CHAPTERXIIINVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION
The symbolism of astronomy lends itself in a most interesting manner to the great problem of human evolution. In my opening chapter it was shown that evolution is the natural reaction to the process of involution. Logically we cannot speak of evolution without taking into consideration the fact of a preceding involution.Ex nihilo nihil fit.The potential of matter is measured by its latent energy, and this latency is static Spirit Force. Matter is the ultimate expression of Spirit, as form is that of force. The material forms of the visible universe are therefore nothing but concrete spiritual forces.
But it would appear that there are two processes going on simultaneously in any cycle of cosmic life, and these are a downward spiritual involution and an upward physical evolution. The two processes are complementary, and possibly may be regarded as taking place simultaneously, although in the Chaldean account they are spoken of as distinct in point of time. Jacob’s vision of the Ladder of Life depicted angels ascending and descending simultaneously, and these are the spiritual forces that are in continual play between pure spirit and gross matter. The great tidal influx of spirit towards the plane ofmateriality admits of a constant ebb and flow of the life-wave, so that, although at the present stage of the Great Cycle the tide has set back and is at its ebb, carrying its burden of detached souls along with it towards the region of spirituality, may yet mark periodic incursions of the spirit towards the material plane, such incursions being in the nature of abnormal phenomena.
Thus we have from the beginning of the Great Cycle a double influx involving an interplay of Spirit and Matter. In the process of manifestation by means of differentiation, Spirit (the positive or male potency) may be regarded as taking a downward plunge on the left-hand side, while Substance (the negative or female potency) will in the same scheme take the right-hand side in its progress towards manifestation on the material plane. The Paramatma or Universal Spirit first appears as Purusha, while Mulaprakriti or Root Substance manifests as Prakriti. The ultimate expression of Purusha is Prana (Life force) while that of Prakriti is Prithivi (Matter). We thus have the Father Spirit on the one hand, and the Mother Substance on the other, manifesting eventually in the multitude of forms of Living Matter. Spirit Substance thus invests and is at the root of all physical life, Force and Matter standing always in the same undivided relations as do Spirit and Substance in the Archetypal World.
Such mysteries concerning the origin of things can be read in the astronomical disposition of the signs of the zodiac, where Leo is the symbol of theFather Spirit and Cancer that of the Mother Substance. These descend along their own arcs of involution through the planes of Buddhi and Manas, which are the higher and lower aspects of Mind, and in combination represent the potential and evolved Hermaphrodites, denoted by the planets Mercury and Venus, which are set over these signs in the astrological scheme, and have relation to the signs Virgo and Libra on the one hand and Gemini and Taurus on the other. Thence the Great Breath descends to the Kamic plane, manifesting in the Body of Desire. This is represented on either hand by the signs Scorpio and Aries. Next the Spirit-Substance manifests on the Astral or Psycho-Physical plane, which is symbolized by the planet Jupiter with its signs Sagittarius and Pisces, and finally precipitates in the material world denoted by the planet Saturn and its corresponding signs Capricornus and Aquarius, the symbols of matter in the concrete and in a state of flux.
The scheme may be reduced to a diagram as on page121.
In view of this statement of the occult doctrine of the origin of the phenomenal world, we are led to expect in the course of physical evolution, which is another name for the process of spiritual unfoldment, that matter will yield continually new characteristics, which now liein obscuroor latency. For spirit is now shaking itself free of the trammels of matter, organisms are becoming more and more subject and responsive to the impulses of the mind, and matter is everywhere giving way to the effortof a spiritual expression. The world has passed the zero point of greatest materiality and darkness, and though the mass of mankind are as yet only on the plane of Kama, actuated solely by the force of their desires and material appetites, yet quite a large section of the world’s population is coming under the direct influence of the Manasic forces, and the demand for knowledge is being met upon every side. Some few of the more advanced pioneers of the race are functioning in the light of the Buddhic plane and are overshadowed by the spirit. At the head of all this Earth’s humanity is the supreme Arhat, the Adam Kadmon of the Kabalists, theIswara of the Hindus, the Jehovah of the Hebrews.
Figure 8.Figure 8.
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
What is going on in this world is happening also in others of the solar system, and over all is the Supreme Logos, Brahma-Vach, the Ancient of Days, whom we call the Lord. These are co-ordinating Centres of Intelligence and Power functioning in their respective spheres and on their several planes as the various nervous ganglia in the body of man, all being finally linked up to one Centre in whom resides the consciousness of the I AM, as planets are united to their central Sun.
And what we argue in regard to the constitution of the Universe we also affirm to be true regarding man, the Microcosm and epitome of the Universe. He is one of those angels “ascending and descending” on the Ladder of Life. For the purposes of illustration we may borrow a symbol from the astronomer, that of the elliptical orbit of the Earth. Let the Earth represent the spiritual monad which in process of involution has become associated with material conditions of life, and is now an imprisoned soul.
It answers to the gravitational pull of the material sun and revolves around it, chained by its material desires, yet enlarging its orbit as it advances in its evolution. The point where the planet passes its quadrature, corresponds to the event of incarnation, its lower apsis being the point of greatest physical vitality. It passes out of the physical at the next quadrature and for the remainder of its orbit continues in the psychic or intermediate state betweenthe higher and lower worlds. At its higher apsis the soul is in its supreme state of elevation, mingling freely with other discarnate souls and those radiant denizens of the higher spiritual world who are there to minister to their spiritual needs. But when the reaction follows and the desire for earth-life again asserts itself, the soul responds to the gravitational pull of the material sun and falls again into incarnation.
There comes a time, however, when by its peregrinations in the sphere of the lower world, the soul gains knowledge of real values, and the awakening spirit, shaking free from the bonds of the flesh, answers to the gravitational pull of a higher or more interior Spiritual Sun which occupies the kenofocus of the great ellipse. Such a soul passes directly through the intermediate world into the World of Spirit, and thereafter revolves around the Spiritual Sun, descending only at the lowest point of its orbit into the intermediate world for the purpose of spiritual ministration, its only intercourse with the material world being normally through the world of discarnate souls who are subject to incarnation. The diagram presented on page124, may assist the reader in following out the scheme.
I am not here laying down any final teaching or creed regarding the peregrinations of the Soul, though during a life of inward experience one gets some definite idea of the general plan of these things, but I am taking the position of a symbologist who employs cosmical facts to convey spiritual ideas, as one may use a figure of speech to suggestan analogy or convey an idea pertinent to the theme of conversation. Everything is symbolical, and things have no other meaning than that which we confer upon them, as letters or figures which are used to signal a meaning from one mind to another as by a code agreed upon beforehand, although in themselves these symbols bear no such significance.
So in the Dhammapada it is said: “Mind it is which gives to things their quality, their foundation and their being,” to which Epictetus subscribes when he says: “Men are disturbed by their view of things and not by the things themselves,” and these two views are at the base of Idealism and Quietism, as we may learn from Plato and Laotze.
Figure 9.Figure 9.
Figure 9.
Figure 9.
It would therefore have been equally true in a symbolical sense had the Higher, Middle and LowerWorlds been called the Sun, Moon and Earth Worlds, for these answer to the Spirit, Soul and Body of man, and therefore to the worlds or states of being in which they function. Also by the same symbolism they may be called the worlds of Light, Twilight and Darkness, answering to the three Gunas or qualities of the Soul in the Hindu philosophy, namely, Sattva, Rajasa, and Tamas. But the employment of a purely cosmical symbolism gains point from the fact that whatever may be our views regarding these ultimate problems of life, they must necessarily take form from the things of our experience and find expression in terms of natural phenomena, or so much of the Great Handwriting as we may have mastered and can employ as symbols.
The argument from analogy is indeed strongly in favour of the view that all spiritual truths have their counterpart and illustration in the phenomenal world, that there is a natural law in the spiritual world, and that this law can only be interpreted in terms of natural phenomena. But it is also permissible to take the opposite view and to affirm that there is a spiritual law in the natural world and that this can only be understood and interpreted in the light of the Spirit. Indeed philosophy tends ultimately to the view that the mind of man is but a centre of consciousness in the Universal Mind, that it reflects the Ideas of that Mind, and that things have no real existence except as products of mind. We all recognize the fact that the idea precedes and outlasts the form that embodies it, and that thereis no constant relation between the thing and the thought of which it is an expression.
This idea, applied to the subject of Involution and Evolution, gives rise to the momentous thought that the Archetypal Mind that holds the idea of this universe and is its Creator, is under no contract to complete the scheme of things. God is under no necessity to finish His work. The Great Artificer may at any time destroy his moulds! But long-suffering Nature comforts us with the idea of an infinite patience, and the human mind suggests something indefinitely more steadfast than its own caprice.
Meanwhile by the dim light of our minds we grope our way among the scattered symbols, seeking in them for some intelligible answer to our questionings, hoping to find in them, when all are understood, a solution of the problem of the human soul. Science, philosophy and religion all assure us that we have reasonable hope, if not indeed the definite promise of eventual success.