than the growth of worlds. A growth 
 
1 86 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 of any given world may be thought of as no more than 
 an episode in the evolution of that department or section 
 of elemental nature required to advance concurrently with 
 itself. Keeping to the very broad conception of the whole 
 subject which must be entertained in the mind to begin 
 with, we may regard the whole stupendous development 
 of elemental semi-consciousness as the downward or pre- 
 paratory arc of a vast cycle, the upward arc of which 
 constitutes what has been called, incorrectly enough, the 
 " Deva kingdom." Devas in that way have a beginning 
 on a scale of minuteness exceedingly difficult to deal with 
 in imagination, and as they emerge from elemental nature, 
 represent what mediaeval writers have described as Nature- 
 Spirits. A Nature-Spirit is as definitely a natural agent, 
 carrying out divine purpose, as the elemental in the begin- 
 ning is a natural agent working out what we call the 
 fundamental laws of nature, themselves the expression, 
 in the inorganic world, of divine will and purpose. As 
 the Nature-Spirit develops higher and higher capacities for 
 dealing with the divine purpose in the regions of organic 
 life, it gradually assumes the aspect described as that of 
 the deva. And, again, in the higher developments of that 
 wonderful natural agency, devas ascend to the region of 
 existence, in which it would be a misuse of language again 
 to describe them as semi-intelligent. The Nature-Spirit 
 from which the deva grows was not more than semi- 
 intelligent. The deva attains a rank in which he or it 
 one never knows what pronouns to use in cases like this 
 becomes the perfected agent, not merely for the fulfilment 
 of divine purpose on the higher levels of natural and 
 human evolution, but skilful beyond the range of our con- 
 ception in adjusting the law to the complications of cir- 
 cumstance arising from the play of human free-will. 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 187 
 
 Every sentence I am putting down might be the point of 
 departure for a long dissertation which at this moment 
 it is impossible to condense into reasonable limits. But 
 there is first of all the broad idea it is necessary for us to 
 realise. Elemental and Deva Nature constitutes the 
 stupendous agency employed to realise the divine purpose 
 in physical and moral evolution. 
 
 The significance of the word " moral " in that sentence 
 is due to the fact that on the higher levels of deva activity, 
 devas become the instruments through which the law of 
 Karma is carried out. Again condensing an enormous 
 volume of knowledge, which has gradually accumulated 
 on our hands, we have to think first of devas as actually 
 guiding events on the plane of human life in order that 
 they may fulfil the necessities of the Karmic Law. And 
 what is that Karmic Law ? Again, the will of beings in- 
 comparably higher in nature than the highest deva, we can 
 think of, in turn the conscious agents of that infinite divine 
 will which underlies not only all manifestations, but all 
 moral and spiritual growth; beings to whom for our con- 
 venience we must assign a name, although their plane in 
 nature is so exalted that our thoughts concerning them 
 cannot but be vague. These beings are sometimes spoken 
 of as Lords of Karma, more definitely by a term borrowed 
 from Eastern terminology, the Lipika. 
 
 As far as we know, the Lipikas represent an order of 
 consciousness as widely diffused as the universe. But in- 
 formation filtering down to us from levels of human evolu- 
 tion far above that of ordinary humanity enables us to 
 realise that a small group of Lipikas can deal with all the 
 moral problems that the vast and complicated human 
 family represents. In this hasty survey of the whole 
 subject, we may think of four Lipikas presiding over 
 
1 88 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 different departments, if the phrase may be used, of the 
 vast Karmic Law. They, working through hierarchies of 
 deva agency, which, again, may be thought of in connec- 
 tion with this very broad view of the subject as constitut- 
 ing four great streams of agency, pervade human life. 
 
 The reader will see how difficult it is to frame one 
 continuous statement aimed at clearing up thought in 
 reference to this inconceivably elaborate agency em- 
 braced by the term elementals and devas. But reserving 
 for the moment some further attempts to explain elemental 
 agency, let us dwell a little longer upon the deva agency, 
 concerned with the fulfilment of the Karmic Law. That 
 law, be it remembered, has sometimes been described, not 
 incorrectly, as the uniform operation of cause and effect 
 on the moral plane. In reference to the consequences 
 ensuing from the causes set in motion by human action, 
 good or bad, the Karmic Law may be thought of as 
 analogous, on the moral plane, to the conservation of 
 energy on the plane of inanimate natural force. But 
 where inanimate nature can, so to speak, be relied upon 
 to obey natural law, human free-will is continually fret- 
 ting against it, with the result that deva activity, carrying 
 out the Karmic Law in reference to the course of each 
 human life, has to be employed on continual re-adjust- 
 ments of circumstance required to fulfil the law in spite 
 of the vagaries of that human free-will, which although 
 working within limitations it does not altogether com- 
 prehend, is actually competent to modify circumstances 
 in a way which very often interposes distinct embarrass- 
 ments in the way of those who are commissioned to vin- 
 dicate the law. 
 
 I know that such attempts as I am making now to 
 define the subtle machinery, by which the course of human 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 189 
 
 activity is partly guided and partly left free, can do no 
 more than broadly suggest ideas which it is impossible, 
 within the limits at my disposal, to illuminate even to the 
 extent that might be possible if I had nothing else to do 
 but to elaborate this interpretation. But even in the 
 broadest aspects, the teaching I am now endeavouring to 
 pass on is essential to a proper comprehension of the condi- 
 tion surrounding that growth of the soul which this 
 volume aims at sketching, at all events in outline. 
 
 But so far, going back to the attempt to interpret 
 elemental nature, I have dealt merely with what may 
 be described as its natural course of evolution. Ele- 
 mental nature begins by working out the laws of 
 matter in connection with the inorganic world, and 
 its natural functions may thus be thought of 
 as divine in their origin. But just because elementals are 
 in a way it is vain for us to attempt to realise in imagina- 
 tion amenable to the Divine Will, they are also, in a 
 limited, though very extensive way amenable to human 
 will. And this thought brings us into relation with a vast 
 range of phenomena, having to do with elemental nature 
 in which, given elementals, or more correctly given 
 volumes of elemental activity, becomes susceptible of im- 
 press by human intention. As usual, the. mere abstract 
 statement of a natural law may, or may not, convey a 
 definite idea to a reader's mind, and the idea that I have to 
 deal with now is so intricate that the mere abstract state- 
 ment of it can hardly be expected to convey the complete 
 meaning. The fact, however, is simply this that human 
 will, illuminated, of course, by a considerable volume of 
 what we commonly call occult knowledge (gradually 
 becoming less occult as time goes on), can, as it were, create 
 artificial elementals designed to carry out a definite purpose. 
 
190 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 This purpose may be good or bad, and the thought may 
 invest with a fuller meaning a phrase used at the outset 
 of the present chapter, to the effect that information con- 
 cerning elementals was allowed to pass into general know- 
 ledge with some anxiety, so to speak, in the first instance, 
 on the part of those who inaugurated the great Theosophi- 
 cal Movement. And yet it was impossible to make human 
 evolution intelligible without conveying some of 
 this more or less dangerous knowledge. Dealing, how- 
 ever, with the facts instead of with their surrounding 
 embarrassments, we have to recognise that adequately com- 
 petent human will, that is to say, human will invested with 
 an adequate volume of occult knowledge, may practically 
 create elementals destined to accomplish purposes that we 
 may regard either as good or evil, as the case may be. As 
 usual, there is little purpose to be served by dwelling per- 
 sistently in imagination on possibly evil developments of 
 natural forces. Let me rather further illustrate what I 
 mean by concentrating attention on the possibilities of 
 doing good by means of artificial elementals. Adept 
 power, to begin with, can create an artificial elemental 
 designed to protect any given individuality in the mazes of 
 human life either from accidental injury or from malevo- 
 lent attack by hostile agency. That elemental, perceiving 
 that the person whom he is in charge of is approaching 
 some danger, may contrive to give him an impulse which 
 will turn his steps in another direction. Or if the person 
 is adequately sensitive may convey what would be loosely 
 described as an intuition, warning him off some contem- 
 plated line of conduct. And in many varied ways, an 
 elemental guardian, invested with a benevolent purpose, 
 may soothe or encourage or invigorate, as the case may be, 
 the human entity whom he is commissioned to protect or 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 191 
 
 help. But to understand the idea correctly, we must not 
 think of the guardian elemental as invested with the attri- 
 bute of benevolence. In its own nature it is neither good 
 nor bad. It is just a centre of energy working along the 
 lines of the original intention which gave rise to its 
 temporary creation, and we need not always think of this 
 creation as due to the exalted capacity of an adept. 
 Ordinary human thinking is a force of very much less 
 effective value than the conscious will of an adept, but 
 none the less capable in some circumstances of uncon- 
 sciously creating artificial elementals of either variety, 
 good or bad. Thus it may happen that the sustained loving 
 thought of one person in reference to another at a distance 
 may actually create an artificial elemental less powerful 
 than in the case I have previously endeavoured to imagine; 
 but still effective to a certain sense as a benevolent or pro- 
 tective influence. And in some well-authenticated cases, 
 where philanthropists have relied on earnest prayer to. 
 provide them with the physical plane needs perhaps even 
 simply the financial needs of their enterprise, whatever it 
 may be definite results have been known to ensue. And 
 such results can be comprehended by those who under- 
 stand the mysteries of elemental nature, because that 
 earnest prayer has created an artificial elemental, the duty 
 of which is to impress upon somebody, competent to render 
 the necessary aid, the desire to give such help. 
 
 There is another way in which human intelligence may 
 direct elemental agency. Let us consider a heavy block 
 of stone, which we wish to raise. The force which bears 
 it down towards the centre of the earth is one which we 
 can measure with great exactitude and call by a familiar 
 name, but we do not know much about its mode of work- 
 ing. We can only control it on the physical plane by so 
 
192 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 arranging matters that a preponderating volume of itself 
 or some other force counteracts the tendency we wish 
 to overcome. Occult teaching about all physical force, 
 however, is that it is the physical plane manifestation of 
 some elemental force. There must thus be an astral 
 counterpart of gravity, and in its astral manifestation it 
 must be in some measure alive and must come within the 
 influence of a higher-plane volition. Here we get a c\\i? 
 to the comprehension of the principle on which advanced 
 occult power is known not merely in former ages of the 
 world, but in the present day to manipulate heavy masses 
 of matter by will power. The thing happens, also, in th..": 
 experience of spiritualism continually. It is another illus- 
 tration of the translation of force from one plane to 
 another, which is merely a question of controlling 
 elemental agency to an adequate degree. 
 
 But the mystery of such translation is something apart 
 from the aspect of elemental agency on the astral plane. 
 In reference to the process of translation we must be 
 content for the present to know that the achievement 
 is possible, and to realise in that way the continuity of 
 natural forces the coherence of the whole scheme of 
 force on different planes and to foresee the direction in 
 which man's control of matter on the physical plane may 
 be expected one day to extend. Let us now pass in 
 imagination on to the astral plane altogether and take note 
 of such information as we can gather concerning elemental 
 agency as manifesting there. 
 
 Every branch of occult teaching will always be found 
 to gear in with others. The natural history of elemental 
 agency in its first and broadest outlines recalls attention 
 to the fundamental principles of planetary evolution. In 
 the beginning of a planet's life, before the evolution of its 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 193 
 
 mineral body not to speak of its vegetation and animal 
 life the nucleus of cosmic activity which is going to be 
 a planet is the arena of certain elemental evolutions fol- 
 lowing one another in due order. Before the formation 
 of the mineral kingdom, we have been told, the scheme of 
 things to which we belong provides for the successive evo- 
 lution of three kingdoms of elementals. The statement at 
 first carried no very definite meaning for uninitiated 
 hearers, but even at first it conveyed, in a grand faint out- 
 line, the idea that those kingdoms of nature of which we 
 have cognisance were the outcome of mysterious forces 
 acting on matter of a finer order than that into which it 
 was ultimately kneaded. It now appears that the three 
 kingdoms of elementals which preceded the mineral evolu- 
 tion are in no sense extinct. We are concerned with a 
 later stage of the process, but the earlier agencies are still 
 in activity. Cognisable in fact in varying degrees there are 
 three kingdoms of elementals still in touch with the 
 evolution of the planetary chain, force, that is to say, 
 looking at the matter from another point of view, in three 
 orders of manifestation. They do not all belong to the 
 astral plane, and the two higher must be thought of as 
 belonging properly to more spiritual planes though inter- 
 penetrating the astral. Remember that the astral plane is 
 a sphere of activity for higher faculties than those which 
 properly belong to it; also that it is sub-divisible into 
 planes as described in a preceding chapter that differ one 
 from another in a marked degree. Remember also that 
 in speaking now of the two " higher " kingdoms of 
 elementals we are looking back along the course pursued 
 during the descent of spirit into matter. The higher 
 elemental kingdoms were the earlier in the order of 
 manifestation, the first to emerge from non-manifestation. 
 
194 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 The lowest of the three is most highly developed or 
 organised, the nearest to the still more elaborately evolved, 
 finished, or materially perfected physical plane. 
 
 The higher kingdoms can only be got at, so to speak, 
 by powers on a level spiritually with that to which they 
 belong. In order to deal with them at all a human being 
 must have passed up the cycle of evolution again till his 
 consciousness and will are in activity once more (plus the 
 experiences of physical incarnation) on the higher planes. 
 The thought will present no difficulty to anyone who has 
 grasped the first principles of occult teaching in regard 
 to cosmic evolution, and the bearing of it on the subject 
 in hand tends to simplify rather than to embarrass the in- 
 quiry before us. For the present we may ignore the two 
 higher or earlier elemental kingdoms. The third, or that 
 nearest to physical manifestation, is the one with which 
 human consciousness of the ordinary type is most nearly 
 concerned. All varieties of elemental agency visible to 
 explorers of the astral plane who are able to cognise its 
 phenomena without being as yet on the more exalted levels 
 of spiritual evolution, belong to the third kingdom, which, 
 however, is varied to an extent that renders its division 
 into different orders and classes a task of considerable 
 difficulty. Let us attempt to realise some of the principles 
 on which that classification must proceed. 
 
 The elemental forces, to begin with, I will endeavour 
 later on to deal with the subject of elemental beings, are 
 divisible according to the states or conditions of matter 
 with which they have to do in their manifestations on the 
 physical plane. We all know of the solid, liquid, and 
 gaseous states of matter, and occult students know some- 
 thing of four other states in an ascending series. The 
 corresponding elemental forces are those described in 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 195 
 
 poetical language, as gnomes, undines, sylphs, and sala- 
 manders. The gnome does not mean a sub-human dwarf 
 inhabiting mines. This is the caricature of the idea 
 developed by imperfect information grafted on an ill- 
 trained imagination. The gnome or earth elemental is 
 the astral force related to the phenomena of solid matter. 
 So the undine, or water elemental, is not a fairy dancing 
 in a fountain, but a natural force related to liquid matter; 
 the sylph, or air elemental, is the similar force related to 
 gaseous matter; and the salamander, or fire elemental, to 
 the vibrations of the ether. 
 
 At this point, however, the classification may seem too 
 crude to be scientific. There are common attributes in 
 all three states of matter. Weight, for instance, is as much 
 an attribute of hydrogen as of lead; molecular vibration 
 is going on in the motionless rock as well as in the waves 
 that dash against it. There is no force we can think of 
 which belongs exclusively to either liquid, solid, or gaseous 
 matter. In the same way, however, the various elemental 
 agencies do not act singly and independently of each other, 
 but in infinitely varied alliances. The important point is 
 that whatever combination of forces may be recognised as 
 operative in any given case on the physical plane, the 
 counterpartal combination is operative on the astral, and 
 assumes the relatively living aspect which renders it more 
 directly than here amenable to the human will. 
 
 But the astral plane is divided, as we have seen, into 
 seven sub-divisions. Appropriate to each we find special 
 varieties of elemental agency presenting themselves for 
 examination, and the distinction just noticed between the 
 elementals of earth, water, air, and fire runs up through 
 them all. 
 
 Again, there is a mysterious classification of attributes, 
 
196 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 tendencies, or characteristics running through Nature 
 through all the planes of Nature, the physical included 
 which is too subtle to be very readily interpreted, but 
 which may be dimly indicated by saying that every 
 plant, animal, and man, as well as every mineral and 
 every manifestation of elemental agency, is " on " one 
 or other of seven great " rays " proceeding in the first 
 instance from exalted regions of spiritual influence, 
 which imagination penetrates with difficulty. The ray 
 classification has to be taken into account in grouping 
 the elementals. 
 
 The habits of mind engendered by thinking of the three 
 dimensions of space will enable us to construct in imagina- 
 tion not a tabular view of this triple classification, but a 
 solid figure embracing the three categories. How shall we 
 expand this, however, so as to make it significant of the 
 fact that the same triple classification must be made to run 
 all through the three kingdoms of elementals? For this 
 we seem in need of a fourth dimension of space. But, at 
 all events, without going beyond the experience of life 
 around us, a living creature may at the same time be a 
 mammal, a quadruped, a pachyderm, and a male, so the 
 elemental varieties, though too complicated to be repre- 
 sented by a diagram or even by a solid figure, need not be 
 altogether unmanageable in thought. 
 
 So far we have been considering the elemental agencies 
 in their most general or indeterminate aspects as forces 
 rather than entities, and that is the most important idea 
 concerning them, to establish in the mind as the founda- 
 tion of all maturer conceptions. It is disastrous to run 
 away with the first idea apt to invade the understanding 
 on the subject, that the elementals are to the astral plane, 
 what its beasts, birds, and reptiles are to the forest. But, 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 197 
 
 none the less, early experience on the astral plane is very 
 likely to support this notion. Forces on the physical plane 
 are always abstract energies associated with matter, but 
 forces on the astral plane, are not only, as has been already 
 said, in some sense alive, they are ready to take shape 
 under the influence of the will, whatever it may be, that 
 directs them, and may be in the same way imbued with a 
 benevolent or malevolent character for the time being, 
 which has no resemblance, as far as any internal conscious- 
 ness goes, to goodness or badness of disposition, but leads 
 them to be of good or bad efficiency, just as physical plane 
 forces may be of good or bad efficiency. The fire which 
 directed to a useful end cooks food may, directed dif- 
 ferently, inflict suffering on a living organism. Gravity 
 which pulls down a clock weight usefully may kill a man 
 standing below if the chain breaks. Electricity may carry 
 good tidings or explode a parcel of dynamite without being 
 in itself good or bad electricity; and the dynamite may use- 
 fully clear a rock out of the path of navigation or blow up 
 a building and mutilate the inhabitants. Per se, force is 
 neither good nor evil, and the same idea has to be applied 
 to the consideration of elemental beings, called into 
 existence by will power and invested with attributes by 
 conscious intention. Undoubtedly, the astral plane teems 
 with such beings of both good and evil efficiency, and at 
 the first blush it might well be imagined that they con- 
 stitute the animal life of that plane. But they are entities 
 only in so far as a bucketful of water drawn up out of the 
 sea is a specific volume of water, taking the shape of the 
 interior of the bucket for the time being. If you break 
 the bucket the water falls back into the ocean, neither the 
 better nor the worse for having been detached for a while 
 therefrom. Or it may have gone through various 
 
198 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 adventures in the meantime. It may have been converted 
 into steam in a boiler, may have driven a ship on her course, 
 or it may have burst from its confinement injuring living 
 beings in the neighbourhood; it may even have entered into 
 chemical combinations with other matter and have played 
 an elaborate part on the stage of the earth's physical mani- 
 festation, but still it is so much water all the while, and 
 will ultimately, by some road, return to the ocean from 
 which it came. So with the detached and temporarily 
 individualised elemental life or force. The will which 
 moulds it, or the thought energy, operative, perhaps, with- 
 out any conscious will being at work in the transaction at 
 all, may invest it with a very considerable tenacity of 
 separate life and tendency, easily mistaken for inherent 
 purpose. Its very shape may be enduring, unless it comes 
 in contact with some will force that breaks it up, and thus 
 we are presented with all the external characteristics of a 
 living astral creature. The horrible or repulsive shapes 
 encountered on the astral plane by rash intruders are of 
 this nature. They may be the creatures of evil or male- 
 volent thought, and though powerless to harm human 
 beings collected enough to oppose a courageous will to 
 their attack, may seriously torment or even injure invaders 
 of their territory whose inherent forces are paralysed by 
 terror. Just as real and definitely existing as entities for a 
 time, other elemental shapes may be beautiful in appear- 
 ance and beneficent in action if called into being by 
 thoughts emanating from love and beneficence, but their 
 tenacity of life will depend on the strength and persistence 
 of the will that has called them into being, and when they 
 have fulfilled their mission, or have lost coherence by the 
 relaxation of the will that evoked them, they will resolve 
 themselves again into the ocean of elemental agency to 
 
ELEMENTALS AND DEVAS 199 
 
 which they belong and be available for any new purpose, 
 good, bad, or indifferent. 
 
 This part of the explanation may help to supply an 
 (occultly) scientific interpretation for stories connected 
 with the presiding " gods " of some Indian temples 
 treated, of course, as empty superstitions by Western in- 
 telligence alive to the incredibility of the local belief as 
 crudely stated, and destitute of the occult knowledge which 
 might discern the natural possibility in the background. 
 Elemental agency clothed with form and inspired with 
 purpose by some adequately powerful human will in the 
 first instance, may persist in that shape for long periods of 
 time and manifest potencies along the line of the original 
 impulse which would easily be mistaken by an ignorant 
 populace, in contact with them, for the supernatural 
 power of a demi-god. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE SYSTEM TO WHICH .WE BELONG 
 
 EVERYONE who has touched the outskirts of 
 Theosophic teaching will be familiar with the idea 
 that this planet we are actually inhabiting for the 
 moment forms one of a connected series through which 
 the human life-wave flows, manifesting in full activity 
 on one only at any given period; that the course of the 
 whole Manvantara involves a septenary journey round this 
 chain of worlds; that each in turn is brought into full 
 activity during this progress, and fades back into compara- 
 tive obscuration as the life-wave passes on, and that the 
 passage around the whole seven globes is spoken of for 
 convenience as a " round " in evolution, seven of which 
 make up a whole Manvantara. The strain and struggle 
 of existence is not equally great on all these globes in 
 four of them, indeed, two of these being on the down- 
 ward and two on the upward arc of the circle, humanity 
 is not called upon to undergo the strain of physical exist- 
 ence at all. On the first globe of the series existence is 
 altogether conditioned by surroundings corresponding with 
 that which we call the Manasic Plane of the earth, while 
 the lowest point of materiality touched by the second globe 
 of the series is on a level with that which we here call 
 the astral plane. Life on the third planet on the down- 
 ward series has already the physical vehicle, and that third 
 planet, therefore, becomes perceptible to our present senses, 
 and is in fact the planet Mars. Passing onward from this 
 earth, humanity again functions on a physical globe 
 the planet Mercury and then passes to the sixth, the 
 lowest materiality of which is astral, and to a seventh 
 which, like the first, is altogether manasic. 
 
 200 
 
THE SYSTEM 201 
 
 I need not attempt the almost impossible task of describ- 
 ing life on the non-material planets of the chain to which 
 we belong. Nor, indeed, will I attempt to deal with the 
 conditions of life on the three physical planets during 
 the earlier rounds of human progress through them. Let 
 us be content with an attempt to comprehend in some 
 measure the condition of ou"r world and of the two other 
 physical worlds of the chain during our present world 
 period, the middle period of the whole grand process 
 described as the Manvantara. Here, perhaps, it is worth 
 while to interpolate an explanation of the term just used. 
 The whole existence of a given planetary chain consti- 
 tutes merely one episode in the vast series of manifesta- 
 tions which embrace, in the whole, seven successive epi- 
 sodes of somewhat similar, though in some respects widely 
 different, manifestations of creative power and evolu- 
 tionary progress. At one time, at the early stages of 
 theosophical study, we were left with the impression con- 
 cerning such episodes that each involved the existence of 
 a septenary change of worlds. Clearer and more scientific 
 comprehension of the process enables us to realise that this 
 is not the case. We must think of the first Manvantara as 
 representing simply divine ideation on the Manasic Plane; 
 creative power, that is to say, engenders what we may 
 think of as a globe on the Manasic Plane in which the 
 scheme of the whole Manvantara is faintly shadowed 
 forth. That stupendous process of divine creative thought 
 constitutes the first Manvantara or creative process. An 
 interval elapses and the divine activity is resumed. That 
 which was done is recalled into existence relatively with- 
 out an effort. The next effort is to approach the 
 materialisation of the ideas engendered, in the first instance, 
 on the astral plane of consciousness. So the second 
 
202 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Manvantara consists of a manasic globe, an astral globe 
 realising the first intention to that extent a third globe on 
 the upward ?rc representing manasic consciousness 
 developed to a higher level than in the first instance. Such 
 phrases, of course, must be exceedingly vague and merely 
 suggestive, not to be taken with too rigid a devotion to the 
 letter. Another interval and then ensues the third Manvan- 
 tara. The purpose to be achieved here is that of bringing 
 down the original ideas to physical manifestation, and 
 the third Manvantara witnesses the development on the 
 physical plane of a world constituted of physical matter. 
 In our own case that world was the one we now call the 
 Moon, but in a condition of very much fuller development. 
 I think this will become intelligible later on, and I need 
 not stop now to develop the idea. We may then conceive 
 a return to astral conditions and an ultimate return to 
 manasic conditions. And again I venture to describe 
 that interpretation as rather symbolically than literally 
 accurate. The truth is that the more our knowledge 
 extends, the more it becomes difficult to invest any stage 
 of natural activity with explanations that seem directly to 
 correspond with the experiences of our present more 
 advanced stage of knowledge. By reason of the fact that 
 the Moon was the physical planet of the third Manvantara, 
 that one is always referred to in theosophical writing as the 
 Lunar Manvantara full of the deepest interest for us, as 
 further explanations will show. 
 
 Here on the earth we are at the middle point of our 
 progress in each round, and this period of the earth's 
 activity is the middle period of the whole Manvantara 
 as the round on which we are engaged is the fourth, just a 
 little more than half of which is already accomplished. 
 If we concentrate our attention on the present world period 
 
THE SYSTEM 203 
 
 alone we find evolution being carried out during the whole 
 of the period through seven great races, with seven 
 different configurations of land and water to harmonise 
 with their needs, the race in the midst of which we 
 Europeans and some other populations now find ourselves 
 being the fifth, while the fourth, the middle race, was the 
 great Atlantean race which already began very slowly to 
 decline from its culminating grandeur nearly a million 
 years ago. The last remnant of land which belonged to 
 the great continent it once occupied disappeared in the 
 natural convulsion of which some faint records have been 
 preserved in classical literature, and more definitely in the 
 Mexican manuscript known as the Troana MS., lately 
 deciphered by Dr. Le Plongeon. Periods of years ex- 
 pressed in figures simply bewilder the mind when we begin 
 to talk of millions, and yet we know that the duration of 
 a great root race must be counted in millions, that a great 
 many millions of years are thus represented by even the 
 briefest of the world periods which are connected with 
 the great course of planetary evolution. It will not be 
 an exaggeration of the truth to say that if we think of the 
 whole Manvantara as representing the individual life of a 
 man, such a lifetime as we are familiar with now, say one 
 of seventy years, would stand in the same relation to the 
 whole as one second of time would stand in relation to the 
 seventy years. Illustrations of this nature may, to some 
 extent, help the mind in realising the length of the 
 evolutionary journey through which we have already 
 passed, and in realising the rate at which the soul grows 
 while it is left, so to speak, to the single influence of what 
 may be thought of as the evolutionary drift. In looking 
 backward over the progress achieved in the past by any 
 soul not yet transcending from ordinary conditions and 
 
204 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 such retrospect is possible for those whose faculties have 
 already begun to function on manasic levels there is 
 something almost appalling in the tardiness in the growth 
 observable. Each physical life has such infinitesimally 
 minute contributions to make to the permanent individu- 
 ality ! Look back, if you are able, for a dozen lives, and 
 you will probably find so little difference between the 
 spiritual individuality at that remote period and the corre- 
 sponding individuality at this moment, that you might be 
 tempted to think the time and strain and effort of all that 
 existence but thrown away and wasted. But it has not been 
 wasted really, any more than the corresponding interval of 
 time has been wasted by* the stalactite, that wonderful 
 monument to Nature's patience, which is not without its 
 significance for observers who can appreciate analogies. 
 And though progress may have been slow along the im- 
 measurable course of bygone ages, the final result attained, 
 even if we look merely at the spiritual individuality of the 
 human being of our own period, is a growth the accom- 
 plishment of which eclipses that of the stalactite in the 
 estimation of those who can appreciate the difference 
 between the plane of Nature on which it has been achieved 
 and that to which the perishable, however ancient, mineral 
 form belongs. 
 
 But what is the road to be travelled by the Ego in 
 its development between this middle period of the Man- 
 vantara and the final culmination of its possibilities at a 
 period in advance to be measured by the magnitude of that 
 awful journey we have already taken, during which we 
 have been shielded from a perception of its wearisome 
 length by the torpor of our higher nature ? The distance 
 to be yet travelled as measured on the scale of human con- 
 dition, from the place at which the ordinary humanity 
 
THE SYSTEM 205 
 
 now stands to that it should reach at the end of the Man- 
 vantara, is not less than that which separates a fashionable 
 example of modern civilisation say a man of distin- 
 guished literary culture or scientific attainments from 
 the primitive savage of Tierra del* Fuego. It is the design 
 of Nature that the majority of the whole human family 
 shall at the end of the seventh round of planetary experi- 
 ence attain to a condition in which existence, in reference 
 to this planetary chain to which we belong, will be, to 
 begin with, more free than our present incarnate existence 
 in as great a degree as the living man of to-day, so to 
 speak, is freer than the stone. If we endeavour to invest 
 the stone in our imagination with a consciousness, it must 
 clearly be one of a very restricted character, and, amongst 
 other conditions, it exists wherever it is put, not wherever 
 it wills to go. Within limits the man can move about on 
 the surface of this earth at his pleasure, but compared 
 with the being he may become, he is as much in prison in 
 his present vehicle, and as much chained down to one spot 
 by the limitations of his capacity, as in comparison with 
 him the stone itself is subject to restrictions. The final 
 example of perfected humanity will use whatever body he 
 then retains as a mere instrument of his convenience, to 
 be worn or left aside at pleasure. The higher realms of 
 Nature, of which I have been speaking in endeavouring 
 to describe the course of human experience between death 
 and re-birth, and others, again, immeasurably transcending 
 these, will be accessible to him as readily as the various 
 rooms in the house in which he lives may be accessible 
 to him now. From any one globe of the chain to another 
 he will be able to pass as freely as within the various 
 phases of each. Forces of Nature as far transcending any 
 with which modern science is acquainted as these transcend 
 
206 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the resources of the African savage will lie within his reach 
 and command, for his moral nature will have attained alti- 
 tudes corresponding with the development of his power 
 and knowledge, and by that time his Will will be so com- 
 pletely welded with that which controls the whole of 
 Nature, and is represented to our ordinary thinking by 
 the idea of Divinity, that no care on the part of Nature 
 for his own or others' welfare will render it necessary to 
 subject him to the disabilities of ignorance. Language 
 entirely fails to do more than hint in the vaguest fashion 
 at the kind of exaltation thus within the possibilities of 
 human progress, but that progress may in some faint degree 
 be appreciated with the help of the thought that it will 
 amongst other things embrace all knowledge concerning 
 this whole Manvantaric design an absolute and complete 
 understanding of every intricacy in Nature's stupendous 
 mechanism, and will embrace the answer to every moral 
 enigma which the experience of life may suggest, or to 
 which in the weary efforts of our speculative thinking in 
 the present day we may turn continually in despairing 
 sorrow, holding on with what strength we may to the 
 vague trust that in superior wisdom there resides, beyond 
 our reach, a clue to the mysteries of evil. 
 
 That is the course along which human evolution has 
 still to travel, but it ought to be manifest to any reason- 
 able thinker that the scheme thus set forth, involving, as 
 it does, the elevation of Man to levels which we are in the 
 habit of thinking God-like, is not to be accomplished by 
 any process of evolution pressing upon him from without. 
 In a certain sense, though even this is perhaps a strained 
 one, it may be said that up to the present period of evolu- 
 tion, primeval germs of human consciousness have been 
 brought to the position in which we now stand under the 
 
THE SYSTEM 207 
 
 influence of external forces or guidance, but before a man 
 can be invested by nature with God-like attributes, he 
 must engender within his own consciousness the will to be 
 God-like, and he must, as it were, put the whole force of 
 his own intention into the undertaking. He must be 
 actuated by an intelligent will as well as by vague aspira- 
 tion towards progress; he must make the choice between 
 good and evil with his eyes open; he must determine 
 whether he would rather grasp whatever good things 
 connected with progress it may be possible for him to 
 monopolise for himself, or whether he would rather join 
 his forces to those who are endeavouring to serve the 
 purposes of God, and to promote the acceleration of the 
 whole undertaking. It will only be by individual effort at 
 each step of man's progress as he goes on through the 
 ordinary course of Nature that he will really ascend along 
 the gentle upward spiral, but at this point it is impossible 
 to describe the course of normal evolution without making 
 some reference to that kind which is abnormally hastened. 
 If a man follows the normal course no great magnitude 
 of effort, so to speak, will ever Be required from him at 
 any given moment, but his growth towards ultimate possi- 
 bilities of his own development will be correspondingly 
 slow. On the other hand, the extent to which, by empha- 
 sising that effort to an enormous degree of intensity, it is 
 possible for him from this stage of human advancement 
 onward to accelerate his own evolution will be found to 
 eclipse the boldest conjectures which anyone might form 
 from the point of view of comprehending the whole evolu- 
 tionary scheme without actually knowing what have been 
 the results of abnormal effort on the part of those who have 
 gone in advance of the rest. But whether he concentrates 
 his effort or distributes it, for the evolution of the latter 
 
208 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 half of the Manvantara he must contribute his own effort 
 to the evolutionary tendency or he will fall back into 
 the rear. This will be better intelligible when we 
 come to study the conditions of abnormal progress, but 
 meanwhile explanations are still wanting to complete 
 our picture of the whole evolutionary field, within the 
 almost boundless range of which the growth of the soul 
 proceeds. 
 
 The planetary series with which our present Manvan- 
 tara is concerned, with all its marvellous intricacies as 
 regards its physical manifestation alone, with all its unseen 
 conditions of existence around it, with all its magnificent 
 possibilities of consciousness having to do with the spiritual 
 planes of Nature, is but one of a series of such with 
 which this human family is concerned. Seven Manvan- 
 taras succeed each other in due order, this we are now 
 going through being the fourth, and the worlds of each 
 succeeding Manvantara are themselves evolved afresh each 
 time, though each in turn must be thought of as a Re- 
 incarnation of its predecessor rather than as an entirely 
 fresh creation. Meanwhile within the limits of the solar 
 system of which we form a part, there are other chains of 
 Manvantaras in progress connected with other planets, 
 visible and invisible, and in all we are given to understand 
 that there are thus seven schemes of planetary evolution, 
 all having some touch with the physical plane, and deriv- 
 ing their vital energies from the sun. At certain very 
 exalted stages of spiritual progress the foremost representa- 
 tives of humanity in the very vanguard of our evolution 
 are in a position to acquire definite knowledge concerning 
 these other schemes, and some information on the subject 
 has filtered down to occult students of our level. We are 
 thus enabled to form a comprehensive conception of the 
 
THE SYSTEM 209 
 
 solar system as a whole, and even to appreciate to some 
 extent the nature of the great design it represents. 
 
 Seven, as we have long recognised, is the root number 
 of our system in so far, at any rate, as that system is in 
 any way concerned with physical manifestation and the 
 simple invariability of the law makes the great plan in 
 question more easily intelligible than it would be other- 
 wise. The solar system includes (we must take care not 
 to fall into the arrogant mistake that might be involved 
 in saying it consists of) seven great schemes of planetary 
 evolution, in each of which there are some worlds, one or 
 more, on the physical plane. The schemes are not all 
 designed to match one another, and in some more than in 
 others the higher planes of Nature are engaged in their 
 design. Theosophists are well used now to the conception 
 that super-physical planes of Nature may be just as real 
 and the manifestations thereon just as objective as those 
 which affect the physical senses. The astral and manasic 
 planes are available as areas of manifestation within the 
 solar system as completely as the physical plane, and, 
 indeed, over and above the seven planetary schemes, to 
 which I have already referred, there are some others which 
 are altogether established on the higher planes and have no 
 physical planets connected with their evolution at any 
 time. It will not be possible to say much of these at 
 present, but the recognition of the fact that they exist will 
 help to bring order into our thinking at a later stage of 
 this inquiry. Our own scheme makes a larger draught 
 than any other but one on the resources of the physical 
 plane, and at the period of our present Manvantara three 
 planets of our own series are on this plane; but the con- 
 stitution of the various chains is varied in this respect. 
 
 Each scheme of evolution is worked out by means of a 
 
 15 
 
210 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 series of seven Manvantaras. Each Manvantara includes 
 an evolutionary process, such as that set forth in theo- 
 sophic teaching in reference to the seven rounds of our 
 planetary chain. As each round includes a world period 
 of activity on each planet in turn, and as each of these 
 world periods is divided into seven great racial cycles, we 
 may get a view of the proportionate magnitude of a race 
 period itself extending over some millions of years as 
 compared with the whole system to which we belong, if we 
 bear in mind the following progression : 
 
 Seven root race periods make up one world period. 
 
 Seven world periods (following each other on as many 
 planets in succession), one round. 
 
 Seven rounds one Manvantara. 
 
 Seven Manvantaras, one scheme of evolution. 
 
 Seven schemes of evolution (more or less contem- 
 poraneous in their activity), the solar system. 
 
 Some of these schemes are much more advanced than 
 others, but before going into a more minute account of the 
 condition in which we find the whole stupendous under- 
 taking at the present time, it will be desirable to go back 
 in imagination to its beginning, and appreciate the beautiful 
 intuition with which modern science not always entitled 
 to as much credit has divined with a very close approach 
 to accuracy the condition in which our system existed 
 before any of its planets were differentiated. 
 
 The nebular hypothesis is one of the grandest achieve- 
 ments of which the unassisted human intellect has ever 
 shown itself capable. That hypothesis closely harmonises 
 with theosophic teaching on this subject, even though 
 that teaching expands and interprets it in a way that would 
 
THE SYSTEM 211 
 
 not be possible from the narrow platform of thought 
 which recognises only one order of matter. 
 
 The theory that solar systems were each, in the first 
 instance, vast aggregations of highly heated and very 
 attenuated matter gaseous, or perhaps even more 
 attenuated still and that by degrees each such nebula was 
 subjected to a cooling and contracting process which con- 
 densed its nucleus, and so forth, is generally attributed to 
 the great astronomer Laplace. Some writers trace the 
 genesis of the idea to Tycho Brahe, who suggested that 
 stars were formed by the condensation of the ethereal sub- 
 stance of which he supposed the Milky Way to be com- 
 posed. Kepler extended the idea by suggesting that the 
 nebular substance may originally have pervaded all space, 
 instead of being confined to the Milky Way, and other 
 great thinkers in turn suggested further modifications of 
 the original conception. It was immensely fortified when 
 the researches of Sir William Herschell showed us over 
 2,000 separate nebulae within range of the telescope, and 
 then, in the last year of the eighteenth century, Laplace 
 worked out the whole scheme far more systematically than 
 any of his precursors, and developed it into pretty much 
 the shape in which the astronomical world generally 
 accepts it now. 
 
 Laplace showed how the planets of a system could be 
 successively formed by the rupture, from the central mass 
 of the nebula, of great external rings of condensing matter. 
 The whole nebula was assumed to have been originally in 
 rotation, so the rings would themselves continue to rotate 
 in the same way. By degrees the rings would themselves 
 be somewhere ruptured, and then the matter of which 
 they were composed would roll up and aggregate itself 
 either into great globular planetary bodies, or into swarms 
 
212 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 of smaller meteoric masses. This view is not confirmed 
 in detail by occult teaching, but is based on broad ideas 
 that are fairly in harmony with that. 
 
 Concurrently with the development of the whole idea, 
 speculation has concerned itself with the question how 
 the nebula in the first instance was probably formed. 
 According to one view, sometimes spoken of as the vortex 
 theory, matter is supposed to be drawn in with a whirling 
 motion around some already existing nucleus. By another 
 the impact theory the original nebula is supposed to be 
 due to the collision in space between two cold and extinct 
 suns moving in different directions with planetary 
 velocities. The heat engendered by such an appalling 
 catastrophe is recognised as sufficient to volatilise all the 
 matter of which the two globes consisted, and to set up in 
 this way, a new nebula of glowing incandescent gas, which 
 would be set in rotation by the nature of the collision 
 which caused it, as the chances would be enormous against 
 the exact encounter of the two bodies centre to centre. 
 At present, I think, the impact theory of nebular origins 
 is most in favour, and it is profoundly interesting to learn 
 from our exalted teachers that, though as a matter of fact 
 it is not the method of development that was actually 
 adopted in the case of our own solar system, it has been 
 employed in the course of Nature with some other systems, 
 and can be brought into harmpny with those activities on 
 higher planes than the physical, which our theosophic 
 instincts will at once assure us must always be mainly 
 instrumental in bringing a solar system into existence. 
 
 The method actually adopted at the inauguration of our 
 own solar system was one concerned entirely, in the first 
 instance, with higher planes of Nature. On some level 
 of superphysical matter a force was set in action which had 
 
THE SYSTEM 213 
 
 the effect of creating what we may think of without 
 claiming, in this respect, to think with exactitude as a 
 vast electric field extended over a region of space greater 
 by far than the area included in the orbit of Neptune. 
 
 The region of space affected would, to begin with, be 
 pervaded by matter of a certain order, or, indeed, of certain 
 orders. The more we comprehend the spirit of occult 
 teaching, the more clearly we realise the idea that space 
 is nowhere empty and vacant. It may contain nothing 
 that affects some given set of limited senses, but for all that 
 it is a plenum rather than a vacuum. Something pervades 
 all space with which we can concern ourselves in thought. 
 Recognising this, and recognising also that matter on 
 other planes than the physical is clearly subject to limita- 
 tion so that what we habitually talk of, for example, as 
 the astral plane is not a homogeneous infinitude but is 
 the astral plane of this earth esoteric students sometimes 
 puzzle over the question, What plane in the ascending 
 series is common to the solar system, what common to the 
 cosmos ? The answer to the riddle is to be found in the 
 fact that each plane is represented by matter in several 
 the usual seven stages of refinement. The lower sub- 
 planes are in all cases specialised around each planet; but 
 in each case the highest sub-plane is co-extensive with the 
 solar system with the universe itself, for all we know to 
 the contrary. Thus in a certain sense even the physical 
 plane is co-extensive with space, as represented by the 
 highest, the atomic state of ether. So equally with the 
 astral and manasic planes; these, in their highest states, 
 are co-extensive with the ether; and a fortiori higher planes 
 still are co-extensive. 
 
 From this it will be apparent that matter of every 
 variety, plus all its potentialities, lay within the region 
 
2i 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 in which the sublime power, directing the manifestation 
 of our system, set up the activities already referred to. 
 These activities had for one effect, we are told, that of 
 drawing in from surrounding space, as into a vortex, 
 immense additional supplies of the all-pervading ether. 
 Some scientific difficulties present themselves to the mind 
 in reference to this statement, but solar systems are suffi- 
 ciently wide apart in their distribution through space to 
 harmonise with the idea that even the ether, though we 
 have to think of it as incompressible to accommodate our 
 prevailing conceptions of matter with some of its attributes, 
 may be attenuated in intersolar space, and relatively con- 
 densed in and around solar systems. At all events, the 
 esoteric interpretation of the beginning of our system 
 seems to involve the idea of such condensation, and on the 
 ether in this condition an influence coming down from 
 some higher plane of^ature ultimately converted the con- 
 densed mass into a physical nebula an immense volume 
 of incandescent gas at some inconceivably high tempera- 
 ture. 
 
 From this condition of things the process imagined in 
 connection with the nebular theory appears to have come 
 into play. 
 
 The various planets originally formed were grouped 
 by degrees into seven great schemes of evolution, and to 
 comprehend these in some approximate measure, we must 
 regard them from our present point of view. The survey 
 we have to carry out would not be materially assisted by 
 attempts to fathom the all but unfathomable past so far 
 as to investigate the order in which the various schemes 
 were launched. Meanwhile, however, we may take note 
 of the fact already referred to that there are within the 
 solar system three schemes of evolution to which no 
 
THE SYSTEM 215 
 
 physical planets are attached, so that in truth there are 
 not seven but ten schemes to be thought of; and probably 
 if we possessed a sufficiently exhaustive knowledge of 
 Nature we should find septenary systems constantly 
 merging themselves in a more embracing system of tens; 
 but wherever the physical plane plays a part in any cosmic 
 undertaking the septenary law appears to hold good. Thus 
 our first task in attempting to understand the solar system 
 has to do with seven schemes in each of which the physical 
 plane is touched. 
 
 Beginning with that which is the outermost in space, 
 we find that the planet Neptune is concerned with a 
 scheme of a very different character from that which may 
 be assigned to most of the others. In this world-series 
 the evolutionary process is not destined to achieve results 
 commensurate with those which it is the purpose of the 
 other schemes to bring about. The life with which 
 Neptune is concerned is not calculated to attain very high 
 levels, but on the other hand this planet is interesting for 
 an astronomical reason. Connected in evolution with 
 Neptune there are in fact two other planets physically 
 belonging to our system that have not yet fallen a prey 
 to telescopic research. One of them may ultimately be 
 discovered by ordinary means, the outermost lies far 
 beyond the range of physical instruments, for not merely 
 is its distance something appalling to the imagination, but 
 the light it would throw back to us by reflection from the 
 sun is exceedingly feeble. Viewed from Neptune itself 
 the sun would appear a mere speck in the sky compared 
 with the glowing disc we have to deal with, but the two 
 outer planets are at distances from the centre of the system 
 which continue to observe what is called in astronomy 
 " Bode's law." Thus without having yet discovered either 
 
2i6 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 of them we know that the radius of the orbit in which 
 the outermost of all is moving is something over 10,000 
 million miles. (The distance of Neptune from the sun, 
 it will be remembered, is about 2,700 millions.) At that 
 distance the light of the sun would barely make darkness 
 visible. And for any warmth the distant planet may 
 require it must be dependent chiefly on influences with 
 which physical science on this earth at present is ill 
 acquainted. However, little as we can expect just yet to 
 understand the Neptune scheme, we may formulate our 
 thinking on the subject So far as to recognise that scheme 
 as including at its present stage of advancement three 
 physical planets. 
 
 All the other schemes, as we shall see by degrees 
 excepting our own are at present represented on the 
 physical plan by only one planet each. But all through 
 this survey of the system it must be remembered that 
 schemes are not equally represented on the physical plane 
 at each of their Manvantaric stages. Our own scheme 
 had but one physical planet in its last Manvantara, and 
 will have but one in its next Manvantara, though 
 at present it has a triple manifestation on the physical 
 plane. So other schemes which at present have only one 
 physical planet may have more than one at later stages of 
 their progress, may have had more than one at former 
 stages. 
 
 The Uranus scheme for thinking at this date we may 
 as well call each scheme by the name of the visible planet 
 of its present chain is the next in order to be considered. 
 I understand the Uranus scheme is fairly well advanced, 
 and to be concerned with evolution of a high order 
 of life, but of course the physical conditions of Uranus 
 must be widely unlike any with which we have acquaint- 
 
THE SYSTEM 217 
 
 ance. The sun can hardly seem a much larger object 
 viewed from Uranus than Jupiter appears to us, but one 
 of the lessons most strongly emphasised by the esoteric 
 study of the whole system is that life is compatible with 
 conditions of the most diverse character, and that we must 
 never seek to determine the habitability of other globes 
 in space by inquiring how far their meteorological or 
 climatic conditions correspond with our own. 
 
 The Saturnian scheme is very much less advanced in 
 its Manvantaric development than our own, and the planet 
 Saturn itself is in an early round of its present Manvantara, 
 so that it is not yet physically habitable at all. The family 
 of beings with whose evolution it is concerned are still at 
 an early stage of their descent into matter, even though it 
 must not be supposed that the Saturn scheme, any more 
 than other schemes connected with the outer planets, are 
 young in the order of their creation as compared with some 
 of those nearer the sun. The rates of progress of the 
 various schemes are very different. Saturn is slow in its 
 evolution, with Manvantaras of enormous length. We 
 must be patient yet a while in regard to speculations 
 which would attempt to correlate the rate of progress 
 of the various schemes, though no doubt they are all 
 designed to harmonise their results in some way towards 
 the close of the mighty drama in which they play their 
 several parts. 
 
 The Jupiter scheme is very interesting, for though it 
 is still young in advancement, if not in time it is 
 destined, we understand, to bring forward its family of 
 evolution to a very high level eventually. So far, how- 
 ever, the Manvantara of the Jupiter scheme now in 
 progress is only the third of the septenary series, corre- 
 sponding to our lunar or last Manvantara, which did not 
 
. 
 
 a-i-8. THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 bring our family forward to a very mature stage of develop- 
 ment. Moreover, at present the Jupiter family is only 
 in the second round of its third Manvantara, and its 
 physical planet therefore is not yet fitted to be the abode 
 of physical life. It is still hot from its relatively recent 
 condensation, and this condition of things, recognised by 
 ordinary astronomy, is not due, as ordinary astronomers 
 suppose, to the fact that Jupiter is much larger than the 
 inner planets, and has thus taken more time to cool since 
 the original nebula consolidated. Jupiter is a later creation 
 than the earth, but the view of the whole subject with 
 which this fact is connected will more conveniently be 
 dealt with when the general survey of the schemes is 
 completed. 
 
 Coming inward from Jupiter, the next planetary orbit 
 we reach is that at present occupied by the swarm of 
 asteriods, merely the broken remains of a complete planet 
 which? once occupied that orbit. The next -planet is 
 Mars, but in reaching this interesting world we of the 
 earth chain are comparatively at home, for the scheme to 
 which we belong, at present in its fourth Manvantara, 
 is at the stage of its deepest immergence in matter, and 
 is thus represented on the physical plane by three planets, 
 Mars being one. Mars, the Earth, and Mercury are in 
 evolutionary partnership, Mars being the planet behind 
 the earth in the order of progress round the entire chain, 
 and Mercury in advance of us. A large portion of the 
 present human family has actually lived on Mars where, 
 if we could but visit the planet now, as, indeed, some 
 of our more advanced companions can and do, in the 
 appropriate vehicle of consciousness while out of the physi- 
 cal body, we should still find the least advanced, the 
 dregs of the family, still hanging on there. 
 
THE SYSTEM 219 
 
 Of all the seven schemes of the system, that which 
 Venus at present represents on the physical plane is the 
 farthest advanced in evolution, not necessarily the oldest 
 as judged by the period at which it began, but the quickest 
 of the series as regards the rate of its progress or the 
 duration of its Manvantaras. 
 
 Our own scheme is now going through its fourth Man- 
 vantara, but that to which Venus belongs is far advanced 
 through the fifth. It is already in the seventh round of 
 that Manvantara, the family it is evolving being at present 
 established like ourselves on the physical planet of its 
 chain, although at such an immensely more forward stage 
 of its progress, that the foremost of its beings, in great 
 numbers represent, as compared with our humanity, a 
 fairly god-like degree of exaltation. From Venus, as all 
 students of esoteric teaching will be aware, the guardians 
 of our infant humanity in the later third and early fourth 
 race of this world period descended to stimulate in our 
 family the growth of the manasic principle, and to them 
 we owe the fact that as we stand at present we are in truth 
 somewhat further advanced in evolution than our actual 
 place in our own scheme strictly entitles us to be. We 
 have been helped onward by some of those who are in 
 the loftiest sense of the term our Elder Brethren in the 
 whole system, and among us there have been found some 
 at all events, who have proved apt pupils, and are already 
 on levels of spiritual dignity commensurate with those 
 previously attained by their sublime instructors. 
 
 Within the orbit of Mercury another planet is to be 
 found, and probably will be found some day by ordinary 
 astronomers, who already suspect its existence, and have 
 been keenly on the look out for it when solar eclipses give 
 them a chance of seeing it. Merged as it is in the blinding 
 
220 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 glare of the sun at other times, it is hopeless to seek for it 
 in the unshielded sky. A name has been given in advance 
 by some astronomers to the undiscovered planet, and it is 
 sometimes referred to as Vulcan. It must certainly be a 
 very hot little world, although Bode's law should give it 
 a distance from the centre orb of something like thirty 
 millions of miles. However, it belongs to an independent 
 scheme of evolution not destined to bring forward life 
 to the high levels to be ultimately attained in connection 
 with our own and the Venus scheme. It completes the 
 series of seven schemes. Enumerating them once more as 
 under we have : 
 
 1. The Neptune scheme. 
 
 2. Uranus 
 
 3. Saturn 
 
 4. Jupiter 
 
 5. Earth 
 
 6. Venus 
 
 7. Vulcan 
 
 The first and fifth of this series have each three physical 
 planets, the others one each. 
 
 Of the three schemes which have no touch with the 
 physical plane there is very little to be said at present. 
 They are concerned with high orders of evolution and in 
 some way with the ultimate perfection of the life of the 
 system at large when all the septenary schemes shall have 
 completed their cycles. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that they are await- 
 ing development till such time as the other schemes have 
 completed their cycles. They are already in activity, and 
 the globes of which they consist occupy definite places in 
 space, though composed of higher orders of matter than 
 
THE SYSTEM 221 
 
 those which our physical senses can cognise. On the other 
 hand we need not think of them as dealing with phases of 
 existence entirely beyond the reach of our imagination. 
 The highest plane of Nature to which they are directly 
 related is the lower Manasic. 
 
 From the general idea of the structure and design of 
 the system that has already been given, and particularly 
 from many passages in Theosophical literature, it will be 
 apparent that the configuration of the solar system is no 
 more unchangeable throughout the life of that system than 
 the configuration of land and water on the earth's surface 
 is unchangeable during the progress of a world period. 
 In every scheme the chain of planets on which its evolution 
 has been carried on, during any given Manvantara, is dis- 
 integrated at its close (subject to a qualification to be 
 noticed directly) and a new chain of worlds is called into 
 being. This does not mean that new matter is created out 
 of non-manifested substance, but that planets, when 
 their life cycle is completed, are broken up or resolved into 
 dust which is dispersed through the solar system at large 
 and is available to be drawn together into new forms, just as 
 the elements of a dead human body, dissolved in the earth 
 or air and absorbed in process of time into vegetable tissue, 
 become in due season the nutriment of new animal or 
 human forms. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that our earth, for instance, with 
 its companion planets, is not alone a new creation as com- 
 pared with the state of things that existed when the nebula 
 was first condensed, but is in the fourth generation of 
 such new creations having regard to our own scheme 
 alone. I have no information as to the manner in which 
 the planetary matter of the system was first distributed, 
 but it is a matter of obvious certainty that from Uranus 
 
222 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 inwards not one of the existing planets belongs to the first- 
 born series of the nebula. It hardly concerns us to make 
 close inquiry as to the actual course of events in this 
 respect. Our appreciation of Nature's design and of our 
 own place therein would not be materially assisted by 
 knowing, for instance, what planets existed in connection 
 with the Uranus evolution before Uranus came into being. 
 Nor in regard to the other chains would it profit us much 
 to know by how many predecessors each of the now 
 known planets have been heralded in past ages. But 
 there are some aspects of the problem which do present 
 features of peculiar interest as applied to our own chain, 
 and without making any conjectures as to the extent to 
 which the analogies of our own scheme apply to others, 
 attention may usefully be turned at this stage of the in- 
 quiry to the plan on which our own planetary habitations 
 are from time to time remodelled. 
 
 As the tide wave of life leaves each planet (in our 
 scheme) during the seventh round of any Manvantara, 
 each planet in turn is disintegrated, and the matter of 
 which it is composed returns to the general ocean of such 
 matter within the solar system. Corresponding planets 
 are evolved afresh for the next Manvantara, becoming as 
 it were re-incarnations of the higher principles inherent 
 in the old planets. This arrangement, however, does not 
 apply to the fourth planet of each chain the most physical 
 in its constitution. That loses a good deal of the matter 
 forming it in a way that will be appreciated directly, and 
 in its shrunken condition becomes the moon of its suc- 
 cessor. Each new physical planet so called into being 
 may be created as new solar systems themselves are created 
 in the first instance according to different methods; but 
 our earth appears to have been engendered on a plan closely 
 
THE SYSTEM 223 
 
 resembling that by which our whole system was developed. 
 Within the appropriate area of space, a planetary nebula 
 was evolved, the matter of which it was composed being 
 drawn in from surrounding space, itself no doubt the dis- 
 integrated material of former planets that had been broken 
 up, or to some extent no doubt meteoric matter belonging 
 to the system at large that may not have been previously 
 utilised in that way. The new earth nebula was developed 
 round a centre bearing pretty much the same relation to the 
 dying planet that the centres of the earth and moon bear 
 to one another at present. But in the nebulous condition 
 this aggregation of matter occupied an enormously greater 
 volume than the solid matter of the earth now occupies. 
 It stretched out in all directions so as to include the old 
 planet in its fiery embrace. The temperature of a new 
 nebula appears to be considerably higher than any tempera- 
 tures we are acquainted with, and by this means the old 
 planet was superficially heated afresh in such a manner 
 that all atmosphere, water, and volatilisable matter upon it 
 was brought into the gaseous condition, and so became 
 amenable to the new centre of attraction, set up at the 
 centre of the new nebula. In this way the air and seas 
 of the old planet were drawn over into the constitution 
 of the new one, and thus it is that the moon in its present 
 state is an arid, glaring mass, dry and cloudless, no longer 
 habitable, and no longer required for the habitation of any 
 physical beings. When the present Manvantara is nearly 
 over, during the seventh round, its disintegration will be 
 completed, and the matter which it still holds together 
 will resolve into meteoric dust, to be made use of, mixed 
 with the ocean of all such matter, in the formation of 
 new planetary nebulas hereafter. 
 
 But without attempting to forecast in detail the 
 
224 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 processes associated with that far distant event, we may ex- 
 pand the statement with reference to the remote past when 
 our own planet was in process of construction, by the 
 addition of a great deal more detail, not merely interesting 
 on its own account, but conducive, when fully understood, 
 to a better comprehension than is obtainable in any other 
 way of many physical phenomena in progress on the earth 
 at the present time. The condensation of what I have 
 described above as the vast planetary nebula out of which 
 the earth was composed, was not in fact a process accom- 
 plished at one coup. In harmony with the analogies which 
 nature suggests around us in every direction, the growth 
 of the planet itself was a gradual process, and the first 
 condensation gave rise to a globe very much smaller in 
 magnitude than this on which we now stand, but which 
 in the progress of ages was destined to be the nucleus 
 around which the complete planet would be constructed. 
 It is just worth while before passing on to an account of 
 the successive stages, to take note of the fact that in a 
 work put together from the point of view of ordinary 
 astronomy, " The Nebular Theory," by Mr. William 
 Ford Stanley, that author recognises the possibility as sug- 
 gested by purely physical considerations, that the planets 
 were not formed by one single operation but by a series 
 of successive condensations. And another representative 
 of exoteric science on wholly different grounds has come 
 to the conclusion that the interior of the earth in its 
 present state exhibits a condition of things which would 
 be in harmony with the idea of successive condensations. 
 The actual fact I understand to be that the planet on 
 which we are at present living was the result of several 
 condensations of nebulous matter, and the constitution of 
 the Earth at this mature period of its existence is only 
 
THE SYSTEM 225 
 
 to be understood by reference to this method of develop- 
 ment. The nucleus having been formed in the first in- 
 stance in the way already described, a considerable time 
 was allowed to elapse before the second deposition of 
 matter took place. In this interval the surface of the 
 nucleus had time to solidify and cool down to temperatures 
 in which all but its more volatile ingredients assumed, on 
 the surface, the solid state. Then another clash of 
 meteoric streams surrounded the young Earth with a huge 
 envelope of fresh nebulous matter. I say " nebulous " 
 because the heat engendered by the collision of the meteor 
 streams would resolve the meteoric matter back again into 
 its primitive state. It is necessary, indeed, that such a 
 return should be included in the process in order to provide 
 the growing Earth with the varied materials required in its 
 composition. Meteoric matter for the most part is simple 
 in its composition, and very largely made up of certain 
 metals of which iron is the most abundant. But a planet 
 consisting almost entirely of iron would not be a suitable 
 home for the evolutions it might be destined to bear. 
 Occult teaching in reference to the constitution of matter 
 comes in here to relieve us of the embarrassment this 
 thought suggests. Thrown back into the nebulous con- 
 dition by the intense heat of the meteoric collision, the 
 matter of the meteor streams, even if it had all been iron 
 to begin with, would be once more in the etheric state 
 in that state in which Sir William Crookes has called it 
 " protyle " in connection with his extremely admirable 
 and occultly justified theory of " the Genesis of the 
 Elements." From that state it would be capable of rear- 
 ranging its atoms in the varied forms of the many chemical 
 elements required for the service of a life-bearing planet. 
 The new envelope of nebulous matter is destined to 
 
 16 
 
226 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 condense into a complete solid shell surrounding the 
 original nucleus, and here it is for the first time in the 
 course of this explanation necessary to interpolate an idea 
 for which we are not fully prepared by any ordinary 
 habits of scientific thought. When the outer shell has 
 been completely solidified, the condition of things we find 
 to exist is this : The volatile ingredients in the composition 
 of the original nucleus have not been, as expectation might 
 have led us to expect, squeezed through the newly 
 deposited shell of solid matter, but have been confined 
 within that at an enormous pressure and at a corresponding 
 temperature. At the stage of the Earth's growth we have 
 reached in imagination, we have an interior globe of solid 
 matter, the central portions of which are still at an enor- 
 mously High temperature while the outer crust is rela- 
 tively cool. But on the surface of that crust there exists 
 a stratum of compressed gaseous matter, largely consisting 
 of water in its gaseous form, at the temperature, or even 
 exceeding through contraction, the temperature of the 
 nebula which condensed upon it. We cannot expect at 
 this stage of our knowledge to understand precisely how 
 the condensation is so effected as to keep the gaseous matter 
 within the new shell, but no extravagant amount of intel- 
 lectual modesty is required to induce us to recognise that 
 there may be laws of nature which come into play when 
 new planets are being constructed, the full details of which 
 are missing as yet from our present catalogue of such laws. 
 The outer shell having in its turn had time to cool down 
 so that its least volatile ingredients are solid, and its more 
 volatile ingredients in the atmospheric state around it, H 
 third process sets in. Again there is a clash of meteor 
 streams, another vast nebulous sheath is condensed around 
 the growing globe, and in time this forms, a second shell 
 
THE SYSTEM 227 
 
 with a stratum of confined gaseous matter between it and 
 the interior shell. Further operations of a similar 
 character are carried on at later stages of the planet's 
 growth until it arrives at maturity, and consists as at 
 present of six concentric spheres or shells surrounding a 
 central nucleus, with strata of hot gaseous matter inter- 
 vening between each sphere and its neighbours. The outer 
 shells are of considerably greater thickness than those im- 
 mediately surrounding the nucleus, and the outermost of 
 all, with which we are concerned, is much the thickest 
 of all. Within this, however, there is a shallow stratum of 
 heated matter at a depth of about twenty-five or thirty 
 miles below the surface. It is of a wholly different 
 character from the interstitial spaces of hot condensed 
 gases. It is simply a portion of the Earth's solid shell 
 which is hot by reason of the fact that it was an extra 
 nebulous condensation superimposed upon the otherwise 
 completely finished planet, with an end in view, no doubt, 
 which I do not as yet exactly understand, but which I 
 believe to have related in some way to the ultimate 
 development of the vegetable kingdom. The surface layer 
 of hot matter (as it may be called by comparison with the 
 interstitial layers far down in the depths of the globe) was 
 a kind of " top dressing," to use an agricultural expression, 
 which seems to have been provided for as regards the actual 
 material used up, by the disintegration of the two outer 
 shells of the Moon. Some forecast of this condition of 
 things has been already embodied in theosophic writings as 
 mentioned above, but the present explanations will advance 
 our comprehension of the matter to some extent. Leaving 
 over for the moment the fuller interpretation of the state- 
 ment just made about the two outer shells of the Moon, 
 let us keep to the Earth's history till that is further 
 
 1 6* 
 
228 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 developed. The final " top dressing " was not designed to 
 form a new shell separate in any way from the great 
 crust already formed. It did not operate to confine 
 between itself and the established surface any atmospheric 
 gases. It was simply a hot layer of physical matter, the 
 more volatile portions of which remained in the atmosphere 
 of the globe already formed, while the solid portions settled 
 down and beginning to cool from the outside, eventually 
 established the conditions now prevailing. Of course at 
 first the whole new layer of physical matter twenty-five 
 miles thick was incandescent, but the cooling and solidifi- 
 cation of the surface prepared the way for the establish- 
 ment thereon of the geological deposits with which we 
 are familiar, and, eventually, for the development of the 
 vegetable and animal kingdoms. 
 
 I have been interested in finding since I have been at 
 work upon this interpretation of the Earth's constitu- 
 tion, that in other schools of oriental occultism besides 
 that with which my own opportunities have chiefly 
 brought me into contact, the Earth is described as 
 resembling in its constitution " the skins of an onion." 
 The subject has not hitherto been treated in any western 
 exposition of theosophic teaching, but the main ideas of 
 the present explanation are vaguely in circulation already 
 among the pupils of some eastern occultists, even though 
 the onion with its skins would not constitute a satisfac- 
 tory analogy for the western scientific mind once directed 
 to the problems of the Earth's constitution. 
 
 In some earlier theosophic writings vague reference 
 has been made to " the Spirit of the Earth." There is 
 such a Spirit, belonging to an evolution quite apart from 
 our own, who is in the first instance an emanation from 
 the stupendous life of the Sun. And such an emanation 
 
THE SYSTEM 229 
 
 is the first step taken in connection with the creation of 
 any planet of the system. It is by his power that the 
 meteor streams are guided in the paths of those tremendous 
 collisions which give rise to the successive nebulous clouds 
 required for the construction of the successive concentric 
 spheres. The nucleus-globe remains to the end of the 
 planet's life his great workshop if the phrase may be 
 allowed and storehouse of those incomprehensible 
 energies which maintain the physical health of the planet. 
 
 The heat of the interior of the central globe far exceeds 
 any temperature maintained in the interstitial spaces, and a 
 vast army of Elemental Agencies is employed there, under 
 the direction of the Spirit of the Earth, on tasks the nature 
 of which is utterly beyond the range of our present com- 
 prehension. But our world somehow depends for its 
 continued life on the activities carried on in the central 
 globe, and they are never relaxed until the planet con- 
 cerned has fulfilled its destiny and the time has come 
 for its decease or disintegration. 
 
 I understand that life exists in the Earth's interior, even 
 in the intensely hot regions of the interstitial spaces, and 
 startling as the idea may seem at the first glance, it is only 
 for the cramped understandings of people brought up to 
 regard the conditions around them as the only kind com- 
 patible with consciousness, that the conception will be 
 seriously embarrassing. Flesh and blood designed to be 
 the vehicle of consciousness on the surface of the external 
 sphere and at temperatures familiar to human life would 
 not be adapted to temperatures at which platinum would be 
 a mobile liquid, but every occult student is well aware that 
 his consciousness, his life, can go on just as freely when he 
 is in an astral vehicle or body as when he is animating 
 flesh and blood. And in the astral vehicle, physical 
 
230 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 temperature is a condition that does not affect him one way 
 or the other. In an astral body he could live as comfortably 
 in the heart of a furnace or in the midst of arctic ice-floes 
 as in the meadows of an English farm in the summer. 
 It is not even necessary to assume that the bodies of the 
 beings who inhabit the interstitial spaces of the earth are 
 entirely of astral matter. That intervening condition of 
 matter which is called etheric would, perhaps, furnish the 
 material adapted to provide vehicles of consciousness for 
 the beings in question. However this may be arranged, 
 this closely packed earth of ours is made use of through- 
 out. Not merely in the heated spaces that constitute the 
 surface of each interior globe but within the substance 
 of each concentric sphere there are forms of life adapted 
 to the conditions around. For in the cool and solid depths 
 of each mighty crust there are great cavernous spaces in 
 which beings exist who are going through evolutions of 
 their own, and are scarcely in touch at all with the supreme 
 evolution supreme as far as this Earth is concerned to 
 which the human race belongs. Very little information 
 relating to these interior races has reached me, and it 
 would be useless to speculate as to the purpose in the 
 whole economy of the system served by the involvement 
 of any part of the Supreme consciousness, in forms and in 
 the midst of conditions that do not appear favourable 
 to spiritual or any other kind of growth. But the varieties 
 of condition under which life is carried on, in and around 
 the world we share with so many other tenants, is all but 
 infinite. Nor is the life of the Earth's interior confined 
 to the more or less intelligent beings or entities established 
 there. Wild as the notion may strike one at the first 
 glance, there is something analogous to a vegetable king- 
 dom on the white hot surfaces of the interior globes 
 
THE SYSTEM 231 
 
 actual plants with leaves and a kind of granular circulation 
 analogous to the sap of plants on the outer surface. If 
 difficulties present themselves to the mind as we endeavour 
 to realise the scenes of these strange worlds within our 
 own, that is merely due to the false system on which the 
 average mind of the nineteenth century has been educated. 
 The tendency has been not merely to encourage the idea 
 that " what I know not is not knowledge " but to invest 
 the victims of our educational system with a conviction 
 that what they do not understand cannot exist. We do 
 know something of the relationship in space and magni- 
 tude between the habitable portions of the Earth's surface 
 and the universe at large. And yet the nineteenth century 
 mind has been only half inclined to admit that there may 
 be intelligent beings in other worlds than ours always 
 assuming that some of these may be adequately provided 
 with water, food, and sunshine, without which we know 
 life is impossible ! The contrast afforded by the brilliant 
 intellectual achievements of the nineteenth century mind 
 along some lines of activity and investigation, with the 
 imbecile silliness of its habitual limitations, is equally 
 irritating and amusing to the occult student who has got 
 outside those limitations. But even for many such 
 students, familiar though they may be with the idea of 
 superior planes of Nature and faculties of a wider reach 
 than those of the physical brain, the explanation here given 
 of the real condition of the Earth's interior may be 
 received with a kind of gasping surprise. We were not 
 prepared for so complex an organisation in the body of our 
 planet, any more than the physiologists of, say, the Eliza- 
 bethan period were prepared to find so much in the human 
 body as later research has disclosed. But in all likeli- 
 hood the sketch here given errs in its omissions to a far 
 
232 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 greater extent than in its positive statements. It is a mere 
 broad outline of the story that might be told by those 
 thoroughly conversant with the facts. The interest from 
 the mere scientific point of view of further detail if we 
 could obtain it would be intense, but for the present we 
 must remain, if not content, unsatisfied as regards the mul- 
 titude of questions that naturally arise in the mind. To 
 what extent does the incombustible vegetable kingdom of 
 the interior surfaces cover the whole glowing landscape ? 
 Are there forests of white hot trees, and is there an appro- 
 priate animal kingdom associated with the others of the 
 inner worlds? The beings in more or less astral bodies 
 already referred to, would be the relatively human king- 
 dom in each case, the head evolution of the series to which 
 it belonged, but it is more than probable that it would be 
 surrounded by satellite evolutions, as our own on the outer 
 surface is so surrounded. 
 
 With intense heat we naturally associate the idea of 
 light, so as regards the inhabitants of the regions I have 
 called the interstitial spaces there is no need to consider 
 the question how these are illuminated. But directly we 
 confront that question we cannot but be struck with the 
 mistaken impulse which prompts it. If the intelligent 
 beings of the inner regions are invested with astral vehicles 
 of consciousness they see with senses altogether unlike 
 those of the physical plane, and are thus quite indepen- 
 dent of physical plane light. A very moderate acquaint- 
 ance with the experiences of super-physical research 
 amongst ourselves will render us familiar with the idea 
 that darkness is more favourable than what we call light 
 to the activities of some beings at all events functioning in 
 astral vehicles of consciousness. So it may easily be that 
 the beings inhabiting the dark interior caverns of the solid 
 
THE SYSTEM 233 
 
 crusts may have senses to which that darkness is perfectly 
 luminous. It is apparently held by the authorities of the 
 Earth that the humanity of the outer surface should be 
 effectually cut off from communication with the interior 
 kingdoms, and this may be provided for by the heated 
 stratum at the twenty-five mile depth through which it is 
 quite impossible that any inquisitive borings on our part 
 should ever penetrate. But knowledge may be gained, as 
 occult students are well aware, in reference to regions 
 quite beyond the reach of physical investigation. And so 
 it is coming to pass that we are learning something of the 
 conditions under which existence is carried on in the 
 deeply buried cavern worlds of the Earth's interior. 
 
 All thoughts will turn in connection with this subject 
 to the beautiful story evolved from Lord Lytton's imagina- 
 tion concerning the magnificent civilisation of his 
 " Coming Race." But though there is just so much actual 
 justification for the tale in question as is embodied in the 
 fact that races do actually exist in vast cavernous spaces 
 in the interior of the outermost and some others of the 
 concentric globes, we must deny ourselves the intellectual 
 luxury of conceiving that the superb Gy-ei of Vrilya will 
 ever ascend to the upper world to set our " Koom-poshes " 
 in order. The interior evolutions are far below. the intel- 
 lectual level of even our present humanity, although they 
 are advanced enough to have something like systems of 
 government, dwelling-places of artificial construction, and 
 to put inscriptions on the walls of their inner world. 
 
 Yet a third order of consciousness ranges the interior 
 spaces of the Earth, but this is altogether elemental in its 
 character. I have spoken of the armies of "fire elementals ' 
 employed under the Spirit of the Earth on the mysterious 
 tasks carried out in the central globe of all. Elemental 
 
234 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 evolutions are very difficult to understand, but in some 
 way there is an evolution outwards possible for these fire 
 elerhentals, and an emergence for them in some cases into 
 the superior elemental life of the external surface of the 
 earth. I can say so little on this subject that it may seem 
 to some readers hardly worth while to have said anything 
 at all, but vague as our information must for the present 
 remain in reference to the interior evolutions, the mere 
 recognition of these as in progress is calculated to enlarge 
 our view of the Nature of which we form a part. To my 
 mind there is a gulf of difference in the conception of this 
 Vast planet on the surface of which we roam about, as a 
 huge lump of inorganic matter serviceable for no other 
 purpose than to bear the minute organisms swarming on 
 its outside, and on the other hand the conception of it as a 
 teeming hive of life and consciousness filled to overflow- 
 ing with the vital influence of the Logos. The mere 
 physical complexity of its structure as now explained dig- 
 nifies the whole globe as compared with the crude ideas 
 of its interior condition prevalent in the common imagina- 
 tion hitherto. And although orthodox science as bigoted 
 in reference to its methods as the Church in reference to 
 its dogmas will decline any enlightenment that does not 
 come along familiar roads, occult students will be enabled 
 by the explanations now set forth to check some of the 
 speculations concerning the past history of the Earth in 
 which scientific writes allow themselves to indulge. We 
 are constantly told that the manner in which the Moon 
 rotates once on her axis in the same time that she revolves 
 once round the Earth, is the result of tidal action in the 
 remote past. The satellite is assumed to have been cast 
 off from the Earth while this was still in its early molten 
 condition and having thus been flung into space to have 
 
THE SYSTEM 235 
 
 settled down to its present habits as the result of tidal 
 retardation while it was still a plastic mass. Tidal friction 
 is very much in favour just now among speculative 
 physicists as an explanation of some phenomena that have 
 taken place (in an entirely different way) and of some 
 others (erroneously) assumed to be in preparation for the 
 future. As the Moon was really in existence for millions 
 of years before the first initial measures were taken for the 
 formation of the Earth, all guesses based upon the idea 
 that it was a bit of the original Earth torn off by an early 
 convulsion of Nature are little likely to find themselves 
 in harmony with the truth. The Moon is, indeed, a dead 
 planet now, not because it has never been anything else, 
 as the conventional theory would imply, but because it has 
 fulfilled its part in the economy of the scheme to which it 
 belonged and is in process of disintegration. 
 
 For the final return to the bosom of Nature of the 
 materials used in the construction of a planet is accom- 
 plished by degrees, just as the planet in the beginning has 
 been built up by degrees. The concentric sphere arrange- 
 ment is, as I infer from what I have learned, the method 
 of planetary formation adopted throughout the solar 
 system, but at any rate it was the method adopted in the 
 formation of the Moon in the beginning (long before the 
 Earth was thought about) just as in our own case after- 
 wards. And when the active life of the Lunar world was 
 over and its physical body had to be dispersed again as 
 in the case of each one of us when each life is spent the 
 physical body concerned has to return to dust the outer- 
 most shells disintegrated first. As with their original con- 
 struction forces are employed that we do not habitually 
 reckon with, so in the processes of disintegration agencies 
 of an unfamiliar kind take the work in hand, but the broad 
 
236 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 idea is that when the Spirit of the Planet that is outworn 
 has no longer any work to do there he leaves it and decay 
 sets in as naturally as it sets in with a human corpse when 
 the soul has fled away. In its full maturity, the Moon 
 must have been a planet about the same size as our own, 
 for as we look at it now we see the surface of what was 
 originally its third concentric sphere going inwards. The 
 two outer ones have been shed, and the matter of which 
 they were composed no doubt largely drawn upon for the 
 final deposit of matter on the outer shell of the Earth. A 
 long time will yet elapse before the four remaining shells 
 arid the internal nucleus return to the oceanic store of 
 meteoric matter, but time in these undertakings is spent 
 by Nature with much prodigality. In guess-work con- 
 cerning the duration of astronomical periods modern 
 science has not yet been furnished with data on which to 
 proceed with security, and its confidence in the data which 
 it assumes is apt to be misplaced. Thus all calculations 
 relating to the supposed maintenance of the Sun's heat by 
 shrinkage are quite ludicrously wrong, and the forecasts at 
 present in favour as regards the time at which there will 
 be no room for it to shrink any more, and at which con- 
 sequently the planetary family around it will be frozen to 
 death, will sooner or later be looked back upon by the 
 science of the future as quite on a level with the theory 
 of the tortoise that supports the world. I am little in- 
 clined, however, to encourage the flippancy of some 
 occultists who speak disrespectfully of modern science 
 because our information enables us to catch it out here and 
 there in mistakes. The science of the western world is 
 in the van of human intelligence, if we except only the 
 wisdom of Adeptship. Its achievements so far have been 
 beautiful and glorious. It merely needs now to avail itself 
 
THE SYSTEM 237 
 
 of the wonderful instruments of research which lie but 
 half hidden in the depths of human faculty, and then it 
 will carry the exquisite discipline of its thought into 
 regions where at present only a few exceptionally gifted 
 explorers are roaming, unprepared by their training for 
 the work they attempt to perform. In times not long 
 gone by, the reconciliation of science and religion was 
 hoped for by enthusiasts as promising, when it should be 
 accomplished, some immense advance in general civilisa- 
 tion. That union is in process of realisation, religion 
 having, so to speak, accorded a grudging consent. But 
 the next great step must be the reconciliation of 
 science and occultism. That, too, must come, though 
 perhaps this time it will be the scientific world that will 
 show some disposition to be sulky as the change forces 
 its way. That will not matter in the long run, and in 
 that long run the state of facts dealt with in this volume 
 will assuredly be the subject of investigations with which 
 future members of the Royal Society will be engaged, 
 though at the moment the wonderful story I have had 
 to tell may find even some Theosophists incredulous, 
 unless they have intuition enough to feel sure that, all 
 things considered, I should not be likely to put it forward 
 without such assurance of its accuracy as suffices to justify 
 its association with the many other Fragments of Occult 
 Truth which it has been my privilege to set forth. 
 
 The changes which thus take place from time to time 
 within the interior economy of the solar system must, of 
 course, produce perturbing effects on the movements of 
 planets already in existence at any given period when an 
 old planet is disintegrated, or a new one solidified, and 
 probably such perturbations play a part in the cyclic 
 processes going forward in the active worlds of the time. 
 
238 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 It sometimes happens that isolated statements cropping up 
 in occult teaching point to astronomical events that we 
 cannot easily refer to cosmic causes visibly in operation. 
 They are very likely promoted by changes which are 
 going on in what may be called the configuration of the 
 system, at great intervals. It can never fall to the lot of 
 any one generation of observant beings on any one planet 
 to witness the evolution of a new world or the destruc- 
 tion of an old one. Such processes are protracted com- 
 pared with the span of human life. But crises must come 
 on at some periods in the future when rational inhabitants 
 of some planets may see new worlds in formation, or 
 processes in activity foreshadowing the disintegration of 
 some aged planet that has fulfilled its purpose. 
 
 The seven great schemes of planetary evolution pro- 
 ceed on independent lines, but helpfulness is the law of 
 life throughout the entire system, and in this way it comes 
 to pass that the various schemes are not rigidly excluded 
 from the possibility of receiving benefits from others. On 
 this subject we need only concern ourselves with one 
 example of such intercommunication, but it is important 
 to comprehend this one example correctly if we are 
 endeavouring to understand our own evolutionary history. 
 The Venus scheme, as already stated, is in the seventh 
 round of its fifth Manvantara, we of the earth chain being 
 at present in the fourth round of the fourth Manvantara. 
 Thus the humanity of the Venus chain was already on 
 spiritual levels immensely higher than those of our 
 humanity when we were still struggling on in the earlier 
 phases of our evolution during this earth period. So 
 it came to pass that some representatives of the Venus 
 Adeptship, availing themselves of possibilities having 
 to do with immensely exalted spiritual planes com- 
 
THE SYSTEM 239 
 
 mon to the whole solar system, transferred themselves 
 to this earth for a time during part of the third and early 
 fourth race, and took part in the teaching and guidance 
 of our comparatively infant humanity. 
 
 Readers approaching these conceptions for the first time 
 may be inclined to wonder how so great a gulf on the 
 scale of evolution can have separated the earlier humanity 
 of this world period from that inhabiting the earth to-day, 
 and including masters of wisdom who have already scaled 
 heights on a level, so far as we cart understand, with those 
 from which our Venus teachers descended. The explana- 
 tion lies in this simple fact that until the midway point of 
 any Manvantara is reached the whole process of evolution 
 must be thought of as a downward growth into the com- 
 plexities of materiality. No one, however individually 
 ripe for spiritual evolution, could begin to transcend his 
 companions in any extraordinary degree until the middle 
 point of the Manvantara was turned. Then he had a 
 clear course before him; it was possible for anyone, assum- 
 ing extraordinary aptitudes on his part, to achieve in a 
 comparatively brief series of lives the whole development, 
 for which, as regards the race at large, Nature liberally 
 provides the whole second half of the Manvantara. Before 
 the midway point of our Manvantara that is to say, 
 before the middle period of the great root race preceding 
 our own there were no Adepts belonging to our human 
 family; thus no further back than at the beginning of the 
 great Atlantean, or fourth root race, the earth chain was 
 entirely dependent on external help for its loftier spiritual 
 guidance. 
 
 The course of human pirogress through this world 
 period, therefore the history of the great root races- 
 may be best studied in theosophical books devoted 
 
2 4 o THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 specially to the elucidation of that magnificent progress, but 
 the general character of such progress must be borne in 
 mind by all who would form a mental picture of the whole 
 system to which we belong, calculated to give an intelli- 
 gent significance to individual progress. Moreover, the 
 comprehension of the way the great race evolution has 
 been, and is going on during this world period, will 
 connect itself in a peculiarly interesting way with the 
 general comprehension of the whole structure of the 
 system. 
 
 On the planet Mars, where humanity was last incar- 
 nated before the world period of the earth began, humanity 
 already inhabited physical bodies, and was endowed with 
 sufficient human intelligence to carry out architectural 
 and engineering works under the guidance of teachers 
 belonging to a superior evolution. On completing its 
 cycle on that planet mankind began its existence on this, 
 under conditions which can hardly be thought of as 
 physical. The vehicles of their consciousness were of 
 ethereal matter, insusceptible to heat or cold, not yet 
 subject to laws connected with waste and replenishment, 
 which operate in connection with the more compact 
 organisms of our time. The first and second great root 
 races were of this order; in the course of the third, the 
 condensation of the physical vehicle of human conscious- 
 ness was accomplished, in the fourth root race man was 
 in the beginning considerably bulkier than at present, was 
 already designed on the physical pattern we are acquainted 
 with, and divided into two sexes. The course of evolution 
 through preceding rounds was thus recapitulated in the 
 course of the present world period in a way which bears 
 some analogy to that curious recapitulation of physical 
 existence which goes on at the present day in connection 
 
THE SYSTEM 241 
 
 with the birth of every fresh physical creature, as students 
 of embryology are well aware. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that the whole human 
 family of this scheme evolved during the first half of the 
 present Manvantara on precisely the same plan. Our last 
 Manvantara, the third or Lunar Manvantara, so called 
 because the present moon was then the physical planet 
 of the chain, did not bring forward all entities to levels 
 which correspond to what we think of as humanity to-day, 
 but it afforded some scope for individual progress, and 
 thus left the family at its close, on various levels of 
 advancement. 
 
 The varied requirements of the situation were provided 
 for in this way : the most developed entities did not come 
 into incarnation in the earlier rounds of the present Man- 
 vantara. These earlier rounds afforded an appropriate 
 field of activity on lower levels of existence for the less 
 developed entities, and while these were enjoying a fresh 
 opportunity of accomplishing tRe evolution they failed 
 to realise properly during their last Manvantara, the highly 
 developed entities of that Manvantara were passing 
 through periods of spiritual existence to which those on 
 the lower levels had no access. These spiritual periods 
 occupied periods of time corresponding to three round 
 periods, so that while the undeveloped entities of the last 
 Manvantara were, so to speak, bringing the next into a 
 condition which once more would afford them an oppor- 
 tunity of making progress beyond the possibility of the last 
 Manvantara, they were at the same time rendering it 
 suitable for the occupation of their elder brethren who 
 had not only attained to the maximum possibilities of the 
 previous Manvantara, but had spent time corresponding 
 to the three first rounds of the next, in conditions of 
 
242 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 existence involving definite spiritual progress. Thus only 
 on the conclusion of the three spiritual periods did the most 
 advanced entities of the last Manvantara come into incar- 
 nation in this. In the technical language of modern occult 
 study the most advanced entities are spoken of as the first 
 class Lunar Pitris. The phrase is perfectly intelligible 
 and significant, when we bear in mind the fact that Pitri 
 comes from the same root as Father, and simply signifies 
 ancestor. 
 
 As a physical planet the moon is now but the dead 
 body of the planet which once bore the mighty life-wave 
 of the human family. It has shrunk to relatively small 
 proportions, for not only have its subtle principles been 
 re-incarnated in the earth, but a good deal of its physical 
 matter has actually been withdrawn from it to the body 
 of its offspring. The process by which this result was 
 accomplished has been already described. 
 
 So then, the most advanced representatives of the whole 
 human family came into incarnation in this Manvantara 
 at the middle period, that is to say, during the present 
 period of the world's activity, in a condition which repre- 
 sents the maximum development possible during the Lunar 
 Manvantara, plus the further progress accomplished during 
 the three spiritual periods. Thus the two classes who have 
 been in incarnation during the earlier rounds of this Man- 
 vantara have had an opportunity by this time of rising to 
 nearly the same development of evolution, but are still 
 in the rear of the foremost class, which, as the whole 
 body continues to progress, may be thought of as still 
 leading the van, and representing in our own time all those 
 who are the flower of our own age, who are the exponents 
 of its most advanced intellectual capacity, and especially 
 those who at the earliest possible moment in the life of 
 
THE SYSTEM 243 
 
 the world show aptitudes for spiritual progress, and most 
 readily assimilate such teaching concerning the higher 
 destinies of man as are involved in the noblest religious 
 conceptions especially in the occult philosophy which 
 unites these loftiest aspirations with definite knowledge 
 concerning the superphysical states of existence. Not 
 only all those who at the earliest possible date emerge 
 from the ruck of humanity, and taking full advantage of 
 the guidance received from those of a superior evolution, 
 pass upward into the ranks of Adeptship, but all those who 
 are in any sense their pupils, besides all those whose 
 intellectual and moral development is of a kind which will 
 render them available as occult pupils in the course of a 
 few more incarnations, may be thought of as belonging 
 to the class spoken of as the first of the Lunar Pitris. This 
 statement must not be taken as implying that it is impos- 
 sible for entities belonging to the second class to attain 
 spiritual exaltation, but at the present stage of evolution 
 the great majority of those who get on to the high levels 
 are of the first Pitri class. As the mighty force of evolu- 
 tio*n sweeps upward during the successive rounds of the 
 Manvantara, great numbers of those belonging to the 
 second class will gradually attain levels of spiritual growth, 
 from which they also will be capable of taking short cuts 
 towards the summit levels possible in this Manvantara, 
 but the first class of the Lunar Pitris ought to attain these 
 summit levels at periods far in advance of the Manvan- 
 tara 's close. At that remote period in the future it will 
 be theoretically possible that all members of the human 
 family, whose differentiation into specific entities had been 
 accomplished during the Lunar Manvantara, will be able 
 to attain the summit level. Those only for whom this 
 progress would be hardly possible in the time are those 
 
244 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 who have only emerged as definite entities from the animal 
 kingdom during the earlier rounds of this Manvantara. 
 The probabilities are and taking into account the 
 enormous numbers with which we have to deal, proba- 
 bilities in such a matter amount to something like cer- 
 tainty, over the whole area considered the probabilities 
 are, that of the whole number of entities constituting the 
 human family at this time, including those who have 
 emerged during the first half of the Manvantara from the 
 animal kingdom as well as those who have distinct Pitri 
 ancestry, three-fifths will arrive in some degree of appro- 
 priate advancement at what I have called the summit levels 
 of the Manvantara. 
 
 The destiny of the two-fifths is profoundly interesting. 
 Nature does not make the ghastly mistake attributed to 
 her by some ecclesiastical creeds of consigning to perma- 
 nent perdition the failures of any one evolutionary period. 
 The two-fifths cannot get along any further with the 
 planetary scheme to which they belong. They are not 
 qualified to enter on the later incarnations of that period. 
 But what happens to them ? That will best be understood 
 by turning our attention for the moment to the failures 
 of the planetary scheme senior to our own, of which the 
 planet Venus is the physical representative. The human 
 family of that scheme has long since passed the period at 
 which its two-fifths were unable to get on to the loftiest 
 possibilities of the scheme to which they belong. Where 
 are they to be found ? At an early stage of our thinking, 
 many of us assumed that they would somehow begin again 
 in the next Manvantara of that scheme. Nature is much 
 more scientific in her working, meaning by that phrase, 
 more clearly in harmony with intelligent thinking, as to 
 what ought to take place. The failures of the Venus 
 
THE SYSTEM 245 
 
 Manvantara have long since been merged in the human 
 family of the next scheme gradually approaching maturity 
 our own! The Venus failures are amongst us at the 
 present day, although, as a matter of fact, they failed at a 
 stage of evolution so far in advance of that which this 
 world has yet attained to, that this world hardly yet affords 
 them incarnations of sufficiently appropriate advancement 
 for them to merge themselves fully in our own family. 
 Another deeply interesting state of facts arises from this 
 condition of things. 
 
 Very broadly stated in all earlier books on the subject, the 
 tide wave of humanity during any round from one planet 
 to another is a vast tidal wave of life leaving the planet 
 behind in a state of relatively inanimate obscuration. This 
 view rather too hastily interprets the method adopted. It 
 is true that the vast majority of the human family to which 
 we belong did actually sweep on from the planet Mars 
 to this earth at a very remote period of its present activity. 
 But it is not true that absolutely all were swept on with 
 it. A fairly considerable residuum of the less developed 
 entities remained behind, and to a large extent remain still 
 on the planet Mars, of which they are the present inhabi- 
 tants. They are frankly the dregs of the human family. 
 The interesting fact discovered by modern astronomy that 
 they show marvellous capacities for hydraulic engineering, 
 does not militate against the truth that I have just declared. 
 In some respects they are more capable; in other respects 
 they fall behind the moral developments of the earth's in- 
 habitants to an extent that language hardly enables one to 
 define. Meanwhile, as time has gone on, some of us, in 
 obedience to karmic conditions, rather too intricate to 
 describe minutely just now, have gone on as an advanced 
 guard of humanity to the next planet in advance of us, the 
 
246 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 planet Mercury. There, in truth, they are leading a very 
 beautiful life in advance, both morally and in regard to 
 natural knowledge of our own to a very remarkable extent. 
 And there, the residual population of the Venus chain 
 have found appropriate incarnation. So that the fairly 
 considerable population of Mercury at the present moment 
 largely and in the great majority, consists of what I have 
 so far called the Venus failures. In all probability they 
 will now continue to represent, although not exclusively 
 constituting the vanguard of our humanity. The idea 
 once comprehended will be seen to be susceptible of 
 application all through the solar system. The next planet, 
 as matters now stand for the planet once occupying the 
 asteroid orbit proved a failure for reasons it is impossible 
 to diverge into now the next planet to be fully developed 
 will be the planet Jupiter, at present, as I shall be able to 
 show later on, at an early stage of its growth and in an 
 earlier Manvantara than that which is in progress in our 
 own case at present. 
 
 Of the Venus three-fifths, above referred to, something 
 like half will actually have achieved the maximum progress 
 this Manvantara is designed to effect. That progress will 
 put each of such beings in a position so far transcending the 
 conditions of humanity around us at the present day, that 
 if we compare them with the ordinary humanity they will 
 seem fairly God-like in their knowledge and power and 
 capacity for cosmic service. They will have attained to a 
 full and complete appreciation of all the powers and forces 
 and Divine purposes of which this chain of worlds has been 
 the stage. For them the whole chain of worlds, not 
 merely in their most material manifestations, but in all 
 their astral and spiritual aspects as well, will constitute 
 an absolutely familiar field of operations. They will be 
 
THE SYSTEM 24? 
 
 functioning in full consciousness on planes of Nature 
 which embrace all these worlds. Every globe of the 
 chain will be as accessible to them as the different rooms of 
 a house in which he lives may be accessible to a human 
 being of the present ordinary type. Their moral evolu- 
 tion corresponding with the growth of their knowledge 
 and power will have brought them into perfect harmony 
 with the whole Divine design of which the Manvantara 
 has been the expression. They will be conscious and in- 
 telligent agents engaged in working out this design, and 
 as regards their own ulterior progress they will themselves 
 select from many various lines of ulterior evolution open 
 to them, those along which they will best be able to con- 
 duce to the complete fulfilment of even loftier designs than 
 that with which our Manvantara is directly related, and 
 may either continue to guide and direct the progress of the 
 succeeding Manvantaras associated with this chain of 
 existences, or may pass away into other regions of cosmic 
 activity, already representative, as it were, of the final 
 achievement to which this chain of Manvantaras is sub- 
 servient, in connection with still vaster processes lying 
 within the immeasurable economy of Nature. Those 
 who, while still belonging to the great three-fifths, have 
 not at the close of this Manvantara actually attained the 
 maximum perfection which lies within its possibilities, but 
 are nevertheless in sight, as it were, of that perfection, 
 will be the vanguard of human life in the next Manvan- 
 tara perhaps when that has been prepared for their recep- 
 tion by the earlier activities of less advanced entities. As 
 for the nature of the progress on which they will then set 
 out it is hardly necessary for us at this stage of our develop- 
 ment to attempt any definite conception. 
 
 One idea, however, should be borne in mind in con- 
 
248 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 nection with all attempts to realise, however imperfectly, 
 the colossal proportion and constitution of this system to 
 which, we belong. We must not think of the worlds of 
 the system as existing wholly and solely for the sake of 
 the evolution of the human family, on which so far our 
 attention has been chiefly concentrated. Just as the world 
 around us is the theatre of a great many forms of physical 
 life, destined perhaps in the progress of time to merge one 
 into the other, but for the time being on widely different 
 levels, so the whole chain of worlds is the theatre of many 
 evolutions which, during this Manvantara, are not destined 
 to blend one into the other. Meanwhile crude concep- 
 tions concerning the place of humanity in the cosmos are 
 apt to render people at the same time too humble and too 
 arrogant concerning their place in Nature. Conventional 
 teaching entirely underrates the dignity and splendour 
 of the altitude to which it is possible for a human being to 
 ascend, and very often as ludicrously misconceives the 
 stupendous proportions of the cosmos, by regarding the 
 interests of humanity as something like the sole concern 
 of its presiding Divinity. 
 
 With this very general sketch of the system to which 
 we belong it will now be convenient to pass on to an 
 explanation of the methods open to us for the ascent to 
 its summit levels at an earlier period than that contem- 
 plated by the design of the scheme as a whole, and when 
 we have realised more exactly the phases ol spiritual 
 achievement constituting the steps on trie great path that 
 leads to the highest attainable Adeptship, we shall be in a 
 better position to forecast with exactitude the ultimate 
 stratification of the human family at the close of this 
 Manvantara. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE ELDER BRETHREN OF HUMANITY 
 
 WE should never have been in a position to 
 acquire the knowledge we now possess of the 
 great evolutionary schemes of this planetary 
 system, had it not been possible for individual units of the 
 human family to outstrip the normal course of evolution, 
 and attain at a relatively early period the spiritual faculties 
 belonging to the higher levels of progress to which the 
 race, as a whole, can only ascend at a very remote period 
 in the future. We must endeavour now to realise more 
 clearly than before, what is meant by outstripping normal 
 evolution, to work out in detail considerations which show 
 that in doing this, those of us who may find it possible, 
 are not setting the programme of normal evolution at 
 defiance in any way, but, on the contrary, are endeavour- 
 ing at the earliest possible moment to unite our individual 
 efforts, however humble these may be in the beginning, 
 with the purpose of Nature on the grandest scale to fulfil, 
 so to speak, at the earliest possible moment as regards our- 
 selves, the design which Providence has in view, and in 
 doing this, to assist in the realisation of the whole pro- 
 gramme as regards the majority in a way which really, 
 when properly understood, will be seen to enter into 
 the normal scheme. For the teaching which enables those, 
 who are properly qualified to appreciate it, to accelerate 
 the course of their evolution, is really accessible to all alike, 
 and though with each single item of humanity it is a 
 matter of choice whether his forces are trained to the 
 work of promoting the spiritual evolution of the whole, 
 or exerted to put impediments in the way, it is mathe- 
 matically certain that amongst the enormous multitude of 
 
 249 
 
250 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 individualities which constitute humanity, some will take 
 the loftiest view of their destinies and opportunities, and 
 will play that part in the whole undertaking which it is 
 absolutely necessary that some should play in order that 
 the undertaking may prosper. 
 
 For a long time now, looking back on the course which 
 human history has taken for the last few hundred thousand 
 years, some few have appreciated their opportunities, have 
 availed themselves of the interior enlightenment which 
 their own aspirations attracted, and have worked their 
 way upward until they have come to occupy a place in 
 Nature from which the ordinary course of human evolu- 
 tion, as it has been traced in preceding chapters, may be 
 looked down upon as from a height. The potentialities 
 of human faculty are such that at certain stages of human 
 progress, incarnate man becomes invested with a sight, 
 with a prospective vision which ranges all through these 
 planes of Nature on which normal evolution is being 
 accomplished, as the process has already been described. 
 Indeed, considerably beyond them to higher altitudes 
 of spiritual condition, from which all the work that has 
 been accomplished so far, can be surveyed as the glance 
 is extended backward, and from which the future course 
 and ultimate goal of human progress are no less plainly 
 visible. Nothing concerning the past history of this earth, 
 for example, not to speak of other globes connected with 
 the planetary chain to which we belong, is obscure to the 
 vision of a being, whether in or out of the body, who 
 can function on the manasic plane, not to speak even of 
 those still more exalted realms to which reference has just 
 been made. There are methods by which it is possible 
 so to stimulate spiritual growth, that incarnate man is 
 enabled to exercise vision even on these. And by degrees, 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 251 
 
 as I have prepared the way for making the situation in- 
 telligible by other explanations, it will be possible to indi- 
 cate with a considerable degree of exactitude, the manner 
 in which such heights are reached, and to show some of 
 the responsibilities which attach themselves to the abnor- 
 mal advancement in Nature thus accomplished. The 
 situation could only be rendered intelligible with the help 
 of such a comprehensive survey of the whole scheme 
 of evolution on which we are launched, as the foregoing 
 chapters of this book have already set forth. We are thus 
 enabled at the same time to realise the magnitude of the 
 work already accomplished up to date, and the equal mag- 
 nitude, in another direction, of that which is still before 
 us. We cannot properly appreciate the nature of the 
 accelerated spiritual evolution, nor understand the place in 
 Nature occupied by the most advanced representatives of 
 our humanity, without keeping the outline of the whole 
 Manvantaric scheme in view. 
 
 There are men now living on earth who, belonging 
 completely to our own human family, have already 
 attained the maximum point of development and exalta- 
 tion which I have just been endeavouring to describe as 
 that belonging to the final culmination of the progress 
 on which the whole family is launched. If one were 
 merely to count, supposing that were possible, the number 
 of lives which would .have to be spent in the ordinary 
 course of evolution between this and the close of the 
 seventh round each of these lives separated from the 
 other by long periods of spiritual rest, sometimes by inter- 
 vening experiences that are not restful at all but sadly the 
 reverse we should have to deal with numbers which 
 again would hardly lie within the grasp of imagination, 
 and yet already, though we have got on past the middle 
 
252 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 point of the whole Manvantara by a period which is rela- 
 tively a mere handful of years, we find some of the most 
 determined climbers already on the topmost heights of the 
 system to which we belong. That within a brief series 
 of lives, even though each in turn is devoted with un- 
 remitting intensity to the great purpose in view, it may be 
 possible to reach these heights, will be, as I say, a matter 
 of marvel to those who really appreciate the magnitude 
 of the task to be accomplished. Sometimes people who 
 hear vaguely about abnormal capacities and powers pos- 
 sessed by those who have gone in advance of their kind 
 are inclined, in their ignorance of what this advancement 
 really implies, to expect that if they make an honest effort 
 in that direction they ought to realise their aspirations at 
 once; to take their degrees in occult science with as little 
 difficulty as they might accomplish a similar process in 
 connection with the teaching of a university. The 
 absurdity of this view will be appreciated by anyone who 
 realises in his thinking the true meaning of high initia- 
 tion, the true place occupied in Nature by those whom we 
 speak of as the great Adepts. The evolutionary interval 
 which separates ordinary humanity from them has to be 
 measured, as I have described, by the whole of the second 
 half of the Manvantara. The processes of initiation lead- 
 ing up to high Adeptship are in reality epitomes of the 
 second half of the Manvantara, in which the acquisition 
 of knowledge, moral dignity, and faculty, for which 
 Nature has assigned the immeasurable ages to come, will 
 be condensed within the brief series of three or four or 
 half a dozen lives. We shall come later on to examine 
 more minutely the nature of the efforts by which the earlier 
 progress along that road is accomplished; but we must 
 have a general idea of the whole effort in mind before 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 253 
 
 we can examine the details intelligently, and the fore- 
 most thought to be embraced in connection with the 
 general idea I have been endeavouring to convey is, that 
 the summit levels of evolution have to do with the com- 
 plete identity between the whole progress of the individual 
 and that at which, as he ascends to lofty altitudes, he is 
 enabled to appreciate in all its completeness, the Will of 
 which this whole world and all the other worlds around 
 us are the manifestation. 
 
 There are possibilities of accelerated evolution, let us 
 recognise frankly, that lie within the reach of men wha 
 set themselves to compass their progress on purely selfish 
 principles whose spiritual aspirations have no infinite 
 range, whose hope in connection with ulterior progress 
 is that it may in some fashion redound to their own power, 
 who sometimes vainly imagine that the great possibilities 
 they feel germinating within them will enable them to 
 rob Divinity itself of its treasures, whatever they may be, 
 and accomplish triumphs which may gratify their personal 
 pride through a range of the future, which is all they care 
 to think of as infinity. Whoever sets out on the path of 
 occult progress with such motives as his actuating prin- 
 ciples will, in all probability, do no more than plunge 
 himself in agonising failure, which will render existence 
 in one way or other a misery for him for a long portion of 
 the normal road on to which he will be hurled violently 
 back. But if across a thousand indescribable perils the 
 candidate for merely selfish spiritual advancement succeeds, 
 so far as success is possible, in attaining his object, it will 
 be a success qualified from the beginning with interior 
 conditions that can only be described as the reverse of 
 beatitude, and it is impossible in the nature of things that 
 spiritual progress of this evil character can transcend the- 
 
254 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 limits of the world period in which it is undertaken. For 
 those who prefer the path of service, the service of the 
 Divine Ideal, to that of selfish aggrandisement the maxi- 
 mum heights of evolution even within this Manvantara 
 are attainable, and they, when attained, instead of repre- 
 senting a finality, are found to be but the avenues of 
 approach to beatitudes of spiritual existence within the 
 universe the very nature of which it would be folly at this 
 stage of our thinking to grapple with in thought. For to 
 the vision of those who are already on the summit of the 
 Manvantara the horizon that extends beyond is infinite 
 again, and something of what they see can be communi- 
 cated to us, so that without being able to realise the condi- 
 tions of consciousness which would transcend our own 
 system, we may realise, even with some assurance, the pos- 
 sibility of ulterior progress for perfected humanity into 
 conditions of existence in which the individuality of the 
 human being is merged into the governing hierarchy of the 
 cosmos. But leaving considerations of that nature aside 
 for the present, and also considerations in the other direc- 
 tion which have to do with the misdirection of great 
 spiritual energies, let us concentrate our attention on the 
 possibilities that lie before us in reference to that legiti- 
 mately accelerated evolution to be accomplished by tread- 
 ing the path leading to Adeptship. 
 
 That path, we should always bear in mind, is a short 
 cut across the enormous spirals of the regular highway, 
 leading humanity upward during the second half of the 
 Manvantara. It thus only became a possibility of nature 
 after the first half of the Manvantara was concluded; for 
 the complete undertaking included a double process the 
 involution of spirit in matter, and the evolution of spirit 
 from matter. The first half of the Manvantara is the des- 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 255 
 
 cent into manifestation; the second half the re-ascent 
 therefrom. One gets lost in an ocean of metaphysical 
 speculation if we go into the question as to what spirit 
 can gain from material manifestation. It is the potentiality 
 of all things, including material manifestation : how can it 
 be enriched if it is everything to begin with ? It will be 
 worth while, perhaps, to deal with this problem when we 
 are in a position to grapple with it from the point of view, 
 let us say, of an exhaustive comprehension of the solar 
 system. Then mysteries which have to do with that 
 whole of which the solar system is an infinitesimal particle, 
 will perhaps come within the range of our mental grasp. 
 At present the attempts to work out schemes of thought 
 relating to such mysteries are rather the outcome of ignor- 
 ance concerning mysteries that are relatively near us than 
 of aptitude for dealing with those still far off. The 
 theory of our planetary system is, at all events, intelligible. 
 Spiritual energies involve themselves in matter and evolve 
 therefrom. They cannot begin to evolve slowly or 
 rapidly till the process of involution is complete. Thus it 
 is only after the middle point of the Manvantara that 
 accelerated evolution becomes possible, simply because 
 evolution itself, as far as the human family was concerned, 
 only began then. 
 
 But even during the last Manvantara the already dif- 
 ferentiated entities of the human family were in a position 
 to fulfil the purpose of their existence at that stage more 
 or less satisfactorily. Thus we have seen that the entities 
 who had derived most from the experiences of that Man- 
 vantara were not required to make their appearance on 
 this planetary chain till near the middle of this world 
 period. They came into incarnation then as already the 
 elder brethren of the race, and many of them at once began 
 
256 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 to fulfil the purpose of their existence in this Manvantara 
 in turn in the most satisfactory manner. They kept thus 
 ahead of the main body, and at once began to appreciate 
 the teaching of those more advanced beings from another 
 evolution who were the early guardians of this human 
 family. They were ripe to enter on the path then opening 
 before mankind, the course of which led them rapidly to 
 the higher levels of consciousness and capacity. There is 
 nothing in their extraordinarily rapid progress to shock 
 the understanding, if we pay attention to the simplicity 
 of the predominant idea which is the all-embracing motive 
 of occult progress. The unity of spiritual consciousness is 
 the primary thought to appreciate, the insignificance of 
 differentiated sensation, the logical deduction. The first 
 thought brings with it the anxiety to realise that unity in 
 consciousness, which is equivalent to the anxiety to 
 promote the Divine idea expressed in the system to which 
 we belong : the second thought, if fully absorbed, ex- 
 tinguishes selfishness absolutely. With that characteristic 
 abolished there is no room in the nature for evil; as soon 
 as it is inaccessible to evil its capacity for infinite good 
 which embraces infinite knowledge, is established. The 
 difficulty with most of us is that we fail to realise the unity 
 of spiritual consciousness, and only to some extent dispel 
 the contrary idea the actuality of separate consciousness. 
 Let anyone get himself absolutely saturated with the 
 loftier conception so that he feels his own individualised 
 sensation to be just as important, and no more important 
 to him, than any other individualised manifestation of the 
 spirit working within him, and he will find himself on 
 Adept levels " to-morrow " as compared with the dura- 
 tion of a Manvantara as soon, that is to say, as in a life 
 or two he may have dissipated the evil forces he has 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 257 
 
 engendered in past lives, leaving the whole account of 
 good and evil, so to speak none the worse for his in- 
 dividualisation as a preliminary measure before he goes 
 on to make it much the better. If he does really express 
 our fundamental idea in his consciousness, he will not 
 want to manifest Adeptship in his own individuality till 
 that preliminary work is accomplished. 
 
 Even from the midst of the stormy and ignoble period 
 of the world's history represented by the civilisation of 
 Atlantis, some of the best individualities of the race learned 
 these lessons from their more advanced teachers, and 
 began to supply the race with Adept guardians of " its 
 own blood," to use our physical-plane phrase. A little 
 occult knowledge is enough to give the phrase an almost 
 comic flavour, in view of the relatively small part in 
 human evolution played by the physical organism that is 
 habitually dealt with in our language as though it con- 
 stituted the race. And thus from the mid-period of the 
 Atlantean race onward there has never been a time when 
 the world has been unprovided with Adept leaders, for 
 remember there is no death out of such a condition of 
 existence as that. There may be a transfer of activity to 
 the higher planes of Nature, but these are a part of the 
 world or are partly of the world, to put the idea more 
 correctly just as much as its physical aspect. But on 
 the other hand, re-incarnation itself, if voluntarily 
 accepted by the Adept, who no longer needs it for himself, 
 is no extinction of his Adeptship; and whether their work 
 was carried on in or out of the body with or without 
 that accessory the elder brethren who first attained 
 Adeptship did not, we may be sure, pass on to other func- 
 tions until others, coming up from mankind at large to 
 join them, were ready to take their places at the head of 
 
 18 
 
258 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 human affairs. They or their successors have, from a far 
 remoter time than any which commonplace historical 
 research has penetrated, even in imagination, been in con- 
 trol of the great occult " Lodges " of initiation, the 
 existence of which the accessibility of which for persons 
 willing to undergo the necessary training, and inspired 
 by the necessary ideas has been better known to humanity 
 at large at former epochs in the world's history than during 
 the last few hundred years. 
 
 During the predominance of the Atlantean race on 
 earth, it was hardly to be expected that the elder brethren 
 would obtain any great number of recruits. Not only 
 were the Atlanteans pre-eminently a selfish race it 
 might almost be argued that it was their business in the 
 scheme of evolution to be so. They may not have been 
 much more culpable in being so than a community of 
 animals would be under similar circumstances. In- 
 dividualised to perfection, but nothing more, it was their 
 business to deliver the innumerable hordes of the human 
 family on the threshold of the fifth race intelligent enough 
 to learn the first new lesson of the upward curve of the 
 great cycle, the lesson of fraternal sympathy. Intellectu- 
 ally, keeping that term strictly to its limitations, and 
 altogether excluding from it everything that appertains 
 to spiritual intuition, the Atlanteans were giants of 
 capacity. They possessed a great mass of knowledge, 
 which the younger generations of the fifth race ourselves 
 and our immediate progenitors have lost. They had 
 even penetrated many of the secrets of Nature belonging 
 to that astral plane which transcends the more densely 
 material realm of the physical senses. They could accom- 
 plish results which, to our own science, are as yet un- 
 dreamed of. But be it remembered, that when we speak 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 259 
 
 of the Atlanteans from the point of view of the informa- 
 tion concerning them, which occult science enables us to 
 procure, we are dealing with that race in its fullest 
 maturity. Humanity has entered on the fifth of its present 
 cycles, armed with all the intellectual capacities required 
 for the recovery of the lost Atlantean knowledge, and that 
 recovery is certain to be brought about in the progress of 
 time. The re-incarnation of a race precisely follows the 
 analogy of individual re-incarnation.^ Just as the fresh 
 personality by the time it arrives at maturity is once more 
 in possession of all the capacities engendered by its perma- 
 nent Ego during the preceding life, so the race inherits 
 capacity in a similar degree. Intellectual giants as the 
 Atlanteans were, we are already not far short of their 
 stature, and the rest will come to us in due course. 
 
 But with those gifts, something else will come to us if 
 we are willing to receive it the first beginnings of a 
 general capacity to apprehend the spiritual possibilities of 
 our Nature. The downward curve of the great cycle 
 considering the Manvantaric evolution as one process for 
 the moment may be regarded as the curve of preparation. 
 The upward curve from the nadir point of the fourth 
 race in this round the curve of fruition. 
 
 Now the nature of every evolutionary cycle as under- 
 stood by esoteric wisdom involves, from one point of 
 view, a return to the condition from which the circling 
 procession set out. But that return does not mean a mere 
 reversion to the status quo ante, without any result 
 accomplished. It must always be a return freighted with 
 something gained on the journey. And in the broad 
 view of the whole evolutionary scheme that we are taking 
 now, the all-important distinction between the spiritual 
 existence out of which the human race emerged in the 
 
 18* 
 
260 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 beginning, and the spiritual existence to which it will 
 ultimately return, is to be discerned in the individual isa- 
 tion of consciousness combined with spirituality. 
 
 In dealing with these transcendent mysteries, every in- 
 carnate writer must be profoundly impressed with the im- 
 possibility of thinking them out completely in terms of 
 the physical intellect. One would gladly refrain from the 
 audacity of writing about them at all if it were not abso- 
 lutely necessary for^the elucidation of the spiritual evolu- 
 tion on which the human race is now entering, to take 
 cognisance of ultimate ideas which it is quite certain we 
 shall formulate in the mind but dimly and inaccurately, 
 But somehow, within and beyond the immeasurable pro- 
 fundities of the spiritual consciousness which crown the 
 edifice of a perfected humanity, it is certain that the 
 stupendous prize of individual consciousness which Nature 
 has gone through such infinite pains to evoke will not 
 be forfeited. A few misleading analogies and even the 
 most graceful, about the dewdrop slipping into the shining 
 sea, cannot but be misleading in this connection are 
 largely responsible for the comfortless belief so many 
 people entertain, that the esoteric teaching of the East, at 
 all events, preaches a kind of ecstatic annihilation as the 
 supreme felicity to be struggled for through ages of suffer- 
 ing existence. It should be obvious that no epigrammatic 
 phrase can sum up the unfathomable subtleties of a 
 thought that reaches out towards a comprehension of the 
 incomprehensible of phases of consciousness utterly 
 transcending the limitations of the brain that idly strives 
 to define them. If we inverted the usual simile, and said 
 that on attaining the condition of Nirvana, the dewdrop 
 received into its bosom the whole shining sea, that would, 
 perhaps, be a better way of presenting the figure to the 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 261 
 
 mind, because it would not then suggest a falsehood, even 
 if it failed to be explanatory in any high degree. Without 
 attempting so absurd a task as to explain the nature of the 
 spiritual consciousness indicated in Oriental philosophy by 
 the term Nirvana, I will be content to suggest a mode of 
 approaching a conception rather less extravagantly imper- 
 fect than that generally entertained, by hinting, on the 
 basis of the suggestion just made, that it may be much more 
 like an absorption of all consciousness into the individuality 
 than an absorption of individuality into all consciousness. 
 
 However this may be, in one conclusion we may safely 
 rest; that the purpose of Nature in evolving humanity is 
 that of evoking individualities on the levels of Nature, so 
 to speak, from which the whole creative spiritual im- 
 pulse stooped down at the commencement of the under- 
 taking. 
 
 It is necessary to insert an apology here for that last 
 expression in dealing with a Nature that has no beginning 
 and no end. Of all Nature we cannot assuredly predi- 
 cate an end or a beginning; but one of the most narrow- 
 minded blunders of exoteric thinking is that which care- 
 lessly identifies the human family to which we belong 
 with the eternities generally of time and space. Esoteric 
 science, in its coherent reasonableness, recognises this 
 human family, its origin and fortunes, as a definite episode 
 within the eternities however protracted may be its dura- 
 tion. 
 
 The climax of the episode is reached when the creative 
 power, which in some unimaginable manner sufficed to 
 launch the planetary system, returns to itself focalised in 
 individualities. But what is the nature of such individuali- 
 ties ? By the hypothesis they partake of the human nature 
 in so far as they are individual; of the divine nature in 
 
262 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 so far as they are once again identified with the creative 
 power of the Spirit. They are no longer men they are 
 gods. Not God, which, as far as language can deal with 
 such ideas, must be a designation assigned to Universal 
 Omnipotent Spirit, but the agents of Divinity wielding 
 its powers, pursuing its ideas. Esoteric teaching shows 
 us in these perfected beings at once the purpose of 
 humanity and the governing power of the next evolu- 
 tionary undertaking in Nature which shall follow on after 
 that out of which they themselves have arisen. 
 
 The hosts of ordinary humanity, let us bear in mind, 
 are conscious only in their physical intellects of the 
 material plane of Nature whereon they are manifesting. 
 But the spiritual consciousness dominant within them, is 
 working all the while in the " Higher Self." The attrac- 
 tion to matter, to material life, with its gratifications and 
 sympathies, is at war with this dormant aspiration. As 
 long as it remains the more powerful the Ego after death, 
 and after the intervening period has expired, is drawn 
 back to material manifestation by the Karma of its last 
 life. But whenever the spiritual aspiration has made itself 
 heard in that life, there will be in the circumstances of 
 the new existence some improved opportunities for the 
 culture of the spiritual consciousness. If these are duly 
 employed, they will rapidly be developed into contact of 
 some kind with the grand realities of the higher planes of 
 being. The incarnate man will begin by finding new 
 senses and powers of perception developing within him. 
 Operating, as we shall see later on, as snares and false 
 beacons sometimes when they have been acquired in a 
 wrong way, these psychic faculties are none the less the 
 avenues to sublime knowledge when rightly directed. 
 For the genuine neophyte they constitute the first links 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 263 
 
 of communication that consciously unite him with the 
 Adept world, with those of his elder brethren who are 
 already advanced in the scale of Nature far beyond the 
 normal characteristics of ordinary mankind. 
 
 Thus illuminated he may enter on the path that leads 
 upward to these levels of existence. His initiation has 
 commenced, and with the thirst for spiritual progress 
 becoming a more powerful force in his nature than the 
 animal clinging to material life, the attractions that drag 
 him back to normal incarnation cease to assert themselves. 
 For several lives probably those attractions will continue 
 to operate, after he has begun his higher evolution, and 
 failure of one kind or another may constantly throw him 
 back. But if he is resolute and persevering, the spiritual 
 attractions conquer in the end, and his incarnations, if they 
 are then continued at all, will be voluntarily undertaken 
 as affording him facilities for the better accomplishment 
 of the work to which he will have dedicated himself the 
 cultivation of the spirituality of the race at large. On the 
 level he will have attained he will be already a co-worker 
 with the Divine purpose, a conscious exponent of the 
 Divine Will. 
 
 Keeping still, for the present, on the level of generali- 
 ties, and postponing the more exact examination of the 
 steps on the path of initiation, I may remark that for any 
 one who can even dimly discern the attributes of such 
 existence as is attained to by the fully spiritualised man, 
 there is little need to look beyond that condition in search 
 of motives for an upward struggle. But let me interpolate 
 here a few observations concerning the most ennobling of 
 those motives before going on to speak of those which 
 appeal to feelings of personal desire, however lofty in their 
 character. It is not to be doubted that by the time the 
 
264 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 spiritual consciousness of a man on the upward path is 
 fully developed he is already so far a participator in the 
 Divine nature that the unselfish eagerness to acquire the 
 power of benefiting others is really the most efficient 
 motive for exertion that can appeal to him; and perhaps 
 realising this great truth, more or less perfectly, in advance > 
 there are many still incarnate human beings who proclaim 
 this as already the only motive that really commands their 
 zealous effort. We need not cast discredit on their early 
 belief in their own interior nobility of purpose. But 
 without claiming that men still on the normal levels of 
 incarnation should be already infused by so lofty a senti- 
 ment, it is no degradation of their nature so far, if they 
 recognise as the first motive that inspires them with the 
 courage and physical self-abnegation required for the 
 cultivation of their spiritual natures, a longing to come 
 into closer relations with beings so glorified as those who 
 have broken the bondage of the flesh or have already taken 
 their place in superior realms of existence. No unworthy 
 pandering to selfishness is involved in the representation of 
 spiritual exaltation as in itself a goal befitting the most 
 enthusiastic aspiration as regarded from the lower stand- 
 point of material existence. Emotions and motives may 
 follow one another in due order, but it would be a great 
 mistake to add needlessly to the ordeals of the first steps 
 in occult progress by depriving them of the encourage- 
 ment to be derived from the reflection that even earlier the 
 achievements of such progress carry with them rewards 'of 
 an extremely elevated order. 
 
 So then we work back to the position that the career 
 of initiation the path of occult progress is an enter- 
 prise not only worthy of being the pursuit of the loftiest 
 human virtue; there is no other career of philanthropy or 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 265 
 
 benevolence that is comparable with it, for the more the 
 community of those who attain Adeptship is strengthened 
 numerically and otherwise, the greater is the influence 
 working on mankind at large for their spiritual advance- 
 ment, and their elevation above the lamentable Karmic 
 conditions that give rise to the physical miseries and suf- 
 fering to which ordinary philanthropy, unable to look 
 beyond the one life, is limited in choosing its spheres of 
 activity. But lest this reflection should be misunderstood, 
 let me point out that the career of occult progress is not 
 one which has to be selected in preference, or as an alter- 
 native tb other benevolent activities. Whatever these may 
 be, for good men impelled to engage in them from beauti- 
 ful and generous sympathy with their fellow creatures, 
 their work in such directions, instead of impeding their 
 occult progress, must be directly subservient thereto if they 
 do but blend with the immediate emotions of sympathy 
 which dictate their practical philanthropy the desire for 
 spiritual knowledge, and the efforts to attain it that may be 
 compatible with their duties and assumed responsibilities 
 in life. One of the most common mistakes concerning 
 this subject made by those who pick up a few imperfect 
 ideas from Oriental literature and tales of Eastern " yogee- 
 ism," is the notion that the occult path means withdrawal 
 from all human companionship, and absorption in a 
 spiritual selfishness that seeks a personal beatitude 
 by means of solitary meditation and austere practices. 
 That which occult training does undoubtedly demand 
 is self-denial in the sense of entire abstinence from 
 the fruitless indulgence of self, and some time devoted if 
 possible compatibly with altruistic duties to the interior 
 cultivation of the spiritual consciousness. But there is no 
 life of philanthropic activity so full that it would not in- 
 
266 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 elude the necessary opportunities for this. On the con- 
 trary it is, broadly speaking, most assuredly true that the 
 active philanthropist is, by virtue of being so, in far more 
 favourable conditions for the attainment of spiritual 
 advancement than the man who is merely bent upon his 
 advancement, however blameless his relative inactivity. 
 
 Here we may pause to consider some of the commonest 
 among the foolish criticisms that have been aimed at the 
 state and methods of activity of the Adepts, since some- 
 thing has been promulgated in reference to them in modern 
 theosophic literature. It has been suggested that in living 
 very secluded lives (as far as their existence on the physical 
 plane is concerned) they are selfishly neglecting the poig- 
 nant sufferings of unhappy humanity, which they might 
 do much to soften if they came down from their lofty 
 towers to mingle with the human race. To have power 
 over material nature and disease and not at once devote 
 that power to the relief of poverty and sickness seems 
 to some of our short-sighted moralists to imply a want 
 of sympathy with suffering, and a " selfish " neglect of 
 opportunities for doing good. The criticism springs from 
 a comprehensive ignorance of Nature and the whole design 
 of the world from a curiously complete disregard of the 
 hypothesis that, in spite of appearances, the progress of 
 the world may be going on, under the law of justice, and 
 that very much more important ends may really be in 
 view than those which have to do with the alleviation of 
 the painful consequences which, in the progress of their 
 successive lives, most human beings may have brought 
 upon themselves. Let me not be misunderstood. To the 
 true Masters of Wisdom the spectacle of human suffering, 
 however completely that suffering may have been earned 
 by the sufferer's own action in the past, is one evoking 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 267 
 
 acute and tender-hearted sympathy. But this sympathy 
 cannot but, in their case, be associated with and qualified 
 by the lofty powers of vision which may look back to 
 the causes in the past, by which the suffering has been 
 brought on, and forward to the results that may be hoped 
 for as regards the future by the exhaustion of those causes. 
 To us, who see merely the suffering, it is perfectly clear 
 that we have only one simple duty in regard to it to 
 relieve it if we can, by the exercise of such very limited 
 powers in that direction as we may possess. If we suc- 
 ceed in doing this we are not upsetting the design of 
 Nature. We are in all probability merely playing a part 
 unconsciously in that design, and the Karma of the sufferer 
 whom we relieve, may be regarded as having been to that 
 extent already fulfilled when the pressure of destiny 
 brought us into contact with him. But the Adept, who 
 has come already into conscious relations with the design 
 of Nature, who is no longer drifted blindly about by. that 
 pressure of destiny just referred to, is very differently 
 situated. He is not wanted as an instrument of Karma. 
 The great law finds its own instruments ready to its hand 
 among the humanity still on the same level of existence 
 to which the sufferer belongs. If he intervenes, with a 
 power and a knowledge on a level, so to speak, with that 
 on which the design originates, he is distinctly upsetting 
 the contemplated scheme of things. Such a violation of 
 the appointed progress of events would quite possibly do 
 no more than protract the suffering it might seem to 
 relieve, for the unfulfilled law of Karma would exact 
 its own measure of justice later on, in another life, 
 perhaps, which might have been clear of the old debt if 
 things had been allowed to take their normal course. 
 
 Then, again, while philanthropists of the lowlier type 
 
268 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 may fitly enough concern themselves with palliatives in 
 dealing with human suffering, their justification for doing 
 this is to be sought rather in the imperfection of their 
 insight than in the merits of palliatives as such compared 
 with remedies for evil which should go deeper than the 
 surface, and attempt to grapple with fundamental causes. 
 While the worldly philanthropist of the ordinary type 
 seeks for the causes of misery and suffering in the external 
 neglect of economical laws, and would endeavour to cir- 
 cumvent these evils by teaching thrift, temperance, and 
 industry as habits dictated by an enlightened selfishness, we 
 can readily appreciate the idea that a fuller comprehension 
 of the laws of Karma may enable Adept vision to realise 
 that even the practice of economical virtues would not 
 suffice to root out from human society the suffering which 
 in one shape or another must overtake re-incarnating 
 human creatures who have lived before for merely selfish 
 objects, and have done evil, as judged by the spiritual stan- 
 dard, however enlightened, in the mere worldly sense, 
 their selfishness may have been at the time. The Karmic 
 retribution for sins against humanity, for cruelty to others, 
 and hardness of heart in presence of sorrow, can never be 
 circumvented, and the cunningest devices for warding off 
 poverty and crime will never be successful in guarding 
 future generations from these calamities until the people, 
 who in the present time are creating the conditions in 
 which they will live again, are taught to live with an eye 
 to that inevitable destiny, and to starve out the forces that 
 make for wretchedness and disease, so that there sKall 
 be no Karmic necessity for such penalties operative in the 
 progress of the world any more. 
 
 The end, therefore, to which the Adept must primarily 
 devote himself will always be the cultivation of spiritual 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 269 
 
 knowledge and aspiration, which by weaning people from 
 their supreme devotion to the objects of physical existence, 
 will guide them into those paths of endeavour which will 
 necessarily render them less likely to sacrifice the higher 
 dictates of humanity on the altars of their individual 
 worldly interests. 
 
 Of course, I am not professing to explain and account 
 for the whole policy of the Adept Brotherhood in their 
 dealings with uninitiated mankind. I am merely showing 
 how, with the limited knowledge of their functions in 
 Nature which we possess, it is easy to put aside the mani- 
 festly inapplicable criticisms suggested by an entire ignor- 
 ance on that subject. It is with the spiritual interests of 
 humanity almost exclusively that the Adepts must deal. 
 And in dealing even with these it is obvious that at some 
 periods of the world's history their influence may be much 
 more restricted than at others. Human affairs advance 
 through a great series of interlinked cycles, and each of 
 these has its periods of spiritual and material ascendancy. 
 Sometimes the exoteric religious ideas in vogue may favour, 
 sometimes they may oppose the spread of true spiritual 
 knowledge. Sometimes it may be possible for those who 
 have outrun their contemporaries, and have attained to the 
 power and beatitude of the Divine Kingdom, to do little 
 more than concern themselves with the few who are 
 toiling along after them across the dangers and ordeals of 
 the upward path. Sometimes they may find it practicable 
 to attempt the reform of popular religions, so as to bring 
 these more into harmony with the eternal natural laws 
 that govern spiritual evolution. But whether at any 
 given moment they can do much or little, there is one 
 thing they can always do, and do always accordingly, they 
 can to fall into the symbolical language that the subject 
 
270 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 suggests keep the sacred flame alight. They can take 
 care that there shall always be an Adept community on 
 earth, ready to instruct and bring forward increasing 
 numbers of those who, as the cyclic law grows more 
 favourable in the future, may be prepared to undertake 
 the task of self-development, and thus to co-operate with 
 Nature in working out her grandest design to which all 
 preliminary stages of evolution are, indeed, but subservient. 
 To those who have long attained the exaltation of the 
 Divine Kingdom, it may be that some mysterious condition 
 of supreme rest and beatitude beckons them onward, and 
 without knowing much on that subject, we may reason- 
 ably conjecture that one by one, as the aspect of the great 
 duty that presses upon them all permits, they do pass on, 
 but never, we may be assured, until their places are fully 
 supplied by other victors in the great struggle. 
 
 In this way the Adept Brotherhood is much more than 
 a mere organisation of immensely advanced and 
 spiritualised men. It is that, of course, but it is a brother- 
 hood so far advanced that it has grown up into being a 
 part of the great hierarchy of superior beings constituting 
 the spiritual government of the world. Some of those 
 who become Adepts are, in .turn, drawn up into this 
 hierarchy, and may then be said to guide and direct the 
 Will lying behind them again in its detailed manifestations. 
 Rightly apprehended this idea is no more in conflict with 
 the vague religious conception that assigns the " creation " 
 of the world to God, than the fact that human devices may 
 direct electricity to specific purposes, is in conflict with 
 the profound truth that electricity itself is a mighty and 
 ever-present force of Nature. The deeply impressive truth 
 that the Will of God works through agencies of a character 
 intermediate between God and man, is the scientific inter- 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 271 
 
 pretation of Nature, not the deposition of vaguer beliefs 
 which only seem more reverential to the uninstructed mind 
 because that mind has never even sought to work out its 
 beliefs with precision. 
 
 That from the beginning of humanity on earth in this 
 great World Period through which we are passing, there 
 has been a Being consciously presiding over its evolution 
 is, as I say, a perfectly reasonable idea, in harmony with 
 the loftiest religious conceptions. That it is not merely 
 an idea, but a fact, is ascertained by those who are them- 
 selves, in turn, intermediate between that Being and 
 humanity at large. And from them some definite infor- 
 mation on the subject filters down to those who from our 
 own level are struggling upwards and already in contact 
 wfth Adept instruction. Evidently it would be impossible 
 to convey to incarnate intelligence imprisoned in flesh 
 and working within the limitations of consciousness as it 
 functions on the material plane very much concerning 
 the attributes of such a Being. But the recognition of His 
 existence is a step in the direction of a comprehension of 
 the whole spiritual hierarchy. 
 
 People who make a hard and fast barrier in their 
 imaginations between God and Man treating humanity, 
 as of a horde of final units, each with an eternal personality 
 as limited in its scope, as compared with Deity, as the nine- 
 pins a boy may play with compared to himself, are not 
 merely degrading the human personalities in question, but 
 are making nonsense of the whole Natural design. It 
 would have no ulterior purpose or meaning if the con- 
 ventional view were in correspondence with the fact. On 
 the other hand, when we not alone accept the principle 
 that there must be higher destinies open to human creatures 
 than those which are bounded by the mystery of physical 
 
THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 death, but realise that those higher destinies may assimilate 
 Man to God-like knowledge, wisdom and power, and 
 elevate him at last if he makes himself worthy to play 
 a part in the spiritual government of his race, then surely 
 we must feel that we have grasped a really lofty concep- 
 tion of the design to which humanity belongs. 
 
 And in the light of that idea we may go considerably 
 further, even, than the doctrine of Re-incarnation takes 
 us in appreciating correctly the pathetic mistake which 
 in conscious or unconscious submission to the dictates of a 
 narrow and incomplete theology many people make in 
 contemplating the brevity of each individual physical life. 
 Especially do those aspiring lovers of Nature, who most 
 reverently study her laws true men of science fall A 
 prey to the gloomy delusion that when the brain they have 
 trained so carefully shall dissolve in the earth, there is an 
 end of trie futile labour they have gone through. Con- 
 ventional religion gives them a hope indeed of some sort 
 of consciousness hereafter; but the heaven of crowns and 
 harps and unintelligent rapture before " the throne " the 
 heaven of ignorant and empty-headed priests, good and 
 good-hearted though they may sometimes be affords a 
 prospect of drivelling ennui to the man who is already 
 in this life highly developed in knowledge and intel- 
 lectual energy. Men of such a type turn from it with 
 distaste if not with scorn, and forgetting that the priests 
 may be echoing a great truth in promising future con- 
 sciousness, though distorting it into nonsense by furnishing 
 it forth with detail on a level with their own intelligence 
 they, the true priests of Nature, her eager students and 
 worshippers, fall back on a forlorn kind of altruism and try 
 to take comfort in the thought that their successors will 
 carry on the mighty quest when they themselves are dust 
 
THE ELDER BRETHREN 273 
 
 and their thoughts as the light of yesterday that has faded 
 into darkness and ceased to be. 
 
 The mere first steps in esoteric teaching should hold 
 out a thrilling prospect in exchange for this dreary expec- 
 tation. The persistence of individual consciousness the 
 re-incarnation of each transient personality with the 
 knowledge and training of each life stored as so much 
 potentiality of further advancement, as so much intel- 
 lectual faculty ready to spring once more into activity 
 that is the first great law of spiritual evolution which 
 rebukes the insult to Nature involved in the idea that his 
 science is extinct when the man of science " dies." But 
 there is really a far loftier possibility before him in the 
 progress of ages, if he wakes to a perception of the higher 
 science that may link his knowledge with that of Nature's 
 great evolutionary plan, and summon him to the task of 
 so exalting his own individuality that he may pass on into 
 the ranks of those I have described as playing a ministerial 
 part in the government of the world. He will not do this, 
 of course, by the concentration of faculties on the pheno- 
 mena of this one facet of many-sided Nature that we call 
 the physical plane. However ardent and intelligent that 
 concentration may be, such an exercise of faculty can 
 develop but one of the many potentialities of development 
 which lurk in the nature of the Man who must be more 
 than what we habitually mean by the phrase a man of 
 science, before he can win a place in the Divine kingdom. 
 Knowledge itself of the kind we chiefly deal with in this 
 life, may be a splendid stimulant to spiritual evolution, 
 out a diet consisting of stimulant entirely is not conducive 
 to health. We must study other laws of Nature besides 
 those that have to do with physics before we can utilise 
 and control the forces of the spiritual plane. Man does 
 
274 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 not live by bread alone; the soul is not exalted by know- 
 ledge alone (in the sense in which knowledge is limited 
 to the same natural plane as the bread). The man of 
 science who would claim the inheritance that Nature 
 has provided for him must appreciate her design before 
 he can be appointed to assist in working it out, and must 
 assimilate his aspirations to the spirit in which that design 
 is conceived. When he has done this, though not till 
 then, the Elder Brethren of humanity will be ready to 
 receive him into their midst. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 
 
 I HAVE already endeavoured to show what is the dis- 
 tinction between theosophic and religious teaching, 
 and why, though widely different in some respects, 
 they are not in any real sense antagonistic. A further 
 step along the same line of thought, leads us to the con- 
 clusion that till a recent period of the world's history, 
 theosophic and religious teaching went hand in hand 
 that one was the complement and crown of the other. 
 That the teachings of what used to be called Initiation in 
 the era of the Egyptian and Grecian Mysteries were closely 
 identified with what we now call Theosophy, is a con- 
 clusion that reveals itself with something approaching 
 certainty when the records that we possess, such as they 
 are, concerning the ancient Mysteries, are examined in 
 the light of now current expositions of theosophic 
 doctrine. Nor must we be misled in estimating the im- 
 portance of this fact by the easily suggested idea that the 
 Mystery teaching may have been superseded by the 
 Christian revelation-r-though all very well in its way, 
 while the world at large had to be content with heathen 
 polytheism. The Mystery teaching was not superseded by 
 the Christian revelation, for the author of that revelation 
 constantly alludes to it as embodying a higher instruction 
 than that offered to the multitude even by Him. 
 
 The supersession of esoteric teaching by that of modern 
 Christian doctrine was effected not by the original Teacher 
 or his disciples, but by the Church when that became a 
 State organisation with worldly interests to serve, and 
 arrogated to itself a spiritual despotism, by pretending to a 
 monopoly of spiritual knowledge. 
 
 275 
 
276 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 This pretence has been emphasised more and more in 
 modern centuries in inverse proportion to the spiritual 
 knowledge really possessed by the priesthood. And, 
 indeed, in looking back on the claims to superior spiritual 
 knowledge evidently advanced by the priesthood in early 
 ages of the world, we are apt to measure those claims by 
 reference to the painfully -familiar fact that priests in 
 modern centuries have not been at all remarkable for the 
 possession of knowledge in advance of their lay con- 
 temporaries. On the contrary, the early European Church 
 has been in the rear of intelligence in almost all respects, 
 and the claims of its hierarchy on the reverence of the 
 multitude have depended on appeals to a very crude super- 
 stition or on mundane tyranny. As our survey, however, 
 is pushed back further and further into the past, we get 
 well behind the records of an ignorant and worldly church 
 to periods at which the priesthood was evidently regarded 
 as actually invested with an insight into the mysteries of 
 Nature far transcending that generally diffused throughout 
 secular society. The priests of ancient Egypt were real 
 spiritual teachers, and the inferences of those who study 
 Egyptian antiquities by the light of modern inquiries into 
 occult science will surely tend in the direction of recognis- 
 ing them as endowed with the spiritual enlightenment that 
 carries with it an abnormal control over natural forces. 
 
 We do not know, or at all events we are not helped by 
 literary and archaeological research to know, very much 
 about the " Mysteries " and initiations of Ancient Egypt, 
 and Sir Gardner Wilkinson frankly concedes that our 
 only clue to their character and significance is to be sought 
 for in th somewhat fuller information we possess con- 
 cerning the Greek Mysteries of Eleusis, which were 
 evidently copied from Egyptian practices. But it is quite 
 
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 277 
 
 plain that Egyptian initiations were so serious in their 
 character hedged round from profane intrusion with such 
 jealous care, and approachable only through probations and 
 ordeals of so formidable a description that the outer world 
 must have been entirely sure of the broad principle that 
 the Hierophants of the temples were on a truly superior 
 level of knowledge and power, as compared with the mul- 
 titude. If they had been merely the exponents of a pom- 
 pous ecclesiastical ceremonial, candidates for their teaching 
 would not have besieged their strongholds with the eager- 
 ness actually shown, and would not have been prepared 
 to go through the trials they certainly underwent in their 
 efforts to secure admission to the charmed circle of 
 enlightenment. Even the Mysteries of Eleusis, which 
 were according to all reasonable conjecture a very 
 degenerate reproduction of the more ancient organisation 
 of Egypt, were open, as far as we know anything of their 
 details, to a highly philosophical interpretation. Thomas 
 Taylor, the indefatigable translator of so much Platonic 
 and Neo-Platonic literature, says in his own dissertation on 
 the Mysteries, that those of the " lesser " order " occultly 
 signified this sublime truth, that the soul being merged in 
 matter, resides among the dead both here and hereafter." 
 And quoting Plotinus, he adds, " The soul therefore dies 
 through vice as much as it is possible for the soul to die; 
 and the death of the soul is, while merged or baptised as 
 it were in the present body, to descend into matter and 
 be filled with its impurity, and after departing from this 
 body, to be absorbed in its filth till it returns to a superior 
 condition, and elevates its eye from the overwhelming 
 mire." 
 
 Later on, dealing with the subject of the greater 
 Mysteries, he says : " As the shows of the lesser mysteries 
 
278 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in sub- 
 jection to the body, so those of the greater obscurity inti- 
 mated by mystic and splendid visions the felicity of the 
 soul, both here and hereafter, when purified from the defile- 
 ments of a material nature and constantly elevated to the 
 realities of intellectual vision." 
 
 Dr. Warburton, who was Bishop of Gloucester in the 
 middle of the last century, is sometimes referred to as a 
 writer of authority on the ancient Mysteries; but his views 
 are too much entangled with conventional orthodoxy to 
 have any real value. He labours, indeed, to show that the 
 Mysteries were designed to teach the Unity of God, as 
 contrasted with the polytheism of popular theology in pre- 
 Christian ages. But Thomas Taylor loftily rebukes the 
 narrowness of this conception. After expanding the ideas 
 above indicated, he goes on : " From hence the reader will 
 easily perceive the extreme ridiculousness of Dr. War- 
 burton's system that the grand secret of the Mysteries 
 consisted in exposing the errors of polytheism, and in teach- 
 ing the doctrine of the Unity, or the existence of one 
 Deity alone. . . . But it is by no means wonderful 
 that men who have not the smallest conception of the true 
 nature of the gods, who have persuaded themselves that 
 they were only dead men deified, and who measure the 
 understandings of the ancients by their own, should be 
 led to fabricate a system so improbable and absurd." 
 
 As showing how very far the initiations went beyond 
 being a mere theoretical repudiation of popular error, 
 Taylor quotes two passages as follows. The first is from 
 Apuleius, who says, describing his own experiences in the 
 mysteries : " I approached the confines of death, and 
 treading on the threshold of Proserpine, and being carried 
 through all the elements, I came back to my pristine 
 
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 279 
 
 situation. In the depths of midnight I saw the sun glitter- 
 ing with a splendid light, together with the infernal and 
 supernal gods, and to these divinities approaching nearer 
 I paid the tribute of profound adoration." The second 
 passage is from Plato, who in the " Phaedrus " describes the 
 felicity of the virtuous soul, prior to its descent, in a beauti- 
 ful allusion to the arcane visions of the mysteries. He 
 writes : " But it was then lawful to survey the most 
 splendid beauty when we obtained, together with that 
 blessed choir, this happy vision and contemplation. . . . 
 And these Divine orgies were celebrated by us while we 
 possessed the proper integrity of our nature, and were 
 freed from the molestations of evil, which availed us in a 
 succeeding period of time. Likewise in consequence of 
 this Divine initiation we became spectators of entire 
 simple, immovable, and blessed visions, resident in a pure 
 light, and were ourselves pure and immaculate and 
 liberated from this surrounding vestment which we 
 denominate body, and to which we are now bound like an 
 oyster to its shell." 
 
 The Mysteries of Bacchus were held by Taylor to be 
 of somewhat limited significance compared with those of 
 Eleusis. 
 
 " And thus much for the Mysteries of Bacchus, which 
 as well as those of Ceres relate in one part to the descent 
 of a partial intellect into matter, and its condition while 
 united with the dark tenement of body; but there appears 
 to be this difference between the two that in the fable 
 of Ceres and Proserpine the descent of the whole rational 
 soul is considered, and in that of Bacchus the distribution 
 and procession of that supreme part alone of our nature, 
 which we properly characterise by the appellation of 
 intellect. In the composition of each we may discern the 
 
280 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 same traces of exalted wisdom and recondite theology 
 of a theology the most venerable of all others for its 
 antiquity, and the most admirable for its excellence and 
 reality." 
 
 What we may also perceive from the evidence afforded 
 by such passages as those quoted from Apuleius and Plato, 
 is that the Mysteries were associated with the exercise of 
 what we should now call psychic powers and faculties. 
 And with this clue, aided by the growing knowledge in 
 modern times of the extent and range that may be assigned 
 to such faculties, we may begin to appreciate the whole 
 situation more intelligently than has been possible till now. 
 
 From the Egyptian period downward, and in a greater 
 degree in the Egyptian as compared with the Greek period, 
 the Mysteries and initiations connected with them were 
 systems of teaching and graduation in that occult science 
 which has been built up through the ages by the prolonged 
 exercise of psychic faculties that are still available for those 
 who know how to employ them as a means of verifying 
 the knowledge thus accumulated in the world. To a very 
 large extent during the development of modern civilisation 
 those faculties have been stifled and forgotten in the 
 activity imparted to others of a purely physical character; 
 but now in all directions even Western civilised nations 
 are fermenting with a revival of psychic activity. Much 
 of this energy is blindly and ignorantly misdirected, but 
 it is working in all its manifestations to break down the 
 dogged materialistic incredulity that has been in a supreme 
 degree the discreditable characteristic of the last half 
 century. That incredulity has pervaded secular science, 
 giving its avowed agnosticism an almost atheistic bias 
 and has dried up the life-blood of religion, leaving the 
 churches a structure of dry bones for all but enthusiasts, 
 
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 281 
 
 whose instincts of piety have adorned them with poetic 
 rather than spiritual attributes. Rituals may be preserved, 
 but the creeds on which they profess to rest are no longer 
 in touch with methods of spiritual research which might 
 invest their priestly guardians with authority to utter 
 them. They are handed down now from generation to 
 generation with a bigoted tenacity that is all the more 
 querulous because it is conscious of its own inability to- 
 trace them back to their supposed sources in the invisible 
 realms of Nature. A clergy rich in professions but poor 
 in faith joins hands with scientific materialism to dis- 
 countenance the theory that embodied human conscious- 
 ness can have any touch with the spiritual world. A 
 withered theology preserved like the petals of dried flowers 
 may, it no doubt feels, do better service to a church with a 
 complicated sociological structure to take care of, than i 
 progressive and vitalised scheme of spiritual investigation. 
 
 Neither clerical interests nor materialism, however, can 
 hold their own against the growing conviction that the 
 human race is in possession of faculties capable of piercing 
 the veil of matter. Once recognising this as a permanent 
 fact in Nature, we are relieved from the necessity of trying 
 to escape, by fantastic conjectures, from the plain evidence 
 of contemporary writers that the Mysteries of Greece, and, 
 a fortiori, those of Egypt, were associated with a psychic 
 revelation for those who were initiated. 
 
 This point is well sustained by a Russian writer, 
 Ouvaroff, whose treatise on the Eleusinian Mysteries has 
 been translated into English by J. D. Price (1817). 
 
 The first edition of the original was published in 1812. 
 In his preface the author says : 
 
 " My object in this work is to show that not only were 
 the ancient mysteries the very life of polytheism, but 
 
282 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 still more that they proceeded from the sole and true 
 source of all the light diffused over the globe." 
 
 He traces the Mysteries to an Indian origin, relying 
 on the identity of the words Kov, 'O/z, IIa = Conx, 
 Om, Pax, used at the conclusion of the Mysteries of 
 Eleusis, with the Sanscrit Cansha, Om, Pacsha, the first 
 word signifying " object of desire," the second being the 
 familiar sacred syllable of the East, and the third, Pachsha, 
 identical with the Latin vix change, course, or turn of 
 duty. 
 
 After describing the division of the Mysteries into lesser 
 and greater, he goes on : 
 
 " We must again acknowledge the impossibility of deter- 
 mining with precision the notions which the Epopts (the 
 initiatees of the greater Mysteries) received; but that con- 
 nection which we have ascertained between the initiations 
 and the true source of all our knowledge suffices to prove 
 that they hot only acquired from them just notions respect- 
 ing the Divinity the relations between man and the 
 Divinity the primitive dignity of human nature its fall 
 the immortality of the soul the means of its return 
 towards God, and finally another order of things after 
 death, but that traditions were imparted to them, oral and 
 even written, precious remains of the great shipwreck of 
 humanity." 
 
 He also contends with great force : 
 
 " It is not in fact probable that the superior initiation 
 was limited to the demonstration of the Unity of God 
 and the immortality of the soul by philosophical argu- 
 ments. Clement of Alexandria expressly says, when 
 speaking of trie great Mysteries, ' Here ends all instruc- 
 tion; we behold Nature and things.' Besides, moral 
 notions were so widely diffused that the Mysteries could 
 
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 283 
 
 not, merely on account of them, lay claim to the magni- 
 ficent eulogiums bestowed by the most enlightened per- 
 sonages of antiquity. For if we suppose that the revelation 
 of those truths had been the only object of the Mysteries, 
 would they not have ceased to exist from the moment 
 when those truths were publicly taught ? Would Pindar, 
 Plato, Cicero, Epictetus have spoken of them with such 
 admiration if the Hierophant had satisfied himself with 
 loudly proclaiming his own opinions, or those of his order, 
 on truths with which they were themselves acquainted ? v 
 
 It is often urged by writers who would disparage the 
 Mysteries that they were sometimes associated with 
 licentious excesses. This objection has especial reference 
 to the Orphic Mysteries, and on this subject Ouvaroff 
 writes : 
 
 " We have already mentioned that the Mysteries of 
 Bacchus bear a character altogether different from that 
 of the Eleusinian. This opposition strikes us at once, 
 and what conformity could in fact subsist between the 
 savage licentiousness of the Bacchus worship and the 
 severe character and high destination of the worship of 
 Ceres ? Yet after a serious examination we find that this 
 opposition consists rather in the exterior than in the spirit 
 of the two worships; nay, it entirely disappears when we 
 raise ourselves to the parent idea, the true type of the two 
 institutions. If we do not obstinately persuade ourselves 
 that Ceres and Bacchus were historical personages if we 
 consider them as originally two symbols of some power 
 of the universe, we behold them so identified that no other 
 difference exists but in the exterior form, that is in the 
 part depending wholly on men, on local circumstances, 
 and the political destinies of nations. The worship of 
 Ceres and the worship of Bacchus must belong to one 
 
284 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 principle alone, and this principle is found in the active 
 force of Nature, viewed in the immense variety of its 
 functions and its attributes." 
 
 A dignified treatise on the Mysteries, by W. M. 
 Ramsay, is to be found in the ninth edition of the 
 " Encyclopaedia Britannica." The author begins, it is 
 true, by speaking with respect of Lobeck's great work, 
 the " Aglaophamus " (1829), in which that author 
 endeavours to destroy the theory that the Mysteries 
 u enshrined a primitive revelation of divine truth," but 
 he recognises the weakness of some of Lobeck's argu- 
 ments, and especially points out that additional evidence has 
 been accumulated since his time, " making it certain that 
 statements which Lobeck set aside as not referring to the 
 Eleusinian religion do really relate to it." 
 
 The article is to be regarded as representing the severely 
 erudite view of the subject brought up to date, and it is 
 in no way inspired with any appreciation of the psychic 
 aspect of the Mysteries. But all the more on that account 
 it may be useful as showing how much serious dignity and 
 grandeur of thought is seen to be associated with them. 
 Mr. Ramsay writes : 
 
 " The saving and healthy effect of the Eleusinian 
 Mysteries was believed in not only by the mass of the 
 people but by many of the most thoughtful and educated 
 intellects Pindar, Sophocles, Socrates, Plutarch, &c. 
 Plato, who finds no language too strong to stigmatise the 
 demoralising effect of the Orphic Mysteries, speaks of 
 the Eleusinian with great respect. ... He that has 
 been initiated has learned what will ensure his happiness 
 hereafter. . . . According to Sopater, initiation 
 establishes a kinship of the soul with the divine Nature; 
 and Theon Smyrnaeus says that the final stage of initia- 
 
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 285 
 
 tion is the state of bliss and Divine favour which results 
 from it. . . . There is overwhelming proof in 
 ancient writers that the effect of the Mysteries was not 
 dependent on any dogmatic instruction. Even the doctrine 
 of a future life, which is always associated in the old 
 writers with the Mysteries, was not expressly inculcated in 
 them, but left to the spectators to gather for themselves 
 from the spectacle presented to them." 
 
 The serious view of the Mysteries suggested by all these 
 quotations brings them into line with what we now call 
 theosophic teaching, and with the help of that teaching 
 we can fill up all gaps in the explanation. In the ancient 
 world the priests were really qualified to impart religious 
 teaching by .reason of being themselves in true psychic 
 relation with fountains of superior wisdom. But the state 
 of evolution of the humanity around them made it im- 
 possible for them to proclaim their knowledge to the 
 multitude. The spiritual civilisation of the people at large 
 was not such as would have prepared them to accept and 
 profit by the pure ethical severity of occult wisdom. 
 
 In saying that I brush the surface of a problem that 
 might be dealt with more fully, but it is enough for the 
 moment to indicate the motives for reserve which are easily 
 intelligible as actuating the ancient custodians of spiritual 
 science. By the operation of natural laws that are plainly 
 referred to in many biblical passages not always appre- 
 hended correctly, knowledge concerning the possibilities 
 of spiritual progress greatly augments responsibility. A 
 human being who has never been enabled or compelled to 
 realise that he has it in his own power, if he lives a suffi- 
 ciently ennobled life, to rise in the scale of existence 
 to conditions superior to that of the commonplace human 
 life around him, does not incur great moral responsibility 
 
286 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 in leading a less noble life. If he does wrong, natural laws 
 will entail suffering upon him, if not in the life in which 
 he sins, then in another; if he does right, he will be 
 rewarded sooner or later with happiness; and this will 
 happen whether he understands the law or not. But if 
 in any way he acquires spiritual knowledge and appreciates 
 the scope of his opportunties as a human being and the law 
 which renders certain lines of conduct favourable to, and 
 certain other lines antagonistic to his higher development, 
 then if he follows the lower path while really seeing the 
 higher, it is much worse for him than if he had never seen 
 it. So the wise priests of old in the days when priests 
 were really wise and studied the mysteries of Nature 
 instead of fantastic rituals forebore from* pouring out 
 their knowledge too recklessly into vessels ill-qualified to 
 contain it. Modern objectors often fail to understand the 
 motive of their reticence, unfamiliar with the notion that 
 religion can be a more powerful agency than we find it 
 now. Our churches have forgotten all that religion once 
 represented, except the glittering generalities that may 
 lightly be scattered abroad because they tell so little. 
 Those who believe may be the better, and those who do 
 not, but may still assimilate some morsels of good precept, 
 can hardly be the worse. The Masters of the Mysteries 
 had a different kind of teaching to deal with. They had 
 to put those who were qualified on the path of upward 
 spiritual progress. It is the main purpose of this book to 
 try and explain to what that progress may lead, but at all 
 events if it is merely taken for granted that it may lead 
 to something, then the otherwise unintelligible secrecy of 
 the Mysteries will be seen to have had a comprehensible 
 theory. 
 
 In Egypt where most occult students will see reason 
 
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 287 
 
 to believe that the Mysteries meant more than in the 
 Grecian reproduction their secrets seem to have been 
 even more closely kept. Sir Gardner, who has so patiently 
 elaborated every scrap of evidence that could throw light 
 on the manners and social and* religious life of the early 
 Egyptians, is very frank in avowing the great difficulty he 
 experiences in working out any information bearing on the 
 secrets of initiation. He bears his testimony, however, to 
 the earnestness of the current feeling on the subject. 
 
 ; ' The chief cause of the ascendancy they (the priests) 
 acquired over the minds of the people was the import- 
 ance attached to the Mysteries, to a thorough understand- 
 ing of which the priests alone could arrive, and so sacred 
 did they hold those secrets that many members of the 
 sacerdotal order were not admitted to a participation of 
 them, and those alone were selected for initiation who had 
 proved themselves virtuous and deserving of the honour 
 a fact satisfactorily proved by the evidence of Clement 
 of Alexandria, who says : ' The Egyptians neither en- 
 trusted their secrets to everyone nor degraded the secrets of 
 Divine matters by disclosing them to the profane, reserv- 
 ing them for the heir-apparent to the throne and for such 
 of the priests as excelled in virtue and wisdom.' 
 
 " From all we can learn of the subject it appears that 
 the Mysteries consisted of degrees denominated the Greater 
 and the Less, and in order to become qualified for admission 
 into the higher class it was necessary to have passed through 
 those of the inferior degrees, and each of them was prob- 
 ably divided into ten different grades. It was necessary 
 that the character of the candidate for initiation should be 
 pure and unsullied; and the novices were commanded to 
 study those lessons which tended to purify the mind and 
 to encourage morality. The honour of ascending from 
 
288 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the less to the greater Mysteries was as highly esteemed 
 as it was difficult to obtain. No ordinary qualification 
 recommended the aspirant to this important privilege; and 
 independent of enjoying an acknowledged reputation for 
 learning and morality, he was required to undergo the most 
 severe ordeal and to show the greatest moral resignation; 
 but the ceremony of passing under the knife of the Hiero- 
 phant was merely emblematic of the regeneration of the 
 neophyte. 
 
 " That no one except the priests was privileged to in- 
 struction into the greater Mysteries is evident from the 
 fact that a prince, even the heir-apparent and of the 
 military order, was not made partaker of these important 
 secrets nor instructed in them until his accession to the 
 throne, when in virtue of his kingly office he became ;i 
 member of the priesthood and the head of the religion. 
 It is not, however, less certain that at a later period many 
 besides the priests, and even some Greeks, were admitted 
 into the lesser Mysteries; yet in these cases also their 
 advancement through the different grades must have 
 depended on a strict conformance to prescribed rules." 
 
 The law which prescribed reticence in respect to exalted 
 spiritual science in ancient times was fortified in the Middle 
 Ages by an entirely new consideration. As the exoteric 
 Christian Church grew into a more and more powerful 
 engine of secular tyranny, the teacher who might too 
 rashly proclaim the higher wisdom embodied in the secrets 
 of initiation ran the risk not only of unduly augmenting 
 the moral reponsibility of those who might listen to him, 
 but of being burned himself at the stake. With this peril 
 in their way, it is not surprising that the mediaeval occul- 
 tists were careful in the extreme to veil any statements 
 they ventured to make in the disguise of an almost impene- 
 
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES 289 
 
 trable symbolism. But, again, with the light of modern 
 theosophic teaching to show us the solution of their 
 riddle, we may easily recognise the philosophy of the 
 ancient Mysteries reappearing in that of the much-talked- 
 of and much-misunderstood fraternity of the Rosicrucians. 
 
 20 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 STUDENTS of esoteric wisdom are familiar with 
 the assertion that the principles of spiritual evolu- 
 tion, which it is their chief purpose to penetrate and 
 comprehend, have been recognised by the illuminated 
 mystics of all countries in all ages of the world. The 
 great science which these principles constitute has not 
 been the invention of modern Theosophists; nor has it 
 been the peculiar inheritance of any small body of Adepts, 
 jealously kept back from the wider circle of philosophers 
 at large. The manner in which a sudden outburst of in- 
 formation relating to the natural laws embraced by occult 
 science seems to have been thrown forward into modern 
 thought within the last few years, is calculated to suggest 
 that idea at first, but the more we come to understand 
 occult teachings, the more we are able to discern them 
 cropping out at the surface of earlier philosophical and 
 religious literature, disguised in one kind of symbolism or 
 another, but evidently the same knowledge as regards the 
 root ideas and the inner significance of the words in which 
 they are expressed. 
 
 A good deal has already been written though still 
 probably a good deal more might be written with advan- 
 tage to show the identity of gnostic Christianity with 
 all points of esoteric science on which that presentation 
 of the truth laid stress. And the manner in which the con- 
 ceptions of gnostic Christianity were obscured by the 
 harsher and narrower dogmas which it became the interest 
 of state churches to endorse, is in itself an interesting study, 
 throwing much light on the processes of degradation to 
 which popular religious beliefs are subject. But in pro- 
 
 290 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 291 
 
 portion as Christian esotericism became obscured by the 
 development of the power of the Church in the Middle 
 Ages, and perhaps because of that process of obscuration, 
 the essential doctrines, which no persecution could shut 
 out from the appreciation of enlightened minds, sought 
 other channels of expression. In these they altogether 
 withdrew themselves from popular observation. The 
 genuine philosophy of religion separating itself entirely 
 from the debased caricature assumed a disguise which was 
 really impenetrable by all but the initiated few, which 
 the Church itself was no less incapable of seeing through 
 than the ignorant laity. This disguise was the much mis- 
 understood research, science, or theory known as Alchemy, 
 of which some of the Rosicrucian writers were leading ex- 
 ponents. Ignorantly derided to this day by a materialistic 
 generation, that persists in falling again and again into the 
 mistake of reading symbolical expositions of interior truth 
 in their mere literal sense, alchemy was, nevertheless, the 
 cryptographic expression of a profound spiritual wisdom. 
 
 This view of the subject is not a conjectural theory 
 developed to suit any assumed necessity of finding esoteric 
 teaching somewhere in the literature of the Middle Ages, 
 but one which is as certainly the correct view as the inter- 
 pretation of an ordinary cryptogram is certainly the correct 
 one when it makes sense. For example, if we see an 
 apparently meaningless assemblage of groups of letters in 
 one of the mysterious advertisements, by means of which 
 some people, who find that system amusing, correspond 
 with one another, and if we find that by reading b for a 
 all through, and c for b, and so on, the message translates 
 itself into straightforward English, we know with entire 
 certainty that the original framer of the cryptogram had 
 that intention in his mind. So with the seemingly 
 
 20* 
 
292 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 nonsensical symbology of alchemy, when you try the right 
 key in the attempt to unlock its meaning, it all resolves 
 itself into perfectly coherent sense. We have now got 
 the right key in the shape of that plain information given 
 to the world at large of recent years in theosophical teach- 
 ings. The mist clears away from the otherwise hopelessly 
 obscure verbiage of the alchemical books, as we read them 
 with minds attuned to esoteric thinking and on the watch 
 for meanings relating not to the physical transmutation of 
 lead or antimony into gold, but to the process of cultivat- 
 ing the growth of the Higher Self, by the exaltation of 
 the lower, which is occult progress. The transmutation, 
 in fact, of the normal physical consciousness of man into 
 the divine consciousness was the magnum opus on which 
 the true alchemists were engaged, and much that is 
 grotesque imbecility in the directions and recipes they 
 have left behind, if we read it simply as nineteenth-century 
 chemists, becomes beautiful spiritual philosophy in strictest 
 harmony with the laws governing human spiritual evolu- 
 tion, when we put a symbolical construction on the 
 quaintly expressed formulae relating to coctions and dis- 
 tillations and the mercury of the wise and fiery waters 
 -and ferments. 
 
 It will be easy to take from alchemical books a sufficient 
 number of extracts to show that the writers evidently had 
 a spiritual meaning in their minds as they wrote; it will 
 T^e equally simple to indicate lines of reading which will 
 enable anybody who likes to take the trouble to arrive at 
 a thorough and exhaustive certainty on the subject, that 
 will never again be disturbed by the silly sneers at alchemy 
 so often met with in the pseudo-scientific literature of nine- 
 teenth-century conceit. But before going on to make and 
 elucidate a few quotations that may open up and define 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 293 
 
 the proper method of the investigation it will be well to 
 show in broad outline the indirect consequences of the 
 discovery we are dealing with. 
 
 That which has been said so far is the main truth con- 
 cerning alchemy. The real alchemists were spiritual 
 philosophers concerned with the all-important task of 
 developing the Divine possibilities of their latent human 
 nature. They were students of true religion in the highest 
 sense of the term men whose intelligence had emanci- 
 pated them from the more or less fantastic creeds of the 
 exoteric Church, but who sought to go behind the blunders 
 of a self-seeking, worldly-minded priesthood, and associate 
 themselves with the will of God, in the best sense of that 
 expression : that is to say, to identify themselves with the 
 purpose of Nature, with the law of spiritual evolution, 
 with the principle of good in the universe. When the 
 priests and officers of what was blasphemously proclaimed 
 as religion were chiefly concerned with murdering, rob- 
 bing, and torturing all who stood in the way of their profit- 
 able tyranny over popular belief, the alchemists were 
 endeavouring to learn how by self-denial and purity of 
 life, and loftiness of unworldly purpose, it might be possible 
 to elevate that human nature, which for the most part 
 wallowed around them in such ignoble debasement, and 
 were struggling in their own way, which hardly seems to 
 have differed in any essential characteristics from our way, 
 to get upon what we call the path of occult progress, lead- 
 ing on to the goal or perhaps only the intermediate goal 
 of Adeptship. But why, it may be asked, did they write 
 books at all if the unfavourable conditions among which 
 they lived were such as to make it impossible for them to 
 write in a way anyone less wise than themselves would 
 understand r If they had taught their doctrine of salvation 
 
294 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 plainly they, and their books with them, would instantly 
 have been burned by the authority of the Church. Was it 
 worth while, then, to teach these doctrines in language 
 that could not reach the intelligence of anyone requiring 
 the lesson ? 
 
 The apparent reply to this question is twofold. First, 
 they who know what they meant seem to have imagined 
 that their meaning would become intelligible to persons 
 spiritually ripe for profiting by occult teaching. Whether 
 this expectation was often or ever realised we cannot now 
 be sure. But secondly, it would be easy to see why the 
 true alchemists should write, even if they did not expect 
 to be understood by anyone in need of teaching. They 
 may have written to introduce themselves to one another. 
 Anybody who could write a book about alchemy, about 
 the manipulation of lead, sulphur, and mercury, the red 
 and white powder of projection, and so on with all the 
 " gibberish " that would be used about crucibles and sub- 
 limations, about coagulating the fugitive tinctures, and so 
 on, and who could at the same time weave into this the 
 esoteric doctrine concerning the path of occult progress, 
 which we in this day are privileged to discuss openly, 
 would be recognised as a genuine occultist by any other 
 occultist who might take up his treatise. 
 
 Bearing all this in mind, however, we must remember 
 that besides the genuine occultists who wrote on spiritual 
 progress under cover of alchemical symbology, a great 
 host of sordid hunters for gold, altogether failing to under- 
 stand the loftier purpose of real alchemy, took up the 
 research in the hope of acquiring riches, and of actually 
 manufacturing the precious metal. The real alchemists 
 were constantly giving out warnings against this mistake 
 in language as plain as it could be made compatibly with 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 295 
 
 not betraying their secret in unequivocal terms, but none 
 the less was the avaricious world always fermenting with 
 the notion that alchemical processes might be a short and 
 easy road to wealth. In this way a great many persons, 
 entirely outside the range of the description already given 
 of the real alchemists all through the Middle Ages, spent 
 time and money on trying experiments with physical mer- 
 cury, salt, and sulphur, and all the chemical drugs and 
 preparations they could get knowledge of, with the manu- 
 facture of tangible gold as their object and disappointment 
 their only harvest. Some of these may have written some 
 of the innumerable alchemical treatises which exist, record- 
 ing the experiments they may have carried out, and setting 
 forth their own conjectures as to the reason why such 
 experiments may have failed; and such deluded and dis- 
 appointed searchers after the philosopher's stone may here 
 and there have stumbled on bits -of chemical discovery so 
 far vindicating the profoundly stupid view of alchemy at 
 large, common to modern encyclopaedias and conventional 
 belief. This idea, of course, is that from A to Z all the 
 alchemists were self-deluded gold hunters who failed to 
 accomplish their object, ex necessitate rei, but in their 
 futile struggles after it, laid the foundations of modern 
 chemistry. They really did immeasurably less in that 
 direction than they have been credited with; but the 
 modern commentators who are foolish enough to suppose 
 that a long procession of learned men, whose writings 
 abundantly prove them in many cases alchemy apart 
 to have been broad-minded, philosophical, and intelligent, 
 were all the victims of an empty, avaricious dream, afford 
 in themselves the saddest spectacle of self-delusion that the 
 history of alchemy brings to light. 
 
 Before we come to closer quarters with the alchemical 
 
296 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 books themselves one more general conclusion on the 
 subject may conveniently be set forth. Leaving out of 
 account the host of alchemical chemists the deluded 
 experimentalists who sought the philosopher's stone on the 
 physical plane in order to get precious metal by its means 
 and grow rich and concentrating our attention entirely 
 on the real alchemical philosophers who were on the 
 path of spiritual progress and concerned with far higher 
 objects than the transitory experiences of this life can 
 afford, we have to consider by the light of what we now 
 know concerning occult mysteries what would naturally 
 have been, for the real alchemist, the consequence of dis- 
 covering the real philosopher's stone the secret, that is 
 to say, of real spiritual attainment. Remember that while 
 esoteric progress rests, as on a primary foundation, on the 
 ethical principles which are taught, though often sadly 
 mistaught, by exoteric religions also, it contemplates a very 
 much larger result than the attainment of an unintelli- 
 gent spiritual beatitude. Exoteric religion says, in effect, 
 be good and devout on earth, then you will be taken to 
 Heaven and be happy evermore. Esoteric teaching says, 
 be good and devout to begin with, to put yourself in tune 
 with the higher planes of Nature, and then aim at the ex- 
 pansion of your knowledge faculties and states of con- 
 sciousness in accordance with the latent possibilities of the 
 Divine principle within you. The world contains a 
 kingdom of beings, so to speak, above the human 
 kingdom, into which men may rise if they set to work 
 to climb in the right way. Now the real alchemists were 
 aspirants for " Adeptship," as we should express the idea 
 in modern theosophic language, and it is quite obvious in 
 various ways to the student of occultism that some of 
 them attained that condition of being. But if any of 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 297 
 
 them were Adepts, then such persons would, by the 
 assumption, have acquired powers over the obscurer laws 
 of Nature, and knowledge concerning the forces lying 
 beyond the physical plane, which would amongst other 
 results have invested them with the power of influencing 
 matter in a way that is entirely beyond the capacity of the 
 physical-plane chemist. Occult phenomena have taken 
 place of recent years, within the knowledge not merely of 
 some theosophical students, but also in great abundance 
 in presence of spiritualistic wonder-seekers. Many of 
 these are not less bewilderingly unintelligible than the 
 transmutation of one metal into another would be. Apart 
 from all questions of evidence, therefore, any occult 
 student would recognise that the transmutation of one 
 metal into another would be most likely well within the 
 range of the occult phenomena, that anyone who could at 
 all be called an Adept, would be able to produce. 
 
 This reflection leads us up to the correct appreciation 
 of one surprising discovery to which anybody who takes 
 the trouble will be led by the study of alchemical litera- 
 ture. The evidence to show that certain of the alchemists 
 really did accomplish the much-talked-of physical experi- 
 ment and turn out metallic tangible gold, that could be 
 coined into money in considerable quantities is simply 
 overwhelming. Modern obstinacy and prejudice in deal- 
 ing with the subject of alchemy ignores this evidence, and 
 all branches of the history of the alchemists which tell 
 unfavourably on its own pig-headed and self-sufficient 
 view, but with as much confidence as we can speak of 
 any historical transaction, we may say that Nicholas Flam- 
 mel and Raymond Lully among others actually accom- 
 plished the physical transmutation. 
 
 Were they, it may be asked, as a consequence of their 
 
298 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 extraordinary power, people of great wealth and magnifi- 
 cent living? Not at all. Flammel certainly gave away 
 enormous sums for the building and endowment of 
 churches, and Lully supplied Edward II. with great quan- 
 tities of gold to be spent on the Crusades; but it invariably 
 appears that the Adept who could make gold, has been 
 himself far too spiritualised a philosopher to live a mundane 
 life of luxury or profusion. That ought to be readily 
 comprehended, and the objection that alleged real 
 alchemists sometimes lived in obscurity and apparent 
 poverty, as an objection to the theory of their power, is 
 no less vulgar-minded and gross than it is unintelligent. 
 Moreover the alchemists, whether real Adepts or fraudu- 
 lent pretenders, were subject to very embarassing treatment 
 by the generations among which they lived always liable 
 to be imprisoned and tortured to extort confessions of their 
 secret. One of the true philosophers of alchemy, 
 Alexander Sethon, author of a remarkable treatise called 
 " An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King," 
 writes : " As if driven by the furies, I am compelled to fly 
 from place to place and from kingdom to kingdom. 
 And thus though I possess all things I have no 
 rest or enjoyment of any except in the truth which is my 
 whole satisfaction. . . . I am constrained even from 
 the works of mercy, for fear of suspicion and arrest. I 
 have experienced this in foreign countries where, having 
 ventured to administer the medicine to sufferers given over 
 by physicians, the instant the cures became known, a 
 report was spread about the elixir, and I have been obliged 
 to disguise myself, shave my head, and change my name, 
 to avoid falling into the hands of wicked persons, who 
 would try to wrest the secret from me in the hopes of 
 making gold." The history of the persecution of the 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 299 
 
 alchemists, in spite of the precautions they took to avoid 
 confronting the hostility of the Church, would take long 
 to tell; but for the moment I am concerned with sketching 
 the whole position in its general bearings, and will 
 presently refer the reader to books in which the broad 
 statements here put forward can be followed out in their 
 details. 
 
 The common herd of materialistic critics have supposed 
 that if the alchemists had been really successful, their 
 secret would have been extorted from them, considering 
 the treatment many of them received, and the modern 
 tendency of thought has always been to disbelieve in the 
 existence of any secret that is not disclosed. But already 
 our partial familiarity with the conditions of occult know- 
 ledge gives us the clue to the mystery. When the first 
 step to be taken towards acquiring the power to transmute 
 lead into gold, was to transmute one's human into a semi- 
 divine nature, it was obvious that the mere avaricious gold- 
 seeker would be unable to take it, unable, probably, to 
 understand the idea, or to look upon such an explanation 
 as other than a device for baulking his curiosity. A com- 
 prehension, in short, of the elementary principles of occult 
 science at once illuminates all the otherwise insoluble 
 riddles of the alchemical problem. 
 
 But why was the dangerous system of symbology, 
 which concerned itself with gold and silver, adopted by 
 the alchemists at all, if they were really spiritual philo- 
 sophers ? Was not this directly calculated to stir up the 
 greedy passions of ordinary people and confront them with 
 perils as serious, in another way, as those of the Inquisition 
 which they sought to evade ? The answer is, that they did 
 not invent, but found the system of symbology in use from 
 a period of antiquity long preceding the era of Roman 
 
300 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Christianity and its persecuting priests. The alchemical 
 version of spiritual philosophy dates back to the period of 
 Hermes Trismegistus, by some authors considered a 
 fabulous personage, by some an Adept king of Egypt, who 
 lived nearly 2,000 years before the Christian era. At all 
 events the writings assigned to him are of great antiquity,, 
 and constitute the fountain-head of that Hermetic philo- 
 sophy which in the Middle Ages becomes almost entirely 
 merged in its alchemical developments, but which in very 
 recent years, since the Theosophical Movement has been 
 in progress, has presented especial attractions to some 
 inquiring minds as constituting a relatively Western stream 
 of occult wisdom. And at all events, until very recent 
 years, the Hermetic mystery summed up occult wisdom 
 for all European inquirers, and its methods, its systems of 
 exposition, were the only methods and systems available 
 for them. 
 
 Further than this we have always to keep in view 
 the fact that the alchemical symbology must have been 
 especially attractive to many of the mediaeval students, 
 because they were aware of its double significance. In the 
 literal sense it referred to the possibility of an occult pheno- 
 menon, profoundly interesting, of course, to every student 
 of Nature's obscurer mysteries, all the while that it equally 
 described the sublime spiritual change from the lower 
 human to the higher human or divine nature. 
 
 I pass on now to jnake some quotations from alchemical 
 writings in support of the first position here taken up, that 
 the alchemical philosophers had a transcendental purpose 
 in view. Many of them, indeed, express this so plainly,, 
 that it is difficult to understand how their main purpose 
 could have been misconstrued. 
 
 In " A New Light of Alchemy," ascribed to Michael 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 301 
 
 Sendivogius, the author in his preface speaks of the many 
 " adulterated books and false receipts " put forward by 
 impostors, and of the " idle and ill-employed fellows who 
 pretend that the soul may be extracted out of gold." Then 
 he goes on : 
 
 " Yet let the sons of Hermes know for certain that 
 such a kind of extraction of soul by what vulgar way of 
 alchemy soever is but a mere fancy. On the contrary 
 he which in a philosophic way can without any fraud and 
 colourable deceit make it that it shall really tinge the basest 
 metal with the colour of gold ... I can justly 
 aver hath the gates of Nature open to him for the inquir- 
 ing into further and higher secrets, and with the blessing 
 of God to obtain them. ... I would have the 
 courteous reader be here admonished that he understand 
 my writings not so much from the outside of my words 
 as from the possibility of Nature lest afterwards he bewail 
 his time, pains, and costs all spent in vain. Let him con- 
 sider that his art is for the wise, not for the ignorant, and 
 that the sense or meaning of philosophers is of another 
 nature than to be understood by vapouring letter-learned 
 scoffers. . . . For it is the gift of God, and truly it is 
 not to be attained to but by the alone favour of God en- 
 lightening the understanding, together with a patient and 
 devout humility, or by an ocular demonstration from some 
 experienced master wherefore God justly thrusts them 
 far from his secrets that are strangers to him." 
 
 From the text of the book I will take one easily inter- 
 preted passage in which the alchemical symbology is 
 employed. 
 
 " Sulphur " clearly employed here to symbolise the 
 conscience of Man " is not the last among the principles 
 because it is a part of the metal " Man himself " yea, 
 
302 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 and the principal part of the philosopher's stone, and many 
 wise men have left in writing divers and very true things 
 of sulphur. Yea, Geber himself in his first book of the 
 highest perfection saith : ' Through the most high God 
 it illuminates every body, because it is light from light and 
 tincture.' ' 
 
 It should be explained that directly we begin to read 
 the alchemists we discover that they have no invariable 
 and recognised code by which we can always recognise 
 the same idea under the same symbol. The spirit of God 
 manifesting as conscience in Man is sometimes spoken of 
 as sulphur, sometimes as mercury. The normal un- 
 regenerate Man the subject of the art and the object 
 of the transmutation is sometimes spoken of as lead, 
 sometimes as antimony, or even as other of the baser 
 metals, and with an anxious desire to guard all who were 
 capable of appreciating an esoteric meaning the alchemists 
 constantly warn their readers that " our " mercury and 
 " our " sulphur are not the common mercury and sulphur. 
 Then, again, the subject of the transmutation is sometimes 
 written of as " Saturn," and astrological terms are 
 employed to designate some of the other ideas handled 
 Sol, Luna, and Venus. Each writer is a law unto himself 
 in such matters. 
 
 Sometimes, moreover, without any formal announce- 
 ment that would be intelligible to the " ignorant " reader, 
 the alchemists drop their symbols altogether, and as though 
 making incidental remarks concerning the nature of the 
 " artist " or seeker after the stone, discuss some of their 
 deepest mysteries in plain language only guarded from 
 the comprehension of the unworthy by not seeming to 
 refer to their subject at all. Thus, in the " New Light of 
 Alchemy," we read : 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 303 
 
 " Let, therefore, the searcher of this sacred science 
 know that the soul in a man, the lesser world or micro- 
 cosm substituting the place of its centre, is the king and is 
 placed in the vital spirit in the purest blood. That governs 
 the mind, and the mind the body. . . . Now the 
 soul, by which man differs from other animals, operates 
 in the body, but it hath a greater operation out of the 
 body. ... So also God, the Maker of all things, 
 works in this world those things which are necessary for 
 the world, and in these he is included in^the world, whence 
 we believe that God is everywhere. But he is excluded 
 from the body of the world by his infinite wisdom, by 
 which he works out of the world and imagines much 
 higher things. . . . The soul imagines, but executes 
 not but in the mind, but God does effect all things the 
 same moment when he imagines them. . . . God, 
 therefore, is not included in the world, but as the soul in 
 the body. He hath his absolute power separated from the 
 world. So also the soul of any body hath its absolute 
 power separated from the body." 
 
 The writer of this passage evidently knew a good deal 
 about the higher psychic phenomena now engaging the 
 attention of the most advanced modern occultists. And 
 his view of creation of the material world as a mani- 
 festation of spirit on the physical plane is on a level with 
 the most profound theosophical conceptions. It is amusing 
 to contrast such philosophical ideas with the gross cari- 
 catures thereof presented to the world as religion by the 
 churches of that day, and to reflect upon the fact that to 
 this day almost all representatives of modern culture, 
 except those illuminated by occult teaching, would treat 
 the theologian, even of the Middle Ages, with comparative 
 respect, and the alchemist as a crazy fool, floundering in 
 
30 4 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the silliest superstition. Nothing tends more forcibly than 
 an appreciative study of the alchemists to make us also 
 appreciate at its true worth the blind conceit that has 
 passed current for intelligence in the latter half of this 
 expiring century. 
 
 I will now take an example of more obscure alchemical 
 writing from Thomas Vaughan's " Aula Lucis." 
 Vaughan wrote generally under the name Eugenius 
 Philalethes in the middle of the seventeenth century. 
 Some writers, he says, at the outset have rather buried the 
 truth than dressed it. He proposes to observe a mean way, 
 neither too obscure nor too open, but modern readers will 
 probably conceive that he was principally careful not to be 
 too open. Of the philosopher's stone the Divine spirit 
 required to transmute the lower nature of man, he says, 
 44 It is a subtile mineral moisture, a water so extremely 
 thin and spiritual, with such a transcendent incredible 
 brightness there is not in all Nature any liquor like it, but 
 itself. . . . I say they called it a stone to the end that 
 no man might know what it was they called so." Of the 
 " first matter " which he says may be described by con- 
 traries without inconvenience very weak and yet most 
 strong, fire that burns not, water that wets not, and so on 
 he proceeds to discourse at length, calling it mercury, 
 the laughter of fools and the wonder of the wise. This 
 is here evidently intended to represent the conscience; 
 spiritual aspiration in the incarnate man; the first influence 
 of the Higher Self in the physical consciousness. Then 
 varying the metaphor he calls the subject of which he is 
 discoursing " our sealed fountain." " In the bottom of 
 this well lies an old dragon stretched along and fast asleep. 
 Awake her if you can and make her drink, for by this 
 means she will recover her youth and be serviceable to 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 305 
 
 you for ever. In a word separate the eagle from the green 
 lyon, then clip her wings and you have performed a 
 miracle. . . . The eagle is the water, for it is volatile 
 and flies up in the clouds as an eagle doth; but I speak not 
 of any common water whatsover. The greene lion is 
 the body or magicall earth with which you must clip the 
 wings of the eagle, that is to say, you must fix her so 
 that shee may fly no more." Most assuredly the constantly 
 wavering and fluctuating allegories of the alchemists do 
 not lend themselves readily to any direct translation into 
 plain language, but it is none the less obvious that Vaughan 
 is speaking here of the higher psychic faculties which may 
 be taught to acquire consciousness on some superior 
 spiritual plane of Nature, while still keeping up their 
 relations with the bodily consciousness. 
 
 In a very fantastic treatise of the eighteenth century, 
 called " The Hermetical Triumph," the usual warning 
 is given very emphatically in the course of a dialogue 
 between " Gold " and " The Stone." Gold is persistently 
 maintaining the materialistic view of the science, and The 
 Stone is continually reiterating such ideas as these : 
 
 " But when they the true philosophers plainly name 
 gold and mercury as the principles of their art, they only 
 make use of these terms thereby to hide the knowledge 
 from the ignorant, and from those who are unworthy, 
 for they very well know that such vulgar wits mind only 
 the names of things, the receipts, and the processes which 
 they find written, without examining whether there be 
 any solid foundation in what they put into practice. But 
 the wise men consider all things with prudence, examine 
 how consonant and how agreeing one thing is with 
 another, and by these means they penetrate into the 
 foundation of the art." 
 
 21 
 
306 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 The extracts given so far I have selected myself from 
 the various books referred to; but similar quotations in 
 greater volume might be taken at secondhand from either 
 of two books of more recent date which are directed to an 
 exposition of the true meaning and mystery of the Her- 
 metic or alchemical art. To these books I would now 
 refer all who desirous of pursuing the subject further, 
 and of obtaining a complete grasp of the principles I have 
 roughly laid down. The first and most important is of 
 great rarity, and has, I believe, been as far as possible 
 withdrawn from circulation by the author, under the im- 
 pression that its explanation sinned too much against the 
 rule, " Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither 
 cast you your pearls before swine." The full title of this 
 work is " A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic 
 Mystery; with a Dissertation on the more celebrated of 
 the Alchemical Philosophers, being an attempt towards the 
 recovery of the ancient experiment of Nature." The 
 treatise was published anonymously in 1850. It contains 
 a very interesting mass of testimony concerning the cases 
 in which some of the true alchemists those who by their 
 own spiritual growth had first become adepts in the 
 manipulation of the hidden forces of Nature have 
 actually accomplished the physical experiment of alchemy, 
 so vainly attacked by all those who were not adepts; and it 
 also goes at great length into the more esoteric view of the 
 subject, furnishing, in connection with a very extensive 
 review of alchemical literature, abundant quotations bear- 
 ing out the spiritual significance of the whole allegory. 
 
 Amongst other extracts it supplies us with a translation 
 of the Tractatus Aureus, or golden treatise of Hermes, 
 concerning the physical secret of the Philosopher's Stone, 
 which it says " has been considered to be one of the most 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 307 
 
 ancient and complete pieces of alchemical writing extant," 
 and " an exposition in epitome of the whole art." 
 
 This is not what would be considered in the present 
 day a luminous treatise. As for example, we read : 
 
 " Know, then, that the division that was made upon the 
 water by the ancient philosophers separates it into four 
 substances : one into two and three into one, the third 
 part of which is colour, as it were, a coagulated moisture; 
 but the second and third waters are the weights of the 
 Wise." 
 
 Still, however, even in the Tractatus Aureus we come 
 constantly upon the usual warnings that we know how 
 to interpret. Thus: 
 
 " Know that this matter I call the stone; but it is also 
 named the feminine of magnesia, or the hen, or the volatile 
 milk, or the incombustible oil, in order that it may be 
 hidden from the inept and the ignorant." 
 
 Again : 
 
 " Ye sons of Wisdom, burn then the Brazen Body 
 with an exceeding great fire, and it will yield gratefully 
 what you desire. And see that you make that which is 
 volatile so that it cannot fly, and by means of that which 
 flies not." 
 
 Here we have merely another version of Vaughan/s 
 Green Lion and Eagle a veiled reference to the possi- 
 bilities connected with the cultivation of the higher psychic 
 faculties. 
 
 Apparently without having come across the Suggestive 
 Inquiry, an American writer, named Hitchcock, published 
 a little book in 1857 an amplification of a small pam- 
 phlet on the same subject, written two years previously, 
 called " Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists." 
 The remainder of a somewhat old-fashioned title-page 
 
 21* 
 
308 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 foreshadows the convictions which the author proceeds to 
 set forth. He describes his book as " Indicating a method 
 of discovering the true nature of Hermetic Philosophy, and 
 showing that the search after the Philosopher's Stone had 
 not for its object the discovery of an agent for the trans- 
 mutation of metals. Being also an attempt to rescue from 
 undeserved opprobrium the reputation of a class of extra- 
 ordinary thinkers in past ages." At the outset of the book 
 itself he says the object of his original pamphlet was to 
 throw out an idea with which he had become strongly im- 
 pressed, that the Philosopher's Stone was a mere symbol, 
 and that the alchemists were not in pursuit of gold but 
 v/isdom, carefully and conscientiously leaving the latter 
 word undefined. This pamphlet having been violently 
 and stupidly attacked in the Westminster Review, in 1856 
 the author came forward with a renewed justification of 
 his argument, and this expanded into the book now before 
 us. " I affirm," he says, " that the whole subject of 
 Alchemy is Man. But each writer for the most part desig- 
 nates him by a word of his own choosing, hence one writes 
 of antimony, another of lead, another of zinc, another of 
 arsenic" And he quotes one of the alchemical writers as 
 saying, " The work while yet crude is called our water 
 permanent, our lead, our Saturn, our Jupiter; when better 
 decocted, then it is argent, then magnesia and white 
 sulphur; when it is red it is called auri-pigment coral, gold, 
 ferment, or stone, a lucid water of celestial colour." 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock's pursuit of these intricate metaphors 
 through the mazy wanderings of the two hundred separate 
 alchemical books which he tells us he has accumulated, 
 is very interesting and instructive. And I cannot under- 
 stand how any reader of any reflective intelligence can 
 follow him to the end and fail to be convinced that he is 
 
THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES 309 
 
 on the right track of interpretation. Mr. Hitchcock has 
 not been occultist enough to divine all that resides in the 
 alchemical philosophy, but although the Theosophist of 
 the present generation, if he has taken advantage of all the 
 opportunities held out to him, is in a position to see much 
 more in alchemy than even Mr. Hitchcock saw, the 
 admirable book he has produced will at least serve to open 
 up the subject for those who may be sufficiently interested 
 by what has been said here to feel inclined to venture 
 further into an area of research which, to express myself 
 in a paradoxical phrase congenial with the spirit of the 
 authors I have been quoting, is at once forbidding and 
 seductive. Alchemy, Mr. Hitchcock concedes, may have 
 passed away, as his opponent had been arguing, never to 
 return. ' This may be so; but the questions about which 
 the alchemists employed themselves have not passed away,, 
 and never shall pass away while man wanders upon the 
 surface of the earth. They are the most interesting ques- 
 tions which the heart can propose, and although they 
 begin in man, the answer must compass both the micro- 
 cosm and the macrocosm." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 
 
 IT will be obvious on reflection, if we correctly inter- 
 pret the meaning of ancient Egyptian initiation and 
 graft that in a reasonable manner upon the general 
 view of natural evolution which the esoteric teaching gives 
 us, that the opportunities of ancient initiation must be 
 with us still. Still with us, moreover, are those of our 
 predecessors who, at an earlier stage of the world's progress, 
 passed beyond the action of the laws governing the periodic 
 incarnations of ordinary humanity. They will have 
 attained a higher condition of being in which life for one 
 thing is very much more persistent, and their power of 
 functioning on the higher planes of Nature even more 
 persistent than that. But they are none the less within 
 our reach at this day. And, of course, in the long interval 
 that has elapsed since the ancient initiations of the 
 Egyptian period many new recruits, besides those who 
 entered on the path in that remote period, have joined the 
 stream of the higher evolution. Nor have the oppor- 
 tunities of initiation been extinguished merely because 
 after their last public flicker in Greece the world at large 
 has lost sight of them. Gradually, no doubt, their 
 character has changed in some important respects in 
 accordance with the cyclic necessities of the time which 
 left the race to concern itself chiefly with the advancement 
 of physical knowledge, even at the expense, for the genera- 
 tions so engaged, of a temporary forgetfulness concerning 
 higher things. But there has never been a time in the 
 world's history during which the channels of initiation 
 have been altogether blocked, and for those whose spiritual 
 ardour has itself, in the first instance, developed as a 
 
 310 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 3 1 1 
 
 Karmic consequence in successive lives, those higher facul- 
 ties of vision and consciousness which are now spoken of 
 as psychic, there has always been a possibility of access 
 to the higher knowledge along the lines of those very 
 faculties. It has ceased to be necessary that, in order to 
 enter the path of occult progress, a man should present 
 himself at some specific temple and become the acolyte of 
 a Hierophant visible to all his fellows. There has been for 
 him an inner temple to which his own psychic faculties, 
 on the hypothesis we are dealing with, have given him 
 access. And in this way the body of initiated Adepts has 
 constantly been reinforced, although probably there has 
 never been a time in the history of the present race at 
 which this mere numerical strength would have been less 
 than it is now. The cycle of great activity in the depart- 
 ment of physical knowledge, the scientific era par excel- 
 lence assigning the word " science " to the limited mean- 
 ing it has latterly enjoyed with ourselves is necessarily a 
 period of relative spiritual stagnation. The two phases of 
 progress are by no means antagonistic to one another in 
 reality; the highest scientific attainments may be, and in 
 the end, before they reach their perfect efflorescence, must 
 be united with great spiritual development also; but taken 
 as a whole the forces of natural evolution press with 
 greater intensity at one time than at another in the direc- 
 tion of physical knowledge, just as at other periods this 
 impulse may be in abeyance, and spiritual aspiration be a 
 more powerful incentive. 
 
 Now finally we reach the all-important fact that at the 
 present moment as much as ever, although less than ever 
 now by old-world methods, the possibilities 'of attaining 
 higher spiritual perfection in the sense in which we have 
 been employing the phrase, chiefly as connoting 
 
3i2 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 knowledge, power, and voluntary advancement, are open 
 to all those who have the necessary qualifications, and the 
 all-important intensity of desire. Initiation in the higher 
 mysteries which have to do with that region of natural 
 law in reference to which all the little manifestations of 
 abnormal wonder which attract attention at the present 
 day in the departments of mesmerism, clairvoyance, 
 thought-transference, and spiritualism, are but as the 
 spray from a wave those regions are still accessible 
 to modern aspirants who strive to attain them in the 
 right way. 
 
 In one sense I may say that they are more attainable 
 than ever, because it has come to pass that the great 
 authorities who direct the conditions of all such progress 
 are fully alive to the necessity of making the whole 
 situation more intelligible to the masses of mankind than 
 they have been for the last dozen clouded centuries. A 
 very great advance has been made without being so far in 
 the least degree understood in this aspect by ordinary 
 physical science in the direction of what may be called 
 psychic mystery. Left to itself without any healthy guid- 
 ance or encouragement, that progress may be quite likely 
 to turn to channels in which it would be eminently in- 
 jurious to the permanent welfare of the race. As I have 
 indicated more than once, true occult progress is a dual 
 achievement involving at the same time a development 
 of a very exalted morality pan passu with the acquisition 
 of a correspondingly penetrating knowledge. Nothing 
 less than the two achievements would accomplish the 
 evolution of the human being as we know him now into 
 that higher kingdom of Nature, which, as compared with 
 the human kingdom, may be spoken of as divine, and 
 nothing short of such evolution brings with it a really 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 3 1 3, 
 
 complete development of the power and capacities for 
 knowledge latent in mankind. But something very short 
 of that may invest humanity with powers transcending 
 those familiar to the physical senses. Just as the rain of 
 heaven falls on the just and the unjust, so in a certain sense 
 and in a certain degree, knowledge is obtainable by the 
 evil-minded as well as by the good; and very disastrous 
 results both to themselves and to others are bound to ensue 
 from its acquisition by people who are not adequately alive 
 to the loftiness of the responsibilities which its possession 
 entails. In this way, to put the matter roughly, the mere 
 pursuit of knowledge along the paths of purely physical 
 study may, by the time it is carried some distance beyond 
 that as yet reached by the physical science of the nine- 
 teenth century, superinduce the condition of things in 
 which the possessors of such knowledge would be what 
 the mediaeval world called Black Magicians. The name 
 we give does not matter, but at all events the fact is that 
 knowledge concerning the deeper mysteries of Nature 
 which have to do with spiritual and psychic forces may 
 theoretically be attained by persons altogether without the 
 exalted motives which govern those who attain it by what 
 occultists call the right-hand path, and therefore a time 
 comes in the progress of science when from all points of 
 view the old policy of extreme reserve in regard to the 
 mysteries with which initiation is concerned, becomes 
 impossible of further maintenance. That is the state of 
 things now coming on. For a long time it seemed best 
 for the human race that during ages of very imperfect 
 human development the tremendous forces which occult 
 knowledge places within the reach of man should be kept 
 back from him altogether. Now his advancing intelligence 
 has enabled him to grasp some conception of what those 
 
THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 forces are, even without the help of initiated teaching. 
 It becomes the policy, therefore, of those who represent 
 this teaching in the present age of the world to anticipate, 
 if possible, this unhealthy development of psychic dis- 
 covery, and guide it beforehand into channels prepared for 
 its reception by the theoretical development of spiritual 
 science, in such a way as shall enable the races at large to 
 -comprehend the lofty purposes for which Nature holds this 
 superior wisdom in reserve. To acquire knowledge con- 
 cerning the forces operative on the higher planes of 
 Nature, and then to apply this knowledge to the pursuit 
 of merely selfish and transitory objects of mundane desire, 
 is to degrade and insult the highest attributes of our 
 humanity. The legitimate and progressive method in 
 which that humanity can be expanded involves the sub- 
 ordination of the physical life and its conditions to the 
 service of higher spiritual objects. If the forces and 
 powers having to do with higher spiritual phases of exist- 
 ence are, by reversing the natural current, directed to the 
 service of ends having to do with the gratifications of 
 temporary physical life, that reversal of Nature's design 
 constitutes a blasphemy against her highest intentions, 
 which is not only evil and wrong, as minor sins altogether 
 lying on the physical plane may be, but is in reality that 
 supreme species of wickedness which early theological 
 writers, little foreseeing the extent to which their words 
 would be misunderstood, have called a sin against the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 We may thus realise now the circumstances under 
 which the methods and system of initiation, that have for 
 so many centuries been concealed from popular observa- 
 tion, are now once more slowly and by degrees becoming 
 known to a generation which, at the first blush, may seem 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 3 1 5 
 
 to be curiously little ready for such teaching. Curiously 
 little ready for a long time to come most certainly the 
 majority of this and many succeeding generations will con- 
 tinue to be; but, at the same time, it has never been the ex- 
 pectation of those directing the course of initiation, whether 
 in the ancient world or now, that people of the ordinary 
 type will flock to them and become candidates for their 
 guidance in any very large numbers. If those in whom 
 the spirit or ardent enthusiasm for spiritual knowledge 
 and experience is already strong enough to bear down their 
 eagerness for the pleasures or pursuits of ordinary life, 
 are alone their regular pupils, that is all that can be ex- 
 pected or desired; but unless the possibilities of the situa- 
 tion are generally known, even the few who are inspired 
 in the way just described will waste their ardour and 
 readiness for self-sacrifice in empty dreaming or futile 
 endeavour, and the great purpose of Nature will not be 
 advanced at all. That great purpose, let us always remem- 
 ber, as earlier chapters of this book have already shown, has 
 to do not merely with the perpetuation of the human race, 
 but with its exaltation into the higher conditions of being. 
 From one point of view the innumerable differentiated 
 units of consciousness which we call men and women are 
 cast by nature in enormous abundance on the surface of the 
 earth, as so much seed from which spiritual beings of an 
 immeasurably more important and dignified character may 
 ultimately be grown. But while in dealing with its lower 
 organic manifestations Nature is extraordinarily profuse 
 in providing germs, the human germ is one of a very 
 different order from an acorn. The unused acorn may 
 resolve itself into its original elements without suffering 
 by reason of not becoming an oak. Nothing is wasted in 
 this case but, so to speak, the trouble of Nature in pro- 
 
316 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 ducing the acorn. But in the human being, however truly 
 that human being may be regarded in his or her highest 
 aspect as the germ of something immeasurably higher, there 
 is, nevertheless, already the focus of divine consciousness 
 which must continue through an immeasurable futurity a 
 vibrating nucleus of suffering or enjoyment, and whether 
 it unites itself consciously with the highest design of 
 Nature so as to work that out, or not, its destinies differ 
 very widely in character from those of the vegetable 
 seed which disintegrates and is done with if its loftiest 
 purpose remains unfulfilled. It has been already shown 
 that the fulfilment by any given human being of the 
 loftiest purposes of his existence can only be accomplished 
 by the conscious union of his will and intention with the 
 powers and forces of Nature operating through him, and 
 it is thus the simple truth of the matter, that having 
 attained that rank in existence identified with the present 
 stage of the earth's progress, his further advancement in 
 the whole scheme of existence, which embraces so much 
 more than what is sometimes called the scheme of creation, 
 depends on his acquisition of correct knowledge concern- 
 ing the nature of the efforts he has to make to bring his 
 will into the harmony spoken of; in other words, it depends 
 on his attainment, sooner or later, of that initiation with 
 which we are now concerned. This view of the matter, 
 as apparently placing the destinies of man in the hands of 
 other men, however far these other men may be advanced 
 in knowledge and spiritual power, may seem at the first 
 glance repugnant to the understanding of people who have 
 been trained but too constantly in the belief that the wisest 
 course to pursue concerning the future life is to regulate 
 conduct in this with a reasonable regard to right and 
 wrong, and for the rest, trust blindly in the gracious mercy 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 3 1 7 
 
 of God. If the explanation just given, however, be 
 analysed with reasonable intelligence, it will be seen to 
 offend in no way against such trust, but on the contrary 
 to bring the conclusions of experience in every department 
 of life of which we have any knowledge to bear upon the 
 great problem, as they are necessarily brought to bear on 
 all of minor degree. No man who wants a crab apple 
 tree to produce good fruit, sits down in apathetic content- 
 ment, with a pious platitude concerning the goodness of 
 that power which rules the processes of vegetation as un- 
 deniably as those of human evolution. He knows that 
 the powers of nature will work with him if he adapts his 
 measures to their design. He learns all that he can learn 
 of that design and of its requirements from other men who 
 have studied the subject before him, and then applies his 
 knowledge to the case with which he himself has to deal. 
 Having thus united his will with the laws of vegetable 
 growth, he acquires his improved fruit. 
 
 It seems to me there must be little difficulty in dispelling 
 any distrust of the kind here referred to by the time the 
 situation is appreciated with moderate precision. Clear 
 thinkers will recognise that the existence within touch of 
 the world of human beings immensely more advanced than 
 their contemporaries along the paths of spiritual evolution 
 is a metaphysical necessity of all thinking on the subject. 
 A much graver difficulty and more serious embarrassment 
 in the way of those who may get so far in the direction of 
 realising the possibilities before them, has to do with the 
 question how any given aspirant may succeed in putting 
 himself into touch with those more advanced contem- 
 poraries, those higher teachers or masters of esoteric 
 wisdom. And now I approach the answer to that diffi- 
 culty, although it is one which, from the nature of the 
 
3i 8 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 case, cannot be given in half a dozen words. There 
 certainly is not now, nor has there been at any other time, 
 any recognised official bureau at which people, however 
 honestly desirous of efficient spiritual guidance, can obtain 
 specific information; and though there is much talk in 
 all mediaeval occult writing of doors, in the symbolical 
 sense, which are always opened to those who knock, such 
 phrases are extremely exasperating to Western thinkers 
 who have got out of touch with those highly symbolical 
 methods of expression, and who, though sometimes but 
 too content with being left in ignorance, will claim that 
 if they are to be told anything of what they may want 
 to know they shall be told it in a straightforward, com- 
 prehensible way. The fact is that access to the masters 
 of initiation is only to be attained in the first instance 
 through the exercise of those higher faculties in man which 
 it is the province of initiation to cultivate and expand. 
 This will seem like reasoning in a circle. The candidate 
 for spiritual knowledge will complain that it is just this he 
 requires, in order that he may evoke from their mysterious 
 recesses in his own nature the higher senses which consti- 
 tute the channels of psychic perception, and that if he is 
 told that he must employ those senses in order to get at 
 the teachers, he is merely being mocked by a paradox, and 
 left where he started. The elucidation of the paradox, 
 however, merely claims that we should bear in mind that 
 doctrine, already fully described in these pages, which 
 describes the method which Nature employs in carrying 
 on the evolution of the human soul. We must not forget 
 that re-incarnation is the lot of every human being, and 
 we must apply that principle to every thought, and above 
 all to every mystery which has to do with the study of 
 spiritual progress. And here it is necessary to interpolate 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 3 1 9 
 
 a caveat even before completing the explanation in view 
 for the moment, which is to this effect, that here and there 
 peculiar influences arising from the Karma of past lives 
 may bring people within reach of the higher spiritual 
 teachers, or rather may enable them themselves to com- 
 prehend the fact that they are within the reach of such 
 teaching without either extraordinary efforts on their part> 
 or without the advantage of psychic gifts already 
 developed. But let me first deal with the operation of 
 what may be regarded as the normal rule before handling 
 such exceptions with regard to their details. And the 
 normal rule certainly must be that the very first step in 
 the direction of the higher initiation undertaken in that- 
 life, whichever it may be, of the long chain in which the 
 person concerned first comprehends the matter intellectu- 
 ally, and sets himself to desire and earnestly to aim at 
 the attainment of the higher spiritual wisdom, will have 
 to deal with intellectual study and thought, directed to 
 the problem in hand. The would-be candidate for psychic 
 evolution of the kind which may anticipate that higher 
 evolution which alone can truly be called spiritual, must 
 set himself to understand and appreciate the nature of the 
 task on which he will be engaged, and the attributes, so far 
 as these can be ascertained by any testimony open to him, 
 of those who control the resources and opportunities of 
 initiation. 
 
 In stating the case this way I may possibly seem to be 
 diverging from the doctrines which have often been en- 
 forced with great enthusiasm in recent theosophic writ- 
 ing, and which would rather emphasise the importance 
 of unselfishness, philanthropy, altruism, and moral purity 
 as so much more important in their preparatory effect than 
 any efforts of intellectual study, that it is hardly worth- 
 
320 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 while to enjoin any other processes of effort on candidates 
 for future initiation. In saying, however, that the matter 
 much in the first instance be intellectually studied, I am 
 including and not ignoring the preparatory effect of moral 
 qualities. To understand that these constitute an essential 
 factor in the conditions of interior feeling which lead up 
 towards the realities of initiation, is an essential part of 
 that understanding of the whole problem to which I refer. 
 But we must not let our enthusiasm for moral beauty and 
 goodness in the abstract obscure our perception of the 
 great truth that in the normal operation of all the laws 
 which govern spiritual evolution the ultimate effect of 
 goodness, as worked out in successive lives, is happiness 
 and not necessarily spiritual progress. The anterior causes 
 of spiritual progress must be goodness united with a com- 
 prehension of the great design governing spiritual evolu- 
 tion, and of the purposes which Nature has in view in 
 the cultivation of humanity. Again I say, therefore, that 
 the first step for any candidate setting out absolutely from 
 the beginning in the direction of initiation must be study 
 and intellectual effort up to the limits, whatever they may 
 be, to which his intellectual capacity may at that period 
 have been developed. And if on the basis of a fair general 
 comprehension of the principles guiding spiritual evolution 
 he unites a really ardent desire to come into contact with 
 their realities, to brave their ordeals, and penetrate their 
 mysteries, that condition of mind during any one given 
 life will, with infallible certainty, engender as its Karmic 
 consequence in the next, those psychic attributes which 
 w'ill enable him, if his desire persists and his efforts con- 
 tinue, to come into conscious relations with the higher 
 teachers. 
 
 I do not know of any treatise on this subject, either in 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 321 
 
 the literature of mediaeval occultism, modern psychology, 
 or Theosophy itself, which has dealt adequately with the 
 circumstances under which those mysterious and some- 
 times beautiful, sometimes rather terrible and painful 
 developments of psychic faculty, which the experience of 
 life exhibits, are actually developed. We all talk habitu- 
 ally of such faculties as psychic gifts, roughly adopting 
 the phraseology of a very unenlightened theory concern- 
 ing the attributes of man. The use of the phrase " gifts, ' 
 whether applied to the faculties in question or to talents 
 of any kind, seems to connote a reverential and grateful 
 attitude of mind towards the unknown Omnipotence from 
 which our existence has been derived; but to a more en- 
 lightened observation it must really be regarded as involv- 
 ing a slur on that Omnipotence, or at all events a reproach 
 against that absolute justice with which the idea of omni- 
 science should be united, if we assume that either class of 
 faculties is given capriciously without having been earned 
 fairly and honestly. One of the most illuminating con- 
 ceptions connected with the study of spiritual evolution 
 shows us, on the contrary, that mental powers and psychic 
 gifts, together with all those talents which have to do with 
 supremacy in art or in other departments of human 
 activity, are in all cases the consequence of definite effort, 
 definite action, or in the brief and more technical phrase, 
 of the Karma, engendered in former lives. Students of 
 physical science talk with rapture of the beauty involved 
 in the great law which exhibits to us the conservation of 
 energy as operative throughout the various realms of force 
 within the purview of our physical senses. They are 
 strangely oblivious to the still higher beauty of that same 
 law in its association with the higher forces having to do 
 with the cause and effect of spiritual action. So important 
 
 22 
 
322 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 is it to recognise the old familiar law in its bearing on such 
 higher planes of existence, that one might almost adopt 
 as a brief definition or motto associated with the study of 
 Theosophy the conservation of energy on the moral 
 plane. Whatever a man is at any given moment, intel- 
 lectually, artistically, or in reference to his perceptions as 
 to right and wrong, he is exactly what he has made him- 
 self in former lives, working, of course, at each stage with 
 the advantages or disadvantages of surrounding oppor- 
 tunities which are themselves merely the physical and ex- 
 ternal consequences of still earlier action on his part, 
 themselves, that is to say, the Karma of his still more 
 remote existences. The always operative conditions of his 
 own free will enable him at every step of his progress 
 to mould those conditions into a new shape for his own 
 service at later stages of his long career through the ages; 
 and as regards the faculties with which he will find himself 
 endowed at later stages of his existence, these are, in the 
 simplest and most direct fashion, the consequences of his 
 own anterior efforts and aspirations. Illustrations have 
 been already employed, in examining the doctrine of re- 
 incarnation as a branch of this subject, which have to do 
 with the growth, for example, of great musical or linguistic 
 acquirements. The capacities of the interior Ego, stimu- 
 lated by the exertions along any one particular line of 
 evolution during one life, reappear with the return of the 
 same individuality to re-incarnation next time, and if 
 continuously exerted, expand and develop in almost un- 
 limited degree. The child who is a musical genius at six 
 is the Karmic offspring of some great musician in a former 
 age, or rather constitutes in his own person the re-incar- 
 nation of that great musician. The student of languages 
 in a former age may have forgotten, when he returns to 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 323 
 
 life, the specific vocabularies and grammatical rules with 
 which he was once acquainted, but he has filled his nature 
 with such ready affinity for knowledge of that kind that 
 the application in his case of a scarcely perceptible effort 
 enables him to accomplish more than another would suc- 
 ceed in gaining by the protracted labour of years. So 
 with scientific aptitudes, so also with literary appre- 
 ciation, so also with the evolution of psychic faculties. 
 Let a man in one life be filled with a persistent longing 
 to penetrate the mysteries of the psychic plane, with the 
 sympathetic watchfulness of faculties enabling others to 
 do this already, with the fruits of study relating to the 
 whole subject as far as such study has been possible for 
 him, and the result will blossom out as a Karmic con- 
 sequence in the shape of psychic faculties within his own 
 control on his next appearance on this plane of existence 
 always supposing that no independent Karmic causes are 
 set up in an antagonistic direction. And this simple law, 
 so obvious in view of what we know at present concern- 
 ing the principles of Karma and spiritual evolution, will 
 be seen on reflection to cover the whole ground of the 
 inquiry into all those diverse and incoherent varieties of 
 psychic faculty which meet our observation. Sometimes 
 these take the shape of a beautiful spiritual clairvoyance, 
 bringing their happy possessors into direct relations with 
 superior planes of being and the inhabitants thereof. 
 Sometimes they simply render some eyes perceptive of 
 astral phenomena, belonging in no way to any exalted 
 plane of Nature, but yet shut out from the observation 
 of the perfectly commonplace physical sight. Sometimes 
 they are united with great loftiness of character and 
 nobility of aim; sometimes they are associated with a 
 grovelling and sordid nature, and again, in other cases 
 
 22* 
 
324 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 happily rarer than these last they are associated with 
 positive malevolence and tendencies of an altogether evil 
 kind. But the faculties themselves have in all cases equally 
 been the product of a desire to possess such faculties, and 
 of efforts in that direction. The character with which 
 they may be united is nothing more than on its plane the 
 logical outcome of the efforts and tendencies having to 
 do with the cultivation of character distinguishing the 
 person in question during former lives. So surely as a 
 bullet fired from a gun progresses through the air, so surely 
 is desire or effort no abortive force. The effect of the 
 bullet when it strikes its object has to do with the direction 
 in which the gun was pointed, which is quite another 
 matter. These reflections, if people will only follow 
 them out fully, will be found to account for all the com- 
 plex manifestations of what is called " mediumship " in 
 connection with modern spiritualism. Whether the 
 peculiarities of psychic constitution which such medium- 
 ship represents are held to be beautiful or pernicious gifts, 
 they are effects which could not have been produced 
 without a cause, and we have seen that whatever effects 
 are discernible in character or mental or moral qualifica- 
 tions are effects the causes of which are to be sought for 
 in the efforts made by their possessors at an earlier stage 
 of their career. 
 
 The conditions, however, of what may be called irregu- 
 lar psychic progress are sufficiently intimate and interest- 
 ing to be studied by themselves independently of the 
 general line of inquiry with which we are now concerned 
 the conditions under which an approach is to be made 
 in the present day to the portals of initiation. 
 
 To understand these rightly it will be well at this stage 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 325 
 
 to review the normal course of re-incarnation, so as 
 the better to appreciate the way in which at certain stages 
 of the soul's growth the intervention of Adept help may 
 hasten the process for those who are ready to make some 
 sacrifices in the hope of getting on the faster. 
 
 Let us realise, first of all, the exact purpose in the 
 economy of Nature of the usually protracted experiences 
 intervening between two lives. The growth of the soul 
 is the result to be accomplished, and that growth arises 
 from the experiences and activities of responsible life. 
 In the case of those in whom the work is chiefly being 
 done during physical life in the case of the ordinary 
 humanity with which we are surrounded the doings of 
 physical life may be thought of as accumulating a large 
 mass of ill-digested material out of which that which is 
 qualified to contribute to the growth of the permanent 
 Ego must be distilled and sublimated. The entity plunges 
 into the astral world with all his accumulated aspirations, 
 desires, habits of life, and tendencies of character thickly 
 gathered round him. He is altogether a being of the physi- 
 cal plane of life; the activities of his thought have not 
 qualified him to take advantage, to anything like their full 
 extent, of the opportunities afforded by astral existence, 
 still less to pass into conditions of a more purely spiritual 
 nature. He has, as it were, to grow accustomed to 
 the higher planes of existence, and to expand his 
 consciousness on these so far as the efforts he has been 
 making up to that time in this direction render the 
 achievement possible. 
 
 Perhaps this gradual indrawing into the permanent Ego 
 of whatever experiences of life and fruit of endeavour 
 may be susceptible of such indrawing, will be best com- 
 prehended if for a moment we look at the whole evolu- 
 
326 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 tionary progress from another point of view. The actual 
 centre of consciousness, destined to grow and expand the 
 Soul in the noblest and deepest sense of the term is, of 
 course, engendered on a loftier spiritual plane, but at first 
 it is a centre of consciousness wholly uncharacterised by 
 specific attributes. It is an individuality, but an individu- 
 ality without characteristics. It presses forward and out- 
 wards, as it were, following the stream of manifestation 
 through the various planes, but finding no resting place 
 until it reaches the bottom of the great descent of spirit 
 into matter, and opens its eyes to the consciousness of 
 objective creation on the physical plane of life. Here for 
 the first time it begins to experience the sensation of life. 
 The whole objective universe lies around it, and its own 
 first conception of things an illusive plane from the point 
 of view of the higher spiritual consciousness leads it to 
 commence its long and gradual development by working 
 with an idea which is often spoken of as the fundamental 
 heresy of metaphysics the sense of separateness. The 
 awakening soul on the physical plane of life feels itself 
 one thing and the universe another, and however this 
 idea may be destined to qualification at a much later 
 date, it is the first aspect of individuality which neces- 
 sarily presents itself to the germinating Ego. In the 
 language of. the nursery, so applicable in many ways to 
 the lower earth life as compared with the higher, the 
 first thing the Ego does in beginning to feel its capacities 
 of reflection is to " take notice." It takes notice of the 
 physical world around it, of the other creatures therein 
 on its own level, of the opportunities it may enjoy for 
 acquiring sensations the pleasurable character of some, 
 the painful character of others. 
 
 We may picture the soul to ourselves at this stage as 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 327 
 
 consisting of an all but formless germ on the higher 
 spiritual plane, connected by a fine colourless thread with 
 the lower earth life, and beginning to throw out roots 
 and expand in contact with that lowest stratum it can 
 touch. Of all the knowledge, experiences, emotions, con- 
 stituting this expansion on the physical plane, how much 
 is capable of being withdrawn along the thread passing 
 through the various intervening planes of Nature into the 
 spiritual germ above ? Very little for the most part, but 
 that little is drawn back by the contraction of the thread, 
 so to speak, after the life is spent, drawn back through 
 ihe various intervening planes of Nature, slowly enough, 
 by reason of the fact that the accumulation, however much 
 or little it may be, cannot be drawn upward till it has 
 been cleansed and purified of all which only belongs to 
 and is only capable of existence on the lowest plane. By 
 the time the thread is entirely contracted, by the time 
 the whole astral experience following the life has been 
 worked out, and the minute fragments of thought and 
 feeling capable of being drawn higher up through the 
 spiritual planes into the true Ego by the time all these 
 processes have been accomplished, the permanent spiritual 
 germ is fed with very little, but with something. It is 
 a little more capable of consciousness on its own region, 
 or rather, as it is always theoretically conscious and 
 capable there, it is a little more capable of endowing 
 that consciousness with variegated aspects than it was at 
 first. To that extent, however little that extent may be, 
 the thread, when it again extends itself downwards from 
 the higher planes of Nature, seeking re-manifestation in 
 the region where the sensations of life are most possible 
 for it, is a little thicker, so to speak, than it was before; 
 it is a somewhat better channel for the withdrawal in- 
 
328 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 ward of whatever it may come in contact with in the 
 course of its second batch of experiences. And its previous 
 expression, the first personality, which has itself disinte- 
 grated and disappeared long ago during the upward move- 
 ment of consciousness after the last life, is in a great 
 measure re-created as the root fibre descends through the 
 planes of Nature, by its re-absorption on these various 
 planes of matter appropriate to the expression of such 
 characteristics as it developed before. There is no 
 recovery, as some imperfectly expressed description of this 
 process may have led earlier students to imagine, of the 
 actual astral or lower manasic principles which belong to 
 the previous life, but the Ego gathers similar principles 
 around it afresh from the appropriate material of the 
 various planes through which it passes, or through which 
 it sends its root. All similes of this kind must necessarily 
 be inapplicable at some point; but at all events, when the 
 physical plane of life is again reached, the personality is, 
 so to speak, once more built up of materials resembling 
 the materials which its own activities in the former life 
 engendered. 
 
 Here, to make the whole process more intelligible, 
 we may study the esoteric teaching which relates to the 
 methods, so to speak, by means of which the returning 
 soul is brought into renewed relations with its old Karma. 
 All the causes which it had set in motion in the former 
 life (the Karma which it had engendered), were built if 
 we may so contemplate the idea (under the guidance of 
 lofty spiritual agencies controlling these great develop- 
 ments of the world's affairs) into an image appropriate 
 to express that personality in another life. This was done 
 at the conclusion of the earth life, when the Karmic 
 causes 'set in motion were complete, and the image 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 329, 
 
 awaits the returning personality and the activities of the 
 powers in Nature concerned with the guidance of its re- 
 birth. In the process of re-birth the Etheric Double is 
 actually created in advance of the physical body; it is the 
 Etheric Double which is in turn the agency guiding the 
 deposition of physical molecules as the body grows, and 
 which thus ensures the production of a form which shall 
 accurately express the necessities of the personality, and 
 accurately involve the rewards or penalties which may be 
 due to his past doings. The explanation of this point is- 
 difficult because it involves so much that it has not been 
 necessary in this volume to deal with in detail, but a fuller 
 knowledge concerning the place in Nature occupied by 
 the stupendous beings known in occult writings as the 
 Lipika, coupled with an appreciation of the instrumental 
 resources available for their use in the elemental king- 
 dom, renders the aspect of the whole process clear, sym- 
 metrical, and scientific. The Lipika, as already explained > 
 are sometimes described as the Lords of Karma, and in 
 the minute delicacy with which they govern the destinies 
 of man they realise with reference to his merit or desert 
 as he returns to earth, life after life, the popular concep- 
 tion of Providence. Many popular conceptions in this 
 way connected with religion will often be found, as the 
 occult student advances, vindicated rather than refuted 
 by the more accurate knowledge he may be able to acquire 
 vindicated not as regards their materialistic outlines, 
 but as to the inner significance of the idea. It is in this, 
 way then that the entity is launched at re-birth on the 
 physical plane of existence in very much the same 
 condition as regards his attributes, character, desires,, 
 tendencies, as when he left the earth plane last. 
 
 The personalities of each existence may be imperma- 
 
330 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 nent and transient manifestations of the Ego, vanishing 
 into nothingness with the physical body and the astral 
 material of which they were composed; but in the way 
 just described each new personality in turn is built so 
 exactly on the lines of its predecessor, that except for 
 the varying external circumstances of its life, determined 
 by Karma, it is to all intents and purposes a repetition of 
 the previous personality, not the same, but inspired by 
 the same individual centre of consciousness, and in regard 
 to its attributes and characteristics, created afresh from the 
 storehouses of Nature and standing on the plane of earth 
 once more very much the same being as on its last appear- 
 ance there. These recurrent processes continue, the per- 
 sonality blundering about rather wildly at first, impressed, 
 very imperfectly, with the voice of conscience, which is 
 the expression on the physical plane of its own Higher Self, 
 hardly even feeling this voice of conscience at all at the 
 earlier stages of its career, except in regard to such depart- 
 ments of activity as have given rise during former existences 
 to some permanent attributes absorbed into the Higher 
 Self. But as we have been looking at the process we have 
 been looking at it at a very early stage of human advance- 
 ment. Long before humanity has attained the limits on 
 which our contemporaries for the most part stand, many 
 hundred successive lives have each contributed their little 
 gift to the permanent consciousness of the true Ego, and 
 in this way the area over which its influence is extended 
 in later lives has been expanded to a corresponding degree. 
 The voice of conscience and the inner intuition, which 
 may sometimes be a guide to action, even in matters where 
 no definite problems of right and wrong are concerned, 
 may have become active within the personality which 
 represents the Ego on the physical plane of life, and in 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 331 
 
 many ways its physical life is thus guided in a manner 
 which contributes more and more abundantly to the 
 development of the Ego, to the growth of the soul. By 
 this time a much more traversible channel, to use that 
 metaphor, extends from the physical life to the spiritual 
 plane in which the consciousness of the permanent Ego is 
 seated, and through this more and more experience of life 
 can be drawn when the in-drawing process recommences. 
 As before, the personality may be born with much which 
 it shed as it moved backward to itself through the higher 
 planes of Nature, but there is more and more of it qualified 
 to exist on the higher planes, and to express on the lower 
 the characteristics of the individual Ego. 
 
 In the very beginning, as I endeavoured to describe, the 
 Ego has little or nothing to say to the doings of the 
 permanent personality on this plane of life. A time comes 
 when the two influences, those of the objective world 
 around, and the interior consciousness within, are in 
 equilibrium. A time comes beyond that when the 
 interior consciousness is distinctly predominant, and 
 when the relations of its personality with the external 
 world become in this way coloured by the interests and 
 loftier purposes for which it exists. Then the indrawing 
 of itself after death is a far grander undertaking. Accu- 
 mulations gathered round the personality in physical life 
 are readily shed on the astral planes, the real entity feels 
 itself to be that which is capable of activity on the spiritual 
 regions of Nature. It eagerly returns to these and feels 
 its true existence to be centred there. This condition of 
 things is the case of the growing soul which has attained 
 that period of its evolution when abnormal possibilities of 
 more rapid growth begin to set in. 
 
 What shape does this abnormal possibility take ? That 
 
332 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 is a view of things I have now to endeavour to make 
 intelligible. The Ego, assuming his progress along the 
 steps of the path leading to initiation to have been suffi- 
 ciently successful to bring him into direct personal rela- 
 tions with one of the more exalted Adepts qualified to sur- 
 round his ulterior progress with new conditions, may be 
 regarded as a candidate for that treatment which is known 
 to the occultist as immediate re-incarnation. Supposing 
 his last life to have been sufficiently dignified and blame- 
 less in its character to have left him tolerably free of un- 
 happy responsibilities in his great account with the Lords 
 of Karma, it is possible that the Master, in his case, may 
 be permitted to fulfil, as regards him, for the next great 
 stage of his career, the functions, if the phrase may be 
 permitted, of Providence. The Master has, by the hypo- 
 thesis, become so entirely blended with the Divine idea 
 ruling the world, as regards his own will, that the union 
 has brought with it powers which are, in their nature, 
 divine. It is possible for the Master to guide the soul 
 of the neophyte into his next incarnation, and it is possible 
 for him to do this without waiting for the neophyte to 
 pass through the usual spiritual interlude. The soul can 
 be arrested on the astral plane, where, of course, it has but 
 little to shed, and turned back at once into renewed mani- 
 festation in the physical world, so that it may continue 
 the unbroken series of efforts in the direction of its own 
 purification which have been the leading characteristics 
 of the life just spent. When it has attained the second 
 life, which may follow at the interval of a few years 
 conceivably, if circumstances happen to be favourable, 
 of a few weeks after the close of the last this second 
 life is thus a complete continuation of the last, as regards 
 all phases of interior consciousness, and the person so 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 333 
 
 artificially re-incarnated will, as soon as the new body 
 with which he is associated has grown to be a mature 
 instrument, be able within his waking consciousness to 
 remember every detail of his former life. In the inter- 
 vening period, before the new body has acquired maturity, 
 he continues to function on the astral plane in complete 
 consciousness in the appropriate vehicle bequeathed to him 
 from his last life. The two existences are blended in a 
 very wonderful way, but there is no solution of continuity 
 in the process. The old astral vehicle is not discarded 
 until the new body has been sufficiently developed to have 
 grown, so to speak, or gathered around it a new astral 
 vehicle, which the entity can then make use of. The 
 occult relationships he will have established remain un- 
 broken. His intercourse with the Masters and with those 
 surrounding him will never have been intermitted, and 
 he will recover touch in the course of the new life on 
 which he may be launched with others on his own level 
 of progress, themselves the subjects, like himself, of abnor- 
 mal evolution. And thus it may ensue that in a period of 
 time covered by a few centuries, if more than one im- 
 mediate re-incarnation takes place in connection with his 
 advancement, he may condense a progress which would 
 otherwise have been protracted over twice as many mil- 
 lenniums. The mere economy of time, indeed, is not a 
 matter of so much importance, from one point of view. 
 If we leave certain considerations out of account, it might 
 be argued that the normal course of evolution would suit 
 the neophyte just as well, and be in many respects more 
 agreeable. He would then enjoy the intensely blissful and 
 refreshing conditions of existence in very full conscious- 
 ness on the higher spiritual planes; each life as he came 
 back to it would be one in which he would, by virtue of 
 
334 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the normal process of evolution, pick up again the ten- 
 dency to make further progress, with which he was 
 animated at the close of the preceding life. 
 
 What, then, after all at the first glance an inquirer 
 might ask does the Neophyte gain by immediate re- 
 incarnation ? 
 
 The answer is two-fold, intelligible enough in one of its 
 aspects, highly recondite in another. In the intelligible 
 aspect, the main point turns upon the relationship between 
 the Neophyte and the Master to whom he is attached. 
 Words derived from the ordinary friendships and relations 
 of life fail to define the ardour of affection with which the 
 pupil, arrived at the condition in which he is able to have 
 personal touch with a Being so exalted in nature as one of 
 the higher Adepts, will come to regard this Being as the 
 supreme influence in his life. One of his most intense 
 aspirations in connection with occult progress at these 
 earlier stages and before an even loftier feeling, con- 
 nected with the unification of his own will with that 
 which rules all Nature, has come into play will be his 
 aspiration in the direction of freer intercourse, and, so to 
 speak, companionship, with the Master. He wishes with 
 an intense longing for the time when his own advance 
 may enable him to stand at something like the level of 
 Nature on which the guiding light of his destiny resides, 
 and if he were to await the progress of normal evolution 
 and spend many thousands of years in spiritual felicity, 
 that lapse of time might have operated in regard to the 
 Master, towards whom he aspires, in some way which 
 would have removed him to still loftier functions in 
 Nature, where he would then again be inaccessible to his 
 slowly advancing pupil. Though the foremost motive, 
 however, with which the pupil who understands the whole 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 335 
 
 situation desires immediate re-incarnation, has to do with 
 his easily intelligible love for the Master, a very much 
 more intricate consideration must also be taken inta 
 account. The surrender of blissful existence between the 
 two lives may not be one which presents itself from the 
 point of view of the unenlightened physical intelligence 
 as of such very great significance. While the necessities 
 of progress attach themselves in a large measure to ideas 
 connected with the present life, the person who is imbued 
 with the thought of immediate re-incarnation, with the 
 idea that it would be possible to forego the blissful 
 period, and so get on faster, will suppose that an eminently 
 desirable thing to do from all possible points of view. 
 He may even speak with contempt, arising from ignor- 
 ance, of the useless waste of time which would be involved 
 in going through the usual spiritual period. It is easy to be 
 grandly indifferent to privileges which we do not appre- 
 ciate. The conditions of existence for a fairly awakened 
 soul on manasic planes are, however, so enriched, sub- 
 lime, and blissful, that no one who once tastes them 
 can resign them by an act of will without a very vivid sense 
 of the reality involved in -such a renunciation. And no 
 disciple will be allowed to choose immediate re-incarna- 
 tion a gift that would never be allotted to him, without 
 his choice constituting one of the features in the arrange- 
 ment unless he is previously put in a position to appre- 
 ciate with exactitude the nature of the sacrifice he was 
 making. Before the expiration of his previous physical 
 life, he would have been enabled, while out of the body, 
 to pass on to the higher level of existence. He would 
 thus come to know all that it meant, and if he made the 
 choice for immediate re-incarnation, would be making it 
 with his eyes open. So much for the countervailing con- 
 
336 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 sideration against the choice, but now let me turn to what 
 I spoke of as the second aspect in favour of it, which cannot 
 be very completely defined, but may still be partially 
 appreciated. 
 
 The renunciation of higher plane life by the neophyte 
 when made in the only way in which it can be made, 
 with eyes fully open to the true character of the sacrifice 
 is in the nature of an offering of immediate personal 
 beatitude on the altar of Duty. The disciple is surren- 
 dering individual happiness to which he has a claim in 
 order to be the sooner able to take his place among those 
 whose energies are wholly spent in the promotion of the 
 well-being of the race at large. In doing this he is doubly 
 loyal to the Great Cause, for the sacrifice he makes has a 
 complicated reaction in a way that can only be fully 
 understood at the stages of progress when it becomes 
 possible. But at that stage the altruistic desire to accom- 
 plish the sacrifice becomes a more potent motive than 
 any which appeal even to the most purified and exalted 
 considerations related entirely to self. At some future 
 date, when the world is more widely peopled with persons 
 qualified to tread the path of occult progress, and appre- 
 ciate its loftier mysteries, the force of such considerations 
 as these will be more readily apprehended. Meanwhile we 
 all feel in a general way that selfishness is ignoble and 
 altruism beautiful, and that perception is a mere imper- 
 fect forecast of a mighty moral law which arms the 
 disciple, by virtue of every sacrifice he is enabled, 
 as he advances, to make, with an ever-increasing power 
 to fulfil the ever-expanding tasks of unselfish usefulness 
 as they devolve upon him in constantly augmenting 
 volume. 
 
 For the more from any individual centre of conscious- 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 337 
 
 ness a good influence is radiated, the more abundantly 
 does this well up in the interior of such an individuality. 
 Such phrases can hardly be recast into more specific and 
 exact language. We are trying to handle in thought a 
 condition of things analogous to the bewildering mathe- 
 matical enigma described as a fourth dimension. How 
 can a perpetual well-spring, ever flowing with new 
 material, emerge, as it were, from an interior centre in any 
 given individuality? And yet to the astral sight of 
 persons who are enabled to dive more deeply than the most 
 powerful microscope will carry us, into minute nature v 
 and to discern the constitution of the atoms of physical 
 matter, it is directly perceptible that each of these atoms- 
 itself a complicated organism, constructed of matter 
 belonging to a higher plane is continually bubbling up 
 with forces which emerge from an interior centre uncon- 
 nected, as far as such observation goes, with anything ex- 
 ternal to itself. Each atom is within its own enclosing 
 surface a well-spring of energy which never fails. Com- 
 parison with the atom does not explain the mystery con- 
 nected with that spiritual fountain of ever-flowing force 
 within the individuality, which must be ever giving out 
 from itself in order that its flow may proceed unchecked, 
 but at the same time the analogy is a little helpful towards 
 the comprehension of the idea. 
 
 There are some qualifications, moreover, which have 
 to be recognised as mitigating for the disciple the severity 
 of the sacrifice he makes in the manner described. Im- 
 mediate re-incarnation will link his consciousness, not 
 merely with the life which he last spent, but with the 
 intervening conditions of existence, spent in the partial 
 companionship of his Master and of other advanced com- 
 panions, and, further than this, puts him in a position 
 
338 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 to exercise consciously on the physical plane of life when 
 he returns to incarnation the senses belonging to the higher 
 regions, so that his nature will have been unified all the 
 way up to the manasic region, which it is not his privilege 
 to inhabit continuously, but which is nevertheless acces- 
 sible to him whenever the circumstances of physical life 
 enable him to quit the body for a time. All the links 
 which connect the different planes have been fully 
 developed. For the person so immediately re-incarnated, 
 as, indeed, for some others who attain in a different way 
 the corresponding pitch of development, the act of quitting 
 the body is as easy and simple as that of putting off your 
 hat. Consciousness is in no way broken by the process, 
 either as the true entity leaves or as he returns to his body. 
 For that matter most human beings leave the body, with- 
 out knowing it, when they are asleep, and their emergence 
 therefrom can be seen by observers who are sufficiently 
 clairvoyant, but the outward passage is so confusedlv 
 accomplished that it is separated from whatever experi- 
 ences are incurred out of the body by a non-conducting 
 interval of unconsciousness, and in the same way the 
 return to the body is again broken by the non-conducting 
 interval, so that the activities of the brain are enabled to 
 reflect in only a very imperfect degree the experiences 
 which such persons may encounter out of the body. And 
 the probabilities are, their experiences in such conditions 
 are of very little moment. They may not be sufficiently 
 developed to have any real activity of consciousness even 
 on the astral plane, not to speak of those above. But the 
 non-conducting interval has been suppressed in the case 
 of the occult pupil. He has arrived at the stage at which 
 he may be entitled to the help of a Master, which is 
 gfven him in this way. The whole life to which im- 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 339 
 
 mediate re-incarnation is a prelude, is qualified by full 
 consciousness concerning the other planes of Nature, 
 and by ability to reach the Master, whoever he may be. 
 For, remember, while the most important work of any 
 great Adept is performed on lofty spiritual planes of 
 Nature, it is a necessity connected with his work that he 
 should keep in touch with humanity by virtue of occupy- 
 ing a part of his time, at all events, a physical body, 
 so that the Master must also have a physical existence, 
 however .secluded it may be, or however remote ' the 
 country in which it is to be found. To this the pupil 
 in his astral body has already access, he may be there at 
 any time that the Master can receive him a second after 
 he has put his body to sleep and quitted it. He is there 
 for all purposes of consciousness, of thought, of study, of 
 activity, of objectivity to others equally qualified with him- 
 self, as though he were there in the physical body itself, 
 so that the life he leads as soon as the physical instrument 
 is mature in his immediate re-incarnation is one which is 
 glorified in a hundred ways, which only those who arc 
 saturated with occult teaching can be in a position even 
 dimly to appreciate. 
 
 The curious stage, indeed, has now been reached in 
 which the activities of the physical life of the disciple, 
 though still full of importance, and of more significance 
 than could have attached to those of any former existences, 
 are nevertheless dropping back to a subordinate place as 
 compared with spiritual activities. These he is now in a 
 position to carry on on higher planes of Nature indepen- 
 dently of the physical body and physical existence 
 altogether. The physical consciousness, in the case I am 
 imagining, will reflect his progress; he will know while 
 he is awake all that he has been doing in loftier regions; 
 
 23* 
 
340 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 he will be realising, so far as that is possible, within trie- 
 physical brain, an infinitude of new states of conscious- 
 ness on the astral plane and others to which he has now 
 free access. Free access in spite of that renunciation of 
 which I speak, because once re-established on the physical 
 plane of life he can pass into the higher state of conscious- 
 ness and pass out of it again in obedience to the call of 
 duty elsewhere. 
 
 Now let us turn to a consideration of the first steps 
 which have to be taken practically by the occult student 
 seeking for the first time to emerge from the normal evolu- 
 tion of ordinary humanity, and put himself in touch with 
 these glorious possibilities. 
 
 At the first blush of the matter students of modern 
 occult literature, assuming them to have grasped and 
 accepted its broad and grand ideas, are sometimes im- 
 pressed with the belief that the next thing to do is to get 
 introduced somehow to an occult fraternity and be 
 initiated in some inaugural mysteries, or be confronted 
 with some imposing ordeals at once. The door is open 
 to all who knock according to the familiar aphorism. 
 The Kingdom of Heaven must be taken by storm, as 
 the thought is expressed in another symbolical phrase, 
 which people in want of intelligible guidance sometimes 
 find to be very irritating. Where is the portal to be 
 knocked at ? Where is the breach to be stormed ? The 
 true answer may legitimately be distilled from all that has 
 gone before, but the time has now come for putting it in 
 plain and straightforward language, though in truth no 
 such explanation can be comprehended until students 
 thoroughly grasp the whole preliminary view of human 
 progress opened up to the mind by theosophical teaching. 
 It is not possible for an aspirant who contemplates 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 341 
 
 effective progress on the path that leads to the higher 
 initiations to get on more than a few stages on his way 
 during the life in which he first addresses himself to the 
 great undertaking. This is the foremost reason why it 
 is premature for the candidate to expect to be put, from 
 the very beginning of his effort, in direct personal relations 
 with the Masters from whom he wishes to obtain guidance. 
 The task before him, in the first instance, is the develop- 
 ment of his own character along the lines that lead in the 
 direction of the remote perfection aimed at. Eager 
 beginners may find the prospect discouraging, but there 
 is no short cut to the acquisition of the interior characteris- 
 tics which constitute the only recognised claim to par- 
 ticipation in the wisdom and power of the Adepts of the 
 White Law. A fundamental mistake is made by any- 
 one who imagines that the all-important qualifications 
 have to do with the cultivation of psychic faculties. The 
 custodians of the knowledge of which the occult student 
 is in search, are engaged in the magnificent task of stimu- 
 lating and promoting the spiritual growth of humanity, 
 not its mere capacity to handle the finer forces of Nature 
 without regard to the ultimate piirpose to which they are 
 to be applied. The disciples they are in search of are 
 such persons as may be qualified not merely to exercise 
 power on the superior planes of Nature, but to join in the 
 great unselfish work of raising humanity to a loftier level 
 of thought and feeling than that on which the majority 
 of mankind still move. Eagerness to penetrate the fas- 
 cinating mysteries of the superphysical world, however 
 well fortified by courage and strength, is no adequate 
 qualification for the true occult initiation. The attributes 
 which must belong to the accepted pupil, not to speak 
 of the person fit to be presented by his own Master to 
 
342 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the occult hierarchy, and thus to be received into the 
 community of those who have definitely entered on the 
 path, must be such as promise to render him in process 
 of time a co-worker with those whose duty it is in the 
 scheme of the world's government, to foster and provide 
 for the moral growth of all mankind. The impatience 
 that would set a neophyte in antagonism with as he 
 might imagine it this too exclusive programme would 
 have no effect whatever in helping him to get on faster. 
 Some of the powers and faculties, the charm of which 
 may have inflamed his imagination, may have been 
 acquired by some persons in whose possession he may see 
 them, by irregular methods ill-calculated to promote real 
 ulterior growth, but they will only be conferred by Hiero- 
 phahts of the great White Brotherhood in the wake of 
 those moral attributes on the part of a candidate which 
 can alone afford those who are already Masters in the 
 school of supreme benevolence no less than in that of 
 wisdom, the assurance that he will not misuse the power 
 and enlarged senses of perception, of which he is in search. 
 Where would be the motive for endowing the public 
 at large with information enabling anyone who desires 
 to do so, with whatever motive, to enter into personal 
 relations with the Higher Masters? The fact that there, 
 is a path which the spiritual student may tread is made 
 abundantly obvious for everyone who has common intel- 
 ligence to apply to the matter by the recent revival of 
 occult literature. The teaching, which in the course of 
 that revival has been explicitly communicated to the world 
 at large by Adept Masters for the first time in coherent, 
 intelligible language will show new candidates for occult 
 progress the principles on which such progress is alone 
 possible. If they do the preliminary work of self-prepara-. 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 343 
 
 tion Karma must infallibly, in their next lives at furthest, 
 give them an opportunity of taking the next steps under 
 the direct help of the Master to whom, in the very act 
 of that self-preparation, they will have made an uncon- 
 scious appeal. He may not have been cognisable in the 
 first instance by them, but they will assuredly, by the 
 occult reactions of their endeavour, have made them- 
 selves perceptible to him. 
 
 And now let us examine more closely into the nature 
 of that self-preparation that would operate in the way 
 described. There is no mystery or secret about the 
 matter. The interior moral change required as a quali- 
 fication for actual initiation, whether Eastern or Western 
 neophytes are in question, is easily defined, and has been 
 set forth in some Eastern writings which, in a Western 
 shape, have filtered into current theosophical literature. 
 But these have been often misunderstood by readers led 
 to imagine that certain moral prescriptions must be obeyed 
 to the letter by all who aim at entering on the Path. 
 Much has been said, indeed, about the " Probationary 
 Path " as a condition that has to be traversed before the 
 first genuine initiation can be reached. In the earlier 
 editions of this book, even, the phrase was used with that 
 significance. But in truth there is no such probationary 
 period marked out by the great spiritual powers who 
 preside over human progress. Entrance on the Path and 
 there is only one great Path to be considered is a rela- 
 tively simple matter. In past ages different conditions 
 may have prevailed, and with them for the moment it is 
 needless to concern ourselves. At present, in this Western 
 world, everyone who is seriously impressed with the 
 dignity and importance of the spiritual flood of teaching 
 that has been poured into the world in connection with the 
 
344 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Theosophical Movement who can in some measure 
 realise the constitution of the Divine Hierarchy to which 
 those we speak of as Masters of Wisdom belong all who 
 in this way appreciate the Theosophical Movement are on 
 the Path, whether they know it in the physical waking 
 life or not. 
 
 Of course, the moral attributes that used to be spoken 
 of as those of the probationary path are absolutely neces- 
 sary to provide for progress on the Path. I do not want 
 to belittle the efforts needed to secure successive initia- 
 tions, but these, whatever they may be, will confront 
 each person in turn, as previously acquired knowledge and 
 strength will have prepared him for each new achievement. 
 
 But, keeping in mind the idea that the perfect realisa- 
 tion in consciousness of the qualifications and accomplish- 
 ments of the programme provided for the aspirant is not 
 expected until an advanced stage of initiation, it may 
 be worth while to survey them as indications of the 
 interior condition to be desired by candidates for real 
 advancement on the Path. That which is alone necessary 
 for the beginner is that he should manifest an honest, 
 Wealthy tendency in the direction of the various achieve- 
 ments specified, or at all events if some of the qualifications 
 to be described are fairly well defined in his character an 
 imperfect attainment of others will suffice for the im- 
 mediate object in view. With this comforting assurance 
 in the foreground to guard the aspirant from the dis- 
 couragement he might feel if he supposed that from the 
 outset occult authorities claimed a complete realisation 
 in his consciousness of principles that seemed at the first 
 glance compatible only with an almost superhuman degree 
 of moral exaltation, we may pass on to a review of the 
 attributes towards which his efforts must be directed. 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 345 
 
 English phrases may be conveniently employed to 
 describe these attributes, without necessarily falling back 
 on such as would accurately translate the Sanscrit or Pali 
 terms used in the East. The idea is the all-important 
 essence of the phrase, whatever language is used to convey 
 it. And the foremost attribute towards which the occult 
 aspirant must endeavour to train his interior growth is 
 one which seems to me best defined by the phrase render- 
 ing Allegiance to the Higher Self. 
 
 To begin with, the aspirant must appreciate the signi- 
 ficance, in its bearing on himself, of the occult teaching 
 which shows us how the imperishable element in our 
 consciousness is that " Higher Self " which grows and 
 develops as it manifests in physical life through successive 
 incarnations. Each descent into incarnation gives rise to 
 the temporary aggregation round the Higher Self of 
 emotions, desires, characteristics of various kinds which 
 make up the personality or physical mask of the immortal 
 soul the earthly man as known to other earthly men. 
 These do not constitute the permanent or true being 
 the " real " being, as some writers call it in contradistinc- 
 tion to the " unreal " personality. Correctly apprehended, 
 the distinction is a just one, though there is a flavour of 
 absurdity in applying the term " unreal " to the earthly 
 personality so very solid and definite a manifestation 
 while it lasts which is irritating to people who endeavour 
 to use language with nicety. Anyhow, it can be seen 
 that the personality is impermanent as an aggregate of 
 characteristics, though, of course, it is all the while infused 
 with and animated by the permanent Higher Self. If 
 the conception is found embarrassing it may be approached 
 by dwelling first of all on the obvious truth that the 
 physical body in which the personality is expressed is im- 
 
346 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 permanent as far as that is concerned. A very little effort 
 of imagination on the part of anyone in any sensible 
 degree qualified to deal seriously with occult teaching 
 will enable him to feel that he might still be himself in 
 another incarnation with a new body and a different 
 worldly environment. The experience of those who 
 have progressed a little way on the path and are enabled 
 to recover recollections of former lives will give us the 
 assurance that in looking back on these such persons feel 
 that their earlier incarnations were undoubtedly them- 
 selves, in spite of the wide differences of bodily condition 
 and environment they may have represented. From the 
 stage of mental growth in which each bodily manifesta- 
 tion of the permanent self is appreciated as a temporary 
 phrase of being, no long step has to be made to the realisa- 
 tion of the subtle truth that some conditions of conscious- 
 ness attached to the personality are transitory and imper- 
 manent, as well as the outward shape and appearance of 
 the body. With that conception fairly grasped the student 
 has got a good way on towards the acquisition of the 
 first attribute of the series under consideration. That is 
 to say, he has only (!) to appreciate the real insigni- 
 ficance of those objects of pursuit in life which relate 
 to the impermanent personality as compared with those 
 which tend towards the growth and invigoration of the 
 Higher Self the real being whose progress, once achieved, 
 is never lost in the course of future evolution. No doubt 
 the complete appreciation of this great truth would make 
 the incarnate man so sublime a philosopher that it seems 
 absurd to claim the attribute from an aspirant just setting 
 out on the path -of spiritual progress. But throughout this 
 exposition the reader may bear one important reservation 
 in mind. There will come a time in the course of the 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 347 
 
 disciple's progress when the qualifications under considera- 
 tion must be realised in his consciousness with perfection; 
 but in the beginning that which is required is a sound 
 appreciation of the ideal condition of feeling aimed at, 
 an honest endeavour to realise it in some measure. Total 
 indifference to the usual objects of worldly ambition and 
 desire seems hardly possible for a person actually living 
 in the world, and as yet unconscious in his waking state 
 of the higher spiritual world beyond. On the other hand, 
 we can see that complete absorption in objects of worldly 
 ambition and desire is on the face of things incompatible 
 with even the first beginnings of aspiration in the direction 
 of occult progress. No one to whom the thirst for ease 
 and luxury, for wealth, or for the applause or considera- 
 tion of competitors in the worldly race, is the mainspring 
 of activity in this existence, is even planted with his foot 
 on the first rung of the occult ladder, even if a certain 
 intellectual appreciation of esoteric teaching as probably 
 true may colour his thinking in leisure moments. From 
 the very outset of any serious anxiety to ascend in the scale 
 of creation, and approximate towards communion with 
 those who represent its altitudes, there must come about 
 a considerable loosening of the old ties to worldly objects. 
 These may not fade away into entire insignificance, but 
 they begin to be coloured by a sickly aspect of instability, 
 and gradually the interior consciousness that conditions of 
 existence relating to planes of Nature quite divorced from 
 all physical necessities or enjoyments are the only objects 
 worth energetic endeavour, will take hold of the mind. 
 The change may be worked out by different aspirants with 
 very different degrees of completeness, but it must set 
 in, for the neophyte even, or for him the slow course of 
 unhastened evolution will roll on through the ages, pass- 
 
348 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 ing him through an all but interminable succession of lives, 
 each at the best but a very little better than its predecessor, 
 many of them involving bitter retrogression, as measured 
 on the scale of worldly welfare, most of them gloomily 
 vindicating the pessimist philosophy, that would indeed 
 be justified by human experience if consciousness on the 
 physical plane of life, with all the penalties of that condi- 
 tion in constant operation, were the only kind to which 
 the human family had access. While loftier motives are 
 the allurement to occult endeavour, this thought should be 
 its spur. The path may be hard to travel, but in the suffer- 
 ings it can hardly fail to entail in the long run, the only 
 alternative road that which carries us through the tedious 
 course of secular evolution is a good deal more deterrent 
 to the imagination. 
 
 And what is the next attribute to be incorporated with 
 the character of the occult student ? He is aiming, be it 
 remembered, at communion with those who have achieved 
 a level of individual exaltation, which would enable them, 
 if they thought fit, to enjoy an existence of beatitude 
 which cannot be comprehended by persons on a far in- 
 ferior level of spiritual development, but is supremely 
 attractive for those by whom it can be approached. In 
 foregoing this and remaining attached by incarnation to 
 the plane of physical life, they are governed by no motive 
 referring in any way to themselves. They are solely 
 prompted by the desire to do good to others irrespective 
 of any possible advantage ensuing to themselves. In a 
 minor degree, therefore, the aspirant who proposes ?o 
 follow in their footsteps must cultivate the habit of mind 
 which they exemplify in perfection. He has, that is to 
 say, to aim at spiritual exaltation not for the sake of its 
 beatitude, but for that of its opportunities, in order that he 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 349. 
 
 may put himself in a position to join in the work of elevat- 
 ing the condition of humanity en masse. As in the case 
 of the characteristics concerned with rendering allegiance 
 to the Higher Self, it would be extravagant to contend 
 that the mere aspirant must definitely attain the moral 
 condition in which the efforts he makes in the path of 
 spiritual progress are wholly prompted by desire to benefit 
 others, and completely exempt from even that lofty kind 
 of spiritual ambition that impels him to seek the beati- 
 tudes of the spiritual planes of being; but there must be 
 even in his case a recognition of the nobler motive, and 
 an application of it to the immediate problem of existence. 
 He must wean himself from the notion that the attainment 
 of spiritual beautitude for himself is the object of endea- 
 vour. In doing right he must not allow the idea that he 
 will ultimately be rewarded, in some way, on another 
 plane of existence for so doing, to take hold of his imagina- 
 tion. Perhaps a good many right-thinking people may 
 habitually do right without paying much attention to the 
 idea of any consequent reward. They do the right thing 
 because that is the right thing to do, and in so far as they 
 really act on that principle are perhaps further advanced 
 on the road leading to fitness for definite initiation than 
 they are actually aware of. But at the same time the 
 ethics of Western civilsation, when resting on religious 
 sanctions of any sort, are deeply infused with the expecta- 
 tion of spiritual beatitude in a life to come. Occult teach- 
 ing concerning the motives that should operate with the 
 enlightened aspirant for advancement in the hierarchy of 
 Nature, combines a loftier ideal with a comprehension of 
 the laws regulating such advancement, as derived from the 
 unity of all consciousness on certain exalted planes of 
 being. The gain of one is in a certain sense the gain of 
 
350 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 all; the advancing welfare of all in a certain sense neces- 
 sary to the advancement of the one. The grasp of this idea 
 invests unselfishness itself with the character of a scientific 
 force, while at the same time showing that it can only 
 become a force when the genuine outcome of true human 
 sympathy. 
 
 Some reasonably sufficient assimilation of these ideas 
 and the feelings to which they give rise constitutes the 
 second attribute of the aspirant to initiation. It has some- 
 times been described as indifference to the fruits of good 
 action, but that is rather a cold and colourless definition. It 
 is rather indifference to personal reward as a fruit of good 
 action and might be summed up as devotion to right in 
 the abstract. If the attainment of this attribute seems, 
 as it probably will to many European readers, a lesser 
 achievement than indifference to the usual objects of 
 worldly desire, that will only be because of the extent to 
 which so many of us are saturated with the conditional 
 belief that if there is another state of existence beyond 
 this, devotion to right here will give happiness there. Prob- 
 ably there is an application of this doctrine taking suffi- 
 ciently long views of the future in which it is true, but 
 a future far beyond the space of the existence first tinged 
 by devotion to right, may claim from the occult aspirant 
 continued effort and continued sacrifice. He has to face 
 that possibility with cheerful courage and to feel that 
 it imposes no check upon his enthusiasm, before he can 
 be entitled to consider that in the occult sense of the phrase 
 he has attained devotion to right. 
 
 We may pass on now in our survey of the interior 
 growth which must go on concurrently with the earlier 
 initiation of which the aspirant may be unconscious in 
 waking life to the consideration of a group of six quali- 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 351 
 
 fications or mental habits which the aspirant is called on 
 to acquire. 
 
 The first of these is sometimes described as Regulation 
 of Thought. Sometimes the qualification has been 
 described as purity of thought or mastery over thought. 
 Of course, absolute mastery over thought would make 
 a man a magician at once; while, with thought so habitu- 
 ally purified that no impulse of an evil, ignoble, or un- 
 saintly order should ever cross the mind even to be hunted 
 out, the personality so exalted would be almost ready for 
 Nirvana on the strength of that condition of things alone. 
 But however unlikely it may be that any mere aspirant 
 to occult progress should realise the qualification entirely, 
 no one can persevere in the effort to make progress if his 
 thinking should remain entirely undisciplined, the sport of 
 any breeze of circumstance that might eddy round him. 
 The control and regulation of thought is an enormous 
 task on which the energies of the occult student will be 
 bent, in many various ways, for a long time, but he must 
 make a beginning on it from the outset of his self-prepara- 
 tion. In doing this he is beginning in a very subtle way 
 that training of the will which is an all-important process 
 as he advances further. Thought is under the control 
 of the will to an extent that exoteric psychology does not 
 always recognise, and there are manifold reasons why the 
 aspirant to initiation must be able to hold his thoughts 
 fairly well in hand before he is in a position to claim 
 admittance to a fellowship in which thought is apt to be as 
 manifest to those around, as the colour of the clothes A 
 man might wear would be manifest to ordinary observa- 
 tion. 
 
 And independently of this, regulation of thought in 
 
352 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the aspirant is regarded from the occult point of view as 
 the prelude to the second qualification of the series before 
 us regulation of conduct. Taken thus, the first and 
 second qualifications will perhaps seem to some readers 
 presented in the wrong order. It may look like putting 
 the cart before the horse to postpone the reform of one's 
 action till after the reform of one's thinking on the sub- 
 ject. And as applied to the grosser vices of common life 
 if these were the matters the occultist had to regulate, 
 self-restraint in action would certainly have to be accom- 
 plished before anyone could talk seriously about regulat- 
 ing thought in such a way as to eliminate from his nature 
 the desires that would have to be self-restrained. But the 
 student who has already rendered allegiance to his Higher 
 Self, and attained devotion to right, even in a degree that 
 may be far from perfection in either respect, need hardly 
 be thought of as a person under the dominion of the grosser 
 vices. The conduct to be regulated is that which has to 
 do with the finer problems of life and the subtler tempta- 
 tions. Noblesse oblige. The conduct of an aspirant to 
 initiations which will bring him into conscious relations 
 with beings so exalted as those on the higher levels of the 
 occult hierarchy, should clearly bear some fair correspon- 
 dence with the character of his aspirations. Here there is- 
 no question of rank weeds to be pulled up, but of in- 
 fluences to be brought to bear on the aspirant's nature of 
 such an order that conduct may not only be negatively but 
 positively in creditable harmony with his ideals. With 
 that idea to explain the arrangement it will seem reason- 
 able enough that regulation of thought is treated as the 
 first, and regulation of conduct as the second of the quali- 
 fications. 
 
 The third has to do with a change of feeling in regard 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 353 
 
 to religious matters which has very different significance 
 for different people. So many beautiful emotions are often 
 interwoven around religious formulas and creeds, even 
 after these have diverged a good deal from the pure teach- 
 ing out of which they may have sprung, that the dis- 
 entanglement of the truth from unfortunate accretions of 
 thought gathered round it, is sometimes in such cases an 
 almost painful process. And yet it must be recognised 
 that the aspirant in search of real knowledge concerning 
 the profound inner verities of spiritual science cannot 
 expect to carry to the end of his undertaking the whole 
 burden of the crude popular beliefs which make up the 
 exoteric religion, whatever it may be, in which his devo- 
 tional instincts have first been nurtured. For the tender- 
 nesses of thought, so to speak, to which that nurture may 
 have given rise, occult teaching in its turn is profoundly 
 tender. Genuine Theosophy is far more interested in 
 tracing the underlying truth through its various disguises 
 in all the great religions of the world than in dissecting 
 their several errors; and back through the symbology that 
 he has been used to, until he reaches the fundamental truth, 
 each student directed by a teacher who correctly gives 
 effect to the spirit in which the Higher Masters of wisdom 
 deal with religious attachments, would be encouraged to 
 choose his course. But it is plain enough that advanced 
 spiritual culture must eventually enable the initiate in 
 occult knowledge to look on all external forms of religious 
 belief with a grand and tolerant impartiality. That Higher 
 Self to which the neophyte in occultism renders an allegi- 
 ance belongs of its nature to a realm of consciousness far 
 exalted above ecclesiastical systems, whether of Europe 
 or Asia. The personality even of the occult student shares 
 that exaltation as he advances in no inconsiderable degree. 
 
 2 4 
 
354 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 The acquisition of this sublime sort of tolerance, which is 
 something more than the mere converse of persecution, 
 constitutes the third qualification of the series we are 
 considering. It is that attitude of mind in which a man 
 clings to the essence of spiritual truth, and is no longer 
 in the mental fetters of any hard and fast dogma or creed. 
 Of course, there are some among the candidates for occult 
 initiation who have this qualification in pretty complete 
 development to start with. The most intense agnosticism 
 may be compatible with readiness to accept spiritual 
 teaching which approaches us with adequate guarantees, 
 and in such cases the growth of the mind, which is 
 required at the stage of progress we are dealing with, is 
 one which will rather invest the student with a newly 
 developed respect for external religions, for the sake of 
 the inner truths they embody, than oppose itself to a 
 bigotry which, by the hypothesis, has no hold upon his 
 thinking. But for others the old religious forms, phrases 
 and terminology are not only dear for the sake of the 
 spiritual truth they may endeavour to set forth; they are 
 dear for their own sake, for that of innumerable associa- 
 tions bound up with them, and thus for some persons they 
 may be a stumbling-block rather than an aid to progress. 
 No one whose mind is cast in a religious mould can ever 
 have been asked by a truly qualified occult teacher to 
 break away from the religion to which he is naturally 
 attached. But he will purify it for himself as he proceeds, 
 and find himself less and less enslaved to its outer husk, 
 whether of form or doctrine, and the advance he may 
 make in the direction of this manifestly higher view of 
 the subject is the measure of the extent to which he 
 invests himself with the third qualification, which may 
 thus be described as freedom from bigotry freedom 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 355 
 
 from any exaggerated attachment to any one body of 
 doctrinal belief, whether it has its origin in the East or 
 the West. 
 
 The fourth qualification towards which the candidate 
 has to aspire, is that state of mind in which a man feels 
 no resentment in respect of worldly wrong or ill-usage 
 from which he may suffer. On the face of things, this 
 qualification, in perfection, would be a very sublime 
 attribute, and I need hardly stop to repeat that as regards 
 the occult candidate attempting a preparatory self-culture, 
 so divine a characteristic in entire perfection would hardly 
 be expected. But, on the other hand, nothing can be more 
 fatally incompatible with the aspirations of a person 
 aiming at initiation than a tendency of character which 
 would be the opposite of the qualification in question. 
 For one thing it will be obvious that the guardians of 
 humanity, who are themselves, above all things, the ex- 
 ponents of compassion and unselfishness, can hardly be 
 expected to extend a welcome to pupils who, however well 
 qualified in other respects, might be capable of that worst 
 of all selfishness revenge. Before the powers that accrue 
 to an initiate from the knowledge to which he is admitted, 
 can safely be placed in his hands, it must be reasonably 
 certain that he is not the kind of person to use them as 
 the weapons of mundane anger. From the beginning he 
 must lean towards the frame of mind in which he will not 
 even feel the resentment to which he must, at all events, 
 train himself not to give way. And for that matter, an 
 honest development in the direction of the first qualifica- 
 tion will go far towards simplifying the acquisition of that 
 under notice. In proportion to the extent to which we 
 really fix our aspirations on the things which concern the 
 Higher Self/ and dissociate our longings from the com- 
 
 24* 
 
356 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 mon objects of worldly ambition, we shall be less liable 
 to brood over resentful feelings against those who may 
 have come in the way of our attainment thereof. I need 
 not expand the hint into a moral essay, but concentrating 
 the thought instead of enlarging it, may suggest as a con- 
 veniently concise description of the fourth qualification 
 Forbearance. 
 
 The fifth qualification, like the third, is a characteristic 
 almost instinctive with some natures, extremely difficult 
 of acquisition by others. It has been described as incapa- 
 bility of being turned aside from one's path by temptation. 
 With persons of constitutionally resolved and steadfast 
 temperament, the motives for entering on the occult path, 
 once appreciated, could never lose their weight. Others 
 of more enthusiastic and impulsive character might be 
 turned aside more easily without having been less sincere 
 at the outset. But for all who have made any decided 
 progress in the acquisition of the tendencies already 
 reviewed, it must, to say the least, be growing probable 
 that faithfulness to the lofty purpose in view will be 
 strengthened into something like a constitutional attribute. 
 It must clearly be assumed to have thus established itself 
 as a predominant feature of the candidate's interior nature 
 before the preparatory stage of the great process is over. 
 The one word " Steadfastness " will sufficiently denote 
 the phase of character in question. 
 
 And now we come to the last of the qualifications in 
 the probationary series confidence in the power of the 
 occult Master to teach the truth; in that of the candidate 
 himself to grasp it in all its vast complexity, and to wield 
 the powers knowledge may bring in its train, as others 
 have been able to do this before him. 
 
 The final qualification thus treated as among the pre- 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 357 
 
 paratory attributes to be acquired by the mere aspirant to 
 initiation, is very significant. How does it come to pass 
 that a " Master " appears suddenly on the scene ? Up to 
 this moment all the efforts contemplated are in the nature 
 of self-preparation, and by the whole hypothesis the 
 process is one that the neophyte must undertake for him- 
 self, before undertaking which it is not to be expected that 
 he will be in conscious relations with any of the higher 
 teachers. But, as already explained, it is quite certain that 
 at a very early stage of the beginner's loyal effort to accom- 
 plish the interior development which must precede his con- 
 scious introduction to higher knowledge and fellowship, 
 he will attract the attention of someone among the higher 
 teachers. For a long while he himself may remain entirely 
 unaware of this, but if he fairly well realises the two great 
 inaugural attributes and trains himself with the earlier 
 qualifications, he will make the acquaintance of the 
 Master, to whom he naturally gravitates, before the time 
 comes at which the sixth assumes practical importance 
 for him. 
 
 Of course, it must always be remembered that nothing 
 in connection with such a work as this is done in a hurry. 
 The earlier attributes will not be acquired even in the 
 degree sufficient for the beginner under the sudden im- 
 pulse of a new emotion. Such interior changes ensue from 
 long habits of thought by degrees, or even if some natures 
 are so constituted that a suddenly acquired conviction of 
 enthusiasm may also be held fast, the Master whose atten- 
 tion was engaged would let time elapse, if only for the 
 sake of testing its persistence, before he took any steps that 
 would illuminate the understanding of the pupil concern- 
 ing his own identity. 
 
 Indeed, there would be another motive for delaying 
 
358 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 that illumination. By the time the habits of thought, the 
 interior growth, manifest to the Master's observation, 
 which were giving rise to the acquisition of the earlier 
 attributes, were fairly developed, a state of things would 
 have set in bringing the aspirant into new and very import- 
 ant relations with the mighty powers in the background of 
 the world's affairs, by whose conscious agency the law of 
 Karma is applied to each individual of the human family. 
 The desire to tread the Path of Holiness which is expressed 
 by progress in initiation, must necessarily include, if it is 
 intelligently entertained, a desire to close once for all the 
 account of evil doing in the past which may stand as an 
 impediment in the way. It is practically an appeal to the 
 Lords of Karma that they may hasten the process by 
 which the aspirant is slowly in the ordinary course of 
 things expiating the mistakes or misdoings of past lives. 
 As such an appeal might be made in ignorance of all it 
 might mean, we may assume as probable that it would not 
 be fully answered if the account of the past were so heavy 
 a one that it could hardly be disposed of in one life. But 
 the greater likelihood lies in the opposite direction. The 
 aspirant for spiritual progress may, perhaps, have a good 
 deal to answer for as regards Karma engendered in past 
 lives, but still he is not likely to be among the most deeply 
 besmirched of his race. So it is probable that some 
 rearrangement of the programme of his life's destiny may 
 enable him to go through at once whatever inevitable 
 suffering awaits him, to the end that in the next following 
 incarnation there may be no impediment in the way of his 
 progress. So this is generally the result of a serious attempt 
 to get upon the path of occult development. In one way 
 or another the aspirant finds it unexpectedly thorny. The 
 trouble he encounters may not necessarily seem a direct 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 359- 
 
 consequence of his spiritual efforts. More probably it takes 
 the shape of mundane distress or suffering of some kind 
 or another, loss of fortune, friends, or health, as the case 
 may be. And such misfortunes then become the auto- 
 matically established ordeals which constitute the reai 
 trials of the aspirant's steadfastness. The imperfect 
 accounts of initiation as carried out in more primitive ages 
 of the world that have come down to our time, describe 
 artificial ordeals and temptations put in the neophyte's way, 
 and something of this kind may have actually been 
 arranged for in Ancient Egypt, but even there the natural 
 Karmic tests and trials of perseverance must have been 
 the more important, and at all events it is to their by no 
 means tender mercies that the modern aspirant must look 
 forward to being confided. If the irritation and im- 
 patience to which they may give rise have the effect of 
 turning aside his thoughts and anxieties from the path of 
 progress on which he has sought to enter, then he will have 
 failed for that life, at all events, in accomplishing the fifth 
 qualification, and his responsibility will not be unduly 
 aggravated by such disclosures or interior illumination as- 
 would bring the sixth into question. 
 
 Then in the fulness of time the aspirant no longer 
 to be described by that word alone is conducted by the 
 Master by whom his earlier progress has been watched 
 over and guided, to a great result. He passes a threshold 
 beyond which he finds himself in a certain sense a member 
 of the great Fraternity of Holiness. It is true that from 
 one point of view he has but then for the first time begun 
 to tread the path of true occult development. Many lives 
 may be spent in the efforts and acquirements which lead 
 to Adeptship. From that level the horizons before him, 
 v/hen he ultimately gains perception of them, will widen 
 
360 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 in a manner which no one can expect to realise with 
 exactitude beforehand; but at all events the aspirant who 
 crosses the boundary of the first great initiation has gained 
 something that can never be lost, whatever may happen 
 to him in the future, whatever difficulties he may encounter 
 as he proceeds. He can never in the nature of things slip 
 back to be what he was before the all-important change 
 was wrought in his nature first by his own persistent effort, 
 and at last fixed by his acceptance at the hands of the 
 governing hierarchy of the world. 
 
 The initiation which thus carries the aspirant once for 
 all across the chasm dividing ordinary humanity from the 
 occult world has hitherto been called, in theosophical 
 literature, the " Sohan " initiation. That name 
 will serve for the present. The attainment is not 
 a question of psychic characteristics. It may frequently 
 happen that it is taken on the higher planes of conscious- 
 ness without the incarnate personality remembering or 
 knowing anything about the matter. But at all events it 
 is altogether a question of moral and ethical development 
 and will not be hastened one day, in the absence of such 
 development, by the possession of psychic senses which 
 may be the Karmic fruit of efforts to penetrate the 
 mysteries of Nature, undertaken (perhaps in past lives) 
 from motives quite out of harmony with the lofty altruism 
 of the genuine disciple of the Masters. Psychic faculties 
 grown in this unhealthy way are far more likely to 
 entangle their possessor with evil relationships on the 
 occult planes of existence than to help him on the real 
 upward path. 
 
 Not even on the attainment of the Sohan initiation does 
 the development of psychic faculties, such as will put 
 the waking incarnate man into possession of those keys 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 361 
 
 of knowledge confided to him at his initiation, become 
 the foremost object of his appointed training. His work 
 as regards his own training though he will now, when 
 actively functioning in the Higher Self, have plenty of 
 other work to do under proper direction, the nature of 
 which cannot easily be comprehended from the point of 
 view of ordinary mundane thinking will still be primarily 
 concerned with the perfection of his moral attributes. For 
 one thing, now he is on the true path of initiation, he will be 
 required to attain with absolute completeness the characteris- 
 tics which are but imperfectly realised during the earlier 
 period. The result to be attained, indeed, is now approached 
 in a somewhat different way. In the course of his progress 
 through the various stages of initiation leading up to 
 Adeptship, the disciple is not spoken of as acquiring such 
 and such attributes, but is called on to cast off various 
 "" fetters " which attach him to the lower levels of exist- 
 ence. In some Eastern books these fetters are enumerated 
 in a definite order, but I do not think the purposes of this 
 explanation would be served by an examination of the 
 series. From the point of view of ordinary life their exact 
 significance in the occult world would probably be mis- 
 apprehended. But it is none the less interesting to survey 
 the stages of this higher path, which are better under- 
 stood even in the outer world by those who are in any true 
 sense occult students, than many Theosophists may be 
 aware of. 
 
 Without suspecting what he is unconsciously dealing 
 with, Prof. Max Muller mentions certain steps of initia- 
 tion in one of his translations. In a note to Chapter xii. 
 of his " Dammapada " he writes : " . . . Arhat being 
 the highest degree of the four orders of Ariyas, viz., 
 Srotaapanna, Sakridagamin, Anagamin and Arhat.'' 
 
362 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 It is quite unnecessary for the European student to burden 
 his memory with Oriental terms of this kind. 
 
 Long intervals of time may separate the passage from 
 one of these degrees to the next. But, provided the Karma 
 of the past is favourable, progress may be very much more 
 rapid. 
 
 To guard against a misunderstanding that would be 
 fatal to the proper appreciation of the system I am 
 describing, it is necessary here to remind readers familiar 
 with certain frequently repeated statements in occult 
 literature concerning the duration of the intervals between 
 incarnate lives, that such statements relate to the normal 
 progress of humanity along the majestic course of ordinary 
 evolution. Once " entered on the stream " new condi- 
 tions come into play, and the physical lives required for 
 the training of the disciple may follow in rapid and un- 
 broken succession. Again, in order that the whole position 
 may be properly apprehended, it is necessary to explain that 
 the course of initiation described so far is that which leads 
 the aspirant directly up into the great " White Lodge," as 
 it is sometimes called into close and immediate relations 
 with those spiritual beings more exalted in nature than 
 even the full Adepts, who constitute what may be thought 
 of as the governing hierarchy of this planet. There are 
 other paths of occult initiation by which neophytes may 
 be enabled to progress some distance along the avenues of 
 advancement leading to power and knowledge. Concern- 
 ing some of these the less said the better, except for the 
 consideration that to comprehend good aright it may be 
 necessary to bear in mind the existence of evil. A resolute 
 and sufficiently reckless determination may enable the 
 aspirant to knowledge concerning, and power over, the 
 occult forces of Nature, even to acquire considerable 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 363, 
 
 control of them, without fitting himself by moral develop- 
 ment to use them for the good of humanity at large. 
 Under the guidance of purely selfish motives, the neophyte 
 who is unfortunate enough to be able to purchase help from 
 corresponding Masters may get on to levels of knowledge 
 and power corresponding to some of the stages of pro- 
 gress described above as the four steps on the true path. 
 This paper is not concerned to trace the ultimate spiritual 
 consequences of that sort of progress in what is technically 
 called Black Magic; but the point to remember in this 
 connection is that a good deal of psychic and astral develop- 
 ment going on in the world under the guidance of various 
 old schools, or relatively modern societies, of occultism, is 
 not necessarily Black Magic, though it may lie apart from 
 the path of initiation leading directly upward to the White 
 Lodge. There was a time when the White Lodge itself 
 claimed progress in psychic development from its candi- 
 dates as the first qualification for entrance on the path. 
 That system prevailed during the Atlantean period. But 
 with the great spiritual impulse imparted to the Fifth Race 
 by its naturally appointed Teacher when his time came, 
 a change was introduced under his direction in the rules 
 of initiation, and the ethical or moral qualifications were 
 taken first, in accordance with the scheme set forth in the 
 earlier part of the present statement. 
 
 The precise nature of the acquirements which lead to 
 actual Adeptship cannot, as I have already said, be dealt 
 with on the physical plane of consciousness alone. It 
 would be as reasonable to attempt a treatise on meta- 
 physics in words of one syllable. Splendid as the modern 
 achievements of the human mind in many directions may 
 seem when they are compared with its conditions at ruder 
 periods, they are merely concerned with one aspect of 
 
364 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Nature, with one plane of consciousness, and the Adept 
 has to concern himself with several. In terms of one 
 plane it is impossible to describe the tasks of another. And 
 this difficulty standing in our way before we even reach in 
 imagination the Arhat level of progress, we are all the 
 more debarred from attempting to analyse the functions 
 and attributes ultimately exercised and acquired by some 
 of the great Adepts who eventually enter into mysterious 
 union with the fundamental laws of the cosmos, and 
 become in a certain sense their expression their radiant 
 point, so to speak, through which the Divine idea thence- 
 forth flows. Appreciating nothing more in this connec- 
 tion than the broad principle that there is no limit to the 
 upward progress of humanity towards perfection and the 
 infinitudes of wisdom, we may leave the subject at the 
 threshold of mysteries it would be irreverent to handle at 
 this stage of the world's progress in a treatise designed for 
 publication. Of one spiritual rank, higher even than that 
 of the Arhat, it may, however, be possible to speak defi- 
 nitely, because it represents a condition of evolution 
 which, stupendous as its significance may be, is neverthe- 
 less the theoretical goal of the whole human race in this 
 Manvantara. All will certainly not attain it, and those 
 who do so in the ordinary course of evolution will only 
 reach it in the course of millions of ages and beyond an 
 immeasurable vista of lives, in reference to which on their 
 own merits the doctrines of pessimistic philosophy would 
 but too generally apply; but for everyone who may read 
 these pages it is theoretically attainable. 
 
 The rank in the hierarchy of Adeptship above that 
 of the Arhat, which we may now endeavour in some 
 measure to comprehend, is attained by the Arhat, after 
 what periods of effort and delay we need not now attempt 
 
INITIATION IN THE PRESENT DAY 365 
 
 to account for, when he casts off the final " fetter " which 
 impedes him at that stage. The fetter in question is. 
 simply " avidya " ignorance and the use of the word in 
 such a connection may help to show how easily the ter- 
 minology of the higher " Path " may be misunderstood. 
 " Ignorance " for most of us has a meaning derived from 
 comparison of certain states of mind with ordinary nine- 
 teenth-century culture, taken as the standard of wisdom 
 and knowledge. The " ignorance " of the Adept is 
 measured against absolute knowledge of all that concerns 
 the system of evolution and the chain of planets to which 
 he belongs. When he has at last probably through many 
 protracted incarnations taken by his own will and choice 
 attained a complete mastery of all the wisdom and 
 knowledge this scheme of evolution can afford, he is ready 
 to pass on. 
 
 When he is in a position to survey the whole process 
 on which the human family is launched, from its begin- 
 ning in the remote past to its conclusion in the almost 
 immeasurably distant future; when all the natural laws 
 and forces which play round it lie within his comprehen- 
 sion and grasp, whether they are operative on the physical 
 plane with its wonderful complexity of molecules and 
 forces, or on those other planes invisible to ordinary sight 
 which interpenetrate it or surround it and are more 
 bewildering in their complexity still; when all the myriad 
 enigmas of good and evil, of sin and sorrow, and hope, 
 are resolved into intelligible meaning, and neither the earth 
 below, nor the heavens above, nor life, nor death, hold any 
 riddles from his understanding, the Adept is qualified to 
 attain the final rank in the vast concatenation of progress 
 we have been surveying, and is then known to initiates as 
 " Aseka." It is by virtue of some appreciation, as far as it 
 
366 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 goes, of the place in Nature which the Aseka Adepts 
 occupy, that their pupils, whether in a humble or advanced 
 degree, entertain the assurance they always feel in refer- 
 ence to occult teachings definitely received from such a 
 source. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 IRREGULAR PSYCHIC PROGRESS 
 
 NATURAL psychic faculties have been for a 
 long time under observation one way or another, 
 in the ordinary world, but this observation has 
 been carried on in such an irregular, spasmodic, unscientific 
 fashion that none of the many writers who have been con- 
 cerned in the investigation have arrived at any satisfactory 
 conclusion. Very often psychic faculties have been found 
 in persons afflicted with various physical maladies, and 
 lookers-on have jumped to the entirely erroneous con- 
 clusion that in their nature such faculties are associated 
 with diseased conditions of the body. The remarkable 
 case of the Seeress of Prevorst, described by Dr. Kerner, 
 may serve as a typical instance. Frederica Hauffe, the 
 Seeress in question, was born in the first year of the nine- 
 teenth century, at the little village of Prevorst in Wiirtem- 
 burg. Her wonderful clairvoyance and remarkable visions 
 connected with other planes of Nature were associated 
 with conditions of extreme bodily suffering, culminating in 
 early death. The strange and little understood nervous 
 condition, vaguely described as hysteria, is again so fre- 
 quently found in association with the sensitiveness which 
 renders some people available for mesmeric experiments, 
 that such capacity is again set down by virtue of a too 
 hasty generalisation to some obscure disease of the nervous 
 system, and recent medical inquirers in France, out of 
 whose researches has arisen the commonplace view of what 
 is called hypnotism, have been themselves concerned so 
 generally with experiments in hospitals that they have 
 communicated to the world at large the ever-current delu- 
 sion that psychic faculty is a pathological condition. 
 
 3 6 7 
 
368 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 Again, looking at the subject in another way, common- 
 place impressions connected with the matter are largely 
 coloured by the estimation in which the world at large 
 holds the ordinary spiritualistic medium. The ignorant 
 section of the world at large simply regards the medium 
 as an impostor, who practises by conjuring tricks on the 
 credulity of his companions. Those who go a little further 
 into the subject know that even though imposition may 
 be mixed up with the mediumship which is purchasable, 
 so to speak, in the market, even behind much of this y 
 some abnormal faculty or susceptibility is to be found. 
 Many people have the experience of mediumship in 
 private life under conditions which preclude any suspicions 
 of imposture, and thus afford satisfactory evidence 
 that communication is possible between beings on this 
 plane of life and those on others which are intangible 
 and invisible. 
 
 Mediumship itself is manifested, wherever it is genuine, 
 under so many different aspects that it seems to defy scien- 
 tific analysis, and where psychic faculty takes the shape of 
 sensitiveness to mesmeric influence, that again runs into all 
 manner of different manifestations, clearly showing for 
 experimentalists along this line that the human creature 
 is psychically a far more complicated organism than it is 
 supposed to be from the physical point of view, though we 
 are left without any clue to a comprehension of the reasons 
 why one sensitive will be able to read in a closed book 
 put at the back of his head, while another, quite unable to 
 do this, will have visions of other states of existence, or 
 be enabled to cognise events on the physical plane at a 
 distance. Then it seems quite a matter of chance, as 
 regards individual sensitives, whether their faculties come 
 into play in the waking state or only in the mesmeric 
 
IRREGULAR PSYCHIC PROGRESS 369 
 
 trance. Some who develop the so-called psychometric 
 faculty in a high degree, and appear to become acquainted 
 with places, people, or circumstances that formerly sur- 
 rounded any object they may hold, will often be quite in- 
 susceptible to mesmeric influence. Then as regards mes- 
 meric influence itself, few experimentalists have been able 
 to do more than record facts out of their own observation, 
 and these, however plainly they may show that a potent 
 influence is at work, are so divergent in their character 
 that they help us very little towards a scientific apprecia- 
 tion of that influence. But difficult as the whole empirical 
 jungle of psychological inquiry may be, all these capricious 
 and irregular workings of the astral senses are intelligible 
 enough from the point of view of students who get above 
 them, so to speak, and contemplate them from a still 
 higher plane of observation. Anyone whom we might 
 imagine seated in the middle of a huge crystal would not 
 be able, from that point of view, to discern its contour, 
 however transparent its substance might be. It is only when 
 we get ouside that we can look down on the mass as a 
 whole, and so it is only when psychic faculty, trained to the 
 degree of being enabled to function on the manasic plane, 
 looks down from that altitude on to the phenomena 
 of the astral world, that it becomes capable 'of un- 
 ravelling all mysteries connected therewith, and of 
 perceiving how very largely, how almost entirely, the 
 miscellaneous faculties which are described as those 
 of the naturally born psychic, are concerned with astral 
 plane phenomena. 
 
 But in their nature to begin with, the astral senses 
 which may be partially awakened in the case of the 
 naturally born psychic are not different from the senses 
 which may be cultivated in the case of the regularly taught 
 
 25 
 
370 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 occultist. Indeed, it may almost be said that every person 
 who may be thought of as available for systematic occult 
 teaching independent of moral development, must have 
 been in the first instance a naturally born psychic, even 
 though his faculties may have existed in the beginning as a 
 potentiality rather than as an actual accomplishment. The 
 Etheric Double must have certain characteristics before 
 the senses of the astral vehicle can connect themselves 
 with the consciousness of the physical brain, and the attri- 
 butes of the Etheric Double are so largely dependent on 
 the Karma of previous lives that without something having 
 been done in previous lives towards the growth of psychic 
 faculties, no mere intellectual comprehension of the whole 
 subject, nor even a genuine spiritual aspiration in the direc- 
 tion of higher development, will give rise to these faculties 
 or set them in a condition in which they can function with 
 freedom in the life during which the attempt is first made. 
 The astral senses, like everything else about a man, are his 
 own creation, however little he may be aware of it, or 
 even however little he may have consciously in the begin- 
 ning set out with the intention of creating them. The 
 aspirations and desires in one life, as we have seen in deal- 
 ing especially with the problem of Free Will and Neces- 
 sity, determine the capacity of the next, and if aspirations 
 and desires set strongly in the direction at any given period 
 of a human being's progress of penetrating those mysteries 
 of Nature which can only be observed by means of the 
 psychic senses, then these aspirations, acting as a Karmic 
 force, set up capacity for astral development in the astral 
 body of the person in question on his next return, always 
 supposing that they are not counteracted by Karma of 
 other kinds. 
 
 Now I have shown in the whole course of this treatise 
 
IRREGULAR PSYCHIC PROGRESS 371 
 
 that the loftiest kind of spiritual development is attained 
 along the surest road by virtue of aspirations which, in 
 the first instance, set out with a nobler purpose than that 
 of merely penetrating the mysteries of Nature for the sake 
 of knowledge, and that the growth of moral qualities 
 engendered by the desire to take part in the service of the 
 Divine Idea governing the evolution of the world is pro- 
 vocative in the long run of far higher achievements even 
 on the psychic plane than those which can be attained 
 directly by specific effort in that direction. The spiritual 
 occultist, who seeks to assimilate himself with the elder 
 brethren of mankind that he may the better perform his 
 part in connection with the mighty task of helping on 
 the race at large, will at the fitting time be guided by 
 those into whose companionship his aspirations will have 
 drawn him, to take the necessary steps which will engender 
 the psychic faculties he will then require to fulfil the 
 purposes of his loftier nature. But at the same time causes 
 produce results, whether they are set in motion with lofty 
 or ignoble purpose, and people who are filled with an ardent 
 curiosity concerning the mysteries of Nature as such, and 
 are constantly making whatever efforts lie within their 
 range to penetrate these mysteries, will karmically 
 engender an improved capacity to do this in the future, 
 and will find themselves endowed in some life or other 
 with the abnormal characteristics we may loosely describe 
 as psychic faculty. They will begin to see visions that are 
 invisible to those around them, and by thus bringing the 
 astral plane to a certain extent within the range of their 
 own cognisance, they will bring themselves within the 
 cognisance of beings natural to the astral plane, and so 
 will perhaps become mediums through which these 
 beings exert forces on the physical plane, the effects of 
 
372 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 which become obvious to all bystanders in the shape of 
 spiritualistic phenomena. Assuming these dawning attri- 
 butes to be quite unaccompanied by moral or ethical 
 development, to be animated solely by a thirst of know 
 ledge as a personal acquisition to be highly enjoyed, then 
 such an unhappy psychic may become serviceable to mis- 
 chievous agencies functioning on the astral plane, who 
 may be simply persons like himself, a good deal further 
 advanced, who may have acquired the power not merely 
 of cognising the astral plane with the astral senses, but of 
 getting clear of the body and functioning on that plane in 
 the appropriate vehicle, gathering there whatever they 
 think they require for themselves. Such persons, com- 
 monly spoken of in occult writings as Black Magicians, 
 are ever on the look-out for those whom they may im- 
 press into their service, and the wholly ignorant, untrained 
 psychic, unprotected by affinity with spiritual influences 
 from above, becomes their ready prey, with results, very 
 often as regards the Karma of the person so entangled, that 
 reach over terrible periods of time, and may entangle the 
 victim for a long series of lives in succession, with grievous 
 miseries of a complicated sort. 
 
 Just as often, indeed, the naturally-born psychic faculty 
 may be due to aspirations which have been largely mingled 
 with genuine, though often uncultivated spiritual long- 
 ings. Then the possessor is, by the very purity of his or 
 her nature, shielded from the Black Magician's attack, 
 and ready, with a little help, even though up to that time 
 such help may not have been earned, to get on to the right 
 path of true occult development. It is necessary to be 
 thus as much on our. guard against under-rating as against 
 over-rating the naturally-born psychic capacity. It may 
 be a blessing or a curse entirely in accordance with the 
 
IRREGULAR PSYCHIC PROGRESS 373 
 
 circumstances just referred to; or if it may be regarded 
 as in equilibrium between the two influences, then 
 above all things it becomes desirable to shield its exer- 
 cise by the earnest cultivation of a lofty purpose and 
 by a specific intellectual appreciation of the course of 
 evolution leading to the sublime heights of spiritual 
 development. 
 
 I take it that cases are extremely rare in which the 
 naturally-born psychic faculty can be thought of as func- 
 tioning on any region above the astral plane. Of course 
 the Higher Self of every human being is akin in its nature 
 to the arupa level of the manasic plane, and in the infi- 
 nite variety of human characteristics that we have to deal 
 with, cases may arise in which by the continued feeding of 
 the Higher Self with the essence, as it were, pf many 
 good and spiritually inspired lives, the Higher Self may 
 have become so individually conscious on its own natural 
 plane as to be able in some measure to reflect that con- 
 sciousness back to its physical manifestation during sleep, 
 or, rather, when it has returned to the body after sleep. 
 Such a person may thus have true touch with lofty planes 
 of consciousness. Such an unusual condition of develop- 
 ment might account for some of the more important pro- 
 phetic dreams which sometimes constitute so curious an 
 enigma for the psychic inquirer, but it could not often 
 happen that such development as I am here thinking of 
 would be unaccompanied altogether by occult knowledge, 
 for no one who is qualified to assimilate that knowledge 
 in a useful way is left by Karma wholly without any hints 
 which may set him on the true path. The hints or oppor- 
 tunities may come in one shape or another, but they come, 
 we are assured, for all who are qualified to avail themselves 
 of them, and though they may sometimes be uncultivated 
 
374 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 through a failure to appreciate their meaning correctly 
 and thus quite blamelessly, it is not likely that they would 
 be repeated in many successive lives without giving rise 
 to the required enlightenment of the whole thinking soul. 
 Leaving unusual possibilities out of account, however, 
 the most interesting variety of psychic facility we have to 
 deal with is that which is engendered as the fruit of some 
 anterior attempts at occult development. In some past life 
 the person in question may have had an opportunity of the 
 particular kind I have just been referring to. He may 
 have availed himself of that opportunity up to the limita- 
 tions of his development, as it then stood, which may have 
 been associated with such aspirations as would engender 
 the growth of the astral senses, and then he gets launched 
 on a life the Karma of which is probably favourable to 
 his further progress, although in the beginning he fails to 
 appreciate its significance. His dawning faculties are full 
 of interest for him; there are spiritual forces in his nature 
 which render such visions as he may have far more attrac- 
 tive than alarming. As soon as opportunity serves he 
 assimilates on the intellectual side with marvellous facility 
 all teaching pointing in the true direction of occult pro- 
 gress, and such a man may become, not merely a psychic, 
 not merely an earnest devotee of theosophical philosophy, 
 but one of those open-eyed disciples whose consciousness 
 has been trained to work freely on the spiritual levels 
 above the astral, and whose beautiful privilege it is to in- 
 augurate their long career of higher usefulness in sub- 
 sequent lives by constituting themselves a link between 
 the great Masters and the awakening enthusiasm of the 
 many students still on the ordinary plane of life, who are 
 thus enabled, in advance of their own development, to 
 acquire such specific knowledge concerning the occult 
 
IRREGULAR PSYCHIC PROGRESS 375 
 
 world that their own evolution in the next life as open- 
 eyed disciples in their turn becomes surely guaranteed. 
 
 For the correct appreciation, meanwhile, of the whole 
 entangled problem which has to do with natural-born 
 psychic faculty it is necessary to consider the vast stratum 
 of intervening cases lying between those by which some 
 inquisitive explorer of the astral plane falls into the 
 clutches of the Black Magician, and those, on the other 
 hatnd, where the loftily inspired aspirant gains, through 
 the expansion of his psychic powers, conscious touch with 
 those who may lead him to the sublimest heights. Ever 
 since the human race has come of age, so to speak, since 
 the middle period, that is to say, of the Atlantean Race 
 during this present world period, there have been people 
 governed by the desire for occult knowledge and progress 
 in all possible varieties, so to speak, of purity, as regards 
 their motives. I suppose it may be assumed that Karmic 
 influences, in the very loftiest examples of such aspiration, 
 would guide the inquirer into the path leading directly to 
 the supreme Adept organisation which merges, as regards 
 its higher levels, as I endeavoured to show in the chapter 
 on the Path of Initiation, in the governing hierarchy of 
 this stupendous system, and so in the immeasurable spiritual 
 grandeur of the cosmic hierarchy. But at the same time 
 it has come to pass, at various periods, that other associa- 
 tions or lodges of occult inquirers have been founded, the 
 character and purpose of which has been very admirable 
 indeed, and with which great numbers of people have been 
 associated, greatly to their own advantage and to that of 
 others. The fact appears to be that all such subordinate 
 lodges of occultism merge themselves sooner or later into 
 the main stream, but following the bent of their own in- 
 dividual characteristics some people, gravitating upwards, 
 
376 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 may move for a long time in the almost exclusive com- 
 panionship of their own original associates, and may in 
 this way attain to positions of influence on the super- 
 physical planes of Nature, from which they will be doing 
 their best to help on the spiritual progress of others by the 
 light of their own convictions. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 INDIVIDUALITY 
 
 SOME problems of consciousness that seem at the 
 first glance to lie on the threshold of philosophical 
 inquiry into the nature and destinies of man are so 
 intricate in reality that they can only be considered in the 
 light of extensive knowledge. This is emphatically the 
 case with reference to the state of consciousness we call 
 Individuality. One might suppose it would be reasonable 
 to treat that first in endeavouring to trace the course of 
 human evolution, but the subject cannot be handled with- 
 out cross references to all phases of evolution. We must 
 keep the manifold planes of Nature in view and lower 
 states of consciousness that do not present the pheno- 
 menon of individuality and the system to which we belong 
 as a whole, in the attempt to appreciate correctly the 
 genesis and destinies of individuality. The utter nonsense 
 made of the subject by conventional speculation shows 
 how impossible it is to deal with it intelligently without 
 a tolerably complete grasp of theosophic teaching at large. 
 Simple ignorance of the most primitive type disguised 
 in scholarship and intoxicated with erudition is account- 
 able for the notion that the creation of a human soul is a 
 single simple act of Divine Will, accomplishable at any 
 moment when it pleases two already existent human beings 
 to furnish certain conditions. That line of thought does 
 not exalt Divine omnipotence; it merely excludes all per- 
 ceptions of Divine methods and exhibits a ludicrously in- 
 adequate notion concerning the magnitude of the task 
 under consideration. Higher knowledge shows us that 
 the creation of human souls the development of in- 
 dividuality in universal consciousness is the purpose of 
 
 377 
 
378 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 the whole system to which we belong, or one of its great 
 concurrent purposes, and typical of them all. If it was A 
 simple task for Omnipotence, the organisation of systems 
 and chains of planets with all their kingdoms of nature and 
 so forth, would be the most deplorable waste of energy 
 the mind could conceive. Supreme wisdom cannot be 
 wasteful in that manner or it would not be supreme 
 wisdom so that by the time we acquire knowledge of the 
 way human individuality is tended and cultivated from 
 its earliest stages of growth, and by the time we come to 
 combine that knowledge with some appreciation of the 
 destinies to which it may ultimately be conducted, we are 
 led to appreciate this idea that the evolution of an In- 
 dividuality would be a stupendous task even for Omni- 
 potence. 
 
 Apparently it can only be accomplished by this 
 tremendously circuitous and elaborate process that we call 
 the descent of spirit into matter a process which divides 
 itself into three great stages : the preparation of the 
 material planes, the growth of consciousness thereon into 
 individual isation, and the training of the individuality 
 towards the complete realisation of its potentialities with- 
 out which, after all, it is the mere beginning of an 
 individuality. 
 
 In some way that it is easier to talk about than to 
 understand, the earliest manifestations of matter repre- 
 sent the consciousness or some part of the consciousness 
 of the spirit by which they have been engendered. But 
 neither in the fluctuating aspects of the elemental king- 
 doms nor in the condensed manifestations of the mineral 
 world as it emerges from nebulous beginnings do we trace 
 any consciousness of the individualised order. When we 
 advance a step and observe in the beginning of the vege- 
 
INDIVIDUALITY 379 
 
 table kingdom the first pulsations we can recognise as life, 
 we still find spiritual energy vaguely diffused through great 
 orders of manifestation. We may talk now of the monadic 
 essence that animates the vegetable world as something 
 distinct from the monadic essence that animates the mineral 
 creation; but the development of individuality is still far 
 from having been accomplished. Across immeasurable 
 ages of effort the animal manifestation of spirit emerges 
 from the vegetable; but still the achievement falls short 
 of the object in view. The animal kingdom is an im- 
 mensely higher form of consciousness than its immediate 
 predecessor in evolution, but it is still a collective mani- 
 festation. 
 
 By what process in the beginning of the whole system 
 in the earliest Manvantaras of its earliest schemes the 
 concentration of consciousness into single individualities 
 was accomplished, we need not pause to inquire. For the 
 purpose of understanding individuality it is enough to trace 
 its genesis at such periods of evolution as we can handle 
 in thought more conveniently than those belonging to the 
 initial periods of Nature's activity. Slowly, slowly Divine 
 consciousness animating the superior subdivisions of the 
 animal kingdom gathers in the experience of conscious- 
 ness that such life as it inspires can afford. Then at last 
 comes the touch of a more advanced consciousness affect- 
 ing it in some one of its incarnate manifestations. In 
 plainer language, and looking at the process as it works 
 after the human kingdom has been evolved, an animal on 
 the physical plane of the world becomes personally 
 attached to a superior being one already an individualised 
 human creature. And to convey the idea first of all in 
 what may be rather its poetical than its scientific presen- 
 tation hut not the less a truthful presentation on that 
 
380 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 account the result of this attachment, the result of this 
 first movement within the consciousness of the animal 
 of the great love principle in its upward aspiring aspect,, 
 focalises the spiritual force within its nature and engenders 
 individuality. 
 
 From that moment there is a definite something a film,, 
 a centre, a point, call it what we like on the spiritual 
 plane that is a re-incarnating individuality. It is mar- 
 vellously, almost inconceivably, faint in its outlines, so to- 
 speak, but it is a something that has separated itself from 
 the general volume of life that inspired the animal when it 
 entered on the critical life. It is an independent spiritual 
 energy which is now competent in itself to find expres- 
 sion in a new physical form. But just because that is so > 
 it can no longer find expression in an animal form. By 
 the act of individualisation it has passed into a new king- 
 dom of Nature, and belongs henceforward to the human 
 species. 
 
 A correct appreciation of this turning point in evolution 
 is not only necessary as a factor in the appreciation of the 
 growth of the soul from the beginning, but is at the same 
 time illuminating in a high degree with reference to all 
 the problems of animal instinct so blindly blundered about 
 as a rule. At any given moment of its life an animal of 
 any given species has as much wisdom and no more than 
 the other animals of its class. The same intelligence, the 
 same soul, so to speak, is behind them all. The experience 
 of all previous animals of that class is equally at the service 
 of each, but there is no other experience available, and 
 the physical brain of no one animal in the series is equal' 
 to the task of seeking out new experience differing very 
 widely from that with which it has been used to deal. It 
 assimilates in some measure that which comes in its way y 
 
INDIVIDUALITY 381 
 
 and thus a process of growth is going on, so to speak, within 
 the common soul of the whole family. A familiar though 
 a painful illustration of this may be found in the well- 
 known fact that in new previously undiscovered countries 
 the animals and birds will, at first, be found to show no 
 timidity in presence of man. But when man, the un- 
 developed savage man, comes amongst them either with a 
 club or a breechloader, they quickly learn that he is a 
 terrible enemy. It is not merely the unfortunate victims 
 of his ferocity who learn this; their conscious soul becomes 
 aware of the fact, and the new apprehension thrills through 
 every one of its subsequent manifestations. 
 
 We must not make the mistake of thinking of the 
 common soul of an animal family as invested with spiritual 
 wisdom. It represents consciousness on the upward path, 
 but at an early stage of its upward growth. It is not greater 
 and wiser than the animals it ensouls; it is accurately repre- 
 sented by them as regards its mental evolution. But each 
 animal it ensouls draws equally on the common stock of 
 knowledge and experiences; one consciousness shares the 
 fresh experience of each. When one animal of a given 
 family, for example, suffers, the common soul suffers. 
 Just as in the case of a human being, if the right hand is 
 injured, the man suffers though his left hand or his foot 
 may not be suffering. 
 
 Language breaks down, because physical brain concep- 
 tions break down, when we try to interpret the relations 
 of the various common souls of the animal kingdom with 
 each other. The volume of spirit, if that clumsy expres- 
 sion may be employed, which for a time is ensouling some 
 low order of animal life, undoubtedly achieves progression 
 as a whole, and at a later period must come to ensoul a 
 higher order; but it would be premature for us to attempt 
 
382 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 an exact interpretation of the changes through which that 
 progression is accomplished. It is more important to com- 
 prehend the later progress of the differentiated animal 
 towards true human individuality when, from some one 
 of the high orders of animal life, a specific animal 
 engenders a re-incarnating individuality, and thus passes, 
 in due time, and after a protracted interlude of non- 
 physical blissful rest, into the human kingdom. 
 
 An important distinction has here to be drawn between 
 a re-incarnating entity and an imperishable Ego. The 
 mere partial development of the manasic principle, which 
 is an inseparable accompaniment of individualisation in its 
 first stage, does not involve the acquisition of that attribute 
 of fully developed humanity that has been spoken of some- 
 times as the Divine spark. That is the consequence of 
 a union between the Atma-Buddhic principle, which is 
 in a manner latent in every form of life and therefore in 
 the newly developed re-incarnating entity, and the ocean 
 of Atma-Buddhi, brooding, so to speak, over the whole of 
 creation. This union is stimulated by the growth of 
 Manas (reason or intelligence), and when accomplished 
 the entity to be thought of thenceforward as an im- 
 perishable Ego is definitely represented on the arupa 
 plane by a vehicle of consciousness appropriate to that 
 condition the Causal body as it is now generally called 
 by European Theosophists. Thenceforth that permanent 
 vehicle of consciousness, the same through all successive 
 incarnations, is the individuality of the entity concerned, 
 clothing itself afresh each time it descends to the plane of 
 matter in new garments of circumstance, but never losing 
 any attributes that have once been absorbed into its own 
 nature. 
 
 The aggregation of fresh attributes by the Ego thus 
 
INDIVIDUALITY 383 
 
 developed proceeds very slowly in the beginning. It is 
 divine in its nature, but is not divine in its development. 
 Great confusion of thinking on occult matters has some- 
 times ensued from a neglect to make this last distinction. 
 There is a great difference between knowledge and the 
 capacity to learn. Without the imperishable Ego, the 
 being, even though differentiated and no longer merely 
 an expression of a common soul shared by other similar 
 manifestations, is incapable of touch with the higher 
 manasic consciousness. With the touch once established, 
 the Causal body once in existence, that capacity sets in, 
 but the new entity does not derive knowledge directly from 
 the ocean of Atma-Buddhi with which it is now connected 
 by what may be thought of as a fine though indestruc- 
 tible thread. It derives its knowledge up to a point far in 
 advance of the state of things we are talking about 
 through the experiences of lower plane embodiments. 
 Many such embodiments may contribute but little to the 
 result. The wholesale drift of evolution is slow, as the 
 scale on which the Manvantaras are planned out should 
 teach us. But none the less is it equally true that at a 
 certain stage the slow process of growth is succeeded by 
 a progress of marvellous rapidity. We may look upon 
 the turning point from the one rate of progress to the other 
 as a stage in evolution hardly less definite as such than 
 the original union with the Atma-Buddhi or the original 
 differentiation from the common soul system of the animal 
 kingdom. The turning point is that at which the Ego 
 concerned in some one or other of its embodiments, at 
 last comprehends manasically its own nature, and dedi- 
 cates its will force to the realisation of its divine poten- 
 tialities, the fulfilment of the purpose with which it has 
 been called into being. That achievement is generally 
 
384 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 described in the language of occultism as getting on the 
 Path; and from that time on, though progress may be in 
 some cases retarded by specific deficiencies in the attri- 
 butes of the Ego, which have not prepared it equally all 
 round for higher progress, the onward movement is accom- 
 plished by leaps and bounds, compared to the previous 
 gradual drift. 
 
 While our thoughts are still subject to the limitations 
 of physical incarnation, it is not possible to follow that 
 progress in imagination to the ultimate development it 
 may bring about, but we may hold on meanwhile con- 
 fidently to the conviction that whatever enlargement of 
 consciousness becomes possible for the imperishable in- 
 dividuality in its progress through the higher realms of 
 Nature, that individuality is imperishable. It is never lost, 
 not even in the wonderful spiritual union with other 
 aspects of the universal consciousness which takes place 
 even on planes of spiritual existence, which can be touched 
 by the consciousness of advanced individualities still ani- 
 mating a human body. Nothing has contributed more to 
 repel untrained minds from the sublime avenues of thought 
 opened by occult teaching than the glowing language 
 that has sometimes been used about the mergence of the 
 Soul ultimately in the Divine consciousness its re-union 
 with God, or its absorption in Parabrahm whatever 
 phrase may be used. This seems to the finite under- 
 standing to convey the idea of individual extinction, and 
 for those to whom no blank negation of suffering, but 
 life and more life is what they crave, the much-talked-of 
 union is looked upon as tantamount to their own annihila- 
 tion. This is an altogether baseless and deplorable 
 delusion. The real union is an infinite expansion of the 
 individual consciousness, and not a surrender thereof, and 
 
INDIVIDUALITY 385 
 
 while it begins to be a reality, even for those who have 
 ascended the great path but relatively a little way, the 
 individual consciousness does not cease to be a reality as 
 deep and profound, even if we reach in imagination to 
 heights which can only as yet be dimly apprehended. 
 
 In illustration of that thought, let us turn back to 
 the very broadest view we can take of the Soul's growth, 
 and contemplate once again the whole system to which 
 we belong in its spiritual rather than in its scientific aspect. 
 Never mind for a moment the marvellous and intricate 
 beauty of the mechanism through which the great purpose 
 of the system is worked out. Let us think rather of the 
 intention with which the Logos of the system sets the 
 whole undertaking on foot. Let us, in conclusion, 
 approach the loftiest phase of our great theme, and 
 and endeavour, in so far as that may be possible for human 
 minds functioning under our present limitations, to com- 
 prehend the spiritual purpose of the stupendous system 
 to which we belong, the underlying Divine idea of which 
 that system, with all its astounding complexity of con- 
 current evolutionary schemes and of infinitely diversified 
 life, is the visible manifestation. 
 
 Sometimes we may be enabled, in a certain measure, 
 to comprehend a mighty achievement in Nature as regards 
 the collective design, even when the resources of power 
 by which the result is brought about baffle our closest 
 scrutiny. Remember that from the point of view of the 
 Theosophist, there are no blind forces in the cosmos super- 
 inducing worlds and systems by their accidental conflux. 
 Whatever happens on the levels concerned with the in- 
 auguration of a solar system is the direct expression of the 
 Will of a Being sufficiently exalted in attributes to be 
 able to render that will objective to become the 
 
 26 
 
386 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 manifestation He has created, in the first instance, by 
 thought. By a term familiar to us all as associated with the 
 idea of Divinity, we are enabled reverentially to refer to 
 the Being whose Will engenders and whose Life is merged 
 in our solar system as the Logos of the system. We can 
 even go further. We can conceive of Him as emanating 
 in some unfathomable manner from the Supreme Infinite 
 Consciousness, and undertaking the creation of the system 
 as a stupendous act of self-devotion. Within His nature 
 there resides the potentiality of an all but boundless multi- 
 plication of His own individuality. Without the appro- 
 priate effort on His part, these innumerable possibilities 
 would lie dormant in the Supreme Consciousness. He 
 accomplishes in the creation of the system which He 
 becomes, the first great act of what is sometimes called 
 Sacrifice. His sacrifice His submission for the whole 
 duration of the system to limitations is not made, like the 
 sacrifice of lesser beings, one for another or for others, but 
 for those who are as yet non-existent. He gives out His 
 life to the unborn to those who, but for His self-devotion, 
 would not have individual consciousness at all; in order 
 that the whole volume of Divine consciousness may be 
 richer by countless additional centres of appreciative 
 consciousness. 
 
 It is for our sake this great act has been accomplished; 
 for our sake and for that of all others like us or unlike 
 us who are rising through the various gradations of spiritual 
 evolution towards the level of Nature from which the im- 
 pulse was first given which launched every globe of the 
 planetary system we see, and all that as yet we do not 
 see, on the cosmos of objective life. 
 
 The first great outbreaking of the life of the Logos 
 which calls our system into being is the primary mani- 
 
INDIVIDUALITY 387 
 
 festation of a law which runs through all the worlds of 
 which we have knowledge the law which prescribes at 
 every stage of existence that life and energy shall be given 
 out for the benefit of some consciousness other than that 
 of the giver, though ultimately to be identified even with 
 that, the law which is the pulse of the v/hole system 
 a law of giving out which involves no absolute and ulti- 
 mate sacrifice, but is the only law by which progress and 
 exaltation in Nature can be achieved. 
 
 The outpouring is shown to us in its sublimest aspect 
 in the manifestation of the system itself; in some of its 
 humblest workings it is a law of love and generosity on the 
 physical plane of life; in intermediate degrees it is con- 
 sciously guided by those who promote, from higher levels 
 of existence than those around us, the spiritual growth 
 and welfare of mankind. The more we know of true 
 occultism, and of the intelligent exercise of power on 
 superior planes of being, the more we come into apprecia- 
 tive relations with this great principle, which is equally, 
 though in a different measure, inspiring the ceaseless bene- 
 ficence of the Adept and the unselfish benevolence of all 
 good men and women still working more or less blindly 
 in obedience to the hardly, as yet, articulate impulses of 
 their awakening spiritual natures. The end we cannot, 
 from our present point of view, discern distinctly, but we 
 may grasp with unhesitating assurance the conception that 
 all who lend themselves in willing sympathy for others 
 to the fulfilment of the mighty principle, are helping on 
 the great enterprise that our system represents, and at a 
 later date, if they persevere, will help that enterprise with 
 a fuller and clearer recognition of its whole design to guide 
 them, and will thus be giving back their response to 
 the Divine sympathy of which their own consciousness 
 
 26* 
 
388 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 as living individual beings is one of the innumerable 
 fruits. 
 
 Some we do not know how many, and for exact 
 knowledge on such a subject as that we may well be 
 content to wait will, by the entire identification of their 
 own life force with the energy of the breath which per- 
 meates the whole system, rise up from stage to stage of 
 spiritual exaltation through the various schemes of evolu- 
 tion of which the system consists, until at its final culmina- 
 tion they stand on a level with the Being by whom and 
 through whom all consciousness in the system has been 
 developed. His life energy has gone out from Him in the 
 first instance, and has involved itself in myriad limitations. 
 As the great work culminates it flows back to Him through 
 the new channels of spiritual energy, through the new 
 Logoi who constitute His reflection on the manifold planes 
 of Nature towards which His influence has been projected. 
 The universe is wide, and sublime activities analogous to 
 His own will doubtless await them in turn. In what 
 way the countless individualities, which will fall in some 
 way short of achieving the maximum possibilities of evolu- 
 tion within the system, will be drawn back into His 
 all but illimitable consciousness when the season of effort 
 is past when the night time of pralaya affords rest alike 
 for humble as well as for exalted forms of consciousness 
 we cannot foresee as yet. Nor even can we clearly realise 
 the latest chapters in the appointed history of the system, 
 in respect to the gathering in of all the marvellously diver- 
 sified energies of life which must still be present on the 
 stage of manifestation as long as any planets continue to 
 circle round the source of all life energy we call the Sun. 
 But we are told, and even from some knowledge of 
 spiritual conditions attainable already, can partly under- 
 
INDIVIDUALITY 389 
 
 stand, that the individuality we think of as the Logos is 
 at all times a host of individualities in one, and will still 
 he a host, how far multiplied it would be vain to inquire, 
 when the harvest of achievement has been gathered, and 
 the purpose of the Mahamanvantara shall have been 
 fulfilled. 
 
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