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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section One - Division E - Motion on the Physical and Astral Planes
All these different periods show different triangular radiances. We must not infer from this that when the fire is centered in one triangle it is not demonstrating in others. Once the fire has free passage along any triangle it flames continuously, but always there is one triangle more radiant and luminous than the others, and it is from these glowing triangles of light, issuing from wheel and vortices of fire that the clairvoyant and the teacher of the race can appraise a man's position in the scheme of things, and judge of his attainment. At the culmination of life experience, and when man has reached his goal, each triangle is a radiant path of fire, and each center a wheel of living fiery force rotating at terrific speed; the center at this stage not only rotates in specific direction, but literally turns upon itself, forming a living flaming iridescent globe of pure fire, and holding within it a certain geometrical shape, yet withal vibrating so rapidly that the eye can scarcely follow it. Above all, at the top of the head will be seen a fiery display that seems to put all the other centers into insignificance; from the heart of this many-petalled lotus issues a flame of fire with the basic hue of a man's ray. This flame [171] mounts upward and seems to attract downward a sheet of electric light, which is the downflow from the spirit on the highest plane. This marks the blending of the fires and the deliverance of man from the trammels of matter.

We might now note that the evolution of these centers of force can be portrayed, not only in words, but under the same five symbols that have so often a cosmic interpretation.

1. The circle. At this stage the center is seen simply as a saucer-like depression (as Mr. C. W. Leadbeater expresses it) of dimly glowing fire, a fire diffused throughout but of no real intensity. The wheel rotates slowly, but so slowly as to be almost inappreciable. This corresponds to the little developed stage, and to the early Lemurian root-race, and to that period wherein man was simply animal; all that was being formed was a field for the appearance of the spark of mind.

2. The circle with the point in the center. The center is here seen with a point of glowing fire in the middle of the saucer-like depression, and the rotation becomes more rapid. This corresponds to the stage wherein mind is beginning to be felt and thus to later Lemurian days.

3. The divided circle. At this stage the point of light in the center of the vortex of fire is becoming more active; rotary motion causes it to burn more brightly, and to cast off rays of fire in two directions, which appear to split the vortex into two; the motion is much accelerated, and the dividing flame in the vortex shoots back and forth, stimulating the glow of the center itself, till a much greater point of radiance is achieved. This corresponds to Atlantean days.

4. The circle divided into four. We come now to the point where the center is exceedingly active, with the cross within its periphery rotating as well as the wheel itself, and causing an effect of great beauty and activity. The man has reached a stage of very high development [172] mentally, corresponding to the fifth root-race, or to the fifth round in the larger cycle; he is conscious of two activities within himself, symbolized by the rotating wheel and the inner rotating cross. He is sensing the spiritual, though actively functioning in the personal life and the development has reached a point wherein he is nearing the Probationary Path.

5. The swastika. At this stage the center becomes fourth-dimensional; the inner rotating cross begins to turn upon its axis, and to drive the flaming periphery to all sides so that the center is better described as a sphere of fire than as a wheel. It marks the stage of the Path in its two divisions, for the process of producing the effect described covers the whole period of the Path. At the close, the centers are seen as globes of radiant fire with the spokes of the wheel (or the evolution of the cross from the point in the center) merging and blending into a "fire that burneth up the whole."

A brief sentence has its place here owing to its relation to this subject. Another sentence is also added here which, if meditated upon, will prove of real value and will have a definite effect upon one of the centers, which center it is for the student himself to find out.

These two sentences are as follows:

"The secret of the Fire lies hid in the second letter of the Sacred Word. The mystery of life is concealed within the heart. When the lower point vibrates, when the Sacred Triangle glows, when the point, the middle center, and the apex likewise burn, then the two triangles - the greater and the lesser - merge with one flame which burneth up the whole."

"The fire within the lesser fire findeth its progress much impelled when the circle of the moving and the unmoving, of the lesser wheel within the greater wheel that moveth not in Time, findeth a twofold outlet; it then shineth with the glory of the twofold One and of His sixfold brother. Fohat rusheth through space. He searcheth for his complement. [173] The breath of the unmoving one, and the fire of the One Who seeth the whole from the beginning rush to meet each other, and the unmoving becomes the sphere of activity."

We take up our second point in the consideration of the centers:
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