THE EVOLUTIONARY FIELD
In a treatise on elementary theosophy the solar system may be reckoned
as our universe and we shall have no need of considering more than a
small fragment of even that. It is septenary in constitution, as may be
seen in its vibrations expressed in color and sound. Beyond the seven
colors of the prism we have only tints and outside the seven notes we
can get only overtones or undertones. There are likewise seven planes in
the system but less than half of them require our attention, for the
evolutionary field of the human soul is the three lower planes, known as
the physical, astral and mental. When the human being has outgrown them
in evolution he passes on to superhuman evolution.
The word "plane," so often encountered in theosophical literature,
should perhaps have some definition. It has a wide application and is
used as a synonym for region, place, sphere or world. In referring to
the physical plane the term embraces all we know of earth and sky and
life through the physical senses.
There are seven planes in our solar system because of the seven
different combinations of its ultimate atoms. Each plane consists of a
totally different grade of matter than the next plane, but all have for
their base the ultimate atom of the solar system. When modern science
discovered, to its astonishment, that the physical atom was a composite
body it confirmed the theosophical teaching that the ultimate physical
atom was _not_ the final point of division. Theosophy teaches that when
the ultimate physical atom is disintegrated its particles become the
coarsest matter of the next plane or region above it--the astral plane.
The process repeated with astral matter results in driving its ultimate
atom from the highest level of the astral plane or world to the lowest
of the mental plane. That scientist who said that the atom is the brick
of the universe stated a great truth, for of its combinations all forms
are built; and if the idea be applied to the ultimate atom of the solar
system it will then be true that of such "bricks" all the planes are
built.
The relationship of the planes to each other is that of interpenetrating
spheres of matter. The physical plane, consisting of the earth and its
atmosphere, is surrounded and interpenetrated by the astral plane, or
world, which is an enormously larger globe of exceedingly tenuous
matter. This vast sphere of invisible matter is _within_ the earth as
well as beyond it, interpenetrating every atom of physical matter to the
earth's center. Its grossest grade of matter is so rare, and its
vibrations so intense, that they cannot affect the physical senses and
therefore we remain unconscious of it while that matter moves freely
through all physical objects. We are unconscious of its life and
activities for precisely the same reason that we know nothing of the
messages of intelligence carried on the vibrations of the wireless
telegraph, although they pass through the room where we sit. We have no
sense organs with which it is possible to register such vibrations.
Messages conveying intelligence of tremendous import, involving the
movements of vast armies, the fall of empires and the destinies of great
nations, flow through the very space we occupy but we are wholly
unconscious of them. Even so we remain blind and deaf to the stupendous
activities of life and consciousness in the astral world,
notwithstanding the fact that it surrounds and permeates us while its
forms, unseen and unfelt, move through the physical world as freely as
water flows through a sieve.
The mental world constitutes a region of our earth still more vast than
the astral portion of it. As the astral sphere encloses the physical
globe, the mental encompasses both, enclosing them and also
interpenetrating them to the earth's center. The term "mental world" may
seem confusing to some because we are accustomed to think of the mental
and the material as being opposites. The mental world, or sphere, or
plane, of theosophy, is a world of _matter_, not merely thought. It is
matter, however, of such remarkable tenuosity that it may properly be
called mind-stuff, and in its rarest levels it is said to be "formless"
so far as the existence of what the physical senses know as form is
concerned.
All three of these worlds, or planes--the physical, astral and
mental--are, then, worlds of matter, of form, of activity, of thought
and of enterprise. They are concentric globes, the physical enclosed by
the astral, and both physical and astral enclosed by the mental. Within
and without all physical matter are both astral and mental matter. Every
physical atom is surrounded and permeated by astral and mental matter.
The relationship is precisely that which exists between the ether and
the lower grades of physical matter.
If the relationship of the three worlds--physical, astral and mental--is
fully understood later confusion of thought will be avoided. Physical
language is not capable of fully expressing much with which students of
the occult must deal. Because there is nothing better for the purpose,
words must be used that express but a part of the truth and may
sometimes prove misleading unless the constitution and relationship of
the three spheres is kept in mind. Thus, it is necessary to speak of
higher and lower worlds, or planes, inner or outer, and of the soul
coming "down" into the material world when, as a matter of fact, _no
movement in space_ is under consideration. The astral is commonly spoken
of as an inner plane and while it truly is so because it can be known
only to astral senses by a withdrawal of the consciousness from its
exterior, material body, it is also true that the astral world is
outside the physical because it envelops it as the sea does a sponge.
We usually speak of coming down from higher planes to lower and that may
be true not only in the sense of changing the state of consciousness
from higher vibrations to lower ones but it _could_ mean a journey in
space from a point in the astral plane above the physical globe to a
point at its surface. "Up" and "down" are relative, not absolute. "Down"
for us is toward the earth's center and "up" is the opposite direction.
A spire in the Occident and a spire in the Orient are both said to be
pointing upward but they are pointing in opposite directions. On most
parts of the earth's surface we have four directions, while at the poles
there is, of course, but one direction--south or north, as the case may
be. East, west and north disappear at the north pole. Reflection upon
such facts leads one to at least faintly comprehend the possibility of
space itself disappearing from the inner planes--space as we know it.
The matter of each of the planes consists of seven classes. We are
familiar with the solids, liquids and gases of the physical plane, and
to them must be added four grades of the ether. The seven grades of
matter of the astral and mental worlds constitute an important part of
the mechanism for the soul's evolution, for they determine the state of
consciousness in the life beyond the physical plane. But a study of
those states of consciousness belongs to a later chapter.
A difficulty which the student of theosophy should make an early effort
to eliminate, is the tendency to think of invisible realms as unreal. It
should not be forgotten that it is only the limitation of the physical
senses that gives rise to the feeling of unreality beyond the visible.
We should keep in mind the fact that the invisible realms are composed
of matter as certainly as the air is matter, or a stone is matter. The
water in a pan may evaporate, but it does not cease to be matter because
it has passed beyond the ken of the physical senses. It will some time
condense once more and play its part as the liquid, water, or as the
solid, ice. Only when matter is in certain forms can we know of its
existence through the physical senses.
We frequently hear people who are students of the occult speak of a
deceased person as having left the earth. But passing into the astral
plane, or world, is not, of course, leaving the earth. Both the astral
world and the mental world are divisions of the earth. As the atmosphere
is invisible and yet is a part of the earth's physical matter, so the
invisible astral and mental regions are other parts of the earth. They
are properly called worlds because the activities in consciousness that
make up existence there are as remote from ours as though they were upon
another planet. We have erroneously supposed that with the physical
senses we really see and know the earth, whereas we have known only that
small fragment of the earth that consists of physical matter. Beyond the
limitation of our poor senses stretch in unsuspected grandeur vaster
regions of our earth, swept by the vibrations of an intenser life.