INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION
The symbolism of astronomy lends itself in a most interesting manner to
the great problem of human evolution. In my opening chapter it was shown
that evolution is the natural reaction to the process of involution.
Logically we cannot speak of evolution without taking into consideration
the fact of a preceding involution. _Ex nihilo nihil fit._ The potential
of matter is measured by its latent energy, and this latency is static
Spirit Force. Matter is the ultimate expression of Spirit, as form is
that of force. The material forms of the visible universe are therefore
nothing but concrete spiritual forces.
But it would appear that there are two processes going on simultaneously
in any cycle of cosmic life, and these are a downward spiritual
involution and an upward physical evolution. The two processes are
complementary, and possibly may be regarded as taking place
simultaneously, although in the Chaldean account they are spoken of as
distinct in point of time. Jacob’s vision of the Ladder of Life depicted
angels ascending and descending simultaneously, and these are the
spiritual forces that are in continual play between pure spirit and
gross matter. The great tidal influx of spirit towards the plane of
materiality admits of a constant ebb and flow of the life-wave, so that,
although at the present stage of the Great Cycle the tide has set back
and is at its ebb, carrying its burden of detached souls along with it
towards the region of spirituality, may yet mark periodic incursions of
the spirit towards the material plane, such incursions being in the
nature of abnormal phenomena.
Thus we have from the beginning of the Great Cycle a double influx
involving an interplay of Spirit and Matter. In the process of
manifestation by means of differentiation, Spirit (the positive or male
potency) may be regarded as taking a downward plunge on the left-hand
side, while Substance (the negative or female potency) will in the same
scheme take the right-hand side in its progress towards manifestation on
the material plane. The Paramatma or Universal Spirit first appears as
Purusha, while Mulaprakriti or Root Substance manifests as Prakriti. The
ultimate expression of Purusha is Prana (Life force) while that of
Prakriti is Prithivi (Matter). We thus have the Father Spirit on the one
hand, and the Mother Substance on the other, manifesting eventually in
the multitude of forms of Living Matter. Spirit Substance thus invests
and is at the root of all physical life, Force and Matter standing
always in the same undivided relations as do Spirit and Substance in the
Archetypal World.
Such mysteries concerning the origin of things can be read in the
astronomical disposition of the signs of the zodiac, where Leo is the
symbol of the Father Spirit and Cancer that of the Mother Substance.
These descend along their own arcs of involution through the planes of
Buddhi and Manas, which are the higher and lower aspects of Mind, and in
combination represent the potential and evolved Hermaphrodites, denoted
by the planets Mercury and Venus, which are set over these signs in the
astrological scheme, and have relation to the signs Virgo and Libra on
the one hand and Gemini and Taurus on the other. Thence the Great Breath
descends to the Kamic plane, manifesting in the Body of Desire. This is
represented on either hand by the signs Scorpio and Aries. Next the
Spirit-Substance manifests on the Astral or Psycho-Physical plane, which
is symbolized by the planet Jupiter with its signs Sagittarius and
Pisces, and finally precipitates in the material world denoted by the
planet Saturn and its corresponding signs Capricornus and Aquarius, the
symbols of matter in the concrete and in a state of flux.
The scheme may be reduced to a diagram as on page 121.
In view of this statement of the occult doctrine of the origin of the
phenomenal world, we are led to expect in the course of physical
evolution, which is another name for the process of spiritual
unfoldment, that matter will yield continually new characteristics,
which now lie _in obscuro_ or latency. For spirit is now shaking itself
free of the trammels of matter, organisms are becoming more and more
subject and responsive to the impulses of the mind, and matter is
everywhere giving way to the effort of a spiritual expression. The world
has passed the zero point of greatest materiality and darkness, and
though the mass of mankind are as yet only on the plane of Kama,
actuated solely by the force of their desires and material appetites,
yet quite a large section of the world’s population is coming under the
direct influence of the Manasic forces, and the demand for knowledge is
being met upon every side. Some few of the more advanced pioneers of the
race are functioning in the light of the Buddhic plane and are
overshadowed by the spirit. At the head of all this Earth’s humanity is
the supreme Arhat, the Adam Kadmon of the Kabalists, the Iswara of the
Hindus, the Jehovah of the Hebrews.
[Illustration: Figure 8.]
What is going on in this world is happening also in others of the solar
system, and over all is the Supreme Logos, Brahma-Vach, the Ancient of
Days, whom we call the Lord. These are co-ordinating Centres of
Intelligence and Power functioning in their respective spheres and on
their several planes as the various nervous ganglia in the body of man,
all being finally linked up to one Centre in whom resides the
consciousness of the I AM, as planets are united to their central Sun.
And what we argue in regard to the constitution of the Universe we also
affirm to be true regarding man, the Microcosm and epitome of the
Universe. He is one of those angels “ascending and descending” on the
Ladder of Life. For the purposes of illustration we may borrow a symbol
from the astronomer, that of the elliptical orbit of the Earth. Let the
Earth represent the spiritual monad which in process of involution has
become associated with material conditions of life, and is now an
imprisoned soul.
It answers to the gravitational pull of the material sun and revolves
around it, chained by its material desires, yet enlarging its orbit as
it advances in its evolution. The point where the planet passes its
quadrature, corresponds to the event of incarnation, its lower apsis
being the point of greatest physical vitality. It passes out of the
physical at the next quadrature and for the remainder of its orbit
continues in the psychic or intermediate state between the higher and
lower worlds. At its higher apsis the soul is in its supreme state of
elevation, mingling freely with other discarnate souls and those radiant
denizens of the higher spiritual world who are there to minister to
their spiritual needs. But when the reaction follows and the desire for
earth-life again asserts itself, the soul responds to the gravitational
pull of the material sun and falls again into incarnation.
There comes a time, however, when by its peregrinations in the sphere of
the lower world, the soul gains knowledge of real values, and the
awakening spirit, shaking free from the bonds of the flesh, answers to
the gravitational pull of a higher or more interior Spiritual Sun which
occupies the kenofocus of the great ellipse. Such a soul passes directly
through the intermediate world into the World of Spirit, and thereafter
revolves around the Spiritual Sun, descending only at the lowest point
of its orbit into the intermediate world for the purpose of spiritual
ministration, its only intercourse with the material world being
normally through the world of discarnate souls who are subject to
incarnation. The diagram presented on page 124, may assist the reader in
following out the scheme.
I am not here laying down any final teaching or creed regarding the
peregrinations of the Soul, though during a life of inward experience
one gets some definite idea of the general plan of these things, but I
am taking the position of a symbologist who employs cosmical facts to
convey spiritual ideas, as one may use a figure of speech to suggest an
analogy or convey an idea pertinent to the theme of conversation.
Everything is symbolical, and things have no other meaning than that
which we confer upon them, as letters or figures which are used to
signal a meaning from one mind to another as by a code agreed upon
beforehand, although in themselves these symbols bear no such
significance.
So in the Dhammapada it is said: “Mind it is which gives to things their
quality, their foundation and their being,” to which Epictetus
subscribes when he says: “Men are disturbed by their view of things and
not by the things themselves,” and these two views are at the base of
Idealism and Quietism, as we may learn from Plato and Laotze.
[Illustration: Figure 9.]
It would therefore have been equally true in a symbolical sense had the
Higher, Middle and Lower Worlds been called the Sun, Moon and Earth
Worlds, for these answer to the Spirit, Soul and Body of man, and
therefore to the worlds or states of being in which they function. Also
by the same symbolism they may be called the worlds of Light, Twilight
and Darkness, answering to the three Gunas or qualities of the Soul in
the Hindu philosophy, namely, Sattva, Rajasa, and Tamas. But the
employment of a purely cosmical symbolism gains point from the fact that
whatever may be our views regarding these ultimate problems of life,
they must necessarily take form from the things of our experience and
find expression in terms of natural phenomena, or so much of the Great
Handwriting as we may have mastered and can employ as symbols.
The argument from analogy is indeed strongly in favour of the view that
all spiritual truths have their counterpart and illustration in the
phenomenal world, that there is a natural law in the spiritual world,
and that this law can only be interpreted in terms of natural phenomena.
But it is also permissible to take the opposite view and to affirm that
there is a spiritual law in the natural world and that this can only be
understood and interpreted in the light of the Spirit. Indeed philosophy
tends ultimately to the view that the mind of man is but a centre of
consciousness in the Universal Mind, that it reflects the Ideas of that
Mind, and that things have no real existence except as products of mind.
We all recognize the fact that the idea precedes and outlasts the form
that embodies it, and that there is no constant relation between the
thing and the thought of which it is an expression.
This idea, applied to the subject of Involution and Evolution, gives
rise to the momentous thought that the Archetypal Mind that holds the
idea of this universe and is its Creator, is under no contract to
complete the scheme of things. God is under no necessity to finish His
work. The Great Artificer may at any time destroy his moulds! But
long-suffering Nature comforts us with the idea of an infinite patience,
and the human mind suggests something indefinitely more steadfast than
its own caprice.
Meanwhile by the dim light of our minds we grope our way among the
scattered symbols, seeking in them for some intelligible answer to our
questionings, hoping to find in them, when all are understood, a
solution of the problem of the human soul. Science, philosophy and
religion all assure us that we have reasonable hope, if not indeed the
definite promise of eventual success.