Our contact on any plane of substance is by means of an instrument made up of the lives of that plane. Each of such lives is a sensitive point and reflects the plane to which it belongs in some degree. Sufficient of these lives of different degrees gathered together on that plane will give an embodiment of sensitive points which are capable of reflecting everything on that plane, so that on any plane the Highest sees through the eyes of the lowest.

Q. Is the astral body full-sized at birth? The statement is made that it is perfect at birth. Is it present at conception?

A. The astral body expands apace with the physical. expands with the growth of the physical matter. The astral of the Ego is drawn to the woman and there awaits the conditions that provide conception.

Q. Is the "permanent astral" a spiritual body? Are there two astrals, or does one come from the other, and which from which?

A. The "permanent astral" is formed during life from the elements belonging to the Real Man, the Ego. The ordinary astral is formed for each birth before conception. It is governed by the karma to be expended in the next life ensuing. One does not necessarily come from the other, but are formed from the spiritual substance-or body-of the Ego.

Astral body is merely a generic term. The term "astral" is used for everything beyond the physical. But, it should be understood that as on the physical we have earth, water, air and fire as divisions of this plane, so on the astral plane are similar divisions. The astral form that corresponds to earth remains with the physical body and dissipates with it. The one that corresponds to water is that state of astral substance which forms the kama-rupa; the one that corresponds to the air is the manasic body; and the one that corresponds to fire is the seat of consciousness, the body of the thinker. Our earthly fire is the lowest grade of divine substance.

Only those who have arrived at a certain stage of development or initiation return to incarnation with a "permanent astral." (See Culture of Concentration.) All others form a new astral

for each incarnation.

COMMENT. That's why they don't bring the memory through; they haven't established it on this plane. The permanent astral is the astral permeated, changed, refined by the fire of consciousness and thus made permanent.

You can take a photograph so small that it can hardly be seen with the naked eye; but you can throw it upon a screen so it is a hundred times as great. (See size of astral at birth). Q. Is the astral body affected by insanity?

A.

There are several kinds of astral body. There is the astral body which is the design for the physical body and is in

fact the real physical body. What we call the physical body is composed of the earthly elements drawn into the physical-astral. Another astral is the kama-rupa, formed after death; also the devachanic body. None of these are permanent, but are formed for temporary use during life and the states following death.

Insanity is a break in the connection between the being and the body in use, either partial or complete. That break may be caused by a brain lesion, or a fault karmically acquired in the astral body of that birth. All these things are questions of karma concerning the individual. Insanity may come to fruition by karmic defects occuring after birth by defects in the lower astral, produced by causes in previous lives.

Q. Would a Master's assumption of a body, since he has a permanent astral, be in the nature of an immaculate conception?

A. No. There were in the earlier races mind-born bodies, but they were of an ethereal substance and were not in the nature of a conception but a segregation. No one sex can be concerned in a physical conception; it takes both of the sexes. The only question that can arise is the kind of Ego that is drawn to birth by the conditions provided. There are more Egos out of bodies than in them.

THE BRIGHT SPOT OF LIGHT*

TO THE EDITOR OF THE THEOSOPHIST:

MADAME, In the last issue of your valuable Journal, a member of the New York Theosophical Society seeks to be enlightened as to the cause of a bright spot of light which he has often seen. I am also equally curious to have an explanation. I attribute it to the highest concentration of the soul. As soon as I place myself in that prescribed attitude, suddenly a bright spot appears before me which fills my heart with delight,-indeed, that being regarded as a special sign by the Indian devotee that he is in the right path, leading to ultimate success in the Yoga practice-that he is blessed by the special grace of the Almighty.

One evening, sitting on the ground cross-legged, in that state. of innate concentration when the soul soars into the high regions, I was blessed with a shower of flowers-a most brilliant sight, and which I long to see again. I moved to catch at flowers so rare, but they eluded my grasp and suddenly disappeared, leaving me much disappointed. Finally two flowers fell on me, one touching my head and the other my right shoulder but this time also the attempt to seize them was unsuccessful. What can it be, if not a response that God has been pleased with his worshipper, This article was first printed by H. P. Blavatsky in the The Theosophist for November, 1881.

meditation being, I believe, the unique way of spiritual worship. September 18, 1881. P.

Editor's Note. It depends. Those of our orthodox native contributors, who worship some particular God,—or, if they so prefer, the one ISWAR under some particular name—are too apt to attribute every psychological effect brought on by mental concentration during the hours of religious meditation to their special deity, whereas, in 99 cases out of 100, such effects are due simply to purely psycho-physiological effects. We know a number of mystically-inclined people who see such "lights" as that as soon as they concentrate their thoughts. Spiritualists attribute them to the agency of their departed friends; Buddhists who have no personal God-to a pre-nirvanic state; pantheists and Vedantins to Maya-illusion of senses; and Christians -to a foresight of the glories of Paradise. The modern Occultists say that, when not directly due to cerebral action whose normal functions are certainly impeded by such an artificial mode of deep concentration-these lights are glimpses of the Astral Light, or, to use a more scientific expression-of the "Universal Ether" firmly believed in by more than one man of science, as proved by Mr. Balfour Stewart's Un-seen Universe. Like the pure blue sky closely shrouded by thick vapours on a misty day-is the Astral Light concealed from our physical senses, during the hours of our normal, daily life. But when concentrating all our spiritual faculties, we succeed, for the time being, to paralyze their enemy-physical senses, and the inner man becomes, so to say, distinct from the man of matter, then, the action of the ever-living spirit, like a breeze that clears the sky from its obstructing clouds -sweeps away the mist which lies between our normal vision and the Astral Light, and, we obtain glimpses into, and of, that light.

The days of "smoking furnaces" and "burning lamps" which form part of the Biblical visions are well gone by and-to return no more. But, whosoever, refusing natural explanations, prefers supernatural ones, is, of course, at liberty to imagine that an "Almighty God" amuses us with visions of flowers, and sends burning lights before making "covenants" with his worshippers.

WISDOM FROM DEMOCRITUS*

If any one will give his mind to these sentences he will obtain many things worthy of a man and be free from many things that are base.

The perfection of the soul will correct the depravity of the body, but the strength of the body without reasoning, does not render the soul better.

He who loves the goods of the soul will love things more divine, but he who loves the goods of its transient habitation will love things human.

It is beautiful to impede an unjust man: but if this be not possible it is beautiful not to act in conjunction with him.

It is necessary to be good rather than appear so.

The felicity of a man does not consist either in body or in riches but in upright conduct and justice.

Sin should be abstained from, not through fear, but for the sake of the becoming. DEMOCRITUS.

*These extracts were printed by H. P. Blavatsky in Lucifer for February, 1891. The title used is our own.-Ed. THEOSOPHY.

N

FROM THE BOOK OF IMAGES

ARADA and Adaran, pursuing each his path, the one of dharma and the other of karma, entered the varsha of works. Narada by reason of agreement on higher planes with those who watch the progress of the worlds, had put aside all knowledge that was his in former births, and upon entering this world of conditioned existence drew together the mind and the five senses of the bodily life in order that he might obtain a body, might use that body, and might leave it again. Thus he came naked into the world, naked of body and naked of mind, depending upon what he might find there of good and of evil. He was as one new-born into the world of ignorance from the world of wisdom, helpless as a seeing man is in darkness.

Adaran, pursuing the path of tanha, which is the path of those driven by the compulsion of old tendencies, entered the varsha of works by reason of disagreement in higher worlds with the own nature of the Soul, working with the powers from selfish desires and not from the karana of bhakti. The path being one for all, Adaran also, hovering over the stormy sea of human life, tossed by the fierce winds of desire, chased by the fierce gale of the skanddhas acquired, disappeared into the vortex and came naked into the varsha of works, thirsting for what he might find there of good and of evil; helpless as a blind man is in light.

Like a sentinel, sleepless and vigilant, the power of the vow he had taken watched over Narada blind in the world of works. Like a jackal watching outside the rim of the fire, the power of the kama, vigilant with propensities unglutted, lurked in the shadow of the senses of Adaran, blind in the world of works.

Being naked of body and mind, both Narada and Adaran entered the caste of sudras. They served both the good and the evil; their food, of body and senses and mind, harsh, bitter and astringent, or else impure, tasteless and rotting and such as was dressed the day before or cast aside and rejected by those whom they served.

The pleasures that they had arose only from sleep, idleness, and carelessness, tending to stupefy the soul. Being thus miserable they took counsel, one with the other, seeking amelioration of their lot.

"Ours is an evil case, brother," sayeth Narada the sudra to Adaran, sweaty and vile in the mud by the river. "We are even as this mud, trampled by man and beast, vile with the vileness of both, and defiling them in return. It must be that we are not wise. Here floweth the water, pure for the drinking of all, in the midst of this waste and this vileness. There flowers the lotus, rooted in vileness, yet opening its petals to the sun, white with purity, expanding an incense as the air were a temple, worshipful

of the unseen. Could one learn the wisdom of water and the language of the plants, mayhap our case might improve."

"Seeing what thou seest, dull though thy senses are, thy mind is the mind of a fool," replyeth Adaran. "This mud is vile and much trampled, lacking the power to resent. Thy water, flowing craftily, encroacheth ever on the land's domain and takes little by little to itself for its bed this land that thou seest as mud. Thy pure lotus, learned in duplicity, puts on the sweetness of white, and unperceived by both, makes food of the mud and drink of the waters. Its incense expanded is mere offering to air, which is wiser than earth and the water, that thus the air may be lulled by sweet flatteries, and perceive not that the lotus is stealing its substance. It opens its petals to the sun as the insects come out of their holes to the heat of the fire, that they perish not of the cold." He spat with contempt, and continued.

"This is the speech of all that is, and the wisdom of the earth, of the water, of the air, of the fire, and of all that lives is to nourish one's self by the labor of others. The most ignorant work the most and have least sustenance. It is ignorance and weakness which suffers. Let us seek wisdom and strength that we suffer no more and enjoy our enjoyments out of the weakness and ignorance of those lesser than ourselves. It is the law of all life."

But Narada, feeling only his misery, without resentment, drank of the water, laved in the water, smelled of the sweet lotus, and rested himself on the dry bank in the warmth of the sun. He had no food, but a feeling of nourishment spread within him, so that he gave thanks in his heart for the land that remains, ever renewed from the mountains; for the waters that flow, ever renewed by the rains; for the lotus, ever renewed from fresh seeds; for the sun, ever renewed by its own shining.

"Tell me this, O my brother, wiser than I," said he to Adaran, caked in dry mud by his side and chewing the cud of bitterness from thinking on the cruelties he suffered; "though all these that thou knowest, seem to renew by the bounty of others, yet the sun shines renewed each day with no fuel. What is this secret of the sun, for it must be the secret of surpassing wisdom?"

"The sun is alone in his strength, solitary and proud in his wisdom. He is renewed out of his pride and feeds on the bodies of all that live. They but sport at his pleasure. In the end they yield up their essences to him. They become smoke and dust and ashes, but the sun lives on. They live on others that live, but he lives on the death of all. Fire, that consumes all, is his food. Toil is the ghat that consumes us. Let us return to our toil lest we be consumed before our time."

Thus they went on side by side, each toiling at the same tasks, Narada consumed by toil yet nourished by the fires of his sufferings, feeling gratefulness for the earth under his feet, gratefulness for the plants that clothed him, gratefulness for the grains