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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division D - Thought Elementals and Fire Elementals
We can now take up the consideration of karma in its relation to the act of reincarnation. As we are well aware, the law of karma is the most stupendous law of the system and one which it is impossible for the average man in any way to comprehend, for, if traced back along its central root and its many ramifications, one eventually reaches the position where causes antedating the solar system have to be dealt with, and this point of view can only be usefully grasped by a high initiate.

This great law really concerns, or is based on causes which are inherent in the constitution of matter itself and on the interaction between atomic units whether we use this expression in connection with an atom of substance, a human being, a planetary atom or a solar atom.

We might express it also in saying that the will aspect or initiatory impulse is primarily that which produces cause, which is cause itself. It should be remembered ever that cause involves the idea of duality, i.e., that which initiates, and that which is produced simultaneously by the initiation. The two ideas are inseparable, yet nevertheless the second idea in its most abstract connotation must not be considered literally as an effect; true effect involves a third idea. Some appreciation of the problem may be gleaned by a consideration of phenomena which ever involves this dual initiatory cause and its objective effect: [799]

  1. Spirit-matter in dual activity produces the objective universe.
  2. Electric fire and fire by friction when brought into contact produce solar fire; it flashes forth from darkness, yet a darkness which is potent with energy.
  3. Will-desire is the cause of incarnation; the will-to-be reacting on substance (whose main quality is desire or responsiveness to sensation) produces the forms through which the central Life or Existence seeks expression.
  4. Ideas and thought-matter together produce thought-forms.

If the student considers these points, it will become apparent that it is not possible for him to do more than study the effects produced by the juxtaposition of the pairs of opposites; he cannot dissociate them in his mind and deal with Spirit per se, or with matter per se, any more than the atom of substance in man's physical body can dissociate itself from that body, and consider itself independently of form influences. All atoms are always controlled by the following factors, just as a man in the body of a planetary Logos, and a planetary Logos within His greater Whole will be equally controlled by the same basic principles:

  • The influence and quality of the organ or unit in which it finds a place. In the human atom this means his group force or influence.
  • The life influence of the entire physical body of which any atom is a corporate part. In the human atom this means the influence of the particular center in which his egoic group has a place, and the type of energy which it embodies.
  • The life influence of the desire or astral body, the strongest karmic agency which has to be considered. [800] In the human atom, this involves the influence of the three centers in the body of the Heavenly Man which form any specific "force triangle," and which have much to do with the liberation of groups of Egos from manifestation.
  • The life influences of the mental body, or of that principle which imposes upon the atom the quality of activity in form, which governs the reaction of the atom to its group life, and which enables the quality of its life to be demonstrated. In the human atom this concerns those causes which are incident to a man's Ray, or literally the influence of the life of the planetary Logos as He functions as a self-conscious Life on His Own plane, as He works out His Own plans, and consequently sweeps into activity the cells of His body as mere incidents where He (the basic central life) is concerned.
  • The life impulse of the Thinker functioning in the causal body who - though a great abstraction or the Absolute where the cellular life is concerned - is nevertheless a potent and active factor in the imposition of rhythm upon the atom in every body. In the human atom, this brings in the influence of the life of the solar Logos, for that Life imposes rhythm upon every human atom in the system, and does so through the agency of substance and its inherent quality, sensation.

In these thoughts, we have but approached the study of karma from a fresh angle, and endeavored to show the sources of the "influences" which play upon all atomic lives.

The atom likewise is controlled by its own "esse," or by its own inherent nature or vibration, which was the quality of matter itself before it was aggregated into a solar system, and which was the vibratory activity produced through the rhythmic life of an earlier solar system. [801] This is equally true of all atoms of all grades, but only in connection with the atom of substance, and to some degree with the human atom, is it in any way possible to ascertain the predisposing causes. Until the mystery of the Great Bear is revealed and is known as it is, and until the influence of the Pleiades is comprehended, and the true significance of the cosmic triangle formed by

  1. The seven Rishis of the Great Bear,
  2. The seven planetary Logoi of our solar system,
  3. The seven Pleiades or Sisters,

is revealed, the karma of the seven sacred planets will remain unknown. All that we can see is its working out in the solar system. The intricacy of the whole subject will be apparent when it is borne in mind that not only do these three groups form a cosmic triangle, but that within that triangle many lesser triangles have to be studied. Any one of the seven Rishis with one of our planetary Logoi and one of the seven Sisters may form a subsidiary triangle, and all must thus be Studied.

In connection with the karma of the solar Logos, the subject is even more abstract and incomprehensible. It lies hidden - not in the seven constellations - but in the three constellations which concern the three bodies of His Personality and which in themselves are but manifestations of a central LIFE past our concept and our recognition. It concerns the manifestation in time and space of the ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID, and Whose relationship to the solar Logos finds a faint analogy in that of the planetary Logos to man, the human unit. It profits not to extend the thought any further.

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