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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division C - The Egoic Ray and Solar Fire
II. The Nature of the Permanent Atoms

1. The Purpose of the Permanent Atoms

The three permanent atoms are in themselves centers of force, or those aspects of the personality which hold hid the fires of substance, or of objectivity; it cannot be too strongly pointed out at this juncture that, in considering the threefold man in the three worlds, we are dealing with substance which (in connection with logoic manifestation) is considered the dense physical. Surrounding these three atoms is the causal sheath, answering the following purposes:

It separates one unit of egoic consciousness from another unit of consciousness, yet is itself part of the gaseous body (the fifth cosmic physical subplane) in the physical body of the planetary Logos, Who is the central life of any particular group of Monads. This fact has been little appreciated, and merits careful consideration. [508]

It holds hid spiritual potentialities in its inherent ability to respond to the higher vibration; from the moment of individualization till it is discarded at initiation, the life within steadily develops these potentialities, and produces certain definite results by the utilization of the three permanent atoms. It gradually vivifies and awakens them until, on the three planes, the central life has an adequate point of contact which can originate the necessitated vibration in the matter of the plane.

The permanent atoms on each plane serve a fourfold purpose as regards the central or egoic life:

  • They are the distributors of a certain type of force.
  • They are the conserves of faculty or ability to respond to a particular vibration.
  • They are the assimilators of experience and the transmuters of that experience into quality. This is the direct result of the work of the egoic Ray as it plays upon the atom.
  • They hold hid the memory of the unit of consciousness. When fully vibrant they are the raison d'être for the continuity of the consciousness of the man functioning in the causal body. This distinction must be carefully made.

We must always remember in studying these difficult matters that we are dealing with the logoic, dense physical body and that:

  • The mental unit is found in logoic gaseous matter.
  • The astral permanent atom in logoic liquid matter.
  • The physical permanent atom in dense physical substance.

And they therefore have their place in matter of the three lowest subplanes of the physical body of the Logos. Consequently when in the process of evolution, and through initiation, man achieves the consciousness of the Spiritual Triad, and transfers his polarization into the three [509] triadal permanent atoms, he is simply able to function consciously in the etheric body of his particular planetary Logos. Work out the analogy in the microcosmic development and note how in order to function consciously in his individual etheric body a man has to burn through what has been called the etheric web, and study how the fires of initiation produce something analogous in the planetary etheric body, and eventually in the cosmic etheric. As each unit of consciousness, through self-induced effort, achieves the goal and crosses the 'burning-ground,' a microscopic portion of the etheric web of the planetary etheric body is consumed by fire; this results in a definite gain for that great Entity, the planetary Logos, through the relatively unimportant liberation of the force of one cell in His body. When all the units or cells in His body have achieved, He too is set free from dense manifestation and physically dies. This stage is succeeded by the comparatively brief one of etheric existence (covering the period of planetary obscuration), and then He is liberated from incarnation altogether.

Viewing this process from the standpoint of the Logos, the Brahma aspect passes out, or the life withdraws from the physical permanent atom, leaving later stages on cosmic levels, with which we need not concern ourselves. These cover the withdrawal of the logoic life from out of the other two aspects. In a solar system, which is a physical incarnation of the Logos, the Brahma aspect is apparently the most important, it being the medium of expression, yet it is the subjective aspect, or the life-desire of the Logos which is fundamentally of moment; this concerns His endeavor on high levels, and on cosmic planes beyond the ken of the highest Chohan.

It might be of value here if I pointed out that the Egoic Ray of the human Unit 67 with which we are [510] concerning ourselves, manifests as regards each ray just as does the logoic manifestation. Each of the seven Rays, viewed in connection with the causal bodies of men, demonstrates as a unity on the first subplane, as a triplicity on the second and as seven on the third, forming there the forty-nine groups which most concern evolving man. According to the angle of vision, this numbering of groups may be increased or lessened, but for purposes of studying the aspects of mind, the above enumeration suffices. In the course of his many septenary lives, and as the cyclic sevens pass over him, man passes under the influence of the seven subrays of his own Ray. Then he begins to synthesize and merge the seven into the major three subrays, returning thus to unity on his own egoic Ray.

  • First. The septenary status governs the time from individualization till he enters upon the Path.
  • Second. The threefold status governs the time up till the third Initiation.
  • Third. He achieves the unity of his Ray by the fifth Initiation, and is then consciously a part of the body of the Heavenly Man.

The same idea can be worked out in connection with the awakening of the life forces within the permanent atoms, viewing each atom as the seventh principle in each of the three aspects of the personality.

67 The human Ray. "Each human center is a crystallized ray of the Absolute One that has worked through processes of evolution into what is known as a human being."
- Some Thoughts on the Gita.
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