Foreword
Dedicated with Gratitude to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky,
that great disciple who lighted her torch in the east
and brought the light to Europe and America in 1875. [xii]
This
"Treatise on Cosmic Fire" has a fivefold purpose in view:
- First, to provide a compact and skeleton outline of a scheme of cosmology, philosophy,
and psychology which may perhaps be employed for a generation as a reference and a
textbook, and may serve as a scaffolding upon which more detailed instruction may later be
built, as the great tide of evolutionary teaching flows on.
- Secondly, to express that which is subjective in comprehensible terms, and to point out
the next step forward in the understanding of the true psychology. It is an elucidation of
the relation existing between Spirit and Matter, which relation demonstrates as consciousness.
It will be found that the Treatise deals primarily with the aspect of mind, with
consciousness and with the higher psychology, and less with matter as we know of it on the
physical plane. The danger involved in giving out information concerning the various
energies of atomic matter is too great, and the race as yet too selfish to be entrusted
with these potencies. Man is already, through the able work of the scientists, discovering
the needed knowledge with adequate rapidity. The emphasis in this book will be found to be
laid upon those forces which are responsible for the objective manifestation of a solar
Logos and of man, and only in the first section will indication be given as to the nature
of those energies which are strictly confined to the physical plane.
- Thirdly, to show the coherent development of all that is found within a solar system; to
demonstrate that everything which exists evolves (from the lowest form of life at the
densest point of concretion up to the highest and most tenuous manifestation) and that all
forms are but the expression of a stupendous and divine Existence. This expression is
caused by the blending of two divine aspects through the influence of a third, and
produces the manifestation which we call a form, starting it upon its [xiii] evolutionary
cycle in time and space. Thus is form brought to the point where it is an adequate medium
for the demonstration of the nature of that which we call God.
- Fourthly, to give practical information anent those focal points of energy which are
found in the etheric bodies of the solar Logos, the macrocosm, and of man, the microcosm.
As the etheric substratum which is the true substance underlying every tangible form
is understood, certain great revolutions will be brought about in the domains of science,
of medicine and of chemistry. The study of medicine, for instance, will eventually be
taken up from a new angle, and its practice will be built upon a comprehension of the laws
of radiation, of magnetic currents, and of the force centers found in men's bodies and
their relationship to the force centers and currents of the solar system.
- Fifthly, to give some information, hitherto not exoterically imparted as to the place
and work of those myriads of sentient lives who form the essence of objectivity; to
indicate the nature of those Hierarchies of Existences who form out of their own substance
all that is seen and known, and who are themselves Fire and the cause of all the heat,
warmth, life and motion in the universe. In this way the action of Fire on Water, of Heat
in Matter, whether macrocosmically or microcosmically considered, will be touched upon and
some light thrown upon the Law of Cause and Effect (the Law of Karma) and its significance
in the solar system.
To sum up the matter, the teaching in this book should tend to an expansion of
consciousness, and should bring about a recognition of the adequacy, as a working basis,
for both science and religion, of that interpretation of the processes of nature which has
been formulated for us by the Master Minds of all time. It should tend to bring about a
reaction in favor of a system of philosophy which will link both Spirit and matter, and
demonstrate the essential unity of the scientific and religious idea. The two are at
present somewhat divorced, and we are only just beginning to grope our intellectual way
out of the depths of a materialistic interpretation. It must not be forgotten, however,
that under the Law of Action and Reaction, the long period of materialistic thought has
been a necessary one for humanity, because the mysticism of the Middle Ages had led [xiv]
us too far in the opposite direction. We are now tending to a more balanced view, and it
is hoped that this treatise may form part of the process through which equilibrium is
attained. |