Compilation On Fire

A FIRE MANTRAM

The point of light within the glowing arc, O Pilgrim on the Way, waxes and wanes as application hard or not betrays the purpose within the heart.

That point is ever there, unnoticed and unseen.  Dark is the night and drear, and sore the heart of the unilluminated Pilgrim.  Dark is the night but drearness is not felt when within the gloomy portal is seen the bright illusive light, the light that flickers ever on ahead, enticing with its gleam the Pilgrim ever onward.

Six times the light may wax and wane, six times the glow is felt, but at the seventh glowing hour the Flame bursts forth.

Six times the Flame bursts forth, six times the burning starts, but at the seventh hour the altar is lost sight of and only Flame is seen.

Six times the circle of the burning fire, six times the roaring furnace burns and separates, but at the seventh naught is left save the ascending Flame, that mounts to the Triadal Spirit.

Six times the Flame mounts up, six times the cloud recedes, but at the seventh naught is seen save everlasting fire.

Six times the flames absorbs the water, six times the moisture disappears, but at the seventh great absorption naught is left save iridescent fire.

Three times the fire envelops, three times the sun recedes; at time the fourth the work is done, and naught is left save Flame primordial.  That Flame absorbs, revolves, receives, and remains.  When all that is has traversed the Flame, then Time is not.

R & I appendix

RULE XIV.  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 [Page 1025] menaces now, and dimly yet the rising smoke is seen.  Let him again, after the cycle of peace, call on the solar Angel.

The work of creation assumes now serious proportions, and for the final time the body of the magician is menaced by destruction.  The "shadow" having been formed, it is now ready to take to itself a "fiery" or gaseous body, and it is these fire builders who menace the life of the magician, and this for the following reasons.

Firstly, because the fires of the human body are closely allied to the fires with which the magician seeks to work, and should these latent fires of the body and the latent fires of the planet be brought into too close juxtaposition, the creator is in danger of burning and destruction.

Secondly, the Agnichaitans, being allied to the "fire devas" of the mental plane, have much power, and can only be controlled properly by the solar Angel Himself.

Thirdly, on this planet the planetary fires are not as yet dominated by solar fire, and are very easily driven into the work of destruction.

The solar Angel must, therefore, now again be invoked.  This means that the magician (when his "shadow" is completed, and prior to the final stages of concretion) must see to it that his alignment with the Ego is just and unimpeded, and the communicating currents in full play.  He must literally "renew his meditation," and make direct contact afresh before proceeding with the work.  Otherwise, the fires of his own body may get out of control, and his etheric body suffer in consequence.  He, therefore, fights fire with fire, and draws down solar fire for his protection.  This was not necessary on the astral plane.  For the magician, the moments of the greatest danger in the work of creating are at certain junctures on the astral plane, where he is in danger of occult drowning, and at the transition from etheric levels [Page 1026] to the planes of tangible concretion, when he is menaced by "occult burning."  In the one case, he does not call on the Ego, but stems the tide by love and the equilibrising powers of his own nature.  In the latter case, he must call in that which represents the will aspect in the three worlds, the impulsive, dynamic thinker or solar Angel.  He accomplishes this by means of a mantram.  No clue can be given to this, owing to the powers it confers.

Tcf 1026

. The presentation of the revelation or of the imparted truth and its precipitation into the world of illusion comes next. In that world of illusion, it undergoes the "fiery ordeal" wherein "some of the fire within that which is revealed wings its way back to the source from whence it came; some of it serves to destroy the revealer, [Page 183] and some to burn those who recognise the revelation." This is a phase of Agni Yoga which, as you can see, is only for those who can penetrate beyond the Angel into the place "where fire dwelleth," and where God, the Presence, functions as a consuming fire and waits for the hour of total revelation. This is a symbolic rendering of a great truth. In the case of the individual initiate, the third initiation, the Transfiguration, marks the consummation of the process. Only glory then is seen: only the voice of the Presence is heard and union with the past, the present and the future is reached.  Glamour 183

Though the two causes of the perfecting process are aspiration and purification, yet these two form really only one and are the two aspects of the discipline of the Probationary Path.  The old commentary which forms the esoteric basis of the inner teaching on Raja Yoga has some sentences which will be found of value here in conveying the correct concept:

"As the breath of fire streams upward through the system, as the fiery element makes its presence felt, that which is hindering is seen to disappear, and that which was obscure becomes illuminated.

The fire ascends and barriers are burned; the breath expands, and limitations disappear.  The seven, hitherto quiescent, stir to life.  The ten portals, sealed and closed or partially ajar, swing wide.

The five great means of contact rush into activity.  Obstacles are overcome, and barriers no longer hinder.  The purified one becomes the great receiver and the One is known."

In these words the purification by fire and by air is dealt with and this is the purification undergone on the path of yoga.  Purification by water has been submitted to in the later stages of the life of the highly evolved man, prior to treading the Path of Discipleship, and is hinted at in the words "waters of sorrow" so often used.  Now the fiery ordeal is undergone and the entire lower nature is passed through the fire.  This is the first meaning and the one with which the aspirant [Page 209] is most concerned.  It is called forth when he can, from his heart, send forth the call for fire, embodied in the words:

"I seek the Way; I yearn to know.  Visions I see, and fleeting deep impressions.  Behind the Portal, on the other side, lies that which I call home, for the circle hath been well-nigh trod, and the end approacheth the beginning.

I seek the Way.  All ways my feet have trod.  The Way of Fire calls me with fierce appeal.  Naught in me seeks the way of peace; naught in me yearns for earth.

Let the fire rage, the flames devour; let all the dross be burnt;

and let me enter through that Gate, and tread the Way of Fire."

The breath of God is felt as the cleansing breeze also and is the response of the soul to the aspiration of the disciple.  The soul then "inspires" the lower man.

The secondary meaning has of course direct reference to the work of the kundalini or serpent fire at the base of the spine as it responds to the soul vibration (felt in the head, in the region of the pineal gland, and called "the light in the head").  Mounting upward, it burns out all obstructions in the spinal etheric channel and vitalizes or electrifies the five centres up the spine and the two in the head.  The vital airs within the ventricles of the head are also swept into activity and produce a cleansing, or rather eliminating effect therein.  With this the student has as yet nothing to do, beyond seeing to it that as far as in him lies, the aspiration of his heart is of the needed "fiery" character, and that the steady purification of his physical, emotional and mental [Page 210] nature, proceeds as desired.  When this is the case, the response of the soul will be effective and the consequent reactions within the etheric centres will take place safely, under law, and normally. LOS 210

The cosmic Burning-ground of living fire lieth in the nethermost part of the western heavens.  Its smoke riseth unto that high place where dwell the Sacred Lhas to Whom the triple Unity within our solar space tender Their offerings and Their fealty.  Its scent of spices sweet and faint aroma of incandescent...reach to the utmost confines of the starry vault.

The Two arise and pass the essential Flame through Their burning-ground, blending Their lesser smoke with the greater.

This smoke formeth a Path which reacheth forth unto those spheres within the radiant form of that Attractive Life, to Whom the sons of being and of men in all their many grades offer their prayers, their life and adoration.

The Master on this sphere, which is known as the fourth and is not holy, seeth the fiery WAY; He respondeth to its heat and seeks to warm Himself within its waves of radiant fire electric.

A centre at the midway point within the great Kumaric Body formeth the pyre.  It pulsates and it glows.  It becomes a sea of living fire and draws within itself its own.  The smoke which issues from this fiery wheel formeth a living WAY, veiling the steps ahead.

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The Master-with the midway wheel on fire-enters within the smoke, and enters blind.  He sees no step ahead.  He hears no voice.  He feels no guiding hand.  Only the fifth and latest known aids Him to forward grope, and pass straight onward through the veiling clouds; only the awakening of His wheel may indicate His progress through the new magnetic field.

Only the sons of...(GEMINI) know the way in; only the sons with blazing fire, issuing from the midway point, may enter in.  They throw their beams ahead to illuminate the WAY.  The Adept of the funeral pyre, the Master of the blazing sphere consumes Himself.  Offering Himself the One that is, the new-made threefold Word, the sacred OM, the fire of God, He treads the burning-ground, and blazes forth to those who watch as a radiant flaming sun.

He...and draws the people onward to their goal, warming their hearts, producing dual fire, and leading all towards the portal of the sun and thence to...(GEMINI).

The mystic Word is veiled by letters four-E, M, and A and O-.  In the significance of their numbers and the utilisation of their colours is the smoke dissipated.  TCF 1271

Uranus embodies the energy of the seventh ray and its work is analogous to that of Mercury, for the seventh ray is the ray which relates spirit and matter and brings together electric fire and fire by friction, thus producing manifestation. Uranus leads the soul to the burning ground during the final stages of the Path, when the fire of Aries and the fires engendered through the potency of Uranus produce the flaming heat of the final burning ground. Through this burning ground, the initiate has finally to pass. Uranus rules the occult Way and is, in an esoteric sense, connected with the Hierophant of the Mysteries of Initiation. EA 101

The Fixed Cross is the cross of light. And playing through this Cross all the time, and emanating from Leo, are the "fires of God"-cosmic, solar and planetary-producing purification, the intensification of the light and eventual revelation to the purified man who stands in light. From Aries comes cosmic fire; from Sagittarius comes planetary fire; and from Leo comes solar fire; and each of these fires "clears the way by burning" for the expression of the three divine aspects: spirit (Aries), soul (Leo) and body (Sagittarius). Such is the scientific basis for the yoga of fire, applied by the fully self-conscious man to the reflection of [Page 294] the three divine aspects in the three worlds; these are the three modes of divine expression in these three worlds. Such is the significance of the fact that it will be found that before the Door of Initiation lies the burning ground which all disciples and initiates must tread. The Leo subject treads this burning ground with will and self-effacement. When he has reached full self-consciousness and mental integration and when he has attained personality effectiveness, then he treads it-undeterred by pain. EA 294

7. The Centre at the Base of the Spine.  This centre is, above everything else, controlled and governed by the Law of Being, above referred to, and is established where spirit and matter meet and where matter, the Virgin Mary-under the influence of the Holy Spirit, time energy of the etheric vehicle-is translated "into Heaven," there (as the Christian phraseology puts it) "to be seated beside her Son in the house of the Father."

This centre is found at the very base of the spine, and supports all the other centres.  It is relatively quiescent at this time, for it is only roused into full activity by an act of the will, directed and controlled by the initiate.  It is responsive only to the will aspect, and the will-to-be in incarnation is the factor which at present controls its life and produces its effects as it feeds and directs the life principle in matter and form.  Just as we are told that the life principle is "seated in the heart," so the will-to-be is seated in the base of the spine.  There has been much idle and dangerous talk anent this centre, and the whole subject of the "kundalini fire" has proved an exciting and enticing tale by the pseudo-occultists of the world.  The true occultist in training has naught to do with the kundalini fire-as usually [Page 182] understood.  It is not possible for me to do more than make certain facts somewhat clearer to you, and yet at the same time I must refrain from indicating modes and methods of arousing the activity of this centre, on account of the extreme danger involved in any premature work on the basic centre.  The best I can do is to make a series of statements which will be comprehended in the right way by those who know (and these are as yet few and far between), which will aid the thinking of those who are in training and give them a somewhat more complete picture, but which will protect the ignorant from disaster.  I shall make these statements as clearly and briefly as possible, but shall give practically no explanatory matter with them.

1. This basic centre is the point where, under the evolutionary law, spirit and matter meet, and life is related to form.

2. It is therefore the centre where the essential dualism of the manifested divinity-man or planetary Logos-meet and produce form.

3. The nature of this divinity is only revealed when the second aspect has accomplished its work, through the medium of the third aspect, but under the directing will of the first aspect.

4. It is the centre where the "serpent of God" undergoes two transformations:

a. The serpent of matter lies coiled.

b. This serpent is transformed into the serpent of wisdom.

c. The serpent of wisdom is translated and becomes the "dragon of living light."

5. These three stages are nurtured by the life and energy pouring down through the entire length of the spinal [Page 183] column, via the etheric correspondence of the spinal cord, and-in time and space-this downpouring (plus the simultaneously uprising life) produces:

a. The awakening in a gradual and orderly manner of the centres, according to ray types.

b. The reversal of the centres so that the consciousness of the indwelling man is adequate to his environment.

c. The synthesis of the life energies of all the centres, and adequacy to the demands of the initiate and the service of the Hierarchy and of Humanity.

6. The spinal column (from the angle of the esoteric sciences) houses a threefold thread.  This is the externalisation of the antahkarana, composed of the antahkarana proper, the sutratma or life thread, and the creative thread.  This threefold thread within the spinal column is therefore composed of three threads of energy which have channeled for themselves in the substance of the interior of the column a "threefold way of approach and of withdrawal."  These are called in the Hindu terminology:  the ida, the pingala and the sushumna paths, and they together form the path of life for the individual man and are awakened into activity sequentially and according to ray type and the point of evolution.  The sushumna path is not used correctly and safely until the antahkarana has been built and the Monad and Personality are thereby related, even if it is only by the most tenuous thread.  Then the Monad, the Father, the will aspect, can reach the personality in a direct manner, and can arouse the basic centre, and with it blend, unify and raise the three fires.

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7. One of these paths is the one along which the energy which feeds matter is poured.  Another is related to the path of consciousness and of sensitive psychic unfoldment.  The third is the path of pure spirit.  Thus in every living form the work of the Father, of the Mother and of the Son is carried on.  Life-consciousness-form and life-quality-appearance are blended, and the response apparatus of the divine man is perfected, enabling him to contact and recognise the major divine aspects in the kingdoms in nature, in the planet and in the solar system-eventually.

Be not betrayed into placing these interlaced spheres of living energy on the right or the left of the spinal cord.  Constantly a movement, an interplay and a reversal is going on.  I can but portray the nature of a symbol which will indicate the special path of the three energies of the divine Trinity.  I indicate not a fact in location or place, for it is this materialising and localising of the main concept which has produced so much danger.  The initiate-student seeks to grasp the relation of the three basic energies, the three paths of living fire, their relation and inter-relation and their sequential polarisation.  He seeks not to narrow the teaching down to points and lines and place until such [Page 185] time when these terms mean little to him and he knows more.

8. These three paths of life are the channels for electric fire, solar fire and fire by friction, and are related in their usage to the three stages of the path of evolution:  the path of evolution in the material, earlier stages; the Path of Probation, and the early stages of the Path of Discipleship until the third initiation; and the Path of Initiation itself.

9. The Kundalini Fire, about which so much is taught and written in the East, and increasingly in the West, is in reality the union of these three fires, which are focussed by an act of the enlightened will, under the impulse of love, in the basic centre.  This unified fire is then raised by the use of a Word of Power (sent forth by the will of the Monad) and by the united authority of the soul and personality, integrated and alive.  The human being who can do this in full consciousness is therefore an initiate who has left the third initiation behind him.  He, and he alone, can safely raise this triple fire from the base of the spine to the head centre.

10. As usually interpreted by the ignorant esotericist in the various occult groups, the kundalini fire is something which must be "raised," and when it is raised all the centres will then come into functioning activity and the channels up and down the spine will be cleared of all obstruction.  This is a dangerous generalisation and a reversal of the facts.  The kundalini fire will be raised and carried up into heaven when all the centres are awakened and the channels up the spine are unimpeded.  This removal of all obstruction is the result of the livingness of the individual centres which, [Page 186] through the potency of their life, themselves are effective in destroying all hindrances and obstructions.  They can "burn up" all that hinders their radiation.  What usually happens in those accidental cases (which do so much harm) is that the aspirant, through his ignorant curiosity and by an effort of the mind (not of the spiritual will, but purely as an expression of personality will), succeeds in arousing the lowest of the three fires, the fire of matter, fire by friction; this produces a premature burning and destroys the etheric web in the etheric body.  These circular disks or webs are to be found between each pair of the centres up the spine and also in the head.  They are normally dissipated as purity of life, the discipline of the emotions, and the development of the spiritual will are carried forward.

Diagram

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There are four of these webs.  When the fourfold personality is highly developed and the ajna centre is awakening, then these webs slowly and gradually, normally and automatically disappear.  The webs in the head are of much higher quality and bisect the skull horizontally and vertically.  Thus they symbolise the Cross upon which a Son of God is crucified.

11. The three channels up the spine are responsive in their totality to the three major centres:

a. To the solar plexus centre, providing thus the impulse of desire and feeding the physical life and the creative urge.

b. To the heart centre, providing the impulse to love and to conscious contact with ever widening areas of divine expression.

c. To the head centre, providing the dynamic impulse of the will to live.

I do not indicate which channel is responsive to which centre, except in the case of the sushumna channel which is responsive only to the energy of the head centre and the directing will, centred in the 1000-petalled lotus.  This can be safely stated, as the spiritual will is as yet undeveloped in those who seek to arouse kundalini.  When it is aroused, they will know what they can safely do.

12. The three centres in the head are also related to this triple channel:

a. The medulla oblongata area (the alta major centre) and the carotid gland.

b. The ajna centre and the pituitary body.

c. The 1000-petalled lotus and the pineal gland.

Students will find it interesting to relate all these triplicities to the three major rays:

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a. The first ray of will or power,

b. The second ray of love-wisdom,

c. The third ray of active intelligence,

and also to the three human races which are endowed with the power to unfold the seed of these divine aspects:  Lemuria, Atlantis and the Aryan race.  These can be linked, as seed, to the two final races which will fuse and synthesise all the above powers, qualities, achievements and goals into one perfected planetary life.

Another synthesis is also possible and of importance:

a. Path of Evolution             centres below the diaphragm.

b. Path of Discipleship        centres above the diaphragm.

c. Path of Initiation              centres in the head.

These groups and triplicities are all related in time and space to the triple spinal cord.

13. There is also-again in relation to all the above points of synthesis in the body-one consummating point of complete fusion.  I give each of these in the sequence of their work of fusion:

a. The solar plexus centre, fusing the centres below the diaphragm.

b. The ajna centre, fusing centres both above and below the diaphragm.

c. The base of the spine, fusing all six centres.

d. The thousand-petalled lotus of the head, fusing all the seven energies.

Bear in mind, in connection with all the above, that we are dealing entirely with forces and energies, functioning through the etheric body; that we are dealing with [Page 189] the tertiary world of causes, which is responsible for the organic world of the dense physical manifestation.  This physical manifestation is itself subject to the influence of the secondary world of conscious life, which in its turn is responsive in time and space to the dynamic world of purpose and of Being.

The key to the full life of the soul lies hidden in my words, but it takes the dedicated life and the illumined mind to profit by the knowledge conveyed, and to see behind the form of words the key thought which gives it life and-occultly speaking-generative warmth. EH

This door of initiation is connected with the great problem of what H.P.B. calls the "mystery of electricity"; the door is itself an electrical phenomenon essentially.  Having said this, even if you do not understand my meaning, you can, however, grasp the possibility that (being electrical in nature) it can easily present an obstructing force, a repelling energy to the approach of the aspirant; this is the correct way to look at it.  It is only when the electrical energy of which the door is constituted and that of which the man is constructed at any particular time synchronise and vibrate in unison that the aspirant can pass through to greater light.  This gives you a somewhat new and rather abstruse definition of initiation.  Nevertheless, as science arrives at a better understanding of the human being as an