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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division E - Motion on the Plane of Mind
a. The Cause of Radiation

The student will only be able to get a true view of this matter if he views the subject in a large way. Two aspects of the matter naturally come before his mental vision, both of which must be dealt with if any adequate concept of this subject is to be reached, - a subject which has engrossed philosophers, scientists and alchemists for hundreds of years consciously or unconsciously. We must, therefore, consider:

  1. That which radiates.
  2. That which is the subjective cause of radiation.

It might be very briefly stated that when any form becomes radioactive, certain conditions have been fulfiled and certain results brought about, which conditions and results might be summed up as follows:

The radioactive form is one which has run through its appointed cycles, through its wheel of life, great or small, which has been turned with adequate frequency, so that the volatile life-essence is ready to escape from that form and merge itself in the greater form of which the lesser is but a part. It must be remembered in this connection that radiation occurs when the etheric or true form becomes responsive to certain types of force. Radiation, as it is occultly understood, does not concern itself with the escape from the physical or dense form, but with that period in the life of any living entity (atomic, human or divine) wherein the etheric or pranic body is in such a state that it can no longer limit or confine the indwelling life.

Radiation comes about when the internal, self-sufficient life of any atom is offset by a stronger urge, or pull, emanating from the enveloping greater existence of whose body it may form a part. This is nevertheless only true when it is caused by the pull upon the essential [1064] life by the essential life of the greater form; it is not due to the attractive power of the form aspect of that greater life. A very definite distinction must here be made. It is the failure to recognize this that has led so many alchemical students and scientific investigators to lose their way, and thus negate the conclusions of years of study. They confuse the impulse of the atom to respond to the vibratory magnetic pull of the more powerful and comprehensive form with the true esoteric attraction which alone produces "occult radiation," - that of the central essential life of the form in which the element under consideration may have place. It is very necessary to make this clear from the start. Perhaps the whole subject may be clearer if we consider it in the following way.

The atom in a form revolves upon its own axis, follows its own revolution, and lives its own internal life. This concerns its primary awareness. As time progresses it becomes magnetically aware of the attractive nature of that which envelops it on all sides, and becomes conscious of the form which surrounds it. This is its secondary awareness but it still concerns what we might, for lack of a better term, call matter. The atom, therefore, has an interplay with other atoms.

Later, the atom in a form becomes aware that it not only revolves upon its axis, but that it also follows an orbit around a greater center of force within a greater form. This is tertiary awareness, and is caused by the magnetic pull of the greater center being felt, thus causing an urge within the atom which impels it to move within certain specific cycles. This awareness, esoterically understood, concerns itself with substance or with the true form within the objective form.

Finally, the attractive pull of the greater center becomes so powerful that the positive life within the atom (whatever type of atom it may be and in whatever kingdom) feels the force of the central energy which holds it, [1065] along with other atoms, coherently fulfiling their function. This energy penetrates through the ring-pass-not, evokes no response from what might be called the electronic or negative lives within the atomic periphery, but does evoke a response from the essential, positive nucleus of the atom. This is due to the fact that the essential life of any atom, its highest positive aspect, is ever of the same nature as that of the greater life which is drawing it to itself. When this is felt sufficiently strongly, the atomic cycle is completed, the dense form is dispelled, the true form is dissipated, and the central life escapes to find its greater magnetic focal point.

Through this process (which is found throughout the solar system in all its departments) every atom in turn becomes an electron. The positive life of any atom in due course of evolution becomes negative to a greater life toward which it is impelled or drawn, and thus the process of evolution carries every life invariably through the four stages enumerated above. Within the three lower kingdoms of nature, the process is undergone unconsciously, according to the human connotation of that term; it is consciously passed through in the human kingdom, and in the higher spheres of existence, with an enveloping consciousness which can only be hinted at in the ambiguous term "self-conscious group realization."
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