H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Volume 3

 

until it is touched by the vibrating light of Kundalinî, which proceeds from Buddhi, when it becomes Buddhi-Manas.

The pineal gland corresponds with Divine Thought. The pituitary body is the organ of the Psychic Plane. Psychic vision is caused by the molecular motion of this body, which is directly connected with the optic nerve, and thus affects the sight and gives rise to hallucinations. Its motion may readily cause flashes of light, such as may be obtained by pressing the eyeballs. Drunkenness and fever produce illusions of sight and hearing by the action of the pituitary body. This body is sometimes so affected by drunkenness that it is paralysed. If an influence on the optic nerve is thus produced and the current thus reversed, the colour will probably be compementary.

Sevens

Q. If the physical body is no part of the real human septenary, is the physical material world one of the seven planes of the Kosmic septenary?

A. It is. The body is not a Principle in Esoteric parlance, because the body and the Linga are both on the same plane; then the Auric Egg makes the seventh. The body is an Upâdhi rather than a Principle. The earth and its astral light are as closely related to each other as the body and its Linga, the earth being the Upâdhi. Our plane in its lowest division is the earth, in its highest the astral. The terrestrial astral light should of course not be confounded with the universal Astral Light.

Q. A physical object was spoken of as a septenary on the physical plane, inasmuch as we could (1) directly contact it; (2) retinally reproduce it; (3) remember it; (4) dream of it; (5) view it atomically; (6) view it disintegrated; (7) —What is the seventh?

These are seven ways in which we view it: the septenary is our way of seeing one thing. Is it objectively septenary?

Ãkâsha Nature's Sounding-Board (Page 549) A. The seventh bridges across from one plane to another. The last is the idea, the privation of matter, and carries you to the next plane. The highest of one plane touches the lowest of the next. Seven is a factor in nature, as in colours and sounds. There are seven degrees in the same piece of wood, each perceived by one of the seven senses. In wood the smell is the most material degree, while in other substances it may be the sixth. Substances are septenary apart from the consciousness of the viewer.

The psychometer, seeing a morsel, say of a table a thousand years hence, would see the whole; for every atom reflects the whole body to which it belongs, just as with the Monads of Leibnitz.

After the seven material subdivisions are the seven divisions of the Astral, which is its second Principle. The disintegrated matter—the highest of the material subdivisions—is the privation of the idea of it—the fourth.

The number fourteen is the first step between seven and forty-nine. Each septenary is really a fourteen, because each of the seven has its two aspects. Thus fourteen signifies the inter-relation of two planes in its turn. The septenary is to be clearly traced in the lunar months, fevers, gestations, etc. On it is based the week of the Jews and the septenary Hierarchies of the Lord of Hosts.

Sounds

Q. Sound is an attribute of Ãkâsha; but we cannot cognize anything on the Ãkâshic plane; on what plane then do we recognize sound? On what plane is sound produced by the physical contact of bodies? Is there sound on seven planes, and is the physical plane one of them?

A. The physical plane is one of them. You cannot see Ãkâsha, but you can sense it from the Fourth Path. You may not be fully conscious of it, and yet you may sense it. Ãkâsha is at the root of the manifestation of all sounds. Sound is the expression and manifestation of that which is behind it, and which is the parent of many correlations. All Nature is a sounding-board; or rather Ãkâsha is the sounding-board of Nature. It is the Deity, the one Life, the one Existence. (Hearing is the vibration of molecular particles; the order is seen in the sentence, “The disciple feels, hears, sees.”)

Sound can have no end. H.P.B remarked with regard to a tap made by a pencil on the table: “By this time it has affected the whole universe. The particle which has had its wear and tear destroys some (Page 550) thing which passes into something else. It is eternal in the Nidânas it produces.” A sound, if not previously produced on the Astral Plane, and before that on the Ãkâshic, could not be produced at all. Ãkâsha is the bridge between nerve cells and mental powers.

Q. “Colours are psychic, and sounds are spiritual.” What, assuming that these are vibrations, is the successive order (these corresponding to sight and hearing) of the other senses?

A. This phrase was not to be taken out of its context, otherwise confusion would arise. All are on all planes. The First Race had touch all over like a sounding board; this touch differentiated into the other senses, which developed with the Races. The “sense” of the First Race was that of touch, meaning the power of their atoms to vibrate in unison with external atoms. The “touch” would be almost the same as sympathy.

The senses were on a different plane with each Race; e.g., the Fourth Race had very much more developed senses than ourselves, but on another plane. It was also a very material Race. The sixth and seventh senses will merge into the Ãkâshic Sound. “It depends to what degree of matter the sense of touch relates itself as to what we call it.”

Prâna

Q. Is Prâna the production of the countless “lives” of the human body, and therefore, to some extent, of the congeries of the cells or atoms of the body?

A. No; Prâna is the parent of the “lives.” As an example, a sponge may be immersed in an ocean. The water in the sponge’s interior may be compared to Prâna; outside is Jîva. Prâna is the motor-principle in life. The “lives” leave Prâna; Prâna does not leave them. Take out the sponge from the water, and it becomes dry, thus symbolizing death. Every principle is a differentiation of Jîva, but the life-motion in each is Prâna, the “breath of life.” Kâma depends on Prâna, without which there would be no Kâma. Prâna wakes the Kâmic germs to life; it makes all desires vital and living.

The Second Spinal Cord

Q. With reference to the answer to the question on the second cord, what is it that will become a second spinal cord in the Sixth Race? Will Idâ and Pingalâ have separate physical ducts?

A. It is the sympathetic cords which will grow together and form another spinal cord. Idâ and Pingalâ will be joined with Sushumnâ, and they will become one. Idâ is on the left side of the cord, and Pingalâ on the right.

Kosmic Consciousness (Page 551)

Initiates

Pythagoras was an Initiate, one of the grandest of Scientists. His disciple, Archytas, was marvellously apt in applied Science. Plato and Euclid were Initiates, but not Socrates. No real Initiates were married. Euclid learned his Geometry in the Mysteries. Modern men of Science only rediscover the old truths.

Kosmic Consciousness

H.P.B proceeded to explain Kosmic Consciousness, which is, like all else, on seven planes, of which three are inconceivable and four are cognizable by the highest Adept. She sketched the planes as in the following diagram.

    

Manas-Ego

Kâma-Manas or Higher Psychic

Prânic-Kâma or Lower Psychic

Astral

Prakritic or Terrestrial