molecules, which are informed in their turn by their apperceptive monads, just as every cell in a human body is so informed. There are shoals of such informed atoms, which in their turn inform the molecules; an infinitude of monads, or Elementals proper, and countless spiritual Forces-Monadless, for they are pure incorporealities, except under certain laws when they assume a form-not necessarily human. Whence the substance that clothes themthe apparent organism they evolve around their centres? The Formless Radiations, existing in the harmony of Universal Will, and being what we term the collective or the aggregate of Cosmic Will on the plane of the subjective Universe, unite together an infinitude of monads-each the mirror of its own Universe-and thus individualize for the time being an independent Mind, omniscient and universal; and by the same process of magnetic aggregation they create for themselves objective, visible bodies out of the interstellar atoms. For atoms and monads, simple or complex, associated or dissociated, are from the moment of the first differentiation but the principles, corporeal, psychic and spiritual, of the "Gods"

-themselves the radiations of primordial Nature. Thus to the eye of the Seer the higher Planetary Powers appear under two aspects: the subjective as influences, and the objective as mystic FORMS, which under Karmic law become a Presence, Spirit and Matter being One, as repeatedly stated. Spirit is matter on the seventh plane; matter is spirit on the lowest point of its cyclic activity; and both are ILLUSION.

Atoms fill the immensity of Space, and by their continuous vibration are that MOTION which keeps the wheels of Life perpetually going. It is that inner work that produces the natural phenomena called the correlation of Forces. Only, at the origin of

every such" force" there stands the conscious, guiding noumenon thereof.

As described by Seers, those who can see the motion of the interstellar hosts and follow them in their evolution clairvoyantly, they are dazzling, like specks of virgin snow in radiant sunlight. Their velocity is swifter than thought, quicker than any physical eye could follow, and, as well as can be judged, the motion is circular. Standing on a mountain summit, and gazing into the spacial infinitudes around, the whole atmosphere seems ablaze with them. At times the intensity of their motion produces flashes like the Northern Lights. The sight is so marvellous that the Seer, gazing into this inner world, is filled with awe at the thought of other and still greater mysteries that lie beyond and within this radiant ocean.

(The student is strongly advised to study this chapter in the original edition, as only a condensation could be given here.-Ed.)

CYCLIC EVOLUTION AND KARMA

It is the spiritual evolution of the inner immortal man that forms the fundamental tenet in the occult sciences. To realize even partially such a process, the student has to believe (a) in the ONE Universal Life, independent of matter (or what science regards as matter); and (b) in the individual Intelligences that animate its various manifestations.

The ONE LIFE is closely related to the one law which governs the World of Being-the law of KARMA. Exoterically the word means simply "action," or rather" an effect-producing cause." Esoterically, it is quite a different thing in its far-reach

ing moral effects, for it is the unerring LAW OF RET

RIBUTION.

Throughout the first two parts of this book it was shown that at the first flutter of renascent life Primordial Substance, "the mutable radiance of the Immutable Darkness unconscious in Eternity," passes at every new rebirth of Kosmos from an inactive state into one of intense activity; that it differentiates, and then begins its work through that differentiation. This work is Karma.

The Cycles also are subservient to the effects produced by this activity. "The one Cosmic atom becomes seven atoms on the plane of matter, and each is transformed into a centre of energy; that same atom becomes seven rays on the plane of spirit, and the seven creative forces of nature, radiating from the root-essence follow one the right, the other the left path, separate till the end of the cycle, and yet are in close embrace.* What unites them? KARMA." The atoms emanating from the Central Point emanate in their turn new centres of energy, which, under the potential breath of Fohat (cosmic electricity), begin their work from within without, and multiply other minor centres. These form in their turn the roots or developing causes of new effects.

To make the workings of Karma in the periodical renovations of the Universe more intelligible to the student when he arrives at the origin and evolution of man, we must now examine the esoteric bearings of the Kosmic cycles upon universal ethics.

According to the teachings, Illusion, or the illusive appearance of the succession of events and actions on this earth, varies with nations and places. But the chief features of one's life are always in accordance with the "Constellation " one is born un

* v. the diagram of the caduceus in the section headed "The Solar Theory."-Editor.

der, or rather with the characteristics of its animating principle, whether we call it a Creative Power as in Asia, or an Archangel, with the Greek and Latin churches. In ancient symbolism it was always the SUN (though the Spiritual, not the visible, Sun was meant) that was supposed to send forth the chief Saviours and divine Incarnations. The closer one's approach to one's prototype "in Heaven," the better for the mortal whose personality was chosen by his own personal deity (his spiritual self) as its terrestrial abode.* For with every effort of will towards purification, and unity with that "Self-God," one of the lower rays breaks, and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher to the ray that supersedes the first, until from ray to ray the inner man is drawn into the one and highest beam of the Parent-SUN. Thus "the events of humanity do run co-ordinately with the number forms," since the single units of that humanity all proceed from the same source-the Central, and its shadow, the visible Sun. For the equinoxes and solstices, the periods and various phases of the solar course, astronomically and numerically expressed, are only the concrete symbols of the eternally living verity, though they seem abstract ideas to uninitiated mortals.

Yes," our destiny is written in the stars!" Only the closer the union between the mortal reflection MAN and his celestial PROTOTYPE, the less dangerous his external conditions and subsequent reincarnations. For there are external and internal conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our actions, and though man cannot escape his ruling Destiny, he has the choice of two paths, and it is in his power to follow either. Those who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which from birth to death a man is weaving round himself as a spider *See chapter on The Elements and Atoms.

weaves his web; and this destiny is guided either by the heavenly voice of the invisible prototype, or by our intimate astral or inner man, who is but too often our evil genius. Both of these lead on the outward man, and from the beginning the implacable law of compensation steps in and takes its course. When the last strand is woven, man finds himself completely under the empire of this self-made destiny, and this is KARMA.

In Isis Unveiled, v. II., p. 268, it is stated that "the revolution of the physical world, according to the ancient doctrine, is attended by a like revolution in the world of intellect-the spiritual evolution of the world proceeding in cycles, like the physical one.

Thus we see in history a regular alternation of ebb and flow in the tide of human progress, in the rise and fall of the great kingdoms and empires of the world.'

But these cycles do not affect all mankind at one and the same time. Hence the difficulty of comprehending and discriminating between them, in regard to their physical and spiritual effects, without having thoroughly mastered their relations with the respective positions of races and nations in their destiny and evolution. This system cannot be understood if the spiritual action of these periods-preordained, so to speak, by Karmic law-is separated from their physical course. The calculations of the best astrologers would fail, or remain at any rate imperfect, unless this dual action is thoroughly taken into consideration and dealt with upon these lines. And this mastery can only be achieved through INITIATION.

The Grand Cycle includes the progress of mankind from the appearance of primordial men of ethereal form. It runs through the inner cycles of man's progressive evolution from the ethereal down to the semi-ethereal and the purely physical; down