Filename: RC1053.TXT
Source: "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 1932]

                             THE FOUR KINGDOMS:

     The  three Worlds of our planet are at present the field  of  evolution
for  a number of different kingdoms of life,  at various stages of  develop-
ment.   Only four of these need concern us at present,  viz.:   the mineral,
plant, animal, and human kingdoms.

     These four kingdoms are related to the three Worlds in different  ways,
according  to  the progress these groups of evolving life have made  in  the
school of experience.   So far as form is concerned the dense bodies of  all
the  kingdoms are composed of the same chemical substances-the solids,  liq-
uids, and gases of the Chemical Region.  The dense body of a man is as truly
a chemical compound as is the stone, although the latter is ensouled by min-
eral life only.  But even when speaking from the purely physical standpoint,
and laying aside all other considerations for the time being, there are sev-
eral important differences when we compare the dense body of the human being
with  the  mineral  of  the Earth.  Man moves,  grows,  and  propagates  his
species--the mineral, in its native state, does none of these things.

     Comparing  man with the forms of the plant kingdom,  we find that  both
plant and man have a dense body, capable of growth and propagation.  But Man
has  faculties not possessed by the plant.  He feels,  has the power of  mo-
tion, and the faculty of perceiving things exterior to himself.

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     When  we compare man with the animal with the animal we see  that  both
have   the  faculties  of  feeling,   motion,   growth,   propagation,   and
sense-perception.   In addition,  man has the faculty of speech,  a superior
structure of the brain, and also hands--which are a very great physical  ad-
vantage.   We may note especially the development of the thumb,  which makes
the hand much more valuable than even that of the anthropoid.   Man has also
evolved  a definite language in which to express his feelings and  thoughts,
all of which places the dense body of the human being in a class by  itself,
beyond the three lower kingdoms.

     To account for these differences in the four kingdoms we must go to the
invisible Worlds,  and seek the causes which give one kingdom that which  is
denied to another.

     To function in any world, and express the qualities peculiar to it,  we
must first possess a vehicle made of its material.   In order to function in
the  dense Physical World it is necessary to have a dense body,  adapted  to
our  environment.   Otherwise  we should be ghosts,  as  they  are  commonly
called,  and be invisible to most physical beings.   So we must have a vital
body  before we can express life, grow,  or externalize the other  qualities
peculiar to the Etheric Region.

     To show feeling and emotion it is necessary to have a vehicle  composed
of the materials of the Desire World,  and a mind formed of the substance of
the Region of Concrete Thought is necessary to render thinking possible.

     When we examine the four kingdoms in relation to the Etheric Region, we
find that the mineral does not possess a separate vital body, and at once we
see the reason why it cannot grow, propagate, or show sentient life.

     As  an hypothesis necessary to account for other known facts,  material
science  holds  that  in  the densest solid,  as  in  the  rarest  and  most

[PAGE 1934]

attenuated gas,  no two atoms touch each other; that there is an envelope of
ether around each atom;  that the atoms in the universe float in an ocean of
ether.

     The  occult scientist knows this to be true of the Chemical Region  and
that the mineral does not possess a separate vital body of ether.  And as it
is  the planetary ether alone which envelops the atoms of the mineral,  that
makes the difference described.  It is necessary, as we have shown,  to have
a separate,  vital BODY,  desire BODY,  etc.,  to express the qualities of a
particular realm,  because the atoms of the World of Desire, of the World of
Thought and even of the Higher Worlds,  inter-penetrate the Mineral as  well
as  the  dense human body,  and if the inter-penetration  of  the  planetary
ether,  which  is  the ether that envelops the atoms of  the  mineral,  were
enough to make it feel and propagate its inter-penetration by the  planetary
World of Thought would also be sufficient to make it think.   This it cannot
do,  because it lacks a SEPARATE vehicle.  It is penetrated by the planetary
ether only,  and is therefore incapable of individual growth.  Only the low-
est of the four states of ether--the chemical--is active in the mineral. The
chemical forces in minerals are due to that fact.

     When we consider plant,  animal, and man in relation to the Etheric Re-
gion we note that each has a separate, vital body, in addition to being pen-
etrated by the planetary ether which forms the Etheric Region.   There is  a
difference,  however,  between the vital bodies of the plants and the  vital
bodies of animal and man.   In the vital body of the plant only the chemical
and the life ethers are fully active.   Hence the plant can grow by the  ac-
tion of the chemical ether and propagate its species through the activity of
the life ether of the separate,  vital body which it  possesses.   The light

[PAGE 1935]

ether is present, but is partially latent or dormant and reflecting ether is
lacking.  Therefore it is evident that the faculties of sense-perception and
memory,  which are the qualities of these ethers, cannot be expressed by the
plant kingdom.

     Turning  our attention to the vital body of the animal we find that  in
it the chemical,  life and light ethers are dynamically active.   Hence  the
animal  has  the faculties of assimilation and growth,  caused  by  the  ac-
tivities of the chemical ether;  and the faculty of propagation by means  of
the life ether--these being the same as in plants.  But in addition,  it has
the  faculties  of generating internal heat and  of  sense-perception.   The
fourth ether,  however,  is inactive in the animal,  hence it has no thought
nor memory.   That which appears as such will be shown later to be of a dif-
ferent nature.

     When  we analyze the human being,  we find that in him all four  ethers
are dynamically active in the highly organized vital body.   By means of the
activities  of the chemical he is able to assimilate food and to  grow;  the
forces  at work in the life ether enable him to propagate his  species;  the
forces in the light ether supply the dense body with heat,  work on the ner-
vous  system and muscles,  thus opening the doors of communication with  the
outside  world by way of the senses;  and the reflecting ether  enables  the
spirit to control its vehicle by means of thought.   This ether also  stores
past experience as memory.

     The vital body of plant, animal, and man,  extends beyond the periphery
of  the  dense  body as the Etheric Region,  which is the vital  body  of  a
planet,  extends beyond its dense part,  showing again the truth of the Her-
metic axiom "As above, so below."   The  distance  of  this extension of the

[PAGE 1936]

vital  body of man is about an inch and a half.   The part which is  outside
the  dense  body  is  very  luminous and about  the  color  of  a  new-blown
peach-blossom.   It is often seen by persons having very slight  involuntary
clairvoyance.   The writer has found, when speaking with such persons,  that
they frequently are not aware they see anything unusual and do not know what
they see.

     The  dense  body  is built into the matrix of this  vital  body  during
ante-natal life,  and with one exception, it is an exact copy,  molecule for
molecule,  of the vital body.   As the lines of force in freezing water  are
the avenues of formation for ice crystals,  so the lines of force in the vi-
tal body determine the shape of the dense body.   All through life the vital
body  is the builder and restorer of the dense form.   Were it not  for  the
etheric heart the dense heart would break quickly under the constant  strain
we put upon it.  All the abuses to which we subject the dense body are coun-
teracted,  so  far as lies in it power,  by the vital body,  which  is  con-
tinually fighting against the death of the sense body.

     The exception mentioned above is that the vital body of a man is female
or  negative,  while that of a woman is male or positive.   In that fact  we
have the key to numerous puzzling problems of life.  That woman gives way to
her emotions is due to the polarity noted, for her positive, vital body gen-
erates an excess of blood and causes her to labor under an enormous internal
pressure that would break the physical casement were not a safety-valve pro-
vided  in the periodical flow,  and another in the tears which  relieve  the
pressure on special occasions--for tears are "white bleeding."

     Man  may have and has as strong emotions as woman,  but he  is  usually
able to   suppress them without tears,  because his negative vital body does
not generate more blood than he can comfortably control.

[PAGE 1937]

     Unlike  the higher vehicles of humanity,  the vital body (except  under
certain circumstances,  to be explained when the subject of "Initiation"  is
dealt with) does not ordinarily leave the dense body until the death of  the
latter.   Then the chemical forces of the dense body are no longer  held  in
check  by  the evolving life.   They proceed to restore the  matter  to  its
primordial  condition by disintegration so that it may be available for  the
formation of other forms in the economy of nature.   Disintegration is  thus
due to the activity of the planetary forces in the chemical ether.

     In texture the vital body may be crudely compared to one of those  pic-
ture  frames made of hundreds of little pieces of wood which  interlock  and
present  innumerable points to the observer.   These points enter  into  the
hollow centers of the dense atoms,  imbuing them with vital force that  sets
them vibrating at a higher rate than that of the mineral of the earth  which
is not thus accelerated and ensouled.

     When a person is drowning, or falling from a height,  or freezing,  the
vital body leaves the dense body,  the atoms of which become temporarily in-
ert in consequence, but at resuscitation it re-enters the dense body and the
"points"  are again inserted in the dense atoms.   The inertia of the  atoms
causes  them to resist the resumption of vibration and that is the cause  of
the intense prickly pain and the tingling sensation noted at such times, but
not ordinarily, for the same reason that we become conscious of the starting
or stopping of a clock, but are oblivious to its tick when it is running.

     There  are  certain  cases where the vital body partly leaves the dense

[PAGE 1938]

body, such as when a hand "goes to sleep."  Then the etheric hand of the vi-
tal body ay be seen hanging below the dense arm like a glove and the  points
cause  the peculiar pricking sensation felt when the etheric hand  re-enters
the  dense hand.   Sometimes in hypnosis the head of the vital body  divides
and  hangs  outside the dense head,  one half over each  shoulder,  or  lies
around the neck like the collar of a sweater.  The absence of prickly sensa-
tion at awakening in cases like this is because during the hypnosis part  of
the hypnotist's vital body had been substituted for that of the victim.

     When anesthetics are used the vital body is partially driven out, along
with the higher vehicles,  and if the application is too strong and the life
ether  is driven out,  death ensues.   This same phenomenon may also be  ob-
served in the case of materializing mediums.  In fact the difference between
a  materializing medium and an ordinary man or woman is just this:   In  the
ordinary man or woman the vital body and the dense body are,  at the present
stage of evolution,  quite firmly interlocked, while in the medium they  are
loosely connected.   It has not always been so, and the time will come again
when  the vital body may normally leave the dense vehicle,  but that is  not
normally  accomplished at present.   When a medium allows his or  her  vital
body  to be used by entities from the Desire World who wish to  materialize,
the vital body generally oozes from the left side--through the spleen, which
is its particular "gate."   Then the vital forces cannot flow into the  body
as they do normally, the medium becomes greatly exhausted,  and some of them
resort to stimulants to counteract the effects,  in time becoming  incurable
drunkards.

     The vital force from the sun,  which surrounds us as a colorless fluid,
is absorbed by the vital body through the etheric counterpart of the spleen,

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wherein  in undergoes a curious transformation of color.   It  becomes  pale
rosehued and spreads along the nerves all over the dense body.  It is to the
nervous  system  what  the force of electricity is to  a  telegraph  system.
Thought there be wires,  instruments,  and telegraph operators all in order,
if the electricity is lacking, no message can be sent.  The Ego,  the brain,
and the nervous system may be in seemingly perfect order,  but if the  vital
force  be lacking to carry the message of the Ego through the nerves to  the
muscles,  the dense body will remain inert.   This is exactly  what  happens
when  part of the dense body becomes paralyzed.   The vital body has  become
diseased and the vital force can no longer flow.  In such cases,  as in most
sickness, the trouble is with the finer invisible vehicles.  In conscious or
unconscious  recognition  of this fact, the most successful  physicians  use
suggestion--which  works upon the higher vehicles--as aid to  medicine.  The
more  a physician can imbue his patient with faith and  hope,  the  speedier
disease will vanish and give place to perfect health.

     During the health the vital body specializes a superabundance of  vital
force,which,  after passing through a dense body, radiates in straight lines
in  every direction from the periphery thereof, as the radii of a circle  do
from  the  center;  but during ill-health, when the vital body  becomes  at-
tenuated,  it is not able to draw to itself the same amount of force and  in
addition  the dense body is feeding upon it.   Then the lines of  the  vital
fluid which pass out from the body are crumpled and bent,  showing the  lack
of force behind them.  In health the great force of these radiations carries
with  it  germs and microbes which are inimical to the health of  the  dense
body, but in sickness, when the vital force is weak, these emanations do not

[PAGE 1940]

so  readily  eliminate disease germs.  Therefore the danger  of  contracting
disease  is much greater when the vital forces are low than when one  is  in
robust health.

     In  cases where parts of the dense body are amputated,  only the  plan-
etary ether accompanies the separated part.  The separate vital body and the
dense  body  disintegrate synchronously after death.   So with  the  etheric
counterpart  of the amputated limb.   It will gradually disintegrate as  the
dense  member decays,  but in the meantime the fact that the man still  pos-
sesses the etheric limb accounts for his assertion that he can feel his fin-
gers or suffers pain in them.  There is also a connection with a buried mem-
ber,  irrespective of distance.  A case is on record where a man felt severe
paid, as if a nail had been driven into the flesh of an amputated limb,  and
he persisted until the limb was exhumed,  when it was found that a nail  had
been driven into it at the time it was boxed for burial.   The nail was  re-
moved and the pain instantly stopped.   It is also in accordance with  these
facts that people complain of pain in a limb for perhaps two or three  years
after the amputation.   The pain will then cease.   This is because the dis-
ease remains in the still undetached etheric limb, but as the amputated part
disintegrates, the etheric limb follows suit and thus the pain ceases.

     Having  noted the relations of the four kingdoms to the Etheric  Region
of the Physical World,  we will next turn our attention to their relation to
the Desire World.

     Here  we  find that both minerals and plants lack the  separate  desire
body.   They  are permeated only by the planetary desire  body,  the  Desire
World.  Lacking the separate vehicle, they are incapable of feeling, desire,
and emotion, which  are  faculties   pertaining   to   the   Desire   World.

[PAGE 1941]

When  a stone is broken,  it does not feel;  but it would be wrong to  infer
that there is no feeling connected with such an action.  That is the materi-
alistic view,  or the view taken by the uncomprehending multitude.   The oc-
cult scientist knows that there is no act, great or small, which is not felt
throughout  the  universe,  and even though the stone,  because  it  has  no
separate desire body,  cannot feel, the Spirit of the Earth feels because it
is Earth's desire body that permeates the stone.   When a man cuts his  fin-
ger, the finger, having no separate desire body, does not feel the paid, but
the man does, because it is his desire body which permeates the finger.   If
a plant is torn up by the roots,  it is felt by the Spirit of the Earth as a
man would feel if a hair were torn from his head.   This Earth is a  living,
feeling  body,  and all the forms which are without separate  desire  bodies
through which their informing spirits may experience feeling,  are  included
in  the  desire  body of the Earth and THAT desire body  has  feeling.   The
breaking of a stone and the breaking off of flowers are productive of  plea-
sure to the Earth,  while the pulling our of plants by the root causes paid.
The  reason is given in the latter part of this work,  for at this stage  of
our study the explanation would be incomprehensible to the general reader.

     The planetary Desire World pulsates through the dense and vital  bodies
of animal and man in the same way that it penetrates the mineral and  plant,
but in addition to this,  animal and man have separate desire bodies,  which
enable  them to feel desire,  emotion and passion.   There is a  difference,
however.  The desire body of the animal is built entirely of the material of
the denser regions of the Desire World, while in the case of even  the  most
primitive of human races a little matter of the higher  Regions  enters into

[PAGE 1942]

the composition of the desire body.   The  feelings  of animals and the most
primitive human  races  are almost entirely concerned with the gratification
of the lowest desires and passions which find their expression in the matter
of the  lower Regions  of the Desire World.   Hence,  in order that they may 
have such emotions to educate them for something  higher,  it  is  necessary
that they should have  the  corresponding  materials in their desire bodies.
As man progresses in the school of life,  his experiences teach him, and his
desires  become purer and better. Thus by degrees the material of his desire
body undergoes a corresponding change.   The purer and brighter material  of
the higher  Regions of the Desire World  replaces  the  murky  colors of the
lower part.   The desire  body also grows in size,  so that in a saint it is
truly a glorious object to behold, the purity of its colors and its luminous
transparency being beyond adequate simile.  It must be seen to be appreciat-
ed.

     At present the materials of both the lower and the higher Regions enter
into the composition of the desire bodies of the great majority of  mankind.
None  are so bad that they have not some good trait.   This is expressed  in
the  materials of the higher Regions which we find in their  desire  bodies.
But, on the other hand, very, very few are so good that they do not use some
of the materials of the lower Regions.

     In   the  same  way  that  the  planetary  vital  and   desire   bodies
inter-penetrate the dense material of the Earth,  as we saw in the illustra-
tion of the sponge,  the sand and the water,  so the vital and desire bodies
inter-penetrate the dense body of plant, animal,  and man.   But during  the
life  of man his desire body is not shaped like his dense and vital  bodies.
After death it assumes that shape.   During life it has the appearance of  a

[PAGE 1943]

luminous ovoid which, in waking hours,  completely surrounds the dense body,
as the albumen does the yolk of an egg.   It  extends from twelve to sixteen
inches beyond the  dense body.   In  this  desire body there are a number of
sense centers, but, in the great  majority of people,  they are latent.   It
is the awakening of  these centers  of  perception  that  corresponds to the
opening of the  blind  man's eyes in  our  former illustration.   The matter
in the human desire body is in incessant  motion  of  inconceivable rapidity.
There is in it no settled place for any particle, as in the dense body.  The
matter  that  is  at  the head one moment may be at the feet in the next and 
back again.   There are no  organs in the desire body, as in  the  dense and
vital bodies,  but there are centers of perception,  which, when active, ap-
pear as vortices,  always remaining in the same  relative  position  to  the
dense body, most of them about the  head. In the majority of people they are
mere eddies and are of no use as  centers of perception.   They may be awak-
ened in all, however, but different methods produce different results.

     In  the  involuntary  clairvoyant developed  along  improper,  negative
lines,  these vortices turn from right to left, or in the opposite direction
to the hands of a clock--counterclockwise.

     In the desire body of the properly trained voluntary clairvoyant,  they
turn in the same direction as the hands of a clock--clockwise, glowing  with
exceeding splendor,  far surpassing the brilliant luminosity of the ordinary
desire  body.   These centers furnish him with means for the  perception  of
things in the Desire World and he sees, and investigates as he wills,  while
the person whose centers turn counter-clockwise  is like a mirror, which re-
flects  what passes before it.   Such a person is incapable of reaching  out
for information.   The  reason for this belongs to a later chapter,  but the

[PAGE 1944]

above is one of the fundamental differences between a medium and a  properly
trained  clairvoyant.   It   is impossible for most  people  to  distinguish
between  the two;  yet there is one infallible rule that can be followed  by
anyone:   NO  GENUINELY DEVELOPED SEER WILL EVER EXERCISE THIS  FACULTY  FOR
MONEY OR ITS EQUIVALENT;  NOT WILL HE USE IT TO GRATIFY CURIOSITY;  BUT ONLY
TO HELP HUMANITY.

     No  one  capable of teaching the proper method for the  development  of
this faculty will every charge so much a lesson.   Those demanding money for
the exercise of,  or for giving lessons in these things never have  anything
worth paying for.   The above rule is a safe and sure guide,  which all  may
follow with absolute confidence.

     In a far distant future man's desire body will become as definitely or-
ganized  as are the vital and dense bodies.   When that stage is reached  we
shall all have the power to function in the desire body as we do know in the
dense  body,  which  is the oldest and best organized  of  these  bodies  of
man--the desire body being the youngest.

     The  desire body is rooted in the liver,  as the vital body is  in  the
spleen.

     In all warm-blooded creatures, which are the highest evolved,  and have
feelings, passions and emotions, which reach outward into the world with de-
sire, which may be said to really live in the fuller meaning of the term and
not  merely vegetate--in all such creatures the currents of the desire  body
flow outward from the liver.  The desire stuff is continually welling out in
streams  or currents which travel in curved lines to every point of the  pe-
riphery of the ovoid and then return to the liver through a number of vorti-
ces, much as boiling water is continually welling outward from the source of
heat and returning to it after completing its cycle.

[PAGE 1945]

     The  plants are devoid of this impelling,  energizing principle,  hence
they cannot show life and motion as can the more highly developed organisms.

     Where  there  is vitality and motion,  but no RED blood,  there  is  no
separate desire body.   The creature is simply in the transition stage  from
plant  to  animal  and therefore it moves entirely in the  strength  of  the
group-spirit.

     In the COLD-blooded animals which have a liver and RED blood,  there is
a separate desire body and the group-spirit directs the currents INWARD, be-
cause  in their case the separate spirit (of the individual fish or  reptile
for instance) is entirely outside the dense vehicle.

     When the organism has evolved so far that the separate spirit can  com-
mence to draw into its vehicles then it (the individual spirit) commences to
direct the currents OUTWARD,  and we see the beginning of passionate  exist-
ence and warm blood.  It is the warm, red blood in the liver of the organism
sufficiently evolved to have an Indwelling spirit which energizes the outgo-
ing currents of desire stuff that cause the animal or the man to display de-
sire and passion.   In the case of the animal the spirit is not yet entirely
INdwelling.   It does not become so until the points in the vital  body  and
the  dense body come into correspondence, as explained in Chapter XII.   For
this reason the animal is not a "liver," that is,  he does not live as  com-
pletely as does man, not being capable of as fine desires and emotions,  be-
cause not as fully  conscious.   The mammalia of today are on a higher plane
than was man at the animal stage of his evolution,  because they have  warm,
red blood,  which man did not have at that stage.  This difference in status
is  accounted for by the spiral path of evolution,  which also accounts  for
the fact that man is a higher type of humanity than the present  Angels were

[PAGE 1946]

in  their human stage.   The present mammalia,  which have in  their  animal
stage  attained  to the possession of warm,  red blood,  and  are  therefore
capable of experiencing desire and emotion to some extent will, in the Jupi-
ter  Period,  be a purer and better type of humanity than we are now,  while
from among our present humanity there will be some,  even in the Jupiter Pe-
riod,  who will be openly and avowedly wicked.  Moreover, they will not then
be able to conceal their passions as is now possible,  but will be unabashed
about their evil doing.

     In the light of this exposition of the connection between the liver and
the  life of the organism,  it is noteworthy that in several  European  lan-
guages (English,  German, and the Scandinavian tongues) the same word signi-
fies the organ of the body (the liver) and also "one who lives."

     When  we turn our attention to the four kingdoms in their  relation  to
the  World of Thought we find that minerals,  plants and animals lack a  ve-
hicle correlating them to that World.   Yet we know some animals think,  but
they  are the highest domesticated animals which have come into close  touch
with man for generations and have thus developed a faculty not possessed  by
other animals, which have not had that advantage.  This is on the same prin-
ciple that a highly wire will "induce" a weaker current of electricity in  a
wire brought close to it;  or that a man of strong morals will arouse a like
tendency  in a weaker nature,  while one morally weak will be overthrown  if
brought within the influence of evil characters.   All we do,  say,  or are,
reflects  itself  in our surroundings.   This is why  the  highest  domestic
animals think.   They are the highest of their kind,  almost on the point of
individualization,  and man's thought vibrations have "induced"  in  them  a
similar activity of a lower order.  With the  exceptions  noted,  the animal

[PAGE 1947]

kingdom  has not acquired the faculty of thought.   The are not  INDIVIDUAL-
IZED.  This is the great and cardinal difference between the human and other
kingdoms.   Man is an individual.  The animals,  plants and minerals are di-
vided into species.   They are not individualized in the same sense than man
is.

     It  is true that we divide mankind into races,  tribes and nations;  we
note the difference between the Caucasian,   the  Black,  the Indian,  etc.;
but  that is not to the point.   If we wish to study the characteristics  of
the lion or the elephant or any other species of the lower animals, all that
is  necessary is to take any member of that species for that purpose.   When
we learn the characteristics of one animal,  we know the characteristics  of
the species to which it belongs.   All members of the same animal tribe  are
alike.   That is the point.   A lion,  or its father,  or it son,  all  look
alike;  there  is no difference in the way they will act under  like  condi-
tions.  All have the same likes and dislikes; one is the same as another.

     Not so with human beings.  If we want to know about the characteristics
of  Blacks,  it  is not enough that we examine one  single  individual.   It
would be necessary to examine each individually,  and even then we will  ar-
rive  at  no knowledge concerning Blacks as  a whole,  simply  because  that
which  was a characteristic of the single individual does not apply  to  the
race collectively.

     If we desire to know the character of Abraham Lincoln it will avail  us
nothing to study his father,  his grandfather,  or his son,  for they  would
differ entirely.   Each would have his own peculiarities quite distinct from
the idiosyncrasies of Abraham Lincoln.

     On the other hand,  minerals,  plants, and animals are described if  we
devote our attention to the description of one of each species;  while there

[PAGE 1948]

are as many species among human beings as there are individuals.  Each indi-
vidual person is a "species,"  a law unto himself,  altogether separate  and
apart  from any other individual,  as different from his fellow men  as  one
species in the lower kingdom is from another.  We may write the biography of
a  man,  but an animal can have no biography.   This is because there is  in
each  man an individual,  INDWELLING spirit which dictates the thoughts  and
actions  of each individual human being;  while there is one  "group-spirit"
COMMON  TO  ALL the different animals or plants of the  same  species.   The
group-spirit  works on the all FROM THE OUTSIDE.   The tiger which roams  in
the wilds of the Indian jungle and the tiger penned up in the cage of a  me-
nagerie are both expressions of the same group-spirit.   It influences  both
alike from the Desire World,  distance being almost annihilated in the inner
Worlds.

     The group-spirits of the three lower kingdoms are variously located  in
the higher Worlds,  as we shall see when we investigate the consciousness of
the  different kingdoms;  but to properly comprehend the positions of  these
group-spirits in the inner Worlds it is necessary to remember and to clearly
understand  what has been said about all the forms that are in  the  visible
world having crystallized from models and ideas in the inner Worlds,  as il-
lustrated  by  the  architect's house and the inventor's  machine.   As  the
juices  of the soft body of the snail crystallize into the hard shell  which
it  carries upon its back,  so the Spirits in the higher Worlds have,  in  a
similar manner, crystallized our from themselves the dense,  material bodies
of the different kingdoms.

     Thus the so-called "higher"  bodies,  although so fine and cloudy as to
be invisible, are not by any means "emanations" from the dense body, but the

[PAGE 1949]

dense  vehicles of all kingdoms correspond to the shell of the snail,  which
is crystallized from its juices, the snail representing the spirit;  and the
juices  of its body in their progress towards  crystallization  representing
the mind,  desire body and vital body.  THESE VARIOUS VEHICLES WERE EMANATED
BY  THE  SPIRIT FROM ITSELF for the purpose of  gaining  experience  through
them.   It  is the spirit that moves the dense body where it  will,  as  the
snail moves its house,  and not the body that controls the movements of  the
spirit.   The more closely the spirit is able to enter into touch  with  its
vehicle  the better can it control and express itself through that  vehicle,
and vice versa.  That is the key to the different states of consciousness in
the different kingdoms.  A study of diagrams 3 and 4 should give a clear un-
derstanding  of the vehicles of each kingdom,  the manner in which they  are

                               DIAGRAM 3: 

Showing the vehicles of each kingdom, and the manner in which such vehicles 
are correlated to the different worlds.

|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|  
|               |              KINGDOM                                     | 
|    WORLD      |----------------------------------------------------------| 
|               |  MINERAL    |  PLANT      |  ANIMAL     |     MAN        |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  Region of    |             |             |             |                |
|   Abstract    |Group-spirit |Group-spirit |Group-spirit |     Ego        |
|   Thought.... |  and Ego    |  and Ego    |  and Ego    |                |
|    and        |             |             |             |                |
|  Region of    |             |             |             |                |
|   Concrete    |             |             |             |                |
|   Thought.... |  No vehicle | No vehicle  | No vehicle  |      Mind      |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Desire World..|  No vehicle | No vehicle  | Desire body | Desire body    |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Physical World:|             |             |             |                |
| includes the  |             |             |             |                |
|    Etheric    |             |             |             |                |
|    Region.....|  No vehicle | Vital body  | Vital body  | Vital body     |
|  and the      |             |             |             |                |
|   Chemical    |             |             |             |                |
|    Region.....| Dense body  | Dense body  | Dense body  | Dense body     |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

[PAGE 1950]

                                DIAGRAM 4:

      Showing the state of consciousness appertaining to each kingdom.

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|              |                  KINGDOM                      |  STATE OF  |
|   WORLD      |                                               | CONSCIOUS- |
|              |-----------------------------------------------|    NESS    |
|              | MINERAL  |  PLANT   |  ANIMAL   |    MAN      |            |
|-------------------------|----------|-----------|--------------------------|
|  Region of   |  Group-  |          |           |             |            |
|   Abstract   | spirit & |          |           |             |Trance-like |
|   Thought....|   Ego    |          |           |             |            |
|     and      |          |          |           |             |            |
|  Region of   |          |  Group-  |           |             | Dreamless  |
|  Concrete    |          | spirit & |           |             |   Sleep    |
|  Thought.....|          |   Ego    |           |             |            |
|--------------|----------|----------|-----------|-------------|------------|
|   Desire     |          |          |  Group-   |             |   Dream    |
|   World......|          |          |  spirit & |             | Conscious- |
|              |          |          |   Ego     |             |    ness    |
|              |          |          |           |             |            |
|-------------------------|----------|-----------|-------------|------------|
|   Physical   |          |          |  Desire   |    Ego      |            |
|    World:    |          |          |   body    |    Mind     |            |
| includes the |          |          |           |   Desire    |            |
|   Etheric    |          |  Vital   |   Vital   |     body    |   Waking   |
|   Region.....|          |  body    |   body    |   Vital     | Conscious- |
|   and the    |          |          |           |     body    |    ness    |
|   Chemical   |  Dense   |  Dense   |   Dense   |   Dense     |            |
|    Region....|   body   |  body    |   body    |     body    |            |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

correlated to the different Worlds and the resulting state of consciousness.

     From diagram 3 we learn that the separate Ego is definitely  segregated
within  the  Universal Spirit in the Region of Abstract Thought.   It  shows
that  only man possesses the complete chain of vehicles correlating  him  to
all divisions to the three Worlds.  The animal lacks one link of  chain--the
mind;  the plant lacks two links; the mind and the desire body; and the min-
eral lacks three links of the chain of the vehicles necessary to function in
a self-conscious manner in the Physical World-the mind,  the desire and  the
vital bodies.

     The reason for the various deficiencies is that the Mineral Kingdom  is
the expression of the latest stream of evolving life;  the Plant Kingdom  is
ensouled by a life wave that has been longer upon the path of evolution; the

[PAGE 1951]

life wave of the animal kingdom has a still longer past; while Man,  that is
to say,  the life now expressing itself in the human form, has behind it the
longest journey of all the four kingdoms, and therefore leads.  In time, the
three  life-waves which now animate the three lower kingdoms will reach  the
human, and we shall have passed to higher stages of development.

     To  understand the degree of consciousness which results from the  pos-
session  of the vehicles used by the life evolving in the four kingdoms,  we
turn our attention to diagram 4, which shows that man, the Ego, the Thinker,
has descended into the Chemical Region of the Physical World.   Here he  has
marshaled all his vehicles, thereby attaining the state of waking conscious-
ness.   He learning to control his vehicles.   The organs of neither the de-
sire body nor the mind are yet evolved.  The latter is not yet even a  body.
At present it is simply a link,  a sheath for the use of the Ego as a focus-
ing point.  It is the last of the vehicles that have been built.  The spirit
works gradually from finer into coarser substance,  the vehicles also  being
built in finer substance first, then in coarser and coarser substance.   The
dense  body was built first and has now come into its fourth stage  of  den-
sity;  the vital body is in its third stage and the desire body in its  sec-
ond,  hence it is still cloud-like, and the sheath of mind is filmier still.
As  those vehicles have not,  as yet, evolved any organs,  it is clear  that
they ALONE would be useless as vehicles of consciousness.  The Ego, however,
enters  INTO the dense body and connects these organless vehicles  with  the
physical sense centers and thus attains the waking state of consciousness in
the Physical World.

Continued with file "RC1054.TXT"

End of File



