Filename: RC1096.TXT
Source: "The Vital Body" by Max Heindel

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                                  FOREWORD:

   The Western Wisdom School teaches as its fundamental maxim that "all  oc-
cult development begins with the vital body,"  stated  Max Heindel  initiate
of  the Order of the Rose Cross.   It is therefore with the purpose of  pre-
senting  in a concise and easily understood form all the important  informa-
tion  which the founder of The Rosicrucian Fellowship wrote in  his  various
letters,  lessons,  and books concerning the etheric vehicle that this  com-
piled material is published in book form.  To the layman in occult study, as
well as to the advanced student, it offers much of practical value.

   A  number of earnest students of the Western Wisdom Teachings have  given
unselfishly  and lovingly of their time and efforts in preparing this  mate-
rial for publication,  and it is their prayer that a copy of the volume  may
carry  its message of light and inspiration to every spiritual aspirant  who
is endeavoring to follow the Way of the Christ.

   The Rosicrucian  Philosophy teaches that man is a threefold Spirit,  pos-
sessing  a  mind  by means of which he governs a threefold  body,  which  he
emanated from himself to gather experience.   This threefold body he  trans-
mutes into a threefold soul,  upon which he nourishes himself from impotence
to omnipotence.  The Divine Spirit emanates from itself the dense body,  ex-
tracting as pabulum the Conscious Soul; the Life Spirit emanates from itself
the  vital  body,  extracting as pabulum the Intellectual  Soul;  the  Human
Spirit emanates from itself the desire body,  extracting as pabulum the Emo-
tional Soul.   The vital body is made of ether and pervades th visible  body
as  ether permeates all other forms, except that human beings  specialize  a
greater amount of the universal ether than other forms.   That ethereal body
is our instrument for specializing the vital energy of the Sun.

   It  is  also taught in the Rosicrucian Philosophy that  our  evolutionary
scheme  is  carried  through five of the seven Worlds or  states  of  matter
(Physical,  Desire,  Thought,  World of Life Spirit, and the World of Divine
Spirit) in seven great Periods of Manifestation (Saturn, Sun,  Moon,  Earth,
Jupiter,  Venus,  and Vulcan Periods),  during which the Virgin  Spirit,  or
evolving life, becomes first, a man--then, a God.  We are now in the fourth,
or Earth Period,  which  is  divided  into seven Revolutions, as well as the

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following seven Epochs:  the Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, Atlantean, and
Aryan Epochs, and the New Galilee and  the  Kingdom  of  God  yet  to  come.
(See  THE  ROSICRUCIAN  COSMO-CONCEPTION.)    At   the   commencement of the
Saturn  Period  twelve  great  Creative Hierarchies were active in the  work
of  evolution.   Two of these Hierarchies did some work to help at the  very
beginning....and  then  withdrew  from limited  existence  into  liberation.
Three more of the Creative Hierarchies followed them at the beginning of the
Earth Period:   the Lords of Flame, the Cherubim, and the Seraphim,  leaving
seven Hierarchies in active service when the Earth Period began:   the Lords
of Wisdom, the Lords of Individuality, the Lords of Form, the Lords of Mind,
the Archangels, the Angels, and the Virgin Spirits.

                     PAST EVOLUTION OF MAN'S VITAL BODY:

                       DURING PERIODS AND REVOLUTIONS:

   THE  EVOLUTION  OF THE VITAL BODY AND THE LIFE SPIRIT OF WHICH  IT  IS  A
COUNTERPART WAS STARTED IN THE SECOND OR SUN PERIOD OF THE SEVEN GREAT  DAYS
OF MANIFESTATION.  IT HAS SINCE BEEN RECONSTRUCTED AND WILL REACH PERFECTION
IN THE JUPITER PERIOD.   IN A FUTURE STAGE MANKIND WILL NO LONGER NEED  THIS
VEHICLE, BUT NEVERTHELESS, ITS QUINTESSENCE WILL BE RETAINED.

   The Life Spirit and the vital body started their evolution in the Sun Pe-
riod and are consequently the particular charges of the Son.

   They (the Lords of Flame) had previously given the germ of the dense body
and, in the first half of the Saturn Revolution of the Sun Period, were con-
cerned with certain improvements to be made upon it.

   In  the Sun Period the formation of the vital body was to  be  commenced,
with  all thereby implied of capability for assimilation,  growth,  propaga-
tion, glands, etc.

   The  Lords of Flame incorporated in the germ of the dense body  only  the
capability of evolving sense organs.  At the time now under consideration it

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became  necessary to change the germ in such a way as to allow of  interpen-
etration by a vital body,  also capability of evolving glands and an alimen-
tary  canal.   This was done by the joint action of the Lords of Flame,  who
gave the original germ, and the Lords of Wisdom, who took charge of material
evolution in the Sun Period.

   When  the  Lords  of Flame and the Lords of Wisdom  had,  in  the  Saturn
Revolution  of the Sun Period, conjointly reconstructed the  germinal  dense
body, the Lords of Wisdom, in the Second Revolution, started the proper work
of  the Sun Period by radiating from their own bodies the germ of the  vital
body, making it capable of interpenetrating the dense body and giving to the
germ the capability of furthering growth and propagation and of exciting the
sense  centers  of the dense body and causing it to move.   In  short,  they
gave,  germinally,  to the vital body all the faculties which it is now  un-
folding  to  become  a perfect and pliable instrument for  the  use  of  the
Spirit.

   We also note that,  as the first, or Saturn Revolution,  of any period is
concerned  with work in the dense body (because that was started in a  first
Revolution),  so the second,  or Sun Revolution,  of any period is concerned
with  improvements  on the vital body,  because it was started in  a  second
Revolution.

   It  may be said that in the Sun Period man went through the plant  exist-
ence.   He had a dense body and a vital body,  as plants have,  and his con-
sciousness, like theirs, was that of dreamless sleep.

[PAGE 3471]

   Thus  there were two classes,  or kingdoms in the Sun Period,  i.e.,  the
stragglers of the Saturn Period, who were still mineral, and the pioneers of
the  Saturn Period,  who were capable of receiving the germ of a vital  body
and becoming plant-like.

   In the middle of the seventh Revolution of the Sun Period,  the Lords  of
Wisdom took charge of the germinal Life Spirit given by the Cherubim in  the
sixth Revolution of the Sun Period.   They did this for the purpose of link-
ing  it  to the Divine Spirit.   Their greatest activity in  this  work  was
reached  in the Cosmic Night intervening between the Sun and the Moon  Peri-
ods.   In the first dawn of the Moon Period,  as the life wave started  upon
its new pilgrimage,  the Lords of Wisdom reappeared,  bearing with them  the
germinal vehicles of the evolving man.  In the first or Saturn Revolution of
the Moon Period, they cooperated with the "Lords of Individuality,"  who had
special charge of the material evolution of the Moon Period.  Together, they
reconstructed the germ of the dense body,  brought over from the Sun Period.
This  germ had unfolded embryonic sense organs,  digestive  organs,  glands,
etc.,  and was interpenetrated by a budding vital body which diffused a cer-
tain degree of life into the embryonic dense body.   Of course,  it was  not
solid and visible as it is now,  yet in a crude sort of way it was  somewhat
organized and is perfectly distinguishable to the trained clairvoyant  sight
of  the competent investigator who searches the memory of nature for  scenes
in that far-off past.

[PAGE 3472]

   In the second,  or Sun Revolution of the Moon Period,  the vital body was
modified  to render it capable of being interpenetrated by the desire  body,
also of accommodating itself to the nervous system, muscle,  skeleton,  etc.
The Lords of Wisdom, who were the originators of the vital body, also helped
the Lords of Individuality with this work.

   In  the Sixth Revolution of the Moon Period the Cherubim  reappeared  and
vivified the Life Spirit of those who had been left behind in the Sun Period
but had since reached the necessary stage of development,  and also in those
stragglers  of the Sun Period who had now evolved a vital body during  their
plant existence in the Moon Period.

   The  pioneers of the new Life Wave had been going through a low stage  of
plant  existence;  nevertheless the majority of them had evolved  the  vital
body sufficiently to allow of the awakening of the Life Spirit.

   Thus,  the three last named all possessed the same vehicles at the begin-
ning  of the Earth Period,  although only the two first named belong to  our
life  wave,  and have a chance of even yet overtaking us if  they  pass  the
critical  point which will come in the next Revolution of the Earth  Period.
Those who cannot pass that point will be held over until some future  evolu-
tion reaches a stage where they can drop in and proceed with their  develop-
ment in a new human period.   They will be debarred from going forward  with
our humanity because it will be advanced  so far beyond their status that it

[PAGE 3473]

would  prove a serious clog to our progress to drag them along.   They  will
not  be destroyed,  but simply held in waiting for another period of  evolu-
tion.

   At  the  end of the Moon Period these classes possessed the  vehicles  as
they  are classified in Diagram 10 (SEE PAGE 230 OF  THE  COSMO-CONCEPTION),
and started with them in the beginning of the Earth Period.  During the time
which has elapsed since then,  the human kingdom has been evolving the  link
of mind,  and has thereby attained full waking consciousness.   The  animals
have obtained a desire body; the plants a vital body;  the stragglers of the
life  wave which entered evolution in the Moon Period have escaped the  hard
and fast conditions of rock formation and now their dense bodies compose our
softer soils;  while the life wave that entered evolution here in the  Earth
Period forms the hard rocks and stones.

   Thus  we see that at the close of the Moon Period man possessed a  three-
fold body in varying stages of development; and also the germ of the  three-
fold Spirit.   He had dense, vital, and desire bodies, and divine,  life and
human Spirit.  All he lacked was the link to connect them.

   Another  creative  Hierarchy had special care of the three germs  of  the
dense,  vital,  and desire bodies as they were evolving.  They were the ones
who,  under the direction of the higher orders,  actually did the  principle
work on these bodies, using the evolving life as a kind of instrument.  This
Hierarchy is called the "Lords of Form."  They  were now evolved so far that

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they  were given charge of the third aspect of the Spirit in man--the  Human
Spirit--in the coming Earth Period.

   Let us,  therefore,  analyze the matter and see what we have the right to
expect from one who lays claim to being a teacher.   To do this we may first
ask  ourselves,  What is the purpose of existence in the material  universe?
And we may answer that question by saying that it is evolution of conscious-
ness.   During the Saturn Period, when we were mineral-like in our constitu-
tion,  our consciousness was like that of the medium expelled from her  body
by  Spirit  controls at a materializing seance,  where a large part  of  the
ethers composing the vital body has been removed.  The physical body is then
in  a  very  deep trance.   In the Sun Period,  when  our  constitution  was
plant-like,  our consciousness was like that of dreamless sleep,  where  the
desire body,  mind,  and Spirit are outside,  leaving the physical and vital
bodies  upon the bed.   In the Moon Period,  we had a picture  consciousness
like  that which we have in dreams, where the desire body is only  partially
removed from the dense vehicle and the vital body.  Here in the Earth Period
our  consciousness has been enlarged to cover objects outside  ourselves  by
placing  all our vehicles in a concentric position,  as is the case when  we
are awake.

   The Earth Period is pre-eminently the Period of Form,  for here the  form
or matter side of evolution reaches its greatest and most pronounced  state.
Here Spirit is more helpless and suppressed and  Form  is  the most dominant

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factor--hence the prominence of the Lords of Form.

   During this Revolution (the second or Sun Revolution of the Earth Period)
the vital body was reconstructed to accommodate the germinal mind.   The vi-
tal  body was fashioned more in the likeness of the dense body,  so that  it
could  become fitted for use as the densest vehicle during the  Jupiter  Pe-
riod, when the dense body will have become spiritualized.

   The Angels,  the humanity of the Moon Period,  were aided by the Lords of
Form in reconstruction.   The organization of the vital body is now next  in
efficiency to the dense body.   Some writers on this subject call the former
a link,  and contend that it is simply a mold of the dense body,  and not  a
separate vehicle.

   While  not desiring to criticize,  and admitting that this contention  is
justified  by the fact that man,  at his present stage of evolution,  cannot
ordinarily  use the vital body as a separate vehicle--because it always  re-
mains with the dense body and to extract it IN TOTO would cause the death of
the dense body--yet there was a time when it was not so firmly  incorporated
with the latter, as we shall presently see.

   During  those epochs of our Earth's history which have already been  men-
tioned as the Lemurian and the Atlantean, man was involuntarily clairvoyant,
and it was precisely this looseness of connection between the dense and  the
vital bodies that made him so.  (The Initiators of that time helped the can-
didate to loosen the connection still further, as in the voluntary clairvoy-
ant.)

[PAGE 3476]

   Since then the vital body has become much more firmly interwoven with the
dense body in the majority of people, but in all sensitives it is loose.  It
is  that looseness which constitutes the difference between the psychic  and
the  ordinary person who is unconscious of all but the vibrations  contacted
by means of the five senses.  All human beings have to pass through this pe-
riod  of  close  connection of the vehicles and  experience  the  consequent
limitation  of  consciousness.    There  are,  therefore,   two  classes  of
sensitives, those who have not become firmly enmeshed in matter, such as the
majority of the Hindus,  the Indians, etc.,  who possess a certain low grade
of clairvoyance, or are sensitive to the sounds of nature, and those who are
in the vanguard of evolution.   The latter are emerging from the acme of ma-
teriality,  and are again divisible into two kinds, one of which develops in
a passive, weak-willed manner.  By the help of others they re-awaken the so-
lar  plexus or other organs in connection with the involuntary nervous  sys-
tem.  These are therefore involuntary clairvoyants, mediums who have no con-
trol of their faculty.  They have retrograded.  The other kind is made up of
those who by their own wills, unfold the vibratory powers of organs now con-
nected with the voluntary nervous system and thus become trained occultists,
controlling their own bodies and exercising the clairvoyant faculty as  they
will to do.  They are called voluntary or trained clairvoyants.

   In  the Jupiter Period the man will function in his vital body as he  now
does in his dense body; and as no development in nature is sudden,  the pro-
cess of separating the two bodies has  already  commenced.  The  vital  body

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will  then attain a much higher degree of efficiency than the dense body  of
today.   As it is a much more pliable vehicle,  the Spirit will then be able
to  use it in a manner impossible of realization in the case of the  present
dense vehicle.

   The  vital body was started in the Second Revolution of the  Sun  Period,
was reconstructed in the Moon and Earth Periods,  and will reach  perfection
in the Jupiter Period, which is its fourth stage, as the Earth Period is the
fourth stage for the dense body.

   Nothing  in Nature is wasted.   In the Jupiter Period the forces  of  the
dense body will be superimposed upon the completed vital body.  That vehicle
will then possess the powers of the dense body in addition to its own facul-
ties,  and will therefore be a much more valuable instrument for the expres-
sion of the threefold Spirit than if built from its own forces alone.

   Similarly,  Globe D of the Venus Period is located in the  Desire  World,
hence  neither  a dense nor a vital body could be used as an  instrument  of
consciousness.  Therefore the essences of the perfected dense and vital bod-
ies are incorporated in the completed desire body,  the latter thus becoming
a vehicle of transcendent qualities, marvelously adaptable and so responsive
to  the slightest wish of the indwelling Spirit that in our present  limita-
tions it is beyond our utmost conception.

   Yet the efficiency of even this splendid vehicle will be transcended when

[PAGE 3478]

in  the Vulcan Period its essence,  together with the essences of the  dense
and vital bodies,  are added to the mind body,  which becomes the highest of
man's  vehicles,  containing within itself the quintessence of all that  was
best in all the vehicles.   The vehicle of the Venus Period being beyond our
present power of conception,  how much more so is that which will be at  the
service of the divine beings of the Vulcan Period!

                                DURING EPOCHS:

   THE  POLARIAN,  HYPERBOREAN,  LEMURIAN,  AND ATLANTEAN EPOCHS WERE  RECA-
PITULATIONS OF THE STAGES THROUGH WHICH THE VIRGIN SPIRITS HAD PASSED.  CON-
SEQUENTLY, THE VITAL BODY UNDERWENT CHANGES DURING THOSE EPOCHS.

   When  man  first  came upon this earth the dense body was  built  in  the
POLARIAN EPOCH, and was vitalized by the interpenetration of a vital body in
the HYPERBOREAN EPOCH.  At that time man was like the Angels, male-female, a
complete creative unit, able to create from himself, by projecting his whole
creative force--which is love.

   When the earth came out of chaos,  it was at first in the dark red  stage
known as the Polarian Epoch.  There humanity first evolved a dense body, not
at all like our present vehicle, of course.  When the condition of the earth
became fiery,  as in the Hyperborean Epoch, the vital body was added and man
became plant-like,  that is to say,  he had the same vehicles as our  plants
have today, and also a similar consciousness, or rather, unconsciousness, to
that  which we have in dreamless sleep when the dense and vital  bodies  are
left upon the bed.

[PAGE 3479]

   The  Lords  of Form appeared (in the Hyperborean Epoch) with  the  Angels
(humanity  of the Moon Period),  and clothed man's dense form with  a  vital
body.

   As  the Polarian Epoch was really a recapitulation of the Saturn  Period,
it  may be said that during that time man passed through the mineral  state;
he had the same vehicle--the dense body--and a consciousness similar to  the
trance state.   For analogous reasons, the plant state was passed through in
the  Hyperborean  Epoch,  as  man  had  a dense  and  a  vital  body  and  a
dreamless-sleep consciousness.

   By absorbing the crystalloids prepared by plants he evolved a vital  body
during the Hyperborean Epoch and became plant-like both in constitution  and
by nature, for he lived without exertion and as unconsciously as the plants.

   In  the  second,  or Hyperborean Epoch,  a vital body made of  ether  was
added, and man-in-the-making had then a body constituted as are those of the
present plants; he was not a plant but was plantlike.  Cain, the man of that
time,  is  described as an agriculturist; his food was derived  solely  from
vegetation, for plants contain more ether than any other structure.

   Cain is described as an agriculturist.  He symbolizes the man of the Sec-
ond Epoch.  He had a vital body like the plants which sustained him.

   In the second or Hyperborean Epoch,  God said:  "Let there be Light," the

[PAGE 3480]

hot  gas became a luminous firemist as it was in the Sun Period,  and  man's
dense  body was clothed with a vital body and it floated hither and  thither
above the fiery Earth as a large, baggy thing.   Man was then plant-like be-
cause  of having the same vehicles as the plant has now and the Angels  were
his helpers in organizing his vital body, and remain so to the present day.

   This may seem an anomaly,  as the Angels are the humanity of the Moon Pe-
riod,  where man got his desire body.  But is not,  for only in the Moon Pe-
riod did the evolving Earth condense into ether,  such as now forms the sub-
stance  of  our vital body,  and there the humanity  (the  present  Angels),
learned  to  build their densest bodies from etheric materials,  as  we  are
learning to build ours from the solids,  liquids,  and gases of the Chemical
Region.   They became experts at it,  as we will be at building a dense body
by the time the Earth Period is ended.

   In  the Polarian Epoch man had only a poorly organized dense body,  hence
he was as unconscious and immobile as the minerals,  who are now so  consti-
tuted.   In the Hyperborean Epoch his dense body was clothed upon with a vi-
tal body,  and the Spirit hovered outside.  What the effect of such a nature
is we may see by examining the plant, which is similarly constituted now.

   There we see constant repetition,  a building upward of stem and leaf  in
alternating succession, that would go on AD INFINITUM if there were no other
influence.  But as the plant has no separate desire body, the desire body of

[PAGE 3481]

the Earth,  the Desire World,  hardens the plant and checks this intense up-
ward growth in a measure.   The creative force that cannot find its  expres-
sion by making one particular plant grow taller, seeks another channel:   it
builds the flower and imbeds itself in the seed,  so that it may grow upward
anew in another plant.

   In  the Hyperborean Epoch,  where man was similarly situated,  his  vital
body  caused  him to grow to an enormous size.   Acted upon  by  the  Desire
World,  he threw off spore-like seed which were either appropriated  by  an-
other  human  Ego  or used by the nature spirits to  build  bodies  for  the
animals  who were then beginning to emerge from Chaos.   (The  highest  life
wave starts first at the opening of a period and returns last to Chaos;  the
succeeding life waves--animal,  plant,  and mineral--emerge later and  leave
earlier.)

   Thus,  in the Hyperborean Epoch,  when man was similar to the  plants  in
constitution,  his vital body built vertebrae upon vertebrae, and would have
gone on if the individual desire body had not been given him in Lemurian Ep-
och.   That  commenced to harden the structure and checked the  tendency  to
grow taller,  and as a result the cranium,  the flower upon the stem of  the
spinal column, was incipiently formed.

   Thwarted in its effort to build the one form taller,  it became necessary
for  the creative force in the vital body to seek a new channel  whereby  it
might  continue its upward growth in another human being.   Then man  became
hermaphrodite, capable of generating a new body from himself.

[PAGE 3482]

   Then we come to the second, the Hyperborean Epoch,  where man has a dense
and a vital body; that was the plant stage.  His food was the plants, and we
hear of Cain as an agriculturist.   Next comes the Lemurian Epoch,  and  man
gets the desire body.  He has three vehicles, like the animals.

   Then  we have that stage where he is to have food of a nature  that  will
feed all three bodies.  This he gets from living animals, as when Abel was a
shepherd.

   When we obtained our vital bodies in Hyperborea, the Sun, Moon, and Earth
were still united,  and the solar-lunar forces permeated each being in  even
measure so that all were able to perpetuate their kind by buds and spores as
do  certain plants of today.   The efforts of the vital body to  soften  the
dense  vehicle  and keep it alive were not then interfered with,  and  these
primal,  plantlike bodies lived for ages.  But man was then unconscious  and
stationary like a plant;  he made no effort or exertion.   The addition of a
desire body furnished incentive and desire,  and consciousness resulted from
the war between the vital body, which builds, and the desire body, which de-
stroys the dense body.

   Thus dissolution became only a question of time, particularly as the con-
structive energy of the vital body was also necessarily divided, one part or
pole being used in the vital functions of the body,  the other to replace  a
vehicle lost by death.   But as the two poles of a magnet or dynamo are req-
uisite  to manifestation,  so also two single-sexed beings became  necessary
for generation; thus marriage and birth were necessarily inaugurated to off-
set the effect of death.  Death,  then,  is  the price we pay for conscious-

[PAGE 3483]

ness  in  the present world;  marriage and repeated births are  our  weapons
against  the king of terrors until our constitution shall change and we  be-
come as angels.

   The higher vehicles of the early Atlanteans were not drawn into a concen-
tric position in relation to the dense body,  as are ours.   The Spirit  was
not quite an INdwelling Spirit;  it was partially outside,  therefore  could
not control its vehicles with as great facility as though it dwelt  entirely
inside.   The head of the vital body was outside of and held a position  far
above the physical head.   There is a point between the eyebrows and about a
half inch below the surface of the skin,  which has a corresponding point in
the  vital  body.   This point is not the pituitary body,  which  lies  much
deeper  in the head of the dense body.  It might be called "the root of  the
nose."   When these two points in the dense and the vital bodies  come  into
correspondence,  as they do in man today,  the trained clairvoyant sees them
as a black spot,  or rather as a vacant space,  like the invisible core of a
gas flame.   This is the seat of the indwelling Spirit in the man--the  Holy
of Holies in the temple of the human body, barred to all but that indwelling
human  Ego whose home it is.   The trained clairvoyant can see with more  or
less distinctness, according to his capacity and training, all the different
bodies  which  form the aura of man.  This spot alone is  hidden  from  him.
This is the "Isis"  whose veil none may lift.   Not even the highest evolved
being on earth is capable of unveiling the  Ego  of  the  humblest and least

[PAGE 3484]

developed creature.   That,  and that alone upon earth, is so sacred that it
is absolutely safe from intrusion.

   These two points just spoken of--the one in the dense body and its  coun-
terpart in the vital body--were far apart in the men of the early  Atlantean
days,  as they are in the animals of our day.  The head of the horse's vital
body is far outside the head of its dense body.   The two points are  closer
together in the dog than in any other animal except, perhaps,  the elephant.
Whey they come into correspondence we have an animal prodigy, able to count,
spell, etc.

   On  account  of the distance between these two  points,  the  Atlantean's
power  of perception or vision was much keener in the inner worlds  than  in
the dense Physical World,  obscured by its atmosphere of thick,  heavy  fog.
In the fullness of time,  however, the atmosphere slowly became clearer;  at
the same time,  the point spoken of in the vital body came closer and closer
to  the corresponding point in the dense body.   As the two approached  each
other,  man gradually lost touch with the inner worlds.   They became dimmer
as the dense Physical World became clearer in outline.  Finally, in the last
third of the Atlantean Epoch,  the point in the vital body was united to the
corresponding point in the dense body.   Not until then did man become fully
awake in the Physical World;  but at the same time that full sight and  per-
ception in the Physical World were gained,  the capability of perceiving the
inner worlds was gradually lost to most of the people.

[PAGE 3485]

   During  the existence of this Race (the Original Semites) the  atmosphere
of  Atlantis  commenced to clear definitely,  and the  previously  mentioned
point in the vital body came into correspondence with its companion point in
the dense body.   The combination of events gave man the ability to see  ob-
jects clearly with sharp well-defined contours; but it also resulted in loss
of the sight pertaining to the inner worlds.

   In  the ages that have passed since the Lemurian Epoch humanity has  been
gradually building the cerebro-spinal nervous system, which is under control
of  the will.   In the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch,  this was so  far
evolved  that it became possible for the Ego to take full possession of  the
dense body.   That was the time (previously described) when the point in the
vital body came in correspondence with the point at the root of the nose  in
the dense body and the indwelling Spirit became awake in the Physical  World
but,  so far as the greater part of humanity was concerned,  lost conscious-
ness of the inner worlds.

[PAGE 3486]

                   MAN'S VITAL BODY IN PRESENT ARYAN EPOCH:

                         GENERAL NATURE AND FUNCTION:

   MANKIND  IS NOW EVOLVING IN THE AYRAN EPOCH.   HIS VITAL BODY  HAS  FUNC-
TIONS,  COLOR,  FORM,  ATOMIC STRUCTURE AND POLARITY.   ITS EXISTENCE CAN BE
PROVED.

   We have seen that man is a very complex organism, consisting of:

   (1)   The dense body, which is his tool in action.
   (2)   The vital body, a medium of "vitality" which makes action possible.
   (3)   The desire body, whence comes desire and which compels action.
   (4)   The mind, a brake on impulse, giving purpose to action.
   (5)   The Ego, which acts and gathers experience from action.

   The purpose of life is to transform the powers latent in the Ego into dy-
namic  energy,  whereby it may perfectly control its different vehicles  and
act as IT pleases.   We know that it does not have full sway now,  or  there
would be no warfare in our breasts,  as we say,  between the Spirit and  the
flesh,  but in reality,  as we should say, between the Spirit and the desire
body.   It is this warfare that develops the spiritual muscle,  as wrestling
builds the physical muscle.  It is easy to bid others do this and that,  but

[PAGE 3487]

to enforce obedience from ONESELF is the hardest task in the world,  and  it
has  been truly said that "the man who conquers himself is greater  than  he
who takes a city."  Goethe, the great initiate poet, gives us the reason why
in the lines:

   FROM EVERY POW'R THAT HOLDS THE WORLD IN CHAINS,
   MAN FREES HIMSELF WHEN SELF-CONTROL HE GAINS.

   In  addition  to the visible body of man which we see with  our  physical
eyes, there are other and finer vehicles that are unseen by the great major-
ity  of mankind.   Nevertheless they are not superfluous appendages  to  the
physical  body,  but are indeed much more important from the fact that  they
are  the springs of all action.  Without these finer vehicles  the  physical
body would be inert, senseless, and dead.

   The first of these vehicles we call the vital body because it is the  av-
enue of vitality which leavens the dead lump of the mortal coil in the years
of life, and gives us the power to move.

   When  our present visible body first germinated in the Spirit,  it was  a
thought-form,  but gradually it has become denser and more concrete until it
is now a chemical crystallization.   The vital body was next emanated by the
Spirit  as a thought-form and is in the third stage of concretion  which  is
etheric.

   Besides the dense body which is visible to all of us, there are finer ve-
hicles which interpenetrate this organism and which are the springs to  its

[PAGE 3488]

activities.   One  is  the vital body, composed of ether  and  concerned  in
building the dense body by the food which we take into the system.   It con-
trols  all  the  vital  functions,  such  as  respiration,  digestion, assi-
milation,  etc.,  and  works  through  the sympathetic nervous system.   An-
other,  still finer vehicle, is called the desire body.  This is the vehicle
of our emotions,  feelings, and desires which expends the energies stored in
the dense body the vital processes through control of the cerebro-spinal  or
voluntary nervous system.   In its activities this desire body is constantly
destroying and breaking down tissue built up by the vital body and it is the
war  between these two vehicles which causes what we call  consciousness  in
the Physical World.  The etheric forces in the vital body act in such a man-
ner that they convert as much of the food as possible into blood,  and  this
is the highest expression of the vital body.

   Propagation  is  a faculty of the vital body which is the shadow  of  the
Life Spirit, the second aspect of the threefold Spirit in man.

   Cherubim  are described as having been put on guard with a flaming  sword
when man was driven out from Eden,  lest he eat of the Tree of Life and  be-
come  immortal,  for they are the great creative Hierarchy which had  charge
over  the  Earth in the Sun Period, when the vital body germinated  and  the
Life Spirit was awakened.

   In our Bible there is a description of the first people upon earth.  They
are called Adam and Eve; but properly interpreted this means the human race,

[PAGE 3489]

which gradually arrogated to itself the power of procreation and thereby be-
came free agents.   Humanity was thus given its freedom and made responsible
to the Law of Consequence,  for it had arrogated to itself the power to cre-
ate new bodies,  and was then separated from the Tree of Life and the  state
which we are now cognizant of as etheric.  When we learn that we have a  vi-
tal  body made of ether,  and that it is the tree of life to everyone of  us
and  furnishes us the vitality whereby we are enabled to make the  movements
of the body, we may understand why the power to recreate and regenerate our-
selves  was taken away from us lest we learn how to vitalize  the  imperfect
dense body;  and we also see why, as stated in the Bible,  there were placed
at the gate of the Garden of Eden Cherubim with flaming swords to guard that
region.

   It  was for a good purpose that this power was taken away.   It  was  not
through malice in order that man should suffer in sorrow and pain,  but  be-
cause  it was only by repeated existences in an inferior body that we  could
learn to build for ourselves such a vehicle as would be fit to  immortalize.
Man  gradually came down from the etheric state to the present solid  condi-
tion.   He could dwell in the etheric state as easily then as he  can  today
dwell  in  the present three elements of the Physical World.   In  the  past
etheric state he contacted internally the life currents that we now  contact
unconsciously.  He was then able to center the energy of the Sun in his body
and draw it in in a manner different from  that at present used.  This power

[PAGE 3490]

was gradually taken away from him as he entered the more solid state of  the
present.

   That body of ours which is composed of ether is called the VITAL BODY  in
Western Mystery Schools,  for, as we have already seen,  ether is the avenue
of ingress for vital force from the Sun and the field of agencies in  nature
which   promote   such  vital  activities  as  assimilation,   growth,   and
propagation.

   This  vehicle is an exact counterpart of our visible body,  molecule  for
molecule,  and  organ for organ,  with one exception,  which we  shall  note
later.   But it is slightly larger, extending about one and one-half  inches
beyond the periphery of our dense vehicle.

   The  spleen is the entrance gate of forces which vitalize the  body.   In
the  etheric counterpart of that organ solar energy is transmuted  to  vital
fluid  of a pale rose color.   From thence it spreads all over  the  nervous
system, and after having been used in the body it radiates in streams,  much
as bristles protrude from a porcupine.

   During  the daytime the vital body specializes the colorless solar  fluid
which is all about us,  through the organ we call the spleen.   The vitality
permeates the whole body and is seen by the clairvoyant as a fluid of a pale
rose  color,  having been transmuted upon entering the  physical  body.   It
flows  along every nerve,  and when it is sent out by the brain  centers  in
particularly large quantities it moves the muscles to which the nerves lead.

   During the waking state there is a constant  war  between  the vital body

[PAGE 3491]

and the desire body.  The desires and impulses from the desire body are con-
stantly impinging upon the dense body, impelling it to action, regardless of
any damage resulting to the latter instrument,  so that desire is gratified.
It is the desire vehicle that urges the drunkard to fill his system with li-
quor,  so that the chemical combustion of spirit may raise the vibrations of
the  dense body to such a pitch as to make it the willing tool of every  mad
impulse,  wasting  its stored energy with reckless prodigality.   The  vital
body,  on the other hand, has no other interest than the preservation of the
dense vehicle.   By way of the spleen it specializes the colorless solar en-
ergy which pervades space,  and by some strange chemical process  transforms
it into a vital fluid of a beautiful pale rose color, sending it along every
nerve and fiber of the body.  The vital body ever aims to husband the energy
it has stored in the dense body.   It is constantly concerned in  rebuilding
the  tissues  when they are broken down and destroyed by  the  powerful  on-
slaughts of the rampant desire body.

   Four of these colors are quite indescribable,  but the fifth--the  middle
one of the five--is similar to the tint of an newblown peach blossom.  It is
in fact the color of the vital body.

   Man's dense and vital bodies have straightened,  but his higher  vehicles
still retain their ovoid form.

   It  has been determined by physical science that the atoms in  our  dense
body  are  constantly  changing  so that all the material which composes our

[PAGE 3492]

present vehicle at this moment will have disappeared in a few years,  but it
is  common  knowledge that scars and other blemishes  perpetuate  themselves
from childhood to old age.   The reason for this is that the prismatic ether
atoms  which compose our vital body remain unchanged from the cradle to  the
grave.   They are always in the same relative position--that is to say,  the
prismatic ether atoms which vibrate the physical atoms in the toes or in the
fingers  do not get to the hands,  legs, or any other part of the body,  but
remain in exactly the same place where they were placed in the beginning.  A
lesion of the physical atoms involves a similar impression on the  prismatic
ether atoms.   The new physical matter molded over them continues to take on
shape and texture similar to those which originally obtained.

   The foregoing remarks apply only to the prismatic ether atoms which  cor-
respond to solids and liquids in the Physical World,  because they assume  a
certain definite shape which they preserve.  But in addition each human  be-
ing  at  this stage of evolution has a certain amount of the light  and  re-
flecting ethers, which are the vehicles of sense perception and memory,  in-
termingled in his vital body.   We may say that the light ether  corresponds
to the gases in our Physical World; perhaps the best description that can be
given of the reflecting ether is to call it hyper-etheric.   It is a vacuous
substance of a bluish color resembling in appearance the blue core of a  gas
flame.  It appears transparent and seems to reveal everything that is within
it, but nevertheless it hides all the secrets of nature and humanity.  In it
is found one record of the Memory of Nature.

[PAGE 3493]

   The light and reflecting ethers are of an exactly opposite nature to that
of the stationary prismatic ethers atoms.   They are volatile and migratory.
However much or little a man possesses of this material, it is an accretion,
a  fruitage,  derived  from his experiences in life.   Inside  the  body  it
mingles with the blood stream and when it has grown by service and sacrifice
in  life's school so that it can no longer be contained within the body,  it
is  seen  on the outside as a soul body of gold and blue.   Blue  shows  the
highest type of spirituality,  therefore it is smallest in volume and may be
compared to the blue core of the gas flame,  while the golden hue forms  the
larger part and corresponds to the yellow light which surrounds the core  in
the gas ring.  The blue color does not appear outside the dense body save in
the  very greatest of saints--only yellow is usually observable  there.   At
death this part of the vital body is etched  into  the  desire body with the
life  panorama  which  it  contains.   The quintessence of all our life  ex-
perience is then  eventually impressed upon the seed  atom  as conscience or 
virtue  which urges us to avoid evil and to do good in a coming life.

   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 ac-
tivities  of the chemical ether 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
nervous system and the muscles, thus opening the doors of communication with
the outside world by way of the senses; and the reflecting ether enables the

[PAGE 3494]

Spirit to control its vehicles 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 the planet,
extends beyond its dense part, showing again the truth of the Hermetic axiom
"as above,  so below."   The distance of this extension of the 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
now aware that 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 its power,  by  the  vital  body,  which  is
continually fighting against the death of the dense body.

   The exception  mentioned  above is that the vital body of a man is female

[PAGE 3495]

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
generates  an excess of blood and causes her to labor under an enormous  in-
ternal  pressure  that would break the physical casement were not  a  safety
valve  provided in the periodical flow,  and another in the tears which  re-
lieve 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.

   Unlike  the  higher vehicles of humanity, the vital body does  not  ordi-
narily  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  evolv-
ing 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 picture
frames made of hundreds of little pieces of wood which interlock and present
innumerable  points to the observer.   The vital body presents  millions  of
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

[PAGE 3496]

rate higher than that of the mineral of the earth which is not thus acceler-
ated and ensouled.

   When a person is drowning, or falling from a height, or freezing, the vi-
tal body leaves the dense body,  the atoms of which become temporarily inert
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
body,  as when a hand "goes to sleep."   Then the entire etheric hand of the
vital  body  may 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
sensation  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 vic-
tim.

   The atoms of the chemical and life ethers gather around the nuclear  seed
atom located in the solar plexus are shaped like prisms.   They are all  lo-
cated in such a manner that when the solar energy  enters  our  body through

[PAGE 3497]

the spleen, the refracted ray is red.  This is the color of the creative as-
pect of the Trinity,  namely Jehovah, the Holy Spirit,  who rules Luna,  the
planet of fecundation.   Therefore the vital fluid from the Sun which enters
the  human body by way of the spleen becomes tinged with a pale rose  color,
often noted by seers when it courses along the nerves as electricity does in
the wires of an electric system.  Thus charged, the chemical and life ethers
are the avenues of assimilation which preserve the individual, and of fecun-
dation which perpetuate the race.

   During life each prismatic vital atom penetrates a physical atom and  vi-
brates  it.   To form a picture of this combination,  imagine a  pear-shaped
wire basket having walls of spirally curved wire running obliquely from pole
to pole.  This is the physical atom; it is shaped nearly like our earth, and
the prismatic vital atom is inserted from the top,  which is widest and cor-
responds to the north pole of the earth.

   Thus the point of the prism penetrates the physical atom at the narrowest
point,  which corresponds to the south pole of our earth,  and the whole re-
sembles a top swinging,  swaying, and vibrating.  In this manner our body is
made  alive  and capable of motion.   (It is noteworthy that  our  earth  is
similarly permeated by a cosmic body of ether, and that those manifestations
which  we note as Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis are etheric  currents
circling  the earth from pole to equator as currents in the  physical  atoms
do.)

   The light and reflecting ethers are avenues of consciousness and  memory.
They  are  somewhat  attenuated  in  the average individual and have not yet

[PAGE 3498]

taken definite form;  they interpenetrate the atom as air interpenetrates  a
sponge, and they form a slight auric atmosphere outside each atom.

   If we had said that the vital body is built of prisms instead of  points,
it  would  have been better,  for it is by refraction through  these  minute
prisms  that the colorless solar fluid changes to a rosy hue as observed  by
other writers beside the author.

   Other new and important discoveries have also been made; for instance, we
know  now  that the silver cord is grown anew in each life,  that  one  part
sprouts  from  the seed atom of the desire body in the great vortex  of  the
liver,  that the other part grows out of the seed atom of the dense body  in
the  heart,  that both parts meet in the seed atom of the vital body in  the
solar  plexus,  and that this union of the higher and lower vehicles  causes
the quickening.  Further development of the cord between the heart and solar
plexus during the first seven years has an important bearing on the  mystery
of  child-life,  likewise  its fuller growth from the  liver  to  the  solar
plexus,  which takes place during the second septenary period, and is a con-
tributory cause of adolescence.  Completion of the silver cord marks the end
of child-life,  and from that time the solar energy which enters through the
spleen  and is tinted by refraction through the prismatic seed atom  of  the
vital body located in the solar plexus,  commences to give a distinctive and
individual coloring to the aura which we observe in adults.

Continued with file "RC1097.TXT"

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