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A Treatise on White Magic - Rule Fourteen - The Centers and Prana
RULE FOURTEEN The sound swells out. The hour of danger to the soul courageous draweth near. The waters have not hurt the white creator and naught could drown nor drench him. Danger from fire and flame menaces now, and dimly yet the rising smoke is seen. Let him again, after the cycle of peace, call on the Solar Angel. The Centers and Prana The nearer we approach in our thought to the physical plane, the more difficulty is experienced by the magician, whether he be the solar Angel occupied with the magical work of manifestation, or an expert worker under the plan. This is due to two causes: The automatic response of dense physical matter to substance, remembering always that substance is force. The dangers incident to working with the fires or with the pranas of the Universe. This latter danger is that with which Rule XIV concerns itself. There are many ways in which this Rule can be interpreted. We can study the work of the solar Angel as he approaches the dense physical plane to take incarnation and thus arrives at that critical point in his creative work wherein the threefold sheath is at the stage where it must, inevitably and unavoidably, make a contact with the matter aspect. It is the stage during which, expressing this truth in occult terms, it is literally called upon to "clothe itself and disappear into the light of day." The spiritual man is now veiled by a mental or by a fire sheath. He is clothed "in a watery mist", which is an ancient way of referring to the great illusion. This term conveys not only the concept of the possession of an astral or watery body, but also presents to the mind the effect which that body must have upon the hidden solar Angel. The latter looks out through the fire and through [566] the mist and sees distortion and reflection. He sees that which must mislead. Besides the sheath of fire and the sheath of mist he has clothed upon himself an outer web of closely interlocking streams of force. These constitute his etheric or vital body, which is in the nature of a web or mesh of energy nadis, which, in their tens of thousands, are woven together and form in certain localities in this energy body various focal points of force, of which the most important are the seven centers. There are, however, many such focal points. When this clothing has been assumed by the solar Angel, a final stage is reached, and solar fire and fire by friction must be brought into contact with three "most ancient fires". These are the fires of the dense physical objective matter or of those material energy units which we normally cover by the words "gaseous, liquid and dense", a meaningless phrase and only of use to us through its teaching of differentiation. These three ancient fires are an aspect of fire by friction. At this point is the hour of danger for the soul courageous. It is the hour wherein the soul must bring into at-one-ment the etheric body and the gaseous envelope which is the highest aspect of the dense physical sheath, the instrument of tangible organic manifestation. We can also study this Rule from the point of view of the initiate who is occupied with the wielding of forces and who, through the power of his thought, may have created a thought-form. This thought-form he has clothed with an astral or desire sheath, deliberately vitalized with his energy, and now seeks to give it objective existence and send it forth to accomplish his purpose and his intent. The crucial moment in all creative work is ever to be found at this stage. It is the stage wherein the vibrant subjective form has to attract to itself that material which will give it organization upon the physical [567] plane. This fact has to be remembered, no matter what the magician is seeking to render objective. It refers equally to an organization, to a group or to a society; it may refer to the materialization of money or to the clothing or exteriorization of an idea. The moment of danger to the magician comes at this final stage. A point of fine discrimination is reached and the magician has to proceed now with caution. Many good plans fail to materialize and the reason lies right here. A plan is, after all, an idea let loose in time and space to seek a form and do its work. Many come to naught because their creator, or the creative mind from which they emanate, understands not this critical period. A right adjustment of forces has here to be arranged, so that neither too much energy is used in the work, nor too little. When too much energy is released through the medium of the vital body, then a fire blazes forth when the gaseous energy of the dense physical plane is brought in contact with vital etheric energy. Thus the embryo form is destroyed. Where there is not sufficient energy, or adequate persistent attention, and when the thought of the magician wavers, then the idea comes to naught, then the infant is stillborn, and nothing comes into objective manifestation. This has a literal correspondence on the physical plane. Many infants are stillborn for this very reason that the solar Angel wavers in his intent and is not sufficiently interested. Many fine ideas equally fail to materialize or have no persistent living existence "in the light of day," because there was not sufficient energy to generate that spark of living flame which must ever burn at the center of all forms. The danger, therefore, is twofold: That of destruction by fire, owing to the expenditure of too much energy and the expression of too violent a purpose. [568] That of death, through lack of vitality and because the "directed attention" of the magician is not of adequate strength and duration to bring the form into being. The occult law holds good that energy follows thought.
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