The Golden Star

VISION 3

Elements and Elementals

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“Will the Devas hear the prayers of men and give them their protection?” asked Ma-uti.

“The Nature-Spirits, Devas, or Angels, are sentient Beings, of whom whole Hierarchies exist, each having a definite mission to perform. They guide and control the whole Kosmos and are no more, no less, than the agents of Cosmic Laws. They vary infinitely in their respective degrees of consciousness and intelligence. Each of these Beings either was, or prepares to become, a man. They are perfected, when not incipient men; and in their higher, less material, spheres differ morally from terrestrial human beings only in that they are devoid of the feeling of personality and of the human emotional nature, which are two purely earthly characteristics. When perfected men, they are free from these feelings, as their spiritual element is now free from the weight of the fleshly bodies; when incipient men, never having had earthly bodies, they have no sense of personality, emotion and Ego-ism.

“Only the Adept, who keeps his spiritual and physical qualities entirely separated, can be sympathetic to the prayers of mankind. The only individual sense of all the rest of the elemental forms rests in their Hierarchies; not in the units. They are neither ministering, protecting, or punishing entities; such as the ‘Harbingers of the Most High’, or the ‘Messengers of Wrath’ of any God created in man’s fancy. It is foolish and useless to appeal to their protection, or to believe that their sympathy may be secured by any form of propitiation, for they themselves are but the slaves of Cosmic Law; just as man. It is said that man can neither propitiate nor command the Devas; but by controlling and subduing the lower personality man can become as one of them, even during his terrestrial life.”

“How many Dhyânîs did become men?” asked Ma-u.

“The three classes of the Arûpa Pitris, forming one third of all the Dhyânîs, were doomed by the Law of Evolution to be incarnated as men. They were endowed with intelligence, which is a formless breath, composed of intellectual—not elementary—substances. Some were known as Nirmânakâyas, and they appeared on this globe in the third Manvantara, or Third Root-Race, as Kings, Rishis and Heroes. They were ethereal Beings, following the incorporeal, or Arûpa Men; they had form, but no solid substance. There were whole Dynasties of these Divine Beings, those Kings and Instructors in arts and sciences of the Third Race, and their teachings were as far above our present sciences as elementary arithmetic is removed from Geometry. They were not supernatural, but super-human, or inter-human intelligences.

“It was the Golden Age, when the Gods walked upon the Earth and mixed freely with the mortals. It was the dawn of man’s consciousness, and man in those days had no beliefs that could be called religion. Had they not their bright Gods of the Elements around them, and even within themselves? Their childhood was nursed and tended by those who had given them being, and called them forth to intelligent life. When the Gods departed, or became invisible, the later generations ended by worshipping their Kingdoms—the Elements.”

“How did the Kings of the Elements teach the first Races, Neteru-Hem?” asked Ma-uti.

“Each element had to do with one of the five senses, and so Æther has to do with sound and hearing; Air with touch; Fire or Light with colour and sight; Water with taste; and Earth with smell.

“In this order man’s physical senses were evolved and he was taught to use them. As the Dhyân Chohans (or Devas) proceeded from the First Cause, mankind emanated from these active Agents of the Kosmos.

“Thus we find two kinds of men on earth; those who are the incarnated Dhyânîs, and those who are the descendants of the peoples of the Third Root-Race, whom the Arûpa Pitris gave being by constructing men in their own image. And there is a mystic signature written upon the brows of the former, by which they may mutually recognize each other inwardly.

“Up to now man has become aware of five elements, the last being Æther, which is not yet fully known—as it will become later, towards the end of the Fourth Round of the present Race, when it will become visible and rule supreme over the others during the whole of the Fifth. The remaining two elements are as yet absolutely beyond the range of human perception; for there are seven in all. These two last elements will appear as presentiments during the Sixth and Seventh Races of this Round, and will be fully known in the Sixth and Seventh Rounds respectively. The ancient teachings of the Seven Rounds of Earth’s history and evolution, and the various Root- and Sub-Races can be found in The Secret Doctrine, and provide sufficient material for life-long study; I can only hint at them here, my children, for there are so many other things I have to show you.”

And now the heavens and the winds began to thrill with sounds melodious, as on the shining wings of Zephyr from the South there drifted glittering throngs of fairy forms besheened with rainbow tints; and lovely voices rang in golden tones and silver; as if Kwan-Yin and Vâch, melodious Cow who milked forth sustenance and water, with potency of occult sound of nature and the Æther, called forth illusive form of Sien-Tchan, the Universe, from out of Chaos and the Seven Elements. And from Tien-Sin, which is the Heaven of the Mind, came forth the elementary Germs with which the world became bestrewed, as if with multitudes of glittering gems. And all the seven colours of the prism rose swiftly up in clouds from earth to sky, and shone; and all that symphony of Sound and Light becoming blended into sparkling net that overspan the earth with glory wide, until Creation swooned with God’s delight.

Here are the elemental groups at work of building each their own domains of plant or sinew, horn or nerve. How carefully the Devas guide their labours, so that each department shall harmoniously blend with each, and build the Temples large or small in which the spirit dwells, and eke the spark and lower mind.

Their shapes and forms?

Each is a unit, formless, but intelligent and plenary with strength divine.

Invisible to mortal eye, but potencies from God’s own Breath; a mystical Arcanum this; the tools that make the forms of all that lives on earth, or in the deeps; or blows upon the winds as birds, or moths, or butterflies; or rustles in the mighty trees, or nods upon tall stems; or waves in fields of corn; or whispers in the reeds that lave their graceful feet in silv’ry streams.

The elementals in their myriad forms dwell everywhere; to science they are known as atoms, molecules, electrons; and hosts of other names. The seer knows them as they are, the Sages of the olden times learned all their secrets; long forgotten now by most and veiled from vulgar gaze.

The poet sees them with an inner vision and tries in vain to tell the glories that his soul beholds.

They dwell within the hearts of flowers, or in the sheen of iridescent insect’s wings. They sparkle in the eyes of laughing maidens and linger on their dimpling cheeks.

They are the scent of roses and of the odorous may; and with their fairy-brush they tint the blooms, the fruits, the leaves and grasses, that with their joyful message raise up the hearts of men to Paradise.

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